Further teachings of Gurdjief
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Further teachings of Gurdjief
iRtrp
' tf"gsp ISBN 0 7100 8938 4. Printed in Gieat Britain (TY). For copright reasons, this book may not be sold or issued on loan or otherwise
disposed ofexcept in its original pqper cover. I
I
FURTHER TEACHINGS OF
GURDJIEFF Journey through this world Including an account
G.
I.
of meetings with Gurdjief, A. R. Orage and P. D. Ouspensky
".
,.tlo,,
@ ROUTLEDGE & KEGAN PAUL LONDON AND HENLEY
ft_
First published t969 by Routledge & Kegan Paul
CONTENTS
Ltd
39 Store Street
London.WCtE ZDD and Broadway House, Newtown Road Henley-on-Thames
TO TIIB READER
Oxon. RG9 tEN Reprinted tg74 Reprinted and frst published as a paperback tg76
n
xur
BOOKI: ENGLAND
I. TIIE COMMERCIAL TRAVBLLBR 2. ORAGB 3. MEOPHAM 4. NOTBS ON SOMB POBTS J. THB PASSING OF ORAGB 6. Hrnero oF coMING GooD 7, TI{B LAST VTSIT TO THB INSTITUTB
hinted in Great Britain by Redwood Burn Limited Trowbridge E Esher
O C.S.Nott
page
PROI,OGTJB
1969
3
8
40 43
JI 59 FOR TIIB ITARMOMOUS
DBWLOPMENT OF MAN
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permissionfrom the publishu, exceptfor the quotation of brief passages in criticism
.
IO. T.
o Troo 6zz5 7 (c) rsBN o Troo aslS + (p)
II:
78 89
OUSPBNSI(Y
OUSPENSTY
tN I,ONDON
12. ouspgNsry's cRoup.
\nrlr TttRNS IIBR \THEBL
13. FORTUNB 14. A TASTB OF
Line drawings by Rosemary Aldridge
74
S. UNDER
BOOK
rI.
ISBN
68
8. rar,xs wrru GuRDIIFF 9. TArrs CoNTTNITBD
TALKS
95 ouspENsKy
BUR3AUCRACY
I5. wAx BOOX
III:
-${.
133
FRANK LLOYD WRIGIITS NEw YoRK AND oUsPBNsKY THB PUTNBY SCHOOL, VBRMONT
r@
LOCUST VALLBY, LONG ISL.A,ND
r97
19. 20. MBNDHAM
2I.
IT2
r20 r22
AMERICA
16. NEw RoCHELLB 17. TATIESIN AND THB 18.
'
toz
138
r57 r89
BOOKIV: ENGLAND
22.
RTTURN TO BNGLAND: SOMB NOTES OF ORAGE ON TIIE
23. 24.
TrrB BND OF TIiE WAR. PARIS
214
DORSET. SPRAYING SASKBTS
25.
SOME NOTES ON TIrE GNOSTICS
222 227 234
.MAHABHARATA'
26. sulrorNc a Housr 27. PARIS WTTrr GURDJTBFF.
203
CROUPS
48 253
INDEX
Aclcnowledgements
to Frank Pinder and Rowland Kenney and thanks to Marjorie Bradley and Rina Hands for their mosr use{irl suggestions and comments.
vl
He who woulil yalliant 'gainst all dhastu kt hin in constancy
LIST OF PLAT3S
be
Follow the Master. There' s no iliscouragement Shall make him once relent His frst auoweil intent
Gurdjieff with Gurdjieff 1946 Gurdjieff 1948
To be a pilgrin.
philos
John Bunyan
between pages 78 and 79
between Pdges
9t4
dnd 95
Gurdjieff circa 1936 A. R. Orage, Frank pinder, Rowland Kenny, Fontainebleau rgzz
study House,
prieurc
between pages
tz6 anil tz7
Putney School,'tpinter Putney School, Summer
Taliesien r94o
between pages t58 and ry9
Author and Frank LloydWright,.Wisconsin
lX
_$.
TO THE READER rN THrs, my second journal, are related some events of my life from 19z6 to rg4g, in rurope and America-the old world and'the newmy outer and my irurer life, particularly rhose connected with Gurdiie4 Orage and Ouspensky. It is a relation of some of my ".rioor, feelings and thoughts.
-{s.John
P,rly:"assays,
our life is
a
or uus world. It ts
pilgrimage through the wilderness
we were sent, each on his own path, to be given 't an opport'nirF to- exrra* certain experiences which, gii'en a real Tlaching, we can use for our own self-perfecting. Pilgrim' s Progress is a wonderful analogy -of whar is somerimes called 'work'. I myself, after years of seek'ing, found what I wanted and ,the needed in Gurdjieff's reaching; and, having found it, I realized that the pilgrimage h1d begun' There are a thousand obsracles-our own inerria, education, upbnngin-g and so on. Always there is the Slough oiO*f""a and the somerimes long periods of iepression; the crissing od-"ria cmotional deserts; the climbing of the Aill Difficulry with slidings down and slow crawls up agul; p.elods of.leep .od forg.ttinf,;;;e, of remorse of conscieni. relGt.proach; ittack, Uj, ,l""iJ"iir-"f "nd res::::::::::::::::ntmenJ, jedousy and anger-th. oftpri"g of vaniry and self_love; pcriods of resr and relaxation. And th"t is-th. co-pensatioi, ,rror. rare moments of the beatific vision, of wrderstanding, of higher con-
ii
power, which are worth everythingi the pr"esence of God to cheer us in our state. And alwa/s in tir. fiitr".. ,ir. C.r.rri"r sciousness and
City-final
selGperfection.
Yet I can say that, with all the strivings and struggles and set_backs, . of good-luck and bad luck, the iisillusionrieltr, ,h" t. r*T of almost all that ordinary life can offer, never foi orr""*prri"* ,rio*.rt .crng
fb; ; i;;;;;;, ,h;d;;;,
have I doubted that for me 1leTeaching, in whatever Way out of the labyrinth thit we call life; and Gurdjieff's interpretation of th! Teaching is the 'V7ay. C. S. Nott
I fi: :{f
Sydney, N.S.W. 196z Chesham, Bucks 1967
xi
fri
PROLOGUE
sooN aFrBR ouspENsKy's DBArrr Gurdjieff's health bcgan to fail and in cighteen months he had.gone,- yet right up to the Ja ru made great
cfforts,
t"lki"g to
people, holding il"tseJ for new movements and from England and America. He knew that his work was finished and gave instr-uctions to his ordest pupil. dances, and interviewing pupils
In early ocober, 1949, my wife wenr ro paris to see Gurdiieff. 'tvhen she returned she said that he w1s verr ill and had been adiised to go
into hospital, or at least rest from his strenuous activities. rre hld refused. He knew, better_ than the doctors, that his organism, his planetary-body, could not last much longer, and that he *rr"rt soon die, and that he must work as long as potribl"; and he conrinued ro see people and direct the sacred dances.I went to Dorset to try ro ger my house-building finished, and lived as usual in my lonely hut on the downs. On the z9-th of October 1949, in the morning'- therg was a knocking on my dolr. A neighbour had comc from half a mile away with to.rr.gi from my wi-fe that rvrr. " Gurdjieffhad died. The man to whom I owed almost cverfthing of value I possessed, who had.been my,-so to say, centre of gravity-fo, *or" th"n rwenty ycars, had go"9, Tq would never come igain.'I wept. yer not as I hai when.orage-died; his- death was prematire and aireat shocrc. Gurdjieff's-was foreseen, his work was done. I wept frJm tenderness and gratitude, from a realizarion of the transient oJtot of our bodily life on this planet, our mortality I packed-up and took the train to London and the same evening went to Francc. th" night boat and was in paris the next mornin"g, and
!f
wcnt straight-to chapel -th9 -* fi" American hospital where hiiuody was lying. Thc litde chapel was filled with peoplc standing ,o,rod,
xlu
Prologue
Prologue
everyone perfectly still. As some quietly went out others came in.
'O-God of Spirits and ofall flesh, who hast trampled down death and overthrown the devil and given life to the world, do thou, O Lord, give
Warchers had been there day and night since his death and each stood
for one, two hours, three hours. Strong vibrations filled the place, arising from the quiet collected state of those who stood there. And there seemed also to be emanations or radiadons from the corpse itself, There was an atmosphere of conscious love and reverenceiof worship, and although some could nor prevenr tears fowing there was no egoniztng grief,, or weeping and wailing. It was utterlypeacefirl, as everyone rcehzed that Gu-rdjieffhad finished his work and completed his essential existence on this planet. After three days, at a certain time, those who were stifl in the chapel went quiedy out, each kissilg the cold forehead of the dead man. Only the bearers, some men pupils, were left. And now occurred an incident which no doubt would have made Gurdjieffsmile, since he used to say that even in his most serious momenrs he wouldjoke. The body would not go into the cofiin-it was too big. So, while everyone waited in the Russian Cathedral in the Rue Daru, another coffin was sent for. Then we got into the hearse and were driven to the Cathedral. It was crowded with pupils-French, English
if
and American. Gurdjieff once said that a funeial ceremony is-not
the soul of thy departed seryant George Gurdjieffin a placi of ITt jo 'ri.k brighmess,_ a place of verdure, a place of refose, *f,"o". r.r, "ll pardon sorrow and sighing have Iled away. every transgression which he has committed, whether by thought, word o, de.d."po, thou art a good God and lovest mankind; because there is no man who liveth and not sin, thou only art without sin, and thy righteousness is to all cternity rhy word is true. 'ofa truth all things are vaniry and life is but a shadow and a dream. For in vain doth cveryone who is born of earth disquiet himserf, As saith the Scriptures, when we have acquired the worljthen do we take up ourabode_in_the grave where kings and beggars lie down together. 'wherefore, o christ our God, give rest to t[y servant d.p"rtid thi, life, forasmuch as thou lovest mankind. 'Give rest eternal in blessed faling alleep, O Lord, to the soul of thy servant George Gurdjieff, departed this life, and make his memory does
*d
eternal.
'Memory Eternal! 'Memory Eternal!'
important; what
is necessary is to put rhe planetary body away decently and in order-it is no more the being who formerly and the "*irt"j; soul, if the being had a soul, is already gone. Gurdjieff's funeral, though impressive on account of the number of qupils who filled the. church, was really simple, yet accompanied by the beautiful ritual and singing of the Russian church. The following is taken from the liturgy: Holy God, Holy_ Mighry, Holy Immortal, have mercy upon us. :O'_Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spi*, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. 'In peace let us pray unto the Lord. 'Lord have mercy. 'For the peace that is from above and for the salvation of our souls let us pray to the Lord. 'For the remission ofsins ofhim who hath departed this life in blesed memory, let us pray to the Lord. 'For the ever memorable servant of God, George Gurdjieff for his repose and tranquilliry and blessed.memory, ler us pray to the Lord, 'That he will pardon him every transgression whether voluntary or
involuntary.
After a pause, the priest began: 'Among thepeople who are assembled here today to do homage to . S. T."1"ry of George Gurdjieff are not only the ieople of oor"o*r, Ruslial Orthodox Church but French men and wori"o-"lro, and many lnglish_and Americans, who undeterred by long distanc., f.* orr",
land and
sea to look on the beloved fearures hor th". last time and to pay their final tribute. 'This shows how large and widespread is the circle of those who
vcncrated this quite exceptional
-* *d ho* great \ /as his significance
for all who knew him. . 'CJeorge-_Ivanitch- Gurdjieff was born
in Alexandropol near the borders of Persia and cameof a very religious family. His?ather, a man
ofunusual perception and intellect, attrictcd around him perron, of" rimilar kind. Among them the pri-est ofthe local churlh, a highly -ya1 cducated man revered by all the people of the countryside. This iran rroused in the son ofhis friend hirfirst interest in the ancient sayings of the Easq sayings which were not only written but handed al.# Uv word of mouth. He also implanred in him cerrain truths which G. i. Gurdjieff retained for the whole of his life, a life of unending search.
xv
Prologue
Prologue
For Religion is the spiritual mother ofa man and a man musr be faithful to her unto death. At the samc time there are scattered in the world pearls of wisdom and it is necessary to know how to find them.In his youth Mr. Gurdjieff went to Persia where he came in contact with
in. It was sixteen years since I had becn there, and everything was the same, but.changed. It was now a maison de santd. Where fie Study House had been v/ere now rooms for patients, and paradou had bcen
some ancient men who v/ere venerated bythe local inhabitants as sages
or wise men. Later he met with an elderly man, prince K. and with him was able to penetrate the very remote parts of Asia. During their common searching, Mr. Gurdjieff discovered certain ancient esoteric teachings, heard ancient religious music and saw sacred dances which were exercises for the all-round development of man. Having found what he sought he went ro Europe and dedicated the remaindJr of his a few ciosen individuals and later to larger and larger groups ofpeople. . 'Books concerning Mr. Gurdjieffand his work have already appeared in America and England. The books coming from his own hand and which contain the essence of his teachings number many volumes and are his last gift to humanity 'Let us conclude with his own words: "O God Creator, and all you wfro qe his helpers, may we always and in everything 'remember ourselves', because orly by this can we be prevented from taking uncon-
life to the transmission of his knowledge, first to
scious sreps, which alone lead to evil." ' There followed a long silence, then, one by one, people went past the bier, making a brief pause, some crossing themselves, ro*" g.i.ofecting, passing out of the church to the waiting cars and coacheJ Thc
ro,built. The forest and the gardens were still the same, and on the road of stones that w9 lad put there nearly rwenry years bcfore,.and the pface w-here I had dug for the spring of, for m", lirrirrg water, had not changed We drove back to Gurdjiefft apartmenr in paris, where a big Gast of delicious food had be.ri prep"t"d, with armagnac and wine] and roon all were dispersed: English, French, Americans, each to his own town or country. Gurdjieffwas dead, his planetary body buried. yet wlat was real of Gurdjieff (that which *"r-ro much mor! real than his wc-re the heaps
planetary body) still existed somewhere in the universe. gy-ryr conscious labours,and voluntary suffering he had perfected himself. Compared with all the men I have-known hJwas, as O^rage said, r walking god-a supennan in the real sense. fu1 his teaching remains-his writings, his dances and his music, rnd d these can be a Jource source ofreal ofreal good for for human beings beinss now and in the funrre.
-
Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail Or knock the brest, no weakness, no contempt, Dispraise or blarne, nothing but well and fair, And what may quiet us in a death so noble.
ofi passing by the apartment in the Rue des Colonels Renard and so on to the main road to Fontainebleau-Avon. Here the hearse put on speed and on the rough sffetches the wreaths and bunches of fowers round the cofiin began dancing up and down. I was sitting_ next to Foma de Hartmann. He asked about the delay in getting to the Cathedral, and when I explained about the cofiin he smiled, and pointed to the dancing wreaths. 'I think,' he said, 'that Georgivanitch could know about this, he would laugh.' Gurdjieffwas buried near his mother and his wife and brother. As w'e left the cemetery I thought of what he had said after the funeral of coftege slowly moved.
-
if
his brother Dimitri: 'Ceremony not important. Now let's have
a
picnic.' I did not return at once to Paris, but went with some friends to the Prieur6. On the stone gate-post was a notice that Katherine Mansfield had lived there; nothing about Gurdjieff. I rang the bell and said that I had stayed there many times and miglt we look round. We were asked
xvr
tilu
BOOK I ENGLAND
THE COMMERCIAL TRAVELLER
As r sirrD in my frstr[oumal of a Pupil, one of the results of completing my task in the forest at the Chateau du Prieur6 (or The Institute foi the Harmonious Development of Man) at Fontainebleau was that my relations with Gurdjieff and others from that time began to be on another level. But no one who is trying to work on himself can stay long in the samc place. As Gurdjieffsaid, srrength and understanding come 'litde by litde', 'by patience arrd perseverance': 'Each &y a &op, a drop. It will talce you years, centuries, lives perhaps'.
'We had spent the winter of nineteen twenty-seven and -eight in Montmorency and had seen a grear deal of Gurdjieff, but it had been a
winter of
stresses
and strains.
In spring we drove with a friend to Sanary, a quiet little fishing village near Toulon. tn May I left my fu*ily in Sanary and rerurned to the Prieur6, where I was severely censured by Gurdjieff for some stupid things I had unconsciously done, and for which I suffered re.
conscience.
. morse of In the early summer of r9z8 I returned to London and took a fat in Belsize Square. Though still burning from the effects of Gurdjieff's reproo{, I thought over the events ofthe past year and saw how useful the time had been, how much I had learnt, and how, becoming 'a young man' as G. said, I had attained a measure of responsibility. In London I forurd myselfin a strange economic situation. 'When, in 1923, I sold my interest in the agency for the firm ofAustrian felt manufacturers I said to myself, 'Thank God I've left the hat business for ever.' However, God, it seems, had other plans. During my life three vocations had drawn me-the hat business, farming and books. Now, 3
The Commercial Traueller
I was drewn to books, to publishing or prinring, bur, try as I might, not a door would op-en. _Both my fathei and Lrother had largc-hat
factories, and eventually, through rhem, I was offered thejob ofsirting aq age1ry for another Austrian manufacturer. Parr of me fought against it butthe pay and prospec-ts were very good and I reluctantl/ accelted. The Austrian was one of these clever, sharp, scheming men, with a smooth 'kind' exterior, of whom the Russians say: 'He will make vou a soft bed but you'will find it hard ro lie upon,' and t had b..r, *"rned by th_o1e in the uade that he had a reputation for 'nor delivering up ro sample'--rvhen the order was delivered it was not of the qo.tiry of the samples_he_had shown-and his business had suffered. Also, they said, he b+ -had agents be-fore, and as soon as they got business going he
would find a pretext for getting rid ofthem ro save payrng thJm c6mmission. This man had two large factories in Austriiwheri the famous velours hoo&, or cones, were made from the finest fur of the hare and sold to the English manufacturers, who made hats for men and women from them. So, for the third time, I became both an agent and a commercial tJavellel, repeating in my life something that my essence loathed, but that had been forced on me by circun:siances and f"*ily associations. Yet there are rypes who love this job of going 'cap in hand' to the buyers and wheedling orders our ofthem. 'When I hal 'ravelled' before the r9r4 war in my father's business it had literally made me ilI. Now I was again faced with it and dl the added associarions. An asenr is a low,-though necessary, form of commercial life; he neither iroduces like the manufacrurer nor rlsks capital in stock as the merchantioes. He has only to rent an ofEce and, like Charles Dickens's Boots and Brewer, 'go about'. Like the professional match-maker he has to appear smart and.adopt a smirking personality; he.must be politc and irigratiating, ready to receive snubs and insults without winiing. Bcttcr, t Aougfi,
to be a stall-holder in the Portobello Road marhet, who is at liast himself and had not to pur on airs. T!."gh th9 job was foreign to ffie, yet perhaps ir was according to my_qt9, or destiny; anyway, it was in my p"fi and I rcalized that I could do it either in a state of resentment and frustration or try to do it consciously as a_task. I asked mpelf: 'What is the good of the worl I've done with Gurdjieffif I don't make use of it in lifcil Hcrc is a wonderful opportunity t_o woyk out in practice what I havc becn taught. I musr not perform the task as an amateur, but do it as well as thc piofcssionals and even better; I must play the role of a commcrcial trivcller; in so 4
The Commercial Trauellet t_ may work ou! this design in the pattem of my life which has always been so distasteful-to me.' so lplungid into business and managed
d9i"g
to play the role not too badly. I slipped once, when the Ausaian and I called on a rich manufacturer in the West End, who began to expound to us the mysteries of the millinery trade, with himself as a very clever fellow in'the matter of women's hats, who had built up a wonderful business. Watching him, I was thinking, 'What g eTpry man; with all his money and lower over his-employees, inside ofhim there is nothing but wind.' Sodd.rrly, he caught my eye and stopped. 'Look at old Nott there,'he said. ,He's a philosopher.-He looks right through you and knows all abour you.' 'As a matter of fact,' I lied, 'I was so interested in what you tyere s"yrng that I could not take my eyes 9ffyou. I was wishing that I were ", gooi a business man as you.' Mollified, he talked ofsomithing else, andlavc us a large order.
. 'The important thing for a traveUer to remember,' said my brother, 'is "never take no for an answer". Keep calling orr. .,rrto*"rr. In the
end they'llget so sick-of seeing you they will give you an order to get rid of yo-u.' It worked. I called on one **o6rtorlr every week fo"r a year, and at last he gave me a small order which caused mc a lot of trouble. FIowever, in six months the orders for this one hood amounted to twenty thousand pounds. At the end of three years my agency, from nothing, with the help of one assistanr, was doing over'sil
*y
he said,'But Mr. Nott,
I thoughiyou 5
were'a business man, a big
The Commercial kau eller
busines man. Why! You look more like a professor!' disguise at home apparendy.
The Commercial Traueller
I
had lcft my
Austrian Mr. chadband was-an example
of unconscious change of-My personaliry. In front ofa possible he was oiry, smirkin'g, unctuous, ingratiating, wheedling, -cusronier humble-Chadband and UriJh Heap in one. 'With his work-people and staff he was an arroqant Prussian. x,ven his ofrce staffstood to attention when he spoke to tlicm. A cold slint would come into his eye as he stalked aborit the factory. Yet, in a few moments, if a customer appeared, the prussian personality gave place to Chadband The-agency phase lasted just three years. As they had said, he gompelled me to resign; but agreed to compensat.,o.. Then he wrote from Austria-saying that he 'had done all he could for me', meaning that he would not pay. Fortunately I had a good friend, who was one of the best company lawyers in the city of iondon. It is said that one should never go to law except in extreme cases and when the cause is good, since law and justice often do not mean the same. This was a go-od cause. The Austrian tried in every way to wriggle out with the :f.hit lawyers, lut ln)r friend was ioo ci.rr., for-Fm, and though it took him six months the mater was finally settled o.rt of court I m-onel. tn the meantime, the Austrian got the banks to "ni got lend him three hundred thousand pounds to buy a hrfe factory in England.
l.h
fy
hr les than three years the firm went bankiupt. II. r"to*Ld to iustria with a hundred thousand pounq, which, on account of currency restrictions, could not b" g9t at. The banhs lost three quarters oftheir
money' and he lived instyle in vienna until he &ed. duch is busines. you.have to go t9 l"yt it is best to get a good lawyer who is a - -If friend. The rest has to be left to providenle; *i, my irandmother ", used to say, 'There's them above who'll see as providenceion't go too tar.
while in the felt business I leamt in some measure to apply the teach-
ing of tle law of the octave. Before, when I reached tii ioint when extra effort was needed to get over the interval, I would iinc ,tp "nd start something else. Now, I \aras ab-le to stop myself fronigivinlg up, and compel myself to make more efforr to g.i onir rhe interial. 'iod", curses are our opportunities', and looking back I see how valuable the experience in the agency w?s, enabling me to gain inner strength by trying t9 my weaknesses and compelling mpelf to Jndor" -o"rlcope some of the displeasing manifestations of others withoot res€ntment. At the Prieur6 we had Gurdjiefi and in New york, as begirurers, we 6
had Orage to remind us to remember our aim; alone, one constandy forgets; and I frequendy found myself groaning and moaning at being imprisoned in the loathed hat business, forgetting how it could be used for my aim. [t is a question of performing the daily round as well as one can, remembering that each day is a phase, a succession of evenB, and will never return. As I have said, Gurdjieffoften spoke of the need for patience and perseverance, in small things and large. 'If you can do small things well, you will do big things well,' he said to a pupil. The pupil asked, ''Well, Mr. Gurdjiefl what do you suggesr for me? What can I do?' Gurdjieffsaid, 'You, you know, wanr to be big man, have large car, large house, be president of company.' ''Well,' said the pupil, 'I'm asking you, what small task can I begin on?' 'You really wish to know? I tell you. When you go lavatory, always remember pull plug.'
Oage St. Lazare
2
ORAGE
gesture
wrrEN' AFrER rrrE vnan-with GurdjieffI returned to England, Ieaving my wife_and small son in France, and busiedmyself gettiig established] I realized that it was over seven years since I had left Loridon and, although I renewed associations with many old friends, I felt the need to be in touch with at least rwoor three whowereinrerestedinGurdjieff's ideas, but all of these were with Ouspensky and of them I kne#only one, a vroman. 'We met but, after a short talk, she said,.you know, I'm afraid t see you again. Really, I ought not to be seeing you ".*-,is that none of us in Ciusp"nrLy', now. The rule groups tolp""k "r. ro"i"[y to any of Gurdjieff's or orage's pupils. If we shodJmeit them we are not to speak of anything or anyone corurected with the system; if the rule is broken we shall have to ieave.' It was the same when my wife returned. Even Dr. Nicoll, whom she knew well during the four months he was at the prieur6, could not see her-. Eventually I wrote to ouspensky that we would like to meet him and Madame ouspenslcy again. A le*er came from one of his older pupi\, Dr. H., hyr.i"g me to-meet him. Apparently *y replies to his questions as to why I wanted to see ouspensky were ,tttritirf"ctory, for I heard no more. I heard that Gurdjieffwas about ro go to America _r93,o, injgbryV (the first time sinceJanuary ry24) and that O-rage who was still in New York, was planning to .om. to rnghnd after-G's visit. I wrote.to Orage aslcing if t could be of use to him. In February, I was in Paris and went to see G. at the cafiS de la paix. But he was so busy interviewing people-prior to his departure a few days hence that I had little opportuniry of speaking with him. one thini I remember-his reply to something I said. tt was, 'If you acknowl--edge your sin and feel remorse of conscience for having done wrong yo""t ritr is already forglv.en. Ifyou continue to do wrong-, knowing it ioie so, yoo a sin that is difficult ro forgive.' I was among those who saw him and his parry off from the Gare
- !J**tf,
"o--i,
8
in Paris, and something made a strong impression on me.
When the first whistle blew Gurdjieffgot into the carriage with three or four of the older pupils who were going with him. When he came to the window, he radiated such quiet power and being and light that we who stood there seemed like pygmies; his strong calm was a contrast to the nervous excitement of the other passengers and their frien& who were seeing them off As the train moved out his gaze was fixed on Mr. de Salzmann on the platform. He smiled at him, made a strange
with his hands, and withdrew.
A week or two later I heard from Orage. thanks for your letter!' he wrote. 'I need not write at length because my plan still holds to come to England in the Spring and stay there for at least six months. But we don't propose to live in London or to live a London li6. I shall not hold any groups wharever, though, of course, I shall love to meet our old friends of the Institute from time to time. My idea is to live in the country, within reach, by car or train, ofboth London and the sea, and chiefy to write. That's the only means I shall have of making any money, I'm afraid. We need a house that is cheap and furnished, and leasable for six to eight months. If you hear of such will you make enquiries? We've booked our passage on the /e
'M*y
Grasse, sailing May zz,
'Gurdjieffarrived in New York yesterday! He nee& money again for the krstitute I gather, though I doubt whether this time he will get much. He sdll talks of finishing the book in a month. His coming, has, of course, bust up my group meetings and leaves me desperately placed
for income, but I must be "clever", I suppose, and find a substitute. Anyhow it's no use talking. 'Our love to you both. t look forward to seeing you and other old frien& again. . Yours ever A. R. Orage.'
I began to look for a house for Orage and in berween times got together a few who had returned to England from the Institute. There were ten of us-the only 'Gurdjieff' group in England. 'We mer once a week and my wife played the music of the dances, which we practised from time to time. It was something. In the early spring of r93o my wiG was put in touch with the Bertrand Russells who had recendy started a 'modern' school at Harting 9
Orage
in
Sussex. Eventually they offered her the post of music teacher, so we pac.ked up eygry-thing in the car and drovi down for the spring term.
At once we liked the atmosphere of the place-the feeling Lf friedom and goodwill.-We liked the Russells and the stafl especifuy Berrrand Russell, one ofthe kindest men I have met. During i"n *iitr'Berrie', as he was generally cdled, we felt that his ideas on"modern educarion were so reasonable that the school could not fail to bc a success. ltwas run on similar lines to Dartington, though Dartington had a million po""4-t -b.lhd it and this was run on a slioe-string. qoite simply, the Russells' idea was that children should have a good physical life]a'good grounding in necessary subjects and an emoiional life through riusic and painting and so on. Russell himself told hoy he had always felr himself handicapped _y tbrough never being allowed ro use his hands as a child-he "ooddo 1o physic{ tasks at all, such as gardening and minor repairs to the house. Endowed with a magnificent mentdlenne, his rwo Jth"t..nt ., wer.e underdeveloped- Pardy because of this rhe Russells, like so many intellectuals, werc lacking in common sense, not only in world affairs
lol q the practicd things of everyday life. For example, we were lodged at Battine House in East Marden, a mile or so fro?n the school, with somc of the staff 'We arrived a few days before the children. The house was &rry, the foor and walls of the dining room covered udth
filth and grease.When we spoke about it he said, t'We had an anack of tr:kp pox last term, bur we've had the house thoroughly fumigated including the dining room and it should be all right nJw.; 'Can't the di"i"g room be cleaned and washedl' 'I'm afraid our kitchen staffis already overworked.' 'Do you mind if we do it?' 'Not really. But is it necessary?' We and the teaching staff decided that it was and set to work and washed the whole house cxcept the kitchen. But the kitchen staff of four, which included a neurotic young man cook and nvo not very bright village girls, threatened to resign; they considered that we had insulted -fu- b_y -doing their work. However, by using flanery we managed to mollify them and they even became friendly. The school should have been a successfirl modem school, and if the Russells had been able to be more practical in the rururing of it, it could have been a model for future education. Compared with th" two schools I went to-thd Board Council School in Harpenden and the small private Dotheboy's Hall School in Yorkshire, it-was a paradise, IO
Orage
with the open downs and the sea not far away. Real efforts had been madc to arrange life so that the chil&en's potentialities should devclop naturally. There was a sense of growing life and freedom in the atmosphere. The children were happy, and learnt far more than I did at school. They had plenry ofliberry. One morning, Battine House, where some of the children lived, was unnaturally quiet. Not a single child was about, and though we searched wc found not a trace. At the height of our consternation a message came from the vicar that they were in his
house. They had got up very quiedy before dawn and gone to the litde churchyard and sat there to sec the sun rise over the downs, but getting cold and h*gry had woken up the vicar, who had talcen them in and given them cocoa and biscuits. We had brought a young Russian girl with us from London, who had come from France to livc with us and learn English. Her father, of an old Russian 6mily, was a fricnd of Tolstoy. When Stalin, the Czar of that time, began to reign, her father advised his sons and daughter to go to France and after many adventures they arrived in Paris. Hcre at the school, after the first meal in the long dining room with thc staff and tk Russells, she asked me in French, 'h that Lord Russell? But he's Jewish.' I said, 'No, it isn't possible.' 'I'm sure,' she said. 'You see, dmost every 6mily in the Russian aristocracy hasJewish blood. So many had to marry richJewesses to keep their estates going. We know.' A litde later I noticed a largc p"i"ting of a beautifirl woman, obviouslyJcwish, h-giog above the stairway at Telegraph House. I asked who it was and was told,
'llhat is Mr. Russell's mother.'
As with the Russians so the English. Few of the aristocratic English families are withoutJcwish blood; thc impoverished owners of esates sometimes married into rich Jewish families. It is said that there is Jewish blood in thc Royal Family, from Albert the Consort. Orage, speaking of the Jews, said that they wele.a small tribc of the grcat Semitic tece, a conscious experiment on the part of Moses. Moses chosc them, not God. He received the'Teaching' from the Egyptian priests and taught it to theJews so that they should be an influence for good in the world of their time which was breaking up. But, according to thcir prophets, they were a stiflnecked, stubbom, aggressive people, dways &verging from the real teaching. And the Sufis say that they eventually forsook the teaching and became a danger to the cosmic plan, and had to be dispersed. Yet such was the force of Moses' teaching that the effects remained, and for two thousand years the Jews have had a great infuence, good and bad, on succeeding cifizations. It is
II
Oruge
Orage
said that Oliver Cromwell, whose family name was 'Williams, was more than half \trelsh Jew, hence his rolerance of them. The inner teaching of the Jewilh religion has been preserved unspoilt by the Essenes; and much of it can still be found in the Zohar of which th" kabbalah is the kernel. Professor Denis Saurat has pointed out that the infuence of the kabbdah (and the teaching of the Sufis) can be found in the occult tradition which rurs through English literature from Spenser to Mikon and Blake. There is erren a p"rri"l description of the enneagram in The Faery Quean. It is a mistake to speak of anti-Semitism-it should be anti-Jewism, for theJews were a very small part of the grear Semiric rac" which included the Asyrians, the Phoenicians and the Arabs.
! beg1n-to search for a house for Orage. After some weeks and many rniles of dri"iog about Surrey and Sussex I found the very place, in Rogate, not far from the Russell's School; an old stone farm-house comfortably fumished. Orage wrote: 'You seem to have defined exacdy what we wanted. 'We had our farewell group meeting last evening and it would have done your heart good to wifiress the scene. I love the group; and I couldn't bear the thought of being long out of touch with them. But my ne\Ms must wait until we meet. Meanwhile I should be very grateful if Rosemary would purchase a crib for a young man of two yeirs and get the house ready for us. As somcone was saying, you and Rosemary are both so resourcefirl thatJessie and I are babes in comparison. I would apologize for all the trouble we are giving, if I felt youixpected it; but thank Gurdji"fi don't feel you do. And now I'm straining at the collar to be in England with you all.
*.
Ever yours.'
I &ove to Plymouth to welcome them. tt was two years since we had met and when I went on b oardthe de Grasse from the tender, Orage put his arms round me and hugged me. Two days later we drove over from Battine House to see them. The rest of us were getting lunch ready, while Orage and my wife talked in the [ving room. She began to play some of Gurdjieff's music and, happening to pass the open door, I glanced in. Orage was wiping the tears from his cheeks. What was the matter? Was it because for "1oog time he had been working under pressure in New York-especially during Gurdjieff's visit-and now, in this quiet spot of England, the
I2
tension was released? And the music had loosed the springs of his heart and caused the tears to {low? I thought ofProfessor Skridloff's weeping on the mountain with Gurdjieff. Why are the English so afraid of showing emotion? Up to the end of the eighteenth century the English were not ashamed to weep when deeply moved. The idea that it was bad form to show that one felt deeply began in the dark ages of the nineteenth century, and only in England. Karl Marx wrote ponderously on the tragedy of capitalism;
but no one has written about the English tregedy of suppressed emotions and sex energy in England in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The idea that sex was the great sin, and that it was bad form to show feeling, maimed the English emotionally. The terrftle sacrifices of the English to their great god 'respectability' was another 6ctor in this maiming. The nineteenth century with its brutaliry, sentimentaliry and hypocrisy was a part of the Kali Yuga, rhe iron age, in which we are living and in which the life of man, his social life and inner life, degenerates at increasing speed, with wars and old civfizations breaking up over all the earth. Yet Orage was not sad but very cheerful. Wc dl were. My wcekdays were spent in the ciry selling felts, and the long week-ends at Battine House, going about with my wife and the Orages. We &ove dong the Sussex lanes, stopping for bread and cheese and pickled onions and beer at country pubs. Our talks, in which hearts and minds were joined, were always stimulating and sometimes even intoxicating. 'When he went to London he stayed with me in the fat in Hampstead, and we would lunch in Soho with some of his old'New Age'fiends. Orage and Bertrand Russell had mct only on paper, and I very much wanted them to meet in thc flesh, but Russell was reluctanr and Orage hesitant. Russell had been annoyed by Orage's saying n the New Age: 'the trouble with Mr. Rusell is he doesn't believe a word he writes'; it was largely true. However, they f*"lly agreed, and I arranged for us all to meet on the beach at West Wittering where we usually bathed, and which at that dme, even in the height of summer, was more or less deserted. The Russells and ourselves arrived andhad a swim, and waited for Orage and his f"*ily. Time passed with no sign of them. At last Russell became impatient and said that he must go; and, just as his car disappeared Orage and his f.*ily came along the beach. A punctured tyre had delayed them. So by a few minures we rnissed one ofthe most brilliant conversations thar never took place. My relationship with Orage was now on another level. Instead of the r3
Orage
6ther-mentor-teacher I had left in New york, he was now an elder brother and a beloved friend. This was one of the happiest summers we have ever spent. orage and, his f"-ily relurne! ro New york in the autiumn, landing therc a few days after Gurdjieffhimself had arrived on another visit. It proved to be a difrcult winter for Orage. On March rsr, r93r, he wrote: 'I've-led the life ofJack-in-the-box since my return here; and until G. leaves, I expect it to continue. [n other respects things have gonc fairly well, alsoihe 6*ily. But, in the of a penny of income from the old groups I've had to conduct 1bsa9e fourliteraryclasses a week! And even then tf,e.orir always baying at the door. g"i"g may or may nor change things for th. betier,"his 9.i efGct here having been to kill the interesr of"t le"sitloee out offour of the old members. I don't know whether they will ever return, ercn if I should be disposed t9 rry_ro reassemble them. G. talks as if he expects me to-carry on as before; but in spite of my constant association-with him, I'm not feeling even warm about group work. He has a miracleto perforq tgn days. He has the intention, it ieally appears, ofpublishing 1
part of Beelzebub's Tcles here in New york. That will-be something tangible if rt comes ofi But he is making such impossible conditions that ng.publisher,ll.l acg9p-r them; and,'ln fact, G'. """[y e{pect it. All the same, I do think we are near publishins""r*o, somethins! tYer, w. did have a good summer in Sussex, fi'ddt;;i.;;i;t;ik for a more congenid group in Paradise! 'Thcre are a thousand things t'd like to gossip to you, bur I haven,r 'the the time to write 'em. They will have to keep for summer. I,m still of a mind to rerurn to England for six rionths, though I've had no news of the New Age. Now buck up-all of you-Eut you in particular. Ileaven knows you haven't G. Ln your back as I have, and you truly have no excuse. Affectionately, A.R.O.', On March r4th, he wrore: 'Gurdjieffsailed last mid-night, leaving behind him an almost hopelessly scattered and hostile group. He has given the impressioo, o"i", ", before, that he cares for money only *d thittkr of the N.y. people in that light done. Of course it isnot io; but I despair of pointiiq ti *1, evidence in support, exceytt rhe evidence that hi has alienated"th" ti"t members as well as the poor. I can't say at the moment what will happen
r4
Orage
to the group here.-G. expects thcm to send money each month, but, f am not willing to tax for him, and secondly, the group *ill rrot give much voluntarily. It will take weeks to get th"it back"ooid*.e cven in me. But time is a healer. _ 'I'p sorry but not surprised that you cannot find a publisher for the Psychological Exercises; and the same fate, I presume] will lay in wait for on Loue and other essays. I still think tL" htt""wouldieil; and you are at liberty to risk publishing it. only remember I don't advise it,
fi:rth
rny starsin publishing 1re very unfavourable. Gurdjieffcould not have known this or he would nor have left me to publish the selection of
9lapten from Beelzebub, wlichhe has. There-are four chapters-The Warning, C-hagter y Beelzebub in America and, Epilogue-i. all about 7o,ooo words. I'm to find a_publisher-ifpossible-anJget the book out as soon as possible! What luck will be necessary! . 'f9d1l is the firstday I've breathed frcely sinte I hnded. Ouspensky is as bad as Gurdjieffabout writing and printing-worse, he has'ress to say.'
April roth: 'The paralysis lefr by G. has not been cured yct. So far, I haven't had meeting at all. Something new is needld and I can't imagine it, " F..tgup still less invent it.'
In April I let our fat for the summer and took a fumished viila at Bovingdon in Hertfor&hire. Then business took me to New york where I arrived a few days after Gurdjieffhad sailed for France. I weirt at once to the Orage's fl1g in Gramercy park. Several people were there,
agrong them orage's old friend'will Dyson the Aultrafran cartoonisr. That cvening, by degrees later, I heaid the story of Gurdjieff's visit.
Td
W* lyy-g this visit to New york that he wrote the fint chapters of the Third Series of
his writings, in which he describes what iook place at that time and why. He fuo gives some diffcult exercises for inryr 1or\ some-only for pupils who have worked for a long time and seriously on themselves. As Orage said, 'My psychologicjexercises are the merest kindergarten compared witi thise, y"i C*dii"ff says thlt the ones he gives are exercisei for beginners.' . Gurdjieffhad seen that Orage's group had got stuck-as all groups
do at times. He said that every g-op i"r f,ttd*"y to " work becomes "i" "oo"Lt gl" or other aspect-ofthe work, so that the lopsided. And hc gave the pupils some big shocks. He told them, amoni other o-o
r5
l
Orage
lhgr,.Ql
Orage
,lr:y had become 'candidates for a lunatic asylum'. Ar
the end of his first wegk wit! them_they did not know whether they stood on head or heels. He had called-a meeting just before Orage arrived and said that they must sign a declaration t["t they would have
nothing more to 4r
*irf
Mr. prag9, which of course caused a good deal of.heart-searching about what they ought to do. Some dry, i"t"r, when the excitement was ar its height, at a meeting with Gurdjieffand
tJre pupi!, Orage rurexpectedly *"ned in, read ihe declarati-on, and there and then signed it. He began to speak, and told them that Mr. Gurdjieffwas right and that he himself was resolved to have no more to do_with t|r. Orage that was; work must begin again, on new lines. -M" Orage had died to an old self. Anew,lighter yet wJighti., Orage was to emerge. (It was this incident rhar caused T. S. Matthe*, C. Bennett many years later, to state that G. had 'fired' or driven Or"g" away. Not.knowing G. as Orage did, they could not be expected io understand.) Something of the sort had happened in tgz3, with Ouspensky's
*J;.
group
London. But, while Orage had profited by the shock, Ouspenslcy had not been able to, and had gooe hir own way. lt was soon after Gurdjieffhad returned ro France after tks visit in
I
r
that Orage wenr to see his old friend J. C. powys who lived in Patchin Place, New York, and whose sistJr had been in his group. r93
Poqrs wrote to him:
'Dear Orage, Neither my friend P. nor I can get you out of our heads. We have agregd that your visit to us was th" g.e"test event of our winter in Patchin Place. 'we
came to the conclusion that whatever ambiguousness there may be in rfre narure of your mythology there musr be simethinE profoundly right in your own attitudl to*"idr it. There's to*.ui"n
"fixed-up",
rl
so unctuous and conceited about these Indian Swamistd esoteric teachers, just as there is about christian scientists, something
that is unilluminating and does not vibrate to the shocks of real life, something that seems to face life through wads of cofton-\,sool. We go ol puzzling ourselves as to exactly what it is that malces your philosophy so different from this; what ii is that makes yorrr philosophy,o frcsh and natural and faltering and troubled as all genuirie attitrides to to be, tenuous and almost brittle and wilh peculiar sorr of Jifc gyeht " humility in-it-no! nor exacdy brittle; but shaky ani troubled and
insecure-like Nietzsche and [lnamuno and r6
pascal and Heraclitus. The
impression you left_was yhat Spgng-ler calls Magian-like something Early Christian or like those early heretics. We got so strongly the fceling that lrowever unsatisfactory end even to be condemnel your gods might !9, yoot anitude towards rhem was curiously right *i fol of incidental illumination like that ofJesus toJehovah. whatever cult of consciousness yours may be, its effect on your hearers is startling to people as clairvoyant in certain directions as my friend p. and I are. iou ar-e undoubtefly nght in making so much of humiliry. That organon of research, that plummet into salt seas, that wise seipent-b.lllr tl"t Taoistic water seeking irs level, has not only been neglected by Greeks and Romans but completely neglected, or indeed noi known or heard of by the stupid thick-skinned bastard-idealish of our time. We sot
the impression of actually and really-don't be angry now!-having entertained a real Saint that day. It was a very queei Geling. As if you had been a person in armour but who was Gcredy bleeding from wounds invisible. You didn't convert us one inch or one-hundredth part of an inch to your particular gods or ritual or doctrines or masterBut you compelled us qrd-still compel us ro accepr yourself in your present mood
as
possessed
ofsome extraordinarypsychic secret (one great
portion of which is this ffanscendental humility or whatever it may be). 'I think we both snatched at some drop of this virtue o, o,
"rri"It is emanation and have used it ever since as a test of spiritud values. extraordinary. You alone of all men of genius I have ever met seem totally to have conquered pride. And when one thinks how silly such pride has made people; and how it has spoilt their art-like Victor Hugo, like D'Anmrnzio, like Tolstoy,
it
seems
to me a triumph of
true Machiavellianism of the spirit to have burrowed below this-great block of Pordand cement into wonderful interstices of moon-igate and moonstone below. 'But I do think the whole thing is in the Daimonic saindiness which you have somehow, by some extraordinary trick, appropriated to yourself. Those 'secrets" you speak of that you wouldie willing to
follow the pevil Himself in order to learn-we must "oof.rrj*y friend P l-ro regald as of slight compared wirh this "ld wtrich 'lhe humiliry ofimporrance magical effect the hunr" afteithem has produced in you and which is, in itself, so we allow ourselves to feel, a-kind of Absolute and something infinitely superior to any force that srarred you on such a path or to any tangible "secre*" that such a path can lead to. It's no good your telling me thatJesus thoughtJehorr"-h
"good"
as He was Himself.
*",
", We know whatJehovah was better than I7
Otage
Orage
But ofcourse if forJehovah you put Lif", it rs true that any ,'un elcef tio.nal genius like yourself comd much closer to LiG by keeping
Jesus! .of
his skin naked so to say in humility) than by Mining it rJ.rni -(naked with those fannel swaddling bands Augusior, to Suetonius,
used;
or even by wearing the proud-armour"r"ordirrg of LuJfer. This is a
woman's.letter, my good lord, as-well
as a
man's, so this particular tone
(of handing out bouquets); almost "marcrnal"; which'would be intolerably impertinent from a lecturer to so formidabre a literarv and
critic-is narural and harmless (and not impertintt at dl or cool orcheeky)-ir two of us witngour wits. Indecd liues it will alwap take the double wit, of a m"n a wornan combiied, to deal "nd with so subde a Demonic saint as yoursclf! what wc secretly f.el ourselves is that you will eventually reach a point when yoo h"oe attained the extreme of humility as no longlr to be in tire reast do'ger of -such Luciferan pride-and at that point we hold the view . . . welLdt that go . . . We know nothing really about it. But somerimes out of the Tg"thr ofclumsy onlookers-yo-u know!-even a sage can get some_ thing. . . . At any rate you certainly made us both thinf a lot,td as for l$q.g- "fantasric" about it all-we arc completely with you therc. philosophical
In the "6ntastic" lies the
essence
of things.
f T fi9 future you not only defy but separate yourself from all outward authority 'We.ll-I
mus.r stop.
but that of the Daimoo io'yo* own being it will only be, I f.rry, when this planetary humiliw of yours that has prorred so illuminairng has gone-the rufl bngth o'ritt serpent's tail! And tfiis may not be far ofl-I-if. is more -th* "rry authority. They all stepp-ng-stones and jumping-off places. -are'Wcll-good luck with 6rage, yoo only our -hero-wonhip but our gomost anxious love on "Ltaiirly-*ooiot your behalf but rfr at must be a corlmon e4perience to you in your strangepassage through thc world. Good luck to you, John Cowper powys.' This letter gives an authentic picture of the inner world of orase. _ the results of the miracle that trairsformed the ol.l O."ge i"t;
,il;:;
could not be expressed better. orage's chief fcature ciuld have been 'he never can say "I don't know"'; in his mental alrogance hehad trad give 9o ln 1nswff ro every question. Gurdjiefftold him that he was a
'super idiot', in the :regative iense; he *"r io* being transformed into a 'super ifigC rl the positive sense, and this visit -of C*aii"ff', h"a completed the dange. krstead of the old attitude 'I may r,oti" always
r8
right, but ['m nevcr wrong', Oragc now would often qualify a statement with '[ may be wrong, I often am'. Yet people still write about Orage breaking with Gurdjieff about his disillusionment with him; perhaps they seek relief from their own inncr suffering and cmptiness by slandering someone or something higher than themselves.
During my brief visit to New York, Orage told me that he had enough money in the bank in a special fund subscribed by the pupils to pay for the publication of Beelzebub. fnopf, the publisher, hearing of this had approached Gurdjiefl and rather unctuously announced that as the publisher of Ouspensky's books and others of similar character he would be glad to publish Beelzebub's Tales. Gwdjieff listened and said, 'Yes, perhaps. But certain things are necessary.' 'And what are your conditions, Mr. Gurdjieff? I'm sure we can mect your requirements. What would you wish us to do?' 'Not conditions. One condition. One small thing.' 'And that
is?'
'First clean house, your house, then perhaps can have my book!' However, Gurdjieffleft without giving the book to a publisher; thc time for publication was not yet come. Orage then made arrangements for a hundred copies of the boolc to be Roneoed from his copy of the typescript (th. ooly one, apart from Gurdjieff's own) which were to be sold for ten dollars a copy, only to people in groups and thc money given to Gurdjieff Fifry copies were soon sold, but it took nearly ten years to dispose of the rest, the last being sold in r94o for one hundred dollars. I was very glad to have my copy and as soon as I returned to England I started a group for readings. During my stay in New York I went to group meetings and was present at the last one, in Muriel Draper's apartment. Orage said: 'By a strange coincidence this is the last meeting of the session, and the last occasion in nearly seven years on which we shall meet in this almost sacred room. It will be diffcult to reproduce the atmospherc that has been created herc. When I tlink of New York I shall think of this room. 'As you know, Gurdjieffhas said that he might refirn. If he does, I trust that another opporttmity of first-hand contact with the author of Beelzebub's Tales will not be neglected; the behaviour of the group this time has been so passive as to be almost useless in increasing understanding of the book.' One of the group then said that he had never been satisfied with the
r9
Orage
Orage
some of Gurdjieff,s staremenrs. Orage,s lli&*g ,".thority,.behind reply was that if we listened from essence, from our understandirre."w"
would know when Gurdjieff was making exaggerated shock us, and when he was said that he had had his
tainment Gurdjieff
-ot.-y', woith mmy
h_ad
,;";;;;';,
spcakingtre"".roiii.r*r-ilrh*;prr times over in th"
"irtirprovided. Another, that he had continually
expected some new thing to happen during the meetings, clear explanati ons wo uld- be gin-.ir, only to"b. dir"pp oiri-# rrirrrT orage said that Gurdjieffrarely gavedirect answers, except
h;pi""A, ."i.
to certain people at certain times. Another pupil said that a Gw thiriss Gurdiieff had said to him and the way he h"i s"id them, had gi"."ii* ;i.;
understanding about himseli and about rhe work, thi, i"a "ridAnother, been worth ten rimes what he_had put them through. somc_
"rr*
what to our amusement, said that Gurdjiefft b"h"rrtrr.**ilil;;_ hensible, and that, for him, Gurdjieff"himself was a grear stumblins block to the understanding ofhis ryrt.-. Another, ";";;:;i;;;i? the questions put to Gurdjieffhad not been sensible *j;;;rilrr*.ri.ir had not been able to formulate any question that had brought a reasonable answer.
OySe said that all questions, if they were essence questions, were importang since they would show Gurdji"tr *t;" ;h" person had got stuck. Like the birds in Mantiq Ut_Tiir, .".h *oJd speak according to his _ry^p:. A.:..ryin-psychologi.rl.ffort *";;;;; to get anything out of Gurdjieff. If, when h-e had ffeated oo.rrioo, seemingly brutally or had seemed to fail in his promir. ,o'"or*., questions, the group had got up and left, Gurdjieh. would h",r. ,.* that there was a real intensity of wishing to know. As it was, pupils sat in.front of him passively. Someone saiJthat ir was exrrem.ii dffi.;it with one's small will to make an impact on Gurdiieff's terrihc beine. orage said that for himself one result of the visit-was that his ;J.istanding had been deepened. He added, ,And you *iU ."."iu"Uv realize that this has also happened ro most of you: . Orage continued, 'I now invite questions, perhaps those vou misht sensible. and
h.'*o,rlJt;; ;:;,
have asked Gurdjieff. I may not give the "rrr*i* but I shall do mybest to *r*"t.Irhall also be glad to t.", ot rdeas and impressions receiv-ed this interval. Gurdjieffmakes 4ot-g statements for effect, intended for shock and not necessarity always
for*;ft;;; ta
for their factual content. He startled you by saying A", y.i *.r;.ll;; way to becoming candidates for a l.ur"tic th.o 1"t", h;.1; the "ryl"o*; that on the whole the group was ail right and that he was not ar a[ 20
with ir. He liquidated the group, but he also wished it to I leave in May, and it wai said that Dr. Sg'oerneval giShglome-over if Gurdjieffor I were nor able to rerum. iurdjiefft displeased
continue until
"liquidation" is only of a phase. 'our discussions of the book and our intellectual exercises have not been wasted; they make the work harder for us only because we have been "educated" in the theory of the system beyond our station in
nature. 'We must leam to "do" practically. you have had the movements and dances, and many ofyou have been able to spend at least one summer at the Prieur6. Gurdjieffhimself has said that it -"y be necess,ary fo1 some to studythe_theory for years, and that it is ali right if in the end youwill proue the theories to yourself Hassein was as "#ll-less" as any 9f fou; he w_as, so to speak,'"reading the book and trying to grasp it". For you, this is a proiess of tryingio wrderstand. wilen"w" "co.me of age" tlr9re will be an impulse io .do,'; then, regulated by an understandingof thetheory,we shill be able to ,,do',. Oui time on the book has not been in vain-though we might have spent more time on it. You will remember thatGurdjieffgave you the fabre of the fy and the elephant, and for a1 explanatiln hJ said, "ask Orage". The idea was +T malry people set themselves difficult tasks and ti'en, in despair of
doing them, do nothing at all. Before starting to make * .l"ph*t effort wc must learn to make that of a fly. Sonie of you ,."ro to'thioL that be.cause you_have-worked on yourselves yoo ooght to be able to solve all the problems rhar come up in your rel"tiottr #th other people. Cyldji9tryfs, "If you can learn to-b."ioo. manifestation of oo. i.rioo, yht:h. irritates you, you will have learnt to make the efforr oda fy,'. {nd.$i1is a great deal. As an example of a relatively elephantine task, says, "Six years ago I came ro America *itn Arty pupils, ,Gurdjietr knowing only four people here: Jessmin Howafth, Rosemary iilLrd (Rosemary Sqlo.*.yal. I had only a Lundred \9*),-y9o, Orage, dollarswhen t landed. How&d t"nd kno'ithat youwourd not bestranded
and starving here? This dme I come and everyone wants to see me. I am see me. But confess, Orage, that your heart sinkswhen you hearthat I am coming!" on the ,1116"" curilieff seen$ to care very much, more than most, but irxide he is infifferent to how these chances of his will tum out. These exercises tn will arc re$iv.e-ff clephantine. Bur you must not undertake exercises in will, real will, that involve har"rds to yoursel{ when you cannot yet exercise
touch"d.that so many vrant to
the will of a fy. 'In regard to the question ofdoing, it 2T
is
not that this group is especially
Orage
Oage
will-less, but that it is conscious ofthis will-lessness. The more conscious it is of this state the more promising it is. The Behavio*irt 1.1i".,r", as we do, that organisms only te".t,itrd that Nature has not endowed human beings with will. The psychological difference between the yrfentlnding ofthe Behaviourists and thit ofus *ort rt g rh"r. ia.", is that, for us, will becomes an emotional6a. only ftori a t"air"iio", a theoretical knowledge-of will-lessness is it possible ro acquire -not*ill. It is acquired by a succession of efforts '9"l phase gone tt"r"gh consciously, to make ,,men" i" q"or"ri;i *"rL," become men.' orage then told the 6ble of the potter's apprentice, who, because he
He is not repudiating or belitding the Method. A sentence in thc Study House at the Institute says, "Remember younelves ev"rywhere ani always". The chapter on Belcultassi is about it; the booi concludcs on this theme.' Another asked, 'Why &d Gurdjieffsay thar he doesn't know what the book is about and that he is astonished at the ideas people get from
i'
*i.*.rar.r,it'i,
.
F:* 9r rwo thought-he knew ii "tt-"ni,priiiii" p"". ''What ".thing do you think it m."ni?'he asked. 'Don't do,-un1il you understand,' said a pupil. ,.years,, 'Yes. Gurdjigff- says that it takes .,year^s,, to 'nderstand, meaning period necessary for reaching a correc crystallization, a I crystallized conclusion. All around him -he t"* p.ople t yin! t a", when they did not undentand.' one ofus said, 'such as writing about the ideas and explainine them
to others before they understand.-orage said, 'yes. rtr. ti-" *ifr"oL who did not kngw Gy-djietror met him occasionally will
yha-!*pl9
talkqs about him, "explaining" hlm, so presenting a falsl an
."*_
4 pun_rl s4{''I should have thought that Gurdjieffwould have become so detached that he could work like a machinJ.' 'oh no, the status of being is constant selGinitiated effort. will is agquired in what just.happens;
it
Iti
. 'To shock you, of course. To make you ponder. The book has gone through three stages. You know the original tide of the cpilogue: "Ecstasy,of Reveladon". Afrer a long period of work on-hiiself Gurdjieff's "I" became fully developed; is he said: "When I say .I, it is as if I hear something ratde inside." In such a satc he had a revelation of the book from beginning to end. hr rwo or three houn he dictated a sort of synopsis and sent it to me. I said that it was utterly unintelligible and could not be shown to anyone. [r was, in faa, insucir cryptic shorthand that he, lv1r. Gurdjiefi found it hard to formulate for.Gurdjieffyhat- "I'l had ecstatically understood. He wrore it again" and now, in the third writing, he is putting it into a form in wirich onyofle,."even donkey'' as he says, can understand it-not literally, nor so that it is-subjec to proof or disproof. From one aspect it can be compared to Rlake's prophetic works, though it is much-more comprehensive and plausible; and the kcp for understanding it arc in the 6ook. ''We are still far from that order of being thatian do without meetings and directors or leaders. very few of us have a sense of the three responsibilities even after six years. some have a sense of one. The first sense of indivi.llal responsibiliry is that unless I spend my day advanageously from the point of view of consciousneis and devclopment, I am lapsing.or disloyal. The second is responsibiliry towards orir ncighbour-the "members of our tribe" striving to *ork on themsclves ind overcome their faults and wedsresscs-thi striving for consciousness. When you can say that no wave of circumstance is so hieh that vou are submerged and lose sight of the Method, you have- attained a measure of consciousness. 'We must learn, through the Method, to
selGremembering and self-observation?' orage said, 'He leaves that for the pupil-teachers. He is at work on a text-booh for the school, which is m,tch-more important for the school than his discussion ofthe work. He says ' art
strive to make use of everythi','g that comes out *"y; and yet I still he.y pgo.ple wh9 a5e going through a dificult phase compl"io th"t ,.to talk of the Method ar such a rime is trifling". 'The third responsibility necessary for a real group, what Gurdiieff calls the begirurings of a mesoteric group, has tJ do-with the worl in general. h this respect, I think, we are weakest. '1lhe personality ofJesus was not very different from ours. He was
22
23
1e19r
is always
effort-effort
against
inclination, inertia, routine.' someone asked, 'why-&d-Gurdjieffrefuse to answer questions about
"orr.r-prioorty,
oi"l"i"
I
/
Orage
Orage
not an occultisr, not a c-alifornian. He spoke of a livingJerusalem, thc of cod, gtg,r.p of people yotkina in lving ideai.-fheosophic"l .City 3 literature spealss of the masters, the red teachers, as "the elder brithers
of the race"-an ideal of a being who could not act but as an elder If you dissociate patriaich and matriarch from their social associations and consider the quality of the words, you will have a brother.
conception of that which distinguishessomein"groop
"elders". This
is noticeable among children,-though, too often, those "r with the quality
eventually become corrupted. 'when
it
is really presenr
statc of "being".
it
indiiates a
'When a pupil has reached the sage of being able to accept these thlee kinds of responsibility and has aJquired th"it"t., of which accompany them, he can be either a circumference "onr.iousrr.r, or the centre of a circle. some members of a circle have a communion which is not perceptible nor is it occult-it arises from their common understanding, their abfiry to_put themselves in the other's placa It e.r.n b..omr, ,ninecess-ary for them ro meet often. Thinlc ovir this and you will realize how far we have to go before we reach rhis state. 'I may be back in January for a few monrhs. But the conditions of
attendance at the group and present.'
will be completely different from thc
Shops were empty
-of
customers, streets unswept, shabbines every-
soup queues, bread lines. Twenty million p-eople without money to buy foodlined up each day ro receivea dole toieeptheirfamfiesfroi
starving. It was the country.
as
if a terrible war or 6mine or plague had
trr. kmatic planet men periodically .b..gt" 9" t9 destroy each other, oi
p.rr."rrt
passed over
go mad. In this state they eich other, or deprive eacir
other of the right, in tom. .oootries, eyen to drink wh"t tlriy like. In various wap thel make life intolerable for themselves, usually from sheer stupidiry-the results of the consequences of the orga' Kund"buffer. . The present state vras a blinding example ofhow life is organized by the-power-possessing beings on this planet. In America tw.ory
"loln. million peogle were going h*gry while food was being destroyed. Wheat was being used as fuel, fruit dumped into the sea bly thousands 24
by a trick, foreclosed. Only the Communists were jubilant. The downfall of the capitalist system as foretold by their prophet Marx was at hand. Yet the situation Russia was still worse. In Communist Russia Stalin deliberately starved the peasants; much has been written about this, but no one has written an epic of Europe and America starving in the midst of
in
plenty through sheer stupidity of the rulers. Communism and Capita-
lism-two
sides
of the
same coin.
past
So much for my inner world ofthose three weeks in New york. As regards my outer world, the world of business, it was a 6ilure. I was astonished at the chang-e since my departure less than four years before.
wlere;
of tons a week. Farmers were being paid not to produce wheat and pigs, and dl because there were not enough dollar bills, printed pieces of paper, being distributed with which to buy them. The big banks were bursting *ith money, while the small banlcs failed right and left. The monetary system first broke down in America; from America it spread to Canada, then to Europe, to Australasia and to every country where the gold standard operated. It was an extraordinary example of how the minds of power-possessing beings become fixed along a certain line, and rather than depart from this line they will let millions suffer. Only the big banks and big business did not su{Gr. For mysel{, I lost a valuable property in Corurecticut to the mortgage company, who,
\Vhen I returned to England, to Bovingdon, in May, I found my family uneasy. They were not happy in the house. A friend who lived near said, 'This house is haunted; haunted by a peevish, ill-natured, depressing ghost.' I said, 'You may be right.' There was something quecr about it, though it was a new house. The proportions were wrong for one thing; and it seemed to have been just set down on the earth by a contracior-not built with loving care. Our friend, who was pardy'Welsh, was sensitive to atmosphere. She happened once to come to our fat in London about half an hour after an emotional turmoil in the true Russian mariner, raised by our young Russian friend who lived with us. We had as usual made it up, and all was well; but our Celtic friend said at once, ''Whatever's been going on here?' ''What do you mean?' I asked. 'Nothing's been going on. Olga's been staging one of her Tchekhovian scenes again. It's nothing. 'We all love each other.' 'I knew something had happened,' she said. She and her husband, some years before, had taken a derelict farm with a seventeenth-century house and transformed it into a small estate. They began by planting rowan trees: 'to keep the ghost away.' fo case, their house had such an aii of peace, beauty and well-being that we always felt better for being there. Their type ofEnglish arisrocracy,
*y
25
Orcge and.the yeomen from which my people came, are the salt ofthe English
earth.
whether it was my-mother-in-law who had been visiting from America, or a fiend who was stayng with us, whose emanations often produced a depressive atmospheie, or a combination of influences, our gencral stare was ro opptorive I felt that we must get away, and arranged to drive to St.Jean de Luz where Bertrand id Dora Russell were staying. I wrote to Orage and told him ofour plans. He replied: 'Oh dear! Oh dear! ['d have gladly sharcd the expdse of your house in-Bovingdon for a,month. you say you are leaiing on Jul-y sth. Well, I wonder apprehensively what you are going to"ao. 'Where are you going and what you propose foi us? WJ shJl arive a.s arranged and hope in you and God to meer us with some plan. At the worst, I suppose we can stay in London a few days, but ivorst it would be. No. I can'r think that you-who have got yourself and us out of so many diffculries, won'r get us all out of this.t I cancelled olr1 trip to France, met Orage and his f.-ily at the docks in London, and broughtthem to stay with us. With the ioming of the Orages we forgot the whimpering ghost. took Orage to Luton, where most of my business was done. I -hadI-once to see two or three manufacturers andtook Oragewith me. Afterwards I asked him, 'How would y9y like to have t6 earn your living lilce this?' 'It would be complete hell,'he said. 4, fi. end-ofJuly theOrages started on a motor tour in England. I, lTfi -*y wife and small son drove to France, visiting Gurdleff and friends in Paris, then to Chartres, Bordeaux and so to 5t.;ean-de Luz. P*i"g our stay there, Dora Russell and a friend suggJsted dri"ios into Spain; so we set off in my car, the three of us, nof knowing one word of Sp,nish; but signs and money will always supply basic ieeds. After we had crossed the Pyrenees and left the mountains and forests behind, the rolling open country recalled scenes from my beloved Don Quixote. We stayed a night on the way, and then on to pamplona. About-thiry kilometrcs from there a vrornan hailed us, making signs us
{1}r*"}',
for a lift. Her face and head were bound up in a silk scarf She *.tlt"tid, 'Pamplona, Pamplona,' pointing in that direction and to the car and herself, and going through thc motions of having a tooth our; so I rnotioned her to get in. She kept her 6ce covered all thc way, bur as soon as I" got into Pamplona shejumped out and disappeared. Pamplona was still very much in the eighteenth century-. There wcre very few cars about, for at that time only thrcc main motoring roads z6
Otage existed in the whole of Spain. On the ramparrs was a rope,walk where ft was a charming town with its own life and character. On the third day, early in the cvening, we were siuing at a caft in the enormous Plaza, listening to the band and watching the dancing. More and more people came to the already crowded caGs. Probably a fiesta, we thought. As it grew dark and the lights came on, we became aware ofa growing tension. Arguments and rows seemed to be starting; then, at a calE in the 6r comer of the square, a rurn got up from the tible and hit another with a botde. Arms waved, bo&es rose and fell. A single policeman, in a colourful and decorative uniform, went about trylng to calm excited groups. lfhe terxion increased, as though they wcre waiting for a signal. The iron shutters of the cafils began to be drawn down, and a man came to us and said in English, 'Excuse. please go home. Trouble will come.' I looked up as he disappeared and noticid that the four entrances to the great square were blocked by cavalry. a man and boy walked backwards and forwards making rope.
