two rivers Ch 48 the details of their outer movement

[James Wyly]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPoo2JSjUmE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nCz-M9IRqM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iefEwScI67w&t=11s

two rivers Ch 48 the details of their outer movement

Each of us must find a method
with which we can work to "occupy"
ourselves with the inner life. And,
as strange as it may seem, the
very abnormalities of ordinary
life we suffer from today were
born out of that part of the world,
the home of the original hasnamuss
from which "the immortal thing"
arose, the so-called "cradle of
civilization" and "tower of Babel"
of "confusion of tongues," a
"thousand-tongued hydra"
thousands of years ago
and which, therefore,
links all of us together,
from the beginnings of
such wheels as were
set in motion according
to 2nd and 3rd Order 
cosmic laws as witnessed
by such as Ezekiel but, in 
this case, in the area of
the world of the two 
rivers "Tigris and Euphrates,"
where Baghdad is in the middle
of Iraq and where Babylon
existed, the Tigris and 
Euphrates Rivers meeting
somewhat north of the modern
city of Basra, we are all of us
working together as strange
fellow traveling "bed-fellows"
as followers of the pure form
of Beelzebub's Tales to His
Grandson:

COSMIC LAW OF 
SELF-ADAPTABILITY
OF NATURE

"One of these facts appears in their 
common presence owing to the cosmic 
law of the 'self-adaptability' of 
Nature, and the other derives from 
those abnormal conditions of 
ordinary being-existence they 
themselves have established, 
and about which I have 
repeatedly spoken.

"The first fact is that, from the time 
when, owing to their abnormal existence, 
there was formed in them the 'two-system 
zoostat,' that is, two independent 
consciousnesses, Great Nature gradually 
adapted herself to this until finally it 
came about that, after your favorites 
reach a certain age, there begin to 
proceed in them two 'inkliatzanikshanas' 
of different tempos or, as they 
themselves would say, two 
different modes of 'blood 
circulation.'

"From this age on, each of these 
'inkliatzanikshanas' or 'blood
circulations' of different tempo 
evokes the functioning of one of
their consciousnesses, and vice 
versa, the intensive functioning 
of either consciousness evokes 
the mode of 'blood circulation'
corresponding to it.

"The difference between these two 
independent modes of blood circulation 
in their common presence depends on what 
is called the 'tempodavlakshernian 
circulation' or, according to the
expression of their contemporary 
'medicine,' the 'extent of filling
of the blood vessels', in other words, 
in the conditions of the 'waking state,' 
the 'center of gravity of the blood 
pressure' in their common presence 
is situated in one part of the 
general system of 'blood vessels,' 
whereas in the conditions of the 
passive state it is in another 
part."
--Gurdjieff
--Ch 32, Hypnotism
--Beelzebub's Tales 

Returning to the "dividing of 
the waters" idea which can be 
found in Views from the Real 
World as well as in chapter 48 
of Beelzebub's Tales to His
Grandson concerning the
difference between a real
man and a "man in quotation
marks" as a sort of dividing
of the waters between what
can be called voluntary
and involuntary
schizophrenia
and the results
ensuing from them
are as Gurdjieff in
his words said "subjectivized"
correspondingly in the two streams,
and although they function
independently, they mutually
assist and sustain each other
all the time. For example, a
real scientist, if he can be
called such, sees no paradox
when two opposite ideas seem
to prove themselves as true
because he realizes that he
does not have the complete
picture and the two ideas
that we are speaking of here
are voluntary and involuntary
schizophrenia.

"After the 'dividing of the waters,'
great and small successive processes
that assure the fulfillment of the
predetermined destination of each
stream, even in the details of
their outer movement, also ensue
from these same cosmic laws, however,
the results ensuing from them are so
to say 'subjectivized' correspondingly
in the two streams, and although they
function independently, they mutually
assist and sustain each other all the
time."
--Gurdjieff
--ch 48, from the author
--Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

To be a conscious individual,
a real individual, one must be
impartial to impressions and have
no "ax-to-grind" but follows a process
that is affirming, denying and reconciling
because it is our wish to be at
home with ourselves and
with one another as it
ought to be in the real
world and not somewhere 
on Planet Retribution 
where it seems to be 
true that everyone
has an ax to grind. 

