Mindfulness and the Bell

The meeting began at 9am. A silence of one minute was observed. D distributed copies of his proposal for more frequent meetings, and regards from RM were passed on, who was travelling, but would be attending the next month.

Each person present then volunteered a presentation, for up to two minutes, of relevant experiences from the previous month.

BS, whose messages are now being forwarded in advance to attendees, [Removed at the request of BS.] "... in India people used to fast on Mondays in reverence to Lord Shiva, God of Death, thus remembering death every week which can empower the mind to face any fear provided it is not done mechanically"). He wished BW well for finishing his play, suggesting there should be a Start command as well as a Stop one, from his own self, "bulldozing the resisting 'I'".

BW has noticed that he feels different now compared to when he joined in February; periods of self-remembering are short but they are coming more frequently. He is experiencing times of anger and frustrations, and sometimes bickering with others more frequently than in the past. He feels these feelings and observes them. In terms of D's letter, anything that will make him become more aware is going to be beneficial. He does have a desire to take things further.

Z related that although she valued meditation, it was hard for her to get around to it. But she has discovered a new app for her phone, Mindfulness Bell (for iPhone or Android), which you can set as often as you like. It has been good for her. She also would like to meet more often than once a month.

M had noticed, when reviewing some of the literature which he hadn't read for years, that he now has a different understanding. It is showing him that he is adding to his understanding all the time. He was impressed with the accumulation of knowledge that he has, that is showing only now, a long time after he read it. He was quite thrilled.

T had been experimenting with what troubled her the most in the last reading, about the concept of cursing the cursers who do not wish to be woken up. She thought that it is because she is bringing the idea of art, which is a naturally subversive influence, into an institution, that the staff are ill at ease with what she represents. She tried the practice before going to work, and was very surprised that the experience of her days felt different, and she felt less ill at ease. She then forgot to do it one day, and experienced feeling ill at ease at work. It was only after a day of familiar awful feelings that she remembered that one of the ingredients of the day was that she had not cursed the cursers. This second experience came as a surprise to her and reinforced the changed experience of the days when she had remembered. She was doing this to protect herself in an unsympathetic environment to better enable her to fulfil her function within the system.

D has been experiencing emotional blackmail, succumbing to pressure to do things. He has theatre friends doing a play and because they came to see his, he felt an obligation to say "Yes" to going but now he is angry with himself.

L recalled reading a news item from the elections in Venezuela, which seemed to resonate with discussions at the Meetings. Chávez, who faces a serious illness, has begun referring to himself in the third person, in a thought-provoking way, as if he is putting ego aside. In a recent rally he said, "I have made many mistakes, but I am here with all my soul. Chávez is not me. Chávez is the people. Chávez will not fail you the next term ... during the next term he will be a better president, more efficient, a better companion." Meanwhile his opponent Capriles described the election as a "spiritual battle".

All present had spoken, and the Meeting moved to the stage of responding to them.

Following up Z's suggestion of the iPhone app, BW was reminded of the phrase, "the truth, the whole truth, and anything else that works". G asked if the individual is the best person to decide what they need to do to wake up, and L responded that he thought we need others to bring ourselves back to wakefulness. G said he was interested to meet more often, if people were serious. As self-remembering is so difficult, the more frequent back-up of a group would be useful, to be able to discuss it. Gurdjieff teaches that we have to be in control, to stop automatic behaviours so we then have a set of choices as to what we decide to do. L mentioned that there is a technique to avoid automatic behaviour, by throwing a dice to decide which of several actions would be taken. This allows something outside of yourself to randomly decide the choice of action. G agreed but stressed that none of the choices should be dangerous. L referred to the research of Ralph Nelson Elliott which indicated that society en masse is likewise subject to automatic behaviour, that on a bigger scale there may be something at work driving the movement in the stock market, as on the smaller scale of individual consciousness there is something at work driving the movement of the individual, or in the physical body where the leg jerks if tapped below the knee. Elliot called his book Nature's Law - The Secret of the Universe, a reference to his belief that the patterns he had discovered were universal.

On the benefits of rereading familiar material, D agreed with M, having had similar experiences coming back to books read in the past. He had read Steppenwolf three times, in his twenties, forties and sixities, and loved it each time, though experiencing it differently with each reading. G had loved Knulp, finding it a "lovely, evocative book", and also found Knut Hamsun's novel, Hunger, brilliant. L recalled standing in front of a wall of books at a large Cambridge bookshop, and asking his finger to fall on the most important book for him to read. It had landed on The Glass Bead Game, which he had much enjoyed, in particular some of the poems at the end, like the reflective Stages. Z had found Journey to the East particularly meaningful.

The discussion ended at this point. Introductions were made to F, who had recently finished reading Beelzebub's Tales, and is at present studying the Pistis Sophia in relation to a "lost gospel" which the National Geographic reported found in 2006.

The reading of Beelzebub's Tales then resumed. Chapter 2 opens with a dramatic change of scene, being set in a star ship.

Through the Universe flew the ship Karnak of the "transspace" communication.

In this chapter we are introduced to Beelzebub and his eponymous grandson, Hassein. There was much discussion over the symbolism or otherwise, of this part of this chapter. L observed that the description of one part of the space-craft as a bell-like enclosure, fitted with the use of the bell as a symbol of awakening in the story of Karapet of Tiflis.

At the time of this narrative, Beelzebub with Hassein ... were seated on the highest "Kasnik," that is, on the upper deck of the ship Karnak under the "Kalnokranonis," somewhat resembling what we should call a large "glass bell," ...

This meeting was soon brought to an end when

... it was reported to Beelzebub that the captain of their ship wished to speak with him ...

and there the chapter and the reading ended, as scheduled at 10:30.

