The Hard Way #1 - January 6• Sleep and Awakening - with Slides

Gurdjieff was emphatic that people are asleep within themselves but believe that they are awake. Everyone lives a mostly unconscious, somnambulistic and mechanical existence, endlessly engaged in reactive “think-talk”. This is especially true of the modern intellectual culture that fuels social media.

Sleep leads to all sorts of unhelpful outcomes for individuals and communities, and is the source of true evil. What is sleep? How can I recognise and understand it in myself, in others, in the world?

Conversely, what does it mean, practically, to awaken from the hypnotic sleep of life - individually and communally? What are the conditions for its fulfillment? And how to begin to awaken in the midst of life? The solutions may surprise you.

Reference material:

https://www.faithmadeflesh.com/post/preparation-exercise

https://www.faithmadeflesh.com/post/sleep-and-awakening-attention-and-consciousness

https://www.faithmadeflesh.com/post/attention-the-true-cosmic-currency

https://www.faithmadeflesh.com/post/four-states-of-consciousness

https://www.faithmadeflesh.com/post/the-purposes-of-spiritual-exercises-progressive-verification

https://www.faithmadeflesh.com/post/four-phases-of-group-work ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWXqT1KHk7o