Seeds of Ideas

Language IS Technology!

2011-04-24T07:23:00.001-07:00

I hear people on the media complaining about how technology is changing our lives and distancing us from each other. They have a point, at least 100,000 years late, because without language our experience of the primordial, God, is greater. But language is what allows us to express our humanity beyond the range of touch and the present moment.

I have acquaintances who I've mentioned this idea to. One, a software executive, says she means technology in terms of physical machines and software. Another, a spiritual teacher, who is worried about technology in the sense of automated machinery. Technology, language, is so much a part of us that we no longer notice it. I have heard people say "Well of course that is obvious, but not what I mean."

I want to use technology/language, not let it use me. I try to hold primordial awareness simultaneously with the use of language.

This is not a new idea:

"The map is not the territory." -- Alfred Korzybksi;

"Language is the house of being." -- Martin Heidegger;

"[Human] Consciousness is conceptual" -- Ayn Rand;

"Remember yourself always and everywhere." -- G. I. Gurdjieff;

"And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field;" -- King James Bible

Caution: Language allows of mechanizing the mind when the user becomes identified with its abstractions (words and symbols). This may result in feelings of sadness, isolation, thoughts of suicide and other non-functional behaviors.

Writing is thinking, at least conceptual thinking.

2011-03-27T10:19:00.001-07:00

I started my blogging with the desire to clarify my thoughts. Over time I drifted off course (law of Seven).

I became identified with the remarks of associates about the content of my blog and requests to post items to promote their goals (suggestibility). The blog was no longer a tool for clarifying my own thoughts, and occasionally feelings. I believed that I could still blog in the face of the feeling of resentment -- interesting, I'm ashamed to admit that I wasn't conscious of that feeling or the accompanying belief until just now, but it is clearly recorded in my memories (kundabuffer).

This is the pain of self-observation. (I hesitate to say "remorse of conscience.")

The Moral Challenge of Advanced Technology

2011-03-27T10:04:00.001-07:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/a-quarter-of-us-nuclear-plants-not-reporting-equipment-defects-report-finds/2011/03/24/ABHYa2RB_story.html?hpid=z2

I'm not surprised. And if the 28% that were "confused" were honest with themselves they woul know they are lying.

Admiral Rickover said words to the effect that a higher level of technology demands a higher level of morality.

We are seeing the weaknesses of human nature in action, the ability to deceive one's self to preserve one's own self-love and vanity. Living in imagination -- kundabuffer.

"Sucker Punch," Great Movie!

2011-03-27T09:32:00.001-07:00

The movie "Sucker Punch" is excellent! I took a chance on going to see it expecting something like Saturday morning children's cartoons. The story goes way beyond the trailers into the depths of human nature and friendship. It was well worth the time and money to see. It is worth watching again. Don't let the trailers of fantasy action confuse you into thinking that this is just kid's stuff. I don't want to take a chance on spoiling it, so I won't say anymore.

Running Barefoot

2011-03-12T18:07:00.001-08:00

http://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_mcdougall_are_we_born_to_run.html

Outline of "From The Author" by G. I. Gurdjieff

2011-01-12T10:34:00.001-08:00

Beginning

Three Tasks

First series - to destroy in people everything which, in their false representations, as it were, exists in reality, or in other words "to corrode without mercy all the rubbish accumulated during the ages of human mentation.
Second series - to prepare so to say "new constructional material"
Third series - to build a new world.

"logical fusion" of beginning with conclusion

definite decision was made to append a series of lectures, motivated by love of kind
"The sensing of the flow of time is directly proportional to the quantity and quality of ones thought."
situation

body injured but spirit not in the least depressed, its power intensified by excitation before the accident.

my repeated disappointment in people.
disappointment in [my] ideals thanks to the commandment "the highest aim and sense of human life is the striving to attain the welfare of one's neighbor, ... only possible by the conscious renunciation of one's own."

closed the Institute

declared closed, completely and forever
inexpressible grief and despondency

planned for 18 sections in other countries
without real people around me who could not procure material means without me, only catastrophe resulting in "vegetation" is possible.

first lecture was read more than once by my "pupils of first rank" during the existence of the Institute.

some became HASNAMUSSIN after my accident, deserting the common work, opened their own shop with crumbs from my table. Creating candidates for lunatic asylums.

Lecture #1

appended because it is the threshold to series of other lectures
"THE VARIETY, ACCORDING TO LAW, OF THE MANIFESTATIONS OF HUMAN INDIVIDUALITY"

Man consists of 4 definite distinct personalities.

according to scientific research of history
according to Mr. Gurdjieff's system at the Institute

due to laws and conditions
heredity and surroundings
respond as a man and not merely as an animal

First personality - "conscious" or "mentation"

sum of impressions previously received from surrounding reality, everything intentionally, artificially implanted, "day dreaming"

Second personality –

sum of data from the 6 sense organs,
depends upon heredity, circumstances

Third personality -

prime function of organism
"motor-reflex-reciprocally-affecting-manifestations-proceding-in-it"
depends upon heredity, circumstances

Fourth personality - Totality of the previous three personalities is "I"

Each personality has a "gravity-center-localization"
Each requires its own education, but this doesn't happen in our times.
If each is educated then "I" can be "I."

All four parts, correspondingly developed, can harmonize.
Metaphor – passenger, cabby, carriage, horse.

Real I is owner of carriage. "I" of average man is changing passengers.
Contemporary situation is a neglected system
Cabby - mentation

Limited education, 3 R's
"The crows he raced but by peacocks outpaced"
Argues with equals, teaches inferiors, servile to superiors
Chief weakness is dangle after cookes and housemaids.
Have a couple of drinks and daydream his time away.
Works under lash or for tips.
Learned to flatter people for types
Tries to appear imposing

Horse - "The totality of the manifestation of the feeling-localization in a man."

Due to negligence and solitude

"inner life" is driven inside
For external manifestations, nothing but inertia.

Not education, only abuse.
No love, so it surrenders completely to slightest caress.
Consequently

Deprived of aspirations
Inclined to food, drink, and sex
Acts inertly from fear of beatings

Cart – body

Designed to carry all kinds of burdens
Designed to travel the byways, not smooth roads.

Example: greasing system works by bumps and jolts. Hence fails on smooth roads.
Cabby ignorant of need for grease or if he does grease it is by hear say from who ever happens by.

Summary of cart/horse/cabby metaphor

This modern man, no education of his separate parts, hence confused and ludicrous.
Example:

Latest model coach from Barmen, Germany
"Dglozidzi" (utterly worthless) horse
Unkempt, sleepy cabby in worthless coat, shiny new hat, chrysanthemum on lapel

Therefore, at the period of his responsible existence for pursuing a single aim, … having never been trained to the requisite automatic:

reciprocal maintenance
reciprocal assistance
reciprocal understanding

When "concerted manifestations are required, they do not appear, due to "education."
Cabby has a limited ability to explain his desires to others like him and barely able to understand others.

Learns various forms of amiability
Learns one street from another

Horse has no "education" so some possibilities are not atrophied.

Grows up and ignored, abused orphan
Ignorant of the forms of reciprocal relationship that the cabby has.
Possible for the horse to learn a relationship with the cabby, but the cabby does not know or suspect this.