'Perhaps we had better be going,'
I
said, so we strolled over
to the
band-stand, where soldiers had quiedy taken the place of the band. The Plaza was choked with cxcited people, and suddenly, as we wdked in
the direction of our hotel, the toUi"tt on the b"ndstand began firing. As ifpo-ssesse{, every91c ran screaming and shouting, my companions too, and I urderstood the meaning ofpanic fear, and myself felt a wild urge to join the crowdand run. Then I said, 'No. I must try not to give
$'ay to this mass psyc;hosis.' And I wdlced slowly across rhe t"prdly emptying square. [n a minute everyone except the soldiers had disappeared-people were crouching beside the
caGs and shops, and
all was
quiet.
Later, my companions said, 'You
.r
/ere pretty cool.'
'No,' I
said,
'redly I was hot with terror. That crowd was like a herd of mad cattle, I was trying tg keep myself from being carried away by the panic.' It waf pertly pride too, trying not to do as dl the others were doing; and real pride can sometimes be a help in keeping oneself. 'What was so terrifying was not so much the shooting but thc blind force of thc crowd in panic. Next monring it was bright and sunny, cveryone going about their
business as ifnothing had happened; yet this was the first rumblings of the storrn of war, civil and world war-the beginning of the effeit of Solioonensius, whose tensions were then affecting chieny Spain and
Gennany. I will
spealc
about Solioonensius latcr.
Wc remembered the woruur with 'toothache', who was probably 27
a
Orage
Orcge
from the village we came through. Bertrand Russell, in one of ldl sweeping statements in which there is sometimes some tmrh, said that the more beautiful the place the worse the character of the people. For example, the people of nradford in yorkshire, one of the ugliest' most brash, modern-otigf i" England without a single building of real beaury, have a basic kindly, ess.ntial qualiry almost-untouchei by their surroundings. And in thi beautifirl ciries of Ma&id, paris and Hanoverpeople have killed and mutilated each other as no herd ofwild
fifty came, people well-known in literature, art and music and economics, friends and acquaintanccs of Orage, to whom he spoke about his idea of starting another paper. There was that about Oragc which kept the atmosphere of the party on a relatively high level, so that people actually listened to what others had to say. From this time things began to move for him. A litde later I arranged a lunch party at Antoine's in Charlotte Street, Soho, with Professor Denis Saurat,Janlco Lavrin, professor of Slavonic languages, and Hugh McDiarmid, the Scottish poet. The idea was to meet and discuss with Orage the possi-
delegate
,
bcasts ever do.
I returned to London, stayrng at the prieur6 on the way, and leaving mli 6mily with frie.ndl in Brittany. There was a lettei from Orage tclling me that he had taken a house in Bramber, Sussex, for the summer and asking me slay with them. During my few days there Orage and 1o I walked over the Downs,'exchanging sobie"ti"e views. He said ihat he felt that his work with groups in Ainerica had come to an end, and phase was beginning; that to every pupil the time comes when -another he must leave his teacher and go into lif" andworL out, digest, what he has acquired. Thsr he can return to his teacher, ifneclrsarv. oo another level. It was not thar he had left Gurdjieffor the Teaching, but because of both he had reached a certain stagi and ir was necess Jry for him to stand on his own feet. In ordinary life no one stands on his twn feet, but on those of another,. Part of Gurdjieff's reaching layjust in this: to show a man, indirectly, how to stand on his own t!.t.'orage was still uncertain whether to live in the country and write, or to live in London and start a pape_r on the lines of the old New Age, now owned by Arthur Brenton, -*ho *tot. most of the eight or so pagesffied go buy the paper, but Brenton *"r rJt selling. .Orage-h1d publishcr had offered Orage an advance of what today would ie { {r,5oo for a book ofintimare memoirs; he had turned dovm the offer,
boo! wguld have been a best-seller. ,I am not a gosip writer,' he said, 'and I don't intend to make money by e*porin'g tG weaknesses and futfities of my friends and acquaint*t., th, "*ooi" intellectuals.' Benrard Shaw once said, 'Orage is incorruptible.' In the w"inter Orage and his, family moved to a fumiihed house in
Sq"g\
9he
old Hampste-ad 19t {ar from us. We mer constantly. He began to pick up the threads of his life of seven years ago. 'But I fnd it dihcolt to see people,'le-said.'t do_nt see enough p.opl..' So I arranged a parry for
wrth-the lig lelf of mf old friends Frlncis BrugiereLd li,oraiirrd" Fuller in their flat in the Adelphi. The parry was zB
iro"".rr. A hundred
and
biliry of starting a joumal to formulate the causes of the breakdown of the financial system and to oudine a possible cure. After the lunch as Orage and I were walking down Charing Cross Road he said, '['ve been liven a thousand pounds by American friends to bring out a rnagazine.I'll start a monthly, The English Monthly.' I got out a prospectus, but a week later Orage had decided to make it a weekly. 'The need is urgent,' he said, 'and a month's lapse too long.' 'All right,' I said, 'but how about calling it The New English WeekIyT' He agreed and I produced another prospectus. Orage had taken an ofrcc in the same building off Chancery Lane and on the same foor, with the same printers that he had left seven ycars before. And his ofrce was the room next to his old one. 'fhis scerns to be a case of recurrence,' I said. 'Yes,' he agreed, 'but with modifications. My off,ce is twice the size of the other and the magazine has a new name.' I added, 'And you are twice the man, and the seven year$ is an octave.'
The journal saw the light of day on April 2rst rg32. From the fust was a success, not in circulation but in that it accomplished the task Orage had set himself: to expound the ideas of Major C. H. Douglas, who had discovered the cause of the financial breakdown and had formulated it in language so turgid that few could understand it. Everyone agreed that only Orage could make the muddy waters clear, I saw Oragc every day, either at his office or at our homes in Hampstcad. A few weeks later, at lunch, I asked, 'What's the mattcr? Some-
it
thing's on your rnind.' 'As a matter of fact, there is,' he said. 'The paper's going all right, isn't it?'
'Oh yes, t get people in every day, every kind of person-and letters by th" hunilred. The paper is the focal point for what is in everyone's mind.'
'Well then?' 29
Orage
Otage
'It'sthese bloody notes of the week. I'm trapped. Every week I have
to rnake ffemendous efforts to get down to-ti"-. rhey have to be yfi-fr" p.t*r:t _b1'_ trfonday mid-&y and it's often Sunjay night before I can begin. Week after week, month after month, t rh"[ fi".r. to sweat blood over rhem. No respite. Talking, fo, me, is easy ioi ro write needs constant effort.' 'Yetthenotes read as if theywere putdownwithout anyeffortat all,, I said. 'Ev*yone looks forward to tli"*. T. s. Eliot and Herbert Read, to say nothing- of the rest, tell me that they read your notes first of anything on Thursday morning.' 'I have no alternative but to f".p oo but they'I never become easier to do.' 9* d"y I said to him, 'you know, I think the ideas of sociar credit and monctary reform are not your real interest.' 'No,' he said, 'they are a psiudo-interest.' 'Not quite that. A secondary inreresr. your real interest is in Gurdjieff's ideas. Ir mry be that we toth have to work our ,orrr"thiog io ih" pattell of our life that seems no longer to serye a usefirl p*;or" fb, ourselves-the resulrs of former actioirs perhaps; I in the h'at 6usines, y_ou in journalism. You at least retuirrg airsefrrl purpose: you are "t.particulir *d ,."'.rrJry the only man.who could do this i;f ;;rhi, time. You are-b.ac|, apparendy, wli.te you were r"rr* y""rr-"go in the same ofice, with the same printer, g-oirrg ro the same a.i.C. ani asking for the same "large black ioffee *d Jirtt of prunes". t too, " hat brisiness again, "lro-"fter y-ears in the book fiade, am in the in the same 1ev9n kind of ofrce, calli''g on the same people. But with "both of * tho. are snrall changes. Ifthis is t"",rrr"ti.",i"t us hope that it's o" qpira " and not a rourd.' 'There is a difference,'he said. 'Thanks to Gurdjieffand his teaching something in us has changed. we are no longer gJing round in a circle but ar9 relatively consci_o11 of what is hapieniig. Ferh"ps *fr* *"
come into life again s76 5hrll havc different-oig"niJttr; othe'rs may have ourjobl. I! *"y be that con&tiois will be, ifrrot."!i.r, "t least morc favourablc for inner development.' I said, 'I wonder what it means: "yo; shafl not come forth until go take over
Orage was something of a mystery to Fleet Street, where hardly anyone believes what they write. A journalist on one of the big doilies came to the o{fice. He said, 'Mr. Orage, ['ve been reading your articles on so and so in The New Englkh Weekly. They are very interesting of course, but I would like to lcnow what you really think, what your own
honest opinion is.'
'But you've read what I really think.'
'Do you mean to say you always write what you really feel
and
think?'
'Of
course.'
'Then you must be one of the very few editors who do.' 'Unfortunately, yes. Hence the small circulation of my paper.' The frien&hip between myself and Orage had become very close. We went to meetings together, to music halls and cinemas. This, and the friendship bet'ween our wives and children, made for me what was perhaps the happiest time of my inner life. All sorts ofmen and women seemed to be &awn to us, especially to Orage. As our irurer life deepened so our outer life widened. Both Orage and myself,, too, were in the process of digesting what Gurdjieff had taught us. We spoke often together of Gurdjieffand his teachings and many things became clear to us that had been obscure. Never once did Orage complain of Gurdjiefft ruthlessness, though often he spoke of the dificulties that he had made for him and confessed himself often bafred by his behaviour. 'But' he said one d"y ir the A.B.C., 'we can never understand the being of a rrun who is on a higher level than our own. Gurdjieffis a kind of walking god-a planetary or even solar god. He said once, "[ am the same as other men, but I know and understand more". Another time he said, "I am small compared with those that sef,rt me". Therc are always beings higher than anyone wc can know. I suppose I have met everyone of importance in England at least, and many in America, and I havc never met anyone with even a small
portion of Guriljieff's being and understanding.' He added, 'You know, you're the only person I
vou
can talk to about the ideas in London. In any case I no longer discuss them with anyone who has not worked with Gurdjieffl'
into,-orlush r1 into, circumstances not personally favourable for us. Gurdjiefl speakinq of recurrence, said th-at we must find .*.*pl* io our own lives, in this life. well, our present conditions are exaiples.'
me into a new and larger life. I also took up the threa& of the life I had
have paid the uftermost farthing". It may have to d" *ith ounelves of "the undesirable eletents mixed in us", which
;;;J;, J;;;;
3o
Orage's coming to London and my contact with the paper brought
lived in London beforc 1923, md although often I could not inwardly 3r
ange agree
Oage
with mv old qA&
the intellectuals my conract wirh them was closer than b:t*."T9rg I bd"-;lve more in every way. Besides my. family anf *f".g""i*ances in the hat trade and 1ela1oru, g"up sffr-rns.curdii#t ideas, I mff men and;;;;{i.* .t5.1d the nunerous social levels of English tiG. kr talking with men who werq studying the new economics I began ro nodce thar one topic constantly with NJ C.r**r. f, _lror"iw"r shocked me d".ply; ii was like *r"rlir_,JEi* ,f"i, " air, 1932, the idea of war was in the and it was from this time that I
"fril;;;;
began to feel the beginningof Solioonensius BeelzJbub, fr hl,
"
i" Errop. g*.rii. of t /* *y, ,o rr"rr.irr, .The causes rhat sotioo"."rio,
produce the action of this cosmi"
t"*
flow from and depo.rd opo" Harmonious-Mon"m.nti also 3lwavs
ar.rent for
each pranet
and "tl *r"rit.di.ffi;ffi;11.r*.-
for your pt*.t f"rtf, *fr"i L ir'rh" pirirA" i*rl";fu" srur of.its- system, whiih tension i, caoseJ i'ir, ,o* UyA. irrnir"*. upon their srur of a neighbouring rol"r ryrt .d;;;;;;,:" * 'In this laaer systemfsuch a g;""tt;;;*"f-causes ""ll.d -often called the "cenrro.oFgraviry_of_caus.r,i
among the number of its conceiuations is a great comer"rir;;l;;r., Sorni, which, according to cerrain known combination ir a. Harmonious-Movement, at times, on its "o*-oiorii.falling, approaches very near to its sun Baleaooto, which is compelred r" *"[.
"-5*;;;;tJ"" t"
*?'dg".i,T,"r"*jx**m:iile: the,onbrs iir.lfnot ro it provokes h *ry tt'" "hie.l;""A,r t.*i; stog' its own "ffi" ffi.:;ilriili among which '.*" ,*;:i'"rffi
'ffi
system ors; and when
t*rC-s
"r "u;i" stri"i"ge ;rip..did.F;;;;;"
system, is th. pl*.t E"rtrr. flr. t*rio" io planets acts on the common pr.r"o."', of alr beings arising and breeding on them . . . en-gendering a desire and
in the
sense
of Objective.Reason.,
He goes on ro say thaton the planet Earth, in place of this desire and tduTg there arise in .r, b.."or"'of dom', which maniGsts itself in rh"
;; .b";r#t;;il;" fbr;d; 6;;.hd;; ,h.;;;d;;;, of ordinary existence-hence in "."d ,rr" first worrd war and the "ri ri-" revolutions in Russia and China which follow.i. N.*,ir;;; ;; of another ggriod of greatension, especially in I.,t: i* |:g*iig and and which was toipread.,r.rywh^.r" :i;f-:iT-I pf":r. lpain, Ir was one of those periods when thl ,lo.rd-voic.j "i ,f,i, 111r_o**: cnmourers- obtain power. An explosion occurs and men begin ; 32
destroy each other together with everything good that has been built up by the patient work of centuries, and allwirh the 'best intenrions, nlme of their gods-progi.rr, UU.rry and freedom. ' "11ioth" Beelzebub dso says that wars and revolutions occur at certain times
in certain parts ofour planet because nature needs certain intense vibrations from these parts. Because men have forgotten how, and have to use, thesc periods oftension for the purpor" 6fself-perfection, the.force, not being used creatively, must be used-destructively. As with c3as9d
natioru so with individuals.
l,itde by-little the tension increased; it was particularly noticeable in focalpoints-London, Paris, Berlin, Rohe. Each day we opencd our nev/spapers in trepidadon to see what Hider and Mussolini-were sayng or what they threatened to do. Life went on-it could do no other-but it bggan to be rather like living on the slopes of Vesuvius -
the big
-weak
when the rumbles of an eruption are heard, with the hope that it may not take place. Gradually the attenrion of everyone in iurope was drawn towards those two tremendous puppets, Hider and Mussolini, who, for some reason or other, had been impelled by events into the centre of the world-stage. For a short period the tension became focused on the civil wars in Spain and china, where the inhabitants of these countries began to"torture, murder and massacrc each other in enormous numbers. Even the crimes and horrors of Stalin were forgotten. discussed the possibilides -hisGurdjieffnever saying that horrors, on an enormous
of war; though I remember
scale were abou"t to begin, and
that this had happared many times before on the planet. He
iso
said
that we must not allow ourselves to be carried iway by the masspsychosis that would come like a flood. During the r9r4-r8 war (apart from a few who enjoyed ki[ing) everyone who was in it or had near ones in it suffered, but ihesuffering was ttrieny of theinstincts, as animals sufferJully; ;..*nl*";b; We accepted all that our masters-the politicians, the journalist, *d the generals told us. Now, in the period preceding the Second World War, the suffering- was much more in th- feelings, in the solar plexus. At times itwas as ifone could sense thelife ofEngland r'nning down the scale to the bottom'doh' of the inlerent stupidity and duGess of our strange race, inherent in those other puppets Neville Chamberlain, Stanley Baldwin, Ramsay MacDonald and Mot t"gue Norman. Sometimes, when walking from my ofice in Barbican to the Ciry 33
Orage
Orage
Lj"..? Club by St. paul's to.lunch wi_th m1 father I would go through sFi"i"g Lane, a narrow g'gret alley. t woid *op *i tird*d;,h" silence it was as if I could he"r tho" old buirding, ir they kny glr fi:y would not lasr *".h loog?.."ruu*i-ii** ", Th"?;il;f ,h" actrons thar led to tre eventuar desffuction of the city were already iu motion.
them,' he concluded, 'that we fought at Arcgues and you were not there,' and sat down to loud applause but, so identified was he with the
t
'Ihere are legends and myths among ancient races and relieions in which can be discerned erements ofte"ciing d"rd;;;;i"i?.r*rring psychosis; legends- of the anger #rt. gia, *l-*J;;;* 11ss propitiate them with sacrifices. TherJare hi"ts t the Bible. Ir, ;"r), rernote times, it is said, the priests, who were rear priests, when the solioonensiur *"r-"ppr*ching and ,rr"v ^."["J'rr"i"""r" "Ja i"il together for special ceremoniiLd rinrils uy *rri"r ,rr.y *.i" to make use ofsome ofthe tension for their o.*, b"iog. iiJy *"* "[r. "Uf" I's: jo destroy and rurn it inlo a positive urge ::ji:fj" f:1.*T* tor selt-perfection. But the idea of sacrifce degenerated irto th" *i*
human sacrifices oftire Aztecs, the mass sexualorlies ofdecaying Rome, the mass murders of 'hererics'by the christiurlhur"l" fice.ofJews-by the Germanr, *r" mass sacrifices.f th. "rrd Stalin for 'rhe good of the saft'.
r#;:r;r; R;;;;ly
When I first started going about with Orage to meetinqs where he rp:k", andin my generJ coitact with i"t ll..ti"lrJ dt;;#;j;;;
ot my weaknesses. In the presence ofthese people I became tongue_tied a.fceling of inferiority, because I couli ;; ,p;"k
A;ffi;;;;:.
.b1
'You've no need to feel inferior to any of th"r"iripld, ,;tJ6;;. 'Your need is ro urderstand lour f..tl"g.f ;f#;.i;;;;;il organic self, to what you know in .rr"i." yo., oogk a [". Wfr* you've arrived at a ceftain stage you wil bJ able to meet people on their own grou'd and feel intirior to none. there comes a realization of onc's inadequacy, L r ' "ah;;f*;;;{t"; what one knows one ought to be.' Yet orage himself remained blind to the faults of c. H. Douqras. ^ orage was the one man who.could clearly formulate t"A;;;il_
il;;i;i;H, ffii;r;
plicated system ofideas. Douglas was a succlssfirl borio.r,
*ri. n;";;;
in regard to money; rndhenever forgave Orage's ,.ild,ilfi;?;: tl gorg to Gur_djieff. At a public dinner oftwo hun-itred p.opl.'io wbrte ries and tail coam with Orage sitting beside hi_, *irt,
tongue loosencd
by.*"?
"ni " ;J;;ri.."t, ;dd;;dt*tb; .Ir;rl
against certain people who?olgb, had deserted 34
'thl
""*L'.
b.;;J;i
surroundings that he also applauded. Later I r.:id to Orage, 'AJ inverted criminals make the -best policemen so Douglas, an inverted financier, understands the financial svstem.t
'
'Do,.rgl", has a strealc oflewish blood,' he said. 'There ate two clans ofDouglas among the Scots, the White and the Blac*. A long nTc-ago **" ,i.h Jews emigrated to Scotland and married into one of these clans. C. rf. Oo"gl"t Uelongs to it. There's a good deal ofJewish blood in the Scots. This-new Scoitish Nationalist magenneis run and efited by aJew.' 'B/ association I was reminded of a tdk with Gurdjieff and some pupils the Tewish mixture. Some of those present werc men"bout ho'".d. GurdjieffJaid to Orage, 'You, Orage, just escaped.' o1e-pointing to me saii, 'He hasJewish blood.' Gurdjieffsaid, 'No, Arab.' How dil he know? I had not told him that one of my grandmothers was at least half Arab. He went on to say that to beJewish is to be brought up in the ancient Jewish tradition-the Jewish way of life, with its good and bad sides. Many people with semitic features have not a single of the great semitic:ace, of Jewish characteristic. fhe Arabs are Part *t i"l the Jews are one of thc mibes.-Gurdiieff also said that there are no real Jeivs now, only German Jews, Russian Jews, French Jews, AmericanJews, EnglishJews and so on. rh. word'dirry' in speaking of pcople of mixed He so*!ti*"t "tJd blood and of races that were deteriorating. scotch, Irish and Spurish werc 'dirty'. There was no real culturc left among them. Mixed blood gives less opportuniry for individuality, and people of mixed blood are subjea to specid inner weaknesses. said a great ded for the tolerance of the Englith, elen among.the intelligentsia, that Orage was received by his old friends and 1cqlaint-if he had nevei spent s.oen y."it with the 'Greek charlatan', 'the Armenian Magic Mastcr', 'the Caucasian Wonder-worker', as G' was variously desciibed. Orage nevcr spoke to anyone about the ideas
It
*"., l,
except those, of us who had worked with hi*, not even to the man 'V7ill Dyson, the Ausmalian' I clorelt to him of the old New Age days, asked Dyson, 'Do you think Orage has changed since he metGurdjieff?' 'Yes,' he said, 'and for the worsc.' 'Do you mean he's not the man he was?' 3J
Orage 'O.-.h r:: In a way he's much more so. But I think his seven years with ^ Gurdjieffhas been a bad thing for him.'
'How?'
'well, before, we rurderstood
each other. He was one of us so to Now, there's something about him I can't get at., Dyson, who was devoted to erage, could not forgirr. Gurdjiefffor -
speak. this.
HolbrookJackson was another who could not understand the changc in orage.Jackson, whom I used to meet ar The Fint E&tion club, was a man whos" y"I- of life before I met Gurdjieff was my ideal. Like mysel4 from a child he had been devoted to books and book knowleds". like mysel{, he had been an agenr, a lace agent, in
.
i;;;il#i.6;;
into publishing and-writing ab_oit books, but irad never gone .and.gon9 back to lace as I had to hats. Even a=t school, ir seems, we had h"i th"
same feeling ab_out books: the smell of the paper, the binding; and even
the names of the publishers_on the title plg-"
*.r"
,orrorriied by
ancestor, William Nott, a bookseller in St. Paul's churchyard in the seventeenth century. I was saying to Or"g" that I wished it were posible for me to chuck go ind *otk with Gurdjieff again. Orage's rejoindcr *.ty,ft;"[ to return to your Father's womb?' *"ri'Wtiy do yoo
"f*d **t
As regar& the ideas of the New Economics, expounded in The New Enolish"Weeklv. the most hostile were the Old Conservatives who saw
th"'id.",
as a'porential destroyer
of faith in the out-moded frnancial
Soi"lirtr *ho feared that they would destroy theposibilities of th" n"tiooalization of the means of pioduction and fistribution; and the communists who said they would destroy the faith of the people in the coming revolution in England. system; the
was not long before Orage and Ouspensky ryad9 coltact; not Dersonally but thiough Rosamund Sharpe, wife of Clifford Shaqpe,
It
"n atmosphere of romance. Jackson asked melo lunch with him at'the Eiffel Tower in charlotte streer as he was curious to know about the life at Fonainebleau the ideas had had such a strong "nd-y!rr on orage. 'He's changed,' he said. 'He's lost that old intelleitual arrogance. He never could say, "I don't know',. De Maetzu once said of him, he knows the shapes of ev-erything- and the weight of ,othiog. Now, I feel, he knows the weight *.11.' we talked for an hour about "rGurdjieff and Fontainebleau, and at last he ,said, 'You know, I haven't -th. ,.-ot.st
hrrt.fito, of the Ne"ra Statesman,
talking !".._b.:1 Gurdjiefl'
I found it intensely interesting and read it within the week. Orage had heard hom Curd.lieffwho had asked lrim to go P faris ,"f him, and Orage had written, 'Time was when I would have "nd gone to the ends of thi earth at yout wish. Now I must know exacdy i"hy yoo **t to see me.' 'The fact is,' he said, 'I need a rest and I have to do'this task I've set myself. Later I may be able to work with him on
i"n;;"
idea whai you abour or the work that you and Orage did #th
'It is more difficult to explain,' I said, 'than to convey a description of the marurers and customs of an unknown tribe which I might^have
lived with.'
'we went on to talk about his Anatomy of Bibliomania which had j'st been published with great success and widely reviewed. 'what does Orage say about it?' he asked, expectantly. I could not bring myself to repeat Orage's words, so I said, 'He thinks you must h"i" dtn" "n enormous amount of work on it.' 'when I had showed orage the rwo large volumes, all he said was, as he ficked the pages, ,fiis ball of dung!' An allusion to Capek's Inlea pky *hi"h w"l ti* th" ,"g. among the intellectuals. The lunch and i"tt *ittt Holbrook;acksJn coincided with the last gasp 9f *y life-fisease of bibriophily, ih. lor" of books for themselv"r, *hi"h may have been inheited'iro* 36
-y
friends
of
Orage, who had intro-
duced them to Ouspensky when he came to London. Orage told me, .I've had *"tr"g"-frorn ouspensky that he would be willing to see " mc again; but I do-n't see the posibility y"t. He has another book coming oot ir a few weeks, A Nei Model of the (Jnfuerse. He's sent mc the typescript, which I've read. _If yol like to have it and give Te Wy speak +o"J.ti, iromise that you will not show it to anyone or A NewMuddle he added. are.' you Here yoo -"y have it for aweek.
.t**" oJ
-
the Uniuerse
another level. When I am satisfied that i have expounded the ideas of I monetary reform and the new economics to the best of-my that said Gurdj'fffhas know that You lines. on new paper start the shall the time will iome when epics will be written by men who have understood somethingtnBeelzebub. I don't ProPose to write an epic 9I thing like it, bit my object would b" to itt.otporate certain ideas of Curi.lieff's in literary criticism and of dre arts generally. I am convinced
"U$
*y-
'his
ideas, together with a sq{Y of the whole of the Vfatnbharata, could bring about a revival of literature in Europc
th"t
i
right
use of
I
I
I
Orage
Orage
comparable to that of the Renaissance. But the dme has not come vet. F{e's st'll working-on the book and making changes in it and orrh" Second series. Perhaps he wants me to help I've already done a lot of work on the Second Series and I can't do any more at pres.nt., 'we were in'our'A.B.c. in chancery Lane and coniinued our talk amid the,ratde of cups and plates. we both felt that Gurdjieff might have explained more. And we both suffered very much ii*"rdl.,r""t times and felt bafled and frustrated, as if we had been left, like Gornahoor Harkharkh in the Arch preposterous, in the air, or 'stiuggring like a puppy
in
a deep pond'.
some weeks later I was in paris at the cafi! de la paix talkine to a worked-up state and I began to speak rather heatedli, of what.orage and I had said about his having brought us so far *d ti*
Gurdjieffin
seemingly left us in the air. 'You once spoke aboutpeople finding themselves between two stools, . sitting on neither. Perhaps that's wheri we are., He listened giedy until I had finished, and with a sardonic grin said, ._ 'I needed rats for my e4periments.'
''What?'I asked. 'I needed rats.for my experiments.' As always, on these occasions, I fell silent. Then he took me to.lunch at the,apartment and talked about many a look of compassion hi said, .you are a good *an., ' 'What is good?' I asked. 'Ir seems to me that goodiro, is often a name for weakness. Sometimes I see myself as whatl really am-merde de la merde, shit of shit.' A slow smile spread over his face.
A few-days after the publication of A New Model of the (Jniaerse, r happened.to go-to Fontfiebleau, taking with me of the boo'k, " "o'py which I showed to Gurdjieffand sqioernval. Gurdjicff?erely made a
.
scornful remark and runred away,-and Stjoernvi began to'say that therg we-r9 many things that Ouspensky-fid ,rot ,rrid.rrr*d.',Mr. $urdjieffhas a very big plan, ousp&sky does not understand this. He does not know what Mr. Gurdjieff's aim is. we who arc worlcins wirh Mr- Gurdjieffhave got beyond such books as The New Model.II onlv ad& to the sum of ordinary knowledge, of which there is alre"dy # ' my1h.-Ousgensky ought to have got-beyond it.' he_had to-get_it out of-his syirem,, I suggested. .ferhapl 'It may be. I hear that he is working on another 6Jok, account of
"n
in
Russia.
lhis
should be in a
different category.' Orage said one day, 'A man named Rom Landau has telephoned me. Hc's writing a book about certain "philosophers" and wants information from me about Gurdjieff I can't be bothered. He's a light-weight, a fluent writer but not a serious thinker. Go and see ifyou can do some
thing for him.' Landau was 'a representative of contemporary art', an artist with a teachide range of knowledge but with no wrderstanding of inner teachwide ing'. I gave him some superficial information about Gurdjieff, which writer about only a wrrter A&tenture, but b1ot being bemg oily n God is my Adveflture, he used tn philosophy he never could understand Gurdjieffor his teaching. Later, he wrote to me asking me to tell him what I understood about thc Law of the Octave from my work with Gurdjiefl I said that I had sweated for years to understand something of the law and had no intention of passing on what I had learnt, especially if the object was to case, unless and until a publish it and make money out of it. In "ny man has experienced the working of the law in himsel{, he cannot unremains just information for the curious. derstand
it-it
t$q:.With
l8
what Mr. Gurdjieffsaid in our groups
Meopham
*y
MEOPHAM *HEN THE FELr AGENcy gave me up I let our fat and rented a fumished house a few mileshom Meopham in Kent. It had been a manor part_ of it dating from the ihi.teenth cenrury. It was old, ram_ ltg*", desolate, said to be haunted. k h"U;;, A. "nJ had barns and outbuildings been burnt down some'long" u"ror" and the ruins were covered with tall netdes. The land laliuncultivated and, because ofthe economic depression, much of the u"J us was derelict. A good 6rm with buildings courd have "rooia looni, t-ol ten porrnds an acre. The men had gone to the towns or were oo ih"
6rm
lhg *{
*.t
[y;
,it*
at-
dole. In this
beautifirl:gTqyri+
"rL
path. The moon shone bright, hidden now and then by a passing cloud. Halfwaythroughthewood, slowlygoing up the hill I sawwhat seemed to be a dim figure in the distance. laough my heart beat 6st I went on. fire moon was suddenly obscured, than, just as the cloud passed, about path, its arnx upsixty yards twy a black figure stood right io lifted and outstrctched. I could hardly breattre and my heart seemed ready to burst. Irutinctive panic fear ofcenturies, the fear ofdark forests, surged up in me, and I was about to turn and run. But another part of me would not give way and impelled me to walk on-into danger, according to my feelings. The figure stood stock still. Thcn, as I came to it, I saw with enormous relief that it was a small tree, the top of the trunk cut oG with only two branches like arms stretched out. My heart stopped pumping, I went on and reached the farm in another half-hour, but the agitation caused by this incident lasted all night and left a strong impression, like a nightmare. It is dificult sometimes to distinguish between hysterical unrcasoning fear, the ancestral fears of ghosts and goblins in a wood at midnight, and a real instinctive apprehension of danger.
u.*
th. ord buildings in staining
Lane, I could sense and feel the slow erosion of economi"c life.
lt\hg a short cut through a_ wood. I don,t like woods ", is hemmed in, and I disliked this wood particularly, thougfi "iglrr_."; did;; know why. There was nothing for it, tirJd as I was, but to"follow the
A week before Christmas, as a last straw, the well went &y, so we 'We packed necessaries in the car and went to my decided to leave. parents' home where n^r.ttry of us, children and grandchildren, foregathered for Christmas Day. At this time I was having an attack of the writing itch so I said, 'We will take everything including the dog and the radio and drive as far West as we can and escape from the fogs and cold of London; and I will write a book.' It was an open car and we drove with the top down all the way to Falmouth. Eventually we found rooms in St. Mawes-a bedroom and living room with a piano and four good meals a day for four pounds a week, for ourselves and the two children, fifty yards from the tiny harbour. The weather was mild and balmy. It was perfect. Every week I sent a batch of manuscript to Orage who returned it with emendations and an encouraging letter. ByJune the book was finished. We could have stayed and lived well on a small income. It was a satisfying life in many ways. 'We were accepted by the Cornish people and local society, and the boys played with the village children. There was always something to do in this beautiful country, and the ships coming and going in Falmouth Harbour kept us in touch with the outside world. If it had not been for thc irurer unrest we could have slept there peacefully for the rest of our lives, as most of our acquaintances seemed to be doing. But we returned
40
4r
Ill
fares the land to gathering woes a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men deciy.
It was a lonely place, though nor so bad at weekends when peoole came down and we sat before a roaring log fire burning i" ,:r"'."ir_
mous open fireplace; and_in the daytirne p.""Jl"y over the "itr*g" place-the_peace of the vibrations of people *h"o h"d ti""i ,t.r"
hun&e{ }."t-r without a break, r,ihere nothing violent -liG, had, happened;. o{f the endless process seven
of birth,
6,
orh.rriii"
work, death_
brrth, Ilte, work, death. . . . It was not the ghosts, the sffange noises, the mysterious footsteps (a rat probably), doors that opened"and ,hot
themselves, that noubled us, bur the cold Decemb^er
along the dark
bv
wind that bleri
passages and through empty rooms, and the efforts we nad to make in order to cope with daily living. when I went to Londof I drove the thr.""*iI., to the station and ca.r in_a.glage: Returning late one night I fbr"d I.ft, locked and, as I did not know wheie the owrrer'iived, I set o"r oi fo,Jr,
fi:
,il;;ragl
Meopham
to London. The book was never published. t showed it to my old fiend Arthuly""gh ofChapman rnd H"[, who said tharnot.noogh people buy it, but that I could write, and if I would produ"ce -*o"14 something of-more general interest he would consider it. Aileast, I had begun to learn the craft ofwriting, th",tgh the art was still beyond
4
me.
At the end of the surnmer of ry32 we left the Russell's Beacon Hill School, and went to France, where we lived in a pension in st cloud. 11 Sep-tember I rerurned to London, leaving -y f"*ily in France until I had found somewhere for us to live. I found il"t oo Rossryn Hill, ten " village, and minutes walk from the Orage's in Hampstcad the next ffiq-y"t to find a way to get money io buy the iecessities which would keep our carcases going.
NOTES ON SOME POETS
roR soMB rrug the idea of starting a publishing business had been in my mind; urd vcry soon I started with a hundred pounds capital, though after the first book was published two other menjoincd the firm. It *as thc worst possible time to start, for the first thing the Blblic gives up
b"y-g in iimes of depression is books. Yet a smallpublishing busines, in which the publisher has to do dmost everything himseffi, is an interesting way of making a living, since he must have at least a small amount o?[t"""ry discrimination, and must know about lay-out, type faccs, paper, binding, reproduction of illustrations and so on. He meets **y-dih"t*t typei ofpeople who want to see their thoughts P"lJ.i in a book. He must also do Jome of the packing and posting himself. A bookscller on the other hand only sells the publisher's products. I found it very satisfring; and, as long as Orage was literary adviser we did fairly
well.
I was out of my element, in publishing I was at home. An agent or commercial traveller in busincss is likc a one or two centred being, but a small publisher has to use all three centres. Yet publishers and booksellers are rarely interestiiilin serioul ideas. Mynew Lf" *a contact with Tfie New English Weekly brought me in touch with old and new friends and acquainances in the world of the arts: Ezra Pound, T. S. X,liot, Herbert Read, Will Dyson, Eric Gill, Edwin Muir, A. E., Hugh McDiarmid and Dylan Ttornas. In the hat
business
I publishcd Denis Saurat's Three Conttentions, which brought about a closi friendship. He had met Gurdjieffat the Prieur6 at Orage's sugg-estion and had bien profoundly impressed. Saurat, a son of peasanls, h1d a deep understanding of the rich current oflife that, fowing under the glittering cxterior, has almost nothing in common with this exerior-I *""n tlri liG of simple people, Peasants and the middle classes who 43
Notes on some Poets
Notes on some Poets
{elselye-s are almost unconscious ofit. Hc wrore about i Pe2ple, The-Eyd of Fear, The Christ at Chartres;"lro,
ttn
Goirs of the
h;i;,r"..irfr"
even. Also, the same.
infuer'ce of the occult tradition in E-ngrish lit.."tui. ar* sf."r.r'r, Milton and Blake. Rcbecca west said ilat he was the *ir.ri'**-rt"
'Later,
I'll
I'm
deep down
with an attack of fu, and you seem to
send you some comments
on The
be
Tales.
A{fectionately,
I(new. He had written fot
New Age and Revue ires Deux Mondes. At -The met him h.- y": profEro, of French Lit.r";;;i";i;r, college and-washead ofthe Frinch Instirute in London. r,prt, ,. -*, rri* about Gurdjieff's book, Beerzebub's Tares, and t"t , t.li
the time
I
ii-
typescript copy. He wrore:
'Th"t+ .book 1ou foJ alloqng me to see it. It is, in my opinion, a grear and ir is a thousand lities thar it cannor'u. p"trirt.J.A;; very grear amowlt of wisdom and knowledge in- it and, I t;;;" " more fimfiar with it I rcarized that practic;uy .""ty p"*" ", i, rru .r sensc and information. Beyond ro*Jo*rnbl; *;#r;;;;;"
peculiarities which give charm to every author, I see nothins in the book that could be objected to. But no doubtits allegorical oi philosophical.meaning yt'iih is easv enough ;"
;;;;;"*i"i*'rirff"a
rnc Eactruons, would be completely beyond the public. I am glad to say that lfo'nd no difficulties in the'booi<. It is a wtrk of orti" nr* magnitude in its own peculiar wav. "n 'Please remember rkr tf ofportuniry should arise of meeting .1n. Gurdjieffagain I wo'ld.bc ddighted to do ,o. Ify";;;;;"*y; il; my appregration of his book-and you wiil oot" I *L" ro'J.J*, will give me pleasure. ""
-you 'If.ooly it were-possible, which I do not think it T".
fi:
it
that each corunentatot
F/
*oda h"rrJhi, own way
wourd eive
j.;;;J;.";;_
greatert pleasure to give a regular course ligb". Of coursc,"fyou
plam rhe book according to. book.
is,
;f
will
rcaljze
"-pi;,"t'i
,h"
Sincerely, D. Saurat.' Years larer, whm Beelzebub was published,
wrote:
I
sent
him a copy. He
The commentary arrived in due course, in French, which I Eanslate follows: 'I have again read with the greatest interest naturally this astonishing book by G. Gurdjieff I believe that the most important thing, objectively, is that in this book there are a number of observations which indicate e superterrestrial source. 'The point of view about devils. 'The afiirmation that there are, at present, four centres of initiates on the earth, and the situation of these centres. as
'The forbidding to impart true information direcdy to ordinary minds.
'The difference between mental knowledge, which is an obstacle to
real understanding; and the knowledge
of "being"-th" only
real
knowledge. This, perhaps, is the most important point. 'The fact that it is Buddhism (in its distorted forms) that has produced occultism, theosophy, psychoanalysis and so on. 'The fact that only revelation can teach us something. 'The suffering of God. ''We arc thus in the presence of one who, in a certain measure, speaks
with authority. 'In the second place, very many of the ideas, thoogh commonsensical, are based on intuitions well above the normal: 'Every criticism of modern life and of human history is perfccdy just, and this is perhaps one of the most important things in the book, since it is abolutely necessary to understandthx all our ideas have been falsified-before we have been able to correct at least some of them. 'The Greeks and the Romans have been responsible for putting in train fundamental errors-and then the Getmans. 'God forgives all.
I am immersed. I
'The importance of the lawful inexactitudes in the transmission of real teaching in Art. 'The criticisms of the doctrine of reincarnation. 'In the third place it is necessary to state that a great part ofthc book
Gmnot think of any journal that would'accept, at present, an article
revi*ew, and
is uot clear, and one has the right to suspect that G.G. has done this intentionally. Leaving his sense of humour on one side one can follow
+4
45
...'Thankyou for sending Beelzebub, and in which
fwonder *L"t th" French l immeryely-but o.*.:. you can play with French in the""ortriorrJi-f" way English has l1_": "?rwith there. ueen lll playcd I cannot give any answers as to a
file
Notes on some Poets
Notes on some Poets
it is forbidden to teach directly, and that one can tefl ries if these lies are useful ro humaniry; that he fr", pr"U"iiy p* e*ors or intentional inexactitudes Sr:loyr in his book ,o ,i rri,
of it may staft a movement which could raise the level of civiliza-
his idea that
followers to exercise their own judgment
", ".ioi *d a"; ,il;;l.,*;:;l"p
higher level, to *hi-"hj"""ora"g * f*.::lr. these followers would not-arrive at if he,
jirecdyr In the
lamer.casg they wourd be
the theories of G.G., G.d., taught th.m the ioth
t th.m-tJ;i ffi;;;;q, second.
inihe
"^rr{ory*iii.r, "ar"a whe,e"s c.c. *i,h., e ot.:-.rgow-Ie.dge of being", and the first hinders the ^pf:1H::1.1F:1, 'It is on this that each reader must take his own stand. 'I am quite ready to tell you mine. 'I placc among the myfrs which are to be rejected, completed or explained: (")
1t"_ p€rson- of Beelzebab, who is evidently a ftansformation G.G. himsclf-leaving on one side the question of who
of
ir'C.e.
(b) All the story of the cirtral sun, of the pllets, of thc earth and the moon; and of etemal retribudon for^" ,m"ll number of U"irrgr, which contradicts the idea of a universal;;rJ.;. --' (c) The idea of christ as onry o"" oirtr. *sengers; in this case it is nccessary to identify the Logos, which is perdct$ r"d;J; ,h. chaptcr on purgarory.
'In conclusion, it
to me that the teachings of G.G. should be role in our ti*. if fr"y *; **rt:3|1r^?-1??-1-p'ry*t runds trrst of alr endowed wittr a cerrain preriminary t ;J .
seems
";i;;;;y
developed critical sense. "o*r.dg" " 'I tbink further that it is a compliment to G.G. to berieve that this is
g*""dy -wh1 he intended himself. you know as wefl as I, and even befter, that he had a criticar sense and r.or" orhr-o* *rrl-"r" *"u " developed; and fi*ther, a v:ry. poor oprluon ;A;ffi;;;*; -- .lrh" to whon he spoke'ii g*.r1. "tryp!: .'I shall,be,"Ty h"ppi to Lnoi what you think of these points of ,vreur, and I shake you very cordially by the hand.' once, in our talks I said, 'But so few peopre know about Beerzehub,
s
tion.
'Gurdjieffis a Lohan. In China there is the cave of a hurdred Lohans, presumably all that have appeared in China in over four thousand years. A Lohan is a man who has gone ro schools and by incredible exertions and study has perfected himself He then comes back into ordinary life, sits in cafEs, drinks, haswomen, and lives the life of a man, but more intensely. It was accepted that the rules of ordinary man did not apply to him. He teaches, and people come to him to leam objective truths. In the East a Lohan was understood. The'West does not under= stand. A teacher in the'lVest must appear to behave like an English gendeman.' 'As Ouspensky and his pupils do not understand Gurdjieff' I added. 'Tell me, why, in your view, did Ouspenshy scparatc himself from
Gurdjicff?' 'The explanation is simple. Ouspensky is a professiond philosopher' who studied with Gurdjieffand has now set up a sort ofrival school-a very good school for cJrtain people, perh"ps,'but on a lower level than Gurdjieff's school. Really, he is interested only in the theoretical side of the teaching. He hoped that the knowledge he got from Gurdjieff would clasify and index his ideas, which it has, of course. BurOuspensky could not submit to the pressure Gurdjieffbrought to bcar on him to break down his particular kind of vanity.' A.E. (George Russell) and Orage used to meer once a week at the Kardomah in Chancery Lane. Usually there were ten or twelve of us also, writers and would-be writers, who merely sat and listencd to the two sages, whose talk often became a rnonologue by A.E. Literature was their chief topic; they had studied both Hindu and European literature and both afirmed that European literarure could only be vitalized and vivified by going back to a. source-rhe Mahabharata. Greek literature as a source has almost dried up; but the father and mother of Greek literature was the Mahabharata, which contains every form of literature known to us, and every experience that man has experienced. A.E. very interestingly linked up Irish myths with stories and legends rn the Mahabharata; and Orage, time and again, threw in
to happcn to;t, ,oppo'Js i, a"", j.ip"i'urlJl, *1Y,1"r,:g::l.r rayt -W. sard, -Nothilg yruch may happen in our time. are in too much ot a nyrf..Vf9 have no sense of real time in the West. perhaos m ffty, or a hundred vears a group of key men will read it. fhey #[ san "This is what w.!*,. b."i ro"'ki";-d"'i-to
Yet A.E. lilce many real poers, like T. S. Elior and Herbert Read, was also a practical man of afhirs. He had organized the Irish farmers'
+6
47
oo an understanding
ideas based on Gurdjieff's teaching, bur none found an echo in A.E. He seemed to be living in a Celtic twilight, Orage in the light of the sun.
Notes on somc pods
Notes on some Poets
co-operarive. I first met him at his house in Dubrinjust after the .ririog, or rebellion of 1916. He was kind to . .rr.ry young man. He spoke about his fiends-George Moore, w. B. ", v."rJ rr" ,lu"a him), Bernard Shaw. I-wanted r, ,ho"Sh at that time I could b*.ly wrire a literare legeg. He said rh"i tEary *irrr.Jr" *.ir" , would wrire, but I would have to *ork it, d,
*"
*rii,
tolf
ry
1.r9w
lgorgelvroore worked,
pi'i! v*i,
iir
;;;;;;a"r.'"" "t ,h"6;arrd;lli;t"s,H,ii",
Moore had co*" ro r.".hi*ioJevening ab.o"li.1*U""t :lflrht. to paragraph of a boolc he was writing. H;"id,;\t;*Ji."a drscuss a
up and down the road from ten
till two in the morning, discussing back and forth how a cerain idea shouil L" ."pr.".a, bur of couri". covered also agood deal ofthe craft and r* o^f*iriig. sce Srskine childers and his wife who ri.,J few minutes away. but childers was just going o-ut so we had not " after, he was arrested *9t byhis own p.opl" i" followed the rebellion."n-a A.E. showed me ,om'e p"inengs of his fairv fork 'iVictrlow
a;. ;;i;.
*. ,,
d-;;; ;"ffi;h. tffii*, rh;;;;;;;*
rfril, down the Hills in the dusi, AlF;;# :g*Iq faindy luaninsus. He claimed, in th. mort na*r' *"y, ,"-"Uy;il"" ycltlem. Larer, I was staying in th" Aurtri"n ry-t #Ail;; ilr" Hoclrberg, who showed *" iorrr. of fi, p"i"ti"gr, oili* foU. down at-night from th. mount"ii, ,;;?'bi,l";;t "tro ":T*q ;" clai.m:d.re.ally to have seen them. A.E. was a cert, urJ ur e"i i.la and dark
shocked communists' who saw clearly the cause ofthe breakdown of the financid-economic system. I had met him when I was in the hat business. With twoJews, he was trying to run a small publishing business in Holborn and I, often carrying my csse of sample velour felts, would call on him and together we would go to Henneky's and drink gi" *i ginger ale and talk. Uis talk was always stimulating; ideas poured forth Ina-totft the ideas and the gin would go to our heads and everything would seem possible. He had been given some money t9 h"lP take the Stone of Scone from'Westminster Abbey to Scodand. The money went in expenses and the Stone stayed. He suffeied from that strange disease, communism; as a youth he was bi*en by the bug and had never really got the poison out of his system. Like'the Red Dean of Canterbury, he was blind to the effects
of communism.
He became interested in the nationalist magazine for Scodand, by a Jew. He and this editor came to ask Oragc for an aqttclc on the futuri of culture in Scodand. Orage refused. 'There is no foreseeable future,' hc said, 'when your talented rnen, like Edwin Muir
started
took part in th" *or"n"don, nor can I remember the talk. McDiarmid was the only one arrong what Oragc callcd .the shell-
and Hugh here, have to come to London. What can you expect from the leavings of a nation?' We weie fond of Christopher and his wife. They o{ien came to see us or we would meet at Edwin and willa Muir's, who lived around the corner in Downshire Hill. At times they were in dreadful Poverty. Once his wife came to mypublishing off,ce looking tired and worn out. 'Chris says can you help us? 'We're almost starving. I've walkcd all the way hom Sioke NJwington because I hadn't the money for the fare.' I fid what I could, but being a small publisher and not a hat manufacturer, I could hardly make ends meet. This happened more than once. At last he took his family towhdsay in the Shedandi and tho"gh I heard from him often I never saw him again. He was one of those rare beings in whom burns a kind of celestial fire:some solar matter has got into their make-up. They live very much according to essence, and the world squints at them, while they suffer and struggle to Put into words what they feel and think. Yet Hugh McDiarmid, although he had to wait-over thirty years, is now aclcnowledged, and in his lifetime, as Scodand's greatest- poet since Burns. It was Orage who gave him a start, n The New Engli! WeeklyArnold Haskell, who wrote books and articles about the ballet, was holding forth on his pet subject to Orage and myself in thc oIFce.
+8
49
bd*;JN;;;, h;;?fi - i; ;.#, b";;;th"_.
blue eyes, Hochlgrq a.fair_haired, light almost Prussian in manner. HJad never ., ;, ' -- - 1'*" uevur touch and a correspondence began How was it that two- sudr dissimilar men in such different
I
countries had similar and unusudvisions, and p.f"iJ.fmf", christopher Grieve, who wrote unjer the name ofHugh McDiarmid, was oneof the younger and more vital poets ofhi, d;;. reviewed po.*t Tl,e New Engtisi a rnan singrng.'
p;;;Jfr;;
$
\i;;;a;;" wnbiyh""Jil,.il;t;i"1
n
mecting McDiamid several times a week. He had asked and T. S. to meer hinr {liot rant for lunch and invited me to join "r,rr" "rJH"ril"-riiJrlr_ was to tolk about the new."ooodi"r, the bunung question of the dav.
^ lylfie c. H. Douglas
ril*d I#;;;;L:#"
,1iltff:#:,':#:i*,,3in1*ex."d1;;;#i, Neither McDiarmid nor
I
Notes on some Poets
.o-r1g"
Iistened and then said, 'yes, 1or know the literature
bdlet-we know thc scripture,'refer.iog to Gurdjieff,s d;;.
of ' -- the
Of,Ezre Pound, OragJ said that he #as a majo-r poet; also, he t\ boy scout of lireiaturc, who fid a- good died ;";t e;;; that **" struggling wrirer or artist. For years he h"ad written ro;rhi Nei-,tge was
Td.frt Margaret Anderson's andJane Heap's Littre Reuiewio e*.;"". He became v-ery inreresred in $cial creiit and saw *"r ,tr.r" iJ"", conained a fo*nulation of thc causes of the breakd.; civilization and the means for "a;;; ;* a new and;rr;";;";iif.;,
r4.oi"g
in the west. I pu-blished r*jefuson andlir rulssorla, i"aa creilit-an Impact; also Alfred venisJnis poems-crevet p"t"a.r'.r well-known vcrse. In our tallcs I sometimes fo'nd it ditr"uii ro folto* him, his voice would sink to a 6int whisper; *d t *a, b.gi"oion'ro cver.yone
havc slight ncrve deafircss, a resulr or-y rr, ,rr. "'ap"ti."..t A friendship grew and a long pcriod ofirtt i-*ritiog
a warm-hearted, vital
**, il*"y,
?ii;f;.. ;"r"*,
U.g*.
stimulating.
ASoot"lit.o;
h"
was brilliandy-sane; but he became identiGef,*i iril-clrair-. crusader, and this eventually led him into difficulties. Eric Gill had visited him in Rapaflo. Gill tord me, ,I wanrcd to discuss art and literature.t"irh hi*: bg,.do you know, th" ;;;;; I;; my fo_9t in his housc hc started-talking *orr"tary reform_no, lecturing mc. I couldn'r g".t"borrt word in. Alr.; ,r*t_;;, lo, ?ftiog, " left. on riterature ror u''cc quarters of an hour I got up and and"art ** he's sound; but on monetary ,"6r* i b.li.o" h"', rit" *;l l *3r true- He had got it into a crazy cornrr ofhiJbrain that Musso.. I, ,'ru' who understood a go-9d deal about thc financial system, could save
th.po*.' to ;;;; ii;;;'#.,#;; * f:'1,{::?_i:fically-if\ fad on tne rarrs in the war and the disastrous consequences for him that
followed. __.I
had, and still have, a warm feeling for him. He was a qood man. counrr'rynen martyred hi*; time they *U
Tt:y
of thcir
THE PASSING OF ORAGE
t
saints.
to
i"f.l-U*
"*
ouR SMALL FrRM was regarded as one of the most progressive of the younger publishers. e[ kinds of people came to the tiny ofrce-Dylan thoti.t,ht.ece and Gascoigne with their Poems, many young writers' But, said Orage, 'You cannot, at this early stage, afford to be a patron
of literature.'lven well-known writers sent their work to us' Every-
thing seemed to be going smoodrly. oragc was our literary adviser and * id friend, O[vJr Simon of the Curwen Press, gave free advice on woosraphv and lay-out. 'i"A;, .rre. sinc" the end of the first Great war in r9r8 everything had eone well with me. For sixteen years I had had a very firll life; *d Joly ill-health, a result of the war, and my inhe{ted and acquired weaknesses had prevented my extracting 1ery-nuch more f"om my opport'nitier. .lithoogh outer life wars.full and interesting there.was i*"vt the inner ttt"gfih accompanied by suffering. Yet, outwardly I had not only had whail needed b-ut what I wanted. And now the wheel of fornure b"g* to turn its dark sidc. In october 1934 I had a strong feeling that sJmething serious was about to hap-pen-to O;agc'"Vllp I did iot know. SevJral times he complained of feeling ill and of the difficulry he had in working. I begged him to see a doctor' 'I have,' he said."He's fiagnosed it es functional, not organic.J shall take morc rest.' Some ttt*[" things happened at this timc. With Orage an{ rwo men I was sitting dowr.-stain in the A.B.C. in Chanccry Lane' Orage *", ,p."kit g toirr" of them about his writing, talking rather severelY and he said,il speak to you as a man under scntence of death' ' ' .' At first I thought iri, *., meant in general-since we are all under sentence of deith. But his tone of voice gavc me to think' A few days later I was again in the A.n.C. with him-the two of us wer" t"lkinj ov", coffee wf,en thrce men camc in, nodded to oragc and sat down. fte said, 'I must have a word with those people' Keep my place,' and went and sat with them. In a minute or two I glanced at 5r
The Passing of Orage
The Passing of Onge
frorn Orage, a nimbus, not only round
*:f:-4
rus head fd1f.tt"-lghtissued but around his whole form. A growing astonishment came over me. For ten or fifteen seconds I watchid, theriturned **uy. Wi.n I looked again it was g-one, but the efFect on me remained;
*a i*ro.rlnt
of what Gurdjieffhad said about a halo beirqg;il;dil;i"*tu" .if^y. n9opt9 and in certain chuiches. wh*"Or"g. ."*" 1e.1- T-o,*d back ro my table his 6ce had a sort of radiance of youth. I did"not see the light aga1n. A week later we were sarurtering up Chancerv Lane or.o.ll way_ home, as we ofren did, and *.r. ,iLiig ,", hi."a,
and lif" at the prieur6 and work with Gurdiieq; "f he stolped, turned to me and said in tooJ of coriplete " life 'You know, I thank God every day ofmy reply was, '[ also.' A week later, November-5th, Orage spoke over the radio
g;;.
il;."ry "o;;;;;o, ,h;J#;;;j'*ilr,
Credit. He had spent a lot oftime pr.p'"ri"g the speech *d ir But now hepaused, if i"-p"i"i.we iere
on Social
*;;;;;ll.
silence bccause he did no evil. When he died, those who knew him lost . . . their living secret standard for being good men.' everything for the frrneral. The Dean of Will Dyson *d-I "tr"ng"d Canterbury, at his own suggestion, tookthe service in old r!ryste1d Church, a'simple service,-and the church was crowded with frien& and acquaintarices. We buried his planetary Uf4y p 4: "h.g"lyq*t rtoo"lrl"b covers the grave, and on it is carved, by his friend Eric Gill, "the erureagram and Krishna's wor& to Arjuna:
in
You grieve for those for whom you should not grieve' The wise grieve neither for the living nor the dead' Never at any time was I not, nor thou, Nor these princes of men, nor shdl we ever cease to be' The unreal has no being, The real never ceases to be.
G. K. Chesterton, A.E., Bernard SLaw and S. Etioip"ia tribri., t" Weehty. Only Eric bilt .9ttgl in letters to The New English He said] .r do notLo* *h"t stf, recerved at Fontainebleau. It is certain that his deep appeite for-r"ligion was there, in some manner, satisfied.' J. s. collis wrore' 'The universariry, depth, and creamess ofthe mind stood alone. yet his outstanding q""liry *", good""r;.
I had sent a cable to Gurdjieffwho was in New York and to ftiends there, and one to Muriel Diaper, who was in Moscow, she in whosc house in New York the groups had met for seven years. She wto-t9: 'lVhen I returned to the hotel and saw your cable in my room I felt I knew what was inside. I could not look at it. A quarter of an hour went by before I could bring myself to oPen it. . . . What a disaster 'What a strong ghost he has left!' for so many of us . . . Orage, for many younger people, wal an ideal. One must have an ided. For Orage, britaii.F*"s the ideal, and no doubt Gurdjieffhad an iCeal-and so on. Gurdjieff, in America, a few days after Orage's deat{-legal .fhe outer and the Inner world of Man' for the third series ofhis writings. He says that at the news of the death of Orage many people who \a{ ,r"o"r'koo* Orage came to him with long faces, commiserating-with him. This o.or""tid him. He writes about pseudo-grief and the harm it can do to people who give way to it mechanicalll because it is the 'thing to dot nc"l griefis another thing, although one-must guard againit the manifat"iions of this, as harm can be do19 bl allgwing one,Jf to become identified with the grief occasioned by the loss. Gurdjieffsaid, 'I loved Orage as a brother.'Opg-e was what G. calls t"*"ik"bl" or extraordinary ma": Onc who by his own efforts had "got beyond the ordinary run of men: 'He is just and indulgent to-the i"""t".rto of others: and he depends on the resources ofhis own mind, which he has acquired by his own efforts.' In the weeks tiat followed I tlought a great deal about death. The only man I could talk to seriously was Denis Saurat. He said, 'Dyrng is
52
53
", o.jp.: t{ -lgli" Dyson's apartment "l YiUor early rught, morning, I had a dream and in thJdream I saw , . T", h$ tace, smiling in a mass of glowing cods. I woke up and a feerins a of profound
h"*.;"iorJth. aft-erwards U"r."."r, p..ir*i.i ,rr. to
sorrow and sadness pervaded me. Then I sLpt. -r.;id, ,Come following-mor.mng his wife telephoned. Si. _.T!. up. Ics orage. He's dead!' I put down the ieceiver and, for the first arid only time in my life, almist fainted. one can picture the fact of a petson's death but, while they are alive, one cannot reakze it. And now, the realization of the fact tr or"n"t death almost paralysed u-s with grief, Not onlyii.r" *rt. i"a ;uddl men and women who were not interested in 1.*,.T*r.qroups-but GurdJleft's rdeas felt ttre tremendous shock caused by the sudden loss of Oraget presence, ttir .Ur-S.^l friend, a poet, who wrote to me, Never have I known such grief,, expressed my feelings. An ruknown
men wrote, 'I never
$ey Or_age .nd t "* oot * ed"ucated ** U* p1.t I felt that h.i" w"s ,o**" who understood me. Fgu*tt B And now that he is gone I am
londy.' Both
simpre
f.
p;"pl.;;;
r;;;;;
iti.:
;i;;;;; ;;
$If f-tcurfji;f
H"*]r;;;
The Passing of Qrage
The Passing of Orcge
much more complicated than we think. what does it mean-after three days Jesus_ rose from the dead? It may be that three days after certain people die a kind of consciousness comes to them. TLev se"
their past, t\e things they ought to have done and the things they ought not to have done, and the things left half-done--a man becimes lir oi^ judge.'
:Ihen th:y drink the waters of Lethe and forget everything,, I said. 'Y::, with most people. But, if we are sufiiciently developld, if, as _ Gurdjieffwou! say, we have worked on ourselves, th.n *i may're: member next time and have the possibiliry ofnot making the same'mistakes.' He added, 'Poor Orage, why did he have to ,p.ol.o much time and energy on monetary reform?' ,something . 'Perhaps it was something he had left undone,' I said. that he has now worked o.tt of the pattern ofhis life. Next time h. be higher on the spiral of his evolurion.'
*iil
'That is possible.' He began to talk about the Mortalists, a sect that Milton took a sreat interest in, whose descendants are the christadelphians. Accordin"s to the Mortalists when a man dies he is dead indeedl He sleeps it riere "s until the wr.iverse comes to an end; then the is-reborn and 'niverse everything repeats. When a man's time comes he is reborn. ,But,' said saurat, 'in the state of death our idea oftime does not exist because time is the measure of motion (what Gurdjieff call. "the lawfirl fragmentation of some great whole") and in death there is no motioi. Therefore the intervd between death and resurrection, however lons it may Tem to the living, does not exist for the dead; ot, t..rr, oJi
as a
"t
night's sleep.'
This is similar to Ouspensky's idea of recurrence-a man is bom, lives and dies; the moment of death is the moment of birth. [t is similar to the Hindu idea of nights and days of Brahm; at the end of thc kalpa Brahm withdraws the whole of the universe into himself. He sleeis. When he wakes the universe is reborn and everfthing repears. -though with ..Jhere is something else. Mechanical life *ori t.pJ"t, slight variations. But a relatively conscious **, i'ho becories selfconsciorrs through work on himsel{, need not repeat mechanically, he :* !" born again at the point where he left off That something which has been transmuted in him into higher subsrances, in whilh solar matter has been also crystallized, is immortal in this solar system. The to.{,:l beginning ofa soul has been formed; and this r".r"iro*.rhirrt which is the real'I' musr become coated again and again with a plani 54
has become perfected, Then it passes. perhaps to a nearer to the Sun Absolute, where conditions arc more
tary body until
phLt, ,t"t",
*;;;ilg"
favourable.
it
to Gurdjieff-and to Milton and his Mortalists-not all
,;1;;;;."rls,
but
th"ere are rhose
who, consciously, or-unconsciously,
th" g"r* of a soul; and this mrt'ct be perfected'. -r-, from the ".qti*il The Mortalist, riid, 'That which is finite and mortal ceases 'If Milton' And resurrection" d;';i;i;-g';;";;il the time of the
ir""r
illustroe thi't there is no time without motion, which Aristode in the slept have to fabled ;;;r"-by ;i;.*"*pl. of those who were dt"l imagined awakening' temole of the heries, and who, on *' they awoke had succeeded without an interval the which in -oir.", intervening ;;;;t in which tttej'r"u asleep, how much moretomust and be with die them to so that ,it"" i" *"iftifrt.d to th" d"p",tid, no there were moment' same ''' Ai;;;illt.em to take pl"ri "t the and miserable; most the men all of ;;;.;ir", the righteoris would be ii. *i.t.a, who h"lve a better portion in this life, the most hapryi Ylith ' ' ' All things *""ii U" "irog"th., inconsisteirt with the-jlstice of God'and it remains are of God. Ivi"tt", proceeded incorruptible from God; ar9 all things If csience' its irrconuotible f"ri, concerns lot:.nly ;;;'ail;;, ",oicoa, no created thing can fio"lty be annihilated.'But This is similar to some of the Sufi teaching and the Kabbalah.
it
l"
things can be changed into different.substances' created -cor_."r"i with this is tfie idea of,transmigration which
i: foui+ in
the subjcct ancient religions, and which, like- everything else' has bcen of being.born sp91ks Beelzebub, rn sortsif fantasies. Gurdjieff' of
"11 again in the body of a one-brained or two'brained being'-tholgh.ffit to a person who is a mainly instinctive type and instinctive"pplv "Iold .*otio"i'ryp". a"a a man can rccur and recur in these circumstances. religion the Pharisees believed in some sort of life *ftcr th;
i; j#li ;;"h'iht
had"the idea of the 'souf :nigPgq.ftoy one body to *oth", in its efforts to purge itself of undesirable elements and so o.rf..t itself. In the fabbalah-is to be found the idea of transmigration
';";;-a;r;d
ho**
bodied animals, vegetables, metals and.stones. in one life would have to be paid fo-r in ii;J;, than *uee another life. Some said that a soul migrates through no more woirld b;e; " ".ty wickeJ soul, after thiee "h*tts, or migrations' relapassages of interpretations are zohar the tn ; eJil spirit. il; (G.enesis) iirn" ,o transmiglation. 'Till thou return iit tt. Biould' *.*, A", the 6'ody reruflrs to the ground; the spiriiis reborn. 'Naked
ia." ,h* ,h; ",
sins
J5
The Passitrg of Orage
The Passing of Oruge
shall I retum thither'.(Job)-means 'to the womb'-being reborn.'.one generarion goeth and *odTl generarion cometh' (EccLsiasticur). 4": the passing away of thi generarion is mentioned nrr, i, " that this must have extsted before; otherwise it ought to ,."d.or,." generation cometh and another goeth'. Though muc-h of this mav bc ph"rir."s, yit, all through ,h; the wiseacreing of the- Scribes "odmetempsychosis Hebrew teaching is the idea of as a reiard for the good and punishment for the wicked, and the working out of one', redemption.
perpetually to revolve in the universe the wheel which causes the de. of all things.' struction ---C*a3i.f raid thaithe life of man is rapidly running down the scale, but imilies that given certain efforts-by lertain people, or happenings oo .&*i" t"di the final catastrophe may be averted' " idea of not being compl.t.ly and the wish to conThe "rutihilated tinue to exist in som" i""y appeals to something very deep in many people. During the war the thought that really terrified me leas not ii"t'r *ight di" b.t, that if I *"r. fill.d I would cease to exist-would perish lik"e a dog. After the war I began to read a gre t deal about_trans^*igr.tion the 'beyo1{', t studied theosophy *d "ndi.cottence, to ioiritualist meetings-and even Leld the medium's hand, yet nothing ,"tiifi.d *.; least ofJl the orthodox religious ideas and the rationalisticideas. Only Gurdjieffin our tinie, so far as I am conccrned, has "th.irtic anything reasonable to sry about what happens after death' almost at*"""gtt everyone from childhood to old age thinks q are (c.hildren all the tiire coniciously or unconsciously about death
ft" pr*f
f.:
ilr;,
o*,
In Scandinavian stories there are references to being bom aeain and a -- -the advantages of not being re-born in this The idea oftransmigration exis* among every kind ofrace from the most primitive to those whose civilization is still regarded as highfrom the Australian aborigines to the Hindus. It is to be found in Hindu literarure in great detail, and in thc Greck. where the idea came from originally is Iost in the mists of id:," of such d$ry, one thai h"_s ixercised the feelings *a "ntiquirv. ,hoi,ghl, ot endless generations, even with all the distortions and-fantasies, riust have some foundation.
life.
e
T
The Buddhists taught a theory of eternal recurrence. The celtic Dluids aught that the soul does not perish at death, and after r,r*1., gf yearl passes into another body and lives again. Tuan Mac "c"irill i" sixth cenrury remembered how he had f,ved roo years u **, {re 8o as a stag, 20 as a boar, roo as a vulture and zo as a fsh. As", a fish he
was caughr, and eaten by the wife of King
Cairi[ from whom he was
bonr as a child. Stories of this kind are alio found among th" w"lrh. Appollonius of Tyana says, 'There is no death of th?ns .*l.oi-io " briig, * appearance; as also there is no birth of a thing,' which L".k to Gurdjieff's idea that evcrything exists and-whar see*s ,o"rr, ,h" ", qass{rg gf ti1e. is only.'the lawful fragmentatiori of some great whole that has its arising on the Sun Absolute'. rnthe Mahabhardta it is related that life on this planet is in the last and the worst of the four yugas, the Kali yuga-the ag" of fro". W. are in the last part of it and conditions *ill gi *orr" *.rtil ir comes to an end. After terrible sufferings liG once riore will become ,rr"*ui. and civilization will emerge into a Golden Aee. Sluti says in rhe Mahabharata:'Atthe end oith" yug., all that exists in the Universe, all creared things, will be confoun?ed. A"d ;;; beginning of another Yuga all things wil be renewed and will succeed each other like the fruits-of the io their seasons. Thus continues
".rth S6
Tl'
f:\
fascinated yet not t.rrifi.d by the idea),'few seem to be concerned about a fuiure existence. Then there are those comparatively few in whom the germ of a soul has been conceived and who thereby suffer. This Teaching, like all real Teaching, is for them' at I h"rr" i"id, the shock of Or-age's sudden and 'ntimely death 'is an affected me deeply and for a long time. 'N9 man' says Donne, the of part the Continent,_a Iland entire of d.lf; every man is-" p""." of well as lesse, is the Europe bf the Sea, tut"ir,.t if a clod be washeil "way or as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Maruror of thy friends were' inam I because me, thine own were: any man's death diminishes
volved in Mankinde. . .' No man is an islurd, yet, in a way, we or somcthing in our essence, is always alone and *ori b" alone, which fo not the same as loneliness. yet when someone neaf to us goes it is truly as if a part of oneself had gone. But time, with certain work, can heal and even increase that which was diminished. Silesius understood that the death of the planetary body is not the important thing that we imagine; but that: The death whence no new life doth flower nor come to be Of all deaths is the death ftom which my soul doth flee. I say, there is no death. 57
Tln
Passing
of Onge
Ifevery hour I die, Each time a better has come
life to me thereby.
orage poured out love, and at the end of his rife he was full oflight, yet his words were weightier and fuller ofi"*iog. His knowredsc Nrvwruss'
an{ his beinggggthel hid brorght
t":"1Gurdjieffretumed iom"ur"r""a"**"aiogl America I went toiee him
^# :T".f:_i lT,T{hTqk. esreetlookdeat about orage. and there appeared
at
th"
curdjietrtistened
ti"t oo" ,"* .Or"e";li;o,
of deep comlassion "y:r-" at certain times. He said, and later repeated?o othor,
S
have
F**ffi;;il;;;; JJ."il;;; Now I must
diedjusrlgy. only an -bnglishman.
