Richard Lloyd's Solasishock

Money Is a Game

2012-01-03T20:23:00.000-05:00

First of all I should tell you what I think of money: it is meaningless. It either has intrinsic value or is an IOU on a paper napkin. Why do you think that people with a lot of money buy art? Because art has more intrinsic value than does a $100 bill, due to scarcity.

Let's trace the history of money a little bit. Before 15,000 years ago, we lived in tribes as hunter gatherers which meant that either we trapped or sought out animals to either kill and eat or allow them to mate inside confines that we would create and eventually turned into what is called domestication. At that time everything was simple barter. If you had something that somebody else needed and they has something that you needed, between the two of you, you worked out relative value, so that perhaps a flint and stone with which to make fire would pretty well be worth learning the secrets of making a compass, by finding a lodestone and chipping off a tiny sliver and floating it upon the cunumbulous of water, a secret that allowed the Chinese to develop seagoing ocean vessels far before the Europeans did.

But somewhere between 15 and 12,000 years ago men began to learn the art of agriculture in earnest. This meant that he had to stay with his plants throughout the year or at least the growing season, and he had to figure out a way to store the extra grain, which the tribe was counting on to get them through tough times and winters. It also meant that locations which had the greatest primary value in terms of freshwater, good soil, animal abundance and plant abundance became places of commerce. Plus, property itself started to sort itself into layers of value. But, back to grain storage. From about 12,000 years ago until about 9000 years ago, most of the world seem to use something called cowries, which were crafted seashells, and were deemed to have different values depending on size and the craftwork that went into them.

Between 15 and 12,000 years ago, agriculture began to take off in a big way. Of course we think this is good, because it caused communities to stabilize and to have adequate food supplies for tough times. But grain requires storage, and grain storage creates wealth. At this period of time "cowrie" shells were used as instruments of value, and incidence of these instruments of value can be found worldwide. As we domesticated the animals a funny thing happened about 10,000 years ago. It is called the Holocaust, which translates as “burnt offering.” Here's how it came about:

As a child you probably had chickenpox. Where do you think chickenpox comes from, bananas? No. Obviously chickenpox is a disease that once confined itself to chickens and somewhere along the line made the leap into humans. first, an animal would get sick, and this would spread throughout the herd. Somebody who was very clever and sly took notice of this and as soon as he saw a sick animal he would separate it from the herd and throw it on a bonfire. If you get results, which clearly they did, all the sick animals would be thrown on the “Holocaust”, saving many human beings from the hazards of these diseases. Pigs were another example: they often contain almost invisible worms called trichinosis, and if the meat were not cooked thoroughly, the human beings would come down with trichinosis–not a pretty sight, so let's look up at the chain of command. There are probably heads of households, there is likely to be a tribal chief, but the buck stops somewhere and laws and taboos aren't going to get very far if they come from somebody I know– thus the necessity of the creation of deities–gods, and there were plenty of gods for every occasion. Gods for success in war, a good harvest, healthy children, good luck, plenty of food, and every other thing you can possibly imagine.

Now let's say you had sold the riddle of illness, that is to say that you had figured out that if you burned a sick animal you probably saved your village a great deal of distress, and if you forbid the eating of something, you can also save lives. So what's our best approach to say that I thought it up is to end up with a lot of people laughing at you, but going up the mountain, which were considered portals to heaven, you could come back with some pretty hefty rules that people would follow. So man created God in something of his own image–that is to say, anthropomorphically similar but with far greater powers than anyone of us.

In our quest for the domestication of animals the largest were bulls and cows, which became instruments of value at around 9,000 BCE. A good healthy cow which could give milk and meat, or a virile Bull is worth an awful lot of sea shells, and worth a good healthy portion of salt, which has a distinct value of its own–not only necessary nutritionally but excellent for preserving meats for long periods of time. So animals became mediums of exchange, for several thousands of years–long enough for the cow to become sacred in India, the pig to become taboo in the Middle East, and so on and so on.

This lasted until somebody thought of making coins, eventually out of what are called the precious metals, silver and gold– but, silver might tarnish with gold is very stable. Throw a bar of gold in the ocean and hundreds or thousands of years later it will be exactly the same bar of gold. So gold coins became the medium of exchange because they were easier to carry around than cattle. Paper money didn't really come into existence until several hundred years ago, with the invention or rediscovery of the printing press. Now here are some interesting historical facts:

We're going to look at the Crusades, which cost a lot of money to fund, so they simply raised
taxes. It is easier to demand money from people who already have it then to demand work instead of money. The Crusades almost broke England' and other nations banks, then called treasuries. Now what happens when you need more money than you actually have? And this is where we begin to see our problem. Countries themselves started borrowing money to fund their wars.

This is where things get tricky, so please bear with me. Usury is the word for unfair interest.
In the Middle Ages, Christians could not lend to other Christians at interest, so if I lent you 100 "Thalers" Father of the word Dollar), or "Crowns", when you paid me back it was still 100 and we were even. Muslims were not allowed to lend at interest either, and lend only to other Muslims. The Jewish were forbidden to lend to other Jews at interest, but they COULD lend to other peoples (Gentiles, Goyim) at interest. That's where this whole shit-storm got started.

You might be able to borrow from your friends, but they trusted you and if it was for War, who knows if they would ever see their money again. Sooner or later you had to go to the Jewish Bankers, who were the loansharks of the day. They might loan you $100 but they expected $110 back, or they came and took away your livestock and your land. Soon the Christians caved and started allowed loaning at interest and EVERYBODY GOT STUCK in spirals of debt, except that the Jews had a head start. One of the smartest guys changed his name to Rothchild (which means "red shield") and soon became the richest guy in the neighborhood of the entire world.

And Rothchild built a kingdom out of money itself. And he became Europe's first real slumlord. BINGO - Anti-semitism (lots of my friends have been Jewish down to the bone marrow).

I AM TALKING ABOUT MONEY AND ONLY ABOUT MONEY - NOT ABOUT GENETICS OR TRIBES OR NATIONS.

But here is where the trickery exists, the sly man's method of fleecing the sheep: HE LOANED TO BOTH SIDES OF WARS, knowing that one side would win and pay him back with the interest, and the losing side would owe him money they didn't have; in other words, they would default, and he could legally take their land and whatever valuables they had, after the winning army looted, pillaged and raped all they could.

BRILLIANT! Don'tcha think?????

Pt 2 later, as the story gets hotter... join me in this great adventure that affects every living thing on Earth.

America vs. Amerika, and the winner is?

2012-01-03T09:43:00.003-05:00

THIS IS THE TITLE OF THE NEXT ENTRY, PROBABLY LATER TODAY. I GOT A LOT SWIRLING AROUND MY HEAD, TRYING TO GET OUT, AND WHAT BETTER WAY THAN TO NURTURE THE FLAME OF THIS BLOG... SEE YOU THEN. IN THE MEANTIME, ENJOY MY PLASTERCASTER STORY.

Solasishock: Degrees of Freedom = Money

2012-01-02T12:17:00.000-05:00

Solasishock: Degrees of Freedom = Money

Degrees of Freedom = Money

2012-01-02T12:11:00.000-05:00

Well, here it is, 2012, the year where everything ends on 12/21. Well we better get ready, because anything that ends postulates something beginning, and I think it's beginning now. I know I was born in what I thought was America, but lately I have begun to think that I live in Amerika, with a spiraling down of personal freedoms as the famous saying goes, “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.”

The only problem with that scenario is the ratio between the rich and the poor, and how you define each of those terms. Personally, I don't enter thoughts of UFOs or Mayan calendars, except in the sense that the Mayans get to celebrate New Year's early.

I suggest that the term rich and poor have to do with degrees of freedom. America is said to be the land of the free and the home of the brave, but by percentage, less and less of us have less and less freedom. Most of us are counting our pennies while the rich count their millions. I don't care much for things, because anything I own also owns me–otherwise why would I go searching for it when I can't find it? I am then it's servant, it's slave–for as long as it takes for me to either find it were to declare it lost.

The term “degrees of freedom” is a term from physics having to do with symmetry, with the symmetry of the sphere being greatest, because no matter how you roll it, it looks the same. Not so with a rectangle, in a square you would have 90° of symmetry or 6 different positions which would look the same. With a rectangle if you have a strange grouping where one group of symmetry are the 4 ways you could turn it, and 2 additional but completely different degrees of freedom when you stand it on its end.

What has that got to do with me, you will probably ask? Well, although money has no intrinsic value of its own (it used to be tied to the gold standard and the silver standard but now it is tied to nothing), still has as much value as you pretend it does (or society at large). We will be talking about the Federal Reserve later, but right now we just want to associate money with degrees of freedom. If you are homeless and are begging for change you have almost no degrees of freedom–you must do the same thing day after day with no respite. With more money you may rent an apartment–with more you can buy a house etc.

The rich can go skiing and live their lives on vacation. If they have enough money they can play at it–the money game. When I used to tour through Europe it drove me crazy because every time we crossed a border we had to change our money into a different currency, and the money changers always charged you to exchange currencies. This of course, depletes in a small amount your degrees of freedom and establishes borders. If I can use the Euro in quite a few countries I save money because the money changers have been put out of business, but if I go to a country such as Great Britain, who do not use the Euro, where am I? At one of the thousands of money changing establishments, with them scraping off a little off the top every time I change my money.

This, by the way, is the only act of violence that Jesus ever performed during his ministry–on Wednesday, he overturned the money changers at the Temple, because you had to buy sanctified animals from the priests, and they used Shekels, whereas the common people used Roman coins, because they were under the yoke of Roman Rule. Let's run a little timeline, Jesus knocked over the money tables (and you can just imagine the scramble of people to grab the Shekels), on Thursday evening he was arrested in on Friday morning he was crucified. Wednesday Thursday Friday. No slow-motion justice there. He acted on Wednesday and was dead and thought of as out of the way by Friday afternoon.

Many people when they get rich buy summer homes, boats, yachts, 4 or 5 cars and every other luxury you can imagine. What do I do? I hope that my next royalty check has a good number on it. That's right, I get royalty checks, which means that I am Royal. That doesn't mean shit. I have played and performed with my heart and soul and I have given it everything I've got every time, but I have less degrees of freedom than the man who owns the building I live in. What do you think of that?

It's Been a Long Time

2011-06-07T20:43:00.002-04:00

Yes indeed, it seems like forever since I added anything to this blog. For the last two years, I have exerted my energies into places; on Facebook and on a website dedicated to The Fourth Way entitled What Is the Work. Interested parties are invited to go to What Is the Work on Ning.

Where were we? It really doesn't matter because the only thing that should concern us is where we are now. The word now, in its Sanskrit roots, is the first and most important word in what is called "the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali". This incredible document is worth reading in numerous translations, unless you are willing to undertake learning Sanskrit itself, which is no easy task, although it is less difficult than studying Chinese or Hungarian.

