Sonntag, 30. August 2015

R.H. Ward meeting Gurdjieff in 1928 in Paris

He was saying, however, that the inward world is largely closed to us, though this, hardly aware of its existence as we are, we may fail to realize, just as we may fail to realize that this inward world can be opened to us if we seek the right means to that end. He was saying that man inhabits this inward world much as an embryo inhabits the womb, and that in the majority of cases this embryo man miscarries and never comes to birth. But he was also saying that it is possible for the embryo to grow and to be born, to grow up and to become adult; 

and that, if this were to happen, so that a person came to be a freeman of the inward world, able to live and work there as idult men live and work in the outward world, he would inherit the reality which is potentially his proper psychological place. Then much in his outward world, and in the life he leads in it, would be changed; such a person would no longer be life’s slave; freedom in the inward world would endow him with freedom in the outward world.

Finally Monsieur X was saying, with a certain severity, and as if with an authority which was nothing to do with the disparity of our ages, that I must seek to know and understand these things, that I must not allow myself to become content with outward life alone, and so seek nothing more than the fulfilment of ambition, the securing of a livehhood and an approved position among my fellow men. 

He was saying that there is much more in life than living. This must be done to the full, but not as an end in itself, only as a beginning of the discovery, not beyond death, but within life, of “the next world”, the inward reality. Much of this, at the age of 18, I found bewildering, and Monsieur X certainly understood that I did, for he went on to say that there was in one sense no hurry when one was young, “so long as one never forgot that one must die”, and that therefore time is always short.

Presently he stopped talking and was silent for some time. Then, having paid his bill, he rose and said, “All this means that you must try to find out who you are,” and added, “not here, but there.” With this curious remark, which I take to have referred to the two worlds of which he had spoken, he walked away from the cafe and was lost among the people on the pavement; was lost, it seemed to me, surprisingly quickly and thoroughly. At one moment he was there, at the next he was gone.

Sonntag, 21. Juni 2015

to say the truth you can’t always be polite

You have no connection to anything; things connect to you. You are their slave. Do you understand? It’s not you who relates to things, it’s they who relate to you, it’s they who command. Not very happy, eh? Excuse me. It’s impossible always to be polite. Absolutely impossible. If you want to say the truth you can’t always be polite.” 
Gurdjieff: Essays and Reflections on the Man and His Teaching p. 276

people release a great deal of energy when they pray

I understood Mr. Gurdjieff to tell us once, at the Wellington, that all people who pray and believe in a finer, higher life release a great deal of energy when they pray… We should feel that we were charging ourselves with this energy thus released and accumulated by lofty aspirations from all directions of the Earth… so that it would help us grow into ‘men made in the image of God. And having done that,’ he added, ‘promise yourselves that you will pay back for the energy you have stolen, through conscious ef- forts and intentional suffering, when the time comes for you to pay.’

Gurdjieff: His Work, On Myself…With Others…For the Work  p. 146

Samstag, 14. März 2015

the Meaning of Life is "connaisance"

The true sense of life is "connaisance". All life, all experience, leads to "connaissance".

The world is everything existing. Man, in becoming conscious, becomes conscious of himself and of the world of which he is a part. The function of consciousness is to become aware of his, and its, existence. One's relation with oneself and with the world - this is "connaissance", or knowledge.

Gurdjieff - the Meaning of Life

Dienstag, 10. März 2015

the Influence of Esoteric Schools in Human History

In A New Model of the Universe he writes that these schools are hidden from the eyes of ordinary humanity, but that their influence persists uninterruptedly in history. Their aim, so far as we are able to understand it, is twofold: namely, to help races which have lapsed back into barbarism, and to produce teachers.

According to tradition, the following historical personages came from esoteric schools:
Moses, Gautama Buddha, John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, Pythagoras, Socrates and Plato, as well as the more mythical Orpheus, Hermes Trismegistus, Krishna and Rama. 

