My friend
replied that he read it and shared it with his wife. He said that she would
replace the word pleasure with joy. I too was somewhat ambivalent about
Gurdjieff’s use of the word pleasure, though I understood that he was speaking
at a particular time to a particular group of people. I asked my friend if he
thought that the word happiness might be a good substitute. He replied that
happiness was very consistent with Meher Baba’s teachings.
But whether
we call it pleasure, joy, happiness, bliss, peace, etc., can we agree that if
we look deep inside ourselves for the goal and motivator of the actions of our
lives, that it is in fact the quest for this pleasure, joy, happiness, bliss,
peace happiness?
I find
everything in Gurdjieff’s statement significant. First, the qualification, “and
to be able to keep it.” This is significant because it has been my
experience that in life, nothing stays the same for very long. Moments of
happiness, joy, bliss, etc. are fleeting, as are the moments of suffering that
often follow.
There is a
story I heard from Christopher Freemantle about the great King Solomon (a
Perfect Master). People would come to him with their problems. He would listen
but say nothing. He just sat there listening while slowly turning an ornate
gold and jewel-encrusted ring around his finger.
There was
one man who had come to him many times with his problems. They were indeed
serious and weighty problems. As usual, King Solomon said nothing, just sat
there turning the ring. One day the man could take the Master’s silence no
longer and complained. Hearing the complaint King Solomon removed the ring from
his finger and passed it to the man. Inside the ring was engraved, “This too
shall pass.” This too shall pass, this too shall pass, this too shall pass…
In life, in
the world, everything passes, everything changes, and every stick has two
ends. Every stick has two ends—that’s another saying I heard attributed to
Gurdjieff. It speaks to illusion’s reality of duality. At the other end
of the stick of pleasure is pain, at the other end of the stick of attraction
is repulsion, at the other end of the stick of wealth is poverty, etc. You
can’t pick up just one end of the stick without picking up the whole stick. You
always get the whole stick.
Perhaps we
begin by trying—to take one end without the other. This can go on for many many
lifetimes, but eventually we realize it is impossible. So then we may attempt
to do away with the stick altogether, to not pick up the stick in the first
place. This is the road of austerity—denial, but the problem is that denial id
just one end of a stick, and always on the opposite end of the stick is
indulgence. We can go through many lifetimes like this, going back and forth between
denial and indulgence. It’s like a pendulum. But the pendulum itself is subject
to the law of duality, and that which moves will eventually become still,
though this may take hundreds of lifetimes. And this is just an example of one
pendulum…
At some
point, however, one begins to understand that they are trapped and cannot do
without help. One might begin to take religion more seriously or seek out help
through therapy, spiritual teachings, spiritual teachers, etc. Perhaps one
learns about and is encouraged to try the technique called non-identification
or non-attachment. In other words, to not try to do away with the stick, but to
pick it up and yet remain unattached to the experiences of either of its ends.
This can work, but it is extremely difficult, and virtually impossible without help,
and even with real help, it too, can take many lifetimes.
And so, we
see the significance of the words, and be able to keep it. To be able to
keep anything implies a transcendence over duality itself. Once we have
achieved this then it follows that one has nothing to learn.
But
Gurdjieff said that the way to it lies through suffering. Why suffering?
And is not pleasure on the other end of the same stick whose end is suffering? And
therefore, does not suffering itself continue to embroil one more and more in
duality? So why suffering?
Meher Baba
put it this way, if you are having a wonderful dream and wake up, you want to
go back to sleep and recapture that dream, but if the dream is unpleasant, you
only feel relief that it’s over and have no interest in revisiting it.
Meher Baba
and all the Perfect Masters I have studied are very consistent on this point,
life as we experience is a dream—the dream state of God. It is all illusion and
delusion and however real it appears to us to be, it is not real. Yet, it is a
necessary stage that the soul must experience on its journey from its deep
sleep to its real, fully awake, I am God State.
If life was
always pleasant, enjoyable, etc. there would be no impetus to awaken. Meher
Baba explained it this way, he said that a growing dissatisfaction with life
and all its dualities, both unpleasant and pleasant, combined with a growing
interest and eventually all-consuming love for God is the dynamic mechanism of
this awakening.
