Comments on: Why I Like Gurdjieff http://www.reclusland.com/compass/2010/02/01/why-i-like-gurdjieff/ Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:46:45 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.4 By: Ian http://www.reclusland.com/compass/2010/02/01/why-i-like-gurdjieff/comment-page-1/#comment-7898 Ian Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:15:57 +0000 http://www.reclusland.com/compass/?p=2793#comment-7898 Awesome, thank you Ann! This is something I've been curious about for a long time. And yes, organized religion has never had enough of the sacred in it for me. But as I explore more and more into that empty space, I realize that a lot of organized religion does have its roots in something important. Awesome, thank you Ann! This is something I’ve been curious about for a long time.

And yes, organized religion has never had enough of the sacred in it for me. But as I explore more and more into that empty space, I realize that a lot of organized religion does have its roots in something important.

]]> By: Ann Seeker http://www.reclusland.com/compass/2010/02/01/why-i-like-gurdjieff/comment-page-1/#comment-7891 Ann Seeker Tue, 02 Feb 2010 06:12:27 +0000 http://www.reclusland.com/compass/?p=2793#comment-7891 Ian, I think that many people who are attracted to Gurdjieff's teaching are people who have turned away from organized religion and don't want to have anything to do with it. That was my experience and it has taken me a long time to recognize (I wanted to type 'understand' but I'm not really there yet) the sacred within this teaching. I think you'll find this article interesting - http://knol.google.com/k/gurdjieff-christianity# Ann Ian,
I think that many people who are attracted to Gurdjieff’s teaching are people who have turned away from organized religion and don’t want to have anything to do with it. That was my experience and it has taken me a long time to recognize (I wanted to type ‘understand’ but I’m not really there yet) the sacred within this teaching.

I think you’ll find this article interesting – http://knol.google.com/k/gurdjieff-christianity#

Ann

]]> By: Ian http://www.reclusland.com/compass/2010/02/01/why-i-like-gurdjieff/comment-page-1/#comment-7884 Ian Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:59:23 +0000 http://www.reclusland.com/compass/?p=2793#comment-7884 Animated by an essentially pragmatic point of view, Americans were immediately attracted to the ideas of Gurdjieff. What could have spoken more forcefully to a people formed by a tradition of practical realism, disdainful of mere theory, and not hemmed in by abstract principles, than this teaching which had daily life for a field of application?… <a href="http://www.gurdjieff.org/segal1.htm" rel="nofollow">- William Segal</a> Animated by an essentially pragmatic point of view, Americans were immediately attracted to the ideas of Gurdjieff. What could have spoken more forcefully to a people formed by a tradition of practical realism, disdainful of mere theory, and not hemmed in by abstract principles, than this teaching which had daily life for a field of application?…

- William Segal

]]> By: Ian http://www.reclusland.com/compass/2010/02/01/why-i-like-gurdjieff/comment-page-1/#comment-7883 Ian Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:52:52 +0000 http://www.reclusland.com/compass/?p=2793#comment-7883 I will admit that there is a flipside to this as well, where among his supporters, Gurdjieff was given an almost too-high status, in my opinion. Not "too high" as in he didn't deserve it (whether he did or not is not an objective fact, after all), but in that this put him on a pedestal of sorts, stopping those who came after him from thinking it possible to achieve the heights that he did. After all, "if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill the Buddha". Or as William Segal put it somewhere in "A Voice": "If I met God on the road, I'd punch him right in the face. I'd ask him, 'What are you doing here? I'm not going to help you, and you certainly aren't going to help me!'" (hazily called from memory, not typed from the text) I will admit that there is a flipside to this as well, where among his supporters, Gurdjieff was given an almost too-high status, in my opinion. Not “too high” as in he didn’t deserve it (whether he did or not is not an objective fact, after all), but in that this put him on a pedestal of sorts, stopping those who came after him from thinking it possible to achieve the heights that he did.

After all, “if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill the Buddha”. Or as William Segal put it somewhere in “A Voice”: “If I met God on the road, I’d punch him right in the face. I’d ask him, ‘What are you doing here? I’m not going to help you, and you certainly aren’t going to help me!’” (hazily called from memory, not typed from the text)

]]> By: Ian http://www.reclusland.com/compass/2010/02/01/why-i-like-gurdjieff/comment-page-1/#comment-7882 Ian Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:48:46 +0000 http://www.reclusland.com/compass/?p=2793#comment-7882 <a href="http://www.gurdjieff.org/howarth2.htm" rel="nofollow">On Gurdjieff and food.</a> On Gurdjieff and food.

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