HERALD OF COMING GOOD
an
work hard for thre. *or" vi"rs- to 1tn";.p, r -do-what only Qrage could have done for me had he lived.' r'h$ was to shock us, though it is possible that if Orage had eone to r. *T *d- spoken about his state Gurdjieff would ""b1" have- been ,o prolong his liG.
oN oNB oF My vlsrrs to Gurdiieff he gave me a copy of his booklet Herald of Coming Gooil to tJad, .nJ asked me if I could frnd a publishci for it t England. I said that I doubted yry To:h il*y Lookseller or publishei would take it as there would be litde, if any profit in it, brit that I could handle it for him in Eng1and' Those who i"lt ,o*"thing would pay for it. 'Send ir to anyone who is intercsted in 'To Ouspensky's prlil: too?' He thought my ideas,'hJsaid. I "sl.a, for a moment and then said, 'Yes, to them as well.' In London, with Elizabeth Gordon, who spent most of her time at the prieur6 and helped Gurdjieff, I scnt out thC co_pies. llhe silence of its d""fbiiog. Later, we hearJ that Ouspensky hai reception *", "1*3rt i*t^*t.d all his pupils to h"ni'in their copies, which were_destroyed. 'Why did he l*it" itt Some say toshockbuspensky' But things al Fe prieuiwere at a low ebb. Gurdjiefl, like us, andperhaps like everything io ,h" *io"rse, had periods rnih.n th" force eipended on-a.phase of work had co*" to *lnt"rval, a'mi' or a'si'. At these periods he would make an effort to do something and in a comparativ"h big y-"y' Perhaps he had made the effottt write and have printed I!*:l( t Coniis Gooil. to set over an interval; and he had spent a good deal of *oo"i or, it. i11. tike, then take'. 'when I do anything I always do a lot of it'.'Like Nature, Le sometimes produced an cnormous amount of sec& so that onc might grow, t"yitig that efort in pursuit of a real aim is never wasted. I suspect that one
of the reasons why Gurdjieff lad-wa3gd to see Orage'the year before was to have him read over the English o*l"tion"of Hiratd of Conrng Good befote it w1s printed, t: .Y"ll-"t the manuscript of Beelztrbub's Tales and Tales of Remarkable Men on which he was still working. Heralil of Coning Good isl booklct of ninety pages, small qo".tto' with a topit.-*tiry title, 'First Appeal to Contemporary Humanity'' 59
Htalil
of Coming Good
Herald of Coning Gooil
At the end are seven registration blanks. It begins with an introduction of three sentences, the first sentence running to some two hundred and sevenry wor$. He anaounces the booklet-as the ntrt oru, p"utirt"a writings, and leaves the purchaser to pay from g to rog Frenlh
It is written in the form of an epistle, headed:
francs.
Tuesday r3th September rg32 CafE de la Paix Paris.
. The long, -almost interminable, sentences make it dilficult to read, let alone understand. orage's editing would h""" ir6;;;;J ;;;;r_ l9uslr; bur even in its rough, uo.ulfor- truth glowl rh;;ilJii" following is a summary. H. that he proposes to begin on this day an e4position of tJre " :yr to_hrtmaniry. Among rhe reasons for doins so is y$:t.seyen.appgals that rr ts the last day of the period he assigned to himself tw.ri_orr" years.betore, which, by a special oath,-.I bound myself in my Irl"g conscience to lead in some ways an-artificial life modelled;; ;;;;-
gramme which had been previously planned in accordan." ;;rh ;i; definitc prin{pl9sr'He c6ruiders ii iris dury to ser down th" *oJ*, wbrch compelled him to lead such an aftificiar rife, pranned accordins .{fdl"-pri"ciples for the non-narur"l or non_habfi J;;;;;il;: ot himself. {y- rhir means he would prevent ro a certain degree the formation of that something called by King Solom;-T;;i;;;. This Tzvarharno is rhe som.thiog *hi"h ror*"r itr.ruy in the common life ofpeople o.rt"o*" of th"lrir" ";rJ;;, *dr?;ht, "J* co,rnmon life, and which liads to the debtruction of him *rro oi* a achieve.lgmgthing for general human welfue and of Al A"t i" fr", accomplished.
He-says that he wished to co'nteract in the manifestations of people an inherent trait embedded in their psyche which was the fulfillment of his aim and which in them morg or less prominent people,"ro*"r tle function of th" fr.li"n lnth slavement', or, as .we might say, a feeling of inferiority
;;t;r;.[? .*h;.;;fi;;; oi*-
and"fear of *o-"g thing-and ihis p"r"lyses ib, ;;a;; that persJnal initiativi which t" p"J"J..ry llmfestinS
doinq an{ r"ytngthe Jbr
ing creatures; and in particular the aim of human liG in the light
of
this inteqpretation'.
'lhe -ajority of people,' he says, 'have never . . . in thc period of their resporsible frfe . . . laid themselves open to e4perience but have contented themselves with other people's fantasies, forming thcm from illusory conceptions, and, at thc same time, limiting thenselves to intercourse with those like them;' also they have automatized themselves to a point of engaging in authoritative discussions of all kinds of seemingly scientific, but for the most part abstract, themes. Although he too was a product of an abnormal environment like others yet, thanks to his father and his first tutor he possessed data which permitted the developmcnt in him of 'certain original and inherent traits', and of this peculiar trait: 'of striving to understand the very essence ofany object out ofthe ordinary that attracted his attention', which gradually formed a 'something' which engendered in him this irrepressible striving. Always he tried to meet thosc who would either explain, or help him to discover, the questions that left him no peace. Eventually, in 1892, he came to the conclusion that it was impossible for him to find an answer among his contemporaries, so he decided to retire for a definite period into complete isolation and to endeavour by means of active refection to attain this himself, or to drink out some new ways for his researches. He became in his inner life, a slave of his aim, which had been instilled in him by the will of fate. Stimulated by this and later by his own
consciousness he continued his search. Thii sclf-stimulation was caused as a result of his experiencing
in all
his being a feeling of 'self-satisfaction' and 'pride' every time hc verified more and more new facts about the lives ofpeoplc in general: of which facts never had hc found a single hint either in ordinary life or in all thc literature, past and present, that he had reld.
Although he himself was endowed with unusual powers of comprehension, and was able to get people to tell him about their irunost sacred airns, and. also was able to investigate all kinds of religious, mysticd, philosophical and occult societies, inaccessible to ordinary
red{mretled to give a briefoutline ofrhe causes ofthis i*esistible the precise ,tgffi;;; ld"i"S ofhis, which was 'to understand in gencral of the life processes on earth of4:lrh dl off*ar? ar*, irrr""rt-
people, he did not succeed in elucidating the answers to his questions. Nevertheless he never lost hope that somewhere and at some time he would meet people who would show hirqthe way, at least to the key of the door. All this time he supported himself by working at various crafts and professions, often changing them in order to rcehzehis inner aim.
6o
6't
:Tiijl
needed ur people.
99
Heralil of Coming Good
Hualil of Coming
In centrd Asia he became friendly with a street barber through
whom he was able to enter a Mahommedan monastery. Following a talk with some of the brothers about'the nature and qualiry of hunian
and thc- consequences of the action of its imprilses on man' he $th, became
convinced that he must abide by his deciiion and profit by this-opportunity in the monasrery. The same evening he put himself in the necessary state and began sgrengly ro medirate on his situation and futtrre do"t; after th"ree days he became convinced that the answers could"ot be found in 'man's subconscious menrarion'. It followed from this, that he must perfect his.knowledge of man's psyche in every way. He left the ,ooi"rr"ry and a-gain took to wandeiing, and a plan'forrned in his mind. He began to colled all the written and oral information he could among ."rr""io Asiatic peoples about that 'branch ofscience, highly developed ii ancient
MElrr(ENESS-the "taking-"*.-y-oGorporisibility", and an insigoifi"*t poidoo called "hnnotism".' He then setded in a Dervish monastery in Central Asia, and for two years sydipd ,h: $:"ry. Then, for practical study he gave himself out to be a healer of all kinds of vices; this he continued for about five yearc'in accorilance with the essential oath imposed by *y tash, which times, called
ofwhi:.tr contemporary civilization knoris only
consisteil in giving conscieilious aiil to x.tferers, in tuver usin| my knowleilge and praaical powers in that domain of iience except for thi ,oi, of nv fn_ vestigations, and neuer inil egoistkal'eids'; and h. iot'ooly
for.personal grived at unprecedented practical results without equal in our -- --- dav --i, but elucidated necessary fb, "l*ost "rr.rythiog He discovered, among-other thiogs, thai the complete elucidation of the study of man's psyche must bi sought for not only in the subconscious but also in the manifesations of hi, w"ki"g ,t"t.. After agr:at ded of travelling in Asia, and in meetiigs with remark_ . able men (which he has recoided in the Second Se?es), and after numerous e4periments, and working with various societies, he decided that, since in such societies there-are usually only three or four types, and that for thc observation of the manifestarions of man's pry"lri
hi;;li. -
i"
it rvas necessary for him to have ,"pr.r.rrt"tijrres of all the.r'wenry-eight types existing on earth as they #ere established in ancient times, he would form an organization of itis own on quite new principles. out of rhis, after * erior*oos amo'nr of hard'work in Moscow, Tifis and Constantinople, there emerged the Institute for the llarmonious Development oi Man in the cfrateau du prieur6 at his waking state
6z
Good
Fontainebleau. He quotes from the original programme of the Institute; and then goes on to describe how he was preparing four scenarios, one ofwhich was The Three Brothus based on the working of the three centres. Later he speaks about his decision to write Beelzebub's Tahs and his idea of publishing this. The Second Series, at first, was to be read only in groups, and the Third Series to be read only by those pupils who had worked on themselves and arrived at a certain degree of underrt"nding and attained a certain definite degree of Being. He says, very seriously, that Beelzebub's Tabs to his Grandsott must be read hom the beginning through; otherwise people who are in the habit of running through a book, skipping and picking out bits here and there, will come a real psychologhal hmn-libe the'brilliant' intelbc' tuals who'can tun through o toig boo? in an hour anl epen repeat patts ofit and write' informatiue' aiticles about it, but who, as far ds UMERS T/NDING goes, are'illiterate'. Thire were .rwo di.fferent categories of people who had worked with him-those who had begun to work and then had left him and'started up on their own', and those who had remained with him even when *tey n"a been compelled to live in other countries. From those near to him he decided to choose a number who would be leaders of groups and to whom the second and third series would be given. Amongst other things they must satisfy him that they had in them the following five data:
r. If he, (Gurdjieff)
had established after an all-round observation that they had in iheir individuality, since preparetory tge, certain definite starting points for a more or less meritorious life in responsible age. If n their being there were not completely atrophied a generally
z.
inherited predisposition for the developing in their individualiry of factors Uti"ging forth the impulses oJ organic shame, religiousness, patriarchaliry, the awareness of one's rnortality, and so on. 3. If the=re was an hereditary predisposition which would bring about .
thc conscious eradication of previously rooted weaknesses in their individuality; weaknesses such as are caused by abnormal surrorurd-
irgr. a.
If
they already gave evidence of having had suitable established conditions of oidinary life and had acquired the possibility of
attaining, according to certain principles, some definite perspcctives for the future. 5. If there were present in them a &stinct degree of awareness of their 63
Haald of Coming Good
Herald of Coning Gooa
the possibiliry of attaining the necessary :5_::Pf:rs',,and quaury ot a real wish to transform themserves frorrisuch 'nothingness'inro the definitc .somerhing' *fri"f, ,h"y;;;h;;; ;;.;"" "' accotding to their own tranquillf-*"dit"t J ria"t;"*Jigl* about his autometic infuence over peopre, and his -He -spealss consciously cre-ared aim of always, without exception, manifesdng benevolendy rowards
r., tr"ii
!.JJ,;til;il:il;
himself
o*" waging an unceasing ".,"ryoo" struggle against th-" we"lrrresre, ir,rr.r*, irlii, orierl nature. But, whire maniGstingtimselfwith this inne. u"o"*t*".,
*r**::.1
y,"r
to decryrtlfize
*. ar."ay 6;;"il#;;ry
and conceit in oeoole; and this made enemies for him. people
;;;'.;
f"rg",
what hc had done^fo, th.* *d il",J#-ry H::"yri The fundamental cause A-rri ,h;;;;;r;;;g, "i as well"ffas in the prr.""li?" arising in the inner world of man, life of people, is chiefy that psychic flc ;hdl,6""a :o--T{ rn mans berng during the period of preparatory ege exclusivelv on ^the'period'oi;;r;il;l;;r"; acc:uqr o{a .wrong e.ducation, and in eacn strmurahon ot which gives birth in him to the impulses of viriry and SelFConceir. 'I afirm' fr"
and
.+, ;:,;
A;*il ilp;l;, "a4r,
self-consciousness""t"giri."tty wf,ich rtt"ua
pe_acefirl
other
be in a real man, as weil as in a communal existence between peopl" (.sid, from
causes
which existin-our
th;;;; li".r'*r;;gL oo a,rti J"*
depends in mosr cases exclusively on the
Vaniry!'
"br.i."
io o,
"*r.l ortr. a"rirrf ,r
sincerely wishes that every-one who strives tojusti$ bef6rc Great his destiny-as a nmn and not merely as an animal, should see rn ms w'Fngs and in the groups formed by him, means ofhelpins
--He
lviT*
to
eradicate from his com*6n presence'tha, gives rise to everyiariery of the
fiffi,Jn* B
,;;.rbh;;;*fii.
man
r""fr"g,3r"*ry *a
othet things, was to make his readers ,understand dearly thg red significance of the presence in man,s inner world Tlrc ta:lors to a conscious, or even automaric, cultivation of :t g-":1t*.pqes idealized and professed by all religious docrines, nave exrsted and still exist on Earth, as well as by the real moraliry which the ages have formed in man's liG.; From the time he srarted on the book until he finished it he put into
f,"tnor",
amo_ng
.g"Tl"l5
;ht;
-
;, ti?i::_lTi"l9y:andwithaconstanr'setf-derisiodi;i;;i.1fi pnuosophicd principle known ro men for centuries.'e""otdirig io
64
which principle our ancestors, and even some contemPorary people thanks io their good life, attained a certain degree of selGconsciousness and dedicatea a thira of each year of their life to the aim of selfperfection, or, as they say, for 'saving their souls'-
-
This religious philosophical principle could be formulated thus: 'To-
be-patient-tiwarils-every-being-and'n9t-to'attenpt-by'the'possibilities'in-ow' poiu-to-aher-the-conseguences-of'the-evil'ileeds-of'our-neig-hb-oun'.. At the same time, to fat his depleted energy would allow him, he
'
"s
rcmembered his task of manifesting irurer benevolence to those who came in contact with him, and under a mask of irritation 'To-quanelruthlessly-with-dll-manifestations'decldred-in-people'by-the'euil-faaors-of'
wnity-present-irtheir-being'.
-
He refers to us as unfortunate creatures who because of our lack of will power and of objective reason have become' on account of our abnoimal environment, almost simple and automatically vegetating animals; whereas we should be real God-like crearules capable of entering into and understanding the position of others. He riade a discovery, astonishing in that it completely contradicts thc usual
idea-this discovery was'Tltat the force anil degree of a man's iwur in others a ptoportionate ilegree ofill-will'.
beneuolence evokes
He speaks about the events that led to the establishing of thc Institurc at Fonlainebleau and describes the three categories ofpupils:
r.
Those who sincerely wished to work on an all round develoPment of themselves according to the Method, and also, to stuily the
theory;
z. Those who wished to study the theory of the system and to be cured of some complaint or other, by the methods of the Institute, and 3. Those yho iame to attend the lectures and study a special subject.
He proposed to divide the pupils olthe fglt- categgq into thre.e gtoopr-, Eioteric, Mesoteric, Esoteric. All woYli begin 1n the Exoteric
froui "nd "ccording to their personal merit and-degree ofunderstandir-tS iriehi p"s into thJ Mesoteric grouP. And of these, according to the *Jrk *d efforts they made and the degree of being and understanding which they arrived at, might pass into the Esoteric group-which is verv hish indeed.
ift.r"ootlirrir,g the general work of the Institute he says that pardcular attention will be paid to those Persons who show certain pathological symptoms, such as weakness ofwill, wilfirlness, apathy, lazines, 65
I:Ieralil of Coning Gooil
Herald of C,oning Good
unreasonable fears, continual fatigue, irritabiriry, irregular cxchange
substances, abuse
of alcohol or nlrcotics,
He mentions his accidcnt in his p1s3 activities
levfw 3U tne rnstrtute- qd to_go to Paris, he
*i
J"ly
*d - orr.'-
1924, whose effects caused
to fiquiJate tn",
pi"r"
"i*.
of
him to
*"ril
"f lines. Later, when he was well enough 'hobbled'with two or three others, ,o r.. n o."tt.a The Two Brothcrs. Revolted by the senseless 6shionablc " aiJ-oirt" screen' acceptable only because of the herd-instinct *a ,rr. l*.r"r 9"ry:t-new
To those who are offended with him hc says: Believe me, during the whole period of my relation with you, my inner world never-harboured either egotistical or altruistic impulses; there existed always and prepare in all perfection for future generations the science of objeafue truth of reality.
in everything, only the simple wish to
hypnotic process, he wlnt to the cafE
de ra paix and u"g* r" *3* ;* a scenario which he would call The Three Brotheri, b"r.d oo th" functions of the three centres. After working on this'for s;;;-l;., .nd 1 a result of it, there came ro him, fronithc *"-rry,il"g** heard in childhood about the first human b.r"gt or **li* writing a b_ook with Beelzebub, who was a wiiess of""rth, "r all ,jror. ,.roor.
cvcnts, as the principal hero. Rrgrdi"-g the third series of his writings, he says that acquainrance
.
is
qermittej onlylo those who have
a thoiough
d.;i.dg" il;;;,
and second, and have begun to manifest themselves to thc "nJreact manifestarions of others in accordance vrirh his t"""hir,!r.
H" ;;;, froy whg T"y..b" interested in his ideas never to read hii Uookr.*".pt m rne order
rndicatc4 never to read his later works until they acquaintcd with the earlier oncs. If the books are not read io tir" "r" sequence, undesirable phenomena "oo.", arise in people which ev.n -may 'ryght paralyse for ever the posibility of normal
*i[
i"np.rf."i.".,-'-
IIe mentions an-experimeni he was making, so that, ii rh" **i.Aon o1*. -Ty.people who have met hirn on the ground ofhis ideas, but
y-1. pT.rl" m,vegelating on earrh, and on whom he had spent much ume wrrhout benefit to them or to himself--chiefy on iccount of their criminal laziness-there might ,n r ro,., ,t orU il irt-it*iit *
y:!-
y_:y!t_the fornation
(even automatiurltyi
ly *ril TIIINI(ING AjllID FEELING proja tu man.
,i,"", irririt
by appealing toihorc who have worhed with him and ,fte.concludgs who havc in thcir individualiry that fceling of 'self-revaluadon'which
has given-them something thai ordinary oi* do", have in themselves the riecesary a"t", rh. e4planations, for entering onjr. path ieading to Re"i B"id. them to devote themselies for a'definit. plrioa_Uv ideas-to h9lnins the sons of our Commo" i"rt to"y*: as they do in their inner world, .ll regard to obiective truth.
*i*
*1!q
6
";r6;;il;; h;b?h;;e;.tI.;
il;il ;fi;--il; * *i; Itfll*;i; p";;;;*;;;;
67
The Last uisit to the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man
. monks harmonizing Gregorian chant. As soon as I could, after we arrived in St. Cloud, I went to the CafE de la Paix to see Gurdjietr w3s sitting outside, no
asked if I might go to the Prieur6. Hc said, 'You come tomorrow,' and I accordingly found myself there the next day. As always on arriving there the first thing I did was to walk round. The gardens were neglected, the orangery in ruins, the Study House deserted-some of the precious carpets had been damaged by rats and mice. The piles of stone that we had made years before still lay alongside the traclc through the forest. The Stjoernvals and the Salzmanns were still therc and Gurdjieff's own people, and there were three young American men and a German or two. Miss Gordon was the only English Person. Gurdjieff's mother and wife had died and were buried in Avon churchyard. The Prieur6 fclt as if it were running down, or rather as if this phase of its long and varied experiences was coming to an end; yet in the Chiteau itself,, which was three quarters empt!, preparations wcre being made for work the following year. In spite of thc depression and lack of money a number of Americans were planning to come over. Sdzmann was painting the doors in the Monk's Corridor and on the lintel of each the words 'in memento mori'. ''What is this for?'I asked. He said, 'Georgivanitch is planning work on a big scalc next year; and this is to remind people of their mortaliry a reminder of the fact of death; you know that tn Beelzebub he says that only the constant awareness and the realization that some day they must die can destroy the vanity *4 r.lf-pride that prevents their irurer development.' Iwent upstairs to Cow Alley, where I usually had a room, knocking at doors to find someone to talk to, but the rooms which once vrere full of people were unoccupied. At last a voice in Russian replied to my knock, 'Mohzna'--
68
69
I
7
THE LAST VISIT TO THE INSTITUTE FOR THE HARMONIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF MAN wE HAD
from the Hartmanns. They had lelt the prieurd and ihey rrrgg.rr.d ;;;;;;g to France,so that my wife could study music;d;irlr. de Hartmann, went to Fr-ance,_a1d lodged in a smdl pension in St. Td TJuly,we cloud. 'we had many meals with the Haitm.rurs and toolc rons warks together.in the country about many ,h*r, A"-rA["Al,,1y, l#i"g loming back to Grt$i.{ Haitmlnn had reachejrt. ,"*. rr"g. 9t"q:' and Gurdjieff had made things exrremely difficurt fb;'hi-.", Gurdjieffhad seen thatit was time for frartmann,J*"k;";*g. La to stand on his own feet; but Hartmann, afier so many years iod ,o Sany experiences, having gor so much from Gurdjiee r"rira it almost imposible to make the bieak.-curdjieffthen pot io ,""t pr.rror" ilr"t was compelled to choosel it had been r,r.h p"irrfirl Y"tT.t*oro..r, that tor aJong time he " nor speak calmly about it,-and .oild ,ro, -could even speak of Gurdjieffby name. HEARD
were living in Courbevoie, ourside paris.
'You-see,'he said, 'apart fr-om the teaching, he saved my life when
got typhus in the Causiasus.'
'Whol'I asked. . F" 1.il:4, 'He whom we all know.'
I
,you
He continued, see how difficult it has been to make a break. Now I rh"ll .orr.*t ;;;;;y own music; and I have begun to work on an opera among o*.,,lri"tr.' Later in the summer he went to northern FrLce to wirk with sJme
{{g but observing the people whire &in-king".otr..
longer writing,
;fr.r;il;';iffi.
The Last uisit to the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Mdn
The l.ast
I suggested to Gurdjieff galten,
in Fontainebleau and put mg.rnlharge of the five youngimar. They worked hard while I was with them but when I had to io into paris they stopped work-just sar about and discussed ,high idJas'. Gurdjieffinvit:4
p.
to bring my family
took him with Stjoernval and myself to a raised banlc behind the orangery; Persian carpets and cushions were spread, and we sat in bright hot r-onihiri" drinking coffee, while Gurdjieff spoke of the value and possibilities of the Prieur6. Then we walked rolrnd the gr9y"it,--j is we walked the face of the financier became blanlcer; fi""lly he left, promising to write after he hadconsulted his partrers. But as I went to ih. g"t" with him he muttered, 'Impossible, pas possible!' With thc resuli that the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man at Fontainebleau-Avon was sold the following spring and all its contents
sta! for the summer,
toi *or"'bot"nd*y wife was getting so much benefit from Hartmann's teaching that we .o*proriir"d Ld
*d hnlf St. Cloud. "t of suffering. He has described it and the cause in the Third series. while g"\i"g effotts to srarr work on a large scale the following year he was all the time beset by dificulties-and"mon"y was needed to save the Prieur6, as the mortgagors were now pressing I spent half the time ar Fontaineblea.t Gurdjieffwas in
a srare
full of Gurdjieff's precious music in manuscript, written and harmonized by Hartmann, was rescued at the last minute by one of the women. Although I received little direct teaching from Gurdjieffthis summer, as usual I leamt a good deal; to be with him was always a vital experiauctioned; and a large suitcase
for payment.
He took me about in his car, often to paris, together with a Russian dressed in a shoddy ready-made brown suit and cloth-cap. When we stopped at a caf6,instead of talking *.lioki"g, h" sat silent or answered with a word or two. 'We, th"-*ori* t, could feel his state of inner suffering. Like us he had his 'good' davs and 'bad' days, runs of good luck anl runs of bad luck: [kI.rn.*ori" he had to bear his share of thc weight of world ,ont rirrg; ,h" bigger thc bigger the burden; the stronger thJ'man the stronger the suffering. some Russians from Paris made frequent visits to the prieur6; he would often shout and- storm at them. They asked me why he did so, and said, 'Why don't you ask him?' But even whd he was shouting at them I could sense that inside he was quite cdm. He was trying to get them to see something; and I, whatever mood he happ_ened to be in, as always was stimulated, more conscious, moie alive. He asked me if the English would be offended because of what he had written about them in Beelzebub, and I said, 'rhey wifl either
worran. He was now
ence-one le"mt without being taught-just by being with him and
"ii
remembering oneself and observing oneself,, Again it was impressed on me that ifyou start on a course of action you must Persevere and pursue it and extract everything you can from it even when it seems useless. But when events are too strong or when its usc as a means of effort has passed, then cut loose at once. It is the effort, the corucious labour that looo$; it can help essence to grow and increase consciousness, will and
*i
fr: **!
individualiry.
I
agree or just ignore it. The English are more tolerant of criticism and ofnew ideas than Europeans. orage says that the English are thc best and most intelligent peJple on the planet. I agree witlihim, but this is a grave reflection on the rest of thJhuman ri'ce.' ,pity about the _'Tlg English have irurer swagger,' said Gurdjiefl T"glirtt. They have the best buiter and best mi"t in the world, but thgl export it and live on margarine and Australian frozen *urroo. The English are sheep, Russians irows, Americans burros.' 7o
to the Institute for the Harmonious Developmettt of Man
He told me that he needed money and that a man was coming from Paris who might give another mortgage on the Prieur6. Thc financicr came to lunclr, where conversation was general. Afterwards, Gurdjieff
that_ we do sorne work in the neglected so he bought some implements and seeds at the'quincillerie'
and nothing-would have pleased
viit
*.t" against Guriljieff and his exterior life seemed Tho"gh ".'*ttdown thi scale, on- a descending octave' his inner to be riruring life was on an ascending octave; for he made use of every circumstance and event to inciease his being and thereby his undentand-
,
ing. Exploring the house one day, poking my nose into corners, I came ca6io.t, and opening the drawers found some sheets of paper " ""rori with forgotten sayings ofJesus translated in r889. 'ThosC who would see me and reach my Kingdom must attain me
with pain and [conscious] suffering.'
Conscious Faith and Conscious Hope through which is born the Conscious Love of God and man that gives eternal life.' When Jesus was asked when his Kingdom would come, he said: 'When two shall be as one, and the without as the within, and the male with the female neither male nor female.'
'gimindfulbf
The Last uisit to the Institute for the Harmonious Deueropment of Man 'Keep that which you have and it shall be increased.,
'I am come to end rhe sacrifice and ifyou do not the wrath shall not cease from you.'
cease
from sacrificing
. Fyorthedo not make the berow into rhe above, and the above into the rightinto the left and the reft into *. ,igti, ,h"-b"f";""i". !dg*, the behind and the behind into the before yoo shalinor;;;;;.;" Kingdom of God!'
Just lefore leaving at the end of the summer I warked ro'nd the grounds impresing everything on my memory_th" g"rd*r, th" forest where I had fourd what For *. *", sprini,fU"i"!*""r, *" study House, rhe barns, the ch6teau. I fert "that
trir,
Tlu
Last uisit to thc In*itute for tlrc Harmonious Deuelopmefi of Man
was scattered, my tiny group in London was only a smdl spark. Gurdjieff's work seemed already to have come to an end. Yet he continued, no longer at the Prieur6 but at the CalE de la Paix and his apartment in Paris-symbolically, on the planet Mars. 'The highest meaning contained in the sign of Mars-one which extends beyond Alchemy itsel{, is dre measure of the Divine 'Word, the struggle berween the positive and negative forces'.
*", *ir*ir,iliir"
Develop*;;a'*
the Institute for the Harmonious of Gurdjiefftprieuri, and I made Gurdjieffonce said, .you
*
i"t
,",1-J:"{. rdentrtued with
;;il;;ilr. r.rtirrjil;.d;;.fr;l:"
id.oifi"ed
*r* pf"..i iir"J. *
people.' F9IT"4y, on"re an occasioo lik. *i, r *oJaT*" suffered at the.thou.ght-of ,the last time,; emotions would t in me, as they did in Harpenden rwenty y."r, "rr. fp ro go to'-fasmania and said goodbye to the old house. Now. lom:
*r*a b"d",-*ir."ii.n
6;,1d
yr"{
going rowrd with
imost'.o*plo"
I
;;#;;;,
;; whrre refrecring rhar, in a-few months this prace where r h"d hJ," many vital experiences Td *S,o **yp"Jpb with wi"rn;;;, a bond sronger-even than family, *o,ia i"r" gorr" *d connected with
the place. ".royorr" How futile it is to be attached to, identified with houses and land and all the things pertaining to the planetary b.&-;h;tlf,"Gf,
necessary, are ephemerd
The lrutitute
Prieuri
an organization was coming to an end, but the results ofthe worlc that the pupils had done oo th".*r.Lr", as
;ffi;;.
with everything we do,-all our pasr acts. The p*, i, joJ, *?" nave.topry tor every unconscious evil action; also, we can re*n merit acqrured tlrough cvery conscious action. Every incident of that suulmer with Gurdjieff and Hartmann is my memory though some of ,r.i,.r"r"-.ff".rJl"ry ,So
:t:"T,:l^:" years later.
It,yl
not long until, of the four men who were alwaw with
^ Gurd;reft when I was at the prieurd_sqjoernval, Orage, Sd"*lr_ h. never saw Gurdiieffasain. l{ytmann only Hartmann was left; Jarzmann had died, Stioernval died about this time. Gurdjiefr,s _Jth., and brother had died.-The prieurd ,h"
*j
*i
*"r;;;;;;,
72
g-;p;;;;;;
73
Talles with
8
TALKS WITH GURDJIEFF ar
cunDJlBFF s ApARTnrlNr oNE DAy,
while waiting for lunch I noticed had not met before, o-bviously American. After a time we went in and sat at the table waiting for'Gurdjieffto several women whom
I
come in; I was the only man. No one spoke, everyo-r" *", ill it eas", and a tension began to grow. At last_Gurdjieffcame in and, noticing the tension, loolced round and said, 'whai! No one spe"ki Is this a mausoleum? It's like when you sit on special seat and oo-thiog happen!' rI Everyonc burst out laughing and thc t-ension disappeared. The wornen were thelcind who at that time proiiucedinmeafeeling of hostility-the intcllectual and businetr ryp"l They were unmarriel and working with Gurdjieffin a smaltgtoop. ri.rt t found that he ryere *,"t fgyg.r-o3. ::ry interesting teaching *ith-ttt.* and one day t asked him if I could work with this group. He said, .No.,
"
'Why?'I asked. 'Not for you, not-for men. These special rype.' There was no other regular groui itt pa;s at this time. and he worked with them for several y*r *d performed one ofhis miracles. Hc.changed- their inner life, so that from rather arrogant intelleauals
,""*.jto
and successful business.types, as some of them me, they became warm understanding human beings. Katharine Hulme, Margarct Anderson and Solia Solano were in this group. I wanted to read the chapter called 'professor skridlof in the Second scries which Gurdjieffhad just finished and s'hich I had sot scraps of,
When
I went ro the apartment
one day he left me by iryself
in the
store room' then he brought in-a pile of detective stories, and put them o_n the table and said, 'You wish iead something perhaps?' I iooked at them and said, 'Yes, but not detective stories, I catle to sie ifyou would let me read the Second Series, "professor Skridloff,'., He said nothing and went out.
Gwdjief
After lunch I again asked him ifl could read it and he still said nothing, and went to his room. I waited and then said to Solita Solano, who was his secretary at that time, 'Will you go and ask Mr. Gurdjieffif I may rcad "Skridloff"?' She went to his room, came back and reported, 'He says you're drunk.' 'I may have had a good ded of armagnac but I'm not drunlq' I rqrlied, ' t feel a special need to read "Skridloff", please ask him again if I may read it; I'm returning to London in a day or two and may not be back for some weeks.' She went out again and in a few minutes came back with the typescript. Stimulated by the talk at lunch, warmed by the armagnac, the story made a deep impression on me, especially when Father Giovanni tells Gurdjieffand Skridloffabout the two very old men, Brother Ahl and Brother Seze, who visit them from time to time and preach to thc
of the Monastery. He tells thcm that when Brother Seze it is as if one were listening to the songs of birds of Paradise.
Brothers spcaks
When Brother Ahl speaks his words havc a contrary action. He speaks badly, his words are hard to follow, no doubt because of his great age. But, though the sermons of Brother Seze at the time produce such a strong impression, this impression gradudly fades, until nothing remains. As for Brother Ahl, his words at first make almost no imprcssion; but in timc the esscnce of his discourse pcnetrates to the depths of the heart where it remains for ever. Ouspensky and Gurdjieff
There is some very moving music, composed by Gurdjiefffor the reading of 'Skridloff'. The following day at lunch I remembered some questions I wished to ask Gurdjieffand made attempts to do so but each time he put me off At last I said" 'Do you think I've changed in the last few years?', hoping of course, that he would say I had changed for the better. All he said was, 'Cha'ged by age.' . 'Is that all?' 'You are still egotist.' 'I'm not sure of myself any longer.' He began to speak about something, nodding at me, but I could not follow him. Then hc said, 'He is happy man bccause he does not undcrstand what I say, so does not suffer.' At that I burst out with deep feeling: 'I know that I am nothing and that I understand nothing.' Dejeaed I sat back with a realization of my own emptiness. He started to talk to Miss Gordon, then looked at me, smiled and said, 'You know, necessary sometimcs to stic.k peacocks' feathen in certain place,' 75
Tallu with Gurdjief
Talks with
fuointing to his tail), 'and' (getting up) 'walk, nor so' (stepping in an apologetic manner) 'but so,'-*d he strutted round wagging hir latg" behind. Everyone, including mysel{ laughed. He sat down and began to talk to me. Again I could not follow, and he said to the others, 'I tell him something, but he not understand. Next week h9 bcgin to think. Next month or next year, two years, firre years, he begin to understand somerhing.' All I could get then was that having realized one's nothingness one must not givJway to despondency, but suffer real remorse of conscience. Regrets and selfreproach waste energy, remorse ofconscience helps, in some mysterious way, t9 repair the past. Also that onc must learn to ose one's vanity an{ leal p!de. He repeated what he had said to me before about angeis and devils having most vaniry and added, 'But ifyou have real cunning, "canning'1.you can make them your slavcs. Angel can do one thing, ilabbel cen do all. Man must have real ct'nning, nor in present English scnse but old English sense.' Another time, at dinn6s, while toasting the ifiots he again asked me, ''What kind idiot you now?' 'I don't know', I said, 'You must tell me.' You should knov/,'hc said, very forcefully. 'Man must know himself.' lfhel t think I'm hopeless, with some hope.' 'Yes, you are rcally hop+ lcss idiot.' So the toast was given: 'To the health of dl hopeless idiots, both objective urd subjective. It is necessary to add that only those who work on thenrselves in liG vrill dic honourably; those who do not will perish like dogs.' The toast was drunk in armagnac. He asked me, 'Which you wish to be, objective or subjective?' 'Subjective, of course,' I said. 'I don't wish to perish like a dog.' He added, 'Every man thinks hc is God but a subjective hopeless ,
idiot sometimes knows that he is not God. Objective
hopeless
idiot
!e_
reTrndiry factor.' The little boy ran off crying and holding his
behind, calling out, 'Rdminding factor, reminding facror!' After eating the red pepper, while I was geting my breath, Gurdjieff said to someone, 'Everyone speak about "hope, and'Taith" and "loie". Forget about your hope, faith and love as you have understood them. Now must have new understanding. t write all about this in Beelzebub.'
I said, 'What about people who have never met you, or will never meet you? How will they be able to understand Beelzebub's Tales?' He said, 'Perhaps will understand bemer than many always around me. You, by the way, you see much of me and become identified with me. [_not wish people identified with me, I wish them identified with my ideas. Many who never will meet me, simple people, will understand my book. Time come perhaps when they read Beelzebub's Tales in churches.'
Among my notes I found the following: He who walks in the way of God is distinguished by five things: He is free from anxiety about his daily needs. Evcrything he does is done for the glory of God. He struggles constandy with his weaknesses and negative feelingr. He strives to remember himself always and in everything. He rememben that he is mortal and may die at any moment.
is
shit. Never can be anything, never can do anything. Subjeaivc hopeless i&ot has posibility not to be shit. He has come to the place where he knows he is hopeless. He has realized his nothingness, that he is non-
entity.'He then handed me
a
red pepper and said, 'Eat, then
will remember.'
I put it in my mouth, and like the Kurd inBeelzebub's Tales,conrinued to eat though it was as if my whole body was burning. He said" 'Can be reminding factor.' Which reminded me thar, at the Prieur6, one of the small boys was misbehaving and would not obey. Gurdjieffwas watching. He then went to him, took hold of him and said, 'You musr learn to obey your parents,' turned him round and smacked hinil hard, and said, 'lhis will 76
Gwdjief
77
l
9
TALKS CONTINUED who had been in Orage's group in New york, had the most stimulating and penetrating mind of any American woman I have ever met, and lilce all people with strong positive vibrations her negative ones were strong. She could be quite rurhless and regardless of _equally near friend or old foe when she wanted somethi'g. She had a strong masculine side; as she said to me, 'I'm not really a woman.' In the abnormal life of our planet there are many who are either very masculine or very feminine or neither one nor the other, who are attracted by the,r own sex and certain types of the opposite sex: rhe masculine rype of womT *d the feminine type of man, a result of the wrong distribution of sex cells. Gurdjieffnwer refirsed any of these rypes, in fact he turned many of them into usefirl human beings. Jane asked me if I would speak to Ousperuky about her going to one of his groups. I did so, but he refused, on the ground thai thJ'work' was not for such rypes, that it was not possible to do anything with such people. 'Not possible for him,' I thought, 'but possible for Gurdjieff' - Qurdjietrliked her. And she was able to raise a good deal of money for him. She was a woman with real being and real understanding. I had known her intimately ftom tgz4 to t93fin New york, Fontaiiebleau and London, and at Gurdjieff's apartment. I once arranged a lunch for her with T. S. Eliot; although she had published hiskrst poems in The Liltle Reuiew she had never met him, so I invited th"m tol Spanish restaurant. 'We sat down at rz.3o and left at 3.3o. I wish I had made notes of the conversation. Whether it was the wine or the talk or both, I was intoxicated and in the seventh heaven of literary conversation, which, besides being brilliant and stimulating had inner content. Both knew almost all there was to know about the arts and affairs ofthe time, and those who yqere producing them, and it needed only Orage to make JANE HBAI,
a perfect
third.
OnceJane_said to Gurdjiefi 'You know, Mr. Gurdjiefi in England sometimes I forget when they play the National Anthem and dontt ger 78
Gurdjieffr-ith Philos
1946
Talks Continued
up-forget there is a king.' He is
said, 'You must always remember there
king and always stand up. This
is
organization, like when
a
man takes
offhat in church. Outwardly respect organization, and do as others do. Man has two worlds, inner and outer. Irurer world is yours, it is independent place. Lr irurer world you can say king is merde, in outer world, not.' Someone asked, wasn't this hypocrisy?' 'What is hypocrite?' he asked. 'In old Greek means actor, one who plays part. In life one must play part, but remember you are playing parr. Only with those with common aim can you be sincere about your inner world. To be sincere
with everyone is pathological.' Jane or someone brought up the subject ofjournalism, and about newspaper articles and the people who write them. He said, 'These people are nothing, non-entities, and they use words only to hide their nothingness. A normal man carurot take nothing from nothing, but the psychopath can. These writers are psychopathic, they see something where there is nothing-in imagination. European languages have no roots. Greek has roots, and even Russian, some of whose words come from Greek, and have more meaning than the European languages which are based on dirty Latin-these European languages have no meaning, articles written with these words have no content. This is one of the reasons why life nowadays is so empty.' Jane said, 'They only confuse people's minds.' Gurdjieffsaid,'Mind not important. Can be useful, like policeman. Feeling and sensing nearer to Nature. Man must feel, feeling with sensing. From this begins self-
:-;m # -e;lK*L
!t&d'
,l-rw
remembering, consciousness of self.' He toldJane that she was now priest, real priest, and that her tail was beginaing to grow. She said to me, ''When I got home I sat down very gingerly.' Another time, when the ifiots werc being toasted andJane was asked what her's was, she said, 'I'm no longer an ifiot. I've worked through them.' Gurdjieffsaid, 'What! Not idiot? Everyone idiot. I am idiot. Even God is i&ot.' One of the women was speaking in surprised wonderment, even satisfaction, about quintuplets that had recently been born. Gurdjieff's reaction was that with five from one birth there could not be individuality. People would weep if they knew the meaning of it. People now were breeding like mice. br ancient times even twins were rare. Nobody sees
that quantity destroys qualiry. I said that if a farmer had poor to do the work of four; Gurdjieffsaid that
horses he had to have eight
79
Talk Contitueil Naturc needed qualiry not quantiry, but if men will not live normally shc must produce quantity to give what she needs. Gurdjieffwas very 6t at this time. A most unfattering phoro was taken of him and he had copies made the size of a postage stamp and stucl. them on packets ofsweets that he gave away. Why, I don't know. He would hand out sweets to everyone. At the Caf6 de la Paix one day he gave some sweets to a couple of pretry women at the next ablc. One said, 'Who is he?' 'I don't know,' replied thc other, 'but I think he's a chocolate manufacturer.' Gabo, an old Rusian pupil, one day told him that he was eating too muc.h fat, it was not good for him. With a qaizzical look Gurdjieff asked, 'Since when has egg told something to chicken?'
tn r944Jane had a fairly large group of her own, which had grown out of the group I started in rg33; this she kept to herself she seemed to want to protect her group. Even in Paris at the apartment her pupils who had gone there with her kept to themselves; they were a group apart. Gurdjieffad&essed her as Miss Keep. We called her group 'The Keeps'. Jane hclped many people anil all her life she fought against ill-health. Before I went to America in the war I gave her almost all of Orage's notes that I bad, hrmdreds of pages, some of which were published under the heading of 'Commentaries on Beelzebub', im Teachings of Gurdjief. Thesc she used for numy years in her later group. Jure Heap practically brought up Tom and Fritz Peters. I lived with the three of them for a time in New York. Fritz Peters, in spite of all that Jane and Gurdjieff did for him, never understood Gurdjiefl He relates that Gurdjieff among a group of French pupils, appointed him his successor. But I saw Gurdjieffstage a similar scene in front of Orage and some of the men years before, and the 'successor' was a y.oung girl. These were meant as shocks to those present. So with the list of bad words he asked Fritz to write down-he did the same with myself and others. With regard to the trip to Chicago, Fritz does nor relate that another tnarL an older pupil, was with them, who told me that whcn they left Fritz and the group in Chicago for the Frank Lloyd 'Wrights' place at Taliesin, Gurdjieff said, 'Now must change, we are going to special place;' he behaved seriously and made a great impression on the pupils there. It is as if Fritz Peters's books were written by two people-one, the intellectual, the brilliurt writer; the other the small boy Fritz who was devoted to Gurdjieff. The intellectual doubts the Teaching and the 8o
Talks Cowinaed Teacher; the boy feels gratitude, yet does not know what
ofit.
to
make
O- n my vislts go Gurdjieffin Paris I made notes and compared them with notes of others who werc at the lunches and dinners; and though many of thc things he said were repetitions of his sayings through thc yean, they struck one's esseirce with such force and freshnes thatlt was as ifone had not heard them before, and a food ofnew light was tfuown
on them.
lle was reproaching a man for asking a merely mentd question and told him that his trouble was curiosiry, always wanting to kno* more and more, never pondering, and never trying to undJntand what he, Gurdjieff, was pointing our to him. He said that curiosiry stinks. But therc is also real curiosity, which is to know what will help us to understand ourselvcs and the world around us. There sttiking passages "te in Prince Lubovedski about this. Lubovedski means lovi of niw things. Someone asked
if it was true that man evolved from alfinals, Gurdjieff said no, nuur was from a diferent order of Naturq a &fferent formula. In speaking about associations he said we must lct them flow, without them we would die; associations are a stic"k with trn'o ends, a good end and a bad end. Some psychologists have called the fow of associations 'the stream of consciousness', really, it is the stream of unconsciousness. 'We must be aware dl the time and not let our attention be caught up in them or we shdl begin to dayJrcam and fantary, which is a sin. We have thousands of associations which are usclcss for our own being. kr giving a certain exercise he said, 'Treat your associations as another person. them, 'Let me do my work now and you shall -S"y !o have your play later.' . Something was said about appealing ro a man's feclings. I said, 'In Englandtley say the way ro a man's heart is through Lis stomach.' Gurdjieffsaid, sec,.even English somerimes say interesti"g thiog!' -'You Someone asked, 'And where is a woman's hean?' He replied" 'Womai's hcart? Just below navel.' Gur- djieffquoted an old salng about the rose saying to the nighting"l:, 'yoo can understand and love me only when you love my tfionrs; only then am I your slave.' The nightingale says, '!ven though I hate your dirtiness I must love you and sing to you.' La the Conferencc of the Birds Attar speaks of the nightingale's love
8r
Talks Continued
Talks Coninued
for the rose as an excuse for his not going on the pilgrimage to the
The death of Svetchnihoff again reminded me of Gurdjieff's constandy telling us that only by keeping the fact of our mortality before us, and the inevitable death of others, could we be delivered from thc egoism, vanity and self-love that spoils things for ourselves and our relations with others. By.keeping this in mind we bring about the death that is important-the death of the ryrant personaliry, the death of the old man; for without this death there can be no resurrection in the uue sense. Silesius often speaks about it:
Simurgh.
G-urdjieffsaid that the only flower worth growing was the rose; I understood why years later, when I began to gro* He added "oses. that all other flowers were 'merde'. Spgaking about interest in and work on oneself according to the Teaching, he said that if people have a common aim, a real aim-nor
liG aim-a feeling of brothcrly love will arise in them. tf livg and work-together they will always feel this, whether they $ey love or hate each other. Not even family love can equd this feeling.' an ordinary
I was in the CafE de la Pail one morning with Gurdjieff and two women of his 'special' group when the chasseur c"*e *i said that he was wanted on the telephone. He went upstairs, and in a few minutes came back, obviously upset. He sat dowriand said, 'Ah! Life ! Life!' ''What is the matter?' I asked. 'Svctdrfioff, Died suddenly this morning.' We had known the Svetchnikoft for some years and had visited them and stayed ryar $ep in Les Andelp. Gurdjieff was very fond of 'Papasha' as he calledfrim. At the Prieur6, papasha for a long period proposed thc toasts of the 'idiots'. He and his-wife *.re gooih'""rt.d simple bourgeois Russians 'of the old school'. Gurdjieff was very moved. One could feel the forcc of his inner turmoil. After a while he said, 'Now I make change of habit, always when something like this happen I change habit and do something -o different. From-now I drink ti6 *ot" ar*ign"c.' g"rh9t 4 up his things and went back to his apartment. fAe same ^FI" afternoon he drove to Les Andelys, taking small giits from some of us to Ma&me svetcbnikofr He made all thearrang"*ents for the fimeral there and did all that could be done for the f"*ily. that he would never drink armagnac again was not to be _His_saying since he continued to drink it. He was saying somcthing -1l<* li*"lly, 'Podobnisirnian' as Beelzebub says-speaking in similiruIes, or a[J gorically, as he.so oftq-di{; always, when som-ething unusual happened to him, 'good' or'bad', he would use the shock tJ break soniJsmall habit or to do something different. He told us often that when something not to our likin_g happened to us, or ev€n something very unfortunate, we should always strive to turn it to our own advantage and not just submit passively and be carried away by our feelings. -
Die before thou die, That so thou shalt not die When thou dost come to die, Else thou diest utterly. Were Christ a thousand times Reborn in Bethlehem's stall And not in thec Thou art lost beyond recall.
This kind of dying is also painfirl, for it means loolcing into oneself and seeing what one really is; and if we look sincerely and impartially, the false and 'lovely' picture we have had is destroyed. 'The way up is also the way down', The more one can learn to look into onesef into the depths, and see and realize the horrible potentialities that'come out
in
oneself and others, in the bickerings with friends and family, in public lift and war-if one can see them without becoming identified, the more will one see the higher potentialities. We have in ourselves the terrifying gargoyles of Notre Dame as well as the ascending engels, and we must know and face them all: not look at them direcdy or, like the Medusa's head, they will curn us to stone-but infirectly, through the Teaching of correct selfiobservation with selGremembering; and the more that one understands about oneself the less will be the tendency to hate and judge others. .
At Easter I had been to the service in the Russian Cathedral and was telling Gurdjieff that my wife and I were married in the Russian Cathedral in New York and that I had been to the Easter and Christmas services in c.hurches in Russia. He said that it was good to go to thesc services, it is a'feeling experience'. All Christian ceremonies come from the old Greek Church. You don't understand the form of the service or why it is so, but it opens your feelings, because the men who composed the ceremonies and liturgies of the early church had great understanding ofthe psychology ofpeople, but thesc ancient ceremonies have 83
Talk
Talks Continued
Continued
been spoilt. Real, objective knowledge has always existed with initiated people, a stream, which still fows, even today, and. he mentioned the two strearns, the two riven, which he wrote about, one for initiates, one for ordinary people; there are two streatns of knowledge in the Bible
warped: 'Man, most ignorant when he's most assured. His essence plays such fantastic tricts. . . .'
glassy
When Gurdjieff spoke to some of Orage's pupils about forming
a
mesoteric group, he said that those who wished to be candidates had to be able to think- not 'iC thinking in them by association but '[' thinking actively and purposively. He said that the emotional and moving cerrffes must be 'educated'. Ordinary education is one-centred, concerned only with the formatory apparatus; only those schools which do something for the emotions as well as mind and body approximate to
real education.
Our two higher centres are like shangers in our home. This work is to help people to become more conscious, first conscious of sel( then objectively conscious. A really conscious man can produce any impression he wishes on others, and play any role he pleases. With ordinary man life is the neuualiingforce, but when we have a real aim, the aim becomes the neutralizing or reconciling force. We then have a real and constant cenae of graviT, not a centre ofgravity that can change, as it can change in life. tn ordinary people the centre of gravity passes from one centre to another. Now it is in the moving
something instinctively, or mentate with the mind, the emorional centre steps in and prcvents concentration. Real concentration is directed attention in which all three centres take part. Then man can move a moturtain. Ordinary language has no vocabulary for 'high' ideas; but only words for simple ideas, or how to produce things, find our way abour, and so on. We must learn a new languagc. You cannot understand essence with the mind, mind can only ohserve the manifestations of persondity. Our so-called will comes'from personality, but essence has no will, just desires. As we observe our persondity it becomes more passive, then our essence can become active and begin to grow, and eventually, with suuggle against our weaknesses, individudity begins to take the place of persondity. Only a corucious man can tcll which are the manifestations of essence and which arc personaliry. The ordinary role we play in life is personality, and with some people it becomes a fixed habit and is no longer even a role. Yet personality caJr rcact differendy with dilferent surroundings and people. Essence, when it does react, will always reict in the same way. Essence in Greck ouoro, means being, intrinsic nature, the thing in itselfi, inborn character, something that rs. The opposite is personaliry, persona, a mask, that which is not ours. But essence can be spoiled and
negative among certain people who do not understand it. 3very time we stop or even observe negative feelings coming in we can at the same time, create an opportunigy which we can use to remember ourselves. In the complex organization of the white ants in their hills, if the cenffe and sun, which is the queen, is killed, then all life and activity in the ant-hill stops and dies. [t is the same with our sun which is our centre; ifit stopped and die4 all liG in our solar system would die. Our individual liG is a tiny wheel in the great wheel of earthly life, which again, is a wheel in the life of the sun, which again is a small wheel in the life of the great wheel of the megalocosmos. The process of man may be compared with the process of a butterfly. The egg dies and becomes a caterpillar; the catelpillar dies and becomes
84
85
centre, now in feelings, then again in the mentd centre and often in the sex centre. When the Teaching becomes our centre of graviry, all centres participate, and their activity is directed towards our real aim. We must study the positive and negative parts of each centre. A
strong positive implies a strong negative-in this work as wdl as in UG. This work is a very strong positive and it must provoke a sfiong
Talks Cotxinued chrysalis dies and becomes a butterfly. If man dies to ,a.chysa$;.the tus old selt he becomes something quite different. Sglf-lemgmbering is,a lamp thai must be kept alight by energy from , the instinctive and feeling centres. . Man is a sort of symbol of the laws of creation. In him is the raw of three and the law of seven, there is evolution and involudon, progress and regress, struggle between active and passive, positive and neqative ye1 and no. Without this struggle there c^annot will be no real result for man. Our thinking- is mechanical because we think with the formatory apparatus' which is not a centre but a machine which has got out of order and fi'rctions wrongly. The formatory apparatus c"rib. orefirr
ti ,..1pr;;;.rr:;;;
when.righdy-u1ed
for
tr*$"ri"g
cl"rsifying
o""t f..li"gr-*l
"nd thoughts. Real thinking is when rientating is conibined with 6eune. fhrlosopner said 'I think, therefore I am.t Much better to say, ,Wh; I can feel and sense, then I can have the possibiliry to be,_toh;;"
I
,i;;
ness'.
As we get older we find it more and more difiicult ro set new new impressions can be got only by .ffori, gr."t
im^pressions. Real
effort. The sub-conscious contains the results of all our experiences.
Talles Contkued
against God, as it were. yet, here is the paradox, in order to evolve up against the down-flowing current, we rirust *ort *i f, N"*r.l'roir,, to become corucious, and-so, become worthy to
i"o orcoa.
u"
_ord.1ary man cannot understand this. Evoluti""""u.al *J i*"f;;""_
Jacob's Ladder.
{[ fug: are on a scde. Begin where,we will, there is ascenr, evolution; descenr, involution iI il* ; ,il;;;;;;",
what we
{ri"g,
see as results are also
beginningi body is an insrrument for-*"n#.sting feelings, . Th. thoughts, and instincts. 'I'is nor body. '['am the'way, 'I'bJlong rJrigr,,"?lir. r" attain red freedom, inner and oot r, I h"rr" to b!,ol3ro.;;;; shut up and cannot c-ome forrh'; ,He hath h.dg"d *.lf""r"rfr""*r cannot-g€t out; He hath made my chain heavy,. .6"a
T. *i
hath compassg{
fr"rf,,"r"frl"L
witl
his net'. (psalms). God t i*iJr.a o'sracles on man's real development; and at the same time he",h"s me-
tv*
[-.m:.way_ro it. In facq'h" g"rr. il;dy-;;;;ieliil":'rh" Method, by which we can free orinelve,",fro* th" *orid,il;;;;", l,ying,'"ssacre, ryranny. First the i""., fr..Jo* il;;;ilffi:*
com' l nere are manv enemies, but 'a man's (worst) enemies are those of his own house'. (lfi""h.) chief Feature in each one of us is a key to our actions and manifestations. I.r 'r"-" morive moves the ,lr. tipr Chief .scales. _Always Fearure. It is like the bias in bowling, which prevenr, ,h; b.li g-";g Fearor. *"L.io, go oo at a tangenr. Ir is some:ltigh::4*ays,Chief uung mecharucal and imaginxry and is found in the eriotional part of essence. It gives the tone-pitch to the three csntres *d of our wishes. It arises fr-om one o, chielly from self-love and vanity. one candircover it bv becomins more conscious; and its discovery brings an increase,f
'fi/ill
fb;; ,i;;;;.;
*o".;rilr;;;;i;:fl:,fi,
krdividuality
Consciousress
;;;;;.:*"^
are the three forces in the Absolute. As, according to the law of the octave' the forces that flow down the ray ofcreation] th"t irrrroi.,rioo "r" become more and more mechanical, so forces becom".i;;;J. wf,i becomes inertia;'resistance, obstinacy; consciousness is regardJd p.r-
*l9"tp;
individualiry
p..tot iiry,
a thing.
",
"t " mechanicariry, Having realized this, our can have what the . clergymen call a 'conviction of sin'. Then we have the porribiliw. *ith :h. lr.lp o-f a teacher, of beginning the long clirnb involving force, against the blind fories of Natlure that mike u"s. oror-
*.ih*
;p_;;#r'rh;
86
on
types:
trr9"
observe yourserf and nore the things that anracr
you, what you like to
see,.
tohear, ,o
lirfi';.Ti:b'""f; i:"HlFf,
,"*., ,ou.i, yr""*"y ifr.J*,
nTffi ;;*$n#
mines the twelve basic rype{then the divisio" subdivision into sevenry-two types.
i".;#t;;,
jfi ;a
Law of fusion of similarities: Experiences having the same rate vibration will fuse; and in thi, *orL^"llia.". *fri"fr-fr;;ffi;; 87
of
Talks Continueil
tlre work help the magnetic centre in ourselves to grow and become
IO
stronger.
llhere is a kind of immortality through chil&en and children's children. And there is an immortality which comes from a man having to be ro.born in a succession of bodies until he has perfected himself-
F. S. PINDER
#
$
i I ri
from Orage, with whom I could talk openly and freely was F. S. Pinder. Our early relationship had grown into a close and lasting friendship. Whenever we met I left him refreshed and renewed, mentally and cmotionally. He had a deep understanding of the inner meaning of Beelzebub's Tales. After onc of our talks he gave me a copy of a talk of Gurdjieff's on learning to work like a man. Briefy, it is to the effect that all creatures work, from insects to man. One man works with his mind done, another with only his body, and nothing can be e4pected from them; they are onebrained so to spealc. Only when all three brains work together can it be said that a man, real man, works, otherwise he works like an animal. When all three centres work togcther then it can be conscious work, but oue has to learn how to work like this. The least difficult is the moving centre, the next the thinking cenrrc; the most difrcult is the fceling centre. At the Prieur6 Gurdjieff repeatedly told us to leam ro work, nor like a horse or evcn a libourei but fike a man. Regarding the feeling centre being the most difficult, this may have to do with what he says rn Beelzebub about the feeling cenre nor being concentrated in one place like the rnoving and thinking, but disrHB oNB uaN in England, apart
persed.
In doing a physical job, like digg"g or sawing, one has to be constandy on the watch not to get caught up in the fow of associations. Thc feelings easily become involved and an argument with someone is started in one's mind. One begins to $'ork not even like a hone.
In doing physical work like gardening or house-work one can, by scnsing or counting and remembering onese$ save 'n enormous amount of energy. Pinder also gave me his notes on the breathing exercises, and experiments that Gurdjieffmadc at the Prieur6. 88
89
F. S. Piruler
F. S. Piniler
. He stated emphatically that it is 6r befter to do no breathing exercises at all than to do them ythoug a genuinc reachbr. m. ,yrr?*, of breathing,.yogr a1d orherwise, widelyidvertised, are b"rrd 6o only unferstanding and thereby dangerous. ffr. *i. " ,"g*, lar,tral understand them, would never for money give out their "". rei know_ r ledge of breathing to all and sundry. ' Gurdjieffsaid that in the breathing exercises as with everything else .if the movements are done without ile participation of the irrrlJp"", of the organism they can be harmfirl. . He- divided the pupils into three groups, according to rype. He trave tjre qrT groups a difrcult exercise with detaileJ"*pl"ir"tion;-"nd groups were doing the same exercise eacli group did it ll:tgh theaccording dtterently, to type. He e4plained the three diffeient wavs cf the chest: by breathing in air, by in_fLation, by tight;ing :*p*di"g
Ekaterinodar when I was in the army serving under Holman for Denikin. Orage had written to me and I took duspensky on mv staff
1t Qrage's request; incidentally, the War Office m^ade me responsible l".r.hr r.Ilry, ryhich I paid out of my own pockct. I got to k iw hitrtll *_.1. At that time he was seemingly working t i*ooio*h Jth Gurdjiefl ro whom he menrioned me, and curdjiJffafrerwards looked me up in Tiflis. Larer, there seemed to be a rift Lemeen Gurdiieffand ouspensky, but I did not know why. when the Institute w"", ,t"rted at the Prieuri I went there with myfamily and when Gurdjietrwent to America, managed the prieurd for a time. on one o"""ri]oo before this, when ouspensky came ro the prieuri, Gurdjieffrefused to let him interpret for him ro a crowded study House of rnglish and Russians
the muscles. In connection with,the breathing exercises he later gave very com_ plicated exercises for the corucious ise of air and i*p..JJoor-#*rrr"l
a real breathing exercise is combined with anotier exercise. These
exercises demanded one's whole aftention and concentr"tioo
*d *.r"
to be done gdy by older pupils under the insrruction of a teacher; and
they never became easy. Dyrinq the breathing exercises in groups with Gurdjieffrwo of the pupils collapsed. whenth.y r""orr..i he said th"t th"y fbr;rrly have been doing ordinary treathing exercises. rtr.y had been
*"" .'a*itiJ;:-o;.
profes'onal boxer; the other, a wofiran,-thit, a professional singer. of- ffiT. 8.y,. Gur relates .orr..*iolii. ;tor-y _dji9tr pseudo schools of breathing, physicaidevelopment *a *drgJ? Ja a
In.the
Sheikh says, 'Let God kill hi*-*ho put others on the path.'
I o{en
does
not tirdersrand,
y;,
";;;-pr;
with the pinders in christchurch. They owned their . but were living on an income of five pot*j, *..ti"o lungalow " thcrewassuch a psychological richness in the atmJsph.*;.;;, ;.t; wealth of understanding tf the meaning and aim or ,i", whenever I went there.ifelt lifted up. rlie talk always ,;;;;J; ""irr*t" stayed
Gurdjieff and the Tcaching
about ouspensky, pinder said, 'All that ouspenskv had of -sneakins value, he got from Gurdjieff and that only with his mind. Fie had a ryfy.g.ry fing at the movements; and even confessed to b.i"g main.quarrel with_hig was that he, Ouspensky, ,Gurdjletrt knew better, and was apt to kick over the ffaces. I-met oorpority io
ilt ,ilGi;i.
9o
{ il ri
and visitors. Ouspensky, an educatei Russian, *", "of course *or" " as I yilab.le persol-thg mp# Englishman, but Gurdjieffsaid that -al had done it all dong I had bettei conrinuc. ouspeisky interrupted r.:yq"t times, objecting to my translation, and ^Curd.jltr ,etoited, 'Pinder is interpreting for me-not you., 'Of course Gurdjieff was di#iculi for an Englishman to inteqprer, .
since even the Russians followed his Russian oftin with d;ftculry; he pur-posely nothing easy. Ouspensky apparently thoughr ,:r",
t.
