SUGAR IS AN ESOTERIC ISSUE

Sugar is an Esoteric Issue (revised 28 May 2010)

I am absolutely serious. Sugar is an esoteric issue, together with smoking and narcotics. Of

course, it is not nearly so dangerous as narcotics, which can make conscious development

practically impossible. But I am not sure how it compares to tobacco. That issue is difficult,

because, among matters, people who consume tobacco invariably consume sugar, so the

respective roles of these poisons in causing disease is tricky. Also, the sugars which are

sometimes added to cigarettes make their smoke more cancerous (they increase by up to

60% the amount of formaldehyde in mainstream cigarette smoke, i.e. the smoke produced after puffing on a cigarette). Therefore, the effects of sugar and tobacco may

operate jointly.

Background

Where is this all coming from? An article I wrote, dealing with sugar and its equivalents

from a legal and ethical point of view, has been published in vol. 17 of the Journal of Law

and Medicine (May 2010, pp.784-799).

In that article, I contend that there is a crying need for legislative intervention to actually

tax sugar, ban sugar products from schools, require full disclosure of sugar content in any

food (even in bread), with health warnings on confectionary, and more of the same fanatical

measures. You can read the facts about sugar in the late John Yudkins readable classic Pure, White and Deadly. My article summarises some of the latest evidence, the vast bulk

of which supports his conclusions about the relation between sugar, diabetes and cancer

(not to mention dental caries), and some of which shows that sugar is addictive in much the

same way that narcotics are.

That is all very well, you may say: but why put this on an esoteric studies web site?

The Esoteric Significance of Sugar

For those who know Gurdjieffs ideas, let me say first, that sugar disharmonises the tempo of our common-presence, and second, that it damages essence.

Now, let me rephrase that for the non-initiated. Sugar is wreaking havoc on our civilization.

Its just doing it slowly and enjoyably. Gary Taubes, whose work in this area seems to me to be without hyperbole magnificent, writes: Through their direct effect on insulin and blood sugar, refined carbohydrates, starches, and sugars are the dietary cause of coronary

heart disease and diabetes. They are the most likely dietary causes of cancer, Alzheimers disease, and the other chronic diseases of civilization. (The Diet Delusion, n 27, p 454) The italics on dietary causes is Taubes own.

Over time and in sufficient doses, sugar can do great damage to a persons body and emotions. That is, it damages essence, the real you, the heirloom with which you are born.

Indirectly, sugar will even damage how ones mind works, because the workings of the mind, body and emotions cannot ultimately be separated (although the organism is very

adaptable, and can often reach extraordinary levels of intellectual and emotional

functioning despite even near-fatal physical damage). Indirectly, through diabetes and, it

seems, other diseases, sugar can even be fatal. And if it does indeed contribute to diseases

such as Alzheimers, what have we unloosed upon ourselves?

When I say that over time and in sufficient doses, it can do great damage to a persons body and emotions, we must bear in mind that how much time and what doses are sufficient depends upon the person, their conscious control over their organism, their genes,

the balance of their diet, the exercise they take, their sleep, their lifestyle, and other factors.

Now for common-tempo. In a talk he gave in Paris, in August 1922, Gurdjieff said that a

persons reception of impressions depends on the rhythm of the external stimulators of impressions and on the rhythm of the senses. Right reception, he said, would be possible only if these rhythms correspond to one another. In fact, he went so far as to say: a man can never be a man if he has no right rhythms in himself. G.I. Gurdjieff, Views from the Real World, pp.82-83.

Briefly, as I understand it, in Beelzebub, especially in the chapter on Hypnotism, Gurdjieff teaches that each centre of the organism, and also essence (as a whole) and

personality (as a whole) function at different tempos, and that parts of the human organism

can mutually communicate only when their tempos stand in a particular relation. At p.1163,

Beelzebub says to Hassein that each of the functions which compose our individuality

acquires a harmonious tempo in the common functioning. In other words, our individuality (the distinctive nature of our being), is made up of various functionings, each

of which is formed as a whole (crystallized is Gurdjieffs word) and works at its own tempo in an integrated organism, in harmony with other functions operating at their proper

tempos.

One can think of it as being like a car: all the moving parts have their own tempos. The

wheels, fan-belt, ignition, battery, all work at different speeds, or more precisely, within

different ranges of speed. In fact, they can only perform their proper function without

damaging the machine if they remain within their specific speed ranges. If one could

arrange all these parts so that they operated at one identical speed, the car would be useless

. I am aware I am now speaking of speed. Shortly, a speed is absolute: it is measured from zero, but tempo is a relative speed. Tempo is meaningful only as comparing the

speeds, rhythms or rates of a particular activity.

