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G. I. Gurdjieff

Mr. Gurdjieff was an extraordinary man, a master in the truest sense. His teachings speak to our most essential questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What is the purpose of life, and of human life in particular? As a young man, Gurdjieff relentlessly pursued these questions and became convinced that practical answers lay within ancient traditions. Through many years of searching and practice he discovered answers and then set about putting what he had learned into a form understandable to the Western world. Gurdjieff maintained that, owing to the abnormal conditions of modern life, we no longer function in a harmonious way. He taught that in order to become harmonious, we must develop new faculties — or actualize latent potentialities — through “work on oneself.” He presented his teachings and ideas in three forms: writings, music, and movements which correspond to our intellect, emotions, and physical body.

If they are far down, it is because you are high up.

A ”sin” is something which is not necessary.

The most difficult thing to endure is the manifestations of others.

Laughter relieves us of superfluous energy, which, if it remained unused, might become negative, that is, poison. Laughter is the antidote.

Religion is doing; a man does not merely think his religion or feel it, he lives his religion as much as he is able, otherwise it is not religion but fantasy or philosophy.

Ashes come from burning.

Every stick has two ends.

A man is never the same for long. He is continually changing. He seldom remains the same even for half an hour.

No salt, no sugar.

Conscious faith is freedom. Emotional faith is slavery. Mechanical faith is foolishness.

A man can only attain knowledge with the help of those who possess it. This must be understood from the very beginning. One must learn from him who knows.

Ibn Arabi

Truth – She has confused all the learned of Islam, Everyone who has studied the psalms, Every Jewish Rabbi, Every Christian Priest.

I fear you will not reach Mecca, oh Nomad! For the road you are following leads to Turkestan.

Deep in the sea are riches beyond compare. But if you seek safety, it is on the shore.

I have never seen a man lost who was on a straight path.

No one throws stones at a barren tree.

When Noah is captain, what is there to fear?

Sylvia Plath

Biography
Take Me to the Edge

Out here there are no hearthstones,
Hot grains, simply. It is dry, dry.
And the air dangerous. Noonday acts queerly
On the mind’s eye, erecting a line
Of poplars in the middle distance, the only
Object beside the mad, straight road
One can remember men and houses by.
A cool wind should inhabit those leaves
And a dew collect on them, dearer than money,
In the blue hour before sunup.
Yet they recede, untouchable as tomorrow,
Or those glittery fictions of spilt water
That glide ahead of the very thirsty.

I think of the lizards airing their tongues
In the crevice of an extremely small shadow
And the toad guarding his heart’s droplet.
The desert is white as a blind man’s eye,
Comfortless as salt. Snake and bird
Doze behind the old masks of fury.
We swelter like firedogs in the wind.
The sun puts its cinder out. Where we lie
The heat-cracked crickets congregate
In their black armorplate and cry.
The day-moon lights up like a sorry mother,
And the crickets come creeping into our hair
To fiddle the short night away.

Rumi

Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, commonly known as Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a Sufi mystic, poet, and founder of the Islamic brotherhood known as the Mevlevi Order. Rumi is an influential figure in Sufism, and his thought and works loom large both in Persian literature and mystic poetry in general. Today, his translated works are enjoyed all over the world.

 

Travelers, it is late.
Life’s sun is going to set.
During these brief days that you have strength,
be quick and spare no effort of your wings.

 

All day and night, music,
a quiet, bright
reedsong. If it
fades, we fade.

 

Pale sunlight,
pale the wall.

Love moves away.
The light changes.

I need more grace
than I thought.

 

Gamble everything for love,
if you’re a true human being.
If not, leave
this gathering.

Half-heartedness doesn’t reach
into majesty. You set out
to find God, but then you keep
stopping for long periods
at mean-spirited roadhouses.

 

In a boat down a fast-running creek,
it feels like trees on the bank
are rushing by. What seems
to be changing around us
is rather the speed of our craft
leaving this world.

