THE 4 BODY WORKSHOP I

By Professor Dr. Tan Man-Ho

(An excerpt from the original work, Real World Views, Book 14,  by Professor Dr. Tan Man-Ho entitled "The Work, the Psychophysical Transformation and the Making of the New Human Being," March 1983 - November 1983 Discourses, Chapter 1, Section A: "The 4 Body Workshop I," pp. 1~11)

A. THE 4 BODY WORKSHOP I

1   To be subjected to the laws of the Institute of the Harmonious Development of Man is many times more beneficial to any other forms of institutional subjection.  Because IHDM’s basic aim consists of these beneficial objectives ‑ longevity, developed man, perfect man, balanced man, healthy man, new man, conscious and awakened man, and everything beneficial to man.  Its subject matters ‑ Taiji, Yoga, medicine, knowledge of the world, Fourth Way, Gurdjieff-Ouspenskian system of the development of man, the Work, relaxation theory, acupressure, acupuncture, massage, longevity, science, reflexology, breathing exercises, and yet more to be discovered ‑ are excellent.

Only a flowing mind can have a chance to find itself in the greatest secret which certain people prefer it to be in concealment.  Only a few have undertaken the Journey to Inaccessible Places – our journey, our internal psycho-space travel.  For those who have suffered consciously in the long march develop a map that would be able to enable a second trip.

2   Ours is a Human Body Workshop.  And we are currently accumulating more and more knowledge about the human body, not just from the medical approach but for a frontier research standpoint.  Here, in the institute, we are to experiment on our own body’s potentials.  The workplace itself becomes a place of scientific progress.  But here the workplace is the human body.

The peculiar direction of our institute is neither specialization nor generalization but with the immediate two.  The harmonious development of man demands flowing of countless specifics and the whole process looks like generalization.  It is to develop a full man capable of doing everything possible for man of greater degree of perfection.

3   By keeping myself in youthful spirit, in a rubber-physical body and progressive thoughts, I hope that my direction will not fail me.  That is, to rejuvenate the body, keeping myself young and prolonging my life span.  It is immaterial if a person points out to me of my “boyish and immature” nature.  The point is all are equally mechanical and would want to move forward.

4   Working on your weaknesses and defects is more important than working merely on developing the part.

5   Man is a mechanical “toy” whose spirit is helplessly locked up in its own postures that have become his being.  Where there is no explosion from within there is no change of being in him.

6   Only the developed man is able to produce the intended state for his own body.  When a potential in a man manifests, a lot of time is consumed. If he is to manifest then he has very little time left for helping the development of potentials in other people.

7   To observe a man is to observe his potentials too ‑ in his becoming ..........

8   Genius knocks once and to definite individuals only, and also to the potential ones.  But a potential cannot develop if the external condition of change is unsuitable.  An egg cannot change into a chicken, even though it has the potential to be a chicken, so long as the correct temperature is not there.  But if a potential remains latent for long, it will sooner or later become dead and cannot be developed.

9   To flow the thoughts is like shadow boxing.  Dimensions are opened up and the only creation is inner creation …....

10   Acknowledge the good that you have acquired.  Acknowledge not that which you have not acquired.

11   Man’s direction in the world is represented by two arrows, one directed towards the outer world while the other directed towards the inner world.  One invests in these two worlds if one can but the mechanical man can only invests in the outer world.  A man must not just wait for others to invest on him, he must invest on himself and if possible, later, to invest on others.

12   On a clean sheet of paper, a good poem or the most advanced theory of physics can be written and it will remain.  Pure and essence people, whose psychological fields are like a clean sheet of paper can acquire the new.  Only essence can write for a longer period of time.  Personality relationship is never lasting ….....

13   Strive to gain more and more control of how your machine is moving and functioning in the working platform.  For your personal use, have the healthy minimum!  Start from the things around you ‑ change them when they fall along your direction.

14   Do things one by one, one at a time.  Self-mastery is the key to mastery over your environment.

15    Seeing a person body by body

 Look at his physical body

 Look at his emotional body

 Look at his mental body and lastly

 Look at his fourth body, if there is one

16   A statement which is fundamentally false but because of the emotional assertion by the subjective man, it is made to appear like true.

17   It is a mistake not to learn and progress till the end of the day.  If you retire early, you die early.

18   Speaking of being influenced into a bad emotional state by people who are already in negative emotions, I wish to tell you that you only need to meditate it away from your own body.  Be a reflecting mirror to the negative emotions of others, reflecting away that which you do not want.

To many the depressed and negative feelings of life represent maturity of the person.  But what is lost sight of is that these states are undesirable and often indicate the onset of ill health.

Let not your chest and your abdomen contain negative emotions.  Negative emotions rapidly reinforce negative attitude and vice-versa.

19   What we have least control are those “passengers” from the higher cosmic octave.  The cosmic passengers come into our body and cause neurotic over-activity and thus drain away our vital energy in the process of cosmic feeding.  People of this ill-fated type wilt and die fast without any reason understood by our medical man.

20   Our life is differently experienced because different centers become active at different times.  When a center becomes active, our experience is immediately related to this center.

21   To silent the body and to rest it is to still it so that any new emerging 'I' can come to the fore to report and manifest itself.  To give them a chance to show itself or else it may become a danger to the health of the body at a later stage – this is an important principle to recognize.  This emerging can be a note wrapped by a sound, it makes no difference, so long if it is an 'I'.  It is a way to know what the body actually needs.

We may be so busy with making money that we completely fail to notice the cry within our body and why?  Because we have no time!

22   Centers have to be triggered to give a push to their activities.  To give a center a push is to engage and stimulate the center both in you and to the people around you if you so desire.

23   People who lived without direction being pushed here and there, obeying commands and instructions excreted by other famous big and small two-legged creatures are spineless and are yin-beings.  Such people, unless they have a purpose, are “slavishly obeying instructions”, have no freedom to produce their own fourth body.  He is a vehicle waiting to be ridden by any chance passengers.  He can be taken for a ride!  He is a fool on the planet earth.

A real master is he who trains his pupils to become masters.  A real pupil is he who wants to become master of himself and his actions – this he needs to be "obedient and loyal" to himself.

24   Remember always and everywhere that all the people around you, including you yourself are machines.  Mr. Chong, Mr. Ali, Ms. Saraswaty and all your fellow friends are just the magnus machines, organic machines.  Few care of their own body ….... they just act and live with their next chance accidental impulse.

25   The human body should also be looked upon as an instrument for producing songs and music.  Songs and music emerging from and which through its process that is manifested by the human body can be extended by the technocosmic counterparts which consist of the technocosmic musical instruments.  To produce songs and musical tunes using our own body is to develop our physical apparatus too and for improving our own emotion.

26   The fourth body must struggle out of the man-animal nature and not merge in it.  The man-animal nature consists of all the lower centers and is wrapped in the coarse physical body.

The instinctive organs of the five senses are the organs of entry of impressions from the outer world and that of the moving center the terminal of expression in which the outer world is constantly modified by it.

27   An idea can be stored in your psyche, as your essence, in your inner body only when you have embraced it until it becomes a sparkling gem in you.  This requires repetition of the same kind of ideas for a certain period of time.

28   Strive not to lose yourself in one or two of those remote parts of your bodies.  Strive to be present all at once along the vertical axis of your psyche.

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