This is an open symposium and everyone is welcome to attend. This month, we have selected Talk of the Month #14: A Talk on Discernment. For the many of you who subscribed to this wonderful monthly publication - edited transcripts of talks given by E.J. Gold - these talks were a lifeline to the school, and provided a rich source of work material which could not be found elsewhere, as well as conveying the invocational atmosphere and intensity of a teacher working with his students.

All of the Talks of the Months are available directly from IDHHB or through http://www.gatewaysbooksandtapes.com

This talk was given to a group in New York City with whom Mr. Gold had been working for several weeks. It centers around a simple and direct explanation of the principles of alchemy, and how they relate to voluntary evolution. On Sunday we can talk together and share any questions, experiences or thoughts we may have about it. See you then in G- Chat! (G-Chat download information to follow).

We are asking for a $20 donation to IDHHB for this symposium for each avatar, not for each participant, so if you have more than one person at your computer, you would still only send $20.00. For more information, or to make a payment, please email or call 1-800-869-0658.

G-Chat can be downloaded from: http://www.fairgame.org/gchat/ Please try to be on time (10 am Sunday) and please make sure you have the software installed at least a day prior to the symposium so that you can focus on the symposium itself, and not be slowed down by downloading difficulties!

Excerpts from ...
A Talk on Discernment

"If the awakening of the machine and the resulting transformation of the Being could be produced in any ordinary way then, anyone who has ever lived an ordinary life should have been transformed and there would be no necessity for schools – and yet, schools exist, and if we know nothing else about the Law of Conservation of Energy, we do know that nothing exists without necessity.

"It must be obvious by now that extraordinary methods of some kind, unknown in ordinary life, must be necessary for the transformational process.

"There is no question that transformation is possible. The problem is realizing that ordinary methods produce ordinary results, and that only the extraordinary methods of a school can produce school results.

"Years ago, if somebody had told me that it is not I, but the human biological machine which is asleep, this little idea would have been just the little clue I needed.

"It took me years – over a decade – to realize that it is the machine and not the nonphenomenal self, which is asleep. Nobody told me this, in spite of a long serious search. And why, do you suppose, there were no answers... because they had decided to be obscure and mysterious?

"That was what I thought at first. It was only later that I discovered to my shock that very few people – even founders, leaders and directors of work communities – actually know this basic fact about awakening and transformation.

"The majority of work communities are founded on the basis that it is the Being which is asleep; they never consider the machine as the source of sleep, nor are they aware of the Being's relationship with the machine.

"Is it any wonder then, that people who live their entire lives in such communities achieve little or no result?

"Few know this important secret, yet even knowing this secret does not guarantee that they know everything else; they may not know how to communicate the ideas to somebody else, and in any case, they may only know the ideas mentally, having never actually applied them in a practical way to themselves.

"But I do not intend to spend an entire evening convincing you of the necessity of awakening the machine.

"I quickly learned, just as you will also learn, that it is not enough for the machine just to be awake. It must be activated as a transformational apparatus.

"Many people find the state of the awakened machine sufficiently amusing, and are uninterested in its potential for transformation. They feel invigorated by it, so they awaken the machine all the time, but they do not use it for transformation; they use it as a form of masturbation. "Because only the awakening of the machine produces transformation, direct exercises for transformation are not possible.

"But what gives our exercises for the awakening of the machine real power in the present, and brings us away from mere philosophy, is the absolute recognition that it is the machine that must wake up, not the Being.

"If we are to use the awakened machine as a transformational apparatus, we must develop the higher faculty of discernment. We must realize when the machine is awake and, more importantly, when it is not.

"We must be able to discern whether the machine is awake or asleep because we must be able to use the time when it is awake; if we think the machine is already awake, we will not work to awaken it.

"No matter how much we may come to know about the awakening of the machine, without discernment we may awaken the machine but not realize it, and become so preoccupied with the awakening of an already awakened machine that we will fail to use the awakened machine as a transformational apparatus.

