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.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Sacrificing suffering
The meeting started with a reading from the first lecture of the Eight Meetings in Paris, held on 8 April, 1943, in which the second question addressed to Gurdjieff was how to understand the words "sacrifice thy suffering". Drawing on an earlier talk, Gurdjieff replied: "Sacrifice your suffering for your neighbor, your voluntary suffering, not for yourself, but for others. (This rule used to form part of the oath pronounced formerly by doctors when they were astrologers and a long time ago when they had to promise to sacrifice their sleep, their fatigue, their suffering, for others.)"
He then went on to talk of three excrements of which the third is "formed in the head; it is rubbish of the food impressions, and the wastes accumulate in the brain. (The physician ignores it, just as he ignores the important role of the appendix in digestion, and rejects it as wastes.)"
A discussion followed the reading. "R" said that by the "third excrement", Gurdjieff was referring to more than a wandering mind - it can elaborated through looking at diagrams in the literature of the Work.
Moving from the reference to digestion, the issue of vegetarianism was addressed. R said that his teacher, the Swami, and Khalil Gibran, said there was no spiritual need to be a vegetarian. However R said he would be unable to eat a dolphin, as dolphins were very intelligent. L asked where one would draw the line between animals one could and could not eat, and suggested it was cultural. None present would want to eat a cat, although they are eaten in other parts of the world.
Following on the plan outlined in the December meeting, the participants, in turn, presented relevant experiences from the previous month. T spoke of how life drawing helps focusing, and is very humbling. L mentioned how ego undermines art and its administration.
He then went on to talk of three excrements of which the third is "formed in the head; it is rubbish of the food impressions, and the wastes accumulate in the brain. (The physician ignores it, just as he ignores the important role of the appendix in digestion, and rejects it as wastes.)"
A discussion followed the reading. "R" said that by the "third excrement", Gurdjieff was referring to more than a wandering mind - it can elaborated through looking at diagrams in the literature of the Work.
Moving from the reference to digestion, the issue of vegetarianism was addressed. R said that his teacher, the Swami, and Khalil Gibran, said there was no spiritual need to be a vegetarian. However R said he would be unable to eat a dolphin, as dolphins were very intelligent. L asked where one would draw the line between animals one could and could not eat, and suggested it was cultural. None present would want to eat a cat, although they are eaten in other parts of the world.
Following on the plan outlined in the December meeting, the participants, in turn, presented relevant experiences from the previous month. T spoke of how life drawing helps focusing, and is very humbling. L mentioned how ego undermines art and its administration.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Attention and Coincidence
The meeting started with a reading from the lecture of December 9, 1930 in New York, as transcribed in Views from the Real World, on the subject of Attention, in which Gurdjieff says: "There is no attention in people. You must aim to acquire this. Self-observation is only possible after acquiring attention. Start on small things." He goes on to to suggest trying, at first, to stop "nervous and restless movements . . . With these restless movements you cannot be anything. The first thing for you to do is to stop these movements. Make this your aim, your God. Even get your family to help you. Only after this, you can perhaps gain attention. This is an example of doing."
(Read more on this from the book itself, which is available from Amazon.)
A discussion followed, on the role of coincidence in life, and M explained how he thought a set of coincidences that led to him moving to Africa earlier in life were due to the sensitivity he had acquired through sustained work on himself.
(Read more on this from the book itself, which is available from Amazon.)
A discussion followed, on the role of coincidence in life, and M explained how he thought a set of coincidences that led to him moving to Africa earlier in life were due to the sensitivity he had acquired through sustained work on himself.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Purpose
The meeting started with a discussion of aims and purpose.
RM repeated the three lines of work, saying that this is one of a few ideas in the work that particularly help him. He said that if one attends to all three lines then something happens. The chapter about the lunatic, the householder and the tramp has also been helpful recently, and he has been assessing his actions and observing his attitudes while in these three personas, and paying attention to his thoughts about himself or about what he is trying to do.
"R" said that the concept of "choice" is an illusion. She emphasised the distinction between wishing to do something and choosing to do something. RM agreed that wishing is the basis of man's actions.
"R" gave a personal example where she was applying the work to help tolerate being in a difficult but obligatory role.
T responded to the concept of the Work as a buffer or protective shield in life, with the example of the Psychoanalytic approach and Art Therapy approach. Here the analyst or therapist has to be in the company of the emotionally disturbed patient which can be difficult, and the aim of the approaches is to make the 'close' experience tolerable so that the practitioner remains available to the person.
