Maurice Nicoll: 12 Concise SuperWisdoms : #2

"It is necessary to catch fire. It is necessary to see we are in the presence of something real - yes, real, but finely made, and very gentle, very delicate, and beautiful."

~ Maurice Nicoll

Maurice Nicoll: 12 Concise SuperWisdoms

# 1) "Esoteric teaching is not an imaginary thing. It is the most real thing in the world - more real than a cheque, more real than a house, more real than another person."

BUY NOTHING DAY

I just learned of  Buy Nothing Day and thought it was such a good idea that I wanted to share it with you. Read my note at the end.

"Buy Nothing Day (BND) is an international day of protest against consumerism. Typically celebrated the Friday after American Thanksgiving in North America and the following day internationally, in 2011 the dates are November 25 and 26 respectively. It was founded in Vancouver by artist Ted Dave and subsequently promoted by Adbusters magazine, based in Canada.The first Buy Nothing Day was organized in Mexico in September 1992 "as a day for society to examine the issue of over-consumption."^[2] In 1997, it was moved to the Friday after American Thanksgiving, also called "Black Friday", which is one of the ten busiest shopping days in the USA. Outside North America and Israel, Buy Nothing Day is the following Saturday. Adbusters was denied advertising time by almost all major television networks except for CNN, which was the only one to air their ads.^[3] Soon, campaigns started appearing in the US, the UK, Israel, Austria, Germany, New Zealand, Japan, the Netherlands, France and Norway. Participation now includes more than 65 nations.^[2]"

Activities of Do Nothing Day Followers:

Various gatherings and forms of protest have been used on Buy Nothing Day to draw attention to the problem of over-consumption:

• Credit card cut up: Participants stand in a shopping mall, shopping center, or store with a pair of scissors and a poster that advertises help for people who want to put an end to mounting debt and extortionate interest rates with one simple cut.
• Free, non-commercial street parties
• Sit-ins
• Zombie Walk: Participant "zombies" wander around shopping malls or other consumer havens with a blank stare. When asked what they are doing participants describe Buy Nothing Day.
• Whirl-mart: Participants silently steer their shopping carts around a shopping mall or store in a long, baffling conga line without putting anything in the carts or actually making any purchases.
• Public protests
• Wildcat General Strike: A strategy used for the 2009 Buy Nothing Day where participants not only do not buy anything for twenty-four hours but also keep their lights, televisions, computers and other non-essential appliances turned off, their cars parked, and their phones turned off or unplugged from sunrise to sunset.^[1]
• Buy Nothing Day hike: Rather than celebrating consumerism by shopping, participants celebrate The Earth and nature.^[4]
• Buy Nothing Critical Mass: As the monthly Critical Mass bicycle ride often falls on this day or near, rides in some cities acknowledge and celebrate Buy Nothing Day.
• Buy Nothing Day paddle along the San Francisco waterfront. This event is promoted by the Bay Area Sea Kayakers to kayak along the notoriously consumptive San Francisco waterfront.
• The Winter Coat Exchanges that started in Rhode Island and now have locations in Rhode Island, Kentucky, Utah and Oregon in which coats are collected from anyone who wants to donate, and anyone who needs a winter coat is welcome to take one.

Alternatively one could buy local at small businesses, especially those that offer handmade items by the proprietor/artist/artisan - not just on one special day but every day.
;-) L. 

SUPPORT WIKIPEDIA

From Wikipedia programmer Brandon Harris

IMPRESSIONS

"All the substances necessary for the maintenance of the life of the organism, for psychic work, for the higher functions of consciousness and the growth of the higher bodies, are produced by the organism from the food which enters it from outside
"The human organism receives three kinds of food
1. The ordinary food we eat
2. The air we breathe
3. Our impressions
"It is not difficult to agree that air is a kind of food for the organism But in what way impressions can be food may appear at first difficult to understand We must however remember that, with every external impression, whether it takes the form of sound, or vision, or smell, we receive from outside a certain amount of energy, a certain number of vibrations, this energy which enters the organism from outside is food Moreover, as has been said before, energy cannot be transmitted without matter. If an external impression brings external energy with it into the organism it means that external matter also enters which feeds the organism in the full meaning of the term. ..."

from: In Search of the Miraculous, Chapter IX, pg 188 online version

"The Holidays" are a particularly interesting time to be aware of the impressions you are taking in from the world around you. Emotions are highly charged and highly conflicted. So many root buttons (memories) are being pushed and brought to the fore by external forces such as advertising, others expectations of us and their agendas as well as our own expectations of ourselves and others and our own internal agendas -- all too often unnoticed by any of us because we are all so thoroughly taken by it all. 

To stand in one's shoes and to 'see' more clearly the mechanics of these processes in ourselves and in others is a privilege, and a gift of the work, a gift from Gurdjieff and all those amazing masters who brought us ways to See and to Know so that we might BE - not sheep, but Men and Women. 

Take this opportunity this year to become more conscious, to know more about inner being. OCCUPY your body.


Remember yourself
Always and Everywhere. 

Gobble Gobble

Gurdjieff told this story shortly before his death. I often wonder if he is talking about himself as an old man with regrets.

It is an odd story as most of his stories are.

Gobble, gobble.

Inner Work: Relaxation

"Exercises in relaxing the muscles which we began to perform gave very interesting results to some of our company. Thus one of us was suddenly able to stop a bad neuralgic pain in his arm by relaxing his muscles. Then relaxation of the muscles had an immense significance in proper sleep and whoever did exercises in relaxation seriously very quickly noticed that his sleep became sounder and that he needed fewer hours of sleep." ~ P.D. Ouspenski, ISOM Ch 17

"You will see that in life you receive exactly what you give. ..."

"You will see that in life you receive exactly what you give. Your life is  the mirror of what you are. It is in your image. You are passive, blind,  demanding. You take all, you accept all, without feeling any obligation.  Your attitude toward the world and toward life is the attitude of one who  has the right to make demands and to take, who has no need to pay or to  earn. You believe that all things are your due, simply because it is you!  All your blindness is there! None of this strikes your attention. And yet  this is what keeps one world separate from another world."

~Mme Jeanne deSalzmann

***NEW: QUESTIONS

A new page for your questions.

What is your "burning question" of the day?

Are You Aware of Yourself In Movement?

Gurdjieff Movements demonstration, NY 1924

It was often noted that Gurdjieff moved like a cat. What was the significance of this observation? Can we know it in ourselves? 

Every day, from the moment we rise from bed to the moment we close our eyes to go to sleep we are in movement ~ and we are in movement in our sleep ~ internally and externally.

Do we know this every moment of every day ~ are we aware of ourselves like cats are?