Connections

Shaft connects cart to horse, blood.
Reins connect cabby to horse, Hanbledzion

Hanblezion arises in the common presence of a man from all intentionally made being efforts.
Cabby has no effect whatsoever on his horse, except for 3 ideas; right, left, stop.
Reins are unreliable due to atmospheric effects.
Like in average man, thoughts lose all possibility of affecting his feelings organization.

Conclusion – Strive to have own "I" is the fundamental task of the Institute, built on:

Education of the three personalities
Fostering the "I" in each student.

Definition: "Man is a being who can do, and 'to do' means to act consciously and by one's own initiative."

Today's man

The Institute experimentally proves that there is nothing a contemporary man does. "… everything does itself in him and through him, …"
Consistent with the view of modern science
"Man is a … transmitting station of forces."
"… will is exclusively only the resultant of desires [in average man]"
Example of day in the life of average man.

"Your life is a bed of roses." "A clever man … a model of culture."

Wake up under the impressions of some oppressive dream

Crack mirror
Annoyance
Cannot stand the servant in the house.

Go for a walk

Sunshine somewhat calms you.
Unconscious man on pavement, ambulance
Associations lead to meringue

Have meringue in café with coffee

Charming blonde notices you
Change of mood

Return home humming

Broken mirror elicits smile
Forgotten business of the walk, use the phone instead

Wrong number, wrong again and again

Upset
Trip on rug
Rebuke servant bringing you a letter

Letter of compliments to you. Now happiest mood.

So what kind of self-initiated, i.e. willed, manifestation doe we see?

Acme of creation … comes into the world a clean sheet of paper.

"… which immediately all around him begin vying with each other to dirty and fill up with education, morality, the information we call knowledge, and with all kind of feelings of duty, honor, conscience and so on and so forth."
"… the dirtier it [the sheet of paper] becomes … the 'cleverer' and worthier is he considered by those around him" … i.e. talented.
"And the temper of our 'talent' when it wakes up in the morning, is spoiled for the whole day if it does not find its slippers beside the bed."
"The ordinary man is not free in his manifestations, in his life, in his moods."
"He cannot be what he would like to be; and what he considers himself to be, he is not that."
"… man should be the acme of creation … has … all possibilities for acquiring all the data exactly similar to the data in the ACTUALIZER OF EVERYTING EXISTING in the Whole of the Universe"

How to be a man

… desire from thought, feeling, and organic instinct
… work on an all around knowledge of oneself.
Strive for eradication of one's weaknesses without mercy toward oneself

Study of mechanicality

Think deeply from every aspect, impartially to fully appreciate mechanicality, its consequences, results for:

His life
Justification of the sense and aim of his arising and existence

Correctly conducted self observation

Prerequisites

Sincerity with oneself
"language"

Consequences

Robbed of all the pleasant "values dear to his heart" [false values]
Grasp his powerlessness and helplessness
Sees that .. life is a blind reaction to attractions and repulsions
See how his persona was formed

"language" words are perceived "elastically"

Due to education by rote

Loss of all capacity to ponder and reflect in talking and listening
Unconsciously gives words his own subjective meaning
"cacophonous-fantastic-nonsense"

Result is isolation of inner life increases and the "mutual instructions" necessary to people's collective existence is destroyed.
Example "world" each person brings their own meaning:

Astronomy – stars, galaxies, etc.
Physics – atoms, electrons, light, etc.
Philosophy – how do I know it exists?
Polydimensional spaces – a slice of a higher dimensional world
Religion – heaven , hell, etc.
Spiritism - spirits, forces, …
Theosophy – interpenetrating worlds

Psychic inner life of the average man

Nothing but "automatized contact" of 2 or 3 series of associations…
"All the particularities of the world view of the ordinary man and the characteristic features of his individuality ensue, and depend on :

The sequence of the impulses proceeding in him at the moment of the perception of his impressions
The automatism established for the arising of the process of repetition of these impressions.
Several associations having nothing in common that simultaneously flow through him.

Recordings of impressions perceived via three apparatus act as perceivers fo all seven "planetary-gravity-centered-vibrations."

Record all impressions from first days of life.
Automatically acting adaptively

New impressions recorded alongside previous similar impressions
New impressions recorded alongside impressions perceived simultaneously with the latter [previous similar impressions ]
Hence, every impression inscribed in several places as several reels, preserved unchanged.

Recordings "source themselves" if in contact with homogeneous vibrations of the same quality.
Hence, "memory" of average man is a thin slice of experience
Memory of a real man keeps tack of all impressions without exception.

An addition has been made as my "concluding chord" to make it possible for the reader ... to assimilate this truth... as befits a being who claims to be an "image of God" [this reminds me of Chapter 47's ending, constant awareness of one's death.]
The Addition – "Average man – an unconscious slave … may live … as his and … be destroyed forever." "Great Nature has given him the possibility … of working for his own "egoistic individuality." "… For equilibrium of objective laws, such relatively liberated people are necessary."

Chief difficulty in the way

Eradication of Kundabuffer's consequences
Predisposition to the consequences which may arise again by the law of "the assimilation of the results of oft –repeated acts"

Man's death

Can a man really picture to himself … his own death?
Kundabuffer's consequences prevent it
Example of fear of mouse, but no fear of death
"childish experiencing"

Sustains life's action [for Great Nature]
Precludes sensing reality

In the face of death, why live and act, suffer?
Due to decrease in quality of vibrations Grat Nature needs a greater quantity, hence Kundabuffer to prevent us from seeing the terror of our situation.

"man" and real man are equally slaves to Great Nature but real man is conscious and acquires the possibility of applying part of his manifestations for "imperishable being."
Two Rivers

Life of a man is a drop of water in a river
The river divides in two

One to ocean of life
One to crevice of death

Dividing of river corresponds to reaching adulthood.

A drop of water with "struggle of one's own self-denial" attains a single "I", enters river of life.
Others enter river of death

Ocean of life has "reciprocal exchange of vibrations between various great cosmic concentrations."

"Pokhdalissdjancha"
Aka "cyclone"
Drop may evolve to next higher level of concentration.

For contemporary people, chiefly due to "education" acquires presence corresponding to rivers of death.

"It is not yet too late."

Possible to acquire a kernel of their own "I" even after responsible age.
Possibility to cross to another stream, the 1^st liberation of man

Must have a constant unquenchable desire for the crossing
Long preparation
Become dead to ordinary life – renounce "blessings"
"without death no resurrection"

Summing up - 2 categories of contemporary people with nothing in common innerly:

Consequences of Kundabuffer increase in intensity
Misunderstandings, disagreements, … due to "the –reflecting-of-reality-in-ones-attention-upside-down"

Example, even average man can see how a fly becomes an elephant and vice versa in our presence
Intensification of war
Mass psychosis – manifest themselves completely automatically.
Conscience ceases.

Great Nature no longer needs "mass psychosis"

Master - Division of the river has been happening since the time of "Tikliamishian civilization" before Babylon.

Organization of society into master and slaves is unworthy of man.
Compromise – certain people consciously set chief aim to become masters in the objective sense of devout acts toward those around them … acquire that something which constrains others to bow and carry out his orders.

Ending – Conclusion

Old Calvados

Rest for one month
"old Calvados" 27 bottles buried by monks in cellar
Gives me the possibility of tolerating without suffering the beasts similar to myself around me, …

Publication of three series of my work

First – general access to public
Second – access via public readings
Third – for hearers of 2^nd series, selected by specially prepared people according to my instructions.

