A Mason's Work

[00:00] So this week, we're continuing our exploration of conscious awareness.
[00:04] And if you remember from yesterday, we started with that raw sort of foundational Tuscan
[00:08] stage, that pre-evaluative state where everything is just pure sensation.
[00:14] Today, we're going to dive into that second stage where we're mapping to, let's say, the
[00:19] Doric order of architecture.
[00:21] Now, if the Tuscan is this unadorned, basic understanding, pre-conscious awareness, just
[00:28] essentially pure sensation, the Doric is where we really start to see the components of
[00:36] the self built.
[00:38] The Tuscan with that pre-understanding then creates the foundation for function and categorization.
[00:46] So what does that mean?
[00:47] When we go back to the example from yesterday of waking up in the morning at the Tuscan level,
[00:51] your first awareness, that sensation of brightness or light, you didn't have a label or name
[00:57] for it.
[00:58] This was pre-naming, pre-concept.
[01:01] As you move to the Doric level of awareness or the egoic sort of sense of development,
[01:06] your mind starts to perform a very specific function.
[01:09] It starts to categorize things.
[01:11] You don't just sense brightness or dark.
[01:14] You start to give those things names.
[01:16] That's the sun.
[01:18] That's a lamp.
[01:18] Or even it's time to get up.
[01:21] That sort of early consciousness is the place where stuff gets its label.
[01:30] And we'll talk about this over the course of the balance of the week and why this is so important.
[01:38] But first things first, it's important to know that that labeling process is structural perception.
[01:44] It's the sturdy sort of functional analysis early stage where you begin to create your rules, your operating sort of system, if you will.
[01:56] And it is at that sort of conscious awareness level where you start to distinguish between the self and the other, the me and the world, the inside and the outside.
[02:09] And it's a very binary thing.
[02:11] It's a very black and white sort of connection to the way the world works.
[02:20] As Freemasons, we want to use these tools and frameworks essentially as an apparatus to help us with our own development.
[02:27] And the Doric stage is vital because not only does it give us the structure we need to function,
[02:31] it's also one of the places where misconceptions get sort of dialed into the system so that it actually breaks later analysis.
[02:40] So when you're starting to figure your stuff out, whatever that is, why do I keep making these mistakes?
[02:45] Some of those things are because you've labeled them wrong.
[02:48] Some of those situations are because you have misidentified that Tuscan level of experience when you apply to Doric level of understanding on top.
[02:57] So one of the perils of staying at the Tuscan, where we talked about yesterday,
[03:02] and you're going to romanticize over time this idea that I just want to be in this pure awareness,
[03:07] is that you don't have any sort of mastery or agency.
[03:12] It's just raw response.
[03:14] Doric is the stage where we begin to move past that.
[03:17] And by naming these things and categorizing these experiences,
[03:20] we start to build the pillars that allow us to stand firm and eventually gain that level of agency where we're in charge,
[03:28] but also having experiences.
[03:30] That place where there's a union of opposites, if you will.
[03:34] We have to be careful.
[03:36] Jessica Dora column is plain and heavy.
[03:38] This level of awareness, though, can be very rigid, very sort of stuck.
[03:44] And if we don't continue to develop, we get these binary labels and we miss out on the subtleties and nuances in our life.
[03:52] Cultivating this ability to move from raw sensation to structured perception
[03:56] is what sets the stage for additional levels of development that we'll get into over the course of the rest of the week.
[04:02] The more intellectual and aesthetic stages.
[04:05] We're building these layers of naming and evaluating so we can eventually reach the point
[04:09] where in that Ouroboros we talked about yesterday, the head meets the tail.
[04:15] And in that process, we're going to essentially gain that level of agency and mastery.
[04:19] So this week, try and notice those moments in your day and name the sensation and then understand the name you gave it.
[04:30] In those situations, you're going to begin to understand where the Tuscan stops and the Doric begins.
[04:37] Now, again, we're using these as metaphors for awareness.
[04:40] If you go to your therapist or you go to your local school and you say,
[04:45] oh, yeah, I'm at a Tuscan level of awareness, they're not going to have any idea what you're talking about.
[04:50] This is all just a useful sort of cognitive tool or apparatus for us to talk about these things
[04:56] because you already know what they mean.
[04:58] We'll work on this more a little bit tomorrow.