Chapter 7: A Modern Allegory of the Spirituality Spectrum: The Gurdjieff Work
Of course human examination of who and what we are has continued throughout the ages and we have much written material to contribute to our present day understanding. Next in our presentation of the creative irrational we select the much more recent the works of 19th and 20th Century researcher G.I. Gurdjieff. Next in the Table 2 in lines 4, we cite the works describing the terminology developed by this 20th Century mystic, philosopher and spiritual teacher[1]. Gurdjieff studied the esoteric teachings of cultures in the Middle East. He developed his own approach to the question of human existence based on the various potential “Reasons” of a human. At the base of his teaching is the idea that we as individuals are not a single whole entity. On the left hand side of the spectrum in Table 2, we note that he taught that we are a collection of three independent Reasons or functionings. Gurdjieff called them “Reason of Body” “Reason of Feeling”’ and “Reason of Thinking”, thus emphasizing the virtual separation among the various members of the set as separate entities. Gurdjieff argued that as a result of this separation and isolation of functions within us, we live our lives in a waking sleep. As a result, he referred to average humans as “Three-Brained Beings” because of the prominence that these lower three Reasons have in our ordinary lives. He taught, however, that the existence of higher, more fully conscious levels of existence are natural for real human existence. His metaphoric style, with many new and unfamiliar terms, deliberately requires hard work on the part of the reader who ventures to comprehend it. Nevertheless, the body of his work can be seen as similar to others that we present in this book.
As we have shown, we are far from being the first to consider these ideas of levels of consciousness and higher Being. Expressions of the more-than-merely physical world have been made by humans since the beginning of time. In fact we are arguing that this is what makes us human. Appreciation for this, our creative irrational, is a common thread that runs through the history of Homo sapiens. In this section we present a look into the work of an individual from the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, G.I. Gurdjieff, who spent his life working with individuals to help them awaken from their waking sleep, to experience the more-than-merely physical components of life within us so that we might become more like the “real” humans we need to be[2].
Gurdjieff was born in 1855 in Alexandropol, Armenia in the southern foothills of the Caucasus Mountains between the Black and Caspian Seas[3]. He spent his life travelling and searching the world for an understanding of the human condition. He developed and taught a system of self-study based on ancient esoteric knowledge that has since become known as “The Work”. He established a centre for study and work called “The Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man”, in Fontainebleau, France just south of Paris where he died in late 1949. Groups following his method continue to function in various locations around the globe today. It is important to note that Gurdjieff intentionally demanded constant work of his students to continually challenge themselves physically, emotionally and mentally to develop their levels of consciousness. He refers to such a practice of constant challenges as “Conscious Labours and Intentional Suffering”. He maintained that only by aspiring to such a manner of self observation could a person hope to develop one’s Self, which he recognized as the aim of all sensible human beings. We find ourselves much indebted to him. Later authors have been publishing for decades attempting to convey the substance of his teachings[4]. Readers are encouraged to explore the extensive body of work that exists. Intensive study must be left to readers to undertake for themselves.
In approaching his thoughts on the human condition it is important to note that language was not a challenge to Gurdjieff. He was a polyglot speaking Armenian, Greek, Russian and Turkish along with a working facility with several European languages including English. Yet, when we come to his writings he presents readers with seemingly absurd images and concepts. Gurdjieff produced three books that are referred to as the “All and Everything” trilogy. They are “Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson”[5], “Meetings With Remarkable Men”[6] and “Life is Real Only Then, When ‘I Am’ ”[7]. In none of these books does he simply and clearly lay out his ideas about the state of humans and his recommendations on how to improve consciousness. Readers are constantly required to struggle to decipher the meaning of long and involved sentences and paragraphs. He avoided using words that would easily allow us to make a mental note and mindlessly move on. He was well aware of how easily we get distracted by our lower Reason of Thinking, or as he called it “Degindad” (Table 2).