"As regards the second and third series",… one of my fundamental tasks to prove…" there is no "other world" with its famous and so beautiful" paradise" and its so repugnant" hell", but that all should know "that Hell and Paradise do indeed exist, but only not there "in another world" but here beside us on Earth".

Rules to Live By!

2010-11-17T17:24:00.000-08:00

Rule #1: Never do anything you can teach a computer to do for you.

Rule #2: If you've repeated the exact same keystrokes more than 3 times, you're probably doing it wrong.

Rule #3: It is always best if you can be smart one time. The effort put into writing a program to solve a problem is never wasted.

by Dragineez

Experiencing Another's Song ...

2010-09-10T12:06:00.001-07:00

I shared office space with a guy who would break out into quiet song for a few bars at random times during the day. I knew that he did this even when he was working to meet urgent deadlines. It drove me nuts. I took it as an opportunity to "... be restrained in the manifestations which proceed from [my] nature, at the same time conducting [my]self justly and tolerantly toward the weaknesses of others." G.I. Gurdjieff, Meetings With Remarkable Men, (end of Introduction).

One of the things this man was working on in his personal time was preparing for a marathon.

During the same summer, inspired by some notes from my daughter's blog about barefoot running, I resumed running distances. One morning in July I pushed my body unusually hard to make my goal of a certain distance before I went on vacation. When I was at work that day I felt the impulse to break into song for a few bars, just like my office mate does.

This surprised me. Then I recalled a period in my life when I would work out very hard in the morning before going to my daily job. I had the same sense back then. It was as if, after the challenges that I had already put my self through early in the morning, nothing could alter my light hearted mood, or get me particularly excited, anxious or worried. I could go to my job be challenged by an unplanned shifting of the clients priorities, or even lose the contract and it would be nothing compared to what I had already put myself through that morning.

The random song from my office mate not longer irritated me. So did I lose an opportunity to "work?"

Visit the Brooklyn Book Festival

2010-08-26T03:03:00.001-07:00

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

A Woman's Work with Gurdjieff, Ramana Maharshi, Krishnamurti, Anandamayi Ma & Pak Subuh: The Spiritual Life Journey of Ethel Merston

2010-08-11T17:00:00.000-07:00

A Woman's Work

Jean Vayasse (1917-1975), Gurdjieffian!

2010-08-11T16:37:00.000-07:00

Jean Vayasse (1917-1975)

Jean Vayasse was born in Le Mans, France. Very little has been written about Jean Vayasse outside of his medical accomplishments and brief mentions of him in conversations of the Fourth Way. In ordinary life Jean Vaysse participated during the 1950s and 1960s in the great discoveries of modern surgery: renal grafts, cardiopulmonary bypasses, and surgery for arterial hypertension.

"His quest to understand the meaning of life brought him in 1947 to an encounter with the teaching of Gurdjieff. Working in the groups in Paris and later helping to lead them through the 1960s, Jean Vaysse felt the time had come to express Gurdjieff's written teaching in a more coherent and logical way in order to bring it within the range of the average educated reader."

"Jean Vaysse was a long time pupil of Jeanne de Salzmann."

He is well known for writing Toward Awakening: An Approach to the Teaching Left by Gurdjieff. Some quotes from his book:

Page 35, "We live in self-forgetfulness, and it all happens without leaving any trace. Life lives itself, but there is no 'fruit' for the one who lives it."

Page 41, "But a real feeling would be something quite different. We live with nothing but automatic emotional reactions, feelings that follow each other in rapid succession at each instant of our lives and cause something in each circumstance to please us or displease us, attract us or repel us."

Page 42,"Thus the struggle against automatic habits established in each of our centers can be a support for the early stages of self-observation, just as later another kind of struggle -- of oneself with oneself (between two aspects of my nature) -- will be necessary to serve as a basis for the appearance of a 'presence,' and later still the struggle between the yes and the no (that is between these two natures) will be necessary for spiritualization."

Page 79, "In my ordinary state, I have no true feelings, I have only automatic emotions, the emotions of reaction, depending entirely on which personage is present."

Page 80, "The emotional center becomes capable of real feeling only when a stable presence, relatively independent of surrounding circumstances has been developed... The feeling of self that accompanies awakening to oneself is the first real feeling that human beings can have;..."

Page 90, "... the sensation of ourselves is there or it is not there, depending on whether we are turned toward ourselves or attracted outside, and this is why it can be considered one of the best tests for verifying the reality of efforts toward self-awareness."

Page 92, "And above all, as I become more able to see myself, the inadequacies and failures that I record no longer arouse regret and resolutions or impulses 'to correct myself,' but bring instead the true 'subjective' feeling of remorse of conscience."

Page 98, "When the emotional center works for another center, it brings with it its sensitivity, its speed, its intensity and above all, an egocentric quality that gives it away more than another sign does. When it works instead of the intellectual center it produces nervousness, feverish and unnecessary haste, exactly where, on the contrary, calm judgement and deliberation are called for. When it works instead for the moving center, it produces impulsiveness and a tendency to be carried away rather than making the right movement. In the place of the instinctive enter, it produces exaggerated effect and too much or too little activity."

Page 99, "The intellectual center is neither capable of substituting for the moving center nor of controlling movements-- sensation does not exist for it, sensation is a dead thing for which it substitutes visualization."

Seminar: The Primordial Actualization & Exploration

2010-08-10T18:33:00.001-07:00

Seminar

The Primordial
Actualization & Exploration

Friday, September 3 to Monday, September 6, 2010
San Juan Bautista, California
(1 hour from San Jose Airport)

Through guided meditation, Conscious Body-Breath Impressions™, dialogue and private interviews, William Patrick Patterson explores the theme. Open to all levels of simplicity. No previous experience necessary. This will be the last open seminar. Future seminars will be limited to direct students and those participating in The Gurdjieff Studies Program.

Because space is limited and past seminars have filled quickly, please make your reservation early. The total cost of tuition, lodging (double occupancy) and meals is $575 with reservations received by August 15, 2010. Afterward, the cost is $675. Space is reserved with a deposit of $300.

To reserve a place, send your deposit by mail or reserve electronically below. There is a small surcharge when using the latter.

To reserve a place by mail, send a check made out to Arete Communications to the following address:

Arete Communications
773 Center Boulevard #58
Fairfax, CA 94978-0058

If you have questions, email us at: Introduction@Gurdjieff-Legacy.Org or call (800) 470-3086

Emotion and Blood

2010-07-25T14:05:00.000-07:00

Back in 1997 I read a fascinating book by Candace Pert, "Molecules of Emotion" that discussed her research into the subject. Evidently it was good science and her colleges later received formal recognition for the discovery of the "opiate receptor."

Connection of body to emotion by blood? What do you think?

The Help, review

2010-07-20T18:58:00.000-07:00

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

This was an excellent introduction to the world of women in the south during the 60's and before. The NPR interview did not do it justice. It is much better than I expected.

View all my reviews >>

Frank Lloyd Wright, Gurdjieff, Louis Sullivan, Ayn Rand?

2010-06-13T18:01:00.001-07:00

Wright, Frank Lloyd (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959)

Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin. He was a famous architect and author about architecture and society.