-made
gdej:to_o-d Gurdjieff and his innef teachinil*hi"h he di? nor, and Gurdjieffhad to make him choose whether-to stay with him andsub-
mit to. the discipline, or break- away. lAe episode was pain{irl but according-to-lay. Ousperyky lcnew he theiry, beme, tj"n anyone r possibly-he had the knowledge, but he &dnot unilerstanil. 'When men like Oyfe1st f., and his followers, impelled by selfimportance, give out what they have not fully &gested, tirey are bound, according to Gurdjigfi either to vomir or to *r.i p.t*"i"li"dig"rtioi. could never forget Gurdjieff,s atiacking him ii no", -.Quspenlky ofhis pupils. ouspensky had sei out, in]the Theosophical tr"diao" i" old st. Petersburg, in a role in which he saw himself as a successful religious teacher-though he may not havc been conscious of this. He *11 I have_said, a professioni philosopher. "r looked 'I've over o-uspensky's-Tertiui organun end New Moilel, but have se€n none of Nicollt books. Botlimen were professional y"r:I Td philosophers, plagiarists of ,mysrical' writings. borp.n ky, for dI his grear brain, w-as, {or what was real, turintellig*t; *i it *", Ouspensky should cut himself and his"pupils offfrom T""T:b! _that ,Ousp**y'r Cu.rfjletr tl is strange that there can be of t"".hiot', o and'GurdjieGOuspensky Slnrem': the 'nlk Teaching ii Curiiien;'s., 9r
BOOK II OUSPENSKY
Gurdjieff rircn
II
O USPEN
A. R. Orage, Frank Pinder, Rowland Kcnney, Fontaincblcau, rgzz
S
KY IN LONDON
rN THE EARLY spRrNG follo-wing Orage's death, there was a ring at our door. When I opened it there stood, to my joy and surprise, tf,. g.rtmanns. They hadover for a visit io the Ousfenskys and to _come arrange for the publication ofsome of Mr. de Hartmani's music. They spent lh: day with us and as usual we talked with hardly a stop. It was one of those occasions when, as Gurdjieff said, two people ri..t and are sympathedc, something fows between them; thJ qualiry of their atmospheres ghanges. After spending the day with us th-ey went on to Gadsden,-to the Ouspenskys. A few days later they came again, with a message from Mr. Ouspensky, to the effect that now thaiOrage was dead things had changed and he would like to see us. I drove the Hartmanns to the house in Gadsden, Kent, a fairly large place standing in its own grounds. We had not seen Madame Ouspensfy for several years and I had seen Ouspensky only once before. The large drawing-room might have teen in Old Russia; full of beautifirl Russian prints, ornasrents and ikons. In a few minutes the ouspenskys came in. ouspensky was not the cold, severe intellectual I expected to find, though this was one aspect ofhim; he was warm and friendly and easy to talk to. Tea was brought in by some of the pupils, eyerry.hing very elegant. During tea Madame Ouspensky did most of the talking, asking me many questioru about how Iirnderstood this and that..Then, after llong paus{ she said, 'Ah! I see gaps in your undermany things you do nor understand!' t ripiied, t know that :,Tdi.rg; I don't understand many things .In fact,I'm beginiing to realize that I wrderstand very little, in spite o{ or perhaps bei-"rrr. of*y *ork with Orage arrd Gurdjieff,' and I went on to r"y so*ething about the group in New York, but she interrupted me wiih, 'There *"r" ihirrgl, that Mr. prage did not understand or rurdersrood wrongly. fvlr. Or"i. was too formatory for one thing.' 'I'm sure Orage would have agreed with you but you had not seen
**y
95
Ouspensfu in London
Ouspe*W fu Lonilon
him for ten years, and he had changed very much in that time. And you know, Gurdjieffhimself once said that Mr. Ouspensky himselfwas too formatory.' This was when three ofus wcre sitting with orage at one ofthe little tables outside the dinirig room_ar the Prieur6. orage was holding forth about something or other and Gurdjieff, who w"s sitting at aiother tabJe with Sqjoerneval, was evidently listening to the toies of voice, and observing our gestures and postures and facial expressions. For he gtt ufr came over to us and said, 'Orage, I not like that scarf you wear. Y-ou know why?'Orage shook his head. 'It remind me of Ouspensky. He wore such thing sometimes. Never did I likc such scarf ofhis-.' Then he went indoors. 'We asked each other what he meant. Orage said, 'I suspect he meant that I was being too formatory. I sometimes am. Ousptsky is too.t no1 repeat this srory ro the Ouspenskys; and as it crossed my J {i{ mind Madame (as she was usually called) fired a regular barage of at me. We got a litde heated and I said, 'Madame Ouspensky, _gflltigns I didn't come here to bc put through a carechism bur to have friendiy talk.'Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ouspansky malcing"
'I don't know. Nothing, I think. But t would e4ioy visiting you and talking to you at times.' ''Would you like to come to my groupsl'
a signal
to her as iflo pipe do_wn. someone began to Lugh'and "llioio.ii". After a while Ouspensky talked about Gurdjiefi and he askej me how I understood'considering','self-remembering','selGobservation','negative emotion'. I said that after his accident I never heard Gurdjieffuse these terms. For self-remembering he used the expression 'red iepper'; and for negative emotions, the denying part, he used 'dabbel'jevil. He said that groups tended to concentrate on one or other aspect of the teaching,,to become identified with expressions. He was constantly trying to destroy this identification; and this was something painful. yet he reminding us of the method of self-iemembering .was-corrstandy and self-observation; and the need to use and transmute the force o? legative emotions. 'It has to do with what hc calls Being-parktdolgdury,' I said; 'The book, Beelzebub's Tales, is full of this.''Beelzebub's Tales?'asked Madame. ''We do not have this.' 'It's the Bible of the 'Work,' I said, 'I have a typescript copy.' Later, as we were leaving, Ouspensky asked me if would lend him my copy of Beelzebub's Tales.' 'Do you object to my making a copy of it?' he asked.
I
'Of course not.' 'Well then, what can I do for you in returnl' 96
'That might be interesting.' 'Which group would you like ro come to?' I thought for a moment, then said, 'Your newest and youngest group.'
'That
will
will fit in, for I
have a new group of thirry people which in two weelcs. Only there will be con&-
have its first meeting
tions.'
'What conditions?' 'That you agree not to ask questions in the group and not to _ aboat Beelzebub's Tales or Mr. Gurdjieffto any of my pupils.'
speak
'I agree. Bur [, on my part, must be free to see Mr. Curd3ieffand his pupils whenever I wish.' tOf course,' said Ouspenrky. A"d so began a contact, and a fairly close contact, which was to last ten years. Not long after our visit to Gadsden, Ouspensky moved his school to Lyne Place in Surrey, an eighteenth-century mansion with beautiful grounds, a park and an ornamental lake, and he invited me to visit him. When I arrived I was taken up to his study; we shook hands and sat down, and
he poured out glasses ofred wine. We began by talking about Russia and t told him about my experiences there. Then he spolc- about Lyne Place and said that as he now had nearly a thousand pupils, they were taldng a large place in Colet Gardens in Barons Courrwlth a and lecrure rooms. After our third glass of wine, he began to speak
hil
about Gurdjiefr Hc said, 'You know, when Gurdjieff started his Institute in paris I did everything I could for him. I raisedlnoney for him and sent him pupils, many of them infuential people. When he bought the prieurd I went therc myself and Madame stayed for some time. but I found that he had changed from when I knew him in Russia. He was difiicult in Essentuki and Constantinople but more so in Fonainebleau. His behaviour had changed. He did many things that I did not like, but it wasn't what he did that upser me, it was the stupid way he did them. He came to London to my group and made things very unpleasant for me. After this I saw that I must brealc with him, and t told my pupils that they would have to choose between going to Fontainebleau or
working with me.' 97
Aspensky itt Lonilon
'But Madame Ouspenslcy wcnt to the prieur6, and
Ouspenshy in London
I
knew her daughter and young grandson Lonia who were there.' 'Not after r9a5. you see, Gurdjieff's mind never recovered from his
accident.
'I."angg accept that,' I said. 'We cannot judge Gurdjiefffrom our essence *{, a grear i."r"or., to ob_ "cJording jective reason, and a person whoTlives thus can sometimes to "ip"", our minds, T9illby wrong educarion and conditioning, as noinirmal. for me_Grgdjieffreptesents objective saniry; orage wi'o suffered much Gyajieff's behaviour and was often baff'ed agreed with me. !.t Gurdjieffgives qhocks, makes difficuldes, plays roles bith fb, [i, ;; development pd &t those around him. rte is perfecting himself as we ar: t9_do and all.his actions are practicJ. He /iueithe Teaching, lrrmg while we tdk about it.' 'No,' said ouspensky. He lost contaa with the source after Essentuki. His behaviour goes conrrary to his teaching. Then the accident. He drives a car as if he were riding a horsc.' 'f can't agree that he's lost contact with the source,'I said. .Formehe
,
lcvel. He livcs from
is the source.'
ouspensky was not even armoyed with me; he vras sure that he was
right. I began to see traces of the infexible mental attitude that besets Russians, as individuds and in government; once they have adopted a mental attitude to a given situation they will stick to it, whateJer the
cost. Everyone knows, for example, that Russia produced more food. before the revolution when peasants worked on irt"t , and had their own holdings than under the system of socialized collective farmins
Yet
the.o*-uttirt goo.*ro.r.it, still persist io
t|9n w.as not good. But Glrdjieff said that pinder rurderstood many glings !e1q than Ouspensky, thag his Russian was good enough ani his English better than-Ouspenskyi. Gurdjieff tried to explain that all of ouspersky's vasr knowredge would be useless unless he worked on himseif in order to uoderrt"rid some basic principles and that without this his pupils would ger noytr.: He thengot up and he and pinder left. On the way back-Gurdjieffsaid to Pinder, 'now they will haue to choose a teacher.' orage's untimely death constandy brought to my mind the idea of recurrence and reincarnation, the wish io know'something definite about it, and one of the first things I asked Ouspensky iras, .Did Gurdjieffsay anything more to you about t"",rrr.rri" tU"n i, in your
writings?'
'No. trn fact he said very litde, but he did accept my ideas as a theory. And I'm sure he rmderstood much more than he toid o, in Russia."
I:9"fuy"{,.'O1age- once said that he himself had read everything he hold of and had studied every oriental theory o" rr" "i,., death, yet he knew absolutely nothing-was nor sure of anything.' 'N!f qh.ory,' said Ouspensly, 'is .,-*rt m"n is born again on th""s"-. . d"y io the same house of the i"me p"rentr-and cverlthing in his life will repeat. He will meet the ,"*" ir.o, love the ,"*" *oir"r and so c.oul.d set
on.t
. -'Gur-djieffimplies,' I said, 'that this may be so, yer ifa man works on hjmself a1d changgs, then circurnstances will .fr*g" with him. His characteristics will be similar but his essence may b"-diffe".nt. He may be freer and so avoid many stupid mistakes. For example, in my own life there are incidents I do not wish to repeat-some ofinyschooi d"yr, and my life in the army ar thetimeofthJrirstWorldWai.theho,,o* of these are always-with me; and I feel rnd know that my only hope is ty work ol *y:.14 ro remember mysel4 to practise neing-farktdolgduty. As-thc aphorism in the Study House iys, ,One of"the chief iicentives for work on yourselfis the realization that at any moment you may die.'The remembrance of these two periods of my lifc and'the aphorism help me ro remember ro work. And I see how easily, if I were a litde more conscious, these events could be avoided in th" fo*r"-
having to buy wheat from capitalist countries. "oll."iJ";;;ii; . ouspensky had adopted a certain attitude to Gurdjieffand persisted in it; and it grew stronger with time. _ Rggardingthe incident of Gurdjiefft-*{r to Ouspensky's group in London, Pinder told me that Gurdjieffhad been.oir""*id "Lorrr^th" appr-oagh to the work of some of Ouspensky's pupils and about Ous_ pgrkyi own lack of'nderstanding of the real porpor" ofthe work and of GurdjieffhimseE, and in thc winter of rgzzfie took pind", *ith hi* to London and went to a meering of ouspensky and his pupils. Gurdjiqt"ry. Ouspensky thag h9 was workinf on the *rorrg^liio; h" *", roo intellectual. Ifhe wished to undustanirne musr ttop bejin again to-worlc with Gurdjiefr But ouspensky could not take it"id and e6t -i*. Also, he obiected to Pinder i"r"qpt"rntg for Gurdjieff *hor-. n"giiJr,
Also Isee ho.*:T{y, b"ki"g consciousness, I could repeat and repeat.' At the end of this talk ouspensky spolce to me of solmething he had g"n" me typescript translation of it ininglish. yritten in Rusia " Hc was thinking of having it pubiished 6,rt *"r uncerain whethir to
98
99
Ti
Ouspensby in Innilon
call
it A
cinema Drama
Ouspensky in Lonilon
or
The stange Life of ban ossokin.I found tl r.ry interesting-the most interesting ireatm"nt of recurrence in fiction that I had read. c. H. ginton in scientifu Romances has a, story based on the same idea. I find it fifficult ro accept Ouspensky's theory that, for example, lther has been born again in the same farm irouse in Haqpenden, that he is nowl,b9y.g9i"g to th" r'ill"g. school, that he will go 6 Loroo and marry and I shall be born in the same tiny villa there ani so on and so on. There may be something in the theory of Milton's Mortalists: that the dead are dead until the end of the world and that the world will begg again and everything will repeat. is also a fr:ory that, after a number of years we are born again h Th"r.." su*oundings and meet the same people in different bodi"t with different essences, since planetary iofluJncei may be different. chapter 'MJ Farher' in ttre Second Series, Gurdjiefftells of . . q +" 9o his father sayingthat after death, something persisrs fot and may
fI
.
{*$g
tii.
by surroundings; then ihis fies. This" may refer to "Ff.{ the second death mentioned in Reveladons, and the second sacred
even be
Rascooarno of Beelzebub's Tales.
Every retgion, from the mosr primitive to the most highlv organized, has some theory or other about life after death, but m"osiof fiese theories arejustfantasy and lead to endless and useless speculation. oo.j asked Ouspensky, 'Where have all these peopli Socrates and -.I PJatg, lor example, gone to? Where are they, *h"i.ver is left of them? And what happens eventually if we work'and perfect ourselves to a certain degree?'
'I don't know,'he
said. 'But there is a possibiliry that we may go ro another planet, where conditions are moie favourable.
I study the book the more am I convinced that he has said the last word on the subject for our time and that his formulations are according to sane logic. In the book one is constantly reminded of the idea that if a !y conscious efforr or by accideni, has acquired the conception-of a soul henust, willy nilly, become coated "g"inor "nd again yith a planetary- body until the soui becomes perGcte?, it self. The more
**,
will suffer and languish eternally. This Teaching is to help these unfortunates, people like us. If we review our life sincerely and impartially we carrnot but be appalled and shocked at our stupidities and mistakes, which, if we had made an effort at the moment, could have been at least mitigated. so many. thin-gs that, according to subjective moraliry ro have been 'good' turn out to have been'bad'*'sin'. we missed the marh. what is the soul? Gurdjieffsays thar a soul is a luxury; irisnornecesr"y to the average man, who can firnction perfectly well without it. The Muslims saytharwomen do nothave so.th bot thit theycan achieve one through a Tan.A soul_is something rare-that 'something'which
,..*.i
immortal and which can be achieved by those who have a dlep wish in their essence for continuation. This work is for those who h'ave in themselves the conception or beginning of a soul, of the immortal spark, and it provides a practical method. The question of the soul is corurected with that of essence, which is said to bi a sort of compound ofrealities both simple and complex-it is capaciry and facrrldes, rh"t "ll inwe have inherited from our aniestors, inteimixed with praneiarv fluences, warmed by solar fire. Essence has its defects, birt it has rich is
possibilities and real eternal wishes.
'You. remember perhapl that in one of my group meetings I spoke . about the various ideas oflife after death: the'so--callid scientfrc idia of death as complete disappearance; the spiritualists and their idea of t-"*t"4 and the posibfiry of getting irirorrt""t with what survives; the christian and Mahommedan ideas with rewards of heaven and punishments of hell; the theosophists and their idea of reincarnation; Buddhist ideas of reincarnarion and the rest. All of these taken simply, and not frgrn tle point of view of their wiseacrings and distortiins, heve something that is right.'
Gurdjiefi as I have said, has a good deal to say in Beelzebub, s Tales . about death and after. Much is hidden and each must find it for himIOO
IOI
Ouspmsky's Group
T2
Then followed other questions from the audience; their whole attcntion being on Ouspensky. As the evening went on I became more and more impressed with the breadth and clariry of his massive and powcr-
ful mind-so far * knowledge was concerned.
OUSPENSKY'S GRO('P.
TALKS WITH OUSPENSKY ouspsxsry's cRorr? MEETTNc to which we had been invited at the house
in'Warwick Gardens was timed for 8 p.m. We arrivcd, my wifeandl, about 7.45. kr the hall a woman sat ar a table with a list of names, she took ours and we wenr inro a room filled with rows of chairs which soon began to fill up. The atmosphere was rather tense; there was a feeling of expectancy and I had to remember myselfwith all my might to keep my emanations to mysdf and not let them run to waite. Curd.liitrsaid th"t wirich mechanically fow out from people "*"tions stink, but that if one keeps them to oneself they will accumul"i". not pass from one, and will crystallize. The energy that passes frompeoplethe emotions of a crowd at a football match or a icvivalist oi" p-oliti cal meeting, goes to the moon. But a man can collect energy from a crowd, as a dynamo collects eleariciry from the atmosphere. I found that I was able to, so to say, collect some of the energy from the group and keep my own from running to wefte. Soon every seat was occupied and people began to glance round every time the door opened. It was with a feeling of relief when, half an hour later, one of Ouspensky's older pupils, a rnarL came in and sat at,the right of Ouspcnsky's chair and asked for questions, which were taken down by a woman secretary. Sometimes this man would ansrtrer the questions himse(, others he let pass, which were later answered by Ouspenslcy. In about fifteen minutes Ouspenslcy came in, followed by four prosperous-looking professional-looking well-dressed men, older pupils, who sat round him facing us. Ouspensky took up the list of names of those present and scanned it, then sat back and, with rather a severe e{pression glanced round the room and said, ''Well, any questions?'
The questions were read out, he answering, clearly and concisely.
toz
Soon after the questions began I glanced at my wift and we both smiled broadly; the questions were almost identical with those askcd in Orage's early groups in New Yorlc; though, while those were spoken with a broad American accent 'as if mouth were lirll of cold potato' according to Gurdjiefi and answered by an Englishman, here they were asked in what Ameticans call 'a clipped English accent', 'as if mouth were full of hot potato', and answered by a Russian. And the answers, if not exacdy the same, were strikingly similar. tondering this I saw why questions, ar least in young groups everywhere, must follow a pattern; each will ask questions according to his type. If you understand rfpes you will know whar quesrions they will ask even before they open their moutts. Gurdjieff understood rypes, hence his extraordinary, almost magical, power of seeing into the human psyche. The science of rypes has been known to r."l initiates from the earliest times. Attar's Conference of the Birds wriaen in the twelfth century, is pardy based on this. Since all men everywhere have the same basic emotions all men have the same soft of feelingsincluding vanity and self-love; bur, as the reason of ordinary m"n it abnormal and belongs to the reason of knowledge, all men think differendy. Only those who possess the reason of r:nderstanding can
think in common. Ouspensky's replies to questions, the general atmosphere, stimulated me. My lary inefrcient mind needcd this kind ofwork at this time. I can
n9w that the important thing I got from Ouspensky's meeting;s and tdks with him was the further training of my mind io formulate . my thoughts and The meeting ended about ren-thirry. The audience, mosdy young and young middle-aged men and women, were asked not to loitir ouiside. There was litde talking and everyone went his way. Though we still had a small group of our own of people I had gor together tn ry32 and which Jane Heap .was now diricting, I Glt ihe need of Ouspansky's groups and the conrac with the Ouspenskys. But from the first I noticed a difference between Gurdjieff's and Orage's pupils on theone hand and Ouspensky's on the other. In the Ouspensky was as if one were associated with a Russian secret soiiety-rogp lt the hush-hush and the precautions; pupils were constantly on thc watch say_
feelings.
r03
Arpensky's Group as
to whom they spoke and what they said;
Ouspensley's Group as
if
the police might,be
expected et eny time. I missed the emotional freedom and mutual exchange of Gurdjieff's and Orage's pupils. The secretiveness had very litde to do with what they called the 'work'. It was Russian. Anyone who has lived in Russia, or read the memoirs of those who visited Russia, will understand. Even in the eighteenth century, travellers from France and England who wished to talk privately would go to the centre of a large square in Petersburg or Moscow to walk up and down, so as not to be overheard and be
reported to the police. One could understand this with regard to the Ouspenskys. They were Russian; and one of Ouspensky's sisters, a brilliant young woman, had been exiled to Siberia by the Tzsar's govcrnment for 'revolutionary activities' and had died there. Another cause was the real difficulties that Gurdjieffhad created for Ouspensky in tgzz, specidly created, according to F. S. Pinder, for Ouspensky's possible inner development. Gurdjieffwished Ouspensky to apply the teaching practically but Ouspensky either would not or could not submit to the severe discipline that would have been necessary. He admitted to Pinder that he was physically and emotionally lazy. So he continued with his philosophical school; and became a sort of Plato to Gurdjiefr's Socrates, teaching the theory, the philosophy. Shordy after they moved to Lyne Place, Ouspensky showed me round the grounds, pointing out the work the pupils were doing. Later, in his study, he asked me to come down and work with them. I said I would have to think about it. I did think about it, and was greatly tempted. It would be pleasant to work with these people, whom I liked; yet I saw that I could be in a false position. My contact with them
Meanwhile conversations
with the
Ousparskys continued-they
lasted, in fact, until the war. Ouspensky would invite me to his study and open a botde of wine, and after three glasses, as Gurdjieff had
recommended,
I was able to open up and talk freely.
liking for hifn warmed into
a
Gradudly the
real affection, for here I saw quite another
side of him; not the somewhat forbidding philosopher, but a warm and
sympathetic man.
I made no notes, as our talks were really an exchange of subjective opinions. He spoke about his life in Russia and the result of some strange experiments he had made. We compared notes about our travels and, ofcourse, talked a great deal about Gurdjieff Ouspensky said, 'I tried many times to come to ur understanding with Gurdjiefl but it was not possible, and when he came to London and tried to break up my group I had to sever my connection with him.' It was notpossible to come to an'understanding'with Gurdjieff You either accepted him as a teacher or you did not. And when you had absorbed as much as you could carry you went away and digested it. 'As for liquidating your group,' I said, 'he did just that to Orage in New York in Orage's last year there.' And I related the incident. 'Gurdjieff's methods were &astic,' I said. 'but as we are so sunlc in apathy, so mechanical, he had to give us violent shocks.' As always, Ouspensky listened to me patiendy and even with interest, but I felt that nothing I could say would change his attitude in
As far as I could see no real tasks were given in physical work as at the Prieurd and no exercises apart from one or two very simple ones. There were no 'shocks' as Gurdjieffused to give; and it could not have been otherwise. It was a well-run philosophical school, unique in our time perhaps, with nearly a thousand pupils; and no breath of scandal ever touched it. Sometimes I wished that Gurdjieff could come and throw an essence bomb and wake these nice people into life; yet how much poorer their existence would have been without the life at Lyne
the least. A year later, during a conversation, Ouspensky said, '[t is necessary that we get in touch with an esoteric school.' 'Do you know of an esoteric school?' I asked. 'No, but there must be schools, either in Europe or the Near East.' 'But why is it necessary? We have 1 school.' ''Where?' 'The Prieur6 was an esoteric school. Gurdjieffhimself is, so to speak, an esoteric school.' 'No, I carurot accept that. It is necessary, as I say, to get in touchwith an esoteric school.' He went on to say something about there being a missing link, which I then could not follow. 'For me,' I said, 'the esoteric school is in Paris. I feel no need to look for another, nor have I any wish to do so while Gurdjieff is
Place
alive.'
would be only personality contact, since I would not be able to speak to them from essence about the ideas, essence for me being Gurdjieff and his writings. So, although he several times brought up the question it came to nothing.
r05
Ouspenshy's Group
Ouspensky said nothing. 'We sar quietly smoking, then he said,.Why
won't you come and work at Lyne?' For one thing,' I said,-'[ find ir almost imposible to make any real contact,with-your pupils. They are friendly, but there is always a barrier. You know, they seem to be more English than the fnglish in not wishing to give themselves away; there is a feeling of rJstraint about them. In other wo-rds, t lilce their penondities bit I can't get at their essence. All that I have got in the system is based on GwdjieF's personal teaching and Beelzebub's Tales, and these I have agreed ,iot to speak about.'
He smiled and said, 'Bur you will get to know rhem in rime., I thought for a bit and said, 'Why don't you let me read Beelzebub,s Tales to a small group of your older pupils, either here or in London? qir_ir something I .r"l{ do. No discussion, just reading.' 'No, it is not possible.' 'Why?' 'For one rhng Beelzebub's Tales nee& a great deal of mental prepara. tion.' - 'Not mental preparation,' I said, 'but an ability to read between the
F"r,
1nd
patience and perseverance. M"ny simple people can take iq -fit
though intellectuals are frequendy bafled, they c"n't it into any category or school of psychology or philosophy.' 'No,' he said, '[ can't agree to your reading it to them nor to their reading
it.'
'But you read it. You have a copy!' 'No, ['ve glanced at it, but not read it.' 'You haven't read it? Why?' '[t sticks in my throat.' From sheer astonishment I could say nothing, and he began to talk of something else. S-9me gme laggr gave mea rypescript to read, saying that he was -he *ituS do1vn that he could rcmemblr of what Cur{ieffhad said
4l
to him. When he asked my opinion of it I said that it wL wonder l stuff; it yas in a different vein from Tertium Organum, and A New Moilel of the (Jniuerse, much higher in the scale oiid."s; it was a verbatim report of Gurdjieff's ralks. 'But you surely publish thisl' t asked. 'Apart from Beelzebub,s -will Tales and the seconil series, ir's the most interesting collection of
Gurdjiefft sl)lqrgs and doings that could possibly be g-ot rogether., 'I may publish it-but not if Gurdjieff publisires ieelzebib's Tales. ro6
Ouspenshy's Group
'!V,hy?' he did not answer. .T9 -y-q"estion
ft was eventudly pubdeath-Fragments of an unknown fiini"g, yhich the American publishers stupidly dubbed In Search of the Miracu-
.
[1h:{, gftel Gurdjieff's lous.
I cnjoyed r*Tg to Madame Ouspensky-she was always stimulating, but l_never felt close to her as t did to Ouspensky. She was always the Grand Duchess, keeping you at a &stance, ani I n".,er felt the warmth that Ouspansky, in his mellow moods, radiated. But then, I've always found it more srimulating to discuss ideas with men than with women. Some time after meeting Ouspensky I was in paris with Gurdjieffand at lunch told him about my conracr with him and about ori going to his gloup. He listened, and made an unflattering rcmark ibout Ouspensky. 'Mr. Gurdjieff,' I said, 'I like Ouspensky and t enjoy talking
to him.' 'Oh yes, Ouspensky very nice man to talk to and drink vodka with, but he is weak man.' A day or so later, he called me into his store-room. This store-room, which later became 6mous, was overfowing with every kind of delicious food from every part of Europe and-the Near last-fruits, dried meat, cold sausages and salami, sw..tt, pr.served and carured food, and herbs. flhe room was permeated with the smell of lovage, one of my-favourite herbs; and even now, when I go into my garden and smell the lovage, by association I am back in thi store-roo*]Th.r" *", alarge refrigerator, a small table, and a chair for Gurdjieffand one for a visiror. Gurdjieff produced three large boxes whiih he filled with different dclicious things to eat-sweets, sausage, preserves and so on. 'Now,'he said, 'tie them up and talce them witi you. One is for your family, one for Mrs. Howarth arfd her daughter, one for Madame Ouspensky.'They weighed about ten poun& each. _ On the way back to London I pondered what Gurdjieffhad meant by Ouspensky's being a weak man. Every one of us on ttris planct has his weakqesses, his vaniry and self-love, his dark side and his light side, his and impossibilities, and evcry man has his suffering. -posibilities Blalce knew it:
I wander thro'
each charter'd street,
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow, Aud mark in every face I meet Marks of weakness, marls of woc. t(y7
Ouspensky's Group
In cvery cty of evcry Man, In every Infant's cry of fear, In evcry voice, in every ban, The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.
'What was Ouspensky's weakness? Where was it? As refected I I gradudly ceme to see that it was, as with most of us, in his emotional centre. All of us (including, perhaps especially, intellectuals,like Shaw and Bertrand Russcll) are rurdeveloped emotionally. One norices ir particularly with intellectuals, since one expects them to be adult emotionally-which they are not. Both Orage and Ouspensky had extraordinary and unusual intellectud integrity, and one could rely on this. But I had come to see that emotionally, I could trust no one and nothing, least of dl myself Our feelings can c,hange from wcek to wee"k, day to day, and even hour to hour. Ouspensky's attitude to Gurdjieff was chiefy emotional, hence p"tti"l and subjective; but his approach to Gurdjieff's system was intellectud and impartial-it had itrt"griry. Orage also had intellbctual integrity; yet he alwap accepted Gurdjieffas the Teacher. On the mental plane, as regards Ouspensky, I sometimes felt like thc mouse when the elephant looked at him and said, 'Bur you'rc so small.' And the mouse replied, ''Well, I've been sick!' But emotionally I never felt inferior to Ouspensky. I was discussing rhe cenrres with him one day and said, 'My horse is too strong for me; it so often takes the bit between its teeth and gallops oS landing me in di{ficuk situarions. I lose control ofiq and often have to pay heavily for this. My feelingsyou know-the carriage, the horse and the drivcr. My feeling centre is too strong.' He said, 'A strong feeling centre is a gift of Goil.' I said, 'One can have a strong f..li"g centre yet be conscious of a
in the solar plexus.' One was always aware of the great strength of Gurdjieffin the region of his solar plexus-the region of essence, of 'I-am-negs', of will, of being. In my own way, because ofthe efforts I had made I had become aware of a growing strength in the solar plexus, an 'I-am-ness', so that I was better able to cope with myself and other people. wealsness
When I arrived from Paris with the parcels from GurdjieffI wrore to Madame Ouspensky and received an invitation to Lyne. She gave ro8
Ouspensky's Group
me tea in her own beautifully furnished room. In vain she tried to conceal her delight when I opened the parcel for her. Then slowly she unpacked it, savouring each item, sorting them into three heaps. 'This,' she said, is for Mr. Ouspensky, this for my helpers, and this for myself,'
After tea she asked me about Gurdjieff; how was he? What was he doing? What did he say? I gave her the picture in detail as far as I could.
On my next visit to Gurdjieff
I
told him what had
happened,
and on each of my visits to Paris I took back three boxes. Each time I took one to Lyne and with Madame went through the ritual of unpacking; afterwards I related in detail what Gurdjieff had said and done.
When they moved to Lyne Place I had suggested to Ouspensky that he should let Mrs. Howarth and my wife teach his pupils some of the dances that Gurdjieffhad shown in the demonstrations. He agreed to consider it. Some of the pupils came to our fat in Hampstead and were shown the obligatories, and eventually classes were formed at Lyne Place. Much later, there was a big 'do' at Lyne at which some of the movements were shown. I very much wanted to go and was somewhat chagrined to be told that it was not possible. Madame had decided to punish me, I gathered, because I would not tahe an ecdve part in their
work. Ouspensky again asked me to join in the work at Lyne Place. There were various activities and he suggested that t should run a small printing press they had, which, being a publisher, was in my line. Apart from my not feeling 'at home' therc, it was physically dilficult as it was a long way from our cottage on the farm near Redbourne, to which we had recendy moved from London. Most of my free time was spent with my young f"*ily and our smdl Gurdjieff group in
London. In addition to Ouspensky's groups Maurice Nicoll had a group of ovcr a hundred at Amwcll in Hertfordshire. In 1935 our own group in London consisted of some twelve people. tn Paris with Gurdjieffwerc a few Americans, English and Russians and in New York the scattered remains of Orage's old group, about twenty. Outwardly the life at Lyne Place had a resemblance to that at the Prieur6. Inwardly it ryas di:ferent. There \rras no individual work on pupils as there had been with Gurdjieff--nor could there have bccn. r09
tr
{i
$n
Ouspnsby's Group
tl
OuEensky's Group
ll,
ffere-yas no famrly life there, no children. One missed the patriarchal life of thc Prieur6. Quspenslcy gave only one cxercise in his groups, as far as I could gather-ttopping ttroughts', which was itself a part of several exercises given by Gurdjieff, For mc to have worked there would have been like going back to school after having been at university. Once, after the usual talk with Madame on my retum from paris she.said, 't.&t'r quite understand what you ger from Mr. Gurdjieff Tell me, what is it you get from him?' It was difficult to formulate blrefy what I did get but, after thinking a litde I said, 'Mr. Gurdjieffsays things to me about myselfwhich hit *e lg!tt-- my feelings, in my essence, so that I never can forget them; and litde by litde the_effectif to changc something in me and live me more understanding of mpelf and other people; ar drc same tinie it is accompanied by a realization of how little I actually do undentand. Mr. Ousto my mind and I'mnever tired oflistening to him. But "pp"+ this doesn't change things in m)'self, I think I can say thit I get more for inner work from one lunch with Mr. Gurdjieffthan from-a year of Mr. Ouspcnsky's groups.' She thought for a moment, then said, ,yes, I think I know what you mean.'
ll ri
Ouspensky's gr-olps; then Nicoll'! pupils; and so on. flhe ripples in a pool widen and become weaker the farther they gct fto* th. centrc. With p-owcrfirl ideas, the more diluted, the- more people are
s
attracted.
ilr
fl;
$ 'il
iii fii
t,
'lr
q*\y
Lyne Plaee
I continued with
Ouspensky's group, once a weelc, while my wife went to Lyne Place oncc a week with Mrs. Howarth to teach the movements. Although I enjoyed meeting and talhing to the Ouspenskys at Llme Place, I began to find the group meetings the house in-Warwick Gardens more and more unsatis$'ing. The work"iwas too theoreticd, too one-centred, intellectual-cenued; and often I would leave with a feeling
of emptines, of cmorional hunger. Even our own smdl GurdjieF group of tcn people was more satisfying. Maurice Nicoll invited us to his place at Amwell in Hertfor&hire. we went once or trn'ice and were impressed with the quality of his pupils. Mn.-Howarth and r-nl wife showed them sorne of the'obligatories. Nicoll was an unusual man and it was a great pity that he had lut
himself off from Gurdjieffafter only a four months stay at the prieur6 in r9zz. But Nicoll was able to atrract people, good material, for whom perhaps Gurdjiefftideas, and even Ourpensfy's, were then too strong.
the centre ofa school of objective teaching, an esoreric -Gurdjieffwas school. Outside this central point was the circle of the ofier pupils of Gurdjieff then, sotrrc of their pupils. Outside this again werJth-ose in
IIO
III
Fortute Turns Her Wheel
r3
FCRTUNE TURNS HER WHEEL
their sanity but they were helpless against the power of the strong negative forces caused by the pl*.t".! tensions. In Austria there was still something of the old Austria I had known, and when we returned through Gerirany it was like goi"q U"raioro a prison; and to cross into Belgium*even Belgium-;ar out of a:$i"g room into the fresh air. It walas if th. Coar,i*iog destroyed Russia, had resolved to destroy Germany the Germans mad. . Gurdjieffsays thal men are only partly to blame. Cosmic laws are the cause, bur man, because of the ab-normal life he h", sel4 is also g'eady to blame , and is responsible fo, tt t oirorr;i;oJ"; " y3. LiF is becoming more- complilated, more srupid,
rft..r*i"g
*d *.r.'-Jiog
ar r'rs rrMB, in ordinary life the effect of the Solioonensius was bringing about increasing'tension io b.i"d;-";h^l'"" ir, ifr. newspape,rs there waslitde bur news of Hitler's and themassacres of stalin. rh" in{t}*derings in full blast with tens of thousands of peopre of the same countrvin-
io**
#M;;rA;i ;;;r, $;;h;';;;",
{ulgingin'massreciprocddertoctioo'1"fiird;;;;;r;il'J;r, t',.borr. was affected bv the tension but chielly the peoile in Germany. trtr"" J.r"".i"l e;* were at work on the olanet: Nazism, Communism W"rt * C.oi tdism. I saw somethiirg of N-""ir**hJr,lJ*, "od *o fiends, _u #fe and I motored to Aus*a. that were to follow in Europ-e and Asia.
*";;"J;;ffi;.J,,,;:l*;
When GermSy it was like going into a vast open prison. The intensiw of 11to generar negatlve emotion stirred up was oppresive in the e*treine; 'oe the hotels, cafds and restaurants p.-"iia chief features of German behaviour, ioog"o." and serviliry, were blatant-arrogance of,those in rurifoim, friendly 'Griiss Gotr'I had known ua u"* r"pr aiedbyrh..;;'.;;*;g upraised arm of 'Heil Hitler'. I talked ro knew war was coming and were afraid.
*.r.
*irtrillil; ,.iltif ;i,h.^;di. il. *riy ,ri-li";f*pfr.'ffi,
said that . Gurdjieff $Sliyh are sheep, French don-keys, Americans Germans jackals.-The wolf is ii fr."o*"Ub #"*I, i;-r"L., lft:l what he wanrs, and you know he is coming. With the jackJ;;;;;;,
Ifyou Fo*.. big
are he will if you beat him with a "ft"id,on will fawn you. """"ily""i'Uut Munich was crowdedr-Th9 only rooms we could find were in a large hotel, Jewish, and the whole was one of disturbins "tmosphere negative emotion, of fear arrd ro.ntmerlr. O" g"i"g ;;, ,hil;: we noticed that dl the cars of the residirr.'rrr* rrlr.ilr*ia ro-aing hai^t'* tyres {efatgd; ours,.forrun"r.b.;;; io g"r"g". i;r;;;; as ifan hpterical e4plosion might break l,r, *y "moment. Germanv was a lunatic asylum, its people govenred by "i madmen. S"*" k"Jr,
sticlc he
lr2
;;il{b;'h;*"r; ;;;_
tylrg ptysically, emorionally and mentally, and the only
remefies olfered by our elperts are more money, more psychot"gy;o;;J;;_ tion, more science, more government, more ittlrti.rr'rJrtiri"*r, poison sprays, more injections, more drugs_everyrhi"e Urt ii"i" common sense. 'we are threatened with another food, a iood o?'th" false values of pseudo-civilization which may drown an ark. W9 haye an ark, in which we can take refuge from the {lood. The 'teaching', based ancient objective knowledie, i, ,hi,
;;;"
"ll;h;;;;;,
-
;d.;;Jl
-on
alk-.lepreserved the seeds of th"t from whici'";;;;;; civilization could grow. The life of a man is similar to the life of the earth on which
he lives, wigh its heat and cold, storms and earthquakes, oases and deserts. Deace and plenry,.struggle_and qrga$rs 4owra h. h", strivings, his runs of good luck and bad luck. My 9wr life, after thg Frlst )vorld'war, as regards ourer conditions, up.to the.time of Orage's death, had been, as f hL" ,"iJ, as it possibly could have beeryn-w1ls rirt spirito"l.; endless opporrunities, some of which I had aken,"nd thrigh rkr. h"Ju;; sheer lack of understandt"g F:"g_h ralrrd to protrt by. h case, outer liG had been full ofinterest, with real friends, a wide circle of acquaintances, and the tion of family life . But alwap, inside me , from the tim. ;lA; suffedng..Not just-mechanical suffering, b.rt t[r. rhe teelings which.is part of the suffering that has to be borne bv a[ ,'vmg beings. In this last, since meeting Gurdjieff the sufferins was now not completely wasted, I could use ,6me ofit fo, *y ment. And this made all the difference : I had a cenrre Jrgr""iry I13
hir"pr;il;#;ht,
-rt
filT-fr",
ldlrf
*y
"r;;;;i" ffi;;;
fi ;tJi;;;;
**rt.l;;;_ W;;;;" pr;J;;;;
"; t*'d;_ *i"
Fottufle Tuns Her Wheel
Fortune Tuns
* can happ-ar that when a man is losing at that in outer ri* is regarded as. good-mouey, comfort, prop"iy_hi, ir_., liL i, growing, developing. real aim'
'recurrence'in it. The frctory was five minutes wdk from the original in'\[/ood Street, where my 6ther had started the busincss in i8go. I-was right back in conditions and early associarions of my branch of the Nott f"*ily. I wasn'r resendul against my fimily-I i"lt closc to them; I was resentful of my having to go back into the hat business. It was as if I were going down and down and for somc days I was in a state of anguish and dcpression. But the organism, if one dbes not give way t9 despafu, can surprisingly adapt itself to srrange conditions; and after the first few weeks in the business, (which on three occasions I thought I had left for ever) I pulled myself up and began ro try ro extract as much as possible out of an unpleasant situation. I cven became useful to the business, and when, a few months later, on the recommen&don of a fiend I was offered a good job in a big publishing
"; ;[,'ifrif. b.i"gp;l;;;;;._,
:il
ours began to.get inio difficuities; deprived
by th"
b*ki"g
6..*"ilrta "f *itt%* U"a_ also began
,rI*.*. advice we madc Irterary mistakes. Trouble ftAianJcw, who li""i U*."Olrr, otthe norsc of the piano and the children. One Boxing Day""*pr"""a he irrt th" bailifts in, our rent in advance being onc &y overdui fr.ii"e'rt * ,o tum us out. The banks wcre shut anl I trad no l*lir'o that the bailiffcame from my village; *" h.J ""rrr; L"-*;, ,h" ,;*"tir""r and of course knew So, ivhile wewaited;dl
*i
9:*Iy'j?1, *
ii""ii.a d*;;;y "rr"ryoo". for yy 6ther to sendthi c"sh, w" *a f";;;" "h"tt.Jfb.r*rfv, much useful information on how to deal ;rh h"fi"r;; *a.i"ilin *li"!, up tg noy, fortunateln I have rroi n".d"d. N"it"*lnIuri,, episode thc landlord paid mi to move, *i;;;;;;;ffi;;h" country.
house,
eight, went a"y i" a school in nrrf.fr"**a run by"q" JJen Greene and his wifc,""h seven miles away; Ben was a brother of Graham Greene. My parents rivcd ten J*"y *i *" i.iia three years we were able to f*r in the.neighbourh-ood; so for nearly "tir.t
d"'lfi;;;f
{'
i t.,
-y"a**.ffbrk;;;;_.ll So here I was back l|t * rvnere I had begun at the age of sevenreen in condition, .li* ;. ;u essential nature. Again the-siruation h.d ro*.tlri"g ;il;;"ri;i in
the
ciry, which t
TT4
h"dil"l..pt.
and remain collected inside, we not only save a lot of nervouJen.rgy, but we can use it for our own being. Srother Lawrence calls it 'the practice of the presencc of God'.
{.
;lr
*di
6:r:O
I kept in mind Gurdjieff's saying that one musr pay for one's existfulfil one's dcstined lot, repair the past. One cannot escape the pattern except by working it out-but consciously, which I tried to do. I4 like Brother Lawrence, we accepr a situation which is displeasing, ence,
;
;;;.
Ai
duced gold.'
.1";;;;.thi,
;i*"
I refused it. I had becomc interested in the factory i Ul"a
men and women who worked there and I was free. And again I felt that I-was working out something of the pattern of my life, repairing something ir *y past. I was reminded again of what was said about my horoscope: 'You come under the infuence of Satunr. Saturn is a cold hard planet-but a teacher. Every time you think you have got a lnoye on you will be pulled up with a jerk. All through life youwill find yourself coming rurder the infuences of Nott, of your family, negativc infuences, but you will work yourself out and in doing io yill learn. 11 Alchemy Saturn represents lead, and from lead is pro-
we enjoyed the life in our co*age on the 6rm near Redbournc. .botl The fi1 and
uve a-gooct smple country life. In business wc suuggJed on. publishing firms were closing, and dire*ors from three air."*t publishingGuses came to us for iobs. But we were on the way o,rt ioo, ioon h"d;; "nd was a blow-fust because it was the most intcresting l*io"r, f l"a been in, and second because I had to ,h" examination at a credirors'meeting; in thc procesr.fa"d";;;g;*y self-lovc and vaniry received,om"?rw i"rl. I did not know then that if wc i""" held on we would have bLn yved by the demald for books o"."rl*a bt th; Ni;;, with the economic life of the.co.-r.y gr*i"jworse every week, I was yylle.to get work of any kind. atiait
Whcel
one
In outer fife existence became more and morc dilfcult. Three milrion people in England alone werc living half-starved A; being destro-ycd and fiimers were buslnesses were going bankrupt_everywhere-_broLil
L:l::
Hu
liri
'i
i
ri',
!t' il L q1
$r 1..
j
ilr
l: II
I
*y father's hat 6ctory, I had an of 'the timeles moment'. I had got on my usual bus to the Gctory, The Times wtder my arm; and as isat down a strangc fceling came over me, as if I were being fillcd with power and light and undersganding, but mechanically I opened The Times and began to read, and the power or whatever it was, disappeared, leaving me feeling so physically sick that I thought I was going to be ill. I pui the paper down and tried to recapture the feeling, but it had vanishcd. A[ dayl thought Not long after I began anew io
c_xperience
IIJ
Fortune Tums Her Vl/heel about it. Th* I ,""^,?#,T,Ii:'#::,K"experiences r had had before and I redized that I must arways srrive ro '*"Lr rernember myself at these momenti, b" of them l;; th;power flow in, and experience a few moments of real .oor.iouri.o
"*.r.
the way that
Discontent often arises from our wants rather than from our
,u"l*;k; ;; *d
needs.
He who is dways complaining is never pitied.
You cannot hunt two hares with one hound. He who marries for love with no money has nights ofjoy but
life-the
sequence of evenrs_was going tor me, I came across some more sayings of my grandfather, "^-n:ld":tt ,"lvi"g", that come from life experience which, be useful. But one forgets. Among them were the following:
iione;,;;.*b;;;ffi;;
The mill cannor grind with warer that has passed. One sound blow will serve to undo us all. Would you know what money is? Try ro borrow some. In time, he comes whom God sends. He who deceives once is ever after susDect. A man of understandi"g *ill not fret ibo,rt wh"t he cannot have. No sooner is a temple built for God, than the Devil builds a chapel hard by. Many havg regretted their spoken words more than their silences.
roof,, )).
ir
'i );)
Good craftsmen are seldom rich. Be sparing of praise, for all are fickle.
Don't give Perer
so much that you will have nothing for paul. deeds. can throw a srone into a well that a hundred wise men may
ill
A fool not pull out.
Everyone thinks his sack is the heaviest. God is, where there is peace. Great force is hidden in a sweet request.
Emotiond love makes a good eye iquint. Only the wearer knows wh"te th. ,Lo. pinches. Health without money is half an ague. a The shortest answer is in doing. He who olfends never forgivei. llhete is truth in astrology but our modern asftologers carurot find
rt. Three things are hard: a diamond, granire, and the knowing of oneself.
r16
Though laden with gold an ass is still an ass. A fault denied is already doubled. He who is occupied with what people say about him shall never
know
peace.
Time went on and I was beginning to get esrablished again. 'We were now living in a tiny flat in Gondar Gardens, Hampstead; the children went to the Burgess Hill School nearby, and weckends and holidays were-spent at the cottage in Hertfordshire. In spite of the depression and the stnrggle for money, my personal relarions and 6mily IiG, the contacts with my parents and friends, were very satisfying. One Saturday in spring I drove to Houghton Regis to see a friend of the family, a wo,man, partJew, part Gipsy. After tea, during which I talked about my difficulties, she, as usual, took out her cards and said 'I'll see what the cards have to say.' She tota *" to shufle th"m in special manner, went through her litde ritual, spread them out in " a spegial way and began to tell me various things, all, as usual, vaguely. Sqddenly she gave ajump, and said, 'But he'll get over ir, he'll gei over It. 'What do you mean?'I asked. 'It's one of your sons. But don't worry, he'll get over it.' I had never taken fortune-telling very seriously and in a day or rwo forgot it. Then, about a month later, one beautiful Junc evening, a strange ft9li"g came to me that something unusual was going to happen; whether to myself or to someone else I did not know. t was in an emotional state and resdess, and to a,woman who was staying
A wise and understanding father is better than a hundred ,educators'. -God punishes, hi first talces away the understandd. Y\"1 T" h1m ttrat will, ways are not w"nting.
Fine words dress
days
ofcare. Three women make a market. One of the Chincse characters for'quarrel'is two women under one
with us I said, 'You know, you can have no confidence in life. never know what it holds for you,' and more in the same vein.
you
I
The catastrophe happened next
d"y-*
accidentn
in which
our
younger son aged six just escaped with his liG urd was permanendy r17
Fortune Turns Her Wheel
Fortune Turns Her Wluel
The circumstances were such that we seemed ro be para-crippled. lysed with.grief; and I understood how people .* l*. th.i,,;;r;; die from shock. Fortunately for the boy, such is ,rr. r.riu."".;?;. ", human.organism, especially with children, in a few week, h"-w", again, and riding his birycle with an artificial leg. hr time ld1n*i"g he learnt to ride
1
pony:
*otot-.y.le,
ro drive a car, ro
of the notes-and by thc telepathic means which he understood so well. A change began to take place in me; I began to understand. something, and a feeling of conscious hope and conscious combination
faith began to displace thc dark hopeless depression. The music went on for about ten minutes. When hc stopped we sat without speaking. Then I got up and took his hand and said, 'Thank you. This is what I came to hear.'
,"il] to d"n..
" a fulry and.to do everything that Lquipped man can do. He became stroke for a crew at St. paul's Schooiarid- then at th. rh"ro., noJ-g club. But all this was in the future. Axd in tt *.*J*" *., ir,
A healing process of psychic wounds had begun, and I returned to England in a very different state of mind and feelings. Two things I discovered as a result of the disaster. One was that underneath the suffering of my organism-the instincrive, feeling and
" seen in th. r".dr. parents, sufrercd. t thought about what our friend had She had seen or rather felt roT:q"g. through ,h. presence and the cards. But how? was the acciJent fore-ordaineailr"a
*"dir*;i;y
she seen
it in the panem of our
mental suffering-was something calm and unmoved-the kernel of the essence, where objective conscience lies, pcrhaps. [t was the sort of feeling I had had many ycars before on one of the hellish battlefields of France, when I thought I was going to be killed. In times of acute suffering the personaliry-the oufward manifestations of the organism, can be stripped away, and in the quivering mass of suffering -ss.nc",
son's life?
I remembered Gurdjieff's accident but could not make clear to my_ f.lf .-hy such things hippen-not the outer obvious ."ur.,-L"i rir" ,""t hidden cause. The real.causesof the thing-s that happen lie deep in our_ selves, in our past, or in combinations oiinfo*.i* But whyi No wonder that Hassein in Beerzebub's rales, though he neJer doubts the fact ofjustice, asks, 'Why?.' , It happened thatJane Heap just then was going to see Gurdiiefi and
a small sum ro gr.'e to hi+-fi" giatitide'L"id. Sd;;;;;, Mr. G. at the and told lim ,rr. ,,io "."i1."r "ra your gifr, "p"rtm.ot it"boot was gr"J;i;,i'a F*: ry* l"Ili"g him you_had said ,,Why Iook ot sorrow came into and hesaid, gratiiude ro me?,, !fo "y.t I said, "I don't know". He looked thoughtful and,nJrr'r"ii, ;i,
I gave her
'I
objective conscience, whictr can perceive life
$
saw
g""i,'r,
good."
As soon as I could I went to see Gurdjieffand found him in the caIE de la Paix.I mentioned the accident h" said he h"d
*i
ii
h;;;;;l
Trd legan to spgalc about preparing for the future. I was in roo emotional a state ro listen quietly and f,e very soon got up and went uostairs. whcn he returned he said, 'you Lave bu-siness ,o aoi' i,"ii, 'My. business is with you.' He said, ,I go now. you come to lunch., 'lhere-were two people besides myself. There was rittre talk and as
soon as the med was finished he sent them awan beckoned to me, and
the sitting-room. For a few minutes wejust sat quietly, then he took up-his hand-harmonium, and keeping his eles 6*ed o" ,,,, *irt, a of decp compassion and power, Urg"; to pi"y
yT,t
T.
,impl"
lo.ok
i.f"J"
" the time wrth strange harmonies, repeating and repeating yet all witir cunerent combrnarions of notes. Litde by litde I became aware that he was conveying something to me bofi through th" ,oori.J. r18
so
clearly, is uncovered, and
something remains calm and undisturbed among thc whirlwind of grief or suffering: the still small voice. The second thing was the real goodness and compassion of my parents, of the Ouspanslcys who had sent their own doctor, and of all our friends. Not so much by what they did-though that was not litde by their attitude. -as Children can forget scars, physical and emotional; with parents the emotional scars remain.
I19
A
r4
it was as if I were hit with a palpable and harmful force, and I realized that it came from the negative emotioru of these hundreds of people who had left their homes and their near ones in Germany and were now in London, apprehensive, resentfirl, and fearfuloftheirfuture. The negative emotions of despair, fear, hatred and bittemess compressed in this confined space made the atmosphere tremble with harmful
A TASTE OF BUREAUCRACY Nor LoNc AErER THrs, because the economic IiG of the country was going down, my father's business gor inro dilficulties and had to be reorganized, and I was out of a job again. For three months I worked with a government organizations"t op to hclp the czech refugees who wer.e ?ouring -into the-country, feeing from Hider. This was-my first (and t hope will be the last) experiencinot countins riG in thc armvof working-for_an olficial organization. The head if *y r.ction w"s both shrewd and stupid, a vain man who resented any sugiestions from those below him, and wasted time and money on.treleJJs"hemes and plans. my colleagues were congenid; they had learnt to accepr _Yet everything he said without question. As long as one did oo, ur. o#, mind for thinking all was well. The vaniry aid selGrove, the stupidiry of some of th9 -po*., possessing b"i"gr-";; rh" ;;rll;;";:il
governmenr and municipal organizations is often incre&ble; the wonder is that public life goes on at all. reminded me ofthc story ofthe man who was furding YI
"*prtience it difrcult to think things out and went tL a doctor to see if there was f9p.ffig_1rro"g with his head. llhe doctor examined him and said, '{.y:".*S lgave ygur blain with me ['ll go over it carefully; you can call back for it in a few days.' The man agieed, left his br"in, .nd w.nt off. Time passed and he did not call. ^f,fter some weeks the doctor tclephoned him: 'You know, I have that brain of youn. Aren'r you coming for it?' 'Oh that,' said the man. 'I don't need it now. I,ve got a govemment
job.'
In govemment, in politics, in big business and law, real feelings and realthoughts are not only not nec"ss"ry, but often a hindrance. i ,o*
only the formatory apparatus. {l *otk with the organization took me one day to a large house in Bloomsbury_where the;ewish refugees from Geimany *"i" irrt"rviewed. In the big hall crowds ofJews were waiting. When I went in r20 needs
Tastc of Bureaunacy
it ll
l: !1.
i
rll
i
vibrations. Even before I met the Teaching I had the gift, in certain conditions, of seeing into people, especially when they were in a statc of hate with another person and trying not to show it. I could see, howwer much they tried to disguise it, the inner change taking place in rhem; sometimes it wes so unpleasant that I would try not to see it. I was, as they used to say, 'psychic'; which is nothing more than a normal essence reaction to the vibrations of people-which many children have. And now, in the process of discovering more and more ugly things io sel{, which formerly I would have shut my eyes to, I became aware also, of being able to see other people through and through; and it was only by keeping in mind the fact that I was like them and they like me that I was able to be at dl impartial. I was coming to the stage when, no longer able or wishing to deceive myself I could not be deceived by others. I thought ofthe story ofthe man who, when a person looked back at him over his shoulder, saw the person's inncr life in all its ugliness; and the experience became so painfirl that at last he went to live on an island by himself; and so that hc should never by chance look over his own shoulder and see his own inner life, he never had a loolcing glass.
*y-
War
IJ
about how she always wanted to know everytling about him, and teaching; and r totd i,r* i,f,"-o*p*rlyt pupil had said, rharhe, Gurdjieff was the onlyperson *fo .oola ijty do anything for her.
:,3il"ry^l',d:ls,*{
WAR
'ffit
can be arransed,'I said, 'would you com€ to xngland and see
her?'
gravely and. quigtly, thought a little and then said, ,If *,[r:*:d I will come. But she also must make elfoft.' at this time rr,"i ii",igri;;-;ry long before r .--l-:il-!* " $3s *o"Ji see Gurdjieffagain. Hider *., ,.r""*tg fo, *"i *J"M;rr;fir,t was rhreatening -^ possrble
rN JUNB oR JUL'
of this year Madame ouspensrcy became verv iu. and when Ispoke about her io oo.,f th" "ld;r't;pili, we've done evervthing we can. .We've haditre best advice we can get, but nothing.th.tir-doi" ,r,m qoinp to-rell you somerhing, which m"y "aa.a, ,"ih., ,t *g", o me your word that my name"ppra-, rhall never be I agreed to this, so hc continued, 'r'm convinced trt"i-rnry one rnan
-il;l, .;lrt;*,
b;;;";h-;..;it
6";;;-#r;;1. m.ntioned.'
can do anything for her.' 'Who is that?' f-o *-y astonishment he rcplied,
.Gurdjiefi' 'Gurdjieff!'I said. 'Yes. But he is not the man he was. h he?, 'How do you mean?'
I understand that after Essentuki he lost touch wirh rhe source, accident, which impairea U, *i"a, h" 11d;1nce,the
of all,' I said, .but'tTr, this concerns
h;;;; i;;;;;;
.I,ve
agreed not to discuss him with anv of vo' Madame's-well-b.l"g, ;;;,htr';,'.Ji ;id, #; .to$e an-angement. I ag'"." with you ,fi"rfrri, help. As for his not bein! the say that hc is e;; ryn he r?. He also is perfecting himself and is doing it in
*;f*ill
,lr";;;;;
;;;.
To:.
his oo rh.
ffii ;;
as some o{r9u seem to thlk, "1:*"q saniry n$ N absolutc saniw_the of objective reason, However. leavin, do you tr,"n it *oid u. pi,iui" r",
il:::llT-1.
";;;;;i
ffi;J,J;';'trJ::
*;ilroo
'No, she could not make the iournev now-, '[ wonder if he would irr"r.]"o*"said. .I,ll do what 'See what you can do,'he I can, only I must ask word that you will not mention my name ,yj:^1g_T,t:g11:;1:/"* rn connectlon with it.' of course I agreed. In paris I told Gurdjieff about her ilrness and r22
again about the role I could play and what groups; ifnot now then in the future. He also ,p"[" nlte way lbout the horrors on an enormoos sc"l.^that pla9e. when war did come, hc said, it { *rty-ti";. riirr." r had said good-bye y"r standingon thrp"**"rrt outside the apart_ ment he leaned out of the windowLd do. It was nearly six years before I saw him again, and much longer before _ lrcould play q: part p the work that he had indicated. yct ii all came aoout eventually, and rmexpectedlv.
*{
'wdl,
Eeacrung.
us with his 'eight milrion bay6nets'. c*aii.r*rura my question about war stgting again but,pot" Tt*o 1?l auowug oneselt to be carried away by mass psychosis, that"bo,rriot we must deal intclligady with whateveruito"tion _igirt :dI".r? Wh.; I asked him what I could do so far as the work "rir". was concerned he spoke
I.orldd;;th;#J;" ;;; ;;;;"#; ;";;; ;;;t" *oodi. "g"i",p;il;i;;;;h;fi;,
for getting hiri to London came to naught. After a , sood deat ot ffouble arrangemenr were made, and more Jr* t*o o, Ihr." people were excited at the prospect of seeing Gurdjicffat tyne place; days befor-e hi, arrival rood"oo
9":pl*:
ftI
fi *", dr"k";;;. 9:j, " "*p.ctcd Lrtc again was turned upside down. rdadame ouspcnsky srowlv eot better and larer was ablJto go to Amcri*, -f.*;'-*i,;;i"il,
she ended her days.
,o.rh" In the Iu3 last year-ofp-eace year of, Ouspquly,s meedngs were held at 46 Colet ^ Gardens, alarge building with; halto se"t seat five fi.,i hundred people. Hcre stage wittione,of the oH";p"pit,
Trr":." and -was
t:
-even
f,:*.#
rr"*
;i;;;Jk"."i.ffi#;r,
n;r;;;iil;
more the philosoph", riere .rd*d"d,-*ri"ioJ *a rfr"'o*r"
li r."r.ir.ir"ry
nush-hush *:::etings restraint was even more marked. A demonstratioa of some of the dances and movements that Mn.
War been teaching was given at Colet Gardens. lo**4 and my wife- had bd.{y to the that the d;;;, th"y y:"ll be seeing had been coliected by "idi"o"i some of Mr. curdieft;upils.
ouspensky announced
The demonstrarion was most impressive and it seem.a iirt ", i"to" "*i.Jir", an{ dang might bc the shock needed to bring new rife tt *ort at Lyne Place. " As l,have said, Ouspensky, though he was not teaching the Method, neveftheless wa1_giving a thou-sanl people something fir"i ort.*ir" they never would have got, and t felithat the time come when
*iua
many of them might wish to know more of Gurdjiefft lng.
ult.
i*"r r.""L
of,t;n
on this planet, just when something good is frapnens , about to"r,:o flourish, it is overwhelmed by negative forces; it witi.rr, or has to struggll t9 keep alive. It seemed tfiat iurdji.ft-', dlsappear; and the negative force was war. . Gu-rfjieff in Paris, had.been kept going in a modest way mainly by the old orage group of abo"t NYew york,,lr",r"l"ff
;;J ;;i;;*
tti.ryt
o#".f
Americans in Paris, and a few Engliih
thousand. Only one or rwo Fren-ch
pupils*a fraction of O"rip*rfv;, rieie interested.
The
general tension increased, everyone sensed and felt it. vet evervone.hoped and tried to believe thatit would oor could do .t*g" rh".;;. Tytj1gjr could have done anything r "o*r.-i;;;;;; oj.evengs. Gurdjieffhad said during the Fiist world war"that ,Evcrything is happening as it musthapp.o-J So oo*, io* **h"o-oJri, "rr"rrtMuiolini, happel The causes were not in Hitler, $ri;;? f.it t"rl Chamberlain, who wcre mereh puppets thrown up; yet each rcore_ sented the bad and stupid in thi p.opl" they ruled:'rii'tl.r rh; ticism in the Germans, their ";i;; ,*ri;;;Ji; "oolaoce,'brutality, selFpity; Stalin, the cruelty in the fussians, their #ltfib;;;-;;; r.off.ti"g of others; the holiow pomposity oi,t rrdi*, io M;r;;ht. the French " complacenry, hypocrisy and dull
the avarice, spite and vindictivenis
ii
ch"r;;r;l;;;;; A"-i;;iiil
$.lpug-".r1, in chamberlain. The lowlst *d *ont in each,i." "opiAry,f #"L.i"";;the opening- phase of the desrnrction ,t *", io foUS*.-il, f""1 Ir r conrf srill agree with A. ", are the best and l. Or"g", that thc X"gfirh most intelligTl p.opt. in the world, though this"w", gr""r;;-;; " on tne rest of tlre human race. Having-lived in America, France, Germany and Russia and visited twenty other countries and studied their wry of life I "* "ilI J rh" t24
rpq","
\t
*Ilt**rent
t$rngrish
ar9 the people. yet, when one consrders rne llte ot man objedively and impartially one is oppressed
by the terror of the rituariori. jt I yg walking d:1v1
Lane to see philip Mairet in the ofrce of The. New Engllsh Weekly {opped by a group ifp.ople lirten_ ulg-ro a rafio: it was the o.*, of] th. Ltsion o"fpoilrai of the news of over a-hunlred yean before: .N"p"f."" "
9l*:.ry
;;;;" f*-.r-;l;;.
Nicmen'. A litde {i*ther down the sffeer a man lias pinning to a board a goverffnent about preliminary preparatiins for de_ fence, asking those who had no pr"tirg business in London to leave
*oT."TTt
m!
