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Post by stardustpilgrim on Sept 14, 2017 17:46:12 GMT -5
"All the absurdities and cruelties of life, all the waste and imbecilities, all the vain-glory and insincerity, all the lies, all the pretense and falsities and misunderstandings, are due to one definite cause, as this Work teaches--namely, people do not remember themselves. In consequence, they are driven, as by belt, by constantly changing outer circumstances, war and peace, and so on. Life is constantly changing circumstances. What is it in us that is driven? It is the external, acquired side of us, called Personality. We have an outer and inner man, an outer and inner woman. If the inner were developed in each of us--the real, essential part--all life would be different and we would no longer be at the mercy of changing outer circumstances, now having something internally stable. ...In Self-Remembering one does not remember the Personality...but something behind this acquired part which surrounds essence...For one man merely to remember that he is...an aristocrat, or a doctor, or that he is a labourer, or that he is rich or poor, good looking or ugly--all that is not to remember oneself. Each man, each woman, has at the back of them, deep to Essence within, Real 'I'.
...So the Work teaches that when a man or woman comes to the point of realizing his or her own nothingness, then this self then this nothingness attracts Real 'I'. ...So Self-Remembering can never be based on your self-merit, but only on a gradual feeling--profoundly emotional--and by this is meant the inner perception of the truth about yourself--of your own unreality which hitherto you have taken as yourself. So the Work talks of Imaginary 'I' or false personality, and teaches in so many ways that this Imaginary 'I', with which people advance into life and which continually they suffer from, must be made passive. ...
Now in regard to separation by non-identifying, it is said that in separating, say, from negative emotion--that is, struggling not to identify with it--you must at the same time try to remember yourself, remember your aim, and remember all the Work means to you so far. Then force withdrawn from some typical reaction, by separation, passes into Self-Remembering and so does not flood some other mechanical reaction". pgs 1064, 1065
Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 3, 1952, Maurice Nicoll
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Post by stardustpilgrim on Sept 29, 2017 13:44:22 GMT -5
ALL AND EVERYTHING
Ten Books in Three Series
FIRST SERIES: Three books under the title of "An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man," or, "Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson."
SECOND SERIES: Three books under the common title of "Meetings With Remarkable Men."
THIRD SERIES: Four books under the common title of "Life Is Real Only Then, When 'I Am,'"
All written accordingly to entirely new principles of logical reasoning and strictly directed towards the solution of the following three cardinal problems:
FIRST SERIES: To destroy, mercilessly, without any compromises whatsoever, in the mentation and feelings of the reader, the beliefs and views, by centuries rooted in him, about everything existing in the world.
SECOND SERIES: To acquaint the reader with the material required for a new creation and to prove the soundness and good quality of it.
THIRD SERIES: To assist the arising, in the mentation and in the feelings of the reader, of a veritable, nonfantastic representation not of that illusory world which he now perceives, but of the world existing in reality.
first page after the title page, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, GI Gurdjieff, 1950
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Post by stardustpilgrim on Oct 5, 2017 17:28:33 GMT -5
"All the beings of this planet then began to work in order to have in their consciousness this Divine function of genuine conscience, and for this purpose, as everywhere in the Universe, they transubstantiated in themselves what are called the 'being-obligolnian-strivings' which consist of the following five, namely:
"The first striving: to have in their ordinary being-existence everything satisfying and really necessary for their planetary body.
"The second striving: to have a constant and unflaggging instinctive need for self-perfection in the sense of being.
"The third: the conscious striving to know ever more and more concerning the laws of World-creation and World-maintenance.
"The fourth: the striving from the beginning of their existence to pay for their arising and their individuality as quickly as possible, in order afterwards to be free to lighten as much as possible the Sorrow of our COMMON FATHER.
