The FOURTH WAY Gurdjieff Ouspensky NYC Teacher's Interests
General
THE FOURTH WAY is the transformational spiritual Teaching elucidated by Teacher George Gurdjieff (1872-1949), which he contrasted to the three traditional ways of mysticism. Teacher George Gurdjieff maintained that human beings are "asleep" (i.e., not living at full potential of awareness and performance). To develop greater awareness requires hard work in removing illusory or limited experience and awakening to higher reality, Gurdjieff said. This evolution can be assisted by special work involving a system of mental, emotional and physical exercises. Teacher Gurdjieff's system was especially concerned with achieving evolution in everyday life, rather than retreating from society.
An early enthusiast for the work of Gurdjieff Teachings was the journalist Peter (PD) Ouspensky.
Traditional Gurdjieff-oriented Fourth Way groups tend to carry on unobtrusively and avoid publicity. Prospective followers of the Fourth Way are usually expected to have studied books dealing with the life and thought of Teacher G. I. Gurdjieff, and of his main pupil, Peter Ouspensky. Additionally the writings of Rodney Collin Smith, and Maurice Nicoll are spotlighted.
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Music
THE FOLLOWING IS AN ESSAY BY A PERSON INTERESTED IN MR. GURDJIEFF's rare esoteric KNOWLEDGE... and who has studied ideas put forth by George Gurdjieff. That authoring individual is not part of the group behind this webpage. This essay is being shown to you because it has mentally stimulating content.
ESSAY TITLE:
Inner Octaves and Eastern Music
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(this essay was edited before being shown here)
A central idea in Gurdjieff’s system of knowledge outlines one of the two fundamental laws governing every process in the universe. According to this idea, the universe is a singular wholeness that divides itself into seven degrees of density. These divisions are in turn divided into seven degrees of density, and so on. By the action of this law, the universe expresses the eternal relationship between its wholeness and its divisions, as well as the relationships between all the divisions.
Gurdjieff explained that although this law operates in all phenomena, in our current condition we are unable to observe it in action. With (esoeric) help, however, (said) that it is possible. One form of help mentioned in numerous places in his writings and lectures is music. Thanks to Gurdjieff, we now know that by examining the structure of music we are exploring the structure of reality.
This study has two aspects, both essential to understanding. One part is analytical, the other part is experiential.
Our analysis can begin with the natural properties of sound. Sound is produced by a material vibrating at a definite frequency inducing waves of acoustical energy in a medium of transmission. The essence of sound, as in all other natural phenomena, is vibration. A vibration is a continuously and smoothly alternating pulse of energy. Vibrations are scaled by their frequencies (rates of vibration) and their amplitudes (strengths of vibration).
When two vibrations of the same frequency vibrate in the same medium, they simply add to each other the strength of their combined signals. When they vibrate at different frequencies, however, their relationship becomes more complex. In music, when two vibrations of different frequencies interact, it is called an interval.
Among all intervals, one stands out as unique. This interval is called the octave, and it is obtained by doubling or halving the rate of vibration. Because Mr. Gurdjieff placed such importance in his writings and lectures on the octave, we are called to take up the challenge to try to fathom its import. We can begin our inquiry by examining what the octave is in the realm of music.
The octave interval serves as the frame for all musical scales everywhere. It can be divided into many smaller intervals to make many different scales. Usually, it is divided into seven intervals framed by eight tones; hence the word ‘octave.’ There are a number of commonly used seven-tone scales that span the range of an octave. Mr. Gurdjieff chose one of them, known as the major scale, to describe the action of the law of seven.1 This division of the octave into seven intervals is based on the property of sound known as consonance.
In music, consonance and dissonance refer to the human response to an interval. However, there is objective physics behind the subjective experience of hearing what happens when two tones interact. When most vibrations of differing frequencies interact, some dissonance appears in the form of a third vibration. The octave, however, is totally consonant, as the interaction of the two tones that compose it produce no third vibration.
The most consonant interval after the octave, known in music as the perfect fifth, produces a tiny amount of dissonance in the form of a third vibration, a ‘third force.’ The next most consonant interval—known as the dominant fourth—produces even more third force, and so on. The seventh in the series of intervals of diminishing consonance and increasing dissonance produces so much third force that it begins to be noticeable. This interval, known in music as the minor seventh, begins to exhibit audible dissonance. Continuing with this progression from total consonance toward increasing dissonance, the 12th interval in the series—called the tritone—is so dissonant that at one point in the history of music, it was referred to by the Church as the ‘devil in music.’