M mentioned that in the commercial world, companies need a single "I", in terms of management. L said that in the case of public companies, there is a board of directors who are responsible to shareholders - there can be a number of people involved in management and they can be replaced. L asked if it is essential or desirable to reduce the I's to one in number, referring to Ouspensky's comment in Chapter 10 of The Fourth Way suggesting a mere reduction of the multiple I's rather than their total elimination:
"We decide to be at least less divided, instead of five hundred to become five."
M said that even God has three parts.
"R" recalled a pupil who asked, in all seriousness, "What’s the point?". "R" thought this a very useful question, and that everything has a purpose, is needed by the universe for a purpose, as part of a chain of transmission.
L referred to William Blake's proverb:
"Eternity is in love with the productions of time"
as likewise encapsulating the concept that we may, in some sense, have a purpose of creating things of beauty in connection with a higher, remote realm.
T said that the questioner asking, “What is the point?” seemed to be doing the “Work” without realising it by asking such a fundamental question.
L remarked that it can be a brave question, and its consideration led to existentialist philosophy and much of the great literature of the twentieth century.
RM related his experience that there is something magnetic about Gurdjieff's philosophy - he was talking about Work ideas after a conference the previous day, and suddenly noticed a large group of people had gathered round listening with evident interest.
RM said he thought the Meetings would benefit from a more structured approach, and the discussion moved on to this issue. The consensus was that the Meetings at present were just that and not a Group or School (though RM thought such developments should not be precluded in the future). One aim of the meetings was to remain accessible to newcomers as a bridge to the writings of Gurdjieff and the Work.
It was agreed that future meetings will take the form of
T commented the Meeting was like a review of the last year’s meetings and a plan for the new year. Some participants appeared now to have stopped attending. The move of premises from the more sociable venue of the hotel with its refreshments to the community centre with no refreshments appeared to have deterred some and not others.
The feeling was that the present venue was more suitable and less distracting for the meeting discussions. The subject of advertising for more members, the website and the outline of a curriculum for the following year was discussed.
L noted that the earlier question "What is the point?", had now also been analysed in the wider sense of the Meetings, and the result was a more structured approach for the future.
Following the meeting, the participants adjourned briefly for a Christmas coffee, and the discussion continued.
On the subject of art, and the application of will power in creativity, T cited the "blind painter of Peckham" who broke through the onset of total blindness and continued painting. A Guardian article tells the story and includes a video. "R" mentioned the similar case of Beethoven.
(Electronic versions of the books quoted above are available from the link on the right.)
RM repeated the three lines of work, saying that this is one of a few ideas in the work that particularly help him. He said that if one attends to all three lines then something happens. The chapter about the lunatic, the householder and the tramp has also been helpful recently, and he has been assessing his actions and observing his attitudes while in these three personas, and paying attention to his thoughts about himself or about what he is trying to do.
"R" said that the concept of "choice" is an illusion. She emphasised the distinction between wishing to do something and choosing to do something. RM agreed that wishing is the basis of man's actions.
"R" gave a personal example where she was applying the work to help tolerate being in a difficult but obligatory role.
T responded to the concept of the Work as a buffer or protective shield in life, with the example of the Psychoanalytic approach and Art Therapy approach. Here the analyst or therapist has to be in the company of the emotionally disturbed patient which can be difficult, and the aim of the approaches is to make the 'close' experience tolerable so that the practitioner remains available to the person.
M mentioned that in the commercial world, companies need a single "I", in terms of management. L said that in the case of public companies, there is a board of directors who are responsible to shareholders - there can be a number of people involved in management and they can be replaced. L asked if it is essential or desirable to reduce the I's to one in number, referring to Ouspensky's comment in Chapter 10 of The Fourth Way suggesting a mere reduction of the multiple I's rather than their total elimination:
"We decide to be at least less divided, instead of five hundred to become five."
M said that even God has three parts.
"R" recalled a pupil who asked, in all seriousness, "What’s the point?". "R" thought this a very useful question, and that everything has a purpose, is needed by the universe for a purpose, as part of a chain of transmission.
L referred to William Blake's proverb:
"Eternity is in love with the productions of time"
as likewise encapsulating the concept that we may, in some sense, have a purpose of creating things of beauty in connection with a higher, remote realm.
T said that the questioner asking, “What is the point?” seemed to be doing the “Work” without realising it by asking such a fundamental question.
L remarked that it can be a brave question, and its consideration led to existentialist philosophy and much of the great literature of the twentieth century.
RM related his experience that there is something magnetic about Gurdjieff's philosophy - he was talking about Work ideas after a conference the previous day, and suddenly noticed a large group of people had gathered round listening with evident interest.
RM said he thought the Meetings would benefit from a more structured approach, and the discussion moved on to this issue. The consensus was that the Meetings at present were just that and not a Group or School (though RM thought such developments should not be precluded in the future). One aim of the meetings was to remain accessible to newcomers as a bridge to the writings of Gurdjieff and the Work.
