Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Self Observation: The Awakening of Conscience: An Owner's Manual
    Self Observation: The Awakening of Conscience: An Owner's Manual
    Self Observation: The Awakening of Conscience: An Owner's Manual
    Ebook171 pages3 hours

    Self Observation: The Awakening of Conscience: An Owner's Manual

    By Red Hawl

    5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    This book is an in-depth examination of the much needed process of “self-study known as self observation. We live in an age where the “attention function-in the brain has been badly damaged by TV and computers-up to 90 percent of the public under age 35 suffers from attention-deficit disorder! This book offers the most direct, non-pharmaceutical means of healing attention dysfunction. The methods presented here are capable of restoring attention to a fully functional and powerful tool for success in life and relationships. This is also an age when humanity has lost its connection with conscience. When humanity has poisoned the Earth’s atmosphere, water, air and soil, when cancer is in epidemic proportions and is mainly an environmental illness, the author asks: What is the root cause? And he boldly answers: Failure to develop conscience! Selfobservation, he asserts, is the most ancient, scientific, and proven means to develop this crucial inner guide to awakening and a moral life. This book is for the lay-reader, both the beginner and the advanced student of self observation. No other book on the market examines this practice in such detail. There are hundreds of books on self-help and meditation, but almost none on self-study via self-observation, and none with the depth of analysis, wealth of explication, and richness of experience which this book offers. Red Hawk, author of 5 collections of poetry, was the Hodder Fellow at Princeton University (1992-93) and is currently a full professor at the University of Arkansas, Monticello. He has practiced self-observation for over 30 years, under the guidance of the Gurdjieff Society of Arkansas, meditation master Osho Rajneesh, and spiritual teacher, Lee Lozowick.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHohm Press
    Release dateMar 4, 2015
    ISBN9781935387336
    Self Observation: The Awakening of Conscience: An Owner's Manual

    Related to Self Observation

    Related ebooks

    Body, Mind, & Spirit For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Going To The Dark Side

      Feb 14, 2018

      Going To The Dark Side
      7 min read

    • Article

      Unleash YOUR NUNCHI!

      Feb 26, 2020

      Unleash YOUR NUNCHI!
      2 min read

    • Article

      21st Century Samsara

      Jan 19, 2021

      21st Century Samsara
      5 min read

    • Article

      At All Costs

      Oct 18, 2022

      At All Costs
      3 min read

    • Article

      3 Steps To Practise Svadhyaya

      Jul 6, 2022

      Pull your awareness in. When all the senses are moving outwards, it’s impossible to listen to our internal world. It is only in stillness and introspection that we start to become aware of our patterns and vrittis, or whirlings, of the mind (as Patan

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Things Science Has Taught Me

      Mar 11, 2020

      The Things Science Has Taught Me
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Opposite of Grasping Is Intimacy

      Aug 4, 2020

      The Opposite of Grasping Is Intimacy
      9 min read

    • Article

      Don’t Objectify Yourself

      Sep 22, 2022

      Don’t Objectify Yourself
      6 min read

    • Article

      Love Is Already Yours

      Dec 13, 2022

      Love Is Already Yours
      8 min read

    • Article

      Break The Chains Of Thought

      Jan 21, 2020

      WE ARE ALL CITIZENS of the Information Age, when attention-consuming data is abundant and human attention itself is regarded as a scarce commodity. In the noise and chaos of this flood of information, how often do you notice where your mind is and wh

      5 min read

    • Article

      Perceptual Triggers

      Nov 7, 2020

      Perceptual Triggers
      20 min read

    • Article

      Meet the Blue Dragon

      Jan 22, 2019

      For twenty years I struggled fiercely—How many times have I gone down to the Blue Dragon’s cave for you? —XUEDOU IN FORTY YEARS will we be on a spaceship under Elon Musk’s conductor’s baton? What teachings and practices are suitable for those on a sp

      4 min read

    • Article

      Exploring Your Shadow

      Jun 22, 2022

      Exploring Your Shadow
      4 min read

    • Article

      Ask The Teachers

      Nov 6, 2018

      KEIRYU LIÊN SHUTT: I’ve heard it said by Zen teachers that the function of the mind is to secrete thoughts. From that perspective, “to rest in nonconceptual, open, ‘don’t know’ mind” isn’t so much to stop or transcend thinking as to simply let though

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Freedom of Emptiness

      Mar 8, 2022

      The Freedom of Emptiness
      6 min read

    • Article

      Alone In The Vastness Of Existence

      May 8, 2018

      Alone In The Vastness Of Existence
      12 min read

    • Article

      I Will Follow In The Direction Of Hope

      Sep 27, 2022

      I Will Follow In The Direction Of Hope
      5 min read

    • Article

      On The Spectrum, On The Path

      Sep 19, 2023

      On The Spectrum, On The Path
      14 min read

    • Article

      Breathwork: A Way Back to Life

      Feb 1, 2019

      Breathwork: A Way Back to Life
      4 min read

    • Article

      Feeling Our Way to Awakening

      Nov 3, 2020

      Feeling Our Way to Awakening
      10 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Self Observation

    5/5

    27 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Fantastic; full of information that I'd never been aware of. One of those books that changes a small part of your life.
    • 5/5
      Great work on expanding authentic self-observation. Worth it 100%. I’ve been recommending this book and Red Hawk’s companion volume “Self-Remembering” to all my students. A true couple of Textbooks for further reference.
    • 5/5
      life changing READ! Easy to understand. Thank you and keep up the great Work.

