What does it mean to be impartial? I think I know what it means. Not to take sides, not to have a horse in the race. To not be identified.
Now there’s a good one. What are the signs of being identified? When I find tapes looping in my head, that’s usually a sign. When my emotions get triggered is another. Or my jaw tenses, or my breathing gets shallow. All the various forms of holding or expressing negativity usually stem from identification.
There’s More to Being Impartial
But there’s something more. It’s one thing to think I know what it means to be impartial. To be present to my own red flags. It’s another thing to live it. To BE impartial. How do I do that? How can I be impartial without abdicating my own opinion, burying my head in the sand, staying uninformed?
In my experience, it’s like walking a tightrope. Keeping one’s balance inside oneself. Something to do with allowing an openness, a curiosity, perhaps even a higher emotion like Faith, Hope, or Love to take up inner space. To be able to wish for an outcome I am not trying to orchestrate. To hold both sides of an issue in my hands equally.
It’s the outcome I need to let go of. This doesn’t mean I don’t have a role to play. Inner work is not for results per se. If results come, they should be a lawful outcome from my efforts. As Gurdjieff says, “Where go, how go, that’s It’s business.”
If what I am doing is truly Work, then no harm can come. I believe this.
If I am to be impartial, I must return again and again to balance. What is my bottom line, my tightrope? Is it curiosity? A sense of something shared? Not knowing as a practice? Is it a higher aim?
How to Work at Impartiality
The work begins from afar. With my aim to be impartial, I set myself to catch any form of negativity, no matter how small. Even discussing a situation can lead to negativity and identification. What is my work now?
First, I must want to do this work.
Let’s say I take in disturbing information. Finding a reaction in my body or feelings, I blend it with a part of my body. Perhaps my right foot. Perhaps the back of my neck. This can be done with attention and breath. Breathing in from the reactive part and breathing out into the chosen location. The blending happens by itself.
The beauty of the Work is that it works. But we must be actively engaged in it. The muscle of impartiality can then grow.
Thank you Roberta & thank you for the nice reminder.. adding other centres like sensation, breath and repetition can bring a very real change of state.. Noticing is stage 2 waking up!
Mr Bennett often mentioned the practice of holding the Yes & the No, so that 3rd Force can enter.. maybe this becomes patience…The Mother of Will as Mr Gurdjieff called it!
I was describing the efforts & rewards from Holding the Yes & the No during and after Divorce in a conversation in Turkey, the Fine Dervish who was holding the Sobat commented wisely that holding the yes & the no takes great courage, because our ego can’t bear not to choose!
Ohh, I like what the dervish said. Good thing to “bear” in mind!
These times offer many opportunities to work in this way. We are working in a similar way with Jerry in seeing denying force. He pointed out the other night that transformation happens in the body and emotional centers, not the mind. My challenge is staying truly out of my mind and returning and returning and returning again to sensation.
We are also working with, it so happens, the four prophets exercise, so working with Hope, Faith, Acceptance and Love.
Not looking for outcomes, so true.
So true and So hard!