"These 'subjectivized' second-order
results, issuing from fundamental
cosmic laws, sometimes function
side by side, sometimes collide
or cross, but never blend. And
the action of these 'subjectivized'
second-order results can sometimes,
in certain surrounding conditions,
also extend to the separate
drops."
--Gurdjieff
--ch 48, from the author
--Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

Although the real man who
has already acquired his own
"I" and what is called Real
Will and the man in quotation
marks who has not, are equally
slaves of that same "Greatness,"
the difference between them is
in terms of consciousness, that
is to say, the attitude of the
real man toward his slavery is
conscious and acquires the
possibility of serving the
"all-universal actualizing,"
of applying a part of his
manifestations, in terms of
the providence of Great Nature,
to the attainment of "indestructible
Being" and since it is true that, by
definition, to be in a state of self-
remembering means to be specific, then
the manifestations for a truly real man
to be a conscious individual, a real
individual, he understands that in
order to be awake and impartial to
impressions is to know that the
emotions of "voluntary hysteria,"
"voluntary delirium" and "voluntary
ecstasy" are very different than their
involuntary relations what ordinary life
science of so-called "psychiatry" calls
"schizophrenia" but, in reality, is
involuntary hysteria associated with
physical violence towards oneself and/
or others, and such lower level
involuntary emotions must not be
mixed with voluntary emotions
because even a small momentary
contamination of the two types
of emotional arousings can interfere
with impartiality to impressions of
the surrounding real world,
whereas the second "man in
quotation marks," not
cognizing his slavery,
serves during the entire
process of his existence
merely as a thing, which,
when no longer needed,
disappears forever.

"The river at first flows as a
whole along a comparatively level
valley, and then at the place where
Nature has undergone what is called
a 'cataclysm not according to law,'
it divides into two separate streams
or, as is also said, there occurs a
'dividing of the waters.'"
--Gurdjieff
--ch 48, from the author
--Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

A conscious individual, a
real individual of Real Will,
at the place where Great Nature
has undergone what is called a
"cataclysm not according to
law," can arouse the emotions
of voluntary hysteria, voluntary
delirium and voluntary ecstasy quite
easily but for people caught up in
ordinary life it is utterly
impossible simply because
everything they do is
hopelessly along some
line or other of cause,
crusade and agenda and what
they may call "individuality,"
but isn't, is always and in
everything at the expense
and ill-will of others
disguised by "altruism"
and "philanthropy" what
Gurdjieff called psychopathy
in the truest meaning of the
term.

"In order to make what I have
just said more comprehensible
and concrete, let us compare
human life in general to a
large river that rises from
various sources and flows on
the surface of our planet, and
the life of any particular man
to one of the drops of water
composing this river of life.

"The river at first flows as a
whole along a comparatively level
valley, and then at the place where
Nature has undergone what is called
a 'cataclysm not according to law,'
it divides into two separate streams
or, as is also said, there occurs a
"dividing of the waters."
--Gurdjieff
--ch 48, from the author
--Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

It is useful for us to
compare humanity, or human
life in general, to a large river 
which arises from various
sources and flows into two
separate streams which is
to say that there occurs
in this river what is
called a "dividing of
the waters" and the
life of any one man
can be compared to
the drops of water
composing this
river of life.

From chapter 24 of
Beelzebub's Tales:

"Well, my boy, when we arrived
in Babylon and I began mingling
with various beings and making
corresponding observations in
order to clear up the QUESTION
that had interested me, almost
everywhere I went I ran across
those learned beings who were
meeting in great numbers, and
I began associating exclusively
with them, confining my
observations to them and
to their individualities."

In an earlier part of the
chapter, Beelzebub formulated
his question in the following
way:

"First of all I must tell you that
the chief particularity of the
psyche of your favorites, namely,
their 'periodic need to destroy the
existence of beings like themselves,'
interested me more and more with
each succeeding century of theirs,
and parallel with this, the
irresistible urge grew in me
to find out the exact cause
of a particularity so
phenomenal for
three-brained
beings."
--chapter 24

Continuing with Hamolinadir:

"Among the learned beings whom
I often met for the sake of my
aim was a certain Hamolinadir,
who had been brought there
under compulsion from
Egypt.