In regard to the levels of a real human, Gurdjieff’s view is buried in Beelzebub’s Tales where he writes about one of the “Laws of the Universe” that he called “Heptaparaparshinokh”. The basis of this Law is that any active process can be regarded as consisting of a series of seven distinctive steps. Its name comes partially from the Greek word for the number seven “Hepta”. We can gain some insights into this meaning from something that we are accustomed to hearing in music as the “octave”. There we have a succession of seven tones in an octave scale, an eighth tone beginning the repeat of the original sequence one octave higher. In such a situation the final note following any sequence of seven musical notes in the scale leads to the repeat of the pattern. We in the Western World have learned and become accustomed to calling it an octave[8]. Gurdjieff alternatively refers to Heptaparaparshinokh as “The Law of Octaves”. Of course most musicians understand that development of this octave series is not an isolated event, but follows a particular historical series that most of us have now become accustomed to. For example, we may take the first three notes of this octave scale: “Doh, Re, Me”. Almost everyone who has done any group singing will recognize how seemingly natural it is for us to sing this simple sequence repeatedly – up three notes, then down three notes, then up again. The simple repetition seems quite natural to us, and is often utilized by singers “warming up”. Such simple practices can effectively impress on us a certain feeling, tone or mood. Musically Gurdjieff, as all artists, composed pieces in which the Law of Octaves is used to deliberately promote certain moods in the listener.
But Gurdjieff definitely did not restrict the application of Heptaparaparshinokh to music alone. The study of this Law of Seven permits us to seek to understand psychological ideas of harmony other than those that are strictly associated with physical phenomena, but that are still a part of our living experience. For instance, it is useful in appreciating our inability to hold an intention beyond the initial motivation for action. It draws attention to our difficulty in progressing from an initial movement of the “do, re, me sequence” to a full octave through the difficult intervals of the “me” and “fa” steps in the octave progression. These naturally occurring difficult intervals impede our reaching goals and objectives in our lives. So whether it is an intention to lose weight, or to be more relaxed, or to be a better person, Gurdjieff’s concept of Heptaparaparshinokh seems to capture some key properties that are not clearly recognized in our usual functioning. It is evident that there is much important information buried in the obscure lexicon of Gurdjieff’s writing that applies to the creative irrational and the spiritual levels that can be experienced in much of our daily lives.
Three Brained Beings
Recognizing that Gurdjieff deliberately avoided clear language, what can we present here that could contribute to our creative irrational concept, spirituality and the levels of human consciousness? Of critical importance, the basic Gurdjieff model of the average modern everyday participant in Western culture was that we are “three-brained beings”. He meant this in no way as a complement. He identified the body, emotion and mind as separate, distinct independent functions within us. As shown by us in the three cells to the left of Row 4 in our Spirituality Spectrum in Table 2 these are the three lowest levels of human “Reason”.
While we present his concepts as levels of “Reason” it is important to bear in mind his efforts to use words that are commonly used by Western minds, but may mean much more. In the typical manner of Gurdjieff’s teaching his language is difficult and requires unusual effort for followers to understand it. It is for this reason we also present here the terminology of one of his students, P.D. Ouspensky. In row 5 of Table 2 we present Ouspensky’s complimentary, more simplified version of Gurdjieff’s thoughts. He published extensively about his experiences in groups led by Gurdjieff as well as extensive studies of later work with his own pupils. Ouspensky was more of a thinking type and as a result his writings are much more approachable by individuals in Western culture. In contrast to Gurdjieff’s deliberate cloaking of his thoughts in mystery, Ouspensky, refers to the separate independent functions as simply “centres”, thereby displaying them more as aspects of a single body. We show, starting at the left side of row 5, Ouspensky’s names for the first three, lower categories of our functionings. Yet with Gurdjieff’s obscure terminology and Ouspensky’s potential oversimplification, both clearly recognize our need to appreciate several levels of being and the striving for higher consciousness that we call the creative irrational and spirituality.
While Ouspensky recognized the importance of Gurdjieff’s ideas he presented his own versions of them in his own style, a style that generally appeals more readily to modern Western readers (Row 5 in Table 2). For instance Ouspensky presents our three brains as independent “centres”. The more approachable concept of “centre” refers to our independent internal “functionings”. In our experience Ouspensky’s clarity provides an important introduction to the more challenging terms presented in detail by Gurdjieff but the overall work and effort of understanding these concepts, whether referred to as Reasons, centres or functionings, is critical to fully experiencing and appreciating our disjunctive day-to-day operations.
