By Franz J. T. Lee
Essence
and Existence VI
26th October, 1999.
The philosopher, Gurdjieff, George Ivanovitch,
original name George S. Georgiades.
SCENE: Philosophy Seminar
(A week later, a friendly Friday afternoon . A packed aula magna. Many students sitting on window-sills and in the passages. After the usual introductory lecture by Prof. Coseino, the discussion drama unfolds itself.)
Coseino: In my introductory lecture today, I have emphasized the main theme of this section of our seminar: Essence a n d Existence; I also stressed that you, the students, have a profession: studere, that is, to study, to study Philosophy. In order to be able to study, to understand, to think Philosophy, a conditio sine qua non is that one must be capable to learn to philosophize, on the basis of one's own philosophy. Otherwise, our Seminar will have no Future, will serve no Future, will not excel any formal-logical or dialectical Future.
Philosophy and philosophizing "begin" with understanding the essence a n d existence of any thing, of any person, of any event, of any philosopher. No thinker can be understood, without oneself having a proper philosophy, no matter how limited; no statement of any philosopher can be grasped, without at first understanding her/his philosophy. Here "common sense" or a "healthy human intellect", who are certainly not the parents of Philosophy, but rather of Ideology, will guide us nowhere.
No revolutionary suggestion how to emancipate ourselves, no matter how logical and seductive it might seem, can be divorced from the Essence a n d Existence, from the Science a n d Philosophy of a specific thinker. I suggest that we do not forget this basic wisdom in our future debates. Until now, this was not the case, but please take note, take care! In other classes, I have encountered a mountain of problems as a result of such fallacies, and the seminars fell apart, terminating in chaos and anarchy. Surely, none of you would like this to happen to our "dream class", to our "Dream Team".
Before I continue with the epistemological basics of our Philosophy, we should still visit some extra-European or -Western philosophers, somewhere in India, China or North Africa. Of course, we have to select paradigmatic cases, which were contributing to the enrichment of Philosophy in general, and to our Philosophy in particular. I assume that the group of students who had discussed ancient Indian Philosophy have informed you already about our "discoveries". Today, we can continue to investigate other fertile philosophic grazing grounds.
Karl: Could you briefly introduce us to any Russian philosopher whom you think could be of interest to our understanding of philosophy? I mean apart from the sceptics, existentialists and nihilists, whom we have dealt with in a previous class.
Coseino: Well, Karl, you catch me off guard. But, let me see. How about introducing the Greco-Armenian mystic and philosopher, Gurdjieff, George Ivanovitch, original name George S. Georgiades, born around 1872 in Alexandropol, Armenia, in the Russian Empire, and who died on my birthday, but 11 years later, on Oct. 29, 1949, in Neuilly, near Paris.
Karl: This splendid idea suits me.
Alfred: I am also interested in Gurdjieff, but Prof. Coseino, please explain to us what "mysticism" is all about, how it exists, and what it has to do with our Philosophy, with Essence a n d Existence? Perhaps in one of my next film productions I could use the mystic motif very well.
Coseino: You are an excellent, but pragmatic listener; very briefly, I surely will explain Mysticism. However, I will just illustrate a few carefully selected mystical patterns.
Of course, on its face value, Mysticism seems to have many similarities with our Philosophy; it searches for wisdom and hidden truth; it wants to transcend, but in a religious manner, in a unio mistica with the gods. In fact, all world religions have elements of mysticism.
However, referring to ancient Indian Philosophy, for example, a specific principle does interest us deeply, I mean the classic Indian mystical "formula" -- "that thou art," tat tvam asi (Chandogya Upanishad, 6.9). It is centred in the profoundest philosophic ambiguity, not absurdity. Later we will discuss this most interesting "jewel".
Another philosophic "treasure" is the medieval Christian mystic Meister Eckhart. He became famous for statements as follows: "The knower and the known are one. God and I, we are one in knowledge" and "There is no distinction between us," "There is no distinction between God and Nothing".
Bill: Perhaps e-communication could assist, does Mysticism look for new avenues of transcendence, of knowledge?
Coseino: Yes, but I don't know whether Internet could help; surely, Microsoft could develop some software towards this objective. Mysticism searches the "ontic web" for a third kind of knowledge; it is already tired of the other two forms: of "sense knowledge" and "knowledge by intellectual inference".
Adolph Lasson explains the essence of Mysticism as "the assertion of an intuition which transcends the temporal categories of understanding"; hence, mysticism insists that official rationalism cannot capture the essence of things. However, this view is not original, it was already expounded by the 3rd century AD Greek philosopher Plotinus.
Adam: It seems to me that mysticism is the religion of the elites.
Jeffrey: You mean of the Illuminati, for sure, it can only illuminate the elites.
Patricia: As far as I can see, the unio mistica was considered as an art, as a science, that is, as the "science of ultimates". Karl might say, as "intuitive knowledge", to overcome past misery and present boredom.
