[edit] Fifth talk: Two exercises
This talk focuses almost entirely on two Gurdjieff exercises, and also on an emphasis that a necessary component of group work towards these exercises demands sincerity when it comes to speaking about results.
The first exercise is to intentionally practice "self-deception"—Gurdjieff explains that repeating aloud "I am", and accompanying this utterance by focusing on a real or imagined feeling of resonance within oneself, serves as a method of depositing an imagined property into a person's subconscious or his 'passive state' as it is referred. Once in his passive state, Gurdjieff explains it is possible to bring into fruition within the person whatever the person imagines during this practice. For example, Gurdjieff claims with this exercise it is possible to cure 'any type of disharmony' such as a headache.
The second exercise, one of dividing attention into two parts between one's breathing and then on other definite objects, is illustrated as a monologue demonstrated before the group.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Is_Real_Only_Then,_When_%27I_Am%27#Prologue
[edit] First talk
The first talk is his initial address to the New York chapter of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man. In this talk he explains his goals for returning to North America—that due to his (first) car accident the New York group, as well as other European and Asian groups, had fallen into disarray and maintenance of them had fallen into the hands of people he considers unfit. He goes on to explain the unique difficulty he has in addressing the members of the New York chapter—the difficulty which he refers to as 'mechanized mentation'. He speculates that the reason for the concentration of this particular trait in North America is 'abnormally superfluous reading of newspaper literature'.
One interesting note he makes in this lecture, while explaining the origin of the general course which he guides his Institute, is a claim that he consulted with individuals who lived over two-centuries, and who approached 300 years old.
[edit] Origins of the Fourth Way
It was noted in "In Search Of The Miraculous" that Gurdjieff refused to reveal the origins of his teaching or the Fourth Way. Later on in his autobiography, Gurdjieff credited certain people in Asia for many of his ideas, while he nevertheless still refused to divulge the origins of his system. For the origins of his system, and his teachings (as many people didn't accept Gurdjieff's claims on this subject), various intellectual and spiritual debts have been suggested:
- Technical vocabulary first appeared in early 19th century Russian freemasonry, derived from Robert Fludd, by P.D. Ouspensky
- Esoteric Christianity, by Boris Mouravieff
- Naqshbandi Sufism, by Idries Shah[16]
- Caucasian Ahmsta Kebzeh, by Murat Yagan[1]
- Tibetan Buddhism, by Jose Tirado [2]
J. G. Bennett traces the Fourth Way back in principle to Zoroaster, and explicitly to the 12th century Sufi leader, Abdulkhaliq Gujduvani. (Cf. "The Fourth Way" Bennett's last public lecture, available on CD from jgbennett.net)
[edit] Similarities with other teachings
There are some similarities between the Fourth Way teaching and other spiritual teachings.
- The stop exercise is similar to the Uqufi Zamani exercise in Omar Ali-Shah's book on the Rules or Secrets of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order.[17]
- The Fourth Way bears striking similarities with such integral paths as, for instance, Natya Yoga, where the "divine acting", sacred dance and music are some of the core concepts too.
- The insistence on the realization in the waking state, the "waking up" techniques are very similar to those used in Karma yoga
- Well after the promulgation of Gurdjieff’s ideas throughout the 20 and 30’s, subsequent writers have adopted various aspects of Gurdjieff’s teaching. Such is the case with Carlos Castaneda Don Juan's teaching. An example of this type of adaptation is Gurdjieff's moon symbolism, which asserts that humans aren't aware because of the moon. Don Juan taught that humans' awareness is eaten by higher beings.[18]
- The teachings on psychology by Samael Aun Weor also seems to have adopted similarities to those of the previously established ideas of Gurdjieff.[19]
[edit] Teachings and teaching methods
[edit] Basis of teachings
Gurdjieff's teachings mainly focused on the acquiring of the ability to constantly perform conscious labors and intentional suffering.[20]
Conscious Labors - This is a labor where the person who is performing the act is not absentminded during his act, but rather is "remembering himself" the entire time and what he is doing; and at the same time he is striving to perform the act more efficiently.