Returning to the question of us as “three-brained beings”, we continue our introduction with reference to long established esoteric studies of human functions by initiates from other non-western tradition. In their study of human development, both Gurdjieff and Ouspensky encountered individuals who concentrated their work on only one of their specific functionings or centers[9] & [10]. These ancient forms of study and self-work are known as:
1) The Way of the Fakir focusing on the “body”[11];
2) The Way of the Monk focusing on the “emotion” [12]; and,
3) The Way of the Yogis focusing on the “mind” [13].
These three Ways or lifestyles for self-study require initiates to undergo extensive training and exercise in an effort to reach higher levels of states of spiritual existence and consciousness. These approaches generally require work isolated away from ordinary life. While monks, or at least the image of a stylized monk, are somewhat acceptable in the development of Western Christian thought, we are less familiar with the other “Ways”.
As an example of the Way of the Fakir, we mention Egypt's most famed fakir from the 1920s Tahra Bey[14] as reported by Paul Brunton[15]. Bey was trained and practiced as a fakir to accomplish seemingly impossible physical feats. According to Brunton, Bey subjected himself to scientific study while with great control and intention he deliberately put himself in death-like trance states. He was able to exist while his physical body displayed nothing of what we would consider signs of life. Of significance to our study, Bey is said to have had the ability to separate his physical body from his other centres, thus maintaining himself isolated from a heartbeat, breath and sensory reactions. As a result of this manipulation in his state, Bey was reported to have been physically rejuvenated upon regaining consciousness. While impossible for us to be sure, it seems to us that Bey’s experience, may have been similar to what took place in the 5,000-year old Ancient Egyptian pharaonic initiation rites suggested in the Pyramid Texts.
While the modern western world has many examples of the use of yoga for improving health and well-being, they are a mere shadow of what Gurdjieff, Ouspensky and Brunton would have encountered in the early 20th Century in Central and East Asia. Yogi’s of that time and place were intent on following a lifestyle in search of higher levels of consciousness, quite different from the common modern day yoga practices associated with ordinary health and well-being. The real yoga self-study focused on their “Reason of Thinking”.
Building on the three independent Ways of the fakir, monk and yogi, Gurdjieff developed an approach where an individual works to develop simultaneously his/her three lower brains in our ordinary day-to-day lives. Thus Ouspensky’s teachings are often referred to as the Fourth Way[16]. So from Gurdjieff’s work we come to appreciate that he is talking about a nature that is based on three independent functions: “doing”, “feeling”, and “thinking”, that are relatively easy to identify in ourselves. When we come to seriously study them we may also come to realize that while they may seem to act almost independently of each other, according to this prescription of “three-brained”, they must be identifiable as aspects of a being with at least the possible reality of a central unity. It is the bringing of this supposedly unified set of functionings into a true unity of action that includes the proper operation of our other higher Reasons shown in Table 2that is the central theme of Gurdjieff’s whole teaching and the reason why we need to deal with it here. And while going beyond our lower three brain operation is not so simple, with persistent practice and attention, our own experience suggests that it is possible to find all three functions operating at once.
The Higher Reasons of Real Humans
Here we turn our focus to Gurdjieff’s grand allegory of human history and our present state that is found in Beelzebub’s Tales. It is nominally an allegorical journey of the central figure Beelzebub across the universe in a spaceship with his grandson. Throughout the tale we are provided with an expansive and distracting view of our world. Nothing is stated in simple terms. It deserves intensive study, but we can only summarize certain points here that pertain to the levels of human consciousness. So far in this section we have focused on the three lower, elementary stages of consciousness on the left side of Table 2. These are or can be directly addressed through our self-study and with prolonged effort can result in a degree of “self-knowledge”. Here we find that there are possibilities working towards those higher levels to which Gurdjieff gave the strange names used in line 4 of Table 2.
