[UPDATE - This event has been cancelled. There will be another opportunity to hear a talk and take part of some of the movements. For further details email katebrass@eggconnect.net.]
"R" said that Mme Ouspensky taught the Movements for many years. It was agreed that it would be an interesting opportunity to witness the Movements at the house long associated with Ouspensky and the Movements. All those interested, whether attendees of the Meetings or readers of this blog, can register.
There was some discussion of the history of Colet House and the Study Society, and RM explained how he reconciled in his mind the models of Gurdjieff and the teachings of the Shankaracharya of North India.
The Meeting then continued reading the third lecture of the Eight Meetings in Paris, held on 18 September, 1943, moving to a question from the student Kahn, who said "... I have as it were an impulse to succeed in playing my true role in regard to my son or my father ... I saw recently all my body, all my emotions, all my sentiment and my usual desires as that which I had to succeed in killing in me in order to attain birth, and I understood that I would succeed in being what I want to be if I succeeded in making that which I am die." Gurdjieff responded "...Why do you use the word "true"? ... cease saying the word "true". One must not give this value to things."
M remarked on Kahn's use of the word "kill", preferring instead "redirect". "R" said Kahn's usage might have reflected concepts he was familiar with.
The lecture continues with Gurdjieff turning to another student, Simone, asking "You understood? For you also something is opened?" Simone replies: "I feel something in my head now that stays nearly all the time; it is not very strong but it is almost constant, something that makes me see beings and things in a different way." Gurdjieff concludes with "... Little by little everything must be different. You are beginning to have a true view. You had, up to the present, a fantastic point of view."
RM had studied the origin of the term "born again", which he said was not religious but to do with ego.
D commented that M often used the term "One" where he himself would say "I". "R" said that "I" is the preferred usage although we are far from the truth. These remarks reminded M of the work of R D Laing. D and RM were reminded also of the ideas of Assagioli and psychosynthesis.
D turned the discussion to the "economic crunch" and wondered what hope there was. RM thought there was no crisis. L said that the printing of money by governments was akin to false associations of personality, and referred to the works of Ralph Nelson Elliott, who considered economic history as a manifestation of mass psychology which followed fractal patterns.
It was decided to reflect on which lecture to read next during the ensuing month, and attention turned to Beelzebub's Tales, from which the beginning of Chapter 1, The Arousing of Thought, was read.
M queried Gurdjieff's use of the term "the three sexes", and "R" said that it relates to a reference much later in the book.
There being no time left to consider examples of experiences from the previous month, D suggested that in future these be discussed at the beginning of every meeting, and all present agreed.
"R" said that Mme Ouspensky taught the Movements for many years. It was agreed that it would be an interesting opportunity to witness the Movements at the house long associated with Ouspensky and the Movements. All those interested, whether attendees of the Meetings or readers of this blog, can register.
There was some discussion of the history of Colet House and the Study Society, and RM explained how he reconciled in his mind the models of Gurdjieff and the teachings of the Shankaracharya of North India.
The Meeting then continued reading the third lecture of the Eight Meetings in Paris, held on 18 September, 1943, moving to a question from the student Kahn, who said "... I have as it were an impulse to succeed in playing my true role in regard to my son or my father ... I saw recently all my body, all my emotions, all my sentiment and my usual desires as that which I had to succeed in killing in me in order to attain birth, and I understood that I would succeed in being what I want to be if I succeeded in making that which I am die." Gurdjieff responded "...Why do you use the word "true"? ... cease saying the word "true". One must not give this value to things."
M remarked on Kahn's use of the word "kill", preferring instead "redirect". "R" said Kahn's usage might have reflected concepts he was familiar with.
The lecture continues with Gurdjieff turning to another student, Simone, asking "You understood? For you also something is opened?" Simone replies: "I feel something in my head now that stays nearly all the time; it is not very strong but it is almost constant, something that makes me see beings and things in a different way." Gurdjieff concludes with "... Little by little everything must be different. You are beginning to have a true view. You had, up to the present, a fantastic point of view."
RM had studied the origin of the term "born again", which he said was not religious but to do with ego.
D commented that M often used the term "One" where he himself would say "I". "R" said that "I" is the preferred usage although we are far from the truth. These remarks reminded M of the work of R D Laing. D and RM were reminded also of the ideas of Assagioli and psychosynthesis.
D turned the discussion to the "economic crunch" and wondered what hope there was. RM thought there was no crisis. L said that the printing of money by governments was akin to false associations of personality, and referred to the works of Ralph Nelson Elliott, who considered economic history as a manifestation of mass psychology which followed fractal patterns.
It was decided to reflect on which lecture to read next during the ensuing month, and attention turned to Beelzebub's Tales, from which the beginning of Chapter 1, The Arousing of Thought, was read.
M queried Gurdjieff's use of the term "the three sexes", and "R" said that it relates to a reference much later in the book.
There being no time left to consider examples of experiences from the previous month, D suggested that in future these be discussed at the beginning of every meeting, and all present agreed.
The version of Beelzebub's Tales being read is the first edition, published in 1953.
ReplyDeleteThe style went all round the houses to describe as accurately as possible Gurdjieff's complex thought processes and then out of the blue was a sentence or phrase which sang out like a bird's song from a branch of a tree and was easy and obvious to understand and placed the previous phrases into context with a bump. The sensation of hearing the reading was like looking down at a field of grass and suddenly in the grasses finding a lost ring twinkling. These comments in the text had an easy familiarity and humaness about them. The circumlocutions were pathways of obscurity in the dizzying maze which often led into the sunshine and some clarity. This first edition in English which Gurdjieff wrote himself with translation help from Orage is the preferred one to read - the later edition was not intended for publication and interrupts and changes the natural flow of the original text, akin to editing Shakespeare to make it more comprehensible, only managing to succeed in losing the multiple layers of meaning that make up the poetic whole, like throwing out the baby with the bath water.