Meditation Times June 2011

MEDITATION TIMES A Downloadable Monthly E-Magazine

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A PRODUCTION OF www.taoshobuddhameditations.com Published by: www.taoshobuddhameditations.com Country of Origin: Trinidad & Tobago, West Indies.

Chief Editor/Graphics Layout & Design: Swami Anand Neelambar Editorial Team: Taoshobuddha, Swami Anand Neelambar International Contributors: Hadhrat Maulawi Jalaluddin Ahmad Ar-Rowi, Lars Jensen

In This Issue

For Queries, Comments, and Suggestions and to submit Contributions, you can email the following persons:

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 Editorial  Gurdjieff the Enigma of Consciousness

You can also visit our website:

 Chronology of Gurdjieff’s work

http://dhyan-samadhi.webs.com/

 Sacred Movements of Gurdjieff

www.youtube.com\taoshobuddha9

 Writings of Gurdjieff

www.scribd.com\taoshobuddhacyberlibrary www.scribd.com\avatar411

 Sacred Dances  The Fourth Way  Enneagram

http://bodhidharmameditation.blogspot.com/ http://www.taoshobuddhameditations.myeweb.net/ http://meditationtimes.myeweb.net/

 Naqshbandi Sufi Sheikh Hazrath Raghuber Dayal Chachaji RA  Love of Lalaji for his Sheikh

GURDJIEFF Mystic of Methods

MEDITATION TIMES Published by Taoshobuddha Meditations Trinidad, West indies

EDITORIAL Gurdjieff has been described as a rascal mystic. He employed and improvised many Sufi techniques of transformation. He also developed his unique of methods. His system is called the Fourth Way.

Swami Anand Neelambar

Gurdjieff was mainly concerned with transformation and psychology. He was not much interested in ultimate truths. All his methods lead one to discover one’s self.

This psychology is being rebranded in the West and called neo-psychology.

The Upanishads declare a similar fourth way known as Turiya. It is a dimension beyond the three (3) normal states of consciousness – waking, dreaming and deep sleep. This fourth state is the realm of enlightenment. The realm of the Buddhas, Mystics, Masters. It is the same realm for where Krishna transfers the Gita to Arjuna.

It is the realm of Gita.

It this new age, Meditation Times, is a beacon of hope, light and guidance. We do not present any religious teaching as such but present Masters, Mystics and Methods.

Gurdjieff is a mystic of methods. He did not dabble in metaphysical phenomenon nor did he teach religion. He was concerned with the person and his neurotic personality.

Gurdjieff said man in not an individual but a crowd of persons. His work was to give man a crystalized being. Then to transform that personality into an individuality.

Gurdjieff can be considered more of a psychologist rather that a teacher. But then all masters are psychologist. Not the psychology of Jung and Freud but the real psychology. The psychology of the being.

This was Gurdjieff’s main contribution to the modern world. He cleared the way for the development of the neo-psychology which is the original psychology of the East.

The priests and pundits are out-dated. The new generation is turning to psychology to discover their being.

All paths lead to the life eternal.

In this issue we also present a Naqshbandi Sufi Sheikh Hazrath Raghuber Dayal Chachaji RA. His life and works are very instrumental to the development and transformation of many seekers from all across the globe.

Meditation Times is not limited by geography and space time barriers. As we explore into the deeper realms of life eternal, more will be made available to the sincere seekers.

Many are the seekers who find solace and guidance in Meditation Times.

We trust this issue shall be beneficial as well.

This much for now!

Meditation Times George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (January 14, 1866? – October 29, 1949)

G

urdjieff was an extraordinary man, a master in the truest sense. His teachings speak to our most essential questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What is the purpose of life and of human life in particular?

As a young man, Gurdjieff relentlessly pursued these questions and became convinced that practical answers lay within ancient traditions. Through many years of searching and practice he discovered answers and then set about putting what he had learned into a form understandable to the Western world.

Gurdjieff maintained that, owing to the abnormal conditions of modern life, we no longer function in a harmonious way. He taught that in order to become harmonious, we must develop new faculties—or actualize latent potentialities—through ―work on oneself.‖ He presented his teachings and ideas in three forms: writings, music, and movements which correspond to our intellect, emotions, and physical body.

Gurdjieff certainly is a pioneer in many ways. With Gurdjieff ushers a totally new concept of spiritual life. He actually called his way ‗the fourth way‘ - just as I call my way ‗the fourth way‘. The Fourth way indeed is the way beyond the dimensions of the known.

It is the way of transcendence.

It is similar to what Hindus call as ‗Turia‘.

June 2011 He was immensely misunderstood, because he was not interested in imparting knowledge to you. He was not interested in consoling you. He was not interested in giving you beautiful theories, visions, and hallucinations. He was not interested in your tears, emotions and sentiments. He was not interested in being worshipped by you. Instead he was interested in transforming you.

Gurdjieff the Enigma of Consciousness George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (January 14, 1866? – October 29, 1949) was considered a mystic and a spiritual teacher. Unlike other masters of the east He called his discipline ‘The Work’. This was an indication that everyone has to work on oneself. According to Gurdjieff‘s principles and instructions his way was called or the ‗Fourth Way‘. At one point he described his teaching as ‘esoteric Christianity’.

At different times in his life, Gurdjieff formed and closed various schools around the world to teach the work. He claimed that the teachings he brought to the West was indeed the outcome of his own experiences and early travels. These expressed the truth found in ancient religions and wisdom teachings. It related to self-awareness in people‘s daily lives and the place of humanity in the universe.

The title of his third series of writings, ―Life Is Real Only When ‗I Am‘‖, expresses the essence of his teachings. When you have understood the essence of the phrase ‗I am‘ and you are the embodiment of such awareness life can

Meditation Times indeed be real. The phrase ‗I am…‘ is the outcome of self-enquiry ‗Who am I?‘ His complete series of books is entitled – ‗All and Everything‘.

Birth and early Life Gurdjieff belonged to Armenian ancestry.

He was born to a Greek father and Armenian mother in Alexandropol - now Gyumri, Armenia. It was then part of the Russian Empire. It is said Gurdjieff was born in the year 1866 in the Caucasus, a region where many people and traditions coexisted productively in what remains to this day a border zone between Asia and the West. He belonged to a Nomadic society and therefore had no specific or permanent place of residence. The family was constantly on move from one place to another in search of livelihood. This gave Gurdjieff tremendous opportunity to visit far and near areas and meet many remarkable ones. The Muslims around Georgia call the Georgian people gurdjis, which may account for the root of the name ‗Gurdjieff‘.

The exact date of his birth remains unknown. It is supposed to fall between 1866 and 1877. Some authors including Moore argue persuasively that Gurdjieff was born in the year 1866. However Patterson accepts 1872 as the year of birth. This argument was based on a passport that gave a birthdate of November 28, 1877, but he stated that he was born at the stroke of midnight at the beginning of New Year‘s Day according to Julian calendar. Gurdjieff grew up in Kars and traveled to many parts of the world including Central Asia, Egypt and Rome before returning to Russia for a few years in 1912. He later said: ‗Begin in Russia, end in Russia.‘

June 2011 The only account of Gurdjieff‘s early life before he appeared in Moscow in 1912 appears in his book ‘Meetings with Remarkable Men’. This text, however, cannot be considered as straightforward autobiography. He spent early years searching in Central Asia, North Africa, and other places for a hidden tradition whose traces he had encountered in youth. During this search he came into contact with certain esoteric schools. In the early 1900‘s he brought to Europe a teaching that he had developed from the results of this contact.

In the pre-1912 period Gurdjieff went on his voyage outlined in ‘Meetings with Remarkable Men’ where he comes upon a map of ‗pre-sand Egypt‘ which led him to study with an esoteric group, the alleged Sarmoung Brotherhood.

Beyond any human measure He was intelligent and inquisitive. He recognized early in his youth that conventional Western science, philosophy, and religion could not answer his compelling questions about what he called ‘the sense and aim of human existence.’

He got convinced that answers to his questions might be found in Asia, perhaps in remote religious communities sheltered and secluded from the modern world. He formed a group of like-minded associates, the Seekers of Truth, and for some twenty years traveled with them in search of links to missing knowledge through the Near East, Central Asia, India, and parts of North Africa and the Orthodox Christian world.

Early in 1912, he established himself as an independent teacher in Moscow (and the following year also in St. Petersburg) and began to transmit the ideas and

Meditation Times practical methods for ‗work on oneself‘ that today bear his name.

Gurdjieff‘s basic teaching is that human life is lived in waking sleep. However transcendence of the sleeping state requires a specific inner work, which is practiced in private quiet conditions, and in the midst of life with others. This leads to otherwise inaccessible levels of vitality and awareness.

Though Gurdjieff‘s name has become familiar in recent years, the real nature of his work is still little known. The Way of Gurdjieff is an oral tradition. The understanding of his work can only be received by direct contact between teacher and disciple, and by the work of pupils together in organized groups.

Under conditions of a special atmosphere of trust that can exist in such a group, people working together learn to face their own inner poverty and confusion.

Working in this way, conscience is awakened along with consciousness.

Consciousness, Conscience, and Sensation form the tripod upon which an integrated development of human potential must be based.

Gurdjieff prepared a nucleus of people to be able to transmit his teaching after his death. This nucleus with the assistance of others who have subsequently been prepared maintains a series of centers throughout the world where Gurdjieff's methods are practiced.

Chronology of Gurdjieff’s work From 1913 to 1949 the chronology appears to be based on material that can

June 2011 be confirmed by primary documents, independent witnesses, cross-references, and reasonable inference.

On New Year‘s Day in 1912, Gurdjieff arrived in Moscow and attracted his first students. In the same year he married the Polish Julia Ostrowska in St Petersburg.

In 1914 Gurdjieff advertised his ballet The Struggle of the Magicians, and supervised his pupils‘ writing of the sketch ‘Glimpses of Truth’.

In 1915 Gurdjieff accepted Ouspensky as a pupil.

P.

D.

And in 1916 he accepted the composer Thomas de Hartmann and his wife Olga as students. At this time he had about thirty pupils.

In the midst of revolutionary upheaval in Russia, he left Petrograd in 1917 to return to his family home in Alexandropol.

During the Bolshevik Revolution, Gurdjieff set up temporary study communities in Essentuki in the Caucasus, then in Tuapse, Maikop, Sochi and Poti, all on the Black Sea coast of southern Russia, where he worked intensively with many of his Russian pupils.

In March 1918, Ouspensky separated from Gurdjieff. Four months later Gurdjieff‘s eldest sister and her family reached him in Essentuki as refugees, informing him that Turks had shot his father in Alexandropol on 15th May during the Armenian Genocide (1915–1923). As Essentuki became more and more threatened by civil war, Gurdjieff put out a fabricated newspaper story announcing his forthcoming ‘scientific expedition’ to Mount Induc. Therein he posed himself as a scientist. Gurdjieff left Essentuki with fourteen companions (excluding

Meditation Times Gurdjieff‘s family and Ouspensky). They traveled by train to Maikop, where hostilities delayed them for three weeks.

In spring 1919 Gurdjieff met the artist Alexandre Salzmann and his wife Jeanne and accepted them as pupils.

Assisted by Jeanne Salzmann, Gurdjieff gave the first public demonstration of his Sacred Dances (Movements at the Tbilisi Opera House, 22nd June).

In the autumn of 1919, Gurdjieff and his closest pupils moved to Tbilisi, formerly known as Tiflis. There Gurdjieff‘s wife, Julia Ostrowska, Mr. and Mrs. Stjoernval, Mr. and Mrs. de Hartmann and Mr. and Mrs. de Salzmann gathered a lot of the fundamentals of his teaching.

Gurdjieff concentrated on his still unstaged ballet, ‗The Struggle of the Magicians’. Thomas de Hartmann - who had made his debut years ago before as the Czar of All Russia, worked on the music for the ballet. And Olga Iovonovna Lazovich Milanoff Hinzenberg - who years later married the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright practiced the ballet dances.

In 1919, Gurdjieff established his first Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man. He was thought to be greatly influenced by Nikolai Marr, a Georgian archaeologist and historian.

In late May 1920, when political conditions in Georgia changed and the old order was crumbling, his party traveled by foot to Batumi on the Black Sea coast and from there to Istanbul. Gurdjieff rented an apartment on Koumbaradji Street in Péra and later at 13, Abdullatif Yemeneci Sokak near the Galata Tower.

The apartment is near the kha‘neqa‘h or monastery of the Molavieh Order of

June 2011 Sufis founded by Jalalaluddin Muhammad Rumi, where Gurdjieff, Ouspensky and Thomas de Hartmann experienced the Sema ceremony of The Whirling Dervishes. In Istanbul Gurdjieff also met Captain John G. Bennett, then head of British Military Intelligence in Constantinople. Later, Bennett would become a follower of Gurdjieff and of Ouspensky.

In August 1921 and 1922, Gurdjieff traveled around Western Europe, lecturing and giving demonstrations of his work in various cities, as Berlin and London. He attracted the allegiance of Ouspensky‘s many prominent pupils. Of which the editor A. R. Orage was the notable one.

After he lost a civil action to acquire Hellerau possession in Britain, Gurdjieff established the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man south of Paris at thePrieuré des Basses Loges in Fontainebleau-Avon near the famous Château de Fontainebleau. Gurdjieff acquired notoriety as ‗the man who killed Katherine Mansfield‘ after Katherine Mansfield died there of tuberculosis under his care on 9 January 1923. James Moore and Ospensky convincingly shows however that Katherine Mansfield knew that she would soon die, and that Gurdjieff made her last days happy and fulfilling.

Starting in 1924 Gurdjieff made visits to North America, where he eventually received the pupils taught previously by A.R. Orage. In the same year while driving alone from Paris to Fontainebleau, Gurdjieff had an almost fatal car-accident.

Nursed by his wife and mother, he made a slow but painful recovery — against medical expectation. Still convalescent,

Meditation Times he formally ‗disbanded‘ his Institute on 26 August (in fact he dispersed only his lessdedicated pupils), and began writing All and Everything.

In 1925 Gurdjieff‘s wife contracted cancer. And eventually she died in June 1926 in spite of radiotherapy and of Gurdjieff‘s magnetic treatments.

Ouspensky attended her funeral.

According to Fritz Peters, Gurdjieff was in New York from November 1925 to the spring of 1926, when he succeeded in raising over $1,000,000.

In 1935 Gurdjieff stopped writing All and Everything.

