The subjectivity of language

The meeting started with a reading from Ouspensky’s book "In Search of the Miraculous", Chapter 4, in which Gurdjieff talks about the impossibility of people understanding each other through language.

"People do not clearly realize to what a degree their language is subjective, that is, what different things each of them says while using the same words."

M mentioned a poem he had written in which music is considered as the language of heaven:

Meditations on a Musical Theme

Music is the language of heaven’s world
Which inspires our thoughts
To find the harmony within ourselves.

For on wings of song
The soul that is attuned
May fly to the very throne of God.

Soaring above the senses
Of our mortal minds
And reaching the higher realms
Of the being of which we are a part.

Co-mingling with
The inspirational essences
Of the divine symphony
Of eternal creation.

Verily - in seeking the treasure of love
Within ourselves
The sounds of music are a greater reality
Than the very ground beneath thy feet.

Further in the reading, Gurdjieff said that if one is to learn from the ancient teachings, an exact understanding of words between people is needed and that this is only possible by introducing the "principle of relativity" to each word used. The word man was given in the text as the first example with the numbers one to seven providing relativity to the meaning of the word.

M suggested that everyone around the table was of man number one, two or three. "Man number five", said Gurdjieff, "is . . . for us unattainable."

(Read more on this from the book itself. An electronic version of this book is available from the link on the right.)

There followed a discussion about the meaning of the word "man".

D said he realised he had achieved his dream by working hard over several years of thinking and doing and working towards a book, and the play of the book, and he had achieved this dream; but he realised that even after the book and the play had been written and successfully performed he was not happy. He called himself Judas M because he felt he had sold himself for 10 pieces of silver.

T quoted Joseph Campbell's saying, "follow your bliss" - following one's bliss, however, does not necessarily lead to a lived experience of a state of bliss.

"R" commented that there was a high from getting something published or performed which was like a drug high, followed by the low or withdrawal from the high after the accomplishment.

T mentioned Steven Pressfield, who worked without being published for many years, an author who battled with finishing his works. When he did at last finish a novel, he ran to share this moment with his mentor who remarked, "Good, now tomorrow get started on your next one". The work when one "finishes" a piece of creative work is to then continue onto the next project.

D mentioned a 94 year old woman who had spoken to him and said she wondered why she was "still here".

T quoted E. M. Forster, "Death destroys a man, but the idea of death saves him."