Ouspensky also includes in his list of school products the builders of the Pyramids and Sphinx, a few of the old alchemists, the priests of the Egyptian and Greek Mysteries, the architects of the Gothic Cathedrals built in the Middle Ages, and the founders of certain Orders of Sufis and Dervishes.

Kenneth Walker - A Study of Gurdjieffs Teaching

Samstag, 28. Februar 2015

Fourth Way Bookstores & Publishers



the Akhaldan society founded Old Egypt

and so these surviving members of the Akhldann Society looked for another place on that continent for their permanent existence more suitable for carrying on their work, which demanded complete seclusion.

They found a suitable place in the valley of the large river flowing northward on that continent and they all migrated there with their families, in order to continue in seclusion to fulfill the tasks undertaken by their society. The entire region through which this great river flowed they first named 'Sakronakari.' This name was afterward changed several times and today that region is called 'Egypt,' while the great river then known as 'Nipilhooatchi,' is now, as I have already said, called the 'Nile.'

Beelzebubs Tales

Dienstag, 10. Februar 2015

Gurdjieff was a great man

I say Gurdjieff was a great man because, having seen, he went on looking and never was satisfied until the end of his life. Nor did he ever set himself up for one who had reached finality. People with revelations are rare but not very rare. Humble people are rare; but people who see something and remain humble are very, very rare.

J.G. Bennett - Making a Soul p.82

Dienstag, 3. Februar 2015

Five points of Objective Morality

The five points of objective morality are like the five fingers of a hand for handling situations:

1. Number one means keeping the three brains of the body serviceable. 

2. Number two is constantly to be pondering the meaning and aim of existence - not necessarily with any hope of solution. Man exists to be the mind of God and as mind ultimately to understand the meaning and aim of existence. Preoccupation with this problem makes all other problems relatively easy.

3. Number three is the obligation to make Being-effort: the effort of doing. This is not necessarily a visible activity, or concrete work, but it is effort. Obligation of this kind is to keep oneself exercising - effort-making.

4. Number four is to cooperate with others who aim at the same objective reason.
 
5. Number five is duty - to ease the burden of His Endlessness. Unless you make effort, it must be made for you. Now the burden is just upon His Endlessness.

A.R. Orage
source: Orage with Gurdjieff in America

Mittwoch, 28. Januar 2015

Civilizations of Atlantis survivors in Beelzebubs Tales

Continent Grabontzi (Africa)

After Samlios, their next center was established on the continent of Grabontzi
 
...the region in the middle of the continent of Grabontzi where, after the loss of Atlantis, there was formed the leading 'center of culture,' as they called it, for all the three-brained beings there - a region that in those times was the most flourishing part of the surface of your planet and is now a desert, known as the Sahara.
 
As for the three-brained beings who existed in the middle of the continent of Grabontzi, they dispersed over the whole surface of the planet.

Continent Ashhark (Asia)

Tikliamish
Capitol: city of Koorkalai
today known as Turkmenistan, Karakum desert
Most of the three-brained beings populating Tikliamish moved to the southern part of the continent of Ashhark, to the country later called 'Persia,' while the rest moved north and settled in the regions afterward called 'Kirghizcheri.'


Maralpleicie - Goblandia
Capital: city of Gob
today known as Gobi desert and Taklamkan
As for the beings inhabiting the country of Maralpleicie, some wandered eastward, while the others, the majority, went toward the west. Those who went east, after crossing high mountains, settled on the shores of a large 'saliakooriapnian' space, in the region later called 'China.' "And those beings of Maralpleicie who had sought safety by moving to the west, after wandering from place to place, ultimately reached the neighboring continent, later called 'Europe.'


Pearl-Land (Hindustan, India)
Capitol: city of Kaiamon.
At first they populated only two particular regions around the mouths of two great rivers, which flowed from the interior of the continent of Ashhark and emptied into the vast water space just where many of the 'pearl-bearing beings' bred But as their numbers continued to increase, they also began to settle in the interior of the country, although their favorite regions were still the valleys of the two rivers.