The Buddha

The Buddha said: "Only love dispels hate,

that is the law, ancient and inexhaustable".

Nothing you see

Nothing you see is real.

Slap in the face

Mr. Gurdjieff said, "At every step you want to slap another in the face,

but it is you who needs to be slapped".

At every step we see the faults of others, the Fourth Way teaches, that overcoming

this is the path to awakening conscience. Seeing the world as it is.

Jesus said, "We see through a glass darkly".

You see the splinter in another's eye

In the bible, Jesus points out that we see the splinter in another's eye,

but we do not see the mote (traditional name for the heavy beam that supports the bricks above a doorway) in our own.

Beginning

The first step is understanding that for any real change,

you will need to be patient, you will need to learn to accept

yourself and others, this leads to being able to truly love.

Take care of your health

Mr. Gurdjieff advised, "If you do not wish to work, take care of your health".

 

What you leave behind

When you leave this life, what will you bring with you?

The result of your efforts to grow.

What you plant in others.

Your love, your life energy. Your giving.

 

transmission

Gurdjieff attracted some of the most interesting people of his day.

He often Taliesin, the place where Frank Lloyd Wright lived and taught.

A host of famous writers and performers were aware of his presence in Paris.

Henry Miller mentions him in his letters.

Writers are the main way that his teaching has been transmitted.

Problems

Life is a series of problems, setbacks and opportunities.

It depends on how you approach them.

Difficulties test us and help us to grow.

He who remains a fool

Mr. Gurdjieff said: "He who remains at the level of being of a fool,

will always attract that, which belongs to a fool".

Thine enemies

One has to avoid self pity and putting oneself down.

Mr. Gurdjieff said, "There are many dirty dogs inside us,

that wish to destroy us".

Jesus said, "Thy enemies are the members of thine own household."

Love in action

Having achieved another level of consciousness, a teacher such as Mr. Gurdjieff

taught not only his pupils, but shared and laboured on behalf of others.

He fed his neighbours in Paris, during and after the second world war in Paris,

he paid for a young girl's wedding who lived nearby, he supported many people 

not directly associated with his work. Conscious Love in action. 

Another opinion

Another person who professed to be a spritiral teacher, and was much respected in Europe

met Mr. Gurdjieff, she said later: "He is a man who has seen God".

One thing

Mr. Gurdjieff said, "If one thing could be different, everything would be different".

Knowing how to look.

Once at the Prieure, some of the students working were trying to split a large

rock that was blocking progress in a construction project. They struggle with

this problem for quite a while. Mr. Gurdjieff arrived straight from Paris, he took

his coat off, picked up the hammer and a rock chisel, inspected the rock and with

a few sharp blows split the rock into several pieces that could easily be removed.

He said: "You have to learn how to look". (Paraphrased).

Exercises

Mr. Gurdjieff often gave his pupils exercises to build concentration and attention.

Even the act of turning up at a meeting or a dinner, is a commitment, and action

within the work.

The point

One of the illusions we will lose, is sthat we are making efforts.

One has to accept what one finds.

Mr. Gurdjieff said, "We must get to Philadelphia", meaning

a point in the work where the real efforts begin.

Payment

Jesus said: "Thou shalt not come forth until has paid the uttermost farthing".

Change small things

Remember, to do this work, even when alone.

The bible talks about those who stand on a street corner,

seen to be praying, giving huge amounts to the temple.

Yet a widow, making a small donation, (the widow's mite),

has actually given more than all of them.

Calm

His students often spoke of the inner calm that Mr. Gurdjieff radiated.

Russian Revolution

The atmosphere in which the work appeared in Russia.

One of Mr. Gurdjieff's pupils, said: "One cannot explain the

self assurance and confidence with which he threaded his way through the

Russian Revolution"

Rest

You have to balance yourself, poisons always accumulate.

Take a break every now and again.

Mr. Gurdjieff would work hard, then take a trip to the mountains,

or out into the country, he would stop for picnics, lunches at restaurants.

He always tipped well if deserved. He knew how to rest.

Thanks

Thankyou to all our new followers.

 

We hope you will always find something of use and value

in our little blog.

 

Love

Elevator attendant

Edwin Wolfe wrote a wonderful small collection of stories about Mr. Gurdjieff.