The story ends with Beelzebub receiving the greatest of honours and recognition, by beings with even higher understanding. Such a story cannot be omitted from our consideration of our higher levels of awareness and consciousness. In spite of Gurdjieff’s stated objectives of “burying the bone deeper”[17] there are definite insights that, with sufficient attention, the reader can penetrate to understand the various levels of Being and appreciate the difficulties encountered in the seeing of these levels within oneself.
In the allegory the final “transformation” in Beelzebub’s development of “level of being” is represented by the sprouting of forked horns on the top of his head. Gurdjieff describes a scene that occurs during Beelzebub’s final appearance on earth. The story tells of how a group of assembled observers witness the expression of Beelzebub’s levels of being through the growth of new prongs on his horns. His antlers keep growing new prongs up to and including a special fifth fork. This indicates that his being had indeed reached only one step below the level of what he called “The Sacred Anklad” or the “Reason of God” which, as shown in Table 2, is the step just before the highest level of “OUR ENDLESS CREATOR”.
We present here one small section from Beelzebub’s Tales to explore his representation of the higher levels Being. We quote it as follows:
“At first, while just the bare horns were being formed, only a concentrated quiet gravely prevailed among those assembled. But from the moment that forks began to appear upon the horns a tense interest and rapt attention began to be manifested among them. This latter state proceeded among them, because everybody was agitated by the wish to learn how many forks would make their appearance on Beelzebub’s head, since by their number the gradation of Reason to which he had attained according to the sacred measure of Reason would be defined.
“First one fork formed, then another, and then a third, and as each fork made its appearance a clearly perceptible thrill of joy and unconcealed satisfaction proceeded among all those present. As the fourth fork began to be formed on the horns, the tension among those assembled reached its height, since the formation of the fourth fork on the horns signified that the Reason of Beelzebub had already been perfected to the sacred Ternoonald and hence that there remained for Beelzebub only two gradations before attaining to the sacred Anklad.
“When the whole of this unusual ceremony neared its end and before all those assembled had had time to recover their self-possession from their earlier joyful agitation, there suddenly and unexpectedly appeared on the horns of Beelzebub quite independently a fifth fork of a special form known to them all.
“Thereupon all without exception, even the venerable archangel himself, fell prostrate before Beelzebub, who had now risen to his feet and stood transfigured with a mystical appearance, owing to the truly majestic horns which had arisen on his head. All fell prostrate before Beelzebub because by the fifth fork on his horns it was indicated that He had attained the Reason of the sacred Podkolad, i.e., the last gradation before the Reason of the sacred Anklad.
“The Reason of the sacred Anklad is the highest to which in general any being can attain, being the third in degree from the Absolute Reason of HIS ENDLESSNESS HIMSELF.”
In regards to the levels of individual development as portrayed by the growth of Beelzebub’s horns, beyond the three lower levels of Reason, Gurdjieff adds the several categories of Being as the steps through which humans may eventually proceed: “Reason of Astral Body” (Ternoonald), “Reason of Spiritual Body” (Podkolad), “Reason of God” (Anklad). The highest level he calls “Common Endless Creator, Our Endless Endlessness-all Quarters Maintainer” which we equate with the Egyptian Ra and which Plato presents as the Sun itself.
It is through his description of prongs sprouting on the head of Beelzebub that we find a terminology that allows an equivalence to be drawn between his perception and those of others that we study in this book. These all too difficult to recognize “higher” levels presented allegorically in Gurdjieff’s book as growth of horns on the head of Beelzebub make it easy for the casual reader to laugh off this scene as a humorous, useless fiction. We argue that it is no more fanciful than the human-headed birds and sphinx of the Ancient Egyptians or chained observers in Plato’s cave. To speak about the more-than-physical, creative irrational world has always been a challenge.
Gurdjieff’s writing provides insights into how we may be able capitalize on what he calls our “Conscious Labours and Intentional Suffering” to enable us to recognize the potentially higher states that he suggests are true possibilities for us. He points out that such higher states require a deliberate balancing of the characteristics that are revealed in our ordinary lives so that with additional understanding of ourselves we can gradually learn to pass from these primitive natural levels of reactivity to the higher levels that appear only with conscious balanced efforts; revealed with phenomena that only appear when these lower stages act together.
