Monday, October 27, 2008

A Small Note

Before going any further, I should say that this blog is my study, and attempt to restate Mr. Gurdjieff's teaching in my own way and with my own studies and knowledge. There are resources that contain much of this material presented differently -- "Fragments of An Unknown Teaching" by P.D. Ouspensky is usually considered the main textbook of the early teaching. Mr. Gurdjieff's own writings are the very last word, but they can be difficult for those who are unfamiliar with his ideas to read. There are many of his students that act as "stepdown transformers", and who make some difficult teachings of Mr. Gurdjieff easier to understand. J.G. Bennett; C.S. Nott; The deHartmanns; almost endless, and the further we get from direct contact with Mr. Gurdjieff himself, the waves he caused get more and more large but diffused, until they can be accepteed by almost anyone. Like dropping a large stone in a still lake, the vibrations create larger and larger circles, but smaller and smaller in wave strength. I hope to act as a step down transformer myself, but am writing it out "top down", instead of "Bottom up". Mr. Gurdjieff taught both, but he was with people directly to teach bottom up, and with lectures he taught top down, so the two could meet.

I have been using both ancient knowledges and up to date sciences to formulate a new approach. I have been occupied elsewhere, but will return soon to this project, which is frankly, huge.

Patience is the Mother of Will.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Everything, Worlds 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 96, and Nothing

As promised, I'm going to try to explicate what Mr. Gurdjieff called the Ray of Creation and numerical levels of Hydrogens. World one is absolute unity and the divine fiat IS "World One" where the three attributes or three faces of God (Trimurti) exist together. In Sanskrit these are also called Satchitananda; reality/consciousness/bliss. The three laws are in ONE -- this is the Holy Trinity. This is symbolized by a circle surrounded by a triangle.

The triangle symbolizes the three laws or forces which in Sanskrit are called the Gunas, the word Gunas etymologically comes from a root word meaning strand. It takes three strands to form a cord, or to braid hair. Even if you tie two strands at either end and twist them they will come apart. Therefore it takes three forces to create any stable phenomena.

This leads us to "World 3". The only difference between world 1 and world 3, is that in world three, each of the three forces seperate and can show up at each of the points of the triangle and "braid" together. This is what creates the Phenomenological Universe.

Remember that in world three, any of the three forces can show up at any of the corners of the triangle, and one can predominate over the other 2 -- we could call them active (or Rajas) or inertial (Tamas) or reconciling (Sattva). Physics could call them centrifugal, centripetal and revolving. In Chinese they are called Yang, Yin, and the Tai Ji, and in Christianity they would be called the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

This is called world three, or "world" of all galaxies. The entire visible and invisible universe.

Now under the inertia of the divine fiat the triangle can fold outwards, but this is already a mechanical movement.

Now we are in world 6 -- "world" of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. In addition to the three laws of world three, there are now three additional laws belonging to the subset of our own single galaxy. The laws that belong to any particular level are closer and stronger than the laws from the worlds above, so that now in world six, three laws that are particular to it are stronger than the three laws from world three, and accordingly, things are more mechanical and further from the initial Will of the Creator.

Next we come to our own Sun, which Mr. Gurdjieff calls a second-order Sun. It falls under 12 laws, nine from above and three of its own. Let's review: There is the law of the "Trinity In Unity", which is Three in One but which is a law unto itself but not a law at all, because there is no law that applies to it.

Then we come to world three where there are three laws.

This is followed by world six where there are six laws.

So when we get to our own Sun, named Sol, it has three laws of its own, plus six laws from world six and three laws from world three. One might use the image of a tree that every year builds a new tree ring. Every new tree ring contains within it all the other rings but is also larger in radius, and in each case it is the ring that faces the outer world, while all the other rings within it are protected and hidden. It is exactly the same with the laws governing the entire universe or cosmos. The three new laws that each new world falls under are the strongest and are the ones that face the outer world -- the higher laws get encapsulated inside of those outermost three laws.

Next, the Sun has a solar system which is subject to it -- all the planets. This "solar system" or "world of all planets" is under 24 laws, the brand-new three which belong only to it being the strongest, followed by the 12 laws of the Sun, followed by the six laws of the galaxy, followed by the three laws of all galaxies, and hidden within this entire Ray or rope or trunk of the tree, is the original law of Unity in Trinity, which is the only place which is under no exterior law. All other worlds fall under laws, and the more laws each world is under the more mechanical and difficult they become, as each new series of three laws circumscribes more and more of the "world's" freedom.

Next we come to our own planet, the Earth. According to our schemata, the Earth is under 48 laws -- 3 new laws which are its own and which are strongest and which face the outer "world", and 24 which belong to the solar system, and 12 which belong to the Sun, and six which belong to the Milky Way, and three which belong to the "world of all galaxies", or the entire phenomenological universe.

Finally we come to the Moon. The moon has three new laws of its own. If you have been following the layers as I have indicated by the analogy of the rings of the tree you will see that the moon is under 96 laws. Three which belong to it, 48 which belong to the Earth, 24 which belong to the solar system, 12 which belong to the Sun, six which belong to the Milky Way and three that belong to all and everything.

Since we live on the earth we have taken the Ray of Creation which travels from the very top all the way down through the Earth and ends at its satellite, the moon. But for every place in the universe there is a parallel Ray of Creation. In our own Ray of Creation, when we reached the Moon we have come to the end of our branch of the great tree of Creation. And if we were to use the solfege, or musical scale we would find the following schemata:

Do: Unity in Trinity

Si: The World of All Galaxies

La: The Milky Way

Sol: The Sun

Fa: The Planets As a Whole

Mi: The Earth

Re: The Moon

And finally at the very bottom past the moon we would find the lower octave of Do: Nothing, or the complete Void.

This Ray of Creation leads all the way from "the Godhead" as Everything to "the Godhead" as Nothing. In Sanskrit, this point (mathematically a point has no dimensions, and is therefore as close to nothing as you can get geometrically) is known as the Bindu, and is exactly the same singularity from which the Big Bang arose.

Thus we have come full circle, like the Oroboros -- the snake that bites its own tail, and which is the symbol for infinity. It is also the secret alchemical symbol that the chemist named Kekule saw while in a hypnagogic state in front of the fireplace, after he was thoroughly exhausted trying to figure out organic chemistry and the benzene ring. He had a blackboard which he and his son had filled with chemical formulae over months of thinking until he was thoroughly exhausted, went out for a walk and when he came back he sat in front of the fireplace and took a nap. In his dream he saw a pit of writhing snakes (which stood for his chemical formulas), and suddenly he saw one bite its own tail -- and then more of the writhing snakes began to do the same thing. This was the oroboros, and he snapped out of his dream state and ran over to the blackboard where he began drawing the chemical formulas in a circle. This led to the discovery of the benzene ring, and opened the door to the beginning of the study of organic chemistry.

Funny what a dream can do.