 

Which is worth more, a crowd of thousands,
or your own genuine solitude?
Freedom, or power over an entire nation?
A little while alone in your room
will prove more valuable than anything else
that could ever be given you.

 

Forget safety.
Live where you fear to live.
Destroy your reputation.
Be notorious.

 

Emily Bronte

Often rebuked, yet always back returning
To those first feelings that were born with me,
And leaving busy chase of wealth and learning
For idle dreams of things that cannot be:

Today, I will seek not the shadowy region;
Its unsustaining vastness waxes drear;
And visions rising, legion after legion,
Bring the unreal world too strangely near.

I’ll walk, but not in old heroic traces,
And not in paths of high morality,
And not among the half-distinguished faces,
The clouded forms of long-past history.

I’ll walk where my own nature would be leading:
It vexes me to choose another guide:
Where the gray flocks in ferny glens are feeding;
Where the wild wind blows on the mountain side.

What have those lonely mountains worth revealing?
More glory and more grief than I can tell:
The earth that wakes one human heart to feeling;
Can center both the worlds of Heaven and Hell.

 

When days of Beauty deck the earth
Or stormy nights descend
How well my spirit knows the path
On which it ought to wend

It seeks the consecrated spot
Beloved in childhood’s years
The space between is all forgot
Its suffering and its tears.

 

No coward soul is mine
No trembler in the world’s storm-troubled sphere
I see Heaven’s glories shine
And Faith shines equal arming me from Fear
O God within my breast
Almighty ever-present Deity
Life, that in me hast rest,
As I Undying Life, have power in Thee
Vain are the thousand creeds
That move men’s hearts, unutterably vain,
Worthless as withered weeds
Or idlest froth amid the boundless main
To waken doubt in one
Holding so fast by thy infinity,
So surely anchored on
The steadfast rock of Immortality.
With wide-embracing love
Thy spirit animates eternal years
Pervades and broods above,
Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates and rears
Though earth and moon were gone
And suns and universes ceased to be
And Thou wert left alone
Every Existence would exist in thee
There is not room for Death
Nor atom that his might could render void
Since thou art Being and Breath
And what thou art may never be destroyed.
All day I’ve toiled but not with pain
     In learning’s golden mine
And now at eventide again
     The moonbeams softly shine
There is no snow upon the ground
     No frost on wind or wave
The south wind blew with gentlest sound
     And broke their icy grave
Tis sweet to wander here at night
     To watch the winter die
With heart as summer sunshine light
     And warm as summer’s sky
O may I never lose the peace
     That lulls me gently now
Though time should change my youthful face
     And years should shade my brow
True to myself and true to all
     May I be healthful still
And turn away from passion’s call
     And curb my own wild will

I know not how it falls on me,
This summer evening hushed and lone;
Yet the faint wind comes soothingly
With something of an olden tone.

Forgive me if I’ve shunned so long
Your gentle greeting, earth and air!
But sorrow withers e’en the strong,
And who can fight against despair?

The Simple Way: Laotze (the ‘Old Boy’)

Lao Tzu was born in the early seventh century B.C. Although Taoism began before that, he put his knowledge together in the ‘Chinese Bible’, the Tao Te Ching. Thus began the rise and spread of Taoism.

It should be understood that as a religious text, the message is full of symbolism that can only be grasped with our intuition. The author is describing experiences beyond science and our senses. The common man of this age will laugh at this message – but take heed!

When a superior man hears of the Tao,
he immediately begins to embody it.

When an average man hears of the Tao,
he half believes it, half doubts it.

When a foolish man hears of the Tao,
he laughs out loud.

If he didn’t laugh,
it wouldn’t be the Tao.

Out of the many translations of the Tao Te Ching, I prefer this one by Walter Gorn Old. The most essential ingredient to translating ancient texts is to have a degree of understanding of the topic at hand. His comments are apt and thought-provoking.

It is said, a reader can only understand such texts unless he or she has read them seven times. So get to it! Read it slowly, backwards and forwards, then set it aside and ponder it.