The Realized Idiot E-Book

Bruno Martin

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Seitenzahl: 205

Beschreibung

Becoming an Idiot… "Everyone who decides to work on himself is an idiot in both meanings. The wise know that he is seeking reality. The foolish think he has taken leave of his senses," John G. Bennett says. The famous “life teacher” and philosopher G. I. Gurdjieff (1866-1949) taught his developmental psychology for thirty years during daily ritual meals. In this book this special teaching gets published for the first time and is explained in a contemporary way. The “Science of Idiotism” puts out a challenge for those who are striving to get to the bottom of their own being – for those who want to become an Idiot in the original sense and step up the “ladder of reason” as Gurdjieff puts it. Bruno Martin found a key for interpreting the metaphorical descriptions of the 21 types of “Idiots” Gurdjieff used in the old Tarot of Marseilles and compares both teachings. Teaching stories from Sufism and Zen are further illustrating the meanings. Written in an inspiring and entertaining way the book gives an introduction in Gurdjieff’s artful psychology and also instructions for conducting a ritual meal with the toasts on the idiots, which can help to win new insights into the essence of the participants.

Leseprobe

If you want to make sure that a tradition will keep its effectiveness than develop it.

A Chinese Feng-shui master

Contents

Foreword

1. Why I Want to Become an Idiot

2. “To the Health of All Ordinary Idiots” – The Ritual Feast

3. “Remember Yourself” – Gurdjieff’s Transpersonal Psychology

4. The Science of Idiotism

5. The Ladder of Reason

6. The Ritual Meal

7. “A Toast to the Realized Idiot”

Appendix: Some notes to the meaning of the tarot

Note of Thanks

Bibliography

Notes

“There are twenty-one gradations of ‘Idiots’ – of identity, of kinds of beings. This gives you the picture of the going out and the returning, but it also adds something more, which is very important, and that is that there can be a kind of false returning, a returning which has not got the potential for totality. This is what Gurdjieff was anxious to get over to people with his Science of Idiotism: that every kind of effort produces an integrative effect – a soul is made whenever there is an act of decision – something is integrated. But integration is not enough. Integration has to be such that it can reach completion.”

John G. Bennett, After-Lunch Discussion, unpublished

Foreword

In contemporary language, the word “idiot” means “fool”. But the Greeks had a very different meaning. Their word, idiotes, referred to a private or simple man, derived from the word idios, which means to be of one's own, particular or special. G. I. Gurdjieff (1866-1949)1 used it in the sense of “being oneself”, because a man who is truly himself can appear foolish, though only to those who actually are foolish - those whose perceptions are clouded by judgment. To be declared an “Idiot”, then, is a compliment of the highest degree - it means that one is not sharing the common illusions which sedate us all, but rather has found his or her private, unique individuality. In the words of John G. Bennett (1897-1974), who studied with Gurdjieff, "Everyone who decides to work on himself is an idiot in both meanings. The wise know that he is seeking reality. The foolish think he has taken leave of his senses."2

As today the term “idiot” is only used in a humiliating or ignominious sense, I pondered for a while if I can also use it in its original meaning today. I came to the conclusion that it might be correct to use it, because today many people are not willing to “look deeper” and do not want to question general human traits. The “Science of Idiotism” therefore puts out a challenge for those who are striving to get to the bottom of their own being – for those who want to become an Idiot in the original sense and step up the “ladder of reason” as Gurdjieff puts it.

For those who know little or nothing about Gurdjieff - the teacher of wisdom who taught in France from 1922 until his death - I have included some of the basics of his psychology in this book. If you want to study his teachings in full, you should read the foremost work of his outstanding pupil Pjotr D. Ouspensky, titled In Search of the Miraculous. The books and works of John G. Bennett also helped me very much in clarifying this teaching. Furthermore, among Bennett's great merits are that he developed many of Gurdjieff’s ideas for our time, and that he incorporated new insights.