So,to the,country. A-y-oyrg wornan was readirg it. We looked at I said, 'It's come then.' 'yes,'-she said. 'At rast.' lTong people of being about to staft on a qrear
each other sadly and rnere was noleeling
advexrt're as there had been
in r9r4; no thrill of cxcitement_oiu * a1 approaching grear catasrrophe, Iike ,l;*t;;;r_
1IT,1:,t: wneimrng nood " calm down. "of or an empti"g volcano, thaj evenyet might At this time I was by.q'sd?in the eje"rant h#; diffiil;;; Hi*prr:ij the yeai before; *y wi'f" *", ;" France seeing Gur'diieff T tne two children were staying with fiends in &fferent p""*, oi rh" y. In a few dlys we were together again, not in the fiouse burin _"1*t
ure-cortagc near Redboume. Everyone e4peaed Iondon to be bombed urged ro lea.,e. Se *.r.ioo o""r, even ar th" ,ott.g., so when a friend wrote offering her house in Dorset near corfe casfie which seemed far enough packed our movables in the car "*iy,
:1t:nl""y:t",
*" wide q*i"g d"to* ,frgrSh High wyco-b" *J Th;", t{, by-roads, 1
ytirs
mised the exodus"fro*LodJo *fri"n
n"a;;e
begun, and got easily to Corfe Castle The house loohed over thc downs to Kingston, and there was enoush land wirh it to.keep gs going in
oegeabl.s";J;;;;;;.
or less, ada.nged
oun.l'i
#"
to orrr ne#fife i **"irrr"iv 1?ll:,T11" planning to do what I had long wished-talce "ia a small-holdioe th"i" food, and I even loofed eagerly 6;;;;]"Td.gg* ir;;; *H: of pleasant anticipa?ori anothcr feeling$9 began to fow. ioming -"a" * A.i,,fr"J"*r: and before we ldt London I had found riyself "lr**,hlrkl"g;l;;;N;; Yor\ in t *ly rhar we somerimes fnd'ourselves rhinkins about or places lorrg before events connected with p"rr. th.tt, *"p1" n:q9ughts-ald tedings associated with New york "o-""to were ,r dejection gdalmost repulsion for that city, "."o*ori';.d though th"r. :Ili*g:"f vrxs nething to account for this since dl my associations #rt N"?, vort t2s
t feg
i"*i;;;;
;;
War had
b_een
use{irl and pleasant-Orage and the group, Gurdjieffand the
first demonstrations, and our good friends there. One morning there was an announcement that Chamberlain would make an important speech on the radio. We knew what nt portended and scnt the children to play in the garden so rhat they shodj nor hea!. After his speech we sat talking, and the elder, aged nine, came in and said, 'It's war, isn't it?' How often do parents thinl they are cleverly concealing facts from children, when all the time the children knowi England had declared war and a week later we heard that plans were being made to evacuate children to Canada and America. ,qft", talking things over, my wife said she thought it would be best for her to take the children to America; it was natural for her to wish to retunr to her native country, especially as our jobs had vanished; there she had her relations, and the children would be safe. My feelings were against it-a real love of country, ofparents and friend.s, werJagainst our leaving England but, reasoning calmly I saw that it would b" best for them. I subordinated feelings to reason, and this time I was right, though I did not rcahze it until much later. As soon as the decision was made that the family should go to AT"ligl, there began io solar plexus a dull ache, a pain; what is called 'heart-ache' (the solar plexus being what w" c^ll 'heart') and this was to last for nearly six years. The nex day I climbed the sreep downs above the cortage and walked along the ridge and sat by the three ancient barrows. It was a day in one of the most beautifirl Autumns I remember, clear and bright warm, with a thin gauze-like haze, which went on for six weeks. To "ni the northeast was Corfe Castle and the wide stretch of poole Harbour with Badbury Rings in the distance. To the west the steeples or towers of five village churches, to the south Swanage and the bay. I thought about the war and wondered how many hundreds of tirnes in the last five thousand years of our history, from the time of Avebury, had reciprocal mass destruction come to England. How many times had men felt as I was feeling and had watched their old life being broken up! Even in our own times had come the Romans, the Northmen, the Angles, the Saxons, the Danes, the Normans-killing, destroying, burning. The French had tried to come and now the Girmans would try. From where I sat, on the ancient barrow, men had watched the fight_between Alfred and the Danes in Swanage Bay. So much 'glorious' history, soaking the earth a mile deep in blood- Each time an old, and often good, way oflife had been brolcen up, and each time men had
*y
tz6
Stucly [-Iousc Plicuri
War
built up something new and often worse. And now again a way oflife was going to be destroyed by what Gurdjieffdescribes as 'rhehorror in the great universe' that runs like a scarlet thread through "f \"tr:l all the life of man on this earr"h-war. The countryside of Dorset and 'Wiltshire is littered with the relics of a once great civtlization whose centre was Avebury and whose 'Rome' was Ancient Egypt-a civilization ofwhich we know nothing, da
&ffi
Future generations may contemplate the ruins of our own, wondering what sort of people we were, and what was wrong with us that our 'great' civilization came to nothing. For twenry years the threat and dread of another war had been with us and now: 'the thing t feared has come upon me'. Each day the children played in the sun and each day I would say to mysel{ 'Another day over, 9ily few left.' 'When the day of sailing airived early in
" family to Southampton trying not I droverny to show signs of the heavy load on my solar plexus. I watched them go up the gangw1y anj-disappear into the ship, then I wenr away feeling th"t ph"i. of my life was finished, and I forced myself not to think that I" might nev-er see them again. An instinctive emotional type like myself -an suffer too much and unnecessarily if he allows himJef to be a prej' to feelings and thoughts. Yet unless one does have an instinctive live fot and 6mily one is nor a complete human being; the difficulty is, "44t9" while having this feeling, not ro allow oneself to be completely identified with it" The 'animal' instincts are sometimes spoken of as being unworthy of 'human' beings. We belong to the animal kingdom and have much that is good in common with-animals-mating and love of the yonng. Le my sheep-farming days in New Zealandl ised to listen to the tender note in the bleat of the ewes for their lambs, and was surprised that such a silly creature as a sheep could be so near to humans in this respect. All creatures love their ycung and care for them until they are grown. An Italian writing about his experiences in Africa relates that he-saw I lull elephant uamping along trumpeting with rage; he was followed by a small elephant, and behind this child the mither, who at intervals gave the child a whack with her trunk which sent him sprawling. Each time that he picked himself up and went on she would give him another whack, ignoring his cries. The natives told the writer that the young elephant had been in the habit of running away from his parents, and they had had difficulty in finding him. Now they were changing ground and punishing their child for giving them so much O-ct-ob9r
Putncv School
bclow zcro
I
I
anxiery. 127
Ptrnrcy Sehuol Srrulucl
I
*'!r
*i
War
*
' fr*it,rr"-
yt:l lTo:11::,gq:
f
# "&l'
s L1
'J*
ff $u
I$i
#
*oid
;;r-;;;;r;;h*;r, *...
T{ fir
# ..,i'
Life for me became like a dream, but a bad dream, from which I woke only when I visited the group in London. For three months I tried to get a job, but during the phase of what was called the 'p\oney war' there wer. none for th-ose oier forry-not even work on a farm. flhere were still over two million on th! dole. Then I heard fr-om my wifein America that things were becoming very
they wanted me to join th"*; again came tfrJa"ri, $fr.tr::"i *Tqg "ni to stay in England and wantiig yfsel{gf to be with them. IIn the end lapplied for a
visa and after a great deal oitroubre was given
pne, and with borrowcd ryoney bookeJ e passage on a Dutch sh-ip. I spgnt thc last two weeks- in England wittt my parenrs. Again, the _ idea of repetition was brought homl to me, for f b.e* to exierience the sort that t had had long ago when in-th" ,"*e .,ill"ge, .of-feelings
the old house just down the roadll Ld b"* waiting to s"il Fo, llTasmania-feclings of
My-fiends with whom Iwas staying beronged to one of the old and great familiel.q Englanf; theyweL iot ;chi,rt *dlod-ifr.y represenred all that was besr and most liberal in ".ry Engrish lif.; as much part of the English soil as landed aristocrats-as my people were as yeomen farmers. Because of this I had always f"lt and fclt somgthing in common, whereas I hai never f.f, *"rfri"n common with the moneyed class fike Chamberlain, th. pseudo-intelligentsia. As an American said "lhese people are the salt of the earth.' At dinner one evening I was speaking about the vagaries of fortune as regards myself. A few weeki befoie I had been'in .o_o"r"ri". a{1enc9, Iiving an interesting and varied life, *d oo* ilr"l-".irrrirr"-
depression and homesickness at Ieaving my oflngland. As then, ,Jro#, T4.ll I counted the days woke each *otning with"the feeling of 'anothei 1od day gone'. th" last morning it was-alirosr the same as-trre last day of twenty-five before w[en, with an ache in the solar pr.*us, -years had said good-bye to my mother and father. parents
;; ;;r"
the associations of my part
I
"t.iri;it-;;; il C;;;;i;, "u""i*y-iri.J,
:j,1"
some were killed, and others, including my friend, our hosr, died before
the war came to an end.
;;i;;*;
h
War
6i
As I drove back to Hertfordshire I realized how deep was my need --) ofjrome and.familn how much t needed the patriarchi rife. i.g:". up the plea*ant house in Hampstead anid stored th. was destroyed later by bombs. with the things at Redbourne I o1 Chilterns Uy friends, iear their country ,th" l."j l9or:. r shyed turst with-my parents in Harpenden and later with these friends. I still occasiondly went to our,*At gro;p i" r, OHpTtftt groups, but London seemed like a"city a*"iti"g i.rt oltio, o-ut at night, sand_bag prorecrion everywhere. Ii Hvde park -blacked they were digg--g trenches, some said for shelter from bom*, others thousands *ho F"! s.y were for the future burial of the,us' ,ooo kflh4. Never 'us'; Nature prevented from realizine th" p*ri_ -the bili1y-of onr o.wn death. yct idea of death may have been the reason why people UJ*i*irrn ,o -with teer more tor each other, to have more essential relations Jach other.
i
neither home, nor family, nor work, nor money, and was tryirrgoto d:r:: a polnd a week. 'It will be the same with pr;t;iiij&;; said. 'Ev_erything is breaking up, all our social lif.; ", vor'ri. e;#: M" i going, N. is-going,' and so on. TEven if we lif. *fi ;;;f;;h" 'war "re "lirr., same. destroys everything; rhe mosr we shal be able r" i" *u-L"
to begin, like the ants when thcir nest is destroyed, to build up something again.' later they gave hundred and fifry people in the large ,. $ ftde seemed to ^ feel that it was the last th"t of u, fau. {veVole have here--ttre Iast of many such gatherings, but there was neither gloop nor forced gaiery; rio,rt ro"*.yoy ourselves. It was in tact the Iast time we were all able to foregather-. Many were arp.r*-,
!^fl,a
**y
q
*ojd
*i *.
rz8
r29
BOOK AMERICA
I6
NEW ROCHELLE ar rIrB BND ofJanuary r94o I sailed from Southampton for New York. For luggage I took just necessary clothes, and the two quarto volumes of Beelzebub's Tales in typescript bound in buckram. As we steamed into the Channel pa$ The Needles I kept my gaze on the shifting land until it faded into the dusk of the winter afternoon; and the words of the Victorian ballad came to me: 'shades of evening fall not o'er us, leave our lonely barque awhile. Moming's gleam will not reveal us; yonder &m and distant isle. . . . Isle of Beauty, fare thee
well.'
i:: cl, ;li1
:!
I itl I'l
\, J,
The ship was crowded with Dutch and GermanJews, refugees like myself fleeing from the wrath to come. There wcre not even enough seats to sit on, and the atmosphere ofnegative emotions, the continuous din of raised voices, made it the most unpleasant voyage I have had. As soon as I arived in New York, although glad to be with my family again, the dream-state which began with the war became intensified, and was not eased by a bad attack of fu, with a temperature. It was trarelve years since I had left the ciry, and everything, for the first three weeks, except my family, seemed completely strange and unreal. Walking down 4znd Street in a snow storm I found mpelf saying, 'Am I redly in America? This must be a dream. I know I shall wake up and find-myself in the house in Hampstead' This partial paralysis of the faculti$ was the effect of the various shocks of misfortune which began with the death of Orage and culminated in the shock of war. I tried to remember Gurdjieffi warning about not letting ourselves be identified with the generalmasspsychosis and, about three weeks later, woke from my state of dream and began to take stock of our situation with a view to getting established. Yet, had it been possible for my f"*ily to go with me I would have taken the next ship to England, so strong was the urge to be there-this longing, which never left me until, some years later, I did rcturn.
New Rochelle
New Rochelle
Our situation was similar to that of refugees through the ages. roo- io lodging house in New Rochelle, kept by a pleasant woman whose" husband had retired from married life and left her with four children, one of whom went to work, the others to school, and helped in the
the door. A fine drizde was falling, and as I looked out there was a loud report and a branch of a tree suddenly crashed to the ground, thcn another; and I noticed that the tree-lined road and the gardens were
especially in Europe since the First World War. Wc had one
llhc other lodgers were an electrician, a truck driver and three nondescripts. [r was a rambling house with a large kitchen in
house at weekends.
which we all took turns to make breakfa$ ar the ancient black gas cooker. The house was heated by hot air from the cellar, and smelt of anthracite gas. There was no refrigerator-there was no need of one, or even of icc in the ice box, as the kitchen was always cold; there was n9 qashing ma&ine, and hot warer for baths only occasionally. It had the deficicncies of a cheap lodging house in England; the difference being in the furniture, fixhrres and 6ttings, which were American Victorian, like in the old silent fiLns. And we, been characters in the setting of a comedy
as a
company, could have
film of thJperiod. But the
covered with 6llen branches-the fine rain fa[ing on them had frozen and the weight ofthe ice had broken them off The nex morning it was as ifthe place had been under gun-fire, the road blocked by boughs and branches. The month of March passed hungrily and drearily. 'We saw one or t'rro old friends, who unsuccessfully tried to get me a job, and I went
the round of the book publishers, with no result. We went to one party, it was in Orson'Welles's fat in New York, where the main room with a gallery was as high and big as a baronial hall. A corridor leading out had been painted to resemblc a London brick alley with a pub at the end. In onc of the bedrooms a long mirror was placed above the bed. There was every kind of wonderful food and drink for rwo hun-
9o. evening in late February while I was reading to the chil&en in bed we heard a noise like the report of a gun outsidi, then another and another. The cracks and reports continued, and I thought it must be a batde berween rivd gangsters, but when I peeped out of the window I could see nothing. The rcports wenr on. After i time I carefully opened
dred people, and I managed to sesrete quite a lot to take back to our lodgings. Towards the end of March my spirits got lower and lower. I began to see that I must make a big effort to get money, and the only way to get it was to ask for it. TheJewish refugees were being he$ed to find jobs by their organizations and were given money to tide them over but there was no organization for English refugees. Wc had among our friends two or three rich women, who might have given us money, but my vaniry, self-love and false pride rose up like a blank wall every time I thought of asking. In early April, with the coming of spring, things were so bad that at last the resistance of my negative attitude was overcome by Gelings for the welfare of my 6mily. By reasoning about it, I compelled myself to sit down and compose letters to these three rich women. For a few days after I posted the letters I was on tenterhooks, wondering if they wordd be offended, and what they would think of me; when their letters did arrive I could hardly bring myselfto open them. I could have saved myselfa lot ofnervous energy, for the replies were not only friendly and helpfirl, but the letters contained cheques and fat ones too. The change in our condition was incredible. From the direst poverry we were now in possession oe for us, riches-a weekly allowance equal to hdf what our fellow lodger the truck driver was earning. It changed our lives. The first thing I did was to go to the Super Market and buy food. From this time everything changed. llhe effort I had made did a great deal for my psychological state; also, from this time we never lacked the means to get
r34
I3J
people were friendly and we got on well together. '\Ve had almost no money; tho"gh my wife made a litde by teaching, but t forurd it impossiUe to get a job. There were over seven million
people unemployed, 'on relief', and I, being nearly fifry and not American, was unemployable. So, while the shops were fulloffood we were usually hungry-for two months we never had enough to eat, and for the 6rst time in my life I knew what it was to be half-starved and worried on account ofthe chil&en; hunger always gnawing at one's stomach. Only on Sundays were o6r stomachs filled, wherwe had dinncr d$ -y br-other-inJaw who lived not far away, and whichjust saved us from rcal starvation. 'To have too much money brings care,
to have none brings grief' llc bop went to the public school, a bad change from the pleasant Burgess l{ill Scbool in Hampstead where they had really enjoyed learning. This was a huge education factory of six hun&ed c"hil&en, mostly of first generation Central Europeans, who taunted our sons witl losing the'tMar of Independence in which 'our forefathers fought yours and beat them'.
New Rochellc
New Rochelle
what was reallv necessary for thc pranetary body. As so often with real efbrt-not oo" thiog cha$es Uoi.o.ryrfiiog:l*go f#;;;. is also in oneself and peoplJfeel it to it.
I
tions. As
".!ig which, withpetrol'a,hilft;;;;ii;;;;'; of run in America than a mini-car"in E"sl*a.
d5
Danes and others
ayear, co,tless to
Germans invaded Russia, the Russian-Americins caught tire sickness. F " t\"p-q New York where I was able to get real bre"ad, blaclc br."d, instead of the white blotting paper which g"oes by the n"me of bread, talkgd to the owner, a Ruisian-- He begant speak about nusia and I how.he_longed to be back there, and th! t."r, d.g* ro Ao* Jo*" Iri, I said, 'But you are an American, you've f,.* f"r, *irry y..rr. -.}:.kr:dq you feel like this?' 'I don'r know,' he said, ,I've never iai, Ut" Yhy this until this war and now I lo,ng for one thing, to be back in co13try.' An American friend to whom r rp-ot. about it said,"I can't this, I can'r understand *hy *yooe should be so iientified 'n{erstand with their country; I've never felt this for America.' yet when the American soldiers went overseas they too became infected with the illns55 sf fiemssickness, the longing for their native land.
*ftw*x;1lf '#*'S'5:',nm,:ri{*ffiTt;::.J*:j
udll'he1g curdjieffiad
UJg.""p *..rf"gs. only people who had met Gurdjieffor orage were in--vitei. Even so, .we were able to send a Bood sum of money,iubscribed by rh. to Gurdiieffin paris.
Meanwhile bad news came from Err"p.' ".rdi*.., rrt. ,rr. ir.lr.r, were being beaten everywhere bv ,h.'cL.-J..T""::::"_,:T
injr#r"i
another;:':,;"-L;rh"-N;;ih;d.,.iri':iffil'.:l'*::ry?iffi been in twenrv
ve"i,
before.,ril;;
to
i.,1"
;y;;d*
tt.
,yr*rririog ofEurope by o". *rio";, ro, The Communists in Americ" Iik. thor..rr.ry*here were a.oo*?iog the war of rhe'imoerialists for having Tghry nr"r"-"rin* the Nazi-sovier pa* was "tt"rk.i announced ir was as if the bommunists had'i-een;ilril;:;:;:rt"y were. stupefied, not a word was heard. Americans returninq from
;il
r-tgp to
JilJ* hiliJ, #;;##ianJf"Jrrr'*a;"rd.";;;, *i*a
ffi *"lffi :'#f, s;H*rln*lm;mg*:,"lij$;r$ bomiinf u.g- r'i""ar";il.; p"glT,J*irfa?J;;;, ;;, "1 an inner convicrion. A nieidly attiiude t.g;;;;;;;;;h" l.*.Td Americans towards the xnglish; o"t -iJrori*es gave them that brend of satisfaction and wish ,it+ ,t"r."" na, ;;;;";;" fiend one envies becaus, h" s.imr;" i;;;.rhi"g,h;;;;;r. "r'rh. Neither Hider nor the Americans lt., not understand whv England would""a.r"orJ,rr;;dfr, "ji, oo, *L. peace. No one understands
I
met and talkgd- to people-French, Norwegians, Durch, I found that all the first geni,ration of New Americans were suffering from"l*ort the same thing. ,fira hter, when the
"rrJLrpood Ch"yrt...orrrr.i"ibl1u1yr"r, old for {zo
to buv
was able
something in the past, but an ache for one's narivc land, like the ache in the solar plexus from love emotional. It is a kind of disease of the emo-
what is it in life that often causes a run ofgood fortune to be followed by a ryn of bad fortune, or a run of bad luJk to be followed uy ,"" good luclc? It has to do with the Fifth stopinder in the law ofthJ octave, "r that which causes the unexpectednesses tfrat give us shocks in order that Nature's.p.urposes may bafirlfilled. Life pJh"p, is relatively safe and comfortable-only when things are fifry-trfty. iift fo, *., *hi"h, fo, sev€n years had been a struggle against ill-luck, had, as i h".r" ,"id,
things seemed at their w-orst and the (or.something in me knew) rt
l"g"o to change. humouredly.
Forrune
h"l beg,; to smile and even
ii
the Engli:\; other nations have thoughithey did and have alwavs been wrong and have paid for it. The ,..i'oo
I**
it
simple: the English do
r#;;;-drd;ffi.i_
not.*j.rrt*a ,fr._r"f".rli;:
,lie . ".* i1.., even when rhey don,t drey are easy going, and will put up with kindrlf
l_1glt:-h,1"""," accept flrem;
hdly til.r*."
for a long time; Lut *hen ,1.1, ir9p"ri.ji"" "b,rr. Ar they"llwill turn on rhe
tg::j.:::l.j
,b \""..;i;him a thrashing ache in my solar pleirs. It was not the illness of the feelings ."["a-"oriJgif **Jl;; i;q#; fb; r ne news
g"
trom EuropeTor intensified the r36
r37
t
f""gh
g;"j
Taliesin anil the Frank Lloyil Wrigh*
graduate, and it was clear that of the ideas he understood nothing. He seemed to regard Gurdjief as having achicvcd almost the same level as himsel{, and even knowing more about some things than he, Wright did. It is sometimes gratifying to discover that 'great' men have their weaknesses, their vaniry and relGlove, the same as oneself; and I noticed that when Gurdjicffprovoked Wright's prickly vaniry, some thing mdicious in mc had a feeling of mild satisfaction. During the toasting of the 'idiots' 'u?right said, 'Mr. Gurdjieff I find these i&ots of yours vcry interesting. I've invented some myself.' Gurdjieff said nothing, and Wright continued, 'You know, you are a
r7
TALIESIN AND THE FRANK LLOYD WRIGHTS
a lot of money cooking.' 'Not so much as I could eam shearing shecp,' said Gurdjieff. 'I've raised sheep,' said'Wright. 'My people were farmers. But I don't know anything about shearing.' Gurdjieffsaid something about 'difiicult to learn to shear properly'. After the meal was over we went into the sitting room, where the Wrights admired the glass case in which were hundreds oflitde figures of peoplc from all over the world, arranged and lightcd in a special way; really a litde work of art, though Gurdjieff's apartment itselfwas an objective work of art in a peculiar way; it was shabby and crowded, and together with some fine examples of Eastem art there was a good deal of trash, small badly painted pictures which he bought from time to time in the CafE des Acacias, from refugees, whom he cdled his
very good cook. You could earn
ro co BAcK a bit. In May 1939 we had had a pleasant surprise-a note from Olgivanna Lloyd Wright saymg that she and her husband were
in London and would like to see us. 'W'e had not seen her for ten years; it was ajoyful meeting and we talked far into the night. She inviied us to a series of lectures that Franlc Lloyd Wright was giving at the R.I.B.A., and we were given fronr sears with her. The lecmie room was packed, people dmost standing on each other's heads, mosdy y-oung men. Buildings, their shape and form, their proportions, had {ways 1ry9re1ed me and I found'Wright's talk exrraordinarily srimulating, full of ideas based on sound common sense. Films were shown of the students working at Tdiesin, the Wright's beautiful estare in '\[/isco_nsin, and I thought how wonderful it would be if t could pack up and take my f"*ily and live there for a time; but a visit to Taliesin seemed as remote as a visit to the moon. 'Wright, from his Welsh fore bean had inherited the Celtic imagination and eloquence, from his English half the gift of improvisaiion and practical application. These, with his inherent genius made him one of ihe greatesi architecs ofour time. The aufience listened with all their attenrion and at the end the applause, as they say, nearly lifted the roof, We went to dl the le*ures and had many talks. When they left for Paris to see Gurdjiefftheyinvited us to stay at Taliesin. I thought, 'yes, in ten or fifteen yean perhaps; most probably, never.' Happening-to-gg to Paris on business I telephoned Gurdjieff's apartment and asked if t could go to dinner. 'Yes, yes. Come,' iaid a man's voice. When I got there I was pleased to find the Wrighs arriving with their young daughter lovanna. There were also somi of Gurdjieff's group of women. I expected and hoped ro lisren to Wright asking interesting questions and hearing the answers. But he behaved rather like a brilliant underr38
'parasites'.
Gurdjieff brought
in a chapter from the Second
Series, Tales o;[
Remarkable Men, and asked for someonc to read it, and wenti.out. Wright took it and said, '[ don't want to hurt the old man's feelings' fte being about the same age as Gurdjieff) and began to read. Gurdjieff coming back, Wright said to him, 'This is very intcresting, Mr. Gurdjieff. ICs a pity it's not well written. You speak English very wcll, a pity you can't dictate. If I had the time you could dictate to me and I would put it into good English for you.' He resumed the reading of the chapter for a time and then said he must stop as he was very tired and that his daughter was tired and that he had better go back to the hotel. Gurdjieff said, 'Better stop for her salce, she is still young and only begin, but you are old man and your life is finished.' Wright got red in the face and said angrily, 'My lif" is certainly not finished, there's pl.nty I can do yet!' or words to that effect. FIe got up and left with tns f"*ily in what is called 'high dudgeon'. Like every
it's
$ ;4'
r39
Taliesin and the Franh Lloyd Wrights
Taliesin and the Frank
one of us in front of.Gurdjieff 'wrightt mask came off, Everyone, witho.ug eTgeptign, while eating and drinLing with hino ,"rrJJati, .:rpri{ seif. Perhaps this is why so many of is at rimes were tonguetied; afraid of giving ourselves away.
Not long-after our arrivd in New Rochelle I had written to olgiwright telling her we were in America *d th"t *" *o,hd like to see her if she came ro New york. She replied ooc. invitinj.r, dl p sgend the_summer at Taliesin. So, herJwas "t granted th"t f,".p wish of mine, which seemed, only a year ago when Iiad r.* th. filro of Taliesin in London, ro have been absollutely unattainable, and she even of6red to send one of the students with a station waggon to fetch varura Lloyd
us. But I had the chrysler and inJune we pacled up and lei"the lodging house of dismal associations and set off{6r the hJart of
a,,,"ri.".'-
we sarted in a heat wave which got worse as we went further west, up !y BearJvlo'ntain, crossing the Hudson by the bridge looking do*,, on lovely river-where Henry Hudson sailed, then iorrg * oiJi""ry the main road up and down, rather narrow and with ,o ,rJ.p a camber
that we could do no more than thirry-five miles an hour. rt *"rrr.""iry _woode{ co'ntry with farms among the trees that had been cleared two
!y&_"9 pl fif"y years before. The road went rhrough the state of Ne'' York by way of Wurtsboro, Monticello, Deposit,"Binghampton, and Elmira-where Mark Twain, and my old frieids pr"x ciltaJ "ird Eastman had lived-to Horseheads, painted post, Olean, to i,"k"
Chatauqua. At Wesfreld we struck the road thar runs rh, ,hor" "lons of Lake Erie, having the idea that for a hundred miles or ro"*" ,t oJa hale a magnificent view of the hke; we saw the lake bur once, by
making a detour of some -rl*, *i the way was fat and uninteresting. In Pennsylvania wc went through the country of thc pennsvlvarri" Dutch, the oldest German setdement in America; these people 'rr" t^i,
with yellow hair and aninteresting rype offace. 'we
*"ir
also
ti*
lrr.
a*iri,
a strict religious sec whose men broad-brimmed black felt hats and long black beards. At the town of North xast we crossed into the northern tip of Pennsylvania, at conneaut we entered into the ,t"r" of
Ohio, to Painesville and Oberlin. jd y"r cheap travelling, for we stayed at tourist camps-collections
olpi"r..l huts usually ple-asantly-situated. There *"rJdro pt*ty of nicelo_oking houses with'Tourist'signs up. For 7i cents .".L *"'sot goodsleeping accommodadon,-and tli pl"".r were llean and the peolpie neighbourly. For food we cooked our-breakfast in the tira r40
"p"rr, "tid
Lbyil Wngh*
fruit for lunch; and managed to ger a full meal in the evening at a roadside 'Diner', where the food was usually only just eatable, and the coffee as bad as English boarding-house coffee, though usually good at the drug stores in the towns. The towns all lookid prctry much the same-witJr tree-lined roads and attractive wooden houses widr open unfenced lawns. The shopping and business sections had litde character, while the industrial sections were like those between Birmingham and Wolverhampton-dreary and desolate. And so, on to Fremont, Bowling Green, and Napoleon to Fort lffayme in Indiana, where we came into the corn belt, hurdred mile after hundred mile of Indian corn on fat prairie counrry with white farmhouses and big red barns in endless repetition; the litde rowru so much alike, as if they had been mail-ordered. It was in one small town that we met an example of what is known as American friendliness. I went into the locd bank to ask the way, and the manager, an untidy young man with a jolly face said, 'you're English, aren't you?' 'Yes,' I said. 'Why, say . . . Hey, Bill,' he broke off calling to-a customer who was just going our, 'here's an Englishman.' ''Well, how are things over there?' he began. 'My, that was a great thing you people did at Dunkirk.' He plied me with questions and was so good natured that I really believe he would have asled us all to lunch and got the rest of the townspeople to meet us. t might cven have made part of our expenses by giving an impromptu leciure, but we wanted to get to Wisconsin. The people we had mei on the roadso far had been almost as reserved as the English are supposed to be, and far less cordial than French or Russian peasants. In another small town a few miles furthcr on we saw for the firsc time that familiar sight in America-a girl drum-major, a good-looking, suapping )r9ung woman leading a brass band of men and boy playeri; she pranced ahead whirling her baton with a broad fixed grin on her face. My wife thoughr it was rather symbolic of the way in which women take the lead in America; I was rather embarrassed. The heat had been like a hot cloud sinking down on us, and though I wore a big straw hat I could not stand in the sun for more than a few sandwiches and
minutes without feeling sick. It was a fierce heat, the night even worse than the day, for it was too hot to sleep. But this was arordinary heatwave, and,h.y l"y that in a bad one cows and horses sometimes drop dead in the fields and fowls 6ll dead off the perches. Later on in tlie season there are tremendous storms, and winter is as cold as the summer is hot-bitterly cold, with 7o degrees of frost. The climate is likc a very
r4t
Taliesin and the Frank Lloyd Wrights
Taliesin and the Frank Lloyd Wrigh*
emodonal Derson_sometimes hot and raging, sometimes cold and hard.In thi! quickry. rn wyoming thSr say they have *ot &, four monrhs cord weattrer. For rwo davs we"ight drove ove*rt" n"r pt"itie of Indiana and I'inois which a hundred years.ago \Mas grass, bufLloes and Indians. In some of the'small.; .;:-il l;;r., and srores which were
fierce.d;;;;;;;rff;'.;., il; ;;
built in earlier
times_
h""",
In a drug, store where we were having ice-cream a group of peoplc came_in-a boy and girl with theirparen-ts and a few frl"dr; it,i.r ih" y"dtg reception of the young .J.tple, who obviously hajjust come from the registry office. No one seerned to know *h"t to io .*..o,
drink coca-cola, so one ofthem turned on the radio from whence carie the noise of a crooner,-his unearthly voice moaning stupidities. It was ratlerpitiful; a kind of automation'wedding compared it peasanrs' weddings I had been to-in".r"rriorry.'I pre-soviet Rusiia_the lovely singrng in the chuich, the vodka, folk dances aftlrwards. This was one of those marriages which are no more th"n mo people g^erting a permit from the to sleep together. This ".rthoriti", permit, from an official who may be a rogue or drurri is iecessarv. a, otherwise th^e cgyn-le would be living in ,;in,, and, according ,o ,J-., in danger of Hell fire. captivated us. There is a lyrical qualiry in the Indian name .__wisconsin ''\ilisconsin', and the places had lyrical naincs-Black Earth, Blue Mounds, Arena, Mazomanie, BlackHawk, Lone RocL, Twin bhrff,
rd;;;;;;;;
l_;?,*ilil#i'uyo*u"i,,*riJ*#,Hitr-fi
i::f il:r::
f and more important. These '6lse fronrs' are ar
y4 fi:
p*t;;;;;;,
;::I'JT"'1ul1rTjy;:,*H::;;i;'ru;i'rJ,','".J.,,
yhr':"
E"srt
ffit"i#ry
;''; d"i6;ffi ffi ;- #f:[:i;H#]:il:ll
leave
it and get io tot'"i
Jti
"
g.r"ge-prrhdt;?;ry
Much ofthe scenery was,obscured and spoilt t; by enormous hoard.ings *h", ;; h"d for, planted there by the men from 'ulcer "" pleading with us to U"y
cq;h' (Mrdir"" A;;;;f b.;r;l'{b;;
nothing is of value unless it can
Dodgeville, Friendship, Fairplay, Forward, Endeavoui, Dickeyville! One could. make a poem out of them; and the number plates on the
Ni#*y;;;;il*
cars carried. the inscription' Wisconsin, America's Oairyland'. I was again reminded ofthe Russian who said to me: ipart of
g-,i,1's{,";-il;p"i,,torui'oJ;;-;;1:Tlif, ,il,ril#?;lil as though a hadpassed ;;;il;: ri-** countrli andllight the people y:r, o: longgr friendty "Jrrr*;;'#;, but looked at us, strangers, almost withiuspicion; it w"rihe our., friog"r;i;lld; the second largest and *;t*::;i1 ;;: united States. Theieat
,::"T;:"*:,"8H"H"#,j;$*..::il jj Fr:*,:H:i5fl town built on the rh*;-;i *l i]t"r. Here we rested in a ofor,. ofth" iot"rl i" ,1" *,i;;;;, ;:11ir*"*cof,eeroom pleasant
io-oi!
Iish;J;r#;ndfir1,1t*tn
portrait or qu"""
"s
of ELrp".
r42
Ameri-
can life is sometimes so unlike what its press, its movies, its radio and p"!I" speeches_lead me-ro expecr that,'ihen t do see something that is
really new and unusually good, I can hardly believe Wisconsin. And more so was Taliesin, Spring Green.
1:1
*. T;.
..t
,1'r
{,
t{i,1. ..it
,l
?ioo'i'
In wisconsin I fert that weiad indeed left the Eastern states behind. Here was a dif,erent and nicer *"r" a thousand miles "r*orpi.o-\i" from New yorlc and felt the bemer d;];:-o* thing we nodced about the differcnt stares we o"rr.d throulnidlir.igi *e towns looked much the same, the houses ior..orl.rr:in;;:ile people wore the same kind of clothes, each state had r" and its own accent. Perhaps, in five or six hundr.a "*-"*"roh.r. y-.rr;i*.,"rii a-.ri.an sbtes will be as varied and interesting the countri"s
*ith"
,
:.,1i'
It
'
it.' srih
was
we
arrived in the a{iernoon, and drove up the long ascent to the of the pupils mer us and ?ook o, J.,r., the hill to where Mr. and Mrs. Wright ryere tatking to a group. Olgivanna welhouse where some
..o*:d.us.warmly, Mr.'Wright, in hisllue ieret^and howing blue cloak, looking rather like an actor, gave us a casual nod and walk"ed on. This was just an act; later he was always very friendly. Duy_rg the first two days we did oothirrg but w*d", round accompanied by onc of the pupils. T"!",h,. 'shining Brow', is a thousand-acre estate settled by Frank _. Lt.y! Y.tighCs _\[/elsh grandparents on his mother's side ftii 6ther was English),inlovelycountry ofround tree-topped hills. A ioil.
"*"y below fowed the wide 'wisconsin River bor?ered by ,tretches o'f primeval forest. In the distance were high hills with rocty bluftl. part of the esrarc was a 6rm--canle, pigi hrdian corn, bah"y, grrpcr,
Taliesin qnd the Frank Lloyd Wrighu meJgns, vcgetables and.fruit of all kinds. The land fowed with milk and, above all,-with *a pf*ry of r. "he"se; gladden man's hea*. Thebuilding; styre of architecture I had never seen and the'gavg me a sde ofpreasure and wet-being that the
a$.!onef
*io;;;;l.r
;.F;"
ruly
;;;;;'dffi
,,.iu"*J;il, They were oo, nio.ri*rt, not coloniar. nor cooies,of *yrhid bot rr.* kind ofarchire*ure-a break with tlre o"rt'", definite " of the Tudor with thc Gothic, and the^Gtorgian with "r;;r;;;earc rh" Tr;;r. %t, like rhem, it was in the tradition, for its rootJ were in the past. And ;rt;i-*"rlir*g. ir"rrr"r, although the sryle of the b"ilai"[, *"r11 modem than thl modern, th. .tr?i g";; sense of repose rhar one associates with mellow old buildings ii t,r-p.; ,1.r. *l* o;;__* harsh vibrations that come from industrial-militarv ba*ack ryp. .f *"fril.r*", n" hives of our time. Every day something new, some fresh aspect in the views, delighed us; and the landscaoe rias that of tt"li*'orasrer_paings1. But all this withiut th. 'lif"J;;;il;;:en no more than a lovery picture. Here, the energy,of forry fifry t"o,,g p;;8, fi:;;;y ".r towards rJ ,crea_ " "i*, proao.i"'ratisfying feeling of beautiful,
d;tb#,;;i"";rr.
il;;a;'*"1.-"""#Jila_ grt";;;;."_
fld1.aa.tt
. The place was run as,a-{ellowship_,The Taliesin Fellowship, under the direction of Mr. and Mrs. oill"ro produce an organic ardritecture "t"{ ffi; to bring about an orqanic-state i"to.i.ryl** "f -J-ir"r.l",Lfand women must beein
rr*i rrryJ#;;il ;;
*,;6;
ly.
I"i"g
a.
three-foid
lif",
ilffi;;;;?",
;i
f..r;;;;;;.*ti ;;l#o,l"ii. 4ri-i;l; ;""t"."1a "pd;" lif.
feelings and the mind. rheir" pf*r.i and they must be able to- use thei, harrdq A*. the things ofthe feelings_11sic.,3o.rry, p-Jirrriog-, and so on; and they must be able to be interested in id""r, d" icL t" think. This three-ford activity-gave the place an exffaordinrry oit"liry. * was a real architectural school, in which t{e pupils them that if thev wished must also be able ro 1i h*d,, to of thc materiars they
tilj ;rh e. il;;,';ilil'fi, i.rig ir*.'r?.y fo;;h; ["]
l*irf*r*eir'own
The Communitv consisted of the Wrights and their men and *o*.olro-e married, *o 3,
and a man to loolc after the
f"*ily,
young
,:rr-.. working carpenters
*gol", *ork oir:i. r"r*,
and some visirors. t"ble;;;;;tt;;ilil;ffi::
The cookine and waiting "'t helped in the g"ardenr rrr"
""a "i,
r*-, r44
JrJ#rrr.
rractors, trucks, road_
Taliesin anil the Frank Lloyd Wrights
gradcrand so_ on,-while the women did the washing and ironing. There were all kinds of modern machinery; and for the-first ti*e Jnce we arrived in the u.s.A. I saw a washing machine and an electric ironerthe last being- the io my brothJr's house in England. There was _oog dways a good deal repair work going on and Uoilai"g, goiog -of ""# up; new materials from the manufacftrers and pre-6bricatej'"iticles w€re constandy bcing tried out. on one hill was a large group of buildings growing out of the hillside. Here were Mr. and Mri. ftight" livin! {uarterr,"rh. dir,iog.oo-
of the students, ofEces, galleries, siables, bairi sheds, and some"of the fiving quartetr. q9*l the slope and over the hill a mile away was another gtgop_ of buildings-the draughting room, the the"t e, p4gty:-*d other living quarrers. On anothir hill was a windmill,"rta hind of beacon, yery hi-ghslender wooden structure with a prow, ov"r .a which the wind from the terrific stonr* passed harmrcslf rre roof of the room was so light and graceful th"t yo., felt you -draughting could lift it off with one hand, y.i rtrong inough to ,t*d the gleat storms that sweep over the Middle West. t9 human beings, it would not be possible ro meet a more delishttr- 4r*{ Tr.-ryg."Igroup of young people anywhere; th.y *.r".J,rrgeous' hdplrl and efficient, there wai something about them which was 'younger' than those in the old world, andthis:youngness'gavethema rp-."i{ kind of charm, and it did not have the outer sJphistilation with which 'educated' Americans in town so ofien .orr", tir"i, adolescence. llhis 'youngness', poteatiality of American youth to learn, gives _this them geat possibilities; ar the same time it leaves them somewh"r i.ir^ T reg_ar4 to rhe enormous world outside America-a world which, though they may know it from the outside, has an inner somethins which eludes them. In general, compared nith furope*, il;;;: adolescents, and they have the inexp,trienced adoliscent attitude to -ar-e life and world affairs. At Taliesin, the rising bell went at 6.30, breakfast was at 7, and at, z.3o all wenr ro their various tasks until lunch at midday, wirich w"s usually brought by truck to some part of the estate, where we ate outside and listened to Frank rloyd wright talk. on wet days lunch was in the theatre, followed by music ot rittging. After tea fi.,r" there was "t in another; often-a choir practice in one place and an oichestral practice
and the pianos, of which thJre were several, *.r" gloiog all day. After suppgr at seven we met at one another's places or stufied something or other. Very often before lunch we welrt down to the Wislorufi
r45
Taliesin and the hank
Lloyil Wngh*
Taliesin and the Frank Lloyd Wrights
River and bathed in.the.co-ol warers, for the weather was very hot, or'cr roo degrces in the shade at times.
on saturday aftemoons the visitors arrived, well-known men and women from variou-s wdks, or 'runs' of life. o" s-r"ar" rrt.rJ*"r" picnics. About ro o'clock the tmck would set i,"^r"["*iog hour later in a cavalcadc of cars t" n"J" "tr;rheA io";;h;;;*" "o by rocky.bl$ or high hils where meat and potatoes and !"tt onspot corn rne cob were being roasted. Then back to Tdiesin,-to see a film
in the theatre, to which tI" f*m"r, ro, -d oth", fo""f p"oj" on evening clothes and wenf to the""_J. Wrightt i1lll:.Tl._ll",por Irytng quarters where, after cocktails on the tenacc
suppe, .r r"ir"d biq bcautiful food- and
on their tlrrones.
"
fr.:" *T pl*q of friendly talk at supper, and when thc plates had ,Deen creared, tie choir sang palesaina and Bach, or Negro.Spirituals o.r
,hl;1"-;;;;";fi;, n"giirfr;;;;rr. wife would plav Bach and Handel on rd"F;;; nir. *a
lnglish and American.pogr, followed by *y-g*vto thg light gf Sndbs ii..", noi thJ"*fy
F*
y1;rY5ll,:
*tlr:,
cnamDer muslc so much-
rovanna the big h.qp-
i;;;d; il"i"
fift :i_f itL*i+l*;il;.f$H"H*'#"n$; bfrh" Cirir
osappearurg from American rife since the break-up caused 'War.
In Russia ir was swcpr."yy th" ,*olofo; -by by Nazism. i: e.pp:1i"-g i" f"gUira too, in Cfm Ir
;t#i;;
as
i*, ,.**a"a
"nd Its fisappearance is paft of the ir.r*a bt:f-"f of not Westeri'civilizati; il rh; ;;."fi;E*".t"' rrzations of thc East; and-only there are signs that in America su !u5r4' E"si*a -g:tey (or rather, women-archyi i, ,aa"s i* ;1;;;. -a Taliesin, after New Roctrelle, *", * ti p.rldir", and our sons began to bloom like flowers fro-* rt.ril" gr"r"a," g".a y"qt*r..d""rrt soil; it was as iftheir life in Engrani h"d b.g;again but with an added, somcthing yndicd by this:reiv and true.firo.ri"ro way oflife. Thev with the other childr*,,diq ** i".rf" j.ra*rilrd;ili]s; Dour-geors rmperialistic,.
F.iJ
# +*;,t".;rnl*':# H:$x m;rx ;tt: f,:ff*
and study drawing and music. t9 faf-for everything. And wq perhaps, by existing in New Rochelle had paid for oui pt rit t tich expeJence. But
-
":.h":
r46
minions who
werg fiving in the Bronx, New Rochelle or Hendon or Sydeohamwould never have what we were having. It seemcd to me that in Taliesin (and other places like it, if thcre be such in America) lic the seeds of the true Cmerican civilization, a . civilization that can be of benefit ro the whole world-as opposed to tle radio, advertising, filrrs, crooning, t.v., newspaper,'Lusincss,
chcmist, drug-aking, poison-spraying civiliz"tion, *iri.l i, gr".t menace to the good life of our presenr world as was the ", Firince capitalist In.l'strialism of the nineteenth century, and thc communistFascist-Nazi forms of govenrment of the rwcntieth century. fu lrydtopen' spaces gave me a sense and feeling of clation, of . phpical freedomi and there were so few can on the r-oads. One &y, ly"e y* -packed, and with six cars loaded with pcople we drove through rolling counrry, passing fields Gnced with wire Jr snake fences until, when w-eladgone about fifry miles, we came to a place whcre a watefall tumbled down the high rocks into a deep pdol thc water running_offtluough green pastures, 'We were quite Jone; some bathed while others made a fire and roasred a whole rhe"p on a long spit, and baked sweet poratoes and corn on the cob. After i* f"a eain-oor fill we lay down by the water-side and dozed, while some of the students sang, inlow voices. The sweer music mingled with the soun& of the waterfall and the breeze blowing sofdy through the trees gave me a feeling_of pcace q1d contentment such'as I hal not known-for many ycars. For a brief hour we were in complete harmony with ourselves with cach other and with Nature. Later we played games, then, as the sun began to sink we got into the cars and drove home.
I
At srrnset on those hot days the frogs began their chorus, a definite tune and rhythm with their croaking which ar dmes was almost deafthgugh not in_itating. At dusk the firefies came our fashing their torc"hes among the trees. llhe roads,-apqt- from the main highways, were dirt roads; in dry weather clouds of dust arose, and after heavy rain they became rivers of mud, though they soon dried in the hot sun One Aant n ina the rain, it was warm and refreshing. Mosquitoes and the poison-ivy were rhe pests, espegally 4" trry, which exuded an oily vapo*, and the least contact with thc shin brought warery blisters with; intolerable irriation; some people were made quire ill by it. A number ofthe farm houses round about wcre built a hurdred years before, when thc first setders came. The houses were of wood, cool in r47 1un_g,
Taliesin and the Franh
Lloyil Wrigh*
summer and warm in winter, even when the thermorneter dropped below zero, and r was tord. by one who had ir".J rr, werc much warmer than the English houses in the
i"g'i# il;:ir." win[iil;;.li insulated. In summer the,food ias kept {i.rh i" i;;;;:;;?;""p Some kept it in a damp cloth suipend.d.roi.r;;;;h;;" ::U"I;
wrnc bro-\ nng on the croth kept it coor. Those by streams kept food rn boxes ur the water. But many of the farms were no -- bigger --DD-- ttran fifty acres, tucked away remotely in folds of the hills. It was hard to realize that this country a hturdred years aqo was an$.t!at pgople got about o*j-.ggoo;_*d Itiqi":ril lnc[ans were living along the river and that pi,o-neers O"rr.rurrn ir, Ene[ covered waggons on to tlhe Dakotas and Nebraska. 'rhe people in the litde towru and villages were a very good type_ the best of the British, Scandinavian and G"ermans, their personarity was
i'
;;;;; *.r.
;",
different from the foreigners czechs. and
in New R.;h.U._rh;ilil,1"i;r, H'ngari.nr. In wisconsin there was none of the surry
aggressiveness that one often meets among some of the
in the Easrern Prussian rypc.
.,-,lf::f*
Sates. Even the Germ"is were nor
a*"i"*, ".*,h"-;;;"g*,
"f
1"y: yj{
paul, Minnesota, fielts.rn Mryeapotis and st. up by the Mississippi River. The ugliness and dreariness of the ltttng ouslness drst'cts of the twin towns were like any other industriar town in the world; when Western man goes inio busines";r;";;;dustry
is as
if he breathes poiroo!"1
" root of-itall kinds of evil-numbs his his feelings. Other friends whom
lorr. of *il;;:;, "J,1. a""rii*, ".rti.ti, ""i'r",i*t,r
I visited. in Minneapolis had a house as large a pafty where alt fl m Europe at a party you gencrally meet some yoong people; and"at a country.house there will uiually be people of "[ "g.r?i*:hildr;;;;. I remarked about this to a man *lio ,iid, .oh,
i::l'j It.I
,h.;."pil;;ffid;;";.?.
q:'.
,i;;;;*-;;"b;i"
h"Ttg a parry to themselves
downrt"irl6 ;;#;? firffi: we're too old. The children-are having p"rry too, in another part of " the house.' So I never saw the yo""gi.opt.';r;; lffi**' ""'" "
on theoutskirts ofMinneapoiir r'ilii.a FrankLloyd vilghrhoure built of brick in tr."-lio.i,o"a, *hiri" oc.opi.d'th",p;;;;; ordinary. cltF lot," but such was$e ry*-g ;j ,h"l;i;;"r#, surrounded as ir was by a gracefirl-*"1i, i, g-.rr" th" i*prjrrri"" li" miniatureestate; like the sp".iog, th.lirr., *d jirt*..r, th. prooortiorx of houses and courryards in cf,ina.Ir, big;ti;;:r;;;'#J#; r48
Taliesin anil the Franh Lloyd Wrights the garden through a wall ofglass; but the heating was so well-designed pipes laid in cemenr under the foor rathei like a Roman hypo-with caust-that the house was comfortably warm in the coldest zero weatf,er, and the air did not dry up as with steam radiators. Next door was a 'modern' house by a European architect, that in its way was-a good and interesting house. But it looked as though it had been made somewhere in a box fictory and placed in the mid&e of the lot, whereas the 'Wright house looked as if it had grown there-a contrast to the box and to the English modern brick villas and'desirable residences'.
I travelled the 3oo miles back by bus. In the Eastern states people scldom speak to strangers in buses or trains; like the English tltey k.ep to themselves. Bur here a man got in and sat beside mi said, 'i{ellot, asked my name, where I came from, what my business was and so on. I rather resented- thesc persond questions, yet he was so friendly that t could not help b"t answer him. And when, as soon as I could geia word in, I asked him the same questions, I felt a linle ernbanassed; but he answered readily enough and we talked about ourselves for an hour until he got o-ut._It was late and dark when I arrived at Spring Green and I did not look forward to the three mile walk to fafiesinibut one of the men was waiting for me with a car and in a few minutes I was back andin bed. Coming back to Taliesin was like coming back to life as it oysht t9 be, a life not just of money, business and politics, but of the physical th9 emorional man and the thinking man working harmoniously together. A liG truly crearive, in which young men and women were given an opporarnity to actudize their potentialities.
p-,
Although no one at Tdiesin had a good word for the British govcrnment there was a_liking and respect for the individual Englishman. Th"y $9w tle _lrglish better than the people in the East, for many Britisfi had setded here, and in the early dayra good type ofyoungei sons of the-aristocrary-went our to Wisconsin and the Oakotahs andfuyoming and raised catde. Yet there was a strong anti-British, or rathir, antii British Government, feeling, which t had been aware of from the first. lt was caused pardy by fistorted education (of the War of tndependence for example),-p"ttly by the growing son's trying to shake otif"th"rly infuence, and pa-rtly by the inherited malice in human beings, the pr9$sposition to hate someone and blame them for their o*tr roF.riog. lhe criticism of the British by Americans was that ofan elder rott his father but for whom he has a great respect. One friend of the
if
r49
Taliesin and the Frcnk Lloyd Wrigh*
r[right's from chicago, after a recitar of the crimes and deficiencies of Britain turned to m-e and,"id, ,t;;;" n.*, if..f J;;il*" with a cultured Englishman rt * *"oi" .tr.., 'It's strange,' I said,.'that you.criticize the British Empire,
r"#:rffi*tmk};xlr*'**ffi
which is
Empire happened.
[:
the English, the Canr and each other in the civil w".'i" *r,irhlore men died than in all the English wars of the oirr.r..orh ..rrr,rry.i
I was talking with some of the studenrs about my love of Enslandnot love of its conouests, its ,gloryl irrE*pi*, ;;;'fi;;;rf#,;", love of that ,oro.rtiog ;.q3rr'sr"ii;h#t;*.s from the farms, the doy"l
the uplands, th-e clifil, fir.,.", rt.-..ritt"ges and counrry rowns_ ruwus and of the London in a radius orr*o *it.,
Taliesin and the Franh Lloyd Wrights
history relying upon quotations from recognized authoritics. The state of mind is represenred in the spiritual world by a man carrying books under his arms; if anyone questions his opinions he takes on" of these books and reads therefrom his answer. . . . Free nations are like stags with branching horns, that roam the moors and forests in perfect freedom; whereas nations that are not free are likc deer enclosed in
royal parks. Again, free people rcsemble winged horses that fy like hills; whereas people that are not free are like horses adomed with cosdy trappings in the royal stables.' What he says about the English can, to some extent, be said about the Americans, yet, though there is more physical freedom in America, in England there is more intellectual frecdom and far more goodnatured tolerance of unfamiliar idcas and eccentricities. Why were thc English endowed with certain qualities which conPegasus over seas and
strained them to wander over the planet and establish their way of lifc over millions of square miles-America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand? and in spite of their faults, it is as good a way of life as ary
oF;;;d;^-) fo -.- for I,ve read what ii but-I don,t f..i ;; ;;y I'rir' tl" fb*rrt-g;.r"i""1*a
one ofthem said, 'I think I know what your writers and ooers have. said about
you seem to love
on this planet. And all done withour the massacres and revolutions that have happcned in other countries. The only devastating war ofInglishspeaking people happened among the Amcricans in the Civil War.
Eastern states too., The strange seer, Swedenborg,. sa1,s of_the English in the Spiritual world: 'The Ensrish nadon, thl'b.ri are in the centre of a'
Our liG at Tdiesin was as different from our life in the lodging house at New Rochelle as Heaven is from Hell. New Rochelle t"pt* sented the lower middle class ofAmerica with ie very limited cepiaty for living; Taliesin represented the highest culture that could be found
about America,
tiv-ed in_hr&ana, but f !av9
the last two generations
.*,ir"yl-f"*'a*""ca
England; and after all, the
don't yet belong
as
Midd[ *"ri i, ,ro, yer our cormtry. .We "r"#;t; here, it's ,till ih. ,.J-;;,;-.;;;;. ;.
Christians, b.."u"s, they have
"i;i;;, f"r".l"r-i.i.ii
,'1-Tr*r,;;iil+'toanyonein*"".* rn the spiritual world. The highest acquire
j,i'.,l1,,lillnf,::"if.T; it from ,fr"ir. fii.* .f
iiit.;r;xtff#i,t*n:'J';l;:x*:ffi1.*;;i,'*'ff not original but d"pendenr;;";;;;;ffiffTi ill
l_row1v3r, is
repuration; when such men deiare their opinion, *.iifigii;;;, forth. It is for this reason rh* rh. E;;ltriil *" spirituar worrd are d:d bl
distinguished govemors national characterlead, th3m to acquirJ. a.despotic governmenr, do.nor
whose decisions their ""d;;;"r,ln Th.'G.r*-r.
i;;;;* Iike the Dutch and E,,glish; ."a""irr.r. ,r,;i, fi;;J; il;;ltf freedom of thoueht is alio.curtail.a . .-. *ffiilr;; il-*;:; freedom of ott.rirce. r* rfri,,."*" ."j;t;;i,
than upon individualjudgr".nr,
..
of spe.ch and writins
C"r-*ri.ry upon records rather r'"i"a..iiey particurarry cultivate
""a IJO
''
in America and with it went the feeling of freedom that real culture give,s. Apart from the Prieur6, which of course was on a still higher level, our lifc at Taliesin that summer was as full a life at it is poriible to have on this planet. It was a three-centred life: the hot weather and beautiful country and the good food and physical work; thc harmony of the buildings, the music, good films and singing; the discussions at table and Frank WrighCs stimulati'g talks to his pupils about architecture and its meaning, was about as rich as ordinary life can be. - Y"r,- apart from the architecturd school, the person who inspired thc life of the communiry was Olgive"na Lloyd Wright; and-she had received the inspiration from the Prieur6, from her work with Gurdjieff.In the many talks with her about Gurdjieffand his ideas there was that something that raised the talk above oidinary conversation. She told us abour Gurdjieff's visit to them just bcfore the war. He arrived, with one of the older New York pupils, after his visit to
I5I
Taliesin arul the Frank Lloyd Wrigh*
chicago, which rritz peren writes about with an ufter rack of understanding of the role that Gurdjieffy, pi"yi"g. crrJ:LfLJ;;"
great impression ontle p.rpi*-"t raliesin, and this was partlv becairse'of rtir
*[" ,rill-i"ii.JluTr,
.btrg
r,"a.
";k;;. tr" ou.Jt *J;;,€hffi;i' t.l' F-outof
he took
J""-u",
n," once he asked them to cookins them
oittJ'*u "r[i;;;il;;, i" *"e p"r,';Jo--
his poctrcts peppers and herbs an{ p_ut pinches now and duced a. zup-erb meal. It th"i or" "g",,i
,..*,
wh'e
**ing *h"o they 1i"." drt"d;;?fta;t#ii.d*", "ft r*r*ittgl'irrt;",r*il *tti *.* srti'n'r"r, 'well, Mr. cuia.;i.fi rt'i' i' i"*ffi:-i rilfi, ,."i?ri"l.r ".'v paris.
gathered in the bis lounge talking to the pupirs
iil#trtl#U'J: r"
, dirner,
in
Then thef can come back to me and
'Yos finish! you are idiot,, said Gurdjieffangrily.,youfinish! t---No. Youbegn.I finish.' Frank,' said Olgivanna, .Mr. __Y:l
F9"r,
.$.:*'rr:ffi"J;*]:'fr::##'*'*f$.*ru' Wlght
*iO cirJii.e 3a 1,"i a""gi;i;',r#;;'"il; ;ffi ::H;.}TfrtfJffi: was a child compared
Svedana, whom we had known *" pi."* beluti.ful young w-oman: ma*ied"t ro one ", " p;;tli;rh. quiet inner strength, and a mature mind "i#rigfrf, that yJo rddo* ---- ---- e"'v'l young American vromen. We were very fond
Ufr;;;i;;;;; i; "" fi;t;;;g
ofher.
:ili:ir ;f #:::W;?f;,rt*: :iF:rlitrH#Jr'ff some of Gurdiieff's music in manuscripi *ti ;;;;; ril*n'*"rf*;
hear
ir*;;;T;iibe rl*. grudgin;tri;il
it and ask-ed wigir
arranged for
a recitar. Time-after time, for r.r-rr,-fr"lri*. off until at last I pinned him down and eot him the rheafte, a..giripr.rrioi oi t!9 nunils; .Wright said "nJm"d. afterwards, 'His music " ot human emorions., T", ,!. *irrf. I dways gttgv"a t"[.i"g to him rti* r.'.lE""i rii,* rr" was wrong(as he so often-was when talking iboot tecture) he was stimulating. one part oiiii* Ua "nythirrg,";";;ilr# p;.i,lt.r";;;; Welsh people h"""., tit.'ito;l C;;rg* Even if you do not tnrst them you cannot frg*i ,ti,
iil.;;j;,;ilHL
t"l"i *Jf,.;G
*:y
wlt l ryp.ir;;;;ili; lt.Shg riipruty'.?'ii;il.
different from the a"u r"iurrt dour li'nited mind of the 5.ot,
chamberrain-or the
t*J n.tin"y l,i""a"nald or Bonar Law. r52
Taliesin anil the Franle Lloyil Wrights
Lilce all geniuses Frank Lloyd wright was intensely vain; he was also naive and would believe anyone who was nice to him and fattered him; he could not see through people. One day he came to me and said .Do
you want to make some moneyl'
I said, 'Of course.' 'Read this,' he said handing me a lemer. 'It sounds genuine, and if you'll go I'll put up the money for the expenses.'The l-etter was from *" il Moico " of his present who knew where a treasure was hidden, but because situation he himself could not get at it. If Mr. Wright would "ir,-"" him a thousand dollars he would givc him a shareJat least five thousand. After I had read the letter I said, 'you don't really believc this, d9_you?' '!Vhy not?' he said, 'It seems genuine to me.' 'it's one of the oldest swindles I know,' I said. He did not believe me, and it was only when a friend of his on a Chicago newspaper, who was staying at Taliesin, confirmed my opinion that he reluitandy gave up the ii"". W.ith.all his genius as regards archirecture, with ali hir rtro"g personalityt-T essence hc was a boy. Perhaps this was one of the ,".io'o, *hy we all loved him. was trying to . He was very anti-British Government and said that it .Why drag intg war whi& did not concern her. do"th. lmerica 1 English have to fight Germany?' he asked. 'They are the same race and ought to be friends.' .For one thing the ,'Th-"y are not the same race,' I would argue. English are one of the most mixed races in Eorop.-pr"-Celt, telt,
Roman, Angle, laxon, Dane, Norman, Frcnch, Hugenot, to say of Scottish and lrish and a great ded ofJew. T[e English ani ldhg Gelman point of view and character are quite different.' 'But why does England compel Ausrralia and New Zealandto come in and fight her wars?' asked one of the pupils. ...I :d1d to- explain that she didn't, that-thiy were free to do as they liked. But I soon gave up trying to coffecr the distorted views about the world in general and England in particular whic.h are instillcd into yggpg Apericans undcr the name of educarion, and I kept off one of their favourite subjects: the way England had treated h.merica a hundred and fifry years before; and so we got on very well together.
_ Frankl-lofd Wright
was working on his autobiography for a New it witli me and asked ire to'work on it with him. It was one of the most 6scinating, and in parts fantastic, stories ofa lifc that I have read. I noticed that thi e4pressidn 'democracy' constandy recurred, and asked him, 'What do you mean by democracy?
York publisher. He
discussed
IJ3
Taliain
and the Franh Lloyil lVrights journalist and politician in America is constantly talkinq about lvcry
ffiBut trfl;#:i1i; };*"' chi"a al il;;;;;'';ffi :;""
he' Iike othem, had never defned it, and there is no conunon dcfinition. In America ir means."9 rti";;; Russia *ofi"r, irli*" the cxpression 'dialectical materiarismi "*hi"h th" a;;;;
dways
and which not one in ten
*"
tho**a
t"no". *irr, "*N" o"" arral] in politics and religion. *ti-.Urlr", !ll_l!"pd"l,:lpress.ron does it mean?' Like the man in one of GrrrJjieff,s-tales _to, gir;g" cxplaption of hysteria to Gurdjieff", yoott, *a.J*1il, Uu, long hysteria is hysteria!' " 'sing
Ir was d1r1lq this sumrner that I had the first deep and vivid ex_ consciousness. The three previo* of tf,i1.:-jl !gl* *r TT-.1F impact ofhigher forces were i t"rte ofre"l "*prri.rr"L ness ot sert. 'rhe Dresent one was different. "o*"iooronehot day I was walking
from the hour" ft" fi"ldr;;;;;;;;-" .wisconsin River. About "ior, wonderfirl f"r.. half way a strange-and i.g* to enter
into me and
whole.b.-g,-*d filled me "with light anJ o"** f and stood still anJ bt the force flow. Alrd;;h i;;;;;r"
permeate my stopped
forest and fields ;J,h;;;";, ,il;;:r. :f,*ya su*oundings-the only background to the inner experience; all anxieties *i .'"r., or away; at rt.^,"*" i*. I saw myself and my ::,*: --U**r*try_t rclarrons vrith people quite clearly; I saw the pattern of *y liG, my orgamsm
moving as it were along its p"rlr. il;;l; "ppointei no longer, and an understanding of the whole oilif. r."_.d possible for me. rr was as if for a few mofr""t' r i"i the outer liG, which had seemedso i*port*iand "la took rd
was nor the
"iil;;;;..iit, *il;,
reallife but_something .phe*er.I, ; ,;;f ;;"fiil "U with which I was ident,fieg. OUy Af i*"iro-"thi"g;;;;;;_ I, the real self of me. I AM. If I were to writc a boolc I could not convey the realitv of this ex-
have had it lflt:i::r:gthosewho t:t mystics-Cfuistian, Muslim,can unde'rsr*a.
mJ#*g,
"f of
1" records.ot tlose who have e4perienced this ecstasy, in various forms. It was the state of whlch$e.s'fs say, .The spirit at once;;;;r;i;;;, the universe and dwells in th. he"ri Buddhisq Hindu_are fofi
ori*i'rr
His xndlessners to rhe suffering souls on th" pil;;i;rr.d;"d" of coming of the Son of Man. Litde bylitde the vision passcd but the effects remained, and I thought rs4 was an appearance
Taliesin anil the hanh Lloyd Wrfuts
of the words ofJesus Christ. 'Again I say trnto you, "Watch", for you know not whcn the Son of Man will come.' Blake understood this: 'Whcn the doors of perception arc opened.' Poets, arrists, lovers and madmen can havc these moments of perception. The force is in ourselves but thc doors are shut and can only 6c usefirlly opened by the grace of God or by work on ourselves; they can also be opaned by accident or by disease. Vincent van Gogh is an cxample; in thc last years of his lifc thc doors of pcrception in his mind became wcakened by disease, the force poured into him and caused the marvellous flow ofhis p"inting but, since hc was not able to control the force, it drovc him mad and filed him. In parts of the East harmless lunatio were regarded as being undcr the protection of God; perhaps because peoplc understood that they have periods of being able to see through the fagadc of lif*moments of ecstasy, ofhigher consciousness, but they do not know how to make use of this experience. Many sick pathologicd types in the West arc attracted by red higher ideas
Mr. IVrigk had bcen Elking about getting out a magazine for thc and asked me ifl would produce it. As in everything he did the magazinc was original both in design and format; consciously
laliesjn ncllowship
or rmconsciously he followed the advice of Gurdjieff's grandmot[cr: 'Nevcr do as others do. Either do something &ferent -or just go to school and leam.' Thc magazine was to be printed by a smdl fiim at Mineral Point, a village near thc borders of Iowa-threc craftsmen whom you might have found in England fifry years ago. Since they did not have the fount of typc Wright wanted hc ordered one specially from Chicago. I enjoyed working with thesc men; thcy too[ a real interest in their work and together we produced a well-printed modern magazine, of which we brought our rwo issues. I beliJve only a third yas publishe{. What happened to the expensive founr of type I don't
know, but if Frank Lloyd Wright wanted somcthing, expense was never considered even when moncy was short. As he said,-'Give me the luxuries of life, you can have the necessities!'Lilce most men of genius he produced abundandy. Like Gurdjieffhe would say, 'If rake, then take. Whencver I do anything t do a lot of it.' Al with so rn:mymen ofgenius, his personaliry h"d been developed at the expense of his essence. His personaliry end his genius were {afinating and stimulating. In architecture and ideas foi an organic lifc he was so right-so 'Frank Lloyd Wright'; but his inner life, his
IJJ
Taliesin anil the Franh Lloyil Wrtghts
being, had not developed with his knowledge, so that his inner life was srrangeiy empry; and most men, even gcniuses, are lilce this. The tropical weather w_as coming to an end and the clear hot Indian surnmer with its cool nights was b-eginning. we gatherea s."o"l;a apples and made wine ad"t ana"tapi tember my wife was ofeled a well-paid.1"b i" music so she left us to take it oo "q:y.4i L,"ly.d sons, unril November. The--'\Vrights were
*d
#a;i;;.:r. N;-n;;k;;;.#g ;rh ;y-*" "o"#; ;;g preparing lo l"*. fo, Arizona and asked us to go with thlm. nut my wife oJdJ ilia-"riiy the coming oi_*og" English people and the O";;ril; T,h Td, .amenca, even* drew us back to New york. And so endedi ro**., of real happiness for us; one that I never thhk ;iil *rr, gratitude
"ha.g "r
to the Wrights
I have wondered why such a beautiful atmosphere_so
place as Taliesin, with an cdm andpeaceful, should be'connected with so much
f-T:!y.*d *llttgg".
ag."i1,
r
asked mysetf
,*h, il"..rJ.*,
naPpen.to peoplei' This could be answered only if we could see our and the lives which perhap,s we have U""al.f"re, l:?Tt-tiG,pl*"tyinfluences "rmpletely. surrounding us_and those near to us. T".P" frc.'denrs have trreir cau1e1 in past results, in our abnormal rife. Lr the Koran it says,-'When misfort.ires.o-" io yoo th"f
your former
deeds.'