      1 person found this helpful

    Book preview

    Self Observation - Red Hawl

    INFORMATION

    Prologue

    The Teaching

    It is as old as the stones.

    It came with Humans to the Earth

    and it offers them a way out

    of the web of sorrows

    but at a price:

    we must observe ourselves,

    our behavior, our

    inner and outer responses,

    objectively. This means

    without taking a personal interest

    or doing anything about

    the horror

    which self observation uncovers:

    like a bad boy with a stick

    overturning a stone

    and finding a mass of crawling things

    beneath, but

    he refrains

    from stomping on them.

    (Red Hawk. The Way of Power, 67)

    CHAPTER 1

    Self Observation—Know Thyself

    Knowing others is wisdom;

    Knowing the self is enlightenment.

    (Lao Tsu. Tao Te Ching, Sutra 33)

    Know Thyself, weary Traveler.

    I am lost. I have forgotten who I am and why I came here.

    Know Thyself is one of the foundational spiritual teachings of humanity. It has been taught by masters as long as there have been humans as we know them, that is with a neo-cortex or human brain. It was written over the gate to Pythagoras’ School. It was above the entrance to the Oracle at Delphi. Socrates taught it to his students, Krishna, Buddha, Lao Tsu, Jesus, Rama, they all taught it. On the path of awakening, this teaching is fundamental.

    And the essential tool to Know Thyself is simple self observation. Buddha calls it watching. Krishna calls it meditation. Jesus calls it witnessing. Mister Gurdjieff calls it self observation. It is a form of prayer without words. It is meditation in action. Unless and until I come to know myself, I am driven by habits which I do not see and over which I have no control; I am a machine, an automaton, a robot moving in circles, constantly repeating myself. I am not aware, but unconscious, habitual, mechanical.*¹ I imagine I am conscious, awake, aware because my eyes are open. But habit is unconscious, automatic-pilot, without volition or intention*; inside I am asleep.

    What is more, because I am unconscious, a creature of habit, I do harm to myself, my relationships, and my environment. The human body is mammal; all mammals are creatures of habit. We are herd animals. This is a very powerful force in the body, impossible to ignore; it causes me to lose the thread of who I am = attention* (consciousness*) and identify myself as the body, so powerful is the need to identify with, and be included as, part of the herd. Herd animals do not think for themselves, the herd thinks for them and acts for them. Whatever direction the herd goes in, we go. Even if we are led over a cliff, we will follow to our death rather than go against the herd and think for ourselves. To think for myself, to know myself, risks being expelled from the herd, a death-sentence for a mammal. Security is the herd. An isolated grazer away from the herd is dead meat, easy prey for predators. Deep in our instinct, all of us know this and fear being isolated from the herd. So to get a mammal to think for herself, to observe herself, to know herself, is very difficult. It is not natural to mammal behavior. It requires conscious effort and intent. It requires courage and will of attention:* As far as I can tell, humans are the only mammals who have the capability of observing themselves.

    I am not suggesting that if I come to know myself my habits will change. They have a lifetime of momentum and emotional force. They repeat. What can change in me is my relationship to this body of habits. This is called a shift in context. As I am now, I am identified (= I am that) with my habits. I identify myself as my habits, they are who I am. Thus, I and the habits are one, the same. I am identified. With patient, honest, steady, sincere self observation this identification* can shift. I can begin to view the habit objectively,* that is without identification, as a scientist views a bug under a microscope. This is struggle with habit, not against; observation will show me what to struggle with and how to struggle. P.D. Ouspensky cites the exception to struggling against habit as the struggle against expressing negative emotion*; this does not create unexpected or undesirable consequences (In Search of the Miraculous. New York: Harcourt, 1946. 12). I can begin to study the mammal body and learn its habits. Because it is a creature of habit, it repeats and I can begin to discern its patterns, intellectual, emotional, and physical. I can come to know myself.

    Words marked with a star and italicized the first time they are used are defined in the Glossary at the end of this book.