The first time I took part in a “ritual meal” with the “Toasts to the Idiots” in the tradition of Gurdjieff was at the beginning of the 1970s and under the leadership of John G. Bennett. At that time, I visited his “Academy for Continuous Education” (today it could be translated into “life long learning”). This ritual impressed me so much that many years later, when I had established own work groups, I started to conduct this ritual myself. And with time I learned more and more about “idiotic psychology”, and started to research it more deeply.

As I couldn’t have been at Gurdjieffs meals because of my age, and was merely able to study the reports and literature about him and his methods of teaching, it was necessary in many cases for me to intuit what he meant with his many cryptic and symbolic expressions, so that I could develop a certain understanding about “Idiots”. So please forgive me if I didn’t get it quite “right”. But then again, what exactly is “right”? As John G. Bennett once stated, it is never possible for us to see the whole truth, only aspects of it. Therefore what is right for somebody might be completely wrong for another person – although at the same time, it may be “right” in the context of the whole, which we are unable to conceive completely.

It would also have been possible for me to delve much more deeply into the historical and oral tradition of people who wrote down everything that Gurdjieff said. But that would be history, and my undertaking here is not present a historical study. If the teaching about the “Science of the Idiots” contains some timeless insights, then we have to look for that in the sense of the Zen-master Basho, who once put it this way: “Don’t look for the wisdom of the old, look for that which they have sought for themselves.” So, my approach is neither academic nor intellectual. It’s intuitive and creative, but of course, I am making use of material I have researched. It also developed out of many ritual meals I facilitated over some years with many people in Germany and Italy, and also of my practical and theoretical work with Gurdjieff’s and Bennett’s teachings over 40 years - both alone and in groups.

My aim with this book is to recover the “lost” psychology which Gurdjieff used extensively in his teachings and during many ritual meals he conducted with his students. “Psychology should be an art”, Gurdjieff said. “Psychology can never be just a science.” In fact, the psyche of a person only can be understood intuitively. It is also necessary to have long years of experience with oneself and other people. The artfulness of Gurdjieff’s psychology consists of the “pictures” or metaphors which he designed to illustrate special traits of humans. And because we can understand these metaphor types much more easily than intellectual descriptions or theoretical categories, they appear to be much more effective.

According to all sources which I consulted, Gurdjieff had already commenced this mode of teaching during his time at the Prieuré in the 1920s, and as the reports indicate, he carried out these rituals nearly every day during his time in Paris - especially in the 1940s. Most of the people who were with him are now dead, or if they are still alive, they refuse to speak about this topic with anybody who is an “outsider” to them, either because that person had not been with Gurdjieff, or even because they had been a pupil of the “renegade” Mr. John G. Bennett (as I was).

But this is of no importance. There are reports about Gurdjieff’s naming and interpreting the various “idiots”. And I discovered a key for the better interpretation of his cryptic representations: in using one of the oldest decks of Tarot cards (namely “Tarot of Marseilles”) it was possible for me to reconstruct the meaning of most of the “idiots” – you will find more detailed explanations in chapter 4. Although most “Gurdjieff-followers” will not agree with this parallelism, you will see that both teachings are comparable or even compatible – but only in the way I use the sequence of the Tarot, which is the reverse of the usual. Of course, in this little book, it has not been possible for me to go into the deeper meaning of the Tarot itself (although in the appendix you’ll find some background of its origins), as I wanted to concentrate on Gurdjieff’s psychology, and not on becoming involved with a subject which deserves to be examined much more thoroughly. It was sufficient for me that with the use of these pictures, I obtained some assistance in understanding the different idiot types.

If you think that there is important information missing from this book, or that some interpretation has gone astray completely, then please let me know. We may be able to add or alter material in the next print run, or somebody can create an internet blog for this, if enough interesting additions and corrections are received. I hope that you will find this lecture entertaining, and that this book will add something valuable to your existing wisdom!

