George, age fourteen, is the only child at the small gathering in the evening. After dinner, around midnight, Gurdjieff gives advice. 'I wish give *real* Christmas present. Imagine Christ. Somewhere in space *is*.' Mr. Gurdjieff forms an oval with both his hands. 'Make contact. Not to center, but to outside, periphery. Draw from there, draw in *I*. Settle in you, *Am*. Do every day. Wish to become Christ. Become. Be.'"
Louise March
The Gurdjieff Years - 1929-1949
7.7.07
6.7.07
Jubilee
01 Souls are sown into the Time-world. All is present. We live in one point in this vast present. The evolving man remembers.
02 You Are Responsible For What You Have Understood.
03 Only through understanding is development possible - a man is his understanding.
04 One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all, who [is] above all, and through all, and in you all [EPH 4:5 - 6]
05 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ [EPH 5:20]
06 To need nothing is divine, and the less a man needs the nearer he does approach divinity.
07 I am an experiment of the Solar Laboratory.
08 Life falls on the acquired personality – ‘it’ reacts.
09 Do unto other’s as you would have them do unto you.
10 Think in degree rather than in absolutes.
11 Follow the claim of the object – do the next thing.
12 The end of strife is the end of life.
13 Laughter should not be much, nor frequent, nor unrestrained.
14 Find true opposites to irritations.
15 No man is free who is not master of himself – control over things begins with control over ourselves.
16 Remember Yourself Always And Everywhere.
17 Everything is real, but relatively less real than what is above it.
18 Sleep with the remembrance of death, rise with the thought that you will not live long.
19 Imagine how a conscious man would act.
20 Friction creates energy.
21 Lying kills essence.
22 All is vanity.
23 You have a right not to be negative.
24 A fool's voice [is known] by multitude of words [ECCLES 5:3]
25 Never feel you have to be right.
26 The thing that hath been, it [is that] which shall be; and that which is done [is] that which shall be done: and [there is] no new [thing] under the sun. [ECCLES 1:9]
27 Like what 'it' doesn't like.
28 God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus [PHIL 4:19]
29 Everybody is God's own child in different stages of development.
30 Everything seeks completion – the created universe seeks by evolution to return to its source.
31 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, [therewith] to be content [PHIL 4:11]
32 See all negativity as a gift.
33 Valuation is love.
34 Never complain never explain [cf: PHIL 2:14]
35 You possess only whatever will not be lost in a shipwreck.
36 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor [EX 20:16]
37 See in yourself what you dislike in others.
38 Limitations are limitations of Being.
39 Honour the highest thing in the Universe, Honour the highest within yourself.
40 Help is all around us. God help me to help God.
41 Man receives all his possibilities from On High.
42 We have to will one another: this is the beginning of conscious love.
43 Conscious labour is the effort to sense, remember and observe oneself.
44 The day will return when we shall be returned to the light.
45 Man is a cell in organic life. Organic life is the earth’s organ of perception & radiation.
46 The chief implement for living felicitously in life is to have the ability to consider externally always, internally never.
47 The Self you try to remember is above yourself.
48 Only super efforts are counted.
49 Time is the boundary of our senses.
50 The fundamental striving of every man should be to create for himself an inner freedom towards life and to prepare for himself a happy old age.
02 You Are Responsible For What You Have Understood.
03 Only through understanding is development possible - a man is his understanding.
04 One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all, who [is] above all, and through all, and in you all [EPH 4:5 - 6]
05 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ [EPH 5:20]
