Gurdjieff does not want to write but is forced by circumstance to do so.
Gurdjieff describes the sensation of starting a new work, a new octave:
"the-fear-of-drowning-in-the-overflow-of-my-own-thoughts"
I have always done everything
NOT
as it is done by others.
"Whenever I do anything,
I do a great deal of it."
INITIAL INVOCATION
Gurdjieff begins his writing project by pronouncing an ancient invocation (utterance):
"IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER
AND OF THE SON
AND IN THE NAME OF
THE HOLY GHOST."
He pronounces it with:
"wholly-manifested-intonation"
(as the ancient Toulosites defined it.)
WARNINGS
*The readers will lose their wealth of
quieting notions
and
beautiful representations.
*I write without the ability to write in the "bon ton literary language".
I am ignorant of literary language.
THIS IS THE CENTER OF GRAVITY OF MY WARNING.
*You may lose:
Your appetite for your favorite dish.
Your appetite for your psychic specificness.
I wish to tell your
PURE WAKING CONSCIOUSNESS
that in the following chapters I will expound my thoughts
in such sequence
and
with such "logical confrontation"
that some notions
will go from your
"waking consciousness".
(which is NOT
the real consciousness.
I will prove it is the ficticious one.)
The real consciousness is/ought to be the subconscious.
PAYMENT
Mullah Nassr Edin:
"Every stick always has two ends."
Gurdjieff decides to leave the first chapter free for everyone to read (uncut pages so
they can return the book and get their money back.)
BECAUSE
If someone pays for something, they will "eat" it even if it hurts them.
Story of the Kurd
He buys a "fruit" which actually "red pepper pods" but he doesn't
know it.
When the villager, walking by, tells him to stop eating them, he refuses.
"No, for nothing on Earth! Didn't I pay my last 2 cents for them? Even if my soul
departs from my body I shall go on eating!"
If anybody pays money for something, he is bound to use it to the end.
Mullah Nassr Edin:
"Without greasing the palm
not only is it impossible to live anywhere tolerably
but even to breathe."
"If you don't grease the wheels,
the cart won't go."
The Story of Karapet of Tiflis
Karapet had the job of releasing the steam into the whistle.
The whistle woke up every inhabitant of the town of Tiflis.
Karapet would issue a string of insults every morning before pulling on the rope.
Gurdjieff goes to visit him. He drinks wine honorably with him. He asks him why he goes
through this ritual every morning.
"When I first started, I noticed that after performing my duty, I felt ill at
ease. I looked for the cause."
One morning, after reading a book called 'Dreams and Witchcraft' that night, he runs into
the dog catcher. The dog catcher is about to catch a dog when a bell rings and he curses
the bell.
Then Karapet realized:
Everyone who would be awakened every morning by the whistle would curse at him.
So, from all directions vibrations of malice would flow towards him.
"If I curse beforehand, all the curses of the town would have no effect on me at
all.
And since I began to do it, I haven't felt the uneasiness anymore."
MENTATION
Law of Association:
During "preparatory age" it is formed in every creature.
Man has two kinds of mentation:
-MENTATION BY THOUGHT
in which words are employed.
-MENTATION BY FORM
around one idea or thing there are formed:
independent forms
which EVOKE in the Being of Man
a SENSATION
which CONDITIONS
a definite picturing.
A word will evoke
in different people
different
INNER CONTENT.
CONSCIOUSNESS
Every man has 2 consciousnesses:
* One consciousness is formed
from the perception of
accidental mechanical impressions
including the consonances
of various words.
* The second consciousness is formed from
"aready previously formed material results"
transmitted by
1- heredity
blended with corresponding parts of the entirety of man.
AND
2- data arising from
intentional evoking
of associative confrontations
of "materialized data".
"Curiosity"
in the false consciousness
can become
the impulse of the desire of knowledge.
THE 3 DATA
The 3 Data Formed in Preparatory Age:
1- "IN LIFE NEVER DO AS OTHERS DO"
"Either do nothing or do something nobody else does."
2- The "wisdom tooth" comes out.
The cavity left behind oozes a substance that produces the property of:
always seeking out the causes of suspicious actual fact.
3- "If you go on a spree, then go the whole hog, including the postage."
The first is the directing lever of my entire wholeness.
The other 2 are the "vivifying sources" for the first.
When all 3 came together, Gurdjieff began to fulfill his duty to Great Nature.
Gurdjieff's grandmother gives him the first of the 3 data, before she gives her soul to
the Archangel Gabriel.
CHANGE OF PRESENCE
Boys catching pigeons
1- The first boy:
The toe of the pigeon is strongest.
That is where the strength reserve is concentrated.
So the trapping noose shouldn't catch the big toe.
Otherwise the pigeon will break the noose.
2- Second boy:
If it is true that the strength is in that tow, then we should make sure that JUST THAT
TOE gets caught in the noose.
Because where there is a
CHANGE OF PRESENCE
then this "law conformable confusion"
enables
the center of gravity of the whole functioning to pass from its usual place to another
place.
This produces unexpected and ridiculous results.
If you attack the branches and not the source of the strength, then the strength may
flow into other places of the whole organism.
Source -
-Symptom A
-Symptom B
If A and B are controlled, but not the souce, then a 3rd unexpected symptom may arise.
Sexual Obsession
-cigarettes
-crank
-mariguana
If you don't control the source ("sexual obsession") then new addictions will
arise.
THE WISDOM TOOTH
After Gurdjieff hits the boy, another boy hits him in the face and a tooth comes out:
A strange tooth
that has seven shoots
each shining with a
drop of blood.
Through each drop,
there shone clearly
one of the:
SEVEN ASPECTS
OF
THE MANIFESTATION
OF
THE WHITE RAY.
The barber says it's a
WISDOM TOOTH
and
that all those of the male sex have them.
"Something" started to ooze from the cavity:
A "something" which
had the effect
of arousing an interest in
and a tendency
to seek out the causes
of the arising
of every suspicious
ACTUAL FACT.
This property became
a real inextinguishable hearth of consciousness.
This is the
FIRST VIVIFYING FACTOR.
THE SPREE
"If you go on a spree,
then go the whole hog,
including the postage."
After cognizing this saying, Gurdjieff experiences
*an unbearable itch in the whole region of the spine
*a colic in the very center of the Solar Plexus.
After some time, this was replaced by a peaceful inner condition.
Always, before any new task of big change, I will say:
"If you go on a spree,
then go the whole hog
including the postage."
If I write a book,
I will write of the whole Universe.
I will make the hero
THE GREAT BEELZEBUB HIMSELF
If I show him this attention, he infallibly has to show himself grateful and help me by
all means in his command in my intended writings. (see payment)
MISC NOTES
Gurdjieff experienced the peaceful inner condition one more time only:
during the ceremony of
Initiation into
The Brotherhood
of the
"ORIGINATORS OF
MAKING BUTTER
FROM AIR"
Mullah Nassr Eddin:
"Never poke your stick
into a hornet's nest."
"A Nail is like a Requiem."
(comparing contemporary Greek to Ancient Greek.)
Russian proverb:
"There is no offence
which with time
will not blow over."
***
All-Common Master
The Merciless Heropass
is
"The Flow of Time"
***
Gurdjieff pondered much during the days called "Shrovetide"
***
Gurdjieff's unique personality
has been "smelled out"
by certain individuals
from
BOTH CHOIRS
OF THE
JUDGEMENT SEAT ABOVE.
Objective Justice
proceeds from the
Judgement Seat Above.
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