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25450 |
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Date: January 04, 2018 at 09:43:57
From: ryan, [DNS_Address]
Subject: notes on work on oneself |
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commentary by maurice nicoll
NOTES ON WORK ON ONESELF
WORK-IDEA There are Three Lines of Work—Work on oneself, Work in con- nection with others and oneself, and Work in connection with the Work itself and oneself in relation to it.
COMMENTARY We speak mainly about the First Line of Work to-night—namely, Work on oneself. Unless a person works on himself or herself, the Second Line of Work remains theoretical and imaginary. Work on oneself brings in all that the Work teaches practically and is the necessary starting-point. For example, if you are always internally considering, you will not be able to work in connection with others—which demands external considering—i.e. putting yourself into their situation. Work on oneself helps us to learn how to live more consciously in every day affairs. Usually we identify so much that we end up the day on the debit side. Everything has "got you" and you have been in a bad temper all day. That is, life has all day conquered you and eventually drained you of any such conscious force you may have had. It has taken from you and given you nothing. You will, most of you, under- stand by now that we must find something that will prevent this being drained by the daily events of our existence through identifying and considering.
We have to grasp the teaching of the Work more and more clearly in this respect. The Work says that, as we are mechanically, force is drained from us. Yes—continually, by worrying, by anxiety, by getting negative, and, in fact, by every variety of identifying. So the Work teaches at the start: "A man must remember himself." Why? Because if anyone remembers himself, it stops this terrible draining of force that takes place through continual identifying—yes—even identifying with having lost a halfpenny, and crawling under beds, lifting carpets, in order to find this halfpenny and worrying about it all day and night. Do you regard this as an exaggeration? I assure you that all of us are just like this. We make, through this customary identifying and so lack of Self-Remembering—we make, I say, the most trivial and silly things of enormous importance and therefore suffer most patently from this great illness, this disease of sleeping mankind, which the Work diagnoses as Identifying. Mr. Gurdjieff called it the most terrible illness on this planet. And, as you know, the Work system explains that when a man or woman is thoroughly identified they are asleep and then are in a condition of hypnosis and so are used by the two sheep-farmers con- trolling the Earth-Moon terminal for their own purposes—namely, for meat and wool. So wars, revolutions, epidemics, go on—a good opportunity for plenty of meat and wool. Now this "good news", as Gurdjieff called the Work which he brought to the West, has as one of its main ideas that it is possible for a man to awaken from the Earth-Moon hypnotism and separate himself. How? By an inner act called Self-Remembering. This gives a shock—the First Conscious Shock. But all that the Work teaches is also necessary—about self- observation, not considering, not identifying, not self-justifying, not self-pitying, not falling into negative emotions without any struggle, not believing the thoughts that come while in negative states, not allowing yourself to lie to yourself, not living in pictures of yourself, and a hundred and one other things that we have been studying in this system during these years. But the supreme thing is Self-Remembering. If we leave out Self-Remembering we leave out the real psychic act, performed internally, that constitutes the First Conscious Shock. It is by means of this First Conscious Shock that we are separated from the strange hypnotic sleep of mankind on this Earth.
This is the heart and substance of the "good news" brought by Gurdjieff to the West—and Gurdjieff called it "esoteric Christianity". Bear these words always in your mind. Exoteric religion is one thing: esoteric teaching is another. And once you have begun to realize, for your own private selves, the message of this teaching, you will be able to read the Gospels in a new way and see for yourselves that Christ was not teaching Christianity as we are taught it—if you can bear this paradox. I will add here that it is more than interesting to read again the scattered fragments of Christ's teaching present in the Four Gospels and pick out what was really meant, in the light of the Work. Nothing is more releasing for the fast-bound religious mind that holds many in prison—yes—now—at this moment.
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Responses:
[25452] [25453] [25460] [25451] |
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25452 |
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Date: January 04, 2018 at 10:38:02
From: Just Forum Fan, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: notes on work on oneself |
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Dang, I could not resist replying to you before finishing this piece, and now have read the last paragraph that sealed the value of this, personally!
Yeah, reread the bible and realize that most scripture has a lighter, obvious meaning and a much deeper one. No, I can't get the deeper message in a lot of them, yet. But, I'm getting a good number of them and amazed at the shallow preachings we were subjected to while growing up in church, and what I realize exists now. Beautiful presentation.
God bless ya.
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Responses:
[25453] [25460] |
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25453 |
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Date: January 04, 2018 at 10:41:21
From: Just Forum Fan, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: notes on work on oneself |
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Ryan, am not trying to flood your forum, this is a PS. (It's your place and any of my posts you may ever delete is more than fine with me. I'll never care cuz I'm a guest here "your dime, your time.)
Have you ever heard of The Philokalia? It comes in four paperback volumes with endless promise or claim that Number 5 comes someday.
Was christian monks of great strictness instructing others and is written in numbered verses like a bible. Man, it's addicting for a true seeker. Sells at Amazon for a very few dollars a book.
Yeah, something so proundly true, deep and instructive is not valued so they're almost giving it away. I can't resist a redneck "go figure" as I close.
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Responses:
[25460] |
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25460 |
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Date: January 05, 2018 at 15:10:29
From: ryan, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: notes on work on oneself |
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heard of it but have not checked it out yet...thanks
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25451 |
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Date: January 04, 2018 at 10:34:45
From: Just Forum Fan, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: notes on work on oneself |
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Duude! You did it yet again---presented something powerful because it's so reality-based to our bone marrow.
Self-remembering = what christian monks called "watchfulness." They in their meditations watched self, that monkey in the mind that keeps us, yes! "hypnotically" worrying, obsessing and what? ....
Lost in our minds and far from the spiritual realm of "God" or whatever each one of us names that invisible One that's over all of us.
To have presence of mind is to be *in "That" one's presence, in perfect peace since true stillness, inner-stillness coupled with phyical and sensory stillness is perfect state of peace.
I dig it when I read the writings of others that use their own terms for what I know of as same blessed thing but by whatever terms used as I was enlightened. (No, not insinuating that I have attained enlightenment. Got lightyears to go, yet.)
Ryan, this one piece could spark discussion endlessly and I can only at this point hope that it sparks any at all.
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