06 To need nothing is divine, and the less a man needs the nearer he does approach divinity.
07 I am an experiment of the Solar Laboratory.
08 Life falls on the acquired personality – ‘it’ reacts.
09 Do unto other’s as you would have them do unto you.
10 Think in degree rather than in absolutes.
11 Follow the claim of the object – do the next thing.
12 The end of strife is the end of life.
13 Laughter should not be much, nor frequent, nor unrestrained.
14 Find true opposites to irritations.
15 No man is free who is not master of himself – control over things begins with control over ourselves.
16 Remember Yourself Always And Everywhere.
17 Everything is real, but relatively less real than what is above it.
18 Sleep with the remembrance of death, rise with the thought that you will not live long.
19 Imagine how a conscious man would act.
20 Friction creates energy.
21 Lying kills essence.
22 All is vanity.
23 You have a right not to be negative.
24 A fool's voice [is known] by multitude of words [ECCLES 5:3]
25 Never feel you have to be right.
26 The thing that hath been, it [is that] which shall be; and that which is done [is] that which shall be done: and [there is] no new [thing] under the sun. [ECCLES 1:9]
27 Like what 'it' doesn't like.
28 God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus [PHIL 4:19]
29 Everybody is God's own child in different stages of development.
30 Everything seeks completion – the created universe seeks by evolution to return to its source.
31 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, [therewith] to be content [PHIL 4:11]
32 See all negativity as a gift.
33 Valuation is love.
34 Never complain never explain [cf: PHIL 2:14]
35 You possess only whatever will not be lost in a shipwreck.
36 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor [EX 20:16]
37 See in yourself what you dislike in others.
38 Limitations are limitations of Being.
39 Honour the highest thing in the Universe, Honour the highest within yourself.
40 Help is all around us. God help me to help God.
41 Man receives all his possibilities from On High.
42 We have to will one another: this is the beginning of conscious love.
43 Conscious labour is the effort to sense, remember and observe oneself.
44 The day will return when we shall be returned to the light.
45 Man is a cell in organic life. Organic life is the earth’s organ of perception & radiation.
46 The chief implement for living felicitously in life is to have the ability to consider externally always, internally never.
47 The Self you try to remember is above yourself.
48 Only super efforts are counted.
49 Time is the boundary of our senses.
50 The fundamental striving of every man should be to create for himself an inner freedom towards life and to prepare for himself a happy old age.
4.7.07
Lady's Bridge
Richard Hawley has a new album out in August. I love his music. I don't say that often, I don't get that enthusiastic about popsters. I mean I adore that anguished baritone melodic vocal. He's one of these great talents that lurked behind the scenes playing guitar for the likes of Jarvis Cocker, Beth Orton & All Saints and then as if from nowhere started slipping out these beautiful edgey mysterious and lush sounds perfectly produced, gelled together with this extraordinarily rich and relaxed vocal that seems to have caught the essence of all the great male vocalists - it could be Roy Orbison or Sinatra, a Morrisey or Chris Isaacs, Glen Campbell, Leonard Cohen, or Johnny Cash but no, it's Richard Hawley! He stepped so far out from anything that might be cool that he could well find himself becoming the new cool of the British music industry, and if not, at least for a generation with their ears open, one of the finest musicians - he plays umpteen instruments and produces his albums. No small talent.
A Domestic Scene ... falling off the edge of the world
35mm plastic film-can pinhole-anamorph,
set at 45 degree angle.
f.64 @ 4 secs on Kentmere glossy hard paper in full sun.
set at 45 degree angle.
f.64 @ 4 secs on Kentmere glossy hard paper in full sun.
Two Perilous Knights
Negative Emotions & Identifying will take a noble knight to the floor with barely any exertion. They are perilous knights, they will ride out in the open, they will approach with great boldness and strike you quite casually as if you were merely a fly. Something less than a fly, a quarry that already belongs to them, theirs by rights. You are almost pre-conditioned to submission and their confidence is a fact drawn out of that dreadful state.
Why do people fear loneliness and hide in the agitation of crowds? We are alone in our encounters with these perilous knights, you know that. How you will fight these enemies is a matter your mother can not resolve. You must stand upright or be staked to the ground, held prisoner in a dark forest where light barely penetrates. Pierced with a two edged blade, the days wasted, the pointless years leading you to declare, it's over don't you know? How will you fight these enemies, you who will not bow?
Yes. Search your wounds young knight. Don't look back.
Positive Emotions.
Positive mental attitudes.
Non-identifying.
Self-remembering.
Develop understanding.
Please keep me in your heart - a prayer.
Why do people fear loneliness and hide in the agitation of crowds? We are alone in our encounters with these perilous knights, you know that. How you will fight these enemies is a matter your mother can not resolve. You must stand upright or be staked to the ground, held prisoner in a dark forest where light barely penetrates. Pierced with a two edged blade, the days wasted, the pointless years leading you to declare, it's over don't you know? How will you fight these enemies, you who will not bow?
Yes. Search your wounds young knight. Don't look back.
Positive Emotions.
Positive mental attitudes.
Non-identifying.
Self-remembering.
Develop understanding.
Please keep me in your heart - a prayer.
9.5.07
School
It's very quiet.
The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.
Prov 15:24
The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.
Prov 15:24
8.5.07
Daily Express
A heightened riff on reality ...
