Mouravieff’s Gnosis, Meditation and Yoga

[thorbiorn]

Introduction
The ideas for this post were; first that I noticed, when I first read it, a reference to Ýoga Sutra by Swami Vivekananda in the footnotes to volume one of the Gnosis trilogy; and second, in a roundabout way, a recent conversation with a South African forum member.

The organization of the post, the first part in particular, was somewhat influenced by the observation that the Gnosis book had not been much mentioned in the meditation thread: The Role of Meditation in the Work http://www.cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=1814.0

Mouravieff’s Gnosis, Meditation and Yoga
In the first Gnosis book, The Exoteric Cycle, by Boris Mouravieff there is a whole chapter which has sections relevant for the practice of meditation, although he does not mention it under that name. Below follows a rough outline with a few comments and footnotes.

CHAPTER XX
Exercises aimed at acquiring the real Present. Mastering the body and the Personality, and making contact with higher levels of Consciousness.

This system of esoteric exercises has been conceived so that people who have already acquired a certain store of theoretical Knowledge can go on to practical work. It is baased on the Doctrine of the Present.
[…]
The practice has been elaborated since time immemorial: it consists of a ladder of eight groups of exercises.

The eight groups in his terms:
1. Outer cleanliness
2. Inner cleanliness
3. Correct posture
4. Respiration
5. Constation:
5a. External constation:
Passive
Active
5b. Internal constation:
Passive
Active
6. Concentration
7. Contemplation
8. Ecstasy

Meditation should be contained within the last four categories. Which one/ones depends on ones understanding of what meditation is. Below follows a description of the possible candidates as I understand it.

The fifth group of exercises have as their object constation. With the exercise of constation we enter fully into the psychological field. By this exercise, we start to face the problem of self study in a practical manner.
Constation called exterior, where we observe one or several external aspects, includinig ourselves; where we look at ourselves, so to speak, from the outside.
Constation called interior, where we observe one or more traits, facts, or phenomena of our own inner life.

[…]interior constations. This is a vast field of indispensable exercises which, with those already described will firmly establish us on the Track which leads to the path of Access

The sixth group of exercises concerns concentration, an active psychological exercise. This consists of withholding the attention from everything which is not the object of moral or physical concentration.

The seventh group concerns contemplation. This is reached when we are able to keep our concentration on the same object during a specified period of time.

The last group aims at ecstasy. Concentration followed by prolonged contemplation leads man towards ecstasy, which is a state of consciousness. As long as this state endures, man finds himself outside the five senses.

Mouravieff mentions Patanjali Sutra

Divine grace in its substantial aspect exerts a constant pressure on us: but it is up to us to: ’hear the voice’ and to ‘open the door’, otherwise it will not act within us. 23*

To the above there is a footnote:

23* In the Hindu Tradition they make use of the following image. They say that grace – Sanskrit daya, the water of mystical renewal, a notion analogous to blagdat – can be compared to the water for irrigating fields already present in various canals, but hindered by small gates (Fr. ‘ecluse’). When the cultivator opens the gate. The water flows by itself, by virtue of the law of gravity. (Patanjali Sutra IV: 3, commented by Swami Vivekananda)

The last work is in public domain. It is contained in a book called ‘Raja Yoga’ by the same author. _http://www.shardsofconsciousness.com/user/sites/shardsofconsciousness.com/files/ebooks/RajaYoga_Vivekananda.pdf formatted by Richard Cockrum.

Mouravieff’s eight types of exercise and Raja Yoga.

Raja-Yoga is divided into eight steps. The first is Yama -- non - killing, truthfulness, non - stealing, continence, and non - receiving of any gifts. Next is Niyama -- cleanliness, contentment, austerity, study, and self -surrender to God. Then comes Asana, or posture; Pranayama, or control of Prana; Pratyahara, or restraint of the senses from their objects; Dharana, or fixing the mind on a spot; Dhyana, or meditation; and Samadhi, or superconsciousness.