He had completed the first two parts of the trilogy but only started on the Third Series. (It was later published under the title Life Is Real Only Then, when ‘I Am’. In Paris, Gurdjieff lived at 6 Rue des Colonels-Rénard, where he continued to teach throughout World War II. Gurdjieff died on October 29, 1949 at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. His funeral took place at the St. Alexandre Nevsky Russian Orthodox Cathedral at 12 Rue Daru, Paris. He is buried in the cemetery at FontainebleauAvon.

Beginning of the work Gurdjieff claimed that people cannot perceive reality in their current states because they do not possess

June 2011 consciousness but rather live in a state of a hypnotic ‗waking sleep‘.

He said ‗Man lives his life in sleep, and in sleep he dies.‘ As a result of this condition, each person perceives things, circumstances and situations from a completely subjective perspective. And each subjective experience differs from that of the other.

Gurdjieff stated that malefic events such as wars and so on could not possibly take place if people were more awake. This state of unconsciousness is the cause of misery, calamity, conflict, ailments and many other psychological diseases.

He asserted that people in their typical state of unconsciousness act as automatons. However there is every possibility that one can ‗wake up‘ and become a different sort of human being altogether when the level of consciousness changes. Gurdjieff did not uses the regular terminology instead he created his own terminology to explain the same phenomenon for which Hindus and Muslims use the scriptural terminology. This is the reason Gurdjieff remains incomprehensible.

Self-development teachings The Fourth Way Gurdjieff argued that many of the existing forms of religious and spiritual tradition

Meditation Times on Earth had lost connection with their original meaning and vitality and so could no longer serve humanity in the way that had been intended at their inception.

As a result of this humans were failing to realize the truths of ancient teachings and were instead becoming more and more like automatons, susceptible to control from outside and increasingly capable of otherwise unthinkable acts of mass psychosis such as the 1914-18 war.

At best, the various surviving sects and schools could only provide a one-sided development which did not create a fully integrated human being.

According to Gurdjieff, only one dimension of the three dimensions of the person - namely, either the emotions, or the physical body or the mind - tends to develop in such schools and sects, and generally at the expense of the other faculties or centers as Gurdjieff called them.

As a result these paths fail to produce a proper balanced human being.

Furthermore, anyone wishing to undertake any of the traditional paths to spiritual knowledge which Gurdjieff reduced to three were required to renounce life in the world.

1. the path of the fakir, 2. the path of the monk, and 3. the path of the yogi Gurdjieff thus developed a ‗Fourth Way‘ which would be open to the requirements of modern man living modern lives in Europe and America.

Instead of developing body, mind, or emotions separately, Gurdjieff‘s discipline worked on all three to promote comprehensive and balanced inner development.

June 2011 In parallel with other spiritual traditions, Gurdjieff taught that one must expend considerable effort to effect the transformation that leads to awakening.

The effort that one puts into practice Gurdjieff referred to as ‘The Work or Work on oneself’.

According to Gurdjieff, ‗...Working on oneself is not so difficult as wishing to work, taking the decision.‘ Though Gurdjieff never put major significance on the term ‗Fourth Way‘ and never used the term in his writings, P.D. Ouspensky from 1924 to 1947 made the term and its use central to his own teaching of Gurdjieff‘s ideas. After Ouspensky‘s death, his students published a book titled ‗The Fourth Way‘ based on his lectures.

Gurdjieff's teaching addressed the question of humanity‘s place in the universe and the importance of developing latent potentialities. This latent potentiality is regarded as our natural endowment as human beings but rarely brought to fruition. He taught that higher levels of consciousness, higher bodies, inner growth and development are real possibilities that nonetheless require conscious work to achieve.

In his teaching Gurdjieff gave a distinct meaning to various ancient texts such as the Bible and many religious prayers. He explained that those texts possess a very different meaning than what is commonly attributed to them and understood as well. ‗Sleep not‘; ‗Awake, for you know not the hour‘; and ‗The Kingdom of Heaven is within‘ are examples of biblical statements which point to a psychological teaching whose essence has been lost with the passage of time. And in the absence we are carrying the scriptures like corpses.

Meditation Times Gurdjieff taught people how to increase and focus their attention and energy in various ways and to minimize daydreaming and absentmindedness.

According to his teaching, this inner development in oneself is the beginning of an essential process of change. It aims transforming people into what Gurdjieff believed they ought to be.

Gurdjieff discredited ‗morality‘ for inner development. Morality he describes as varying from culture to culture. Quite often it is contradictory and superficial.

Gurdjieff emphasized the importance of conscience. This he regarded as the same in all people. However it remains hidden deep in their sub-consciousness. This it remains sheltered from damage by the way people live and inaccessible as well.

Its growth requires ‗work on oneself‘.

To provide conditions in which inner attention could be exercised more intensively, Gurdjieff also taught his pupils ‗sacred dances‘ or ‗movements‘, later known as the Gurdjieff movements, which they performed together as a group. He also left a body of music, inspired by what he heard in visits to remote monasteries and other places, written for piano in collaboration with one of his pupils, Thomas de Hartmann.

Gurdjieff also used various exercises, such as the ‗Stop‘ exercise, to prompt self-observation in his students. Other shocks to help awaken his pupils from constant day-dreaming were always possible at any moment.

Methods The Work implies training in the development of consciousness. During his lifetime Gurdjieff used a number of

June 2011 different methods and materials, including meetings, music, movements (sacred dance), writings, lectures, and innovative forms of group and individual work for the development of human consciousness.

Part of the function of these various methods was to undermine and undo the ingrained habit patterns of the mind and bring about moments of insight. Since each individual substantially differs from the other he requires different methodology. Gurdjieff did not have a one-size-fits-all approach and adapted and innovated as circumstance required.

In Russia he was described as keeping his teaching confined to a small circle, whereas in Paris and North America he gave numerous public demonstrations of his methodology.

Gurdjieff felt that the traditional methods of self-knowledge — those of the fakir, monk, and yogi (acquired, respectively, through pain, devotion, and study) - were inadequate on their own and often led to various forms of stagnation and onesidedness. His methods were designed to augment and provide a new boost for the traditional paths with the purpose of hastening the developmental process.

He sometimes called these methods The Way of the Sly Man because they constituted a sort of short-cut through a process of development that might otherwise carry on for years without substantive results.

The teacher, possessing consciousness, sees the individual requirements of the disciple and sets tasks that he knows will result in a transformation of consciousness in that individual. Instructive historical parallels can be found in the annals of Zen Buddhism where teachers employed a variety of methods (sometimes highly

Meditation Times unorthodox) to bring about the arising of insight in the student.

Music the harbinger of inner growth The Gurdjieff music divides into three distinct periods. The first period is the early music. This category included music from the ballet Struggle of the Magicians and music for early Movements, dating to the years around 1918.

The second period music, for which Gurdjieff arguably became best known, written in collaboration with Russian composer Thomas de Hartmann, is described as the Gurdjieff-de Hartmann music. Dating to the mid-1920s, it offers a rich repertory with roots in Caucasian and Central Asian folk and religious music, Russian Orthodox liturgical music, and other sources.

This music was often first heard in the salon at the Prieure, where much was composed. Since the publication of four volumes of this piano repertory by Schott, recently completed, there has been a wealth of new recordings, including orchestral versions of music prepared by Gurdjieff and de Hartmann for the Movements demonstrations of 1923-24.

Solo piano versions of these works have been recorded by Cecil Lytle and Keith Jarrett.

The last musical period is the improvised harmonium music which often followed the dinners Gurdjieff held in his Paris apartment during the Occupation and immediate post-war years, until his death in 1949?

June 2011 A virtually encyclopedic collection of surviving recordings was recently released. A detailed booklet includes thoughts from producer Gert-Jan Blom and a preface by Robert Fripp.

In all, Gurdjieff in collaboration with de Hartmann composed some 200 pieces.

And most recently in May 2010, 38 minutes of unreleased solo piano music on acetate was purchased by Neil Kempfer Stocker from the estate of his late step-daughter Dushka Howarth.

Sacred Movements of Gurdjieff Movements, or sacred dances, constitute an integral part of the Gurdjieff Work.

Gurdjieff sometimes referred to himself as a ‗teacher of dancing‘ and gained initial public notice for his attempts to put on a ballet in Moscow called Struggle of the Magicians.

Films of movements‘ demonstrations are occasionally shown for private viewing by the Gurdjieff Foundations and one is shown in a scene in the Peter Brook movie Meetings with Remarkable Men.

Group work Alike music, sacred movements, Gurdjieff realized the significance of group works.

Accordingly Gurdjieff taught that group efforts. These efforts both enhance and surpass individual efforts preparing them to practice a new psychology of evolution.

To accomplish this, he needed to constantly innovate and create new alarm

Meditation Times clocks to awaken his sleeping students, as Jesus did 1900 years before. Students regularly met with group leaders; both separately and in group meetings, and came together for ‗work periods‘ where intensive conscious labor, connected with the forms mentioned above. Work in the kitchen was a special task and sometimes elaborate meals were prepared. This food was the lowest of the three being foods, food, air and impressions. Air and impressions being even more important, special exercises were given for them.

According to Gurdjieff, the work of schools of the Fourth Way never remains the same for long. In some cases, this has led to a break between student and teacher as is the case of Ouspensky and Gurdjieff. The outward appearance of the School and the group work can change according to the circumstances and situations.

He believed that the inner individual expression, such as the practice of selfremembering with self-observation and the non-expression of negative emotions, always remains the same and could never change, for that is the guarantee of ultimate self-development.

A follower of Gurdjieff, former American Fabrics magazine publisher William C. Segal, tells of periods of hard labor around the clock which in the Gurdjieff System are known as ‘super-efforts’.

According to Gurdjieff, only super-efforts count in the Work. In 1948 and 1949, Segal was sporadically in contact with Gurdjieff, who had been the teacher of avant-garde lesbian Jane Heap. In 1951, at 26, Peter Brook became a pupil of Heap in London and Segal published the magazine Gentry. As Segal would write in the poem ‘Silence Clarity’,

June 2011 ―... It is through the body that sits here/ that I go to my true nature.‖ A voice at the borders of silence would conclude, ―... It is through the mind that stands still/ that I experience my true nature.‖

Writings of Gurdjieff Gurdjieff wrote and approved for publication three volumes of his written work under the title All and Everything.

The first volume, Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, is a lengthy allegorical work that recounts the explanations of Beelzebub to his grandson concerning the beings of the planet Earth.

There are two English Translations of this unique work. One was carried out under his strict supervision (Beelzebub 19501999) when he was still alive and the other after his death first published in 1991 without notifying the readers.

Gurdjieff deliberately tried to increase the effort needed to read and understand the book. As a result the book is perhaps not the best introduction to Gurdjieff‘s ideas since part of the book‘s intention is to frustrate and usurp the normal patterns of thought.

The second volume, Meetings with Remarkable Men, is written in an accessible manner, and purports to be an autobiography of his early years, but also contains many allegorical statements.

His final volume, left intentionally unfinished, shows the Master‘s hand. Life is Real Only Then, when ‘I Am’

Meditation Times contains a fragment of an autobiographical description of later years, as well as transcripts of some lectures.

Gurdjieff‘s own writings are generally not considered the best introduction to his thought. His own writings do not present any sort of systematization that clearly existed in his private teachings. Several of Gurdjieff‘s students kept records of these teachings and published their own accounts. The most highly regarded of these accounts are considered to be those of P D Ouspensky.

Truly Gurdjieff explained to Ouspensky ‗... For exact understanding exact language is necessary.‘ In his first series of writings, Gurdjieff explains how difficult it is to choose an ordinary language to convey his thoughts exactly. He continues ‗...the Russian language is like the English...both these languages are like the dish which is called in Moscow ‘Solianka’, and into which everything goes except you and me...‘ In spite of the difficulties, he goes on to develop a special vocabulary of a new language, all of it his own. He uses these new words particularly in the first series of his writings. However, in The Herald of Coming Good, he uses one particular word for the first time: ‗Tzvarnoharno‘, allegedly coined by King Solomon.

June 2011 psychology and cosmology that enable insights beyond those provided by established science.

On the other hand, there are critics who assert that he was simply a charlatan with a large ego and a constant need for selfglorification. Gurdjieff is said to have had a strong influence on many modern mystics, artists, writers, and thinkers, including Osho, Frank Lloyd Wright, Keith Jarrett, George Russell (composer), Alan Watts, Timothy Leary, Robert Anton Wilson, Robert Fripp, Jacob Needleman, John Shirley, Carlos Castaneda, Dennis Lewis, Peter Brook, Kate Bush, P. L. Travers, Robert S de Ropp, Walter Inglis Anderson, Jean Toomer, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Louis Pauwels, James Moore and Abdullah Isa Neil Dougan.

Osho has put Gurdjieff along with Raman Maharishi and Ramkrishna in highest category. Osho has created meditations around Gurdjieff‘s contributions.

Gurdjieff‘s notable personal students include Jeanne de Salzmann, Willem Nyland, Lord Pentland (Henry John Sinclair), P. D. Ouspensky, Olga de Hartmann, Thomas de Hartmann, Jane Heap, John G. Bennett, Alfred Richard Orage, Maurice Nicoll, Lanza del Vasto, George and Helen Adie and Katherine Mansfield.

Opinions and influence

The Italian composer and singer Franco Battiato was sometime inspired by Gurdjieff‘s work, for example in his song ‗Centro di gravità permanente‘. This is one of most popular modern Italian pop songs.

Opinions on Gurdjieff‘s writings and activities are divided.

Sympathizers regard him as a charismatic master who brought new ways into Western culture, a

Aleister Crowley visited his Institute at least once and privately praised Gurdjieff‘s work, though with some reservations. During WWI, Algernon

Meditation Times Blackwood took up spying while reporting to John Buchan, author of The Thirty Nine Steps. After the war, during the Roaring Twenties, Blackwood studied with Gurdjieff and Ouspensky.

Gurdjieff gave new life and practical form to ancient teachings of both East and West. For example, the Socratic and Platonic emphasis on ‗the examined life‘ recurs in Gurdjieff‘s teaching as the practice of self-observation. His teachings about self-discipline and restraint reflect Stoic teachings. The Hindu and Buddhist notion of attachment recurs in Gurdjieff‘s teaching as the concept of identification.

Similarly, his cosmology can be ‗read‘ against ancient and esoteric sources, respectively Neoplatonic and in such sources as Robert Fludd‘s treatment of macrocosmic musical structures.

