on writing and beating of wings
Shiemash51
on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siuIJfw1pZs
WRITING AND BEATING OF WINGS
ANGELIC PRESENCE
Gurdjieff described his physical condition
immediately following the accident that
happened to him as near paralysis to the
point of complete self-immobilization if he
did not perform some kind of conscious self-
actualized effort to drive himself. As follows
on page 4 of the THIRD SERIES:
"I say with self-driving because, due to
the consequences of an automobile accident
which happened to me just before beginning to
write these books, I had been very ill and weak,
and therefore, of course, had not had the
possibility for any active action.
Yet I had not spared myself, and had
worked very hard in such a state, chiefly
thanks to the factors that formed in my
consciousness, from the very beginning,
the following ide'e fixe notion:
Since I had not, when in full strength,
succeeded in introducing in practice into
the life of people the beneficial truths
elucidated for them by me, then I
must at least, at any cost,
succeed in doing this
in theory, before my
death.
While writing out in outline during the
first year the different fragments intended
for publication, I had decided to write three
series of books.
I had decided with the contents of the
first series of books to achieve the
destruction, in the consciousness
and feelings of people, of deep-
rooted convictions which in my
opinion are false and quite
contradictory to reality.
With the contents of the second
series of books to prove that there
exist other ways of perceiving reality,
and to indicate their direction."
Since Gurdjieff went into so much
detail in the INTRODUCTION to
the SECOND SERIES about his use
of immoderate quantities of alcohol in
connection with the subtly philosophical
question discussed there, it is clear that
he is presenting to us one of those
other ways of perceiving reality
having to do with the event that
happened to him "which many learned
and ordinary people and all those who
knew me and who heard about it
attributed with their usual superficial
understanding merely to a 'motor
accident' . . . "
[page 80 of the
THIRD SERIES]
THIRD BOOK, p. 428:
Since I started on a spree and to
some degree of intensity, seeing
this as a real aim, also to go the
whole hog, I will get down to
business as follows:
". . . as regards the real, indubitably
comprehensible, genuine objective truths
which will be brought to light by me in the
third series, I intend to make them
accessible exclusively only to those
from among the hearers of the second
series of my writings who will be selected
by specially prepared people according to
my considered instructions."
G. I. Gurdjieff,
Beelzebubs Tales to His Grandson
(Third Book, p. 428)
Gurdjieff proceeded in the same way
when he began writing the THIRD SERIES
although with the difference, of course, by
way of going into the details of real life
situations, namely, the situation which
even those near to him, his lineage,
regarded mistakenly, the event which
happened to him, in that all those who
knew him and heard about it attributed
with their "usual superficial
understanding" merely to a
"'motor accident'".
Gurdjieff even went so far as to go into
the details of the use of immoderate quantities
of alcohol according to the discretion of his
own changed states of consciousness at the
time as well as, besides this, the fact that
Gurdjieff himself described on page 6 of
the THIRD SERIES that in his past life
he had not in vain been known as a good,
above the average, diagnostician. These
changed states of being and consciousness
were transformed directly as a result of the
"motor accident," or the "misfortune," that
happened to him, and he also described
the same situation from another angle in
terms of what he called a 'subtle
philosophy' on pages 2 and 3 of the
INTRODUCTION to MEETINGS WITH
REMARKABLE MEN whereby he
thumbed his nose at those
representing the minds of
contemporary man, as he
put it, of whatever level of
intellectuality, but were "able
to take cognizance of the world
by means of data which, whenever
accidentally or intentionally activated,
aroused" in them "all sorts of fantastic
impulses," and then to make judgments
based on this same data on which their
"firm convictions about medical
matters" were based.
In the book GURDJIEFF: ESSAYS
AND REFLECTIONS ON THE MAN
AND HIS TEACHING, there was a
chapter on questions and responses,
between Gurdjieff and one of his
disciples:
Dr. B:
I would like to ask a question about
the relationship between work and fatigue.
It seems to me there is a difference between
work efforts and automatic efforts. Outer work
takes energy. Inner work is the opposite——it
should accumulate energy. It should even be
restful if it is done correctly. But for me it is
the opposite. At the moment of making an
effort something believes that the gates
through which energy escapes will
close automatically. But it's the
opposite. I become tired. I
lose my energy.
GURDJIEFF:
Consciously, we eat the electricity
that is in the body and transform it.
This establishes in us a force. In ordinary
life you automatically lose this. But here it's
not the same thing; it's not the same kind of
fatigue. This other fatigue has a future. It's
tiring but it brings you a substantial result.
