Ways to develop essence:
Reading works that develop essence: the Bible; Homer. The Bible is the main thing. Both these though give deep undercurrents of language. To develop essence you have to do things that act like planting seeds, or planting a crop.
Self-Remembering. Just doing it. Doing it for duration, depth, and frequency. Doing it like planting a crop.
External-Considering. This is another way of saying don't internally-consider, and further, don't be in a state of identification.
The Work says somewhere that External-Considering develops the emotional center.
So the Two Conscious Shocks develop essence.
Physically, learning a musical instrument develops essence. Also, a sport. A craft as well. Thing that teach moving center at a deeper level.
As I write this I'm currently drawing a blank on what the Work says about what replaces Personality. If personality dissolves. I know false personality is supposed to dissolve, but is all our shell of personality false personality? What does the Work say about real personality is what I'm getting at. If, that is, essence doesn't have it's own face to the world once developed. ('Work personality' is a phrase I vaguely remember. But that sounds a bit androidish?) I'll have to review.
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I think what is wrong in that diagram I sent, and made long ago, is what happens to Personality:
It does in a sense dissolve, though. But it becomes refined rather than disappear. It becomes less heavy. It becomes educated in a real way and acts as a discerning mediator between influences and essence, a defense while at the same time not a heavy, stupid, violent or just dense and unconscious shell.
What really happens to Personality is the development in unity from Many 'I's and Imaginary 'I' to Observing I, Deputy Steward, Steward to Master, or Real I.
It is interesting to make a list of what features are associated with each level. I did it once, and probably have lost it. I mean features associated with Deputy Steward and ones associated with Steward. For instance, Conscience appears in a real way at one of the levels, Deputy Steward?
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[Look at the diagram in the Fourth Way on page 162 where the darkened square is Observing I, the first circle is Deputy Steward, the second circle is Steward, and the third is Master, or Real I...]
So to structure thoughts on the subject, how does each level of *I* effect Essence?
Many 'I's does not have a good effect on essence. Many 'I's is really the state of being in Imaginary 'I' where you have no control over Personality, it controls you. It is not refined or awake or in any position to discern anything. It's also inconstant. It's as likely to say, "Hey, this meth looks like a good idea!" as to say, "We're going to church, but first we're going to get a buzz cut, OK? Because that's the way the Bible says it!" Or, "Maybe I should just lie down on my bed and listen to some Pink Floyd who are gods."
Then how does Observing I effect essence? Well, already the very fact you have attained to the level of Observing I means you have developed Magnetic Center, so that implies some real education with real, higher influences - B Influences - and activities that have developed all centers in you in a balanced way. So this effects Essence just by the fact that you know higher B Influences and have developed higher divisions of centers. A big part of this is you started to seek influences and truth for yourself rather than merely acquiring it from the world and those around you. This is a big difference between a hard shell personality and a refined personality. You have a real degree of control over Personality rather than it - or 'it' - having control over you.
I think the Deputy Steward level is marked by a more active approach (rather than mere observation) towards things like features of False Personality. There's more of a sense of authority in the term 'Steward' if only lower level Deputy Steward. And it is Deputy Steward because it is control over the I's that immediately surround Observing I. Not all I's. So Deputry Steward level develops Essence by doing the hard work of controlling and eliminating the features of False Personality.
Steward then is a big level because it is a level of control over All I's. (Between Deputy Steward and Steward we can see where many higher features reside or get born, or come alive, or become unburied, like Conscience, things connected to Higher Centers as well. The Steward level would appear to be a level of total light on all the I's of the inner being. There are no more unknowns lurking in darkness and corners of inner being. We, by degree, have been able to awaken to the most uncomfortable realities of ourselves, our history, our fallen nature, our disordered being. How does this effect Essence? Light is able to pass through Personality now, conscious influence (that sounds new agey, but I mean C Influence). Obviously the Steward level is a level of at least the third level of consciousness or self-consciousness, and probably also objective consciousness.
The Master (or Real I) level seems to be defined most immediately by its being in a different scale of Time. How that effects Essence might have to do with how Heaven itself effects Essence. The Holy Spirit, etc. I've run out of steam, but this is not a bad run down...
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