";;;;J;r;
of Franlc
Uoyd rtrright,s autobiography in which he -^,1-yf'lTft* the l,{:gro buder who_wenr mad, kiled \trright,r'*if" and rwo :fljft crlildren tour men, and then set the house on fi.. Not lons after -and it was rebuilt it caught fire and was again Ur-.aJ"*". A"i"?;
years
hter' our beloved svedana was kilred there in a car accident.
I8
NEW YORK AND OUSPENSKY My rwo youNc soNs I drove back to NewYorkby wayof Iowa to the Mississippi River to Moline and Kentuckyl here, even thoogh it was November, the weather was bright and hot, but when we got into West Virginia a cold rain began. In Virginia it snowed and by the time we got to New York after ten days on the way the weather was cold and frosty. With its varied scenes and minor adventures, our journey had bcen full ofinterest. We setded in an apaftment on Lexington Avenue on the border of Yorkville, the German setdement. America vras not yet at war; but, whcn one crossed the strect it was like going from Amcrica into Germany, into an atmosphere of hatc, resentment and hostility; and in the restaurants the waiters and waitresses treatcd us with typicd German arrogance. We went to a cinema to see a film of Nazi Germany, complete with Hider screaming and shouting, military bands and goose-stepping, and at thc end there was a collection for the 'Winter Hilfe' in Germany. The atmosphere was similar to what I had felt in Berlin just before the war andI whispered tomy wife, almost afraid to speak English, 'Are we really in America?' It was not America. It was Yorkville, a town of a hundred thousand
rnrn
non-Jewish Germans, whose dislike ofme, when they heard my English accent, was evident. Their attitude wa6, ''We've conquered the Poles, the Dutch, the French, and it won't be long before we've conquered the English.' The atmosphere was like a whiff of poison gas. The Germans, like thc Russians, take good-will for weakness, tolerance for ineffectivcness.
The Central Europeans and thc smdl shop'keepers in New York were often curt and brusque. This disconcerted me at fust, being used as I was to the friendli''ess of small traders in England and France; therr I found that it was not because of me persondly but because I was a stranger. These litde business people radiated fcar---of the gangsters, the protection racke$, thc police and the politicians; yct when thcy got r57
Ncw York anil
Ouspenshy
hoy^or they became friendly
enough. It was quite different with the real Americans-no fear here, only friendliness.Frjelds from England had arrived in New york, some from Ous_ pensky-s group, and now we no longer felt emodonally and mentally isolated and alone; through these frierids our two sons got a fuil schorarship at the Dalton School, one of the best York. I began to look for ajob, but not even th^" nritirh Om". or rntormafion would emproy ret alone the Americans. Eventually -me, I got a part time job on a small magazine which, ir it aiJ in touchi,irh all I::qt'me the -English refugeeswho were now arriving i" h.uraieds, &Uar." mos'y' so, whar with ourjobs, our friends from England and those of theold oragrc group,!F ig"i" was rich fril.
l:
and;r;;;";;;
iI.-*
*."f,
""t'i.i*'i" kind;;ipfii;;;;",rry
flt:,:fr:
*d
;";;;;;ffi;.,
rg say,_'Health withouimoney is half an ague., So fi.tf, U.." f" ::.d New Rochelle; now, in New york, we had heith and .;;fi;;;"y for our needs, and, with the Orage group, were sdll able ,o ,.i-i ;;;;y
to Gurdjieffin France. .?*hg the winter I rearized with surprise that I was never cord. Although-at times there were rwenry d.gi.., of frost h."w ** falls,.and-though I wore the thirurest'unaJ*r.rrti"g i *","rrd Lorrdon in winter, since the firsr war, I have alwa'ys "."* i.ii. r, Jfii,"ldir;;;h. cold. It was one of the English srupiiities rhar a warm house is rather
unhealthy-unl:rr y9" weie rich and could have servanrs ro make fires in every room; itis thecold English damp that.hillr ril;;;;;f*y bones; New
York cold is dry.-
t Spti"g we heard that Madame Ouspensky had arrived and was rj"E"g with some Ame-rican pupils of herr^ioR.r-rorr, N.*j.rr.y, far from New york. we immediately got in touch "., *itl, h.i*a *.r,t change had benefited h.i *d,h. rook.i *.11.il:;; l.^j::l::: Tl;fiom Lyne place, a refugee like herselt, away ourselves, ,h. h"d,r",r..d
to surround herselfwith a_protective {igade. She was warm, sympathedc and understanding; a highly developei \Moman *rif,,r*.i
3#;;;
great deal, about-$rrdj-iefr's ideas *d ;b;;;;il;;;; ;; returned ro New york stimulatei and vivified Uy ,t ri"ri.i; ;: pressions-rhe third fo9d.. A litde later o.rsp.nrky rri"r*rr"rri";;; invited me to lunch in his hotel in New yort *irt, t*" .?fri, ;;;d;; England, anf during spoke_about starting gro.rpJ;J J;; gtt {..him ab-out-the what I was doing. I told orage groirfandsaid that we were trying to arrange for Gurdjieffto .o*Jorr-.. work with u, in talked
a-
IJ8
"rrld
Taliesin r94o
New Yorle and Ouspensky
New York. 'If he does come,' said Ouspensky, 'I shall go to California.' I spoke to the Orage group about Ouspensky, and suggested that we meet him, to which they agreed. Ouspensky was willing, but asked that there be no discussion of Beelzebub's Tales (understandable, since he had not read the copy I gave him) and on the appointed evening I called for him at his hotel and took him along to Muriel Draper's house on Madison Avenue. I was rather nervous, Ouspensky himself was not at ease; it was the first time that I had seen him a little nervous and I hoped that nothing would be said to offend him. About twenty were there, quiedy curious, self-possessed. After I had introduced him there were some questions, but with long pauses. On the intellectual plane no one could cope with his massive armoury, but when it was a question of Gurdjieff's personal teaching I felt that some of Orage's pupils had an understanding, through suffering Gurdjieff's probings, which Ouspensky had not reached.
-
Questions were asked about the new book he was writrng, Frag'
ffients of an (Jnknown Teaching, and he gave us the impression that it would be possible to hear some of it read, but nothing ever came of this.
Author and Fr-arrk Lioyd Wrighr, Wisconsil
Afier about an hour silence Gll. No one had anything more to say; when Ouspensky got up and took his leave I went downstairs to the door with him and he asked me to go back to the hotel, but I wanted to know what the group was thinking. I aslced them, ''W'e11, what was your impression?' 'No authoriry,' said one of the older pupils. 'He speaks from his nriJld,' said another. 'Too intellecrual,' said a third. Another said, 'He seemed to want to impress us when he told us that he had nearly a thousand pupils in Loidon, but Gurdjieff says he needs quality not quantity.' Only one, and she had not worked much with Gurdjiefl, said that she thought Ouspensky was a better man than his teacher, though later she changed her mind. For me, my five years' contact with the Ouspenskys had created a sort of bond; and as I needed very much to do something active with the ideas I helped form a group for Ouspensky, to which some of the Orage people came. For us he made no conditions about speaking about Gurdjieff; except that we should not put questions about Beelzebub's Tales in the meetings, and he said that he would not accePt any money from us; we should send it to Gurdjieff. His group satisfied a certain mental need, yet it could not supply the essential needs as Gurdjicffand Orage fid; we missed the warmth and mutual discussion IJ9
Neu Yorh anil
1f
O;p;'s
Gurdjieff.
Ouspensky
group and the fue and force and fundame'tal teacJring
New Yorh and Ouspenshy
of
g:roups increased, more of Ouspenskyi middle_aged pupils arriv;d.fr.om.Xngland, and people i" NJw Vork UJ?."a'6or-
fhl
*to
penskyt books th. gro"p. Many of th.re l"tto1;; ;"* -joined c-uriosi_ty and left after attenlingi f"* me.tiogr; y., O.r" r"*"lrrra ffo,gr sixry serious p.opL; but almost A:"* tfr. nir; rh.;;;, aib:t: cuvtdrng line, a barrier, between those of us of the Orage sro"o *a Ouspenstytpupilsfrom-England;O.rspenskytp;;rh'f
;p"#;i;",
*.r.
and totally-new surro*ndingi, not^"llo*.d to^rp."k ai"", 6"rajieffto us: hence there was a strained attitude in conirast ," ,rr. r."ri"g of brotherhood among us of the or"g;;r""p.
Claude pragdgn, the #ritir, irrith *ho* I -.O1: daymy_bookshop'
f*,{f:l
had been
a"yr, r"id io-*..,O.rp."rt/ r.Ur'il" 1ir", from paranoia thi, juf,ering i-or his strange aoff"1j;l*r Denavtour. good- many people are "rrd saying ".cJunts
this., ,4, uuspensky has this idea fixed in his head and nothing win change it,' I said. 'None of Gurdiieff'1gy pupils ,htnt rrttt. orag"e, and p.-o-Fessor Saurat too, said thaicurdjieC;.dr;;;;;solute saniry. Almost all serious people eyen in ordinrry-Ji?" will admit in privale,h;;
planet is rt"t. ofl -"ry; th. obrri;*it;; :i trsacute " rr rn a more form.]{o, mI
g.?.id
ffi ;
;A;;_
mind Ouspensky himself is a bit
lo touched on the subiect r{g."tdji.a v"" us that at dmes he"hims'erf h"r;i;t;Jrh. to |eep the intellectuals away tioir. ordinary intellectual has rgnorgd him.
t""* **l6rti:r"rr,*iia rll eccenrric in order ti*; *i,""r*{A, ;;;;;';;" a
"* d*"Ji'--'-
man sufferins from
paranoia write a b o ok like B. e e I z eb-ub, s Tal e s, ".rra md cofi;;; firl music and those marvellous
;;; ;ffi .;-
offered to lend Bragdon the -heIexplained rypcscript of Beelzebub,s Tales but that he
wai_working--.ht;;il
system of yoga and did
He addId, ,r,.',. .oioyed
h.;;A;ful;;, :::,T:l:: music at theTl,tr',es. recitals vour wife and Carol "Robinson g":".,--"ri',.{course
I'll
mentions
correct thi, ltory
it.'
rf o"rp;"rkyt
"uoo,
Gurdjieff
if
"f
anyone
fragdon, a well-known wrirer, was responsible for the transladon and publication in America of Ouspenstyt{f.rti"* Organum,. It was as ouspensky i*a; i.r *ia ;; *': uncersrood what you have written 1",ri.,, I would corne to you and bow down
hd'.;
*,* :l-:Tt,
to you
;;;
and- ask you to be my teac;her., Ouspensky only once mention ed Beelzebub, s Tales tous in the group,
r6o
saying that it was only for the Gw and required a grear ded of mental preparation in order ro undersrand it; and that if Gurdjieffpublished it *:d.d notpublish Fragments of an (Jnknown Teaciing.igain I said
\" that
Beelzebub's Talesneeds, not mental preparation, brrti c"r-ain pmotiond attitude. I sawrrery much of Ouspensky at this time, often done in his apartment; dready I felt that he was a sick man, suffering from the *""tnesses and lawful infirmities of old age, as well fiorn some specific disease, and he was drinking srrong clncoctions ", that I could not tak.. 'You must have a stomach of iron,' I said one day whcn he offered me one of them. 'It's too strong for me."
He said, 'It's the only thing thar relicves the boredom and depression
that comes over me at times.' In thesc periods of loneliness ta a"pression of his a deep feeling of compassion for him would come over me, a love for him and a wish !9 h.lp, but, apart from talking with him I could do nothing. Emotionally and instinitively I fblt oldir than he; but, as I say, intellectually, apart from Gurdjieff'sideas, compared with him I was a child. Yet I did not envy him hii massive mind; iiwas overdardoped at the expense ofhis other centres. In our talks about Gurdjieff Ouspensky wguld yf thi"Slyr disparagement of him, as if defenjing himsel4, criticising his'stupid behaviou/. He spoke about the need ro scparT: Gurdjieff the man from his teaching-his interpretation and cxposition of eternal rTfr:; for Ouspensky there was Gurdjieff 'imposlib]e' man wiro had 'gotte off thi rails', and Gurdjiifft 9Ic jsystem'whicl-r Ouspenska taught. It wds this faculry of being to "Lb to kegp hjs mind separate from his feelings that enabied Ousptsky write dov'n objegtively what he had hJard from Gurdjieff -in Russia. o-uspensky's intellectual integriry enabled him to produ-ce in Fragnents of an lJnknown Teachinga work which, though nof 'objective, is a work of art. I never would a_gree with him that Gurdjiefffiad .gone offthe pilsl, -and would say.that we could not judge iti* to our was not poriibl" ro separate the *"n?rom his"""or-dirrg teachini. GurdF"*it
jief
lived his
-teaching,
and what, in his beJraviour, according to-the sub-
jective-moraliry of the Westem world, was stupid and inong, was, according to the_teaching, objectively moral. culd3ieff was pelecting himself and used every means to this end. He r"yr th"t tfr"t *hi.f, furthers the aim of seli-perfection, of the acquiring *d of "*p*rioo fbeing' and'nderstanding, is objeaively *oi"l; th'"t which contracs being and-h{ders'nderstanding, the rurconscious self-imposed rimiations and inhibitions, 'the mind-forged manacles', thar wiich wastes
r6r
New Yorh and Ouspensky precious
-energy--il
New York anil Ouspensky
this is objectively immoral. Objective morality
French doctor husband had saved my life in Paris when I had an attack of pneumonia. We at once went to see her and spent the cvening with her and her family, and this began the renewing of a close association, but her sudden arrival had caused a turbulence in my emotions, so that
incrcases being and understanding and does not harm others; subjective
morality contracts and constricts and makes us more mechanical. GurdjietrXved, according_ to Objective Moraliry; but this, Ouspensky and Nicoll and most of their followers never could understand] Ouspensky one day rang me up at my ofrce and asked if I would come and see him, it was urgent. When I arrived he said, 'Look at this!' It was the blurb of the jacket of a new prining of A New Model, which sated that OuTrensky ivayo-tki"g *ith Curdjieffin l"rg" " "o*-,-iry they had established not far from London, and so on. 'What can I do about it?'he asked. 'I speak to you because you have had experience of publishing and understand my position.' 'Why do anything?'I said. 'Does ir maner?' '[t matters to me. I must make my position clear. This statement puts me in a rificulous sinration. Can I make the publisher withdraw-the
my mind did not remind me to telePhonc Ouspensky that I would
not be at the group. A day or two later one of the younger membcrs of the Orage group came from Ouspensky to tell me that I was no longer rccretarF ofthe group, which I had got together, and that he was taking my place. This could never have happened in Oragc's time, and I was rc lumbfounded that, instead of going to Ouspensky and c4plaining circumstances, I stupidly said nothing. ' theHowever, life changed for me and events caused me to leave New York. Thc magazine I workedforfadedout, and I thought a good deal about how to get money and at last put beforc a publisher an idea of r book; the idea did not interest him, but he asked me if I could do a
jacket?'
'Have you the agreement?' He &d not know where the agreement was, probably somewhere in E-"gJT,l, so _I suggested his getting in touch with Alfred Knopf the publisher, asking him to withdraw the jacket but, as the bookJwere already in circulation there was not much point in it. '[ shall write to him,' said Ouspensky, 'and tell him that unless he prints a new jacket with the wording changed I shall take no royalties on the book and refuse him further publications.' He also askid if t could get him an lnlerview in a paper so that he could publicly eaplain lis_position. I said that I would see whar could be done, so long as he did not disparage Gurdjieffand his work in America. He said tli"t w"s not his intention. However, Ouspensky not having recendy arrived, and not having had a book recendy published, was n-ot news and therefore of no use to the papen and magazines. What happened, I don't know, for soon after I gave up going to the group for some time. I had become dissatisfied with what i*"s to give and what I was able to get: Ouspensky had wanted me to"bl" reply to questions in the group, and take an active part, but since I could not do this without referring to my own experience with Gurdjicff and yith myrrmderstanding of Beelzebub's Tales, it did not seemright to do so. A\o 2g this time a stupid incident arose; it happened thi't one evening jrtt before I ser out for the group the telephone rang, an old fiend of ours, an American woman, had just anived from occupied France,
from where she had
escaped
t6z
with hcr three children. Her
book on Winston Churchill in his young days, a book for boys and girls; if so, they must have it in nine weeks. I had writtcn two 1u1published manuscripts and to do a book in nine weeks seemed impossible. But the need of money will sometimes achieve the impossible. I accepted the offer, got together the few books on Churchill available,
md intcrviewed rwo people who had known him at school. My wife and yor"''ger son went to Taliesin and my elder son sayed with the Elmhints in Martha's Vineyard. Some friends in Connecticut lent me their house, and here I worked twelve hours a day, seeing no one, s*dirg batches of manuscript to the publisher to be typed. The book was f,nished on time and eventually published, and to my surprise it was well reviewed and brought in money. This pleased me and I thought that now I could turn out a book a yeaa and make a good attemPts to satisfr a publioiog. Alas, my efforts were useless; nbt a writer, and this book was lirher came to nothing. Really, I was "11*y what they call 'a natural'-itjust happened. It was fourteen years before
'I ,
produccd another book.
'Work on the booh had exhausted me physically and nervously, so I drove up to Bedford, Massachusetts to meet my son and together we made our way to Taliesin, by a different route from the year before so es to see more ofAmerica. At Taliesin we took up our life again, almost as if a year had not gone by; and for two months repeated the happenings of our first visit, though, of course there was not the inte4siry of those first impressions arid e4periences, yet the summer at Taliesin was peaceful and iatisfying. We returned to New York by way of Chicago,
r63
New York and Aqasfo
New York anil Ouspenlcy
'Wright's building for the Johnson :i:ifuq on the way Frank I,-lofd
intensely curious about GJrdjieffand from time to ume cven mentioned
Wax Company, an oasis of functional beaury in a wildernes-of ugly factories, then to Niagara Falls and so home,-that is New york. HIrc we took an apartment in the arid desert of r r4th street around columbia University and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. -
It
is
his name to me as if in the hope of learning something, but I kcpt rtricdy to the agreement not to discuss Gurdjieff or Beelzebub's Tales at Franklin Farms. Very soon Mrs. Howarth and my wife were teaching the dances at Mendham, as at Lyne Place, and there was much activity at weekcnds, and with all its limitations and inhibitions the Ouspensky organization was becoming a factor for good for those new people who had never studied the system; and many people will have cause to remember the Ouspenskys with gratitude. In this world ofhmacy and fantasy they offered them an oppoftunity of getting at least sometldng real. And when you study the lives of some ofthe'saints',withtheirbickcrhgs and limitations, you realise that the lives of the Ouspenskys were ofa high order.
not strange, now that_organized church religion is losing its inner
vital force, that this cathedral, being Americ*l i, ,ro* th-" bieg.r, ghurch in theworld; it is the last oftie gothic sryle, andhas"r.ryfiriog but thc kernel, and the essence. Our apartment on the fourth floor was dark, the s'n never shone into the windows, but it was next door to some old friends, and was cheap, and so served its purpose.
When wc arrived we-learnt that the Ouspenskys, *oo"gh some of theil pupils, had acquired Franldin Farms in id"odl"*, Nei lersev-"
rrery large counrry house with thrce hundred acres. we weie invited and went thcre on a brilliant hot day of the october Indian summer. It was as if Lyne Place had been Americanized and transferred to New not only the house and park, gardens and grounds were similar, Jeney; but manyof-the same g.op-I" were there and alrea-dy the atmospherc of was-ler1g l1me 9reat9d. There was the same kind of magnificeice and the same kind of work and the same rules were being es"tablished-no discussion in Franklin Farms of Gurdjieffor Beelzebib's Tales, no talk o-f the organization in general to people outside; and no children were allowed to stay, though they were invited forspecial parties; and pupils, even ?om_the Orage group, were told that thiy *rrit oot address iach other by their Christian names. Howevcr, if you are hoogry and want a loaf of bread and someone offersyou a quarterof one you do not refuse it. My instinctive centre craved physical work and at least here was an opportunity to satisfv it. I again-went to Ouspensky's groups, which now l"d m"ny pupils doth old.and no definite job at the time I asked ii i might go 3ew.,Hayr3g and work at Franklin Farms, and having agreed to the conditioo"r-rr"ot t9. spea! about Gurdjieff or Beelzebub's-Tiles to tle pupfu there, I was o allow-ed to. I enjoyed the physical work, the good food and the sur'oundings; and I liked_ the people, yet I felt thail was a black sheep. At the same time I was able to tuh citcumrtances to my own For exaqple, I had always been ready and eager to diicuss the"dvant"ge. ideas aid Gurdjiefft way of working with anyone who was interested; and here, to make a task ofnot discussing them while working at Franklin Farrris was a good incentive ro remembcring myself. Ouspenskyt pupils #ere
When the news was announced that Germany had invaded Russia
I
with Ouspensky. He was shocked and astonished. 'It's incredible!' he said. 'How can it have happened? It does not seem happened to be
possible!'
'why so incrediblei' I asked. 'You yourself have written that this kind of situation must occur.' ''Where have I written this?' 'In the New Model, where you speak about empires as great organisms, preyurg on the organisms of small countrics and devouring them; and how these great organisms eventually turn on each other and fight. This is an example.' He had forgotten. Why is it that we often forget what we ourselves have written or said-even some real truth? It is because the fact has come to only one part of us, the mind; it has not been felt and worked out, it is not understanding but only information, and we forget it. Not long after this, my wife and I while waiting to go out to tea to some acquaintances casually turned on the radio. A hideous crooning streamed from the machine, as of someone in dull pain; but it was only one of the manifestations which they call 'singing', of 'the highest state of civilization the world has ever known'. Almost at once it was cut off and a man's voice began excitedly to speak; gasping for breath he could hardly get the words out. '[ have to announce,' he uttered, 'one
of the greatest-greatest, uh, uh
catastrophes
that-that-the world
known; one of the most terrible things in the history of man: Japanese planes have bombed Pearl Harbor, dozens of ships have been I6J has ever
I64
t,
]
New York anil Arcpetsby
New York anil Ouspensky
sunk and twelve thousand people killed !' And so on. [t was such a shock that we could not takc it in and went to tea with ou, ".q,.r"iot*""r, where with half our minds we listened ro a woman rp."kiog "booith" s\ortpqggs of o'spensky. only nex day fid we'graspla t".tir"
whag
Jrld..happqred,
and were able to think'of the poitiuti ,"r,rlt, th"t
would follow. llhe papers and radio were full ofthe'news that America was at war, and an announcer reported that enemy planes had been seen ovcr Long tsland; there was no panic, only a gi-"i"g realization of
what was- going qo happen.- my first fcelings-of ,tui.f"ction were followed by relief: we English were no loriger th"
"lonlwe "ndthose Americans were in it together. Then a feeling ofpiry arose for all thou.sands 9f yo'ng American men now li.'tg,iho, sooner or later, would be drawn into this second great collectivl world catastrophe and destroyed. Yet life went on, and no enemy planes appeared, od"o.rir"; 'we were too far away, and safe from bombi. Ag"itt, a perceptible change in the attitude of Americans towards us began to talce place; even the most anti-British could not now Brilain oftrying to drag them into the war-japan had done that. An incident in the destruction of pearl HarLoir, which I had visited years before, brought home thc fact of how thousands of lives can depend-on some small thing, from an attitude arising from vaniry and selcpridc of one insignificant man. It seems thar one-of the r"dio m.,, whose turn it was to listen for supicious_sgunds reported to his superior, a lieutenant, that he was hearing nois"s li!9 the erigio.s ofrtr*gi .fo.g"t planes, but this vain and stupid man told him it', th"
"*r"
ti
Ld""--
instrument was tumed off. So, instead ofbeing alerted,Ihe forces were totally unprepared. confronted by the If *"r, as of earthouakes and volcanic eruprion, individual man "n*t is helpless; everrt}ine h"ioo*, as
it
is borrnd to happen; and everFthing *onld causes wer-e in the past, biought
h"pprn oo*""s it^i.ost by foi"., "bout "or*i" and the abnormal life of man; and the war-would stoponly when the results of the causes had worked themselves out. one result of America and thc war was that we were no\^/ cut o{" from all contacr with Gurdjieffand the last news was that he had taken hjs faTrlj and gone into the country. only after the war did we leam his extraordinary activiry- duringthe occuparion, his forming of 1bo1t the first group of French people and their intdsive worh with frm. Again, he had turned a disadvantage ro an advantage to himself and many otlers; and the extraordinarily difrcult situatiln, with the GerhagpP. fLe
mans and the
vichy French constanily on the watch, prodoced factors t66
for selGremembering and selGobservation among the members of his grouP. Some American pupils arrived who had left Paris just in time to escape the Germans. Gurdjieffhad warned them against letting themselves be caught up in the wave of mass psychosis, and to 'keep' themselves-'lramsarnkeep', 'I keep myself'. The fact that we were cut off
from Paris brought those in New York who had worked with Gurdjieff closer together. We met and discussed the ideas, speaking about how we undeistood the application of them to our own lives and although there were frequent arguments and even quarrels about mundane things the disagreements served to make our common roots sffike deeper. It is no small thing to be able to disagree with a friend on matters that
vitally interest yo,r, yet not let the disagreement harm the friendship.
While living in the dismal fourth floor apartment on Wcst rr4th Street I had an experience which subsequandy made some things clear to me. The bell to the door of the apartment had a very shrill ring and efter efew weeks there I was wa]cened up at night by the ring, and got out of bed and went to the door. No one was there. This happencd at intervals. None of my family heard it; I thought someone was playing a trick, though we never saw anyone. Then it ceased. Some months later, when I was on a 6rm in Vermont, I was wakened one night by the shdll ring of the same bell. I sat up, thinking I was in New York, then I remembered that I was in Vermont and there were no bells in the house. I had dreamt it-or rather I had heard an echo in my sleep; or was it hallucination? Having realized that it was not real I never heard again. There was a sequel. Some years later, when I was back in England, my father died; as time went on my mother began to look worried and at last she told us that she was being wakened at night by three knocks on her bedroom door. She would get uP and open the door and there would be no one there. She believed that my father was trying to communicate with her, but she never saw his ghost. Her parson came to see her and advised her to pray, and said that he would pray for the peace of my father's soul, but this did not stop the mysterious
it
knocking. The family began to worry about her. I puzzled my brains, and in time forurd that each morning my mother's companion brought her a cup oftea in bed, giving three knocks at the door before going into the room. I spoke to my mother about this, and told her of my cxperience
I67
i
inAmerica*d.*pr"i,:';:::::7;{"1k**ooorharucina-
r9
tion. Gradually she realized that it must be so, and she never heard the knocks again. Many ghost stories have been based on similar dream echoes of sounds; and sights too, figures seen in a dream may persist after the dreamer wakes-hypnopompia; for a few seconds h;;hi"k, he actually- sees_ the figures th.t blcause they vanish into thin air
they must be ghosts.
THE PUTNEY SCHOOL, VERMONT
"nd
limit to man's suggestibility and auto-suggestibiliry. Hc Tything about anyone or anything if it is fit to him in a certain way by others, or even by himself. There is no can believe
rN ?HB AUTuMN I went to stay with a young couple in Gui{o1d' Vermont, and was so delighted and taken with the cgyntry and thc people that I planned to gJt my fry{r there. In the following spring ih" yo,*g coiple g"v. us th. use of a house near them, where Jve lPent th" n"rt"i holi.l"yi. We had bcen told about an i"t"loolg school not
fer away, at Puurey, and I wrote to Mrs. Hinton, the head, who inrtited o, ,o dion"r. Whai was our surprise to find several of the boys anf girls &om Burgess Hill School in Hahpstead where- my wife had tauglt and our sons fi"d b".tt pupils. It was i most joyful reunion. Mrs. Hinton's of C. H. Hinron, who wrote Scientific Romances late husband *"r "ioi ideas that had inspired H. G. Wells' fiction with -science Mrs. Hinton had started the sihool fe* y."tt before' What particularly interested us and what gave it a- particular vitality, walis three-centred way of life-very siirilar to the Taliesin Fellowship. The
i
English idea of a iound mind in a so'nd body was good.as.far as it went buiit left out the third force-the reconciling or neuffalizing, the emotions. At pumey the idea was that the pupils, from the age of twelve to seventeen, rhoid have a good phystci lif"-not organized games and physical &ill, but rr"toril life, which was provided by work on the " the mental life was suppli.d by th" three R's and lho,rr*d acre estate; ordinary school work; while the young giowing emotions were.fed or, *orlr, singing and painting, and drama- The school made a deep *d once back in New Yorlc an idea began to simmer. impression on Foi one thing, I was finding it impossible to gel w-o1k, and I was not well. The idJa of getting a j-ob at the Putney School began to gt1* io iook possession of me. I can't say that I my mind
*
decided perhaps
"liim"t.'iysomething in me pulled towards it; again, do anything, to"nd I was being pJbd by thai'something' along the path of the t6g
llti
Tlu Putncy
The PutneY School, Vetmont
School, Vermont
pattem of my life. Anyway, the wish ro go to the putney School became stronger, attlle same time the wish not to leave my family also grew strong; our lives together since I arrived in New york had been satisfring and, after New Rochelle, very h"ppy. Tk :ld struggle- repeated itself-a wish r; do something which would be useful and the wish to be with my 6mily. In thc end I wrote and offered to work on the farm at puurey for a month for board and lodging; if I satisfied them they could pay me :9-.+gg, ifnot, I could return to New york. Mrs. Hinton "grJed, *d I loaded the car with my things, including the rwo large v6lumes of Beelzebub's Tdles, tore myself from my family, and set Jffto drive the two hurdred miles to Vermont. was early May when I arrived, after the mud ofthe April break-up .hadI.t gone, and the air was crystal clear. The workers ot ih" df "rt"t", whom I now was one, said litde to me for a day or two; they were sizing mc up, but as I &dn't pur on airs and did my work as well as I could thcy soon accepted me as one of themselves. Life, for me, almost from the fust, became full of interest. There was the same feelins of grcatrgg and growing that one had felt at Taliesin, the feeling th"r.ot., from living and working in rhree-cenrred activity. Xvery iupil had to work part the trac ol the farm-cleaning rabl"r, tt.fui"g *iA *r" 9f catde, working in the fields or doing c"rp*try. The farm- workers, calpenters, painters and so on .were all Vermonters, born and bred; some lived on thc estate, others in Pumey down in the valley but the teachers were from dl over America. Thc native vermonters were of the real old New England stock. Their ways wcre fike the English, even their accent was a sort of mixture of Bedfordshire and DorsJt; and the
it
and odd
for&hire I had read
r70
one is
a role-that of t farm-worker job man-I must never ctititi"", nor aPpe€r to tnow more
afr"ri around me, bur be willing to take orders from the manager' under' the oainter. the carpenter or whoevJr I happened to be working it London in ;;fi f; the brief period with the refugee committee
,ii"
h"db."o 'under orders' since the army' It was a good exercise for me, a good task, a 6ctor for constant self-remembering self-love and vanitv- exPress- themselves' y,et ,ro, ,o let my
;;;;;
t
"goir*, gradually everyone had'a pieasant way of asking me to do jobs' As men to everyone for b.g* to be dralfted into the arqy 1t became neceslarl farming, ,,rfr,fr.i, hands to anything and I learnt e great deal-about Tales and paintini, aboie all, about myielf' ltad Beelzebub's a bu1 just a *d, crirEiert teaching is not
;;;t ;;;";;iy
Shil.os3nhr' "t practical method for dealing witl life, for living, t tri;d to !ll-*" i.".hing into practice. There are times when one must be outwardly while acrive, ta Air" are times when one must retire into onesel{, a was This others. b.irrn'oor*"rdly tolerant and considerate towards be inwardly but role A*"'*fr* i *l* adopt an outwardly passive necacrive. As the ancient ihitt"r" philosopher said, 'It is sometimes cessary to do nothing yet not to be idle" . the f".m w"s m.n"ged by Mrs. Hinton's son, with whom ! got on .r.* *"11. and *hen hJdiscovered that I had had a book published and i;irr""-Jl;J, he asked me if I would give a talk tg the pup-rls. The old ;;;i. t myself began again-the effort to do somethins {atmet plt of thal something doing ;rrffiito do td the-rcsistance to
m" idea of speaking ro an audience had always fillcd me with A."gf, I had by this-time got over the period when I could
ar""J"a.
rn "rr* speak only to one Person at a time, and was no longer tongue-ued of an thought thg but at 6ble; 'r'dience a" pr;;.. of ,*l or threc vanity '
book from the sunday School library'called The Green Mountain Boys; it was_about this part of the corurtry, a story of .* Ethan Allen and his msr who were fighting the English'in the fo"r _oflndependence. This book had made an imfression Jn me-and now here I was; it was as if the impressions and i..litrgr arouscd in me on reading the_boolc were a foretasre of things to forry years later. "oL" Vermont-'Green Mountain'. From !y first days I felt at home at the puurey School; like Taliesin a
as
,lr*
htlr;;t";*"y
from the In&ans who kept to the river valliys. As a boy in Hert-
from Gurdjieff's school'
likelv to find in the western world. -i;;; o* ,ft"t I should have to play
c9untry was so beautifirl-green mountains covered with forest, and the fertile valleys below. Most of the farrns wcre on the tops of the hills, for in the early days, when vermont was the new North fcst Frontier the English who moved from the coast wenr up in the
was as near to a normal life, apart
and still'aroused intense nervous anxiety; it arose from self-love the wrong fr*gt tfrings,3r wron-g the that I might say -rft. f..fi"g I rcahznd refection on otheri' of the fooliih in -cyes ;doilg I wished that thing small of th"i h"r" was an opport'nity -some a talk but to give I agrced it. do *yr.lf m"ke noli, U"r
I
d;;;iook *J. "oold**r "nd in a stati ofnervous apprehension. I thought t, **" a"y, "bout o.r", -r t"lt *d made notes but when I stood up before the crowd people and teachers in the lecture hall I forgot everything, "f ,.G the first few halting sentences words began notes ani all.
fro*".r.r,
aftcr
Tlu Putney School, Vumont
The Putttty School, Vermont
to fow of themselves and soon I felt that I had captured my audience and when, after an hour I sat down, I was greeted with a rtor* of i.-
My lifc at the Putney School was really, three lives: LiG with the Vermonters, the workers on the estate-the physicd life; life with thc
lighted applause.
This changed-something p *", and consequently, the atdtude people to myself, I al"ready felt a new strength-in the solar olexus.
of
of my chief weaknesses was a lack ofielf-confidence'irhen being - ol"wit! the posibiliry ofdoing something out ofthe current o"rr"* of pJ ordinary mechanical walof liG. yei I knew that it is Jrly Uy fa-ced
this mechanicaliry that one can gro* *i At first we have to be reminded and h.ip.d b"
efforts to overcome T*yg develop inwardly.
" teacher and in groups, later we have to do it for ourselves; y"r i^t ir rr.i", to go against the inertia of one's lary inclinatiorls, or io go against the current of ordinary mechanical life; everything is in a conipi.i"r io 'help' us nor to make real effort: inerti" of th. irganism, .Jt"bt lhed e-asy
conventions, thc opinions of those around us and nJ"t to us and so on. one had always to be on guard against oneself,, one's tendencies. The talks to the pupils became iregular feature of my life at punrey and were so well received that I begt to thinlc it was ."rv less trouble to think over-what t would say, and one evening, *t ." r n"a not sulficiendy prepared my talk beforehand I felt for tiie first rime that it had fallen flat. I had spoken only from my head and not with
*d t*L
feeling
as
- one
is-always forgetting, always dozing
well.
dogs within
oft
and when we doze the
to birlc andlead ,trlrtr"y. One
lt -b.g day, not to fall asleep,-but
has
*
to 'work', to remember oo.,,
*y, .rr"ry ,o I
"i*,
gave myself the task of reading Beelzebub's Tares, andeach daytried
to- remember myself and to do the exercises Gurdiieff had qiven us while repairing wire fences or ploughing with the i""ror; *?,oil_ times in the middle of monoronous physicd work there would come ro me such a sense and feeling of 'I-am-ness' that it permeated every part of my being-body, feelings and mind.
paradise all the trees at -'when midnight God goes to the pious in him and their songs awaken the cock, who in turn begins to
adore
praise God. seven times he crows, each time reciting a verse. Tf,e first verse is: Lift up your hcads, O ye gates, and be y"-lift.d up ye ever_ lasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. For th.'fifth o.rr"
he crows: How long
wilithou rl."p O
Sluggard? When *itt ttq" arise out of sleep? The sixth verse: Love oot-J""p lest trrou come to poverty. And the sevenrh: It is time to worlc for the Lord.' f,72
pupils, boys and girls--emotional life: life with the teaching-staffi"ittd [fe. Uy body was nourished by the physical work, my feelings with the music and tittgitg in the choir in which ljoined, and my mind by talks with the teachers; and my inner life was nourished by striving to work according to Gurdjieff's system. A good feature of the school was that the pupils were encouraged to the annual 'Town Meeting' in the hall in Putney Village, where "tt*I the locals met to discuss affairs and business for the year, appoint 'selcctmen' and so on. The meetings, which lasted two or three days, were directed by a chairman-'Mr. Moderator'. As I havc said, in their own peculiar American way, the idcas which lay behind the organizations of Taliesin and the Putrney School, could be the seeds of a really good civilization for America and for the world, in contrast to Hollywood, Madison Avenue advertising, T.Y., jazz, crooning, wailing guitars, newsPaPer, business and tecbnological socalled civilization, which is rapidly corrupting the human race, in the East as well as the West. I never ceased to be astonished at the contrast berween so-called'civilized'life of America which all the world strives to copy and which is only a sign of degeneration, and the essential life of Americans which has such good possibilities.
At the end ofJune the summer term ended. The pupils and most of the school staffwent on holiday, and preparations were made to receive the campers. I ananged for my family to take part in the camp life; then I went to N.* York, gave up the aPartment, stored the furniture and drove my family back to Putney. In a few days a new staff arrived, together with counsellors and a hundred or more camPers' boys and giils berween twelve and sixteen yeais of age. For the next two months
we took part in thc life of the camp. Lr the mornings the campers worked on th" farm and gardens; in the afternoons they'were free; in thc cvenings they took part in activities-music, singing, acting, square dancing. There were games, canoeing and swimming. It was a rich life,
[o.tt was full and the camP was free from the organized false "lr.ry heariiness, the artificiality, that goes with much of the organized camp life in England and America-and on Passenger ships. No wonder that at the end of August when they had to go home there was weeping and
waili"g among the girls and gnashing of teeth by the boys. 173
1,1!
rrl
The Putney School, Vermont
The Putncy School, Vermont
We had a litde house to ourselves about rwo miles away. Iulv and August are two very hot months in Vermont, and every dry i*," *"ot
cold and frosry. Each day the leaves on the mountains changed, not into the *"r* bro*tt tones of England or even Long Island, but to qlowine of red, which made the hills look like frozen fire. " at fiistshades was enjoyable drough I was somewhat uneasy at novelty the and instincts became intensificd, keyed u-p, like ,"rri., *y night, when my dog would start up while I was reading in Sometimes an-"rrim"l's. and fix his eyes on a- Po-lnt and begin to floor) the on (a mattress bed the house at night from the forestround came creatures Wild nro*I. one night I heard the snuflingof a bear' and cats; wild por.opine, t"r, a man had been killed by one in though done, left h-armless Bearsire shot at it and wounded it. Porhaving he before, long not district the at a farmhouse one-day Ifound Calling dogs. s to dangerJt are cupines thi f"r*.r', wiie pulling pJrc,tpine quiils out of her dogt-lre1d-yith pliers. 'If yoo 1."* or,"-i.ti,' shJsaid,lit'll fester and probably kill the
to the ice-house by the lake where was stored hundreds
orlto*, orl,
in sawdusq which never thawed even when the thermom.r", ,rood at a h'ndred outside. The blocks we brought bacrc wrapped in sacks, -
whigh kept our food fresh through the alriost tropical,';*; camp was broken we sayed on for a timi. I wanted us all to - After at Pltney where-b_oth my wifeand I could have taught. ir* lrra five bean teaching at Sarah Lawrence and now was offered e"ood position " at the hiends' Academy on Long Island, with a s"holi'rship^fo, th. y!{ger boy. I had already, witbthc help of a friend, arr"nled for scholarship for thc elder boy at the putnJy schoor so, after ,"ar.i"" " i, over,.weighing pros and cot t, or, as they sry now, lp--fi" 'agonizing appraisal', it was arranged that I should stay and sire"ft.r"* should go- to Long Island. Again we were parted. . -'Every stic\has two ends, a good end and a bad end', the good end in this case was that, although our total income was forry doll"ars *..r., " our sons were being educated at two of the best schools in Americathat is, schools which accorded with the best of the American wav of life, and we were able to exist comfonably. lhe U"a *J *rr'tl" separation of thc 6mi1y.
. I now
began to
Qel-a need to be away from people
for
a
ih" .o,lrrrry I was living in was not unlike the part 9f Ney York State that Washington Irving wrote about in his S&erc& Book. More jn a with an old man;n than thirty y""r, 6.fot., I was living -shack one of the ioneliest parrs of the world-the tussock country of thc farthest south of Neiv Zealand, where the only trees were a row of pines through which the wind sighed day a1d. night; whcre no birds l,ro-*imals moved exceprmillions ofrabbits; and there were no i*g "rrd p"JpL. In this shack I found a-copy o{ the Shetch Booh and read it ,."d it, the loneliness arousing and intensifying the impression
time; and
the writing itch, which had been dormanr, beqan to stir. Hapoenino to mention this to the Raymond Gram So"i";1,*h" hJ;;il;; house just- over Putney Mo'ntain, they offerJd me a derelici fir;house-on the way to Newfane cjTp in; f"*ily and Ihad camped !o TI in i.t ,{uring $e summer and had thotooghiy enjoyed ourr"lrro, il I took leave of absence from the school, p".t"a bit of f"ri*r" *a " th" *ooot"io *i cooking things and my dog in the car, &orr" oo", setded mpelf in thc Grmhouse. At that time there were hundreds of deserted farms scattered over Vermont, which could be h"d {b; "il;th" nothing; well-built timber houses whose owners had either left for west fifry years before or had grven up in despair. Th" difiJ;; {ar was the of roclss and gi""t,orrird *o"", F-i"g -quantity "*o"g'rf* fertile soil, farmer had a stone-bo"i, ,orr of sledge, *ith ;d"h 9very " crery year he carted away the srones from the fields. ivhat with the dense forest, the rocks and stones, tlre long cruel winters, th" ,t .p iilb, far_ming-in Vermont was as di#icult as aiywhere in the world. ^ l1e days of the Indian surnmer -"r. hot and still, tle nights 174
dog.'
td
which the book made. This part of Vermont reminded m9 vlrY much of the country of Rip Vari Winkle and the queer litde follc he met. I was even more imprisred when one day four strange-looking litde men, like gnomes' Loro. op in a two-horse waggon; they -accused me of stealing their frrewooi, of which there was a stackjn the barn, and letting my two gre"t horr., eat their hay. I thought they were going to attack.me, tut iexolained that I had blen toldio use it, and did not know that they hadtooght it. So they calmed down andtook it away. Thcy were four brothers"who had a farm not far off The two horses, almost as big as elephants, and the \Maggon' had been borrowed by 4: Swings from 6rro.r. With them t ci-'.d wood each day, and got a litde money for "it. The people on the farms and in the_ villages seemed to have become
I
i"gro";iot degenerate but limited in their outlook, cut o6-even *i." ,o than in iiolated peasant communities in Europe. When men
"i""r,
175
ru
The Putney School, Vermont
The Putney School, Vermont
lose contact with higher forces, even with curtural forces, they begin to go down the scale. [r the isolated towns and villages of a*eri'"", Australia, New Zealand and canada, peopre rirr" oni*entred rifc, a " shelter. ,r".o life of the physical body whose only needi are food, sex. In the old world, the peasants [ad, and still have, inrtinitirro emotional life: folk-dancing, folk art-and crafts-and the richness of church liturgy. After the 'war of Independence, vermont became the north-west frontier, and must have.been a thriving state. It still had an "r-orph.r" and a.feelpg of organic ft" pllr of W"l"s. Rudyard fipt"g, *ho once lived not far from Punrey, felt this. ?dryg about one day I stopped at a wild-looking deserted cemetery and wallced round readirg thJ names of those whJhad lived and died thcre-a hundred years before. Among the stone monuments was one 'To the memory of Sir Isaac Newton' who was buried there earlv in
*
*a
F,
the nineteenth century. Bom into a Newton
f"-iry hir p"t.ot i".l ,o"h *"ri. known. ", Guilford, not far from Puurey, was usually referred to as 'Algiers'because the yo.ung *T in the early days behaved rik. 'alg"ri* fii"i.r'. christened him not Isaac
but 'Sir Isaac', *J
Newfane, tfrree miles away, was a pretty village,
fr.*
England
" 4ug:,. in a valley with the 6mili", iight!""thJ*t"ry ,h*"li *d school house. Formerly it was on the toplf the adjacent ,,to""rdn u,rt when the Indians left ihe d.istrict rr. p.ifr" lot th",iu"go i;;;"
by house, into the valley by the stream. ,tpart from radioJand cars it was still living in the early nineteenth .*i rry. . Here, in vermont, I dways felt'at home', never had the feelins of being an exile that had oppressed me in Australia and New zrii"a. Tor one thing the{ora and fauna were similar to north.ern Europe and
the seasons were the same. spring was in March and christma, i, "ota winter-there were no April autumns as in Australia or spring in octo-
ber and christmas at the hottest days of the year. Arso rLr""*"r roo" g_rt{e {eetins of being a foreigner as I al*af felt myself to be in New York ciry. Yet even in vermont, I was seldom free from that gnawinc home-sickness caused by the war, the longing for Engrand-idj;? intermittent emotional neuralgia. I felt at home in vermont as I had feh at home in British columbia before the First world war. so much of our feering liG or cmotional life is a matrer ofassociation; often, as with young it is instinci. "ol*ah, I have seen a calf that we were dri"iog along the-road to marlcet make terrific efforts to escape and get back to itsLother and frien&. with 176
children and with cats and dogs, though instinct plays a large part in their attachments to places and persons, as they get older associations become stronger; and with older people much of their life is motivated by associations ofpeople and places. Then there are the infuences of literary associations;.much of my own enjoyment of the Malay States andJava was caused by the literary associations with Conrad and others whose books about these places I had read. Half of my love of Dorset as a youth was caused by the literary associations aroused by the writings of Thomas Hardy. Much of my liking of America was a result of associations ofthe northern hemisphere-even to the similariry between the prairies of America and Canada and the Russian Steppes. Speaking of comparison by association, a man I travelled in the train with in China constantly commented on the scenery-but only because he associated it with other parts of the world he had been to 'That reminds me of Arizona-or Egypt, or India. . . .' Each day I wrote steadily. Sometimes I wondered why it is that people look up, almost with reverence, to those who write. rtrhy this worship of the written word? Why do people believe, at least wit} one part of themselves, what they see in print even when it goes against their own experience? Most people instinctively sense that the mind is the higher part of m"n*and indeed the real mind is ; unfortunately, with the- mind x *ittt other things, people 'take the ephemeral for the real'-the
formatory apparatus for the thinking part. I myself when young looked up even to
a cub rePorter as a kind of superior person; and many journalists do regard themselves as supefior people; their being able to write gives them a feeling of po'wer, which eot*pm them. Yet no one is so easily forgotten as a journaliit who has stopped writing. In the scale of writing journalism is low; popular journalism and reporting, the lowest-.the negative absolute. This came to mind because of a small incident that had happened at Putney School early in the summer. One day I was stopped on the road at the Lower Farm by two young women hikers who curtly asked me the way to the school. Half an hour later they came back where I was working, beaming all over and said, 'We hear you're quite a Person, you've written a book, and we thought you were just an old Vermonter.' 'You've made a mistake,' I said, putting on the local accent, 'I'm not a writer, and I am-just an old Vermonter.' Their faces fell and they went away with a puzzled look. Orage said that writing is something that can be acquired, like a wart. People in general cannot
-
177
The Puttuy School, Vermont
discriminater.*"."TlX':;':::,:#:,:"-^writingandin othel things. 11 the introduction to Meetings with Remarakibl, Mro, Gurdjieffin a few pages, puts more common sense into a criticism of contemporary writing than in the thousands of words poured out each week year after-year by critics and reviewers. From ,iry earliest years I{*"yr wanted to be 'a writer' but fate or providenc" pt.rr.rrt"d it. After I met Gurdjieff I no longer wanted tJ b" '" writJr' but I srill tvished to be able ro writc, thatls, to discover if I had anything to say that would be usef'l for others and agreeable to myself and tJbe able to express this in words that would bJclear to myself and to the reader or listener. And it took me nearly forty years even ro begin. I learned a g-ood deal from A. R. Orage, and {rom On the SublimeEy Longinus, and something from Pope, who said: Truc
ease
in writing
from art not chance, who have leerned to dance.
comes
As thosc movc easiest 'Tis not enough the wor& give no offence, The sounds must seem an echo to the sense.
There is also something in what the duchess said to Alice in wonderland: 'Take care of the sense and the sounds will take care of themselves.' F?..T" it is always an effort ro write. I would rather do physical work like gardening or even house-work than sit down and ririte. so writing for me is a good task; and when I have made the effort and have done my stint I feel refreshed and stimulated. There was a time ,(yhf Glrdjieffhad.said that for me writing was an illness) when I liked nothing better than to take pencil and paper dnd writejust words, Iu<ed-nothng words, 'pouring from the empryinto th. .,noii'. This period perioi I associate associare in my min{ with one of William Blake's shorter po.rirr, written while sitting in the privy:
If Blake could do that when he sat down to shire, What could he do if he stood up to write!
Y:t y"ri"g and
has its us^es-it is a help in formulating one's thoughts feelings, and it is useful for recotdiie entertainins siories. o, o,rtEot
down tcchnical knowledge. And therJis tfrrfrigfrt "r. producing an objective worlc of literary arr.
;i;i;g:
By the end of October the loneliness had become roo much for me. I needed to be with people,again, so I rerurned to the school and began wo$-pyttiog op the heavy framed double windows againstlhe 19 brtter trost that was coming. 178
In the middle of November it began to snow and it snowed until the whole country was covered with a thick white shroud. After that, the frost, when the thermometer sank lower and lower gntil it was thirty degrees below zero; yet, so well were the houses built, all of them wood, *i ,o*" a hnndred years old, that I never felt cold indoors. And the cold outside w"s l"ss cirilling than it is in England on a raw day with th; thermometer at 40 degrees,-wh.o the cold damp North and East wincls oierce the bones. ^ Iorid. the school life went on as usual. At 'Thanksgiving', to which my wife and younger son came, two hundr-edpeopfe, pupils and parents, ,"i do*n to di''" offt**ry turkeys brought into the large dining-room by pupils to the sound of music. The dinner lasted nearlythrec hours; the courses the orchestra played sweet music and so:rgs were sung. A most pleasant and fitting rl'ray for Americans of all races to their'deliverance from-the 'ryranny' of the hated English ""l.ir"t" some hundred and fifry years before. 'Thanksgiving', to Americans, has become as important as Christmas; and, like all 'history', American history has bien arranged, and is taught in schools, for a special purpose-to glorify their famous freedom.
bil,r;
At Christmas my family, the four of us, met in New York, where I for the holidays. Madame Ouspensky had rented a service "p"tt**t invited us to Fraiklin Farms for Christmas Day. We were eagerly looking forward to the visit there, as they-alyayl did things ye{, but on Chlstmas Eve we went with some old frien& from England and their children to the midnight service at the Cathedral of St. John-the Di.rit. for the singing "nd-the procession. Our younger son caught a chill, and Christmlas morning had a slight temPerature, so I told my wife that t would stay with him while she and the other boy went to Mendham. When they had gone I Yent out to buy food, but every
shop, even the delicatess.rr, *-"t shut, and all we had was hdf a loaf and ,orri" t." and butter. This was our Christmas dinner. So there we were,
surrounded by food from all parts of the world in the midst of festivities, alone in an apartment in New York on Christmas Day_existing on toest and rea, wliich of course was all the boy could take. The other two came back late that night having had a wonderful time with the ouspenskys and their pupils, with food and drink of every description. The following d"y the siik boy had quite recovered. After the holidays we parted,-they to Long Island, we to Putney.
The Putney School, Vermont
The Putney School, Vermont
*rl.d:.*r,l skiing and tobogganing on the hills and slcating.on.rl" irr. ,i.r*"irJr"i gr"a"ily rose when it 'ndl, y1 only.gight e6$. below So the winrer
zero i.t seemed
.ofip"r"ti.'lly
*";;.
I found that I was only able to discover and realize truths to the extent that I had worked on myself and pondered the sayings of Beelzebub. The effort t had to make to understand the inner and inmost meanings of Beelzebub's ?a/es brought understanding of truths of other teachings. Regarding my physical life, I have always loved the good earth, and can draw strength through it, and my type needs physical work. As an orercise I compelled myself to do physicaljobs beyond the point when they bored and tired me, and never skimped them. Each day t also did certain exercises that Gurdjieffhad given us, and sometimes while working in the fields or driving the ftacror when the sense and feeling of intense 'I-am-ness' would come to me, I would stop and put myself in a state of self-remembering and do a special cxercise. In these precious moments of true self-consciousness life was
i
*"rn"a indoors all the winter, spending p"rt of-y'time teaching Enelish. This interesting usinf ,o*. b.ri"-f*,.r*, orage had.given us "nj, in his rit"-r"ry crasses in New yorrc, I was able to teach
16**
"tr"#ij* *",
usefully.
Towards the end of March, though snow srill covered the ground,
sap began
to fow in the *.p1" trJ.r.
Br;k;;;.'ffi'"X',_"u
spours driven into the tree thriugh which dripped rrt. s'yeer warer. The sledge, wirh id fifry gallon't^anh, was got out, and every day rwo or tht..-m." and
*p,"r"rr*, riru
t".,,fi;;"i;;r"r,
myselfw;'derir* j"J.*ili"g"rr,. 6r.:r.u"*ir*, *p buckets into the i*L*from th" i',rndr.diof+. maple trees. The sap was .When house and l"if.iJ.* to syrup. r was P:*n::,the.sugar the sledge throush
red and not just a dream, not just a succession of events consisting of 'before' and'after'; and they were accompanied by a sense and feeling of 'I Am Now'. 'I Am, Father, Son-Yesterday, Tomorrow'.
nrne I had read a storvin the Boys, Own pap., i"rrily io V.r*or,t gathering sap in the'for.r, *il"ffijr,ti"g"r*g "boot " off, as they say. A bcar had appeared and frighten.d th.L This story had stuck in "*y. ro me was r4',^dr f)r qemory But everything about vermonr familiar aand fi1ndly, as though t had al#ays L"";;;.---For six weeks we gathered sap_eig-hteen thousand
Also, at this dme, I became increasingly aware of rwo streams oflifc: the stream of my daily life, of work in the school and on the farm, my contact with people with whom I lived, spoke to and worked as an ordinary man; and the stream of my inner life in which I thoughr and felt and lived according to my understanding of the teaching; and if at times this stream ofinner life seemed to disappear, I knew it was there; and suddenly, I was in it again, a drop in the {lowing, and again would come the comfort and assurance that accompanies the Faith of Consciousness and the Hope of Consciousness. These two streams, though flowing side by side, never mixed. And I could not talk about my inner life to those arorurd me. For this I needed those who had had similar
gallons, which
yidded a hundred anieighry
gdil"r ;?rilmost d.ricious syrup in the world. There is nothirrgio eq-u.l it, .*..pr hoo.y in the comb. offiwas futirh.i r h"i to ,or, th, g"ilo;.L, ioro categories by taste and colour. At first ",.ylT^:_1t:ring was *J"a.rn t or*rg 've !t a sip of this delicious
.*_*a r*"lloorrio!-i;;ul., *a ut th. fifti.th;Ji"" i,r"ra *Jh;'r" stop sorting. So in life il love, w-hat begins ,r."tri can become pofoo, i,n"; t r*, "od ", as poison can becorne nectar. "oJ swup from .".h but litde b-y little it begarito- sicken me nor bear the ,"sre o, Jr.r the sight
experiences. Also I became more aware ofthethreemenwithinme*the manwho was thinking, the man who was feelingt and the man who was working with his animal, his body, that was interested only in food, sleep and sex; and it was when these three men were working together simul-
April came, with warm days and the break-up ofthe ice and melting of the snow. The mountain iops appea.J i" rif i"g;;.H;;ht. earth rejoiced that winter, witir it, hrr. ;"*h, ,i;;;;;;;;;",
taneously that the experience of I Am-ness would come. I had tentatively spoken about the ideas to some of the staff, but got no response. There has to be a need in people before they take to the Gurdjieffideas. Perhaps they were forrunate. As I have said, life at Putney, like that at Taliesin, was as near to a relatively ordinary normal life as is possiblc on this planet in the west. These nor yet spoiled young
over' The road to the lower farm was t"." J."p in mud and the fierds were mud; in May it dried and cultivation began again.
In
addition to Beerzebub's Tales I read books about other wavs: Buddhism, Hinduism, tjl":r:T, rh. i;g; :; "lr. Faith Forg-otten by G. R. S. Mead, of Gnosdc sayings. In" " "oll..f;oo these teaching ofvarious r."l ,.ligio*
""i";; ;;;;r":i
i;;, ;ffi;;;:
r8o
people radiated something very good-the 'divine prosphora' that Beelzebub speaks about perhaps; and there was good feeling among
iliiiill,
r8r
s,
ii
li
(
il
The Putney School, Vermont
The PutneY School,
the teaching staff themselves and the workers on rhe estate. Like it was without masters or slaves; there were directors: Mrs. Hinton and the men ar rhe heads_of_departments, but no class feeling. During almost tr^/o years I never had an angry word with anyone nor even a feeling of resentment.
necessary
Taliesin
case,
,if
But'Veng.*.. i, mine' saith the Lord. '[ will repay" It wasnotlong before h. titd me to plant ttree thousand strawberry-PlTtt l" h4 io"ght. I pointed oot ih"t the stems were rather woody, but he said th.v"*"t" right and had come from a good firm in NewJersey' So "ll but they all withered and died, and when I I pf"nted them"carefully, iJkrd ot. of the local v.r*ottt men what was wrong' he pulled up a f.* *d said, 'They're all old plants; they won't groy in this.soil" When I pointed this out to Elmi, not without a touch of inner satisfac-
1,
satisfaction.' The non-satisfaction was, as
don, he iv"s mortified' I said that I would get som€ more, and I planted *ottt.t three thousand, sffong young plants from Senator Aiken's ootr"ry in Putney, in land th"t f,"d beett h1avily spread with farm-yard i*oi'", using no artifrcials, and the plants glew and prospered and yielded a .roi *orth more than rwo thoor"nd dollars. Another thin_g, noticed that Elmer was working-with some pupils, *rt1 ^June'I to plant tomato plgtr. Round the root of cach they ,ho*irrg"th"*how
dead lion'.
In Putney, the war was remote. Most of the men on the staffwere married and were not called up, and three others had disabilities. The ffij:"1 feelings c-ould not oiwould not grasp the significance of the terribfe slaughter of masses ofpeople in Germany and i.ussia, not as we
slaughter animals with human" k[i"g insrruments, but with every kind of cruelry and torture of the body and mind that devils can think of on this planet, this festering sore in the universe. yet the fact of the war was always a weight on the solar plexus.
. Al this dme.a lo,urg man named Elmer with degrees from one of thefamous ag:icultural colleges came to manage the'farm. He was one of those people who had read all the books *? ktr"- all the answers, and he soon began to tell me about processes of sowing and plantinr and growing thit I had known for yeirs, since I also fr"ai"t.i; J.*d at an agricultural institute. Formerly, his patronizing manner of".*plainin-g the 'scientific' way of doing things would f,ave irritated me beyond measure and I would have retaliatid and a great deal of unnecessary friction would have arisen. Now I remem-bered Gurdjieff's warning: If you allow yourself to be irritated and resentful "no"th.r', behaviour you show yourselfweaker than him; and that it is"tsometimes r8z
to rum the other che9k. So I compelled mysel{,-in this
to errdoie his displeasing manifestations and even asked his advice, so that he began to tti"t *"U of me. But dl the time I kept 1y own ln*e.r to *w.lf; and was able to be not even inwardly resentfirl' orsanic Efier knew everything and understood nothing.
Gurdjieffsays, '.E-very satisfaction is accompanied by a non_ it had been at Taliesin, the undercurrent of war and the longing of something in me to be in England, and I even made enquiries at the British ionsulate in New Yrrk about returning to England and the possibiliry of getting a job there, bur was told I was overlge. So I accepld the siiuatiJr of i*Jioing in America more or less indefinitely. titre had lost all contact with Gurdjieff and there were rumours thit some of our near friends in France had been killed by bombs. Letters from England came more or less regularly, ,foug! it took over a month for a"reply. My mother, th.er.r {ghq" spoke of the difficulties they were having *d th. trouble with bombs, but always ended her leiters (to pl."ite the censors, I suspect) with:'but after all, we have a lot to be^thankfirl for., Andit *.T:rFg to be alive, even to exist. 'A living dog is better than a T
Plt,
Vqmofi
^
put hindfitl of sup"rlphotlh"J". 'A dangerous thing' Irlought;'but " ir *"y be the Amei.r, *"y', thougl I had not seen artificial fcrtilizers -ur.d t s"id nothing. A few dap later I on the school farm beibre, "nd all wilting, when Elmer came werc plants, which was examining thc 'I planted them accordinq to the said. it,' he along. 'I .*'tLd.ritand 'The cause is simple,'I said. a[ dying.' they're and latesiscientific ideas and pol$g up sgTe phosphate,' with super roots the 'You've killed education like '['ve a scientific had not added, him. I olants I showed the roots of a round super-phosphate put have would |oo b,rt I never when as an occasion ftis and *"ili.d red went il*,.'He -was 'Gurdjieffsays, 'It is someti*"r t "qy. givc the other such a smack ""ti"ry,to that he will'forget his grandmother.' After this he never gavc T" "ny orders but onlyiaid, 'do what you thinlc is necessary.' In time he was released from his job and became a butcher. ihit I was sitting at dinner in the big dining ro9.* yth Not long "fte, aged abour sevJnrcen. Ono of them began to talk about boys of thf ttuee science, ho* o.".ir.ry ir was, how things ought to be done scientificallv. that scientists were now the leaders. 'What do you mean by scieiice?' I asked. He hummed and ha'd for a time and then said, 'But you know what
science is. Everybody knows.'
r83
iil
i,l
Tln Putney
Thc PuneY School, Vermofi
School, Vumont
'fut jo
you?' I said. 'I'm asking what you mean by science and vou can'r tell.me. People talk.about rJ.rr.", tttgy r"tt "r because the words sound grand they think the things ,fr." must be e.l.ya[J grand. thinr. ihat if a thing i, feople be good, Iike bombs and machine_grurs and powirfrrl poir*l democracy, even Russia, yo.r thirrd is one, 5"""or" it io longer has a royal Czar,.yet Russia is suffering un{er one of th" gr."t the world has known.-And_ yo-rlcall ir,.democra &,'., Elmer's experiments, which had been so wasreful *'d
iu."i?.*"*i"y; ilir.r*, i.i."tia"'-ii*"" ilfb,
;;,-r;., r*J"i"i.a "*p;;;;;. h"
"sciefltific",'I added. one ofthe others spoke up. 'I agree with Mr. Nott. There's too much *o.r:hip of "science". My father;for example, h"s f"rm in V..r"o", " Td l" got a locd man tomanage it who haid taken d.gr."J;.;;rifi. farming. In-a year the farm hJ gone down and i"stEad profit was losing money. My faiher fired him. But the"a;J;; *--rr"i " brother who had never begn to college but dwap worked on farms, so" gavehimthejob andin rw-o years th"iar*w"r;g;il;i;; IIfr{* What do you make of that!' flh.erc was silence for a bit. Then another boy said, 'At least, we have freedom in America.' 'Freedom for what?' I asked. 'certainly there is more physical freedom than,Xngland; it's a b-rgg* country. a"a *.r" {merica !treedom to do what you want to do than in Russia and "*t"inf Germany. But there's more freedom in England and France as regards m"n', o*n " trti"t *a gelsgnal life; a man doesn't h"v. to be one of a .tJwd *a feel like them as he does-in A-merica. hr England **,r" to"g " in his priv"ate"r-1" does his job, is free to follow his own eccenlric ways life and to be interested in'n6miliar ideas, but b.rrir.rr**-ild;;" " would have to !" y.ty carefirl and not let his companioor r.oo* th"ti" was interested in them.' This was getting above their heads. So I said, 'But you haven't told me yhal you m€an by science, and since you can't d.fio" it I would the word originally meant the knowledge ofsomething; that is, :ly :o* was being
F:.h.q"g about something acquired by stud! and the result"method_ ically set down in one's mind 6r on paper.'Origin.lly ,.i;;; ;;;l* study of philosophy which in tr* *", * .fror, to ,rrd.rrt*J;i;, man's life is and what it isfor; an enquiry into the meaning and aim of existence. Now, the word science h"r be.om. so degeoei"t J ,rr"i lr some idiot of a manufacturer prepares a food from wfich the acJve
elements have been
.*tt".ted^*i
puts r84
it in a pretty
"ll
package
*J .n,
.a
it food scientifically prepared and scientifically gacledl everybody will buy it. Your biead,:for example, is scientifcally baked from scientifically prepared four so that nothing good is left and it tastes
Iike blotting paper. Perhaps you have noriced that I never eat it. In New york we 6a ,".t bread, the bread the poor Jews and Italians_eat. In Russia I could go three days on the black rye bread done- tlat the ,ndJwith a littli butter and rea was well and satisfied. pcasants .yoo Americans "t" despise the superstitious Hindus and their attitude
I
towar& the sacred .oio, bot yori
worse' you worship the word
"t" and look what science is doing to us now in the war in Europe and the Far East. There never has been iuch a war and on such a scale of ..science,'
destruction. Science is the sacred cow of the West.'
