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Tropical Berries Close Up

Selection Two

Some notes on the development of Man-body and Man-intellect

(Content from pages 28-46 of the book)

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THESE ARE  a few things I wanted to say so that we may somehow see the spirit, which should be dominant in the mechanism of economic action in the home.

     By acting in this way, by working synthetically, we arrive at the core of the science of economy as science of nature, of instinct, of destiny. Synthesis is the characteristic of economy. To synthesize. To tie knots. To tie together, to combine things that are different, to find "the beat that generates a thousand combinations", remembering Goethe in Faust for a moment.

     Contemporary science places wealth, the child of economy, in the domain of synthesis. Our ancestors placed it in the domain of peace. If we would like to compare these two words etymologically, without any intention to base anything on that, we would see that "peace" [in Greek: "eirene" (εἰρήνη)] comes from the [Greek] verb "eiro" (εἴρω), which always appears together with the prefix "syn" (συν) as "syneiro" (συνείρω), which means "to synthesize".

     So one of the necessary prerequisites for the success of our final goal, to reach the end of our quest for attaining wealth in the form of a healthy, integrated individual, is peace. But which peace? The peace of stagnation? The peace of sedation and anesthesia? No. We need the peace, which we attain by struggling for it every day. This peace advances spiritual man and keeps physical man in balance and health.

     This is the peace, which brings wealth, health, joy. The calmness of soul will allow the mind to think freely, the body to move. It will always relieve it from the unnecessary burden of the pain that follows its disturbance. Peace will make the smile bloom on the face of economic man, who will give us the atmosphere of home. The atmosphere that will give us the feeling of safety and comfort.

     Peace. This word alone would suffice to fill the pages of our study of today.

     The preservation of health and peace in the home is the indicator of successful economic action there.

     Summarizing what we have said in this chapter until now, we find that successful economic action in the home requires that we consider the following elements, i.e. that:

     1. The house we choose is in a healthy location, with plenty of sunlight

and clean air. It protects against cold, heat, moisture. It is in convenient

distance from the workplace. It is well served by plumbing, sewerage and electricity.

     2. We know the limits of our resources: Money, time, space, physical and mechanical energy, as well as energy of body, soul, spirit.

     3. We find the boundaries (money, time), within which a certain task is done.

     4. We learn what healthy nutrition and healthy life is.

     5. We learn how to choose materials.

     6. We learn what the materials for each job are and in what proportions. (Maintaining and cleaning of self and household items, preparing them to be used by the family.)

     7. We make full use of our materials.

     8. We choose furniture and utensils that can be easily and thoroughly cleaned.

     9. We choose furniture and other objects according to the physical needs of the person who will be using them (e.g. height of tables or chairs, etc.)

     10. We choose furniture that serves many uses.

     11. We put household items in places that best serve our work, where we can easily find and reach them, and where they can be preserved better (some items are damaged by heat or by moisture etc.)

     12. We put all items, which are needed for a particular job, together in one place.

     13. We find a permanent place for each item.

     14. We put things back in their place immediately after using them.

     15. We always follow the same order of action, starting from the point which should come first.

     16. We are careful during work, so that we do not dirty tables, chairs, floor, towels more than what is needed, which would increase the amount of work. We do not cause unnecessary damage.

     17. We know the capacity of the household utensils.

     18. We know how much of each food makes one serving.

     19. The means we use (money, energy) for serving a need are kept in the shade and we illuminate the result.

     20. We help memory with notes and by moving a task from thought to habit, to automation.

     21. We find common elements in various tasks, so that they may be absorbed into only one.

     22. We find a way to synthesize dissimilar powers we may be handling.

     23. We always have in mind that synthesis is the genuine economic action.

     24. We compose a schedule for our work and we follow it.

     25. The succession of tasks is comfortable.

     26. We make sure that we remain calm and the environment is calm and peaceful.

     27. Preservation of health and peace is the indicator of successful economic action in the home.

     28. The assistants to economic man and the members of the family share one and the same spirit with economic man.

     29. Prudence is the first and main characteristic of economic man. Every defective economic action is lack of thought, lack of prudence.

     30. We must also add that every task should be done with seriousness, concentration and in silence.

THESE GENERAL PRINCIPLES  we have given above, enriched with the personal experience of each economic man, his/her observations, his/her intelligence and the wisdom of the other sciences help us ensure, with the means available to us each time, the absolute cleanliness required for the hygiene of the body, sufficient food and a generally healthy life. A free and comfortable life. A life appropriate for developing the young beings until they mature and their wings are strengthened, so that they may fly out of home in order to build their own nest.