Sanskrit is considered a divine language, and is not used for common speech. A single Sanskrit word might require 28 to 36 words in English, even to approximate its real meaning. It is what is called, multivalent, a word which you might remember from my exposition on chemistry.

In any case, when I have students who wish to study "the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali", I often begin by telling them that the entire book of 192 pithy statements (the word Sutra is the root word for suture, and means thread – the smallest amount of words upon which an idea can be presented – it does not even require grammar, being understood as something to be memorized and then expounded upon by one's Guru.)

The word Atha generally would be translated into English as an emphatic NOW, which is so startling that it stops the thought processes altogether. That of course, is the goal of yoga, which is to attenuate or stop the whirlpools (vrttis) or waves in the consciousness. If this is achieved the Self is revealed from the inside out in its "August Majesty" – whereas at all other times the self (with a small 's') misidentifies itself with the movements or vrttis in consciousness. In other words, the self misidentifies itself with the phenomenological universe.

I start to feel as though I am saying the same thing over and over again. So I will stop now. At least I have broken the ice, and may continue, more in earnest after a short time. Thank you for reading and following my "secret blog".

apologies are in order

2009-05-29T09:19:00.001-04:00

For readers of this blog, I apologize that there has been so little activity, but I have been very busy within the current of outer life, and will return to posting as soon as is feasible. So sorry to leave you wonderful people waiting. But the wait will be worth it I can promise, because I have been 'working on myself".

The Crushing Weight of Law

2009-04-02T09:53:00.002-04:00

We're going to follow Mr. Gurdjieff's descending table of hydrogens -- that is, his concept of atoms of varying densities. This has nothing to do with the periodic table, so it is best to leave ordinary chemistry behind. This is more of a cosmogony, that is, how the universe is organized in terms of its material and energy. Practically everyone thinks they understand the formula E=MC2, which states that matter and energy are the same thing -- that matter is congealed energy, and that energy is extremely thin matter, but the two are interchangeable.

Mr. Gurdjieff called himself a materialist -- meaning that his view was that everything is material, even thoughts; even angels, archangels and God himself.

At the top is the unity -- unknowable by human senses or standards, but that this unity is also a Trinity -- The Father Son and Holy Ghost, or in Hinduism the Trimurti, murti meeting face, so that this word means the three faces of God -- Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma. They have three attributes which are called Satchitananda. This is a compound word of three separate words meaning Sat=reality, Chit=awareness and Ananda= bliss. So the three attributes are reality, consciousness and bliss. These three are considered as one -- imagine a mind with no obstruction. Anything this mind thinks would have as much reality as reality itself, because it has no obstacles and nothing to argue against it. Then it would also be completely aware, and because it has no obstacl it lives in bliss. This is how the ancients thought of God, as three in one. So the first atom would be three in one. This would be world one.

Then we would come to world three, where the three attributes would become the three Gunas -- in other words they would separate so that now we have three laws.

Next we would come to world six, because every new world has three new laws, of its own, plus any laws from above -- so this world would have three new laws as well as the three laws from world three. That leaves six

The next world would be world 12, because it would have three new laws, plus six laws from world six plus three laws from world 3 -- add them together and you get 12: three plus six plus three equals 12

The next world would be world 24, because we have three new laws plus 12 laws from the preceding world, six laws from the world above that and three laws from the world above that. The arithmetic is simple: three plus 12 plus six plus three equals 24

The next world would be constrained by 48 laws -- 3 of its own plus the cumulative effects of all the laws which exists above it: three plus 24 plus 12 plus six plus three equals 48.

The next world would be world 96 -- 3 laws of its own, plus 48, plus 24, plus 12, plus six, plus three equals 96.

This is as far as we need to go right now. Each of these world are like Russian dolls -- they live inside one another. Mr. Gurdjieff says that the first world or the highest world we can know is world three, and its laws travel through the entire system but seem to get further and further entrapped inside of the other laws. Each world's only three laws are stronger and closer to it than the above laws.

World three would be the world of all galaxies.

World six would be the world of the Milky Way

World 12 would be the world of the Sun

World 24 would be the world of the entire solar system including the planets

World 48 would be the world of the earth

World 96 would be the world of the moon

That's as far as we need to go, because that is as far as the Ray of Creation goes, on our particular ray. There may be myriad rays, but we only live on one of them -- our own particular ray of creation, and the moon is the endpoint. If you use the analogy of a tree, the moon is the endpoint or bud of our particular branch.

Each world would contain atoms which correspond to each world's weight. So the higher up the scale, the less dense and more ethereal the atoms get. And as we go down the ray the heavier and more gross and material the atoms get.

So we live on the earth, which is under 48 laws, or 48 jurisdictions -- 48 sets of laws. What they are is not told us. We know that the first three are reality, consciousness and bliss, and we know that they extend all the way down to the end of the ray, but they are contained inside "walls" or coatings of denser laws, so that by the time we get to law 48, we are under an immense load of laws. The moon is even under twice as many laws. Try to ponder this, and we will continue next time.

What Does Not Matter

2009-03-29T16:35:00.004-04:00

What does not matter is whether anyone actually reads this blog today or tomorrow or in eternity, or in infinity. What matters is that I write this blog, and that my words have myself behind them, that my words are not shallow like a small creek, but deep and wide like an extraordinary poem.

I have learned how small I am, and I have seen how large the difficulties are. My own work is invisible in any scale beyond that of my own little hamster run. I am crucified to my life and I cannot escape the cross. This I have tried many times, bloodying my wrists and feet struggling against the bonds which hold me. But there are Roman soldiers at the foot of my cross, just as there were when our Lord was crucified. Luckily they play dice, and fall asleep during their watch. If I can stand the pain -- the extraordinary sensations, I can open up the wounds which they have inflicted upon me so that they are large enough to slip off the head of the nails.

But still I must bide my time. They know that I will struggle against the crucifixion -- that I will sweat both water and blood, salt and urine and feces, along with my drool and the running of my nostrils and the tears of my eyes. Every orifice is open in this crucifixion, so they expect me to struggle. And if I struggle with intelligence, I can open my wounds large enough to escape.

I must let them gamble away my belongings. They would link me to them anyway and help the dogs to find me. I want my escape to be genuine. The suffering is almost unbearable -- beyond my own ken, but if I remain open there is a help which comes to me, which bears my strength and my weaknesses and which fills me with a higher impulse, one that is stronger than death.

Now I cry out in thirst. All the fluids are leaving me, and they offer me gall and vinegar, which I refuse -- they have placed droplets of poison on the sponge -- not to kill but to decrease the consciousness so that the pain can be endured. This is not what I wish for. I wish for more suffering, a deeper suffering -- a suffering beyond that of a single man. I wish to suffer for these men who stand below me playing games and laughing. They see me suffer and struggle but they cannot see my laughter, because it is deep within me. I recognize them -- they are children at play, and they play soldier. At a certain point they become exhausted with my moaning and my crying out. They do not know that I have been opening my wounds with a purpose, and that my crying out has not been my suffering but theirs. Finally they are asleep, and supported by the guest I release first one arm and then the other. I keep my wrists wrapped around the T bar of the cross, so that I might release my feet, which are pointed sideways and through which the nail has pinned both heel bones. But as it seemed to them that I pushed myself up to breathe, I was also grinding the bone in a strange circle so that when I was ready, my feet would release themselves. Now I do this, and with the outer foot free, I begin to turn my knees forward and release the other foot. After this, I do not leave the cross. It has been my home, and its wood knows my suffering. All trees henceforth will pass this tale from generation to generation.

Below me at a distance are my friends, they are wept out and also sleep. Only one is remained awake, so that when I fling myself off of the cross he catches me. Nicodemus. In the meantime Joseph of Arimathea has gone to Pilate to ask for the body. The soldiers have woken up now but do not wish to lose their salaries, so they simply ask "how did he get off the cross?". The answer was given we took him down according to our traditions so that he could be buried before Sunset. Then one of the Roman soldiers took his spear and jabbed it into my side and saw the water and blood gush, and assumed that I was dead. But he missed my heart, which I had stopped from beating.

I was lain in a tomb and ministered to whilst the tomb was sealed with a Rolling Stone. The Romans followed and stood guard, but in the three days wherein I recovered they fell asleep several times and so I left and left them my peace.

On the third morning the women came to minister unto me but I was in disguise. They fell, astonished at the empty tomb, but the work had been done. Except for the ratification, which took mystically 40 days, during which my disciples scattered until their bravery came back and they gathered together. I then sent the Spirit to alight upon each one of them -- and teach them how to communicate with all manner of persons, the good news of my work. I then took my leave. I then took my leave. I then took my leave.

Africa

2009-03-26T10:20:00.001-04:00

I have been all over the world, as a musician, but haven't until last week stepped foot on the continent of Africa. I read anthropology and all manner of disciplines, and it is said that Africa was the birthplace of mankind.

But it was hearsay and I am a skeptic. Then I came to south Africa, and as I stepped off the plane and my feet found the ground I KNEW. The impressions have been SO deep that I spent the first entire week weeping at the brotherhood of Man. Here, as opposed to the United states where I live and where I have called New york City my home for 50 years, I came in contact with a different reality. I cannot describe the impressions except to say that I am irrevocably changed. I have been eating such rich food of these impressions that I am staggered by the depth of them, and the new understandings that they have given me. My compassion has been increased twenty fold, and I now say (striking my chest), "I Man", (Striking gently the chest of another man black or white) and saying "You Man", and I then say "Human" as I pass my arm across the horizon, to suggest that we are ALL on the same level.

The time is different here also. Now does not mean the now of New York. There are three nows here. "Right Now" is the closest to the "now" of NY, but not quite, because the "Now" of NY is an hour ago. "Now-Now" is "shortly" and "Just Now" means anytime in the future, but it will be done. A little like Jamaica, where "soon come-little while" means what "Just now" means here, but not quite. There is an irrepressible natural buoyant joy here, both in the blacks and in the whites, many of who feel a deep guilt from Apartheid, but it is SO much more respectful than the racial issues which exist in the US. The shame many whites feel here is nothing like the resentful false crap of the rainbow political farce that exists in America.

Another man said to me that this is the home of rhythm, and it is true beyond experience. When I told him that I felt the natural joy in even those with nothing he said that the best music was born of oppression, and I said instead, the music is in SPITE of oppression. Unlike mathematics, where a negative number times a negative number equals a positive number; a negative emotion does not negate another negative but multiplies the negative.

I have come to see that negative against negative is like a knot in a rope; pulling on the ends of the rope in the attempt to undo the knot seems to make it smaller, but only tightens it and makes it harder to untie, where the action required is to push the ends together and take the small fingers of the child inside the knot and loosen it. Then and only then can it really be undone. We cannot add anything in the Work, only remove the filth and untie the knots.

In Yoga there are three Granthis (knots) which bind the sense of identity (Ahamkara) to the worldly figure, and these three knots need to be undone before freedom can be achieved. The first Granthi is with the physical body; the second with the E-motional body, and the third with the Mental body.

