Issue #30 February 2024
“Regard what does not belong to you as if it did belong to you.”
~ Gurdjieff
Hi
I write this, as it were, in the shadow of Lent. I asked the Internet if there were a specific Lenten Prayer and it responded that there were several, including one for Ash Wednesday, to which it attributed the following words:
Lord, as we enter into this Lenten season, be near to us. Help us, by your Holy Spirit, to feel the right conviction and repentance for our sins. Help us, by your Spirit, to turn away from our sin and to turn toward your love. Thank you for the grace and mercy you offer us through Jesus Christ. Amen.
In the Orthodox tradition, Lent begins with 3 days of complete fasting, followed by fasting from meat for the whole of Lent. The roots of Lent go back to early Christian practices of fasting and reflection before Easter. Officially, it dates back to about 400AD. Its 40-day duration symbolizing Jesus’ 40 days of fasting and temptation in the wilderness before beginning his public ministry. The core practices are prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
The roots of Ash Wednesday go back further. In the Old Testament, ashes are a symbol of mourning, repentance, and mortality. Job repents in sackcloth and ashes and Esther’s people seek forgiveness with fasting and ashes. Consequently, early Christians adopted the use of ashes for penance and public reconciliation. Those seeking restoration to the church community might undergo public penance starting on the first day of Lent, marked by ashes and sackcloth.
Usually, these words are said:
Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
Enjoy Lent if you know how…
Ed.
Who Was Gurdjieff’s Tutor?
In Meetings With Remarkable Men, Gurdjieff refers to his tutor as Dean Borsh. It was not the Dean’s real name – although Borsh may characterize the Dean – as being similar to the famous dish Borsh, with its a kaleidoscope of flavors and textures. Served with sour cream, it is both sweet and sour, as education itself has sometimes been described. Borsh is said to be the national dish of both Ukraine and Russia and is believed to …
Creatures of the Fourth Way
TAmong the 10,000 or so species of bird, 366 are hummingbirds. They constitute about 3.7% of bird species with a population in the hundreds of millions. They are distinct as they are the only birds that can fly backwards and even upside down. Their heart beats 20 times per second – far faster than any other living animal and their wings beat 80 times per second.
The Hummingbird Curiosity
Among the 10,000 or so species of bird, 366 are hummingbirds. They constitute about 3.7% of bird species with a population in the hundreds of millions. They are distinct as they are the only birds that can fly backwards and even upside down. Their heart beats 20 times per second – far faster than any other living animal and their wings beat 80 times per second. Hummingbirds are first-class pollinators.
“I” and “It”
Said “I” to “It”
I’d like to know
What makes you always act as though
I were not part of you?
You never ask me if you may
Do this or that or feel or say;
You always have it your own way
And never ask my view.
Said “It” to “I”
You’re just a mite
⥫ GURDJIEFF OSKIANO ⥭