"During these meetings between
this terrestrial three-brained
being, Hamolinadir, and myself,
almost the same relations were
established as in general
prevail between three-
brained beings who
often meet one
another.

"This Hamolinadir was one of
those learned beings in whose
common presence the factors for
the impulses of a three-brained
being, which had passed to him
by heredity, were not entirely
atrophied, and moreover, it
turned out that during his
preparatory age the
responsible beings
around him had
prepared him to
be more or less
normally responsible.

"I should add that at that
time there were many such
learned beings in the
city of Babylon.

"Although this learned Hamolinadir
was descended from the race of beings
called 'Assyrian,' and his arising and
preparation for becoming a responsible
being had taken place in that very
city of Babylon, his knowledge had
been acquired in Egypt, in the
highest school of all those
existing on the Earth at
that time, called the
'School for
Materializing
Thought.'

"When I first met him he was
at an age when his 'I'—-in the
sense of intelligently directing
the 'automatic psychic functioning'
of his common presence—-had already
attained the maximum stability
possible for a three-centered
being of the planet Earth at
that time, so that during
what is called his 'passive
waking state' he had
being-manifestations
that were very clearly
expressed, such as
'consciousness of self,'
'impartiality,' 'sincerity,'
'sensitivity,'
'resourcefulness,'
and so forth."
--ch 24

It is on account of
the unbecoming life
of people in general
regarding the chief
particularity mentioned
above what is called
"reciprocal
destruction"
and was a
question for
Beelzebub as
to why that was
while in the City
of Babylon described
by Gurdjieff in Chapter
24 of Beelzebub's Tales
that there was established
for the purposes of common
actualizing of everything
existing that, in general,
human life on the Earth should
flow in two streams. According
to Gurdjieff, Great Nature
foresaw and gradually fixed
in the common presence of
humanity a corresponding
property, so that, before
the dividing of the waters,
in each drop that has this
corresponding inner
subjective "struggle
with one's own denying
part," there might arise
that "something," thanks
to which certain properties
are acquired which give the
possibility, at the place of
the branching of the waters
of life, of entering one
or the other stream.
There are two directions
in the life of humanity:

1) ACTIVE

2) PASSIVE

And, yet again, we are
reminded of one of the
wise sayings of our
esteemed Mullah
Nasr Eddin:

"Luck smiled on them both,
for they both managed to find
the authentic godmother of the
incomparable Scheherazade on 
an old dunghill."

Laws are everywhere
the same. These two
laws, these two currents,
continually meet, now crossing
each other, now running parallel,
and it is possible to develop a
real sense of the difference
between these two currents
in terms of what can be
called the "inner world
wide web internet network"
and the "outer world wide
web internet network."
The "outer" is made
up of physical
copper wires,
rf satellite
links, computer
monitors, laptops
and other cell phone
"pigs" and "dogs," etc.

The ignorant as well as the
wise meet here on the common
ground of the internet as
extremes will always do
at points of correspondence
along involutionary and
evolutionary lines and
at these crossings in
the streams, something
is exchanged. These
interference patterns
are represented in some
sense by those of us who
participate on these internet
channels because it is true 
that one definition of correspondence
is communication by exchange
of letters, like the letters
of Saint Paul.

Such transfers and exchanges
will cause inner sensations
of "loss of soul" as what
happens when any of us
meet in the midst and
conditions of ordinary
life of itself but this
is illusion. There can be
no loss of soul if there
was never any soul in the
first place. Soul formation
is a way of life.

The two currents,
or "active" and "passive"
laws, NEVER MIX, but they
support each other, they
are indispensable for
each other, and we
are speaking of the
results which ensue
from the details of 
their outer movement
and to say that such 
results are "subjectivized"
means that they correspond
in one or the other stream.

The life of all ordinary
men taken together can be
thought of as one of these
two rivers in which each life,
whether of man, woman or any 
other living being, is represented 
by a drop in the river, and the 
river itself is a link in the 
"cosmic chain."