Most western music is composed using the seven-tone scales that are derived from the twelve most consonant (or least dissonant) intervals. Music of the east, however, often includes intervals that are even more dissonant than the tritone. Known in music as microtones, they correspond to the notes on ‘inner octaves.’
Traditional eastern music is strictly monophonic, which means that it uses only melodies, and it can easily support the inclusion of intensely dissonant microtonal intervals. Western music is mostly polyphonic, which means it also uses chords. Generally, western polyphonic music avoids the inclusion of microtones because of the effect they would have on the harmony of the chords.
Even without microtones there can be considerable dissonance among the 12 most consonant intervals, but if polyphonic music were to include intervals other than the 12 most consonant, it would be very hard to listen to. We can tolerate and even enjoy the energy issuing from a moment of intense dissonance that occurs in some eastern melodies, but the release of energy that would occur in western chordal music that included the strongly dissonant intervals of microtones would be a cacophony.
According to Gurdjieff, certain melodies composed of microtones on inner octaves have the power to affect the inner states of humans and animals. Primed with this idea, we can survey the music throughout the world in which melodies can be found that include microtones.
The playing of melodies that include microtones is actually fairly common around the world. Exotic, haunting melodies heard in every eastern culture and among native indigenous tribes everywhere express the great variety of ways for playing melodies that include microtones. In this way, each culture, each tradition, has its own unique ‘fingerprint’ or ‘signature’ of microtones, framed by the tones of the ‘outer’ octave scale.
The power of music that includes microtones depends not only on playing the melody with the correct intonation, but also on the musician’s intent. Played unintentionally, a microtone (may) just sound out of tune. Played intentionally, the same microtone (may) have a (finer) effect on the listener.
[edit]
The second difference is the principle that guides the composition of the melodies which serve as the framework for the playing of microtones. In most traditional eastern music, melodies are composed of sequences of tones that follow a pattern that resembles waves, going up and down the scale of frequencies. The sequence of tones may at times be orderly and simple, and at other times delicate and complex, weaving a filigree of fine detail. Simple or complex, it is this wave-like pattern that enables the energy of microtones to work their magic.
Something of this original knowledge about the relationship between states and sound can still be found among the musical traditions of the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and East Asia. These ancient musical traditions continue to carry this knowledge forward in time, bringing to us the opportunity to feel the depth and intensity of music composed centuries ago when the knowledge of the power of tones and microtones shared the human stage with other great works of art, some of which endures to this day.
The third difference is the playing of melodies without a time signature. This brings us to the other meaning of the word ‘interval,’ which applies to the dimension of time. In general, time-intervals make it possible to more easily accept the intensity of strongly dissonant tone-intervals. When two tones of a strongly dissonant interval are played simultaneously, the sound may seem harsh and if sustained, difficult to listen to. When the same two dissonant tones are played sequentially, the harshness is neutralized. Time-intervals are needed between the tones of melodies that include microtones so we can be open to their energy and feel the finer vibrations reverberate on our inner octaves.
When the music has no time signature, as in certain traditions of eastern music, the rhythm becomes highly elastic. Without a rigid time frame, the timing of the tones requires the same deliberateness, the same degree of intention required to play microtones effectively. Deliberately choosing the moment the microtone is played serves to increases the audience’s feeling of certainty, an experience that can help to open one to receive the energy of the instrument and the energy of the music it carries.
George Gurdjieff wrote that he listened actively to microtonal music from a very early age. Throughout his lectures and writings G. I. Gurdjieff returned to the themes of... music and vibrations. [edit]
George Gurdjieff presented us with a system of knowledge informing us that all matter and energy vibrates. Modern science has corroborated that revelation. Everything is a composition of pulsating energies vibrating across the whole spectrum of frequencies. We ourselves are just such compositions made of finer and denser energies, and (if it comes to pass we) actively listen to (the) microtones on inner octaves, we may experience a relationship with the finer levels of energies that are an (higher than ordinary) part of our own being. Sensing the presence of another level of energy, we find that the higher is accessible through the inner.
But how, exactly, can that be? As the frequencies of microtones are only slightly higher or lower than the outer octave tones that frame them, how is it possible that they can touch another level of energy in us? Gurdjieff’s system describes how this use of inner octaves can bring to the listener the experience of an energy that is on an entirely different scale of vibrations from the ones we actually hear.
Gurdjieff showed how the materialities of different levels—called ‘worlds’—stand in relation to each other: the materiality of world 48 is composed of inner octaves of the materiality of world 24, the materiality of world 24 is composed of the inner octaves of the materiality of world 12, and so on.
