Questioning

"Faith of Consciousness..." G.I. Gurdjieff

Seminar with William Patrick Patterson
Faith of Consciousness

May 25-28, 2012

Loyola Retreat House
Morristown, New Jersey

William Patrick Patterson explores the theme through guided active-being meditation, Conscious Body-Breath Impressions™, dialogue and interviews. The seminar is open to all levels of simplicity. No previous experience necessary.

The Retreat Center is located about 50 minutes from Manhattan. Because space is limited and past seminars have filled quickly, please make your reservation early. The total cost of tuition, lodging (double occupancy) and meals is $675 with reservations received by May 10, 2012. Afterward, the cost is $775. Space is reserved with a $375 deposit.

To reserve a space, send your deposit by mail or reserve electronically below. There is a small surcharge when using the latter.

To reserve a place by mail, send a check made out to Arete Communications to the following address:

Arete Communications

773 Center Boulevard #58

Fairfax, CA 94978-0058

 

Gurdjieff & the New Age

What does New Age mean? Anything? How did it start? How did it become "a little bit of this and that and a whole lot of nothing?"   Interested in exploring this idea?  Click on this link to the most recent issue of The Gurdjieff Journal, (TGJ).

Gurdjieff's Reciprocal Maintenance (part two)

 What is the meaning of life?  “Why do we exist?” “What is our place?” Gurdjieff’s question was “What is the sense and significance of life on earth and human life in particular?“

My guess is that most people would fall into one of three camps regarding this question.

#1. Scientific Attitude: There is no meaning to the question. Life is an accidental valueless occurrence.

#2. Religious Attitude: God made the world and we are here to serve and worship an all-powerful God.

#3. Mainstream Attitude: I don’t care about such questions. I’m just trying to get by, make a living, have a little fun.

As I grew up something seemed wrong with the world and with me. It seemed that if one really believed #1 was true, what would motivate one to do anything? On the other hand, it didn’t make sense to believe #2 either. How could an all-powerful God be reconciled with the suffering and state of the world? So, like countless others, I drifted toward the third attitude. But not with any comfort.

When first coming across Gurdjieff’s answer it struck me as a revelation. Everything is connected. Everything supports everything else. Why would humans not also have a purpose?

Gurdjieff calls it Reciprocal Maintenance. There is a universal exchange of energies. On all levels. On all scales. What does this mean for us?

(to be continued)

  

Gurdjieff's Reciprocal Maintenance (part one)

 
 At the news about the Gulf oil spill, my daughter, who lived in New Orleans for six years (including Katrina), cried out, “What is wrong with us!?”

Wouldn’t most people just say it’s a tragically unfortunate accident, or blame BP or the government, someone? Are there some, the truly callous, who consider fouling our own nest and killing untold plants and animals just the cost of doing business? I don't know.

A real question. “What is wrong with us!?” Not them, us.

Gurdjieff asserts that we, as a species, are lop-sided in our development. It's easy to see that our technological expertise, our rationality, far, far outstrips our understanding, our emotional development, our being.

But is there more to this? Is something wrong with us?

I find it surprising that I give more and more credence to historical-spiritual points of view that say that long ago something happened to the human race, something that led to our current state of affairs.

I never understood the doctrine of original sin. How could that make any sense? It still seems a little crazy to me. But could it come from an intuition that has some basis in fact?

As I wrote in a another post Gurdjieff gives a different perspective in his great mythology All & Everything. He says that for certain reasons early in our history the Higher Powers implanted a something in Mankind to make us see reality upside down… later, the something was removed, but its effect still continues in us.

How is one to take this? Crazy talk? Purely symbolic? How could one possibly verify?

But isn't it a fact that something is wrong with us?

There are many trains of thought that could leave from this station. The one I want to follow is this: One of the main problems of humanity is that we don’t know our place in the world.

We don’t know why we exist. We don’t understand our role. We don’t have a clue about our place in the reciprocal maintenance of all and everything.

(to be continued)

What Secrets Are in the Body?

 Some time ago I had the opportunity to attend a 4 day workshop exploring the F.M. Alexander Technique, which is an approach to understanding the body from the inside by learning to consciously experience movement.

During one of the sessions I was being ‘experientially instructed’ on how to stand up  from sitting in a chair and how to sit down. It’s amazing how much goes into such a “simple” movement. At one point a rush of energy went through my body. There was a feeling that something had been released. The energy was so strong that I passed out for the first time in my life. The instructors were concerned, but I felt great. Something was different.

Soon after I went to a wedding in which I had a supporting role. I had always been very nervous in such situations. But something had changed, there was no nervousness, I was able to play the role, and be aware of much more of the event.

The body is a mysterious creation. The Gurdjieff Work is the only spiritual practise that I know of that gives awareness of and through the body a major significance.

An extremely good blog about the Alexander technique can be found here.