There was a discussion about which exercise to practice for the coming month. L pointed out that two-way remembering is not a Gurdjieff exercise, but was invented by Ouspensky, who himself described it as possibly a very incomplete, definition of "self-remembering". Z recalled an exercise from a group she had been in, to concentrate physical awareness of a part of the body, e.g. a foot. This could be triggered by a feeling of anger, or sorrowfulness for oneself. G suggested, as a trigger, to do the exercise at any time when one is not happy with what one is doing.

Cursing and Rehearsing

The meeting began at 9am with a silence of one minute, followed by a presentation by some of those present, for up to two minutes, of relevant experiences over the previous month.

BS, in his message from India, related [Removed at the request of BS.] Paraphrasing Rabindranath Tagore, his experience reflected the opening of one of that artist's verses:

I slept, I dreamt, that life was beauties.
I woke, I found that life was duties.

[Removed at the request of BS.]

BW related that this could be his last meeting for a few months. He is moving out of London. He is conscious of his behaviour and habitual movements, which he can stop at will. He has written the fourth draft of his latest play. He is aware of not wanting to sit down and write and having to force himself so to do.

"R" had read the notes of the previous meeting, which seemed to her to be related to fear, yet in contrast there was celebration going on in the world around us, a courageous joyful energy which is quite extraordinary, nothing to do with the political situation, opposite to the pessimism of Ouspensky. Strangers talking to each other, not just at the carnival, something spontaneous coming forth which is longed for inside herself and is generally not noticeable. Is it totally a product of sleep? Is there something afoot, some undercurrent in us here?

RM had set up a major project for him to re-interpret the Bhagavad Gita and the Tao Te Ching. He has been working on it for a couple of hours a day. He said we are always in the middle. Whenever you go one way, you have to go the other way. A chess player has to play with the pieces. The key is to keep himself safe. How important it is, not to run away to the sandals and candles brigade.

L had been unable to do two way self remembering, partly because he was not sure what it was. But he had found the chess metaphor interesting, in that as a chess-player might already be in a self-observant state, if he were self-remembering it might be an additional degree of remembering.

D chose to read from a sheet he had found at a church in Brighton, and been very impressed by. It included an account of looking at a flower in a state of extreme mindfulness. He concluded by asking whether this example of the Buddhist practice of mindfulness was over the top?

In contrast, T recounted that when looking at a flower and trying to paint it, she has had feelings of hating the flower, because she has found it so difficult to see it at all, and to translate what is difficult to see into paint.

There being no further contributions from those attending, the Meeting then moved to responses to what had been said.

Z said that when she comes into a state of mindfulness, her eyesight becomes clearer, she is not just focusing on one thing. RM said that the reason for her improved eyesight is that the body adjusts to loving illusion; the eyes adjust, the eyes settle to one reality.

M related mindfulness to beingness (a term from Scientology). D's reading had pointed out the difference in depths of perception, we should know just what the terms mean. In meditation you usually have to make an improvement in an event you would like to see happen. How do you know that you are doing the right thing? A meditative period is useful if it helps you make a decision, and should have a purpose, for example whether or not your depth of perception has been increased. Afterwards ask, has anything happened in the meditation or not? Has there been communication from a higher plane? Meditation has to be linked to an action, otherwise it remains a thought. What is the purpose of meditation? There is a comparison between how things are and how one would like things to be.

Z said that she had never heard that idea about meditation.

L's understanding of meditation was that it was not about having a purpose, but rather letting all thoughts go.

GC is meditation one thing for every body? People at the Meeting had differing ideas as to what it was. His idea for meditation is that a person is who they are by viewing their own behaviour. When do you begin to observe yourself? You recognise an action, its very hard not to judge. Principles, honesty and values are requisite.

"R" said that mindfulness is a feeling of emptiness, a feeling of utter boredom. There may be a fear of one's nothingness. Empty isn't bad, it's truth. There are less riches stored up in the inner bank account than we would like.

D spoke of the fear of not coming out of the emptiness. Essence is emptiness, and doesn't have a a lot of luggage. Mind is not different from essence. They are connected. It's easier in the ashram. Being mindful that a thought comes in.

L related this idea to a theme in Scarlett Thomas's latest novel, Our Tragic Universe, in which the heroine, told in childhood by a fortune teller that she would come to nothing, comes to understand in adulthood that is a worthy goal, a zen-like renunciation of identity.

M asked what entity was using the mind subject to will.

It being 9:45am, the Meeting then continued with the Reading from Beelzebub's Tales To His Grandson.

In this final part of the introductory chapter, Gurdjieff is explaining that his attempt to awaken the reader might elicit resistance, and to explain this introduces the character Karapet of Tiflis, whose job it was to awaken the railway workers every morning with a piercing whistle which unwittingly disturbed the whole town. In turn, Karapet intoduces his own character, a dog-catcher.

Just when my friend the barber-surgeon beckoned me to stop, he was aiming to throw his net, at the opportune moment, at his next victim, which at that moment was standing wagging his tail and looking at a bitch. My friend was just about to throw his net, when suddenly the bells of a neighboring church rang out, calling the people to early morning prayers. At such an unexpected ringing in the morning quiet, the dog took fright and springing aside flew off like a shot down the empty street at his full canine velocity.

Then the barber-surgeon so infuriated by this that his hair, even beneath his armpits, stood on end, flung his net on the pavement and spitting over his left shoulder, loudly exclaimed:

'Oh, Hell! What a time to ring!'

G asked for an explanation of this passage, and L said it was structured as a story within a story within a story, in each case about the discomfort of being abruptly awoken from sleep or reverie.

Continuing with the reading, Karapet realises that he himself must be cursed every morning by the townsfolk.

I, continuing to ponder, came to the conclusion that if I should curse beforehand all those to whom my service for the benefit of certain among them might seem disturbing, then ... however much all those ... might curse me, it would have ... no effect on me at all.

And in fact, since I began to do so, I no longer feel the said instinctive uneasiness.