"And the fifth: the striving always to assist the most rapid perfecting of other beings, both those similar to oneself and those of other forms, up to the degree of the sacred 'Martfotai' that is up to the degree of self-individuality".
pgs 385,386 Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, 1950, GI Gurdjieff
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2017 2:48:26 GMT -5
"All the beings of this planet then began to work in order to have in their consciousness this Divine function of genuine conscience, and for this purpose, as everywhere in the Universe, they transubstantiated in themselves what are called the 'being-obligolnian-strivings' which consist of the following five, namely: "The first striving: to have in their ordinary being-existence everything satisfying and really necessary for their planetary body. "The second striving: to have a constant and unflaggging instinctive need for self-perfection in the sense of being. "The third: the conscious striving to know ever more and more concerning the laws of World-creation and World-maintenance. "The fourth: the striving from the beginning of their existence to pay for their arising and their individuality as quickly as possible, in order afterwards to be free to lighten as much as possible the Sorrow of our COMMON FATHER. "And the fifth: the striving always to assist the most rapid perfecting of other beings, both those similar to oneself and those of other forms, up to the degree of the sacred 'Martfotai' that is up to the degree of self-individuality". pgs 385,386 Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, 1950, GI Gurdjieff The second is tear inducing, the fourth is guilt inducing. |
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Post by stardustpilgrim on Oct 6, 2017 5:37:10 GMT -5
"All the beings of this planet then began to work in order to have in their consciousness this Divine function of genuine conscience, and for this purpose, as everywhere in the Universe, they transubstantiated in themselves what are called the 'being-obligolnian-strivings' which consist of the following five, namely: "The first striving: to have in their ordinary being-existence everything satisfying and really necessary for their planetary body. "The second striving: to have a constant and unflaggging instinctive need for self-perfection in the sense of being. "The third: the conscious striving to know ever more and more concerning the laws of World-creation and World-maintenance. "The fourth: the striving from the beginning of their existence to pay for their arising and their individuality as quickly as possible, in order afterwards to be free to lighten as much as possible the Sorrow of our COMMON FATHER. "And the fifth: the striving always to assist the most rapid perfecting of other beings, both those similar to oneself and those of other forms, up to the degree of the sacred 'Martfotai' that is up to the degree of self-individuality". pgs 385,386 Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, 1950, GI Gurdjieff The second is tear inducing, the fourth is guilt inducing. That's not the intention of the fourth. (Life comes for free, individuality does not. But paying for the latter also pays for the former. Those only interested in the former, feel no guilt for-it. So guilt need not enter. Once you come to understand the latter, there's only gratitude, guilt does not enter). The meaning of conscience used here, has nothing to do with our ordinary meaning of the word conscience, thus the word, genuine, is used. (Context is everything. Note the five strivings are what bring conscience, not vice versa). |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2017 13:39:17 GMT -5
The second is tear inducing, the fourth is guilt inducing. That's not the intention of the fourth. (Life comes for free, individuality does not. But paying for the latter also pays for the former. Those only interested in the former, feel no guilt for-it. So guilt need not enter. Once you come to understand the latter, there's only gratitude, guilt does not enter). The meaning of conscience used here, has nothing to do with our ordinary meaning of the word conscience, thus the word, genuine, is used. (Context is everything. Note the five strivings are what bring conscience, not vice versa). How do you know it's not the intention? I get that life is free, really I do. Deeply. And yeah I get that believing I am an individual has a price, in fact Enigma made this very point, only 2 days ago.. spiritualteachers.proboards.com/post/430285So, the price of being an individual who can experience the inherent freeness of all life, is that they have to feel grateful to a father that is full of Sorrow?  ..Reads again, yeah .. that's quite a hook, and in Reality a lie, though in duality, possibly helpful, depending on the mood of the piece. |
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Post by stardustpilgrim on Oct 6, 2017 21:53:16 GMT -5
That's not the intention of the fourth. (Life comes for free, individuality does not. But paying for the latter also pays for the former. Those only interested in the former, feel no guilt for-it. So guilt need not enter. Once you come to understand the latter, there's only gratitude, guilt does not enter). The meaning of conscience used here, has nothing to do with our ordinary meaning of the word conscience, thus the word, genuine, is used. (Context is everything. Note the five strivings are what bring conscience, not vice versa). How do you know it's not the intention? I get that life is free, really I do. Deeply. And yeah I get that believing I am an individual has a price, in fact Enigma made this very point, only 2 days ago.. spiritualteachers.proboards.com/post/430285So, the price of being an individual who can experience the inherent freeness of all life, is that they have to feel grateful to a father that is full of Sorrow? ..Reads again, yeah .. that's quite a hook, and in Reality a lie, though in duality, possibly helpful, depending on the mood of the piece. If you look at strivings two, four and five (parts thereof) you can surmise that geniune individuality is not something we are born with, we are only born with that potential. Gurdjieff stated this elsewhere and in another way by saying we are not born with a soul. How do I know it's not the intention? 41 years of study and work. The Work does not consist of ideas to be believed, but knowledge and practices that must be verified. To ascend the ladder, you have to construct the next step. Genuine individuality has a price. To find the real we have to give up the imaginary. |
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Post by stardustpilgrim on Oct 20, 2017 15:10:13 GMT -5
Selected excerpts.