Scientists Now (partially) Agree With Gurdjieff About Free Will

The headline of a recent Scientific American article here is Scientists say free will probably doesn't exist, but urge: "Don't stop believing!"  Why “Don’t stop believing?” Well, the gist is: We don’t have free will. We are influenced by everything. Our basic beliefs are our strongest influence.  If one comes to truly deeply unflinchingly believe that free will does not exist, then any kind of behavior is as good as any other. The researchers in the article found that even having someone read a single article about human behavior being determined results in measurably ‘worse’ behavior, “when people believe—or are led to believe—that free will is just an illusion, they tend to become more antisocial."

Also from the article, “…the findings reveal a rather strange dilemma facing social scientists: if a deterministic understanding of human behavior encourages antisocial behavior, how can we scientists justify communicating our deterministic research findings? In fact, there’s a rather shocking line in this Psychological Science article (one easy to overlook): If exposure to deterministic messages increases the likelihood of unethical actions, then identifying approaches for insulating the public against this danger becomes imperative. Perhaps you missed it on your first reading too, but the authors are making an extraordinary suggestion. They seem to be claiming that the public “can’t handle the truth,” and that we should somehow be protecting them (lying to them?) about the true causes of human social behaviors.”

How does this relate to Gurdjieff?

According to All & Everything, Gurdjieff’s great cosmic myth, early in our history the Higher Powers implanted a something in Mankind to make us see reality upside down, fearing that if we humans saw our real role and significance, we would commit suicide. Later, the something was removed, but its effect still continues in us. So, we believe we have many things, an indivisable “I”, consciousness, free will, etc. and blithely go along living our lives based on these beliefs. But science now is saying that there is no free will, and that if we lose our beliefs, our behavior will degenerate.

Is there a connection? Maybe, maybe not. Impossible to verify.

But Gurdjieff offers more to those who can take it in. He states that we can not “do” (no free will), we are asleep, and we have no unity. BUT, that we have the potential to develop them. He offers a “science of being.” He says, to paraphrase, Free will does not exist as we are. Do not believe. Verify for yourself. The Gurdjieff Work is a path of verification and development.

What Good Am I?

Listen:What Good Am I?

On first listening to Dylan’s Oh Mercy, this song was one of my least favorites.  It seemed to be what I considered at the time to be a self-pitying sentimental religious song.

Now it seems to me that there a possible deeper emotional impact to this song. It brings me in front of really wondering if "I" (whatever that is) am in any way really good? What is Good? Who or what am I? 

For some reason it also brings up the idea and experience of "original sin." A friend has several times reported working with kids and being appalled that, coming from a religious background, many of them consider themselves fundamentally “bad.” Presumably from the teaching of “original sin.” My friend, being a good “new-ager”, feels this is criminal. It probably is. But is there something to the notion that my behavior is somehow negatively programmed?

What good am I? I see that I don’t do that which I wish. Something isn’t right, but the doctrine of original sin seems somewhat crazy. Is there another point of view that could shed light on this important question? What about Gurdjieff’s teaching that long ago certain “sacred individuals” made mistakes that led humanity to have “unbecoming” predispositions? Seems somewhat crazy. Is it?

Here are the lyrics:

What Good Am I?  Bob Dylan

What good am I if I’m like all the rest,


If I just turn away, when I see how you’re dressed,


If I shut myself off so I can’t hear you cry,

What good am I?

What good am I if I know and don’t do,


If I see and don’t say, if I look right through you,


If I turn a deaf ear to the thunderin’ sky,


What good am I?

What good am I while you softly weep


And I hear in my head what you say in your sleep,


And I freeze in the moment like the rest who don’t try,


What good am I?

What good am I then to others and me


If I’ve had every chance and yet still fail to see


If my hands are tied must I not wonder within


Who tied them and why and where must I have been?

What good am I if I say foolish things


And I laugh in the face of what sorrow brings


And I just turn my back while you silently die,

What good am I?

Sacred Music

Listen in a new way

"If you wish to hear new things in a new way, you must listen in a new way. This is necessary not only in the work but also in life. You can become a little more free in life, more secure, if you begin to be interested in all new things and remember them by new methods. This new method can be understood easily. It would no longer be wholly automatic but semi-automatic. This new method consists in the following: when thought is already there, try to feel. When you feel something, try to direct your thoughts on your feeling. Up to now, thought and feeling have been separated. Begin to watch your mind: feel what you think. Prepare for tomorrow and safeguard yourselves from deceit. Speaking generally, you will never understand what I wish to convey if you merely listen."   G.I.Gurdjieff Views from the Real World

My experience is that I rarely actually listen, when there is thought, I’m identified with it, when there is feeling, the same. I don’t exist in my body enough to have a separation from my programmed thoughts and feelings.

Paradigm Shift

What is my point of view? 

Does it change? Why and how? 

The aim of this blog is to explore 

"the water I swim in", to see why 

I think, feel, sense and behave 

the way I do. And to work to open 

to new possibilities, to expand my horizons.....

A shift started in me when reading these words 

which stated the aim of the book I was about to begin:

"To destroy, mercilessly, without any compromises whatsoever, in the mentation and 

feelings of the reader, the beliefs and views, by centuries rooted in him, about everything existing in the world"

G.I. Gurdjieff,  All & Everything