G's Beelzebub's life rules...

[Menna]

The negativity that I am talking about involves many workings that are out of your control while working toward an aim. For example let's say you are trying to build a business. In the beginning of the week you are booking appointments, learning and making connections than a few days later there are cancelations you get z flat tire making you mis appointments and something is stolen delaying business. There is clear possitivity and negativity as the aim is to build ones business. There are many examples where someone has an aim is making strides towards it based on their efforts and universes help and at times they take steps backwards or the aim is halted...I am more interested in the middle steady but slow progress toward aim. You can do everything in your power to try and achieve this but as we know there are many forces out of our control but I believe we can interact with this forces in a way that manifest themselves as more positive/balanced than negative. I know knowledge/awareness is one way but being inspired by G's information and my mentation I believe there is another/other ways but I don't know what they are.

 

[Alada]

I am more interested in the middle steady but slow progress toward aim. You can do everything in your power to try and achieve this but as we know there are many forces out of our control but I believe we can interact with this forces in a way that manifest themselves as more positive/balanced than negative. I know knowledge/awareness is one way but being inspired by G's information and my mentation I believe there is another/other ways but I don't know what they are.

Rightly or wrongly, I always took that passage about the bell ringer as an example of mental blocking or ‘psychic self defence’ as it were. I don’t know the mechanism, it might be as ‘simple’ as not inner considering and thereby absorbing negative thoughts, they could be from others, or could be our own, or both. To think too long on this line might lean toward ‘magical thinking’ though which I don’t think is helpful. Surely the best defence is knowledge, which has a ‘weight’ of it’s own, rather than looking for some kind of ‘defence against the dark arts’ technique? Knowledge protects!

Stumbled across the below the other day, which I hadn’t seen before. Fits well here under the thread heading of ‘life rules’. Sourced here: _https://bostaj.wordpress.com/2014/08/07/gurdjieffs-82-commandments/

George Gurdjieff’s “rules of life” given to his daughter Reyna d’Assia and relayed to Alejandro Jodorowsky in The Spiritual Journey of Alejandro Jodorowsky:

1. Ground your attention on yourself. Be conscious at every moment of what you are thinking, sensing, feeling, desiring, and doing.
2. Always finish what you have begun.
3. Whatever you are doing, do it as well as possible.
4. Do not become attached to anything that can destroy you in the course of time.
5. Develop your generosity – but secretly.
6. Treat everyone as if he or she was a close relative.
7. Organize what you have disorganized.
8. Learn to receive and give thanks for every gift.
9. Stop defining yourself.
10. Do not lie or steal, for you lie to yourself and steal from yourself.
11. Help your neighbor, but do not make him dependent.
12. Do not encourage others to imitate you.
13. Make work plans and accomplish them.
14. Do not take up too much space.
15. Make no useless movements or sounds.
16. If you lack faith, pretend to have it.
17. Do not allow yourself to be impressed by strong personalities.
18. Do not regard anyone or anything as your possession.
19. Share fairly.
20. Do not seduce.
21. Sleep and eat only as much as necessary.
22. Do not speak of your personal problems.
23. Do not express judgement or criticism when you are ignorant of most of the factors involved.
24. Do not establish useless friendships.
25. Do not follow fashions.
26. Do not sell yourself.
27. Respect contracts you have signed.
28. Be on time.
29. Never envy the luck or success of anyone.
30. Say no more than necessary.
31. Do not think of the profits your work will engender.
32. Never threaten anyone.
33. Keep your promises.
34. In any discussion, put yourself in the other person’s place.
35. Admit that someone else may be superior to you.
36. Do not eliminate, but transmute.
37. Conquer your fears, for each of them represents a camouflaged desire.
38. Help others to help themselves.
39. Conquer your aversions and come closer to those who inspire rejection in you.
40. Do not react to what others say about you, whether praise or blame.
41. Transform your pride into dignity.
42. Transform your anger into creativity.
43. Transform your greed into respect for beauty.
44. Transform your envy into admiration for the values of the other.
45. Transform your hate into charity.
46. Neither praise nor insult yourself.
47. Regard what does not belong to you as if it did belong to you.
48. Do not complain.
49. Develop your imagination.
50. Never give orders to gain the satisfaction of being obeyed.
51. Pay for services performed for you.
52. Do not proselytize your work or ideas.
53. Do not try to make others feel for you emotions such as pity, admiration, sympathy, or complicity.
54. Do not try to distinguish yourself by your appearance.
55. Never contradict; instead, be silent.
56. Do not contract debts; acquire and pay immediately.
57. If you offend someone, ask his or her pardon; if you have offended a person publicly, apologize publicly.
58. When you realize you have said something that is mistaken, do not persist in error through pride; instead, immediately retract it.
59. Never defend your old ideas simply because you are the one who expressed them.
60. Do not keep useless objects.
61. Do not adorn yourself with exotic ideas.
62. Do not have your photograph taken with famous people.
63. Justify yourself to no one, and keep your own counsel.
64. Never define yourself by what you possess.
65. Never speak of yourself without considering that you might change.
66. Accept that nothing belongs to you.
67. When someone asks your opinion about something or someone, speak only of his or her qualities.
68. When you become ill, regard your illness as your teacher, not as something to be hated.
69. Look directly, and do not hide yourself.
70. Do not forget your dead, but accord them a limited place and do not allow them to invade your life.
71. Wherever you live, always find a space that you devote to the sacred.
72. When you perform a service, make your effort inconspicuous.
73. If you decide to work to help others, do it with pleasure.
74. If you are hesitating between doing and not doing, take the risk of doing.
75. Do not try to be everything to your spouse; accept that there are things that you cannot give him or her but which others can.
76. When someone is speaking to an interested audience, do not contradict that person and steal his or her audience.
77. Live on money you have earned.
78. Never brag about amorous adventures.
79. Never glorify your weaknesses.
80. Never visit someone only to pass the time.
81. Obtain things in order to share them.
82. If you are meditating and a devil appears, make the devil meditate too.

 

[happyliza]

Thank you for such Golden Commandments Alada! Loads to work on there for me. Also thanks for the thread Menna. :)

 

[Menna]

Thank you Alada very STO of you I asked and you have. I think I need to practice number 8 more along with others. After reading the list it is clear to never give too much of yourself. It shows how real this work is no fantasy or illusion.

 

[David]

Again - what is negativity? Isn't it generally mostly subjective? OK, so a specific curse from a specific person may be an objectively negative assault. Negative is a general word but certainly there are different types and categories of negativity that can be distinguished. Does the same law or technique apply for each type of negativity? Do we need to define the type of negativity in order to execute the right mumbo-jumbo?

I don’t know, it could be the case that, If you think you are cursed, or think your not, your right... the best curse is no curse at all, just something, that one believes to be true, and a sustained belief, just becomes part of system 1... automatic – ‘flat tyre I’m cursed,’ one might unknowingly set oneself up for whatever, comes your way, via system1 – one might not believe that, but in our walking sleep, it’s just system 1 – and its real sneaky how habits form, just annoying and getting annoyed could become a habit too... LOL G had some almighty habits, maybe I’m an undecided idiot (cringe), but there’s one thing I’m not and that’s an Obyvatel, and the real work is supposed to begin at the level of the obyvatel.

Though I might have misunderstood, It wouldn’t be the first time.

 

[Nook]

Thank you Alada for sharing!

 

[obyvatel]

The negativity that I am talking about involves many workings that are out of your control while working toward an aim. For example let's say you are trying to build a business. In the beginning of the week you are booking appointments, learning and making connections than a few days later there are cancelations you get z flat tire making you mis appointments and something is stolen delaying business. There is clear possitivity and negativity as the aim is to build ones business. There are many examples where someone has an aim is making strides towards it based on their efforts and universes help and at times they take steps backwards or the aim is halted...I am more interested in the middle steady but slow progress toward aim. You can do everything in your power to try and achieve this but as we know there are many forces out of our control but I believe we can interact with this forces in a way that manifest themselves as more positive/balanced than negative. I know knowledge/awareness is one way but being inspired by G's information and my mentation I believe there is another/other ways but I don't know what they are.