Bruno Martin

A note to the teaching stories I use: Many of my stories come from the Zen- or Sufi-traditions. I have recast them in accordance with my understanding of their meaning, and have modified them in some cases, to facilitate better understanding.3 Teaching stories are a means of connecting with our right brain wisdom, with intuition and creative insight, and in many cases they have different meanings on different levels. Gurdjieff himself used this technique extensively in his work Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson.

1. Why I Want to Become an Idiot

"Life is only real then, when 'I am'."

G.I. Gurdjieff

In In Search of the Miraculous, Pjotr D. Ouspensky's book which is a chronicle of G.I. Gurdjieff's early teachings, Gurdjieff, is reported to have emphasized that his teaching is called the Fourth Way because it succeeds the traditional three ways – that of the fakir (body work / matter), the monk (feeling work / soul) and the yogi (intellectual work / spirit). The Fourth Way is said to be the “way of the sly man” because it is more than a mere synthesis; it is a higher, comprehensive, and more intelligent way of working towards one’s inner development.

Not to be taken lightly, this numerical symbolism can be rich in content and multifold in meaning, which is why Gurdjieff valued and widely implemented its use. Whether in the naming of this psychology, The Fourth Way, or his use of “geometric idiots” in the Idiot Typology (explained in detail in Chapter Four), Gurdjieff used numbers as well as the emotional language of symbolism to convey psychological and spiritual ideas. For example, Gurdjieff used the symbols of the dyad, triad and tetrad as a metaphor of man’s evolution, from mechanical man (the dyad) to harmonious man, shown in the balance of the square. Taking this idea a step further, when a square has a fifth point placed in the center, and raised to form a pyramid, this is an excellent representation of man reaching another dimension, discovering his “quintessence”. Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way is about the discovery of this internal curiosity, our Individuality, and the “Science of Idiotism” was a tool which he developed to help with the objective observation of the self which is needed to make this discovery. Ouspensky wrote: “The transmission of the meanings of symbols to a man who has not reached an understanding of them in himself is impossible.” 4

To better understand the ladder of Gurdjieff’s “Idiot Typology”, and his teaching in general, we should know that he emerged from the tradition of the eastern masters, specifically the "Masters of the Moment”. Gurdjieff’s own spiritual path took him on long journeys through Eastern Europe, Central Asia and North Africa - through studies of many traditional esoteric teachings and much of the scientific knowledge available at his time. He acquired a tremendous body of knowledge and techniques, as well as a deep understanding of their use and applicability. One of the critical influences on his teaching was the tradition of the School of the Moment, which he learned from the Masters of Wisdom in Turkistan.5 “Gurdjieff brought their teaching and converted it into a practical way of life for the modern world, not only for individuals, but for the whole of humanity.”6

In the same way that many Zen monks intentionally broke free from formalized teachings, branching off instead into the “Way of the Crazy Clouds”7, Gurdjieff did not remain in any specific school, seeking instead to explore all of the esoteric, philosophic and scientific knowledge of the day. In fact, in reference to the core of his teachings, Gurdjieff gave credit to the “Sarmoun Brotherhood”. “Sarmoun” can be translated as “bees”, in other words, “that which gathers honey from many flowers”. However, more than a mere synthesis of Sufism, Tibetan Buddhism, Esoteric Christianity, and Western psychology, among others, he wrought his findings into a unique form, the tone of which resonates with the deepest quest for Reality.

In a School of the Moment, emphasis is placed on the realization of the totality of one’s potential at any given moment, through deep awareness of the moment. This is based on the idea that reality is not static, nothing is fixed, and infinite possibilities abound, an idea which is corroborated by quantum physics - “vibrating wave fields” lie at the very core of matter, and the behavior of these fields is wildly erratic and completely uncertain. In the Fourth Way, great deference is given to the idea of the mutable nature of our very existence, and the idea that spiritual training must reflect this uncertainty. In a School of the Moment, preconceived forms and dogmas are seldom used, but instead more emphasis is placed on spontaneous teachings inspired by the moment. A renowned Sufi was asked: "Why do you tolerate thoughtless and impulsive questions?" He laughed and said, "In order for all of us to have the benefit of becoming acquainted with questions such as you have just presented."