When these identifications are cut or untied; there arises a natural freedom -- the lesser and greater freedom. The bodies do not die but then live not as slaves but as free men -- the "Three Brothers" Mr. Gurdjieff wrote about and then burned in 1934, when he had a bonfire built and burned all of his papers -- to the tears of Olgivana deHartmann and Madame deSalzmann. Oh, what we may have lost. The library at Alexandria perhaps?

All I know is that I am in Africa, and spend my time in two places, two worlds...outer and inner richness I cannot explain or describe. And there are two places in the studio building where I am working right next to each other -- the studio where we are making music, and next to it, an anechoic room where it is silent and dark so that it makes no difference whether your eyes are open or closed. I have spent much time there alone, and like Napoleon after he slept in the great Pyramid at Giza, and came out white as a ghost and never told what he experienced till his dying day, when he was asked, "Now that you are dying, would you like to tell us about your experience in the Pyramid?" and he began to say "Yes... but oh never mind, you would not believe me", and then he died...

Something has died in me, and I do not miss it one iota.

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

2009-03-25T19:01:00.001-04:00

I am going to begin posting some of the material from elsewhere that deserves to be here, by moving it onto this blog. Here is an essay on the Yoga Sutras of Classical yoga, as collated by Patanjali. Enjoy:

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are one of the world's great spiritual treasures. It is a collation of pithy statements containing no grammar -- they were meant to be recited and still are passed orally from teacher to student. Scholarly opinion attributes the writing anywhere between 200 B.C. and 400 A.D.. This is well after the life of the Buddha, Gautama Siddhartha. Scholars are divided as to whether some of the sutras have been added in direct defense against Buddhist philosophy, especially in Pada 2, or Chapter 2 -- the word Pada means foot and there are 4 feet in the sutras.

I have given seminars on the sutras which have lasted six to nine months. When my students ask me the meaning of the entire text I tell them that it is contained within the first word, Atha. Many scriptures begin with this word and end with the word Om. They are so to say, the alpha and omega of Sanskrit. The word Atha doesn't translate well into English because of its emphatic nature. The closest single word in English would be now, but more like NOW!!!

All impressions are shocks, some delicate, some strong. Some impressions do not rise to the level of introduction into consciousness, and remain recorded on the unconscious and subconscious rolls. But the word Atha is to be said forcefully, almost as if one would shout Eureka or HA!.

It is a shock meant to wake one up, and it is followed by the phrase rendered into English as NOW, the exposition of Yoga. Yoga is a word that has about 28 meanings, perhaps even more but the meaning we are interested in is exactly the same as in the word religion, which comes from the Latin and means to attach again (re-ligare). In our interest in Yoga we are interested in reconnecting with the Self with a capital S..

Each word in the yoga sutras is extremely important, and the word sutras is where we get the word suture which we use in surgery -- it means the finest thread upon which an idea can be strung, so the yoga sutras are pithy, and usually require explanation by the teacher, and there are many famous commentaries upon this work of Scripture.

Below I have rendered in English translation of the first four sutras: NOW, the explanation of yoga. Yoga is a restriction or a cessation of whirlpools in the consciousness. When these whirlpools (Vrttis) are made to stand still, then the Self radiates forth in its August Majesty. At all other times the self ( with a small s) mis-identifies itself with the movements within consciousness -- that is, with the vrttis or whirlpools in the consciousness.

The rest of chapter 1 is irrelevant at the moment. For those who know, this has been enough. And the rest of the chapter explains some of the workings of discrimination and consciousness. Now we come to chapter 2, or the second foot -- which is called Sadhana Pada, or chapter of practices.

The first sutra proclaims that through a burning desire and an ascetic devotion; self study and reflection of one's own self, profound religious meditation upon one's personal God are considered the yoga of action. A very interesting section is from this chapter, which delineates the eightfold limbs usually called Ashtanga, which means literally eight limbs. Some people consider them as a ladder or staircase, where one must do the first one first followed by the second, etc., but the actual sutras described them as the eight limbs of a single being. They are in the following order:

One: the restraints or vows which are fivefold: harmlessness, truthfulness, non-stealing, chastity, and a rejection of gifts coupled with self-restraint.

Two: the fixed rules or precepts: cleanliness or purity (this conforms to the first striving), contentment, religious fervor or a burning desire, study which leads to the knowledge of the self, surrender to God and making God the target of concentration and all other established observances.

Three: the learning of Asana, which oddly enough comes from the same root as the word for your behind upon which you sit, the ass. This seated posture should be firm fixed steady steadfast and lasting, bringing happiness and delight. This then includes all of the Hatha yoga postures, each of which is designed to show a different potential which is man's natural birthright, and each of which brings with it certain powers called Siddhis, which translates pretty well into English as perfections. But the main goal of this third limb of yoga is to put the body in a position to be able to sit for a long time in order to do the essential work, which is a strong activity within silence.

Four: Pranayama. This is very widely misunderstood. Prana is the life force within the body, something like Qi in Chinese alchemical medicine, or Rauch to the Jewish, or Pneuma to the Greek. And the term yama here has a double meaning, not just control or restriction but actually expansion into the entire physical body as well as second and third bodies. The physical gross breath is just a handle, like the handle on a hammer or screwdriver. Hatha yoga specifically uses the body because it is easiest to grasp and utilize hydraulically. The real aim is much more sublime. This is one of the reasons why Mr. Gurdjieff spoke so poorly of those fashionable exercises from books, which can do more harm than good. One of the greatest Yocic Scriptures is called the Hatha Yoga Pradikipa by Svatmarama, written in the 15th century CE. When he talks of pranayama he declares the following: the breath should be tamed as if it were a lion or Tiger -- slowly, and with great caution, lest it rend the practitioner and kill him (or her). It then describes various forms of practice along with the results.

Five: withdrawal of the sense organs from their contact with the external objects, and drawing them inwards towards the self. This is usually described as the action of a tortoise, who pulls his head and limbs into the shell. It is also what is referenced as "Turning the light around" in the Secret of the Golden Flower. One can separate each sense into three parts, the organ of sense, the object of its attention, and the invisible secret tether between those two. Drawing the sense organs back is the act of Pratyahara, the fifth step of classical Yoga.

Now we reach a real turning point. All of the previous steps have been outward -- working on do's and don'ts, the physical body and the life force represented by the breath. Now with step five we begin what are called the Antara sadhana, or inner practice -- I suppose you could say that from now on our yoga conforms to what is called the "quiet work" in the Work -- conforming to the sittings and the other inner exercises given by Mr. Gurdjieff and his earliest followers.

Six: and now we have even come to the end of that previous chapter and move to chapter 3 which is called Vibhudi Pada, and we begin with developing the concentration. This is called Dharana, or "concentration". Mr. Gurdjieff speaks of three qualities of concentration or attention; free or unfettered attention, which is our enemy, because it wanders all over the place with no self-control. Then there is attracted attention, such as when we read a good book or go watch an interesting movie -- the object of the senses hold us in thrall. This is also half harmful and half beneficial. Finally we have directed attention, which requires effort -- the kind of attention we utilize when we are studying or trying to solve a problem.

Now with this sixth step we begin the inward limbs of yoga -- this can be with seed (kalpa) or without seed, that is, we may have an object of contemplation -- it might be the candle, or an Apple, or our preferred deity. No matter what the subject matter, this is called samkalpa, that is, with seed. Concentration on its own at this point is almost out of the question -- but it would be called Nirkalpa, without seed. Sometimes at the very beginning of the Work, a man or woman is told to simply sit and experience the current of life which attempts to pull them out of the chair, in order for them to "do something". So in the beginning, not doing is the most powerful and only doing that we can actually accomplish, at least for a couple of moments. It is heartily recommended. Now this concentration is likened unto water being poured onto an object -- whatever is being contemplated. If you pour water on to something you will notice that it breaks into small pieces as the water falls. This is the initial stage of concentration, which will be interrupted, and which like a small child who has wandered off, should be brought back to the object of concentration with great gentleness, compassion and love. There is absolutely no need to scold the attention which up until now has been pretty much given free reign.

Seven: now we come to what is called meditation proper, and the word for it is dhyana. This is defined as a steady, continuous flow of attentive awareness direct it towards the same point or region. This is likened to the pouring of oil on the object, which because of its viscosity, pours upon the object without breaking up as did the water. This is meditation and the difference between the previous step and this one is quite powerful. This step actually begins a process concerned with the elimination of fluctuating thought waves in order to achieve a single pointed concentration. Now we establish the maintenance of a single steady and profound contemplative observation. This brings in its wake profound knowledge of those objects being contemplated, and if one maintains this meditative practice one moves automatically to the eighth step, which I will describe next.

Eight: The Sanskrit term for this step is Samadhi, a compound word meaning more or less, "together with" or "simultaneous existence". In this step there is a merging of the consciousness with the object under scrutiny. The consciousness of the meditator appears to be dissolved into the object of its contemplation. Now we have reached a point where the consciousness has become like a laser. In its ordinary state it is like a candle or light bulb, with the lights going out in all directions. After Pratyahara, the removal of the sense organs from their normal objects of desire or a version, the next three steps, concentration, meditation and merging, have one word for the aggregate effects of these 3 -- called Samyama, or as best as it can be described in English, "together with convergence".

Now the third book of the Yoga Sutras includes a mighty list of what are called the Siddhis, or perfections. They read like an unbelievable and absurd set of superpowers, but in fact they are the natural result of Samyama. As an example, if you perform Samyama on an Apple, you then know everything that the Apple knows -- a true gnosis.

There are eight famous Siddhis:

One= to become as minute as an atom
Two= to wax in magnitude ( to become as large as one likes)
Three= to become light (as opposed to heavy)
Four= to become heavy
Five= the power to dominate and obtain what one wants
Six= the freedom of will and attainment of wishes
Seven= supremacy over all
Eight= the power to subjugate anyone or anything

It is said that these powers come unbidden to the Yogi, and they are signs that one is on the right path, but they should never be used, as they are tricks utilized by Great Nature. I will describe how this works: when a man begins to work on himself, he is usually sidelined by the most ordinary things, and nothing more needs to be done. If a man continues to work on himself and begins to achieve something, Great Nature takes notice -- She may send the police, and the man may have an accident or fall prey to some negative emotion or some other such miniscule setback. This usually puts a man right back in his place. But if a man continues to work on himself with unceasing dedication, Great Nature is bent out of joint, so she might begin to entice the man with riches or power or charisma. This will usually cause a man's fall from grace and return things to normal. If however, the man is the sly man or particularly clever or particularly desperate and dedicated and does not turn back from many of these maneuvers, Great Nature begins to take extraordinary measures -- she dangles her own jewelry in front of the man, offering him powers which only Nature herself enjoys. It is a kind of wooing, because She is desperate not to lose any of the sheep. So she offers her own powers to the man. This is a sign of imminent success, but also a desperate plea and a desperate measure which usually works sooner or later when the temptation finally gets to the man's defenses, and he begins using some of these powers. If he uses them for the sake of others only, and only in the most desperate of cases, he may be safe, but if he gloats or uses them for himself, then she has him back in the soup, and he has to start all over again This is not so easy, because once gotten, Great Nature has found his Achilles' heel, and will never let it rest.