T said she had been greatly affected by the reading but couldn't recall why exactly at the start of the Meeting. She had been exceptionally busy and was consequently quite exhausted and had not got anything to report about the Work over the month. But this part of the reading reminded her what point she had been affected by, about cursing others before they curse her. She was troubled by this as it felt against her nature to curse others. G made the point that this pre-emptive cursing acts as a protection for her to do her work.

As the Meeting ended, it was decided again to try the two-way self-remembering exercise. In response to a query from L, RM explained that this was the two-headed arrow. (This exercise does not come from Gurdjieff, and the idea was first mentioned, with reservations, by Ouspensky in his book In Search Of The Miraculous.)

Feeling the Fear

The meeting began at 9am with a silence of one minute, followed by a presentation by those who wanted, for up to two minutes, of relevant experiences over the previous month.

[Removed at the request of BS.]

Z related her experience of the exercise during the month. She had tried the counting a couple of times, but she found it too "loud". It did not help her to be present, and was not useful for her. Whenever the thought came to her about time, which was never on the hour, she looked at the time which gave her an awakeness for two of the times during the month.

D had got caught up in the Olympics. He had become convinced how wonderful it is, and observed that he is quite nationalistic. To get to the Meeting he had had to be really disciplined, and turn the TV off at 10pm, but could not resist watching again this morning, Jessica Ennis and the whole thing. He was aware of himself getting carried away, and was amazed the way they cried. Then he noticed that he was crying himself. It was unbelievable. But he was quite present now.

RM said that the issue of self-remembering has been a core issue. Was it possible? He keeps going back to Gurdjieff work to help with this. Gurdjieff refers to items to do to help self-remembering but he finds that even these tasks can still lose their meaning. Is this loss of meaning in the tasks that are to help self-remembering a self-regulating factor that keeps him awake? He finds that a perpetual reminding gets so familiar it stops reminding him. Another task for self-remembering is to be aware of what his vices are, to see when they arise. One vice, for example, is sugar. Every time he wants something that is sweet, it is an opportunity to remember that desire is beginning to work. As soon as a desire tugs at him and he observes this tug, self-remembering is happening. In the Bible it is the parable about God casting out the devil. Casting the devil out is casting out a desire, this is something that can bring about permanent change.

For L, it had been two months since the last meeting. It was hard for him to pick out something to remember. He has been battling against resistance to doing his creative art. He is experiencing inspiration, waking up every morning with music. He had read what GC brought last time, the article by Maurice Nicoll on essence and personality. If essence develops by devouring personality, as Nicoll suggests, then perhaps doing creative art is a mechanism by which that can happen. The Olympics have been inspiring, a global self-observation. The athletes have had to conquer personality to a large extent. What is left? Is there a benefit to them? Is it a purely physical thing? Winning in the 10,000 metre race last night looked like a spiritual moment for the athlete, but this did not seem the case in all the events.

T had tried the 60 second counting several times during the month at different times and circumstances and found that after 12 or 13 her attention had drifted to something else. One example was at a time of heightened stress and anxiety when she had to get to a hospital appointment. During the humidity and heat rushing to the station she remembered the 1 - 60 as a way of getting above the stress and watching herself stressed. Even at this supposed heightened anxious state, when she managed to remember to start counting, the count petered out at 12 or 13, and after a while she was aware that she was still on her way but the counting had ceased and the rushing was to the fore again.

B had noticed, over the last month, that he acts in ways he thinks people want him to behave. He asked himself what is the point of coming here today. As he arrived he noticed people at the entrance. Part of him wanted to step back to avoid involvement. He has created this personality and has to act like that a lot of the time. He has an uneasy sense of who he is.

The Meeting then moved to respond to the two-minute contributions.

Z said that RM was more than the "vices" he spoke of.

L commented that BS focuses on self-observation by using his initials rather than the word "I" in his messages.

RM said that he was looking for role models, e.g. a top concert pianist, to emulate the discipline and drive necessary to be at the top. What is it that keeps them going? He is trying to do that as an opera singer with a teacher, and practices two hours a day. There are bits he is really struggling with. He has to slide through all the notes and doesn't know if he'll ever do it. He is putting himself in the position to explore, to experiment, to discover himself. M thought that doing this would increase beingness. RM continued that he wanted to be a top artist, and that this world is his work of art. If he can keep his home tidy and nice, it is inspiring to enter, it is home, but if it's a junk heap and nothing is in order then that is what he presents to himself and it is never going to be inspiring and helpful to his senses. He plays the trumpet. The instrument is perfect. He is the player and he is practicing to meet the potential offered to him by the instrument.

To B, M commented: "To find out who you really are, you have to ask yourself how many motivations you have got for what tasks. What tasks are to do with personality and what are to do with essence? You are born into two dimensions, the inner world which is your own private world and the outer world. You have to differentiate these two worlds otherwise you won't know which world you're operating in, either in the world of essence, or in the world of personality." L said that at the Meeting, there is no expectation to be in a role, it is about questioning roles, which can be uncomfortable. B responded that at the Meetings, he has a sense of spiritual being that should be a part of him. He tries to be that in some way. He recognises that one of the reasons for attending is that here he is not pretending to be someone else. L asked if this was the opposite to acting. B replied that he feels as if he is always acting. He struggles to think of when he isn't because he's within it. RM said to B that these feelings are appropriate, as it is impossible to progress without conscious suffering; seeing what one's tendencies are as opposed to one's will, sets up a confusion battle. Facing our natural tendencies - this is where one is wanting to go, it is a battle of consciousness. B said that he struggles to differentiate between a straight impulse and an automatic tendency. RM gave an example - on waking at 6am his natural tendency is to sleep on. There are hundreds of possible choices happening all day long. The natural tendency is to not have a will, is to say no to a will. B agreed that sometimes he could see that this is the case - he does recognise that he forces himself to attend; he can differentiate the two. RM said that if there is a battle work with it. There are two drivers, one is desire, one is love. That will override everything. Desire for sugar, desire to smoke a cigarette but the love driver becomes stonger and stronger. This is what spirituality means, this is part of our desire, the desire for sprituality.

