In Search of the Miraculous

P. D. Ouspensky

Description

This book recounts P. D. Ouspensky's first meeting and subsequent association with George Gurdjieff. It is widely regarded as perhaps the most comprehensive account of Gurdjieff's system of thought available. Many followers regard it as a "fundamental textbook" of Gurdjieff's teachings and it is often used as a means of introducing new students to Gurdjieff's system of self-development.

Sujets

• Spirituality
• mysticism

Informations

• Publié par: Rare Treasure Editions
• Date de parution: 06 novembre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781774643228
• Langue: English

Extrait

In Search of the Miraculous
byP. D. Ouspensky

Firstpublished in 1949
Thisedition published by Rare Treasures
Victoria,BC Canada with branch offices in the Czech Republic and Germany
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Allrights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced ortransmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage orretrieval system, except in the case of excerpts by a reviewer, whomay quote brief passages in a review.



















IN SEARCH
OF THE MIRACULOUS


by P. D. OUSPENSKY
P. D. OUSPENSKY
IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS
FRAGMENTS OF AN UNKNOWN TEACHING
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I Return from India. The war and the "search for the miraculous." Old thoughts The question of schools. Plans for further travels. The East and Europe. A notice in a Moscow newspaper. Lectures on India. The meeting with G. A "distinguished man." The first talk, G.'s opinion on schools. G.'s group. "Glimpses of Truth." Further meetings and talks. The organization of G.'s Moscow group The question of payment and of means for the work. The question of secrecy and of the obligations accepted by the pupils. A talk about the East. "Philosophy," "theory," and "practice." How was the system found? G's ideas. "Man is a machine" governed by external influences Everything "happens." Nobody "does" anything In order "to do" it is necessary "to be." A man is responsible for his actions, a machine is not responsible. Is psychology necessary for the study of machines? The promise of "facts." Can wars be stopped? A talk about the planets and the moon as living beings. The "intelligence" of the sun and the earth. "Subjective" and "objective" art.
CHAPTER II Petersburg in 1915 G. in Petersburg. A talk about groups. Reference to "esoteric" work "Prison" and "Escape from prison." What is necessary for this escape? Who can help and how? Beginning of meetings in Petersburg. A question on reincarnation and future life. How can immortality be attained? Struggle between "yes" and "no." Crystallization on a right, and on a wrong, foundation. Necessity of sacrifice. Talks with G and observations. A sale of carpets and talks about carpets. What G. said about himself. Question about ancient knowledge and why it is hidden. G's reply. Knowledge is not hidden. The materiality of knowledge and man's refusal of the knowledge given to him. A question on immortality. The "four bodies of man." Example of the retort filled with metallic powders. The way of the fakir, the way of the monk, and the way of the yogi The "fourth way." Do civilization and culture exist? CHAPTER III G.'s fundamental ideas concerning man. Absence of unity. Multiplicity of I's. Construction of the human machine. Psychic centers. G.'s method of exposition of the ideas of the system. Repetition unavoidable. What the evolution of man means Mechanical progress impossible. European idea of man's evolution. Connectedness of everything in nature. Humanity and the moon. Advantage of individual man over the masses Necessity of knowing the human machine.
Absence of a permanent I in man. Role of small I's. Absence of individuality and will in man. Eastern allegory of the house and its servants. The "deputy steward." Talks about a fakir on nails and Buddhist magic.
CHAPTER IV General impressions of G.'s system. Looking backwards. One of the fundamental propositions. The line of knowledge and the line of being. Being on different levels Divergence of the line of knowledge from the line of being. What a development of knowledge gives without a corresponding change of being—and a change of being without an increase in knowledge. What "understanding" means. Understanding as the resultant of knowledge and being. The difference between understanding and knowledge. Understanding as a function of three centers. Why people try to find names for things they do not understand. Our language. Why people do not understand one another. The word "man" and its different meanings. The language accepted in the system. Seven gradations of the concept "man." The principle of relativity in the system. Gradations parallel to the gradations of man. The word "world." Variety of its meanings. Examination of the word "world" from the point of view of the principle of relativity. The fundamental law of the universe. The law of three principles or three forces. Necessity of three forces for the appearance of a phenomenon. The third force. Why we do not see the third force. Three forces in ancient teachings. The creation of worlds by the will of the Absolute. A chain of worlds or the "ray of creation." The number of laws in each world.