Fourth Way Enneagram An aspect of Gurdjieff‘s teachings which has come into prominence in recent decades is the enneagram geometric figure. For many students of the Gurdjieff tradition, the enneagram remains a ‗koan‘, challenging and never fully explicated. There have been many attempts to trace the origins of this version of the enneagram. However certain similarities to other figures have been found, but it seems that Gurdjieff was the first person to make the enneagram figure publicly known and that only he knew its true source.

However there are others have used the enneagram figure in connection with personality analysis, principally in the Enneagram of Personality as developed

by Oscar Ichazo, Claudio Naranjo, Helen Palmer and others. Most aspects

June 2011 of this application are not directly connected to Gurdjieff‘s teaching or to his explanations of the enneagram.

The science-fiction and horror novelist John Shirley has written an introductory work on Gurdjieff for Penguin/Tarcher, Gurdjieff: An Introduction to His Life and Ideas.

Groups and Gurdjieff Foundation Gurdjieff inspired the formation of many groups after his death, all of which still function today and follow his ideas. The Gurdjieff Foundation is the largest organization which is directly influenced by the ideas of Gurdjieff. It was organized

by Jeanne de Salzmann during the early 1950s, and led by her in cooperation with other pupils of Gurdjieff. There are main four branches of the Foundation.

Various pupils of Gurdjieff and his direct students have formed other groups.

Willem Nyland, one of Gurdjieff‘s closest students and an original founder and trustee of The Gurdjieff Foundation of New York, left to form his own groups in the early 1960s.

Jane Heap was sent to London by Gurdjieff, where she led groups until her death in 1964.

Louise Goepfert March, who became a pupil of Gurdjieff in 1929, started her own groups in 1957 and founded the Rochester Folk Art Guild in the Finger Lakes region of New York State. Her efforts were closely linked to the Gurdjieff Foundation of New York.

Meditation Times Independent groups were also formed and led by John G. Bennett and Mrs. Staveley. In 2005 Alan Francis, after cofounding the Gurdjieff Foundation in Oregon in 1999, formed the as yet unaffiliated Russian Center for Gurdjieff Studies in Moscow.

Gurdjieff student Lord Pentland connects the Gurdjieff group-work with the later rise of encounter groups. Groups also often meet to prepare for demonstrations or performances to which the public is invited.

Criticism Gurdjieff‘s work is not free from criticisms. Louis Pauwels among others criticizes Gurdjieff for his insistence on considering people as ‗asleep‘ in a state closely resembling ‗hypnotic sleep‘.

Gurdjieff said, even specifically at times, that a pious, good, and moral man was no more ‗spiritually developed‘ than any other person; they are all equally ‗asleep‘.

Henry Miller approved of Gurdjieff‘s not considering himself holy but, after writing a brief introduction to Fritz Peters‘ book Boyhood with Gurdjieff, Miller wrote that man is not meant to lead a ‗harmonious life‘, as Gurdjieff claimed in naming his institute.

Critics note that Gurdjieff gives no value to most of the elements that comprise the life of an average man. According to Gurdjieff, everything an ‗average man‘ possesses, accomplishes, does, and feels is completely accidental and without any initiative. A common everyday ordinary man is born a machine and dies a machine without any chance of being anything else. This belief seems to run

June 2011 counter to the Judeo-Christian tradition that man is a living soul.

Gurdjieff believed that the possession of a soul (a state of psychological unity which he equated with being ‗awake‘) was a ‗luxury‘ that a disciple could attain only by the most painstaking work of over a long period of time. The majority—in whom the true meaning of the gospel failed to take root went the ‗broad way‘ that ‗led to destruction‘. Gurdjieff attributed the human tendency to spiritual corruption and ignorance to astronomical (astrological) influences (particularly the influence of the moon). Christian theology accounts for the proclivity of the majority to fail to achieve salvation as due to the power of original sin.

In Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson Gurdjieff expresses his reverence for the founders of the mainstream religions of East and West and his contempt for what successive generations of believers have made of those religious teachings.

His discussions of ‗ortho-doxhydooraki‘ and ‗hetero-doxhydooraki‘—orthodox fools and heterodox fools, from the Russian word durak (fool)—position him as a critic of religious distortion and, in turn, as a target for criticism from some within those traditions. Gurdjieff has been interpreted by some, Ouspensky among others, to have had a total disregard for the value of mainstream religion, philanthropic work and the value of doing right or wrong in general.

Gurdjieff‘s former students who have criticized him argue, despite his seeming total lack of pretension to any kind of ‗guru holiness‘, that the many anecdotes of his sometimes unconventional behavior display the unsavory and impure character of a man who was a cynical

Meditation Times manipulator of his followers. Gurdjieff‘s own pupils wrestled to understand him.

For example, in a written exchange between Luc Dietrich and Henri Tracol dating to 1943: ‗L.D.: How do you know that Gurdjieff wishes you well? H.T.: I feel sometimes how little I interest him—and how strongly he takes an interest in me.

By that I measure the strength of an intentional feeling.‘ Louis Pauwels wrote Monsieur Gurdjieff (first edition published in Paris, France in 1954 by Editions du Seuil). In an interview, Pauwels said of the Gurdjieff work: ‗... After two years of exercises which both enlightened and burned me, I found myself in a hospital bed with a thrombosed central vein in my left eye and weighing ninety-nine pounds...Horrible anguish and abysses opened up for me. But it was my fault.‘ Pauwels claims Karl Haushofer, the father of geopolitics whose protégée was Deputy Reich Führer Rudolf Hess, as one of the real ‗seekers after truth‘ described by Gurdjieff. According to Rom Landau, a journalist in the 1930s, as reported to him by Achmed Abdullah at the beginning of the 20th century, Gurdjieff was a Russian secret agent in Tibet who went by the name of ‘Hambro Akuan Dorzhieff’ (i.e. Agvan Dorjiev), chief tutor to the Dalai Lama. However, reports have it that Dorzhieff went to live in the Buddhist temple erected in St. Petersburg and after the revolution, he was imprisoned by Stalin. James Webb conjectures that Gurdjieff may have been Dorzhieff‘s assistant Ushe Narzunoff (i.e. Ovshe Norzunov) but this remains untenable.

Colin Wilson writes about

June 2011 ‗...Gurdjieff‘s reputation for seducing his female students. (In Providence, Rhode Island, in 1960, a man was pointed out to me as one of Gurdjieff‘s illegitimate children. The professor who told me this also assured me that Gurdjieff had left many children around America).‘ In the early 1930s Gurdjieff publicly ridiculed one of his pupils, Alfred Richard Orage. In response, his wife Jessie Dwight wrote the following poem about Gurdjieff: ‗He calls himself, deluded man, The Tiger of The Turkestan.

And greater he then God or Devil Eschewing good and preaching evil His followers whom he does glut on are for him naught but wool and mutton, And still they come and sit agape With Tiger‘s rage and Tiger‘s rape Why not, they say, the man‘s a god; We have it on the sacred word.

His book will set the world on fire. He says so - can God be a liar?

But what is woman, says Gurdjieff, Just nothing but man‘s handkerchief. I need a new one every day, Let others for the washing pay.

In The Oragean Version, C. Daly King surmised that the problem that Gurdfieff had with Orage‘s teachings was that the ‗Oragean Version‘ was not emotional enough and was not based on ‗incredulity‘ and faith. King wrote that Gurdjieff did not state it as clearly and specifically as this, but was quick to add that nothing Gurdjieff said was specific or clear.

According to Osho, the Gurdjieff system is incomplete, drawing from Dervish sources inimical to Kundalini. Some Sufi orders, such as the Naqshbandi, draw from and are amenable to Kundalini.

Meditation Times Gurdjieff‘s views have arguably become best known through the published works of his pupils. PD Ouspensky wrote ‗In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching‘, which some, Rodney Collins among others, regard as a crucial introduction to the teaching.

Others refer to Gurdjieff‘s own books detailed below as the primary texts.

Published accounts of time spent with Gurdjieff have appeared written by A. R. Orage, Charles Stanley Nott, Thomas and Olga de Hartmann, Fritz Peters, René Daumal, John G. Bennett, Maurice Nicoll, Margaret Anderson and Louis Pauwels, among others. Many others found themselves drawn to his ‗ideas table‘: Frank Lloyd Wright, Kathryn Hulme, P. L. Travers, Katherine Mansfield, Jean Toomer and Ethel Merston.

Three books by Gurdjieff were published in the English language in the United States after his death: 1. Beelzebub‘s Tales to His Grandson published in 1950 by E. P. Dutton & Co. Inc., 2. Meetings with Remarkable Men, published in 1963 by E. P. Dutton & Co. Inc., and 3. Life is Real Only Then, When ‗I Am‘, printed privately by E. P. Dutton & Co. and published in 1978 by Triangle Editions Inc. for private distribution only.

4. Thistrilogy is Gurdjieff‘s legominism, known collectively as All and Everything.

A legominism according to Gurdjieff is ‗one of the means of transmitting information about certain events of longpast ages through initiates‘. A book of his early talks was also collected by his student and personal secretary, Olga de

June 2011 Hartmann, and published in 1973 as Views from the Real World: Early Talks in Moscow, Essentuki, Tiflis, Berlin, London, Paris, New York, and Chicago, as recollected by his pupils.

The feature film Meetings with Remarkable Men (1979), based on Gurdjieff‘s book by the same name, depicts rare performances of the sacred dances taught to serious students of his work, known simply as the movements.

Jeanne de Salzmann and Peter Brook wrote the film, Brook directed, and Dragan Maksimovic and Terence Stamp star, as does South African playwright and actor

Meditation Times

Sacred Dances There are certain inconsistencies in the writings and teachings of Gurdjieff. He used his own terminology to explain the matter for which already terminology existed. For instance there is basic existential energy that each individual comes with and the energy travels through channel. This channel has been known as Kundalini. Gurdjieff has used the word Kundabuffer to explain this phenomenon. Yet still Gurdjieff created sacred dances. These worked like miracles. All the dances were in circles – just whirling but remaining aware inside, by and by making the circles smaller and smaller.

Gurdjieff created many dances for such techniques. He was working on this technique. All the dances he was using in his school were, really, swaying in circles.

All the dances were in circles – just whirling but remaining aware inside, by and by making the circles smaller and smaller. A time comes when the body stops, but the mind inside goes on moving, moving, moving. If you have been travelling in a train for twenty hours, after you have come home, and you have left the train, if you close your eyes you will feel that you are still travelling. Still you are travelling. The body has stopped, but the mind is still feeling the vehicle.

So just do this technique. Gurdjieff created phenomenal dances, very beautiful. In this century he worked miracles. But Gurdjieff really created miracles. He prepared a group of a hundred people for meditative dancing, and he was showing that dance to an audience in New York for the first time. A

June 2011 hundred dancers were on the stage whirling. Those who were in the audience, even their minds began whirling. There were a hundred white-robed dancers just whirling. When he indicated with his hand, they would whirl, and the moment he would say, ‘Stop,’ there would be dead silence.

That was a stop for the audience, but not for the dancers – because the body can stop immediately. It is only afterwards the mind actually takes the movement inside. It goes on and on. It was beautiful even to look at, because a hundred persons suddenly became dead statues. It created a sudden shock in the audience also, because a hundred movements – beautiful movements, rhythmical movements – suddenly stopped. You would be looking at them moving, whirling, dancing, and suddenly the dancers stopped. Then your thought would also stop. Many in New York felt that it was a weird phenomenon: their thoughts stopped immediately.

But for the dancers, the dance continued inside, and the inside whirling circles became smaller and smaller until they became centred. One day it happened that they were coming just to the edge of the stage, dancing. It was expected, supposed, that Gurdjieff would stop them just before they danced down the stage onto the audience. A hundred dancers were just on the edge of the stage. One step more and they would all fall down into the hall. The whole hall was expecting that suddenly Gurdjieff would say stop, but he turned his back to light his cigar.

He turned his back to the dancers to light his cigar, and the whole group of a hundred dancers fell down from the stage upon the floor – on a naked stone floor.

Meditation Times The whole audience stood up. They were screaming, shouting, and they were thinking that many must have broken their bones – it was such a crash. But not a single one was hurt; not even a single bruise was there. They asked Gurdjieff what had happened. No one had been hurt, and the crash was such that it seemed impossible. The reason was only this: they were really not in their bodies at that moment. They were slowing down their inner circling.

June 2011 human being. He divides man into four ‘bodies’: 1. Carnal or Physical Body 2. Astral or Kesdjan Body (feelings, desires) 3. Mental or Spiritual Body (mind, mental faculty) 4. Divine or Causal Body (‘I’ consciousness, will, soul) This brings forth a few observations:

Gurdjieff can be best described as a blend of Theosophist and the protagonist of Neo Pythagorean or Rosicrucian-Hermetic doctrines that prevailed during the 19 and 20th century.

What Theosophical movement had been teaching in last two decades of the 19th century, Gurdjieff, combined with his strong temper and adventurous spirit tried to achieve in practice. With all the talk about India and ‘Masters’, Theosophists still remained an influential, yet an impotent debater.

Gurdjieff, yearned for ‘the right stuff’ of superhuman mastery and actualization of the ‘miraculous’ a pervasive theme during the final years of the 19th century, a period characterized as a time of decadence and self-doubt.

1. Evidently, the doctrine of multiple bodies reflects the Theosophical influence and its offshoots. We can find it in developed Western esoteric traditions however only in rudimentary forms. It has been mentioned in Plotinus's ‘Enneads’, and that too casually as jism-i-latif or subtle body in Sufism. It is also mentioned as zelem in Kabbalah, or various soul-bodies in medieval and Renaissance Christianity.

However its true source is HinduBuddhist Yogic and Tantric lore assimilated in many wisdom doctrines. The ‘theory’ of 5 koshas or sheaths which can be lumped in 3 bodies: physical (including bio plasmatic, ‘pranic’ sheath), psychic and causal bodies. The vital difference lies in Gurdjieff's insistence on non-existence of ‘higher’ bodies in normal human beings (as we shall see, he was inconsistent re this matter - just as in many others. Also, the achieved immortality is also equivocally stated: sometimes it is confined to this solar system, sometimes to all solar systems and sometimes not spatio-temporally restricted.

Gurdjieff had strong Theosophical ‘roots’.

