The next Fourth Way seminar is in Orlando Florida December 12th through the 15th. The theme is “The Knowing Awareness of Presence.” It includes guided meditation, Conscious Body-Breath Impressions, dialogue and private interviews with William Patrick Patterson. Hope to see you there!
The details are located on Gurdjieff Legacy.
It is available at Gurdjieff Legacy
The spiritual life story of Ethel Merston based on her diaries and recollections is an important historical work, as well as a keen insight into many of the seminal teachers of her times. Merston was one of Gurdjieff’s first English pupils and lived at the Prieuré from 1922 until 1927. Her seriousness and organizational abilities led Gurdjieff to put her in charge in his absences. Fritz Peters gives a wonderful account of what she had to put up with (he gives her the name Miss Madison) in his Boyhood with Gurdjieff. In India, she lived at Ramana Maharshi’s ashram for many years. She gives a first-person account of his death and also the meeting between The Mother and Sri Aurobindo and Anandamayi Ma (with whom she often traveled). She also attended many of Krishnamurti’s talks and seminars in the 1930s, was a friend of Sunyata, Alain Daniélou, Krishna Prem and Swami Omananda. In the 1950s she was initiated into Subud by Pak Subuh at J.G. Bennett’s Coombe Springs study house. At Mendham, she met again her friends from her Gurdjieff days—Mme de Salzmann, Mme Ouspensky, Olga de Hartmann and Peggy Flinsch—and was introduced to Lord John Pentland.
There is a new site UsedEsoteric.com which offers a large selection of used books on diverse esoteric subjects. Selections include books by or on Gurdjieff and The Fourth Way, as well as books on Christianity, Advaita Vedanta, Ancient Egypt, and Western and Eastern spirituality.
There is an upcoming seminar in Maryland August 29th through September 1st. The theme is “Sex, Money & Conscience.” It includes guided meditation, Conscious Body-Breath Impressions, dialogue and private interviews with William Patrick Patterson. It’s open, as it says, to all levels of simplicity. See you there!
The details are located on Gurdjieff Legacy
I had read a number of Carlos books a long time ago and my interest was captivated by Carlos finding a teacher and a path to self knowledge. I felt as if I was on the journey with him, a true journey. Yet, his books became a bit strange around the 4th or 5th one and interest was lost after that.
Carlo’s life, what he learned from don Juan, what was taken from Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way—rephrased to hide its origin, his strengths and weaknesses are all explored in The Life & Teachings of Carlos Castaneda.
Of particular interest was the chapter Ideas & Sources. Carlos appears to have definitely learned something from don Juan but he used many of the ideas from The Fourth Way and expressing them in sorceric terms. Unfortunately sometimes Carlos expressed those ideas in personal terms.
Even though Carlos broke the human mold it appears there were many things or something he still did not understand or was not aware of about himself. In The Summing Up it speaks of his guilt, the guilt of his killing someone or something he judged as equivalent. It appears to me he really didn’t travel the full path of heart as he spoke of, or only up to a certain point, but was diverted by the guilt and judgment he could not absorb.
The book is well worth reading, especially anyone who has heard of Carlos or read some of Carlos’ books. It sheds light on a lot of what I did not understand about Carlos Castaneda when I first read his books and even for years after.
Gurdjieff came to give the western world a shock in the hope to advert the destruction of the world. What is different is the stress on man’s individual development within group work. Quite different than our belief and hope in salvation through mass movements of religion, politics and philosophy. The full video for this trailer is available in the Gurdjieff Legacy Bookstore.
I have been in my drawing class for a few months now and it is enjoyable and a challenge. The drawing here is a tie in a knot I did a few weeks ago.
My instructor is Salvatore Victor. What is interesting is he teaches to see what you are drawing, whereas we usually draw the old image in our minds of the thing that we are looking at. This allows the image to come into you and then to your paper. It is a freeing of the old images, ideas and symbols we have stuck in our minds blocking us from seeing what is in front of us.
I also read an article recently about an artist (in the true sense of the word) who put it this way:
“What I want to show in my work is the idea which hides itself behind so-called reality. I am seeking for the bridge which leads from the visible to the invisible, like the famous cabbalist who once said: ‘If you wish to get hold of the invisible, you must penetrate as deeply as possible into the visible.’ To penetrate is to go through.”
The article was about Max Beckman, Artist in Search of the Self and below are some of his works.
I just saw a very interesting trailer on YouTube.com. It is a video of Mr. Gurdjieff’s search and discovery of the origin of esoteric knowledge as he said before the birth of Christ. Incredibly, it is to be found in prehistoric Egypt. The video comes from Gurdjieff Legacy. There is more information at Gurdjieff in Egypt and the DVD is available in the Gurdjieff Legacy Bookstore.
There is a talk on The Life & Teachings of Carlos Castaneda this coming Wednesday February 20th, in Sacramento at East West Books. Starts at 7:00 PM. Also, in San Rafael the following evening Thursday, February 21st, at the Open Secret Bookstore starting at 7:30 PM. Both look to be great talks on the influence of Castaneda, past and present, don Juan’s identity, the meaning of Castaneda’s “jump into the abyss,” the life of the Nagual and his witches, and the primary source of Castaneda’s ideas—Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way. They both include guided meditation and Conscious Body/Breath Impressions. It is sponsored by Gurdjieff Legacy.
Here is an interesting article exploring reactions to sex in the context of how the Western world and the Islamic world treat it. Even though both are decidedly opposite reactions, one flaunting it, the other forcibly repressing it, both are the same: they are both reactions. Given the perspective in this Fourth Way article it helps to clarify where oneself sits in the scale of reaction to sex, either trying to repress it or to flaunt it. It opens questions for myself.