Service, or third force motivation

I found the text at this link interesting. Of particluar interest is
the emphasis Gurdjieff places on doing the exercises solely as a
service. Like you would clean your teeth before bed or clean your
home, but these exercises are to be made internal for oneself.

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The Work is Service. It's the only way to consider it. I think also that there is a lot in that approach. There is a lot that is revealed through Service. I'm speculating but my sense is that these people that find themselves chewed up/spat out in cults never had that perspective. I wouldn't like to say they are motivated purely by vanity or self-will, but I do sense this lack of Service is at the root of their ailing and a possible cause for them being attracted to a cult circuit in the first place. Although, one has to reserve caveats for the exceptions. I suppose the cult experience is one way in which individuals are broken down and prepared for the real Work, but again how many of those types are fit for the Work I don't know.

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ME (ct):

An example of the service approach (and keep in mind I'm intentionally using Work language, because this subject could easily be dealt with solely by going into the Christian sphere) is to use the third force (motivation) of realizing that the more you awaken, the more you develop *real* consciousness, and understanding, and increased level of being, the more you help everybody who is connected with you at any point, to any degree, in your circle of time. Even people who are no longer alive currently, but who you have a connection with, ancestor, family or friend or acquaintance or whatever relation. In this sense consciousness, real consciousness, is C Influence an is like an electrical current, or heat, that travels all through the connections of the fullness of time that is your life in recurrence and even above recurrence eventually.

(After I wrote the above I realized that we need to define 'service' as G. seemed to be using it. I'm not sure it's clear in the context itself, but for the record by service I adopted the meaning of like 'doing something as if it is being done, even if partly, for others.' Kind of like evangelizing, or any third line effort.

There's a big subject in there though. A big orientation that can be missed. Without getting into moralizing though, which is where fallen man will always take such a thing. There is self-interest even in evangelizing the faith. The Bible says so... Some are like stars who bring many to the faith...something along those lines...)

Warriours are needed

I was recently involved in seeing a 'gamer' (I guess that is what they are called) doing his thing online. He was involved in a World War II game where he was able to be a fighter plane and fly around and get in dog fights with other fighter planes, in the higher cyber realm, each one flown by somebody from anywhere in the world. The whole time I was thinking how childish it is. A mere game. I may have given that away too with some language I used which upset him. Couldn't help it. Later, though, it occurred to me that online games like that where a person is going up against other real people from anywhere in the world is a real analogy for what occurs when you get into higher states and engage in spiritual warfare in the higher realms.

The gamers are chasing something at the very eXoteric level, yet there is meaning there at the eSoteric level.

This occurred to me days afterwards when I was in a gas station paying for gas, and I was silently looking at the cashier and thinking that anybody, any being, any level of being, could be working such a menial job, an Achilles, an Odysseus, yet at the same time that beeing can be fighting in the Great War in the higher realms.

Warriors are needed. To discern the battle, the lines, the forces, the goals, is all higher centers work and understanding. To get there and be in the battle, an effective warriour, is conscious shock work. The analogy appears in the physical life as it happens. Everything then takes on meaning. And events occur that wouldn't normally occur.

To chase this - the eSoteric level of the battle - with the same enthusiasm and attention of an online gamer (a directed attention in this case rather than an attracted one) would be what is needed.

What did I keep saying? "Get on the battlefield!" - C.

A striking Gurdjieff observation on basic human nature

[Updated below]

I can't get out of my mind Gurdjieff's striking (though obvious though no less striking for being obvious) statement that humans just want to *astonish* other humans.

"I've astonished you with my entrance into this room."

"My story I am telling is astonishing you."

"I've broken this record and now you are astonished at my accomplishment."

"Though I'm a nobody with no worldly attainments I still astonish you with my aura which angers you."

What happens when you lose the motivation to astonish your fellow human beings? You become anathema. You become an astonishing buzz kill in all environments. You don't want to astonish anybody, and hence the illusion and vanity of it is seen through and the game is over. You buzz kill. You must leave!

And notice that even if you have done something truly astonishing your fellow human beings will react as if you havn't done anything afterall. Only the really innocent ones will be impressed. Otherwise they think: "So you are standing at that podium with all those microphones speaking to the world of your discovery of intrinsic qualities of sunlight enabling man to draw infinite energy from the sun...wow. Somebody was going to discover that. So you are a geek that wasted your life thinking about such things. Allow me to astonish you with the fact that I've just returned from a journey to an ancient forest with a beautiful woman where we discovered a stone chapel where a wise man told us secrets you will never know. I've astonished you."

Update: the Word of God teaches contentment as an answer to the above. When you are content you don't feel a need to impress. Of course the world gets angry when they see contentment and considers the content person to be mentally deficient...

This is amusing

Here's something on a different subject. This is not just a person who doesn't know what he is talking about, but he is so ignorant of the subject it is actually very funny. This is from a cult awareness type website talking about Gurdjieff and his system:

"All joking aside, Ouspensky reported in his book In Search of the Miraculous that he had practiced 'self-remembering' according to Gurdjieff's instructions. Ouspensky had been a seeker long before meeting Gurdjieff and had tried meditation and even hashish and nitrous oxide, seaching for consciousness expanding methods.

One day while practicing self remembering, Ouspensky set out to do some tasks. That afternoon, he 'came to'. To his amazement, discovered he had spent half the day, going around town and had done his errands.

In other words, practicing G's method, and being instructed in this by G himself had sent Ouspensky into several hours of what a modern clinicial would call a dissociative fugue/amnesia state.

Ouspensky thought this was some special attainment. He did not understand that his field of attention had fractured,and that this was potentially harmful and not helpful.

It was also fortunate that Ouspensky had spent the day on foot or using a horse drawn taxicab. For had he gone through this fugue/dissociation while driving an automobile, the consequences could have been dire."

From here:
http://forum.rickross.com/read.php?12,54613,60090#msg-60090

- C.

ps- I know you all know this, but he is referring to Ouspensky's discovery of the 'waking sleep' state, and the attainment in question was simply being able to see it. He tried to be in a state of self-remembering as an aim, fell asleep, then came to later. Remembering his aim enabled him to see what waking sleep was.

Now it is high time to awake out of sleep. -Rom. 13:11