I flicked open one of Nicoll's lesser known works ...
Words and pictures push us forward through time,
(that is how it appears from within the carousel of time).
I'm looking at these words down narrow country lanes,
escorting a damsel in distress.
At the power station,
mobile units are hanging around.
Nothing is free of charge,
not even delays.
Least of all delays.
And the energy runs to waste ... treat it with respect.
I flicked open one of Nicoll's lesser known works ...
Words and pictures push us forward through time,
(that is how it appears from within the carousel of time).
I'm looking at these words down narrow country lanes,
escorting a damsel in distress.
At the power station,
mobile units are hanging around.
Nothing is free of charge,
not even delays.
Least of all delays.
And the energy runs to waste ... treat it with respect.
7.5.07
Lessons in Service
I was looking at a picture of my dad yesterday, 23rd March. I took it just a few months before he died. It’s been about 4 months now and my thoughts frequently drift, not so much to his death or absence, but simply to him. I find myself thinking about him and not in a nostalgic sense but as if he had a presence with me here now. It’s like I’m weighing something up, balancing the events of our lives. There was a long period through childhood where I was never at ease with him, like we didn’t get on. He did some dumb stuff, perhaps not as dumb as the stuff I did later in my life but I know there were moments between us that didn’t work. But when I look at myself, in many respects my dad was a stronger man. Oddly, to the self-picture I have of myself, I think he was a more disciplined man than I, more capable of fulfilling his duties and obligations. He suffered to live and he bore his suffering impeccably, without complaint or any outward show of resentment. He knew death was close yet he was comfortable with the certain fact of his own necessary demise. Seeing him so accepting of his own death taught me a lot. Obviously it said a lot about my dad, but for me I’d not seen that before. He had time to look at death, he had a measure of it and he waited with patience knowing he could do nothing. He was a man, his body made of flesh and bone, vulnerable and weak, and still he was above it all. I never at any earlier point in my life saw my dad as being in any sense a spiritual person. That was always my perception - from my mid teens pretty much up to his death. He was a social animal, an extrovert that liked people and not one to lock himself away with books and prayer. He never revealed any interest in anything spiritual, so far as I could tell, so I think I was always right in that view - he was not a man who ‘worked’ on himself. And yet, there was something in him that had most definitely developed through his long years of daily suffering. I had not seen that at all and only in his last year did I begin to intuit that he did infact possess a level of being which I had not ascribed to him, and watching him die convinced me of this. When I met the vicar with my mother and brother to discuss the funeral arrangements, I was surprised to hear my mum explain that although she was not religious, my dad had spoke of attending church services but being too unwell this had never happened. So I can say two things with certainty:
1. Though a man make no conscious effort to awaken and increase level of being, life events can actually develop something in a man’s being that will prepare him for true conscious awakening. This is something that can only play out through recurrence. It is not necessarily a sad thing to see a man suffer, if what crystalises in him through that suffering goes into essence to form a new man.
2. People are remarkable in simple ways. Despite our collective ugliness and the visible marks of a fallen race, something beautiful rises through the ordinariness of daily life, something quite unvalued, lessons in service.
[I wrote this a while ago. Maybe I would've forgotten it but I still feel this strong presence, if not more now than before. It's unusual to me. I'm just noting some feelings I guess.]
1. Though a man make no conscious effort to awaken and increase level of being, life events can actually develop something in a man’s being that will prepare him for true conscious awakening. This is something that can only play out through recurrence. It is not necessarily a sad thing to see a man suffer, if what crystalises in him through that suffering goes into essence to form a new man.
2. People are remarkable in simple ways. Despite our collective ugliness and the visible marks of a fallen race, something beautiful rises through the ordinariness of daily life, something quite unvalued, lessons in service.
[I wrote this a while ago. Maybe I would've forgotten it but I still feel this strong presence, if not more now than before. It's unusual to me. I'm just noting some feelings I guess.]
The Prisoner's Lament
I've done a lot of writing offline this year, which is probably how it should be and how it'll most likely continue. What can I say? It is May, the year is passing at some pace. So far it has only shown my weakness and inability to hold to a straight line. I forget things, even the important things. I am a prisoner. So easily devoured. The pressures of the struggle pressing against my being, the limitations of will exposed. We are eaten by mechanical forces which ever seek to lead us away from contact with the presence of that fragment of being that is real and living within the dead husk of personality.
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