D asked M, "What is essence?" M responded that "Essence is the essential part of art. It is in two worlds. An eternal drive or energy which is within everyone." D wondered if art is the blossom of essence, or if essence feeds on art. He recounted how when Nijinsky was dancing he felt like he was God. He tried to do everything himself, the choreography, the stage set, the dancing and he cracked up. He thought he could do anything when he was 'in the zone'. When the athletes win they are in the zone. L wondered what were the drivers for these Olympic athletes? Do they love their sport or are they addicted to adrenalin? Is it a battle or are they doing what they think is right? Are they doing what they love? T opined that she can never know what someone else's driver is, she can only try to know her own. RM said that in conquering their body one of the drivers is ego - use a thorn to remove a thorn. Use ego to drive you forward, then throw the last thorn away. He would love to be famous. The next thorn might be desire to be a guru. Each successive thorn gets a little smaller.

D asked what happens after an athlete wins. So what! T recalled that she reached that "so what" point after 3 years of Art College. The pain of the last fortnight for the degree show. Painting a painting solidly for a fortnight, Monday to Friday 9-5. The tutor said it was the best work he had seen come through the life room in all his tutoring there. This was praise indeed and yet it came at a high price. The pain of the effort, the pain of the concentrated effort, the attention, the giving up of doing anything else. Then after college she sank like a stone. She had to pay the rent and for the next 5 years she worked and this gave her the best distraction from continuing the work of painting, facing the pain of the hard work of art. She loved painting, and was a natural - loved the beauty she saw in the world and wanted to paint it. But the inordinate pressure to perform for the degree show was too much, too intense. Like the athletes in their twenties facing the intensity of what they have to do to achieve winning in competitions. They have to give up other involvements in life to focus. This is a big demand on the young people. They can attain success in the sport and find themselves or lose themselves through it.

The reading from Beelzebub's Tales then continued.

 ...the practice was automatically acquired in me on beginning anything new and also at any change, of course on a large scale, always to utter silently or aloud:

"If you go on a spree then go the whole hog including the postage."

RM said that is a tendency to latch onto something and go no further. In Advaita Vedanta there are no boundaries. Keep going beyond, looking beyond, don't get attached to anything in particular, all possibilities are there. He mentioned RamanaMaharshi's "choiceless awareness". Suffer the difference. Why disagree? The first chapter is to put people off. It tells you what the challenge is, and to investigate from all sides, to discover at all costs. RM then read out his summary of Gurdjieff's three primary aims. RM also said that Gurdjieff talked about one third of waking life should be dedicated to oneself, another third to the health of the community and a third dedicated to the science of all humanity. He added that external forces are always there, that the devil is in us,  if we allow ourselves to do battle with him all the time. He quoted "Drink deep or else touch not the sacred spring". This line, from a Presbyterian text, is an altered form from Alexander Pope's "An Essay on Criticism", 1709:

A little learning is a dangerous thing;
drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
and drinking largely sobers us again.

The reading continued.

" ... I now still wish to make a sincere confession to you about the associations arisen within me which as a result have precipitated in the corresponding sphere of my consciousness the data which have prompted the whole of my individuality to select as the chief hero for my writings just such an individual as is presented before your inner eyes by this same Mr. Beelzebub. This I did, not without cunning. My cunning lies simply in the logical supposition that if I show him this attention he infallibly – as I already cannot doubt any more – has to show himself grateful and help me by all means in his command in my intended writings."

L wondered about the portent of this, as he tries to be available to the Muse, as a channel for the art and trusts that means of distribution will transpire.

As the Meeting closed, it was decided, as an exercise for the coming month, to try the practice mentioned by BS of two-way self-remembering. M described it as "observing your feelings or thoughts and being aware that you are observing your feelings or thoughts". RM described it as "practising being the silent witness"; there is a difference between controlling thoughts and directing thoughts.

M recalled an old verse which he had found significant:

"Here abide Three. The man who slayeth his Master. The Master who saveth the man. The Spirit whose Word buildeth. And they abide as One."

RM advised, re counting, that it is best not to go to double figures, but for example to count from 9 down to zero and back again, using steps or heart beat to pace oneself. Z thought that maybe she needed to count slower. She had not been using double figures.

E responded to B, sharing her experience of acting many years ago. She said that lines are learned and then spoken on the night, but the lines are not your lines. When she delivered lines in front of an audience, she experienced being aware of herself speaking the lines, and then also became aware of another level where she was aware of herself being aware of herself delivering the lines which were not hers, but which she was saying as though they were her words. This experience freaked her out and she thought she was going mad. She ran into the wings to speak to her fellow actors about this. As fellow actors they had also experienced it  and reassured her that she was not going mad. She said that it was very scary to her at the time. It was years later that she realised this particular "acting" experience could be an immensely helpful tool for trying to understand the nature of "ordinary" human discourse. Acting allows you to play at relating to others by using words that are not your own and yet these words are learned and spoken by you as if they were your own.

Oil and Toil

The Meeting opened with a silence of one minute.

Each person present was then invited to present a two minute account of relevant experiences since the previous time.

In a message from India, BS raised two issues. [Removed at the request of BS.] He applied some techniques given by Charles.T. Tart in his book Living the Mindful Life, which draws heavily from Gurdjieff's ideas. [Removed at the request of BS.]