Menna, the forces that cause deviation of any process from an aim are a part of nature. G described this with the law of 7. JG Bennett studied this further and imo stated things more simply and directly describing this as "hazard. This thread has some discussion on this topic.

G's life was full of events which threw his plans askew. If they could be avoided and he found a way to do so, he would have successfully practiced them in his life. It did not happen that way. Instead G struggled mightily against the formidable forces which frustrated his plans again and again throughout his entire life. G's life events bear testimony to the hypothesis that greater the potential impact of some action coming from an aim, greater is the hazard. Small aims attract small hazards and deviating forces, big aims attract bigger hazards and deviating forces. At least that is my current understanding fwiw.

 

[Alada]

I think I need to practice number 8 more along with others. After reading the list it is clear to never give too much of yourself. It shows how real this work is no fantasy or illusion.

Thinking more above those rules last night, I think it’s worth stating that we shouldn’t take them all as black and white, as absolutes. There are many which are context dependent I think, especially in terms of: work/external consideration/strategic enclosure/dealing with pathological people.

To try and apply them all, at all times, to all people would be silly (and very difficult anyway). I might see if I can find some blank business cards or something, write one down per card, then randomly choose one or maybe two to work on and hold as a thought for the day. I don’t think they ought to be carved in stone though as absolutes though, and we really ought to squeeze more out of them that just trying to apply them without pondering the why of each.

 

[Menna]

G's life was full of events which threw his plans askew. If they could be avoided and he found a way to do so, he would have successfully practiced them in his life. It did not happen that way. Instead G struggled mightily against the formidable forces which frustrated his plans again and again throughout his entire life. G's life events bear testimony to the hypothesis that greater the potential impact of some action coming from an aim, greater is the hazard. Small aims attract small hazards and deviating forces, big aims attract bigger hazards and deviating forces. At least that is my current understanding fwiw.

Thanks for putting it into perspective and its true if G know of a way to avoid or lesson the Impact of lives Hazards he most likely wouldn't have had his accident and other troubles that shortened his life. It is said here that a bunch of small aims that lead to a bigger one is recommended it sounds like this while being aware and using knowledge is our best bet.

To try and apply them all, at all times, to all people would be silly (and very difficult anyway).

I agree, maybe study three for the week and than change the three for the next week or a variation of this taking the specific situation into consideration.

 

[luc]

Thanks for G.'s rules, they were posted before somewhere else and I printed them - great wisdom in there I think.

I think I need to practice number 8 more along with others. After reading the list it is clear to never give too much of yourself. It shows how real this work is no fantasy or illusion.

Thinking more above those rules last night, I think it’s worth stating that we shouldn’t take them all as black and white, as absolutes. There are many which are context dependent I think, especially in terms of: work/external consideration/strategic enclosure/dealing with pathological people.

To try and apply them all, at all times, to all people would be silly (and very difficult anyway). I might see if I can find some blank business cards or something, write one down per card, then randomly choose one or maybe two to work on and hold as a thought for the day. I don’t think they ought to be carved in stone though as absolutes though, and we really ought to squeeze more out of them that just trying to apply them without pondering the why of each.

I agree, it really depends on the situation. On the other hand, I think it's a good exercise to apply some of these rules rigidly first - kind of in the spirit of "learn to apply the rules before you learn to break them". Otherwise, I think our mind can easily trick us and find excuses as to why right now, this or that rule doesn't apply. Maybe one way around this is to allow breaking a certain rule one has set for oneself only if it serves a very specific, useful purpose.