The reference for the above is

28. By the practice of the different parts of Yogas the impurities being destroyed, knowledge becomes effulgent up to discrimination.
[Vivekananda’s commentary]Now comes the practical knowledge. What we have just been speaking about is much higher. It is away above our heads, but it is the ideal. It is first necessary to obtain physical and mental control. Then the realisation will become steady in that ideal. The ideal being known, what remains is to practise the method of reaching it.
29. Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana,
and Samadhi are the eight limbs of Yoga.

Mouravieff refers to “The Royal Way ”

To practice the psychological method, called the The Royal Way 3* in the tradition, the posture of the Sage correctly maintained, is necessary and sufficient for almost all training requirements.

The footnote of the translator reads:

3*. Tr. In the Indian version of the Tradition this is called Raja Yoga. Readers who are interested in this are referred to Vivekananda’s commentaries on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. This reference by the Author to the Indian Doctrine is intentional, and in another place he has said the Indian term Agni refer to the Holy Spirit.

The tenth stage, last step of the Way is where man 6 becomes man 7. This is characterized by the consecration of the results obtained.

This is the baptism by Fire and by the Spirit.. 27* Jesus said: ‘I came to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled’ 28*

This consecration is produced by the sublimation of sex. Thus the circle closes itself. Each manifestation of life starts by a sexual act; at the end of the cycle, the activity of the sexual centre is manifested once more, but on a higher level, that of the higher centre, the level to which – by its nature – this centre belongs.
[…]
27*. Matthew iii: 11; Mark i: 8; Luke iii16; Acts i: 5, ii 2-4.
28* Luke xii: 49. Quoted from the Slavonic text. In the Hindu tradtion, the same phenomenon is described as the descent of the Yogi, when he first reaches the desired degree of perfection, of the dharma megha or cloud of virtue.

Searching ‘dharma megha’ in Vivekananda’s commentary gave:

Even when arriving at the right discriminating knowledge of the essences, he who gives up the fruits, unto him comes, as the result of perfect discrimination, the Samadhi called the cloud of virtue.

[Swami Vivekananda’s commentary] When the Yogi has attained to this discrimination, all the powers mentioned in the last chapter come to him, but the true Yogi rejects them all. Unto him comes a peculiar knowledge, a particular light, called the Dharma - megha, the cloud of virtue. All the great prophets of the world whom history has recorded had this. They had found the whole foundation of knowledge within themselves. Truth to them had become real. Peace and calmness, and perfect purity became their own nature, after they had given up the vanities of powers.

The Cassiopaeans on ‘Yogis’

Q: (L) In other words, we're in bad shape! And these guys are playing games with us, so to speak...
A: Subjective.
Q: (T) Subjective to whether we're in bad shape or not.
A: Yes.
Q: (T) I was going to say that doesn't necessarily mean we're in bad shape... (L) Well, the situation we find ourselves in, is the only way of getting out of this time loop, so to speak, to move into another density, or is there a loop in the other density as well?
A: No.
Q: (L) No loop in the other density?
A: Yogis can do it.
Q: (L) Yogis can do it... (T) Transcend time. (L) Okay, let me ask this before we really start to go...
A: How they control their own physicality.

The Hackney Carriage
The following refers to two instances where the thoughts of Mr. Gurdjeiff and Swami Vivekananda are not so far away from each other.


Mr. Gurdjieff elaborates lively and extensively on the similitude between a hackney carriage and the human machine in the last chapter of Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson pages 1192-1201. Below one finds a similar analogy in the context of Yoga.

1. Mortification, study, and surrendering fruits of work to God are called Kriya-Yoga.
Those Samadhis with which we ended our last chapter are very difficult to attain; so we must take them up slowly. The first step, the preliminary step, is called Kriya-Yoga. Literally this means work, working towards Yoga. The organs are the horses, the mind is the rein, the intellect is the charioteer, the soul is the rider, and the body is the chariot. The master of the household, the King, the Self of man, is sitting in this chariot. If the horses are very strong and do not obey the rein, if the charioteer, the intellect, does not know how to control the horses, then the chariot will come to grief. But if the organs, the horses, are well controlled, and if the rein, the mind, is well held in the hands of the charioteer, the intellect, the chariot reaches the goal. What is meant, therefore, by this mortification? Holding the rein firmly while guiding the body and the organs; not letting them do anything they like, but keeping them both under proper control.