The final chapter is called Kaivalya Pada, and kaivalya is an extraordinarily difficult word to translate properly into English -- people have used "absolute and complete freedom"; "perfect aloneness", and other such phrases, but like Nirvana, it remains extraordinarily difficult for one who knows to convey its majesty. Nirvana means "without wind" -- it does not mean extinction whatsoever. What is extinguished is the desire/aversion state, so that a man is awake without the flame of desire or aversion affecting him whatsoever. He is perfectly stable. Kaivalya might be thought of as a synonym -- it literally means complete and perfect imperturbable completeness, and for he who has reached Kaivalya, it is preceded by an astonishing shower of virtue, called the Dharmameghah Samadhih, after which the three forces or Gunas actually unbraid, and he accomplished yogin has reached the end goal, and thenceforth sees reality as it is in itself.

His body will continue living its bodily life; his mind will continue living its mental life, but he leaves no traces requiring reincarnation or recurrence. The yogin is then completely and utterly free -- he may choose to return to Earth, or he may go elsewhere -- wherever he is needed. He then knows all the languages of his organs, can no longer be intoxicated by anything, and has no negative emotional center whatsoever. He can drop the body whenever and however he likes. He may choose a suffering disease or he may just tell his disciples that he will breathe his last next Tuesday at 2 p.m., so that anything they wish to ask him or tell him, they had better do it before then, because, true to his word, the following Tuesday at 2 p.m. he lays down on his mat, takes a final breath of air, sweet and delicious, and then he exhales, and passes through the precious portal of death; without fear, without apprehension, and without regret. He has completed his Work, and moves on.

The Springtime The Vernal Equinox

2009-03-22T08:41:00.004-04:00

So here we are at the beginning of a new season -- in Yoga, this is a propitious time to begin one's practice -- so let us begin. We begin by being aware that we have a body and that it belongs to the earth which now begins to sprout buds, flowers and leaves. The sun moves higher in the sky and its extraordinary radiance reaches all the way to the Earth.

In the Lord's prayer, the English translation is sometimes incorrect when viewed from the perspective of the language which Jesus spoke, which was Aramaic -- this was the father language of both Hebrew and Arabic, cousins and brethren who are now engaged in a life-and-death struggle like Cain and Abel. In any case, I went out of my way to learn the Lord's prayer in the language he spoke, so that when I said it it would contain the actual sounds that came out of his mouth -- of course I have a different vocal cords -- I am a different human being, but this brings me closer to his truth. I will give my own English rendition below:

Father/Mother/Breather of ALL;
May your name be kept secret, hidden and protected,
Come, come, your Kingdom
May your will which is done in Heaven reach all the way down to the Earth
May we be nourished at the teat of your divine breast,
And keep us from Evil,
Amen.

It's that simple. The part about forgiveness and trespassing was added later. If we are conscious and in touch with our conscience and we can do no evil -- Mr. Gurdjieff declares that only mechanical evil exists.

Now we are in the spring time of the cyclical year. I went to South Africa on Ash Wednesday and went to mass in the airport. I hadn't been to a Catholic Mass in many years, although I was once a lector and taught catechism and sponsored acolytes in to Catholicism. But Ash Wednesday has stayed with me -- the palms from Palm Sunday are burned after Easter and kept the entire year until Ash Wednesday when they are dispensed on the forehead of the parishioners, and sometimes the priest utters words: my favorite are as follows:

Remember, oh Man, that thou art mortal. Ashes to ashes; dust to dust, from the Earth your body has come as a gift and you will return it soon. Remember this from Dawn till Dusk, and go in the peace and wisdom of the Holy Spirit.

Actually, my favorite are a different set of word but they elude me at the moment. Soon I will talk about my time in Africa. For today this is enough. My love to you, my friends.

Just Human

2009-03-21T09:42:00.002-04:00

I have decided to forgo my perfectionism and to write more on the blog even though it does not conform to the curriculum I intended it to. That means that I will speak extemporaneously on subjects which interest me. I hope that they interest you too, and I hope that you are able to derive benefit from them if you should happen upon these words.

Today I'm going to speak of buffers. This is a term that Mr. Gurdjieff used to describe the kind of callous or cushion or shock absorber that exists between parts of ourselves which are incompatible. I will make a very easy to understand example.

A man sets the alarm clock for 6 a.m. -- not because he has to wake up, but because he is sick of sleeping late and wishes to get some things done in the morning. But at six o'clock when the alarm clock rings a very different man begins to wake up and either hits the snooze button or turns off the alarm clock, or throws it across the room. In between these two sub personalities is a buffer -- a device so that the two sub personalities will not meet, because if they did so they would drive each other crazy. And they belong to the same body, so if all the sub personalities within a single person were to meet each other as if at a cocktail party it would simply be mayhem.

In order for a man not to be subject to being driven mad by himself, buffers are developed, which act as walls between different rooms in a man. These buffers are invisible -- they cannot be seen by the man nor should they be if a man wishes to be ordinary, and as the Lord saith: "man's name is Legion".

Even if a man begins to work on himself he cannot see these buffers, just as you cannot be in more than one room in your home at the same time. Occasionally a homeowner will have a wall broken down so that there would be one larger room, for whatever purpose, but within a man's self there are many rooms each with walls between them. Think of the trouble it takes just to knock down one wall between two rooms and then to clean up the mess and make the two rooms into one real good looking room. I mean, come on, you cannot just break down the walls and have debris all over the place -- you've got to clean up after yourself, scrape and paint what used to be the barrier between the rooms, and then you've probably got to re-furnish everything, because the two rooms may be completely different in nature -- one a living room and one a bedroom, or one a bedroom and one a sewing room or library.

That's my contribution for today -- or least for this morning.

No Longer Perfect

2009-03-20T17:12:00.002-04:00

I am a man, a man with a blog. A man with a blog that pretended to be a man writing a blog. What I didn't know was that the blog was writing me. I pretended that I knew a lot, and that I understood even more, but I am nothing but a man. I cannot jump into the sky and reach escape velocity -- 17,500 mph. Even if I did so I would died almost immediately from my blood boiling without the 15 pounds per square inch of barometric pressure which holds me together.

I cannot reach the horizon even with outstretched arms and if I were to walk sideways forever-- like the end of a rainbow, the horizon would just continue to evade me

I cannot sink down into the earth past its thin crust and into the magma or the yoke of the earth, the sphere of iron and nickel which is at the center. I would be crushed by the pressure and cooked by the temperature.

So I am a man. I -- man; you -- man; womb -- man; human -- -- 1 level. Not two levels, not three or four, but one level. I learned this in Africa. I was there in South Africa very few days ago, and where the anthropologists and the archaeologists and all the other "gists" have said that Africa is the birthplace of man and the cradle of civilization, it has been hearsay for me until now.

When I stepped off the plane and onto African soil I knew, and I know.

One man -- human -- 1 level.

Aloneness -- the Lesser and Greater Freedoms

2009-03-20T10:21:00.002-04:00

Again, it has been along time since I have posted. My apologies to those who have been following this blog.

The goal of Yoga is a Sanskrit word called Kaivalya; it is difficult to translate into English. It is usually translated as "aloneness", but has nothing to do with loneliness. Perhaps it's better translation would be the use of multiple English words such as permanent and unsullied imperturbability -- One who is single and incorruptible; a person who is objective and sees reality exactly as it is in itself, and in whom the three Gunas or three forces or holy Trinity have become un-braided, so that one becomes absolutely free of all lower laws connected with this incarnation.

This does not mean that one's body is no longer subject to gravity, and it does not mean that one's mind is no longer subject to the flickering attention, but certainly it means that one's emotions belong to one's Self, and are not in control of one's manifestation; rather quite the opposite. In one who has reached Kaivalya, one is considered JivaMukti, that is freed while alive.

Then a MAN can do. He spends the money but the money does not spend him. He smokes a cigarette butt the cigarette does not smoke him. He does, but nothing happens through him accepting by the will of the higher forces to which he had submitted. He becomes a servant of the Almighty. He can leave or return to life at will. He has WILL, where as most men are simply blown back and forth by a confluence of desires and aversions.

How does a man reach this station, which is not a passing thing but something permanent?

How does a man gain these freedoms? As he is, he is under local laws. You may get away with breaking them, like jaywalking or smoking in a non-smoking zone. He may go through a red light and not get caught. Then again, he might get a ticket. He might suffer a misdemeanor or even a felony conviction.

If this man joins the military he falls under military law. This releases him from local ordinances so that the police who arrest him cannot detain him except to call the military police, who come and get him. Perhaps they will simply forget about it or ship him off somewhere els or he will go to the brig and suffer a court-martial, but this is not likel unless he breaks a military law, so he has freedom from a lower law but is subject to a higher law which is more strict.

Perhaps this man in the military then joins special services -- he may then be freed of the military law and placed under diplomatic law. He may become a special agent and not be under any lower laws, excepting the law of his commander -- but he must not get caught breaking those laws or he might simply disappear or be court-martialed and shot or hung as a traitor.

So forth and on and on. There are laws everywhere, and one cannot escape all the laws, but one can place oneself under higher laws and be freed of lower laws.

More to follow soon.

The Invisible Speck

2009-01-21T10:30:00.005-05:00

We are going to perform a little thought experiment. First, I want to take us up the scales of the ray of creation, but I will walk us up slowly, so we don't take too big a leap.

You sit and read this, and consider your body. It is in one place at one time. It has weight and it has life within it. Now it is large, but how big is it within your apartment or house? Still pretty big.

What about your block, your neighborhood? Now you may still be quite large, but you are only one among many as you go to the store and say hello to the people you see every day, shopkeepers and other neighbors.

What about your town or city? Depending upon the size of your town you may get quite small, or in the case of NYC, you may disappear in the crowd altogether. This means that you are now a speck.

What about in your country? You are now indistinguishable, unless you hold public office or in some other way are one of the few that are in a position to be known, a writer or singer or actor, where the compass of your activities have so to say, enlarged your "image" so that you still exist as an individual, but even then, as yourself in one body at one place at one time you have disappeared from view.

What about the Earth? Can you be seen from outer space? Of course not. Some aspects of the works and structures of mankind as a whole can be seen from low altitude orbit, but not an individual person. Everyone has now disappeared. What about within the Solar System? Even all of life on Earth is now just a super-thin coating on a small planet, like a smear of gold plating that is one micron thin, on a planet with an atmosphere that is also a thin wisp of gas held tenuously to the planet by gravity; the outer edge of which is allowing molecules to fly off and arrive as they are wont to do. Where are you now? Your body, your mind, your emotions. They are as if they do not exist whatsoever, except as part of an almost invisible slime of biomass under a tiny layer of gas on a tiny planet.