Gurdjieff says that we have two established tempos of blood circulation (provisionally

taking the tempos as absolute). Each of these tempos is related to a form of consciousness:

essence (sub-consciousness), or personality (consciousness). A change in consciousness

can cause a change in the tempo of blood circulation, and a change in that tempo can cause

a change in consciousness.

Sugar disrupts that tempo to an extent which was not, I believe, contemplated by nature,

and which is not under conscious control. Interestingly, anecdotal evidence suggests that if

taken naturally (i.e. directly from sugar cane), it is not nearly so noxious, if at all. This

makes sense: one researcher says that refined sugar is a genetically unknown food. That is, it is not a use but an abuse of nature. Further, you get a load of sugar a lot faster drinking

soft drinks than you ever can by chewing on sugar cane. In the right dose, and for some

people the right dose is an extremely small one, sugar causes a nervous energy within the

body and disrupt emotional equilibrium.

Because sugar is (apparently) the only food which provides energy and no nutrients, there

is nothing good to say about it which cannot be said for anything else which makes food

more palatable (e.g. cinnamon and vanilla). On the other hand, those foods have positives

which sugar does not. The glucose in sugar is oxidised in the cells, and the bloodstream

cops the released energy. This is the basis of the sugar-fix. And this disrupts the tempo of the body, and the all-important tempo of the blood circulation. In other words, sugar is a

food (although I would say it is better understood as a food derivative that is, in itself, a

good-substitute), and a poison, which makes it harder for essence to manifest, and easier for

personality to manifest.

If you dont believe me, try and observe carefully what happens inside you when next you ingest confectionary, cake, sweetened biscuits, soft drink or anything else to which youve added sugar. You may be surprised to find that what you thought were part and parcel of

your natural fluctuations of mood (and, in Gurdjieffs terms, your state), are in fact abnormal but familiar results of sugar ingestion.

Part of the esoteric danger is this: because we do not think of sugar as a slow-working poison (albeit of low toxicity in small and irregular doses), but as a food and only as a food,

it hardly enters our heads to think of its effects as being unnatural. We are far more likely to

attribute its psychic effects to other causes.

Also, we are so used to sugar that we tend to accept our unnaturally sweetened state (to

coin a phrase which is meant only half-humorously) as neutral, or even as positive. We take

so much sugar, and we see so many people who take it, that we dont know how jumped up we are.

There is more. I could do a social analysis and say that we live in a sugar-coated society. And I believe we do: but that is another area. I sometimes wonder if sugar is not one of

those things like tea, coffee, hops and opium, which, as Gurdjieff said, have a complete

enneagram within themselves. For what its worth, I think that mint and garlic may be other such plants, but of course benign ones. But for now, I just want to raise this issue.

Gurdjieff, Sugar and the Tempo Paradox

There are two related objections to consider: the first is, but didnt Gurdjieff use sugar? And, considering the different tempos used in the movements and sacred dances, surely

Gurdjieff didnt try and impose one tempo on us? So if we can changing tempos is not noxious there, why should it be different if we change tempos by taking food?

The answer to the first question is simple: yes, Gurdjieff seems to have loved sugar, and

was even known as Monsieur Bon-Bon because of his lavish distribution of confectionary. But Gurdjieff didnt know everything. His being was beyond ours to an extent which makes comparison pointless, but he wasnt omniscient. He still had to find out where the shops were, and learn the English language. He had to learn: in fact, he spoke to

the Adies about one particular thing he had learned (as I shall mention in the forthcoming

book on Helen Adie, where I can provide the context to do justice to the issue). As with

sugar, I doubt that Gurdjieff would have used tobacco so much, or allowed people to smoke

as they did, had he understood the dangers, especially the risks of passive inhalation where

people who do not smoke suffer from others indulgence.

In respect of the second question, the first point is that it is striking that what I might call

the sacred dances do seem to be slower than the other movements. I am thinking of The Big Prayer, The Camel Dervish, and of those which form the esoteric series within his last series of movements. But you could contradict me on that, and I would be unconcerned.

There is something deeper than all this.