Coming as it does towards the end of the long tale of Beelzebub’s travels it is easy for the reader to fall “asleep” and get lost in the amusement of the image of horns growing on the head of a superior being. To Gurdjieff’s credit the “bone is indeed well buried” in these distracting images. Our purpose for inserting the line of Gurdjieff’s “Reasons” into Table 2 is to emphasize that this unusual image of sprouting horns may represent the most important guidance for us of what is in his book, and what we need to know. As we see in Table 2 his “Reasons” can be aligned with the major thoughts of other traditions. His lack of detail on the characteristics of these higher Reasons is also consistent with our ordinary understanding that they are very rarely realized but are ultimately personal and important in our recognition.
Are we, at this point in our study, being invited once again for some specific reason to seriously re-consider this assumed unity of being and the parts of which it is composed? We are accustomed to the idea of there being three basic functions of our natures that he calls “bodies”: (our bodies, our emotions, and our minds), but there seems to be something more suggested here. We customarily consider that these three independent functions work together in a recognizable harmony of operation towards a particular purpose. But one of the apparently main purposes of the life teachings of Gurdjieff was to encourage us to seriously question this supposed unity for ourselves. In examining this Table we therefore remind our readers that we need to take the question of this unity seriously. We invite our readers to do the same, perhaps being better able to keep this qualification of our sometimes-erratic functioning in mind when we are specifically pointed in that direction. How then are we to proceed?
By such methods Gurdjieff utilized many elements of every-day life to illustrate particular phenomena that are not otherwise familiar to us. As an example we point out that in this description he utilized quite specific esoteric influences on us that are not usual during our daily activities. We regard his utilization of an almost automatic action of the three notes of the octave sequences in this way. While the 3-note sequence may be familiar to singers, we need to appreciate how it may, without our intention, induce or help hold particular moods in us.
Over his lifetime Gurdjieff developed a method for awakening out of our daily sleep so as to ascend from it to a higher level of being alive to oneself, and through that to live a more real human life. In addition to the books that he prepared for publication, his pupils have since compiled others, including a volume entitled “Views from the Real World: Early Talks of Gurdjieff as Recollected by his Pupils[18]”. Additional works have also appeared, one of particular note based on discussions led and reported by Madame Jean de Salzmann, who spent much of her life attending Gurdjieff’s activities. She published works of her own, based on his leadership, but after his death. Notable among them is the collection of essays comprising a Book entitled, “The Reality of Being. The Fourth Way of Gurdjieff.”[19]
While Gurdjieff deliberately chose the new and unfamiliar imagery to convey much of what he intended his readers to understand, it can be seen to be in keeping with other great traditions concerning our striving for a more complete existence in this world, our creative irrational.
—— Chapter 8: 20th Century Psychoanalysts: Different Paths and Different Insights ———
———————— Table of Contents ———————————
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gurdjieff
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gurdjieff
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia
[4] Churton, T. 2017. Deconstructing Gurdjieff Biography of a Spiritual Magician. Inner Traditions. Vermont.
[5] Gurdjieff, G.I. 1950. Beelzebub’s Tales To His Grandson. All and Everything Third Series. Penguin Putnam Inc. 375 Hudson St., New York.
[6] https://www.amazon.com/Meetings-Remarkable-Men-G-Gurdjieff/dp/1578988934/
[7] https://www.amazon.com/Life-Real-Only-Then-When/dp/0140195858/
[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octave
[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meetings_with_Remarkable_Men
[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_of_the_Miraculous
[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fakir
[12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monk
[13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogi
[14] https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahra-Bey
[15] Brunton, P. 2007. A Search in Secret Egypt. Larson Publications. Burdett, New York.
[16] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Way
[17] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beelzebub%27s_Tales_to_His_Grandson
[18] Gurdjieff, Views from the Real World 1973. Early talks in Moscow, Essentuki, Tiflis,, Berlin, London, Paris, New York and Chicago As Recollected by his Pupils. With a Forward by Jeanne de Salzmann. E.P. Dutton & Co. Inc. New York.
[19] de Salzman, J. 2010. The Reality of Being. The Fourth Way of Gurdjieff. Shambala