Now we move to the galaxy, our Galaxy, which we call the Milky Way. Can you find yourself in the Galaxy? Perhaps you have heard that the Earth exists on a subdivision of ring "D" of the Galactic arms, far from the center of the galaxy, way out in the suburbs so to speak. Now not only your body and entire self have disappeared, but even the Earth has become a less than minute speck. Where are you in all this?

What about the known universe of known galaxies and intergalactic dust? Even the Milky way is now one of billions of galaxies, all of which exist as a somehow whole. Where have you and "I" gone? We have become as less than nothing in this scale. Nothing that is nothing that is nothing that is nothing. What kind of microscope do we need to find ourselves? Where would we begin to look? How could we even find our own Galaxy, Solar System, Planet, Land Mass, Self?

How far do your arms reach out? Three feet on either side? How long is your stride? Two to Three feet? What is the range of your personal purview? Can you effect the machinations of other men? Can you change the "world"? Or do you, as so many others do, think about things well outside their purview; talk politics and about conflicts that are on the other side of the world. Are your opinions strong? Do they carry any weight against the events you discuss? Or are they simply barroom dreams, that make you feel better, either as a relief or as a "mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" scream?

You bemoan the injustices of man. Do your feelings and emotions have any force? Can they change anything outside of your purview? And how large is your personal purview? What is under your authority? Your health? Your financial well being? Your social life?

If you look carefully, you might see that nothing whatsoever is under your own real and substantial purview; the weather may change, your luck may give out; what the gods have granted you may be taken back.

What do you have that is your own?

Working up the Scale--the Gayatri

2009-01-19T12:05:00.002-05:00

The Gayatri Mantra is the most sacred mantra in Hinduism, and is to be said at least 12 times a day by all those born into the Brahman Caste. It is something like the Hindu Lord's Prayer; and there are two forms, the better known short form and the lesser known long form. Te only difference is in the formal preamble: The short form uses three and the long uses seven lokas or worlds or realms to address before moving to the mantra proper. I am going to expound on the long form, which begins in the following way:

Om Bhur;
Om Bhuvaha;
Om Svanaha;
Om Mahaya;
Om Janaha;
Om Tapaha;
Om Sat Yum,

And then the body of the mantra which I am not going to write, as it is not germane to this exposition.

Going from the top to the bottom, the sphere of influences gets larger and larger, so that the first realm or Bhur is the smallest and Sat Yum is the largest. This is important, that in one sense the form is upside down, and from the closest to the largest "worlds" or "realms". Here we go. Understand that Sanskrit is considered the Divine Language, and it's words each have many meanings simultaneously, and to translate into English (which is a surface language), is a daunting task:

Bhur is the realm of the Earth under us.
Bhuvaha is the realm of the Atmosphere
Svanaha is the realm of Space (but the word "Sva" means the "self" as in Svastika or the chakra Svanisthana)
Mahaya is the "Great" realm
Janaha is the realm of "Generating" or the realm of categories
Tapaha is the realm of Divine"Heat", or Ardor, or Work, or Effort, or Suffering, or Austerities.
Sat Yum simply means ISness, or TRUTHness or BEINGness.

So now we go in the other direction and make some comments:

Sat Yum is the Three in One of Gurdjieff's expositions of the three forces, which follows the Samkya; and the Trimurti, which are the three faces of God (Siva, Vishnu, Brahma), and his attributes which are Satchitananda. All compound words in sansrkit become ONE word, so Satchitananda is ONE but can be broken into three constituent parts.

Sat: Truth; Being; ISness; Suchness; Reality.

Chit: Awareness; Consciousness.

Ananda: Bliss; Unopposed Will; Unfettered Creative Force.

Now in the Three in One realm, there is the truth being and awareness of all that is. And as Mr. Gurdjieff tells us, this is unknowable, because our awareness cannot concieve of the third force or of the three forces as one seemless whole, but this is the exact same idea as the Holy Trinity of Chirtianity, which got it from the Sanatana Dharma, the permanent and neverchanging wisdom.

Just below the Singular Trinity there appears the realm of "heat". Ardor, Divine Love, Work and Suffering which exists at all levels of the Creation.

The Creator has two great laws or barriers that may not be breached, and they are the "objective speed of light" and "absolute zero degrees kelvin".

Scientists have gotten VERY close to absolute zero, something like .00000001 degrees above absolute zero, but to get that low takes more and more energy from outside to lower the temperature and more time to do it in because the less heat there is somewhere, the slower everything moves and takes. So that calculations have shown that to reach absolute zero would take more energy than exists in the entire universe, and it would take longer than the age of the known universe to do it in.

Now the word tapas, which has one of it's English translations as Heat, is so multivalent that a thousand words in english can convey it's meaning. There is no translation of Tapas into English.

But there is this fact, heat is ardor, and work, and suffering. It is the work and suffering that we are interested in. In the ascetic language of the Yogins and Fakirs (and taken up by the Buddha), all is suffering; all existence is "suffering". So all the austerities taken up by the fakirs (such as standing on one leg or pointing ones finger to the sky for TWELVE YEARS!) is a replica of the suffering of the Gods, like Shiva, who practices austerities for a thousand years or more in between visiting his wife or other duties or affairs.

I am not advocating keeping your arm up for 12 years, but some sit at desks making "money" for longer than that and they do not consider it a waste of their life-force. Who ends up with something permanent? Some business men think of these Yogins and Fakirs and think it is a "sickness" and a waste. I suggest that they might be those who "waste" what life they have. by seeking in THIS realm what is not here -- unending happiness and security.

But this Intentional Suffering of the Yogin or Fakir is designed to follow certain laws. One, to replicate the suffering of the Gods: in other words, to take a load off God by taking up some of his tapas and suffering. This is identical to the Christian vowing to make a gift of his or her suffering to the "Body of Christ"

Another aspect of this Intentional Suffering is to recieve what are called "Siddhis" or "perfections, where the Yogin is given powers and a measure of the authority reserved by the Creators regent, Great Nature.

What does Mr. Gurdjieff mean when he states that he has developed the power and force to "kill a Yak at a range of 10 miles"? Does anyone think this power and force comes for free?

No, Mr. Gurdjieff only developed such authority as he possesed by great suffering, intentional and with a knowledge of it's purpose.

Jesus is the exemplar of Intentional Suffering, and he underwent the Agony and Passion (both translations of tapas), with Intentionality and Purpose.

Later, the Desert Fathers followed the way of the Fakirs, like Simon the Stylite, who lived on top of a pole for years, of the other desrt fathers who wore wool cloaks, so that they would suffer an endless itching and disconforture, as a permanent reminding factor. The Arabic word for wool is "suf", so the term Sufi likely came from those Christians in North Africa who had learned from the Proto-Hindus, those of the Sanatana Dharma.

There is a rich tradition of suffering for Christ, without those who do so not realizing that they are folllowing a tradition of Intentional Suffering that goes back past the mists of recorded history.

A Small Note

2008-10-27T11:17:00.003-04:00

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.

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

2008-10-04T11:46:00.003-04:00

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.

Two Invariable Laws

2008-09-24T12:00:00.000-04:00

OK so I left you hanging with the last post. I know I have been talking a great deal about the three forces, and have promised to follow them down the waterfall of creation to explicate the numerical formula of hydrogens that Gurdjieff has left us. But today I want to talk about two laws that are absolute boundaries so far as reality goes, and upon which ancient wisdom and modern physics agree.

First, I have already talked about the speed of light being invariable and objective. As close as we might be able to get to the speed of light we can never reach it, and for exactly the same reasons, anything traveling faster than the speed of light (we haven't actually found anything doing that but it's theoretical name would be a tachyon) could never slow down to the actual speed of light and would have some other strange properties, such as gaining energy would slow it down and losing energy would speed it up, and it would travel backwards in time although, not in our universe, which is sub luminary in speed, but in a mirror universe containing only things that travel faster than light.

The other law which is invariable and objective is absolute 0°K. Anything reaching 0°K would not move, because it would have no energy whatsoever in it. Even in the vacuum of space there is no place where the temperature is nothing, and the entire universe is full of background radiation which has cooled to within 2.725 K of absolutely nothing, but can never cool to nothing or nothing would exist or move, and everything in the universe is moving, and movement requires energy, and energy = temperature. In fact it is theoretically postulated that even if we were able to create a vacuum and reduce its temperature to zero, or no degrees Kelvin, that vacuum would contain infinite potential and something called quantum jiggle, which might be described as the infinite potential trying to boil.

This is to say nothing of the fact that if some physicists were able to create a small place that they thought was a pure vacuum with a temperature of 0° Kelvin, that little hole of vacuum would move through space due to the rotation of the earth and the movement of the solar system in orbiting the galaxy, and the galaxy moving whatever way it moves, so that their little impressive experiment would only be impressive to us -- not to mother nature, even if she deigned to allow us to think we had arrived at creating nothing. Because, in fact, if anywhere in the universe reached a vacuum of absolute nothing, the whole creation would disappear. Talk about a black hole!

Now what if we were able to reach absolute zero. In our rational number series we can put zero in the middle and have positive numbers on one side and negative numbers on the other, like this:

-10, -9, -8, -7, -6, -5, -4, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ,9 ,10

If we were able to reach absolute zero Kelvin why couldn't we get even a lower temperature? Physicists, especially physicists who like the fantasy of time travel and churn out book after book about breaking the speed of light barrier and "time" travel (mostly through distortions of spacetime so as to provide loopholes and wormholes), don't seem to talk about breaking the temperature barrier of zero Kelvin to go lower. I wonder why not? Don't you?

Well really, that's all I wanted to say today. If there is a God or Almighty Creator, he needs to have some kind of objective laws embedded in reality, or else he would be a schizophrenic.

Some Very Big Laws and World Six

2008-09-22T12:17:00.000-04:00

First of all I would like to do some thinking with you. Not thinking in language, although I will have to phrase my thinking in language which I hope you can understand, although through this language I am hoping to arrive at a different kind of thinking with you, which I will call "first thinking". Let me describe the three types of "thinking" that an infant born into this world goes through:

First, upon birth, the newborn thinks in pure sensation, it is awash in absolutely fundamental and pure sensation. All of its senses are a kind of touch -- its eyes do not focus well but what it sees is considered as a sensation -- what it has been hearing even in the womb albiet muffled, and now louder and more differentiated, is still sensation. It is the same thing with taste and smell, which are much closer to the infants physical body which it does not differentiate very much. This pure sensation does not include a differentiation between fingers and toes or anything else for that matter, but is a global sense of tremendous fullness.

