Swings and Pendulums

Mr. Gurdjieff advised that each process will experience many shifts in energy and momentum.

This is explained by the different laws that we live under.

In starting any process, there is usually a lot of enthusiasm and energy at the start, followed

often by loss of interest, momentum, resistence, and "giving up". The system teaches us that

effort is required to overcome this, sometimes the effort is to let go, step away, and take a rest.

Third Eye

The third eye, commonly referred to in books on spirituality, is actually the Pineal Gland located

in the brain, it is roughly the shape of an upside down pyramid.

Enlightened beings have their third eye opened, and also their Chakras are generally highly balanced.

Hermetic Seal

Students of the school of Hermes Trismegistus would put on the "Hermetic Seal" of the work every day.

Which means that they would assume the psychological attitude that everything that happened in the

course of the day would be taken as something to use to grow as a person.

 

Batches of souls

Souls travel through time in batches, like passengers on a bus.

Some get on before you, then you get on, then some get off, and more get on.

Is it not strange how people "soak" into our lives and quickly become friends,

lovers, co-workers, but some how, there is an attunement.

A teacher does not really choose his students, they arrive.

Neither really has a choice, both were meant to be.

Think

We souls have met at this point in time, in this technological culture,

this was pre-arranged for us. The difficulties you have attracted into your

life so far, were meant to be, written for you long before you were born.

Be strong, be brave, be patient, always persevere.

System

A system means repetitive actions, perfomed in a structured way.

One will eventually learn to work one's evolution like a business.

Mr. Gurdjieff said one must learn to be a good businessman with one's efforts.

Factors

Mr. Gurdjieff indicated that there a number of factors that create who one is:

Circumstances one is born into.

Hereditary.

Programming from Parents.

Mistakes made when young.

Inbuilt Characteristics.

All things that may be opportunities for work.

He said:"If you want to change a man, you must start with his grandmother".

Always and everywhere

One is the old man, and a new man within one.

The new man is fed by the work,  efforts of attention,

and small efforts of will. Remember yourself whenever you can.

Always and everywhere.

There comes a time

There comes the moment of choice, usually after years

of work, or a major shock or change in ones life.

The possiblity to change a mechanical pattern of behaviour,

most often by not doing or reacting as one used to.

This is "doing". Going beyond the machine.

Patience

Sometimes the effort is to be patient.

It is easier with a child, but the essential skill for a teacher,

is patience.

Endurance

The Fourth Way tells us that occasionally, it is the right effort to endure pain.

Endure a cold, or a cut, without crying like a baby.

Die like a dog

Mr. Gurdjieff had an aim to become a Man not a "man".

He said that if you do not choose to work on yourself,

to grow, to learn, best to take care of your health.

 

Otherwise, the consequences of not making efforts,

would be to "Die like a dog".

He made constant efforts up until the end of his life.

"But does it have to be with these people?!"

Mr. Ouspensky said that often, his students would come to him and

say that they understood that they needed other people to do the work.

To see themselves.

With a chuckle he added, but they generally say:

"But does it have to be with these people?!"

It is hard to work with others, this is called second line of work,

and is usually the hardest to do properly, because it requires compassion and acceptance.

Resilience and commitment

To do the work, any work of self development for that matter,

one has to be resilient, and commited.

It is so easy to speak the words.

 

Recently, in our experience, someone who had come

close to the work mentioned that they had been in another group, but it was frustrating,

for them, because, all these people did was speak about the theories of the work.

 

Later, that person spent 45 mins telling me about someone who had corrected him at

dinner, and had perhaps inadvertently, "pressed his corn". They were quite irritated,

and shortly after, we did not see them anymore. Our illusions about ourselves

are the things we fight, almost like a wild animal, to protect and preserve.

 

The only way out.

The way out, is always through the present.

Through self remembering.

This is how one can make contact with one's real self.

This is what Mr. Gurdjieff taught us.

Influences

During the day, there are constant irritations, even if, the milk for coffee runs out.

Even if, a raised eyebrow not meant for one causes a frown.

The news is negative, or attracts one's judgement.

All these things are "influences". They reveal our automatic behaviour.