     Thus our work will appear from a distance as a work of art in the proportions it has asked for. Our work will be an artistic expression. It will be art. A work with rhythm and comfort, a pleasant work. A dance with many figures.

     The resulting work will be complete and the combustion of the materials will be total, because there will be no wasteful materials in it. Even the ashes it leaves will have their place. Because the ashes will not be a labor we will want to get rid of, but it will be our joy that will radiate with us and give a special splendor to the environment.

     So much, regarding man-body.

WE NOW COME  to man-intellect. When we say man-intellect today, we mean the whole inner man together with his/her world of body and soul.

     This chapter is for the economic man, who is interested in the preservation and development of man-intellect.

     We have said about man-body, that in order for him to grow he needs food, which he assimilates or uses to produce energy, and part of it is excreted as unnecessary.

     Man-intellect needs these, too. But, together with these, he needs to take care of something else.

     He needs to produce the body that will accept these foods and will give back something of its own.

     Man-intellect is not born ready for this function. He is not born like man-body, having his digestive system in its place. Ready to function, like the other systems, and leaving it to us to choose the kind of his nourishment according to his age and endurance, starting from the most easy-to-digest food appropriate to his age.
     When we are born, man-intellect has not been born yet. He has not been formed. All the necessary materials exist inside him, but they have not yet formed an organism.  Everything has not yet found its proper place. They have not been connected. They do not cooperate. They do not live harmoniously. There are conflicts between them. Their relationships are not friendly, but they are relations of slaves with masters.

     Thus man-intellect is under formation, under construction.

During our life we observe his formation: every little stone added and every new form, which appears as he advances, finds its echo in a spiritual work, in a spiritual creation, in a spiritual form that the passing centuries have left to us.

     This building process, however, is not done by itself. In man-body, a well-cooked food helps everybody grow up and develop. In man-intellect, this does not happen without some preparation from his part. A spiritual form has nothing to change, nothing to add to his formation. It remains as it is received. It is not assimilated in order to give us its fruit. We do not understand it so that we may enjoy it and become fully illumined by the joy that will fill us, if we have not experienced it ourselves before, if each one of us has not dug it inside us, or at least have worked the material well, so that it can be imprinted in us and become our possession.

     We must have cultivated the ground where the seed will fall, we must have dug it, cleaned it, aerated it and lightened it, in order that the seed may give us the fruit, always with the variation it will develop according to the new ground.

     In this cultivation we will be helped by the intellectual hygiene of the home, home pedagogy, as we might say, which is of course one side of pedagogy as a whole.

     It will make the ground suitable for receiving the seeds in the form of spiritual forms and develop them. It will make man capable of receiving his spiritual food and assimilate it, so that he may prepare his own form. It will help us in organizing our inner world that will give man his wholeness and present man as a personality. And this form, which will appear, however different it will be from that of others, will always be the same. It will have one and the same name in all people, always.

     It will be called man.

THE INTELLECTUAL HYGIENE  of the home should include in its work also the care for the order, in which these spiritual foods will be given from very early age. It will care about the way they will be presented, under what garment, with respect to a particular function of spiritual man. How it will present the notion of fear, of death, etc. So that it does not cause psychological trauma, disappointments, and possibly other such things. We will not examine this now, but we will concentrate on the work per se of economic man in this area, which is, as we have said, to help us make man capable of receiving the spiritual foods. And this is the work that has the priority.

     With respect to man-intellect, economic man will not care about preparing the foods, but he will care about preparing the organism, which will receive them. And prepare it in the best way, so that each time assimilation may be complete and the forms are not distorted as they are received.

     What is that, which feeds man-intellect; that, which develops and forms his soul and spirit? There are many and various factors, predictable and unpredictable.

     Besides the great creations of art, science, religion, there are also small things. A flower, a picture, a story, a companion, a song. The climate, the person's home, his furniture, his clothes. And, together with these, his experiences, life, joy.

     However, in order that man may feel all these and that they may resonate inside him, man needs a cultivation, as we have said.

     Man-intellect is not like man-body. He does not take food, develop and progress in the same way as man-body. In man-body we have a form, which we feed and in this way it develops, progresses and stays alive. It is not the same in man-intellect. Here we do not even have any form. We have the materials of man-under-construction. And what are these materials? We may divide them into four categories. It is easy to find and understand these categories, if we examine a form of tangible reality. A house. What is needed to make a house?  (1) the materials,   (2) a plan, (3) a place, where it will be built, and (4) workers who will build it. So, as long as we are still unformed, there will be inside us a space for the workers and the materials, a space where the form will be placed, a space for the plan of the form. Regarding the plans of form, we all know that they do not exist only inside us, but we also receive them from outside.