My approach to applying these rules is a little less rigid (and thus requires less willpower, which is both good and bad I guess), I just read them from time to time, and oftentimes, something just "sticks" and I remember it for quite a while. Somehow I feel this is a more natural approach than consciously or randomly choosing one or two rules and sticking to them. That way, the specific situation I'm in at the moment also "chooses" the rules, so to speak. But then, it's probably easier, which is not always a good thing :)

 

[Laura]

I wasn't terribly impressed by the rules overall because many of them repeat. I also noticed the source: "George Gurdjieff’s “rules of life” given to his daughter Reyna d’Assia and relayed to Alejandro Jodorowsky in The Spiritual Journey of Alejandro Jodorowsky." That is to say, ALLEGED to be from Gurdjieff.

 

[David]

I remember vaguely, perhaps from a thread somewhere, how G allegedly used to go around with a bag of sweets for children, he seemed to be delighted and rather curious, when he got a ‘real’ thank you - real appreciation, as opposed something void of the essence of a real ‘thank you.’

Like the parent telling a child to say, ‘thank you,’ when they get something, ‘what do you say,’ which is not bad, but it doesn’t mean anything, just an empty thank you...

Can a rule be empty, in the same sense as saying ‘thank you,’ without it actually meaning anything - do such and such, when such and such...?

 

[obyvatel]

[quote author=davida]
Can a rule be empty, in the same sense as saying ‘thank you,’ without it actually meaning anything - do such and such, when such and such...?
[/quote]

Rules expressed as do's and don'ts without reference to a context are problematic when taken literally. Whether a "rule" is applicable or not in real life depends on the actual situation. But in general, my understanding is that "yes" and "no" type rules are useful for conditioning the personality. Applied judiciously, they have benefits - but they do not act directly on "being".

I think it is reasonable to assume that if G wished to give out life rules objectively beneficial for general humanity, he would have done so in his voluminous written works. He spent many years writing, seeing the effect of his writing on his pupils, and then modifying and repeating the process. Besides writing, he also gave specific personal advice to many people depending on their specific needs. Some may attempt to create a generalized rule set from these personal advices but this takes out context and makes such rules not very useful IMO.

What G did leave in his writings were "being strivings" - discussed in this thread . Please notice the essential difference between the strivings and the "life rules " mentioned here.

 

[luc]

[quote author=davida]
Can a rule be empty, in the same sense as saying ‘thank you,’ without it actually meaning anything - do such and such, when such and such...?

Rules expressed as do's and don'ts without reference to a context are problematic when taken literally. Whether a "rule" is applicable or not in real life depends on the actual situation. But in general, my understanding is that "yes" and "no" type rules are useful for conditioning the personality. Applied judiciously, they have benefits - but they do not act directly on "being".

I think it is reasonable to assume that if G wished to give out life rules objectively beneficial for general humanity, he would have done so in his voluminous written works. He spent many years writing, seeing the effect of his writing on his pupils, and then modifying and repeating the process. Besides writing, he also gave specific personal advice to many people depending on their specific needs. Some may attempt to create a generalized rule set from these personal advices but this takes out context and makes such rules not very useful IMO.

What G did leave in his writings were "being strivings" - discussed in this thread . Please notice the essential difference between the strivings and the "life rules " mentioned here.
[/quote]

Thank you for putting it so well, obyvatel. That's what I think as well: Any rule that one applies to oneself in order to strengthen the "willpower muscle" is helpful in a way and helps to create new pathways in the brain. However, this doesn't necessarily create an "arrow" or a "vector" towards truth/creativity, for this real understanding and being are necessary, and with it the ability to "give a situation its due", or adapt one's actions to the specific situation at hand relative to one's aim.

When I first read "G.'s rules", I thought that many of them are interesting and inspiring, and can be applied to many situations. Also, some of those rules may be good advice we can give to people when they ask, for example when we know they have a weakness that corresponds to one of these rules. However, such a rule book also struck me as kind of "un-Gurdjieffian" and just skimming them it becomes obvious that given the law of three, it's foolishness to think we can apply all of those rules and everything will be fine...