Becoming Entirely Human, Part III: Going to the Dogs

Photo: Flaubert

The cynics were interested in what is true.

Gurdjieff certainly owed more than a bit to them; after all, the very name itself means "dog" (from the Greek kunikos) and evokes the image of a lower creature gnawing a bone—which, if you will, represents the fundamental structural nature of things — with determination. In Zen, the tradition is for the master to go through four stages of awareness, the flesh, the blood, the bone, and the marrow. The dog who gnaws the bone, in this sense, the cynic, is the master who has evolved to the point where they are trying to get to the marrow, the heart of things. And anyone who has been exposed to the Gurdjieff tradition is aware of his famous adage about what he said about the hidden meanings in Beelzebubs Tales: “bury bone deeper.”