Ch 48 Part Five ... two rivers

[James Wyly]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbFO2RQ5JUY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKUtwgB6SU4&t=31s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdJXStJi0dA&t=3s

CH 48 PART FIVE … TWO RIVERS

Chapter 48: From the author

From the author

PART FIVE

Beelzebub's Tales
to His Grandson

"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.

TWO RIVERS

"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.

CATACLYSM

"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.

POKHDALISSDJANCHA

"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.

For us contemporary people,
the chief evil is that, owing
to the various conditions of
ordinary existence established
by ourselves, especially our
abnormal "education," we reach
responsible age having acquired
a presence that corresponds only
to that stream of the river of life
destined to empty itself into the
nether regions, and falling into
it, are carried along wherever
and however it wills, and
without pondering the
consequences we remain
passive and, submitting
to the flow, drift on
and on.

As long as we remain passive,
not only shall we have inevitably
to serve solely as a means for
Nature's "involutionary
creation" but for the
rest of our lives we
shall have to submit
slavishly to the
caprice of all
sorts of blind
events.

As most of the listeners present
today have already, as is said,
"crossed over" into responsible
age and sincerely recognize that
until now they have not acquired
their own "I" and, at the same
time, according to the
substance of all I have
said here, have not
pictured any particularly
agreeable perspectives for
themselves, then, in order
that you—-just you who
recognize this—-should
not be too greatly
"disheartened" and
fall into the usual
"pessimism" everywhere
prevalent in the abnormal
life of contemporary people,
I say quite frankly, without
any "arrière-pensée," that
according to my convictions
formed over long years of
investigations and strengthened
by numerous experiments conducted
in a quite exceptional way—-on the
results of which are based the
Institute for the Harmonious
Development of Man—-even for
you, it is not yet too late.

The point is that these
investigations and experiments
showed me definitely and clearly
that in her infinite care, Mother
Nature has foreseen the possibility
for beings to acquire the kernel of
their essence, that is to say, their
own "I," even after they have
reached responsible age.

The foresight of our just Mother
Nature consists in our case in
this, that the possibility is
given us, in certain inner and
outer conditions, to cross over
from one stream into the other.

The expression "the first liberation
of man," which has reached us from
ancient times, refers to just this
possibility of crossing over from
the stream that is predestined to
disappear into the nether regions
into the stream that empties
itself into the vast spaces
of the boundless ocean.

But to cross over into the
other stream is not so easy
"merely to wish and you cross."
For this, it is first of all
necessary consciously to
crystallize in yourselves
data for engendering in
your common presence a
constant, unquenchable
impulse of desire for
this crossing, and then
afterward to undergo a
long corresponding
preparation.

For this crossing you are
required above all to renounce
everything that you consider
"riches" in this stream of
life, but which in reality
are automatically and
slavishly acquired
habits.

In other words, you have to
die to everything that makes
up your ordinary life.

It is just this death that
is spoken of in all religions.

This is the meaning of the
saying which has reached us
from remote antiquity, "Without
death no resurrection," or in
other words, "If you do not
die, you will not be raised
from the dead."

It is not a question of the
death of the body, since for
such a death there is no
need of resurrection.

For if there is a soul and,
moreover, an immortal soul,
it can dispense with a
resurrection of the
body.

Nor is resurrection needed
for our appearance before
the Last Judgment of the
Lord God, as we have been
taught by the Fathers of
the Church.

No! Even Jesus Christ himself
and all the prophets sent from
Above spoke of the death that
can occur here in this life,
that is to say, of the death
of that "tyrant" from whom
proceeds our slavery, and
solely on the liberation
from whom depends the
first chief
liberation
of man.