I enjoyed
talking with the young Americans whose minds and oot yJt spoiled *d r"t as are those of most adults. Yet, I differenie bei*een the American chil&en, and the seven or
feeling"s *"r"
noticid
" eight English pupils and those American drildren_who had sPent some yi* i" I"gt*d or France with their parents. The latter were drawn iogeth"r it *.t., and they had an unspoken something in co-mmon pupfu did not have--their minds and fcelings *fii.h the", rest of the -th-an the untravelled American cJrildren, they were more developed had more poise-simething more in their irurer world; and I thought of what i"tion could be, !io.o combination of theXnglish- and the -of " of experience and knowled-ge of " y".tr Americans: the thousandr world affairs, the toleration, ofthe Englisb, and the Power and adaptabiliry of the Americans. But men do not govern their affairs accordi'g to common sense, nor do they order events in the world or their own lives-events move men. Eviry event is the result of a cause and thc result also becomes a cause, and so on without end. tn nations and in individuals it is the same, and rhe case would be hopeless if it were not that from time ro rime teachers in touch with higher forces from above, men with real power and understanding, are sent to show us l Yay to rise out o{, esJ"pe from, thc endless turning of thc wheel of life' To escape from this^machine is real keedom aJopposed to the 'freedom' that everybody talks about. With one of the 6rm workers, a strong young man, I wal- planting thet" was a friendly-riv{rf cabbages. We often worked together "nd b.m"L us, and he would otoJly set the Pace to try and get ahead of me. But although I was already an old man according to American I8J
ii ijl llr l1l I
The httneY School, Vermont
The Puney School, Vermont standards, I had leamt at the Prieur6 how to economize energy and
how yo work mg{odically and, except in actual trials of strenfth, I could leeg up with him. In this planting of cabbages, he as usual, iet the pace, but by establishing a rhythm anda methoJl *"r able to k..p ,rp'with him, and though ! llanged nearly eight hundred cabbages in *i a"y I w"1 on]f twqrT-fiv9 behind. Another time we were siything a large orchard together and although he tried to keep well ahead I ias abl, by maintaining a rhythm with the scythe, to [e"p close behind him. I made it an exercise to compel the organism to *ik. more effort when it wanted to stop. As for the inner exercises, they never became casy. Each day t had to make an effort to start them and an effort to continue them. fly, or a movement of something, a sound, would distract me and dirr.rt attention; ('Where my attention is, there am I') or I would find myself fallinq asleep,-or_tensing myself instead of riaxing. More oftcn my attention would be caught up by something or othir in the stream of
i
*y
associations-phpic{, emotional or menral-which begins at birth
and never stops until death, and which even rhen to Gurdmay go on by momenrum for two or three ".cotdtg days. Caight up in this stream, my attention would be dispersed in day-6t.";tg, o-r io disputing with an imaginary person, or t"lking to myself. This-stream
jit$
of associations, cdled by psyihologists 'the sir."m of consciousness', is really the sfteam of 'unconsciousness', since it flows on mechanically without our participatirg
ir it, unless
we make a'conscious' effort to
do so.
'When
my exercises were interrupted by exterior and interior I would have ro re-colleci myself and begin again; and I
happenings
Tgyt"{ more red force from the exercisis than from working itr th" fields. The force came from constandy compelling myselfto oi"r.o*" the inertia of the organism and its urwillingnesi to'do the exercises. There was almost always the struggle between '[' who wished to do them and 'it' which did not wish io do them; as if the organism were qa.way fulfi[ing its functions ofthe denying part against the afirming of 'I Wish'.
Constant struggle between thc affirming and denying leads to rurderstanding--of onesel{ those around or, *ld the universe'.
Yet
it
seemed
to me rhat, aparr from brief periods of
self-
consciousness, nsciousness, real consciousness of part. went about ofself;, self,, I for the most part, self,,
my work in a state of semi-consciousness, like an intelligent animal. r86
enjoyed working with the men-the carPenter' decorator, grorurdsmanl dairyman. In the evenings I often visited them in their hoitrr, as I did those of the teaching stafi, and talked to them' The workers, the men who had served their time in their jobs, were scornfql of the'educated' Elmer, yet a bit envious. As one of them said: 'You see, Mr. Nott, I haven't been educated. You've been to Oxford
As
I
have said,
I
and cambridge. You're educated. t feel the loss of
it. It's a drawback
not being educated.' 'How-old were you whan you left school?'I asked'
'I was sixteen.' 'Yet you learnt the necessary things-to- read, to write and to do sums. And what you don't know about farming in Vermont is not I ieft school when t was thirteen, having learnt nothing worth knowing. "do ,rr*r. I read and wrote without schooling' But, like to evcn -not of education. I mean real education-learning lanlack the vou. I feel principles of drawing and music, or medicine' I the algebra, io"g.r, in a shop learning to- be a sdesman and in my workin! y"Itt i"utl"a t .onld h".tr" bien learning useful things, like r,ihen *"r"hoose, father,s after I w-as eighteen I lgsan to-be fortunate But or building. cerpenrry t could learn about life and, if having exwhom frori men in meeting oerience Jf p"opl" and li6 is education, then I have had a good one. At ih. ,"*" time liave always been sensible of the handicap ofnot having had a good grounding in the three "R's" in my youth''- ' 'ThJr.', so'mething-in thaq' he said. 'I mean educated like Elmer' In this countq,, ifyou'ie been to college you're a somebody, ifnot, you're like me, a nobody.' 'But Elmer oiy koows how to farm in the class room,' I replied' ,[ know. when he tells me to do something I listen and then do what I know ought to be done. Things do19 his way areruining the farm' But he, as h-e's been to college-though he knows nothing about practical farming or knows it wr6ng, becaise he's got it from professors and books-is looked on as educated.' Science is one of the sacred cows of the West; there is anothereducation. Here, where everyone was called by their Christian name, as all over America, no one used mine. only rwo people in the whole establish*.r" not called by their Christian names-the highest-and the lowest (at least, the one with the lowest pay), Mrs. Hinton and myself' Yet myrelations with everyone were friendly.
**,
t87
The putney School, Vermont
Mrs. Hinton was a remarkable woman. she instinctively sensed how young people should be prepared for life, how they should be given op-portrurities for their general development and noi only have ui"less information rammed into them. Her iystem worked-it"drew out' of the pupils what was in-tlrem, allowed their potentidities to grow. D"rTg my business life in New yorh l had been struck bylhe slowness of the reactions of business men, who would often tik round a subject Ft * minutes or more before coming to thc point. when you spokeabout something to Mrs. Hinton she would listen, think a moment, thel Sivg an answer, yes or no. 'With the pupfu she never spoke a great deal, butwas oherving without iis 6eing obvious, "l*"yr always weighing up. She was one offour retarkable Americin women I have met; the others beingJane Heap, Margaret Anderson and Muriel
Draper.
20
MENDHAM BND oF sBITBMBER we loaded uP the car, dog and dl, and with rcgretful hearts left Puoaey and drove to Lo9T, Vall:-y, Iqg ldand. Hire we lived in a wing of a beautiful rambling eighteenth<entury timber-builthouse, belonging to frien&, an old coaching station, stand-
ar rm
ins in eroun& and qardens.
"y.,
summer came again, and with it the camp, and the various activities, y *h:l my familyjoined, my wife and y*g", son coming up from Long hland. During the summer I rook some of the pupils in English, which was interesting,.sti nulagrng and profitable, and I made moie money in one week of half days than in a month working flrll time as a labourer on the farm. .I might have conrinued to get money for life by teaching at the schyl, but somerhingT Tys94 or events, brougk me to a"srop. A
for a renewal of family liG was growing iri *", *d ne.t to " world work with people interested in the cuidlieffiieas. The school of Putney,-though among the best of iti kind, was beginning to be somewhat limiting. Teachers as a class are limited, and riey haie little gerlonal experience of what they teach; even business peoplc are less
io.*t Valleylafter Punrey and Bratdeboro in Vermont, seemed foreign and decaying. Foreign because, against the background of the rc"l ild American 6-i["r, *ith fine estites with parkland encircled by wdls or fences, the small businesses were nrn !y fott and sccond generation Central Europeans who seemed not to belong to the country
il
l-aten, and the nrenial work
'l
was done by them. Though I missed the school and life in Vermont it was very satis$ing to have-a 6*ily life again, and my wife and younger son were |1ppy at The Friends Academy, and the elder at Puurey. I soon was-able to gct money by doing carpentry jobs and shingling-the roofs of houses'
iif"'fo*.-d pe"c"firlly and we renewed our contacts with
need
i,Iaterial
lrmrted
friends in New York, forty miles away. Though we no longer went to grouPs we !'ad not lost touch with thc OuspenJkys and I sJmetimes had talks with Mr. Ouspensky. 4,.4" cnd of Ociober I began to feel a need to work at Madame Ouspensky's community, Frantdn Farms at Mendham, New Jersen Ouspensky hisrself was in charge of groups in Neri'York, and not often at Mendham. At the end ofmy l"st t'itit to Frar*lin Farms I had 'had words' with Ma&ma. During a talk I had said, 'You know, working here with your pupils in the Cird3ieffsystcm, without tp-"4pq about him. and
Gathering sdp, Putney School, Vermont
r88
neetzibib's Tales is rather like trying to spread Cbristianity without mentionine Iesus Christ or the New Testament.' This had hurt and shocked hJrio-.*hat. But she so oftcn spoke about being 'sincere', and in this respect I was trying to be sincere. Shordy after this I had in returned to Pugrey. The memory of this incident set uP a rcsistancet'Itn' not want. "It" does me, and so began'th" diog-doog-' "I" wish; r89
1r
it I I I
Mendham
Mendham
does not wanr because it will have ro humble itself and perhaps be refused.' I brooded over the idea, trying to ovcrcome trJ resisi"nce of self-love wasting a lot of nervous energy. I said to mysel4, 'IfI put alide thc idea I shall save this ncrvous *"igy, but I sha[ te inwldly weaker. If I make the effort and ask, evcn if-t'am snubbed, I shall be stronger.' th€ end I made an effort and wrote to her at Mendham, and at oncc aGeling of srength came to my solar plexus. lhe pllyd, saying_that if I obeyed the conditionr, oot io speali "boot Gurdjieffor Beelzebub's Tales at Franklin Farms, I could coie. I went, spent some satisfactory weeks looking after pigs, repairing barns, 3nd harvesting the co-rn vlth Lo-rua, Madame's-grandsonlandioing-various oddjobs. I talked with Madame abour Curdlieffand the ideas,-and also withsome of the pupils, butin very general rcrms. At weekends many pegpJg came from New York; and at the big dinners we pur on ruxedos p{..bt"jk ties. Again, ig w1s as if Llme place had bein transported bodtly from Surrey, England, to NewJersey. The same feeling of "oostraint-people so busy trying to'remember to remember'thimselves A3t tlef forgot to be'themselves'. Even some of the old Orage group, who, for twenty years had been addressing each other by their-Chlsti"n o1-"1 began-to call each other Mr. and Mrs. They took literally the rulg tlat pupils were nor to call each other by their Christi* on*.r, and whcn I encountered an old friend in the kitchen and greeted him with 'Hallo, Bill, how are you?' looks of consternarion a-ppeared on faces. The good idea ofnot letting people become jocularly f"iriliar had become transformed into a constiained pedantry. 'Every'stick has two ends,' 'With every good thing goes a 6ad thing.' Anj in oneself,, as well as groups and organizations in this work, oni har constantly to be on the watch not to forget one's aim and the aim of the woik, and become so identified with one's own attitude to thc work and with the organization, that one loses sight of the real aim. At Mendham I often felt the fowing of the current of the octave, both ull and_down. I found that by working on myself,, using the life around me, the contacts, as reminders, I was able in my own rir"ll *".,, to learn a good deal, yet the group itsel{ little by little, owing to morl, and more organization was, I felt, moving awry from the firidamental ajm.9lCurdjieff's teaching. The same thing can be seen in the study of the litde we know of the groups of early Christians; the same with'the teaching of Buddha and Mahommed. Pupils soon became identified with their own attitude to the work, and if they have money or pov/er they are listened to by others and these others are in-fu"oc"d g"t
*i-"t"ryt h
*d
r90
pushed away ftom the original teactring. But wc have Beelzebub's Tales,
movements and dances, if too.lrrton. and a guide;-and the "*"tcir"r, tle right qlth' ek1fs, in keep etrictly kcpt to, *itI ftap people to as well as in other work tfus in t"oriirrg'ro the law oftl" J.t".'" litde get further litde by tcachings"and in ordinary life,-organizltions intention. and further away from their first I liked Ouspensky's pupils, some very much. But, in relation to myiith"y *Je in a magic circle. Gurdjieffrelates that he saw a 36lf, it was yezidi boy"rtrying'to get out of a circle drawn around him in the dust. gu* *h* Curi3iefflrcnt up to him and trie{ to pull him he.could oo, g", out. Onf when the circle had been broken was he able to
i
cscaPe.
Eieryon" and those in every organization 1e1ds t9 Slt inlo a magic circle-'to become hypnotized, and-untilthe circle is brok:n by anothcr force there can be tJ.r."p., which perhaps is why Gurdjieffso oftcn il"ia"..a the Institute *dgto,tpt-ald Peo.*' 'llhe Sufis, when work hal reached a cerrain stage,-'liquidate' it and begin something new. on theoutskirts of Mendham, a Now it happened that] a *i[" "*"y was living' This sympathetic of Ouspensky, pupfu *".ti"a "o,rii", years, invited me to dinner. some fir n"o*" couple. *ho* i L"a on_ Gurdjieff's book, and turnid t"lk the meal tr,ioj an excellent they callcd it.) As I had (Beezlebub abour; it was thev aiked me what his pupils.::gTdhg and Ouspensky with n"*. "g.."d to conditions Franklin Farms outside his writings and Gurdiieff ,ro, ,o.ikion about ,Ir's ideas.It is giUt. jli" Gurdjieff's of body the "work", of rf,. I saidi of the a relation earth, this on man of life of the an impartial criticism redemption. for his means of the explanation an and .u*o^of h* fall There is everything in it that relates to this work; there is all that we [6 from the atom to the megalocosmos. It is writing can know "bout it is sciptur-e. Gurdjieffsays t* h time.to come kind; of the highest on a partial understanding of some of the truths epics ** will"*rite wirds, it is an objective work of art.' other ftl it. contained in ''We've never seen it. Isn't it possible for us to read it?' 'You must ask Madame Ouspensky,' I said. 'I gave Mr' p-uspensky a copv ten years ago. If Madame agrees to a few of the older pupils f*#* it I will t"-"d it to you.' They seemed grateful and said they wo.rld"sp."k to her. They thar askedabout Gurdjieffand I,gave them ,o-" of my impressioni of him and some examples of the yay he worked with r"". we passed a very pleasant, and what seemed to me fnritful, evening; and ff* that at last I had established a real contact,
I9I
Mendham
Mendham
a bond, with at least rwo of Ouspensky's pupils. Also, with the war spreading and conditions in Europe going from bad to v/orse, and no news coming from France, it seemed that we might never see Gurdjieff
and said, 'But don't you teach Mr. Gur{ieff's system? Isn't all your work based on what you got from him? Mr. Gurdjieffwas your teacher and he still is mine.' 'This is quite another matter,' she said, and again began to berate me. And now a something that had been quiedy simmering in me for yeats suddenly came to the boil. My feelings got the better of me and I replied, very emotionally, 'But this is too ridiculous. For me to try to work with your pupils in these circumstances is impossible. And, you know, your pupils have got stuck at the note 'mi' and to get to '6h' they need a shock and the shock would be for them to meet Mr. Gurdjieffand to read Beelzebub's Tales. As for men my staying here is useless. I will leave tomorrow. But let me say that I persondly like you very much and Mr. Ouspensky too, and I am sorry to go away from you. The stumbling block is Mr. Gurdjieff and his book. He is my teacher. I have looked on you both as friends, and our relationship has been that of friends, this I have appreciated for it has meant a great deal to me. But I see that a teacher-pupil relationship between us is not 'W'e shook hands and I possible. And now I must say "good-bye".' left the room. This was really 'good-bye' for although she lived for nearly twenty years more I never saw her or Ouspensky again. At lunch that day I saw the S-'s, who could not look at me. They had the unhappy expressions of a man and woman threatened with er-rpulsion from Paradise, and I noticed a percePtible change in the atmosphere of the Ouspensky pupils; the temperature, as it concerned me, had dropped. The pupils radiated a something towards me-the man who had committed the unforgivable sin. Only Lonia, Madame Ouspensky's grandson, showed no coolness. He came to me while I was feeding the pigs and said, 'You're not really going, are you?' 'Yes, I'm leaving tomorrow.'
again, and something useful might be done in America-with-the in groups a new impetus could be given -Beelzebub" Tollt to the work in ouspensky's growing organization. I felt quite chJerfur about the prospect. pro_spect. But man proposes and organization di disposes. The next day was Sunday, a bright cold day in early early December. About mid-day I was sitting with others in a frosty field Lusking corn when someone came 1r4 " message that Madamj Ouspensky irished to see me. At once I felt that something srrange had happened. What, I could not imagine. Madame was in bed (she had to rest a good deal at this time) in her large handsome room. She looked ar me rarher severely and began, 'Some things I like about you, other things I do not like.' ''What is it you don't like?' t asked. '[ do not like the way you break rules and condirions.' reading of
'What nrles have I broken?' 'You have been talking ro rhe S-'s about Mr. Gurdjieffand Beelzebub's Tales.'
'Yes, I have. But this was outside Franklin Farms. It was outside, in their own house.' 'This is mere quibbling. You know very well that you agreed to conditions.' She was angry. 'Not quibbling,' I said. 'And I don't see what I have done wrong., to}9ep the confitions nor to speak about Mr. curdjieff .V9u pgeg{ and Beelzebub's Tales to our pupils.' 'Only here. I made no conditions with Mr, Ouspensky and his srouo
in New York. And since Gurdjieffand Orage ldd the'forurdrtiJn, jf the worlc in America t could not have to such conditions. For "gr.ed seven years in London I kept the agreement not to fiscuss the book or Mr.- Grrdjieff v/fuh your pupils, even more stricdy perhaps than t needed to do. You agree that I did sol' ''Well, yes.'
'And I have kept conditions here in Franllin Farms, often against diftculties. But outside I consider myself free.' '!hen I can't let you have any conract with my pupils.' She continued in the same vein as if trying to *ak. me feel how gravely I had misconducted myself. I saw the absurdity of the situation 192
see you again? phen shall we see you again?' ''Who can say? Perhaps soon, perhaps never.' The next morning, as I waited for the car to the station with some of the pupils I noticed that they edged away from me. Formerly they had rushed to help me with my heavy bags. Now, no one lifted a finger. And when we got into the train at Mendham they avoided me. This was the last straw. I moved into another coach and never saw them
'But when shall we
again, except one, and him years later. From that time we had no more contact with the Ouspenskys cither at Mendham or in the groups in New York, though Madame sent us gifts at Christmas and I wrote to her. r93
Menilhan
Mendham
As time wenr on and I pondered the situation I saw that I had acted hastily'nder the influencc ofmy emotions; perhaps because I was morc
said, when Gurdjieff saw that a phase in his work had served his purpose, he would liquidate it and begin something new. Ouspensky lontinued always to keep on in the same way, and so had got further from the source and further from the aim of thework. Cutofffromthe source, his work had bcen steadily tho"gh imperceptibly, under the infuence of the 'merciless Heropass', losing its vdue. I suffered a good deal because of this incident and began to see that if I had acted more intelligently I need not have caused such a commo-
Ouspenskys than I realized. t iihed them as human beings the "":*:d r: alylrs enjoyed the convivial gatherings at Lyne place ani
and l.had
Mendham; this was not 'work'
in Gurdjieff,s sJse, it was a human it. Yet I understood better that when ouspenskycut hirnself offfrom Gurdjiefi his work began to lose its value. social thing, and
I
missed
His philosophical school had become more and -olr" groop, ofmental questions and answers. what life there was came frim the phvsical
work, at Mendham. Yet all through, Ouspensky had been ,*aify y*q.g on Fragmefis of an Unkniwn Teaihing and, being a trainei joumalisl and writer, possessing intellectual inlegrity, h. i"s able to
scparatehisrhoughts from his persond feelingt *Jro itoduce a volume of Gurdjieff's sayings beyond price; and by-this alonl, perhaps, he has paid Nature for his 'arising and existence'. i-Ie had giverime tire almost .:*plT: "'anuscript ro read and I redized what imasterpiece ir was. Also, although ouspensky's school had little value so f"r'"s inrr"r d"velopment went, nevertheless- it gave something to people. It helped their interest in ideas-that are abovJ ora*ry m""herri"al g9 k""p -"g life. And tfre pupils will be ro some extent prepared when at some rime or other they will Gel a real need to *ori. themselves, and when they meet a red teacher, such as Gurdjieff or the work in another form. -great Individual Russians have given a deal to the worrd, but as a race they are much more rigid in their menral attitude to lifc than the Thgy represgnt in tfieir existence the limitless stupidity ofman. !ngt:!. consider collective firming again. As I have said the tilets of Rorri" after the revoludon adopted the idea of 'collecdve 6rms'. They know
*
now that three or four times rhe amounr of food in propoiion is produced by people growing food on their own land, in iheir own initiative, and they feel that the collective sysrem is wrong; yer in the face of 6j".Fq still persist in rheir attitude, and for "fo*y yr.rr, because of collectives, have been short of food and have h"d to imoort wheat from the hated 'imperialist capitalists'. The same with ti.i, satellites-Hungary for example, whicf,before the revolution e{ported food. ouspensky's rigid attitude was Russian and it would not allow him to admit that he had made a mistake in cutting himserf off from Grudjieff and, like the Russian rulers in regard tJcolective farming, ftk something was wanting trl Ua to hedge hi, popfi, -altho.ugh !" in with rules to preserve his attitude towards Gurdjieff er t h"ve
, r94
tion, which sct going a train of events that went on until after Ouspensky's death. If only our foresight were as good as our hindsight both our inner and outcr world might be different. But wc are as we are; I was as I was; thc Ouspenskys were as they were, and events moved in the only way they could. A lot of energy is wasted in speculating about 'if'. 'If'he had done that or this.' 'If only I had done so and so how &ffereirt it would have been.' 'If Napoleon had acted thus instead of thus he . . .' and so on. The truth is that nothing, while we act unconsciously, can be &ferent. A few words, said in the wrong way' can. have far-reaching consequences. Now that I understand more, given the same situation, I could say the same things in a differcnt way and so put myself in a strong position instead of a weak onc. Whcn one has realizid that one has allowed the feelings to become identified with a given situation one should suffer remorse of conscience and thus help repait Ae past. This idca is in Ouspensky's Sttange Lfe of luy Ossokin, the manuscrit't of which he had glven me at Lyrc Place-the idea that rmless there is an irurer change brought about by work on ourselves we cannot help but repeat our actions in the same and in similar situations. ln this work one learns that one has to pay for everythingeither in this life or another. People often think and feel that if they were in another place, in a &ferent situation, another country, they would be &fferent, happier,-and sometimes they ate; but though their outer life may changi for the better dieir irurer life may remain the same or even shrink, deteriorate. 'The causes of all misunderstandings may be sought for only among
women,' says Gurdjieff. This may be taken both literally and as ref.rri"S to the passive part, the lower emotions. When we act from impulse, from a prompting of the lower enrotions (which t "lly "tj dl we have and are negative) things go wrong. A few heated words can s€t up an emotional attitude which may take years to break down. However, since women feel more than men, and arc more influenced by their feelings, it can be said that the cause of much misunderstanding
I9J
Mendham
will be found among them. Men are more logical. Yet women can recover from the effects of an expression of negative emotion quicker than men. Gurdjieffdso says that if you are about to undertake a new project, talk about it with women-then do the opposire. But of this, enough.
2T
LOCUST VALLEY, LONG ISLAND FRoM JANUARY
uNrIL aucusr
I
passed a
not unpleasant existence in
library but found that t could Locust Valley. I odd jobs for people-shingfreer by doing make more money and bc very good-carPentering, I became ling roofs of houses at which an American-cigzent Not being I liked. work that gardening and so on, position. But we had real responsible of any kind iwas noieligible for rich very Long Islanders, ofthem some friends and many acquaintances, was offered a post
in
a
others poor school teachers and salesmen. Once at a cocktail paffy t found myself talking to a good looking intelligent woman, a R.ussian, and we discovered that we had mutual friends among the White Russians in London. t happened to mention Prince Youssoupoff, Rasputin's killer, whom I had met. 'You know,' I said, 'he had such a resdess haunted look that I asked a Russian friend who he was. He told me that it was Youssoupoff, who hail said that he wished he never had killed Rasputin. It had been a mistake and far from improving things had made them worse.' 'It's true,' she said. 'Rasputin was not the charlatan he is made out to be. I knew him. He w"r th" only man who helped the Czarevitch. And he saw the way things were going and tried to infuence the Czar to do something to stop-the useliss slaughter and destnrction. He said openly whal many people were thinking, including peolle in England like Tord- Lansdo*tt., that peace ought to be made. He was not a saint but he did not kill people, and he didnot live on the sweat ofpeasants but tried-to help theto, and he robbed no one. But because he tried to in-fuence the Czar to stop the war he was regarded as a nuisance by the power-possessilg belngi and had to be got rid of, And because he liked wine and vodka does or would if he could, the smug looked ev.ry and iomen, "t down on him.' There was very much in old Russia that was good, that gave a riclr-
**
ness
196
to its inner fif., th"t made
it'Holy r97
Russia'. The revolution killed
Loca* Valley, Long klarul
Loarct Valley, Long Ishnd
that rich inner life ofRussia; and the whole world is poorer and emptier
two hundred miles to drive instead of a thousand, and we were able to visit our friends at the Putney School. All this year I had been thinking about getting back to- England. l5ere was-the need to find some way of getting money for life, of preparing for the future; also, there was a feeling in the airthat the war to an end-at least, that it was only a matter of time before *"r "o*lttg would give in. Being fifry-seven years old t had no hope of a Germany job in Ameri"" *I io1oo" I puimyname down for a-passage to England. It was difficult to git paisage; one had to be ready to leave at {ort}'; " eight or erntn t*enty-four hours' notice, and- if Peace w€re to break orit the rush would be overwhelming. Also when the soldiers eventually began returning home to America I might find it impossible to ge1 g"id*"t. One can be poor in Europe, even England, Jnen "t In-America, " ".j'ob, to be poor w"s regarded as in England up with dignity.
for it. But the momenrum set going by cosmic forcei and the abnoimal life of man during the nineteenth cenrury was such that the war could not be stopped; and it went on to the next great war and sdll continues, and life goes-dow-n a$ down the scde; and now, only thirry years later, we are faced with almost totd destmction. That ir, uol"s something exceptional in the cosmos-happens, or that by means of higher forces enough men with pov/er, because of the threat, will have thiir attitude
to life changed. The eflects of mental power are asronishing. I was thinking of the effects of the Ouspenskys' mental power on th" minds and Gjings of their followers, most ofwhom were men and women ofthe intelli-gent world, and how their lives were infuenced by it-and chiefy for gJod. Yet the mentd powers of Gurdjieffwere a hundred times greateithan Ouspensky's. Think ofthe mental power ofJesus, by whicf, his words, spoken two thousand ye_ars c"n still influence men for good; and "go, soldiers tl.re priests and police-and Roman ofhis time whose fo*., *", alle t9 destroy his planetary body, have disappeared so tha-t nor even their dust gr^memory remains. The ideas rnd th. teaching ofJesus are still a vital force. Ideas, which cannot be seen or touchJd, *or" powerfirl 4T qf**, dictators, kings, police, judges and"*armies. The outer life of man is always changing; his iJeas-on philosophy, subje-ctive moraliry, psyclrglogy good ooly for a nine d"yi wonder, "r. teachers and real yet the inner teaching of the great saints remains un-
to r9r4-a
changed.
In thclast fifty years there have been such changes in the liG of man on our planet as never before in recorded history: the First Great war, revolutions in Russia and china, the discovery oioil which has brought
the new plague of cars and aeroplan.r
commercialism and communism, and so on and so forth-all this during my own short life. Yet inwardly, man remains the same.
In the summer we
were- again invited
man but weak; one of those many who, not having acquired a measure of individudity, unconsciously imitate their teachers.
*d
bombs, the virtual f,isappearance of the horse, the use of chemicds and poisons in producins fooa; tn. Second War, the hydrogen bomb, rh" ir;k-;t"?;fi-;;: lizations in the Far East that had much good in them, the irin curses of
sin.
At the Swings's house on Putney Mountain life wassatisfring.'We had only two oititots, a man and his wife from the old Orage grouP who were now working with Ouspensky. I happened to mention Beelzebub's Tales andasked p. if he still read it. 'No,' he said in a special tone of voice, that wasn't his at all.'You see, Beelzebub's Talesneeds a lot of mental preparation and we haven't got that fat yet.' - 'Oh, come off-it,1.,'I said.'You are talking just like Ouspensky does. In fact, you are using his very words. You know very well that tlre -ment"l book does not need PreParation", but an emotional attitude. Why do you speak in this *iy tftet the years you sPent with Orage? You have been hypnotizedby Ouspensky.' *" io surprise, thought a bit, and then laughed. lYou He looked "t may be right,' he said, speaking in hiJown voice. He was a sympathetic
"
by the Frank Lloyd W'rights
to spend the vacation with them at Talieiin but I was waiting
6r
a
to England.Then the Raymond Gram swings offered ir th"i" house in Newfine for a few weeks. This we as it was only
Locu* Valley, Long Island
rg8
r99
passage
".."ptid
BOOK IV ENGLAND
22
RETURN TO ENGLAND: SOME NOTES OF ORAGE
ON THE MAHABHARATA wB IraD
nEEN
in the
Raymond Gram Swing's housc-
two
wee'ks
when a telephone call camc from a government ag$cf thal-the:.e was a passage fo'r me on a ship to fngland io llo days' time'.Hastily we o"i.L"d-,rp our things *J *itho,rt being able to say goodbye to our h*d, at'pur,rey Sclool drove suaight ro Locust Vallcy, Lo-ng Island. There was no timc even to see friends in New York; only another oartins. The last day with my 6mily was painful; they c,ame p \ew t*t i"iA me and ,"id good6y. at the doJk gates and when they had left t turned away and wept; again, a sort of dying. 'llle ship's ,*oling too- h"d b.en tunred into a dormitory for men, forw of u's, all Britisf,. On deck the loud speaker was busy sending out
in the bu[]ing tone that the American police use, as if with a mourh full of cold poiato: 'Lisren awerybody, listen awerybody!' then the instructions, winding up with'That's all,' and it came as
-rrl.*..*** inl*,
as soon as
"Enslishvoice with
ir,.it io"
please
the ship left the doik, to hear a rather high-pitched nrootlr full ofhot potato say, 'Attention please,
" the insuuctions, winding up with a polite, !' then
'Ihank you.' fU" nn, night I turned in early. fhe next moTi'g goinS.on d9c! I sight. We were in the centre of the front line of five saw an "-*iig lines of ships, slxriof them, sreaming ar the same speed, each keeping ir, it".". ri' A" fil distance *rt" tli" watchdogsfthe destroyers and .ori"r,o, alert for submarines. And day after day all these ships kSpt th"i, p1""" on a calm sea in the hot August sunshine until we reached ,t itior", of old Sngland. The nights were pitch black and we might " 203
Return
Return to England have been completely done on the ocean yet, the next morning all the ships wcre-there still in place as if they had never moved. A itriking example ofhow men can elficiendy organize themselves and the works of their hands in defence against the forces of material destruction. The terr days from New York to Liverpool passed peacefully, aparr from the burial at sea of a very old lady who died from heart failure; and one startling event of which our ship was the cause. Four nights out I was dreaming that I was in a big car with another man, who was driving. The e-ngine sorurded powerfully as we wenr along, then suddenly lie polLd into the grass verge and got out. 'The engines have stopped. They've broken down,'he said, lifting the boruret. I woke. tt was early moming and the ship was quite still, no vibration from the engines. I went on deck, and saw that we vrere done on the ocean, drifting, a perfect sitting target for submarines, the convoy a faint smudge on the far horizon; only a small corvette which steamed towards us gave us a
look round and made off for the convoy. 'Wc had been told that if any ship broke down it was to be left to its fate; fifty-nine ships could not be put in hazard for the sake of one, but for saGry's sake they had gut us in the centre of the front line, because we had on board, among the five hundred.passengers, rwo hundred Canadian women, the young wives of English airmen, going to join thet husbands in England. From a position of almost complete safery we were in one of absolute danger. The life boats were hoisted out in their davits and we were lined up in our life belts. No one showed signs of panic or even fear; there was a conunon feeling that nothing could be done except to wait for a submarine and, iflucky, to get into the boats. We could only accept the situation and resign ourselves to whatever might happen. When we are faced by forces greater than our owu there is nothing to do but submit. All that I could do was to remember myself and not give wayronegative feelings of worry and anxiery. I recalled the many times I had riad about and imagined such a situation*taking to the boats and drifting on the boundless indifferent ocedr, but it is one thing to read about and
imagine, another to be faced with the actual fact;
it
n Englanil
of the convoy. We went to bed inourlifebeltsbut, wakingnextmorning, to our enormous relief we found ourselves as if by magic once again in the centre of the front line. To go back a bit. Hardly had we lost sight of the cloud-capt towers of New York when my feelings of grief at leaving my family were diverted into another subjective state. In the crowd ofpassengers eyeing each other as they sauntered the decks I saw a pupil of Ouspensky, a man I had never met to talk to, but had seen in a group of men around Ouspensky on my first visit to Warwick Gardens, and once at Mendhanr, and had formed the impression that he was one of Ouspensky's oldest and closest pupils, 'high in the work', as they say. t spoke to him and we began to talk. It was a realjoy to meet a man who was interested in the sami ideas as myself and with whom it was possible to discuss them; I realized the truth of Gurdjieff's saying that this work establishes 'We had meals toa bond between people stronger even than f"*ily. gether and spent a good part of each day talking. H9 w1s unaware that i h"d left th- ouspenskys and why, and I wondered what instructions Ouspensky would have given him had he known we were to meet. As for myself I was only too pleased to talk about Gurdjieffand Beelzebub's Talesi even had Ouspensky forbidden our meeting I doubt whether, 6ced as we were with the possibiliry ofbeing srurk at sea by submarines, this pupil would have refrained. I speak of this because ofwhat followed in nngland. However, we had not been talking together long before I began to be aware of how litde he understood. H9 knew th9 t ory of the system better, perhaps, than I did, but as for the method ofselfsensing, self-remembering, selGobservation, he, like dl of Ouspenskyt pupils, urderstood almost nothing. In the course ola {1f or so, he brg* to question me about various aspects of Gurdjieffand hi-s teaching,
*d
he was serious I gave him some of my notes to read and some "t chapters in typescript of rhe Seconil Series. He kept o1 saying, 'B1t {ris is fascinating, this ii most interesting, We've never had this. Why has this never bien given to us?' I could only say, 'Ask Ouspensky.' The
I lent him my copy sitting on a stair at a time, of the typescript, which he read for hours Tales of BeelzebuE aroused his greatest intcrest, and
i6 thc difference between knowing with the mind, and personal experience. llhis incident so impressed itselfon my thlee centres that, over tw€nty years later I can recall not only the actions but the feelings and thoughts aroused in me. Hours passed in suspense. 'We even sat down to lunch as usual, but with lifebelts on, waiting for an explosion, then, in the afternoon, the engrnes started up again full-speed ahead instead of the usual halGspeed
crowded ship. 'Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled,' I thought, and was glad that in my small way I was able to do something towards appealing one man's hunger. Our contact made all the difference to our life on the ship; a kind of life which, on all my other voyages, twenry-six long voyages in all as
20.4
205
of the companion way, which was the quietest spot on the over-
Return to Englanil
Return to Englanil
I have often been bored. It would seem logicd that people herded together on a ship cut offfrom land for six wccks or even ten &ys, would try to get to know each other and that one would be able to discover at least two or tluce who would be able and willing to discuss vital ideas. My cxperience is that as soon as people find themselves on a passenger ship a veil comes down over their real selves-if they have any-and their whole time is given up to trivialities, trivial talk, trivial doings, trivial gosip about others. Young people can firt and dance and for them it is not too bad. and one long voyage can be a plcasant and unusual expericnce. For me now it is an infliction; and my idea of hell is to be condemned to sail for ever on a 'pleasure' cruisc in a hurury passenger liner without even the privilege ofjumping over-
summer and drank in the English scene. ft was one ofthose cloudless late that perfect so are haze the lieh;on the 6elds and the gentle a"rr, *t never that me to it seemed ,ro"*h.r. else on this planei; t
board.
changed.
a passenger,
This present voyage was different. Apart from the talks with my new friend, there was
a
serious atmosphere in the ship and a good feeling
among the passengers and the crew; faced with ever present dangcr people opened out. By day we played deck games or read and talked,
at night there was a concert, a bridge drive, a chess tournament or something of thc sort. It was one of the most enjoyable and satisfying voyages I have had. As we were twisting and winding our way tloo"gh thc minefields of the hish Sea towards Liverpool my friend said, 'You know, I can never
thank you enough for what you have given me. It is manna to the starving. If you will form a group to rcad Beelzebub's Tales when you land I will join it.' I agreed to do so but told him that he, being Ouspensky's pupil, must speak to him about it. He said that as soon as he arrived he would go to Lyne and speak to the people there and send a cable to Ouspensky in New York for permission. We parted in Liverpool. 'In a week's time
* it-i* "pp* h"d t s"en any country so beaudful, any rlen so fine or women so
andthc peopie, after the slow-speaking, slow-moving serious ,".-.i enlrgetic, purposeful and even gay' The ache in the of ;"il;i;t, th" longit[ of.tit. p"tt four years, the gnawing painfor waiting was A taxi ttot"""i.t".t, dlr"ppJrtJd *d n"i.t returned' in *" "r-,i" station irid ,oo' I was sitting with my father and mother I thougttt when before, years four the same roomjust as I had left them i*.Ja rr"o., i"" them again; a repetitionof the same situation' in the
"ttr".tirr., Americans,
,"*"
,rill"g. even, with ihe same'feelings' Yet something in me had
fi-t:"- *?t a fistant explosion and Sitting together that first eYenlng-that?' -e"rr" I asked' '[ suppose it's abuzz 'What's iump. -., *oIr., " g of a car down the road' speakin were il;tj ;"id ;y frti.r, as if he sometimes in the daytirye and night every *J*!* on tiking. Almost father had gone.to the my i"h.tr i"y One -" m"ra the buzibombs. b-y an explosion' shaken was house the kitchen to make a cup of tea, been blown andhad on gas the hadleft he ;i;" first thousht was that
i,"
"?ra "plilfi"a matter?' I asked.
found him calmly po*ing out tea. 'What's the
The days across the Atlantic had been days of unbroken sunshine which continued when wc arrived i1 Fngland, and all the time in the train on the slow journey to Harpenden I looked out of the windows
'How do you mean, the matter?' - - I thouglt you had blown yourself up!' . 'fh" .r 'Another "*pdrion! 'Oh, *iat,' he said wiih a faint intonation of contemPt' ^ buzz bomb, I suPPose.' It had fallen in the park at the back oft}e house' I rom"ti*", wondeied why Nature had not endowed me with some me of my father's instinctive phiiosophical calm and instead had given after ; ;;h ;i -y mother's ?estlrrr-t."noot emotionalism' In r94o' gates from back turned been he had Fire, Gre"t of the ,the ,lt" "igft, and Cripplegate) of the Ciry of London' because his ware(Alder"seate fl;ttty ft b"eeo'bombed and was bu:ning-to tle ground il;;; *irh rh" r.r, of the city, and his life's practical work, his business, which back' had lasted over sixty y"*r, h"d b..i dttttoytd' He had tumed gr"" it*" the stairs at Aldengate Street.Station, taken the next train fio*" *a told my mother, 'I',ion't be going up to the frtl again" and eighty. had busied hi*sif with something else. He was then about *ifr, *r"ffrt of dying se.m.d nJt to worry him, for he was sure tbat
zo6
207
you shall hear from me,'he said. But never a word or line did I have from him, nor did I see him again until some years later, after Ouspensky's death, when I met him accidentdly at a Gurdjieffmeeting, and he explained why: he had been told that if hejoined my reading group or had anything whatever to do with me he would have to leave Lyre. He was a good and sympathetic man and later helped me very much at a timc when I nceded money.
Return
Return to England
n Enghnd ofthe
'Wesleyan
Methodist religion. My mother, on the other hand, was always internally considering others, concesred about what they might be thinking of her; and the Methodist religion gave her no hope or consolation, only a feeling of guilt for having occasionally drunk too much, which might prevent her going to heaven. She often spoke about it to me and, although I reasoned with her and tried to comfort her, she could not rid herself of a feeling ofguilt, that God would not forgive her for drinking alcohol. The religion that was a blessing to my father to her was a curse. Yet except for occasional fits of depression she was gay and cheerftrl. In her sixtics the fisease of the craving for alcohol had disappeared and a new life, of good works, began for her. She became the charity organizer of the county, and everyone admired her and loved her. he would go to heaven, the heaven
I hadnot been home long when the Vz rockets began to arrive; there no wanring, only a devastating explosion. On one of my visits to London I had been to Staples Inn in Holbonr. A quarter of an hour after I left, walking up High Holborn there was a shattering e4plosion: Staples Inn, 'the fairest kur in Chancery', had disappeared. At this period ofthe war the streets oflondon were very emPty, r"ith halfthe shops closed and most windows boarded up against fying glass. The city that Ihad known so well was a rnass of ruins; its churctres, shells. People went about their business unconsciously alert, like deer, always sensing; and with the feeling, 'It probably won't be me.' I was always relieved to get back to Harpenden. Though litde was said about the bombs everyone was intensely aware ofthe danger. Human beings, like animals, can accept the possibility of being destroyed, and nature mercifirlly prevents them from realizing a desperate situation-in a besieged city, the eruption of a volcano, a hurricane, a sinking ship, the Jews waiting for the gas chambers. After the first shock a situation is often accepted. Usually it is only in dreams that the terror and horror are realized. One morning, hearing an enormous drone of aeroplanes, I went on to the common and looked up. The blue sky was full ofplanes towing gliders,.moving slowly in the direction of Holland-hundreds of them, each full of young men in the prime of manhood, and I thought, 'In a Iittle while, an hour or two, hundreds of those young men now full of life will be dead or dying, some even before they've reached the ground, sentenced to death by lottery, and no one nor nothing could stop it.' They were going to Arnhem. 'was
zo8
With the possibiliry of sudden death or injuries {ways ":,{:HI more human; their thtck of their mindls and feeiings the English seemed and I was often remelted' pardy lJ"'t, h.d 6..", **t.f
"lt"""liry ffi;;Er.'Ct
"td; everyone we
.,,"t
"urtg "l*"ystotry see are mortaliand Beelzebub'i
to remember that we and
lelyes1to, ]i;:"dt::T:::: in beings an organ,like Kundabuffer but which wouldhave ttiem'always to be conscious of, to be aware of, ifr".?i"",f -4" of their owni""th "nd the death of everyone around,them: ,trr Ooly thit has the possibiliry of destroying the vaniry' and oower-all that whlcn touchiness, resentment' greed for mon€y helplful' and which hinders fe codd *ftitft sooils mutual ,"l"tiorrrfri!, women' and men normal ftom becoming tLem "-i..""r".f to the fisfrarmonization of the Fifth Stopinder, "g661ding lt as as expected or even Beelzebub, irothing on this planet ever goes l";;;tll" tl'tra gi' rrt""t' tife is akaJ's confounding the'experts"
io
i#Ut
";;;ilt"g
*"::t:i::llli'
Psychologists, ffi;i ";;;; ?"-p.rts'-the scientists, educationalists, even those wrong'-but always almost are *ho oit, *liri"i*r, *d ,o with a measure of 5ffi;H;1" [d;"trelves who are endowed *d who know that they do not know everything! ;;;;ili,
to
It was necessary for me to get a job as soon as po.ssible,l'orde1 ,*d *orr.n to my family in America' I went first to the Publishers' but
of which was cut to tne thev wantid not-help but paper, the supply *"t" coruricted with the heads of The
ilri".'fi;r.*"-n=.*ar -hi Iriitft-ct"".i1"d','ir"J*e
to interview them'
as
men with Plblilhing
the interwere needed, and they offered to speak Qt.*t'At personnel the *'u, and I discovered that ;id fri"odof riine who assured me that he would recom"o a hopefirl feeling.; but not mend me. So I returned to Harpenden with They were did I hear, urd a friend-hinted that it was my age.
;;;;l*; ;#:;*/il;:;;;;o ;i;.;;; *"ia
;jJ;; ;;;;fift, "
wrot;to
hJ;;;tecond ;;"1;;.m
ffi-;;;'Eil; ;;;;i
though I.looked te;n
{::s':'^'Lh*
leals ot tnerwar the friends whose country house in the first *TTt home, yet I had a feeling 6hxi semsthing had haPbefore' Now' the as their l.ttJtt htd stopped-six months i; i.ad. come^and see us and cheer :'P.'.l hi, *ord, oi o"tt four years before when I had said
T
arc 'Our old life is finished' Everything is breaking up' You was Nor agajn' i, e*.' X. is gone' It will nevlr be the same running th; estatlas,,a it,;?';i;i-;;i;.i1 t?o.-d that his wife wasIike everywhere else m J"ioy At- and market garden, and the place'
""taU"* il;.;:
Return to England
Return to &tgland
England then looked neglected. They and cveryone were overworked. Yet she had managed to keep going. only the hoose, with its centuries of the atmosphere of the lives of people who had lived and died there, thc house whose radiations were still of peace and well-being, seemed pcmranent in the changing world. yet that ancient housJ with its
hours a day drew in over twenty pounds a wcek, !9yl1o sixty pounds now. I li"id *lth my father and mother in their little house and went ro Luton each day. Again I was back in the family busines, this ti.mc in Luton wherc I'waftorn and working in a room of a building that my maternal grandfather had built about r87o to start a dycing busi-
'immemorial elms' was, like everything else, formed of planetary material, always injeopardy, in a state of change; it could be jestroyei in a-few hours by fire, or in an instant by a bomb from Germany; even without that, time, that wean away all things, was changing it imperceptibly every minure. I was at home there: My essence was satisfied by the work on the farm and mypersonaliry !y the aristocratic way of lifc; and being used to-a farming lif" *y work was usefirl and a suggestion was maJe that I should stay and share in thc running of the pliie. But I needed more money than they could afford to give me, though I did stay for some weeks.
My friend o{ten had difliculties with the foreman, a tough north cognlrym n. One morning at breakfast, seeing her pensive I asled why. 'It's that foreman again,' she said. To divert her f told her that I had had a letter from my son at Puhrey, Vermont, in which he related that a
man had been killed by a bear while hunting in the forest not far
from
the school. She seemed not to be listening, but after a pause said, ,you know, I like bears better than men.' There was a gen-eral laugh from evcryone but her. Afrer some weeks I had rl offer of a well_paidjob from my brother in Luton. Hats being severely rationed, his factory was turninq out all kinds of baskets and bags from wasre material, and doing velry well. He had a man spraying material with a very primitive *ld io"tra*t small ancient machine,-and suggested that I taki over the running ofit. \eeding money 19 bldly J could not refuse, bur it was a horrible job. There was no outlet for the fumes of the spray, no extractor fan and ev.el.with a mask my_lungs were coared with ihe vile spirit fumes, in which it-was impossiblc to work more than four hours a day; a violent from working at the pleasant old country house and eshte in the Chiltcrns, but it brought in money and I was able to send a good sum each week to my family in America. I began to manipulate the authorities and in a few weeks was able to get a permit from the Board of Trade to buy a modern spraving
**g:
machine and exrractor fan.
With
these installei
*ork
;.'*y';A
simple and I was able to employ a girl to help and by working a few
2ro
ness.
Thc whccl of time had brought me round to the beginnings existence on this planet. Events had, it seemed, compelled me to
a course, back to
f"*ily
ofmy follow
infuences, back to beginnings once more,
when I thought I had been moving on and out; and agin it seemed that there was sot"thing else that t had to work out in the pattern of my for my arising-my working as a existcnce, even to 6'e able to Pay
faaory hand in my younger brother's facryq, and by doing it consciousiy and to thi best of my ability, _without mortification or resentment, I would be working out something negative in my existence, in mvself. and at the same time, in some strange way might bc helping my grandfather, which idea was connected with what !9r{jietro.ften r"iaio pupils aboutnot mortifying thcir grandfather, andhelping thgf who h":vJgone; though'grandfather'has more than one meaning' He also said ti'at if fathers *i[ dtin in the comfortable 'britchka', sons mu$ follow in the springless 'firmanka'. However, I extraitedl good ded of pleasure, profrt and- religion from this new experience: profit in the shape of morrey,-rdigion in pleasure in doing a-job well' A,few of pondering GurdjiJff's t ""hiitgt, lh. ** who h"d been in the family business since I was a youth were still there; formcrly I had regarded them as they, the workers, *dy", the owners, now I was able t-o work with them as a man like themselves and to like them. I was not unhappy, I no longer suffered from homesickness; but I needed my family. of the fact that at In Luton as in London there was tli" ""."pt*ce any moment a Vz or a buzz-bomb might faf without a warning; and altilough the factory had a strong dug-out the new bgqrls gave no time ti go down io it; and the 'secret weapon' did fall, but not on us. Before leaving America I had trieil without success to get a_complete set of the nngliih translation of the Mahabharata,,of which Orage_h3d so often spoklerr, so I searched London and by chance YTt int: Joln Watkins'i shop just off Charing Cross Road and was delighted to be
2tl
Return to Englad
Return to England
able to buy his lasr ser. I took it home and began to read it wery {ly. consisted of eleven closely priit.d
! and a half million set my_selfthe task
it,
and I read
""1;;;;;;;. words, probably th. ionge* book in ,il" *"rri. r
of reading it through, wrrilh took
a good task, ir needed
*i "11
o".,
rr
i,.,
"f.".. attentioi and perseverance, for the Indian
translator had put the into pseudo-'Engtirh_bibfic.l _Sanskrit which was tiresome. Even so, the siory .o*.r"rhro,r!h-;rh";;i"io,
i;;;",
has preserrr,ed_the essence, the favour'and the to"Joi"oi""' original, which makes ir more satis$,ing than the Milman or Romesh Dutt. The uahibhiatai,
;;;" n"g**rriy MJr, * obj;;;;;Jk;-f;" of the highest kind in literature and the reading ofit is i***r.t" ro warding, it.gp*r- up new horizons of ideas ira ,fr""el" ;J,;";" from the Bible and Beelzebub's Tares,has affected *" *o"r. *d or"i" treeper.impr-ession on me th"n any book I have read. Ivhil. I ;;;"di"g " I searched the files of The Ny Age to see whar or"g" rr"J *ri**
about
it and madc the following
"ir".tr.
Tfie Mahabhanta and rfte upanishads are worrd has
lnply neaily
crassics that the worrir not yet diseouered. piato had to rie comparativery unknown for
two thousail.years-the Indian
classics
*ilt io*fortoily i;;;;;i,;-
sand years ad will effierge as u-p-to-date os ever. ntit r"enir* will make their reputatioi out of-them. schopenhauu, rt,
y;;i;;"
iii iii":ri-it,
covueil them, anil beume a notible ph;toropi* on a partial them.
**iiii"g'i1
*
:*l
can be
.,Y:noJ moilern !4sticisn, whole my*ical
gatheredfron the Mahabharata thanfron the
writings.
*
Tfre Mahabharata rs the greatest nngre ffirt of rituary reatiot of any ailture,in human hlstory. dinicuh o,1i di*ry ir-'r"*r;:r r" .i; mind that conceiued it; and the efort tg do so is almost iiself aliberal
!
f;
Theiliad dnd the odyssey
.
*tiri
;i,
are episodes h it; and the cet ti"t a recordof asinglecoitusationon theeueof o* of ;t, llrnplythe Never was a writer more currently aware- of his readei tha" vyio, Ganesha, who had transcr.ibed it unirei vyasa's irireaioni that he should be released tf o.nce the meaninf shoulil ccase
eilucation.
ni"i^"^Tiir^
ii"yi;;;;.
;l;;;'rfu;.
i;d ;;a';i;"d ,r'ti p,tri"i, w'*,
anil he uas not released uitil the end. Tahen as literature simply, as the most corossal worle of literury art euer yeateil, i* exanplg and inspiratio, (,re ds uital anil *rttifir* o, It contains euery literary form and deuice known to ailihe tii*"ry
ii;;l;i;
2t2
,a'r"t',
every story ercr enacteil or turrated, every ltuman type and circumstance euer createil or encoufiered. Unlike the reailing of deriudtiue works of art, the rcading of the Mahabharata is dfirst-hand experience. One ends it difuently just as one eftterges
ffirently from evuything
real.
*
itt the same relation to us'childrui of Europe
as Ancient Indid stands is dneient Greece of Euro2te today stooil to the'children' Greece. ancient Egypt
writ
large. India, moreouu, is our ancient porent, our oldest racial ancestot,
our Adam anil
Erre.
*
The greatest books are only to be grasped by the total understanding, which
is called intuition. Idiom is thefruit of wisdom or the tree oflanguage; and experience k both the end and the beginning of idiom. And what, agah, is more familiar than the exlterience of'having been done good' by reading a great worh, particularly o great mystical or poetical work, like Bkke or Mihon, still more by reading such works as the Mahabharata? The'suL conscious' of eaery great boob is vastly greater than the corscious element, as the subconscious of eqery one of us is many times richer in nntent than our conscious
minds,
*
The three great treasuries of stories-the $reeh, the Scandinavian and the Teutonic, were all deritedfrom the East by divers ways, and the source and container of them all is--The Mahabharata.
*
Vyasa says: The reading of the Mahabharata destroys all sin, and produces virtue; so much so that the pronunciation of a single sloka is sufrcient to wipe away much guilt. This Mahabharatd contains thc history of the Gods, of the Rishis in Heaven and on Earth, of the Gandharvas and the Rakshasas. It contains the life and acts of the one God, holy and immutable and true, wlio is Krishna, who is the Creator and Ruler of the Universe-who is seeking the welfare of his creation by means ofhis incomparable and indestructible powers, whose actions are celebrated by all sages; who bound human beings on a chain, of which one end is life, the other, death; on whom the Rishis meditate and a knowledge of whom imparts unalloyed happiness to their hearts. If a man reads the Mahabharata and has faith in its doctrines he is freed from all sin and ascends to Fleaven after death.
The Enil of the War
23
while the vital spark of heavenly fame lies buried in the tomb of the body, life wil b; the same. Watching the crowds l_saw cverything as it was all those years ago, everything repeated, only the exterior slighdy changed.
THE END OF THE WAR PARIS
so' wHrLE My DAys were spent in the factory spraying materials with
different coloured spirit, wearing a mask *i g"dd"B to protecr myself against the poison, my evenings were rp.t iwith my fatf,er and T:rh...t, reading- the Mahabharata, with frequent weekends at my
friend's country house. I began to understand why men work in dangerous trades: it is either -because they have been brought up to it, likeloal miners; or for the love of money, like those who work underground in hazardous conditions;.or $dll because of an instinctiveiense of responsibiriry towards their families, to get 'good' money. I was in the iast ,"t.gory. Summer had been bright and rainless, and the hot dry weatheriasied the middle of October, when the rain ihen, in Decem'ntilfrost and snow and a bitter winter withcame, "nd ber the whole earth bound in iron. Then-again the everlasting miracle ofspring, when the dead black trees and fields came to life, and in tvtay, with the coming of spring came also the incredible, wrbelievabl" tt"*r that for rti" *"t'*"1 "r in Trafalover. I wenr ro London, andwatched the people celebrating gar Square, and found myself standing on ttre same spor rihere I had stood rwenty-seven years before, when news of-th" armistice in ""*" Everything the First World 'War, 'rh.e war to end war' of r9r4-rg. was repeated-the same great crowds singing and dancing; *.o *o"**, strangers, kissing_and hugging each other in frenzied joy. "od For hours I stood there watching, sharing their gladness that the the-yiars years ofhorror of horror were over; glad because .se a heavy weight was lifted from our hearts. Twenty-seven years before I had been one of them and had berieved that it had been a war to end war and that there was to be ,A New Jerusalem in England's green and pleasant land'; now I knew that this could not be and that while men rJmain as they are, sleeping machines, 214
When I returned to Harpenden that evening, windows everywhere, for thc first time in nearly six years, were lighted up. Both of my parents were now over eighty, but while my father (who had had only one serious illness in his life as a young man) was getting feeble and could not wdk very far, my mother, who, when young' was always ill with nerves and had had to spend a lot oftime in bed' was now as many women of sixry. My father had always smoked, and ", ".iirr" drank in moderation, while my mother had often drunk immoderately, and all their lives they both drank quantities ofstrong tea and coffee and ate what now would be considerid too much. 'llhey were both still handsome; my mother, beautifirl, and they had good hearing and good sight. They knew everyone in the town and everyone loved them. They had reached, so far as it can be attained in this world, a happy old age, and I often thought how fortunate I was, in spite of their limitations and narrow Methodism, to be born to such Parents. For them, I was always a litde 'queer', a bit of a black sheep. My father never could understand why I had not stuck to the drapery business and become a manager of a shop, and my mother, who was very fond of me, always felt that I was not of their world. I had suggested driving her about in my car which I had got from storage but she always put it off, so one day I asked her, 'Why don't you let me drive you? You let the other three (my brothers), but thcy've only driven in England while I've driven all over Europe and America. Why is it?' ''W'e11,' she replied thoughtfully, 'you're rather different from the rest, aren't you?'
The difference was pardy that whife my father and brothers were only interested in business, business was the least of my interests; it was only a means of getting money for life needs. Thejr main topic of conversation was business, which rather left me only a listener, so I made frequent trips to London to meet friends of my world with whom I could eichange ideas about the arts, literature and affairs.
One of the frst people t looked uP was my old friend Professor Denis Saurat. He spoke of Gurdjieffand said that he would like to meet him again and asked if I could arrange it. I did try later, several times, 2t5
The End of
but events never fitted
!,
tlu
War
Tln End of the War
and they never met again. saurat at this time
was working on a book dealing with the occilt tradition in rnelish Literature, using the word 'occult' in its real sense, .hidden,. o _ Spenser espgcially shows its infuence. In one of the cantos of the Faery Queen there is a partial description of the enneagram: The frame thereof seemed partly circulare, And part triangulare; O worke divine! These two the 6rst and last proportions are: The one imperfect, mortalef feminine, The other immortal, perfect, masculine: And twixt them both a quadrate was the base Proportioned equdly be seven and nine: Nine was the circle set in heaven,s place: All which compacted made a goodly Diapase.
saurat traces the tradition from chaucer down to Milton and nlalce.
_wrore the plays) h", g;;;-d.J;i;. you cal go through the plays ;ri,ir; kind"ottuning f"* *a "i*T"?.; wlcn rr drscover the short passages written in by a Master Mind, passases sometimes put in the mouths ofknaves and fools and clowru. rt o".lut tradition in literature was particularly strong in the time " Eli*t;th. After Blake, apaft from hints it dir"pp."ti from literarut "f rrrtr"rrt books continued to be wrirten'abouttit) until the publication irrnie Shakespeare (or those-who
Daumal's Mount Analogue, which is in tle esoteric-tradition. saurat showed m. noler of some other books he was workine on and
which were evenrually published-The End of iear,-Gr-ir-;f1,
th.'o.*lt
People and,T'he christ at chartres, which are t'r"Jtion. At this time he was head of the Lutitut"lso'in Frangais in London, but de Gaulle removcd him when he came ro power, b."",rr" S";;Jdir;_ greed with him on some counts. Denis Saurat, like Orage, was an extraordinary man, in Gurdiieff's
definidon of the
y$
t"t*; tl"t
is, he had individ"aliry
depending on the resources of his own l9""lity ruS Own tnrtlaflVe.
il ;il" ;?;;;*irrd,
""r"i
oo
As soon as the mass psychosis had died down after Germanv's surrender, and liG had beiome less abnormal, I set about t.vion a to Paris, but this was impossible unless one had definite bJda;. had heard vagyery that Gurdjieff had gone into the ."""oy the Hartmanns had disappeared. 'Ihen my wife wrote me from America that Gurdjieffwas back in paris and thai the Hartmanns were in their
l.t ff. *J *"i
zt6
house in Garches, an outer suburb of Paris. Although it was forbidden to send money to France I managed to get some smuggled to Gurdjicff by a sympathetic Russian friend, and I got in touch with thc Hartrnanns, and my wife sent food parcels from America to them. They asked me to visit them, so as soon as I was able to give the passport powers enough unreasonable reasons why they should give me a visa to Paris I went there, arriving at the Gare du Nord at midnight to be
met by the Hartmanns. To meet'Foma' again, whom I loved as I loved Orage, whom I had not seen or heard from for six long years, filled me with joy. For three days we did litde but talk-about our liG in America with the Ouspenskys and the Franlc Lloyd Wrights, and how the Hartmanns had existed in France during the occupation. Madame de Salzmann came to see me at the Hartmanns in Garches, so I related all that had happened in America about the Frank IJoyd Wrights, the Ouspenskys and the Orage group. fr"y said that I should not have cut myself offfrom Madame Ouspensky who 'is a wonderful woman'. They were right; I ought to have acted morc intelligandy, from reason; not in a state of agitated feelings. And I saw how often in my life I had spoilt relations with people ttooogh reacri'g while in a state of hurt Gelings. Gurdjieff, they said, was still in his apartment in the Rue des Colonels Renard, still toasting the different categories of idiots'. Madame Salzmann had brought him a lot of new pupfu shortly after the war had begun, all French. It was from this nucleus that the large Frcnch group gtew, which eventudly became the head aad chief centre of the study and practice of Gurdjieff's teachings; the last big group to be formed around Gurdjieff, it became the first in importance; the American, the second group to be formed and which supported Gurdjiefffor ncarly tw€nty years became the second; and the Russian and English of Ouspensky in London, which had been the first, became the third. I supposed that I would find Gurdjieffas usual xs his 'ofrce', the CafE de la Paix, and made two or tluee visits, sitting and waiting and drinking coffee at his usud time of appearing there, without a sign of him. At last I went to his apartment, up the dark familiar stairs, and rang the shrill bell. The door was opened by himself. He looked at me for a moment, then said, 'Ah! Come in.' At once I was struck by the look in his eyes-the deep compassion and sadness. He gave me coffee in his litde store room, where we talked about America and my family, then hc said that he was expecting someone but that if I was free I could come back to lunch at half past
2t7
T'he Enil of thc War
The Enil of the War one. It was as if the six years sincc I last saw him had been like last week
and nothing had changed. Yet everything had c.hanged; we had changed, the world had c.hanged, and generally for the 'worse. When I returned, a young Frcnchman who spoke fuent English opencd the door. There wcre just the three of us at lunch. Gurdjieff told me to give the toasts of the idiots, but I had forgotten the correct 'When it came to sequence, and the young Frenchman took over. 'hopeless' Gurdjicffasked me, ''!Vhat idiot are you?' I had been thinking that perhaps my 'idiot' had been changed and wished to know what he thought, so I said, 'I don't know now.' 'But you should know. A man must know himself. By this time you
'I don't know,' I said. 'You must tell me.' '[ not tell. You tell.' 'I(/ell,' I said. 'I was "hopeless".' 'Yes. You really hopeless i&ot. But you still lcnow what you wish to be? objective or subjective?' 'I lnow that t do not want to be an objective hopcless idiot.' So the other guest proposed the toast: 'To the health of all hopeless idiots, both subjective and objective. That is to say those who are candidates for an honourable death or those who are destined to perish like dogs. He who works on himself will die like a man; he who does not will perish like a dog.' I related to him the events of the past years in America, about the old Orage group and about the Ouspenskys and the Frank Lloyd Wrights. He listened carefully, but when I began in a rather injured tone to spealc about what happened with thc Ouspenshys he cut in shaqply: 'But dnt's all finished, that bdongs to the past. Now must begin something new.' He began to speak of something else and we continued to talk. The apartment was full of light and life, positive vibrations from Gurdjieffand pupils who had worked there over the years, and t left tremendously stimulated and with profound satisfaction, but at the same time
with dr.p
remorse ofconscience that came
from a realization
of what I was and what I ought to be-the enormous distance between Gurdjieffi knowledge and being, his degree of inner development and my owrr. Had I been an objective hopeless idiot I would have said, 'What is the use of going on? I shall never reach Gurdjieff's state of being.' I would have given up thc work, or perhaps rationalized my attitude and said that now I could work alone-which I could not have ztB
done; but being a 'subjective hopeles idiot', I had realized the hopelesof tryinglo get-real and permanent inner satisfaction from the things of ordinary lifc; I had seen my cmptiness, non-entitiness, my insignificance-and my own significance, and had gaine{ a measute of the:hope ofconsciousness' and the'faith ofconsciousness', and had reafized tG necessity of being in touch with a group and a Teacher.
ness
A heat wave descended on Paris, and for a few days it was so intsnse it affected my health and I could not go to sec Gurdjicff Garches was on a hill and the heat bearable ; but below, in the city, it was worse than a heat wave in New Yorlc. I stayed indoors during the day,listening to Hartmann composing his new opera Esthu, or playing pieces thit he had composed during the war. His music was without e trace of Gurdjicff" infu*."; in fact, it seemed as ifhe was making an elfort to .o-!or" music that was entirely his own. -As Orage, tecause of ,o*.thirg in him, had had to work out Part of his destiny thrgugh th9 New English Weehly, so Hartmann was having to follgy his path through his music. Whether their writing or, music would have bcen not the questionbetter had they then been in contact with Gurdjielfis .Way each, in his ornrn they had to follow their own path. In this Fourth fashion, has to work out in life what he has learned from the bacher small way, was trying to do. Neither Hartmarur nor Orage as I, in my -Gurdjieffagain after they left him to stand on their own feet ever saw but the whole bf their irurer lives to the end of their planetary existence was permeated with anil subject to his teaching and his-infuence; the samJcan be said of Dr. Stjoernval and Alexander de Salzmann. When the heat lessened I again went to the apartment and Gurdjieff asked, 'Why you not come before? Where have y9u been?' Gradually l-learned something about what hc had been doing during thc war. Uadame de Salzmenn had brqught many of her pupils to him. With these he had started a new group and had worked intensively with them and had taught them new movements' at the Sallc Pl.y"l. that
flese movements were different from the dances of the demonstrations given in Paris and New York, the ones we had learnt; movements ieally, rather than dances, some very complicated, very beautiful, vcry impiessive. Many of them were based on the enneagram. After seeing thcrn and listening to Gurdjieff answering questions of the pupfu at meals, I realized rnorc than ever his power as a teacher. After working nearly tw€nty years in Paris, making apparend-y no impression on the Frenih, where his pupils had been Russian, English and then Americans,
2t9
The Enil of
tlv
he had seized the occasion of this new material and had created something vital, of use for bis work, with these young French people, which in the course of time has, as I say, become the chief of the three main
Gurdjieffgroups.
