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Post by stardustpilgrim on Dec 23, 2023 20:15:12 GMT -5
Knowledge can be acquired by a suitable and complete study, no matter what the starting point is. Only one must know how to ‘learn.’ What is nearest to us is man; and you are the nearest of all men to yourself. Begin with the study of yourself; remember the saying ‘know thyself.’ G.I. Gurdjieff ~ You've mentioned something specific about where Gurdjieff derived most of his ideas. I can't find it. Could you point me in the right direction? I'm curious, because I originally took this maxim 'Know Thyself' to be one of psychological, inward awareness, likely due to my struggles at the time. Then, later, I read that the Greeks typically used it to express that one should understand one's limits, how they fit into society, one's relationship to 'others', etc. There was no 'my soul', but more of a collective sense of the 'soul in me' that others see/know (same root, I think). So, wondering how he might approach the concept. Part 2 Just found this, I've never read it before. Browsed shortly, seems a pretty good article. Am well acquainted with the basic ideas. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The search begins with finding a spiritual teacher who is in direct contact with the Inner Circle of Humanity. Gurdjieff described this critical step as the ‘first threshold’ and the beginning of the ‘stairway.’ As the seeker ascends the stairway with the help of a guide, he or she eventually reaches the ‘way’ or path of higher development. Gurdjieff stressed that a teacher is necessary to guide the aspirant during the initial preparatory stages of spiritual development. Once the seeker has completely ascended the ‘stairway,’ he or she is capable of completing the spiritual journey alone and of entering the ranks of the Inner Circle. But, there are many challenges and obstacles that must be overcome in climbing the stairway and the aid of a teacher is essential. A Fourth Way school exists to achieve conscious work directed towards a specific aim or undertaking. Once the aim has been achieved the school “disappears from the given place, disappears in its given form, continuing perhaps in another place in another form . . . [These schools] never exist by themselves as schools for the purpose of education and instruction.” (23) When the task of a Fourth Way school is completed the inner dynamic is withdrawn and only the outer shell remains. Yet, the outer form may continue to exist for decades, even centuries. Many of Gurdjieff's students believe that during the course of his travels in the East he made contact with the Inner Circle of Humanity or Masters of Wisdom and derived his teachings from the ancient primordial current of esoteric knowledge that is the root or source of all known spiritual traditions: “He must have gone beyond the surface forms to the very core of these teachings and made them authentically his own.” Gurdjieff acknowledged that he had teachers and had studied in Eastern esoteric schools, although never directly identifying either by name or tradition. Although some of Gurdjieff's students and independent scholars believe that he contacted an esoteric school guided by initiates of the Inner Circle of Humanity who inspired and directed his teaching enterprise, the identity of these guardians of esoteric knowledge has never been ascertained and their nature and mission remains a mystery. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Still looking for the page number of the direct quote (herein) from In Search of the Miraculous. This is very short. found it, good ole Wiki, page 286 In Search of the Miraculous, He agreed that the teaching was esoteric but claimed that none of it was veiled in secrecy but that many people lack the interest or the capability to understand it.[7] Gurdjieff said, " The teaching whose theory is here being set out is completely self supporting and independent of other lines and it has been completely unknown up to the present time."
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Post by stardustpilgrim on Dec 23, 2023 21:15:58 GMT -5
Knowledge can be acquired by a suitable and complete study, no matter what the starting point is. Only one must know how to ‘learn.’ What is nearest to us is man; and you are the nearest of all men to yourself. Begin with the study of yourself; remember the saying ‘know thyself.’ G.I. Gurdjieff ~ You've mentioned something specific about where Gurdjieff derived most of his ideas. I can't find it. Could you point me in the right direction? I'm curious, because I originally took this maxim 'Know Thyself' to be one of psychological, inward awareness, likely due to my struggles at the time. Then, later, I read that the Greeks typically used it to express that one should understand one's limits, how they fit into society, one's relationship to 'others', etc. There was no 'my soul', but more of a collective sense of the 'soul in me' that others see/know (same root, I think). So, wondering how he might approach the concept. Part 3 Later I will try to more directly answer your question. But by "Know thyself" Gurdjieff said the beginning means is self-study, just observe what manifests (sensations, bodily actions, thoughts, feelings/emotions, in basically that order), without evaluation, without criticism, without judgement, being impartial. So (your) inward awareness is the means.
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Post by inavalan on Dec 24, 2023 0:28:26 GMT -5
Knowledge can be acquired by a suitable and complete study, no matter what the starting point is. Only one must know how to ‘learn.’ What is nearest to us is man; and you are the nearest of all men to yourself. Begin with the study of yourself; remember the saying ‘know thyself.’ G.I. Gurdjieff ~ In my experience, that is true: knowing (learning) how to learn makes a difference. First time I realized it in the college; it helped with efficiency, retention, confidence. It is the same with spiritual development. A difficulty, in this case, is that you don't know what you have to learn, from whom, nor how. Your intuition could help you find better answers to these questions, but you must be careful that whatever you already believe and expect will materialize for you, even when it has no basis in reality.
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Post by stardustpilgrim on Dec 24, 2023 1:20:46 GMT -5
Knowledge can be acquired by a suitable and complete study, no matter what the starting point is. Only one must know how to ‘learn.’ What is nearest to us is man; and you are the nearest of all men to yourself. Begin with the study of yourself; remember the saying ‘know thyself.’ G.I. Gurdjieff ~ In my experience, that is true: knowing (learning) how to learn makes a difference. First time I realized it in the college; it helped with efficiency, retention, confidence. It is the same with spiritual development. A difficulty, in this case, is that you don't know what you have to learn, from whom, nor how. Your intuition could help you find better answers to these questions, but you must be careful that whatever you already believe and expect will materialize for you, even when it has no basis in reality. I had to examine every word to like this, sdp essentially likes.
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Post by stardustpilgrim on Feb 21, 2024 11:45:14 GMT -5
This breaks my time away, temporarily. I was going to drop in for one post April 1st, so this will be instead of that. I just now chanced on this video. It's 15 minutes, a pretty good introduction. It shows some film of Gurdjieff I've never seen before, shows the movements, which he collected, memorized, shows some of the 1977 Peter Brooks film, Meetings With Remarkable Men. It does not give any of the Gurdjieff music, maybe for copyright reasons(?), but the music, which he also collected, memorized, is as distinctive as the movements, much of it written (played for Thomas de Hartmann, who wrote it down as sheet music) to accompany the movements. It has one thing incorrect, the now-popular nine personality types did not come from Gurdjieff, they were invented by Oscar Ichazo (his Arica Institute) and Claudio Naranjo. But there are essence types, which Gurdjieff did teach, but there are more than nine.
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