These can be traced in his analysis of a

2. Gurdjieff did not use the bodiless terminology, both of East and West

When Gurdjieff saw that all of them were completely oblivious of their bodies, he allowed them to fall down. If you are completely oblivious of your body, there is no resistance. A bone is broken because of resistance. If you are falling down, you resist: you go against the pull of gravity. That going against, that resistance is the problem – not gravity. If you can fall down with gravity, if you can cooperate with it, then no possibility of being hurt will arise.

Meditation Times (Atman, Buddha Nature, Spirit, Inner Christ, Ar-Ruh al-Qudsi (Supreme Spirit), Hsing or Original Nature). For him, potentially Trans temporal and indestructible or eternal ‘spiritual’ element in human being remains equal to a ‘higher’ body and not encased within.

This puts forward interesting and unanswered questions on the ‘unity’ of the whole Gurdjieffian doctrine. All ancient teachings, of the East and the West, describe the relation of essential human soul and the ground of the Universe in similes suggesting continuity of existence - either in radical non-dual monist version of Advaita Vedanta, Ch’an or Zen Buddhism or in a more differentiated approach of Hermetism, Gnosticism, the majority of Sufism, Kabbalah, Suddha Vedanta.

Frequently encountered metaphors suggest this relation between soul cosmos like the rays from the sun or waves in the ocean. In this respect Gurdjieff, who continued to propagate emanations doctrines with an equivocal stance, in the bulk of his writing seem to have radically departed from virtually all esoteric teachings.

In his case, strenuously won immortality nevertheless restricts indestructible being to isolated whizzing to and fro within confines of a cosmos. Later this is defined as ‘cosmic consciousness’ or temporary loss of expanded selfhood- whatever this or that passage taken out of context may aver.

3. Gurdjieff’s vision of human composition is in many ways similar to Assagioli’s Psycho synthesis. For both of them, the central attribute of the innermost self is will. Although, some doubts

June 2011 remain. It appears like Assagioli has a subtler approach about the indestructible self. However in shallower and lower levels of dis identification it is a pure witnessing ‘I’. In deeper and more potent dimensions of its ‘life’ it is Transpersonal or Higher Selfvirtually bodiless Atman or Spirit.

4. Alike most Theosophists, Gurdjieff calls the 4th body soul. It is the soul Gurdjieff's ‘Work’ is all about.

But, equally ironic, in his version of Thanatology - the study of the medical, psychological, and sociological aspects of death and the ways in which people deal with it, Gurdjieff radically departs both from traditional wisdom doctrines and Theosophy: if not worked upon sufficiently and not awakened, even soul is mortal. It is ‘eaten by the Moon’ - probably the weirdest destiny that has ever befallen the spiritual element in man. So, in his rather incongruous blend of Theosophy, Neo Pythagoreans, Rosicrucianism and Alchemy, even the inborn spiritual self is doomed to extinction in ordinary human beings.

Meditation Times There are still more doubts about Gurdjieffian esoteric physiology. These I take in following paragraphs.

Essence and Personality These two crucial concepts can be taken as the central human polarity.

Essence: Essence is a Mutable Concept.

Essence is, in astrological parlance, the sum total of individual incarnational and or behavioral tendencies one is usually not aware of, but lives their mechanical life according to the essence promptings.

Essence grows, decays, but a person is generally not aware of its processes. It is innate, the mould of one’s personality and the matrix of a human being’s conscious life. With a bit of stretch, the essence could be compared either to temperament, or to the Freudian Id, or at least to a host of essential subconscious qualities emerging out of it. We can equate it to the psychoanalytic subconscious.

It is said essence is nothing ‘spiritual’.

This term has completely different connotations in other wisdom doctrines as well. Gurdjieff is, as usual, confusing about this concept. ‘A small child has no personality as yet. He is what he really is. He is essence. His desires, tastes, likes, dislikes, express his being such as it is. But as soon as socalled ‘education’ begins, personality begins to grow. Personality is created partly by the intentional influences of other people, that is, by ‘education,’ and partly by involuntary imitation of them by the child itself. In the creation of personality a great part is also played by ‘resistance’ to people around him and by

June 2011 attempts to conceal from them something that is ‘his own’ or ‘real.’ A man is real I, his individuality, can grow only from his essence.

It can be said that a man’s individuality is his essence, grown up, and mature. But in order to enable essence to grow up, it is first of all necessary to weaken the constant pressure of personality upon it, because the obstacles to the growth of essence are contained in personality.

From this passage it is obvious that the goal is not the return to the quasiFreudian infantile state, but the ‘maturing’ of the unconscious. At this juncture, various strata of the unconscious are not differentiated; instead, evidently, the essence is the Freudian Id or the ‘subconscious’.

In spite of concentrated exercises of the Fourth Way How sub consciousness can possibly be transmuted into super consciousness remains one of many Gurdjieff's inconsistencies and weak points. Moreover, it happens fairly often that essence dies in a man while his personality and his body are still alive. A considerable percentage of the people we meet in the streets are empty inside, that is, they are actually already dead.

So, while the most frequent Gurdjieffian abuse of the word ‘essence’ simply refers to the unconscious, sometimes he means the subconscious only, and though, rarely espouses a weird doctrine of the ‘death of essence’. Just to add to the confusion, further esoteric who are indebted to Gurdjieff generally returned to the more conventional Oriental designation: essence is Supreme Self, Buddha Nature and personality a false, ego-d individual consciousness consisting of a host of sub personalities, spurious ‘I’s or selves.

Meditation Times Personality Personality is something inauthentic, a sort of fluctuating mask a human being adopts in dealing with the world (inner and outer). Essentially, it can be compared to ancient ‘persona’, false series of ‘I’ or ‘acting’ spurious self one unconsciously adopts as optimal in dealings with the life’s challenges.

Gurdjieff insists on multiplicity of false ‘I’ - one could apply to the Satan’s illuminating answer: ‘My name is a legion’.

Succinctly Gurdjieff's insistence on the dichotomy between essence and personality is just another weapon in his arsenal, stored for attack on ‘ordinary man’s’ hypnotized, sleepy and inauthentic existence. Both building blocks of human being are just raw, mechanical matrices of human bondage.

Polarity between ‘carnal’ and ‘spiritual’ is alien to Gurdjieff ‘Work’. There is no ‘struggle for one’s soul’. Conventionally speaking, one encounters this in all monotheistic traditions.

True, he frequently plays with these concepts, but, evidently, his ‘God’ is a reflection of the deistic Enlightenment Deity not interested in human affairs or a Gnostic God cut off from the worlds left to the whims of Demiurgic, which in Gnostic and Platonic philosophies, implies the creator and controller of the material world generally hostile forces. It is some weird and concocted mechanical laws not more convincing than one can encounter in the Jain cosmology. It is something like the Newtonian paradigm pushed to the extreme and utterly improbable conclusions.

Both concepts are fundamental to Gurdjieff ‘Work’ and

June 2011 integrated with the rest of his psychology: for instance, crucial Fourth Way elements of human transformation, s, are frequently described as ‘being contained in essence’.

Three ‘Stories’ or ‘Brains’ and Respective s: Gurdjieff has divided a human into three ‘stories’ or compartments metaphorically, ‘brains’, although this has nothing to do with the anatomical organ. Roughly, the division goes as follows: 1. Upper story incorporating Intellectual Centre plus Higher Intellectual Centre 2. Middle story including Emotional Centre and Higher Emotional Centre 3. Lower story refers to Sexual Centre plus Instinctive Centre plus Moving Centre ‘Higher’ centres in upper two stories are only potential; existing, yet dormant.

They are accessible and yet hopefully operating in men and women who have passed through strenuous exercises of Gurdjieffian ‘Work’.

What virtually all Gurdjieffians ignore or simply have not deigned to ask is: where these centres reside?

Conventionally, the answer is that they are located in physical body or lower story in abdomen, middle story in chest and upper story in head. But anatomy is sufficiently advanced to discover anything resembling these ‘s’ if they exist in this mortal coil. Yet nothing so far of it is

Meditation Times clear. We are left with a host of possible choices: 1. As a Theosophist, Gurdjieff includes ‘etheric’, or, in modern parlance, bioplasmic or bioenergy ‘Kirlian photography’ body into the physical body framework. Essentially, this corresponds to the Yogic ‘vital sheath’.

The question which naturally arises is how these s, located in such a ‘low’ body, could give rise to supra mundane consciousness, especially considering the fact that Gurdjieff, in his cosmology, adheres to quasi materialist explanations? If a centre is constrained to a specific ‘vibratory level’ - how can it skip other levels and whizz across the emanationist ladder which is deterministically structured?

In normal physics language, it would be as absurd as expect a hydrogen atom to contain ‘all’ uranium energy levels. The ‘answer’ is given in the following chapters on Gurdjieffian alchemy. However there is nothing convincing in it at all.

2. s are situated in respective bodies: the ‘lower’ ones in physical, ‘emotional’ in astral and ‘intellectual’ in mental.

This classification one can find in Ouspensky’s works. Just as again nothing remains visible or detectable in the physical body.

Realistically - the s concept is most vulnerable to the banal question: why accept their existence at all?

They seem to combine in an awkward manner Platonic and Thomist psychology. It implies s are psychological functions located in a body-soul compound: vegetative

June 2011 soul, passionate or animal and rational soul. This triple division corresponds exactly to Gurdjieff's three stories or ‘brains’ and Theosophical or Hindu idea of energy wheels or chakras located in subtle supra physical bodies.

3. The confusion arises because these two approaches are not harmonized: for, ‘orthodox’ chakras do not have any psychological functions. The majority of them are dormant like ‘Ajna’ in the head, while Plato’s psyche logistic or rational soul is perfectly functional in an ordinary human. Also, in Oriental traditions some say spiritual pole is dormant and physiological active - with the exception of ‘lower’ centres which do not have even dormant spiritual function.

4. Expanding on the Platonic metaphor, one could ponder something like this: Plato speaks of immortal soul.

Evidently, his ‘centres’ are located not in physical, but in supraphysical ‘soul body’, which is not further dissected. Such a view is endorsed in chief dialogues, ‘Apologia’, ‘Phaedo’ and ‘The Republic’. Socrates, as the story goes, will (probably) lead an immortal life, conversing with Homer, Orpheus and comp., with all his mental and emotional s operating. As a simple paradigm, it would fit nicely with Gurdjieff's views, save for a few irreconcilable points: Gurdjieff-Ouspensky ‘theory’ contains more than one body. More, the Caucasian Master has elaborated an intricate web of interrelated connections between s

Meditation Times leading to aberrant or functional behavior, all set in a materialist lingo or emotional centre steals energy for its gratification etc.,.

Multiplicity of bodies in Gurdjieff's system and unity of one, soul body with various functions/s in Plato's psychology are mutually exclusive.

A subvariant of ‘protoplatonic’ interpretation is that a centre in a ‘lower’ body acts as a focus or radiating ‘’ for higher body, which is termed a , but in actuality is a whole ‘higher’ body. But, as I said: this is, to say the least, not very probable interpretation.

5. In his posthumous work Gurdjieff casually gave the most plausible to the modern mind and at the same time cursory and offhand brief review of the centres: he equated them with various plexuses and sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems combined with parts of brain. This is rather fuzzy description. Needless to say - this is completely differs with virtually everything he had been talking on the subject for more than 30 years.

Leaving the question of location unresolved, we shall point to the most probable source of Gurdjieff's doctrine of higher s. Gurdjieff based his doctrine basically on Theosophy.

Here it is, in a characteristically dull and annoying style. Accordingly the lower man is a composite being, whose real nature is a unity, or immortal being, comprising a trinity of Spirit, Discernment, and Mind which requires four lower mortal instruments or vehicles through which he operates in matter and obtains experience from Nature.

June 2011 This trinity is that called Atma – Buddhi – Manas in Sanskrit. Atma is Spirit, Buddhi is the highest power of discerning and judgements, and Manas is Mind. This threefold collection is the real man; and beyond doubt the doctrine is the origin of the theological one of the trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The four lower instruments or vehicles are shown in this table: Real Man: Atma, Buddhi, Manas, Lower Vehicles: The Passions and Desires, Life Principle, Astral Body, and Physical Body. These four lower material constituents are transitory and subject to disintegration in themselves as well as to separation from each other. When the hour arrives for their separation to begin, the combination can no longer be kept up, the physical body dies, the atoms of which each of the four is composed begin to separate from each other, and the whole collection being disjointed is no longer fit for one as an instrument for the real man. This is what is called ‘death’ among us mortals, but it is not death for the real man because he is deathless, persistent, and immortal. He is therefore called the Triad, or indestructible trinity, while they are known as the Quaternary or mortal four. Let us recapitulate. The Real Man is the trinity of Atma-BuddhiManas, or Spirit and Mind, and he uses certain agents and instruments to get in touch with nature in order to know him.

These instruments and agents are found in the lower Four -- or the Quaternary – each principle in which category is of itself an instrument for the particular experience belonging to its own field, the body being the lowest, least important, and most transitory of the whole series.’

Meditation Times The upper imperishable triad Manas – manas is a principle which has dual functions - Mind, Intelligence: which is the higher human mind, whose light, or radiation links the MONAD, for the lifetime, to the mortal man.

The future state and the Karmic destiny of man depend on whether Manas gravitates more downward to Kama rupa, the seat of the animal passions, or upwards to Buddhi, the Spiritual Ego. In the latter case, the higher consciousness of the individual Spiritual aspirations of mind (Manas), assimilating Buddhi, are absorbed by it and form the Ego, which goes into Devachanic bliss.

Buddhi or The Spiritual Soul refers to the vehicle of pure universal spirit. Atma or Spirit or refers to One with the Absolute, as its radiation.

Now, things are much more transparent: Gurdjieff equated his concept of soul with Blavatsky and Besant Higher Ego or Spiritual Soul.

This is a correct correspondence in theosophical worldview - if we toss aside traditional Sankhya or Vedanta doctrines. Soul is Higher Manas or Mind dwelling in causal body.

Theosophical ‘Buddhi’ is Gurdjieff's ‘higher emotional centre’, and ‘Atma’ corresponds to ‘higher intellectual centre’. Not surprisingly, Gurdjieff's ‘Man number 5’ is the one who has acquired soul, but has still two more steps to go to become ‘Man number 7’. A juicy part is that, in all probability, Gurdjieff went beyond original Theosophy and tacitly incorporated the Adhyar Theosophy esoteric innovations originated by C.W. Leadbeater, who changed Blavatsky’s teaching of the

June 2011 Monad so as to add another two ‘upper levels or planes’.