All great masters know that the knowledge of the "Laws of the Universe" is not the domain of any particular spiritual tradition or teaching. The task G. I. Gurdjieff set for himself, however, was to transmit a modern, practical way of penetrating one’s real self, and of tuning into the underlying spiritual force (or baraka, blessing, as the Sufi name it) of the Universe through direct attention to, and transformation of, the self.

Such a teaching must be able to contain paradoxes - being at once able to encompass timeless principles, while also being the lens that brings the present moment into exacting focus. In Kendo, the Japanese art of sword fighting, students learn to embody this paradox – they learn to be supremely aware of the moment, in all its possibilities, yet attached to nothing. "When the mind lingers upon any kind of object, be it the sword of the opponent or the opponent himself, his own sword, his own body, his action which he calls upon as a defense or to attack, he is in every case overcome and conquered. The contrast between subject and object must be overcome. The assault and the defense must become one thing."8 The goal of this training is utter awareness and ability to act, to be the spontaneous wave field at the core of the moment. In this heightened and receptive state, a person experiences a freedom from the trappings of everything which is not truly one’s own, including the past and present, which only serve to bind and distract. In parable form: A millipede was going contentedly on his way when he was asked, “How do you manage to coordinate all the movements of your thousand feet?” He thought this over for a bit and was thereupon no longer able to move.

While the body is always in the moment, the mind - subject to all sorts of fantasies and attachments - frequently is not. So to think too much about the moment, one ironically misses it entirely. In other words, when looking for anything as fine in substance and as fleeting as a moment, think with anything but the head, which is really much too slow and ill-suited to the task. Imagine a language that isn’t accessed through the intellect. The body, and especially the emotions, are much quicker receivers of impressions and can therefore assess any given moment in a way that the head cannot even conceive.

As a true Master of the Moment, Gurdjieff continuously researched and experimented with new exercises, methods and techniques to develop the capacities for attention directed to self-observation. He developed “alchemical” exercises to transform inner energies, explored breathing techniques and, of course, the ever-present practical work.9 He observed that humans are composed of separate functions, or centers, and each of these is controlled by a distinct “brain”. In our current state of development they are not in sync with each other, and one often tries to do the work of another. This causes all sorts of imbalance and chaos in our perceptions and experience of the world. Through his exercises, students were taught to observe and eventually correct the imbalances of these different “brains” or “functions”. It is only through the harmonious development of Man that “Real I” can emerge. As described by Ouspensky, the aim is the development of the “human machine” and the enrichment of being with a new and unaccustomed functioning. In Gurdjieff’s teaching a human being has basically three centers (moving, feeling, and intellect), in another version there are seven centers, if you divide the body or moving part into the moving, the instinctive, and the sex. The feeling part does have an emotional and a “higher emotional” part as well as the intellectual center does have a normal and “higher intellectual” part. If you know about the chakras then these centers can be compared with these. So this throws another light on the work of the harmonious development of the centers whereby is not meant to enhance the normal brain functions but the “inner qualities” of the spiritual being. The predominant development of any one center at the expense of the others produces an extremely one-sided type of man, incapable of further development. And on a functional side this process has to do with transformation of lower energies into higher.10

Of particular importance in this quest for harmonious balance of the functions was Gurdjieff’s use of his “holy gymnastics”, a series of dances and moving exercises known collectively as the Movements. These dances integrated various parts of the body, various numbers of people (moving in various ways), various specific emotions to be rendered at various specific moments, various spoken or thought word and/or number sequences, and various parts of the body to be sensed at various times, all variously coordinated or not coordinated with the rhythm of the music. The undeniable complexity of certain Movements causes either deep despair or a “Zen of Sudden Enlightenment”, to reference the experience of the Kendo student, in which one suddenly acts from a profound awareness of the moment, allowing action to simply flow spontaneously through you, in spite of you, in conjunction with you. You become a vessel with 1000 feet.

