“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Now I ask you—how far do you think a flower would get if, in the morning, it turned its face toward the sky and said, “I demand the sun?” “And now I need rain. So I demand the rain! And I need bees to come and take my pollen. So I demand the bees!” And who would it ask for these things? And it would say, our imaginary flower, “I demand discipline! I demand therefore the sun shall shine for a certain amount of hours; the rain shall pour for a certain amount of hours; and the bees shall come—bee A, C, D, E and F—and I shall accept no other bees to come. And I demand that, furthermore, that discipline operate and that the soil shall follow my command, but I do not allow the soil any spontaneity of its own—and I do not allow the sun any spontaneity of its own—and I do not agree that the sun knows what it is doing. I demand it follow my ideas of discipline!”

In the spontaneous working of your nervous system, what do we find? We see here the head of the Dean that rests upon his shoulders and the intellect that demands discipline. And yet all of this rests upon the spontaneous workings of the inner self and the nervous system of which the intellect knows little. And without that spontaneous discipline, there would be no ego to sit upon the shoulders and demand discipline.

That is indeed your interpretation. And this is because you set demands.

[...] You want to feel free to give of your own nature, not when it is demanded by contract. You do not want to give upon demand—after your marriage you felt as if this was the case. [...] You do not want to give on demand. [...]

As a child, you would surprise your elders by performing chores when they were unexpected of you, when they were not demanded. When demands were made, however, you became either innerly resentful or rebellious.

The marriage contract itself has had therefore a strong fate, for what you did spontaneously is now demanded and once it is demanded, you rebel. [...]

[...] It is only when you feel you yourself must give up yourself on demand—you are not able to let yourself go. [...]

[...] Generally, underlined four times, suicides do not appreciate, for example, for whatever reasons, the quality of life, but set up demands as to what life should be. [...] To whatever extent you place demands upon life, or others—to that extent you will cut down on your options and experience difficulties. Life does not perform on demand.

To the extent that you enjoy the quality of life itself, you do not need to place demands upon it, for its abundance shows in profusion. [...]

[...] Quite literally again, all he has to do is demand that the energy is available, and it shall be. [...] He must demand of himself that the energy be used however under various circumstances. [...]

[...] The system will automatically pace itself, but he must learn to demand that he himself use the energy. It is not available to all to this degree, and he has a tendency to fall back, so to speak, and not to demand the most of himself. [...]

[...] When he demands less of himself and then more, and then less, the physical system, geared for steady highly-focused action, becomes confused; the glandular systems upset, and the nervous system as well.

[...] When this is realized then he has only to demand of himself that this energy again be used, and the system will automatically adjust itself. [...]

[...] Give the affection freely without demand, and you will need no demand. You will know when a demand is the right thing under the circumstances, however, and this is also important, for he will on occasion yield gladly. The affection without demand must first lull the overly conscientious self, for it needs to be quieted and relaxed.

[...] The book will be finished, but not too many demands will be made of either portion of the self on a daily basis.

Whatever demands he makes upon himself should be uncomplicated and simple enough so that he has a good chance of following through on them—hence a feeling of accomplishment.

[...] Of course he must make some demands of himself—reasonable ones. [...]

[...] When he demands it of himself it is always there. [...]

He is not to feel at the demand of letters, people, calls or otherwise. He is to feel free of those demands. [...] When he realizes he need not be at their demand he can be freely grateful for his mail, and not resentful.

[...] “Nobody else put those demands upon you; you chose them.” [...]

[...] This absolves him from such responsibility neatly, and it is important that he be so absolved—not only for his own benefit but for other work, from which such demands detract.

[...] You both need that contact, but free you see of the demands he has felt from, say, correspondence. [...]

[...] This material demands more. It demands that you intellectually and intuitively expand—it demands that you use your abilities. [...]

[...] You demand more of yourself than you have ever demanded in your life. [...]

[...] It bothered and annoyed you, since it was a demand, and he did not believe in demands, and one that brought problems up within you.