As the brain begins to grow and form new neurons and synapses and dendrites, somewhere between the ages of three and nine months, the infant begins to enjoy what I call "first thinking", which is thinking in entire images and pictures. This is the kind of thinking that I call "real" thinking, and is the kind of thinking that Albert Einstein used in what he called his "thought experiments." He once told a psychologist "I rarely think in words but rather in images, which I then have to translate into words."

He also didn't start talking until he was four or five years old and because he was delayed in his linguistic development, he still thought like a child when he was an adult, and Einstein claims that that is the reason why he was able to make the discoveries that he did. And when he was between the ages of five and ten, he used to have to practice saying the sentences to himself sub-vocally or even by moving his lips to practice before he could speak out loud. He said that it was because he couldn't fit his main thinking into the little window which was words, and so he would stutter and practice before talking, much to the chagrin of his parents.

An infant has been hearing language even while in the womb, and somewhere between six months and a year the child can understand most of the things that the adults say, even if the child can only say goo goo, because it has not mastered the use of its vocal apparatus. Let's not forget, a child of that age hasn't even been breathing for very long, and it's breathing has not even settled into a habit, so that some babies just leave, by turning off the breathing and not being able to get it started again --SIDS. But this is a sidetrack. Let's get back to the subject at hand, which is what thinking consists of.

The child sees that the adults communicate through language (as well as through body language, gesture and emotional expression), so it begins to learn language. This is the lowest or grossest form of thinking, because thinking in language is linear and can only contain surface meaning -- it cannot contain depth and meaning or experiential meaning. This is why children enjoy fairy tales, myths, legends, metaphor, allegory, fables, speech in parable, etc., because these linguistic formats lend themselves to image creation or first thinking. It is also the motive for poetry.

In any case, the young child is soon taught the alphabet and how to read written language and to write it. Slowly through the educational process and the socialization of the child, language thinking takes over, and even while learning the language at a very early age, the child begins talking to itself in order to practice language. That talking to oneself in most people usually becomes a habit which never ends, and slowly but surely first thinking and sensation take a back seat to language skills and they atrophy. After the child puts away his fairy tales and his childhood toys, he is more than likely well on his way to the cul-de-sac or dead end which is language without images or pictures or sensation. Depth meaning dries up, and first thinking dies.

But image or picture thinking is harmonious, multivalent, and cannot fit into the linear structure of language. First thinking as I call it is like musical chords, whereas language is like single notes played one at a time. If I say "I went to the store," you know barely anything -- you don't know when, where, how, which, and you don't know what happened to me there or even if I bought anything. So how can I explain anything to you with language? And what is this sort of preface going to lead us to?

The title of this post is Some Very Big Laws and World Six. What on earth could I be planning on talking about?

Well, first I should tell you that in my common presence, I have never let first thinking atrophy, nor have I let go of sensation, and I have put myself through almost unbelievable sufferings in order to achieve certain of my aims. Having achieved many of my aims and having developed incredible strengths in particular areas, I now have an obligation and a debt to pay while my carcass is on planet Earth; such obligation and debt being to explain certain ideas while acting like a down voltage transformer, and also acting as a chemical enzyme and catalyst for my readers potential to reawaken real thinking, even while we rely on that which ruins thinking, namely, language.

So now we shall begin:

But please review this post, because you will have to practice delayed gratification or patience, because I am leaving off here, and will resume next "time".

Satchitananda -- The Glory of the Godhead

2008-09-10T07:50:00.000-04:00

So now we have discussed the three faces of God according to the Trimurti or Holy Trinity of the permanent and unchanging wisdom -- the Sanatana Dharma. And we have seen that it contains three attributes: being, awareness and bliss. These exist together, three in one. We have also looked at the attribute of light, which as we have seen, is not subject to any law whatsoever; light is the mandate of the Creator, and it is it's own law. For light itself, there is no time nor distance (space). The "speed" of light is objective. The fact that we consider that it travels 186,000 miles a second or 300,000 km second is only relative. For itself, it is outside of time or space and is everywhere and everywhen simultaneously.

We will call this "World One". It is All and Everything.

Now the Creator creates a new "World", which we will call "World Three", because now the three attributes forces separate like the strands of a braid. This might be called the World of All Galaxies -- of everything that IS. Each of the three laws or forces now manifest at each of the three points of the triangle. Each point of the triangle can manifest any of the forces but will only manifest one at a time. This brings about time, and with time comes the existence of space, duration and the existence of matter and energy as seemingly separate entities. According to Einstein's famous formula E=MC2, matter is congealed energy, and using the mathematical constant of the speed of light squared, matter could be considered condensed light because by simple algebra E=MC2 equals E/C2=M.

As C. squared is such an enormous number, matter can be considered not only as congealed energy, but energy so tightly packed that it becomes opaque, using the formula C2 x E = opaque mass. But one could say not only that matter is simply scrunched up energy tightly bound, but also that energy is material, only, extremely diffuse compared with it being rolled up or bound into matter. This aligns perfectly with the philosophy of the Samkya which states that everything exists in reality, even thoughts and dreams and forms of energy are all material.

It's opposing philosophy is that of the Advaida Vedanta, or non-dual teaching of awareness, which goes in the other direction, stating that nothing phenomenological can be real, because it is subject to change, and being subject to change, it's reality is a phantasmagoria.

One could say that these are opposites but they are simply two ends of one stick. One could declare with objective insight that Samkya is top down and Advaida Vedanta is bottom-up, but since the ladder of creation is like a musical scale, it doesn't matter much you play a descending scale or an ascending scale, they are the same scale. But if you take the solfege of a musical scale, the half steps will appear in very different places depending upon whether you play an ascending scale: Do -Re -Mi Fa -Sol -La -Si Do or a descending scale: Do Si- La -Sol -Fa Mi -Re -Do.

For the purposes of this explication we are using a descending scale - a top down approach to reality. The first note is Do, or what we might call the divine fiat, and its energy itself fills the missing semitone leading down to Si, where the three attributes or as they are called in Sanskrit, Gunas (Raja -- active, Tamas -- passive and Sattva -- reconciling) seperate from one another.

When we reach Si, we can call this the "World of all Galaxies"; in other words, the entire phenomenological universe, and as the three attributes are un-braided, they can re-couple in various ways. In fact, three separate forces can combine in six different forms, which in Mr. Gurdjieff's teachings are called triads. This is also musical, because triads are chords which contain three notes. They come in four qualities, but this is only because the musical scale denies the formation of the final two numerical triads.

In order to describe the six triads of World Three, we will simply reduce them to Hindu/Arabic numerals (although we call 123456789 Arabic numerals, the Arabs got them from the Hindus).

We will call the affirming force 1, the denying force 2, and the reconciling force 3. Thus we can have six different configurations:

123, 231, 312, 321, 213, 132. And there is a seventh, but it would be outside the realm of phenomenological reality, because it would be a triad with all three numbers in all three places, which is the condition of the Godhead, which we have already discussed. For the time being we are not going to discuss the difference between the six triads, and only consider that in world three, described as the "world of all galaxies", there are only three laws. We might consider stating that these are time, space and revolving movement, which are objectively unvariable, but this would be a conjectural speculation. I believe that these are likely to be the three laws which first appear in world three, but I would be a fool to state it unequivocally as dogma.

It is enough to say that in World Three, the three Gunas or attributes cease to exist simultaneously at each of the corners of the triangle, but that they are un-braided so as to allow for the creation to manifest. This is the World of All Worlds. It is very far above us. As we follow the creation downward through what is called the Ray of Creation, we will find our place, but to our dismay, we may find that we are not, as some people have been hypnotized into believing, the apex of creation, or created in the image of the Creator. We could be, because we contain all the parts to create souls for ourselves that would be in the image of the Creator, but we are like an image of the Creator which has been cut into jigsaw puzzle pieces and placed into a kaleidoscope, where we can turn and turn forever, but never solve the puzzle. There is one way to solve the puzzle, but it is extremely rare for a man to find it himself. In fact I would go so far as to say that no one can find it on their own, because the perimeter of a problem never contains its solution. This is a firm law. Till next time...

The Laws -- Levels of Hydrogen

2008-09-09T07:38:00.000-04:00

To begin with when I speak of the laws this time, I am not talking about the two great laws which Mr. Gurdjieff tells us are the primary laws governing reality, the law of three forces and the law of seven, or the law of the octave, which is most easily seen in the musical realm. I am talking about the law of three but in a special way, so that the laws that I speak of are laws like gravity and electromagnetism, all the way down to the laws that govern man's imagination and sex, etc..

We will begin at the top, with unity at the level of the Creator. Although this level is primordial (before number), pre-spatial (before space) and pre-durational (before time), and in physics is called a singularity, thousands of years ago in the Samkya (enumeration) of the Sanatana dharma (permanent and unchanging wisdom), it was known as the Trimurti, or three faces of God, and this Trimurti has three attributes which in Sanskrit are known as Satchitananda. Satchitananda is a compound word containing three other words within it. Because Sanskrit is multivalent (meaning that each word has multiple meanings harmoniously embedded in it and it means all of them at the same time -- like a Chinese pictogram or ideogram), most Sanskrit words are not easily rendered into English, which is a finely nuanced surface language.

But we will divide up Satchitananda and try to glean what its meaning might be in English.

Sat can mean reality, truth, being, IS-ness. I would like you to consider a thought experiment, of the kind that Einstein was famous for; imagine a single mind residing in emptiness -- beyond emptiness, and consider that that mind can think of anything whatsoever. Since there is nothing else but this one mind, anything it would think of would have as much reality as anything that actually exists in reality as we know it. What would it think of? Personally, as I look around the room and consider the universe, I am staring at the answer.

Chit means awareness or consciousness. Now let's refer back to our one single mind. Anything it thought of would be imbued with awareness. Notwithstanding the unconscious processes within the human body, anything consciously imagined at least at the outset must be imbued with awareness and intention, which leads us to our third component of this compound word.

Ananda can be translated into English as bliss, or unsullied happiness. Again let's return to our single unencumbered Mind. With nothing opposing it, and an ability to think of anything whatsoever and have it BE, this entity or mind must exist in a condition of unceasing happiness or bliss.

This is the state of the universe from the top down. We might call it Hydrogen One. It is All and Everything. It has no bounds, no constrictions, no opposition. But it has three attributes : reality, awareness and bliss. This is what is meant by three in one, and its symbol is a triangle with a circle in the middle of it. And as far as the three forces of affirming, denying and reconciling; or centrifugal, centripital and revolving, all three exist simultaneously and permanently in one. This Trimurti and its attributes of Satchitananda are the origins of the Christian holy Trinity where the father is the mind or awareness, the son is reality or phenomenological being, and the Holy Ghost is the bliss of love which exists between the father and the son.

Now we will view the opening of Genesis as well as the creation hymn from the Rg Veda of the primeval Sanatana dharma:

===========================================

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

And God said: "let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.

