The Five Being-Obligolnian Strivings offer us an overview of what the Work teaches in regard to our existence on this planet: our purpose, aim and direction as three-brained beings, as seen from the viewpoint of "Grandfather Beelzebub" - Gurdjieff himself.
The first of these strivings seems self-explanatory. In the phrase "to have in their ordinary
being-existence everything satisfying and really necessary for their planetary body" Gurdjieff is apparently saying that we need to have our most basic needs met before any genuine spiritual work can begin.
Apparently.
But nothing Gurdjieff says is ever really that simple.
Taking a superficial view, we might see the strivings as being something like Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which says that we must have our requirements for food, clothing and shelter met before anything higher can be sought. Eventually, in Maslow's theory, the human being may meet the highest level of need, that for "self-actualization", but Maslow's description of this state is sketchy at best, and it's been the subject of much theorizing. In any case, "self-actualization" is not the ultimate goal of the Work. We must ask "which self are we trying to actualize?" And without the recognition that we are not one but many, that final goal can never be achieved.
One of the chief goals of the Work, and therefore of each person trying to practice it, is to increase our consciousness to such an extent that we may participate in the redeeming, renewing work of God and Conscious Humanity. This takes us way beyond mere psychology and into the realm of the spirit.
The five strivings do seem to offer a guide to ascending levels of Being, the most basic of which the Work says is to become a Good Householder, an obyvatel. The first striving describes the way of life of such a person, but it is far from clear exactly what Gurdjieff is implying here. As he intended, we need to study each section of "All and Everything" many times before hazarding a conclusion that this or that is what he "meant" to say.
Our planetary body is our instrument for manifesting our consciousness on Earth. For some people, simply having food, clothing and shelter would be a distant goal, and I think that implicit in the overall Five Strivings may be the need for us all to be conscious of what our neighbour may lack - even if that "neighbour" is thousands of miles distant.
But taking it at the simplest level, it's obvious that each one of us needs to start our personal Work from the position of having these most basic needs already met. We may not own our own home - Gurdjieff never did - but we must have somewhere to live that gives us shelter from the elements, a reasonably comfortable place to eat, sleep and work, and which we may occupy in relative peace without worrying at every moment that we may be evicted.
We also need to have appropriate food.
But here, too, we know that in the Work three types of food are necessary for our personal development, indeed for our very existence to continue: physical food for the body, the food of air, and the food of impressions.
Physical food is easy to understand - it's simply what we eat, what we put into our stomach to meet our physical needs. Exactly what those needs are will vary with age, situation, health and so on. As I've written in previous posts, we do best when we eat "mindfully", according to the needs of our moving/instinctive centre. Whether that means a vegetarian or omnivorous diet will depend on our physical constitution, our genetic inheritance, together with the needs of our current situation. We can study nutrition with our Intellectual Centre, but the best guidance will come from our own intuitions and instincts when we have observed ourselves for long enough to become aware of the difference between what is a real intuition and what is imagination.
Gurdjieff knew well the importance of eating mindfully. His dinners were legendary, offering almost every type of food you could imagine. Spices, herbs, sauces and rare delicacies from all over the world found their way on to his table, for the benefit of his extremely fortunate companions. He was an excellent chef, and understood the properties of each of the foods he prepared. We can all follow his example here.
Personally, I love cooking, and when I'm feeding others I enjoy the positive emotions associated with being a Good Householder and providing them with what they need and will enjoy, as well as taking the best care possible of my own planetary body.
But beyond physical food there is the food of air and that of impressions: being aware of the breath and trying to live somewhere where the air is pure enough to be of benefit is important to our state of health. The food of air combines with the food of the stomach to create certain hydrogens, necessary for the continuation of life. And when we work on ourselves, we bring consciousness to the assimilation of impressions, which then extends the amount and increases the quality of the higher hydrogens available to us. When we remember ourselves, and especially in the morning exercise, we combine the three being-foods so as to maximize their potentials within us and help us to become more conscious. The Food Diagram shows exactly what happens.
We all need to feed on impressions, without which we would die, just as surely as if we were suffocated or starved.
But the work of remembering ourselves creates a different quality of Being. It is not strictly necessary for our continued existence, but it is vital if we are to progress in the Work. Higher states of consciousness depend on the existence of the appropriate hydrogens in our planetary body, and the science of combining the three types of being-food could be said to be the very heart of the Work.
And the quality of the impressions we receive also needs attention. We don't watch violent or pornographic films or television programmes, for example, not because of an externally imposed morality but because they are coarse and degrading, and don't support the growth of consciousness. For the same reason, we monitor the impressions we give ourselves in our inner and outer talking; we avoid gossiping, criticizing and judging others. We don't want to feed our consciousness on such negative impressions, which encourage the growth of I's in False Personality at the expense of Essence. We want to nourish Essence and starve False Personality, and must carefully choose the food of impressions with that aim in mind.
So we take care over the music we listen to, the pictures we put on our walls, the books we read, the people with whom we associate. We want to take in the very highest quality of impressions available to us, and to do so we need an environment which will support our personal Work, an Essence-nourishing environment. That has little to do with money, and everything to do with awareness and aim.
Such apparently insignificant factors as the fabrics and colours we choose to wear are also of interest. Wearing cotton, wool or silk gives the body a finer impression and enhances health more than wearing manmade fibres, and the harmony of the colours we carry on our body will influence our emotions and those of other people. We do this not out of vanity but out of the wish to assimilate finer impressions, and if possible give others the chance to do so.
When we eat, we eat; we don't read, watch the news, or listen to rap music!
Our meals should be occasions for really nourishing ourselves on every level, including feeding our Essence. If we're lucky enough to eat with others, our conversation should be as life-enhancing and supportive as the food we serve. Meals are not the right time for disputes or controversies. Putting flowers on the table, using the best quality china and silverware we can afford, appreciating the efforts made by those who cooked the meal, if we ourselves didn't prepare it: all these should be included in our consciousness as we eat.
Saying Grace before meals is a very beneficial practice. We express our gratitude towards God and Conscious Humanity, who have given us our lives and the chance to become conscious, who have made it possible for us to enjoy the food we eat and the food we offer to others. All these are unmerited gifts.
Essence loves new impressions, hence the popularity of foreign travel. So we should change our surroundings from time to time, visit new places, listen to music we're unfamiliar with, try new foods. Reading challenging books also offers the chance for our Intellectual Centre to grow, giving it the difficult food that will help it.
And if we patiently work on ourselves day by day, we may eventually reach a state where all impressions fall directly on Essence. This is a highly desirable goal, because if this happens, then Gurdjieff tells us the result will be "everything more vivid".
All this, and more, is implied in fulfilling the first Striving.
No comments:
Post a Comment