Melodies that include microtones have two levels that relate to each other in the same way as two adjacent levels in the universe: outer octave and inner octave. Music that includes microtones needs the outer octave notes that frame them, because our attention cannot listen actively to a melody composed exclusively of microtones played on one inner octave.
Moreover, a microtone is only a microtone in relation to an outer octave tone. By itself it is just another tone, but when a microtone is played within the context of the outer octave tones of a seven tone scale, it has the power to reach our inner octaves. [edit]
reprint (edited) is from:
Inner Octaves and Eastern Music
By Jeffrey Werbock
The FOURTH WAY - NEW YORK, NYC
THE GURDJIEFF WORK GURDJIEFF TEACHING OUSPENSKY MIRACULOUS FOURTH WAY
Movies
The FOURTH WAY - NEW YORK, NYC
THE GURDJIEFF WORK GURDJIEFF TEACHING OUSPENSKY MIRACULOUS FOURTH WAY
Television
//////////// Television is the elecrontic representation of what can occur inside through psychic elevation--long distance communication of thought and image////
THE GURDJIEFF WORK GURDJIEFF TEACHING OUSPENSKY MIRACULOUS FOURTH WAY
Books
George Gurdjieff, Peter Ouspensky, Rodney Collin Smith
...are (primarily) the Teachers whose work this Fourth Way group is honoring
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If one is trying to awaken via The Fourth Way, a real and meaningful aim would be to try to create a state within the machine - where EVERY impulse from the lower centres, in whatever direction, is quickly met by a Work 'I' to observe and be 'awake'... HOWEVER... while this sounds quite comprehensible intellectually - it takes YEARS to achieve this... One must not fool oneself to think it is easy or quick. One needs help... but first one needs devout sincere interest to SERVE Higher Influence, and to DO the Work of separating from false second state illusions and mechanical walking sleep, and to experience the breathtaking realm of *Third State... One needs to HUNGER for a *Higher Reality -- than walking sleep.
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THE GURDJIEFF WORK GURDJIEFF TEACHING OUSPENSKY MIRACULOUS FOURTH WAY
Heroes
"Functions can exist without consciousness and consciousness can exist without functions." ----
P. D. Ouspensky
[[[[[[[[[[[[[The essence of Influence C is Conscious Love]]]]]]]]]]]
[[[[[[[[[[[[[The essence of Influence C is Conscious Love]]]]]]]]]]]
THE GURDJIEFF WORK GURDJIEFF TEACHING OUSPENSKY MIRACULOUS FOURTH WAY
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The FOURTH WAY Gurdjieff Ouspensky NYC Teacher's Details
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Regarding P.D. Ouspensky's book titled 'The Fourth Way'
In his early lectures G.I. Gurdjieff described his approach to self-development as the 'Fourth Way'. In contrast to the three eastern teaching routes that emphasize development of the body, mind, or the emotions ...separately, George Gurdjieff worked on all three aspects simultaenously WITHOUT students retiring from the 'world' at large; they worked internally on their psychology IN THE ORDINARY CONDITIONS OF LIFE. Gurdjieff's teaching elucidation is sometimes referred to as "The Gurdjieff Work", "Work on oneself" or simply the "Work". Although Gurdjieff never put major emphasis on the term "Fourth Way" and never used the phrase in his writings, his pupil Peter (P.D.) Ouspensky made the term central to his writings and his own teaching of the Gurdjieff 'system'. After Ouspensky's passing, his students published a book with that name, THE FOURTH WAY.
Gurdjieff's teaching system addresses mankind's place in the universe, possibilities for inner psychic/spiritual development. He declared people live each day in a mechanical momentum ...of a psychological dream-world, a self-delusional "waking sleep," but that higher levels of consciousness, higher bodies, and various inner abilities are possible to work toward and attain.
Gurdjieff taught how to increase and focus attention and energy in various ways, how to dissolve daydreaming and absentmindedness. This teaching is the beginning of a process of change, to transform a person into what Gurdjieff taught "one ought to be".
Overview
Most who had contact with George Gurdjieff saw him as a spiritual Master – someone who possessed objective consciousness - (a human being who is fully awake or enlightened). Others of skepticism and low consciousness saw Gurdjieff as an esotericist / occultist. Gurdjieff admitted his teaching to be esoteric but claimed that none of it was veiled in secrecy. Gurdjieff Gurdjieff claimed most people either don't have an interest in, or the capability to understand... higher knowledge.
When asked about his teaching, Gurdjieff said, "The teaching being set out is completely self supporting and independent of other lines or ways and it has been completely unknown ...up to the present time." The exact origin of Gurdjieff's teaching data remains somewhat of a mystery to this day.
Gurdjieff asserted that people are NOT... born with a soul. Rather, a person must create a soul through the course of their life. George Gurdjieff explained that the ordinary 'waking consciousness' of human beings is not clear objective consciousness at all but merely a form of walking sleep, ambulatory daily existence immersed in inner daydreams... but that higher levels of consciousness exist and are possible.
To provide A FOURTH WAY SCHOOL, Gurdjieff said, is to provide conditions in which conscious attention can be focused, and real (higher) consciousness developed.
The Ways
Gurdjieff said there are only three 'well-known' ways for real spiritual development. The way of the monk, yogi, and fakir. Gurdjieff referred to his methods as... the "Fourth Way."
The first three ways are:
The way of the fakir :::::::::
The fakir struggles with the physical body and self-mastery through difficult physical exercises and postures.
The way of the monk ::::::::::
The way of the monk (or nun) represents the way of faith, the purification of emotions.
The way of the yogi ::::::::::
The yogi's approach is through knowledge and the intellect (and meditation).
The Fourth Way
Gurdjieff stated the Fourth Way is an accelrated path of spirtual evolution because you simultaneously work on all three aspects rather than on just one at a time, and because it is transacted internally in everyday life, requiring no retirement into 'monastery'.
The Fourth Way is quicker, but also more difficult. Gurdjieff stressed ... "The fourth way differs in that the principal demand made is the demand for understanding. A person must do nothing that he or she does not understand, except as an experiment under the supervision and direction of their teacher. The more a person UNDERSTANDS what they are is doing, the greater will be the results of efforts. This is a fundamental Fourth Way principle. The results of work are in proportion to the consciousness of the work. No "faith" is required in the fourth way; on the contrary, unverified faith is discouraged on the fourth way. A fourth way student must satisfy themself of the truth of what they are told. And until satisfied of the veracity, should do nothing."
By it nature, the Fourth Way (and a Fourth Way Teaching School) is not for everyone. George Gurdjieff said that... this 'secret' knowledge is not hidden, but most people simply are not interested.
Gurdjieff places the 'Fourth Way' work ...at the crossroads of differing beliefs that are better known colloquially.
One notable factor in Gurdjieff's teaching is that all different subjects fit together and relate to one another. Thus by looking at one area of teaching and work, Gurdjieff said, the student simultaneously studies many other vital areas too.
Peter Ouspenky quoted Gurdjieff as saying that "two or three thousand years ago there were yet other ways which no longer exist and the ways now in existence were not so divided, they stood much closer to one another. The fourth way differs from the old and the new ways by the fact that it is never a permanent way. It has no definite forms and there are no institutions connected with it. EACH FOURTH WAY SCHOOL USES A DIFFERENT FORM TO TEACH WITH.
Quoted by the book, "In Search of the Miraculous," Gurdjieff intimated... that once an original and genuine 'school' with the real (fully conscious) Fourth Way Teacher is finished, all the other groups which try to continue the work presented by the initial school are no longer real. they become B-Influence instead of C-influence.
Fake Schools
Gurdjieff explained ...there are many faux/pseudo (fake) [quote]-schools-[quote].. where the 'teacher' either:
1. Is genuinely mistaken... think they know something, when in reality, their knowledge is partial and/or distorted.
2. May believe another, who in his turn may be mistaken.
3. May deceive on purpose.
Ouspensky quotes Gurdjieff saying ... such groups lead nowhere, except making the students believe they connected. "It is impossible to recognize a wrong way without knowing the right way" said Gurdjieff. "One must think of how to find the right way." [ie--have discerning discrimination...a properly developed magnetic centre]
Gurdjieff focuses on acquiring of the ability to constantly perform conscious labors and [enact] loving sacrifice in practical daily doses, on a consistent basis.
Intentional suffering - This is the act of struggling against the desires of the physical body such as daydreaming, pleasure, food (in terms of eating for reasons other than real hunger), etc... In Beelzebub's Tales it states that "the greatest "intentional suffering" can be obtained in our presences by compelling ourselves to endure the displeasing manifestations of others toward ourselves"
Gurdjieff's teachings deal with many subjects: Consciousness, Higher Consciousness, Conscience, Remorse of Conscience, The Physical Body's Functions, Higher Bodies, Different functional systems of the psyche and body, Self-Awareness, Knowledge vs. Understanding, Essence vs Personality, Universal Laws, The Ray of Creation, Human History, Language... and much more.
Self-Observation
Striving to observe in one's self the certain behaviors and habits which are usually only observed in others, and to observe them in one's self as dispassionately as one may observe them in others; to observe one's self as an interesting stranger.
Division of Attention - (Preliminary exercise to Self-Remembering)
Gurdjieff invoked students to cultivate "divided [psychic] attention", that is, remain focussed on external objects or while being SIMULTANEOUSLY consciously aware of oneself.
Self-Remembering
Along with divided attention lies the notion of "remembering oneself" - a state, which is permanent in a "conscious" person, while fleeting and temporary in the average people. In this state a person sees what is seen without ever losing sight of himself seeing. Ordinarily, when concentrating on something, people lose their sense of "I," although they may, as it were, passively react to the stimulus they are concentrating on. In self-remembering the "I" is not lost.
The Need for Efforts
Gurdjieff emphasized that awakening results from consistent, prolonged efforts.
The Many 'I's
Many I's is a term which indicates the different feelings and thoughts of ‘I’ in a person: I think, I want, I know best, I prefer, I am happy, I am hungry, I am tired, etc. These feelings and thoughts of ‘I’ usually have nothing in common with one another, and are present for short periods of time. They tie in directly with Gurdjieff's explanation that man has no psychological unity. This lack of unity results in wanting one thing now, and another, perhaps contradictory, thing later.
Centers
Gurdjieff declared human beings are THREE BRAINED beings, not one. The three brain (control) centers in a human are: intellectual, emotional and physical [and two higher centers exist but are dormant from our daily awareness now: higher emotional and higher intellectual centers.
Body, Essence and Personality
Gurdjieff divided people's beingness into two basic aspects, Essence and Personality. Essence - is the "natural part of a person" or "what he is born with". Personality - is everything artificial that he has "learned" and "seen". It was taught that Essence is the part of a being which is able to evolve.
Cosmic Laws
The two main cosmic laws on which Gurdjieff explained are the Law of Three and the Law of Seven.
The Law of Three is also called "Triamazikamno" and is described by Gurdjieff as "the second fundamental cosmic law".
The law states that every phenomenon in the universe is composed of three separate sources, which are Active, Passive and Reconciling or Neutral (first second and thried force). This law applies to everything in the universe.
Gurdjieff taught his students to think of the law of three forces as essential to transforming the energy of the human being. The process of transformation requires the three actions of affirmation, denial and reconciliation.
The Law of Seven is described by Gurdjieff as "the first fundamental cosmic law".
The law of seven is used to explain processes. The basic use of the law of seven is to explain why nothing in nature and in life constantly occurs in a straight line, that is to say that there are always ups and downs in life which occur lawfully. Examples of this can be noticed in athletic performances, where a high ranked athlete always has periodic slowdowns, as well as in nearly all graphs that plot topics that occur over time, such as the economic graphs, population graphs, death-rate graphs and so on. All show parabolic periods that keep rising and falling. Gurdjieff claimed that since these periods occur lawfully based on the law of seven that it is possible to keep a process in a straight line if the necessary shocks were introduced at the right times.
How the law of seven functions is illustrated on the Gurdjieff-ian symbol called Enneagram. A piano keyboard is also a good place to begin one's study of the law of seven, as the seven notes of the major tonic scale correspond exactly to it.
Law of Accident
Gurdjieff said the Fourth Way is a system is to escape from the influence of the Law of Accident, and to attract oneself to laws of a fate at a higher, and considerably liberating realm.
The use of symbols
In his explanations Gurdjieff often used different symbols such as the Enneagram and the Ray of Creation. Gurdjieff said "the enneagram is a universal symbol. All knowledge can be included in the enneagram and with the help of the enneagram it can be interpreted ... A man may be quite alone in the desert and he can trace the enneagram in the sand and in it read the eternal laws of the universe. And every time he can learn something new, something he did not know before." The ray of creation is a diagram which represents the Earth's place in the Universe. The diagram has eight levels, each corresponding to Gurdjieff's stated laws of octaves.
Through the elaborating the law of octaves and the meaning of the enneagram, Gurdjieff offered his students new and REAL means of conceptualizing the world and their place in it.
Gurdjieff laid emphasis on the idea ... the seeker must conduct his or her own search. The Fourth Way teacher cannot do the student's work for the student, but is more of a guide on the path to self-discovery. As a teacher, Gurdjieff specialized in creating conditions for students - conditions in which growth was possible, in which efficient progress could be made by the willing. To find oneself in a set of conditions that a gifted teacher has arranged has another benefit. As Gurdjieff put it, "You must realize that each man has a definite repertoire of roles which he plays in ordinary circumstances ... but put him into even only slightly different circumstances and he is unable to find a suitable role and for a short time he becomes himself."
The Way of The Sly Man
The fourth way is also the way of the sly man. Of him, Gurdjieff said that if he needs to obtain an inner result, he simply 'takes a pill'. To obtain the same results the traditional ways would take days, weeks, months. The pill in question is 'intentional suffering' (resistence to and transformation of emotional negativity).
Esoteric Teaching
Peter Ouspensky wrote that in his early work with George Gurdjieff in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Gurdjieff forbade students from writing down or publishing anything connected with Gurdjieff and his teachings. Gurdjieff felt students of his methods would find themselves unable to transmit correctly what was said in the groups.
Real Fourth Way Schools Vary in Outer Form
Why was the fourth way introduced into the modern world by Gurdjieff and, is it something new? To answer the latter question first, it is surely not; but, recognizing a true fourth way school outwardly is difficult because every time the work is re-introduced in time and place it takes a somewhat different outward expression.
The FOURTH WAY teaching - NEW YORK, NYC teacher
Christian Esotericism Jesus Baba Gurdjieff Ouspensky Colin
Who I'd like to meet: (quotation from) - RODNEY COLLIN:
“In every age men have tried to assemble all the knowledge and experience of their day into a single whole which would explain their relation to the universe and their possibilities in it. In the ordinary way they could never succeed. For the unity of things is not realisable by the ordinary mind, in an ordinary state of consciousness. The ordinary mind, refracted by the countless and contradictory promptings of different sides of human nature, must reflect the world as manifold and confused as is man himself. A unity, a pattern, an all-embracing meaning - if it exists - could only be discerned or experienced by a different kind of mind, in a different state of consciousness. It would only be realisable by a (psyche) which had itself become (--unified and elevated to another state of consciousness).”
(from literature of) - P.D. OUSPENSKY
'Conscience, the Search
for Truth'
In order to understand more clearly what I am going to say, you must try to remember that we have no control over our consciousness. When I said that we can become more conscious, or that a man can be made conscious for a moment simply by asking him if he is conscious or not, I used the words 'conscious' and 'consciousness' in a relative sense. There are so many degrees of consciousness and every higher degree means more 'conscious' in relation to a lower degree. But although we have no control over consciousness itself, we have a certain control over our thinking about consciousness, and we can construct our thinking in such a way as to bring consciousness. What I mean is that by giving to our thoughts a direction which they would have in a moment of consciousness, we can, in this Way, induce consciousness. Now try to formulate what you noticed when you tried to observe yourself. You should have noticed three things. First, that you do not remember yourself, that is to say, you are not aware of yourself at the time when you try to observe yourself. Secondly, that observation is made difficult by the incessant stream of thoughts, images, echoes of conversation, fragments of emotions flowing through your mind and very often distracting your attention from observation. And thirdly, that as soon as you start self-observation something in you starts imagination, and self-observation — if you really tried it —is a constant struggle with imagination.
Now this is the chief point in work upon oneself. If one realizes that all the difficulties in the work depend on the fact that one cannot remember oneself, one already knows what one must do. One must try to remember oneself. In order to do this one must struggle with mechanical thoughts and one must struggle with imagination. If one does this conscientiously and persistently one will see results in a comparatively short time. But one must not think that it is easy or that one can master this practice immediately. Self-remembering, as it is called, is a very difficult thing to learn to practise. It must not be based on expectation of results, otherwise one becomes lost in thinking about one's own efforts. It must be based on the realization of the fact that we do not remember ourselves, and that at the same time we can remember ourselves if we try sufficiently hard and in the right way.
We cannot become conscious at will, at the moment when we want to, because we have no command over states of consciousness. But we can remember ourselves for a short time at will because we have a certain command over our thoughts. And if we start remembering ourselves by the special construction of our thoughts, that is, by the realization that we do not remember ourselves; that no one remembers himself, and by realizing what this means, this realization will bring us to consciousness.
You must understand that we have found the weak spot in the wall of our mechanicalness. This is the knowledge that we do not remember ourselves and the realization that we can try to remember ourselves. With the understanding of the necessity for actual change in ourselves, the possibility of work begins.
Later on you will learn that the practice of self-remembering, connected with self-observation and with the struggle against imagination, has not only a psychological meaning, but it also changes the subtlest part of our metabolism and produces definite chemical, or perhaps it is better to say alchemical, effects in our body. So from psychology we come to alchemy; to the idea of the transformation of coarse elements into finer ones.
[Self-remembering and its effect upon memory are described in a more personal way than in the previous section in... 'In Search of the Miraculous - Fragments of an Unknown Teaching^ ...from which the following paragraphs are quoted.]
... All that my attempts at self-remembering had shown me, very soon convinced me that I was faced with an entirely new problem which science and philosophy had not, so far, come across ...
I saw that the problem consisted in directing attention on oneself without weakening or obliterating the attention directed on something else. Moreover this 'something else' could as well be within me as outside me. The very first attempts ... showed me its possibility. At the same time I saw two things clearly. In the first place I saw that self-remembering resulting from this method had, nothing in common with 'self-feeling', or 'self-analysis'. It was a new and very interesting state with a strangely familiar flavour.
And secondly I realized that moments of self-remembering do occur in life, although rarely. Only the deliberate production of these moments created the sensation of novelty. Actually I had been familiar with them from early childhood. They came either in new and unexpected surroundings, in a new place, among new people while travelling, for instance, when suddenly one looks about one and says: How strange! I and in this place; or in very emotional moments, in moments of danger, in moments when it is necessary to keep one's head, when one hears one's own voice and sees and observes oneself from the outside. I saw quite clearly that my first recollections of life, in my own case very early ones, were moments of self-remembering. This last realization revealed much else to me. That is, I saw that I really only remember those moments of the past in which I remembered myself. Of the others I know only that they took place. I am not able wholly to revive them, to experience them again.
But the moments when I had remembered myself were alive and were in no way different from the present. I was still afraid to come to conclusions. But I already saw that I stood upon the threshold of a very great discovery. I had always been astonished at the weakness and the insufficiency of our memory. So many things disappear. For some reason or other the chief absurdity of life for me consisted in this. Why experience so much in order to forget it afterwards? Besides there was something degrading in this. A man feels something which seems to him very big, he thinks he will never forget it; one or two years pass by — and nothing remains of it. It now became clear to me why this was so and why it could not be otherwise. If our memory really keeps alive only moments of self-remembering, it is clear why our memory is so poor.
Sometimes self-remembering was not successful; at other times it was accompanied by curious observations.
I was once walking along the Liteiny towards the Nevsky, and in spite of all my efforts I was unable to keep my attention on self-remembering. The noise, movement, everything distracted me. Every minute I lost the thread of attention, found it again, and then lost it again. At last I felt a kind of ridiculous irritation with myself and I turned into the street on the left having firmly decided to keep my attention on the fact that I would remember myself at least for some time, at any rate until I reached the' following street. I reached the Nadejdinskaya without losing the thread of attention except, perhaps, for short moments. Then I again turned towards the Nevsky realizing that, in quiet streets, it was easier for me not to lose the line of thought and wishing therefore to test myself in more noisy streets. I reached the Nevsky still remembering myself, and was already beginning to experience the strange emotional state of inner peace and confidence which comes after great efforts of this kind. Just round the comer on the Nevsky was a tobacconist's shop where they made my cigarettes. Still remembering myself I thought I would call there and order some cigarettes.
Two hours later I woke up in the Tavricheskaya, that is, far away. I was going by Ivostchik to the printers. The sensation of awakening was extraordinarily vivid. I can almost say that I came to. I remembered everything at once. How I had been walking along the Nadejdinskaya, how Ihad been remembering myself, how I had thought about cigarettes, and how at this thought I seemed all at once to fall and disappear into a deep sleep. At the same time, while immersed in this sleep, I had continued to perform consistent and expedient actions. I left the tobacconist, called at my flat in the Liteiny, telephoned to the printers. I wrote two letters. Then again I went out of the house. I walked on the left side of the Nevsky up to the Gostinoy Dvor intending to go to the Offitzerskaya. Then I had changed my mind as it was getting late. I had taken an Izvostchik and was driving to the Kavalergardskaya to my printers. And on the way while driving along the Tavricheskaya I began to feel a strange uneasiness, as though I had forgotten something. — And suddenly I remembered that I had forgotten to remember myself.
[At his meetings in London between 1935 and 1941 and at meetings in New York in 1944 and 1945, Peter Ouspensky was asked many questions about memory and recurrence. The section which follows consists of a reconstruction of answers at his London meetings to some of these questions. Section 7 attempts to reconstruct some of the answers given in New York, in a similar way. For the sake of continuity and to avoid repetition, some of the questions are either presumed or have been incorporated in Peter (PD) Ouspensky's answers. Otherwise they appear within quotation marks, to distinguish them from Ouspensky's words which — as they form the bulk of the text — are not set within quotation marks. The order of the questions has been rearranged, and only those which are connected with memory and recurrence have been included.]
Memory is a strange thing. Everyone has his own combination of capacities for memory. One person remembers some things more; another remembers other things better. You cannot say that one is better than the other. Memory may disappear; there are many different degrees of it. Something may be forgotten and then brought up again by special methods, or it may disappear altogether.
Question : Why do some people have a greater facility for playing ball games than others?'
Answer: There are many different kinds of moving centre with different kinds of memory. There is not a single man similar to another man. One can do one thing better; another, another thing. There are thousands of impressions so that the combinations are always different. I have spoken several times about the different kinds of man — no. 1, no. 2, no. 3 and so on. One remembers one kind of impression better; another, another kind.
Question : 'Does a life consist of memories from one moment to another?'
Answer: No that is too complicated. You know that there are many different sorts of memory. And memory is passive; you do not use it. Life can be said to be a process.
Question : 'What can one do to increase one's memory?'
Answer: If you remember yourself more, your memory will be better.
Question : 'Until I came into the system I had a very clear memory of something which happened some time ago. Now, if I recall it, it is just a memory of a memory. Is this due to being a little more awake?'
Answer: It was probably connected with strong identification. When you look at it without identification it becomes fainter and may disappear.
Answer: Identification and self-consciousness are two different sides of the same thing.
Question : 'Is it of practical use to think of the events of one's past life when trying to selfremember? I mean, with a view to fixing them for any future recurrence.'
Answer: No, this is not practical. First it is necessary for you to be sure that future recurrence exists. Secondly, it is necessary for you to be sure of remembering yourself. If you put it to yourself as you did in your question, it will turn into imagination, nothing else. But if you try first of all to remember yourself without adding anything to it, and then — when you can — also to remember about your past life, and try to find cross-roads; then, in combination, they will be very useful. Only do not think that you can do it; you cannot do it yet.
' Question : What are cross-roads?'
Answer: Cross-roads are moments when one can 'do'. A moment comes when one can help in this work or not. If an opportunity comes and one misses it, another may not come for a year or even longer. There are periods in ordinary conditions when nothing happens, and then there come cross-roads. All life consists of streets and cross-roads.
Recurrence can be useful if one begins to remember and if one begins to change and not go by the same circle each time, but do what one wants and what one thinks better. But if one does not know about recurrence, or even if one knows and does not do anything, then there is no advantage in it at all. Then, it is generally the same things repeated and repeated.
Question : Am I right in supposing that it is man's essence which recurs?'
Answer: Quite right. We know very little about recurrence. Some day we may try to collect what can be taken as reliable in all that is said about recurrence, and see how we can think about it. But it is only theory.
(---Peter Ouspensky)
"Almost all of the time, we are much more subliminally controlled by pleasure and pain impulses than we realize, like and dislike, from the lower centres, particularly the instinctive centre. Almost all of our daily and nightly existence is controlled by mechanical attraction or replusion. We lessen this overwhelming reality, when we start to self-remember. In a state of self-remembering you have more choice, and yes attraction and repulsion does still operate, but your decisions regarding these forces can be intentional and selective with a wider vision... from a higher level in relation to attractions and repulsions. You are not subconsciously, automatically, governed by them. You have the chance to govern them -- with a wider awareness than usual. YOU ARE AWAKE AT A DIFFERENT LEVEL OF BEING and you have more control, a more intelligent control, over your life, over what you do, what you decide emotionally, and the nature of your thoughts."
(---Author of this site)
THE GURDJIEFF WORK GURDJIEFF TEACHING OUSPENSKY MIRACULOUS FOURTH WAY
The FOURTH WAY - NEW YORK, NYC
Christian Esotericism Jesus Baba Gurdjieff Ouspensky Colin
Hey, today I accidentilly found/saw the origin of another symbol, Yin Yang; A bottle water was standing before me with a bit of water drunk/removed from it. All the movements around the table with the bottle on it influenced the surface of the water. When I saw the movements on the surface with the light on it I saw the water turning in patterns. The most easy and relaxed pattern that was shown had exactly the form of the yin yang symbol. It would be interesting to analyse the other variations and interpret them as how much inner movements are moved by the outside world's turbulance. I wish I could take some photographs or film it, but anyone can try this at home..
thank you. This gif explains the movements well too. I learned how to use your arm movements to create this particular symbol. A Russian scientist told me this. He said people from Nasa used it to keep in balance with their energy safe and sane when being in in space without gravity.
Hi,
Thanks for finding me. It's a pleasure to have you as a new friend. When you get a chance, check out my recent interview with Randy Armstrong and Michael Barnes of RED. Just click the banner below. Angel
Thanks so much for the invite...back in the late 70ies I lived in Osho's Ashram in Pune, India...in an old Bookstore downtown Pune I discovered the Book " The Fourth Way "...reading this Book and living with Osho changed my Life...Love from Berlin...Prabhudeva...
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