=kit009.txt

KIT 9 - High Key versus Low Key - Part II

Of course, it means growing up.  It means being intensely alert
and aware and luminous - not just aware of the "here and now", but
of the "everywhere and always" (which, incidentally, must not be
confused with the "nowhere and never" - often the outcome of
spacing out, easily taken to be Samadhi).  Being aware does not
just mean being acutely observant of what is happening around and
about one, with particular regard to its relevance to one's
objective, but of all that lies behind the apparent situation and
the implications of this objective, and what is more, of what are
the issues behind one's objective. 

To be precise - it encompasses several scores - first, setting a
goal as definite as possible.  This is admittedly difficult
because our human representations of our objectives are based upon
our own scale of values, which we are continually reassessing
(Murshid says:  "Shatter your ideals on the rock of truth"), and
which fluctuate according to our attunement.  Second, as we mature
we become more realistic as to how to implement these imponderable
values into tangible objectives.  If we are really progressing,
whatever we conceived of as our purpose is continually superseded
by a further one.  "The purpose of life is like the horizon:  the
further one advances, the further it recedes"  Pir-o-Murshid
Inayat Khan.  Not only is this true, but if one is truly creative
in life, one constructs the path upon which one treads not unlike
an aircraft (in contrast to a car) that has to follow a prepared
red road. 

Here, our own incentive will determine an azimuth upon the horizon
which itself may vary, should one choose to reschedule the
itinerary on the way.  Furthermore, one would prove foolhardy to
pursue one's proposed objective glibly without the slightest
regard for what is going on around one.  In fact, one is
continually reprogramming one's objective on the strength of the
wisdom that one gains by learning from the experience of one's
fellow humans and from the feedback to one's ideas and actions
gleaned from the life situations around one.

Having then some sense of one's purpose, it is advisable to
foresee possible obstacles, although most of such are
unpredictable.  Obviously, one will have to be prepared to deal
with these as they arise.  However definite one is about one's
purpose, one may be advised to be versatile enough to totally
reprogram one's course in view of the lay of the territory
encountered.

The challenge of life requires of one to be highly astute.  First,
one may be able to observe how people, perhaps unwittingly, tend
to draw one into their problems ("laying their trips on one" - in
American).  If one is inclined towards tender-heartedness, one
inevitably does get oneself inextricably inveigled, which,
incidentally, is not necessarily salutary for the person one is
accommodating.  In this case, the second modulation of
consciousness advocated in meditation is extremely revealing: 
shift one's consciousness into the consciousness of another
person.  What a different perspective from one's own!    One soon
discovers how people both suffer and rejoice for having made
themselves dependent upon one by, in fact, making one dependent
upon them.  Their fear of being unable to cope without one may be
so desperate that one prefers just putting up with the pain
oneself.  One likes to boast to oneself of being stronger than the
persons concerned, not realizing what it does to one's morale and
one's personal unfoldment.

When one gets oneself inveigled in worldly affairs and dallies in
small talk, not only does one lose one's contact with one's
heavenly dimension, but one starts disliking oneself, and
consequently develops hardness and bitterness.  What is more, one
may nurture a resentment against the people who were dragging one
down, overlooking the fact that maybe they were looking to one to
inspire them and give them an uplift!

As one matures, one learns how to help without being burdened, how
to function like a 'sannyasin,' an initiate, in life.  It is true
that one needs to be alone to do a lot of repair work upon one's
psyche and to see things in perspective.  One may well understand
Buddha.  Yet in our day and age, it is more challenging and wiser
to awaken, become very alert and aware right in the middle of 'all
of this,' standing steadfastly while lending a helpful hand by
thrusting the light of one's insight upon people's problems.  This
means earmarking the deeper issues behind their problems, to avoid
letting oneself be trapped by or embroiled in the commonplace
thinking, judgementalism and personal likes and dislikes of so
many people, while keeping one's spirit in good tune.  All of
this, on the assumption, of course, that one is not being
judgmental of them oneself.  One is really more aware than they
are of the way their interpretation of events and their dealing
with events has tarnished them, and how this happens
surreptitiously.  One sees clearly where each person is "at" and
what they would do to one's attunement, to one's thinking, to
one's values, how they would affect one in the pursuit of one's
objective if one demurred.

Such clarity will undoubtedly bring one to handle life situations
and all relationships wisely, harmoniously and beautifully in
one's future dealings.  Obviously, the emergence of a new
awareness will carry as a consequence a difficulty in continuing
to adjust oneself to situations previously taken for granted and
even coveted.  Of course, as people grow, they inevitably need to
readjust their relationships accordingly.  They are no more the
persons they used to be.  Relationships have to be re-wooed,
updated, never taken for granted.  Redressing current situations
and relationships after reassessing them requires even more
insight, assiduity and courage than dealing with new situations,
because one has to safeguard people's pride while weaning them. 
One discovers that the wisest way of doing this is by
strengthening them in their trust in their own resourcefulness. 
This can only happen by giving them a chance of having to rely
themselves upon that untapped store of resources which they can
only discover by actuating them.

This requires of one to watch the process very carefully and
monitor it painstakingly, rather than go about crushing people's
feelings recklessly like an elephant in a glass castle.  However,
sometimes a sharp change of tack is less painful than a lingering
severing, leaving a person in a feeling of uncertainty as to one's
true intentions.  One needs to awaken people to the views that one
cherishes rather than nurture resentment for the fact that they
are constraining or restricting one.  For this, it is best simply
to communicate one's point of view, one's insight.  People love
clarity, and are excited by new points of view, and will value
these, providing one does not criticize their narrowness, of which
they are themselves not aware, even as we have a blind spot in our
own eyes.  On the other hand, people tend to feel threatened by a
point of view that takes away the walls of the false security of
their commonplace values.

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