In summing up all that has been
said—-the ideas in the lecture
you have heard and what I have
added today—-about the two categories
of contemporary people who in respect
of their inner content have nothing
in common, and about the grievous
fact that owing to the
progressively deteriorating
conditions of ordinary life,
particularly the wrong system
of education of the rising
generation, the various
consequences of the
properties of the
organ kundabuffer
appear much more
intensely in the
common presence of
people in recent times,
I consider it necessary
to say, and even to emphasize,
that all misunderstandings arising
in the process of our collective life,
especially in our mutual relationships,
all disagreements, disputes, settlings
of accounts, and hasty decisions—-
decisions which after being
carried out evoke in us the
lingering process of "remorse
of conscience"—-and even such
great events as wars, civil wars,
and other calamities are simply the
results of a property of the common
presence of ordinary people who have
never specially worked on themselves,
which I would call "reflecting reality
upside down."

Every man who can think even a
little seriously, without being
so to speak "identified" with his
passions, must agree with this if
he takes into account only one simple
fact often repeated in the process of
our inner life, namely, that all our
experiences that seem so dreadful
while we are going through them
appear to our logical reasoning
to be "not worth a red cent"
after a lapse of only a short
time, during which they have
been replaced by other
experiences and chance
to be recalled when we
are already in another
mood.

The results of his thinking and
feeling often lead the average
man to make, as it might be
expressed, "a fly out of an
elephant and an elephant
out of a fly."

MASS PSYCHOSIS

The manifestations of this harmful
property in the common presence of
people become particularly intense
during such events as wars,
revolutions, civil wars, and
so on. At such times a state,
recognizable even by them, is
most acutely manifested, under
the influence of which with rare
exceptions they all fall, and
which they call "mass
psychosis."

The chief characteristic of this
state is that when ordinary people
with their already feeble mentation,
which at such times becomes still
feebler, receive shocks from the
maleficent stories of some
lunatic or other, they
become in the full sense
of the word victims of these
malicious stories and manifest
themselves completely
automatically.

While they are under the influence
of this maleficent property, already
permanently rooted in ordinary
contemporary people, there
ceases to exist in their
common presence that sacred
"something" called "conscience,"
whose acquisition was possible
for them thanks to the data
with which they were endowed
by Great Nature, as godlike
beings in contrast to mere
animals.

Knowledgeable people sincerely
regret this property in our
contemporaries because, according
to historical data as well as the
discoveries of many genuine learned
beings of past epochs, Great Nature
no longer has any need for such a
phenomenon as mass psychosis for
maintaining her equilibrium. On
the contrary, the periodic
manifestation of this
property in people
compels her again
and again to make
new adaptations, for
instance, increasing
the birth rate, changing
what is called the "tempo
of the general psyche," and
so on and so forth.

After everything I have said,
I consider it necessary to
emphasize further that all
the historical data that
have reached certain
contemporary people
and have also happened
to become known to me
concerning what really
did occur in the life of
people of former times, and
not just those data invented
by contemporary so-called
"scholars," chiefly the
Germans—-whose
"histories" have
stuffed the brains
of all the rising
generation almost
everywhere on Earth—-
clearly show that men
of past epochs did not
divide into two streams
of life, but that all
flowed along in a
single river.

The general life of mankind has
been divided into two streams
only since the time of what
is called the "Tikliamishian
civilization," which
immediately preceded
the Babylonian
civilization.

From that time on there was
gradually established the
present mode of existence
of mankind which, as every
sane-thinking man must
acknowledge, can flow
more or less tolerably
only if people are
divided into
masters and
slaves.

Although to be either masters
or slaves is equally unworthy
of men as children of our Common
Father, yet, in the existing
conditions already thoroughly
fixed in the process of the
collective life of people,
the origin of which lies in
remote antiquity, we must be
reconciled to this and accept
a compromise, which according
to impartial reasoning corresponds
to our own personal welfare and at
the same time is not contrary to
the commandments specially
issuing to us men from the
"Prime Source of
everything
existing."

Such a compromise is possible,
in my opinion, if certain people
consciously undertake, as the chief
aim of their existence, to acquire
in their presences all the
corresponding data to
become masters among
those around them
similar to
themselves.