Intentional suffering - This is the act of struggling against the desires of the physical body such as daydreaming, pleasure, food (in terms of eating for reasons other than real hunger), etc... In Beelzebub's Tales it states that "the greatest "intentional suffering" can be obtained in our presences by compelling ourselves to endure the displeasing manifestations of others toward ourselves" [21]
Gurdjieff claimed that these two acts were the basis of all evolution of man.
[edit] Teachings
Gurdjieff's teachings dealt with an enormous number of subjects. His main explanations revolved around the following: Consciousness, Subconsciousness, Higher Consciousness, Conscience, Remorse of Conscience, The Physical Body's Functions, Higher Bodies, Centers, Self-Awareness, Knowledge vs. Understanding, Essence vs Personality, Universal Laws, Enneagram, Ray of Creation, Human History, Language, Hypnotism, Sacred Dance, Sacred Music, Humans' Natural Weaknesses...some are expanded below:
Self-Observation
One aspect is to strive to observe in one's self the certain behaviors and habits which are usually only observed in others, and to observe them in one's self as dispassionately as one may observe them in others; to observe one's self as an interesting stranger. Another aspect is to attempt to discover in one's self an attention that can differentiate between the actual thoughts, feelings, and sensations that are taking place at the moment, without judging or analyzing what is observed.[22]
Division of Attention - (Preliminary exercise to Self-Remembering)
Gurdjieff encouraged his students to cultivate the ability to divide their attention, that is, the ability to remain fully focused on an external object or internal thought while being aware of oneself. One might, for instance, let part of one's attention dwell in one's little finger, while the other half is aware of our own presence. In the division of attention, in the initial stages one may need to go back and forth between one thing and another. However, experiencing them both fully and simultaneously is the aim.
Self-Remembering
Beyond the division of attention lies "remembering oneself" - a state, which is permanent in a "conscious" person, while fleeting and temporary in the average people. In this state a person sees what is seen without ever losing sight of himself seeing. Ordinarily, when concentrating on something, people lose their sense of "I," although they may, as it were, passively react to the stimulus they are concentrating on. In self-remembering the "I" is not lost.
The Need for Efforts
Gurdjieff emphasized that awakening results from consistent, prolonged efforts. These efforts are the ones that are made after a person is already exhausted and feels that he can't go anymore, but nevertheless he pushes himself.
The Many 'I's
Many I's is a term which indicates the different feelings and thoughts of ‘I’ in a person: I think, I want, I know best, I prefer, I am happy, I am hungry, I am tired, etc. These feelings and thoughts of ‘I’ usually have nothing in common with one another, and are present for short periods of time. They tie in directly with Gurdjieff's claim that man has no unity in himself. This lack of unity results in wanting one thing now, and another, perhaps contradictory, thing later.
Relaxation
Gurdjieff claimed that people's bodies are over-tensed during their actions, and thus they unnecessarily waste a lot of energy. Gurdjieff focused on ways of relaxing the physical body and minimizing the tenseness of the human muscles.
Centers
- Main article Centers (Fourth Way)
Gurdjieff classified plants as having one center, animals two and humans three. Centers refer to apparatuses within a being that dictate specific organic functions. There are three main centers in a man: intellectual, emotional and physical, and two higher centers: higher emotional and higher intellectual.
Body, Essence and Personality
Gurdjieff divided people into three independent parts, that is, into Body, Essence and Personality. Body is the physical functions of a body. Essence - is a "natural part of a person" or "what he is born with". Personality - is everything artificial that he has "learned" and "seen". It was taught that Essence is the part of a being which is able to evolve.
Cosmic Laws
The two main cosmic laws on which Gurdjieff focused on are the Law of Three and the Law of Seven.
The Law of Three is also called "Triamazikamno" and is described by Gurdjieff as "the second fundamental cosmic law".
The law states that every whole phenomenon is composed of three separate sources, which are Active, Passive and Reconciling or Neutral. This law applies to everything in the universe and humanity, as well as all the structures and processes.
The Three Centers in a human, which Gurdjieff said were the Intellectual Centre, the Emotional Centre and the Moving Centre, are an expression of the law of three.