D has been aware of the aging process, aches and pains, falling out with a few friends. He moved into a new flat 6 months ago, and has projects in the pipeline, but can't write, He had written a follow up to one earlier piece of writing. He has been watching all the sport, seeing the challenges, the failures or triumphs - he is aware of his mortality, and that the whole world is in flux politically. He drew a parallel between the TV news coverage on the banker and the Russian Revolution 100 years ago, which had been about the poor rising up because the riches were in the hands of the few. Nothing has changed, we are still in this same state, we are stooping low. Sigmund Freud said humankind hasn't risen that high. He realised the truth of this in himself.

BW said he could so easily not have come to the Meeting. It was a struggle to get there. He has not made progress, instead being caught up in what he was doing externally, not being present with internal exercises. He had felt he could not justify doing the 12pm and 5pm checking of the time. He spent the first week trying to do the reminding task but as for the rest of the month it was not until the day before the Meeting that he remembered. He wondered if this was the consequence of putting effort the month before into the radio play. He had a note on his desk of BS's interpretation of Einstein'a equation

E=MC² (where E stands for Effect, M for Mission and C for concentration)

which had pushed him to go further in his writing than he would otherwise have done.

Z spoke of her experience with the time exercise. She hadn't remembered at 12pm or 5pm, but at different times.She had been moved by reading the maxim from the Beelzebub paragraphs:

"If you go on a spree then go the whole hog including the postage."

This is what Gurdjieff did all the time in his life and he went in amazing directions, putting everything into what he did - looking at herself, she didn't do this. She recognised that she was holding back in different ways, and the message from the paragraphs freed her up "to go and get it".

M said a question had arisen in his mind through meditation as to what is the important thing to meditate on. The problem he faced was keeping his mind under control. Not all thoughts that come into his head are  going in the direction he wants them to. He thought it important to direct them to the area of greatest importance, for example thinking on how to be a more efficient person, but he finds himself thinking about sport instead. He asked how he could have more control over thoughts and feelings to make progress in this direction.

"R" related that, having suggested the time exercise in the first place, she promptly forgot it and continued as before with the techniques she uses daily to remind her of herself. By trying to connect with the body each day, she notices that the capacities of the body are begining to dimimish, for instance she is unable to walk for hours without hurting. If there is any meaning in her work, it is to integrate it with the body. How the mind wanders in any way it pleases presents a real challenge. She doesn't control it or master it, but needs to work with it rather than against it, to give her energy to work to be in her body, not to travel away from the body. She had been touched by BS's intense experiences related to that.

T had tried the 12pm and 5pm exercise, and did not manage it completely even once. At different times she did remember, and would then start to count from 1 to 60 as an exercise to stay with the remembering, and while counting would try to observe her surroundings at the time, asking herself where she was, who she was with, and what she was doing. The most common activity she had observed was that she was eating!

RM said that what comes to mind while he is studying Gurdjieff material, is that he is on a path of evolution, an evolution of reason. Referring to Gurdjieff's concept of friction, he feels he is up against barriers when he gives an intense attention that opens up options. These barriers enable his reason to get honed. Reason is like a light that continues to grow. He thinks that this is what makes humanity different from animals, which escape the link between awareness and consciousness. The question that comes to his mind is why humanity's reason, reason around the evolution of counsciousness, has grown faster than in other animals? He gave the example of a cat apparently asleep, but alert to its surroundings as shown by its sudden responses from an apparent state of sleep.

E thought that reason on its own is not enough. but has to be with the kindness of humanity. Otherwise living with reason alone is trying to walk on one leg. She had failed with the exercise of checking the time, even though her clock has an alarm. She is not in control; in some ways she finds this hard to believe, but it seems as if it is so.

The contributions were then discussed.

BW asked for elaboration about integration of the body, as described by "R". RM said we are trying to be more harmonious, and in balance. If there are tensions one cannot be in balance. Tension pulls the attention from being free. We tend to ignore the body a lot of the time. "R" explained that people talk about what they are thinking about. She could not really call it talking about consciousness, it is just thinking that is being talked about - just thinking is resistance to being present in the body. Z referred to Gurdjieff's concept of three-brained beings; mind, body and emotion. We are not fully present, we are not fully human. A previous group she was in worked with the senses, the body, "to be here and now", to speak to our tensions, and consider what the tensions are saying. GC said that when not thinking, we tend to display what is going on inside us, to project what is going on in the body. BW felt he was conscious of being in his body, but whatever his understanding of that state was, experienced a resistance. "R" thought it an excellent line of study, to experience and investigate in oneself. D pointed out that he needs to be thinking in order to write - if he became present he wouldn't be able to write.

Regarding the exercise of checking the time twice a day, GC said he had been doing it every hour, as a discipline to remember himself; likewise he was trying to avoid eating when not hungry, to see how powerful his resolution wasn't.

The Meeting was about to start reading from Beelzebub's Tales, when GC enquired why we were reading this book when it was so difficult. In fact he had been reading it for years and still finds it difficult. This prompted a discussion on the issue, after which, with less time remaining, consideration of the text resumed.

Gurdjieff tells a tale of a Russian merchant who buys a book for his son, and queries the price in the bookshop.

"But it is marked here forty-five kopecks. Why do you ask sixty?" Thereupon the salesman, making as is said the "oleaginous" face proper to all salesmen, replied that ... fifteen kopecks were added for postage.  ... our Russian merchant who was perplexed ... again pondered, this time like an English professor who has invented a capsule for castor oil, and then suddenly turned to his friend and delivered himself for the first time on Earth of the verbal formulation which, expressing in its essence an indubitable objective truth, has since assumed the character of a saying. And he then put it to his friend as follows: "Never mind, old fellow, we'll take the book. Anyway we're on a spree today, and

'if you go on a spree then go the whole hog including the postage.' "

The narrator continues:

" ... as soon as I had cognized all this, something very strange, ... immediately began, and for a rather long time continued to proceed in me; ... after the lapse of some time suddenly ... replaced by such a peaceful inner condition as I experienced in later life once only, when the ceremony of the great initiation into the Brotherhood of the 'Originators of making butter from air' was performed over me ..."