    The body is a mammal instrument, a creature of habit. Thus, it is predictable. The doe follows the exact same path to the water hole every day. The lion observes this and learns to wait on a low-lying limb for her to come down the path. In the same way, the inner observer can begin to predict the habitual behavior of the mammal instrument, the body, and be prepared for it. It learns the patterns. It knows itself. This is my only hope for becoming more conscious and not at the mercy of habit; if I see the habit often enough, say 10,000 times or more, then I can begin to predict where, when, and how it will manifest exactly as it has so many times before, and I may be prepared before it arises. I may be able to choose another course. Certainly I may be able to view the habit more objectively. In this way, I can cease to be always a victim of my own habits. I can begin to find some stability within, some equilibrium, some moderation of tone, behavior, emotion and thought. I can recover natural sanity and basic goodness*

    Self observation is the tool by which this is possible. It is called the first tool by some, and by others the human tool. It is the tool by which the human is able to operate, repair, and maintain the human body, tame and train its functions. Without it, I am a machine, an automaton, a robot at the mercy of unconscious, habitual, mechanical forces, both internal and external. Self observation is fundamental to the process of the soul’s* awakening from its unconscious dreaming. Thus, even an idiot can learn to operate the instrument* (see human biological instrument) effectively and efficiently by learning to use the tool which comes with the instrument. To become efficient in the use of the tool requires practice. The practice is self observation. I am a mechanic; I have learned some things about how to use the tool which comes with the instrument. I am no master, but I am a good mechanic because I have developed attention to the instrument. We all know that a good mechanic, one who is honest, efficient, practical, and aware, can be of great service. This is an owner’s manual written by a mechanic.

    In the beginning it is good and responsible to note this important word of caution: what is being discussed here is not a way of faith, it is a way of self-study, of self-knowledge, a way to Know Thyself. Therefore, nothing here should be taken on faith; everything here should be, must be verified by your own personal experience. I am no master, merely a good mechanic. Safety lies in no longer taking the word of others for anything. Too long we have followed blindly, like sheep, like herd animals following the leader, even when the leader leads the herd over a cliff or into war.

    Everything must be verified by personal experience, otherwise it is merely another form of slavery, one more chain to bind me in my unconscious and mechanical slavery. Verify, verify, verify everything for yourself. Free yourself of the habits of a lifetime, of blind following, of not thinking for yourself. There is no better or safer path to freedom.

    I repeat, what we are practicing here is not a way of faith. That is a different way altogether. However, it does not mean there is not room for faith on this path; certainly there is. In fact, what one finds as she engages this practical work on self over a long enough period of time is this: if she began with faith, her faith is strengthened by understanding gained from self observation without judgment; if she began with no faith—as I did—then she will find that she has gained faith. So you see the wonderful irony of it? This is not a faith-based path, because faith is a gift of grace; it comes from the Creator* to those in need of it. By our own efforts we cannot gain faith. However, by our own efforts we can prepare the soil to receive faith. That is one of the many rewards of the Work.* Here we must accept nothing on faith; we are asked to verify everything, everything, for ourselves as to its merits, its truth or falsity. We do so via patient self observation without judgment and via our personal experience.

    Know Thyself

    Socrates exhorted His disciples to do so;

    every Master including Jesus, who called it witnessing,

    has taught his disciples to observe themselves,

    so they might come to know themselves. On the other hand,

    I am no Master and I say, Don’t do it for God’s sake!

    They never tell us the terrible trouble it brings,

    how we will never sleep easily again

    in our unconscious selfish mad habits, how

    what is now unconscious, hidden in us

    will be revealed, like

    opening a locked cellar door, turning on

    the light and what you find down there

    is the county asylum crawling with inmates,

    some wrapped in torn filthy sheets, others

    naked and drooling; they are clawing and scratching

    to gain position on the stairs, to escape, and

    standing calmly in their midst, dressed

    in robes of Light, is an Angel around whom

    most of them huddle weeping, whose gentle touch

    upon their fevered brows calms and soothes them.

    This is what I am warning you about: never mind

    the swarming lunatics, they are everywhere, but

    once you have seen that Angel in your midst

    the sorrow and longing will tear at you and

    trouble you all the days of your life.

    (Red Hawk)

    CHAPTER 2

    The Mammal Instrument— Inner Processes

    When you are identified with the mind you cannot be very intelligent because you become identified with an instrument, you become confined by the instrument and its limitations. And you are unlimited—you are consciousness.

    Use the mind, but don’t become it . . . mind is a beautiful machine. If you can use it, it will serve you; if you cannot use it and it starts using you, it is destructive, it is dangerous. It is bound to take you . . . into some suffering and misery . . . Mind cannot see; it can only go on repeating that which has been fed into it. It is like a computer; first you have to feed it

    . . . But you should remain the master so that you can use it; otherwise it starts directing you.

    (Osho. The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, 171)

    From birth we are taught untruths, many of them unintentional, from ignorance. One such important untruth is that we have a soul. This is very bad teaching, because it suggests that the soul is separate from myself, as in: You have a car; thus, the car is a possession of mine, separate from me. So we grow up believing that the soul is somewhere in the body and is a possession of mine, but is not who I am.

    Good teaching would

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1