And this is it: first, disrupting our standard tempos is analagous to disrupting our standard

roles. Gurdjieff said that man has a role for every kind of circumstance in which he ordinarily finds himself in life; but put him into even only slightly different circumstances

and he is unable to find a suitable role and for a short time he becomes himself. At p.239 of Miraculous, the phrase for a short time he becomes himself is italicised. I think something similar happens with tempo. Is it going too far to say that each person has a common-tempo for every kind of circumstance in which he ordinarily finds himself in life;

but put him into even only slightly different circumstances and he is unable to find a

suitable tempo and for a short time he becomes himself? This would be the purpose of movements. It is done there relatively consciously. But the same thing could not be said for

eating confectionaries and cakes.

The second point is that although I have been studying tempo for a while now, I have only

very recently started to think that the key to the awakening of essence is the ratio of

tempos. Of course, the corresponding ratios should fall into place mor easily while one is

quiet. This is why the preparations and exercises Gurdjieff bought are so important.

Through these, he taught how to raise certain organic tempos to consciousness. But this

was taught so that the state attained could be an influence in daily life, and the results

crystallized in us. As Mr Adie used to say, its like learning to row a boat. You start off in calm waters, but one day, with sufficient practice, you might be able to manage in rough

water.

Now, in so far as the movements have to do with changing the tempo of our organism, the

aim is that we remain conscious whatever the tempo and how it changes: or so I tend to

think. In terms of what I have said above, it is consciousness and the ratio of tempos which

are critical. The quicker my body must work in the movements, the finer the work of the

mind and feelings which is demanded. A different kind of consciousness, both active and

passive, is called for to take the movements and the monitor what results.

I have made this as clear as I can, but of course I cannot disclose on the net the actual

methods used in the preparation and exercises. Without that disclosure there will always be

an irreducible margin of vagueness. So, perhaps these comments can help: a certain

physical tempo is necessary only as an aid. Essence is not a slow tempo, or any tempo at

all. Essence is in feeling (real feeling, and not the emotions). Feeling centre works faster

than any of the centres but for sex and the two higher centres.

When essence appears through feeling, it can handle any speeds. Once we have awakened,

we can manifest. But for man number 1, 2, and 3, there is a long work required to

understand, by inner-sensation, the appropriate range of physical tempos and how to bring

them within their proper ranges and mutual ratio.

And I will add one last comment which I shall expand on in future writings: we can, in my

opinion, only work on bodies. But if this is right, then wed better look after them.

Conclusion

I began by speaking about sugar. I said that in addition to the physical illnesses it

contributes to, it damages essence and disharmonises the tempos of our common presence.

I am recommending that anyone engaged in a spiritual quest has a spiritual reason to give

up sugar altogether, and a responsibility not to facilitate its use (indeed, I feel a duty to

actively discourage it).

Yet, I know from experience that it is very difficult for us to logically confront such

matters. Neither do I think its only an issue of how I raise it with people, although that is not always guaranteed to help.

I would ask you read Yudkin and Taubes, and look at the evidence. If you can get the

Journal of Law and Medicine, read my article. Then consider whether sugar is not, as I

suggest, an esoteric issue.

And if you think it is, what prevents you acting on your knowledge?

Is this an area where the I that knows is not the I which is present when we come to eat?

UNITY IS THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ATTRIBUTE

OF IMMORTALITY

Ferapontoffs Constantinople notes state that: Unity is the psychological attribute of immortality. I would add that consciousness and conscience are perhaps likewise the intellectual and emotional attributes of immortality. The three divine impulses, faith, hope

and love, may be the spiritual attributes of immortality. By contrast, death is dissolution

and tumbling to decay, as Hopkins said. Narrowing of consciousness, stifling of conscience, closure to the divine impulses, and rigidity are all shadows thrown before the

remorseless advance of death.

Life is a field in which the materials for the life-beyond-this-life are all found, and can be

attracted together to create an operating wholeness. In the chapter Beelzebubs Opinion of War, Beelzebub says that the destiny of humans is chiefly to elaborate by means of the process of their existence the vibrations required by Nature (p. 1105). On the very next page, he speaks not of producing vibrations but a sacred cosmic substance, Askokin (p. 1106). Perhaps there is no relevant difference: perhaps Askokin is as much a vibration

as it is a substance. Beelzebub also says that Askokin is generally found blended with two

other substances, Abrustdonis and Helkdonis. These latter two substances are the material

from which higher being-bodies, namely, the body Kesdjan and the body of the Soul are in general formed and perfected. Further, Abrustdonis and Helkdonis are transubstantiated by means of conscious labors and intentional sufferings. In that process of transubstantiation, Askokin is liberated (pp. 1106-7).