He felt that for all your talk you wanted him to discipline spontaneity in a way basically impossible for him, that to release it in physical terms would mean two dangers: You would find him unbearable; and his sexuality released, would then demand fulfillment. [...]

“That is indeed your interpretation,” Seth said, “and this is because you set demands. Now I ask you, how far do you think a flower would get if in the morning it turned its face toward the sky and said, ‘I demand the sun. [...] So I demand it. And I demand bees to come and take my pollen. I demand, therefore, that the sun shall shine for a certain number of hours, and that the rain shall pour for a certain number of hours . [...] I demand that discipline operate, and that the soil shall follow my command. [...] I demand that all these things follow my ideas of discipline’?

[...] We see here the head of ‘the Dean’ that rests upon his shoulders, and the intellect that demands discipline. [...] And without that spontaneous discipline, there would be no ego to sit upon the shoulders and demand discipline. [...]

[...] “You are demanding that it behave in certain ways and take courses that you have consciously decided upon. [...]

[...] You were trying to punish yourself for not making more money as an artist, since you still felt her old demands.

[...] (Pause, one of many through here.) You would not (underlined) be a full time commercial artist, regardless of any old demands, though you felt still somewhat guilty at your refusal.

On her part, you see, the demand has vanished. [...]

[...] Physical improvement, now, in that context (underlined), meant something else you were demanding, but did not expect.

[...] You could not demand it.

The whole thing boils down to the fact that he thought and felt you would not help him, but demand that he use his own abilities and help himself independently of you. [...]

That “work,” however, is in your case the natural gift of the first man described—and he, it seems, must work under the demands of the second man, taking all of his ideas of time, sexual roles, and social demands into consideration. [...]

[...] Your “work” is in a way like your marriage: it must satisfy an almost infinite number of requirements and demands (with humor). [...]

Moving to this house, (any house),brought those hidden demands into some prominence, and then the second man’s idea of a householder were further laid upon our first man’s shoulders. [...]

[...] There is always the opportunity to teach if you have the inclination and the capabilities, but multidimensional teaching is far different than teaching as you know it now, and it demands rigorous training.

[...] Such communication demands a complete knowledge of the root assumptions of such eras, and of the general philosophical and scientific climate of thought at the time.

[...] The amount of knowledge and training necessary makes such a teaching communicator-career extremely demanding, but it is one of the courses available. [...]

[...] The body will follow its own order as the healing process continues, so he should not demand that it perform thus and so, for the body knows what it is doing. [...]

[...] I had to laugh at the way Seth had announced that her body knew perfectly well how to heal itself in its own way, regardless of her demands upon it. [...]

because my thoughts demand

[...] I do not care if both of you die poor, but I do demand that you live using your abilities.

My demands, to me, are simple and reasonable. [...]

(10:00.) I see the spontaneity of your sketches, so good, many of them done at the job, kicking your heels up at the job—the spontaneity in direct opposition to the work demanded of you there.

To me, my demands are simple. [...]

[...] You are not only ready for them but you are demanding them, and until you are ready you would not understand them.

[...] If the foundations are to be properly built there must be some regular application, not overly sober nor over demanding. [...]

[...] In his desire to help others Aerofranz then can demand too much of Adam under present circumstances.

[...] You are demanding that it behave in certain ways, and take courses that you have consciously set upon, and you are refusing to gladly accept life as life, as its own reason and cause within you.

(Voice strong and powerful:) Who is any one of us to make such demands? [...]

[...] Know that she is held and loved, and that life itself will sustain her, and let the demands upon life drain away like sand between the fingers.

[...] The life that is within you knows only these terms: continued unpredetermined development, expansion; it will not flow in predetermined patterns or demands.

[...] At times you fill the atmosphere, as you think of it, with questions and with noise and you demand answers. [...]

[...] Between sounds, between objects, not in your thoughts but between your thoughts, and there you will find answers but not to questions that you postulate in a demanding manner. [...]