Mr. Gurdjieff advised us that there are two forms of influences, internal and external.

The lesser and greater freedoms.

First one struggles to free oneself from things inside oneself.

Then the greater freedom, is freedom from external influences.

A neccesary evil

A pupil of Mr. Gurdjieff once remarked that there was something

"evil" at the Chateau de Prieure. Negative events did happen there.

Mr. Gurdjieff agreed, he said it "was neccessary" (for the work).

 

Holy Denying

The journey

The day brings a contant stream of irritations.

It is part of being alive on the planet.

 

Especially if one lives in one of the world's major cities.

 

Tensions that did not exist two thousand years ago are part

of a modern urbanite's life.

 

Diffferent opportunities to awaken, that is why the form of the work

needs to change with the times.

 

Also why the work for a while, often needs to be in a location outside

and away from normal circumstances of life.

 

However, the journey is always to oneself.

Especialy possible now

Enlightened beings do not attempt to change the political regime.

Some have been part of it, but they do understand, that change is not

part of the most useful work they can do. Their job is to feed the growing

souls of their pupils.

 

All this world confusion and chaos was inevitable and no one is to blame. What had to happen has happened; and what has to happen will happen. There was and is no way out except through my coming in your midst. I had to come, and I have come. I am the Ancient One."

 

Meher Baba, Universal Message.

 

We do live in interesting times, we are the souls that have been assigned and attracted to be on the

earth at this point in time, there are special circumstances here for personal growth.

 

When Mr. Gurdjieff was questioned by Mr. Ouspensky that it was not possible to work on oneself during

the period of revolution and war they were experiencing in Russia in the 1900's, Mr. Gurdjieff replied,

that not only was it possible, it was especially possible, because the attention of the masses was pointed

in another direction.

 

The strength of group work is especially useful.

Mass energies

Look on Youtube, look at a concert with thousands of people in these

huge mega concerts. They represent the hope and energy of the future.

But are lost in the concert, the system says the energy goes to the moon's

magnetic field. Mr. Gurdjieff said that you can attract and use this energy.

If you make yourself quiet and passive, the energy and emanations can

flow towards you and settle in your being.

Change the world?

The system indicates that the world is a perfect whole.

Everything is balanced, in fact if you study enlightened beings,

they don't attempt to change it, they completely accept it and live in it.

They create their own world where they impart their understanding to a small group of students.

Awakened beings do not play the "Victim"

They are above all marked by not playing the "victim" role.

This is an aspect of being controlled by a part of our psyches

governed by the feminine part of our natures.

Did Gurdjieff ever play the victim?

Recovery

Conscious beings respond quickly to setbacks, accidents,

painful personal experiences by taking command as quickly as possible,

and start the movement towards recovery, lesson learned.

Often hard lessons.

Patience

At some point in any new system, or technique, or "bright, shiny,

new thing", the novelty goes out of it.

Mr. Gurdjieff advised us that: "Patience is the mother of will".

First...

First one awakens oneself.

Then, one awakens humanity.

Meher Baba

Mastery and humility

One unlocks consciousness, but unlocking oneself.

The body one is given, with all it's habits, mechanical functioning,

programming, low energies, anger, negativity, is the medium one

must unravel to produce an awakened self.

You cannot change.

You cannot change,

except by small, consistent, daily efforts.

 

Look at women's magazines, do they ever not

have something on the front cover that says:

"Lose 10lbs in Ten Days!"

Very hard to actually do.

 

Mr. Gurdjieff said that when one makes a change,

first day, ok, second day ok, the third day, then

the struggle begins.

 

Our machines are designed to resist change, and pull

a change of habit back to automatic habits.

 

This is one facet of our work.

 

Patience is the key.

It was Olga not Madame

Thanks for the historical correction.

 

He either intuited some accident, or
planned it.He cancelled and appointment and told Olga deHartmann not
to accompany him, as she usually did. Olga had a feeling of floating
dread most of the day.
-- from John Shirley's "Gurdjieff: An Introduction to His Life and
Ideas".

"It is a long time now since I have been Mr. Gurdjieff".

Mr. Gurdjieff's chief feature was what is called "Power".

This is what the work describes as chief weakness.