This was known to the people of Atlantis, says Beelzebub. Atlantean males would gather in

their temples for certain mysteries in the special state of self-remembering. There they would give themselves over to active and conscious contemplation the whole time, and in this state performed these corresponding sacred mysteries, so that there should be

transubstantiated in them the sacred substances Abrustdonis and Helkdonis. (p. 1109) Thus they fulfilled two duties at once, the duties of perfecting their higher being-bodies and

of serving the cosmic Trogoautoegocratic process (p. 1108). It would appear, although it is

not explicitly stated, that Askokin, Abrustdonis and Helkdonis are elements of the active

element Exiohary which can be used both for continuation of the species and for self-

perfecting (see pp. 277, 761 and 793). That is, self-remembering, conscious labor and

intentional suffering, contemplation, normal use of the sex energy, the production of the

soul and of the vessel of the soul (Kesdjan is said to mean vessel of the soul) and so immortality, are aspects of the one process, the process of (our) existence if lived consciously.

The same doctrine is, I think, referred to in the chapter Purgatory, when Beelzebub speaks of intentional contemplativeness, which he states is the principal factor for the assimilation of those cosmic substances, being those definite cosmic substances necessary for the arising and existence of higher being-parts (p. 783). Once more, he tells us in this context that the absorption of the higher being-foods was considered by some

of the inhabitants of Atlantis to be the chief aim of their existence (p. 783).

Then, Beelzebub states in the chapter Beelzebub in America that the practices of what he calls the Mohammedan religion were introduced because the followers of the teaching had

lost the capacity for contemplation and consequently the possibility of understanding truths consciously (p. 1010). Again, contemplation is placed at the beginning of a progression of conscious development.

As for faith, hope and love as spiritual attributes of immortality, Beelzebub speaks

eloquently of them in the Ashiata Shiemash chapters, stating at the outset that they are the

three sacred ways for self-perfecting, foreordained by OUR ENDLESS CREATOR HIMSELF (p. 353). Immortality is thus the prize, but immortality necessarily includes these divine impulses, and therefore is more than a bare extension of existence indefinitely

far into time, it is an immortality of faith, hope and love.

In one of the Paris group meetings, Gurdjieff spoke of forming the second body by

accumulating a substance, and said that a will was needed for this, and a struggle. He stated that this was the only possibility of coming to the second body, and that the only aim is that everything should serve this aim. Once one has glimpsed the simplicity of Gurdjieffs methods, many other indications of how the methods all serve the crystallizing of higher bodies spring to mind, or are more quickly spotted. Perhaps Gurdjieffs self-remembering, the five Obligolnian-strivings, and conscious labour and intentional

suffering, can all be integrated into one system: they are integrated as being different notes

in the octave of crystallizing higher bodies.

That integration of the methods, their simplicity (the folding of many into one ply), is

illustrated in a passage titled The Opening for the Appearance, the Materialization and the Coating of the Second Being-Body read on 2 August 1978, where Mr Adie stated that the road to the coating of the astral body was by means of gradually controlled, directed and divided attention, which all tended to the harmonization of the life processes within us. He spoke there of the need to be able to remain balanced in the preparation and also in life, so

that the inner transmutations could be sustained in their integrity. This text is now in the

book, George Mountford Adie: A Gurdjieff Pupil in Australia.

If the process of Aissirittoorassnian-contemplation is necessary for the formation of the

highest being body, the converse is also true, that the formation of the bodies makes a more

conscious life possible. As Mr Adie then said: the formation and completion of the coating of this emotional body enable(s us) to have the power to return and to enter the daily life of outer activity without suffering the usual dispersal of the emotional body. In fact, this is, I think, the real reason why we are always forgetting: depending upon ones vocabulary, one can say either that the higher bodies are insufficiently crystallised or that the soul is

insufficiently pure. That this is Gurdjieffs treaching is apparent from the diagram of the four bodies and the explanation found in Miraculous.

This diagram ties in with the idea of the higher centres. The balancing of our three most

amenable centres (thinking, feeling and moving) corresponds to the development of man

number 4. The harmonization of the higher emotional centre with these corresponds to the

development of man number 5 and of the astral body. Thus, in the Ferapontoff notes it is

stated: The matter of the astral body is to be found in the emotional centre, but it is not

crystallized. Then, the harmonization of the activity of the higher intellectual centre with these corresponds to the development of man number 6 and the mental body. In man

number 7, these developments are permanent.