I spoke to Gurdjieffabout my living in paris and working with his group. He agreed that I could. 'But what about family?' he ask1d. ,They in America. You bring them herel You have business herel' I said that I saw no way yer of getting a living in paris. . lFirslresponsibility- is to familyi he said. 'perhaps you srarr group in London.' ft was a long time before I was able to have groopr. I retumed to England and resurired my spraying acevitieJ in the factory..Life, generalln yls in a srare ofchaos; weweielike ants, busily engaged in trying to build a new hill out of the ruins of the old- As for 'ide-ai, I w-as completely out of touch with Ouspensky's people at the Lyne Place and lcnew only two people in London who wir" interested in the idcas, so I set to work to get myself established and to get my f"*ily over fiom America. In the meantime I continued reading the Mahabharatd and Beelzebub's Tales..When- t t\ouglt about the tremendous blind forces working according to law that all the time are trying to make us more mechanicJ I was appalled. Yet whenJesus was asked, if it were so diffcult for the elect to be saved, what happens to the multitude, he answercd that with God all things are possible. So with the exercises that Gurdjieffhad given us from time to time. Although I had done them regularly the more dificult ones sincc r93o, they never became casier."veryl"y, One of these exercises is sirnilar to something that is said in The seuet of the Golden Flower. The exercises, like the movements and the dances, have to be done exactly as laid -of down; $ey are based on flndamental principles, thousands years old, and being so, they never become easy. Oo" h"r to mobilize ore', "ll powers of concenffation and att€ntion to keep the devil of wandering associations away. But the constant doing a-ssociations doing oi the exercises, ises, day dav after "ftei day, year after yeal, year, brings irurer power, will, attention, the power of 1fter concentration, understanding of oneself and others; it is a piocess of building one's house upon thc rock ofthe teaching thar exis$ from everlast'''g to everlasting, instead of the shifting sands of ordinary restless
outer existence. As an accomplished pianist has to spend part of each day at the piano, in this work one has to spend part ofiach d"y io exercises and in pondering, otlerwise one slips back. With this tlere are dso perio& so
Tlu End of the War
War
gfgreater, moreintense effort and also periods ofpurposefirl relaxation. Yet time has to bc spent on the needs if th. ore;risil. 'eettins everv-
9pg.r"dly necessary for the planetary body,,Ior this Jr."rJrh"r #" rnhabrt-tor its needs, not its gratif.cations, since our organisnr is the gob mi"g we have to work *ith. Without the organi; ;; *"Ja have-no sight, no hearing, no taste, no feeling, no tioueht_onlv that small something that is the reality of us and wffch p.iri* *Jihi.h "* contains the results of real work-on ourselves tog"th.i*ith oo, po* tialities-that something which is the 'red Self o?me', which *jr, *t on another.body,.becoie coated with it, " to pay for its arising, to purge itself from the urdesiraile elements sltill aingilg to it, and ro pay for the sins, srill wrredeemed, of its former
*J*;;l;ffi;#tbfi
organisms. So, whilg. tpTdTgtl1 of each day in exercises and pondering and part in reading Beelzebub's Talcs and, The Mahabharata, spent*&i my w-aking rime ar the factory sprayrng, to get money to k
i
organism suBplied with its needs, and America.
"r *y ii
"p thi orgtirmr of my ar"iiry
Dorset searched London on and
24
SPRAYING BASKETS wHrLB srAyrNc wrrn FRTENDs near Corfe Casde in Dorset it happened that through a chance remark which set in motion a series of events, I came in possession of a field-a three-acre field on the south slope of
I have
ever se€n. From the top ofthe slope by the lane sheltered by a hedge of faming gorse you could see for ten miles and the towers of five village churches. At the lower end of the field was a bluebell wood and a spring. A wallc of fifteen minutes took you to the top of the downs and one of thc furest views in England; on one side thc whole of Poole Harbour and the country round it to Badbury Rings, on the other side to the opeh sea. And not a sowrd but the wind in the grass or the song of a lark. On t}e vcry top were the three motrnds, graves of men dead three thousand years ago, that I have spoken of. I did not know what to do with the field. It had been worked by a farmer who for years had grown crops on it with plenty of artificial fertilizers so, having seen the good results of 6rming without chemicd fertilizers at the Putrey School farm and the harm done by an over-use, and having justrcadPlowfttan's Folly by an American farmer, I decided on an e4periment. I had the field disced, sown to a grass mixture with-
out ferdlizer, disced the crop, then had it re-sown and let it out for granng. The result was that the farmer's cows in the next field, sensing the wholesome taste of organically grown grass, constandy broke through the hcdge to feed on my grass, and when I complained, the farmer, who was what they used to call'a gendeman' angrily replied, 'Well, what do you expect? It's a great temptation to cows to have a field of grass like that close by.' He had to strengthen his hedges. In time, the field, and the house I later built on it, became a sort of symbol of intense efoft, a struggle with myself. I returned to Harpenden. The first thing was to get my family from America and to that end I began to look for a living place in London. I 222
scarce,
and as people were returning to London to live, prices were going up. At the end of the six months, after seeing fifty or sixry places, I found a house in Chelsea near the river and took it by sharing it with a friend. By doing a lot of work on it mpdf my family were able tolive there irr comparative comfort for twelve years, with three bedrooms, a living room, a kitc,hen and bathroom, at a rent of {z aweekinduding ot"s. Th.n for the next eight yea$ rcnt free, by letting part of the house. Up to this time my longest stay in any place since the age of tcn had been three years, and then only on two occasions-l was a tent dweller, living like 'those who are about to depart'. It was not that 'I' chose to be always on the move, but something within me; whether it was the nomadic instinct of the distant forebears of my Arab grandmother, or planeary influences in the pattern of my life, I don't know-
D ORSET
the downs near Corfe Casde; one of the most beeutiful fields
off for six months, but houses were
My wife and yo"t'ger son arrived in October-the elder staying on at the Puurey School-and with their return a great blank in my.emotional lifc was filled, a deep need was satisfied. We stayed with.my parents for a few days then moved to my friend'l goultry house in thc bhilt"*r, then to friends in St.John's Wood, and finally into the house in Chelsea. After all thc break-ups, the partings and meetings and again partings, the wanderings, thc turmoil, the outer and irurer rttilrioft, hele we were again in London-everything the same yet everyttring changed.
tho"gh now I had a setded home I still had no lgtded occupation, and never was to have. I had decided to set myself the task of contiooiog to live the essential liG I had bcgun in America, that is to get .nougL money to provide for thc needs of my family and to get it by doing only those jobs that I really wished to do. I was able to get *oogh money foilife-needs from m'v basket-spraying_bu_s9ep for the next itree years and even to own J car. Litde by litde life began
fow "'
-or
more
less relatively normally.
-to
But the times were difficult;
food, clothing and materials of all kinds werc scarce and one had constantly to exeicise all onc's ingenuity to overcome the restrictions imposed by people in government offices who, 1o \eep tleir jobs for i"hi"h *. were paying them, made thousands of useless rules and regulations-the buieaucrits. Had I obeyed all these rules and regulations I coulil not even have kept my family alive but, like many others, by pitting my brains against dull ofrcialdom I was able to provide
for my 6mily quite well. 223
E
Dorset
Dotset
To sell my baskets I travelled about London visiting the big general At one big store, as I was talking to the woman buyer and showirg *y samples, she looked at me and burst out into a fit of hysterical laughter and went out of the room-at my appearance and manner, I suppose, which was tohlly different from the average commercial traveller. Her assistant grinned and went out also but came back in a few minutes with a large order, enough to keep me going for some weeks. The baskets I bought from the actual makers in Somerset, wicker baskets made by men and women sitting on the foor with their boss, rapidly weaving by hand. All told I sold a thousand dozen, and
An hour or so later there happened one of those strange coincidences that often arise. I was *alkinfdown the sffeet looking for a-certain tiop, *d after searching for-some time turned a corner and saw a [ttl]"'**, aJew, getting-out of a car. 'I'll ask him,l I thought and-went *Ju"g"i, 'iiottdJt if you can t.[. -: . ' .' then stopped'-'Why" "p It ir"ii, 'it'i Metz.' 'Yes,' hL replied, 'and you're Charles Nott'' at the *", i*or, twenty years since i h"d t.ttt him and that was forpri.o.6 in rontainebieau where he had sPent a year.' l had even go** his existence. 'we went offfor a drink together and he began to i;f of Gurdjieff, 'You know,' he said, 'I shall never forget what C"ra;i.f aia"fo, *". When I went to the Prieur6 I had no confidence i" -|t"ff, I could hardly speak-topeople and couldn't hold a job' He ;;1"i ,o*.thirrg i" *"; or he helped me to change :oP"$Tg T *.rrjf. I don't knJw what, but I was-different when I left the Prieur6. iJ"*.'U""f. to London and borrowed some money and started 1 shop now here, and in six months had repaid the loan' I got married.and to what all it have a family and a nice house and two shops, and I owe Crra.;i.f ad to me. yet I've never seen him or heard-anything ofhim fro*"the day I left, nor have I met anyone in the work until I met_you
stores.
as I had no overheads except my fare to Luton and the cost of the cellulose and baskets I fid very well, yet I still could not overcome my dislike ofgoing cap in hand to the buyers; there was always the automatic habitual resistance that I had first acquired as a boy offourteen in the draper's shop. One day I was sitting in a grubby tea-shop in Balham, coping with the inner resistance to calling on another draper's shop, and comparing my life with the pleasant days on the magazine in New
York, with the Frank Lloyd Wrights at Taliesin, and the usefirl rewarding times at the Puurey School in Vermont. The wheel of repetition had again full tumed and I was trudging the streets of London with a box of samples, interviewing buyers for orders. A blealc depression setded on me on this cold winter's &y io the Balham High Street; it was as if once more I was caught up in circumstances from which I could not escape. Then, at this moment, when things seemed at their worst, the miracle happened-I began to be filled with a kind of light, with real hope-the hopc of consciousness; with real faith. Again I saw the whole of life, and everything was revealed to me. I rurderstood. I saw that all this petty outer life that seems so important is really nothing, a passing thing, and that the irurer life is the redity. Again, it was as if time had had a stop; a vision of the Holy Grail, a glimpse of His Endlessness, a moment of real consciousness in these dull squalid surroundings, a moment such as I had had among the beauties of Taliesin; an actual contact with the higher centres. I sat there in a state of ecstasy among the clatter of cups anil spoons, babble of talk and noise of ffams, absorbing my state to the utmost, savouring it and thanking God. I could not describe a hwrdredth part ofwhat went on in me. The intense ecstatic state passed, but the effect remained and I sat quiedy for a long time pondering the words ofJesus Christ: 'Again I say r.rnto you, watch!' 224
,Hr
;;;;,
for him.'
iii*
but I've often thoughi
I
would like to do something
rofd him all I knew about Gurdjieffand what had happened
and ended bv by ------^tr^-l days,and frien$ ol1\?rieurd mutu4 f*io-.{" and to our *,,*,.1 to myself ^f thl Prierrr6 davsfhey us anyof can ;"id, 'What can you do for Gurdjieff? What f9t is'o;iv one thing at present' *" "-* give him money. for his work' pJth"pt; I can only get just enough to keep my at t"itr, yoo
family.' -
""i,
up the idea and offered to pay my expenses ifl would go to GurdParis with hi*. nt. upshot was that we went to Paris' He gave apartat the time profitable ii"r*o""" and we tt"d "n interesting and nt in the Rue des Colonels Renart.
i"iook
t
one result of the experience in thc noisy litde cafii in Balham was that I understood Blake when he said that he saw an angel in a tree at Peckham.
There are angels that may be seur by some in the trees in Battersea My and Chelsea. Aid thit, for no reason, ieminds me of an incidenr antiques' collected looms' letting o.illrbo* in Oakley Street, besides
*a'oo" day discovered in an qtigye shop in Chelsea q irySg of tL' dgi" M"i,very old "nd valuadle. He gave it to the local Catholic 225
E
Dorset
Church and the Pope, hearing about it presented him with a medal. One day, a Chelsea lady was in Gladp's iweet shop round the corner. She turned_to her companion and said, 'Have you heardi The pope,s given Mr. X. a medal. Yes. He found a virgin in Chelsea and preseurcd
2S
her to the Church!'
SOME NOTES ON THE GNOSTICS
soMB rrAvE sap tllat there is nothing new in Gurdjieff's ideas, end in a this is true, since they are as old as man. What is ncw is the inter-
scnse
pretation-which makes them new for us. As one understan& one tnrth after another one says, 'I've always known this, but till now fve
I
1;
ncver been conscious ofit.' lt was while I was studying that difrcult chapter in Beelzebub's Tales 'The Law of Heptaparaparshinokh', the law of the octave, rhat I came across tfr.e
following in a magazinc:
l._A. R. Newlands was the first man in our time to appreciate that thc chcmical elements fall naturdly into families and groupi. Newlands also noticed that, if the elements were arranged in i ceriain way, the same physical and chemical properties reappeared after each interval of
eight. He thereforc called his discovery rhe "Law of Octaves". Developed by otl'ers later it evenrudly emerged as the "periodic Table", which has proved of immense practical vdue, and enabled the existence of unknown elements to be preficted with remarkable accuracy.
'A Londoner, born in 1837 of Scoqish and Italian parentage, Newlands was educated at the Royal College of Chemistry. He fought with Garibaldi in Italy but returned to London to practise as an analyticd chemist. Later he taught chemisrry at Southwarlc Grammar School and elscwhere but finally became chief chemisr at a sugar refinery at Victoria doc*s. Tho"gh his Iaw of Octaves was laugfied at when he first propounded it to the Chemical Sociery in 1864, time proved him to bc 1gh!. In 1887 he was awarded the Davy Medal of the Royal Sociery for the discovery of which, for z3 ycars, had eanred him litde but ri&cule. He died in r8g8.' Together with the law of the octave I was studying the third striving zz6
227
*E
Some notes on the Gnostics
of objective
*","0o,1ffi1' ::"y-Y:more
concerning the
laws of World-Creation and'World Maintenance, which is corurected with the law of the octave, and of the law of reciprocal feeding, of how and why the world was created and how it is kept going, and its relation to man. I read all I could get hold ofabout the ideas ofcreation and ofthe three forces and made many notes. The following is a somewhat scattered collection, chiefly from the Gnostics. Some of the Gnostics said that the Father was the creator, others the Son, others the Serpent, others said that a woman was the creatorPistis Sophia; others said that the creator was Satan or the Devil-the
denying or the passive force. Among certain Greelc tribes Priapus was worshipped as 'the good one', thetreator; his statue, with its enormous genitds painted red, was placed in gardens. Everywhere on earth the worship by conscious men of God aJ Cr."tor of the universe, and of sex as the divine force, be-
carne, on lower levels, the worship by unconscious men of gods of ftttility and the powers of Nature. tr many ancient religions is to be
found thc idea of a Supreme Un}nowable Being above dl who, dividing himself into male and female, produced God the Creator. In none of them, and only among certain European rationalists, scientists or Com:nunists is to be found the idea that the universe just
do not perceive is formed to become each of the princiglq. The-sub-
if the prinaples are light and darkness; betweq thelightabove and the darkriess bitow is pure spirit which is like the fragrance of penet.ates everything. The darkness, which is bdsam or incense "nd sensible, is a fearftrl watir, and knows that if the light is taken away it will remain desolate and inert; so the darkness tries in every v/ay to rctain within itself the brilliance of the Light and the Fragrance of the Spirit. Frorn the three principles or forces all things are made. They said tliat from the first fusing of the forces or principles there appeared the pattern or seal of heaven and carth lhtf9d like a womb; and then the i"tt.*t of everytling appeared, and all things were made, in the same way. 'ih" Do..t"t taught that the three principles or three forces came into being from the First Principle, and from these all was createdBut the First Principle, God, abides alone. The only begotten Son was conceived by the three forces. He was wiser and bettei than the Father. (There is a correspondence here when Beelzebub said that Rakhoorkh, the 'result' of Gornahoor Harkharlch, was better than his 'producer'.) Marcion said theri were two Powers: Love and Strife. Strife rends things apart, Love draws them together. A third force results from these stances
two.
Some of the Gnostic stories of creation are connected with the Law of Three. The Naasenes say that the First Cause was a Man and Son of Man who was divided into three-mentd, psychic and earthly. They called him Adamas, and said that the knowledge of him is the beginming of ableness to know God. The three parts came together inJesus, the perfected man. This knowledge, they say, was handed down by James the brother ofJesus to Mariamne. The Sethians said that there are three definite principles of the universal, each having boundless powers. Everytling that wc perceive or
The Manichees considered our planet to be the worst of all possible worlds. Some said that the universe, being created by the denying force, was evil and that therefore all creation was evil, and some carried this to a literal, logical conclusion by refusing to maffy and have children, and by being castrated. Many of tho ideas in these early teachings are similar to those in Beelzebub's Tales; the idea of the Choot-God-Litanical period, of our Unique Burden Bearing Endlessness, gf a suffering Creator, and of our being able to learn to biar our small portion of rhe universal suffering and io relieve His Endlessness of part of His burden. In corurection with this, Gurdjieffonce was telling Elizabeth Gordon, who was with him from r93z until her death in 1946, thathe had made a mistake. He went on to say that even God made a mistake, one big mistake. Miss Gordon replied that she thought God had done everything necessary to forestall the effect of the Merciless Heropass-'TiT., that-wears away every living thing'. Gurdjieff said, 'Yes, everything but one thing; L" made an umbrella when he should have made an enervr, and n-ow he is idiot and like everyone else sits in galoshes.' This
zz8
229
happened.
According to Milton: The Father first they sung, Omnipotent Immutable, Immortal, Infinite Eternd King! Thee, Author of all Being Fountain of Light, Thpelf invisible. . ..
He also spedrs of thc Unknowable God, and his Son-God the Creator.
I
Somc notes
o* the
Gnostics
scemingly senseless expression purzledme; only after a long time did I begin to perceive a great truth in the parable. Valcntinus said that abovc all is thc Father from whom came the Demiurge the Creator, and from the Demiurge came evil as well as good- Christ came from that Fullness in the Pleroma ro save thc Spirit yhich !1d gone asrray, the spirit that is in our inmost parts. This-will be saved but the fesh will perish. He also said that ours iJthe lowesr and last formed of the planets. There is the idea that dmost from thc beginning of crearion something went wrong, something unforeseen ent.r.J into the growing unirerse-something undesirable, something evil. Gurdjieff speaks o? this as the Choot-God-Litanical period whoie meaning is in tie three names. This apparendy was before the appearance of kundabuffer on our planet. Carpocrates the Gnostic taught that we must work out all our firansgressions, but that it is possible to pay for or work out many transgressions-at oncg by conscious effort and so shorten the years ofour exilc in this world below.
The Stoics also taught, as did Krishna, rhat men musr fulfil the lot foreordained for them; even if men do not wish to follow a course of action, they are compelled to do what is foreordained. A conscious m1n can, to a certain extent, choose; an unconscious man cannot, The idea of reciprocal feeding has always been known ro esoteric and even to occult schools. Robert Fludd, rhe seventeenth-century dchemist, says: For know, whatever was created needs To be satisfied and fed: of clemcnts, The grosser feeds the purer; earth the sea, larth and sea feed air; the air those fires Sthereal; and as lowest, 6rst thc moon; Whence in her visage round those spots impurged Vapours, not yet in her substance tumed. Nor doth the moon no nourishment exhale From her moist continent to higher orbs. The. sun, that light imparts to all, receives From his alumental recompense In humid exhalations, and at ev'n Sups
with the Ocean.
Connected wirh this is the idea of man's being of use and help to God, that God needs a cerrain help from man. Iiassein tn Beelzeiub's Tales speaks
of 'days for helping God'. 230
Somc notes on the Gnostics
Silesius says:
I know that without me The liG of God were lost,
'Were I destroyed he must Perforce give up the ghost.'
'God could not without me
A single insect make.
I
must sustain
it too
Or it will snaightway break.
Gurdjieff, in Beelzebub's Tales, relates that in the begiruring, when His Endlessness decided to create the universe, he created it by an act of pure will, consciously; but, after the second order suns appeared, creation, according to the law of thc octave, became partly automatic; as the fiemendous note 'doh' descended, down the siale, creation became more and more automatic or mechanical until it reached, in our own ray, the earth and moon. The conscious positive active force that begins in the Sun Absolute becomes, in the down-fowing ofthe ocave, on 9ur planet the denying, passive force-the dcvil, Satan. (kr the Bible Satan is spoken of as a Son of God. The Son as the denying force.) Since all creation comes from God-everything is God. God is the Megalocosmos, and thus, in the flowing down of the law ofthe ocrave God becomes the Devil. Men have in them emanations and radiations from the Sun Absolutc and other_ suns and planets, they must therefore struggle against the denying force, the down-flowing, the involution of the ociave, and strive with the help ofthe affirming evolutionary force to ascend agairur this current, against God as it were, in order ai some time to arrive at union with God. The idea of two Gods is often mentioned in the fragments of the Gnostics-the Ineffable, and the Jusl and Suffering Creator. Thc fall of man and a way,to redemption; of the Ray of Cieation; the laws of Three and Seven; of the idea that sometling undesirablc became mixed in mahing; that we must pay for our sins both voluntary and in-our v-oluntary; Ti th" idea of a practical method for selGperfecting. They dso spga\ of the ''World-Sound'. All these ideas are d&eloped in detail
in Beelzebub's Tales. The idea of Good and Evil runs through all religions and real tcachiogr. According to the Hebrews, the ffee of the knowledge of good and evil represents a universal understanding of all things-good and bad. 23r
1
Some notes on the Gnostics
Our remote ancestors, almost the first beings, could not have been allowed to acquire this understanding. In one of the Gnostic teachings it says that Christ came to free the universe from the evil that had entered inro it, Christ being the Method of Self-Perfecting. The Christ descended into Jesus at his baptism. He understood then what he had to do-why he was sent from abovc. There are some wonderful poems in the Gnosticteaching-'The Hymn of the Robe of Glory' and'Tlhe Gnostic Crucifixion'are two. The Gnostic teachings were understood and practised by the early Christians but around r7o a.D. the 'Fathers' of the Church dubbed the Gnostics heretics and turned them out of the Church. Some modern writers, not understanding the inner teaching of the Gnostics, complain of the 'fantastical' notions and ideas; but they certainly are not more fantastical than the notions of the Fathers of the organized church about Paradise, Purgatory and Hell. Fragments of the Gnostic teaching were preserved by a happening in which the unlucky became the lucky. Their sayings are said to have been collected by Saint Hippolytus-who, as they used to say 'fourished', that is 'existed'-about 2oo years after Jesus Christ had died. This Hippolytus had joined the smdl Christian church and seeking power, was anxious to become pope ; but he had a rival, Callixtus, who also wanted to become pope. They caused a lot of disturbance in the strcets of Rome by their frequent brawling, and eventually the authorities exiled the two of them to the salt mines in Sardinia. 'When later they were allowed to return, Hippolytus got himself made pope of the Roman facdon, Callixtus of the Greek. Hippolytus, to strengrhen his position, collected what he could of the various Gnostic and other teachings and put them into a book called Philosophumena-a refutation of all heresies. He not only included Greek, Hebrew and Egyptian teachings in the heresies but Callixtus as well, calling him antichrist and blasphemer. Almost all the written records of the Gnostic teachings were destroycd by the 'Fathers of the Church'. Ooly the refutations of Hippolytus and some other fragments in writing were preserved. Callixtus was given charge of the cemetery in Rome which still bears his name. After their deaths, Callixtus and Hippolytus, because they had been exiled by the authorities, were set up as martyrs andlater
Some ndtes on the Gnostics
of beans in a bowl; then, as now' as soon as as rulers, power went to their heads; they became elected men were corrupted and even temporarily or permanently iruane, seeing things only from their own point of view. Thc Pythagoreans, who tried to live their lives according to objective reason and sane logic would have nothing to do with them; and by refusing to eat beans, they constantly reminded themselves that they must not be identified with ordinary elected by the dropping
life. St. Hippolytus also points out the resemblance of the growing beans to human sex organs. In broad beans especially the growing pods on the stalk resemble the male organ in various stages of tumescence; and part of the bean itself, when ripe, to the vagina. He also says that if bcans are chewed and left in the sun, the smell resembles that ofhurum sperm.
made saints.
It is to St. Hippolytus that I am indebted for solving a problem that long puzzled me: Why did the followers of Pythagoras refuse to eat beans? He says it was becausc candidates for government oftces were 232
233
Building a House
26
painted themselves with the blue dye called woad, and the ;J;; superstitious religious priests, the Druids, sacrificed and burnt p.ool" io cages; andtJrat-.only when thc Romans came did the r"rr"gesi."ir rh. blesings ofcivilization. But dmost the tnrth about f,istory is the opposite of what popular educarion "l*"y, teacires. The rerigion of the bruids
was far higher in concept than that of the Romans, and their unwritten literature 6r richer. In the latter days ofthe Druids, whcn their religion had degenerated, people may have been burnt as sacrifices to the gods of Grtility. But even so, how few compared with the sacrifices of the Christians to their God; for fifteen hundred years they have bcen torturing and burning heretics by the thousand, and reached the grand climax of six million 'heretics' oflered up as sacrifices to the German gods in the spacc of six years. No pagan or heathen nation can compete with this. Of course thcy had not the meansr they did not have the wonderful weapons and chemicals thar we have for Lilliog people. Even the Romans had to do all their kiling of each other by hand, a long and laborious process, while now, two men can kill a hundred thousand in a few moments. In our wonder l world it seems that the more people that can be killed in the shortest time with the least possible effort is esteemed the highest civilization. 'Well then, it happened that my wife got a satisfying and interesting job at Hanford School in Dorset, some fifteen miles from my three acres of land on ttre Downs. (There is a good dcscription of this old manor house in Richard Hughes's Fox in the Attk). So we planned to leave Chelsea and build a house on our land near Corfc Casdc, I to rrur a smdl-holding, she to teach music. We had no money apart ftom an income which provided just food and lodging and an ancient car, and it was extremely fiIf,cult and usually impossiblc to gct gct a Pernut permit trom from problem was how the Labour government to built a private private house. The problemwashow to build a decent house without monev money while keeping to regulations and bye laws. The: casc scemed hopeless. The only onlv thing thine to do was to make a task of it-to set myself a task of building thc best post-war house in Dorset. It took a year of di{ficult negotiation to get even a permit to start, as it was the custom for an ofrcial 'no' to be given to any request. While the house was building I livcd in a lined comrgated hur, ten fcet by twelve, that I had pur up by the spring, a pleasant, quiet, secluded place, and I went up to London for a week or so at a time. Labour and money were scarce, but I managed to borrow enough money to make a start, and when the walls werc up a mortgage company made a loan. I got a jobbing builder, a locd stone mason and a labourer to help, and worked on the place myself. The stone came from the guarries at Langton Matravers and the shingles for the roof from Oregon, which shingles Inailed myselfsince there was not a shinglerin the district. I wanted it to be the best and most modern house in Donet,
234
235
BUILDING A HOUSE ABour rrrrs rrMB I began to
sce that I need not be indendfied with and become rbt" any business or circumstance. It was as if something " 'o were changing in me and that the struggles and strivings of th" p"rt years were beginning t9 have resnlts. I felt a o.*Ld gro#iog freedom-an inner and outer freedom. I was far from havinfarrivei at a state of perfcction or higher consciousnesr, b.rt ,o*etf,ine happening, and some special kind of effort was needed ,o ""rty -3o"", into another octave. After a lot of thought a plan, which may have been the shadow of a coming event, began to forrn in my mind. It was to build a house on my three-acre field near corfe casde. Ever since I was a bov of fourteen holidaying-F Dorser had always h"d greati o".rioo " near *",_:p."cially later when I was learninj farminf Ft
yrlty
*",
l**g-",
bourne whitechurch
as a
youth,living with-th.
f"rml
\Vi;
and the farm
workers. faere were no buses tl.n *Jth. vaney road r" s**"n. aa not exist, and there were few cars. people still travelled to th" *?rk"t in,the 'fiantert: (S. carrier's) cart, oivan. The counties of fngland
sfi.ll possessed their own essence, personality and individualiry, and *d Dorset was still per_ "pp""r"rr.e. mcated with the vibratious and the atmoiphere of the ancienr of the Druids and the later monasteriei, both long since dir"n*;;J. "i"ilr"Loo lts neighbour, 'V7iltshire, was a sorr of inland Dorset. Even when I was very young and knew nothing, I used to feel, walking over certain parts of 6e downs, this anclent in{ruence. I,
their own accent and customs
i" q,. darkness of oirr.te*th-c**ry;;;;: \"qS.9.*.brought tion believed with tle"p iest that the ancient Britons were s"v" es *ho
Z
Building a Horse
Building a House
and I began by discussing it with the town planners, by visiting the building centre in London, rcading pamphlets and books, and so got hold ofthe then latest ideas. But all kinds ofobstacles and frustrations
to their planetary body, because such beings already well understand and instinctively fcel that this lower being body of theirs is, in thcir own sacred law of Triamazikamno, the indispensable source for a certain kind of denying manifestation, and as such always must and will manifest only as denying for the affirming part, that is, that this lower part of theirs must be obliged to be always opposite to what is required for them by their higher being part.' The words became real-l had realized an objective truth. Perhaps the whole process of building the house had been organized for this one realization, which I had instinctively felt from the first. It had become a crystallized truth. The effect of the experience lasted strongly the whole of the morning; and when the glory passed I took up my task again with renewed faith and hope.
arose. It took three years to finish the house and cost ft2,ooo, though a local builder told me it would have cosr him {4,ooo. And it was an
almost ideal house. However, a year after I began it, when it was half finished, my wiG got ill and had to give up herjob and rehrrn to Chelsea. She was unable to take up work again for some time and I returned to Chelsea too, and soon realized that we would never be able to make enough money to live on at Corfe Casde. I had several good offers for the unfinished house and the land, and ordinarily speaking, it would have been sensible and profitable to have taken an offer and given up, but so often in my life I had taken the easy way and given up coursJ ofaction; now I resolved " to accept the difficult task and see it through. Difficulties arose, both physical and psychological. It was similar to the task offinding the spring at the Prieur6, which I have spoken about in Teaehings of Gurdjiffiyet more difficult since I did not have Gurdjieffto prod me. But I had more irurer strength now, and so was able to overcome the resisting denyrng force in myself-the fits of deep depression, the frustrations and hopelessness. I had a conscious wish and, as Gurdjieffsays, 'with corucious wish everything comes'. When I had nailed the last of ten thousand shingles on the roof I got a room ready upstairs and lived in it, cooking on a primus stove. On a cold morning in late December I woke up to find the country beautiful and desolate, covered with snow; the one thing needed to complete a period ofterrible depression that I had been going through. I dressed and began to make tea among the cooking utensils on the foor, and as I leaned down I found myself repeating a sentence of St. Teresa, 'God walks among the pots and pipkins'; as I said it, light fooded my whole leing, and the dcpression disappeared. I sat down and let the light pour through me, and although I was aware of everything around me if was
again as if time had had a stop. Again,
it
Corfe Ca*le
was a srate beyond selG
consciousness-a moment of objective consciousness. Sitting quietly, ft.li"g the force filling me, rhere came an understanding of Gurdjieff's words in the chapter on Purgatory in Beelzebub's Tales:'And threebrained beings who have attained a greater selFawareness eagerly and even joyfully permit during their ordinary being-existence, for the realization of these aspirations (selGdcvelopment), these unpleasantnesses
to their
presences which procced
46
from the accepted piivations
237
Paris with
27
PARIS WITH GURDJIEFF. GRO UP
S
rN 1949 t had heard that Ouspensky had returned to England. A meeting had bcen held and he had shocked his pupfu by telling them that he had never taught the system and that they must begin all over again. It may have been that he had realized that he had never taught the Method. He certainly had taught what he called the sysrem, and his older pupils were well grounded in it, but he had not taught the method inner development tlooogh self-sensing, self-remembering and selfofinner of selfl observation: Conscious Labour and Voluntary Suffering, and the five strivings of Objective Moraliry, which are the basis for ill inner work. Ouspenskyhad returned from Amcrica a sick and dying man. Madame Ouspensky remained in Ncw Jeney and continued to supervise the work at Franklin Farms. The only direct news t had had of Ouspenshy was from the Hartmanns, who stayed with us in London sevcral times after the war. They visited Ouspensky, and told me that he was angry with me for saying that his pupils had got stuck and that thc only hope for them was to meet Gurdjieffand read Beelzebub's Tales; endhe sent a message asking me not to speak to any of his pupils. Io case they avoided me, even whcn I encountered some of them occasiondly in public. Then, one day, I read in the paper that he had died, and a deep feeling of compassion ceme over me and I wished that I had been able ro have kept in contact with him. He was a good man and helped hundreds of people. His attitude towards the ideas was one ofabsolute integriry and the evidence is Fragments of an lJnknown Teaching, a masterpiece of objective reporting. But some kinlc in him had caused him to reject Gurdjieffas a teacher. Ouspensky always had wanted to found a religious philosophical school; and he had founded a very successful one, with a large organization in England and America. Yet it had not given him real 'being-satisfaction'. At the end of his life he had, it seems, iome EARLv
*y
48
Gurdjief
to realize that a philosophical school was not the basically important thing for him. It may be that he, like others, had had to *oik ooi rorrro. tfring from the pattern of his life: his philosophical school and all his theories in connection with it, and 'nextiime' hl may be better equipped to understand the real work of the inner Teaching. 'When.Ouspensky died there werc a thousanJ people in London studying exposition of Gurdjieff's teaching-wo*1"! at Lyne place !i. and meeting at the large hall-in colet Gardens. of ihe immediatc followers of Gurdjies rhere were about rwo hundred in paris, New York and London. I attended the requiem service for ouspensky in the Russian church in Pimlico, a church whic! had many aiociations for me-weddings of friends, Easter services, funerals. And now this church, *hor. ,r.iy stones were permeated with the good vibrations of thousands of peop[e who for brief periods had been ihere and had rcceived ,o*.rhiin io. connected with ordinary life, has been pulled down and the ip".. turned into a parking place for motor "oJ.h.r. About three weeks after ousperuky's funeral I was in Gurdjieff's apartment in Paris and,, who should I see, to my astonishmeni, but some of Ouspensky's close pupils, one of whom I had last seen at
Franklin Farms, NewJersey, on the day I left. Flowevcr, since one was constandy confronted extraordinary and unexpected events in -with connection with Gurdjieff I kept my astonishm*i to mysel{ but
thought,.'How strange,
-these_
peopte, who would ,rot
,p""k to me
bec,r'se they considered that I had disobeyed one of ouspeisky's rules, to Gurdjieffand re"ding the typ.r.'rip t of Brrlzrbub's Talesl' At lunch Gurdjieff explained tlie ritual of tlie science of idiotism ro them, some werl given-their categories of idiot' and their
y:$":1fu: t*hg
healttx were drunk. After lunJh we crowdedtto the sitting room and sat quiedy. Then Gurdjieff began to play on his smafl h-arrd organ, Toting the bellows with one hand, flaying with the other slow milodigs_, with few notes, but producing such poignant sorurds that some of the Ouspenskl pulill-b9g* to *1.p. He toiched their highcr emotions as never before in all their years in the work had they beei touched. Gurdjieffconstandy reminded his pupils: ,you musifeel, you musr -feel,-your *i"4 ir a luxury. you mui rirff"r r.*orre in your'feelings.'
The reason for the appearance 9f pqspensky,s pupils in Gurdjie?,s apartmenr was thar afteiouspensky's death rrri"ai*i, advised dl to goto Gurdjiefl-k was a big shock for^th"*, "ft"r being told for years to have nothing to do with-Gurdjieffor his pupils.
o"rp""$t"a
*.p
239
Paris with Gurdjief
Paris with
I spoke to some of them, and said, 'Now we are all in the
They replied, 'Yes indeed.'
same boat.'
uuth-it
would be false. If there is the least miscalculadon in the composimovement the dance would be desecrated, and fantasy would takc the place of knowledge. Mr. Gurdjieffduring a long life devoted to study and questioning, mastered the principles of those sacred dances which constitute a branc.h of objective art. Understanding the principles, he was able to demonstrate truths through these movements. The student, even from the beginning, through the high degree ofsustained attention rcquired to perfrct himself in the movements, is using one of the specific means of self-knowledge, and of attaining 'the cognition and comprehension of rediry.' the
don of
Two weeks later, with three others, I was at supper at Gurdiieff,s table when the bell sorurded. Someone answered ,i* doo, *d;;;" bach and said, 'Mr. and Mrs. Berurett are here with their pupils.' There were about twenty. Room was made for them th" t"'bG and food "t After a period brought in, and they began to eat. No one spoke. of silence during which Gu:djieffobserved them with attention,ie began to talk to Mr. Bennett about the science ofifiotism, and the categ#es
of ifiots',
and appointed Mr. Berurett toest master for the o."iriorr. Gurdjieffasked himrvhich category he belonged to, of Yh.".l he did not know. Gurdjieff tgld him, *d "o*r. or"", it happened to everyone to whom he gave their 'idiot',
"t Bennett's "", Mr. ch"iict",
w*
made startlingly clear to some of us. After dinner vre went to the Salle pleyel to watch the French group
doing new movemcnts. Then Gurdjieff called Mr. Bennett
ut
"fa the pupils and assigned each one to a Frenc.h pupil, who showed them postures, gestures and movements of onJ of the dances, A talk on the dances and movements was given later by an old pupil who was Gurdjiefft'right hand', whic-h sufplemented the t"[c si;n in Leslie Hall, New York, at the fint demonltiation there. sacred dances and movements have alwap played an important part in the work of real s,chools. They e4press an unkntwn dimension and t"*.1 *h"t i, &om the average man-tle realiry of a higher level of being. If we are
{19 to pass from_our ordinary levelto
a
Ligher, iimeans
*.t
roorioirrg io
*
is_clanged. The changes are governed by deinite cosmic laws, and a rcnoir.de" of these laws exists and can be discovered. Gurdjieffin his early t
iid "o"l,
sojoums in temples and monasteries in the Middle and Far Easf and central Aci: witresed and took part in various ritual dances and ceremonies; and he
realizcd that the dance could be used as_ a language to express knowledge of higher order-cosmic knowledgl This l"ngui'g"-is matheimatical,
a
exact m€asure.Every movement has its appointed place, its duration "..orEiogio and weiiht. The combinations and sequencer .." calculat.d. portoro "aod attitudes- are aTangeq to produce definite, predetermined emotions. In these,
-iihr*"cially
w.h9-is
them may also participate-he may read rhem !e -waldring in_whidr the higher emorions and higher toind c"n takl p"rt.
as a
script,
In creating these movements each detail has a meaning] the smallest element into account, nothing rg lgft chance or to imalination. Tbere is only 1o one posille gesture, posrure and rhythm with whidr to rJpres"nt a givenhumai or cosmic situation. Another gesture, posture or wodJ not present
.
is taken
240
-ov.*int
Gurdjief
a
The following morning I was at the CaG des Acacias with Gurdjieff drinking coffee, and said, 'Mr. Bennett and his organization and all thesc pupils could be a very good thing for the work; they seem to have
money too.'
Gurdjieff replied laconicalln 'Bennett is small thing. Useful for money, yes. He will bring me a thousand pupils and out ofthese I shall choose perhaps ten.' This summed up the whole of Mr. Bennett's future association.with Gurdjieffand his teaching. His personal association with Gurdjieffwas for a period of a year and a hal{, with intervals, till Gurdjieff died. Twenty-five years before he had been at the Pricur6 for about nryo wcdss. I saw a great deal of Mr. Bennett and his pupils after this, at Coombe
permission, taught some of the Mr. Bennett soon parted from thc Gurdjiefforganization and worked on his own. Coombe Springs then became for a time
Springs.
My wife, with Gurdjieff's
dances there; but
the headquarters of Subudh, then a centre of the Sufis. Sventually it fell into the hands of what are cdled 'developers' who turned it into more'beehives' for the expanding population. 'With the coming of those Ouspensky pupils who had felt the need for a deeper knowledge of the teachiig, Gurdjieffdecided that the time
had come to publish Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson, All anil Euerything, the boolc that we had been reading in tvpescript since ry24. Mr. Bennett was appointed Gurdjieff's representative in London and began to work on the publicity with an article in Etterybody magazine. 'This will be read by eight million people,' he said.
'And how many will respond?'I
asked.
'Hundreds, thousands perhaps.' I disagreed with him, and with the large and garish posters which
were designed. 24r
Paris with
Gurdjief
''We want to reach the man in the street', he said. 'But this work is not for the man in the street.' 'Gurdjieffwants publicity', said Mr. Bcnnett. 'Not this kind of publiciry. You don'r casr pearls before swine.' Actually, eight letters were received as a result of the article. The posters were never used. A week or so later two of Ouspensky's pupils were appointed Gurdjieff's representatives and, after his deathsupervised the publication in New York and London of Beelzebub's Tiles. I spoke to Gurdjieffabout the articles that were appearing in London.
He asked why were these people, who hardly knew him, writing articles about him in England? I said that they probably thought he was becoming'news'and wanted to be in on it. Frank Pinder, who was there, asked Gurdjieff'Why do you publish Beelzebub's Tales now? Every page has grammaticd enorsf 6uky punctuation and even mistakes. It ought tobe properly edited.' 'It's a rough diamond,' said Gurdjiefr 'There's not time now to edit it. It will have to go.' \trhy let them publish it at all?' asked Pinder. 'lhey'll only spoil it.' 'lhey've spoilt better things than that,' replied Gurdjiefr 'Now necessary to publish.' And so the book that{or twenty years Orage and his group had worked on, and had raised the money for printing, and whicl had besn denied to Ouspensky's pupils, was now being published by the efforts chiefy of these same pupils.
Paris with
Gurdjief
Gurdjieff work in London-though the source was in Paris. Those pupfu of Ouspensky who did not go to Gurdjieff more than hal{, started their own organization and began to hold groups to study Ouspensky's philosophical ideas, somehow linked up with'economic science', ghu5 gengintring Ouspensky's school of philosophy, but not the Teaching of Gurdjieff, who, they say, forsook the system after Essentuki; and since they never met Gurdjieffor went to the Prieur€ or to Paris, they, of course, should know. It reminds me of the Duke of 'Wellington, when at a perty a man went up to him and said, 'Mr. Bellamy, I believe.'The Duke replied, 'Ifyou believe that you'll believe anything.' Ouspensky's pupils in America left Franklin Farms at Mendham and dispersed. Rodney Collin Smith and his wife, who never met Gurdjiefi went to Mexico and started a school oftheir own, using the movements that they remembered from the classes that Mrs. Howarth and my wife
had taught at Lyne Place. Gurdjieff went to New York. With the old Orage group and Madame Ouspensky and her pupils, great activity began. Gurdjieff himself visited Mendham to see Madame Ouspensky, though he would never stay there. Madame had pre. sented him with the complete typescript of Fragments of an tlnbown Teaching, and Gurdjieff, hearing it read, said that Ouspensky in this respect was a good man. He had written down what he had heard from him, exacdy: 'It is as if I hear myself speaking.'
The wheel had come full circle. Ouspensky, who had held the first groups in London organized by Orage, and had broken with Gurdjiefl was novr, through his pupils, responsible for the renewal of the real
The communiry at Franklin Farms lasted for some years after Gurdjieff's death and after Madame Ouspensky died. Eventually the properry was sold. The groups in New York increased and at this time, 1968, several hundred people are connected with it. They have a country place in New York State where pupils worlc in the gardens and at various crafts. Some of the original Orage group (which had its beginning in the talk in The Sunwise Turn Bookshop in December ry4) arc among the leaders of the present groups. Our son Adam was now nineteen years of age, James, sixteen. Adam was at school in France, James, at St. Paul's, London. 'We had never spoken to them about the ideas nor had we refraincd from discussing them in front of them with our friends. Only oncc did Gurdjieff's teaching come up, when the younger said disdainfully, '['m not interested in what you call real ideas!' I retorted, 'No, they are not for you. They're only for certain people.' Six months later Easter was near. For some time I had felt that it vas
242
243
Those Ouspensky pupils who had not joined Gurdjieffstayed on at Lyne Place for a time; eventually it was sold and became a salxatorium for mental invalids; the Prieur6 was a convalescent home, but for
physicd invdids. The Gurdjieffschool in London now became really active. Demonstrations of dances and movements (or 'open lessons' as they were called) were given semi-privately, 1n{ once, five hundred peopll came to a meeting and to eat the good food provided at Colet-Gardens in the large hall where, Ouspensky had held his meerings. Later a public demonsffation of some of the dances was given by the French group in the Fortune Theaffe in London. Even at high prices every seat was sold out.
Paris with
Gurdjief
necessary to,take the famil-y
to Paris to Gurdjieff but was hardly able to make ends meet, and between the two ends nothing was left for trips t9 France. Yet I have always found that if I have a deep wish to do something, a-real wish, and not an idle 'wanting', if I do not carry out the wish at all costs, I suffer. On the other hand if I make the efforr to do so, I gain a deep satisfaction, and often, blesings. So, a week before Easter I begg t-o dig yp money wherever I could and gathered enough for almost the last tickets on the last train to paris on th" Wednesdiy before Easter. Even then, it was touch and go, because of the traffic; and we got to the train two minutes before it left. Our elder son Adam met us in Paris. Xvery day we went to lunch and dinner at Gurdjieff's small apartmenr in the Rue des Colonels Renard which was crowded with pupils from the French group, from
London and from New York, yet however crowded, thercalways seemed room
for another terr.
When we returned ro London, James begged us to let him go to Paris and live and study with Gurdjiefr This he did and spent seleral months there. Adam, whenever he came up to Paris from his school in the Cevennes, visited Gurdjiefi Both have been with groups since. However, had I not made that particular effort on that particular festival their contact with Gurdjieffmight have been delayed ior a long time. It is fitting that it happened at Easrer When my wife was in Paris with Gurdjiefi he said to her, 'Rosemary, you remember those first months at Prieur6, nearly thirry years ago, when you were young girl! I tell you many thingr th"n. No* you married and have sons. They come to see me. you know, I surprised they so good!'
I did not see very much of Gurdjieffin the last months of his IiG. for one thing I seldom h"d *oo.y for f"t"r to paris; fbt;rrh;; I was getting {eaf 1nd fodiog it "tioogh difficult to undersrand what people were saying. Tho"gh I could hear voices plainly, it was as if they wire spealcig in an unknown language; words became blurred. Having visited several 'specialists' who took my money and gave no help and having tried every insrrumenr without getting aid, i was told it the hospital that I was one of many men of my age suffering from nerve deafness, caused by gun-fire and shell-bursts irthe first war, there was no help and n3 cure for it and it would become imperceptibly but progressivdy worse. Ai& were no good, since I, and thoie fiLe me, need clarity not volume, and aids give only volume. I began to 244
Paris with Gurdjief feel the strain and to worry, but I was not aware ofwhat was happenit g to me until Gurdjieffsaid one day, 'You are getting a bad expression on your face because you can't hear. I know a very good German
will get you one.' I explained that they were for me. Hc talked with me for a while and this changed my attitude to myself and rny dea&ress. I began to accept it and the strained, worried look disappeared. I even began to make use of it. By degrees I found that, in general conversation at table, I could understand only one person at a time, and only ifthey sat opposite to me. For five years I went to lip-reading classes, but made so litde progress that I gave them up; one has to begin young with lip-reading. Gradually I became cut offfrom the exchange of ideas with people; I would miss a word machine for hearing and
useless
and so get the sense of a whole passage wrong, and my reply would often provoke either a smile or a look of frustration. At first it was dificult to accept deafiress, for I had dways enjoyed talking to people and exchanging ideas, but when I &d completely accept it a kind of irurer peace came, and a deeper understanding of myself and of people. I began to know what people rvere thinking and feeling-intuition increased. At a dinner or a gathering, a reading or a talk, hearing but not understandiog, I would do mental exercises or study the people around me, their postures and expressions, and so leanr something of
them.
Fortunately, I could still enjoy music if I sat near the instruments, though, apart from the piano and violin, sounds were blurred. And I could still hear the shrill chirping of thc birds. The noise ofjets and traffic is as evident to me as to people with normal hearing. At the present time there are few people whom I can understand, I can hear them, but the sounds of their voices are blurred, as objects are blurred to a short-sighted person; and yet a short time ago I had a three hour conversatioriwith an old friend, a writer. t hadlaken the precaution of bringing sheets of paper,'for he had to writc down every question and every observation. I, of course, could speak to him. At parting, he said, 'You know, this is the most intercsting and stimulating conversation I've had for a long time.' One thing I have noticed, few people want to listen to youi they want you to listen to them. I've had casual conversations with people lasting twenty minutes, by using the principle described by Gurdjieff in the chapter on America in his book: he needed only five expressions in order to carry on business and other conversations. I now, frequendy, can get dong by using two words-'Yes'and'No'. I smile when the 245
Paris with
Gurdjief
other smiles and laugh when he laughs;_when he appears ro be asking a question I shake my head, as if in doubt. They may think I,m a nitwit. What does it matter? I may even have given them pleasure by
listengg to them. Sometimes I can catch a *Jrd, and by iepeating it givl th ilpression t]r1t I'm following them intelligently. Gurdjieffspeaks of the subjective distiny of a perion *hi.tt appears to be unjust, but may have the result of being fruitfirl for otheri. As I began to find myself cut ofl I began to think about what I could do; and an idea came to me through ihe chance remark of a friend, who said, 'Why don't you write down all that you can remember about Gurdjiefi his doings.an{ yyings, while it is still in your memory. In ffi*ry ye-ars lre shall all be dead. His sayings and doings need to be recorded for those that will come after.' I realized that here was something I would wish to do. I had always wished to be able to wrire, to be acknowledged by the reviewers as one who could write good English, a wish t [ad had from boyhood, always a gnawing. But even as the idea came to me and the #sh to put it into practice began to grow, there appeared at the same time the adwersary, the denying force, the devil tempting me, pointing out that I did not know one rule ofgrammar and that I h-ad *,iit n boiks in the past which had been rejected. I do not counr the one that had been published in America, the book for boys. Then I remembered that Gurdjieffhad said, that if we wish to gainattention, will, individualiry, consciousness, we must begin with small things. 'Take one thing, some small thing, which you wish to do and c.t-ot do, and compel iourself to do it. Doing this will give you a taste of real will.' I had no wish to wrire as I had wished some years previously; I only wjlhed to put down what I remembered of Gurdjiedso, after a perioi of 'yessing'.and 'noing'with myself I began, soon as I began I "tt-d ", felt better; but it never became easy and for seven years I labourid at my writing, often with long periods of nothing in Lerween. Being born with strong instinctive and emotional centres and never until I iret the.Gurdjiefftlaching, having occasion to .rr" *y *ind, "nj kind of mental effort like writing was extremely difficult, and t founi myself malcing excuses to work in the garden digging, or at carpentry, or even washing up in order not to sit down anJ write; th" ""*and I thought of it repelled me. But, as soon as the effort was made bcgan to write, I was aware of a sense of release and well-being. After each period of not writing I had to make greater edrts in order to begin again. At last, after siven years, I had impiled enough 246
Paris with
Gurdjief
for a book from my own recollections and notes, and the notes of other pupils. I proposed to have copies done on a duplicating machine for the use of groups. However, having showed it to some elders in the main group, they urged me to give it to a publisher. I was against it as I thought no publisher would be interested. tn the end, I agreed, and left the typescript copy with a publisher, accompanied by a note to thc effect that I penondly did not think they would be interestedn but that some friends in the Gurdjieffwork had suggested my doing so.
To my surprise, in
less
than a week came a reply saying that contrary
to my own feelings they would be very glad to publish the book.
lt
was published, The Journal of a Pupil, and was reprinted several
times, and the reviews were far better than I had e4pected or hoped. Letters followed from people all over the world. So, by making this
effort
I
had done rootithittg
for my neighbour and somethiog fot
myself.
But it was as ifthe book were being donc through me, as ifl werethe agent so to speak. In other words, 'I' wished to do it, and 'I' had to compel the organism to labour and suffer to work it out. The feeling of being an instnrment, or of 'I' using an instrument, came to me strongly while translaang The Conferetce of the Birds from the French.It was as if I was in touch with Attar and understood what he wished to say. Writing did a great &al for my own development. Things that before were vague, amorphous, became crystallized. Questions and their answers became more clearly formulated; and in passing on to others something of what I had learnt, it became my own. Anothcr thing. Lr this work a pupil comes to a point when, in order to keep what he has experienced" he has to pass it on to someone. I began to feel the need of doing this;.and it happened that I was visited by an Australian who had been reading the books. 'We had talks over a long period and eventually I was invited to go to Sydney. I did not want to go. Although I had worked and lived in Australia as a youth I had never liked it, in spite of having many relations there, old Australian families, with whom my family was on good terms. It was the
it was an opporhrnity of doing something I wished to do. I made an effort, and went, and started the beginnings of a group which, after many difrculties and disappointments has now nearly a hundred people connected with it. last country I would have chosen to visit. However,
247
Paris with
Gurdjief
Paris with
once spealcing abour starting a group in these ideas said, .--G*4j.i-.fi 'You will make enemies', and it was so. |Iany people now are becoming-interested-in Gurdjieff's Teaching, and.most.want just to be interestJd. when their vani-ry and self-love real group, pupils take offence and. legins to be hurt, as it must io leave. Yet those who can compel'th.*rJln"r^to-rei themselve, ,h.y ", to are, whatever the sufilbring, reap a ri& reward-they begin really liv9, they become the twice-bo*. rh. pracrice ofthis teairing, at first appears easy, just what I was looking for,' is the most"lifficult
*y
*[i.h
Fhg i" the world. Everything is against-Jboth inside and out_the knowing of ounelves, against be conscious of ourservps. The "ffottrio Sufs call it 'sirar', a road or path, a bridge from the old life to rhe'newF.-r *- a hair, sharper than a sword, 6eset with briars and thorns; but by following the path and crossing the bridge a man receives blessings beyond price.
In
Paul's letters
to his churches-his groups--one
sees
the
same
di{ficulties now as then, for people remain Ih" r",,r" inwardly, however much the exterior changes; iherl the same dissensions, th" ram. dir-
"te agreements. And these-arise_in= whatever part of the wodd the group mal be-. Yet, in spite of the difrculties aniin spite ofbeing setio,ily iil
on both of 1I --njr ro Australia, whose riults lasted"long after I returned to England, the results have justified the effort. Aristralians have good possibilities, and they have qualities that are neither English
nor American. I have tried to
to some ofthem something ofih"t Teaching over the p"rt foiy ye".r. In so doing I have lcept something ofwhat I-had. .What I gavei icepC. pass on
I have lcarnt from Gurdjieff"na
. T fy
-tim9
ff
at the Prieur6, Gurdjieff's companions were men of
a
high level of developmenr; ir is sai that f.w of them survived their teacher. }Iowadays it is_ sometimes given as a criticism of groups that
many of those responsible for them are women. If this is io, iJir not men in general are becoming more and more identified with .because
'knowledge and progres' as ends In themselves, and less open to feeling aboaneal iideas? It may be that Nature needs the creative co'nserv.feelingaboaneal ing feeling force, which nonrral women have. yet men should be the active positive force, and those who put the ,Teaching, into practice become so. As a body of real ideas spreads and more peoplc becorne interesred, groups increase, and they have to be organized. The 'Teaching'is onc 248
Gurdjief
thing,_organization another. f.here must be organization but inevitably some become identified with it, become identified with their own anitude to what they call 'the Work'; some even forget what the organization is for. This also is according to law. But serious striven, while
recognizing the necessity for regulations, can remain unidentified with organization and remember their real aim. 'Where
the soil is rich wee& grow in plenry. Already there are appear-
ing those who profess to c4pound Gurdjiefft ideai and to t""1f, th" movements-people who do not have the smallest idea of the inner teaching; whom Gurdjieffcdls 'stealers of essence vdues'. Tle !:ac!ing remains the same; its outer manifestarions change. _ Gurdjigff when a phase of his work had served irs purpose, liquidaied it, and began something nev/. It is said that other schools are spreading the Teaching in another form, reaching different kinds of people. Yit I doubt if anyone in the West today has anything approaching the force, the power, the nuderstanding of G. I. Gurdjieff As regards Gurdjieff's work, it has been said that it finished with his dead4 and that groups are now repeating words, without undentanding the inner meaning. This may be true of some groups, but what groups? Cerainly, there 1e groups inlondon and other parts of the world drat are bcing led by peoele who never met Gurdjieff, some studying Ouspeniky's philosophy. These groups have litde value as regards the inner TeacJring; yet they may be a means ofleading a few to fed the need for something more. thgre are still people who worked with Gurdjiefffor some years -But who aretanding on in groups what they got from him personally, and this is of great value. Gurdjietr'sideas are spreading, and there are people in manyparts of the world, in England and France, Norrh and South Amirica and Australia, who are studyingthem under the direction of pupils who worked direcdy with Gurdjietr; and many in these dirFerent groups are gating something which helps to satisfy the inner longing to be notjust a ma&ine or a vegetating animal. I have observed in scores of people the clra''ge that can take place in a few years-the inner change and thereby the outer change. As their inner life has grown, they have become better human beings. ft be that as Gurdjieff wdtes of the Buddhists, after the third generation tle study ofhis ideas will become more dreoretical, the 'followers' will split into sects. There will no longer be the first generation
*y
249
Paris with
Gardjief
of Gurdjieffi pupils; and the intcrpretation of the teachings,litdc by litde, according to thc Law of the Octave, will become changed. But his writings will remain, his music, and his dances and movements; there will bc some, even if thcy did not know him, who will understend the inner teac,hing.
His writings, even for people who never knew him, can have the effect of changing their attitude to life; they will bcgin to think in a different way, more normally. I have a friend who has never been in a group nor met anyone interested in the ideas except myself He is a key figure in a giant industry. A few years ago I introduced him to Beelzebub's Tales, and he tells me that it is his bedside book. He says that people don't rerlite the depth of Gurdjieff's understanding of real
Paris with
I
haue sown anil
Curdjief
you have teapeil; anil the day is coning
wlen,'both he that sowah and they that rcap shall rcjoicn togetfur': that is, f you hoill out,'for in ilue seaon ye shall reap if ye Jaint not'.
And now
I will
end
with the words of a Coptic
about a.o. r5o Lord haue mercy on the
soil
of the sinner who wrote this book.
F/NIS
science.
Then the movements and the dances. Thesc have been carefully recorded and filmed, and if they are done exactly according to the rules laid down can have a vivifring effect on people for generations to come. Ttey are objective art, and ev€n to see a film of some of them produces a deep impression on an audience. Tte same with the music. Professor Denis Saurat more than once said tbat Gurdjieff's teac"hing will have a profound effect on men's thinking a hundred ycars hence.
Lifc becomes more complicated cvery year, and lcs satisfying; the old lifc is breaking up everywhere. Men are acquiring more knowledge, and as they get more ordinary knowledge, their understanding diminishes. Men know erreryrhtng about everything-and understand less and less. Their energy is being used by their minds alonc, and their feeling for a good way of life is becoming almost non-existent. If it continues oru civilization may perish from too much knowledge. Only t;he Teaching can give a new direction, show the way for thc acquisidon of being, which clrn cormteract this excessive knowledgc. Krishna sa1n, 'When civilization {ills into decay then I manifest m)'self;' and the Teaching is given out in a form suitable to timc and con&tions. It arises in thc East and comes from the real Sufs. It has cxisted from the time of thc 6ll of man and is given out in diFerent forms at diFerent periods. Gurdjieff adaprcd the perennial Teaching for the West and our time. He said that we should always be grateful to the person ttoo"gh whom rye met the Teaching. Whoever is the elder in understanding is the teacher. Like Evangelist tn Pilgrim's Progress the teacher can say: 250
25r
scribe
who lived
INDEX A.E. (George Russell), 47
Germany,
trz
Atlantic Convoy, zo3
Gill, Eric,
5o
Beelzebub's Tales,
t5, tg,
SS,70,
j7,
Gnostics, t8o,227 Gurdjieff 6, 8, 14, 19, 3r, 3J, 37 et $eq.,
Bo
89, 96, roo, 106, r33, rS2, r1g et seq, t72. tgg,2A5, 242 Blake,'William, ro7, t7B Bovingdon, z5 Bragdon, Claude, 16o Building a house, z4o
Callixtus, St., z3z Chelsea, zz3
53,68,j4,89,98, ro8, rro, rr8, r22, r39, r5r, 166, r98, 2t7,225,239,244 Harpenden, zo7 Flarf,mann, Foma de, 68, zt7, Heap,Jane, 78 ct seq., rr8 Huald of Coming Cooil, Sg Hippolytus, St., zgz
Hodrberg, Count, 48
Chicf feature, 87 .Chufchill, yortng',
the t63 Commcrcial travellers, 3 Consciousness, tr6. rS4, tlt, zz4,236 Corfe Castle, rz1, 222, 234 Creation, zz8 Czcch. refugees, rzo
Homcsickness, 136
Lnmortdiry
88
Landau, Rom,39
Lawrence, Brother, r15 Locust Vallen Long Island, rgg, rg7
Douglas, C. H,,34,48 Draper, Muriel, 19, 53
London,3 Luton, 26, 2to,222 Llne Place, 97, ro4, rog,242
Eliot, T. S.,48
McDiarmid, Hugh, 29, 48
Donne,John,57
lnneagram, z16 Essence
rtg
Iulahabharata, 56,
zrt
Mendham, (Franklin Farms) NewJerscy, I9o ct seq.
& Personality, 84, ror, rog,
Exercises, t86, zzo
Meopham,4o Mesoteric group, 8j
Felt agenry, 3 Fludd, Robert, z3o Fragments of an Unknown Teaching,
Milton,John, xvii
to7,
t'g, t6I, tg4,238,243
Garche,
Minneapolis, r49 Mortfists, the, tJ
Mortality, awareness o{, zo9 Muir, Edwin,49
zt7
Gathering Sap, Pufrrey, r8o
ztg
New English Weekly,the, zg
253
A SELECTION OF ROUAEDGE PAPERBACKS Index Recurrence,3o, j4, J5, 99, roo, rr5,
New Model of the (Iniverse' 37 Newf*re, Vermont, r74, 198 New Rochelle, r33 New Yotk, tS, t33. t57 Nicoll Maurice, 8, ro9, rro Octave, the,86, zz7 Orage, A, R., 9, rz
et seq., 28'
r29, t95,2O7,2t4 Russell. Bertrand,
5r
ct seg., 2r9 Ouspenskn P. D., 8, 37, 47' 90 et seq, gs. to2 et seq., r23, t58 et seg.' 164' r98,2O5,238 Ouspensky, Sophia Gregorievna, rzz, t58, t'19, t89,239,243 Pamplona, z6 Pea.er,
zt4
Pearl Harbour, 165 Petcrs, Fritz, 8o Pin&rs, F. S., 89 et scq., 98, 242
Pound, Ezra 5o
ro, t3, z6
St. Mawes, 4r Saurat, Denis, zg, 41, et seq., 54, 2rs Saurat, Denis, Comments on Beelzcbub's Tales,45
Sryings, of my grandfather, 116 Sacred Dances, z4o
I
'Scientific' Farming, r83 Silesius,
t
57,83,23t
Skridloff,
ZS
Solioonensius, 27' 32' 34,
1r,
tr2
Swedenborg, Emmaneul, r5o Swing, Raymond Gram, r74, Taliesin, r43
\l*,
tz4, zt4
PrieurC, 68
'Wcst rr4th St., N.Y., 167 'Wisconsin, t4z
Publishing, 43, rr4 Putney School, The, 169 et seg.
'Writing, t77,246
Powys,J. C., 16
r98
'Wright, Frank Lloyd, r38, r43
)
Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson (3 aolumes) G. I. Gurdjieff Beyond the Body Benjamin Valker The Conference of the Birds Farid Ud-DinAttar El/Ella Miguel Serrano The FourthlVay P. D. Ouspensky Ghost and Ghoul T. C. Lethbridge In Search of the Miraculous P. D. Ouspensky The Initiate By His Pupil The Initiate in the New World By Hip Pupil The Initiate in the Dark Cycle By His Pupil The Life of Buddha as Legend and History Edward J. Thomas Meetings with Remarkable Men G. I. Gurdjieff The Method of Zen Eugen Herrigel The Mystics of Islam R. A. Nichohod A New Model of the Universe P. D. Ouspensky Outline of Modern Occultism Cyril bcott A Primer of Soto Zen Reiho Masuna$a Rumi the Persian, the Sufi A. Reza fuasteh The Secret of the Golden Flower A Chinese Book of Life The Serpent of Paradise Miguel Serrano Teachings of Gurdiiefr C. S. Nott TertiumOrganum P. D. Ouspensky The Tiger's Cave Translations of Japanese Zen Terrs Trerbr Leggett TM Technique The TM Bookfor Sceptics Peter Russell , The Ultimate Flower Miguel Serrano ' The Unknowable Gurdiieff Margaret Anderson Views from the Real World G. I. Gurdiieff Visits of the Queen of Sheba Miguel Serrano Zen and the Ways Trevor Leggett I Zen in the Art of Archery Eugen Her.rigel Zen in the Art of Flower Arrangement Gustie L. Herrigel I
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FURTHER TEACIIINGS OF GI.]RDTEFF Journey through this lVorld 'I
This is the author's second journal and a sequel tohis Teachings of Gurdjieff: A Pupil'sJournal. C. S. Nott relates events in his life from 1927 to 1949, both in Europe and America, telling of meetings with Gurdjieffin_France, his friendship with A. R. Orage in England and his contact with P. D. Ouspensky in England and, during the war,
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inAmerica. The book includes an account of the time the author and his family spent vdth the Frank Lloyd ttrTrights at their estate Taliesin, in Wisconsin, and tells also of his life at The Putney School, Vermont. Mr Nott also writes of his financial struggles both in England and the United States and of the various jobs he did: agent for a felt manufacturer, small publisher, farm worker, editor, writer and paint sprayer. The book contains a summary of Gurdiieff's strange booklet, Herald of Coming Good, whichNott distributedfor Gurdjieff, andto an account of his contact with the various Gurdjieffpupils, especially during the war. Throughout the narrative there runs as a central theme the teaching of Gurdjieff, its impact on the narrator and his striving to carry what he had received from Gurdjieff. ." :-.
'A strikingly honest and well-written book.' H. D. Ziman,Daily Telegraph '
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'This is probably the most outspoken account ofthe relations between G. I. Gurdjieffand two of his most remarkable pupils, A. R. Orage and P. D. Ouspensky; it is also revealing of the spiritual hunger Gurdjieffaroused in a Europe of discredited churches and postwar retreat into the delights ofthe flesh.' The Times Educational Supplement
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