Much Ado About Muffin

HW said there was an implicit assumption in the exercise that you were awake, and he was pretty sure he was not. While it was easy to distinguish being awake in contrast to night-time sleep, the waking sleep state pertained to not being present, to being absorbed in everything, which was the normal so-called waking state. One up from that was being present relative to certain sensations, particularly the physical ones, like the feet being on the floor, which gave a type of separation. So he did not know what the exercise meant. He had tried it, but that was all he could get out of it. He recalled Ouspensky's account of a Gurdjieff lecture describing the waking sleep state in In Search of the Miraculous, Chapter 8.

EXERCISE “ Every day to note one thing that you do to go to waking sleep.”

C said that Ouspensky said the way you could possibly tell if you were awake was, for example, if you were looking at the street, to actually say "I am looking at the street", or to say "I am" repeatedly, and allow that to come into your mentation, into your mind, and then allow the reverberation of that to continue down into your solar plexus. But the fact was that when we woke up, we were still fast asleep. Perhaps the only way to get out of it was to join a school, which was why he had come to the Meeting, to see what was being offered. And hopefully being constantly aware of yourself, walking down the street, eating, constantly bringing a presence to it, rather than just doing. He had read various writers on this subject, including Jean Vayss, who had written Toward Awakening: An Approach to the Teaching Left by Gurdjieff.

Tiflis (Tbilisi)

L said that when we thought we were awake we were in the greatest danger, because we were probably still fast asleep. He thought that the Meetings had no answers, but we could nudge each other awake if we noticed another sleeping. That was the help of being in a group, though we did not consider ourselves to be a group - that would be elevating it too high, because we did not do Gurdjieff Movements, thus we called it a Meeting. Gurdjieff talked about the idea of alarm clocks. There was the story of Karapet of Tiflis, who annoyed the inhabitants of the whole town by sounding a bell early every morning to awaken the railway workers.

As for his personal experience with this exercise, one of the things he liked doing was playing internet chess, which was much easier than doing something actively engaged with life, and that put him to sleep very well, even if he played some good chess moves.

A live Internet chess game

In society on a wider level, he thought it was the obsession with property, and then buying a second and third property, that kept people asleep very effectively, because as prices were always going up, they had to work longer and longer hours, so putting off independent, creative thought until later in life, should they be lucky enough to get there. So he did think that on the macro level, that was an example of something people did to be asleep.

N came to this exercise very late because he had been away and could not get internet access. Normally he wrote down the exercise of the month and put it into his wallet, and this month he hadn't done it. This was a measure of his level of sleepness. He thought it sometimes indicated a resistance to the Work. He told himself, he had been away, he looked at the website, he wasn't sure which exercise it was, then eventually found it. Sometimes it was very easy just going along in our habitual mode, without finding the time to sit and think what puts you to sleep. Sometimes you were so asleep that you were not at that level of consciousness whereby you could be aware of the exercise to do it.

RM had joined Insight Timer some time ago, and would set the timer for 15 minutes with 5 minute intervals, and occasionally used it while he was walking around, and it was quite a shock to realise that most of the time his mind had drifted somewhere else. So when he meditated he focused especially on his physical feelings, because they were definitely there.

"R" had been away for a while, most recently on holiday with family in a place which had a pool. Her body was not in terrific shape, and to swim was an ideal opportunity to sense presence. She had not had the exercise with her, but what interested her was experience which was to do with the senses, sensing the body. In a way having a back which ached all the time was a reminder, but it did not always remind, and in order to go on the walks that they went on, she had to make herself wish to be where they were going in order not to sense the discomfort. But the only factor for her that was real about being awake was when she had sensation in her body - her framework, not just on her skin - and it was hard because it was possible to go through days without ever returning to that question in oneself. It was an energy, not an idea. Swimming with five children all under nine was quite an experience as well. They jolly well woke you up. Small children were full of sensation and life, even if they spoke different languages.