Gurdjieff taught his students to think of the law of three forces as essential to transforming the energy of the human being. The process of transformation requires the three actions of affirmation, denial and reconciliation.
The Law of Seven is also called "Heptaparaparshinokh" and is described by Gurdjieff as "the first fundamental cosmic law".
The law of seven is used to explain processes. The basic use of the law of seven is to explain why nothing in nature and in life constantly occurs in a straight line, that is to say that there are always ups and downs in life which occur lawfully. Examples of this can be noticed in athletic performances, where a high ranked athlete always has periodic downfalls, as well as in nearly all graphs that plot topics that occur over time, such as the economic graphs, population graphs, death-rate graphs and so on. All show parabolic periods that keep rising and falling. Gurdjieff claimed that since these periods occur lawfully based on the law of seven that it is possible to keep a process in a straight line if the necessary shocks were introduced at the right time.
How the law of seven functions is illustrated on the Enneagram. A piano keyboard is also a good place to begin one's study of the law of seven, as the seven notes of the major scale correspond exactly to it.
Law of Accident
Gurdjieff and his followers have written that one of the major aims of the Fourth Way system is to escape from the influence of the Law of Accident.
Moon symbolism
Gurdjieff was documented as teaching that people assimilate and transubstantiate certain matter which upon their death is released from their body and transferred to the Moon.[23] The simplest way of explaining this theory is by comparing it to other Biogeochemical cycle such as the Carbon Cycle or the Nitrogen Cycle. In the nitrogen cycle, bacteria assimilate and transfer nitrogen from the soil into the atmosphere. Parallel to this, in Gurdjieff's moon theory, humans assimilate a certain type of matter in order that it is transferred from the Earth to the Moon. [24]
[edit] The use of symbols
In his explanations Gurdjieff often used different symbols such as the Enneagram and the Ray of Creation. Gurdjieff said that "the enneagram is a universal symbol. All knowledge can be included in the enneagram and with the help of the enneagram it can be interpreted ... A man may be quite alone in the desert and he can trace the enneagram in the sand and in it read the eternal laws of the universe. And every time he can learn something new, something he did not know before."[25] The ray of creation is a diagram which represents the Earth's place in the Universe. The diagram has eight levels, each corresponding to Gurdjieff's laws of octaves.
Through the elaboration of the law of octaves and the meaning of the enneagram, Gurdjieff offered his students alternative means of conceptualizing the world and their place in it.
[edit] Working conditions and sacred dances
To provide conditions in which attention could be exercised more intensively, Gurdjieff also taught his pupils "sacred dances" or "movements" which they performed together as a group, and he left a body of music inspired by what he heard in visits to remote monasteries and other places, which was written for piano in collaboration with one of his pupils, Thomas de Hartmann.
Gurdjieff laid emphasis on the idea that the seeker must conduct his or her own search. The teacher cannot do the student's work for the student, but is more of a guide on the path to self-discovery. As a teacher, Gurdjieff specialized in creating conditions for students - conditions in which growth was possible, in which efficient progress could be made by the willing. To find oneself in a set of conditions that a gifted teacher has arranged has another benefit. As Gurdjieff put it, "You must realize that each man has a definite repertoire of roles which he plays in ordinary circumstances ... but put him into even only slightly different circumstances and he is unable to find a suitable role and for a short time he becomes himself."
[edit] Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man
Having migrated for four years after escaping the Russian revolution with dozens of followers and family members, Gurdjieff settled in France and established his Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man at the Château Le Prieuré at Fontainebleau-Avon in October 1922.[26] The institute was an esoteric school based on Gurdjieff's Fourth Way teaching. After nearly dying in a car crash in 1924, he recovered and closed down the Institute. He began writing All and Everything. From 1930, Gurdjieff made visits to North America where he resumed his teachings.
Ouspensky relates that in the early work with Gurdjieff in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Gurdjieff forbade students from writing down or publishing anything connected with Gurdjieff and his ideas. Gurdjieff said that students of his methods would find themselves unable to transmit correctly what was said in the groups. Later, Gurdjieff relaxed this rule, accepting students who subsequently published accounts of their experiences in the Gurdjieff work.
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