     Now, when we have succeeded in one form, this does not mean that our work is finished. In man-intellect we advance by destroying the previous form and building a new one in its place. Every form that passes in this way leaves its trace on us. Thus man-intellect is fed. Out of the debris, a new form springs up each time. One could say that the material does not change in quantity, but it only undergoes treatment. What increases, are the traces of the forms.

     However, this destruction and rebuilding is not endless. What we want is, to form and organize man-intellect in a similar way as man-body is formed. Therefore the process stops at some point. It is not without an end. It continues only until we attain the final form. And this form will be the one, which will have all forms and be no form. It is not a form, but has the power to present all forms that have passed and give them life and keep them alive, as we will see below. Like light, which makes all forms visible to us without it having any form. Like the well tuned piano, which presents us an infinity if compositions without it being one.

     These forms, in order to appear, need a preparation of the material which will present them.

     For the preparation of this material, the law of ethics is established. This is what life wants to do. This is where pedagogy comes to help us.

    The means, that economic man will use, will be found inside the man he wants to educate.

     Each person needs his own means and intensity, according to the condition of the material he wants to treat. One needs fire in order to melt the metals and separate them from foreign substances. Another one needs a chisel, in order to sculpt marble. Another one needs dynamite in order to break rocks. Another one needs a file in order to smoothen corners. Another needs a sieve, so that everything may go to its place. Sometimes a person needs all these, the one after the other. These means themselves know the way they will work. The educator, or the economic man who acts as an educator, will place them where they are needed to work.

     These means are the energy generated by the human body. The location, where they will be placed, is man. He will take them inside him. They know their job. This energy wants to be used in some action. But this action would damage man

and the environment.

     So what will become of this energy?

     Why do we have desires and tendencies, if we cannot fulfill them? Why has a source of torrential energy been given to us, while on the other hand it is strictly forbidden to express it? Where will this energy be spent?

     This energy will stay inside us, to treat the building material. It is the workers in the example mentioned above. The harder the material to be treated, the greater the rush of energy needed. And greater will our vibration be. And greater the effectiveness of the work.

     Man comes into the world with only the form of a human being. His perfection has not been accomplished. The human form we see is the mold, which will give form to the material found inside him. He will press the material strongly, so that all details may be imprinted on it. He should not worry that he might break it. And, each time, he gets a strong feedback of satisfaction. Let man allow this to function freely. Without placing objections. Let him take a passive attitude. Let him eliminate his ego. If he opposes it, his destruction is inevitable, temporary or final. While a period of rest, afterwards, could bring balance. Then this work will end. But we should help. The more we help, the sooner it will be finished and the longer we will live on the way of progress and development and the greater our progress will be.

     So this energy is the means. And we will find it inside man. It is this, that will prepare the material, but it is also that, which will give the form each time. That is why each time it molds it as it wants. It is the mold that will give the form. It is also the means, which will prepare the material to receive that form. We again observe that things are as the economic principle wants them to be. This energy is the least material we spend in order to reach the greatest result. It is the least, because it already exists, is there by itself, it is ready to be used. We only have to take care not to allow it to leak, we only have to make good use of it.   Moreover, in this work, the adaptation of the means to the goal is so great, that it reaches the degree of identification.

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ECONOMIC SCIENCE  addresses the knowledge of existing economies on the one hand, and on the other hand it wants to guide the action of man. It addresses both the knowledge and the will of man.

     We have said that economic man will use the energy generated from the body of man, in order to influence man-intellect.

     This energy, which is generated, wants to function, to act; it wants to do work, to express itself in action. However, the actions it wants to do are not always to the advantage of man and his environment.

      In our case, man sometimes moves into actions incompatible with the program of life set for him by economic ma, with health and progress as the intended goal. Our man brings forth himself and his knowledge. He tells us that there exist other systems of life. But we will be the first to say that to him. This is not the issue. He has not been asked to choose his life, but to adapt to it.   Adaptation is a factor of the evolution of beings.

     Our purpose is to develop in man the ability to adapt.  Punishment and threats associated with the violation of a rule do not help in any way. What matters is the execution of the order. And the reason someone followed something that would benefit him and why he had the strength to follow it.