T wondered if there was any significance in the fact that oil had been referred to three times, with the mention of castor oil, the use of the adjective "oleaginous", and the reference to making butter from air. RM suggested that oil might symbolise personality, and air correspond to essence.

At the close of the Meeting, RM recommended a variant on the previous month's exercise that he had been trying out. On checking the time twice a day, he has been counting from 1 to 9 and down to 1 again, several times. GC gave out printed sheets of an Osho article about self-remembering, another on Essence and Personality (by Maurice Nicoll), and a page he had prepared of two psychological parables.

Fear and Presence

The Meeting opened with a silence of one minute to focus and quieten the mind. Each person then gave a presentation of up to two minutes of relevant experiences and thoughts, many from the previous month.

Z remarked on how hard it was to change one's own patterns of behaviour, quite apart from considering that of other people. She has noticed how she can put something down and forget where she has put it only minutes later. She described experiencing frustration about this. She is aware that her periods of being present and aware are momentary.

BW had been feeling that he does not know what he wants to be doing in a grand sense, or who he wants to be. He has been in a state of uncertainty about what he really feels or thinks about the things he has been doing for a long time. It was like waking up as a passenger in a car - many other people may have expectations which he does not share, and it is difficult to maintain a sense of continuity with people close to him.

MG spoke of having thoughts which are uncalled for. He said that every thought is generated by a certain amount of will, and if not by his will, the question is whose. Whose will is supporting habitual behaviour which one would rather not be doing at the time? The will varies in source in two dimensions, of inner world and outside reality, and it is good to be able to separate them and consider which is the real world. In the inner world time does not really exist, as one can "be" somewhere instantly. It is easier than one might think to confidently apply will power.

G had been considering how to deal with indulgent thinking and stupid mental rambles and was finding the best answer was just to get up and do something else.

T, at her art studio, observed that it was easier to eat than do drawing and painting. She was aware she could stop but was able to observe as she did it and felt better. This was a glimpse of the observer kicking in and watching.

[Removed at the request of BS.]

LG spoke of how the practice of art had elements of conflict, it was like a battle, and whilst he had overcome obstacles to successfully write a work of classical music over several months and distribute it to musicians in good time, it was as if the musicians had succumbed, and having failed to practice sufficiently, a full performance had to be cancelled. He experienced resistance to the music reaching the audience in many forms. He was nearly run over by a car mounting the pavement shortly before the concert, and on the eve of the concert the programme was reprinted with his name and piece removed. The use of the internet was a good tool to counter such resistance to the spread of art, and once online it was harder to stop.

"R" had attended an event for which she was expected to present a professional persona, while at the same time having a visitor with her who needed frequent attention. She keeps returning to physical presence as being her anchor, not to think about things succeeding or failing, but rather of a situation as an opportunity to sense her presence.

E had been experiencing negative thoughts after closing a long-established practice in chi gung, and wondered how this could be happening after 17 years work as a practioner, with all the resources and skills she had built up.

LH brought up his experience of fear, and how talking at the Meeting was creating physical reactions in his body symptomatic of it. Fear could be about being present somewhere, or about knowing things.

There followed a discussion on the contributions.

Continuing on the theme of fear, G wondered if we attract the things we fear - if one is scared of a dog it steps forward toward you. Z said that to be afraid of something gives it energy. G thought that we make our own fear and that fears have no foundation in fact. L considered that usual fears are a diversion from the fundamental fear based on the fact that we are on a lump of rock, at the same time, all destined for oblivion, as far as we know. G asked how it was possible to be afraid of oblivion. M wanted to know if anyone had experienced overcoming fear. He gave an example from experience of being asked perform impromptu music in an unfamiliar style, before a large audience, which turned out to be the most appreciated part of the evening's performance.

In response to BW, L thought that those in the acting profession can naturally focus on the issue of identity and purpose, for the successful adoption of roles from drama poses the question as to what role is being acted out in real life. BW elaborated on the instance of luck in careers, which he had formerly not believed in. G said that luck increases for those who are proactive.

The Meeting then resumed the reading of Beelzebub's Tales, clockwise round the table.

In the context of an argument between children about how to catch a pigeon, Gurdjieff included the following section in a contrasting style of language:

"...Suppose it is true that the greatest physical force of the pigeon is concentrated in that big toe, then all the more, what we've got to do is to see that just that toe will be caught in the noose. Only then will there be any sense to our aim – that is to say, for catching these unfortunate pigeon creatures – in that brain-particularity proper to all possessors of that soft and slippery 'something' which consists in this, that when, thanks to other actions, from which its insignificant manifestability depends, there arises a periodic requisite law conformable what is called 'change of presence,' then this small so to say 'law conformable confusion' which should proceed for the animation of other acts in its general functioning, immediately enables the center of gravity of the whole functioning, in which this slippery 'something' plays a very small part, to pass temporarily from its usual place to another place, owing to which there often obtains in the whole of this general functioning, unexpected results ridiculous to the point of absurdity."

There was a discussion on the significance of the phrase slippery 'something', as to whether it meant an aspect of consciousness difficult to sustain, or whether it meant nothing. The fight scene continues with a description which may refer to a change of consciousness, and a visual metaphor introducing one of Gurdjieff's abstract concepts:

"From this blow, I, as is said, 'saw stars', ... After a little time ... I then actually discovered that some foreign substance was in my mouth, and when I pulled it out with my fingers, it turned out to be nothing less than a tooth of large dimensions and strange form. ... This strange tooth had seven shoots and at the end of each of them there stood out in relief a drop of blood, and through each separate drop there shone clearly and definitely one of the seven aspects of the manifestation of the white ray."

As the Meeting was about to close, "R" suggested it might be beneficial to practice an exercise during the coming month, in addition to considering the reading. The exercise agreed upon was to remember, every day, to look at the time around midday, and again in the evening.

