Diagram & Article - Man & Conditioned Man
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article below diagrams
from Awareness Journal, Vol I, No 2, Spring 1996
Second Force - Resistance
Worldly phenomena are the result of the interaction of Four Forces unfolding in process. Persons, all other life forms, places, objects and events are the manifestation of these Four Forces.
First Force is Initiative, Intention, Potency, Intelligence, in the case of living things Spirit or Life of the Biological Factor, which living beings recognize.
Another way to say this is First Force is unmanifest Purpose with the Will to manifest ("the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things unseen." Heb. II:I) When we have identified the purpose of a person, place, thing or event, we have recognized its essence.
First Force when activated (acted on, not just thought about - Intention made with Will) is always met by Second Force, Resistance. This is a necessary component of the process in this worldly realm of physical manifestation.
Resistance is an "opponent" to Initiative or Intention, as opponents in a game. It is not inherently "bad," but is often seen so because it requires effort to deal with - it can disturb our ease.
There are countless cases where Resistance is appreciated because it makes the fun of challenge. For instance, people who play sports or games of any kind usually want opponents at least as strong and skilled as they are to make the game any fun at all. Those who are trying to increase their strength in any way, physically, mentally, spiritually, know it is imperative that Resistance increase a little every day in order to build and maintain skill and strength.
When First Force and Second Force are both up to the task - of similar intensity - the intended Form occurs, Third Force. (Events as well as objects are Forms in this context.) Obviously what seems to comprise our world is persons, places, things and events - Third Force. ("Seems to" means Form is merely one of the Four Forces, not the "only reality" of materialists. The materialistic point of view by definition recognizes as "real" only what can be apprehended by the senses and measured, Form. This is error because it is only one-fourth of the equation.)
Fourth Force is the Result of the first three Forces, Initiative, Resistance, Form, Resulting in opportunity to respond (or react) to the whole process.
A chief feature of the way people view the world and their place in it is dualism - likes and dislikes, dark and light, off and on, sweet and sour, and so on. While contrast makes things interesting, seeing contrasts as opposites rather than "degrees of" leads to conflict: good and bad, the essence of conflict.
This is a fundamental error. The Four Forces are not seen as four by as two, cause and effect; and because Resistance - because it requires disturbance - is rejected instead of given the honor it deserves as Co-creator.
Let's list some types of Resistance that are often seen as "bad," or at the very least unwanted, in every case because they are disturbing:
Adaptation to stress, i.e., illness.
The need to make a living.
Obnoxious people.
Time - have to wait for what we want, or
Time - not "having" enough of it.
These random examples can be seen as uncomfortable but necessary. If we didn't adapt and endure the process, a mere cold would kill us. If we didn't need to make a living, how many would ever learn about balancing, or discover their talents, even be able to determine what their purpose might be? Obnoxious people - imagine being the only person on Planet Earth (no thank you). Have you ever met an obnoxious person who was not the opportunity to learn something? If nothing else, what we don't want to be? And how boring if everyone were just like me! Time, "too much" - the opportunity to learn one of the greatest secrets to true Power, Patience. Time, "not enough" - an opportunity to re-evaluate priorities and most especially Purpose.
Seeing Second Force as "bad" is probably the most debilitating point of view one could entertain. This view is fatal. Either it prevents action - Living - as we shun it, or it depletes all strength as we fight it. Conflict is not creation but destruction. The only way to thrive is to see Resistance as what it is: Co-creator of Life, an essential ingredient in the human experience and thus of inestimable value (and think about it - isn't the verb "to value" synonymous with the word "to love"?)
It occurred to me that one way to demonstrate the great worth of Second Force is to show that the very "thing" we call our self IS Second Force! In one sense we are Second Force, in the sense that Awareness is the place where the sense of self resides in the uncompleted man (virtually everyone, though obviously students are Working toward completion or full integration of all four facets: Spirit, Awareness, Physical Body and all that is Acted Out by these).
A Purpose of Awareness is to filter out some of what is going on. If every single person were to be aware of every single person, place, thing and event in the world as it is, there would be no such thing as a "single person," an individual; that is, if all points of view were the same, had the identical content. A definition of "individual" is a unique point of view of Creation - a unique Awareness of it, different than all others.