from the section: Being
"...sometimes one is forced to put aside all that one has read in books or heard, and ask oneself what one really knows for oneself,...
There are many things we have accepted in theory; but we have not yet seen their full implications. ...So much is unknown when we look into ourselves, our fate, our duty, our connections with people and things around us. We are like men who have studied the theory and history of architecture, but haven't yet started building their own houses. It is the individual himself who in the end has to get in there and do the work, if he is to reap the harvest he wants. No one else can do the work for him,...no one can persuade him or coax him. He must find something in himself that longs above everything to grow, to struggle, to wake up". pg 1
"If people always remember that they cannot lose by experiment, they can always lose by trying nothing, much can be learned. Much can always be learned; good times or bad times...
There is a phase when one has to go away from external knowledge, and find everything in oneself.
What you know, you know. Do not let anyone steal that from you. pg 2
...impression(s) may be the same that one receives every day, but one day (they are) digested, that is, transformed into a higher hydrogen*. And this transformation is directly connected with self-remembering*. Such moments come as a result of efforts to self-remember; and they in turn make a new level of self-remembering possible.
One's own inner life becomes the object of observation, ...
...something has to melt first," ... pg 3
"Perhaps finding one's role is connected with finding ...one's weaknesses,... But to one's own role one must come; then everything else falls into place.
How does desire grow? The wider the vision the greater the desire. We desire little because we see little.
The question of aim is not easy. ...no imitated aim...is going to move anyone anywhere. ...I would rather someone said frankly: 'My aim is to produce a first-class play', than for him to say: 'My aim is to wish to become conscious.' For from the first he can begin to move here and now, whereas he may sit twenty years in the second without appreciable change at all". pg 4
...'noble aims' often arise from beautiful imagination of personality* and can find no daily nourishment.
There is much to do, on a big scale as well as a on a small one.
On this road we can liberate ourselves from out illusions and limitations, ...
There is very much to be done.". pg 5
"Easy acceptance on the one hand or negative argument on the other are equally resistant obstacles, each belonging to different types of people.
There are tremendous possibilities before us". pg 6
"...it is characteristic of the tradition we are studying that it must be realized in life itself". pg 7
"Whatever happens we must not let ourselves be shaken in what we really know. We must always act and speak from it, never from imitation". pg 9
"Work is never work if it doesn't progress. it progresses by leaving fears behind. Fear of losing old forms, fear of being left naked, fear of opinions, fear of the new, fear of the forces of life-all these must be left behind. To understand the big work, we must be free of all fear whatsoever". pg 10
"...a field of influence was projected through Gurdjieff... When we really enter this field of influence and expose ourselves to it, manyn things change for us. Some doors close and other doors open. Only it takes a very long time and much study and experience to take advantage of this situation. ...
Trying to please other people whose credos are different is exhausting, demoralizing and leads nowhere. I wish we could give it up..." pg 11
from The Theory of Conscious Harmony by Rodney Collin, 1958
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Post by stardustpilgrim on Oct 20, 2017 15:29:18 GMT -5
continued:
"...everything has to be paid for, ...
