Gurdjieff - 48 exercises

[furryfrog]

23. Find the chief feature.

My understanding from reading ISOTM is that chief feature can never be "found", but that it must be pointed out. It's something that one can never see in themselves and, even after being told, one is often incredulous that this is in fact their chief feature. I remember in ISOTM Ouspensky saying that, after telling them their chief feature, one of the pupils told G that he was wrong and that he knew his chief feature and it was much worse than what G had told him.

This and the reference to "casting spells" makes me doubt the legitimacy of this document.

FWIW

I agree, "Casting spells" seems way out in left field to me.

Regarding, "23. Find the chief feature."--could be assumed that networking with others is needed to find the chief feature as per G's teachings. (Gnosis describes how to find the "principal feature of the personality" by constatation, without help from others.pg-209,210.)

A quick glance makes me think it did not come from Gurdjieff. Kind of theoretical for the most part. A few examples:
- unroll the film
- try to think of the reasonable thing to do or say in any given situation
- try to practice conscious morality
- try to perform consciously instinctive, emotional and intellectual work at the same time.
- practice the mental gymnastics relative to time, space and motion

And then there was this
- cast spells

Some things seem more Gnosis like to me. Could this document be someone taking notes on teachings based on both Gnosis and G, with something else mixed up, flipped backwards and thrown in?

 

[Altair]

According to the pdf metadata the notes belong allegedly to "c daily king". C. DALY KING was a member of A. R. Orage's group in New York City.

Charles Daly King (1895-1963) was an American psychologist. He was educated at Newark Academy, Yale and Columbia University. After Army service in WW1 he trained in psychology and wrote several textbooks. His first crime novel was published in 1932. Apart from crime novels, he also wrote psychology books.


He was a member of A. R. Orage's group in New York City and later C.Daly Kin after was appointed to lead a group in Orange, New Jersey. Attracted to Orage and the teaching, King was ever ambivalent toward Gurdjieff. He would later help Jessie Dwight sow seeds of doubt with Orage, challenging Orage's manhood in regard to Gurdjieff. His other noteworthy books include The States of Human Consciousness, now out of print, and The Oragean Version, an unpublished manuscript that was privately circulated. Convinced that Orage's presentation was an undistorted version of an ancient teaching that would be irretrievably lost after his death, King presents a rigorous and detailed formulation of material he gathered over several years of close study with Orage.
Source: http://gurdjieffclub.com/en/c-daly-king

 

[realitybugll]

something is wrong about presenting a list of 49 exercises like this with no explanation. and probably wrong to attributing it to Gurdjieff. what I want most to read is honest impressions or recordings of the work, not strange things like this, that can't be placed.

 

[Zadius Sky]

According to the pdf metadata the notes belong allegedly to "c daily king". C. DALY KING was a member of A. R. Orage's group in New York City.

Considering that Orage emphasized greatly on self-observation, which may be a key yet circumstantial evidence. I don't suppose that we would find CDK's handwritings to compare?

I glanced through The Oragean Version (you can find a pdf file via Google) and noticed that "self-observation" and "non-identification" were mentioned frequently. On page 98, the words "I have a body" is said to serve as a "mantrum."

Also, there was a discussion on the Forum about that manuscript, starting here:

https://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,8182.msg256710.html#msg256710

fwiw.

 

[Altair]

Thank you, Zadius Sky. I'll go through the forum topic you've proposed. :)

 

[Possibility of Being]

I don't know if it means anything and can help with solving the riddle, but it is interesting, so FWIW...

There are French translations of those exercises and from what I found, one is anonymous, the other is done by Patrick Négrier. They seem to differ in the 46th (or 47th, depending on a version) exercise:

Here, for example (and in many other places):
_http://tarogramme.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/49-exercices-de-gurdjieff/

it's

[47/48] Envoûtez.

which I believe is close to "cast spells".

But in Négrier's translation, it's

46. Distribuez les périodes.

(Distribute periods?)

You can see his translation as a PDF, with no indication to the source other than "donnés par G.I. Gurdjieff", linked on his website

_http://patrick.negrier.perso.sfr.fr/

(direct link: _http://patrick.negrier.perso.sfr.fr/EXERCICES.pdf)

So I'm wondering, is the English version a translation too, and there is more than one in English? If so, which language could lead to those two different meanings? Or, is it a dead end?

 

[Keit]

So I'm wondering, is the English version a translation too, and there is more than one in English? If so, which language could lead to those two different meanings? Or, is it a dead end?

Russian translation of the exercises in most of the cases translates "46. Cast spells" as "Engage in charming". But one source translates it as "Seek out differences (observation training)".

(Here, on this page it has both the English and Russian versions:
_http://ru.gurdjieff.wikia.com/wiki/Vikob:_%D0%93%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B4%D0%B6%D0%B8%D0%B5%D0%B2_48-%D0%A3%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B6%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B9)

At first I thought that who ever translated it to Russian made a mistake, but the rest of the translation is pretty accurate, so I tried to see further why it was translated this way.

There is this good site I am usually using if need to translate something
_http://www.multitran.ru/
And apparently, according to this site, the word "cast" or "cast round" also has a meaning of "seeking out", similar to "ferreting out". And the word "spell" apparently also has a meaning of "differentiate". But in both cases it's pretty rare to translate these words in such way, so have no idea why the translator decided to do it. I do like this interpretation better, though. ;)

 

[Possibility of Being]

Interesting, thanks Keit.

Assuming it actually came from G., how possible it is that one translator realized those different meanings and made up a kind of pun by translating it as "cast spells"? Like using an alchemical language to make things more obscure? Just guessing...

By the way, according to Google, the French verb "distribuer" can be translated back into English as:
distribute, give out, hand out, deliver, dispense, parcel out, administer, dole out, portion, part, disburse

Nothing close to "seeking". On the other hand, there is this: period --> curse --> spell

A riddle, indeed!

Happy New Year! :)

 

[MikaelYosef]

I don't think it was written by Gurdjieff's hand, but rather by someone who studied his works (possibly). The handwriting is too "perfect," imo.

...

48. Try to think of the reasonable thing to do or say in any given situation. Each event is potentially a complete circle. But circumstances usually distort it or, at best, supply only a curve. If this much is supplied: (U) try to determine just what is reasonably necessary to complete it. Supply it, thus:

In summary, I really like this idea even if the authorship is being debated. I like the imagery of the circle and curves relating to life events and reactions to them. It seems like it isn't a standard, nice sounding 'fluff' piece that people can read, think about positively for a few moments, write words onto a picture of a rainbow and then upload to Facebook to show others 'look at me, I can forward inspiring things I haven't thought of myself, but you should still pay attention to me' and then forgotten.

It's difficult yet achievable, fittingly requires work and alludes to the fact that not everything that comes your way may be pleasant.

Each event is potentially a complete circle. But circumstances usually distort it or, at best, supply only a curve.

The phrases 'being thrown a curveball and dealing with it' or 'when life gives you lemons, make lemonade' might be considered similar or simpler messages. But I prefer more detail like that in the quote above.