There is found in Miraculous a diagram where alongside the ray of creation are two

columns for bodies and laws. The diagram relevantly shows that the fourth (causal) body is

subject only to six laws and is made up of the material of the starry world; the third

(mental) body is subject to 12 laws and is composed of solar matter. The second (astral)

body obeys 24 laws and is of the material of the planetary world, while the physical body

under 48 laws is made of earthly matter (p. 94).

All of these various ideas of bodies, centres, energies, matters and laws, are but

perspectives from different sides of the one process. On 2 July 1982, Mr Adie said that in

the preparation one could, if ones efforts had come to that point:

direct a part of my gaze upwards through my brows, to that higher source, the source of the all-pervasive influence of the initiation of all life. It is as if the gaze started in my centre

of gravity, and flowed upward, and joined in my head at that opening, to receive the finest

impressions coming from the source of everything existing.

This is a reference to the work of the higher intellectual centre and the incipient mental

body, which being composed of the matter of the sun does in fact directly receive the

influence of all suns, the source of all life. Importantly, the process Mr Adie describes is natural. The ground for it has been prepared by the harmonization of the centres, but yet

there is required both an understanding and effort, albeit surpassingly subtle understanding

and effort.

In this regard, a letter which Adie wrote to Mr Gurdjieff and Mme de Salzmann on 24 July

1949 is interesting. In it, Adie speaks of the latest exercise Gurdjieff has given him, and

what he experiences through it, describing the building up or materialisation of the envelope of my sphere. He also describes the stopping of thoughts, and an awareness of the higher emotional body or Kesdjan body or at least something leading to this. It is clear that he has not to been told to expect it, but nonetheless the concentration of his

attention and energies, as directed, has made it possible. Adie explains that when he has the

stated experience no negative emotions even appear. He notes that his consciousness seems

to shift or be centred in a particular part of his body which I shall not describe. Now

initially, his consciousness placed itself there, but now that he is aware of it, he says, this

is to be cultivated as if from here I am safe in regard to others.

In the blog on the Prayer of the Heart I wrote about the Christian prayer which makes use

of awareness of the breath and its flowing into and through the body. There, too, the

consciousness is placed in the body. As it happens, Mr Adie was referring to a different part

of the body in this letter, but the principle is clear: when the consciousness has shifted, one

can intentionally, by a simple act of will, place the consciousness there again, making

possible a fresh experience. The placing in the body undoubtedly provides a stool for a

more continuous experience.

One does not have to speak of the higher centres to come to the point of being able to sense

the movement of energies through them. In fact, it may even be counter-productive if one

speaks unwisely, or perhaps more accurately, if one allows oneself to mix imagination in

with what one learns. This type of dreaming can lead to sleep in higher centres. Yet, once

one has had an experience of the movement of subtle energies or of the activation of higher

centres, then I feel as Mr Adie did, that one should not neglect them. Incidentally, that letter

provides contemporaneous evidence of the methods Gurdjieff was using in 1949, and also

of Adies faithfulness to his teacher.

Why Aissirittoorassnian-Contemplation?

Why is Aissirittoorassnian-contemplation necessary for the development of higher bodies?

It is worth pondering some portions in the posthumously published Tu LAimeras, translated into English and re-edited as Gurdjieff, A Master in Life: Recollections of

Tcheslaw Tchekhovitch.

Tchekhovitch recalls that a friend of a member of their Constantinople group had died, and

they were speaking of this death when Gurdjieff approached. One of them summoned up

the courage to ask Gurdjieff to clarify how work of a spiritual nature leads to immortality. They knew that he had said subtle bodies could be formed, but found this obscure. In reply, Gurdjieff gave the examples of stones forming in the kidney, and salt

crystallizing from saturation. So too, he said, psychic substances can, if they saturate the body, crystallize. Further, a substance such as salt, when crystallized, possesses qualities

lacking from the salt dissolved in water. A salty liquid poured into a river will quickly

blend into the river water, and while one might detect some salt fifteen metres downstream,

there will be no trace at all one kilometer further on. However, if the salt can be crystallized

and placed beyond the waters, then it is theoretically immortal.

The river, said Gurdjieff, is life. Life carries away the energies elaborated in us. If we could

somehow keep separate from life the higher substances formed by conscious labors then the

substances would crystallize more quickly and, like the salt crystals, retain their integrity.