He was described as having a natural energy of a king, one who has

influence and authority over others.

 

Power people are able to get things, influence outcomes.

Many people in Washington, and the other political centers of the world have power features.

But, of course, may not have the tools to work on them.

 

When Mr. Gurdjieff experienced his first major car accident, this was something created

by the higher powers that help those in the work, by creating the circumstances to evolve.

 

A dog he said, jumped out of a vehicle coming in the opposite direction, Mr. Gurdjieff swerved

to avoid the animal, and crashed into a tree.

 

He foresaw this happening, because he made Mme de Salzmann his passenger, return to the Prieure

by train that day, and had his mechanic thoroughly check the vehicle for anything that might be in

need of repair.

 

The severe accident served to reduce his power feature, leaving him more humble,

Don't get too hung up on the numbers, we have a tendency to do this.

But what actually happened, is that by reducing the feature, his higher emotional center was given a

severe and cathartic shock, and began to function. Before this he was a high man number five.

 

The accident and it's aftermath, helped him to move to the next level of man number six.

(Again, these are technical descriptions we use in the work, this just describes the change he went through)

Few are able to really grasp this. The movement from man number four to man number five, is gradual.

Man number five to man number six, is a complete change forever.

Something he did not tell his students, or could not, is that at some point after the accident,

he had a permanent astral body that started functioning.

This also changed the course of his work, as now he had a greater sense of his own mortality, and realized that

he would have to change the manner of transmission, and so he began to write his book, Beelzebub.

 

Later in his life, in the last year or so he was hit by a drunk driver in Paris, this caused him enormous pain.

 

His gave a lunch soon after, and a spasm of pain went through his body, and blood trickled out of his ear.

 

His students were shocked to see him in such pain, but for his work, he was mastering his body,

the way of the Fakir. A few days later, he was observed to be walking around with a spring in his step,

looking "lighter" and younger. Very likely this accident was again arranged to force him to the next level

so that his higher intellectual center could start to function, and he transitioned to the level of man number seven.

 

In the meeting notes from the years in Paris, a student begins to ask a question: "Mr. Gurdjieff......"

 

He is interrupted, "It is a long time now since I have been Mr. Gurdjieff".

Holy Denying

Mr. Gurdjieff said that one must rid oneself of imagination and identification in oneself, down to the roots.

 

In the Indian and Tibetan schools, they would have likely stated things as being in a state

 

of non-identification or non-attachement. Ridding oneself of desires.

 

A real teachers will indicate that one is never entirely free of one's faults.

 

They are a source of friction for growth.

 

Holy Denying.

 

 

Seven Souls

We see the link for the Seven Souls has not gone thru.

 

If you search YouTube for seven souls.

 

The Sopranos season six, something like that.

 

You will find it, it is a performance/poem by Rice Burroughs.

 

Brilliantly used in the series.

Last words

The last words of Peter Ouspenky reportedly were:

"Aim, Aim, more effort, more effort"

Effort post

This is an effort post.

We felt we had done enough for today, but there is always the

possiblity to make some small extra effort.

 

Sometimes, it is the only effort one is capable of.

But it is a way of confronting the machine.

Money II

Gurdjieff said, "I not make money like everybody else, I ask my students, and they give me money"

Money

Mr. Gurdjieff had a principle of spending his money with an open hand.

At one point, Fritz Peters wrote that he purchased a hundred and fifty bicycles

for his students at the Prieure, and made his students ride them.

 

He would pressurize his students as a task to produce more money, which

many times, he would immediately spend on a meal, or he would find a way

to discard it as quickly as possible, then begin to ask for more.

 

He had mastered one of the major identifications we all have, money.

 

 

from the Dhammapada, Words of the Buddha

Live in Joy

Live in Joy, In love,
Even among those who hate.

Live in joy, In health,
Even among the afflicted.

Live in joy, In peace,
Even among the troubled.

Look within. Be still.
Free from fear and attachment,
Know the sweet joy of living in the way.

~

There is no fire like greed,
No crime like hatred,
No sorrow like separation,
No sickness like hunger of heart,
And no joy like the joy of freedom.

Health, contentment and trust
Are your greatest possessions,
And freedom your greatest joy.