===========================================

That's enough for our purposes. This was the beginning of number, by the separation of light and darkness and of heaven and earth, but this is not the number two, or duality, but rather the number three, because there must be a line of demarcation between light and darkness; between heaven and earth, and in the Chinese Taoist tradition most people know about Yin and Yang and would recognize the symbol of a circle with a curvy line (which is a backwards S), but between them it that line, which is called the Tai Ji, or "grand ultimate limit." Therefore three is the first number, and the "Godhead" is Three in One.

Here is the creation hymn from the Rg Veda:

================================

The non-existent was not; the existent was not at that time. The atmosphere was not nor the heavens which are beyond. What was concealed? Where? In whose protection? Was it water? An unfathomable abyss?
There was neither death nor immortality then. There was not distinction of day or night. That alone breathed windless by its own power. Other than that there was not anything else.
Darkness was hidden by darkness in the beginning. All this was an indistinguishable sea. That which becomes, that which was enveloped by the void, that alone was born through the power of heat.
Upon that desire arose in the beginning. This was the first discharge of thought. Sages discovered this link of the existent to the nonexistent, having searched in the heart with wisdom.
Their line [of vision] was extended across; what was below, what was above? There were impregnators, there were powers: inherent power below, impulses above.
Who knows truly? Who here will declare whence it arose, whence this creation? The gods are subsequent to the creation of this. Who, then, knows whence it has come into being?
Whence this creation has come into being; whether it was made or not; he in the highest heaven is its surveyor. Surely he knows, or perhaps he knows not.

==========================================

Now let's imagine that the Creator did say "let there be light", and let's move into the realm of modern physics using the theory of relativity to help us see something extraordinary.

The theory of relativity describes something called "Time dilation". This means that time is relative to motion and velocity. There is a well-known description about time dilation that uses the following thought experiment. You have two clocks. Next to each other they will keep the same time, but if you leave one on earth and you place one in a rocketship which goes to a nearby star at close to the speed of light and returns, the clock on earth will show more time elapsed than the clock which returns after traveling near the speed of light.

Einstein declared that speed of light is a line of demarcation cannot be passed. He did not declare that nothing can move faster than the speed of light (although that has proved unlikely and unwieldy) but that anything in motion must be either sub luminary in speed or super luminary in speed, and a physicist named Fitzgerald described what happens to an object as it approaches the speed of light. It is called the Fitzgerald contraction and it states that as an object approaches the speed of light its length compresses, its mass increases and it's time dilation slows down more and more until it reaches infinity of mass and cessation ot time, rendering the speed of light unattainable except for light -- that is, photons and other luminary particles.

Now here is the most interesting part. Using another thought experiment we are going to imagine that we are traveling at the speed of light alongside a photon and we are carrying a flashlight. If we turn the flashlight on and face it forward we should imagine that the light which would normally leave the flashlight at the speed of light wouldn't move at all because we are already at the speed of light, but this is not the case. The surprise is that if we were traveling at the speed of light and turned on our flashlight, the light from the flashlight would still travel away from us at the speed of light. This would seem to indicate that the light traveling from the flashlight would be traveling faster than the speed of light by simple addition -- the speed of light we are traveling plus the speed of light from the flashlight, but here is where relativity comes in and ruins our ordinary thinking.

The speed of light is not relative but objective, and no matter what speed we travel, relative to us, light will travel at the speed of light. So if we chase a wave/particle of light, we can never catch up to it and as we get closer and closer to the speed of light, the Fitzgerald contraction increases our mass, shortens our length, and slows down our time relative to an observer. So nothing that is sub luminary in speed can ever catch up to the speed of light and nothing that is theoretically moving faster than the speed of light can ever slow down to the speed of light. The speed of light is an impenetrable barrier.

Now here's an even crazier idea, but according to physics it is absolutely a fact. If we could attach a clock to a particle of light and have the clock travel at the speed of light, the clock would not tick at all. At the speed of light there is no time, and since there is no time, there is no distance because it takes time to travel distance.

Therefore, even though for us little critters living on planet Earth with our atomic clocks and wristwatches and clocks all over the place it is said to take light 8 1/2 minutes to travel from the Sun to the Earth, and according to our clocks that is absolutely true, but as far as the light is concerned, it has taken no time whatsoever, and as far as it is concerned, it hasn't traveled any distance either. Since this is just true for light, it's just as true for the furthest galaxy as it is for the closest -- as far as light itself is concerned, all the light in the entire universe is everywhere it is simultaneously. For light itself, there is no time, no distance, and therefore no space. This is the glory of the Godhead. And as light is used as a synonym for consciousness, or awareness, the "Godhead" sees the entire universe all at once -- no past, no future, only a seamless NOW. It is only us sub luminary creatures that experience time and space.

Put that in your peace pipe and smoke it. We will continue soon, traveling down the Ray of Creation. Till then...

Nitrogen -- The Neutralizing Force

2008-09-04T09:27:00.000-04:00

Now we come to nitrogen, atomic number seven. It sits between carbon and oxygen and as neutralizing or reconciling force it separates active and passive as a kind of buffer. Why does Mr. Gurdjieff call nitrogen neutralizing? First we're going to have to back up a little and discuss elemental chemistry again.

No element or atom likes to have its valence numbers dangling in the wind. They will do everything possible (including exploding) to fill their designated electron orbits. Only helium and the other inert elements (also called the noble elements -- because they are standoffish and don't need anybody) are completely happy, and helium with two protons and two electrons is the happiest element in the universe. I am not talking about neutrons or isotopes for the moment -- only protons and electrons.

Hydrogen, which has one proton and one electron tends to travel in pairs so that the two hydrogen atoms can share their electrons so that both are happy with two. But hydrogen is frisky, and the bonds are easily broken, so hydrogen molecules act like two heterosexual men forced into a relationship. As soon as some "women" come along, they are delighted to take up with them. In fact the term hydrogen means water maker in Greek, and in German the name for hydrogen is Wasserstoff, which is simply translated as water stuff. As soon as that nasty electron gobbling Oxygen meets up with hydrogen molecules, the hydrogen bonds break down and attach themselves to the Oxygen, creating H2O, or as we know it, water. Water is pretty darn stable, and is called the stuff of life. Even though in the alchemy of Mr. Gurdjieff oxygen is deemed the passive force, it is a pretty darn strong passive, positively acting like a woman in search of a man. Man equals positive magnetic pole; woman equals negative magnetic pole, but both poles are of the same strength, and if you think it is the man who always gets the girl you are dead wrong, because it is usually the girl that gets the man and lets him think that he is the active force. It's slightly off tangent but the reason that women are more like men these days is that there are no real Men, so women have to act more masculine, while political correctness means that man has to act more feminine. Mr. Gurdjieff had nothing good to say about this condition.

Anyway, Oxygen in the atmosphere also travels as a molecule of O2, each oxygen atoms sharing two electrons with each other so that their inner orbit is duet happy like helium and their outer shell each now has eight, or an octet, so a molecule of O2 is octet happy. But these two bonds are also easily broken, and so oxygen can act quickly in its passive role of facilitating combustion all over the place. No oxygen -- no combustion. No combustion -- everything stops.

But nitrogen also travels as a molecule rather than as individual nitrogen atoms, and nitrogen is missing three electrons. Nitrogen has the atomic number seven, two in the first shell just like helium (duet happy) and five in the outer shell. It is much easier for Nitrogen to make three bonds which will bring the missing electrons to it and for it to make five bonds and give away all five of its outer shell. In fact that never happens because it would turn Nitrogen into Helium and if all of the elements from Iron (atomic number 56) and under could actually change from element to element we wouldn't have any chemistry at all -- only a very strange alchemical universe where topsy is turvy and turvy is topsy.

Now Nitrogen as a molecule is N2, and it shares six electrons between two atoms. These three bonds are very very strong, and not easily broken. In fact, the bond is so strong that although the atmosphere contains 78% nitrogen, when we breathe in and out absolutely nothing happens to the nitrogen. We don't absorb any of it -- it just goes in and out as N2. For this reason nitrogen could be considered completely neutral, almost like one of the noble gases but with a very big difference. A very big difference. Because although the bonds are strong enough so that our breathing has no effect on them, the bonds ARE breakable, and when they break open they release a tremendous amount of energy. This is why almost all explosives contain nitrogen, and why fertilizers, which contain nitrogen which is necessary for life, can be so easily turned into bombs. The energy which is released when the nitrogen bonds are broken is absolutely necessary for life -- for the building of proteins and all sorts of handy things like neurons and enzymes and hormones.

So let's review:

Mr. Gurdjieff's alchemy declares that there are three forces which need to combine in order to produce any phenomena. He calls any such phenomenon without reference to the forces a hydrogen. Since hydrogen is the simplest atom and element and the universe is basically made of it (89 to 91%), you might as well call a chair a hydrogen, etc.

Then Mr. Gurdjieff uses the terms carbon, nitrogen and oxygen as follows:

Carbon as the active force. Organic chemistry is called Carbon chemistry, and its valence of four allows it to build huge scaffolding essential for life. Without carbon -- no life. Without life, one might as well say there is no activity.

Nitrogen as the neutralizing force. Nitrogen as a molecule is incredibly neutral, and yet breaking its bonds and using the immense energy yielded is essential for life, and it turns up in all sorts of unique places.

Oxygen as the passive force. Oxygen is extremely electron hungry. It will do almost anything to pull two more electrons in its direction. One cannot call this active so much as actively pulling, like a vacuum cleaner. And without Oxygen, no combustion. No combustion, no life. No life, no nothing.

Now I must add a caveat. Although Mr. Gurdjieff used these terms for his alchemical exposition of the Samkya and of the three Gunas, he emphasized that any of the three forces can act through any of the hydrogens, so that at times Oxygen can be active, Nitrogen can be passive and Carbon can be neutralizing, or any other combination. We should understand this in the same manner that it is difficult to understand the Chinese ideology of Yin and Yang. A man might be termed yang in relationship to his wife, but yin as he relates to his boss, who is yang for him. So the terminology can be quite confusing. I don't blame you if I've lost you a long time ago. I am not writing this blog for anybody and everybody. It is something like the documents found at Nag Hamaddi -- an exposition of an ancient teaching coupled with modern physics and science. It does not ask you to believe in anything, only to view what you already might know from a different perspective. A perspective which is non-anthropological. At the moment we are talking about things that are too small to see in their physical form, even with the most scientific instruments which can see individual atoms they are a blur. At the same time we're talking about the entire universe and cosmological laws which run through the entire ray of creation.

Soon we will take another direction, and speak of the Hydrogens as levels of being, using number and cosmogony. And we will be looking at something called the food diagram, which gives indications whereby a man might begin to work on himself as if he were the chemicals in an alchemical laboratory, transmuting the lead of his being into the gold of his radiance.

