“It is necessary to sacrifice something precious at the moment, - TopicsExpress



          

“It is necessary to sacrifice something precious at the moment, to sacrifice for a long time and to sacrifice a great deal. But still, not forever…” – George Gurdjieff The word transformation comes from Latin and literally means ‘beyond form’. The Fourth Way acknowledges the possibility of transformation and sets it as the ultimate aim of man’s inner struggles. This must not be taken for granted: other teachings that call for inner struggle, such as Christian monasticism, do not promise a light at the end of the tunnel before the death of the physical body. The Fourth Way claims that, while still alive in the physical body, a man may crystallize enough higher matter to form an astral body. Scientifically speaking, crystallization is a transformation; it entails the changing of the form of an element from one state to another – for example, the transformation of water vapor into ice. Gurdjieff taught that the struggle between ‘yes’ and ‘no’ in man, enacted on the proper foundation, could lead to such crystallization, after which the nature of the struggle would be altogether altered: “Sacrifice is necessary only while the process of crystallization is going on. When crystallization is achieved, renunciations, privations, and sacrifices are no longer necessary. Then a man may have everything he wants. There are no longer any laws for him, he is a law unto himself.” – George Gurdjieff Churning effects transformation; it alters the form of that to which it is administered. Churned milk becomes butter and churned wood combusts. Hence, the Hindu myth of the Churning of the Milky Ocean is an allegory of transformation. With gods and demons pulling in unison, and with Vishnu supporting the churning from below, the ocean of milk slowly spews out many valuable items, culminating with the hoped for reward: the nectar of immortality. While this colossal tug of war demanded more than gods and demons could bear, we are told that Vishnu experienced the pressure of Mount Mandara churning on his shell as an ‘infinitely pleasant scratching.’ This dichotomy of experience is a hallmark of transformation. The same effort that seems life threatening to the lower world is perceived as life giving to the higher world. Indeed, the transformation here spoken of is not of the effort itself, but of our experience of the effort. Our identity has transformed from the many ‘I’s (gods and demons) to real ‘I’ (Vishnu). In the May topic on Self-Observation, we introduced the Biblical creation myth, deliberately leaving aside the obvious question of what ‘God’ symbolized. Now, with the God Vishnu at the foundation of the Hindu struggle, we see that ‘God’ represents man’s higher centers, the seat of understanding, the master of all other functions—real ‘I’. “When we are conscious we become connected with higher centers and then the whole picture changes.” – Peter Ouspensky Real ‘I’ is an altogether different phenomenon than the many ‘I’s. It encompasses properties such as individuality, unity, permanence, consciousness and will. But man is not born with these characteristics. His natural state is plurality and impermanence. To crystallize, man must: Realize his true condition In order to realize his possibilities, man must have a very strong desire for liberation and be willing to sacrifice everything, to risk everything, for the sake of this liberation. ~ George Gurdjieff The Palace of Sleep Gurdjieff-Chained-prisonersGurdjieff likened awakening to escaping from prison. The prison is man’s own sleep, and the primary force that keeps him locked up is that he is oblivious of his own captivity. As long as man enjoys the chains and fetters that bind him, as long as he holds in high regard the very traits that prevent him from awakening, he can never escape. To vivify man’s imprisonment in sleep, his ignorance of the chains and the determination needed to break those chains, Buddhism coined the story of the life of Prince Siddhartha. Birth and Childhood of Siddhartha Siddhartha was born to Queen Mahamaya and King Suddhodana. His very conception was shrouded in omens: his mother the queen dreamt of a white elephant entering her womb. She awoke and shared her dream with the king, who summoned his counselors to interpret the unusual apparition. None of the king’s men could make sense of Mahamaya’s auspicious vision save one, who explained that the queen had conceived and would bear a most special son. This prince would either become a great monarch or an enlightened Buddha. Gurdjieff’s Prison in Buddhist Myth In order to bring the former prediction to pass and avert the latter, King Suddhodana confines his son to the luxuries of a palatial life. If Siddhartha will never see the realities of suffering, poverty, sickness and death, he might never experience the urge for enlightenment. But the devas (the Buddhist gods) sow in young Siddhartha the seed of curiosity. As he matures, so does his thirst to know the outside world. At the age of twenty-nine, he can no longer resist his need to explore what lies beyond the palace walls and asks his father permission to venture out into the city. Stunned at the failure of his original plan, the king schemes another: he will clean the streets of his kingdom from sick and old people, and will present Siddhartha with an artificially manicured city. At first, Siddhartha sees exactly what his father intends him to. But the devas weave a further flaw into the king’s plan: they arrange a broken old cripple to cross paths with the prince. For the first time in three decades, Siddhartha witnesses old age and is horror-struck by the reality of human frailty. Siddhartha subsequently makes three more such excursions, and in each, albeit the king’s efforts to bleach the streets, the devas arrange that Siddhartha sees life’s bitter truths. On the second excursion he sees a helpless sick man. On the third he sees a dead man being carried on a bier. But on the fourth he sees a calm and self-controlled monk. Siddhartha is told that a monk is a man who has renounced this world for the sake of the next, having perceived the vanity of worldly pursuits in the face of death. The young prince returns to his palace disillusioned. He realizes that he has been deceived. He perceives that his luxurious life will inevitably end in death. For the first time, he sees his palace for what it is, an opulent prison. For the first time, he formulates the desire to depart. Buddhism and the Fourth Way Buddhism conveys in myth the same lesson Gurdjieff imparted in Fourth Way terminology: man is born imprisoned in sleep. This prison is luxurious, in that its walls are made of self-suggestion and self-flattery. The first step towards liberation can only be a genuine realization that one is chained. In this spirit, I invite my writers to dedicate this month’s posts to their first realizations of their internal imprisonment. It is only when you realize life is taking you nowhere that it begins to have meaning. ~ Peter Ouspensky youtube/watch?v=VEFjAmxJBG8 // Gurdjieff on Liberation Part 1 - Realization youtube/watch?v=p_rhZL20eNA // Gurdjieff on Liberation Part 2 - Resolution youtube/watch?v=9KGv9uWHfrM // Gurdjieff on Liberation Part 3 - Opposition from ggurdjieff
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 18:35:22 +0000

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