Once in the US in the 1920's or 1930's, , Mr. Gurdjieff used an elevator in a hotel in Chicago or New York,

(This was in the days when the operator would stand inside with you and manually operate the lift.)

Mr. Wolfe stepped into it just after, Mr. Gurdjieff had stepped out;

he asked the yourng operator what he thought of the man who had

just been in there. He replied, "He knows something".

Cooking and the home.

Mr. Gurdjieff's niece emphasized that her uncle always taught that it is

important to have a good energy in the home, then it radiates out into

one's life.

 

It is always special when you see a family with a good, positive, healthy emotional energy.

Someone is doing something right.

 

They are likely not listening to rap, and Britney, and Snoopy Dog.

I teach..

Mr. Gurdjieff said: "I teach way to become man not now found in western world".

C.S Nott

C. S. Nott first met Mr. Gurdjieff in the Sunwise Turn bookshop in New York

in the 1920s we think. He was aware of Gurdjieff, a few of his older students entered

the shop, they were very impressive, but then a few minutes later Mr. Gurdjieff entered,

"radiating tremendous power, being, and understanding, more than I had seen in all

my travels in any man". He looked into his eyes, full of compassion.

He knew he had found his teacher.

Mr. Gurdjieff had suffered every step on the way to evolving into an enlightened being.

He had escaped to the next level, the role then changes to helping others to evolve.

From Gurdjieff, to Buddha, to Jesus, to Mohammed, it becomes their life's task.

Daily efforts

The way consists of simple daily efforts, to be more than you are.

Mr. Gurdjieff said: "Patience is the mother of will".

Higher level

The way of awakening is as ancient as man.

Just the chain of connection has by and large been lost.

People make up their own "systems".

The Fourth Way is so powerful, because the knowledge comes from another level.

 

Fearless

George Adie, one of Gurdjieff's pupils observed that when Mr. Gurdjieff

was without money, wallet empty, he was absolutely fearless.

1000

It is estimated in his whole period of teaching, from 1911 when he first appeared in Russia,

to the end of his life in Paris in 1949, Mr. Gurdjieff worked with about 1000 students.

This included writers, artists, and some of the most prominent people of his day.

It was mentioned that some time before he became president, Roosevelt was treated for his polio by Gurdjieff.

Our work

Our work, is not just about being better.

A better machine, it is about being awake.

 

You don't have to be perfect, in fact, for some people

trying to be perfect is another form of hiding from themselves.

Obeying some still remnant programming from childhood.

To not feel fear, or not feel guilty for being "bad".

 

Mr. Gurdjieff said "be grateful for your chief feature (major fault or weakness in personality),

it makes it possible work", Holy Denying.

Turn the other cheek,

Turn the other cheek,

In the Bible, this can be taken as allowing oneself to be physically slapped,

and not responding to aggression.

 

However,sometimes an aggressive response is critical, as in the Second World War,

It more accurately means, when you see a truth about yourself, your weaknesses,

your deviations, your lying to yourself and others, mistreatment, do not flinch.

 

The psychological "slap" of the truth, may be best utilized by accepting the truth,

and "turning the other cheek", it hurts, but "tell me more" about myself.

 

Alcoholics Anonymous has a twelve step program to rebuild one's life after you have

hit rock bottom. Something like this happens on the journey to consciousness.

 

You have to go to the core, Mr. Gurdjieff said "Man is a great swine".

 

"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free".

Real repentance

Mr. Nicholl, a pupil of Mr. Gurdjieff, spoke about the idea of repentance in the bible.

What has come down to us as the King James version, represents

a "best effort" translation. He said the real word in the original Greek,

is metanoia, literally, to look again. Look at your life, be conscious in your life.

Be aware of your sleep. Not beating a rock against your chest, tearing your hair out repentance,

but presence to your life, your behaviour, who you are.

Not for everyone.

The ideas of the Fourth Way, are not for everyone.

A man must pass through some dark passages in his life.

He must become dissappointed in his dreams, his aspirations.

The mystical Sufi poets wrote about the Veil.

The Veil of sleep.

Mr. Gurdjieff was a Sufi.

Make efforts

Mr. Ouspensky advised us that you cannot become emotional.

He said: "Make efforts, and you will become emotional".

Vanity of the now

Young people, think they have forever, this will be forever,

youth, beauty, nice skin, looks, money, energy.

There is no loss yet, less people have passed in and out of their lives.

Some never to return.