Once formed, the new arising has its own destiny. Gurdjieff went on to give the example of

bread: one it has been properly baked, bread can no longer be reduced to flour. Once made, bread has a fate of its own. But, Gurdjieff went on to add, this does not mean that one must withdraw from what we call life, as some wrong-headed ascetics do, with the result that they exhaust themselves rather than developing. One must acquire a deeper

understanding of the nature of life and separation from it.

Hence, I think, the importance of Aissirittoorassnian-contemplation and making a

connection between our experience of it and the manifestations of our lives. One

commences the day with the preparation as a means of fostering the elaboration of finer

substances.

By consciously collecting oneself within ones atmosphere, one sets up, by an act of will, a sort of magnetic field for the collection and coherence of finer hydrogens. As the relative

tempos of each centre start to come into the sacred relationship, these hydrogens coalesce

and form a spiritualised unity according to a pattern contemplated on a more subtle plane of

existence.

For this reason, some of Gurdjieffs exercises end with instructions to rest ten or fifteen minutes in a collected state. One example, from The Four Ideals which Gurdjieff gave Mr Adie on 1 October 1948, specifically states that without this calmness the results cannot be assimilated and the exercise will have been in vain. It even gives further indications of

what is meant by the collected state. Then, in the meeting of 9 December 1946 averted to

above, Gurdjieff says that one should not do anything which causes one to emanate

excessively: should one wish to accumulate the desired substance, one must come to a

concentrated state. The danger he says, is that the results may evaporate like cigarette

smoke. In fact, Gurdjieff there recommends that an exercise be finished with a prayer, to

ask ones ideal (sic) to help safeguard this result, and even to use the prayer between exercises so as to evoke a factor of recall.

In that meeting, and elsewhere, Gurdjieff insisted upon practising and repeating. An

undated pencil jotting, found with what I call Mr Adies Paris Notes is headed Real I. It reads, in part:

Real I

Practise to isolate yourself from everyone, so as to come into this presence.

Real I. This you must practise now to have every aim.

Real I.

I AM.

Practise for this isolation Stop considering. Keep all in. Real I.

As these Paris Notes of September 1949 briefly chart the Adies time with Gurdjieff, including something of the exercises, treatment and advice he gave, it is a fair conjecture

that this piece either reflects a resolution Mr Adie made under the influence of what he was

receiving in Paris with Gurdjieff, or even that its terse cadences record Gurdjieffs own advice to him.

The advice seems to me to tie in with the talk on immortality recorded by Tchekhovitch,

and also with another allegory which he relates. Still in Constantinople, Gurdjieff was

asked about the proper attitude for a pupil. Imagine, he replied, that you are offered a house

in a vast virgin forest with but one condition: you must maintain the fire beneath a

cauldron. Even though no one checks on you, you are not allowed to lift the lid of the

cauldron, and you know nothing about the boiling substance inside. You know only that

you must keep it boiling and never allow the fire to go out. Significantly, no one but

yourself verifies that you are doing it correctly. Such dedication, perseverance and honesty

are the best attitudes in a pupil. Only later, Tchekhovitch said, did he come to understand

what the mysterious alchemical substance might be and why sacrifice was required to

obtain its gift.

It is also interesting that the stimulus for this allegory was a question about the desirable

attitude in a pupil. I doubt that I am the only one who has for too long not appreciated what

we have in Aissirittoorassnian-contemplation. Jane Heap said that we live beneath our

privileges. Nowhere, perhaps, is this more true than of we who have learned the morning

preparation, but do not use it, or do not pass it on. Gurdjieff said of one version of the

preparation: Do this ten minutes every day for the rest of your life and you will live to bless my name.

This explains two things: why it is necessary to use the preparation and exercises as

Gurdjieff gave them, and why Gurdjieff, de Salzmann, Mrs Staveley, the Adies, all these

people, insisted upon the value of trying the exercises in groups. First, the Gurdjieff

exercises, and only the Gurdjieff exercises, include this teaching of higher being bodies and

integrate it into the entire system in an organic manner. Bennett remarked that exciting as

the Subud latihan was, he and others found that they had to go back to the Gurdjieff

exercises because a strange sort of will-lessness had developed in them. Second, the more

people who use these exercises together, the greater the concentration of higher hydrogens.

Gurdjieff placed a lot of knowledge, very concisely and very precisely into the formulation

of his exercises.

We will value Aissirittoorassnian-contemplation more if we study and value the teaching

on higher being bodies. And of course, this takes us straight to Beelzebub which is filled

with references, both direct and indirect, to these higher bodies and their cosmic destinies.