In Gurdjieff’s system one can easily detect a curious feature: the summit of human development according to the Fourth Way, ‘Man number 7’, has two worlds above-unattained. This clearly indicates that Gurdjieff felt that Neo theosophical Monad and Logos are beyond his practical interest, but not outside his ‘theoretical’ framework.

Just to make things a bit more complicated: now, when all seems to fit nicely, one must not overlook the central Gurdjieffian ogre of contradiction: in the majority of his writings, he insists that ‘higher’ bodies do not exist. This is a nonTheosophical concept, but have to be created - something more reminiscent of the Taoist alchemy than any other wisdom doctrine, whether traditional or post-19th century. This issue shall be addressed in more detail in chapters dealing with cosmology and psychology.

The entire Gurdjieffian ‘Work’ and the ‘Fourth Way’ rest on harmonious development of a human being which, in his system, means work on all centres through a structured network of very elaborate exercises aiming at empowerment, harmonization and coordination of various s that would facilitate crystallization of permanent ‘I’ or soul.

If there are no s then, apart from a few exercises good for health and strengthening of perception, his central goal is null and void-just another specimen in a procession of human selfdeceptions.

Meditation Times A Hackney Carriage Metaphor Here, Gurdjieff retells an analogy already present in Upanishads, which gives ancient Hindu insight into human condition.

Just George consciously misread Upanishadic Advaitin interpretation metaphor: as a carriage human or physical body is drawn by a horse or emotions or astral body. A shabby coachman, with meagre powers and understanding or intellect or mental body tries his best, but the central problem is that a passenger in a box or whatever ‘I’ turns out at the moment, a false self or sub personality instead of true self or soul is asleep and probably snoozing.

The central aim of Gurdjieff's ‘Work’ is that the passenger becomes Divine body or soul, fully operating and possessing authentic will. Needless to say, the majority of monist doctrines speak of the passenger in completely different terms: ‘He is the unseen seer, the unheard hearer. Other than he there is no seer, other than he there is no hearer. He is your Self, the Inner Controller, the Immortal’ (Brhadaranyaka Upanishad).

One could cut Gurdjieff some slack by allowing the passenger to be equated to jiva, or jivatman- a deluded ‘soul spark’ of Vishista-Advaita or small ‘self’ or ‘I’ of Assagioli’s Psycho synthesis, the ray from Transpersonal or Spiritual Self. This would make a frame of the Fourth Way at least coherent re spiritual psychology: one wouldn’t expect Supreme Self and cosmic consciousness, but the empowered and fully conscious jiva in causal or divine body. But, these nuances are beyond

June 2011 Gurdjieff’s more practical and pragmatic approach.

The Fourth Way Gurdjieff’s rather weird claim on originality of his entire esoteric system stems from his description of other wisdom doctrines.

Briefly he has relegated all human spiritual endeavour from time immemorial to disharmonious overdevelopment of one of his ‘brains’ or ‘stories’. These are ways of the faqir who works almost exclusively on the lower centre or physical body, monk whose chief battlefield is middle story or heart or emotions and yogi who focuses on upper story or mind or thinking. According to Gurdjieff- those who practice strenuously one of these ‘ways’ can probably achieve a non-mechanical existence, but at the expense of having other faculties degenerate and atrophy in time.

A classic example would be a monk whose intense devotional life is followed, ineluctably, by mental and physical decrepitude because he has not exercised, as far as the story goes, his intellectual and corporeal faculties. This may be an overstatement, but completely in line with Gurdjieff's teaching. AlsoGurdjieff insisted that his system would out top any other in ‘speed’ necessary to achieve the desired goal of overcoming the ordinary, dull and mechanical man’s condition.

Evidently, judging from numerous historical examples Boddhidharma, the founder of Ch’an or Zen Buddhism also introduced a set of physical exercises that were later used in martial arts by Buddhist monks as a means of self-

Meditation Times defence; great French philosopher, mystic and scientist Pascal’s life consisted of eruptions from both ‘heart’ and ‘mind’) Gurdjieff's scheme is too crude and simplistic. Faqir Man number 1, monk Man number 2, yogi Man number 3 are grotesque stereotypes. But- it looks like they served the purpose of accentuating supposedly new Gurdjieff's approach to human development- the Fourth Way. The Fourth Way is, according to its proponents and followers, original and ‘modern’ because it ‘works’ on all s from the outset. In short its aim is a harmonious human being. In the history of European culture this is not anything new.

Cosmology: Macrocosm and Microcosm The Laws Before delving into Gurdjieff’s ‘cosmological’ ramblings, we have to put forth a few ideas describing his notorious ‘laws’: ‘The Law of Three’ and ‘The Law of Seven’ which supposedly govern everything existing. The exposition is mainly based on Ouspensky’s books since Gurdjieff's own pubescent efforts are completely arid and empty of any cognitive value.

The Law of Three postulates that worlds are governed by three omnipresent forces: positive, negative and neutralizing or what Gurdjieff calls: Holy Affirming, Holy Denying and Holy Neutralizing. These ‘forces’ resemble the three gunas from Sankhya Yoga system of Hindu philosophy, but differ insofar as they

June 2011 change their respective roles: positive can ‘switch’ to negative in fuzzily defined circumstances and so on.

More the Fourth Way people insist in ‘finding’ Trinity everywhere in life similar to orthodox Marxists and Engels’s ‘Laws of Dialectics’ or Christian esotericists and the omnipresent Trinity. This sloppy reasoning is reinforced by mentally excavating various trinities from archaic cultures: the three bodies of Buddha in Mahayana Buddhism, three substances in Western post-Paracelsian alchemy, three faces of Hindu God, one could go on forever. Just- this has nothing to do with existence or nonexistence of three forces.

And here starts the real trouble: The Law of Three was not discovered in any physical or chemical experiment. It cannot explain any existing physical law, nor can it contribute in any way to ‘deeper’ understanding of forces ruling physical nature-it would be meaningless to even infer to the ‘supernature’.

Watching Gurdjieffians hopelessly trying to find The Law of Three in the world and ascribing various arbitrary concepts like positive force is equated to proton, negative to electron, and neutralizing oscillates between neutron and electromagnetic field to the laws of physics or chemistry can be termed a sad spectacle, indeed.

So- what is this Triamazikamno or the law of three? Evidently, a remnant of archaic and magical thinking that has survived in esoteric circles and feeds on the disciples’s gullibility and lack of scientific culture. In any respect Triamazikamno is an example of concocted quasi intellectual esoteric dogma which cannot be verified nor tested, but imparts its adherents a

Meditation Times sense of superior scientific language.

Gnosis

June 2011 cloaked

in

One important corollary of The Law of Three is Gurdjieff’s version of alchemy; actually, this is an elaborated scheme his pupil Ouspensky has recorded in his works and which serves as the ‘theoretical’ pillar for practical exercises and describes their functioning in a quasimaterialist manner. Needless to say, this is purely fantastic, incoherent and arbitrary scheme.

We shall address it briefly for the sake of completion: it connects Gurdjieffian cosmology and psychology therefore Macro and Microcosms and tries to translate archaic alchemical worldview into something even faintly acceptable to the modern world. In short, The Law of Three folded ness can be expressed thus: when a substance is the conductor of active force, it is called carbon and designated as C; when another substance is the conductor of passive force, it is called oxygen and designated as O; when a substance is the conductor of the neutralizing force, it is called nitrogen and designated as N. When a substance is taken without relation to the force manifesting through it, or, more frequently, when a substance is acted upon by all three forces, it is called hydrogen and designated by letter H. What can we conclude from this information? First, it plays arbitrarily with the established chemical notation; second, it is completely dependent on The Law of Three and expressed in dualistic, ‘force-matter’ manner; third, although it claims origin in the ancient doctrine of 4 elements (water, fire, earth, air), it is at variance with it because Gurdjieffian ‘hydrogen’ contains C-O-N triad.

The origin of this peculiar notation is again theosophical: we read in Blavatsky’s ‘The Secret Doctrine’: ‘The numbers 3 and 4 are respectively male and female, spirit and matter and their union is the emblem of life eternal in spirit on its ascending arc and in matter as the ever resurrecting element by procreation and reproduction. The former (the 3) is invisible (as spirit) and the latter (the 4) is on the plane of objective perception (as matter). This is why all the matter of the universe, when analyzed by science to its ultimate, can be reduced to four elements only C-O-N-H; and why the three primaries, the noumena of the four, or graduated spirit or force have remained a terra incognita.’

So, aside Gurdjieff’s originality in further development (vibratory levels-wise) of the C-O-N-H symbology, we can see that he has adopted the theosophical alchemical notation and remade it to fit his pseudo materialist mythology. With this, he got raison for the Work: the entire project could now be summarized as the transformation of substances that constitute different levels of vibratory universe, human being and the food connoting everything, from cereals to thoughts and impressions and the ‘Work’ is the most expedient way of transmutation since substances are ‘stuff consciousnesses are made of’ and the harmonious human development equals expansion and unification of consciousness or being.

The next is the most ‘musical’ Gurdjieff's law-The Law of Seven or The Law of Octaves. Simply stated, this ‘law’ sets forth Gurdjieffian cosmology using septotonic musical scale as conceptual blueprint. Why a musical scale, why seven-tone scale, why this particular arrangement, and, finally, why would anyone consider seriously this

Meditation Times bizarre matrix of universe and man.

These are, in all probability, questions only faith can answer.

Cosmology: The Ray of Creation One of the most extravagant and bizarre occult cosmologies to emerge as yet is Gurdjieff's, presented as clearly as possible in works of Ouspensky. Gurdjieff himself gave scattered hints in his voluminous fiction ‘Beelzebub’s Tales’, where he mentions various cosmoses, but only in Ouspensky’s books we can get all the intricacies of this fantasy on rampage expressed in a twisted quasi-scientific lingo. First, we shall succinctly present the main scheme, and then plunge into a more detailed analysis.

Gurdjieffian cosmology is reminiscent of various emanationist metaphysics of ancient times (both east and west).

It contains a few peculiarities that betray its eclectic nature. The most prominent of these being: the musical scale as the conceptual matrix of the universe, vibratory nature of different levels of reality, utterly strange enumeration of laws and naming of cosmoses, ‘original’ version of materialism-according to Gurdjieff, all his ‘atoms’ and ‘cosmoses’ are material. But it is evident that these words have little or nothing in common with ordinary usage of the terms. This cosmology is represented in the famous ‘Ray of Creation’, which ‘stitches’ together emanated levels, layers, and cosmoses of the universe and the musical scale.

It goes as follows: Note World Number of laws operating Do Absolute 1 Si All Galaxies 3 La All Suns 6

June 2011 Sol Sun 12 Fa Planets 24 Mi Earth 48 Re Moon 96 Furthermore, there are intervals/ ‘shocks’, in two instances: between Do and Si, and between Fa and Mi. A careful reader can easily detect weak spots and absurdities: 1. Why would anyone try to explain or describe universe or multiverse using the language of a musical scale, since other, much more powerful explanatory sets of symbols and transformations possessing endlessly superior cognitive value, are available?

2. Gurdjieff’s own claim that his ‘system’ stems from Babylonian antiquity is ludicrous.

Ancient cosmologies were confined to the solar system and its planets. They do not operate with Galaxies except in the case of astrology, when their geocentric cosmos is set against Zodiac.

In this, essentially Hermetic-Ptolemaic spherical onionlike cosmos with earth in the there is no emanationist ladder encompassing Milky Way or Galaxies.

Evidently, ancient musical, ‘provincial’ geocentric universe has been ‘adapted’ to include astronomical chart of post Renaissance science. Also, Gurdjieff followed typical theosophist fascination with number seven adding a few innovations of his own- ‘shocks’, vibratory ‘elements’ etc.

3. The most nonsensical feature is that all these ‘cosmoses’ as Gurdjieff called different layers of emanation, from Proto cosmos to Microcosmos

Meditation Times are simply elements of this, physical universe. It amounts to linguistic depravity to assign familiar names like Milky Way or Sun to supposedly supra physical realities reminiscent of theosophical ‘planes’ or Kabbalistic worlds) and insist that these ‘cosmoses’ are subjected to various number of ‘laws’, defined as rather arbitrary combinations of The Law of Three.

To state that different laws of physics rule the Sun by the wayhow can one equate ‘All Suns’ with ‘Milky Way’?

And the Moon is utterly preposterous.

4. Gurdjieff’s claim to antiquity of his ‘Ray of Creation’ can be simply refuted. He misuses septotonic or seven-tone musical scale as the explanatory matrix. But this scale was formed only after the 10th century C.E. The old Middle East and Greece used pentatonic or fivetone scale. His assertion that septotonic scale was first discovered, then forgotten, and then discovered again does not merit a serious discussion.

Gurdjieffian Synthesis: Cosmology and Alchemy In essence, if one could ignore Gurdjieff's inconsistencies the central vision of the ‘Work’ can be summarized thusly: Gurdjieff has interconnected his cosmology, psychology. Bearing in mind his vibratory material quasi-emanationist picture of the universe, one must also take notice that he characterized every level of the vibration/cosmos with particular substancepreviously mentioned hydrogen oscillating at certain

June 2011 frequency. Since according to Gurdjieffian anthropology human beings are composed and function according to definite laws of ingestion, behavior and live at certain frequencies or hydrogen levels, the aim of the ‘Work’ is to set them free from constricting circumstances ‘laws’ by a variety of techniques which include self-remembering and specifically designed movements plus other exercises galore.

According to the doctrine, these exercises ‘super effort’ will cause alchemical transmutation in human beings, generating and or solidifying ‘higher’ bodies and s which operate with different hydrogens enabling one to crystallize and shift their consciousness to the higher ladder of vibration. Hence, one’s being undergoes alchemical transformation, and lives on higher frequency substances hydrogen, i.e., C-O-N triads, achieving ‘level-wise’ immortality and permanent expanded consciousness. Gurdjieff has set a table of correspondences, which we will reproduce only upper parts of in his terminology, ‘Men’ numbers 1 to 4 are still too ‘earthbound’ even Man number 4.