I have been looking for some years now for a new language to emerge in order to articulate the next stage of humanity's spiritual development, obviously at hand. I have been astounded (and humbled) to observe that the needed language is coming out of what was to me the most unlikely place, Science. Anyone paying even minimum attention knows that quantum theory has proposed that What we are in essence is possibility (also stated "degrees of probabilities") - "wave" - and that which possibilities are acted out determines the form ("particle") of our Reality.
Possibilities = First Force
Which are chosen = Second Force
Person, place, thing, event manifested = Third Force
Response to it = Fourth Force
So the act of filtering out certain impressions creates the unique set of impressions that any individual responds to in the course of Living his or her Life. The filtering process is a form of Resistance, it resists or ignores some impressions in favor of others, it rejects some possibilities by choosing others. So in this context I Am Second Force, that is "my" job! If I am afraid of or dislike (or hate) Second Force, that's the same as saying - feeling - that I am afraid of or hate my self. When put this way - to fight or flee from my self - I can see the folly of degrading Second Force; to do so is utterly anti-Life and anti-MY-Life!
Above we mentioned some various sorts of Second Force: adaptation, other people, work, time. These are all "natural" to our plane of existence, that's the way it is here. There is another type as well, Contrived Second Force, which although not natural, certainly abounds here as well. Its basis is erroneous ideas, thoughts, that are fed fat and while merely "ideas" take on immense force in Life (we give it to them) because we treat them as reality. (They are counterfeit "reality".) In fact, people believe in this false reality so much, they call it "I" when it is not I.
All contrived Second Force is based on the notion that the purpose of Living, First Force, is to gain pleasure and escape pain on all levels. When put in these words, "The purpose of Living is to get what I like and avoid what I don't like," it may make sense, and in fact was "sensible" (in every "sense" of the word!) to the infant Awareness who, in its lack of understanding and in misunderstanding made the decision.
In other words, contrived second force is suggestion: it appeals to our human sensual desire to gain and escape, it promises or threatens (It ignores or degrades our spiritual ability to freely experience what is.)
But if one is told that pain and pleasure are mere side-effects or by-products of living, not the purpose of living, one can check this out. Then a whole new world of possibility opens up: if what I thought was the purpose of Living is merely the side-effects of it, then what can be the Purpose? At this moment an utter transformation of one's life is possible, indeed the next dimension is at hand. The possibilities are suddenly infinite rather than the tired boring old treadmill of get and avoid.
While natural Second Force is to be embraced as Co-creator, we may not wish to do this with contrived Second Force (though we could if we dared). Contrived Second Force - all lies that one is to control or be controlled - is best dealt with by ignoring it. It's quite simple, though maybe not always easy because these lies are believed and so are forceful, and because they are cunning - tempting - because pleasure feels good, "we like it," and pain hurts, we "don't like it."
The act of ignoring is a very powerful act. What I ignore does not exist, at least in my world. (I made quite a little effort yesterday to ignore a very loud metallic-embellished drumbeat my neighbors were playing at top volume. After a while I thought it had stopped, I observed that I wasn't hearing it. I had specifically to direct attention to see if it was still there, it had ceased to exist - but it was still going on! After my initial intention to ignore it [1st Force], the effort to actually do so [2nd Force] it literally disappeared from my world [3rd Force], though existed in theirs - their world continued just as they wanted it and though it abutted my world, it did not trespass. Result: my [or anyone's] response to all this [4th Force.]) The power in ignoring is not achieved by fighting or fleeing, nor by controlling, though apparent control may be a by-product. The power of ignoring is the Secret to Living without contrived Second Force. To ignore contrived Second Force, ignore lies rather than "correct" them, to embrace natural Second Force is to develop a strong and powerful form that can achieve a glorious Purpose in Living. Then one can make manifest any potential possibility one chooses!
Then - I Am.
Conflicting "choices" are no choice at all. The feeling of conflict in Awareness is responded to with energy to fight or flee. This "false emergency" energy must be used in violent activity (fight or flight); internal conflict does neither. The mobilized but unused emergency energy is worked off in binges or alters the body's cells, resulting in disease, disintegration, finally death.
It is our choice to see things as challenges, free to experience whatever side-effects might arise, resulting in harmony and balance, or to choose to be in a state of frustration wanting to gain and escape.