As Gurdjieff stated, his pupils should regularly read his book, and they should read it in the

manner he indicated: three times, passively, actively and bringing the reconciling scrutiny

which can lead to digestion, transforming our knowledge of the book into our own

understanding.

This all has an important corollary: the art should, I think, be related to daily efforts in life.

We do try this, but perhaps there is scope for more concerted and ever more conscious

efforts along these lines. Gurdjieff and his pupils persistently encouraged us to find ways of

making connections between the morning preparation and efforts in life, so to speak. There is very little exchange on the exercises, and maybe that is prudent. Yet, nonetheless,

perhaps it should perhaps be allowed for, even if only once a month or so, amongst those

making a study of the art

THE PREPARATION & THE ART OF RELAXATION

Certain ideas or hints can assist with the Gurdjieff preparation and exercises. Of course, not

everything can be adequately communicated on the printed page. But neither is complete

silence necessary. The best published material known to me is the final chapter in Jean

Vaysses Toward Awakening. That chapter is instructively titled: The First Step in Self-Study: Inner Quiet, Relaxation, Sensation of Oneself, and the Attempt to Remember

Oneself.

Vaysse was a personal pupil of Gurdjieff, and a person of tremendous ability. Nothing I

could say would improve on what he wrote. It is regrettable that his book is presently out of

print, but perhaps a demand will persuade the publishers to reissue it. Having said that,

there are some matters which Vaysse does not cover which, I think, can usefully be

canvasssed.

These notes are intended to assist one with understanding something of the preparation as it

came from Gurdjieff. The value of these thoughts is different for those who have had a

personal introduction to the art from someone who learned it from Gurdjieff or one of his

direct pupils, and those who have not. For those who have, this piece may, perhaps

stimulate their valuation of what they have learned, encourage them to further practice, and

maybe provide some fresh perspectives. But if someone has not learned the art from one of

the qualified, then these notes might provide some food for thought, and even furnish a

reason to at least explore the possibility of learning the art. These thoughts on the art should

not be confused with the art itself. But perhaps they can lead to it.

In earlier blogs I have used Gurdjieffs term Aissirittoorassnian-contemplation. Let us continue to do so. Aissirittoorassnian-contemplation starts with being present to my state

as it is. One re-members ones self, without deception, so far as this is possible. Not even a breath of analysis is allowed to blunt my perceptions I want a naked apprehension of myself more intimate than any thought, an intuition more instant than any idea. And, from a

position behind myself, as it were, each of the three centres (thinking, feeling and motor-

instinct) must in its proper way be relaxed.

The eyelids are gently and intentionally brought down not just squeezed shut. The Adies would sometimes invite us, having closed them, to reopen the eyelids and then softly lower

them not so much to shut out light as to turn innerly. Something similar is possible with the

mouth: it should not be tightly pressed, and once more, it can be softly and consciously

parted but a fraction and the lips then brought into touch. At the end of the preparation,

incidentally, it often helps to open ones eyes with much the same sense, then close them again, and reopen, allowing the impressions to enter.

Such ostensibly small gestures can bring a fresh understanding of relaxation. The concept of relaxation should not be hurried over as if we know what it is. The states of relaxation

and tension reflect, on our human level, two of the three holy forces which operate on a

cosmic scale. Consider these pairings: relaxation and tension, contraction and expansion,

heat and cold. These qualities all say something about the place and the tempo of any given

phenomenon. Everything in the universe vibrates at a certain pitch. As its rate of vibration

changes, so too must its place, its temperature and its state of tension. This is exemplified

when ice melts and moves. Ultimately, the place, tempo and tension of any phenomenon

are one: together, they are its pitch. This word pitch philologically refers to position in the widest possible sense of the term, which is why it embraces both the placing of a note

of music and the erection of a tent.

In one exercise he gave in 1938, Gurdjieff said Fifteen minutes relax. Break tempo of ordinary life. To relax is to change our tempo, our time. But relaxation and tension are two aspects of one reality: they are not and cannot be exclusive. They must go together in

some particular ratio. When we relax for the preparation or exercises, we do not relax

completely. If we did, we would go to sleep. To lift any object we need a certain amount of

tension, or our muscles will never contract to enable us to grip and then raise our arms. Yet,

if there is too much tension in our arms, we will not be able to move them adequately. So

the ratio of relaxation and tension must always be equilibrated.