It refills your accumulators. If you continue,
a certain substance will refill your accumulator.
Today, the more you tire yourself, the more
your organism will produce this substance.
In the above, Gurdjieff provided material for
understanding what is the second conscious
shock. From this point of view, we can somehow
see here the beginning of understanding of a
connection between what is Okidanokh and
what is the second conscious shock but it
is important to understand that this is not to
say that one is the same as the other. This
question is formulated by Gurdjieff in
Chapter 17, THE ARCH ABSURD,
Beelzebub's Tales, as follows:
"Now, it is necessary to touch also,
of course again only briefly, on another
question, namely, what relation the
'Omnipresent-Active-Element-
Okidanokh' has to the common
presence of beings of every kind,
and what are the cosmic results
actualized owing to it."
Before making any further
attempts to understand Okidanokh,
it is necessary to make a certain effort
while reading the material in the style it
was written by Gurdjieff. Reading aloud
is a means for this, but not necessary if
you realize that the aim in reading aloud
is simply to make some effort of inner
separation from the separate "I"'s in
you that are reading. It is a method for
self-remembering and the possible
entrance into a higher state
characteristic of self-remembering
which is suddenly to see yourself
behind these separate "I"'s that
are reading and, in this way,
obtain a more inclusive view
by seeing new connections
between one thing and
another.
In other words, it is seeing the material
from different angles simultaneously and
seeing where one angle conflicts with
another and then separating out those
elements manifesting in the form of
imaginary states which always lead
to wrong understanding because by
eliminating the wrong elements you
also eliminate the wrong connections
between them and this corresponds in
some way with wrong connections
between the different parts of yourself
in the form of the aforementioned
separate "I"'s. New understanding
is then possible to attain because
you are seeing something you didn't
see before, that is to say, you are in
a state of non-identification with the
separate "I"'s in you.
An inner alchemical process then begins
having to do with the exchange of those
wrong connections in the form of involuntary
manifestations of the personality known in
the fourth way as "buffers." The exchange
is for the law-conformable formation of inner
connections, that is to say, law-conformable
to letting go and letting God, or letting go to
higher influences as one would experience in
a state of self-remembering, leading to right
inner connections which form the soul, or
inner life.
Self-remembering, or 'being-Partkdolg-duty,'
makes necessary the process of 'Djartklom'
to proceed within us as self-developing beings
in connection with 'Aieioiuos' or 'Remorse.'
Otherwise, everything proceeds along the
involutionary scale of Great Nature devoid
of conscience, or, as Gurdjieff says in
Chapter 17, THE ARCH ABSURD,
devoid of "all that 'Holy' which,
incidentally, also aids the
actualizing of the functioning
in these cosmic units of Objective
or Divine Reason" and in another
paragraph: "also as the means for
being whereby their conscious self-
perfecting is possible." And as
said here by Gurdjieff in the
same chapter:
"And so, my boy, the chief peculiarity of
the Omnipresent-Okidanokh, in the given
case, is that the process of 'Djartklom'
proceeds in it within the presence of
every being also but not from being in
contact with the emanations of any
large cosmic concentration; but the
factors for this process in the
presences of beings are either
the results of the conscious
processes of 'Partkdolg-duty'
on the part of the beings
themselves--about which
processes I shall also explain
to you in detail later--or of that
process of Great Nature Herself
which exists in the Universe under
the name 'Kerkoolnonarnian-actualization,'
which process means 'The-obtaining-of-the-
required-totality-of-vibrations-by-adaptation.'
Gurdjieff elaborated further on the
material in the paragraph above
with regard to the latter
involutionary process
described:
"This latter process proceeds in
beings absolutely without the
participation of their
consciousness."
The letting go and letting God idea
mentioned above is law-conformable
with that commandment of Ashiata
Shiemash:
Faith of consciousness is freedom.
Faith of feeling is weakness.
Faith of body is stupidity.
. . . and then connecting this with
understanding inner fourth way
alchemical changes, that is to
say, with regard to how new
connections are formed
within.
"It is chiefly necessary to touch upon this
question because you will then have still
another very striking and illuminating fact
for the better understanding of the
difference between the various
brain-systems of beings, namely,
the systems called 'one-brained,'
'two-brained,' and three-brained.'