It was agreed that future meetings will take the form of
- An audio-file playback (starting with the Eight Meetings in Paris).
- A reading, preferably from Gurdjieff's writings.
- A presentation from those present (should they wish) of experiences during the previous month which went well or badly in light of what had been discussed.
- A discussion.
- A decision on the reading for the following Meeting to allow some time for familiarisation with the content.
T commented the Meeting was like a review of the last year’s meetings and a plan for the new year. Some participants appeared now to have stopped attending. The move of premises from the more sociable venue of the hotel with its refreshments to the community centre with no refreshments appeared to have deterred some and not others.
The feeling was that the present venue was more suitable and less distracting for the meeting discussions. The subject of advertising for more members, the website and the outline of a curriculum for the following year was discussed.
L noted that the earlier question "What is the point?", had now also been analysed in the wider sense of the Meetings, and the result was a more structured approach for the future.
Following the meeting, the participants adjourned briefly for a Christmas coffee, and the discussion continued.
On the subject of art, and the application of will power in creativity, T cited the "blind painter of Peckham" who broke through the onset of total blindness and continued painting. A Guardian article tells the story and includes a video. "R" mentioned the similar case of Beethoven.
(Electronic versions of the books quoted above are available from the link on the right.)
Sunday, November 7, 2010
The three lines of work
The meeting began with the decision to focus on The Fourth Way, a compilation of Ouspensky's writings and teachings published after his death. RM had been studying Chapter 11, on the three lines of work.
In this chapter, Ouspensky uses an analogy from music to depict the the tendency of activities to divert from their originally intended direction.
"If we take school-work as an ascending octave, we know that in each octave there are two intervals or gaps, between mi and fa and between si and do. In order to pass through these gaps without changing the character or the line of the work it is necessary to know how to fill them. So if I want to guarantee the direction of the work in a straight line, I must work on three lines simultaneously. If I work only on one line, or on two lines, the direction will change. If I work on three lines, or three octaves, one line will help another to pass the interval by giving the necessary shock."
(Read more on this from the book itself. An electronic version of this book is available from the link on the right.)
RM reading from this chapter, with intervals for discussion.
"R" described her interpretation of the '3 lines of work':
M added that "the first line, is self observation to review your thoughts, to observe the obstacles to doing something, to observe what is conscious will power, what is right will and what is self will."
Self observation and increasing will to bring about change in a person were discussed.
"R" said that the three lines of work can be described "as a chain of transmission". By doing the "work" questions arise and Gurdjieff stated, from his position of inhabiting a plane of higher consciousness "I [higher consciousness] will help you". The study of theory and the act of practice are both in the first line of work. Through studying the theory and putting it into practice one gains new understanding, through this synthesis. Developing new understanding through practising the implementation of the will and observing any changes to habitual behaviour and gaining insights is the aim of the work.
D asked about "regrets" which he is still painfully experiencing 7 years after his brother's death. What can be done now that death has taken away the potential for actual meetings to resolve issues?
RM replied "What we have is the now, in which before and after are present."
"R" suggested "Pray for your brother. Prayer changes the moment into an offering of the 'you, now-in-the-continuum' to your brother.
T said "You took for granted that you would see your brother again and the shock is that the opposite is true, you are living with the shock that you cannot see your brother again. This is a truth every day for anyone we meet and we cannot take it for granted that the person will be alive in a 'next time'. This is a gift of a truth, a conscious shock, to help to guide how to live now in the world of relationships."
In this chapter, Ouspensky uses an analogy from music to depict the the tendency of activities to divert from their originally intended direction.
"If we take school-work as an ascending octave, we know that in each octave there are two intervals or gaps, between mi and fa and between si and do. In order to pass through these gaps without changing the character or the line of the work it is necessary to know how to fill them. So if I want to guarantee the direction of the work in a straight line, I must work on three lines simultaneously. If I work only on one line, or on two lines, the direction will change. If I work on three lines, or three octaves, one line will help another to pass the interval by giving the necessary shock."
(Read more on this from the book itself. An electronic version of this book is available from the link on the right.)
RM reading from this chapter, with intervals for discussion.
"R" described her interpretation of the '3 lines of work':
- First line: I am working for myself.
- Second line: I am working for my companions.
- Third line: I am working for the benefit of the evolution of our planet."
M added that "the first line, is self observation to review your thoughts, to observe the obstacles to doing something, to observe what is conscious will power, what is right will and what is self will."
Self observation and increasing will to bring about change in a person were discussed.
