"The ability to recognize that there are within you structures that block your progress by
working against each other, will empower you to change your life."
The Philosophy of The Four Ds
The Inner Journey Will Be Accomplished in Four Stages.
DISTANCING
or how to develop the observation of yourself
Distancing is a position of self observation. It has borne many names. The Buddha calls it the establishment of attention, Hinduism the position of the witness, Jesus advised us to be like passers-by and Shantiveda speaks of the alert spirit. Unless this position is established, it is impossible to create any order in one’s life.
Distancing is a technique that will allow you to create a witness in yourself. This witness will help you to understand better what you are made of. For unless you observe your thoughts and feelings, how will you ever grasp the nature of the psychological engines that drive you?
Distancing is non-reactive attentiveness, based on physical sensations. It offers a sense of peace, an inner ease that you will never have experienced before. As a result of this sense of peace, of this new security, you will see in yourself things that you would otherwise have repressed. It is not until you have seen in yourself things that you had not seen before that the work has begun.
Distancing is a technique that will allow you to create a witness in yourself. This witness will help you to understand better what you are made of. For unless you observe your thoughts and feelings, how will you ever grasp the nature of the psychological engines that drive you?
Distancing is non-reactive attentiveness, based on physical sensations. It offers a sense of peace, an inner ease that you will never have experienced before. As a result of this sense of peace, of this new security, you will see in yourself things that you would otherwise have repressed. It is not until you have seen in yourself things that you had not seen before that the work has begun.
DISCERNMENT
or how to deepen the knowledge of yourself
Discernment allows you to explore your foundations. You develop an understanding of your anger, fears and guilt. You see that you are conditioned by the layers of your repressed emotions, and that each layer protects the one that lies beneath. This means, for example, that shyness protects fear of rejection which protects low self-esteem and that anger protects fear. By practicing Discernment, you develop a technique of introspection. You create your own psycho-therapist and start to dismantle these layers.
Discernment consists of pushing your introspection to a deeper level in order to dismantle the causes that motivate your behavior. This practice requires the ability to identify the part of you that is in power, the one that acts at a conscious level. Through this process, you gradually discover what has been the choice of least harm (going toward the pleasant and avoiding the unpleasant) for you. You see why this choice has driven you into a series of repetitive scenarios. A vivid example of this is the promise the alcoholic, the compulsive eater, a person in an abusive relationship make to stop or end it once and for all. And just like them, your basic conditioning grabs hold of you and makes you repeat what you had tried to avoid doing.
Discernment consists of pushing your introspection to a deeper level in order to dismantle the causes that motivate your behavior. This practice requires the ability to identify the part of you that is in power, the one that acts at a conscious level. Through this process, you gradually discover what has been the choice of least harm (going toward the pleasant and avoiding the unpleasant) for you. You see why this choice has driven you into a series of repetitive scenarios. A vivid example of this is the promise the alcoholic, the compulsive eater, a person in an abusive relationship make to stop or end it once and for all. And just like them, your basic conditioning grabs hold of you and makes you repeat what you had tried to avoid doing.
"The only way to change is to see yourself as you are and be profoundly shaken by it."
DISIDENTIFICATION
or how to let go of your grabbing points
You are continuously in identification. You perceive situations through the prisms of attraction, repulsion, fear, guilt and other repressed emotions. Disidentification is the result of a profound understanding of this situation. You then move from a less mechanical to a more dynamic state. You shift from making unconscious losing choices to making conscious winning ones. After a certain time, from the space you have cleared in yourself, you develop your soul and crystalize a powerful intuition.
Disidentification is the result of a good practice of Distancing and Discernment. It comes from a thorough understanding of your mechanisms of identification. It is produced by working on yourself psychologically. There are moments when you see clearly that thoughts are separate from you and that you are the plaything of the projections that come from your past and keep you stuck on your old merry-go-round. Increasingly aware that you should act in tune with the ever-changing situation, you project less and less. The reason why you are able to say yes to situations where you were uncertain before is because your fear has diminished. The energy available to you increases and your creativity, your magnetic power, the very best parts of yourself rise to the surface, and you are strengthened.
Disidentification is the result of a good practice of Distancing and Discernment. It comes from a thorough understanding of your mechanisms of identification. It is produced by working on yourself psychologically. There are moments when you see clearly that thoughts are separate from you and that you are the plaything of the projections that come from your past and keep you stuck on your old merry-go-round. Increasingly aware that you should act in tune with the ever-changing situation, you project less and less. The reason why you are able to say yes to situations where you were uncertain before is because your fear has diminished. The energy available to you increases and your creativity, your magnetic power, the very best parts of yourself rise to the surface, and you are strengthened.
DISCRIMINATION
or how to get rid of your final identifications
Now that the practice of Distancing, Discernment and Disidentification has become firmly established, you identify less with the primary causes of your external conflicts and most of them have diminished. Life becomes more joyful simply because you are in closer harmony with it. You now arrive at Discrimination, which is the gate to freedom.
Discrimination lies at the very heart of metaphysical enquiry. At a certain moment, taken by a question without an answer, Discrimination will be a mental tool so sharp that it cuts through the last layers of your conditioning. Only at that point does life reveal itself to itself. Only at that point does awakening blossom.
Discrimination lies at the very heart of metaphysical enquiry. At a certain moment, taken by a question without an answer, Discrimination will be a mental tool so sharp that it cuts through the last layers of your conditioning. Only at that point does life reveal itself to itself. Only at that point does awakening blossom.
