Fast Food

The search for a path through life

Illustration: One of the outtakes from the artworks created for the upcoming Situation Salad post from the Gardens of Purgatory series. I like this one, largely because its invocation of Mr. Gurdjieff has a certain bonhomie and presence, but I rejected it because it included another patron, which was inconsistent with the story line. Besides which, the illustration I did use for the last post better conveyed an air of intimate and empathic relationship between the young lady of refined sensibilities and Mr. Gurdjieff—an air of compassion.

The below essay, written the same day of August 7, was the original inspiration for that episode.

What matters in life is the quality and the character of one’s being.

The idea that the quality of life is bestowed by things is nearly absurd. Things only acquire any quality they may have in terms of how the human beings come into relationship with them; and if we’re selfish and greedy, things follow our selfishness and greediness. They don't have it on their own; it’s imparted to them by our character.

In this sense, all of the evil that we see and all of the evil that humans do is imparted by humans. If one follows evil men, one will get evil results. It's really that simple. It’s no use blaming God. It’s us.

The whole act of working on spiritual development, of attempting to better inhabit this vessel called life, consists of attempting to develop good character. Good character comes from proper alignment of one's molecules, an alignment of natural being with spiritual being. In most cases, with all of us, these two types of being aren’t at all correctly aligned with one another, and natural being twists itself all out of shape when it isn't in relationship with spiritual being— the only thing that can keep it properly aligned. This is why I so often speak of molecular sensation, which is attending to the fundamental property of spiritual being that can lead to inner alignment.