Stillness and the Wandering Mind

After a silence of one minute, each person gave a two-minute account of relevant experiences over the previous month.

[Removed at the request of BS.]

L spoke of experiencing an involuntary, sudden pausing of activity twice in the past few weeks. All thoughts disappeared and he stopped in his tracks, as if suddenly awaking from a dream. He wondered if this was an indication of some change resulting from attention to the Work. In addition he had received a message the previous evening that the musicians who were due to play his latest composition on Thursday had decided not to play it in full, saying that it was too difficult. His reaction to this showed elements of ego which were interesting to observe.

BW has been working on a play for radio, and is trying to find ways to maintain momentum yet remain awake. After summoning the will power to sit down to write and starting in a state of alert wakefullness, he would then during the writing feel himself falling away from this state of alertness, and although writing, slipping into a "sleeping" state. In addition he noted that trying to be present while in contact with other people can be off-putting to them.

M said that people can sense it if another is communicating from a different emotional state. Older people have different viewpoints when communicating, a bigger picture and perspective of time, and have very different ideas from when they were younger.

RM had been considering what the true balance in life should be, and how to wake up and be present. On one occasion, on waking from sleep, he had realised in a flash that happiness is directly related to the degree in which one can become engaged. When ego takes over people disengage, but when ego is released, harmony returns. After much thought, he had what he thought were Gurdjieff's three primary aims.

D's play had been performed on Friday. One of the actors had had only three days to prepare. There had also been very costly amendments necessary to the printed adverts, on which the wrong dates had been put. In the end the performance went well, but he was reminded of the Kate Bush song, Walk Straight Down The Middle:

...He thought he was gonna die, But he didn't.
She thought she just couldn't cope, But she did.
We thought it would be so hard, But it wasn't... It wasn't easy, though!

Z recounted that having found Beelzebub's Tales difficult to tackle in the past, but following the previous meeting, she had renewed interest in it. However she had come down with a virus and lost the impetus to continue.

T could relate to that, having been fired up after the last meeting with the book, she now realised that she hasn't looked at it for a few weeks. She works in Mental Health, and the last few weeks have been distraught, and she hadn't been dreaming. Attending a funeral had seemed cathartic, and dreaming had resumed, as if some sort of healing had started. The Gurdjieff Work has helped make sense of this trauma.

G said he had cruised through life. He does meditation but thought he might be better off in a group. In the mornings he mind is going everywhere. He had read material on Gurdjieff and the Work widely.

"R" related that her mother had died since she was last at a Meeting, and had been unable to come in April. She had encountered very helpful advice from an acupuncturist, who advised that at the start of the day one should be centred. She had found that without being centred, mental work has no value. Sitting quietly for fifteen minutes was an exercise advocated by Gurdjieff.

K had been involved formerly with the School of Economic Science, and used to experience stillness frequently, but over time this had gone from his life. He had tried a number of activities, and found bookbinding particularly useful for forcing one to be present, attentive and focused, as there are some moments in the process which require utter concentration.

A discussion of the contributions followed.

D related to L's experiences of stillness. After his play he felt a huge sense of relief, and noticed a cigarette butt and a stain on the pavement, seeing them with great clarity. L suggested that what D had at that moment was the sense of presence of a painter, seeing something in detail just as it was. D said it gave him a great sense of peace this morning, that the play was all over. RM said that this was because he wasn't associating.

L mentioned that "R"'s exercise of centering was reminiscent of the four principles of ki aikido: Keep one-point, Relax completely, Keep weight underside and Extend ki. T said that we moan about our bodies - that they hurt or ache or don't function as we want them to - but actually we are in our bodies when we are alive, and they are our experience of this existence and they are nearer to us than our surroundings, and one needs to attend more to this body consciousness and not try and escape into ideas or fantasies which are disconnected from this body state; we do not know where we were before we were born and we do not know where we will be when we die but we are in our bodies now and need to give our bodies our attention.

"R" brought up the issue of how one could extend the period of being awake. B said he can awake during stillness but falls asleep trying to apply this in doing some activity. K thought that there are some things we can do, like meditation, to make it more propitious that we might have a period of being awake. RM quoted Gurdjieff as saying that activity should be allowed to come to an end before starting the next - that space and coming to quietness is very important before coming to the next action, like a rest between notes in music. K found it useful to pause when getting into the car, and before leaving it, which gave more periods of temporary wakefulness.

Responding to G, T thought his experience was close to the Gurdjieff idea of self-observation, which can be uncomfortable and difficult, but is the Work. G and "R" discussed the meaning of suffering. "R" thought it was something to work against, one of the ingredients in life, that can be incorporated as a force to help us work.

RM said a useful tool was to remember oneself. G observed that a child is at one with the situation. T said that the child is pure experience and the adult is the observer of experience. "R" emphasised that the child "just is" and the child is not aware of itself experiencing. L talked of Gurdjieff's model of Essence and Personality, in which the child begins as essence and grows a shell of personality which can later be opened. "R" quoted Picasso: "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."

Prior to the Meeting continuing with Beelzebub's Tales, RM presented his list of Gurdjieff's primary aims:

THE VISION OF GURDJIEFF

1. To investigate from all sides, and to understand the exact significance and purpose of the life of man.


2. To discover, at all costs, some manner or means for destroying in people the predeliction for suggestibility which causes them to fall easily under the influence of "mass hypnosis". To develop in themselves rational, independence of thought and action.


3. To originate an institution for the preparation of "helper-instructors", in order to be able to put into the lives of people what he had learned.

On point 2, T gave the example of David Hockney, who, as a child, was told not to draw now, but leave it till later. He would sit at the back of class and draw cacti.

