Focus and the Thoroughbred Donkey

The Meeting began with a consideration of an email from BS. [Removed at the request of BS.]

Each person present then gave a two minute account of relevant experience since the previous time.

M had been continuing to observe himself, and thought he might be starting to change his behaviour. T asked for an example and M gave eating chocolate. He was aware that there are two selves operating in him and the one that says "stop eating chocolate" is not in charge.

T cited the Julia Cameron work she has been doing which entails writing, as a brainstorming activity, on waking each morning. She has been doing this for a few years and part of the work is to review what she has written. She said that it was a shock to read some entries which passionately stated several ideas and plans to change daily life to help towards conserving her energy and leading a more sustainable life. She found one entry written in 2009 very similar to one that she entered recently with the same enthusiasm. This was direct evidence that two years had passed and the same helpful idea was present but the doing something to bring the helpful idea from fantasy to reality had not happened, and showed how much harder it is to achieve an intent.

L was finding it hard to focus on work, and experiencing greater resistance the further his work advanced. He found that the force of resistance was so strong that it even worked in the world outside the individual's inner experience, for example in the case of a phone ringing at a critical creative moment. He sometimes finds it easier to work when he is at home and someone is witness to it.

B was interested in the phenomenon of the different selves, and had been considering his roles as possible expressions of parts of himself he had been unaware of. L thought that acting was linked to the Work, in the sense that being able to take on other identities leads a person to reflect on the nature of their own identity. Acting a role fully might lead one to forget who one really is, and perhaps that is what has happened to us.

Attention then returned to continuing reading from Beelzebub's Tales, Chapter One, The Arousing of Thought.

... having warned you that I am going to write not as "professional writers" usually write but quite otherwise, I advise you, before embarking on the reading of my further expositions, to reflect seriously and only then to undertake it. If not,  ... you might lose your ... appetite ...

For such a possibility, ... I am ... already quite as convinced with my whole being as a "thoroughbred donkey" is convinced of the right and justice of his obstinacy.

B brought attention to Gurdjieff's description of the "professional writers" whom he appeared to be distancing himself from, and the thought provoking metaphor of the "thoroughbred donkey", which prompted a discussion.

M said "professional" means those who earn their living by writing. L mentioned the alternative meaning of professional, in terms of attitude, where an actor would learn a role, or a musician rehearse a part, until it is second nature, with money a secondary consideration. T said Gurdjieff is writing Beelzebub's Tales in a deliberately complex way to put off readers unless they are motivated to seek deeper meaning in the text.

T thought that for the artist, the "thoroughbred" was the idea of doing the creative deed which is much more seductive, exciting and attractive, and the "donkey" referred to the doing of an act which is much harder, less exciting, less seductive, and less attractive but gets the job done.

M said that the main thing is to have a purpose, and the purpose is to wake up.

L asked if that purpose might be in the creative arts, and quoted Henry Moore, the sculptor: The secret of life is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for the rest of your life. And the most important thing is, it must be something you cannot possibly do.

M suggested these purposes might amount to the same thing.