"THERE DO EXIST ENQUIRING MINDS, which long for the truth of the heart, seek it, strive to solve the problems set by life, try to penetrate to the essence of things and phenomena and to penetrate into themselves. If a man reasons and thinks soundly, no matter which path he follows in solving these problems, he must inevitably arrive back at himself, and begin with the solution of the problem of what he is himself and what his place is in the world around him. For without this knowledge, he will have no focal point in his search. Socrates’ words, “Know thyself” remain for all those who seek true knowledge and being."

VIEWS FROM THE REAL WORLD, BY by G.I. Gurdjieff, p 43

28 November 2009

The Gurdjieff Work: Regarding the 'ideas'.



"The ideas are a summons, a summons towards another world, a call from one who knows and who is able to show us the way. But the transformation of the human being requires something more. It can only be achieved if there is a real meeting between the conscious force which descends and the total commitment that answers it. This brings about a fusion.

A new life can then appear in a new set of conditions which only someone with an objective consciousness can create and develop.

But to understand this one must have passed through all the stages of this development oneself.

Without such experience and understanding the work will lose its effectiveness and the conditions will be wrongly interpreted; they will not be brought at the right moment and one will see situations and efforts remaining on the level of ordinary life and uselessly repeating themselves." ~  Madame Jeanne de Salzmann


To find a group near you ~ The Gurdjieff Foundation 


Grow
BE at Peace
BE Love
BE

26 November 2009

HAPPY THANKS ~ GIVING




Thank you dear God for this Experience
This living we are.
Thank you for this amazing World
And this Food,
   this wonderful, strange fruit.
And these incredibly diverse people,
Our people, Our family ~
    the good, the bad, the indifferent.
Without them
     no Love, no Growth.
And... Thank you for You,
Without you ~ only darkness lives.
Thank you for this amazing life Our Dear God
Our Sacred Beloved One.

Amen, Amen, and Amen.

BE Peace
BE Love

22 November 2009


Drawing of King Snake sleeping by the oak tree where he is captured - from "Lalo the Snake Catcher" 


'However great the teacher be, she is helpless with the one whose heart is closed.' ~ Unknown


Open your Heart
BE LOVE
BE

14 November 2009

TOO MUCH TALKING

There's a whole lot of talking going on.
Too  much talking.
They say yes, they say no.

Others concur,
They disagree.

Hugging
Fighting
Hugging
 
Yes, no, yes, no... maybe.

Bargaining.

A whole lot of talking,
In head brains,
In heart brains.
Too much talking.

Does anyone really hear anything?
Do you know what is really meant?

No...

Filters, filters, everywhere,
Nothing is under~stood.

Filters in the brains,
Filters on the Heart,

Brains on automatic pilot.

Can you hear your cells
Whispering deeper down?
There are the roots of desire.

Do you know how to listen?

Somewhere in those unseen places,
In that deep darkness,
Lives the truth of who you were,
Who you really are,

Who you can be.

There, lie the real gems and secrets,
The treasures you yearn for.

If only you could Hear
In purer states of being,
In true honesty.

Perhaps a wiggling free
From the

Ordinary
Mundane
Hamster wheel
existence

You mistake for living

Could begin,

Opening doors to

Freedom from that deadening mechanicality.

If only...


BE at Peace
BE PEACE
BE

11 November 2009




"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." ~ Dorothy



10 November 2009

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered.
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight.
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget by tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, it may never be enough,
But give the world the best you have any way.


You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God.
It never was between you and them anyway.


~ Mother Teresa

08 November 2009

Negativity & Emanations

"A person with a strong, active pain-body has a particular emanation that other people perceive as extremely unpleasant. When they meet such a person, some people will immediately want to remove themselves or reduce interaction with him or her to a minimum. They feel repulsed by the person's energy field. Others feel a wave of aggression toward this person, they will be rude or attack  him or her verbally and in some cases, even physically. This means there is something within them that resonates with the other person's pain body. What they react to so strongly is also in them. It is their own pain-body.

Not surprisingly, people with heavy and frequently active pain-bodies often find themselves in conflict situations. Sometimes, of course, they actually provoke them. But at other times, they may not actually do anything. The negativity they emanate is enough to attract hostility and generate conflict. It requires a high degree of Presence to avoid reacting when confronted by someone with such an active pain-body. If you are able to stay present, it sometimes happens that your Presence enables the other person to dis-identify from his or her own pain-body and thus experience the miracle of a sudden awakening. Although the awakening may be short-lived, the awakening process will have become initiated."

