Distraction, effort and emotion.

The meeting started with a reading from the second lecture of the Eight Meetings in Paris, held on 22 July, 1943, in which a questioner, Simone, laments the loss of the restlessness which had mostly passed since she began the Work. Gurdjieff responded: "... you have the taste for real work. You must realize it in your ordinary life. I am - always: I-am. Never forget. Little by little your 'I' shall make a contact with your essence. It is necessary to repeat it many times."

L observed that G appeared to be advocating the use of restlessness rather than seeking to quell it as does Buddhism.

M quoted a phrase "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ... love under will". An internet search established this was by Alastair Crowley.

Further in the reading, a questioner asks: "I was exhausted by my negative emotions even organically. Today, I have never felt so well, so animated." Gurdjieff responds: "Never have you had, previously, any liquid silver. You must feel that you have today some liquid silver."

D asked "what is liquid silver?" "R" thought that liquid silver might be a metaphor from Alchemy rather than a reference to the popular remedy of the time. L found that silver was symbolic of Artemis or Diana, the huntress of mythology, an allusion to wild nature. "R" commented on the association of Liquid and Silver with money as energy.

Later Gurdjieff states: " . . . man is not a pig, he cannot burst when he eats. The pig has a normal stomach; it cannot eat more than its stomach permits; it would burst; man is a scoundrel; he has a stomach of india-rubber. He is worse than the pig; he gulps down, he gulps down without ever bursting." There was some discussion of what this means.

D recounted a legend of a the self-discipline of a Zen master (from www.spiritual-short-stories.com):

During the civil wars in feudal Japan, an invading army would quickly sweep into a town and take control. In one particular village, everyone fled just before the army arrived - everyone except the Zen master. Curious about this old fellow, the general went to the temple to see for himself what kind of man this master was.

When he wasn't treated with the deference and submissiveness to which he was accustomed, the general burst into anger. "You fool," he shouted as he reached for his sword, "don't you realize you are standing before a man who could run you through without blinking an eye!" But despite the threat, the master seemed unmoved.

"And do you realize," the master replied calmly, "that you are standing before a man who can be run through without blinking an eye?"

At the end of the meeting each person commented on one example from their experience since the last meeting which may relate to the texts read.

D gave an example of his experience of reading an Ivan Turgenev novel and the content triggering a memory of a disturbing experience with a colleague that D still felt was unresolved. This association became the focus of D's attention and he described feeling the disturbance all over again instead of being able to read the book he wished to read. He became aware of this distraction at the time and struggled to guide himself back to this task.

L said that while experiencing symptoms of a cold, he paid attention to his body considering it as a separate intelligent entity, asking what its state was, and that this led to a reduction of symptoms.

T gave an example of restlessness and agitation after a day at work and then being in the stimulating environment of a busy bus in rush hour. What to do for the duration? In the past she has read the paper and become more restless and agitated by the content of the paper. This time she made a deliberate attempt to shut down attention to the external stimuli by closing her eyes and staying still and meditating for half an hour.After so doing, she did feel a change of state away from restlessness to a more focused state and felt more energised.

"R" spoke of a change of circumstance for her mother, who is agitated about her own suffering and her loss of capacity to be independent. It is on-going work to be with her and attentive to her resistance to her situation.

M said that he had been experiencing negative emotions and through becoming aware of them and attending to them he moved himself away from the negative to more positive thoughts.