"creative ideas can come
... even eating one's croissant"

J said that one's feelings were certainly here and now, but if one's thoughts were elsewhere, there was the presumption surely that one's feelings were following one's thoughts. The distinction between brain and feeling was slightly problematic here. He said that the creative part and the sleeping part were probably more coextensive than we were suspecting. One's creative ideas can come when one is not absolutely in the present, but when one is facing practical questions, even when eating one's croissant, one was in the present there rather more than when one was elsewhere in one's creative mind. He would rather be present in a creative world that was erecting something interesting for him, and which took his feelings along with it, than the mindful present and watching and being aware that he was sitting on a hard bench.

As C, "R" and J had said about feeling sensations, D said this intellectual stuff was all very well and exciting, but as C had said about feeling the vibrations going down into the body, and "R" about it being the energy that was important, and J about sitting on a hard bench - these were the things we had to concentrate on. It was the life force, not the intellectual so much. The most powerful way he had found to stop these thoughts was to feel the energy between the hands. He said this stopped 80% of the thoughts. However he had spoken to someone about this who couldn't feel this energy, which D had found interesting. He said also that chaos and boredom were important to him. They were both not negative as they seemed to be, but were important aspects of emotional consciousness.

T had been aware of the exercise for the first week, and she was aware of it a few days before the Meeting. She did not know what happened in the middle. In terms of connecting with the exercise, what she had noticed during those periods, the thing she did to go to waking sleep was to turn the radio on. If she had had a fraught day at work, which was with a lot of interaction with other people, she did not want to be awake, as she was stimulated already. Putting on the radio was interesting because it was stopping her own thoughts and hearing other people's, to whom she didn't have to react. She could turn the radio off at any time. She realised that the radio was just as variable, as ad hoc as her thoughts; although there was a semblance of some sort of organisation in the programme, it was random ideas and subjects which had come up for no reason. It was like dampening her own scattered thoughts with other people's in order to enforce a waking sleep.

Following the contributions the Meeting moved to responses.

C said there was one sentence in Jean Vaysse's book, in the foreword by John Pentland, which says that one way to keep awake was to constantly tell yourself I am here now in this immediate space. In contact with a life-force which supports, enlightens and unifies my presence. He tried every morning when he woke up to tell himself I am here, and through the day when he woke up, and this could happen to you as a habit.

HW had been impressed by what a lot of people had said, particularly what T had said, about running away from her normal state, which sounded like negative emotion, and instead of working the way that was suggested in dealing with a negative emotion, she was putting on a radio to get away from her normal negative emotional state. When "R" had said about sensing the body - he didn't hear anything about going further from a state of some kind of self-remembering to self-observation, to observing what was going on in the mind, which he thought would be a movement away from just sensing you were here. He thought there was a point in all this, that you could get away and become more awake, but it was more awake, not being awake in some absolute sense, and he thought Gurdjieff had implied this was possible, perhaps first by awakening the mental centre initially, and then the emotional centre, and being awake in the emotional centre would be being in a different state, and that could be semi-permanent.

L said that for him there was a degree of intentionality which develops during the Gurdjieff Work, pushing things through, having a concept in the imagination and making it real, and there was tremendous resistance to making things real. An example was having this Meeting. The usual venue was inaccessible during a protracted refurbishment. An arrangement was made with an alternative cafe, but they would not open the door, so yet another had to be found. Generally resistance tended to be balanced. People tried to do something until they met enough resistance, and then it stopped and there was a state of permanent balance, action and reaction being equal. That was Newton's Third Law, and he did not think Newton was talking purely about physics. In the Gurdjieff Work, if there is a strong centre, and intention, extra force can be applied to make a break through, and things can be achieved. He also wanted to respond to what J had said. It was great being in the present and handling complex things, and one can feel awake, but one can also create situations which require a lot of activities to manage and focus on, and which can take a long time to carry through. So in a way that is creating a distraction from other things, even if you have to be very awake to make that distraction fulfill itself successively. He did think the creative side of life was the most important - it may not be the most remunerative, quite the reverse. Gurdjieff talks about three types of transformation. Oxygen through the blood, food by the body, and impressions though the senses. L thought there might be a fourth category, inspiration being transformed by artists into artworks. Who knows, further along the spectrum there might be other categories.