He first encountered Gurdjieff was via his wife, Ogivanna. Olgivanna Hinzenberg, one of Gurdjieff's pupils from 1919 to 1924, married Wright. Gurdjieff and Wright first met in June of 1934 at Taliesin in southern Wisconsin. (1.) Gurdjieff visited Taliesin in Wisconsin for 24 hours during his visit to Chicago in 1934. (2.) Gurdjieff and Wright met several times during the 30's and 40's. (4.) Solita Solana wrote about Frank Lloyd Wright having dinner with Gurdjieff and his students prior to May 30, 1937.

Frank Lloyd Wright's role in the Work was that he supported his wife, Olgivanna in teaching the Work at Taliesin. (4.) Frank and Olgivanna formed the Taliesin Fellowship in 1932. "It was a community that provided architectural training with a holistic, "learn by doing" approach that stressed appreciation of all the arts, ..." (5.) Olgivanna continued the Taliesin Fellowship after Wright's death, up until her own death on March 1, 1985. (3. pg 15)

Gurdjieff International Review,

Gurdjeef at Taliesin

By Frank Lloyd Wright

This newspaper article [by Frank Lloyd Wright] was published in the Capitol Times (Madison, Wisconsin) on Sunday, August 26, 1934.

http://www.gurdjieff.org/wright1.htm

Featured: Fall 2004 Issue, Vol. VIII (1)

Revision: November 1, 2004

2. Gurdjieff International Review,

No Harem

Gurdjieff and the Women of The Rope

by Rob Baker

http://www.gurdjieff.org/rope.htm

Featured: Winter 1997/1998 Issue, Vol. I (2)

Revision: April 1, 2000

Frank Lloyd Wright: a biography By Meryle Secrest

ISBN: 9780226744148 Published May 1998

University of Chicago Press

JSTOR: The Wisconsin Magazine of History, Vol. 58, No. 2 (Winter, 1974-1975), pp. 126-139

http://www.jstor.org/pss/4634942

Organic Living:

Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin Fellowhip

and Georgi Gurdjieff's Institute for the

Harmonious Development of Man

http://www.taliesinpreservation.org/

Retrospective

2010-05-02T17:50:00.000-07:00

I looked over my blogging history last winter. Some of the things I wrote years ago seemed so inane that I removed some of them, left others, but the result is that I don't have the desire to blog that I started out with. And if I do blog, I prefer to quote material rather than paraphrase it, or talk about my interpretation. I can still keep posting seeds of ideas that may be of value to me later.

I haven't entered a single conversation between Ayn Rand's cat and Gurdjieff's dog. They have been talking about the goal of man's existence recently. Is my failure to blog about this over the last 5 years an example starting out with an intention and finding it reversing itself?

Being Observed?

2010-04-06T10:51:00.000-07:00

Today I discovered that I have a "follower." This follower appears authentic in the sense that is does not seem to be computer generated.

The feeling of having a follower of this blog stimulates a different sense of what I may write. I had been writing for two people, myself, and web-crawlers. Now I wonder, what would I write for anyone else?

I'll let this cook in my "subconscious" for a while, ponder it.

Fourth Way Seminar in September 2010

2010-04-06T10:34:00.001-07:00

Seminar

Theme to be Announced

Friday, September 3 to Monday, September 6, 2010
San Juan Bautista, California
(1 hour from San Jose Airport)

To reserve a place, send your deposit by mail or reserve electronically below. There is a small surcharge when using the latter.

To reserve a place by mail, send a check made out to Arete Communications to the following address:

Arete Communications
773 Center Boulevard #58
Fairfax, CA 94978-0058

If you have questions, email us at: Introduction@Gurdjieff-Legacy.Org or call (800) 470-3086

The Five Being Obligolnian Strivings of Ashiata Shiemash

2010-03-23T15:55:00.000-07:00

The Five Being Obligolnian Strivings of Ashiata Shiemash (All and Everything by G.I. Gurdjieff, page 385.)

And this took place as follows: "All the beings of that planet then began to work in order to have in their consciousness this divine function of genuine Conscience, and for this purpose, as everywhere in the Universe, they transubstantiated in themselves what are called the 'being-obligolnian strivings' of which there are five, namely:

First Striving: "To have in their ordinary being-existence everything satisfying and really necessary for their planetary body."

Second Striving: "To have a constant and unflagging instinctive need for self-perfection in the sense of being."

Third Striving: "The conscious striving to know ever more and more concerning the laws of World-creation and World-maintenance."

Fourth Striving: "The striving from the beginning of their existence to pay for their arising and their individuality as quickly possible, in order afterwards to be free to lighten as much as possible the Sorrow of our Common Father."

Fifth Striving: "The striving always to assist the most rapid perfecting of other beings, both those similar to oneself and those of other forms, up to the degree of the sacred Martfotai, that is, up to the degree of self-individuality."

Jean Vaysse, Student of the Gurdfieff Teaching

2010-03-19T15:07:00.001-07:00

Vayasse, Jean (1917-1975) was born in Le Mans, France (1). In his ordinary life Jean Vaysse participated during the 1950s et '60s in the great discoveries of modern surgery: renal grafts, cardiopulmonary bypasses, and surgery for arterial hypertension. (2) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11255978

"Working in the groups in Paris and later helping to lead them through the 1960s, Jean Vaysse felt the time had come to express Gurdjieff's written teaching in a more coherent and logical way in order to bring it within the range of the average educated reader." (1) He wrote "Toward Awakening: An Approach to the Teaching Left by Gurdjieff."

Jean Vaysse helped produce the film documentary:

Georges Gurdjieff

A Documentary Film

Produced by Jean-Claude Lubtchansky

(4) http://www.gurdjieff.org/lubtchansky1.htm

Jean Vaysse is best known for his book,

Toward Awakening: An Approach to the Teaching Left by Gurdjieff (1979) San Francisco: Harper & Row, ISBN 1-85063-115-8

Very little has been written about Jean Vaysse outside of his medical accomplishments and brief mentions of him in conversations of the Fourth Way.

References:

(1) Toward Awakening: An Approach to the Teaching Brought by Gurdjieff by Jean Vaysse (Hardcover - Mar. 17, 2009) ISBN: 978 1 59675 030 2 , page 159

(2) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11255978

(3) http://gurdjieff.org.au/resources.html

(4) http://www.gurdjieff.org/lubtchansky1.htm

Kathryn Hulme (July 6, 1900 - August 25, 1981) was born in San Francisco

2010-03-19T15:04:00.001-07:00

Kathryn Hulme (July 6, 1900 - August 25, 1981) was born in San Francisco. She survived the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. (1) She died in Kauai. (2) She is best known for her book The Nun's Story that was later made into a movie starring Audrey Hepburn. Kathryn said that "Between the lines of that biography is the story of my own years of inner struggle with the 'Gurdjieffian' work aim." (3) Her book Undiscovered Country includes descriptions of her association with Gurdjieff, his students and his Work.