The analogy is probably very old, the differences are to be found in the interpretation.


The Problem of Suggestibility.

This other newly arisen aim of my inner world was summed up in this: that I must discover, at all costs, some manner or means for destroying in people the predilection for suggestibility which causes them to fall easily under the influence of “mass hypnosis”

(* See footnotes)

The following section from Vivekananda, I have broken up in smaller sections to make it more readable.

Every attempt at control which is not voluntary, not with the controller's own mind, is not only disastrous, but it defeats the end. The goal of each soul is freedom, mastery -- freedom from the slavery of matter and thought, mastery of external and internal nature. Instead of leading towards that, every will - current from another, in whatever form it comes, either as direct control of organs, or as forcing to control them while under a morbid condition, only rivets one link more to the already existing heavy chain of bondage of past thoughts, past superstitions.

Therefore, beware how you allow yourselves to be acted upon by others. Beware how you unknowingly bring another to ruin. True, some succeed in doing good to many for a time, by giving a new trend to their propensities, but at the same time, they bring ruin to millions by the unconscious suggestions they throw around, rousing in men and women that morbid, passive, hypnotic condition which makes them almost soulless at last.

Whosoever, therefore, asks any one to believe blindly, or drags people behind him by the controlling power of his superior will, does an injury to humanity, though he may not intend it.

Therefore use your own minds, control body and mind yourselves, remember that until you are a diseased person, no extraneous will can work upon you; avoid everyone, however great and good he may be, who asks you to believe blindly.

All over the world there have been dancing and jumping and howling sects, who spread like infection when they begin to sing and dance and preach; they also are a sort of hypnotists. They exercise a singular control for the time being over sensitive persons, alas! often, in the long run, to degenerate whole races. Ay, it is healthier for the individual or the race to remain wicked than be made apparently good by such morbid extraneous control.

One's heart sinks to think of the amount of injury done to humanity by such irresponsible yet well - meaning religious fanatics. They little know that the minds which attain to sudden spiritual upheaval under their suggestions, with music and prayers, are simply making themselves passive, morbid, and powerless, and opening themselves to any other suggestion, be it ever so evil.

Little do these ignorant, deluded persons dream that whilst they are congratulating themselves upon their miraculous power to transform human hearts, which power they think was poured upon them by some Being above the clouds, they are sowing the seeds of future decay, of crime, of lunacy, and of death.

Therefore, beware of everything that take away your freedom. Know that it is dangerous, and avoid it by all the means in your power. He who has succeeded in attaching or detaching his mind to or from the centres at will has succeeded in Pratyahara, which means, "gathering towards," checking the outgoing powers of the mind, freeing it from the thraldom of the senses. When we can do this, we shall really possess character; then alone we shall have taken a long step towards freedom; before that we are mere machines.

 

[cindyj]

Thank you for sharing that. I haven't yet read Mouravieff, although I thought I recognized the eight exercises-- so similar to the eight limbs of classical ashtanga yoga. Very interesting! In the description I have for #7 Dhyana (Meditation), there is a slight distinction made between that and Dharana (Concentration),

"...only by its uninterrupted nature. In scriptures the difference between concentration and meditation is described as the difference between pouring water and pouring oil: both streams fall toward one place, but water falls in a "broken" stream of drops whereas the stream of oil is smooth, constant, unbroken."

 

[Marcus-Aurelius]

Talking about Mouravieff's Gnosis, I intend to buy a french version. As have not the possibility to buy it online, can someone advise a store name and address where it can be found, preferably in France or Belgium? In case yes, you can just drop me a message. thanks beforehand for your assistance.

 

[Green_Manalishi]

Hi, I've been wanting to start a topic relating Yoga and Mouravieff’s Gnosis, so I will post here a small relation that as come to my mind.

I've been practising Yoga for 4 months now, and I have only reed the Exoteric Cycle only.

