Errors on the Way

URI http://geocities.datacellar.net/tokyo/1236/errors1.html

There are characteristic errors on the way which people can make in work on themselves. It is necessary to examine yourself regularly for the presence of any of these errors. When you find you have strayed onto one of these false paths, remember yourself and how you fell subject to it, correct the error to return to the way as soon as possible, and do your best to avoid it in future. Some of these errors feed each other.

Talk-Think Error

Talking and thinking about the Work instead of doing it. Mistaking the use of a specialised language for doing the Work. Unable to explain Work ideas in ordinary language.

Intentional Insincerity/Heavenly Deception Error

Starry-eyed Student Error

Fanatical devotion to, obedience to, or belief in a teacher or system to exclusion of all others.

Form of the School Error

Forming a crystallized hierarchy based on elapsed time in the Work and closeness to the teacher rather than on personal level of being, and insisting that the `form of the school' must be maintained exactly as received.

Shiny New Mask Error

Forming a shiny new mask containing habits of dress, speech, movement, thought, and so on, in imitation of other members of the school or group and mistaking this for real inner development.

Lunatic Super-effort and Competition Error

Belief that one must approach the Work with a grim determination which produces feelings of tension, discomfort, self-punishment, and competition.

Sunday-Go-To-Church Error

Habit of making efforts only when in the presence of a teacher or other members of school.

Energy Junkie/Addict Error

Habit of coming to school to feed off the energy of the group without making personal efforts.

Dilettante Shopping-for-a-Teacher Error

Habit of wandering from teacher to teacher, and group to group, without staying long enough or making enough efforts to learn anything.

Perpetual Student Error

Staying in a school or group for life without ever graduating.

False Awakening Error

Delusion that `Only I truly understand the teacher', or that `Only I personally am', or `only my group or school is', `in contact with higher forces' or `God'; this error occurs in several forms:

False Messiah/False Prophet Error (subset of false awakening error)

Delusion that `I personally am':

• `conscious'
• `awake'
• the `teacher of the age'
• an `avatar'
• the `saviour'
• the `representative of the Christ'
• the `Christ'

Or, delusion that `I can prophesy the future as revealed to me personally by higher forces or God'. Usually such people are self-proclaimed higher beings or prophets (for example, `I am a man 7.2', `I am the Christ'). Often they will respond to questions about their `higher being status' by quoting the Christ saying `Thou hast said' from Matthew 26.64 or `Thou sayest' from Mark 15.2, Luke 23.3, or John 19.37. Their `prophecies' are often self-fulfilling.

Failed prophecies are explained away by:

• being changed after the fact
• saying they were:
  • `intentional'
  • `meant to provide a test of students' valuation'
  • `ridding the school of weak seeds'

Often will insist on followers adopting a `Do as I say, not as I do' attitude so as to justify their actions.

Disembodied Beings Error (subset of false awakening error)

Delusion that higher beings or higher forces guide, provide shocks for awakening, or work directly only with me or only with my school, but not with any other people or schools. Delusion that non-corporeal beings speak through me or through people in my group (channelling, mediums, and seances).

44 Conscious Beings Error (subset of disembodied beings error)

Delusion that only 44 people have ever awakened on the Earth (in Chinese culture, `44' symbolizes `double death').

Personal Salvation Error/Cock-on-the-Dungheap (subset of false awakening error)

Delusion that I personally will or can be saved, enter `heaven', survive death, and so on.

Renaissance Ark/Apollo Error (subset of false awakening error)

Delusion that my group is the:

• `highest'
• `only'
  • `true school'
  • `conscious school on Earth'
  • `conscious school since the time of Christ'
  • `true representatives or heirs of the work'

that we are the:

• `chosen people'
• led by a `god-man' who is a `law unto himself',

or that only my `school':

• will survive a soon-to-come destruction of civilization
• has a divine mission to serve as an ark of culture and consciousness for humanity
• will survive to establish a new civilisation or renaissance on Earth

Usually such groups are predominantly white middle class with token people from other races; special preparations and efforts are made to recruit wealthy, well-known, powerful, or influential people; young people with little money are recruited for their free labour.

Buy Your Way to Heaven Error (subset of Renaissance Ark/Apollo Error)

Buying pretty objects to `improve the impressions octave' without corresponding inner work.