Karl: I follow.
Coseino: For sure, Aldous Huxley emphasized that "a totally unmystical world would be a world totally blind and insane," really boring!
Mahatma: And, the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore confirmed that "Man has a feeling that he is truly represented in something which exceeds himself." I think this should be an inspiration for us, with reference to a New Philosophy. But, Professor Coseino, now sufficient mysticism, please tell us something about Gurdjieff.
Coseino: I am sorry, you have to be patient,
Mahatma, firstly I have to introduce another
mystic figure, who is fundamental to understand the philosophy of Gurdjieff,
the Indonesian, Muhammad Subuh, called Bapak.
He was a fervent student of Sufism (of Islamic mysticism). During his
youth, like Jung, in 1925, Bapak had a powerful mystical experience. Instead
of developing theories of "archetypes", in 1933, from the "collective unconscious"
came a message that his mission on Earth was to found the Subud movement.
At first, it was only restricted to Indonesia, later in the 1960s, it spread
to Europe and America. And, guess who were its first international crew members?
The followers of the Russian-born mystical philosopher, our Georgy Gurdjieff
!
Jeanette: Now please tell us about "Georgy"; Hitchcock seems to have entered our seminar. Don't make it so "dramatically" tense.
Coseino: Well, he had spent his
early adult years in globetrotting northeast
Africa, the Middle East, India, and especially Central Asia, where
he studied various spiritual and religious traditions. He returned to Russia,
and after the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917, accompanied by
some of his followers, two years later, Gurdjieff founded the Institute
for the Harmonious Development of Man at Tiflis (now Tbilisi), Georgia.
The members lived a virtually monastic life. Now and then they attended a few banquets, at which Gurdjieff, like us, would engage in probing dialogue, and in reading his philosophic works. Body-building, ritual exercises, arts and dance formed part of the regimen, sometimes accompanied by music composed by Gurdjieff and and his associates. I think we can hand over to Karl now. He will explain the essence of Gurdjieff's philosophy to us, and what we could learn from him.
Karl: "Take the understanding of the East and the knowledge of the West, and then seek." That is a quotation from George Ivanovich Gurdjieff, who was born and educated in Russian Armenia. Gurdjieff taught that human life is lived in a waking sleep; transcendence of the sleeping state requires a specific inner work, which is practised under quiet conditions, and also contact with others; namely a mix of meditation and interaction. This can result in access to otherwise inaccessible levels of vitality and awareness.
This is in syncronization with Assagioli's method of psychosynthesis, which includes tapping into the unconscious, and achieving higher levels of awareness of self and others.
Patricia: Please, tell us about his philosophic method how consciously to increase awareness.
Karl: Gurdjieff's method is an oral tradition that includes students and teacher working together in an organized group in an atmosphere of trust, in which students learn to face their own inner poverty and confusion. As a result, conscience is awakened along with consciousness. Here, conscience is awareness, acceptance and commitment of responsibility to self and others. Consciousness, Conscience and Sensation form a tripod for an integrated development of human potential.
For "integrated," we can substitute Assagioli's term "psychosynthesis."
Self-study according to Gurdjieff, however, as students were to learn
quickly, was not conducted by quiet contemplation in a cell. Gurdjieff threw
his students into unexpected, often strenuous activities similar to the style
of Marpa, the 13th century teacher of Milarepa. Professor Coseino, consider trying this method in your classes.
Albert: Did Gurdjieff suggest any method how the individual could express all its faculties?
Karl: Gurdjieff encouraged the individual to learn to authentically express his/her body, feelings and mind in one gesture. He thought that the individual has no volition but expresses the prompting of childhood and cultural conditioning, adult instinctive needs and the idiosyncratic actions of the personality. To accomplish this individuation, the student is asked, "Is this an accurate description of your everyday experience or not? Please verify and re-verify the basic ideas of Gurdjieff with your own experience." When using the expression "I am," the Gurdjieff student must be aware of his/her feelings when saying the word "I" and total sensation when saying "am."
Gurdjieff encouraged the development of everyday human relationships governed by feelings other than those associated with political or economic power. His teachings, like many Eastern philosophies, include spatial terms such as path, way, direction, higher, lower and balance.
Martina: Carl, where can we get more information about this Russian philosopher?
Karl: Space and time constraints do not permit a complete description of Gurdjieff's method in one debate. I offer to refer to this method in future sessions. For more information, I suggest that you visit the Gurdjieff web sites, which can be found using an internet search engine.
Coseino: Thank you, Karl, your exposition was informative. I will try out some of Gurdjieff's methods. In fact, most of them I have tested already. They work academic marvels. Unfortunately, we have already crossed the time limit of our seminar. My colleague is waiting outside to give his class. Next week we will continue. I wish you a pleasant week-end. Till next time!