Annotation by Mary Brown: A new friend, a man of considerable intellect and education, introduced to the Gurdjieff work by Allan and now a serious student.
Mr. R is a man of great inner being and has the spirit of love in a way that would be helpful to anybody.
I sent you the Kurosaka story in view of your remark about higher types of consciousness. There is no doubt in my mind that in us there are these higher faculties but the little story merely illustrates how we may misuse those powers if we come upon them before we have developed ourselves to use them properly. We don't even know how to use properly the senses which are apparent to us. That must come first. Your talks to Dr. V and to tht Dutch psychiatrist must have been very valuable. Words cannot express reality but things like these sink in and grow.
It is a good thing that you finished Bernard Phillips.1 The search is the truth. A guide is no doubt helpful but after all, secondary. A teacher cannot teach a pupil; he can only help the pupil to learn. I am sending you now The Journey to the East by Hermann Hesse, which shows how vain may be your effort if you are merely following even the best of rules. M says that his book gives a true picture of the inner life. H H got nowhere until he made the journey a part of himself.
I am glad that you are still intent on the Peruvian enterprise. I may be wrong but it does not make much difference; if you keep your eye fixed on the far horizon your feet will eventually find the way.
Gurdjieff wrote substantially as follows (I do not have his exact words but this is what I remember): It is well to love and forgive your parents, for it is only through this forgiveness that the love of God can enter us.
You are in a very good position. Years before I came in contact with the Gurdjieff work I studied comparative religions and came to the conclusion that the highest types of religion were the Roman Catholic mystics (mystics in the real sense, not in the sense of mistiness) and the Quakers. Also Gurdjieff once suggested that conscious love should be practiced first on animals because they are the more responsive.
As to the Nicoll books I like The Mark and am much attached to Living Time, which contains much valuable material. I have also the Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky.2 This contains much valuable material but ... it explains many things that should not be handed to you but should be discovered for yourself by your own efforts. You are quite right that books are valuable as guideposts pointing to the farther horizon but you must not be identified with them and chained up with your childish delight in having them about you.
Friend, let this be enough, If thou wouldst go on reading
Go and thyself become the writing and the meaning.3
When Ortega Y Gassett said that an idea was truth in checkmate, that is true in the sense that an idea limits truth and holds it bound. At best an idea is a shadow of a real truth and the real truth we shall never know until we have arrived at the mark towards which the Apostle Paul was always striving.
Now as to the work: You do exactly what R says. I am sure he will recognize just what is needed by you. I have a dear friend who was at first very much intellectually entangled but I think he has largely come out of it. If we see reality, the real aim first and always, it is proper to use the mind fully with that aim in mind. That is what the mind was given us for. It is an indispensable tool but alas for us if we let it be our master. It is quite true that Gurdjieff, Zen Buddhism, The Gita, Yoga, the Sufis, and the Tibetans all contain the same ideas. However, hard as it may seem, you should follow R's excercises and instructions in precise detail for that will enable you to concentrate more definitely and absolutely so you may the better grow in Being and see the unity of all religions.
Best wishes to you. I have great hopes of you. I want to see S too but I must warn you that I do not speak Spanish. But then reality is beyond words anyway. If we really communicate it is not in words.
Your Little Prince I am still enjoying. It opens the way. I have always considered Margaret Anderson's book4 valuable because it shows vividly the struggle we must all go through, the giving up of self. The intellectual approach may be a deterrent.
R's insistence on obedience is really Gurdjieff's theory of slave therapy. He contended that one could not obey his real Self unless he could obey a guru.
I am now reading with intense interest Jung's last book, Memories, Dreams, and Reflections. It shows very vividly and with much detail the sort of struggle we must all go through.
Your letter shows that you are concerned with the search and that is good but you must remember that to reach the goal, the omega point, first things must come first. The basis of all search, if that is to have the proper result, is to know yourself, self-remembering, attention, or whatever it may be called. You will notice that Gurdjieff in All and Everything5 after discussing at length the most abstruse always ends up with what he calls being-partkdolg-duty. Just what this means I do not presume to say. My old teacher, Orage, used to say that it meant acting in three centers and perhaps this is as good a definition as can be given. Conscious labor and intentional suffering is what is implied. As a matter of fact the connection between our intellectual, emotional and active or physical centers is very bad and as a result instead of working together these three centers fight each other for predominance.