Carbon/ The Active Force/ Oxygen/ The Passive Force

2008-07-21T22:57:00.000-04:00

First, a quote from Mr. Gurdjieff from "Fragments of an Unknown Teaching", otherwise known as "In Search of the Miraculous", page 89:

But besides ordinary chemistry there exists another, a special chemistry, or alchemy if you like, which studies matter taking into consideration its cosmic properties. As has been said before, the cosmic properties of each substance are determined first, by its place, and secondly by the force which is acting through it at the given moment... each substance can be the conductor of any one of the three forces and, in accordance with this, it can be active passive or neutralizing. And it can be neither the first, nor the second, nor the third if no forces manifesting through it at a given moment or if it is taken without relation to the manifestation of forces. In this way every substance appears, as it were, for different aspects or states. In this connection it must be noted that when we speak of matter we do not speak of chemical elements. The special chemistry of which I speak looks upon every substance having a separate function, even the most complex, as an element. In this way only is it possible to study the cosmic properties of matter, because all complex compounds have their own cosmic purpose and significance. From this point of view and Madame of a given substance is the smallest amount of the given substance which retains all of its chemical, physical, and cosmic properties. Consequently the size of the "atom of different substances is not the same. And in some cases an "atom" may be a particle even visible to the naked eye.
"The four aspects or states of every substance have different names.
"When the substance is the conductor of the first or the active force, it is called "carbon", and, like the carbon of chemistry, it is designated by the letter C.
"when a substance is the conductor of the second or the passive force, it is called "oxygen", and, like the oxygen of chemistry, it is designated by the letter O.
"When a substance the conductor of the third or neutralizing force, it is called "nitrogen," and, like the nitrogen of chemistry, it is designated by the letter N.
"When a substance is taken without relation to the force manifesting through it, it is called "hydrogen", and, like the hydrogen of chemistry, it is designated by the letter H.
"The active, the passive, and the neutralizing forces are designated by the figures 1, 2, 3, and the substances by the letters C,O,N, and H. These designations must be understood.

Question: "do these four elements correspond to the old for alchemical elements, fire, air, water, earth?"

Mr. Gurdjieff: "Yes, they do correspond, but we will use these. You will understand why afterwards.

Previously we have talked about hydrogen, which accounts for 89 % of the matter in the universe. We also talked about helium, which is duet happy, and accounts for 9% of the matter in the universe. We also talked about lithium, which accounts for about 1%. This leaves 1% of all the matter in the universe, which account for all the heavier elements including beryllium, boron, and now we get to Carbon, which we are going to talk about today. Mr. Gurdjieff says that Carbon is the transmitter of the active force.

This is very easy to see if I simply state that organic chemistry is often called carbon chemistry, and vice versa. In other words, life is built of Carbon. Carbon has a valence of four, and a total of six electrons. Two are duet happy, and the other four are valence electrons -- in other words they can interact with other elements to make compounds and molecules. So the nuclear number of carbon is six, which is a number associated with the earth in many ancient traditions, as well as containing 4 valence electrons, and four is also a number associated with Earth, from the four ancient elements, to the elements earth, water, fire, air. There is no doubt that Mr. Gurdjieff visited India, although it is not usually considered when people have been scouring the world for possible places where he gained his wisdom. They read right past the section of Mr. Ouspensky's Book where Mr. Gurdjieff talks of sleeping near a Fakir in a temple in India. Clearly the idea of the three forces, or of the Holy Trinity of Christianity comes from the three Gunas and Trimurti of Hinduism, or perhaps it is better described as pre-Hinduism, that is, the Sanatana Dharma, or permanent and unchanging wisdom.

Carbon is the only element that can not only bond with itself, but bond with itself in a long chain structures called poly carbons. Life is active. And carbon chemistry is the chemistry of life itself. That alone would make carbon active. But it also forms the scaffolding for structures, and it burns. IT burns. The two most combustable elements and most abundant and active are carbon and hydrogen.

This leads us to a discussion of the passive force represented by Oxygen. Oxygen is NOT combustable. It will not burn, period. So it is passive. But it WILL facilitate combustion of other elements. In fact, it is a poison first and a necessary element for our metabolism but at the same time it slowly kills us, as it allows us to combust. This is why everybody is so hung up on anti-oxidents, because the passive oxygen within us is slowly letting us burn up.

More later... I have let this blog slide. This fall I intend to renew my attention to it. I may fail in my grand scheme, but I will give it my best. Later...

Chemistry is Music -- Valence is Sex

2008-02-14T10:19:00.000-05:00

Chemistry is Music -- Valence is Sex

In order to undertake a continuation of this teaching I have returned to the study of chemistry in order to explicate Gurdjieff's exposition of his alchemical use of the terms Hydrogen, Carbon, Oxygen and Nitrogen.

When he speaks of Hydrogen he means any given thing without reference to the three forces which braid together to create the phenomenological world. When he speaks of Carbon, Oxygen or Nitrogen he is speaking of Hydrogens acting in one of those three roles, which he calls affirming, denying and reconciling, or active, passive and catalytic.

I have described those three forces according to the Samkya and the Hindu Trimurti (three faces of God) and according to modern physics and have attributed the following names to them: Shiva the God of creation and destruction as under his purview the centrifugal force, active; that which created the Big Bang and also moves towards the dissolution of things. Vishnu, the God of preservation I have assigned to the physical manifestation of the centripital force which tends to congeal things into stability, passive. And I have spoken of Brahma, who governs the invisible force of revolution, that is, the revolving nature of all things. It were not for Brahma acting as a stir stick, the centripital and centrifugal forces would lead to a standstill, and all things would vanish. This is the reconciling force.

I must now speak of chemistry and alchemy. These were not separate subjects in the ancient world, and now that modern physics is catching up with ancient knowledge, it is the proper time to reintroduce the marriage of chemistry and alchemy. Mankind has now reached its puberty, and puberty is a dangerous time. Man is quickly coming to a tipping point, where his emotional immaturity may destroy the eons of work which Great Nature has undertaken in order to develop a recursive conscious three brained being, that is to say, Man.

I am going to present you with a diagram which lists the first 18 elements in a unique manner which is different from the usual periodic table, a deep study of which will help us in our explorations of Mr. Gurdjieff's ideas as well as an understanding of chemistry as alchemy, both in the phenomenological world as well as in the world of the inner life of man:

If you will study this diagram, you will see that Hydrogen stands in the middle and is surrounded by four compass headings plus their crossbars of Northeast/Southwest, and Northwest/Southeast, and that the elements are in a kind os spiral.

We will follow the spiral movement of the elements one by one.

Hydrogen only has one proton in its nucleus and one electron. For the moment we will disregard the protons and neutrons, and only pay attention to the electrons for each element, for excepting radioactivity or nuclear actions most chemistry is concerned with the movement and sharing of electrons, although in some case protons are involved in chemical activity. As I have said before, Hydrogen accounts for about 90% of the entire substance in the universe, usually as lonely bachelors in deep space. Hydrogen is extremely active and will bond with just about anything in order to reach the happiness of the next element, helium.

Helium has two electrons; this is in the ratio of an octave or 2:1, and helium is a noble, or inert gas. It will hardly bond with anything, because its first electron shell is full and is called "duet happy". This shell is called s1. It has zero valence.

Then we have Lithium. Lithium is like helium with an extra proton and and extra electron, two in an duet pair, and one in s2 orbit. It would just love to give it's third electron to somebody. This makes Lithium very reactive, and if you throw Lithium in water it will blow up. It's "valence" number is 1

Next is Beryllium, with four electrons; two are duet happy, and two are in the s2 shell as a pair -- s2 (2). It would rather lose it's two extra electrons than have to find 6 more to complete an octave, so it is reactive, but not as "hot" to trot as Lithium. Valence number of 2

Moving on we find Boron, with 5 electrons, two in the helium shell and three in the s2 shells, giving it a valence of 3

Then we find Carbon, with 6 electrons. Two are in s1, and four are in the next shell, and carbon has a valence of 4 -- it can go either way to reach happiness; it can share it's 4 electrons and has a valence number of 4.

Nitrogen is next, with 7 electrons, 2 and 5. Since a happy shell has 8 (octet happy), it has a valence of 3 -- by sharing 3 with another element or multiple elements, it can gain the 3 it needs to have the magic number of 10, 2 in an duet as in helium and 8 to complete a octave, so it has a valence of 3

Oxygen is next with 8 electrons. Again, 2 are stable and 6 are free to marry or have affairs, but it only needs 2 more electrons to reach octave happiness.

Then we have Chlorine, with 9 electrons, 2 stable and 7 free -- but since it only needs one more to fill it's octave shell, it is what is called electrophilic, meaning that it desperatly wants to find that last electron to make it happy.

The next is Neon, with 10 electrons, 2 stable in a duet happy shell and 8 happy in an octave shell. So it again is unreactive and is either called an inert or noble gas. It's valence number is 0.

That's why it sits below Helium on the spiral diagram.

Then we continue to Sodium, named Na. Again it has 11 electrons altogether; 2 stable, 8 stable, and one loose electron.

Remember that chlorine needs 1 more electron, and sodium has one it is dying to get rid of (or shacked up with somebody), so we have a very famous molecule, NaCl. Know what that is? SALT!

I have no need to go further to explain what I want to explain.

All we need to know right now are valence numbers. They are as follows:

Hydrogen: 1
Helium: 0
Lithium: 1
Beryllium: 2
Boron: 3
Carbon: 4
Nitrogen: 3
Oxygen: 2
Chlorine: 1
Neon: 0
Sodium: 1
Magnesium: 2
Aluminum: 3
Silicon: 4
Phosphorous: 3
Sulfur: 2
Fluorine: 1
Argon: 0

As you can see, the valences rise and fall between zero and four. Even though Carbon is in the middle of the octave, with four extra electrons to bond with, it has more power to bond with more things than any other element. Silicon, which sits above Carbon on our diagram, also has a valence of 4, but the electrons are further away from the nucleus and bond differently in some regards than Carbon.

Organic chemistry is called Carbon chemistry, because all life depends upon Carbon. It is interesting that artificial intelligence has been developed through Silicon, an octave above Carbon, but it is Mr. Gurdjieff's nomenclature of his Alchemy that we are interested in. Mr. Gurdjieff called Carbon the active force, Nitrogen the neutralizing force and Oxygen, the passive force. We are trying to figure out why. And if you ponder carefully the relationship between Carbon and life, you may begin to see that life is active -- thus it may be said quite casually that Carbon is active.

Now that we have shown you to some reasonable degree of scientific certainty why Mr. Gurdjieff would choose Carbon as representing the active force, I will leave you for a time to ponder why Oxygen is passive and Nitrogen is reconciling. Good luck pondering. I will be doing the same thing -- trying to really THINK -- ACTIVELY.

I know it's been a long time since there were any new posts on this blog. I hope to return to it more often, but before I present something I want to make sure I have studied enough aspects and pondered enough to reach an understanding at depth rather than some surface formatory statements. I don't ask you to believe anything I write. It is only given out as part of the learning that human beings should be engaged in, and as a debt which I'm trying to pay, for the fact of my existence, and the gifts which have been visited upon me. Blessings to you all -- so mote it be.