Donnerstag, 14. November 2013

everybody acts in the interests of good

One may say that evil does not exist for subjective man at all, that there exist only different conceptions of good. Nobody ever does anything deliberately in the interests of evil, for the sake of evil. Everybody acts in the interests of good, as he understands it. But everybody understands it in a different way. Consequently men drown, slay, and kill one another in the interests of good. The reason is again just the same, men's ignorance and the deep sleep in which they live.

This is so obvious that it even seems strange that people have never thought of it before. However, the fact remains that they fail to understand this and everyone considers his good as the only good and all the rest as evil. It is naive and useless to hope that men will ever understand this and that they will evolve a general and
identical idea of good.
 In Search Of The Miraculous (Chapter Eight)

Freitag, 8. November 2013

Mathematik is useless

Finally he saw me, and when I told him all I was doing, he said: "Physical efforts are unnecessary.' I told him about the paper to the Royal Society. His comment was:

"Mathematik is useless. You cannot learn laws of World Creation and World Existence by Mathematik. You must only look for Being. When you have Being, you will know all those things, without the need of Mathematik."
J.G. Bennett - Witness p.247

Dienstag, 23. Juli 2013

deeper science of Being

In Gurdjieff the ancient teachings of Lao-Tse, Jesus and St. Augustine all have fresh import and find valid scientific support. The implications of this deeper science of Being no longer slumber in secret archives of the temples of the East. Sought by him they are made clearer to us in writing by one himself a seer.
Frank Lloyd Wright

Montag, 22. Juli 2013

Arnold Keyserling visiting Gurdjieff 1949

I had never heard of Gurdjieff and the statement of my friend, that she knows a Russian master, filled me with suspicion. Nevertheless I accompanied her one evening in the Salle Pleyel where he taught these techniques of movement. I always remember how strange it touched me when Gurdjieff entered the hall. It was like a purple light. Here I encountered the first old man who was as I had always wished it to be: an example of complete presence and dedication or empathy.

During the meal Gurdjieff told stories which were like Zen stories. All of us listened without saying anything. For me Gurdjieff was a man of unbelievable beauty. All the people supped, so to say, with their eyes on him. He told me I should come to every meal now; if I was not a pupil of his, I would be a good companion with whom he wanted to eat and drink. This naturally put me in complete enthusiasm. For the first time I experienced outwardly the mood of reality which Ramana Maharashi had brought to me inwardly.

One day Gurdjieff told me that his books would appear in many countries and that I was ready to publish them in German if he paid the cost. In that year and the following year I began an adventure. I translated Ouspensky's, In Search of the Miraculous, and published this and Gurdjieff's All and Everything. Both books had no echo whatsoever in the public. (Few copies were sold.)
http://www.lawsofwisdom.com/chapter5.html

Sonntag, 7. Juli 2013

only one interest

He said, "Every thinking man - and by man I also mean woman - must be occupied only by this interest - to develop a soul."
Gurdjieff and the Women of the Rope p.22

Mittwoch, 5. Juni 2013

super-human effort

He also said that any efforts of less than "super-human" strength were of no value anyway, once more pointing out that, in a sense, man's only hope was to fight to attain the "impossible". The only thing worth doing being something that "could not be done".
Fritz Peters - My Journey with a Mystic p.237

culture depends on developed individual man

‘I agree,’ said Orage, ‘but, according to Gurdjieff, the inner development of individual man does not depend on culture, though culture may provide a background. On the contrary, culture depends on developed individual man, or rather a group of men working together. The flowerings and blossomings of culture which occur from time to time in history, apparently for no reason—the building of the Gothic cathedrals, the Renaissance, Shakespeare’s plays - are examples of the results of a group of men working consciously.
Nott - Teachings of Gurdjieff p.30

Dienstag, 28. Mai 2013

Paris Demonstrations December 1923

 Demonstrations de L´Institut Gurdjieff

Theatre des Champs Elysees

no System is comparable to it in power

No system of gnostic soteriological philosophy that has been published to the modern world is comparable to it in power and intellectual articulation.
Philip Mairet on Gurdjieffs Ideas

John Carswell on Gurdjieff

What he possessed and in abnormal measure were energy, self-confidence and control over his passions.

He had the power of controlled fury which commands instant obedience.

John Carswell - Lives and Letters p.185

Donnerstag, 23. Mai 2013

words are too weak to describe him

The secret of that personality that so strongly affected us all is hard to define; words to describe him are too weak, or incomplete or too passive.

He was quiet, but the quiet was a smouldering fire that might suddenly flare up with a scorching flame that made us shrink away in startled silence. He was gentle, but when he wished us to learn a lesson that could not be taught by soft and comfortable methods, he was ruthless in his demands and scathing in his condemnation of our failures. He had studied much, and had learned at first hand about such things as the religious basis of the dances of the dervishes.

He was scornful of wordy analysis of philosophical ideas, and his own ideas were always expressed clearly, even crudely, with the earthiness of his peasant stoc ,and seemed to come out of his personal experience and contemplation. Verbosity he always condemned, and in the early days particularly that of Ouspensky, who was an effortless, brilliant but wordy talker.
Anna Butkowsky Hewitt - With Gurdjieff in St.Petersburg and Paris p.142

Montag, 13. Mai 2013

The Seers School

A school called “The Seers", this school has existed since time immemorial in large artificial caves in Kafirstan, on the heights of Kidjera(Kijera/Kidgera). 
from a introduction to the Gurdjieff Movements in 1923

will be better than an angel

In answer to a remark from someone Gurdjieff began to speak about ‘silly angels’ and said that if a man works on himself and purges himself of undesirable elements he will be better than an angel, a being with more understanding and experience.
C.S. Nott - Teachings of Gurdjieff p.107

Mittwoch, 8. Mai 2013

Gurdjieffs uniqueness

The more I saw of Gurdjieff the more convinced I became of his uniqueness. He had qualities which I had never seen in anybody else; profound knowledge, immense vitality and complete immunity from fear.

Gurdjieff once said: 'I have very good leather to sell to those who want to make shoes out of it'.
Dr. Kenneth Walker - Venture with Ideas

necessary to hide one's light

He stated that, contrary to the principles expressed in the "Sermon on the Mount", as it was frequently interpreted, it was necessary to "hide one's light" from the ignorant and the uninitiated as they would only, quite automatically, attempt to destroy any such "light" or 'knowledge"; however, it was equally important not to hide that same knowledge or "light" from oneself and from others who were working seriously and honestly towards the same goals of self-development and proper growth.
Fritz Peters - Gurdjieff Remembered (Chapter X)

Samstag, 4. Mai 2013

What happened to Alexander Petrov after 1918?

...Gurdjieff’s group in Moscow. Among them was Alexander Nikanorovich Petrov, one of the chief pupils there. Physically, he was like a healthy young bull, and, as I came to learn, he had a very intelligent mind and was highly gifted in mathematics and engineering.

He was one of Mr. Gurdjieff’s favourite pupils, with whom he worked much on selfconcentration and self-observation.

...the others went to Maikop, where Petrov became director of a state school. Mr Gurdjieff asked him to come to Tiflis when we went there, but he did not come. And when the Bolsheviks again conquered the whole northern Caucasus, he returned to Moscow. Soon, even correspondence with him became impossible.
all quotes are from Hartmann´s - Our Life with Mr. Gurdjieff,
please comment if you have any information on Petrov´s life after returning to Moscow about 1918