Your two books, The Science of Psychic Healing6 and ESP7 are very good but I feel they might easily lead you astray. I believe firmly in psychic healing and in extra sensory perception and these and other helpful powers are undoubtedly within us but they are true accompaniments or parts of our real selves if attained and must not be sought for themselves. Such seeking leads only to table tapping in the case of ESP and to hysteria and drug addiction in the case of LSD and to dreaming in the case of psychic healing. My old teacher, Orage, used to cite breathing as an example. There is undoubtedly such a thing as higher breathing; that is, breathing out the residue after we have extracted not only the elements required for our psysical structure but also the higher hydrogens needed for the development of our higher being. One class of Indian yogis practices what they call correct breathing to attain the final result, but Orage always warned us that by so doing we would interfere with Nature, and that correct breathing was a natural accompaniment of knowing ourselves and approaching more closely to reality. Gurdjieff used to say that he liked to work in a crowded cafe where the air was very bad because the thoughtless crowds had breathed out the portions of the air which were needed for the higher hydrogens and so he could use this in a purer state for his purpose of increasing real being.
When I still could walk a little I was struggling up the grand staircase of an ocean liner. Two ladies were coming down and one said, "Christian Science could help you," and I said, "You seem to be under a delusion of a disability of which I am not aware."
As to the list of books which you sent, some I recognize as very good and some as distorting and dangerous to some people. I shall not venture to suggest anything for you to read but instead suggest that you submit this catalogue, also the one I send you, to Mr. R to point out the ones you should read. I more and more think that he is good for you. I highly approve of his assignment and his other project as to finding the children in yourself. You must carry these out if you are to find yourself but you need not send me your findings unless you want to. I am less interested in what you happen to be at the present moment than in the direction you are taking. If you cannot bring yourself to face these existing facts I am afraid you will be nothing but a Christian with a sense of sin..
In answer to your question about the Saturday sessions and your difficulty in getting in touch with the others I should say, do not wait. You must get in touch, not socially, but on an entirely different level, a search for truth and reality. If there is this understanding of real group work there will be no danger of falling in love in the material sense. The aim must be to experience, not merely intellectually that all is one, but actually that all are one. As a matter of fact ultimate reality (God if you wish to call Him so) cannot be worshipped in an ivory tower but only by communication. In this connection I send you a question which is very much in point.8
The quotation on time with which you start your letter is all too true for all of us but it is based on a wrong conception of Time. "Time drinks up the essence of great actions which should be quickly done but are delayed." Hindu proverb. Time is eternity. In this connection I refer you to the book Living Time by Maurice Nicoll. This to my mind is the essence of Gurdjieff's teaching. His Endlessness destroyed Time... and that is what we must all do: destroy our conception of Time for it is only a conception and does not exist. You must find this out for yourself. Gurdjieff would be the last person to set himself up as a gospel. He often said, "Do not believe a word I say." By this he meant find it out for yourself. One of the mottos in the study house at the Prieur�: "If you are not critical it is no use being here."
I noticed in the "Watch-Tower" for January 15 an article, "The Value of RIght Associations," which seems to have a bearing on at least one of your problems. It is pretty long and largely given up to the activities of their sect, but I enclose a section which seems very much in point. They also cite the following Bible texts which have much meaning.
Let us consider one another to incite to love and fine works, not forsaking the gathering of ourselves together ... but encouraging one another. Hebrews X: 24–5.
Ponder over these things; be absorbed in them, that your advancement may be manifest to all persons." Second Timothy II:15
Where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them Matthew XVII:20.
The last has always been particularly moving to me on account of Rembrandt's wonderful picture; he helps me to understand. Gtroup work is at once a demonstration and a method of teaching Gurdjieff's principle of the ... Law of Three.9
I think I told you that I first got in touch with Jung through his insterest in Chinese philosophy. I am not acquainted with the Magische Quadraten you mentioned but I know there are many Chinese books on magic and I know that in reading them the inner meaning has to be understood or they are just plain magic and not reality. I hope that you will read Gurdjieff's All and Everything with particular regard to the Chinese.
If I seemed to be strict in my letters I went at it wrong for while I am strict with myself as far as possible and hew to the line, I recognize that every person is different just as are the leaves on trees and must take up his problem in his own way. The Apostle Paul says: "Bear ye one another's burdens," and immediately after he says: "Each man must bear his own burden."
As to working together, cooperating in the group, this is very difficult but absolutely essential if the ultimate aim is to be achieved—an inner realization rather than an intellectual appreciation that all is one. In fact that is just what group work is for. It cannot come all at once but must be a gradual growth. In this connection I refer to R's suggestion that you find the children in yourself, which you found so difficult. It makes me think of the old Qumran exhortation: "Do not set your sins before you and backslide through them!"
