The Original Arica Training, pt. 2
Breaking the hold of the ego on the emotions, or Oth center, follows much the same pattern of becoming aware of one’s predominant passion and counteracting it with the proper virtue. The passions are the emotional survival systems of the ego. A person with a given fixation would generally react to life in a habitual way. He will feel all the passions at sometime or another, but his predominant passion will set the emotional tone of his personality.
#9. Laziness: for the ego indolent, the ego will persuade him to be very lazy in searching for his essence, though he may be hyperactive in finding ways to avoid working toward his essence.
#1. Anger: the ego will keep the person in resentful anger because he is not perfect, nor are the people around him.
#2. Pride: the ego-flattery is dependent upon the approval and applause of others and he works hard to get them. The constant approval and flattery of others produce ego pride.
#3. Deceit: one who wants to be known for his accomplishments, positions of influence, and efficiency, finds it difficult to admit anything that might mar his public image, so he is often forced into deceit to protect his ego.
#4. Envy: the ego-melancholy person, hoping for the perfect mate or situation in order to feel really real and fulfilled, tends to think most others have achieved this, and of course is envious of their seeming happiness and earthiness.
#5. Avarice: anonymity and security are important to the ego-stinge in order that he can safely watch the world from the peephole of his hiding place. Not only is he avid for the means to maintain his corner, he also is greedy for knowledge of what is going on in life so that he can feel alive.
#6. Fear: there is a necessary instinctive fear of dangerous situations in order to safeguard our physical existence. We wouldn’t last long without it. But for the ego-coward, all of life is threatening. Enemies surround him, so he must always be on the alert and find someone stronger to protect him. Though such constant fear is painful, yet it is familiar and safe. To live without it would leave one too vulnerable to unexpected attack.
#7. Gluttony: if a little of something is pleasant, then an unlimited amount should bring unheard-of pleasures. This projection of present enjoyment into future ecstasy through more and more of the same is a recurring emotional reaction to the good, though each time it ends in uncomfortable satiation and physical distress.
#8. Excess. The person seeking justice and truth very often overdoes his vengeance in his great moral indignation at injustice. Just as he can punish too severely one who he thinks has wronged him, the can be even more punishing to himself when he feels he has failed in justice. Often he will do physical damage to himself.
To counteract these passions of the ego which is trying to keep one from experiencing his essence, a person is led by special exercises to experience the opposite virtues or essential feelings. The practical means used are meditation on the virtues and the use of mudras, or hand positions, such as you see represented by figures of Buddha or the bodhisattvas. Much use is made of “ego-reduction exercises” which deliberately try to arouse the passions, so that the person can become aware of his weak points. These reduction exercises are carefully prepared and given only when the person is prepared to undergo them.
Virtues:
9. Action directed toward experiencing one’s essence, over coming laziness.
#1. Serenity overcomes anger when one knows that his essence is perfect, as are the essences of all others
#2. Humility is the obvious means of overcoming pride. Basically, one can realize that he bears the same perfect essence as others. He is not unique.
#3. Truthfulness will help him to realize that he is what he is. He does not have to use deceit to maintain an outward image of importance.
#4. Happiness in the present moment, or equanimity, will help overcome the envy of the happiness of others.
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#5. Detachment form his secure hiding place and from the need to know everything will relieve him from his avarice, the struggle to protect his anonymity.
#6. Courage can replace fear. No one or no thing can harm his essence. Only he has the choice of strengthening his ego, or experiencing his essence.
#7. Sobriety will soon teach him that happiness is reached step by step and cannot be achieved once and for all by extreme measures and gluttony.
#8. The excess of revenge on others and on himself can give way to a childlike innocence, “Why should I want to hurt anyone and why should anyone want to hurt me.”
Finally the hold of the ego over the Kath movement center is greatly stressed, since the Kath is the center of instincts and of energy. In the Kath are stored all of man’s evolutionary experiences, all the instinctual responses to his environment. Through the Kath man knows and experiences life, being alive, so that the Arica training aims to bring man’s consciousness out of his head an into his Kath. Then man will have the essential responses to life immediately, without deterring through a through process. The samurai… have developed this Kath response to a very high degree.
The practical development of Kath awareness is dependent upon physical exercises, high-protein diet, breathing, relaxation exercises, the practice of tai chi or other martial arts, special chanting or mantras, and specialized massage.
Jnnana yoga stresses the development of the Path or mind; Bahkti yoga is centered in the Oth or heart. The Arica training stresses the development of the Kath as being most important at this stage of man’s evolution. Only when a man feels essentially a part of the cosmos and acts instinctively according to the rules of the cosmos can he fulfill the Arican concept of enlightenment. For Ichazo, unless all men can be trained to live in their Kath, and break the hold of the go, particularly on the Path or mind, man’s evolutionary development will come to a halt within 10 years. But a man living in his Kath will know that he is one with al men; individualism will disappear, and with it the conflicts and self-seeking which are leading to the destruction of our culture and our planet. All humanity must become an organic whole or planetary family living in harmony with the Cosmos. For this Ichazo studied and worked, that he might pass on his knowledge to others, the Arica institute. They in turn must share their knowledge until it has spread to all men.