CHAPTER V A lecture on the "mechanics of the universe." The ray of creation and its growth from the Absolute. A contradiction of scientific views. The moon as the end of the ray of creation. The will of the Absolute. The idea of miracle. Our place in the world. The moon feeds on organic life. The influence of the moon and liberation from the moon. Different "materiality" of different worlds. The world as a world of "vibrations." Vibrations slow down proportionately to the distance from the Absolute. Seven kinds of matter. The four bodies of man and their relation to different worlds. Where the earth is. The three forces and the cosmic properties of matter. Atoms of complex substances. Definition of matter according to the forces manifested through it. "Carbon," "oxygen," "nitrogen," and "hydrogen." The three forces and the four matters. Is man immortal or not? What does immortality mean? A man having the fourth body. The story of the seminarist and the omnipotence of God. Talks about the moon. The moon as the weight of a clock. Talk about a universal language. Explanation of the Last Supper.
CHAPTER VI Talk about aims. Can the teaching pursue a definite aim? The aim of existence. Personal aims. To know the future. To exist after death. To be master of oneself. To be a Christian. To help humanity. To stop wars. G.'s explanations. Fate, accident, and will. "Mad machines." Esoteric Christianity. What ought man's aim to be? The causes of inner slavery. With what the way to liberation begins. "Know thyself." Different understandings of this idea. Self study. How
to study? Self-observation. Recording and analysis. A fundamental principle of the working of the human machine. The four centers: Thinking, emotional, moving, instinctive. Distinguishing between the work of the centers. Making changes in the working of the machine. Upsetting the balance. How does the machine restore its balance? Incidental changes. Wrong work of centers. Imagination. Daydreaming. Habits. Opposing habits for purposes of self observation. The struggle against expressing negative emotions. Registering mechanicalness. Changes resulting from right self-observation. The idea of the moving center. The usual classification of man's actions. Classification based upon the division of centers. Automatism. Instinctive actions. The difference between the instinctive and the moving functions. Division of the emotions. Different levels of the centers.
CHAPTER VII Is "cosmic consciousness" attainable? What is consciousness? G.'s question about what we notice during self-observation. Our replies. G.'s remark that we had missed the most important thing. Why do we not notice that we do not remember ourselves? "It observes," "it thinks," "it speaks." Attempts to remember oneself. G.'s explanations. The significance of the new problem. Science and philosophy. Our experiences. Attempts to divide attention. First sensation of voluntary self-remembering. What we recollect of the past. Further experiences. Sleep in a waking state and awakening. What European psychology has overlooked. Differences in the understanding of the idea of consciousness.
The study of man is parallel to the study of the world. Following upon the law of three comes the fundamental law of the universe: The law of seven or the law of octaves. The absence of continuity in vibrations. Octaves. The seven tone scale. The law of "intervals." Necessity for additional shocks. What occurs in the absence of additional shocks. In order to do it is necessary to be able to control "additional shocks." Subordinate octaves. Inner octaves. Organic life in the place of an "interval." Planetary influences. The lateral octave sol-do. The meaning of the notes la, sol, fa. The meaning of the notes do, si. The meaning of the notes mi, re. The role of organic life in changing the earth's surface.
CHAPTER VIII Different states of consciousness. Sleep. Waking state. Self-consciousness. Objective consciousness. Absence of self-consciousness. What is the first condition for acquiring self-consciousness? Higher states of consciousness and the higher centers. The "waking state" of ordinary man as sleep. The life of men asleep. How can one awaken? What man is when he is born. What "education" and the example of those around him do. Man's possibilities. Self study. "Mental photographs." Different men in one man. "I" and "Ouspensky." Who is active and who is passive? Man and his mask. Division of one