Tag: mindfulness

Gurdjieff International Review

Georges Gurdjieff

A Documentary Film

Produced by Jean-Claude Lubtchansky

https://www.gurdjieff.org/lubtchansky1.htm

the excerpts:
Pierre Schaeffer:

One might ask why Gurdjieff did not appear in political events. It seems that his ambition was greater than that. It seems also that the sources rediscovered by Gurdjieff during his 20 years of far-flung journeys, these treasures from a lost civilization, this forgotten wisdom, of which he may be the only real heir, appeared greater to him than any political activity. Besides, one is forced to admit that most human endeavors end in failure, become contradictory and that the results are completely opposite and in a contrary direction to that of the original expectations……

Dr. Michel de Salzmann:

If for example we take a moment to consider our life, it would seem that to put oneself in question—taking the time to stop and see who one is, what a human being really is—is an incredible luxury. I term it a luxury because the movement of life is such, its pressure so great, that the current of never-ending social suggestion and its hypnotic consensus ensures that everyone is at the mercy of individual as well as collective fantasies. But if this fundamental questioning ever takes place, it requires attention. With a small amount of attention there is only a small amount of self-questioning. If we were capable of a complete mobilization of ourselves, that is, possessing a total attention—including not only our thought but also our emotion, or feeling, and even our body—perhaps we could, in this act of general mobilization in which we finally appear; perhaps we could know ourselves and have a response to the question: ‘Who am I?’

And then finally, ultimately, might we get to the bottom of this question: ‘Who am I?’—following it to its supreme limit, by being able to completely mobilize oneself—but this, says Gurdjieff, is impossible for us and he explains why this is so.

Question: And doesn’t such an experience need an entire life? Is it possible to do something such as this by oneself?

In theory, it is possible: because one does not need time to know … but practically, it is a different thing. If we take into account the strength of our conditioning, a counter-current is needed, another influence of extraordinary strength, in order to oppose one’s personal conditioning resulting from 10, 20, 50, 60 years of habits, or from the general conditioning of our surroundings, the influence of the milieu in which we live, established through centuries.

However, this force does exist. In certain moments, a man may, all of a sudden, hear this question which is inside himself and may realize progressively that it is impossible for him to stay there, and be involved in life at the same time—this is the main point—because Gurdjieff requested that we not abandon life in order to be, and not only not abandon life but even not wish to change the conditions of one’s own life, saying that everything that makes up the life of each one of us is the reflection of his person, and therefore a mirror for self-knowledge.

[Reading of a conversation between Gurdjieff and Ouspensky from In Search of the Miraculous, p. 22.]

Try to understand what I am saying: everything is dependent on everything else, everything is connected, nothing is separate. Therefore everything is going in the only way it can go. If people were different everything would be different. They are what they are, so everything is as it is.
This was very difficult to swallow.
‘Is there nothing, absolutely nothing, that can be done?’ I asked.
‘Absolutely nothing.’
‘And can nobody do anything?’

That is another question. In order to do it is necessary to be. And it is necessary first to understand what to be means. If we continue our talks you will see that we use a special language and that, in order to talk with us, it is necessary to learn this language. It is not worth while talking in ordinary language because, in that language, it is impossible to understand one another. This also, at the moment, seems strange to you. But it is true. In order to understand it is necessary to learn another language. In the language which people speak they cannot understand one another. You will see later on why this is so.

……

Sherborne Theme Talks Series – 4 Food John Godolphin Bennett

page 10……...If we were something even near to normal beings we would have a deep love and constant respect for everything that lives, and see our need for, and dependence upon, everything that has gone to make us human beings.
We have been lifted by the creative work of Nature to the point where we stand at the half-way house between the Material and the Spiritual, at the point of change-over in the ascent from Matter to Spirit…….We stand at the summit of one pyramid, but we are the beginning of another one – the pyramid of the spiritual world…….We are so made that there must be the change over from the dominance of Matter to the dominance of Spirit.
All this – the limitless potential of a human being – has been given to us.

page 30……We read about “paying the debt of our existence” but it is exceedingly difficult to come to this. We are so dreadfully taught from childhood to think that our rights are more important than our obligations and to believe that if we have power we have everything.

page 31….We are just about to see that it is not permissible to use power to dominate other human beings, but we cannot bring ourselves to see that the power we have to destroy life on the earth and perhaps to destroy the earth itself is also not permissible.

page 44…..In the process of evolution, finer and finer energies are being eternally produced through different levels of being, and we men must transmit and make our contribution to the whole process of transformation. We have to do this because these energies are required for the purposes more important than our existence, and if we will not do it consciously we are compelled by nature to do it unconsciously. According to Mr.Gurdjieff ………the reason why there is such an increase in the number of people on the earth is that we are failing to do what is required of us consciously and therefore we have to do it by the process of dying, and ever greater numbers of people will have to die if people do not produce these higher energies consciously. This was a very ancient teaching, but now people do not think like that at all; it never occurs to us that eating is a cosmic function. Food is a constant reminder of our cosmic obligations, of the responsibility that is placed on us because so much has happened to make it possible for us to exist.

page 46….Just stop a minute and consider how many things in the world would change if this one thing about the responsibility involved in taking life was actually understood and how a different value system would emerge for the whole of humanity…..whatever we eat we are taking life and we have the responsibility for converting that life into conscious energy. …..the difference between the man who can eat his food consciously and the man who eats it simply to please his stomach. But we must not rest content with just knowing these ideas about food. We must seek to experience so that knowledge can be transformed into understanding. Although you may know these things and even act on them it has not become part of you. This is the difference between “reason of knowing” and “reason of understanding”
If you persevere, something may happen; an opening may occur and you will actually see for yourself that it is so and you are no longer dependent on anything you have been told or read about..
excerpts from The Sherborne Theme Talks Series 4 Food John G. Bennet Coombe Spring Press

Ps: I would like to point out that the whole record of the meetings is needed to be read to grasp the magnificence of the subject of Food. Under normal circumstances I would refer to the book as a whole, but we are not under normal circumstances, 8 billion people are led into information chaos, the attention of masses is purposely diverted from the hidden burning issues of the planetary scale and I wonder how can anyone expect the conscious change without first introducing the subject to the masses. It is like wanting man to read without teaching him the alphabet first.
Being involved directly in the topic right now, , I dared to select few passages to bring the attention to the deeper level of what is happening on our planet. dp