In the field of influence in which we now find ourselves we are being watched and helped all the time". pg 12
...the influence under which we live seems to be pressing us all every day...to leave behind pretensions and protections, and to affirm what we already know clearly and bravely. It is made so extraordignarily uncomfortable to loiter that we have every possible incentive to go towards light and freedom.
What strange things happen to us, when we are alert. Fate pushes us into a corner, and if we don't try to slip out from under, teaches us as much in minutes as would otherwise take years to learn. But what is this fate which knocks the ground from under our feet precisely that we should learn to fly? And who arranges it? That we must find out.
And one goes on, if one is on the right road, it will happen more and more. Sometimes disconcerting, sometimes unbearable-but those moments when we are stripped of habit, and left helpless, are really the moments of our opportunity. It is important not to struggle against them or run away-but quietly go through them to something new". pg 13
...children are most deeply effected by example". pg 14
Conscience
"At this stage there is only one guarantee of safety-and that is the gradual awakening of conscience. Without this, all other efforts are wasted, and esoteric work in the end can only turn to crime.
...at a certain point, in order to find one's way, it is absolutely essential to find conscience. No amount of guidance, no amount of obedience, can take its place. And strangely, guidance, taken in the wrong way, can even prevent conscience waking up". pg 15
"Without conscience, everything leads to a dead end.
How can one develop the right attitude in all this?" {note: By realizing that one must have no attitudes. T.G.}
from The Theory of Conscious Harmony, Rodney Collin, 1958
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2017 16:33:46 GMT -5
continued: "...everything has to be paid for, ... In the field of influence in which we now find ourselves we are being watched and helped all the time". pg 12...the influence under which we live seems to be pressing us all every day...to leave behind pretensions and protections, and to affirm what we already know clearly and bravely. It is made so extraordignarily uncomfortable to loiter that we have every possible incentive to go towards light and freedom. What strange things happen to us, when we are alert. Fate pushes us into a corner, and if we don't try to slip out from under, teaches us as much in minutes as would otherwise take years to learn. But what is this fate which knocks the ground from under our feet precisely that we should learn to fly? And who arranges it? That we must find out. And one goes on, if one is on the right road, it will happen more and more. Sometimes disconcerting, sometimes unbearable-but those moments when we are stripped of habit, and left helpless, are really the moments of our opportunity. It is important not to struggle against them or run away-but quietly go through them to something new". pg 13 ...children are most deeply effected by example". pg 14 Conscience"At this stage there is only one guarantee of safety-and that is the gradual awakening of conscience. Without this, all other efforts are wasted, and esoteric work in the end can only turn to crime. ...at a certain point, in order to find one's way, it is absolutely essential to find conscience. No amount of guidance, no amount of obedience, can take its place. And strangely, guidance, taken in the wrong way, can even prevent conscience waking up". pg 15 "Without conscience, everything leads to a dead end. How can one develop the right attitude in all this?" {note: By realizing that one must have no attitudes. T.G.} from The Theory of Conscious Harmony, Rodney Collin, 1958 Take the bolded to the highest possible meaning that you can. |
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Post by stardustpilgrim on Oct 22, 2017 11:06:24 GMT -5
February 2, 1946 On Keeping the Work Alive in Oneself
"...We are given the task of remembering ourselves at least once or twice a day. Do you find this is possible or is it merely a matter of memory without anything real resulting? To remember oneself means to get into a quite different state in oneself. A different feeling of 'I' belongs to this state because it is a lifting up of consciousness to a higher level--that is, out of the so-called waking state or second state of consciousness that we have in ordinary affairs which is peopled by small 'I's. To remember oneself is not a thought nor can it be a matter of mere memory. Now I may remember that I have to remember myself but not actually remember myself--that is, it remains a question of memory and nothing more. This is a common state to be in. You must need to remember yourself in order to do so and when need comes in Will comes in--that is: I desire to remember myself, I wish to remember myself. A great deal of one's personal work is spent in thinking and not doing what we think. The Will-part of us is not involved.