"R" responded to Justin's use of the word feeling when she would have used sensing. In English it was not very clear. We use the verb to feel even when we mean physically feeling, sensing and experiencing, which is not the same as when we say I feel good, which was all going on "up here" (in the mind), all associations.

Annie Lou Staveley 1906-1996
Source: gurdjieff.org/staveley

Before the Reading, L drew attention to Mrs Staveley's Grace. which "R" had brought. This Grace was used by a student of Gurdjieff, and includes the line We bless the lives that have died to give us food. L said that during the next portion of Beelzebub's Tales, from about page 250, as in many other parts of the book, Gurdjieff or his characters were talking quite passionately about their views on animals, whether in reaction to customs of sacrificing them or of eating them. But also Gurdjieff, and many of his followers, ate meat, so there was an issue about reconciling this. L said that we all had different views, maybe most of us ate meat, some of us did not, but questioned whether Mrs Staveley had considered dying herself to be food for others. "R" said she was sure that Mrs Staveley had.  "R" then said that anybody who wanted direct experience could sample a muffin from her plate. D asked why she wasn't finishing the muffins. "R" said she was sharing them because she liked them.

The Reading then continued from Beelzebub's Tales, Chapter 21.

Thus it was that a half of the word Kundabuffer survived and, being transmitted from generation to generation, finally reached your contemporary favorites also, accompanied, of course, by a thousand and one different explanations.

With acknowledgments to Harold Good Watch on YouTube

... And as regards the way in which the contemporary terrestrial learned beings of what are called the exact sciences define the significance of this part of the spinal marrow, that, my dear boy, is a profound secret.

And it became a secret because several centuries ago, this 'explanation' suddenly for no reason whatever entered the favorite mole of the famous 'Scheherazade,' which that incomparable Arabian fantasist chanced to have on the right side of her adorable navel.

...When I was quite convinced that I had succeeded so easily in the destruction, perhaps for a long time, of that terrible practice among the beings of that group there in Pearl-land, I decided to stay there no longer but to return to the Sea of Beneficence to our ship Occasion.

... I decided to return through the locality which was later called 'Tibet.'

Scheherazade
Sophie Anderson 1823-1903

Referring to the plate of muffins "R" had earlier offered, which still contained some, GC asked who had not liked them. "R" said she hadn't said she didn't like them. She wanted to share them, to share in the enjoyment, and asked GC if he wanted another bit. GC said he had thought they were very good, but somebody had not liked them as there were still some on the plate and this was analagous to the reading! D said he had been concerned "R" had not liked them, as he had initially selected which ones to buy. T said this was a new resistance to the Reading. GC said it was a prime example of how people can get the wrong impressions. RM said the passage includes a description of how some great mystical person misunderstands something and it becomes a belief for centuries, another form of sleep or illusion. N said that Gurdjieff had emphasised illusion and sleep by the association with Scheherezade and the stories of the Thousand and One Nights, which he thought was an entertaining way of describing it. L thought it very poetic of Gurdjieff to have an "explanation" vanishing into the favourite mole of Scheherazade. HW said this section described exactly what Gurdjieff in his own life had been doing - breaking up old ideas and putting new ideas against them. L agreed but also thought that Gurdjieff might have despaired that the same would happen with his own ideas, that they would be taken literally and turned into new dogmas. GC said that Sufis talk about shedding the accretions, but it was very hard to realise that we have our own accretions, and it was our own that we had to shed.


DM was still interested in the misunderstanding over the muffins. He had feared he had done the wrong thing. "R" had liked them and wanted to share them. "R" said it was to do with physical experience and with inner considering and outer considering. J said it might also be to do with intonation, which words are emphasised in a question, which might affect its interpretation. RM asked if this conversation was to do with this chapter? DM said its about how we relate to other people and GC replied that any conversation we had was to do with this chapter.


