4TH GEAR GNOSIS

4TH GEAR GNOSIS

THEMASTERYMYSTERYTOUR

new thread

nathan

8th gear, SuperGnosis!

I've been thinking about this a bit too, Nathan, so let's consider the pros and cons of adding a 4th gear. At present, it seems to me that the 3 gears have enough latitude to contain everything we know so far, albeit with some extra clarifications. Here is part of the 3rd Gear description from the 3rd Gear page:

"You can stop now. Stop trying to figure it out. Stop trying to get enlightened. Stop concentrating. Stop investigating. Stop meditating. Stop trying to stop. Be as you are."

There is also more there, having to do with recognizing Awareness, and while the Awareness language applies to one situation that I think of as 3rd Gear, it does not apply to what I am calling "direct perception mode." So, if we are to stay with 3 gears, there is a bit of a fork in the road, meaning we have the direct perception mode of 3rd gear and the filtered perception ("pickapart mode") of 3rd gear. What they both have in common is the surrender; you are abandoning yourself to things as they are, but from two different perspectives.

The pro of staying with 3 gears is that simplicity in the over-arching framework is good.

The con is that we have to do some tap-dancing to explain it.

Thoughts?

That's a big con, IMHO. I think the tap dancing may confuse people. Also, the two forks of what you currently call 3rd gear, Kenneth, are not compatible as far as I can tell. As I told you was my experience on the phone and which you validated for me, they simply aren't available at the same time. They are very, very different things. Which kind of argues for another gear.

cmarti,

If we make direct mode 4th gear, it kind of makes it seem higher in someway to what we have been calling 3rd gear all along.

Hmmm....
Maybe 3rd gear is direct mode
and recognizing awareness as awareness is no gear

I don't think I'm mis-speaking by saying that Kenneth sees direct mode as a development beyond 4th path and actually preferable to (higher than) the clear light (what we used to call 3rd gear).

Better to let Kenneth decide, though. It's his schema, after all.

Why don't you call it the "clutch?"

I agree. Direct mode is NOT 3rd gear as in primordial awarness/rigpa/clear light. It seems totally absent of that. I'm not sure what you are experiencing, Kenneth, but lately I am seeing what Daniel may be calling the "attention wave" fluxing and flowing with wherever attention falls (easier to observe with eyes open) and suddenly dropping away to reveal direct mode. I can move around in it , think in it, keep doing daily activites in it. In 3rd gear, although was sort of possible to do so when I did the NS while awareness was aware of itself experiment, it seems a very different kettle of fish. It's almost like the clear light is the mind resting in that "attention wave". Not sure. Direct mode has none of that in my experience. I might be talking out my arse.

Nick

"Why don't you call it the "clutch?" "

Yow! Or maybe the Gear Box!

How about Turbo boost (the RED button)? Hehe!

"I agree. Direct mode is NOT 3rd gear as in primordial awarness/rigpa/clear light. It seems totally absent of that. I'm not sure what you are experiencing, Kenneth, but lately I am seeing what Daniel may be calling the "attention wave" fluxing and flowing with wherever attention falls (easier to observe with eyes open) and suddenly dropping away to reveal direct mode. -Nick"

Yes, this is what I mean when I say that filtered mode is riding the wave and direct mode is being the wave. In direct mode, there are no nanas, jhanas, clear light, or development. The clear light is only available in filtered mode (riding the wave). And yes, as Chris says, I am provisionally considering the direct mode to be a development beyond anything available in filtered mode, including the clear light. I have actually been pondering the advisability of adding a 4th gear for a couple of weeks now, since it became clear to me that the direct mode is the cutting edge of my own practice and that it is a bit awkward to have both the clear light and the direct mode in the same gear category.

I want to go SLOWLY with this, though, so please everyone let's have a discussion about it and give it time to sink in (I'm talking about months, not hours) before insisting that I come to any conclusions about it. At this moment, I have not added another gear; we are just brainstorming possibilities.

"Why don't you call it the "clutch?"




"

hahaha, brilliant. For some reason, I think direct mode is not a gear at all, though I wouldnt mind calling it 4th gear =P

This is all very exciting.

Jealous

Back to noting in my green chair (vroom vroom)...

Kenneth: how would you define clear light?

Alex, the clear light is what I call recognition of awareness as awareness, understanding that it can be distinguished but not separated from manifestation. It's the unstained, unstainable "cognizant emptiness" into which the world simultaneously arises and disappears.

