1 INNER EXERCISES of Real Men and Real Women 1
Shiemash51
1 INNER EXERCISES of Real Men and Real Women 1
You think you have observed.
The difficulty is in observing
AS YOU MUST OBSERVE.
There is criticism of your action
IN YOUR OBSERVATION and as
long as there is the desire to change a
situation there is no observation that
is impartial ... objective.
It takes long work and longsuffering
and then you know what "makes" you . . .
YOU HAVE FOUND THE PATTERN.
You must get to know the pattern
perfectly . . . the "Perfect". It is
through love and struggle that
you get to know the pattern. To
do that you must observe yourself
without intention of changing
anything, that is, without any
criticism whatever.
When observing, you must
try to control the situation, that
is, to make it last longer or become
shorter, to bring it about AT WILL . . .
In other words, you must try to start
interactions yourself without becoming
emotionally involved in them; you must
try to enter into interactions to make
them shorter or to prolong them. All
this you must learn to do AT WILL,
this will strengthen Real Will, and
harmlessness is the real measure . . .
then, and only then, you will
be free.
It is a question of finding where
you lose yourself. There isn't anyone
who can truthfully say that he remembers
himself ALL THE TIME. You cannot
remember yourself all the time; but
you must try to observe and find out
for yourself at which point it is that
you lose yourself. This constant,
continuous, consistent, and
persistent effort will eventually
show you a pattern, a pattern
that is YOUR PATTERN, and
with which you must become
fully acquainted before you can
understand it. You must continue
the effort and refrain from asking
questions UNTIL YOU REALLY
HAVE A QUESTION TO ASK.
Preparation is necessary before
one is able to transmit knowledge
as well as to receive it. We cannot
give or receive knowledge if we are
What is entirely in terms of
the creation of appropriate
inner and outer conditions that
would permit those "first degree
initiates" to take in impressions
furthering the crystallization
in themselves of the being-data
required for a responsible
existence worthy of three-
brained beings and such
participation from which
again grows the "enabling
substance" now in a
position to constantly
enlighten the Reason of
fellow shipmate initiates and
provide practical explanations
about observing various
concentrations, the methods
of studying their reciprocal
influence, and the significance
of these influences themselves in
connection with the Cosmic World
Tension that is everywhere
present, and how to wield these
self-same "tensions" in a way
quite different than along
those lines of fantastic
invention.
OBJECTIVE SCIENCE
"But since you, my boy, do not yet
have any idea of the exceptional
peculiarities of Time, you must
first be told that genuine
Objective Science defines
this cosmic phenomenon
thus:
"'Time in itself does not exist,
there is only the totality of the
results issuing from all the cosmic
phenomena present in a given place.'
"Time in itself no being can understand
by Reason or perceive by any outer or
inner being-function. It cannot even
be sensed by any gradation of the
instinct present in every more or
less independent cosmic
concentration.
"It is possible to evaluate Time
only by comparing different cosmic
phenomena occurring under the same
conditions and in the same place
where Time is being considered.
"It should be noted that in the
Great Universe all phenomena, without
exception, wherever they arise and are
manifest, are simply successive, lawful
'fractions' of some whole phenomenon
which has its prime arising on the
Most Holy Sun Absolute.
"In consequence, all cosmic phenomena,
wherever they proceed, have an
'objective' significance.
SACRED HEPTAPARAPARSHINOKH
"And these successive, lawful fractions
are actualized in every respect, even
in the sense of their involution and
evolution, according to the
fundamental cosmic law, the
sacred Heptaparaparshinokh."
--Gurdjieff
--ch 16, time
ENABLING SUBSTANCE
"These substances share in the
characteristic of enablement:
if we have them, we can 'do'
and if we do not then wanting
to do is just wishful thinking.
In a word, these substances turn
our view of ourselves as free,
whole, creative beings from
fantasy into reality. We spoke
of 'wishful thinking' and might
consider that such substances
when added to the equation
produce a real result:
thinking + wish +
substance = real
doing.
1 The purpose of such an
exercise is to produce
an enabling substance
(or energy) that can
make life more real.
2 It depends on exercising
a free attention that can
be divided into at least
two parts.
3 There is an energy
or substance that can
be assimilated or made
available to us by bringing
attention onto our breathing.
4 In a perhaps similar
way, there is an energy
or substance that can be
released from the thinking
process or head brain by
careful attention.
5 Such energies can be
combined together to
produce a new sense
of wholeness or
'I-Amness'."
--Gurdjieff
--Blake, inner exercises
SOMETHING of SUBSTANCE
"'In that soul which a man
supposedly has, as people
believe, and of which they
say that it exists independently
after death and transmigrates, I
do not believe; and yet, in the
course of a man's life
"something" does form
itself in him: this
is for me beyond
all doubt.
