Episode 134

Awakening Practices from PRACTICAL WORK ON SELF, "Doorways", Part Two

In this episode, THE THREE-HEADED MAN discuss a spiritual exercise where participants treat passing through doorways as a practice for waking up the machine of the self.

This practice involves viewing each threshold as a moment of death to the previous space, requiring an exertion of will to remain present during the transition. They admit their lack of discipline, noting how easily they become oblivious to these portals or they become distracted by the complexity of the mind. Despite these struggles, they describe how successfully acknowledging a doorway can break the continuity of autopilot and provide a fresh perspective. Their conversation explores the idea that mastering these micro-moments of awareness prepares a person for the finality of actual death.

Ultimately, THE THREE-HEADED MAN reflects on the difference between mere carefulness and true conscious attention as they navigate their daily lives.

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The Three-Headed Man
Talking To Ourselves For Over 25 Years

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About your host

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Fred M Schill

I like to do. I like to make things. And, I like telling stories. I tell stories to myself and to others.

First, a short biography, which is, of course, is a story. I was born in Cleveland, played sports, and attended university. Later, after a few years in the radio business, I returned to university to study education and literature.

With a teaching certificate in my file folder, I began working in high schools, first as a strike-breaking scab substitute teacher in Cleveland's far suburbs, and then in Chicago, mostly in private high schools.

Cleveland and Chicago. My two main towns, and I escaped them both. Presently, I live in a tiny, isolated, mountain village in Spain. I am reluctant to write the name of the town because I don't like tourists. When the tourists arrive, they look at me as if I am an animal in a zoo.