Kathryn Hulme started studying the ideas of Gurdjieff with Jane Heap in 1931. She first met Gurdjieff in Paris February 1932. She recognized him in the Café de la Paix from the descriptions that she had heard of him from Jane Heap. She introduced herself to him. (4) She spent several months pursuing him to teach her. When Jane Heap left for London on October 18^th, Kathryn went straight to the Café de la Paix and entreated Gurdjieff to take her as a student. Gurdjieff nicknamed her Crocodile on the evening of October 18^th, 1935. (5) Kathryn and her friends became a unique group of women studying with Gurdjieff. They were called "The Rope." She met routinely with Gurdjieff until May 3^rd 1937 when she had her last lunch with him. (6)

During the years before his death she made several visits to Gurdjieff. She visited him in July-August 1938 in when she was in Paris for three weeks. (7) She visited him with other students when he came to NYC in spring 1939 until May19th.(8) In July of 1945 she visited him for a few hours in Paris.(9) In June 1946 she visited him and brought her friend, Marie Louise Habets, who was the subject of the biography, A Nun's Story. (10) She last saw him alive in 1948 at Christmas when Gurdjieff came to New York. (11)

Kathryn Hulme is a key person in the historical account Ladies of the Rope by William Patrick Patterson.

Kathryn Hulme's books:

We lived as children. Reference: http://lccn.loc.gov/38027542

The Nun's Story

Undiscovered Country: A Spiritual Adventure

Annie's Captain

The Wild Place

Au risque de se perdre

Merry Christmas, Mr. Baxter

The Success

The Diamond Hitch

The Sleeping Partner

La Història d'una monja

Arab Interlude

Look a Lion in the Eye: On Safari Through Africa

Reference: http://www.librarything.com/author/hulmekathryn

Desert Night

Reference: http://www.rhoenline.de/kathryn_hulme.html

Footnote:

Undiscovered Country by Kathryn Hulme, Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1966, page 6.
Ladies of the Rope by William Patrick Patterson, Fairfax California, Arete Communications, page 246.
Undiscovered Country, page 1.
Undiscovered Country, page 60.
Undiscovered Country, page 74.
Ladies of the Rope page 129.
Undiscovered Country page 162.
Undiscovered Country page 173.
Undiscovered Country page 211.
Undiscovered Country page 254.
Ladies of the Rope, page 185.

The new Gurdjieff Journal is out!

2010-02-27T12:40:00.001-08:00

http://www.gurdjieff-legacy.org/10journal/tgjcurrent.htm

Read below.

The Gurdjieff Journal™

Current Issue - #51 Volume 13 Issue 3

Certainty in a Time of Uncertainty	The financial meltdown, doomsday scenarios, the Mayan Calendar's 2012—how to come to certainty with so much uncertainty?

Gurdjieff & Food Part I	The prolongation of human life is key in developing higher levels of being and bodies. What part does physical food play? What did Gurdjieff serve at his table?

In Search of The Soul Part IX Buddhism Part I	The continuing exploration of how different religions and paths view the soul.

Mind/Body

2009-11-23T18:07:00.000-08:00

Gurdjieff taught, and left it for us to verify by our own experience, that we have 3 brains!

Head brain,
Feeling (emotional) brain
Moving/instinctive brain.

Lifting weights connects the thinking center (brain) to the moving center (brain) thus allowing a fuller perception and intelligence.
The connection is more powerful if the movements are done with conscious sensation of the body, consciously.

ref: In Search of the Miraculous, chapter 6, page 107 "The most complete knowledge of a given subject possible for us can only be obtained if we examine it simultaneously with our mind, feelings, and sensations."

Quotes from In Search Of The Miraculous: Fragments Of An Unknown Teaching -2

2009-11-16T18:28:00.001-08:00

Quotes from In Search Of The Miraculous: Fragments Of An Unknown Teaching.
(Page/Paragraph/Sentence)

Centers

348/0/3
"It means that a definite work of the thinking center is connected with a definite work of the emotional and moving centers…Everything is connected and one thing cannot exist without the other."

348/3/3
Often therefore, the sole possibility of making the other enters work in a new way is to begin with the moving center; that is with the body."

362/4/2
"You must understand that a man's will can b e sufficient to govern one center for a short time. But the other two centers prevent this. And a man's will can never be sufficient to govern three centers."

Octaves

130/3/2
"We neither understand nor see what is going on around and within us, either because we do not allow for the inevitability of descent when there is no ascent, or because we take descent to be ascent. These are two fundamental causes of our self-deception."

134/1/
"The possibility of artificial, that is, specially created, 'additional shocks' gives a practical meaning to the study of the law of octaves and makes this study obligatory and necessary if a man desires to step out of the role of passive spectator of that which is happening to him and around him."

134/2/
"The 'man-machine' can do nothing. To him and around him everything happens. In order to do it is necessary to know the law of octaves, to know the moments of the 'intervals' and be able to create necessary 'additional shocks.'

135/3/
"You must understand and feel this law in your selves. Only then will you see it outside yourselves."

Shocks

193/1/4
"The second volitional 'shock' and transmutation become physically possible only after long practice on the first volitional 'shock,' which consists in self-remembering, and in observing the impressions received. … Right development on the Fourth Way must begin with the first volitional 'shock' and then pass to the second 'shock' at mi 12."

Centers/Energy

193/4/1
"The centers of the human machined work with different 'hydrogens.' This constitutes their chief difference."

195/5/1
"The thinking or intellectual center is the slowest of all the three centers we have examined up to now."

194/1/3
"The intellectual center is never able to follow the work of the moving center. We are unable to follow either our own movements or other people's movements unless they are artificially slowed down. Still less are se able to follow the work of the inner, the instinctive functions of our organism, the work of the instinctive mind which constitutes, as it were, one side of the moving center."

194/6/0
"It is the lower centers that are undeveloped." And its is precisely this lack of development, or the incomplete functioning, of the lower centers that prevents us from making use of the higher centers."

194/12/3
"But in ordinary conditions the difference between the speed of our usual emotions and the speed of the higher emotional center is so great that no connection can take place and we fail to hear within us the voices which are speaking and calling to us from the higher emotional center."

196/0
"Thus in order to regulate and accelerate the work of the lower centers, the primary object must consist in freeing each center from work foreign and unnatural to it, and in bringing it back to its own work which it can do better that any other center."

196/3/0
"In order to regulate and balance the work of the three centers whose functions constitute our life, it is necessary to learn to economize the energy produced by our organism, not to waste energy on unnecessary functions, and save it for that activity which will gradually connect the lower centers with the higher."

Energy

179/3/1
"---every normal man has quite enough energy to begin work on himself. It is only necessary to learn how to save the greater part of the energy we possess for useful work instead of wasting it unproductively."

179/4/
"Energy is spent chiefly on unnecessary and unpleasant emotions, on the expectation of unpleasant things, possible and impossible, on bad moods, on unnecessary haste, nervousness, irritability, imagination, daydreaming, and so. Energy is wasted on the wrong work of centers; on unnecessary tension of the muscles out of all proportion to the work produced; on perpetual chatter which absorbs an enormous amount of energy; on the 'interest' continually taken in things happening around us or to other people and having in fact no interest whatever; on the constant waste of the force of 'attention;' and so on, and so on.

179/5/0
"In beginning to struggle with all these habitual sides of his life a man saves an enormous amount of energy, and with the help of this energy he can easily begin the work of self-study and self-perfection."

Quotes from In Search Of The Miraculous: Fragments Of An Unknown Teaching.