The Work will remain inoperative unless a person thinks about the ideas and applies them to his own Being. Now our Will belongs to the Being-side of us because it is our level of Being that eventually decides what we do. I may intellectually decide to act in a certain way but my level of Being causes me to act in a quite different way. I therefore increasingly perceive something in me that acts independently and ignores my fleeting decisions. On many occasions it was said in the early days that the object of this Work is to awaken the Emotional Center which is the seat of the Will but that this is not possible unless the intellectual part of us awakens first. What does it mean that the Intellectual Center must awaken in this Work? It means to begin with that we no longer take the Work as something on the blackboard that we have to memorize. The next stage is that the mind begins to see the truth of the ideas of the Work. When a man begins to see the truth of this Work after years of personal work he passes into a difficult stage of it because the state of his Being does not yet become effected by the truth of the knowledge taught him by the Work that he sees now through Intellectual Center. It might be said that this is really the first stage of the Work because then his Being becomes a real problem and the observation of his Being becomes a matter of real practical concern for him. When a man begins to see the truth of this Work for himself, without the help of others, he begins to have his own source of work in himself. It grows on him. He is, to a small extent, awake--that is, awake in some small part of his mind--but if he imagines that this is enough he is greatly mistaken. In fact, he us only beginning to understand what the Work means in regard to himself and what he has to work on and why". Pgs 841-842
From Psychological Commentaries on the Teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 3 by Maurice Nicoll, 1952
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Post by stardustpilgrim on Oct 24, 2017 13:48:31 GMT -5
Time-Body September 28, 1946
Man is both in Time and in Eternity. Eternity is vertical to Time--and this is the direction to Self-Remembering--the feeling of oneself now. Every now is eternal. To remember oneself the feeling of now must enter--I here now--I myself now--I distinct from past or future--the nowness of myself--I now. And if the act is successful you will know yourself that Eternity is always in now and can be experienced as a different taste from Time. Notice that I do not speak any longer of the present moment registered by the senses, but of now, of this internal experience that Self-Remembering can actually give. Real 'I' is in Eternity--not in Time. Self-Remembering is out of Time and Personality. It is not surprising that Self-Remembering can give a feeling utterly different from that given by our relation to hurrying, anxious Time. Essence has not the feelings of Personality which are of Time only. ...We already know that the Work teaches that we are created as an experiment--as self-developing organisms--and therefore we can understand why we feel incomplete and why a man, moulded only by life--that is, having only his acquired Personality active--must always feel incomplete, unfinished, and so internally helpless. It is not the force of life which lies in Time that can make personality passive--how could it, when it is the force that made it? Only another force coming from a different direction can make personality passive and feed Essence--the Eternal part of us. One can then begin to see that all esoteric teaching must have the quality of Eternity about it, and being so can develop essence, which is Eternal. pg 945
Psychological Commentaries on the Teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky vol. 3, Maurice Nicoll, 1952
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Post by stardustpilgrim on Feb 6, 2019 17:57:11 GMT -5
.........bump......... continued: "...everything has to be paid for, ... In the field of influence in which we now find ourselves we are being watched and helped all the time". pg 12 ...the influence under which we live seems to be pressing us all every day...to leave behind pretensions and protections, and to affirm what we already know clearly and bravely. It is made so extraordignarily uncomfortable to loiter that we have every possible incentive to go towards light and freedom. What strange things happen to us, when we are alert. Fate pushes us into a corner, and if we don't try to slip out from under, teaches us as much in minutes as would otherwise take years to learn. But what is this fate which knocks the ground from under our feet precisely that we should learn to fly? And who arranges it? That we must find out. And one goes on, if one is on the right road, it will happen more and more. Sometimes disconcerting, sometimes unbearable-but those moments when we are stripped of habit, and left helpless, are really the moments of our opportunity. It is important not to struggle against them or run away-but quietly go through them to something new". pg 13 ...children are most deeply effected by example". pg 14 Conscience"At this stage there is only one guarantee of safety-and that is the gradual awakening of conscience. Without this, all other efforts are wasted, and esoteric work in the end can only turn to crime. ...at a certain point, in order to find one's way, it is absolutely essential to find conscience. No amount of guidance, no amount of obedience, can take its place. And strangely, guidance, taken in the wrong way, can even prevent conscience waking up". pg 15 "Without conscience, everything leads to a dead end. How can one develop the right attitude in all this?" {note: By realizing that one must have no attitudes. T.G.} from The Theory of Conscious Harmony, Rodney Collin, 1958 |
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Post by stardustpilgrim on Sept 12, 2019 12:27:01 GMT -5
..."we take the thing which we call oneself--that is, myself, yourself--as one thing. We think we are ourselves.