--Ch 17, THE ARCH ABSURD
And also in another part of Chapter 17:
"But the great terror of it, my boy, lies
just in this, that although in those three-
brained beings who have interested you
and who breed on the planet Earth, there
arise and are present in them, up to the
time of their complete destruction, these
three independent localizations or three
being-brains, through which separately
all the three holy forces of the sacred
Triamazikamno which they might also
utilize for their own self-perfecting are
transformed and go for further
corresponding actualizations, yet,
chiefly on account of the irregular
conditions of ordinary being-
existence established by them
themselves, these possibilities
beat their wings in vain."
Gurdjieff wrote in a style which is
difficult to follow if you are identified
in any way with any of the separate "I"'s
in you that are reading. Gurdjieff would
write something in a way that forced
you to see the inner connection
between one thing and another
which you would not be able to
do in an identified state. An
example is the following
paragraphs from Chapter 17,
THE ARCH-ABSURD,
Beelzebub's Tales:
"And that is, that during the period of
my many-centuried observation and study
of their psyche I had occasion to constate
several times that though 'science' appeared
among them almost from the very beginning
of their arising, and, it may be said,
periodically, like everything else there,
rose to a more or less high degree of
perfection, and that though during
these and other periods, many
millions of three-brained beings
called there 'scientists' must have
arisen and been again destroyed, yet
with the single exception of a certain
Chinese man named Choon-Kil-Tez,
about whom I shall tell you later in
detail, not once has the thought
entered the head of a single one
of them there that between these
two cosmic phenomena which they
call 'emanation' and 'radiation' there
is any difference whatever.
"Not a single one of those 'sorry-
scientists' has ever thought that
the difference between these two
cosmic processes is just about the
same as that which the highly
esteemed Mullah Nassr Eddin
once expressed in the following
words:
"'They are as much alike as
the beard of the famous English
Shakespeare and the no less
famous French Armagnac.'"
To see the difference between
emanation and radiation is to see
an inner connection by way of
application of the formula: "As
Above, So Below." Applying this
formula, one of the things we see
is that the "scientists" that Gurdjieff
is referring to are those who suffer from
the delusion that there is nothing that
exists in level of intelligence higher
than themselves. To remember
themselves would disturb their
delusions and so they follow law-
conformably the involutionary scale
of things whereby they are more
concerned about advancing their
ordinary life careers, positions in
some kind of bureaucratic
organization or other of public
or private orientation, their
ordinary materialistic
life-of-itself wealth,
etc.
The law-conformable consequences
for not remembering ourselves are
described here by Gurdjieff in
Chapter 17, THE ARCH
ABSURD:
"And so, my boy, the process of
Djartklom in the Omnipresent-Okidanokh
proceeds in the presence of each of these
favorites of yours, and in them also, all its
three holy forces are blended independently
with other cosmic crystallizations, and go
for the corresponding actualizations, but
as, chiefly owing to the already mentioned
abnormal conditions of being-existence
gradually established by them themselves,
they have entirely ceased to fulfill being-
Partkdolg-duty, then, in consequence of
this, none of those holy sources of
everything existing, with the
exception of the denying source alone, is
transubstantiated for their own presences.
Recall what Gurdjieff said above:
---
GURDJIEFF: Consciously, we eat
the electricity that is in the body and
transform it. This establishes in us a
force. In ordinary life you automatically
lose this. But here it's not the same
thing; it's not the same kind of fatigue.
This other fatigue has a future. It's
tiring but it brings you a substantial
result. It refills your accumulators.
If you continue, a certain substance
will refill your accumulator. Today,
the more you tire yourself, the
more your organism will
produce this substance.
Gurdjieff described Djartklom as
having to do with the evolutionary
process of individual self-change,
self-perfecting, by way of reversal
of the blending of the three fundamental
sources from which the "individual-in-
potential" originally obtained its prime
arising in the involutionary sense. In
connection with the process of individual
evolutionary self-change, referred to here
as a "given cosmic unit," Gurdjieff
formulated it according to the style
of writing of his that we see in
Beelzebub's Tales in general
and in Chapter 17, THE ARCH
ABSURD, in particular, the
following:
"It must without fail be noticed also,
that in every cosmic formation, the
said separated sources, both for the
perception and for the further
utilization of this property of the
'Omnipresent-Active-Element' for
the purpose of the corresponding
actualizing, exist and continue to
have the possibility of functioning,
as long as the given cosmic unit
exists."
Gurdjieff described this substance,
and the formation of it, in Chapter 17,
THE ARCH ABSURD, as follows:
"And these blendings are
called 'being-Impulsakri.'