2009-11-16T18:21:00.001-08:00

Quotes from In Search Of The Miraculous: Fragments Of An Unknown Teaching.
(Page/Paragraph/Sentence)

Imagination:
220/2/1
"In reality Kundalini is the power of imagination, the power of fantasy, which takes the place of a real function. When a man dreams instead of acting, when his dreams take the place of reality, when a man imagines himself to be an eagle, a lion, or magician, it is the force of Kundalini acting in him.

Energy

195/5/1
"The thinking or intellectual center is the slowest of all the three centers we have examined up to now."

188/3/0
"It has been explained before that in ordinary conditions of life we do not remember ourselves, we do not remember, that is, we do not feel ourselves, are not aware of ourselves at the moment of a perception, of an emotion, of a thought or of an action."

Effort

232/8/2
"Only super-efforts count."

232/10/0
"…it is better to die making efforts to waken than to live in sleep."

282/1/1
"When self-deceit is destroyed and a man begins to see the difference between the mechanical and the conscious in himself, there begins a struggle for the realization of consciousness in life for the subordination of the mechanical to the conscious. For this purpose a man begins with endeavors to set a definite decision, coming from conscious motives, against mechanical processes proceeding according to the laws of duality. The creation of a permanent third principle is for man the transformation of the duality into the trinity."

Symbols

282/5/2
"… a symbol can never be fully interpreted. It can only be experienced, in the same way for instance, as the idea of self-knowledge must be experienced."

Self Observation

107/3/3
"The most complete knowledge of a given subject possible for s can only be obtained if we examine it simultaneously with our mind, feelings, and sensations."

117/1/5
"Both consciousness and the different degrees of consciousness must be understood in oneself by sensation, by taste. No definitions can help you in this case and no definitions are possible so long as you do not understand what you have to define."

117/6/2
"… you do not remember yourselves. You do not feel yourselves; you are not conscious of yourselves. With you, 'it observes' just as 'it speaks,' 'it thinks,' 'it laughs.' You do not feel: I observe, I notice, I see. Everything still 'is noticed,' 'is seen.' … In order to really observe oneself one must first of all remember oneself."

118/0/3
"only those results will have any value that are accompanied by self-remembering. Otherwise you yourselves do not exist in the your observations."

Atlas, Beelzebub

2009-10-16T18:11:00.000-07:00

What do we have now?

2009-10-16T17:47:00.001-07:00

Human Action

2009-10-14T18:02:00.000-07:00

Faith, Love, and Hope

2009-10-13T15:14:00.001-07:00

Faith of consciousness is freedom

Faith of feeling is weakness

Faith of body is stupidity.

Love of consciousness evokes the same in response

Love of feeling evokes the opposite

Love of body depends on type and polarity.

Hope of consciousness is strength

Hope of feeling is slavery

Hope of body is disease.

Quoted from "All and Everything" by G. Gurdjieff

page 361

ISBN: 0-89756-022-1

Awakening to One's Real Self - The Gurdjieff Approach

2009-10-03T18:14:00.000-07:00

See you at the seminar!

Shifting Levels of Abstraction Disingenuously

2009-06-19T13:03:00.001-07:00

I've been reading Steve McConnell's Code Complete 2nd edition. This is a book that I've had on my shelf for at least 13 years (1st edition). I should have read it in detail a long time ago. In chapter 6 he talks about designing classes. He explains the value to effective programming of having the class's interface present a consistent [level of ] abstraction.

He summarizes with this checklist:
Abstraction

* Does the class have a central purpose?
* Is the class well named, and does its name describe its central purpose?
* Does the class's interface present a consistent abstraction?
* Does the class's interface make obvious how you should use the class?
* Is the class's interface abstract enough that you don't have to think about how its services are implemented? Can you treat the class as a black box?
* Are the class's services complete enough that other classes don't have to meddle with its internal data?
* Has unrelated information been moved out of the class?
* Have you thought about subdividing the class into component classes, and have you subdivided it as much as you can?
* Are you preserving the integrity of the class's interface as you modify the class?

This concept of class design has parallels in design of organizations, and in the structure of a conversation or document meant to educate or persuade.

The profound personal insight that came to me from pondering the larger implications of class design, keeping in mind the principles of Objectivist Epistemology, was how I deliberately shift level of abstraction in a conversation by asking about details that appear to contradict the principles that the speaker is talking about. My ostensible purpose is to give the speaker a chance to anchor their concepts in reality, in sensation, but many times I pick an example that I know can't be explained by the principles I'm hearing discussed.

The result is to confuse the speaker and derail the conversation.

Example: I ask what is more valuable (to whom!); the individual or the collective (society)?
I hear the reply "Well that depends on the situation. What if the individual breaks a law that was passed because we (society) just says so?"

This is a sudden drop in the level of abstraction, introducing undefined terms, that cloud the discussion: What is the purpose of law? Is it an objective law? Is it just? What is the definition of justice? Is "...we just say so..." really a reason for anything? These terms are derivative from the concepts of individuality, and the conditions for life. If they are used as floating abstractions, logically broken from their conceptual derivation then they have no meaning. They fog the discussion. We need to take a detour to define them properly.

Epistemology

2009-03-11T18:54:00.000-07:00

You my anticipate that the point I'm leading up to is that the difference, if there is one, is a matter of "what is the basis of knowledge." Ayn Rand and Gurdjieff both had a lot to say about this. I intend to explore the record on this as we continue.

As a good philosopher you probably recognize that the basis of knowledge is sensation followed by perception, organized by conception. So what are the essential differences between Objectivist Epistemology and Gurdjieff's knowledge? What are the Mystical Parallels. Perhaps Mystical is a misnomer?

First of all Gurdjieff insists on a wider scope of sensation that Ayn Rand acknowledges....

In The Beginning, the Body.

2009-03-02T16:29:00.000-08:00

"Howard Roark laughed.
...
He felt his shoulder blades drawn tight together, the curve of is neck, and the weight of the blood in his hands." ("The Fountainhead", first page.)

Then the other descriptions: lying on the grass after a day in the quarry, the drink of cold water, floating in the sea close to Gail Wynand's yacht.

"The Fountainhead" is rooted in the embodied experience!

Then we have "In Search of the Miraculous" page 146, 2nd paragraph: "mental photographs" that include sensations, postures, tones of voice, facial expressions. All the elements of the embodied experience, self-remembering.

I'm torn between listing more examples and posting this as is. For a Gurdjieffian nothing more is needed, but an Objectivist would want more clues.

Initial Setup

2009-03-02T14:21:00.000-08:00

For a long time, maybe 15 years or so, I've wanted to write a book about the parallels between the writings of Ayn Rand and the writings of G.I. Gurdjieff as found in his books and as reported by Ouspenski.

I will probably never write the book, but I want to get the ideas of these parallels out to interested people, hence this blog.

I'll try to document my ideas with references but I won't let the lack of easily accessible reference material stop me from writing from my memory of what I read, perhaps 10, 20 or 30 years ago.

Comments are welcome. I'll refrain from wiseacreing in this blog and if I catch myself I'll clean it up. If I don't, the wise will be warned.

Spiritual Survival in a Radically Changing World-Time

2009-02-19T18:06:00.000-08:00

William Patrick Patterson's book is incredibly valuable to a sincere seeker. It is the most concise formulation of basic transformational experiences that I have ever read! The book is a powerful, compelling invitation to the Fourth Way! He probes deeply into behaviors that I had never noticed or always taken for granted -- cuts me to my heart! The Gurdjieffian view provided by Patterson of current issues evokes a deep re-evaluation of my own opinions and values!

