This is from a weekend work of Sunday 23 February 1986 (it is not in his book)
In the evening, a woman spoke about how she had been tired. Yet, she had been performing her job well, although she had had no presence. Then she said something a little obscure about “expanding” time when her efforts are worthless. When she had finished, Mr Adie asked her: “Weren’t you making any sort of effort at all?”
“Yes, I was,” she replied.
“Then it wasn’t worthless. Any effort, if you know you are making it, even a small one, is not worthless, because if you were not making that effort, then you could be very negative. But because you were making a small effort, then perhaps you weren’t negative?”
“No, that’s right, I wasn’t.”
“So even that small effort brings the reward of saving an amount of energy,” he replied. “But I think that connecting that up to time takes you away from what was important in your experience. You can’t string it together with that sort of logical chain. My experience of time is something which I have to realise myself, as a natural part of my experience and the expansion of consciousness. So many things are happening in each short space of time that if you are more aware, then your time expands. You have time for more than you would have, and you are present to it.”
“The different levels of thought each allow a certain content to our language. But what is prime is my state: the more present I am at any moment, the better the chance of being able to speak intelligibly on this level. My state will determine the level, but if I am not present to my words, then I can lose the level I was on.”
“It is interesting how a good poet can, by selection and arrangement of words, and by emphasis, convey meanings and nuances which ordinary prose does not have the possibility of expressing. And if I make the effort to follow him, it can be quite revealing.”
“But now, if I am present, it is surprising how much energy I can save, even if I am very tired. I have this job to do, and it actually requires very little energy, even if it’s a physical job. It’s all the going on about it, all the apprehensions, that tire me out.”
Joseph Azize, 19 August 2016
© The Trustees of the Estate of the late G.M. Adie