"The three-brained beings
arising and existing on the
planet Mars, as well as those
on all the planets of our
Megalocosmos where the
process of existence is
normal for three-brained
beings, have the full
possibility of reaching
the state of the sacred
Ishmetch, that is, the
state in which the existence
of a being, as regards the
most great cosmic
Iraniranumange,
becomes dependent
only on substances
that arise directly
from the manifestations
of the Most Holy Prime
Source Itself, whereas
for other beings, their
existence always depends
on cosmic substances that
arise from the results of
all corresponding center-of-
gravity concentrations of the
common-cosmic fundamental
Ansanbaluiazar."
--Gurdjieff
--ch 45, electricity
--Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

In accordance with the
common-cosmic fundamental
Ansanbaluiazar, the passive
river flows in a fixed direction.
All of its turns, bends and changes
have a definite purpose and in it
every drop plays a part insofar
as it is part of the river, but
the law of the river as a whole
does not extend to the
individual drops.

"It is interesting to
remark concerning this
'common-cosmic Ansanbaluiazar'
that present-day Objective
Science has the formulation:'

'Everything issuing
from everything and
again entering into
everything.'"
--ch 39, holy planet purgatory

The changes of position,
movement and direction of
the drops are completely
accidental as in "issuing
from everything and again
entering into everything."
At one moment a drop is
here; the next moment
it is there; now it
is on the surface,
now it has gone
to the bottom,
and in terms of
individuality is
"neither here nor
there." Accidentally
it rises, accidentally
it collides with another
and descends; now it moves
quickly, now slowly. Whether
its life is easy or difficult
depends on where it happens to
be. There is no individual law
for it, no personal fate. Only
the river as a whole has a
fate, which is common to
all the drops as in the
"common-cosmic
Ansanbaluiazar."
Personal sorrow and
joy, happiness and suffering--
in that current, all of these
are accidental.

But, for the sake of individuality,
the drop has, in principle, a
possibility of escaping from
this general current and
jumping across to the
other, the neighboring,
stream. It is a law also
of Great Nature that the
drop must know how to
make use of
accidental
shocks, and
of the momentum
of the whole river,
so as to come to the
surface and be closer
to the bank at those
places where it is
easier to jump
across. It must
choose not only
the right place
but also the right
time, to make use of
winds, currents and storms
into that sphere of Nature
which has frequent reciprocal
"exchanges of substances" with
various great cosmic concentrations
through the process of what is called
"pokhdalissdjancha," one aspect of
which, by the way, contemporary
people call "cyclones."

Sometimes a cyclone can
hit in such a manner as
to produce the inner sensing
of having been punched in the
nose.

Then the drop has a chance
to rise with the spray and
jump across into the 
other river.

From the moment it gets
into the other river, the
drop is in a different world,
in a different life, and there-
fore is under different laws.
An all-around awareness of
everything concerning
these different
"sacred laws"
makes it possible
for the individual
drop irrespective of
the form of its exterior
coating, whether male or
female or what the skin
color may or may not be,
or from whatever country
in whatever part of the
world, doesn't matter,
to become able, in
the presence of
all surrounding
cosmic factors not
depending on them and
whether or not these
accidental shocks
come about as
favorable or
unfavorable,
to ponder on
the sense of
their own individual
existence.

"And this new maleficent means
is named 'psychoanalysis.'"
--Gurdjieff
--ch 32, hypnotism

And so the individual
drop, correctly evaluating
the essential significance
of its own individual presence,
is capable of becoming aware of
the place truly corresponding to
it regarding these common-
cosmic actualizations.

"Now, after all that I have
said, coming back to the chief
theme of the lecture read here
today, I wish to remind you of
the expressions employed several
times in defining man—-namely,
'real man' and 'man in
quotation marks,' and in
conclusion to say this:

"Although the real man who
has already acquired his own
'I,' and the man in quotation
marks who has not, are equally
slaves of that same 'Greatness,'
the difference between them, as I
have already said, consists in this,
that since the attitude of the first
toward his slavery is conscious, he
acquires the possibility, even
while serving the 'all-universal
actualizing,' of applying a part
of his manifestations, according
to the providence of Great Nature,
to the attainment of 'imperishable
Being', whereas the second, not
cognizing his slavery, serves
during the entire process of
his existence merely as a
thing, which, when no
longer needed,
disappears
forever.

"In order to make what I have
just said more comprehensible
and concrete, let us compare
human life in general to a
large river that rises from
various sources and flows on
the surface of our planet, and
the life of any particular man
to one of the drops of water
composing this river of life.