Breaking Identification With the Pain Body
Eckhardt Tolle
A New Earth Pages Ch:6: Pg:174

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"From my point of view, he can be called a remarkable man who stands out from those around him by the resourcefulness of his mind, and who knows how to be restrained in the manifestations which proceed from his nature, at the same time conducting himself justly and tolerantly towards the weaknesses of others." ~ G.I. Gurdjieff

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gurdjieff exhorts us repeatedly to study (observe) negativity in ourselves by not expressing negative emotions while being organically aware of the sensations in our bodies at the same time. By doing this we bring more of our Presence to the situation we find ourselves in. If we do not allow ourselves to express negative emotions while with others who have a strong pain-body, we begin to see how we are in reality. We all have what Tolle calls pain-bodies - many of them. Some are bigger and louder than others in us. Each of these has a story it tells itself over and over again. Depending on which way the wind blows or what you had for dinner, or whether you got you dollars worth, etc., one or the other of these stands at the forefront of you, pretending to be all of you, and meets the world entrenched in it's own story associating everything to it. It is identified with the story and identifies everything by it's story. It lives in illusion, and allowing it to continue on like that keeps you imprisoned in illusion.

There is an expression, "Fake it til you make it." This can be useful at the beginning, but you can only go so far by "faking it". At some point you must Be what you have been faking or drop the act, come hell or high water. Remember your aim. What do you really want? Who are you? Who do you really wish to Be?


Be at Peace
Be Love
BE

06 November 2009

Close Door Open Door Spin Spin Spin

I closed a door
and turned in Grace
First doubtful
Then full on conscious Faith
Spinning
I meet the Beloved
Dancing
Balanced
In
His Embrace

Be In Peace
Know You are Loved
BE

GOSSIP Revisited


I originally posted this topic on 2 September 2009 under the Title: Gossip.

I re-post it today as a reminder that, more often than not, what we say in gossip to our friends and neighbors does permanent harm to everyone concerned.

Gossip is manipulation.
Gossiping damages and halts  your progress and growth.
It can even end your inner work permanently.

Repairing this error is extremely difficult and many do not make it.

Worse yet, this lack of spiritual self control on your part also seriously damages the possibilities for the awakening of those you are gossiping to if they believe  your gossip.

Even if they do not - you have planted negative seeds, which feed their own stories and fears - making their journeys more difficult.

You alienate them from what could save them.

This is especially true when these people are just beginning to know for themselves that they sincerely wish for something higher.

Nothing created in negativity produces anything useful - except very hard lessons (if you can See and Hear) in what comes from intentionally directed negativity for your own selfish ends.


You banish yourself and your listener(s) to illusion.

You are stealing their opportunities to enter into a true spiritual realm of study.

... and giving in to your ego impulses to gossip takes from you what you have worked so hard to earn.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

From the Movie: Doubt  

After being accused of heinous acts, a priest, Father Brendan Flynn, tells the following story to his congregation:

"A man was gossiping with a friend about a man he hardly knew." Father Flynn looks into the eyes of the congregation sitting before him as he speaks, his intense gaze lingering on the faces of his two accusers. "I know none of you have ever done this." People squirm in their seats.

 Father Flynn continues: "That night he had a dream. A great hand appeared over him and pointed a finger down at him. He was immediately seized with an overwhelming sense of guilt. The next day he went to confession. He got the old parish priest and told him the whole thing."

"Is gossiping a sin?" he asked the old man. "Was that the hand of Almighty God pointing a finger at me? Should I be asking your absolution Father? Father, tell me, have I done something wrong?"

"Yes!", the old priest answered. "Yes! You ignorantly badly brought up man! You've born false witness against your neighbor! You played fast and loose with [her] reputation and you should be heartily ashamed!"


"The man said he was sorry and asked forgiveness."

"Not so fast," said the old priest. "I want you to go home, take a pillow off your bed, take it up to the roof, cut it open with a knife and return here to me."

"So, the man went home, took a pillow off his bed, got a knife from the kitchen, took them up to the roof, and stabbed and cut the pillow open. Then he went back to the priest and told him he'd done what he asked."

"Did you gut the pillow with a knife?" the old priest asked."

"Yes, Father."

"And what was the result?" he asked."

"Feathers." he replied."

"Feathers." the priest repeated nodding his head up and down, yes"

"Feathers everywhere, Father." the man said, not yet getting the point."

The priest then told him: " Now, I want you to go back and gather up every last feather that flew out on the wind."

"Well," said the man, "it can't be done, I don't know where they went. They flew all over"

"And that," said the priest, "is GOSSIP!!"
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

If you can take this story into your heart with the appropriate attitude, be you the one who gossips or the one who is "innocently" listening to the gossip, or both, live with it for awhile. You will come to truly understand what it means on a higher level through higher consciousness. If you do that sincerely and are honest with yourself before God, you will be freed from that which causes you to gossip. It is difficult, but the Freedom you earn is worth it in the end.

I once heard, when I was a very young gossip fiend, that gossip kills. As I delved deeper and deeper into inner work in the following years, I discovered it was a lawful truth. Gossip kills.

Know that I Love You,

BE At Peace

Do No more Harm to yourself or to others

EVERYTHING IS Sacred

BE

I AM