     We want to make man capable of managing his own self, so that he can correct him and advance him. Because he is the one who knows himself better than anybody else and always has himself near him. But, at the same time, we want him to have given himself the ability to obey himself.   We want to make him capable of staying totally inactive at will, to put himself in a totally passive condition, to eliminate his self, to lose his ego, to nullify his pride, to be as if he is not alive for a moment. Not to live with his own life. To live with the life of others.

     On the one hand, he will obey his nature and he will be the blank paper, which takes on everybody's thoughts in the language one understands better. One person understands the language of music, another one understands the language of painting, another one understands the language of chemistry, or of biology, or something else. On the other hand, he will obey the circumstances and he will be the inactive clay, which takes the form that every artist will give him with the hand of life, with the hand of man.

     This is the way he will acquire knowledge, this is the way he himself will be formed

     Plutarch said that "education is a study of obedience".

     Many great truths have have been stated from time to time and perhaps there is no need for more to be said.

     They have been given to us by the great religious and philosophical systems. By the beliefs about life and the world. By the law of ethics. Our consciousness often adds to them. The misery or happiness that we spread around us and to ourselves each time enrich them. There is plenty of truths around.

     Our purpose is to be able to follow them, to obey them.   Therefore our efforts will turn to first make man capable of obeying.

     This sentence contains the whole content of this chapter. This is the first and main preoccupation of the pedagogy of home.

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SOCIETY AND PUBLIC  opinion greatly influence people.

     The little child sees that society follows and approves something that the educator forbids and the child himself realizes that it is wrong. How would the child appear in society, if he has ideas different from the approved ones?  He will be ridiculed and neglected. How can he bear this humiliation?

     How do we want this little child, an isolated individual, stay against the whole of society? Against a power so much bigger that his own. He is obliged to surrender unconditionally. This unjust struggle is not a rare phenomenon in the history of man. And we know the result. Little powers win, when they are on the side of truth and justice. It is unbelievable, incomprehensible, but true.  Let us not try to explain it with logic; we will be crushed down. Logic is sometimes very distant from reality.

     But let us approach that, which we call society, so that we may know it. Society consists of individuals. Let us approach them, in order to get to know their ideas.

     At first sight one is surprised by how healthy these ideas are. They assail every wrong thing that happens in society. We wonder, how they know in all details the right way one has to follow.

     This is how society appears to the one who observes it closely. And now let us look at it from a distance, to see its totality.

     Multitudes of people struggle day and night every day during their whole life. What do they struggle for? For an idea. Nothing else.

     How high must the origin of this idea be, to be so greatly honored by people! How great its attraction, that can hold all of us captive to it!

     One person works so that life can be continued in the world. Another one, so that the pain of suffering humanity may be lessened. Another one, so that he may find truth via his science. Another one, so that more comfort is offered to men. Another one works for the cleanliness of people. Another one works for their safety. Another, for the needs of their life. Another, for their education. Another, for their management. Another, for their amusement. Another one works for their being kept updated with the daily events. Another, for their transportation. Another, for justice. Another, for beauty.  Another, for religion. Another, for freedom. Another one, for his country.

    From the highest sovereign to the least citizen, all individuals work. Intensively, systematically, endlessly. With unlimited altruism. With an eagerness which reaches self-sacrifice. With a strong faith without the feeling of safety.

     So, is this the society we have objections against? This is a model society.

     No, it is not this one. That is another society. It is the phantom society.

     But where is it? How can we see it? Who has ever seen 

phantoms? They do not exist, however they govern us by the terror they create.

     They are creations of the imagination. But they blur our mind so much, that we cannot see clearly. We tremble. Our legs are unable to support us. We seek a place to lean on, somebody to help us. We do not mind, if this would be anybody we meet by chance. We share our most personal actions with persons foreign to the level on which we are functioning. With persons foreign to the circumstances that have disturbed the peace of our soul. Foreign to our education. Foreign to our way of thinking. Sometimes, persons totally unprepared for the height of the moment, in which we call them to help us. And, very often, the result is that our condition remains unresolved and worsens beyond any possibility of repair.

     We are possessed by a fear and an unjustifiable worry, which make us arm ourselves heavily, while there is no danger at all.

MANKIND WORKS,  and it deserves blessing and peace. Not threat and terror. The whole issue seems to be the dissolution of a phantom. Mankind has paid enough for the pointless education of its children with the phantoms.

     Now that society has passed its childhood and contemporary republic has consciously entered the period of its mature age.

     Now that the child has become a man, it is time that he be free from phantoms and find peace.

