Staying in front of the unknown does not mean discarding all memory and imagination. It means, at least in part, dis-identifying with memory and imagination, which contains my ignorance and illusions about myself. This idea of trying to enter and stay in the unknown has been taken to the other extreme. ALL of it must be INCLUDED - the slices of time that we erroneously regard as total reality (in the "moment") AND eternity, which is Actuality. Otherwise, it's just self-annihilation. Where is Gurdjieff's Individuality? Real I? You guys are, as the title says, stumbling around, almost celebrating "not knowing," when we have the forms given to us by Gurdjieff. We CAN know - to a limited degree, granted, but I CAN KNOW certain things, one particle at a time - one photon at a time, to draw upon Lee's ideas about the solar identity. And, as you touched upon at one point, it's a RECIPROCAL knowing. When I being to see myself, God begins to see me, through his eyes, as Ibn 'Arabi once said. Sure, the negotiator is ready to hijack all my efforts and turn it into a badge of honour. But I should not throw the baby out with the bath water. I cannot escape form. Even God cannot escape form. The non-dualists (that Madame increasingly lauded and that has increasingly become the "new work) are trying to dismantle Creation and live in a one-sided, imaginary state of "not knowing" - wanting to enter the "void" - which, from one perspective, is an emotionally immature and intellectually disconnected desire to go back into the Cosmic Womb. Instead, what is the larger picture of my form? Beyond slices of time? Beyond memory and imagination? But INCLUDING memory and imagination - a larger Truth, and larger Reality? For this, something needs to be created in me - self-created, according to my Design as a three-brained being - an intermediate Man that stands between the duality of my usual "self"/"selves" and a higher unity. Why did Gurdjieff emphasise higher being bodies? These are higher FORMS. Form without spirit is dead, of course. But spirit without form is expressionless. What did all the founders of the great religions say before these religions descended in distortion? In the beginning, "O that I had a Self." God did not say, "I wish not to exist." God was not, is not, a nihilist. Why then would we aspire to being nihilists? Gurdjieff once said, behind Real I lies God. Without Real I, there is nothing in me that can approach higher Truth. I remain an unknowing intersection of forces. First I need to BE. Not try to dissolve into the "unknown." Certainly I must stand before everything I do not know without turning away - staying in question. But that's only half the picture, not the whole box and dice. Lots more to the discussion, of course. But a few thoughts this rainy morning...
Staying in front of the unknown does not mean discarding all memory and imagination. It means, at least in part, dis-identifying with memory and imagination, which contains my ignorance and illusions about myself. This idea of trying to enter and stay in the unknown has been taken to the other extreme. ALL of it must be INCLUDED - the slices of time that we erroneously regard as total reality (in the "moment") AND eternity, which is Actuality. Otherwise, it's just self-annihilation. Where is Gurdjieff's Individuality? Real I? You guys are, as the title says, stumbling around, almost celebrating "not knowing," when we have the forms given to us by Gurdjieff. We CAN know - to a limited degree, granted, but I CAN KNOW certain things, one particle at a time - one photon at a time, to draw upon Lee's ideas about the solar identity. And, as you touched upon at one point, it's a RECIPROCAL knowing. When I being to see myself, God begins to see me, through his eyes, as Ibn 'Arabi once said. Sure, the negotiator is ready to hijack all my efforts and turn it into a badge of honour. But I should not throw the baby out with the bath water. I cannot escape form. Even God cannot escape form. The non-dualists (that Madame increasingly lauded and that has increasingly become the "new work) are trying to dismantle Creation and live in a one-sided, imaginary state of "not knowing" - wanting to enter the "void" - which, from one perspective, is an emotionally immature and intellectually disconnected desire to go back into the Cosmic Womb. Instead, what is the larger picture of my form? Beyond slices of time? Beyond memory and imagination? But INCLUDING memory and imagination - a larger Truth, and larger Reality? For this, something needs to be created in me - self-created, according to my Design as a three-brained being - an intermediate Man that stands between the duality of my usual "self"/"selves" and a higher unity. Why did Gurdjieff emphasise higher being bodies? These are higher FORMS. Form without spirit is dead, of course. But spirit without form is expressionless. What did all the founders of the great religions say before these religions descended in distortion? In the beginning, "O that I had a Self." God did not say, "I wish not to exist." God was not, is not, a nihilist. Why then would we aspire to being nihilists? Gurdjieff once said, behind Real I lies God. Without Real I, there is nothing in me that can approach higher Truth. I remain an unknowing intersection of forces. First I need to BE. Not try to dissolve into the "unknown." Certainly I must stand before everything I do not know without turning away - staying in question. But that's only half the picture, not the whole box and dice. Lots more to the discussion, of course. But a few thoughts this rainy morning...