Gurdjieff
used this analogy. You live in this beautiful house with many rooms on many
stories. Those rooms contain unbelievable experiences of beauty and bliss. But
you chose to live in the basement—the dark dank basement—and have all but
forgotten even the existence of the other stories and rooms. Instead, you busy
yourself making efforts to find the most pleasant places in the basement to
pass your time fighting and arguing with others about meaningless things.
Gurdjieff concluded by saying that the only way out of the basement is to ally
oneself with someone who found their way out of the basement and is willing to
show you the way.
What is the
basement? It is gross consciousness—consciousness of what we call the physical
universe and all its physical forms from galaxies to subatomic particles. Gross
consciousness sees only the gross expressions of subtle energies and the mental
projections of thoughts and feelings and desires. It sees only the outside.
What are the
upper stories and rooms? They are the seven planes of higher consciousness: the
first three being the planes of subtle consciousness—of energy. The innumerable
powers, experiences, and possibilities of this story—this subtle
world—constitute the various rooms on that story.
What is the
next story—world of consciousness—beyond the subtle? It is called the Mental World
and it is consists of two planes—rooms—the first being the plane wherein lies
mastery of thoughts and the second being the plane wherein lies the mastery
over all feelings, emotions, and desires.
Beyond this
Mental World is the Seventh Plane, the plane of God
Realization/Self-Realization. It is the end of the soul’s journey. It is the
fully awake state of the soul. It is eternal, infinite, and the abode of all
Knowledge, Power, and Bliss.
Those whose
consciousness is of the subtle sphere can help others to reach that sphere, but
they cannot help others to achieve states beyond their own station. Likewise,
those whose consciousness is of the higher mental sphere can help others to
reach that sphere, but they cannot help others to achieve the states beyond
their station. Finally, to achieve the Goal, it is necessary to enlist the help
of one who has themselves achieved the Goal—a Perfect Master.
The
evolution of consciousness proceeds through association and disassociation of
the soul with all the lower gross forms from stone to man. Throughout this
journey, suffering is experienced. With the achievement of the human form the
process of reincarnation begins. In this process, human forms, male and female,
black and white, weak and strong, rich and poor, etc., etc., are experienced, discarded,
and then replaced in an effort to free the consciousness of the soul from its
identifications with these very forms.
Throughout
this phase of the journey the experience of suffering continues. And even when
the consciousness of the soul enters involution and experiences the various
planes, suffering in first a subtle form and then in a mental form continues.
Suffering is there throughout the entire journey of the consciousness
throughout the entire dream state of the soul—what we call creation
consciousness.
But what
exactly is the nature of this suffering? It’s a complex thing, for there are
many different forms of suffering, and not all of them are necessary! This is
the important thing. Not all suffering is necessary!
“But the
whole point is to get pleasure and be able to keep it. Whoever can do this has
nothing to learn. But the way to it is lies through suffering.” – G.I.
Gurdjieff
That’s how
we started this topic. In the dream state of creation, duality manifesting
itself through constant change is the king, and so the ability to keep anything
would be quite an accomplishment. Gurdjieff as well as the Masters are all in
agreement that suffering is essential to achieve constancy, but as was
discussed, there are many kinds of suffering and not all of them are necessary.
In fact, almost all suffering is unnecessary and almost all suffering is
unwanted. So then, why do we go on and on suffering and suffering? Gurdjieff
often said, “The most difficult thing for a man to give up is his suffering.”
What an irony; what a contradiction!
In 1979, I
was talking to Adi K. Irani in his little office in the Avatar Meher Baba Trust
Compound in Ahmednagar, India. He was saying that we are all traveling on a
train that would bring us to the Goal, but we are not driving the train. All
that is necessary for us to do is to stay on the train and bide our time in a
pleasant and helpful way. But sometimes, Adi said, we might be enticed to get
off the train. He said that Meher Baba would let us get off the train, but
also, in His Infinite Mercy, He would always allow us to get back on the train.
I suggested that though getting off the train was, in fact, unnecessary, once that
option was taken, we would have to shift from calling it unnecessary to
calling it an unnecessary necessity. Adi seemed to like that.