Work on oneself is thus made quite impossible. How can you work on you, if you and you in each case are one and the same thing? But you and yourself are not the same thing. If you and yourself were the same thing, work on yourself would be impossible... A thing identical with itself cannot see itself, because it is the same as itself, and a thing which is the same as itself cannot possibly have a standpoint apart from itself, from which to observe itself.
I say all this in order to emphasize how difficult it is for people to begin to work on themselves. If a man takes himself as himself he cannot observe himself. Everything is himself. He says 'I' to everything...At one moment he is irritable and rude, at the next kind and polite. But he says 'I' to it all. And so he cannot see it all. It is all one to him...This massive stumbling block lies across everyone's path and long, very long overcoming of it is the task of work on oneself. I have watched people in the Work often for many years, who have not yet caught a single flash of the meaning of self-observation--that is, people who still take everything that takes place in them as 'I' and say 'I' to every mood, every thought, every impulse, every feeling, every sensation, every criticism, every feeling of anger, every negative state, every objection, every dislike, every hate, every dejection, every depression, every whim, every excitement, every doubt, every fear. To every train of inner talking they say 'I', to every suspicion they say 'I', to every hurt feeling they say 'I', to every form of imagination they say 'I', to every movement they make they say 'I'. To everything that takes place within them they say 'I'. They continue to talk as they have always talked and say 'I' to it all. They continue to feel and to think as they have always felt and thought, and to say 'I' to it all. To all their manifestations, to all their mechanicalness, to all their inner life, they say 'I'. And since everything is 'I', what is there to work on? ...For who can work on 'I' if everything is 'I'? What can observe 'I' if everything is 'I'? The answer, of course, is that nothing can. A thing cannot observe itself. There must be something different in it for the thing to observe itself. And in our own cases, in the case of everyone, if there is nothing in us different from ourselves, how can we observe ourselves, and work on ourselves? For to work on oneself, it is necessary to begin to observe oneself. But if 'I' and 'myself' are one and the same, how can this ever be possible?
You have heard it said before that unless a man divides himself into two he cannot shift from where he is. He has to learn to say in the right way: This is not me--not 'I'. Now if he takes his negative emotions as a nasty bit of himself, he will not be able to separate himself from them. Do you see why? He will not be able to separate himself from them because he is taking them as himself and so giving them the validity of 'I' ...Whereas the case really is that everything in us, practically speaking, is "It"--that is, a machine going by itself. Instead of saying "I think", we should realize it would be far nearer the truth if we said "It thinks". And instead of saying "I feel" it would be nearer the mark to say "It feels". " Maurice Nicoll
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Post by stardustpilgrim on Sept 24, 2019 8:52:35 GMT -5
Early in his career Maurice Nicoll was an associate of CG Jung. The Commentaries are short papers he wrote for his students, which were read in his groups, and then he commented, in-real-time on the papers. The Commentaries are oriented around the "psychology" of the teaching (thus the name), but in this excerpt he also gives a good taste of the Cosmology, the vertical scale of Being. Nicoll (being read) starts by talking about Work aim (the vertical scale) and life aim (the horizontal in time).
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