"R" said that the three lines of work can be described "as a chain of transmission". By doing the "work" questions arise and Gurdjieff stated, from his position of inhabiting a plane of higher consciousness "I [higher consciousness] will help you". The study of theory and the act of practice are both in the first line of work. Through studying the theory and putting it into practice one gains new understanding, through this synthesis. Developing new understanding through practising the implementation of the will and observing any changes to habitual behaviour and gaining insights is the aim of the work.
D asked about "regrets" which he is still painfully experiencing 7 years after his brother's death. What can be done now that death has taken away the potential for actual meetings to resolve issues?
RM replied "What we have is the now, in which before and after are present."
"R" suggested "Pray for your brother. Prayer changes the moment into an offering of the 'you, now-in-the-continuum' to your brother.
T said "You took for granted that you would see your brother again and the shock is that the opposite is true, you are living with the shock that you cannot see your brother again. This is a truth every day for anyone we meet and we cannot take it for granted that the person will be alive in a 'next time'. This is a gift of a truth, a conscious shock, to help to guide how to live now in the world of relationships."
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Aims
The meeting started with a reading of Chapter 10 of Ouspensky’s book "The Fourth Way", on the resistance to developing will power and doing things, in which he writes:
"Everything 'happens'. People can 'do' nothing. From the time we are born to the time we die things happen, happen, happen, and we think we are doing. This is our normal state in life . . .
We have a certain aim, but many of our 'I's do not want to go that way, so naturally conflict increases. But the creation of unity is not the result of conflict—it is the result of struggle with conflict. We are many and we want to be one — this is one formulation of our aim.. . . We decide to be at least less divided, instead of five hundred to become five."
(Read more on this from the book itself. An electronic version of this book is available from the link on the right.)
D asked M what was his aim now, at his time of life.
M replied that life is eternal, that he is only dealing with the now. He is reincarnated and will be reincarnated.
D said he no longer believes in reincarnation. He used to but now thinks there is nothing.
L asked, if we believed in reincarnation, whether we would choose to live for ever if there were a scientific advance, and commented that Ouspensky thought recurrence a more scientific theory than reincarnation, as a person has less evidence for reality outside the span of his own lifetime.
D recommended the recent Stephen Hawking programme on Channel 4 suggesting life appeared as a result of an accident - the earth was at the right distance, and carbon formed.
L said it does not matter whether or not we believe we are here by design or accident, in terms of developing will power now. If playing chess, it is irrelevant who made the chessboard and fashioned the pieces, or whether they arose by chance.
We have a certain aim, but many of our 'I's do not want to go that way, so naturally conflict increases. But the creation of unity is not the result of conflict—it is the result of struggle with conflict. We are many and we want to be one — this is one formulation of our aim.. . . We decide to be at least less divided, instead of five hundred to become five."
(Read more on this from the book itself. An electronic version of this book is available from the link on the right.)
D asked M what was his aim now, at his time of life.
M replied that life is eternal, that he is only dealing with the now. He is reincarnated and will be reincarnated.
D said he no longer believes in reincarnation. He used to but now thinks there is nothing.
L asked, if we believed in reincarnation, whether we would choose to live for ever if there were a scientific advance, and commented that Ouspensky thought recurrence a more scientific theory than reincarnation, as a person has less evidence for reality outside the span of his own lifetime.
D recommended the recent Stephen Hawking programme on Channel 4 suggesting life appeared as a result of an accident - the earth was at the right distance, and carbon formed.
L said it does not matter whether or not we believe we are here by design or accident, in terms of developing will power now. If playing chess, it is irrelevant who made the chessboard and fashioned the pieces, or whether they arose by chance.
D said that Stephen Hawking did believe in God but 20 years ago changed his mind, but his desire to find out has given him the will power to stay alive.
Referring to self-study, L noted that artists and writers often do self-portraits.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
The Seekers of Truth
The name by which Gurdjieff, as a young man, called his group of fellow travellers, is also the title, Les Chercheurs de Vérité (The Seekers of Truth), of a video produced by the Paris based Institut G.I.Gurdjieff, and is not available for general distribution. The Meeting was very grateful to "R" for the opportunity to view this film, and for bringing her laptop to show it on.
As "R" relates, "to see still photos and old newsreel footage, and hear some of his music as well as his words, which are spoken in the film by the professional film-maker who was also himself among his pupils, was deeply impressive for those who were there and raised lots of questions."
The first half was watched, and followed by a discussion.
As "R" relates, "to see still photos and old newsreel footage, and hear some of his music as well as his words, which are spoken in the film by the professional film-maker who was also himself among his pupils, was deeply impressive for those who were there and raised lots of questions."
The first half was watched, and followed by a discussion.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