Look within. Be still.
Free from fear and attachment,
Know the sweet joy of living in the way.

from the Dhammapada, Words of the Buddha

Here is the link.

 

It did not go through the first time, like us.

 

But here is the link, watch the movie of your life.

 

Hear the words.

 

Enlightened beings have completed their passage.

Seven souls

This was an amazing montage in the hit series "The Sopranos"

We have chosen the montage from the final series.

You had to follow the show.

 

Ignore the visuals and listen to the words.

 

You are on a passage right now.

Sparking the self

"From a little spark, may burst a mighty flame"

gurdjieff4thway

May 5th, 23:06

Mr. Gurdjieff spoke about the process of crystallization.
Not so much later, but he was careful to make sure he transmitted this
process to Mr. Ouspensky; he knew it would make it into his writings.
In his life, Mr. Gurdjieff suffered tremendously, more than we can understand.

People in history went throught tremendous trials, the one thing that is a
differentiation, is that the suffering and experiences we go through in the work,
are suffered consciously for personal growth.

A second body starts to "flash" into being when one is remembering oneself.
It is such a simple, understated experience, most people bypass this.

We tend to think nothing of it. However, it is a beginning.
The beginning of a fire that will later ignite the higher centers.

Dante, an enlightened being, said:

"From a little spark, may burst a mighty flame"

Children, leaves, calves, kittens, and growing souls.

Everything is in a movement of growth, maturity, decay, rebirth at a new level.

Children, leaves, calves, kittens, and growing souls.

Even the planet is in a cycle of development, and according to the fourth way,

the moon is a planet in growth. It attracts energy from the earth, which will eventually

become it's own magnetic field, this in turn will attract life, even in a primitive form.

 

Eventually, it will grow vegetation, animal life forms, water, and possibly even humans

and a culture. This is how a new planet grows.

 

Sounds wacky? Mr. Gurdjieff predicted the appearance of a new moon near the current moon

in the 1930's, way before the modern sophisticated technology.

 

 

Interesting to observe.

Mr. Ouspensky once observed that he woke up one morning, and looking

at his desk, he remembered that he had a book manuscript that he needed to work on,

checking for errors and corrections, etc.

On his nightstand, was a novel he had just started reading, and was enjoying immensely.

The room was cold and his bed was warm.

Result: He spent two hours in bed, reading his novel.

He observed that two of his centers, instinctive (wishing to stay warm)  and emotional (enjoying reading the novel),

won out over his intellectual center, that knew he had to make the less pleasant effort of laboriously working on his book.

I found this for you

 

This is very good, but if you do not watch the whole thing, go to

7:28 and watch from there.

 

The passage of lives in the work.

The teaching is the same sometimes

Safe harbour

Consciousness is earned.

It does not happen in one lifetime.

It is the results of millenia of transitions.

From one lifetime to the next.

Mr. Gurdjieff called them: "Planetary coatings".

One gradually becomes a stronger, older soul.

Capable of teaching others to escape.

Becoming a conscious port in the storm of life.

Gaze

Yogi Berra the great american baseball player,

famous for his sayings said:

"You can see a lot by looking"

Mr. Gurdjieff, when asked what did he teach replied:

"I teach that when it rains, the streets are wet".

Attend to the requirements of each moment.

Never violent

Gurdjieff had a violent temper, but was never violent.

He would explode at a student, and turn it off in a moment.

 

He was teaching them to not react.

After one episode later in his life, he commented about a young pupil.

"See, she well educated, she not react".

Pineal Man

In his great book, The Theory of Celestial Influence,

Rodney Collin, (a pupil of Peter Ouspensky), writes about

the fact that all three systems that govern a man's functions;

connect in the Pineal gland, which is situated in the middle

of mans brain.

 

The emotional, intellectual, and moving and instinctive

functions (normally grouped together when discussed),

have the possibility to all connect in the middle of mans head.

 

This is ancient knowledge.

 

At the moment the astral body crystallizes, they fuse together as

one system, and all begin to work at the same speed.

So thought begins to work at the speed of emotion.

 

All perceptions become heightened, and new functions

appear and begin to work.