     But, in order to have peace as nations, we musty first have peace as individuals.

     By carrying the battle inside us and daily crushing the enemy of

the calmness of our soul. And, wherever there is battle, there is also discipline.

    Therefore, when the little one, who is being educated, meets the dilemma we mentioned above, he should know that it is not society that is speaking to him, but society's phantom.

    With awareness of the seriousness of the moment and the right position he should take. With self-confidence and courage, and not in a state of collapse, he should present what is appropriate, right and true against the phantom and thus dissolve the phantom once for all.

     When the phantom is dissolved, the real image of society will appear with its millions of beauties, which we would never suspect they were there.

     When we are relieved from the captivity under the phantom, we will see the enormous flower of society begin to open slowly, from the very first moment spreading its wonderful fragrance and incomparable beauty all around.

     When the phantom collects its shadow and leaves, its place will be taken by the great conductor, who will conduct, with the baton in hand this time, the panharmonious music of society.

     And this conductor will be CONSCIOUSNESS.

     That is the time for Her to take Her place.

     That is the time for the dark veil that covered Her to be dissolved.

     That is the time for Her to be set free from the great weight She had been carrying so that we may get rid of Her voice.

     That is the time for Her to stay silent, so that we can be heard.

     So, whatever society will approve and whatever is public opinion will be appropriate and right and true,

     Public opinion will satisfy us.

     Public opinion will find a resonance inside of us all.

     Public opinion will be a creation of each one of us.

     Because it will be in accord with our consciousness.

     Because our consciousness will create it.

     Because our consciousness will conduct it.

WE SHOULD HAVE  in mind that a phantom always arms our hand. Shakespeare teaches us this very clearly. A phantom armed Hamlet's hand, and this was his destruction.

     A phantom always arms our hand. Let us turn this hand against it. Let us smile to it and it will be dissolved immediately. The mask will fall. It will know it has been recognized. The game will have been finished. Let us return to our work.

     The terror and the whole disturbance of the calmness of our soul is a leap of a living organism, which is born inside us and had been caused or sown by the environment or by ourselves. This living organism throws its shadow and is projected in the environment, which has caused it or not caused it. Then we sometimes see this environment as black and dark and ugly and hostile. As containing a million of dangers. At other times, we see it as immensely beautiful and inexhaustibly kind and full of virtue and other advantages. These are the two extremes.

     In the first case, we take the gun in our hands and seek to destroy and get rid of the evil. That is, we make war with phantoms. Don Quixotte of Cervantes gives us an idea of this. Sometimes the phantom is dissolved. What remains is debris that we must restore. But we are satisfied that we have destroyed evil. However, evil reappears in bigger size. Naturally, we increase the weapons. The result is the same, and so on. Until the terrorizing shadow reaches a size that covers the whole environment and we must prepare weapons of appropriate power. We now understand that, by the wars, we had been feeding and helping grow this shadow.  Because we were giving food to the body, which had caused it.

     In the second case, the projection makes us approach it without further thought. But sooner or later we recognize our deception. It is well known and we do not need to repeat here, what irrepairable damage this can lead to.

     So what will become of this organism that is born inside us each time? This organism will be slaughtered inside us, so that it may feed the body of man-intellect and develop and sharpen his vision, to see the environment in its own color. And this situation will be continued until that form is born: the form we have spoken about, which is not any form and is all forms, which will bring these organisms back to life and ensure a vital space for them. So that they live full of light and life. Without shadows. So that they become self-luminous bodies.

     Sometimes we see that persons of high degree of intellectuality have formed a very confused, rather false image of the direct environment of their everyday life.   And we wonder, how this happens. An imaginary appearance of the environment had the power to distort the image and mislead them to believe it. Let us make sure that we see clearly and, most important, let us use our reason more often. Let us judge by the real data. Not by imaginary ones.

     Man-body has no evolution, he will continue to be fed with flesh of slaughtered animals. But man-intellect evolves. So, one day, he will stop getting life and being fed from the source of pain, but he will live and develop from the source of joy.

     The totality of Shakespeare's work gives us a vivid image of this situation. After innumerable killings, not deaths, Prosperus appeared. Around him, all of them returned to life and lived peacefully thereafter.

     We find the same spirit also in ancient mythology. In the myth of Cronus [Saturn], who swallowed his children alive and they reappeared living when their brother Zeus rescued them.

     These few things are what I wanted to say about the way of work of the economic man, regarding Man-intellect.

End of This Selection

Colorful Diamond

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