This equilibration is judgment, measurement, ordering, relationship and harmonization and it involves our three faculties. One word for this process of equilibration is attuning, with its connotations of both artistry and science. Perhaps we can say then, that we are

normally pulled between tension and relaxation, between yes and no, affirmation and

denial, stability and movement. And Gurdjieffs ideas and practices give us the opportunity to consciously attune ourselves.

One thing which a person will find if they persevere with the preparation, is that there is

relaxation not only in the body but also in the feeling and in thought. When this relaxation

reaches feeling, one acquires a new understanding of patience. Etymologically, it means

suffering something to be. These simple words hide something very large: to start with, it assumes an appreciation of what actually is, and it includes an affirming attitude, whatever

the consequences for myself. Of course, there are occasions when one must interfere with

things, or even stop harmful processes. This requires judgment: a function of all centres.

It is not so easy for the centres to work together: there are different tempos in different

centres. Our first thought, perhaps, would be to try and immediately change the diverse

tempos. However, they can be effectively and safely harmonized not by wrenching them

but indirectly, by including them each at the proper moment within my sphere of conscious

awareness, just as the blood moves at one rate, the breath at another, and so on. It is, I

think, better not to attempt to describe the different tempos. A person can experience them,

and the experience will be more reliable for not having been suggested.

Now, what does relaxation mean to us, in our experience? Each persons history is different, but many years ago, an old nun, in her immaculate grey and white habit, said to

me in Lebanese: dul mirtaah, stay relaxed. I received the impression of her kindness and I sensed something else within the words. I knew without thinking that these words meant

relax and yet, also more than that. Gurdjieff says that mentation by form is related to the inner content of a word. I could not have defined the inner content of that gentle nuns words, yet something with a feeling quality passed to me. When one looks up a Semitic word, one has to first identify the verbal root. For mirtah, the root is pronounced

rah and has a sense of to go away and to begin (a process). Perhaps its fundamental sense is to be engaged in movement.

The noun from this verb is ruh, and has the basic meaning of breath of life, soul, spirit, life. The t infix makes the verb intransitive. It means that the action of the verb takes place within the subject: rather than going away, the subject comes to himself; rather than

commencing an external process, the subject commences himself; and rather than blowing

upon something and so on.

In fact, etymologically, the noun mirtaah which we translate as relaxation, connotes breathing throughout oneself or breathing within oneself. It is a recognized hazard of translating Semitic languages that it is not really possible to coin a one word translation.

This made me think of Hebrew, because in the Hebrew Bible, the spirit of God which

moves upon the waters is the ruah, cognate to the Lebanese and the Arabic. In ancient

Hebrew, no word for relaxation is attested, but the word is found in modem Hebrew. One of the modem Hebrew words said to denote relaxation is based on the root nefesh. This is a word for self, soul, spirit, living thing, and hence in biblical Hebrew could be used to mean to revive. In Arabic this word, written as nafsu, has a similar range of meaning, often signifying self. Thus, while relax may mean to loosen again, to loosen further in English, the word is not an entirely adequate translation of mirtah. For people like ourselves, who tend to understand words according to mentation by words, it is an adequate translation. But, not only does mirtah mean breathing throughout oneself, to a sensitive person, it conveys, according to mentation by form, something over and above relax. It really connotes entering a new alignment of internal forces. It means new connections, allowing the breath, the spirit, to move and expand within oneself, bringing

about fresh relationships.

The reference to self is also significant: consider the meaning of the Self in Advaita.

But to return to our thesis: if one is to move in the direction of any aim, one must be able to

relax sufficiently to move from ones present position. And the higher the aim, the more that relaxation should tend towards breathing through oneself, in-spiriting oneself. Gurdjieff once said: All pleasures are merde. All pleasures make you a slave. mechanical pleasures destroy you. You are lost in them. They are all injurious, except for

giving oneself voluntary relaxation, necessary for an aim. In a meeting of 9 December 1946, Gurdjieff said that only conscious relaxation has value, that is, relaxation where the

head retains the role of policeman; otherwise, he said, it is weakness.

In terms of inner movement, relaxation is affirmation, and tension is refusal, as Jane Heap

indicated.

In the 1943 group meeting alluded to in an earlier blog, Gurdjieff gave some extraordinary

indications about relaxation and the muscles. Simply, Gurdjieff apparently taught them how

to relax large muscles, then to relax the muscles which depend on those, and finally the

smallest muscles, depending on those.

The question now is, will anyone see fit to pursue these indications? As Gurdjieff said in

that meeting: Relaxation is without end.