Rules to Live By!

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 ...

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

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

A Woman's Work

Jean Vayasse (1917-1975), Gurdjieffian!

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

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

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

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?

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)

1. 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

Copyright © 2004 Gurdjieff Electronic Publishing

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

Copyright © 1997 Rob Baker

This webpage © 1998 Gurdjieff Electronic Publishing

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

Revision: April 1, 2000

1. Frank Lloyd Wright: a biography By Meryle Secrest

ISBN: 9780226744148   Published May 1998 

University of Chicago Press

1. 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

1. http://www.taliesinpreservation.org/

Retrospective

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?

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

Seminar

Theme to be Announced

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.

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

The Five Being Obligolnian Strivings of Ashiata Shiemash

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

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

"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." (1) "Jean Vaysse was a long time pupil of Jeanne de Salzmann." (3) http://gurdjieff.org.au/resources.html

"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

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:

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

The new Gurdjieff Journal is out!

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.