All things have a center, from which they whirl; the fingerprint has whorls; the hair on the skull has crowns, the spot where there is no hair and which serves as the center of the hair whorl; the eyes have blind spots where the optic nerve is attached; even Achilles had a place where his Mother held him which dipping him into the pool pf immortality, his heels.
The galaxies have large "black holes" at the center, and everything circulates around this center; why then should not Man have a ridgepole around which his personality revolves. I contend that he does, and it is called "Chief Feature;" a prevailing center around which the constellation of his personality whirls. We have been told by Mr. Gurdjieff that we cannot be told straight out what this is, as we will deny and rail against this fact, as it is two things: too close to our principle identification, and in a blind spot -- in our Subconscious and Unconscious aspects.
There is a well worn work story worth telling: Once two men in the Work decided to help each other by observing each other and discovering Chief feature in each other; after a set period they got together to discuss it. The first to speak told his friend that he had discovered the other's Chief feature and was invited to report it, and he told the other that he was "Argumentative." "Nonsense", said the other, "I am NOT argumentative, and you have lost your mind for thinking so, but I will tell you yours; and that is you are wishy-washy". Whereupon the second man asked the first, "do you really think so?".
This tells the tale. It is a VERY delicate matter, and not easily presented. A man will balk; will rail against this truth, will deny and squirm out of the insight. He has to find it himself, but also requires the presence of others. And this requires the face to face in person presence of those who are further on the way, or else a man will invent all sorts of glorious rubbish for himself, and as James declares in his New Testament letter, will be as men who look in a mirror, turn around and forget what they look like. This is a law.
Now, I spent nine months on this website, working my fingers to the bone participating and trying to see if anything essential could be conveyed over the internet. I got mixed results, but although "something" can be transmitted in words alone, a more important "something else" cannot.
NOTHING can take the place of an oral tradition, and by oral, it is meant that there be actual physical presence together, face to face. It is far too easy to hide behind pretty words and ideas, where the work is NOT. The ideas are NOT the Work. Words are NOT the Work; and only the Work is the Work, and it remains an oral and personal transmission. One can write cooking recipes of thousands of exercises, but as Mr. Gurdjieff has told us, there are general rules and Work for all, and then individual Work for each man, because each man bring with him, his life, which is his being, and the Work is a science of BEING, not of knowledge, or smarts, or of anything else.
So I have been visible here far less. It does not mean I have abandoned this group, only that I am Working, and working is not words and never will be. So I mean no judgement, but only state what I see. The vision of the fact that it is too easy to hide here; there are some who have come and set up "shop," who may not even realize that they have strayed far from the Work or never met it, but this I can be assured of. Those who do not find the Work itself will perish with their ideas; and "die like dogs", as Mr Gurdjieff would put it, and all of their know-how and knowledge will perish with them, and they will have squandered their lives in dispute and contention, arguing like "bon-ton" scientists, while the ship of the Work slips away.
Bless you all my friends. You will hear from me, but not in the manner of before.I cannot be as I was then. I have spent my "time" here, and found that I had to "move on," to "plunge into life" and swim in the "real world" rather than spend precious time blathering here. Enough blather. back to life, and back to the invisible Work.
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