Two elements of these tables are especially conspicuous. Gurdjieff has left two highest worlds beyond human achievement. Actually he populated them with superhuman entities like Demiurge and Archangels, in sharp distinction to the majority of wisdom esoteric doctrines; second, he somehow ‘elevated’ Man number 5 by insisting on ‘switching’ permanently on s which are located in ‘lower’ bodies a strange development, indeed; as if further ascent requires ‘going back’. Since author’s opinion is that he just reinterpreted Blavatsky’s theosophist Atma – Buddhi - Manas doctrine which is unidirectionally

Meditation Times ascending so as to fit within his neoalchemical framework. This is not as bizarre as it might seem at the first glance. Also, I would say that he got stuck between his variant of alchemy and Leadbeater vision of the universe: his top two levels, tacitly unattainable for human beings, are simply Neo theosophical highest planes of Monad and Logos.

Enneagram The most important ‘mystic’ or ‘occult’ symbol Gurdjieff's ‘Work’ has introduced to the West is enneagram, an occult glyph resembling in some respects Rosicrucian geometrical constructs or Kabbalistic Tree of life. As the story goes (1, 7, 8), it is prominent among Islamic mystics, Sufis.

But there is a little problem. Not one known Sufi order and there are more than hundreds of them, most notable being Naqshbandis, Mevlevis, Chistis, Qadiris at al. knows of and uses this symbol.

Ennenagram represents a modified remnant of Neo-Platonic and Hermetic tradition that has percolated and survived in Islamic ‘esoteric’ circles; especially a branch of Ismaili Shiites, spiritual descendants of the sixth Imam Jafar-asSadiq, his co-worker Jabir Ibn Hayyan the most influential Islamic alchemist and famous Ihwan-al-Safa. A branch of Ismaili esoterics, centred on Sarmoun monastery in the Pamir area, is said to keep the remnants of the enneagram gnosis.

Before embarking into more detailed analysis of the enneagram, a few comments have to be made: 1. Considering a few branches of mathematics algebraic topology, plus some subvariants like graph theory or lattice theory, any 2

June 2011 dimensional graph/glyph immediately loses its Pythagorean mystique. If one can functionally transform a graph, ‘distort’ it, rotate, ‘stretch’ topologically, a square is equal to a circle the supposition of a graph as a container of profound mysteries becomes ludicrous & preposterous.

If a circle and an ellipse are topologically identical, there is no need to become pathologically addicted to one or another.

Identically, all medieval graphs the pentagram, triangle, various variants of the cross, purportedly contain ‘compressed’ paranormal powers or serving as inducers or transformers of supra physical energies are, when confronted with modern 19/20th century mathematical paradigmata, emptied out of their supposedly inherent ‘spiritual power’.

2. However, things can be argued in a slightly different manner: true, there is nothing ‘para physical’ per se in any known n-dimensional geometrical object. But, during human history certain glyphs became ‘charged’ with spiritual or paranormal energies due to perpetual focusing and refocusing of human mind in the course of sacral and initiatory ceremonies or contemplation, thereby creating a ‘ladder’ between ‘Heaven’ and ‘Earth’. More, such glyphs can be divided in several classes, and enneagram can be interpreted in a few ways that make sense either as a summary of alchemical process or as the mandala covering both Macrocosmos and Microcosmos according to the ancients’

Meditation Times worldview.

In summandala/hologram enneagram is the symbolic representation of everything existing.

We shall proceed with the critique of Gurdjieff's interpretation of the enneagram and expound a meaningful enneagram exposition at the end.

Critique of Gurdjieffian Enneagram Gurdjieff's use of the enneagram symbol is most visible in his post -1915 Russian and European years, when he gathered a cluster of disciplined devotees and made stage appearances with them, both in Europe and the US mainly in the 1920s.

Usually, his disciples danced, performing enneagram-based Gurdjieffian ‘movements’ which are 39 in all. These movements required self-observation themselves, until under Gurdjieff's command ‘Stop!’ they would freeze up in an act of supposedly self-remembering, when, at least in theory, Gurdjieff would transmit spiritual or, more likely, bio energy equivalent to Taoist chi’s to their susceptible psyches with the aim to elevate and expand their consciousness and being- an exercise in some points resembling the transfer of Sufi barrakah or blessing, or spiritual energy or Tantric shaktipat. Also, the profile of dances, devised by Gurdjieff himself, betrays influences of Sufi, various Caucasian, Central Asian and Vajrayana or Tibetan traditions.

The symbol does not figure prominently in Gurdjieff’s own writings.

He preferred to ramble on the so-called ‘Law of Three’ or ‘Triamazikamno’ and the ‘Law of Seven’ or ‘Heptaparaparshinokh’.

However these are not ‘laws’ in modern sense of the word since no corpus of

June 2011 cognitively worthy data or observations follows from their application.

Gurdjieff’s fullest exposition of his ‘laws’ lies in chapters 39 and 40 of ‘Beelzebub’s Tales’, but, alas, even a careful reader with the guide cannot profit much from this jabber.

So, the majority of enneagram ‘studies’ rely on Ouspensky’s ‘In Search of the Miraculous’, as well as other secondary works of Bennet, Collin et al. A fairy tale-like ‘history’ of the enneagram Gurdjieff has presented in his unreliable autobiography ‘Meetings with Remarkable Men’ places the origin of the glyph in the times of Sumero-Babylonian civilization, ca 2,500 years B.C.E. and purports that esoteric knowledge it contains has survived barely unchanged till the present era, when Gurdjieff has acquired gnosis of the enneagram in the monastery of the Sarmoun brotherhood as we have said, an ‘occult’ society affiliated with Sufism and Ismaili esotericism, somewhere in the area of Hindu Kush, Pamir and east Afghanistan.

Meditation Times The enneagram as represented and interpreted in Ouspensky’s and hinted at in Gurdjieff’s works, is characterized by following features: 1. The points on the circle satisfy the relations: they are connected by two figures one connects the number 1 to 4 to 2 to 8 to 5 to 7 and back to 1; the other connects 3, 6 and 9. The 142857 sequence is based on the fact that dividing 7 into 1 yields an infinite repetition of the sequence 142857. In fact, dividing 7 into any whole number not a multiple of 7 will yield the infinite repetition of the sequence 142857. Just they failed to notice a few logical inconsistencies: if the law of three is ‘embedded’ into enneagram by the triangle 963 (or 369 or 396 take your pick), how come that the law of seven is not simply represented by 7 interconnected points? Instead, we have 6 points which ‘subtly’ stand for The Law of Seven by division of 7 into 1.

If we were to cling to consistency, 963 sequence (or any similar, say, 396) should point to a rational number of the form 1/q, where q is somehow ‘magically’ connected to 3. Of course nothing of it.

So, the internal ‘logic’ of the enneagram is: three you got because there are 3 points, but seven is not equal to seven points, but six, which only ‘point to’ seven by division. And this division (1/7) yields one of those repeatable sequences, what is one among many seemingly ‘miraculous’ occurrences and properties number theory abounds with. This, without any further assignment of even semi rational variables psychological, cosmological, esoteric, metaphysical to

June 2011 the points relegates the entire enneagram numerology to the field of rebuses and crossword puzzles, and nothing more.

2. Gurdjieff Ouspensky contention that enneagram goes back to Babylon at least, if one follows their ‘numerological’ interpretation of the glyph can be easily dealt a death blow: since 1/7 is equal to 0.142857142857....., it could not have possibly be 4,500 years old since the decimal point, necessary for the representation of the 142857 sequence was not known in Europe before the 14/15th century or in the whole world as early as the story goes, because it was adopted by Arabs from India not before the 8/9th century C.E., and enneagram has never been associated with India. More even in this case, zero as a number is not nearly as ancient as the ‘Sarmoun’ story would necessitate.

3. The enneagram symbol appears for the first time with Gurdjieff and his circle. There is no single trace of it in the works of other authors in any time before, nor was it found in a single document parchment, chiselled stone, paper, or clay seal elsewhere. That it, apart from Gurdjieff and his followers, there is not a shred of evidence such a symbol existed anywhere in the world. Or it if did and does, being at best a marginal presence, it hardly deserves such an attention.

4. Everything that was said re Gurdjieffian cosmology and the falsity of ascribing the holiness of number seven to them, since this notion originates with Theosophy,

Meditation Times applies to the enneagram equally: if one of the two central ideas contained within the glyph is ‘The Law of Seven foldedness’ the Gurdjieffian interpretation collapses due to unimportance of the ‘seven mythology’ for the ancients’ numerology. Or, to put it in a slightly more nuanced way: number seven was ‘sacred’ for ancient peoples only with regard to their geocentric cosmology and its concomitant symbols.

Their numerologies Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Syrian, or Arabic do not give number seven much importance.

5. However, the strongest objection to Gurdjieffian enneagram is not aimed at its incoherence or spuriousness of its supposed origin, but at its aridity and sterility. In short: cognitive power contained in Gurdjieff's interpretation of the enneagram is virtually nil. Even if we accept Gurdjieff’s musical cosmology, alchemy, psychology, hydrogen and the rest we gain nothing from enneagram. Any ninepointed symbol could serve the purpose, and probably, if one were a Fourth Way ‘addict’, better and more comprehensive glyph could be constructed (avoiding ludicrous Sumerian references).

In Gurdjieffian circles enneagram is generally used to ‘explain’ rather trivial human activities, like cooking or planning a date. Also, the Fourth Wayfarers frequently try to glue to the clockwise motion on the enneagram circle some crucial Gurdjieffian concepts like transformation of hydrogen in food digestion or other activities, physical and psychological in my opinion, sad

June 2011 examples of self-delusion. The so called Gurdjieffian movements are ‘enneagram based’ at least in theory. Many adherents of the eclectic Gurdjieffian tradition perform Movements around the enneagram points and lines. But, this is just a strand in the web of bizarre fate that has befallen the old glyph.

The ‘enneagram industry’ has virtually exploded, flooding the spiritual supermarket, in the late 60s, when Bolivian-turned-American guru Oscar Ichazo made the enneagram the central symbol of his occult school Arica, which is a blend of reinterpreted traditional doctrines like Kabbalah, Tibetan Tantricism, Zen and modern psychotherapies.

Similarly, he also changed the enneagram interpretationand, one might say, radically. In this ‘tradition’ which includes Chilean psychiatrist Claudio Naranjo, American writer Helen Palmer and a host of exCatholic monks enneagram has become a sort of pop-psychological tool for personality typing. Needless to say, this kind of enneagram has nothing in common with the Gurdjieffian one except one trait: arbitrariness and illogicality.

The ‘personality types and growth’ enneagram hit the market and has been an immense success since. It is the veritable irony of history that a fossil of paleontological spiritual cognition has become a New Age icon. As Charlie Brown would put it, ‘My mind is reeling with cynical remarks.’

The Traditional Enneagram We shall briefly interpretation of precursor of the universe, i.e., as

address the traditional the enneagram as a ‘hologram’ view of the the universal mandala.

Meditation Times This part is based on fusion of scholarly works, oral instruction and other means of information. I shall retain privilege of not disclosing my sources, as well as giving complete sketch, but not a too detailed picture. A reader is expected to do some research for themselves.

First and foremost – enneagram is rooted in ancient Mediterranean or Middle Eastern esoteric worldview, and this Weltanschauung considers Cosmos and Man as two poles of one Reality.

Therefore, we got exact correspondences between unfoldment of the Universe and psycho energetic processes in human beings as described in alchemy.

June 2011 Enneagram in Tantric Alchemy: Macrocosm In the Fig. 2 we can see the process of cosmic enfoldment in general agreement with Tantric world view.

Fig. 2

Enneagram as a glyph contains the story of creation or enfoldment of the universe and the transformation of human being on the road to immortality and veneration. The story is told in ancient terminology with now obsolete concepts also, I shall use more familiar Greek and Latin terms to describe various stages of the process - not abstaining from sprinkling the story with comparative notions familiar in other wisdom doctrines.

In this Weltanschauung, the circle denotes the Unmanifest Absolute. This is En Sof of Kabbalists, Dhat or Amma/Darkness of the Sufis, Wu Ch’i of Neo-Confucianism, Paramashiva of Kashmir Shaivism, or ineffeble Godhead beyond The One of later Neoplatonists like Iamblichus. The Emptiness/Fullness no one can even speak of nor can think of.

The next step is the emerging of primal ‘I AM’, the Manifest Absolute (one can freely discard arrows in the picture since they don’t tell the story).

Three various interpretations shall be addressed: one that operates with essentially ‘Tantric’ concepts in the broadest sense of the term and which aims at fusion with the Spiritual Self will be more elaborated; others, more ‘practical’ and ‘magical’, only sketched .

All these views work with similar concepts, but differ in significant ways.

In the glyph, this corresponds to the point 9, and is equal to the Keter of Kabbalists, Wujud or God's Being of the Sufis, Shiva/Shakti in embrace of Kashmir Shaivism, Tai Ch’i or the Grand Ultimate of the Neo-Confucianists or The One/To Hen of Neoplatonists.

Then, the unfoldment of the Absolute takes the radical split in manifestation, as represented in primitive thought as ‘Primeval Male/Active Principle’ and ‘Primeval Female/Passive Principle’ (positioned on points 3 and 6 ).

Meditation Times In essence - this is Mind and its Creative Energy. Also, these principles are frequently (but not always) equated with different levels of supraphysical existence: worlds, planes, lokas.

Mind or Consciousness is designated (approximately) as: Hokmah in Kabbalah, Aql-iKulli/Universal Intellect of the Sufis, Shiva in Kashmir Shaivism, Yang (or, sometimes, Ch’ien) of Neo-Confucianism and Nous/Mind of the Neoplatonists. Also, in semi-mythic mindset of HermeticNeoplatonic eclectic worldview, this equals Noetic or Causal Universe.

The Creative Energy is Binah in the Kabbalah, Nafs-i-Kulli/Universal Soul of the Sufis, Yin (or, sometimes, K’un) of the Neo-Confucianists, Shakti in Kashmir Shaivism and Psyche/Anima Mundi/World Soul of Neoplatonism. In Western esotericism it is frequently associated with Psychic or Imaginal Universe.

The final steps (Fig. 3) in the manifestation of the universe are as follows: Neoplatonic Hyle (Sufi Hayula or Western Alchemists's Prima Materia) is the essential matter of Physical Universe.

In somewhat clumsy terms, activepassive principles polarity is reflected on this level (these notions appear in Jabirian alchemy which penetrated and was later modified in the West) as ‘Sulphur’ (point 4) and ‘Mercury’ (point

June 2011 5). In this, still macrocosmic stage of manifestation of the Absolute, these are not to be confused with chemical substances, but are polar forces acting in Prima Materia/Ether, further manifested/emanated as four principal elements: fire (1), air (2), earth (8) and water (7).