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“Satori” is a term used very broadly by the Aricans to cover any heightened sense of well-being and happiness. Thus the experience of satori will range from enjoying a game of golf to the highest state of consciousness in which the awareness of the individual essence disappears in the experience of cosmic being. This satori for living is brought about by the development of Kath consciousness and letting the energy from the Kath activate the whole person, in time as the ego is broken, the essence will take over from the mind, which will be in a state without thought, except when thought is necessary, and all man’s activities will flow immediately from the Kath in harmony with nature [as in the case of samurai, Zen masters, or enlightened men]
The quickest and most efficient way to achieve satori is in and through the group. There is some indication that in the Sufi school of which Oscar is or was a member, a store of baraka, or divine energy had been built up over the ages to be used at the proper time for the enlightenment of mankind. The Arica group was told that they were to be the receiver of this store of baraka to pass on to others… [so they would be] aided by this low of divine grace which is augmented and shared in the group exercises. Once one is dismissed from the group, he no longer is aided by this special grace.
Nature of the universe:
The cosmos is filled with divine energy, baraka, and life. This life and baraka spread down through the planetary system. For earth, the immediate source of baraka and life is the sun. For man, the sun and mother earth give life and divine energy. However, the moon which is a dead planet, absorbs life from the earth and energy from man, so man can increase his vital energy, and increase his baraka, by living in harmony with mother earth, by drawing in baraka from the sea and the sun. Just at sunset when the last ray of direct light shoots across the ocean waves, once can, in meditation, breath in the baraka that spreads across the water and breathing it out, sending it to all men.
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On the highest level of consciousness, man is aware only of God, not of himself. Only when he comes down to the next level does he become aware of what he can understand of the divine plan and of the cosmos. On this level he may receive instructions from the highest entities, such as Metatron, the prince of the archangels, how has given instructions to Ichazo. Below Metatron are the archangels and angels who are guardians of the Sephirath of the Qabalah. These may be contacted by the group through meditation and mantras, and they in turn send baraka upon the group.
Ichazo has stated that he is in contact with all previous masters of the school because he is now a master and in the line of succession.
The interior master of all Aricans is called the Green Qutub . He may or may not make himself known to individual Aricans depending on the stage of development of the student. Also, it is possible to be in touch with all enlightened ones, past and present.
Satan is either the ego or the cause of the ego….
In all the explanations of enlightenment, the assumption is that there is an observer who can be aware of ego-produced thoughts in the mind, of the experience of Kath awareness, of the state of the Essence, and higher states of consciousness. This observer can and should function even in the sleep state, recording dreams. Ecstasy in which the observer is blocked is not encouraged. Rather the individual should be able to give a report of his experiences on every level of consciousness.
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the early stages of the training help the student to become are of this observer within him so that he can watch himself function in thought, in emotion, in bodily movement in the higher states. This “self-awareness” was one of the basic teachings of Gurdjieff. It is not clear in the Arica teaching whether this “observer” is the essence functioning, or whether it is simply the intellect fulfilling its proper role.
Personality
… Man is seen to be made up of Ego and Essence. While he is born in the Essential state, the development of the ego seems to be a necessity for the enrichment and maturation of the essence. Only when the individual has undergone the difficulties of living in ego can he return to the essential state and have the necessary skills and knowledge to function as an enlightened adult.
… the present incarnation for the individual is determined by his past karma so that his ego fixation is to some extent determined in that he has these parents and is brought up in these circumstances in this particular culture. However, he has the freedom to overcome his deviations and his fixation. When he has returned to essence he will still have his own personality because his past is the enrichment and education of his essence.
Emotions
Emotions come from the Oth, the heart center. For the man in ego, the deviations and fixations determine his emotional responses. As indicated above, each fixation has its predominant emotional response, known as “passion”. Only when one is aware of his predominant passion is he able to gradually overcome it by concentrating on the proper virtue.
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Since love is the emotion proper to the essence, and since all men share in this essence, great stress is place on developing love for all members of the Arica group. It is the bond that helps keep them together as a family. Love must also go out to all men to draw them to Arica and enlightenment until mankind is a loving family. The major exercise for developing this ambience of love is called traspaso. Two people sit opposite each other, preferably in full or half-lotus; the gaze is centered on the left eye of the person opposite, and there is concentration in the Kath to send baraka to the other….
… A… goal for the individual Arican is the overcoming of his deviations and fixations so that he can begin to be aware of his essential self. ..the ideal held out to the student is that of the bodhisattva samurai: one who is dedicated to saving the world through the proper use of power and baraka. Thus the great emphasis of living in the Kath, acting instinctively to meet any situation, and using physical energy and baraka to draw others to enlightenment—a warrior for God.
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It is most important for the Arican to live in the present. Therefore the hold of the past must be broken. After the student is shown his deviations, he is required to go through his past life and write down how his deviations affected him. Later, when he is told his fixation, he must re-examine his past, realizing that what he has learned and experienced will be used by his essence in the proper way. Thus his past life was a necessary preparation for the present and the future. But the “now” is the important thing. This is called “cleaning one’s karma”; for acting in essence develops no karma, no wrong actions.
Each action done under the influence of deviations and fixation affects the body by building up nodules on muscles throughout the body. These nodules can be removed by a special type of massage…
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