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Consciousness

2009-01-08T02:28:00.000-08:00

In Arnold's encyclopedia of body building he has some general tips. One that I recall is that he stressed the importance of sending the attention, flowing energy, into the muscles being exercised. I need to find the precise quote.

Impeccability and Gurdjieff

2009-01-07T18:19:00.000-08:00

The Life and Teachings of Carlos Castaneda by William Patrick Patterson is informative, intriguing, and it led me to further reading of the books in the extensive bibliography. William Patrick Patterson provides the links between the history of esotericism and Carlos Castaneda. The additional historical essay included in the book, gives the historical context of Don Juan's sorcery from the perspective of the Catholic Church.

After I read this book I researched further and found unmistakable parallels of Gurdjieff's words in Carlos Castaneda's works. For example: See the chapter titled "The Measurements of Cognition", page 119, in The Active Side of Infinity, and then the last page, page 1183, of All And Everything. Both books talk about complete, embodied awareness of our personal impending deaths as the source of our salvation. Castenada had introduced the idea of "Death as an advisor" in Journey to Ixtlan, but I hadn't made the connection to earlier teachings until I read William Patrick Patterson's new book.

Count Alfred Korzybski

2009-01-07T18:06:00.000-08:00

"The map is not the territory."

I first came across the Count in A. E. Van Vogt's "World of Null-A." I ordered his "Science and Sanity" from the state library system. I built a structural differential and presented it to my 8th grade english class, thereby earning the remark in my year book from my english teacher, Mrs. Murphy, that I was "... the first student to teach her a new word, epistemology."

Recently it occurs to me that the "null-A pause" to allow cortical-thalamic integration to occur sounds like bringing the cerebral cortex into connection with the sensations of the body?

I need to go back and re-read "Science and Sanity"

Conspiracy Advocates

2008-12-10T08:30:00.001-08:00

I've been wondering what is the fascination of conspiracy theories for some people.
Could it be that they have a sense that the world isn't real?
Then conspiracy would be an attempt to rationalize this underlying sense of unease about reality.

Literature of the Fourth Way

2008-12-10T08:23:00.001-08:00

The remarks about Many "i"s below were elicited in part from a recent re-reading of Ouspensky's "In Search of the Miraculous."

From a literary view point, I noticed his fore shadowing of the publication of the discussions in his "Fourth Way." He said he would discuss the details of the centers that he had learned from Gurdjieff later.

Many i's

2008-12-08T08:35:00.001-08:00

Yes, small "i" vice Real "I", capitalized.

I was talking with a friend. I told him that I was on the edge of an experience of more than one "i"...distinct from remembering actions of more than one "i". My friend thought this was ridiculous. "It's all the same 'I'. You were frustrated and just overcome by a desire for chocolate!"

To come to some of these ideas requires doing the experiment, not just reading or talking about them. The flavor cannot be conveyed by description or analogy.

Strange Loop Wrap Up

2008-12-08T05:18:00.001-08:00

The book was disappointing because he couldn't explain what he thought a "Strange Loop" was. His example from Gödel sounds like a confusion of levels of abstraction.

Other western scientists have done much better work on this problem. Some of them, such as António Rosa Damásio have publications preceding the date of Douglas Richard Hofstadter book, Strange Loop. Why write something that is not current?

Most of the ideas Douglas Richard Hofstadter presents were well covered by Aristotle, so why re-hash them now?

I'm done with Douglas Richard Hofstadter.

A Woman's Work is an absorbing account of Ethel Merston

2008-12-08T05:00:00.001-08:00

A Woman's Work is an absorbing account of Ethel Merston's association with many of the spiritual leaders of the early 20th century. Ethel Merston left her descriptions and impressions of Gurdjieff, Ramana Maharshi, Anandamayi Ma, Pak Subuh, Edgar Cayce and many others.

Mary Ellen Korman has researched all the available records and woven a wonderful story that provides a detailed sense of Ethel Merston's life long spiritual search. I found clues to the contrasts between life with Gurdjieff and life with spiritual leaders in India. My own insights are refined by having access to Ethel Merston's accounts and Korman's descriptions of her life.

Merston tells of the changes and conflicts experienced by Gurdjieff's students after his death: The search for another teacher. How students found or forgot what they were looking for. The breaking apart of communities of seekers. She recounts her search after Ramana Maharshi's death.

Many of these people that Ethel Merston worked with were major influences on the "Age of Aquarius." The book helps me understand the culture that I grew up in.

Coding and Thinking.

2008-08-15T08:14:00.000-07:00

I'm spending some time today looking at refactoring a java application that was written in a more or less procedural style!
Reclassifying the classes and methods into 3 tiers: Presentation, business and data layers .

This process is interesting because it encourages abstraction from the very beginning of coding (recoding) a method. It is a good exercise in preparation for larger issues in the daily world, I hope.

The tendency in the daily world is to allow abstractions to 'float' free of the facts and details that they are based on. I hear people reasoning by non-essentials, whimsical association, or emotional connotation all the time.
(See Ayn Rand's discussion of floating abstractions -
http://www.aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/conceptformation.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYahVMMxTwY // Talking head, but he has a great joke about post modern thinkers.
)

I can't just use a compiler, or an IDE to show the problems in design of daily use abstractions: rights, obligations, duties, freedom, responsibility, liberty, justice, happiness, money, inflation, prices, costs, health insurance, etc.

We have to use our own reasoning as the 'compiler' of the concepts (abstractions) that are the tools of our consciousness. This is part of the value of writing and talking. As I write and talk, my thoughts become clearer, more organized, and errors of logic or design clearer.

My thoughts and feelings begin to step out of the shadows and reveal themselves to me as long as I am a clearing for them. But how do I become a 'clearing?'

It's time to go back to school! Get the latest trends and gadgets that make the grade on AOL Shopping.

Attention is missing?

2008-08-10T14:27:00.001-07:00

Hofstadter doesn't list attention in the index of his book "I Am a Strange Loop." He doesn't discuss attention in the book so I wouldn't expect to find it in the index. But it seems strange that an investigation into what is meant by "I" would leave out attention. It is as if the entire issue of the book is an academic examination of ideas ignoring the process and effort of bringing these ideas to awareness. I suppose a computer scientist has to look at it this way because his computers run by predefined programs i.e. recorded ideas. If Hofstadter were to move beyond the domain of recorded ideas he wouldn't be a computer scientist then? Yet he includes his chapter "On Magnanimity and Friendship."

Hofstadter, a Friend

2008-08-02T16:14:00.001-07:00

The best chapter of "I Am a Strange Loop" is 24, "On Magnanimity and Friendship." This chapter in isolation -- out of the context of the rest of the book, shows Hofstadter's profound spirituality. It is as if a "different I" wrote this chapter!

Indexes

2008-06-25T18:58:00.000-07:00

It looks like Hofstadter's index was computer generated. Probably using the MS Word feature. I had assumed that this was the way that most people do it in the last decade or so until I read David Applebaum's "The Stop." I had to make almost as many pen and ink additions to his index as I have to Ouspenski's "In Search of the Miraculous" over the last 20 years. Some people still index by human labor and not with a computer! But there are some things that a computer can't catch. For example: a computer program such as MS Word would not make the link from "compulsive" to Karen Horney's neurosis in page 123 of Applebaum's "The Stop." Even the author himself may not have been aware of the literary connection. In this case he gave no credit to her, or any other other early scientists.