"This would be like trying to start a car engine after the engine is already running. This is not only bad for the starter, but a completely futile gesture.

"In any suburban community, we can, on any cold morning, observe people leaving for work or taking their children to school, and trying to start their cars which have already been started.

"Inevitably several suburbanites will continue to destroy the car by turning the starter motor long after the engine has been started.

"So that we do not destroy our car, we must develop the faculty of discernment; we must always know whether the machine is awake or asleep, or we will not perform the right action.

"We must know if the machine is awake or asleep because, if the machine is asleep, we must not try to perform an activity rightfully belonging only to an awakened machine.

"First of all, we will obtain no real results and could spend our lives producing imaginary results; secondly, we could easily hurt ourselves and others by trying to do something in sleep as if we were awake.

"At the same time, if the machine is awake, we must not waste the awakened state on things of sleep.

"The difference between the awakened machine and the sleeping machine is very subtle; we must not expect jazz accompaniment and horn section flourishes as we go marching down Broadway again.

"Have you ever tried to convince someone who is really drunk that he is drunk?

"The drunker he is, the more sober he feels, to himself, subjectively.

"This definitely indicates to us the reality of the isolation of states... when we are sober, we cannot remember what we did when we were drunk.

"The same is true of emotional states. We generally cannot remember what we said, heard and did in a deep, strong emotional state, unless we happen to be in the same state or a similar state.

"How would we know whether the machine is awake or asleep? Once we can determine whether the machine is awake or asleep, we will recognize various means of doing this.

"If we know for a fact that the machine is asleep, and we also know when the machine is awake, we will be able to invent a variety of methods to produce either result.

"Discernment is necessary to be able to use the awakened machine for the process of transformation. We must be able to tell the difference between alive and dead.

"When the machine is asleep, we cannot be convinced that the machine is asleep. It is even more difficult for someone else to convince us because at the moment they start trying to convince us, we become more alert, more on guard, and in spite of ourselves, the machine begins to awaken.

"Then, when we relax, the drunkenness begins to reassert itself and once again we think we can make our own rules for ourselves, but the truth is that we cannot even walk a straight line.

"How can we determine without a doubt whether the machine is awake or asleep?

"Something is definitely different about the machine when it is awake. If we happen to notice this difference in the machine, we can deduce that the machine must be awake.

"What is it that the machine manifests when it is asleep that it does not and cannot manifest when it is awake?" Several people answered at once, "Chief Weakness." Then G. continued, "All right. And upon what does Chief Weakness feed?" M. answered, "That's easy; negative emotion." G. anxiously answered, "Okay, so what is not present when the machine is awake?" Again a chorus of voices answered, "Negative emotion."

"Yes," G. said. He turned as if to leave and then stopped again and spoke, "See how simple it is? The absence of negative emotion tells us that the machine is awake. The presence of negative emotion tells us that the machine is asleep."

"All the time?" Jewel asked in dismay. "Yes, all the time."

"There are many other signs, like an alteration in vision or change in sensation. Those can be present or absent, but one thing definitely remains the same, always and in everything, each time the machine is awake, we will note the total absence of negative emotion – always.

"An awakened machine is to negative emotion what the Absolute is to our whole imaginary human identity – instant annihilation, and the same is true of negative emotions – they are instantly annihilated in the presence of an awakened machine.

"At the same time in the absence of negative emotion, the machine will also awaken. It is a corollary, a reciprocal factor.

"If we can somehow eliminate negative emotion, the machine will awaken; if we can awaken the machine, the negative emotion will be instantly annihilated.

"An awakened machine, whether ours or someone else's, eliminates negative emotion.

"And correspondingly, the absence of negative emotion awakens the machine.

"Simple enough. Now once you know that the machine is awake, how do you use it for transformation? Tune in next Sunday...!" Uproarious laughter filled the room.
© 1980 - 2002 IDHHB, Inc. All Rights Reserved.