Source Text
Gurdjieff himself called the Great Knowledge, “the powerful ancient stream of knowledge of being,” or what is more commonly known as the perennial wisdom. If there is one discernible and overriding idea that emerges through all of the ferment and questioning and searching—one idea that survives the manifold and varied experiencings and insights that I have touched on in the following pages—I believe it is still the Eckhartian understanding that all mediation must be alien to God, or better yet, alien to the Supreme Principle, the Absolute. Inextricably related to this is Eckhart’s profound understanding that the ground of things is nothingness, the abyss of the Godhead. This is the unfolding reality that informs what I have written.
came to a clearer understanding of the implications of non-dualism; the reality of the Godhead as distinct from the Creator; and the evident need in the great scheme of things for what I have come to understand as “instruments of the spirit.”
INTRODUCTION
So I see that I need an attention that isn’t taken, isn’t captured, isn’t fragmented—an attention that is free. And of course I need to see all the ways in which I allow the attention to be taken. So instead of resorting to some old trick, or leaning on some tired old hand-me-down axiom of the spiritual endeavor, I take in the impression of myself here now, in this place, in this moment, without comment, as impartially as I am able. This is the threshold, if I am to come to something real. I must begin to question all of my habits. But first, to see them. I have nothing to prove, nothing to achieve; rather, I allow this burden of my conditioning to ease, to lighten. I need to be emptied of me and mine, and for that I need to be still, not allowing the attention to be taken and taken too far. And so, in a miniscule way, there is already a new movement in me—a movement towards unity. The body “materializes” without my “doing,” not only because there is space but primarily because there is someone there to observe it. It begins to take its place, almost tangibly. The mind has quietened, not totally, but it is quieter. And it is linked to the body as it registers the structure and this growing sense of verticality.
If I have remained with this wish, I begin to see that without this new alignment between the head, the body, and the feeling, these higher energies are denied to me. They don’t enter, they can’t enter, into an unconscious piece of meat.
And I need to be emptied of me and mine, emptied of all acquisitiveness.
And so I see the need to keep this inquiry open, to respect the mystery of who I am. I am never done with it. It is really only on such a basis that I can make any serious exploration.
This truly all-seeing blogger added: “That Sinclair poses so many questions and basically unresolved analogies shows that he is sorely lacking in answers that a full-awakened and conscious teacher or leader would surely possess.” May I say that nothing could be more perceptive and truer, and I must commend the blogger for his perspicacity. That crossing to the other shore is not as easily “achieved” as some would claim. It is not something one can “do.”
What’s more, this man wisely counseled that the journey to be undertaken is a “long, laborious, and again, very often painful journey of total self-annihilation and re-creation.” And furthermore, that this self-creation need not be in the image or likeness of “Christ, Krishnamurti, Gurdjieff, Eckhart,” or what have you, “but in the image and likeness of our heavenly Father or our Creator.” Unfortunately, my all-knowing blogger appeared to stop short of the more ultimate metaphysical possibility. And that is really what this present book is about.
And that key understanding is that all of creation comes about through vertical causality. Gurdjieff’s strange-sounding Ray of Creation is no less than a comprehensive model of vertical causality. All of creation—and one must believe that in a universe of infinite potentiality there are perhaps other rays of creation, not just the one in which we have our roots—derives from on High, just as all possibilities come from a source far beyond ordinary life. This understanding is known and shared among all the great traditions. It is nothing that Gurdjieff invented, but it is something that he has conveyed with great creativity and rare insight.
AI Summary
Of the Life Aligned by Frank R. Sinclair presents key insights from the Gurdjieff tradition. The 10 passages above capture the essential teachings.
Core Themes:
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Key Passages: Highlights 1, 3, and 10 are particularly representative.
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