G asked who decides there is a purpose. "R" said that maybe there is no significance. M thought there has to be significance, otherwise nothing would exist. G said the mind needs a purpose. L talked of the existentialists under occupation in France, who found purpose in resistance. K thought it was up to the individual; some people decide they have a higher purpose. M said there are times when we all wonder what life is all about. To get joy out of life you have to find what you are really cut out to do or really want. There is usually something you can find if you can avoid other distractions. If people can find out their real purpose, it can be quite revealing. L thought it useful for people to cast their minds back to early childhood, as what stirred the child would most closely relate to essence, before the outer shell of personality is formed.

As attention moved to Beelzebub's Tales, K said that initially much of the writing seems nonsense, with long, convoluted sentences, but some parts make sense, e.g. about doing the unconventional. He asked for a quick summary of the book, which was provided by "R": Gurdjieff invented a world of metaphor as if visiting from another planet, which enabled a description of life on this planet from an impartial point of view.

The reading of Beelzebub's Tales then resumed, working clockwise round the table.

"...my dear now deceased grandmother placed her dying left hand on my head and in a whisper, yet very distinctly, said: 'Eldest of my grandsons! Listen and always remember my strict injunction to you: In life never do as others do. ... Either do nothing – just go to school – or do something nobody else does."

BW wondered how to tell the difference between conforming and doing what one wants to do, as rebelling can lead to a different conformity. M thought that not all habits are bad. D said it is hard to step out of the pack.

Struggle and Salvation

The Meeting began with a silence of one minute.

Then each person gave a two-minute account of relevant experiences over the previous month.

D recounted an incident where he had been explaining the meaning of acronyms used in text messaging, including "omg", which led to him being accused of blasphemy. D responded robustly, and the other person is now urging D to find salvation through conversion to Christianity. Observing his own reactions, D noted he had experienced an intensity of reaction in this exchange that touched something deep and unresolved.

M described being in conversation with people and noticing that they were not listening to what he was saying, and continuing to talk about their own interests as if he had not spoken. It was as if they were inhabiting another place rather than the present experience. He added that he observes himself doing the same thing too, on occasion.

Z spoke of resistance she has experienced with regard to reading Beelzebub's Tales.

BW has been trying to understand what the Work is about. He sets goals, but finds them hard to accomplish. His recent performance in theatre completed, he has been writing, but is not satisfied with the quality of his draft and feels he needs to rewrite it.

T had been to the Lucian Freud exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Each painting had taken one to three years to paint, and yet looking at them in their entirety revealed no evidence of the passing of time, or of the struggle to reach the completed work. She has been working on one painting for a year, and has learnt more from this one work than in all her years of painting more short-term pieces. She felt encouraged by the magnificent exhibition of works by a "master" who stayed with painting one picture over a prolonged period of time.

RM spoke about his experience over the last few months of being on a 56 day cruise along the Amazon River. He had organised open meditation, morning and evening teaching and discussion meetings, creating a daily structure within which people attended and participated. Attendance grew over the weeks and there was enormous interest and enthusiasm. The strength of this experience has reinforced for him the idea to develop a similar course here, for which he is in the process of creating the structure and content, and feels there is a huge untapped appetite in the population.

L spoke of the illusion of free will, and how the the exertion of will power and self-awareness seems to incur stronger resistance. The creating of art could play a significant role in the Work, and Lucian Freud was an example of successful application of will-power.

[Removed at the request of BS.]

A discussion of the contributions followed.

BW asked D what he had not liked about the communications from the Christian. D thought it had triggered the same rebellious feelings in him that he recalled from childhood, when those in authority demanded that he think and act in a way alien to his own thoughts and feelings. L thought the message a little threatening in its symbology, and the implied consequence of not choosing salvation as urged. M said the word Christ comes from the Greek Χριστός, which means "saviour", which could be understood in any religion as that which would save you. Z knows a local Christian minister well, and respects him; everyone is in a different place.

Z suggested that BW think of his work in terms of struggle. The struggle can be interpreted as food in the Work. L commented that Gurdjieff uses the metaphor of food in Beelzebub's Tales, and that in writing, struggle is good. If there is no struggle, the writing might not be good enough. RM recommended using Ouspensky's Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution as a text to help people learn Gurdjieff's ideas. This was the book he had used in his sessions on the cruise, and it had been very effective. L said that the Meetings were "Gurdjieff Meetings", focusing on Gurdjieff, and asked why Ouspensky's interpretation of Gurdjieff's ideas would be better than Gurdjieff's own writings. T mentioned that even in the context of Beelzebub's Tales, it was difficult to locate the original version approved by Gurdjieff.

The reading of Beelzebub's Tales then resumed. A deck of cards brought in by BW was used to select randomly who would read next.

"I shall expound my thoughts ... (so) that the essence of certain real notions may of themselves automatically, so to say, go from this 'waking consciousness' ... into what you call the subconscious, which ought to be in my opinion the real human consciousness, and ... mechanically bring about ... the results ... which are proper to man and not merely to single- or double-brained animals."

RM explained that by "waking consciousness" Gurdjieff means the moving centre, or illusion. M said that humans are triple-brained as they have an intellectual centre in addition to emotional and instinctive ones. RM spoke of the speeds of the three centres, describing the instinctive centre as being 30,000 times faster than the emotional, which is itself 30,000 times faster than the intellectual.

It was decided that discussion of each paragraph be limited to five minutes, to promote passage through the book, and the reading continued:

"In the entirety of every man ... are formed two independent consciousnesses which... have almost nothing in common. One consciousness is formed from the perception of all kinds of ... impressions ...; and the other ... transmitted to him by heredity, which have become blended ..."

T found this paragraph mind-boggling, and wondered if this might have been Gurdjieff's intention. RM explained that Gurdjieff is referring to essence and personality, or nature and nurture.

Gurdjieff goes on to say that he is "... obliged to construct the general exposition even of this first chapter ... calculating that it should reach, and in the manner required for my aim 'ruffle', the perceptions accumulated in both these consciousnesses of yours."