Proceeding from this and acting
according to the wise saying of
ancient times, which affirms that
"in order to be a just and good
altruist one must first of all
be an out-and-out egoist,"
each one of us, making use
of the common sense given
us by Great Nature, must
set as his chief aim to
become a master.

But not a master in the sense that
this word conveys to contemporary
people, namely, one who has many
slaves and much money, usually
handed down by inheritance, but
in the sense of a man who, thanks
to his objectively virtuous acts
toward those around him—-that is,
acts manifested according to the
dictates of his pure Reason alone,
without the least participation of
those impulses engendered in him as
in all people by the consequences of
the properties of that maleficent
organ kundabuffer—-acquires in
himself that "something" which
impels all those around him to
bow before him and with
reverence to carry out
his orders.

I now consider this first
series of my writings completed,
and completed in just such a form
as satisfies even myself.

In any case, I give myself my
word that from tomorrow I shall
not spend even five more minutes
of my time on this first series.

And now, before setting to work
on the second series of my writings,
in order to give it a form accessible
to everyone, I intend to rest for a
whole month, to write absolutely
nothing and, for a stimulus to my
organism, fatigued to the extreme
limit, slowly to drink the still
remaining fifteen bottles of
"super-most-super heavenly
nectar" which at the present
time is known on Earth as
"Old Calvados."

This Old Calvados, by the way—-
twenty-seven bottles of it—-I was
considered worthy to find by accident
buried under a mixture of lime, sand,
and finely chopped straw, several
years ago when I was digging a
pit for storing carrots for
the winter in one of the
cellars of my present
chief dwelling place.

The bottles of this divine
liquid were buried in all
probability by monks who
had lived in this place,
far from worldly
temptations,
for the salvation
of their souls.

It now seems to me that it was
not without some ulterior motive
that they buried these bottles there,
and that, by virtue of what is called
their "intuitive perspicacity"—-the
data for which, one must assume,
were formed in them thanks to
their pious lives—-they
foresaw that this divine
liquid would fall into
hands worthy of understanding
the meaning of such things, and
that it would stimulate the owner
of these hands to sustain the
meaning of the ideals on which
the corporation of these monks
was founded and assist their
better transmission to the
next generation.

During this rest of mine, fully
deserved from any point of view,
I wish to drink this splendid
liquid, which alone during
recent years has given me
the possibility of tolerating,
without suffering, beasts similar
to myself around me, and to listen
to new anecdotes, and sometimes for
lack of new ones, old ones—-
provided, of course, that
the storyteller is a good
one.

HEAVEN AND HELL

It is still midday, and as I
have given my word not to write
anything further for this first
series, starting only from
tomorrow, I still have time
and, without breaking my word,
can add with a clean conscience
that a year or two ago I
categorically decided to
publish only the first
series of my writings.
As regards the second and
third series, my intention
was not to publish them but
to organize their distribution
in order, among other things, to
fulfill through them one of the
fundamental tasks I have set
myself under essence-oath,
namely, to prove to all my
contemporaries, cost what it
may, the absurdity of all their
inherent ideas concerning the
supposed existence of a
certain "other world"
with its famous and
so beautiful a "paradise"
and its so repugnant a "hell",
and at the same time to establish
theoretically and afterward
demonstrate practically—-so
that even a "complete victim"
of contemporary education
would have to understand,
not without a shudder—-
that Hell and Paradise
do indeed exist, only
not "in another world"
but here beside us on
Earth.

After the publication of the
first series, I intend, for the
spreading of the ideas contained
in the second series, to organize
in various large centers
simultaneous public
readings accessible
to all.

And as regards the real,
indubitably comprehensible
objective truths that have
been brought to light by me
in the third series, I wish
to make this series accessible
exclusively to those who, after
listening to the second series
of my writings, will be
selected by specially
prepared people
according to my
considered
instructions.

Gurdjieff