"'As I explain it to myself,
a man is born with a certain
property and, thanks to this
property, in the course of his
life certain of his experiencings
elaborate in him a certain substance,
and from this substance there is
gradually formed in him
"something or other"
which can acquire a
life almost independent
of the physical body.
"'When a man dies, this "something"
does not disintegrate at the same
time as the physical body, but
only much later, after its
separation from the
physical body.
"'Although this "something" is
formed from the same substance
as the physical body of a man,
it has a much finer materiality
and, it must be assumed, A MUCH
GREATER SENSITIVITY TOWARDS ALL
KINDS OF PERCEPTIONS. The
sensitivity of its
perception is in my
opinion such as—-you
remember, when you made
that experiment with the
half-witted Armenian woman,
Sando?'"
--2nd Series, my father
INNER EXERCISES of the REAL MAN and WOMAN
"what arises in the
brain is not important"
In terms of ordinary, as is said,
"involuntary" or mechanical life,
a so-called "real man" is defined
that way, as real, in connection
with the sex function. We see this
in Hollywood movies more so
than not that a man, as well
as woman, is defined in this
way. In the real world, such
is not the case at all. What
a real man and real woman
is has to do with the act of
separation of oneself from
oneself, that is, from the
"involuntary."
Gurdjieff explained in Views
from the Real World, the trick is to
not change anything artificially in
any way, such as our breathing, but
to divide attention which is the
work of real men and real women,
that is, to divide attention
between the breathing and the
head brain and the results of
this are concentrated in the
solar plexus. Gurdjieff
said that this will enhance
the sense of "I AM", which
he couples with what he
calls "active mentation".
In terms of psychology, all
of this is akin to Gurdjieff's
saying that "what arises in the
brain is not important"; instead
he says that there should be a
flow into the solar plexus but
without expectation of results
which is always and in
everything the case when
thinking in "linear" terms. What
flows in the "I Am" presence from
the air called is an "active substance"
what John Bennett in later years
after his meeting with Gurdjieff
said can be derived from the sun
and what comes from the head
brain combine together in the
solar plexus WITHOUT
WILFUL FORCE which is
to say that this active
substance can only be
assimilated into us
if it is taken in
consciously.
Ezekiel's greatest miracle
was his resurrection of the
dead, recounted in Ezekiel 37.
From Ezekiel 34:
"Therefore this is what the
Sovereign LORD says to them:
See, I myself will judge between
the fat sheep and the lean sheep.
Because you shove with flank and
shoulder, butting all the weak
sheep with your horns until you
have driven them away, I will
save my flock, and they will
no longer be plundered. I will
judge between one sheep and another.
I will place over them one shepherd,
my servant David, and he will tend
them; he will tend them and be their
shepherd. I the LORD will be their
God, and my servant David will be
prince among them. I the LORD
have spoken."
Ezekiel 34:20-24
By way of the description of
the weak sheep in the above as
the "fat" and "lean" and the
judgment between them is what
Gurdjieff meant by "suggestibility,"
that is, the suggestibility of people
who do not make the effort of
what is called "being-duty"
and so believe everything
they see, hear and read
as explained by Gurdjieff
in Beelzebub's Tales,
chapter 13:
"On the planet Earth this
particularity in the psyche
of the three-brained beings
arose only during later periods;
and it arose only because their
predominant part, formed in them
as in all three-brained beings,
gradually allowed the other
parts of their total presence
to perceive every new impression
without fulfilling what is called
'being-partkdolgduty,' that is to
say, merely as such impressions are
generally perceived by one or another
of their independent localizations
known as 'being-centers.' Or, to
put it in their language, they
believe everything anybody says,
instead of believing only what
they have been able to verify
by their own 'sane deliberation' ...
in other words, only those
convictions they have reached
as a result of confronting and
evaluating the data already
deposited in them, which have
given rise to different
conceptions in each of
their localizations of
diverse nature."
Gurdjieff
ch 13, fastasy as reality
The reality is this:
The way we are now, we are
already filled with imagination
and fantasy "perceived as reality"
about all kinds of things in
association with our vanity,
false pride, internal considering,
scandal, setting up or inventing
arbitrary standards and "requiring"
others to act according to those
requirements all of which is
neurosis, and everything else
that we are instructed by
Gurdjieff to separate from
in order that we can
remember ourselves such
as those properties as are
completely crystallized
and have become an integral
and unavoidable part of our
everyday common presence and
that we take for granted as
normal, such properties that
exist under the names of
"egoism,""self-love," "vanity,"
"pride," "ambition," "flattery,"
"conceit," "credulity,"
"suggestibility," "positive
thinking," "zeal," "enthusiasm"
and many others no less abnormal
and unbecoming to the essence of
any three-brained being
whatsoever.