Chapter 8- Engineering: Recommended, Part 2

Cave exploring is a wonderful teacher of rudimentary engineering. When we are held within a form, such as within the naturally formed structure of a cave particularly, the outer peripheries speak inwardly to us. In other words we can sense the shape of this structure from the inside.

Architecture has long been known to inspire and provoke in this way; cathedrals offer perfect examples to this, with their ribbed-roof, chest-like, forms. Alike to giant men laying upon their backs, this chest cavity draws the man within to be standing (in this perspective) from the place of the heart. This in turn shall affect his prayer and his consciousness, as it takes into itself the overall shell of the cathedral’s beams and walls about him. 

Men naturally sense the walls around them. Added to this, they feel their form. Inorganic angular forms created by walls were meant to enhance the thinking, giving over to particular crystalline structures which were too sharp-edged and mean, (‘mean’ as in standard), whereas many sound halls are suitably developed to imitate the shape of the outer and inner ear.

Further to this it is said to be an easier death, were that one were to part this life outdoors! For without any enclosures surrounding the individual the subtle bodies slip readily into freedom, sensing less deterrence, confusion and persuasion … Conversely it is preferable therefore to nurse an ill person indoors and within a room which is best shaped to suit their healing. Babies respond healthily to being held in a swaddle, and cradled in a dome-shaped canopy.

Would that architects could pay more attention to the inside structures, than expending all of their creativity upon the outer! It is internally, not externally, that the buildings become significant.

And so when we venture into a cave, one which has been crafted by the spirits of time and the elementals of nature, we may come to the sense of the inherent beauty of perfect and particular form.

Making peace with relatives: These papers have largely been written for the care and consideration of the one who would read them. Primarily the objectives are designed to be of worthwhile appeal to the person themselves, for it is our conviction that a value discovered within one man does radiate out into the world and take its effect there too, if proven, if true.

 

This is an important qualification to make … one which could be misconstrued, yet is not intended to be. It is just to say that we expect the text to be viewed for self-profit, and that there is no shame in this, and no sense would that it were otherwise.

Self-profit cannot be gained at the expense of another’s owning. Karmicly it is not practicable. Ethics are taught to us in very simple demonstrations – and each in turn is brought to sympathies for others via such accountability along the way.

Yet, from our perspective, humanity underestimates its self-worth and potential, and has a difficulty in earnestly attempting to further itself in ways which do work well for them. There is much self degradation occurring in countless ways, needlessly. Eventually this will try even the patience of eternity!

It is true to say that if this text was written and read from only the humanitarian and self-less perspective the development of the reader would, in natural consequence, have to improve. The effects of good/healthy contemplations and deeds are (over time) more of the same. The process is enstrengthening overall. The path of the ascetic proved this, in that they could renounce the self and yet at the same time enhance their self into the bargain.

However this approach calls for a definitive self-consciousness which of itself decides the reasoning and weighs the goodness, for itself.

The theme of engineering is one of tangibility – of a goodness which has, by certain effort, materialised. Here we have an opportunity to firstly work upon ourselves, knowing that if done well the whole of the world will benefit. We test wisdom within our own reasoning and keep testing – ever watchful and observant of the results. In this way it is so very important that these texts are abandoned if they are not conducive to your own sensibilities. If they present as nonsense or cause irritation, it is vital that you may respect your own discernment here and go on to find something which does inspire or enthuse you. Do not regard these words because you believe you are supposed to, or in that they come recommended! There is no point, but for you, no point at all.

Similarly, when we suggest that it is recommended that one makes peace with their relatives, we ask firstly that it is done on behalf of your own self and for all that that means. Ideally you may try to please others, appease others or simply heal some past hurt for the sake of their situation. However, unless it is undertaken from yourself sincerely and with self-motivation it will not be ‘real’ and shall not count as it might.

Within our own personal orbits we are positioned greatly by the magnetic influences given out by our family members (whilst they are living). Unconsciously we are effected by this, regardless of how far away we may be from them. Whether or not we have a regular communication our relationship with our parents, our grandparents, our brothers and sisters, aunties and uncles and children of our own, all of these people in existence converge with us invisibly.

“How can this be fair and true, when I am so different from these people?” you might ask. And how often it happens, that each family member feels this difference from one another – the grandmother and grandfather, etc., all from their hearts crying the same in the quiet. Not one would feel the closeness imaginable in the context of likeness completely. Why then are we so different, and do know it?

Well, here one could say “well, yes we are all different of course, and yet the same as well, etc. etc.” which would be offering really no great illumination at all. Or … 

 

Relative to our foremost attractions to one another, we are brought together, compelled together, by such lively activity as is passing between us. Most lively activity comes of dissension, rather than congeniality. There are exceptions to this when there has been a creative and fiery relationship forged between two aspiring individuals, yet for the most part we are drawn into families because of past frictions – with person or with persona.

Nations who have warred against each other, especially those of neighboring regions, are often reborn into the other’s race immediately after the passing. You can imagine that the concentration given to this other race sets up the very attractive forces which take them into that experience further along. The soul craves experience and seeks it where it can. The ego of a man also wants for more and goes where the activity has past flourished. The people (or their context of living) flames as a beacon to the would-be incarnate. We are attracted into reactive forces, which may or may not be compatible to us; and more likely are not.

Yet when born, we do become attributed with particular racial characteristics and family characteristics now inherited and known to us which hitherto we were without. This is also an experience to be dealt with, as once again it is most likely that these new clothes of the personality are not natural to us in our own development.

There is the thought that some races prefer to repeatedly incarnate within the same body of men and do so without this change to which we refer. This has happened in the most recently ‘older’ races, where the egohood is still reflected in that racial consciousness, but at the same time the process described in the family mix does apply, and even felt more intensely, because there is the soul awareness which hurts when departures from the family thinking occurs.

Perhaps one fundamental problem lies in the expectation that family members should think and live similarly. Harmony is proved most wonderful amongst a collective of differing contributors; it is not so experienced amongst a pool of sameness. When family members try to prove their sameness as some kind of loving qualification amongst each other, it denies their inner life and who they are. It goes on then to cause much of a severance from one another because of the necessary lies within the reality trying to support and sustain the unreal – the unsustainable.

Regarding the differences of all - and the marked friction which has been ongoing and perhaps to be now resolved- (particularly if you do not want to be drawn together so intimately with these folk again) you can begin by a) accepting their inner and outer life as belonging uniquely to them - and not reflecting yourself in any way - and b) expecting them to do the same. In this way we ‘leave our family’ to become more of ourselves, but honor those members as well, as they should be – loved for who they are. This will bring peace. Even if it brings more friction at the outset, it will bring peace. For you have loved them all the more, and you are no longer trying to see yourself in images that do not match what you see inside.