As a man, Gurdjieff had a profound effect on those around him. He was both lauded and criticized, as people of great stature generally are. He received considerable attention (both positive and negative) for his actions and words, and specifically for his work in the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man11, which he opened in Fontainebleau, France, in the early 1920’s. The lives of the people with whom he worked were profoundly changed, and many went on to teach this Work, eventually creating a network of thousands of students of the Fourth Way. Sixty-six years after his death, we can see the depth of the effect that his teachings have had on modern psychology and spirituality throughout the world. One can see his influence, for example, in the widespread use of the Enneagram (a triangle and a hexagon, conjoined within a circle) that he introduced in 1915, even though current use of this diagram typically ties it to other uses and typologies not originated by him. Also, we see his lasting effect in the sheer volume of books published by his students and students of his students, and beyond.

Gurdjieff’s own typology, the “Idiot Typology” and the subject of this book, has been little taught and remains generally unknown to most people. One reason is due ironically to a sort of Gurdjieff-worship; that it was his ritual. Another reason that it fell into relative obscurity lies in the inherent problem of conveying any of the ideas in a School of the Moment: that the method of transmission is defunct as soon as the moment has passed. Gurdjieff offered a unique countermeasure to this problem of translation by use of the “encrypted language” of his books and teachings (we’ll venture to read a passage in upcoming chapters). It was either a clever tool or the fact that English was not his first language, or perhaps both, that kept his students and generations after continually searching for the real meaning of his cryptic tongue. That issue aside, his books are written in such a difficult manner, and often with such new and unfamiliar terminology, that little can be gained by trying to learn with “thinking center” alone. One must dive in, with the whole of one’s entirety and understanding, making any interpretation of his ideas current by dint of the sheer effort of understanding in the moment. He explained: "There is no mystery whatsoever. But the acquisition or transmission of true knowledge demands great labor and great effort both of him who receives and of him who gives.... Knowledge cannot come to people without effort on their own part. They understand this very well in connection with ordinary knowledge, but in the case of great knowledge, when they admit the possibility of its existence, they find it possible to expect something different."12

In the tradition of Zen-Buddhism, which always leaves something incomplete, Gurdjieff was a Samurai – a Zen-Master13. Like the ink-drawn circle with an open gap, and like the paradoxical image of "the sound of one hand clapping”, the way he presented his ideas was spontaneous, non-linear and left one to find one’s own conclusions. Some ideas were left unfinished; others were allowed to evolve into new forms or with new terminology. "He never gave anything in a finished form. He always gave only beginnings of ideas, leaving it to his pupils to work them out. He never bothered about terminology and nomenclature, taking the first words that occurred to him and fitting them to his purpose..."14 His aim was to present to his pupils and the readers of his books the task of completing an idea (or to some, the idea of completing a task!) - to study, to discover and to understand, individually, the consequence and value of these teachings. Bennett lamented, "He took every opportunity to tell me that I was a disappointment to him... I had done my best to follow his guidance and instructions. I had failed in understanding what was required, and in Gurdjieff's method this is the worst sin. Anyone can do what they understand, but not to understand is like the sin against the Holy Ghost which cannot be forgiven in this world or the next..."15

Ouspensky describes their work together in St. Petersburg in 1916, and complains that he did not understand everything about the way these meetings were arranged. It seemed to him that G. was making much of it unnecessarily difficult. For instance, “he seldom allowed me to fix a meeting beforehand...” It could happen that Gurdjieff said to him: “Why not have a meeting tonight?” He then should ring up those who wanted to come and tell them, where to meet. The reason was not to make it easy for people to become acquainted with his ideas. One had to make a certain effort to value the ideas.16 Of course – if you look at Moscow today with its 12 Millions inhabitants (I just have been there); or New York or London – you cannot make such appointments in so short a time. This also points to the meaning of “School of the Moment”: you also have to do things which fit into the existing environment and the people’s mental and societal circumstances.