P had found the liquid exercise useful, and was remembering herself more.
L had been in discussion with a group of people in a coffee shop, and it transpired that one of them, though not a vegetarian, took special care to protect worms. L had made the remark "We are the worms". Later, reading the current section of Beelzebub's Tales provided a context, as one of the chapters is headed: "The impudent brat Hassein, Beelzebub’s grandson, dares to call men 'slugs'". Gurdjieff had used slugs as a metaphor for human qualities - they are slow and struggle against resistance, but have fine, receptive antennae. He had also recently read references to the triune brain in Kim Stanley Robinson's recent novel 2312, a concept introduced by Paul MacClean, which bears similarities to Gurdjieff's psychological model of "three-brained beings" formulated some years earlier.
RM had not been doing as well with the liquid exercise, but the counting was continuing to help, and he was remembering where he put things.
D thinks he is being calm, but is getting very frustrated, as musicians for the concert he is organising in memory of his friend have not replied to his messages. He is trying to act calmly, to be indifferent as well as impatient. He thinks he is asleep, and feels as if he is walking in water.
The messages from BS were read out. [Removed at the request of BS.] ... He was reminded of this on the day of writing, the day of remembrance of Lord John Pentland. [Removed at the request of BS.]
T had been doing the exercise and experienced the liquid "going down the pipe". This feeling was utterly intimate at the same time as utterly mechanical - liquid flowing down a pipe - our body-machine for processing food.
The meeting then turned to responses to the contributions.
T said that D's experience was like the presence of several selves within a person. It was hard for her to get things together to do the act of painting, and it is several times more difficult to organize a group of people to make an event happen.
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| Sisyphus by Titian, 1549 |
RM quoted the parable of needing a thorn to remove a thorn, and then throwing the last thorn away. He said he needs an anchor as other boats float by. T said that for her the anchor is her paintbrush, and wondered if for D it was the pen. "R" thought these sound like baggage. Z said this was not the Gurdjieff way. Gurdjieff was not looking for peace but for irritation. RM said the aim was looking for "the one identity".
D described Mark Allen playing snooker in Beijing as being unbeatable, and asked if he is in a state of peace when "in the zone".
L asked RM, referring to the recent meteor explosion over Russia, asking what people feel when they see a meteor heading their way. RM replied they can be in the moment, feel calm and peace. When people think they are going to die, they describe incredible peace. Z preferred the word "centred", nominally. L asked where Gurdjieff's concept of conscious shock comes into "peace". "R" stated that conscious shocks come between plateaus. RM repeated the metaphor of needing a thorn to remove a thorn, stating that this group is another thorn, and at some point he would need a boot to go somewhere else. "R" said that Gurdjieff saw self-calming as evil, and that we are chemical factories to transform courser substances. He was in a dynamic state of being, not a static one.
D asked "When are we deluded and when are we not deluded?" T referred again to the difficulties and resistance to doing creative work and how she had been impressed by a speech on creativity given by John Cleese, which refers to 'open' and 'closed states' of mind, both of which are required for original creative thinking to occur and motivate action.
At 9:45 the reading from Beelzebub's Tales continued. Beelzebub, speaking to his grandson, says:
... If you wish I will tell you first of all about the events of general cosmic character connected with this planet, which were the cause of the said troubles of our ENDLESSNESS.
D asked what "endlessness" means. L inferred from the book's description of Beelzebub's age and life that we live on different time scales from them. "R" agreed and said that a later chapter discusses this and refers to time as "the merciless hero pass". "R" explained that Gurdjieff is giving a view which is not subjective, but objective, looking at the earth and men as if from space. Time is connected with the planet's orbits. Even the life and death of the Milky Way is just a flicker. Z thought endlessness might refer to the part of us which is endless. M reframed this as the part of us which can be elevated to a higher consciousness. RM said that all of us is endless. Z said it helps her to consider that part of us is endless, and doesn't see anything as separate.
D said he feels that he can't die. But he can. He felt that even if he died his angst would not go away. L suggested that angst might be written into our DNA, and talked of the Kabbalistic concept of Ein Soph, meaning literally "no end". With regard to art as a response to death which may give meaning to life, L mentioned the poet Gottfried Benn, who had worked as a pathologist.
The reading continued.
... suddenly, on one of the very busiest days, the whole planet Mars was shaken ... Only after a considerable time had passed ... did we recover and gradually make out what had happened.
We understood that the cause of this terrible phenomenon was just that same planet Earth which from time to time approached very near to our planet Mars and which therefore we had possibilities of observing clearly, sometimes even without a 'Teskooano.'
L enquired what a Teskooano was. "R" said it was an invented word, a kind of telescope, much used in what follows.
... the path of the said comet had to cross the line on which the path of that planet Earth also lay; but as a result of the erroneous calculations ... the planet Earth and the comet 'Kondoor' collided...
L commented that even endlessness is subject to chance events and therefore not all-powerful. It was also interesting that comets and meteors were so prevalent in the news in the previous few days.
...this Most High Commission ... resolved that ... planet Earth, should constantly send to its detached fragments, for their maintenance, the sacred vibrations 'askokin.'
"This sacred substance can be formed on planets only when both fundamental cosmic laws operating in them, the sacred 'Heptaparaparshinokh,' and the sacred 'Triamazikamno,' ...
"R" explained these terms referred to the Law of Seven and the Law of Three.
T stessed that the book is fiction. In fact all books and everything written by human beings is fiction, and the truth is that nobody knows anything. "R" said that the book touches something. D asked if "R" believes the book. "R" quoted Gurdjieff's advice not to believe anything unless you can verify it - the book is allegorical. D asked why do so many highly intelligent people believe in religions. L thought peer pressure was a factor. Z was reminded of the metaphor from the Tao Te Ching about the drop of water being indistinguishable from the ocean, if ego can be overcome.
...But afterwards, just in the period when they also, as it proceeds on other similar planets of our great Universe, were beginning gradually to be spiritualized by what is called 'being instinct,' just then, unfortunately for them, there befell a misfortune which was unforeseen from Above and most grievous for them.
Returning to the earlier point, L said that his view of the work was of engaging in struggle, whereas RM's view was of acquiescence. RM said that struggle is about letting go. L said that is possible unless there is an unforseen problem as in the last line of the chapter.
To close the Meeting, there was a discussion to choose the exercise for the coming month. RM suggested it should be to "sacrifice whatever is giving you anxiety on the altar of consciousness." He elaborated that the altar is a representation of consciousness in churches, a symbol. The objective is to be present to whatever is inducing anxiety. and to be aware of the anxiety and hold onto it as the trigger for being present".