Leaving the
train in search of pleasure always leads to suffering, and this suffering is
unnecessary, but the wisdom gained from countless experiences of getting on and
off the train eventually leads one to learn to stay on the train and not be
lured off by the false hopes of desires. What is the most unnecessary suffering
of all? My experience tells me it is worrying. Worrying is the most unnecessary
suffering of all. I recall the old saying, “a coward dies a thousand deaths, a
hero only one.”
Of course, staying on the train also has its
share of suffering, but this suffering is necessary.
So, what is
suffering? Suffering can be physical, suffering can be mental, and suffering
can be emotional. None are pleasant, and if we are honest with ourselves, none
are really welcome—at least for most mere mortals. As Adi used to say, “A
kiss and a kick from Meher Baba are one and the same, but I still prefer the
kiss.” Don’t we all?
Now, it may
seem from the way I’m talking that I actually understand what it is I’m saying,
and perhaps at some level I do—understand the why and the what of suffering,
its necessity, and its unnecessary necessity, and maybe most importantly, that
it is all just an illusion—a dream. I can even tell myself—remind myself—of
this in the midst of my own suffering.
But if this
is true and I’ve learned the lesson, then why do I keep suffering; why do I
need to keep suffering? So, I must be missing something, for as Hafez said, “He
never tries His slave in vain.” Then what is it that I’m missing? I believe
that the answer is simply this, all my understanding, all my knowledge of
suffering, is limited to that section of mind that controls thinking and
thoughts. The other section of mind, the domain of feeling, emotion, desires,
etc., does not know the truth that the thinking section of mind knows, and it
is for this knowing by the feeling section of mind that suffering continues to
be essential.
But like any
remedy to be effective, it must be the right remedy—in this case, the right
suffering and this is where the Master comes in. The Master, being Infinitely
knowing, sees into every corner of the soul’s cloak of illusion and knows what
the exact prescription is that will free the soul from its cloak of illusion.
There is a story
about a disciple who is telling his Master about a friend he says is very
spiritual. He reads spiritual books, meditates, and is seen to do good. The
Master says, “Oh he sounds very spiritual, but then, gesturing with one hand he
says, “but let me grab him by the throat and throw him up against the wall,”
while with his other hand he makes a fist and gestures as if he is about to
punch the man in the face, and says, “then we will see how spiritual the man
really is!”
I know the
story sounds a little crude, but the point is clear, head knowledge is fine,
but it’s not enough. We need to know with the whole of ourselves and this
is where life comes in. It is life that can take us to the door, but at the door
one’s progress comes to a halt and the help of the Master becomes essential. It
is the Master who can pull us through the door to the Goal.
Gurdjieff
often evoked the analogy of a carriage, a horse, and a coachman.
“A man
as a whole with all his separately concentrated and functioning localizations,
that is to say, his formed and independently educated ‘personalities,’ is
almost exactly comparable to that organization for conveying a passenger, which
consists of a carriage, a horse, and a coachman.” – All and Everything – Beelzebub’s
Tales to his Grandson, page 1192
In this
analogy, the carriage represents the physical body, the horse represents the organization of human feeling, and the
driver represents the whole totality of
the manifestations of human mentation—what is generally described as thinking.
It is
precisely the training of the horse that is the work of the Master. The horse
cannot be trained with the same methods that work for the driver. The Master
works with and through life to train the horse and for this, some suffering is
necessary. But suffering, in and of itself, is never the point and unnecessary
suffering, by its very nature, is never necessary. The Master works to
eliminate unnecessary suffering and through the Master’s Love and Compassion,
helps support the wayfarer through the trial and tribulations of the necessary
suffering. The Master is always Infinitely Merciful and Eternally
Benevolent.
In fact,
from the very beginning of the soul’s journey of consciousness, from its
earliest associations with pre-human forms—all the way back to and before the
stone form, the Master is working. The Master is always working, but mostly, behind
the curtain. Only at certain times, and this is generally when the soul is
reaching the end of its journey, does the Master appear to the soul in
order to establishes a personal relationship. This personal
relationship is necessary to guide and energize the final steps of the
soul’s journey. The acceptance of the Master’s help by the wayfarer is the
critical factor, for this acceptance represents the acceptance of Reality by
Illusion—the giving up of Illusion’s hold on the soul’s consciousness as
limited and separate from Reality—from God—from Self.
“You are like a stream that flows
through all of time seeking union with