"It is necessary to notice further that
these localizations or brains in beings
serve not only as apparatuses for the
transformation of corresponding
cosmic substances for the
purposes of the Most Great
common-cosmic Trogoautoegocrat,
but also as the means for being
whereby their conscious self-
perfecting is possible.
"This latter aim depends upon the
quality of the presence of the
'being-Impulsakri' concentrated,
or, as is otherwise said, deposited,
upon the said corresponding being-
brains."
Gurdjieff then described the process
of awakening, death and rebirth as
necessary for "the said cosmic unit"
in the form of the self-evolving and
self-perfecting individual and does
this again in the peculiar style of
his as written in Chapter 17, THE
ARCH ABSURD, as follows:
"It must without fail be noticed also,
that in every cosmic formation, the
said separated sources, both for the
perception and for the further utilization
of this property of the 'Omnipresent-
Active-Element' for the purpose of
the corresponding actualizing, exist
and continue to have the possibility
of functioning, as long as the given
cosmic unit exists.
"And only after the said cosmic unit
has been completely destroyed do
these holy sources of the sacred
Triamazikamno, localized in the
'Omnipresent-Active-Element-
Okidanokh,' reblend and they
are again transformed into
'Okidanokh,' but having now
another quality of
Vivifyingness of
Vibrations.
With the event of rebirth comes the
awakening of conscience and the
individual is then subjected to
higher influences according to
the law described by him as
the "Sacred Aieioiuoa" as
follows:
"As regards the second peculiarity
of the 'Omnipresent-Okidanokh,'
equally proper to it alone, and
which it is also necessary for us
to elucidate just now for the given
theme of our talk, you will be able
to understand about that, only if
you know something concerning
one fundamental cosmic second-
degree law, existing in the Universe,
under the denomination of the
'Sacred Aieioiuoa.'
In accordance with this law which
is now activated, there then proceeds
what is called 'Remorse' and said this
is a process "when every part that has
arisen from the results of any one Holy
Source of the Sacred Triamazikamno,
as it were, 'revolts,' and 'criticizes' the
former unbecoming perceptions and
the manifestations at the moment, of
another part of its whole--a part obtained
from the results of another Holy Source
of the same fundamental sacred Cosmic
Law of Triamazikamno." Gurdjieff is
describing here the situation we are
in whereby we are identified with one
"I" or another and each one of
these "I"'s are separated by buffers.
The process here is a description of
work "I"'s beginning to separate from
life-of-itself "I"'s with which we are
ordinarily identified. This process of
inner separation makes necessary
that we struggle with involuntary
manifestations such as negative
emotions and states, inner
considerings of every kind,
fantasy and imagination, etc.
ANGELIC PRESENCE
The work of self-remembering is to
separate out what is false by way of
observation. The aim here is not to
change anything, but only observe.
Observation of ourselves in the midst
of our ordinary life activities must not
be done with the aim of change because
this will interfere with the taking in of
impressions. Impressions must be noticed
if they are to be received while in a state
of observation but you will not be able to
observe anything if you are carried away by
imaginary states and dreams of self-change.
This will not do. Ignorance and illusion are
twin sisters of all that is unreal and so
only useless suffering and mistakes
can follow in their wake.
Do not be dismayed by the
making of mistakes because
mistakes are valuable to help
us to remember what to avoid.
If you repeat the same mistakes,
then you are not observing and
remembering anything.
If we are ignorant of laws of
conscious self-evolution, then our
work is to destroy that ignorance by
studying and attempting to understand
these laws taught to us in the fourth way.
Without struggle, the tendency is to
follow the easy path of the animal
which is the case for the majority
of humanity, seeing only the
illusions of the outer world,
and falling prey to every snare
and every net through ignorance
of the understanding of laws that
govern all worlds, above and below,
from behind the scenes. The laws
that govern the universe are the
same as those that govern our
inner life. All of this is in
connection with what Gurdjieff
said in the Prologue to the
THIRD SERIES.
The only thing we can do
in view of the laws that govern
all worlds, above and below, and
from behind the scenes is to follow
these same laws that also govern our
inner life as a guide for formulation of
our own aims personal to us; what aim
is personal to you and what aim is
personal to me. Our aim with regard
to these communications with one
another over the internet is to
form a conscious bridge of
communication by
application of fourth
way ideas bearing in
mind that the fourth way,
of itself, cannot pursue any
definite aim. The fourth way
is a system of ideas organized
in such a way that we can apply
extremely quick methods for
the attainment of our
personal aims, and this
is especially so after a
period of long suffering.