Focus

Focus on what you want.
Keep going, you will attain
your goal.
Although the goal is your change.

Being out of time...

Being is out of time, so it essentially does
not matter the year or the day.

Stand on your head...

Mr. Gurdjieff hung his Christmas tree upside down
from the ceiling.

It is possible that he was indicating to us to look
at life differently.

A student of Gurdjieff and Orage's once told us
that at a meeting with Orage in New York, someone
asked, "How can I look at life differently?".
Mr. Orage replied: "Stand on your head!".

2012 and the New Year

Rodney Collin wrote that there are Chairos times,
moments when after a long cycle of "static"
behavior, a sudden breakthrough is possible.

One can reach a new energy, new field of activity,
change one's life drastically by breaking the old
pattern.

This can happen by a movement of will, forcing
oneself to perhaps speak to someone, to ask
a favor, a meeting, or help. Send off a job
application, or possibly to just be honest with
someone.

The end of the old year brings this possibility,
as the old year's cycle comes to a close.

Healing kitchen...

When Katherine Mansfield the writer
was in the last part of her life, Mr. Gurdjieff
allowed her to stay at his Institute in France.
He had a hayloft built for her in the stables,
as he believed the healing breath of the animals
would help her condition.
He told her to go and sit in the kitchen every day.
She could observe the life of a busy and active
environment, where there were pots, and fires,
and food, and life. All designed to help her.

When she finally died, he received much criticism
as perhaps the man who had "killed her" with his
strange methods. Later in his life he said:
"She my friend". She is buried close by his grave.

More about dinner...

To make a dinner, to have a dinner,
to arrange a dinner, to keep a momentum
of meals, all require effort.
Mr. Gurdjieff was constantly with his students.
There was always plenty of food, even during the
war. Something in us relaxes when there is plenty
to eat. A certain "tension" goes out of our lives.
Have you ever noticed at a party, or with friends,
you often end up in the kitchen, chatting, drinking
after a meal? We have seen this many times,
we get drawn there. The kitchen is where the life
and soul of the house resides, the least used room
in the house, is often the formal "living room".

Smelly cheeses...

On a train trip through America,
according to Mr. Gurdjieff's companion,
Fritz Peters, Mr. Gurdjieff made it a point
to cause as much trouble as possible for
his fellow passengers.
Arriving late, holding up the train, moving
through the sleeper carriages late at night
waking the occupants up.
And when one episode in a carriage settled,
he proceeded to produce a number of very
smelly cheeses for a snack.
He was perhaps illustrating to Fritz Peters
the way he had broken societal taboos,
he no longer felt embarrassment or shame.
The emotions that are instilled in us when young.