CHAPTER 22 Beelzebub for the First Time in Tibet

As the route proposed this time was most uncommon for the terrestrial three-brained beings of those days and accordingly we could not count on the possibility of joining any ‘caravan’ of theirs, I had, then, to organize my own caravan, and I began the same day preparing and procuring everything necessary for this purpose.

I then procured some score of the quadruped beings called ‘horses,’ ‘mules,’ ‘asses,’ and ‘Chami-anian’ goats and so on, and hired a number of your biped favorites to look after the said beings and to do the semiconscious work required on the way for this mode of travel.

... The said ‘wild’ beings there, were at that period particularly ‘dangerous’ both for the three-brained beings there, and for those forms of quadruped beings which your favorites, with the ‘cunning’ proper to them, had already been able to make their slaves, compelling them to work exclusively for the satisfaction of their egoistic needs.

... So, my boy, because of this it was possible for your favorites of those times to pass through these places only by day. At night, great vigilance and the use of various artificial shelters was required as a defense against these wild beings, both for themselves and for their ‘goods.’

During the period of the aforesaid Krentonalnian position of the planet Earth, these wild beings there are wide awake and take their first being-food; and since, by that time, they had already become accustomed to use for this purpose almost exclusively the planetary bodies of weaker beings of other forms arising on their planet, they were always trying, during that period, to get hold of such a being in order to use his planetary body for the satisfaction of that need of theirs.




HW said that this was all mental. "R" said it comes into the rest of the chapter. HW asked why "R" had interrupted him. He said that we all interrupted each other.  There was such a thing as practice. It began with some impulse, some memory, and then there was a decision to do a certain, particular practice, but to carry it out to the end, for example not to express negative emotion in relation to circumstances. That was a decision you had to make very strongly, and that was practice and to carry it out to the end. T said that the practice at the end of the Meeting was to read this book. HW said he was pointing out that there was such a thing as mental and there was such a thing as practice. We don't take practice seriously and did not do the practice because we did not take a decision to do it, and we perhaps preferred to do the mental. The process of the Reading was all mental. "R" thanked HW for reminding her that she had butted in. HW asked "R" if she had been observing herself when she had butted in? "R" said that was the point of her not remembering. GC said that we butt in when someone's ideas are not the same as our own. T said she had the image of a lot of butting goats. N said while we tended to repeat our own mentations at these Meetings, we also learnt from each other. He personally had learnt from something GC had recently said.

... we, and especially our workmen for the semiconscious work, had to be extremely watchful and alert at night in order to guard ourselves, our quadruped beings, and our supplies.

A whole ‘gathering’ of these wild beings would form round our camp at night, having come there to provide themselves with something suitable for their first food, a meeting rather like an ‘assembly’ of your favorites during what is called the ‘quotation of stock prices’ or during their ‘election’ of representatives to some society or other, the nominal purpose of which is the joint pursuit of a means to the happy existence of all beings like themselves without distinction of their notorious castes.

The Nightmare
Henry Fuseli 1741-1825

T thought the mention of procurement of quadrupeds interesting, that they were carrying all the things. The wild things were also quadrupeds, and were a danger to human beings passing through that environment. T wondered if it was an analogy for mental states. RM thought it was an allusion to people who were asleep. T said they came out at night. J said that if two-brained beings could speak, they would refer to the three-brained beings as wild, as they ate the two-brained beings.

L said that to him this image of wild animals coming at night was like dreams, which might come at night and take over our thoughts. We even had the word nightmare. N thought the reference to stock prices might make us look for metaphors of other contexts, like the City of London. T said that as soon as you had a good idea there was someone out there to steal it. RM said all it took to send you back to sleep was for someone to come and talk to you about something interesting.

Following the Reading, a suggestion by T was adopted as the exercise for the coming month: When walking along, be aware of your stomach and pull it in. Be aware of what that does to other organs, particularly the lungs. Be aware of the change in the breathing.