What I noticed was that Yoga could be a good way to master the "personality". I say this because some positions in Yoga, especially at the beginning (when your body is not used to it) (I guess that in evolving in Yoga new and harder positions could be involved so the body is always experiencing some kind of strain) are very difficult and put our body in a straining situation, and at the same time we have to control the respiration. There is a need to control the physical discomfort.

I remember by head, that in Exoteric Cycle Mouravieff writes that the "personality" is attached to the body, I think he even gives an example in the following fashion: when someone, for example, hits something hard with a part of the body they go into a rage calling every kind of bad word to the object that struck them. This is an example of the direct connection between the "personality" and the body because the later goes ballistic because something hurt the body.

So in conclusion I think we can say that if the "personality" in linked somehow to the body, and Yoga teaches us to control the body especially in straining situations, it can help us control our "personality", which is regarded in the Eastern Orthodoxy Tradition has our masks, not our real self.

 

[Jacques]

Talking about Mouravieff's Gnosis, I intend to buy a french version. As have not the possibility to buy it online, can someone advise a store name and address where it can be found, preferably in France or Belgium? In case yes, you can just drop me a message. thanks beforehand for your assistance.

Hi Marcus-Aurelius,

You can aloso buy them via amazon france . Here's the french link:

http://www.amazon.fr/s/ref=nb_ss_w?__mk_fr_FR=%C5M%C5Z%D5%D1&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Boris+Mouravieff+

 

[obyvatel]

Some of the yoga paths have direct correspondence with Gurdjieff's description of the "ways".
Hatha Yoga (Yoga of the body postures) corresponds to the Way of the fakir.
Bhakti Yoga (Yoga of devotion) corresponds to the way of the monk
Jnana Yoga (Yoga of knowledge) corresponds to the way of the yogi

The quoted sections of Thorbiorn show similarities in the thoughts of Gurdjieff and Swami Vivekananda as expounded in Raja Yoga. Having been familiar with the teachings of Swami Vivekananda before being introduced to the 4th way teachings, I could find similarities between the systems in terms of characterizing the existing chaotic state of "man". There is also the concept of sleep and the need to awaken from it to develop the latent potential of "man". "Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached" is perhaps the most famous quote of Vivekananda used most widely. The methods applied to reach this "goal" is expounded in Raja Yoga. Vivekananda was the founder of Ramkrishna Mission which is a big organization having branches in different parts of the world. My knowledge about the practical aspects of Vivekananda's teachings as applied to "outsiders" is through the indirect exposure to this organization. From the experience of acquaintances and family members who have been long-term members of this organization, I can say that the typical learning process for "outsiders" is to attend lectures, celebrate festivals and get "initiated" into meditation by having a "mantra" being given by the "guru" (teacher) who is an ordained monk of the order. Though inspired by Raja Yoga, the methods practiced as outlined above never appealed to me personally - so I never got involved. I did not see any significant "awakening" of long-term members (~20 years). Perhaps only the ordained monks who have taken the vow of "sannyas" to renounce the world form what Gurdjieff called the "inner circle" and had access to the core of the practices outlined in Raja Yoga and subsequent transformation or "alchemy". I have felt that for most traditional yoga schools, renunciation of the world and retreat to a monastic life is an implicit prerequisite to really do serious work - that of transformation promised in books such as Raja Yoga. This used to be a more explicit pronouncement in the times of Vivekananda (I apologize for not being able to quote the exact source from his writings since much of what I have read in this subject has been a long time ago and I no longer have access to most of it). In present times, my guess is that the absolute requirement of monastic life to do serious work may not be so explicitly stressed due to practical considerations regarding the sustenance of the organizations. IMHO, for outsiders, these schools serve as a reminder that something greater than material life exists as stated by Gurdjieff in ISOTM

"The very idea of esotericism, the idea of initiation, reaches people in most cases through pseudo-esoteric systems and schools; and if there were not these pseudo-esoteric schools the vast majority of humanity would have no possibility whatever of hearing and learning of the existence of anything greater than life because the truth in its pure form would be inaccessible for them."

My 2 cents

Best regards