Exercise 1: on Lecture 127 – Four Stages of the Evolution of Consciousness

<- To Work Program

Reflect on the following questions and make notes for your future reference:

♦ Do you find that, in some areas of your life, you sometimes react automatically to certain circumstances, without weighting the pros and cons of your reaction? Look at your Daily Review notes in search of such situations.

♦ Are you noticing only now that you occasionally have automatic emotional responses to external stimuli? Or are you usually aware of this type of reaction when it occurs?

♦ Do you notice the subterfuges, rationalizations, explanations, justifications and self-deceptions that you may use to convince yourself that you are not reacting automatically, out of an emotional impulse, but rather acting in the most sensible way under the circumstances?

♦ Are there other areas of your life in which you do behave in a more balanced way, trying to understand well the situation before you respond to it? Compare your feelings involved in the process of responding to situations in those different areas.

♦ Do you clearly understand the adverse implications of reacting impulsively to situations, out of emotional reactions stemming from deeply rooted preconceived ideas and prejudices? Do you understand the cause and effect relations resulting from acting out of destructive emotions, and false ideas and that these elements are damaging because one is somehow immersed in illusion and misconception?

<- To Work Program