This exactly replicates s in Tantric Yoga where we have, bottom up: four elements, ether, Sun and Moon (active and passive principles) of the ‘third eye’ and the Shiva/Shakti embraced in the crown centre/Sahasrara-utter transcendence of the Unmanifest beyond any . Succinctly in the language of Western Gnosis which uses the terms of later Neoplatonism: 1. The Unmanifest Absolute 2. The Manifest Absolute/To Hen/The One 3. Nous/Mind 4. Psyche/World Soul/Anima Mundi/Energy 5. Hyle/Prima Materia/Primal Matter manifested in four elements, which combine to build everything in physical universe Points after 2 can be also rendered as: 3. Noetic or Causal Universe 4. Psychic or Imaginal Universe 5. Physical Universe

Enneagram in Tantric Alchemy: Microcosm Since our chief concern is a concise expose of enneagram’s raison d’etre, we will not delve into intricacies of Kundalini Yoga, which is essentially nothing but internal alchemy. Enneagram originated in the milieu of ‘the Greater West’ (from Rome via ancient Greece to Islamic sects like Ismailis and their branch Assasins in

Meditation Times the Caucasus), and I shall summarize their alchemical Work, which is equivalent to the Tantric Eastern Yogic approach in essential way, but differs in so far that it avoids direct work with energies which is the trademark of ‘energetic’ Hindu and Tibetan Yogas.

As has been pointed out: ‘Alchemists relied mainly upon deductive reasoning based on two: a priori assumptions - the unity of matter and the existence of a Philosopher’s Stone.

Alchemy is said to have arisen in the temples of ancient Egypt and China. And from beginning to its end alchemy remained bound up with religious beliefs.

In fact some of the alchemical strands may be traced back to ancient mythological systems other than those found in the forms of religion practiced by Jews, Christians, Gnostics, Neo-Platonists, Muslims, Hindus and Taoists/Buddhists.

Medieval works on alchemy abound in references to the sulphur-mercury theory.

According to this theory Nature brings forth all metals from mercury mingled with its own sulphur. When mercury and sulphur are perfectly pure and combine in the most appropriate natural equilibrium then the product is the most perfect of metals that is gold.

Different kinds of metal exist because sulphur and mercury are not always pure and that they do not always unite in the same proportion. So the defects in purity and proportion lead to the formation of ‘base’ metals but since the base metals are also essentially composed of the same constituents as gold or silver the accidents of combination may be rectified.

To alchemists achievement of the Stone was the greatest and final goal. To them

June 2011 it represented imperfect man’s search for perfection.’

In summary: on the microcosmic level, the would-be-adept works with different chemical substances and elements in order to achieve the crown of the alchemical Work: Lapis Philosophorum, Elixir Vitae – Philosopher’s Stone which is the Supreme Self.

Before describing the process (Fig. 4), I must emphasize one point: there is no step-by-step retracing the process in the Western esotericism. One can do exactly this in Tantric Yoga, but, then, one could discard the enneagram completely.

Internalized spiritual alchemy, or Kundalini Yoga, operates directly with ‘elements’ which are assigned to the s below throat. Western adept, on the other hand, works with ‘animated’ chemical substances like lead and copper, and by transforming them and himself in the process, arrives at the same destination.

The composition is partially described in Burckhardt’s work on alchemy, complemented by Nasr’s rendition of Ikhwan-al-Safa - with the notable exception that Burckhardt’s interpretation is based on the European alchemy and stops at the stage of solar consciousness: he patiently told the story of attaining the Sun/gold, but has not said anything on the Philosopher’s Stone.

Meditation Times Without going into infinitesimal details of the alchemical process one can find at page 184 et passim of the mentioned book, I will assign different metals, symbolized by ‘planets’, to the enneagram points and show the reason of the Work.

The points are as follows: 4gold/Sun 2-iron/Mars 1-lead/Saturn 8copper/Venus 7-tin/Jupiter 5-silver/Moon.

These are metals of the alchemical process.

Alchemical works try, desperately, to describe why quicksilver/Mercury is not a part of the process-with meagre success. Also, they drop sulphur out of the story. Since sulphur and mercury (this time not as polar forces of Prima Materia, but as, so to speak, higher levels of solar and lunar consciousnesses) are essential for the attainment of Lapis or Elixir Vitae and, at the same time, discontinuous from other steps of the Magnum Opus, I shall set them apart from other substances just as the triangle in the enneagram is clearly separated from the other lines and points.

So: 6-quicksilver/Mercury 3-sulphur 9Lapis Philosophorum, Elixir Vitae, Spiritual Self.

The alchemical process begins with Nigredo, spiritual crisis represented by lead/Saturn/1 (on the enneagram). Then, we can follow all the steps via interior lines of the enneagram: lead/Saturn/1tin/Jupiter/7--silver/Moon/5-copper/Venus/8--iron/mars/2-gold/Sun/4 We have got the gold/Sun, the goal of ‘ordinary’ alchemists (of course, theoretically speaking). This process, which includes ‘active’ or ‘male’ substances/’planets’ on the right side and ‘passive’ or ‘feminine’ on the left side of the enneagram looking from the top, has left us with solar and lunar

June 2011 consciousnesses (or states of being) at points 4 and 5 respectively. To complete the Opus one must move around the circle to the points of the base of the triangle, ‘sulphur’/3 and ‘mercury’/6, interpreted (this time Gurdjieffian lingo becomes useful) as higher ‘octaves’ of ‘gold’ and ‘silver’, or, tantrically speaking, solar and lunar poles of the centre located in the pineal gland/Ajna chakra. When these energies fuse in the point 9, Philosopher’s Stone or Elixir Vitae, equated with the Supreme Self, is attained.

I have presented here traditional and ‘older’ version of alchemy. As a result of innovations brought forth by Paracelsus, Swiss polihistor, doctor and occultist, virtually all post 16th century alchemy operates with three ‘elemental substances’: sulphur, mercury and salt.

There is an alternative, not ‘mystic’ reading of terminal steps of the Opus, as embodied in the triangle of the enneagram. According to this tradition, an alchemist stays ‘confined’ within physical universe, and sulphur and mercury are exactly what they have been all the time: polar forces of Prima Materia/Ether.

In this case, the point number 9, Philosopher's Stone or Elixir Vitae, has nothing to do with the Spiritual Self, but is, as it were, the ‘condensed’ Ether or Primal Matter in ‘pure state’. Then, it can be used as a magical tool for performing miraculous transformations in this, physical world (healing, chemical transmutations or anything similar). The phase state of Elixir Vitae is mutable: liquid, condensed, ‘plasmatic’.

Two other, completely consistent views on the enneagram will be only sketched, since the author has neither time nor

Meditation Times interest to reveal in detail everything he (or his friends and associates, be they ‘here’ or ‘there’) was given: 1. In one reading, the circle corresponds to the Intellect /Mind, and the triangle to the Psyche/Anima Mundi/World Soul three points denoting classical triple division of human soul, but this time on Macrocosmic scale: vegetative, animal and rational. Internal hexagram is Hyle/Prima Materia with four ‘elements’.

2. In still another, the closest to the tradition (but not the most operating), interpretation, we got the following: considering that Islamic ‘science’ (or, better, corpus of cultural tradition ) of abjad ( Arabic version of Hebrew gematria - numerology operating with letters of the alphabet) pretty clearly connects various numbers with substances/’planets’-one can get a realistic archaic cosmology and alchemy working with more traditional assignations: in this case, one does not get entangled in ‘extreme’ metaphysical concepts like the Unmanifest Absolute, but proceeds from the circle which simply designates Hyle/Prima Materia. Alchemy, on the other hand, places mercury on the top of the triangle/9, and other substances follow from the numerological correspondences where ‘planets’ are ‘tied’ to elemental forces of classical 4 elements.

Gurdjieff Movements Non Action Through Action Gurdjieff gave this very precisely as a powerful tool for growth. The practice of movements creates exceptional

June 2011 conditions for transforming the body – machine into a place where the forces of intelligence, heart, and action can freely expand, through the development of a certain quality of attention and relaxation.

Sincere efforts are needed, but efforts in lightness…

Osho on Gurdjieff Sacred Dances Sutra from Vigyan Bhairav Tantra ‘In a moving vehicle, by Rhythmically swaying, experience. Or in a still vehicle, by letting yourself swing in slowing invisible circles’.

Osho: Gurdjieff created many dances for such techniques. He was working on this technique. All the dances he was using in his school were, really, swaying in circles.

All the dances were in circles – just whirling but remaining aware inside, by and by making the circles smaller and smaller. A time comes when the body stops, but the mind inside goes on moving, moving, moving. If you have been traveling in a train for twenty hours, after you have come home, after you have left the train, if you close your eyes you will feel that you are still traveling.

Still you are traveling. The body has stopped, but the mind is still feeling the vehicle.

So just do this technique. Gurdjieff created phenomenal dances, very beautiful. In this century he worked miracles – not miracles like Satya Sai Baba. Those are not miracles. Any street magician can do them. But Gurdjieff really created miracles. He prepared a group of a hundred people for meditative dancing, and he was showing that dance to an audience in New York for the first

Meditation Times time. A hundred dancers were on the stage whirling. Those who were in the audience, even their minds began whirling. There were a hundred whiterobed dancers just whirling. When he indicated with his hand, they would whirl, and the moment he would say, ‘Stop,’ there would be dead silence.

That was a stop for the audience, but not for the dancers – because the body can stop immediately, but the mind then takes the movement inside; it goes on and on. It was beautiful even to look at, because a hundred persons suddenly became dead statues. It created a sudden shock in the audience also, because a hundred movements – beautiful movements, rhythmical movements – suddenly stopped. You would be looking at them moving, whirling, dancing, and suddenly the dancers stopped. Then your thought would also stop. Many in New York felt that it was a weird phenomenon: their thoughts stopped immediately.

But for the dancers, the dance continued inside, and the inside whirling circles became smaller and smaller until they became centreed. One day it happened that they were coming just to the edge of the stage, dancing. It was expected, supposed, that Gurdjieff would stop them just before they danced down the stage onto the audience. A hundred dancers were just on the edge of the stage. One step more and they would all fall down into the hall. The whole hall was expecting that suddenly Gurdjieff would say stop, but he turned his back to light his cigar.

He turned his back to the dancers to light his cigar, and the whole group of a hundred dancers fell down from the stage upon the floor – on a naked stone floor.

June 2011 The whole audience stood up. They were screaming, shouting, and they were thinking that many must have broken their bones – it was such a crash. But not a single one was hurt; not even a single bruise was there. They asked Gurdjieff what had happened. No one had been hurt, and the crash was such that it seemed impossible. The reason was only this: they were really not in their bodies at that moment. They were slowing down their inner circling.

Thus when Gurdjieff saw, that now they were completely oblivious of their bodies he allowed them to fall down. If you are completely oblivious of your body, there is no resistance. A bone is broken because of resistance. If you are falling down, you resist: you go against the pull of gravity. That going against, or that resistance, is the problem – not gravity. If you can fall down with gravity, if you can cooperate with it, then no possibility of being hurt will arise.

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Spiritual way is like the Olympic Flame that is being carried by celebrated athletes from the last venue to the new for the SPORT TO CONTINUE. Each athlete in turn runs with the Holy – Mystically lit Olympic Flame a certain distance before handing over THE FLAME to the next athlete. And thus continues the journey of this mystical flame.

In the process each adds his being while carrying the flame in his hands running through different places and times.

So too it is the methodologies – the tariqat - the Nisbet that changes the hands moving from one master to another.

In the subsequent meditation sessions I shall carry the eternal flame to a new dimension and a new horizon for the birth of new man – serene and integrated within and without.

ya #lahI ta Abd kaym rhe yh islisla May this system - process – tariqat of the transcendence of human consciousness continue till eternity lasts!

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Oct 7th 1875—June 7th 1947

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N

June 2011

One soul two bodies aqshbandi

Sheik

Raghuber

Dayal RA was born on Oct 7th

1875 two and a half years after Lalaji RA. He is the beloved younger brother of The Naqshabndi Sheikh Sufi Ramchandra – Lalaji RA. The two sheiks are the embodiment of the scriptural assertion – one being permeates through all. Allow its glories to manifest.

Indeed it is one Cosmic Soul permeating through the entire cosmos, dwells within each one of us. The Cosmic Being that remains un-manifest in its cosmic form gets embedded and assumes human form as embodied being. This embodied being remains conditioned by body-mindintellect realm. The spiritual journey is the process of freeing the Cosmic Being – Essential nature from the quagmire of the conditioning. And with Enlightenment the Light of the Being manifests through the finite Body-Mind-Intellect.

Enlightenment is the realization of the assertion of Isha-Upanishad: one consciousness or being permeates through the entire cosmos. Those who

have known this live perennially in eternal bliss.

` $zavaSyimd< svR< yiTk jgTya< jgt ten Ty-en -–uÃIwa ma g&x> kSyiSvÏnm!

When Lalaji was seven years of age his mother has passed away. However the ceremony to begin schooling was performed during her life time at the age of six. That time the Sheikh Chachaji was

Enlightenment is the realization of the assertion of IshaUpanishad: one consciousness or being permeates through the entire cosmos

only 4 years of age. The ceremony was performed with gaiety and fervor.

Meditation Times However from the very beginning innocently he was following and imitating his beloved elder brother. Even before his mother departed Lalaji’s father had already wasted most of the property and money in the bad company of the rich of the town. Under these circumstances what could be the way of their livelihood or education of these children.

Chachaji learned Urdu and Persian from an old Maulvi. He also learnt the Urdu Poetry from the same teacher. At the age of ten Lalaji was admitted in tenth standard at Farukhabad Misson High School. The classes run in opposite direction then. As a result Tenth standard was the beginning and the standard one was designated as the Entrance Class.

And with this the student graduates from the school.

At the age of eighteen in the year 1891 Lalaji somehow with tremendous hardship completed his MIDDLE degree in English.

While chachaji continued the study with the same Maulvi and he could only attend the English school for two-three years.

His way of life and living was very simple.

From the very beginning he was very loving, trusting, kind, full of mannerism, contended, full of gratitude, forbearance, and patience.

His father got the two brothers married at a very young age in respectable families.

However after the death of his father the entire responsibility fell on the shoulders of Lalaji. His father has wasted money and property through bad company. In a town where the boys were endowed with

June 2011 wealth, prosperity and a large number of attendants now they have to be contended bare feet sometimes. And in place of proper a five yards long Cloth for Indian Dhoti wear they have to be contended with a small wrap cloth alone.