And they smile.

Did you?

Man is a great experiment.

And he thinks he has time.

Did you make one different effort today?

Breadcrumbs

During the war, when Paris was occupied by the German army,

Mr. Gurdjieff fed his pupils, and his neighbours, including the old and sick.

He treated them as a Doctor, he also purchased paintings from his

neighbours, and people he met in cafes, however bad, because he recognised that they at least

knew that an effort was required to produce something to sell, just to survive.

He likened the pleasure he received from this, to the old lady in the park

who gives breadcrumbs to the birds. "To feel good inside".

It has also been noted that his pocket book was almost always empty.

Rats

Mr. Gurdjieff would test human behaviour.

He would "play" with his students, and also, he had to learn how to teach.

He famously said: "I need rats for my experiments".

He played to shock sometimes, a statement like the above was designed to

disturb his student's thinking, and is not meant to undermine his deep compassion

for humanity.

Doorways

The doorway is a significant symbol.

When one passes through a doorway of initiation, there is no real way back

to who one was before. A doorway is a test, a threshold.

However, there is no "initiation", understanding is earned, a ceremony merely

marks the change, or perhaps crystallizes a change, such as fasting, or staying up all night.

Someone who journeys to the top of Mount Everest, comes down a different person than

he was when he set out. But there would have been many months of planning, preparation,

training, acclimatization beforehand.

Think of the same thing with awakening.

Mr. Gurdjieff constantly emphasized the need for long and prolonged effort to achieve results.

Drugs and awakening.

During the 1960's when drugs were first entering popular western culture with the hippies

and the flower power revolution, they were viewed as "positive", "mind expanding", consciousness altering.

 

It sparked some incredible music, examinations of art, psychology, and altered many aspects of the world.

Now drugs are viewed by and large as negative and damaging. Like an alcohol addiction.

 

Mr. Gurdjieff said that drugs were used in schools to give a man a glimpse of what could be achieved

through long and prolonged work.

 

Drugs were administered in the older cultures to help a man on his

path to awaken, and sometimes they would be given to the population as perhaps a way of releasing

tension, let's say after a war, period of heavy planetary influences, of if it was perceived as a way of

raising the consciousness of the population.

 

However, it would have been strictly controlled, and carried out by trained priests and physicians who

had earned their understanding. Such a bad thing? Look at the world now. War on drugs?

Footage of Gurdjieff

If you search on Youtube, you will find wonderful footage of

Mr. Gurdjieff from 1949, look very closely at how he interracts

with the little girl. Very special.

The only way you can change

The only way you can change is from now.

The work teaches that we have to remember ourselves.

To be in the now.

This is the doorway to change.

Look around you, what can you change as you read this.

Even avoiding negative thoughts, self deprecation, is a small victory.

Mr. Gurdjieff said that: "There are many dirty dogs inside us, that

wish to destroy us".

Winston Churchill called his periods of depression, "Black Dog".

Breathing

Bringing attention to your breathing, without trying to change anything,

can reveal how much tension is in one's body.

Also because, in this age, many of us tend to "hunch" over our desks

when we work at our computers, sit up with a good posture.

It will raise your energy, and take pressure e off your heart.

Jurassic Park

We watched Jurassic Park last night.

There was a great line. (paraphrased)

Sam Neil says, "I have figured out there are two types of people,

Astronomers and Astronauts".

Astronomers study and look at the stars.

Astronauts actually have the visceral experience, danger and exhileration

of actually voyaging out there.

It is a lot easier to think and read about evolution, than actually walking the path.

The German invasion of France.

When the Germans were on the outskirts of Paris during the second world war.

Mr. Gurdjieff was persuaded briefly to head away from the city in his car, but within

24 hours, his better judgement ruled, he understood that he was meant to stay.

He spent the war years in his apartment, suffering the privations of everybody else.

 

He fed his followers and neighbours, he survived, he grew.

The bigger the being the greater the test.

Insight on difficulties.

Mr. Gurdjieff forces a re-examination of everything.

If you dislike someone, a circumstance, a job, a boss, a co-worker.

The hardest thing sometimes to realize, is that they are helping

to accelerate your growth. Our tendency is to run away, rather than to understand.

 

 

Thank you

Think about this planet, all the corruptive influences at work,

there are still beautiful people, seeking the truth, like you.

Thank you for following this blog.