Sunday, December 5, 2010

Purpose

The meeting started with a discussion of aims and purpose.

RM repeated the three lines of work, saying that this is one of a few ideas in the work that particularly help him. He said that if one attends to all three lines then something happens. The chapter about the lunatic, the householder and the tramp has also been helpful recently, and he has been assessing his actions and observing his attitudes while in these three personas, and paying attention to his thoughts about himself or about what he is trying to do.

"R" said that the concept of "choice" is an illusion. She emphasised the distinction between wishing to do something and choosing to do something. RM agreed that wishing is the basis of man's actions.

"R" gave a personal example where she was applying the work to help tolerate being in a difficult but obligatory role.

T responded to the concept of the Work as a buffer or protective shield in life, with the example of the Psychoanalytic approach and Art Therapy approach. Here the analyst or therapist has to be in the company of the emotionally disturbed patient which can be difficult, and the aim of the approaches is to make the 'close' experience tolerable so that the practitioner remains available to the person.

M mentioned that in the commercial world, companies need a single "I", in terms of management. L said that in the case of public companies, there is a board of directors who are responsible to shareholders - there can be a number of people involved in management and they can be replaced. L asked if it is essential or desirable to reduce the I's to one in number, referring to Ouspensky's comment in Chapter 10 of The Fourth Way suggesting a mere reduction of the multiple I's rather than their total elimination:

"We decide to be at least less divided, instead of five hundred to become five."

M said that even God has three parts.

"R" recalled a pupil who asked, in all seriousness, "What’s the point?". "R" thought this a very useful question, and that everything has a purpose, is needed by the universe for a purpose, as part of a chain of transmission.

L referred to William Blake's proverb:

"Eternity is in love with the productions of time"

as likewise encapsulating the concept that we may, in some sense, have a purpose of creating things of beauty in connection with a higher, remote realm.

T said that the questioner asking, “What is the point?” seemed to be doing the “Work” without realising it by asking such a fundamental question.

L remarked that it can be a brave question, and its consideration led to existentialist philosophy and much of the great literature of the twentieth century.

RM related his experience that there is something magnetic about Gurdjieff's philosophy - he was talking about Work ideas after a conference the previous day, and suddenly noticed a large group of people had gathered round listening with evident interest.

RM said he thought the Meetings would benefit from a more structured approach, and the discussion moved on to this issue. The consensus was that the Meetings at present were just that and not a Group or School (though RM thought such developments should not be precluded in the future). One aim of the meetings was to remain accessible to newcomers as a bridge to the writings of Gurdjieff and the Work.

It was agreed that future meetings will take the form of
  1. An audio-file playback (starting with the Eight Meetings in Paris).

  2. A reading, preferably from Gurdjieff's writings.

  3. A presentation from those present (should they wish) of experiences during the previous month which went well or badly in light of what had been discussed.

  4. A discussion.

  5. A decision on the reading for the following Meeting to allow some time for familiarisation with the content.
It was decided that the material to be read next time will be from Views from the Real World, Part II, second lecture: "For an exact study, exact language is needed". Click here for an online extract and summary.

T commented the Meeting was like a review of the last year’s meetings and a plan for the new year. Some participants appeared now to have stopped attending. The move of premises from the more sociable venue of the hotel with its refreshments to the community centre with no refreshments appeared to have deterred some and not others.

The feeling was that the present venue was more suitable and less distracting for the meeting discussions. The subject of advertising for more members, the website and the outline of a curriculum for the following year was discussed.

L noted that the earlier question "What is the point?", had now also been analysed in the wider sense of the Meetings, and the result was a more structured approach for the future.

Following the meeting, the participants adjourned briefly for a Christmas coffee, and the discussion continued.

On the subject of art, and the application of will power in creativity, T cited the "blind painter of Peckham" who broke through the onset of total blindness and continued painting. A Guardian article tells the story and includes a video. "R" mentioned the similar case of Beethoven.

(Electronic versions of the books quoted above are available from the link on the right.)

1 comment:

  1. In Art Therapy sometimes the only way to be able to tolerate being with another person who has great difficulties in relating to others, is for both therapist and patient to draw in the session. In this situation the therapist and the patient are both present in the same physical space but there is a space between them of 'attention to their own drawing' acting as a buffer for both the patient who cannot tolerate other people and for the therapist in proximity who is the 'someone' who cannot ordinarily be tolerated. The aim isn't direct relating, which requires reciprocity, but indirect relating where two are engaged separately in self-expression on paper through colour, shape and pictorial idea or making something. The two are physically present to each other with potential for further indirect relating via the third party of 'attention to the image or thing made'.

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