Hofstadter has it Right!

2008-04-02T17:39:00.000-07:00

It came to me as I was busting my gut running up hill through the woods that Hofstadter does have it right, but at a much deeper level than he talks about in his epilogue. (My first impression is that he has dualism and non-dualism completely mixed up but I'm willing to ponder his interpretation further before final judgement.)

Feedback is another term for self-awareness. With self awareness, feedback, we begin to integrate, consume, digest, introject, the previously unknown (consciously) parts of our selves and we become a bit freer and less constrained in our life, awareness and ability to live! For another view point with specific examples from real life read "EATING THE 'I' A DIRECT ACCOUNT OF THE FOURTH WAY -- THE WAY OF USING ORDINARY LIFE TO COME TO REAL LIFE" by William Patrick Patterson.

(http://www.lightworks.com/MonthlyAspectarian/2001/February/Conversation%20.htm

http://www.gurdjieffstudiesprogram.org/patterson.htm)

Strange Loop and Fourth Way

2008-04-01T17:20:00.000-07:00

I've had some additional promptings from my subconscious since the last entry on Douglas Hofstadter. There are added key names that I would expect to find in a study of feedback as the structure of human identity: Gurdjieff, Elmer Green.

Elmer Green is a western scientist and the pioneer of clinical biofeedback.

George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff, teacher of the Fourth Way, showed us how to use conscious feedback to come to real life.

Why would Hofstadter leave these names and other associated resources out of his investigation? Is he trying to present a view point based only on his own technical research, yet he lists many others in his bibliography, Rudy Rucker, Dennet, Dawkins, Ambrose Bierce?

Perhaps he is trying to present a 'Western' viewpoint, but then why would he leave out Elmer Green?

I suspect that his work is more autobiographical than it is a serious argument. I will read further and find out more about what he has to say.

How do I know I'm real?

2008-03-12T17:20:00.000-07:00

I've been reading "I Am A Strange Loop" by Douglas Hofstadter. The development of his theme is slow, so I read the epilogue to find out if he was coming to anything other than where he seemed to be going. The epilogue seems to be about the same as the first few chapters.

I skipped around the book a little and found this intriguing discussion on page 322 called 'Two Daves.' He presents a mental experiment of two universes, identical in every detail except that universe Q has the stuff of consciousness, and universe Z (zed, zombie) is missing the stuff of consciousness. In both universes Dave talks about his possession of consciousness but in universe Z he is lying without knowing it, (sound familiar?). His next section is titled 'The Nagging Worry that One May Be a Zombie." This is a promising title but he detours into fluff on this issue and dismisses it.

I would suggest that with careful work, he could learn to observe both universes in his own life and experience. I know I do. I have occasional moments of consciousness that make me aware of the long intervals of unconsciousness that I suffer.

I suspect that Mr. Hofstasdter has not done the experiment, followed the procedures, practiced the practices, that allows one to approach an awareness of the Self. Yet as a scientist he must have the habit of experimental verification of results. Results have no meaning without the formula, procedure, recipe, for generating them. In the index to his book the word 'meditation' is not listed, neither is 'yoga.' On page 297 his characterization of Zen 'They resent words,...' sounds more like someone who read the lab report but didn't bother to do the experiment. I would have been surprised to find Gurdjieff listed in his index.

See: www.gurdjieff-legacy.org.

I look forward to reading the remainder of the book and perhaps finding a few nuggets of value. But I'm afraid it is too soon to go beyond Ayn Rand's statements of the fundamental axioms of philosophy: Existence exits, and I am conscious.

See: www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=objectivism_pobs

Communicating the Obvious?

2005-12-14T09:53:00.000-08:00

12:02 PM 12/14/2005
Something has really shifted for me. It used to be that I could satisfy myself by retreating to a coffee shop and reading or writing.

Now that is not satisfying. I feel that reading and writing are all part of the dream.
I prefer an unpleasant reality to a pleasant dream.The problem is finding the reality, but I know that what I've been living isn't real.

Work is satisfying, but I want to do more realistic work, what ever that may be?

I had the 'sudden' insight today of my pattern of not asking about important facts, and assuming that managers/technical experts know them.

Examples were from the NATO Summit meeting where I discovered from the white paper about the expense of group calling (which much later came as a surprise to my boss)
& the value of denormalizing the directory database to take advantage of bulkloading of spreadsheets (which the developer thought was not important, but he later told me that he wished that he had listened to me on that issue.)

How much time and money could I be saving my organization if I made sure that my insights were communicated to the people who can do something about it? I could have made a big difference in the 5 month NATO project on only those 2 insights alone.

Why did this awareness hit me today? 6 years later.

Seeds of Ideas

Language IS Technology!

Writing is thinking, at least conceptual thinking.

The Moral Challenge of Advanced Technology

"Sucker Punch," Great Movie!

Running Barefoot

Outline of "From The Author" by G. I. Gurdjieff

Rules to Live By!

Experiencing Another's Song ...

Visit the Brooklyn Book Festival

A Woman's Work with Gurdjieff, Ramana Maharshi, Krishnamurti, Anandamayi Ma & Pak Subuh: The Spiritual Life Journey of Ethel Merston

Jean Vayasse (1917-1975), Gurdjieffian!

Seminar: The Primordial Actualization & Exploration

Seminar

The PrimordialActualization & Exploration

Emotion and Blood

The Help, review

Frank Lloyd Wright, Gurdjieff, Louis Sullivan, Ayn Rand?

Retrospective

Being Observed?

Fourth Way Seminar in September 2010

Seminar

Theme to be Announced

The Five Being Obligolnian Strivings of Ashiata Shiemash

Jean Vaysse, Student of the Gurdfieff Teaching

Kathryn Hulme (July 6, 1900 - August 25, 1981) was born in San Francisco

The new Gurdjieff Journal is out!

The Gurdjieff Journal™

Current Issue - #51 Volume 13 Issue 3

Certainty in a Time of Uncertainty

Gurdjieff & FoodPart I

In Search of The SoulPart IXBuddhismPart I

Mind/Body

Quotes from In Search Of The Miraculous: Fragments Of An Unknown Teaching -2

Quotes from In Search Of The Miraculous: Fragments Of An Unknown Teaching.

Atlas, Beelzebub

What do we have now?

Human Action

Faith, Love, and Hope

Awakening to One's Real Self - The Gurdjieff Approach

Shifting Levels of Abstraction Disingenuously

Epistemology

In The Beginning, the Body.

Initial Setup

Spiritual Survival in a Radically Changing World-Time

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Consciousness

Impeccability and Gurdjieff

Count Alfred Korzybski

Conspiracy Advocates

Literature of the Fourth Way

Many i's

Strange Loop Wrap Up

A Woman's Work is an absorbing account of Ethel Merston

Coding and Thinking.

Attention is missing?

Hofstadter, a Friend

Indexes

Hofstadter has it Right!

Strange Loop and Fourth Way

How do I know I'm real?

Communicating the Obvious?

The Primordial
Actualization & Exploration

Gurdjieff & Food
Part I

In Search of The Soul
Part IX
Buddhism
Part I