Issue #35 October 2024
“Individuality is the consciousness of Will.”
~ Alfred Orage
Hi
We have two new books to announce. The first is the second book in the Side-by-side series which compares the published 1950 version of The Tales to The 1931 Manuscript. To buy it or simply find out more details click here:
The other book Is Stephen Aronson’s second book, entitled As Outside, So Inside: As Above, So Below. This is an interesting series of essays that discuss the world of man, the Universe and the micro world from every perspective. It’s worth your attention, I believe – and it will be available in a few weeks. Click here to preorder.
As mentioned in the previous issue, we are soon commencing an English-German Study group to read and study both versions of The Tales. The Study Group meetings commence on Tuesday November 5th and will proceed weekly thereafter. To find out more click this link. To register for this new study group click this link.
In case you are unaware the meaning of the English and German texts are not identical. (We know this from some preliminary analysis.) We hope to discover much more. It is possible that a deeper understanding of Gurdjieff’s magnum opus will emerge. I’m looking forward to this.
Sincerely
RB
The Attention Deficit Disorder
The fundamental challenge of human existence lies not in our circumstances but in our relationship with attention. We live in a perpetual state of dispersed awareness, our energy scattered like coins from a torn pocket. We pay exorbitant prices in attention for the most mundane of experiences.
Consider the simple act of eating. Even when our bodies …
The Heart of Buddhism
The Four Noble Truths describe the nature of suffering, its cause, its cessation, and the path leading to its cessation.
The First Noble Truth: The Truth of Suffering (Dukkha)
Suffering is an inherent part of human existence. It arises from various sources, including birth, old age, sickness, death, separation from loved ones, not getting what one desires, and the inevitable suffering of the five aggregates (form, sensation, perception, mental formations, and consciousness).
Gurdjieff on “Social Organization”
The text below is an excerpt from The 1931 Manuscript of Beelzebub’s Tales. It is unusual ast there is no parallel text to be found in the final published version of the Tales. It could perhaps be argued that this topic is treated in great detail in Book 3, Chapter XLIII, Beelzebub’s Opinion of War. Certainly, it is the case that different forms of government are discussed there, but mysteriously, Monarchy is never mentioned …
God: Cathode and Anode
The illustration above shows a battery with the anode and cathode connected to “plates” immersed in a medium (salt water for example). The medium provides some (even if very little) resistance to the electrical flow.
The tendency will be for negative charge to move from the anode to the cathode and positive charge to move in the opposite direction.
Surprisingly perhaps, this can be viewed as a very simple model of the Universe – from the perspective of Objective Science.
⥫ GURDJIEFF OSKIANO ⥭
Evolution in Objective Science
by Robin Bloor