In the area ‘Nitganj’ near ‘Ghumna’ market the two families lived in a small house. And because of improper facilities for studies Lalaji had rented a small room in the school of Mufti Sahab – a Muslim who run an Islamic school for training the children. Nearby in another room lived an enlightened Naqshbandi Sufi Sheikh Maulana Fazal Ahmad Khan RA who made his living through teaching the students.

The small town where Lalaji lived was on the banks of the Holy Ganges. And there on the banks lived another enlightened Hindu saint Swami Brahmanand. Quite often Lalaji used to visit this saint in the company of his fellow classmates. Swami Brahmanand and Naqshbandi Sheikh used to meet quite often alone. Swami ji used to call Sheikh enlightened and one of high order – Qutab-e-vakt – unparalleled master beyond time.

In 1891 Lalaji got the job in Fatehgarh magistrate court on a monthly salary of Rs. 10.00 per month. This was the only money for the sustenance of the family.

Lalaji used to walk 6 mile to and fro for work.

Chachaji was then 16-17 years of age with a strong wrestling built. His focus was on exercises, sports, and wrestling.

Meditation Times Childlike innocence and simplicity was in his nature. Secretly he learned Indian drum instruments Tabla and Pakhawaj.

And he attained excellence in these instruments.

Lalaji was simple, benevolent, sincere, patient, full of etiquette, and had the qualities of forbearance etc. It seemed he was born with these qualities. And these are the signs of greatness. He had tremendous quality of controlling instincts, desires, and ego. Poverty and financial hardships indicate the purity and inner qualities from birth.

He was the Enlightened master from birth.

Having experienced various vicissitudes of life and thus following the path of awareness Lalaji’s presence became catalyst in the process of transformation of millions.

And now after 137 years when he made the first step on this earth his magnetic presence, influence and energy field is spreading beyond time and space continuum.

The single small step that Lalaji took on this earth became the giant step for humanity beyond time and space.

Meeting with the Master Sheikh The same year after Lalaji got the job one day while returning from Fatehgarh he got late. There was intense thunder, and

June 2011 lightning. Amidst all this dark clouds converged to create darkness. It was winter season. Lalaji’s condition became deplorable. Drenched to the skin on the cold wintry evening he was returning to his room. Teeth cluttering and shivering out of cold Lalaji caught the sight of Maulana Fazal Ahmad Khan RA who said, ‘In spite of so much thunder, lightning and storm you are here.’

Over the period of time Lalaji had become so much captivated by the subtle presence and the magnetic pull of the Sheikh that he will pass in front of the Sheikh’s room and pay respects before going to his room. This was his prayer and daily routine. And the sheikh in turn will wait for Lalaji.

Lalaji used to narrate this incident with great reverence and intent. ‘There was so much attraction, affableness, love, care, and the fragrance of his being overflowing these words beyond any description.’

In that state Lalaji vowed to the sheikh.

The two eyes caught one another tremendous energy flowed through his being that Lalaji became oblivious of his body and mind. It was the state beyond body-mind realm. It was the first experience of Samadhi or as Zen calls Satori. This is the state of bodiless consciousness. The being wants to capture the entire cosmos within. No words can encompass the magnanimity of such a moment of awareness.

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Naqshbandi Sheikh Sufi Ramchandra â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Lalaji RA (1873-1931)

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Shrine Maulana Fazal Ahmad Khan RA

Shrine Lalaji Ra Left Shrine view – Right Inside view with aspirants vowing

It is the experience of déjà vu. All the while the petals were aspiring to open and now suddenly the sun or awareness has

shown in its pristine magnanimity and lo the petals are open. Beauty and fragrance is released into the being. One becomes

Meditation Times utterly silent. As if you have entered the deep recess of your being.

In that state the Sheikh commanded Lalaji to go inside and change the wet clothes while he is preparing the fire to maintain the warmth. Thereafter go back home.

Lalaji followed the words of the sheikh.

After changing the wet clothes Lalaji returned at the feet of the master who has already lit the fireplace. Lalaji sat on the same bed sharing the comforter of the sheikh.

Lalaji says the energy field was intense. It appeared as if the entire being is getting immersed in the unknown and unknowable. Not only that the body-mind realm was melting and dissolving in the ocean of serenity that the Sheikh was. The outer turmoil thunder, and lightning, was disappearing in that light of awareness.

Both inner and the outer were pulsating in one rhythm. The heart, emotions, feelings, thoughts and all senses were melting in that light to attain to its atomic existence.

Lalaji had become embodiment of light and awareness.

This was first experience of the totality of the Sheikh. The communion lasted for two hours. With the communion the storm that had plagued the world symbolizing the inner state of conflict, pain and agony had subsided.

It seemed that this outer storm brought the two into commune.

Remember unless one is caught in the turmoil within or without the journey of transcendence never begins.

June 2011 ‘Every pain, conflict, turmoil, agony or disturbance can become a satori… a Samadhi. It can become a breakthrough, because it is really the state of pain that becomes a breakthrough. It is through pain that one transcends.

Pain gives you the opportunity to introspect. Never through pleasure has one reached the beyond. Because in pleasure one indulges and one becomes more and more oblivious of one’s being.

When everything is going well, who bothers? Then one is on a merry-goround, lost. But when pain is there, suffering is there, one naturally becomes more alert, more aware – one has to be: the pain is a great challenge. Pain is transcendence.’

[Horizons-beyond Mind by Taoshobuddha]

And when rain and the storm subsided Lalaji got the permission of the Sheikh to return home. Lalaji says, coming out of the cottage of the sheikh it appeared as if the earth, the sky, the plants and trees, and the entire animated creation was dancing in and absorbed in that light. All the psychic centers were opening. Not only had this Lalaji attained to the state of Fana-fi-ul-Murid – a state when your master is dissolved in the being of the disciple.

On reaching home Lalaji did not have dinner. Absorbed in that state of light and awareness, the entire being was imbuing inner serenity Lalaji went to sleep. Early that morning around four Lalaji envisioned a large congregation of enlightened masters. All of a sudden a magnificent podium descended from the horizon with a hoary headed resplendent being of radiance enthroned on it. Holding the

Meditation Times hands of Lalaji the Sheikh Maulana Fazal Ahmad RA presented Lalaji to the enthroned resplendent being of radiance.

The MahaSheikh accepted Lalaji saying indeed your life is inclined towards truth and awareness from birth.

Such are no more dreams instead visions.

In dream you consciousness is at the

June 2011 body-mind realm.

Dreams are the outcome of your need. And vision happens when consciousness is at the plane of the being. This is not your doing. Instead vision is the descent from the unknown and unknowable as an effect of your awareness or the inner state.

Shrine Naqshbandi Chacha Ji RA and his consort Sufi Jaidevi RA

Later next day when Lalaji narrated this dream-vision to the Sheikh tears of joy overflowed and said, ‘Indeed you are inclined towards truth from the birth. And certainly truth and awareness is your way.’

Saying this two dissolved into oneness imbuing the inner serenity. Amazed the Sheikh broke the serenity with the message. ‘Indeed you are very dear to me. Quite often I used to watch your movements. And when full of love and respect you used to pay salutations love used to spring forth in my being for you spontaneously. And thus you were being nourished by tawwazjoh, and faiz – the energy field. Indeed it the grace of Allah and the masters. Such pure and sanctified beings rarely assume human

form whose presence and manifestation aspirants, saints, masters, and seekers on path always aspire.

Certainly you will attain to the realm of fana-fi-ul-sheikh and Fana-fi-ulmurid. It was the ushering of a new life and a new beginning.

Later in his life Lalaji explained these events.

‘The first and the foremost light of awareness descended in the lap of my mother.

The warmth of this incandescence nourished my life my being for seven years. And the most benevolent and merciful did not leave me uncared for long. On a marvelous day of the 19th year of life left my entire being under the

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June 2011

benign care of one benevolent, kind, caring, light of the inward path, luminosity of awareness, one on the path of truth – the sheikh Maulana Fazal Ahmad Khan RA. The very first day this light of the being instilled in me the tenets of awareness, love, and truth. And further instructed imitate truth so much that it becomes an important tool. And to continue the journey along the path takes assistance from Maya to preserve inner nature.

However always depend on truth alone.’

Thus this light nourished my being for 16 years both inner and the outer. And always he instructed me to remain aware of the outward tradition and ostentations.

And spread light and awareness beyond the horizons of time and space.

He opined until inner harmony and oneness is attained duality and nafs – ego will continue to create despondency and deprive the seekers of inner serenity. And unless light of awareness descends and manifests all prayer and worship shall simply be ostentation and mere rituals.

Thus the life of bondage, despondency and misery will continue unabated.

Thus he emphasized on meditative practices and then following the tenets of religiousness, principles and instructions

of the master, actions can be transformed.

This will bring inner transformation and transcendence beyond the finiteness. Those who rely on knowledge instead of awareness and continue singing bhajans and life of rituals are indeed far from truth.

One day it happened that Lalaji went on walking along with the sheikh on Farukhabad-Fatehgarh road. Along the way he narrated the life of pain, financial hardships etc. to the sheikh. They continued walking a little further Badhpur (place of the way) and reached a very small bridge. The sheikh was moved by the words of Lalaji and tremendous compassion sprang in his heart that all of a sudden he placed his right hand on the shoulder of Lalaji and lovingly spoke: ‘Beloved indeed you are very lucky and intelligent. Be thankful to God that you have received this unfathomable invaluable treasure very easily as bargain. Saying this two returned. And Lalaji narrates while going along the way and the sheikh was listening to laments serenely the world was with me. And the moment Sheikh instructed to return and uttered those words the world and its dualities had vanished. And in place there was serenity and contentment.

Naqshbandi Sufi Brij Mohan Lal RA (1898-1955)

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June 2011

Naqshbandi Sheikh Onkar Nath Bhaiyyaji RA (1934-2008)

Love of Lalaji for his Sheikh Chachaji Ra used to narrate the love, and respect that Lalaji had for his Sheikh Sufi Fazal Ahmad Khan RA. It is an example for us how to remain in the company of a master totally meditative flowing within the energy field of the master.

Chachaji narrated that he has never seen Lalaji raising his head in front of his Sheikh or talking too much or in a high pitch. The words like ‘Hukum’ – thy will – the cosmic law; and ‘Hujur’ – yes master were on his lips ever. Lalaji never galloped or swayed his hands in front of the sheikh or turn his back towards the sheikh. Whether inside or outside he was always aware of master’s grace. To him his life was the grace of His Sheikh.

The sheikh on the other hand was very jovial with pleasant gestures. Most of the time he used to keep eyes open in meditation. However he was never

oblivious of the etiquette for the congregation. And as soon Lalaji will come the sheikh will become quite. It appeared as if a special one has come.

The harmony was such that any thought coming to the sheikh will immediately reflect on the screen of Lalaji and he will fulfill that immediately.

This was an example of ‘ananya –prem’ – love indescribable that knows no limit, and surrender. His whole salary he used to offer at the holy feet of his sheikh who in turn will send for his wife at home through Chachaji RA. Lalaji considered everything and all resources coming from the Sheikh.

These are very simple things and may appear meaningless to you. No! Never consider such thing as meaningless.

These reflect the being and the inner state of the person. Also it is the

Meditation Times expression of Jesus prayer and understanding or the essence – God alone provides the bread for each day.

Lucky indeed are those who are connected to such masters. It does not matter whatever be the outer appearance or texture – Hindu or Muslim. Not only this lucky are the sheikhs as well who has such devoted disciple.

Chachaji and the Sheikh Chachaji used to say that in the beginning he was totally unaware of master – disciple etiquette. However after some time he understood the nuances of this master-disciple communion. From the early childhood he had the habit of imitating his elder brother innocently therefore he started coming in the commune.

Chachaji was very interested in narrating anecdotes and jokes. As a result as soon as he will reach the format and the color of the congregation will change. The sheikh will initiate the process and thus will begin a joke or story. Sheikh was very loving and respectful towards chachaji. Quite often the sheikh will prepare the smoke – chillum – the clay cone for the smoke. Thus the two will cherish the company. Quite often the sheikh will listen to the music played by Chachaji attentively.

Lalaji however did not approve of this.

Seeing the displeasure of Lalaji the sheikh would implore on him not to worry and say – he is my toy and like an elderly one I enjoy playing with him and his childlike innocence.

The innocence of chachaji was not childish.

Instead it was childlike innocence that Jesus spoke of in

June 2011 response to Nicodumus.

the

question

from

‘Only those who are childlike can enter the kingdom of my father.’

Chachaji was then 17-18 years of age.

His innocence was spontaneous and not cultivated. And this innocence remained his mark throughout. Thus the love between the sheikh and chachaji grew and attained to new dimensions.

Love transformed into bliss, compassion, harmony and serenity. And such was the unique way of transformation between the master – disciple. In fact the sheikh was setting a new methodology for the transformation of human consciousness for future.

Chachaji later applied these tenets and incorporated into his methodology for the transformation of the inner beings of the seekers. And it is our responsibilities to further carry the flame into new horizons.

Spiritual way is like the Olympic Flame that is being carried by celebrated athletes from the last venue to the new venue for the sport to continue with the participation of many. Each athlete in turn runs with the Holy – Mystically lit Olympic Flame a certain distance before handing over to the next athlete. And thus continues the journey of this mystical flame. In the process each adds his being while carrying the flame in his hands running through different places and times.

So too it is the methodologies – the tariqat - the Nisbet that changes the hands moving from one master to another. In the subsequent meditation sessions I shall carry the eternal flame to a new dimension and a new horizon for

Meditation Times the birth of new man – serene and integrated within and without.

I will continue to elaborate and develop these methodologies into meditation techniques and the role of other masters in this process.

All these meditation sessions during this spring of eternal consciousness are available on YouTube Channel of Taoshobuddha and the sincere seekers can connect to the energy field of these masters through these video presentations. Indeed I mean only sincere seekers not the dogs of the world as the

June 2011 Sheikh Chachaji used to say – a guard is necessary at the threshold of the master so that only real seekers can enter.

Alham Dil Allah – Subhan Allah – Allah ho Akbar.

[Excerpt: Leaves from a Sufi Heart Volume 3 by Naqshbandi Sheikh Taoshobuddha] www.youtube.com/user/Taoshobuddha9

TRIBUTE NAQSHBANDI SUFI RAGHUBER DAYAL – CHACHAJI RA http://youtu.be/vyNcn7vR3rU