Gotcha. The unfiltered element sure changes the rules.

How in the world can this be worded =S

" into which the world simultaneously arises and disappears."

is that just a method to describe it or do you experience it this way?

So far (and I am not that far along in insight really) I see a bunch of stuff starting, and I see a bunch of stuff stopping but I get no impression that it comes FROM anywhere or GOES into anywhere.

(I've probably once again stumbled onto 'the controversy' if so I am sorry. very sorry)


I also thought about telling a joke about a bar called "The Clear Light," within which patrons would enter a state of 'uncognizant emptiness', but I decided that that would be annoying.

"I also thought about telling a joke about a bar called "The Clear Light," within which patrons would enter a state of 'uncognizant emptiness', but I decided that that would be annoying.
-Mike"

That's actually pretty funny not annoying at all
ha ha haha

Not primordial awareness, not rigpa, not clear light, not whatever one perceives.

Constant disembedding to the point where will is instantly disembedding, so this is always unwilled.

If this is unwilled it is unfiltered

To the point where the unfiltered mode crushes any verb like "to be aware", "to perceive", or even "to be" without destroying what IS. Uncaused.

One has only to direct attention, with any of the senses, to crush any filters.

If there are no filters, this would be to finaly truly be here (without actually being here because one would be constantly disembedding).

Sounds like the Tathagata.

"Not primordial awareness, not rigpa, not clear light, not whatever one perceives.

Constant disembedding to the point where will is instantly disembedding, so this is always unwilled.

If this is unwilled it is unfiltered

To the point where the unfiltered mode crushes any verb like "to be aware", "to perceive", or even "to be" without destroying what IS. Uncaused.

One has only to direct attention, with any of the senses, to crush any filtered mode.

If there are no filters, this would be to finaly truly be here (without actually being here because one would be constantly disembedding).

Sounds like the Tathagata."

Am I just completely un spiritual, insensitive, unpoetic?
I know what you are talking about here and to me it is awesome but I only think it is awesome in comparison to the usual ways/modes of being. Just in it self it is no big deal, it is nothing, really. barely worth a name.

"Am I just completely un spiritual, insensitive, unpoetic?
I know what you are talking about here and to me it is awesome but I only think it is awesome in comparison to the usual ways/modes of being. Just in it self it is no big deal, it is nothing, really. barely worth a name. "

Where's your heart!

Alright, I can just say "what is" =P

"Where's your heart!

Alright, I can just say "what is" =P"

I know, I am completely heartless

"Not primordial awareness, not rigpa, not clear light, not whatever one perceives.

Constant disembedding to the point where will is instantly disembedding, so this is always unwilled.

If this is unwilled it is unfiltered

To the point where the unfiltered mode crushes any verb like "to be aware", "to perceive", or even "to be" without destroying what IS. Uncaused.

One has only to direct attention, with any of the senses, to crush any filters.

If there are no filters, this would be to finaly truly be here (without actually being here because one would be constantly disembedding).

Sounds like the Tathagata. -APrioriKreuz"

"Awe." I stand in awe of Alejandro's poetry and what it points to.

""Awe." I stand in awe of Alejandro's poetry and what it points to."

Todo se desploma constantemente hermano. Y este insight te lo debo a ti. Gracias, gracias, gracias.

Kenneth wrote: "I am provisionally considering the direct mode to be a development beyond anything available in filtered mode, including the clear light."

For what it's worth, I think that's the right way to go. While it would be nice to have a simple, overarching framework, it would be an awkward fit to squeeze DPM[1] / PCE[2] / AF[3] into the existing 3-Speed model. (I also think Adyashanti and Tolle are wholly 3rd Gear, not 4th).

Even a hypothetical 4th Gear might be misleading, because the condition of DPM[1] /PCE[2] /AF[3] is one of no-gearbox! -- ie., the conditions upon which the 3-Speed practices and states of being arise contingently are no longer operating. In DPM / PCE they're temporarily suspended. In AF, they're gone forever.

However, this is not to deny that mastery of the 3-Gears very likely makes it very much easier to access and sustain DPM / PCE, eventually resulting in AF ... so in that sense there is continuity.

Alex

[1] DPM - Direct Perception Mode - temporary unfiltered perception.
[2] PCE - as above.
[3] AF - Actual Freedom - Permanent loss of all filters.