Temple Duties
(Text taken from the Toomer Version of The Tales. For PDF copies of this document, contact Gurdjieff Heritage Society.)
Glancing up at his grandfather somewhat sadly, Hassein replied thoughtfully,
“My dear grandfather, your talk about ships has given rise to some very melancholy thoughts; it has made me think about things which never occurred to my mind before. From all your conversation I realize now that in the world of our Endlessness, nothing is really as I see and imagine it to be.
“I have never had any doubt before that the ship. on which we are now traveling was not always as it is today. But it appears that everything we have and use, all our comforts and everything necessary for our well-being, neither exist nor come to exist in the world so simply. I realize now that for long years certain beings must have voluntarily labored, suffered and endured a great deal in order that we might be able to possess and enjoy all these blessings. They did all this for us, beings quite unknown, strange and indifferent to them, and they have created these conditions of which we are taking advantage and those comforts we are now enjoying. And now, not only do we not thank them, we do not even know of them; and we regard everything as being in the natural order of things and think nothing of it. I, for example, have lived a number of years in the world, but it has never entered my head that everything I see once did not exist, and that all that I now have was not born with me, like my nose. But from your talk with the captain today, I realize with my whole being that things are not as my mind has all my life imagined them. The idea has taken root in my understanding and now stirs in me. I am concerned to know and to understand why I have deserved all this, and I should very much like to know what I should do in return for these blessings and what duties I must undertake. That is why, my dear grandfather, these thoughts are troubling and perplexing me, since I cannot as yet understand what I must do during my life.”
“It does not matter, my dear Hassein,” said Beelzebub, “some day you will understand and know what you must do. But you are still young, and the day has not yet come to pay for your existence. You have yet ample time in which to understand and fulfill the duties imposed on you by His Endlessness and by Nature. For the time being, you must not think about it; the present is given you not for the purpose of payment, but to prepare you for your future duties. Meanwhile, take life as it comes. Only do not forget one thing: tell yourself, every morning, that he who is too lazy to learn everything will never be able, when he becomes responsible and of age, to pay for his existence and be a good servant to His Endlessness, the Creator.
“I personally am very glad about your future and I am also glad that you have the kind of nature which all beings created by His Endlessness should have, and not such as I have seen amongst beings on certain planets. The word ‘glad’ I should perhaps never have been able to use if I had lived, as indeed I ought to have lived, that is, at home amongst my own people and in my natural environment.
“The circumstances of my life, however, compelled me to spend many years in regions foreign to me, and all that I have involuntarily seen and heard during these years has sunk deeply into me. These strange views and this understanding of duty gradually became real to me; and in addition to my first nature, an entirely new second nature was formed in me. During many years, I saw and heard what I could not have seen and heard among ourselves.
“If it were not so, how could I be glad that you are at present as you are? And you, could you be different from what you are and must be? According to your race it cannot be otherwise, since you have everything that your relations possess, who have nothing special to rejoice about. And I should have been the same had I always lived at home. But I can enjoy what I now have within me, something which those who have always lived at home and cannot have, as for example, your father and all who love you. In any case, my dear boy, don’t worry about these things; everything will come right in time. And, if you still like, I will tell you something. The captain has not yet returned, and he is probably occupied with his own duties. He will not be back for some time.”