I forgot if I told that I am now reading Jung's latest book... which I find of immense value in many respects including his pertinacity in following the ultimate aim irrespective of personal advantages.
Herewith a poem, "La Virginit� Sous Le Domino Couleur D'Invisable,"10> which points out very forcibly a matter we have often discussed, that through our senses we see only a fragmented reality. As our old Quaker11 says, we see only a shadow of truth behind the shadow. Also the poem points out very clearly that death is not the end of all things but actually a part of life.
What he12 says about the moon is not entirely clear because it is based on the premise that the moon is a satellite. This is not true. The Moon and the Earth work together as a double planet. Thus the moon is really part of ourselves and may be said to represent our inner or higher understanding. Our duty in life is to feed the Moon, make it a conscious part of ourselves. Even if we do not accomplish this, the Moon has an effect on us. For we are working, not for, but with the Ground of Being. This "working with" can be a conscious participation or in any event His Endlessnesss will take us just as we are and use us as material for the evolutionary development which has been going on for billions of years. This is the true meaning of the saying: "Be not decieved, God is not mocked, and whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
"Anulios"13 to me is the Reality we are seeking through the Moon. Now we have the treasure in earthen vessels and see only a shadow but eventually we shall see face to face. This what Goethe's "Mehr Licht: really means.14
I am sure you will take the right method with S. Beelzebub says that his first principle in teaching his grandson was "not to say anything as though it were my own personal opinion, in order that the data necessary for your own convictions should not be crystallized in you in a prepared form according to the opinions of another."14
I was greatly interested in what R said about ESP. I, too, believe that the seeking of special experiences and powers is a hindrance because it is not working for the work's sake. For instance, the Hindus try to reach a higher state by practising breathing exercises, but they are putting the cart before the horse because the proper breathing to extract from the air the higher hydrogens comes from the higher state, not the other way around.
As to the moon, I shall just have to ask you to give me more definite references because I am not sure just what you have in mind. As a matter of fact, the moon has a tremendous effect on all forms of life, even the lowest. The life of oysters, for instance, is absolutely controlled by the moon, as has been proved by moving them to different longitudes.
It is a very good thing to be in direct touch with nature quite apart from the conventionalities of the society which civilization has evolved. The peace we have is inner peace for there are many problems in our material life. We always remember that when we speak of conscious labor and intentional suffering the emphasis is upon conscious and intentional otherwise the labor and suffering go for nothing. I am going to write you very soon. In spite of haveing been here for a month now I find things in considerable disorder. However, I shall give you the names of two books on Blake which I use continually. The old accepted authority is William Blake: His Philosophy and Symbols bu S. Foster Damon, published by Houghton Mifflen in 1924 and dedicated to Amy Lowell. The more modern work which I am studying continually is Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake
I have just read your wonderful letter of November 12 from Lima and my answer which was quite inadequate. I hope to do better this time but doubt very much that I will.
We have not heard from S until today but it appears that she has been working faithfully with R and expects to leave for Peru on December 28. The tone of her letter is very affirmative and she seems to have found a great deal in her work with R.
I intended to write you in detail about William Blake but I find that I cannot do it because Blake is beyond words. He is on a level above intellectual intercourse. In 1929 I used to attend Saint Martin-in-the-Bowerie. The rector, William Norman Guthrie, was an admirer of William Blake and even at that time I had studied Blake for many years, at least ten. Guthrie announced that one afternoon he would give a talk on Blake's poetry. The talk was very good with many quotations. I remember particularly that he said Blake could not be understood intellectually but that somehow or other when the crisis came Blake was there.
I am sending you Kenneth Rexroth's article on the Book of Job and I ask you to return it to me. I have already sent you a book directed primarily to the study of William Blake's Job. If you count up the number of years that I have been on the problem and particularly the study of one book you will see what I have been up against. In your book the best article to me was "The Problem of Evil," by Josiah Royce, page 233.15 By the way Jehovah's Witnesses say that 'Job' in the Hebrew means 'object of hostilities', and so connect him with Jesus.
The understanding of Blake, generally speaking, is practically nil because his manner of thought is entirely above the ordinary social consciousness. For instance I noticed that a woman recently published through Doubleday Blake's Poems of Innocence which she has illustrated, little recognizing that the original Blake illustrations are really part of the poem which cannot be understood correctly without the original illustrations. I will add here that practically all Blake's prophetic books habve been analyzed by me and when you come here I will show you these articles if you wish to see them.
We are sure that with your courage and ability and purpose in view you will make a great success of this Peru enterprise and we do wish you all success.
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