"The river at first flows as a
whole along a comparatively level
valley, and then at the place where
Nature has undergone what is called
a 'cataclysm not according to law,'
it divides into two separate streams
or, as is also said, there occurs a
'dividing of the waters.'--

"All of the water of one stream,
soon after passing this place,
flows into a still more level
valley and, without any
'majestic or picturesque'
scenery to hinder it,
ultimately flows into
the vast ocean.

"The second stream continues to
flow through obstacles formed by
the 'cataclysm not according to
law' just mentioned, and
ultimately falls into
crevices which are
themselves consequences
of the same cataclysm,
and seeps into the
very depths of the
Earth.

"Although after the 'dividing
of the waters' these two streams
flow independently and no longer
mingle, at certain moments they
approach so near each other that
all the results engendered from
the process of their flowing
blend, and even at times,
during great atmospheric
phenomena such as winds,
storms, and so on, splashes
of water, or even single drops,
pass from one stream into the
other.

"Taken individually, the life
of every man until reaching
responsible age corresponds
to a drop of water in the
initial current of the river,
and the place where the 'dividing
of the waters' occurs corresponds
to the time when he attains
adulthood.

"Before this division, every
movement of the waters for
fulfilling the predetermined
destination of the entire river,
according to law, applies as a
whole as well as in its
smallest details to each
separate drop equally, but
only inasmuch as the given
drop is contained in the
general flow of the 
whole river.

"For the drop itself, all its
own displacements, all the
directions it takes, and
all the states caused by
its changes of position, by
various accidental surrounding
conditions, and by the speeding
up or slowing down of the tempo
of its movement, are always
entirely a matter of chance.

"For the drops, there is no
predetermination of their
personal fate—-a predetermined
fate is for the whole river only.

"At the beginning of the flow
of the river of life, the drops
are here one moment, there the
next, and a moment later they
may not exist at all as such,
having splashed out of the
river and evaporated.

"And so when, on account of
the unbecoming life of men,
Great Nature was constrained
to bring about a corresponding
degeneration in their common
presence, it was established
for the purposes of the common
actualizing of everything
existing that the whole of
human life on Earth would be
divided into two streams, and
Great Nature foresaw, and
gradually fixed in the
details of her common
actualization, a certain
law-conforming process
whereby in the drops
of water of the initial
flow of the river of life,
during what are called 'inner
subjective struggles against
one's own denying principle,'
there might arise or not arise
that 'something' thanks to which
certain properties are acquired
that give the possibility, at
the place of the 'dividing of
the waters,' of entering one
stream or the other.

"This 'something,' which in the
presence of each drop of water
serves to actualize the property
corresponding to one or the other
of the streams, represents in the
common presence of each man who
attains responsible age that 'I'
which was referred to in
today's lecture.

"A man who has his own 'I'
enters one of the streams
of the river of life, and
the man who has not,
enters the other.

"The subsequent fate of each
drop in the river of life is
determined at the 'dividing
of the waters,' according
to the stream it enters.

"And this is because, as I have
already said, the first of these
two streams ultimately empties
into the ocean, that is, into that
sphere of Nature which has
frequent reciprocal 'exchanges
of substances' with various
great cosmic concentrations
through the process of what
is called 'pokhdalissdjancha,'
one aspect of which, by the way,
contemporary people call 'cyclones.'
And thereby the drop of water has
the possibility of evolving, as
it is, to the next higher
concentration.

"And as for the other stream,
which at the end of its course
flows into the crevices of the
Earth's nether regions, where it
participates in what is called
'involutionary creation'
proceeding continuously
within the planet, it is
transformed into vapor and
distributed to corresponding
spheres to serve for new
arisings.

"After the 'dividing of the waters,'
great and small successive processes
that assure the fulfillment of the
predetermined destination of each
stream, even in the details of
their outer movement, also ensue
from these same cosmic laws, however,
the results ensuing from them are so
to say 'subjectivized' correspondingly
in the two streams, and although they
function independently, they mutually
assist and sustain each other all the
time.

"These 'subjectivized' second-order
results, issuing from fundamental
cosmic laws, sometimes function
side by side, sometimes collide
or cross, but never blend. And
the action of these 'subjectivized'
second-order results can sometimes,
in certain surrounding conditions,
also extend to the separate
drops."
--Gurdjieff
--ch 48, from the author
--Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson