Category: Nondual

GURDJIEFF: Who wants to begin must first forget about love, for it is impossible to think about how to learn to love. Have it as your ultimate aim, but in the meantime what is important is your direction. It is as if you were walking along a dark, road, and in the distance you see a light―a street lamp. But as you walk towards it you see that there are many other lampposts between you and that distant light. Little by little you approach the first of them. Meantime all your attention should be concentrated on that first lamppost. But when you have passed it, there is another, and so on, and your original light seems to get further and further away. And you should forget about the distant light and walk slowly because the road is dark, Every way is dark; it is easy lo break your nose. The first lamps are your immediate aims. When you have come to the first you see the second. And so it goes on every hundred meters. If you look far ahead you will only fall.

For those attuned to the current trends of nondualism and the direct path, this guidance from Gurdjieff appears anathema. They will say, “stop walking. Rest in the light of awareness which you already are.”

However, for most of us, especially myself, the truth is, if I stop and appreciate the light of awareness, after a few moments, out of boredom and confusion in the mind, I get up and start walking again. If I am lucky enough to recall Gurdjieff’s words, I look up and see the next light, the light of awareness in the background of my experience. If I again rest in it, the cycle repeats. If I keep walking, I may see the ‘next’ light and keep a part of my attention on it. Knowing it as my ultimate aim, my true self. And as I continue the journey, with grace, this light will grow in prominence until it fills my world.

This is one scenario. There are many others, as many as individual beings. May you find one that keeps your attention on your light.

It seems to me that virtually every record of the Gurdjieff teaching is a record of something said in a given place and time, to certain people. As such, we have to understand that it was said for those people at that time with the point of making a certain impression on those people. Therefore, it was not meant as ultimate truth for posterity.

The one exception is All and Everything. However, as Gurdjieff says in The Arousing of Thought, he wrote it for the subconscious, not in normal language for the false-consciousness. Therefore, it is almost completely allegorical. It may state ultimate truth, but not directly. There is also Herald of Coming Good, but Gurdjieff recalled it.

Reality of Being may appear to be an exception but remember that it is from notebooks and so was not prepared by Jeanne de Salzmann for publication. For all we know, it may have been meant simply for her own use preparing for talks with groups. The editors say she had reported that she was writing a book, but we don’t know how close this was to the book she intended. It does not appear to be anywhere close to a complete book. I am compelled to note that, despite its limitations, I feel it is exceptionally valuable.

Still, it seems to me that we must take all of it with some doubt but use it to investigate truth for ourselves.

Knowledge is knowledge of the whole. Yet we can only receive it in fragments. Afterward we must connect them ourselves in order to find their place in an understanding of the whole.                                                                                                                   Jeanne de Salzmann

How do you understand, or picture, the Ray of Creation as it is presented by Gurdjieff, as recorded by Ouspensky in In Search of the Miraculous? I realized that I had generally pictured it as presented in the diagrams in the book. That is, hierarchical, sequential, and separate, like a family tree. Then I realized that Gurdjieff’s words as they are recorded in the book present a different picture.

Consider these excerpts: (emphasis is mine)

“In relation to the term ‘world’ it is necessary to understand from the very outset that there are many worlds, and that we live not in one world, but in several worlds.” P. 75

“If we take one of the many worlds created in the Absolute, that is, world 3, it will be the world representing the total number of starry worlds similar to our Milky Way. If we take world 6, it will be one of the worlds created within this world, namely the accumulation of stars which we call the Milky Way.” P. 80

“In the big cosmic octave, which reaches us in the form of the ray of creation, we can see the first complete example of the law of octaves. The ray of creation begins with the Absolute. The Absolute is the All. The All, possessing full unity, full will, and full consciousness, creates worlds within itself, in this way beginning the descending world octave. The Absolute is the do of this octave. The worlds which the Absolute creates in itself are si.” P. 132

“In order better to understand the significance of the law of octaves it is necessary to have a clear idea of another property of vibrations, namely the so-called ‘inner vibrations.’ This means that within vibrations other vibrations proceed, and that every octave can be resolved into a great number of inner octaves.

“Each note of any octave can be regarded as an octave on another plane.”  P. 135

The words here present a picture, not of a family tree of separate entities like the diagrams in the book, but more like a body with parts which serve individual functions yet are made of the same material, or energy, as the whole. Beelzebub says we have the potential to become particles of the Absolute. This picture seems to suggest we are already particles of the Absolute, all be it, not fully conscious particles. To put it another way, it is popular these days to say we are made of star stuff. Further, this picture suggests that we are made of and live within the sun; the sun is made of and lives within the milky way; the milky way is made of and lives within the world of all stars; all stars live within world three and everything which happens in it, is the action of world three; and everything, including everything we see, know and experience, lives within and is made of the Absolute.