{"id":680,"date":"2021-05-16T21:02:39","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T01:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/robcouture.com\/blog\/?p=680"},"modified":"2021-05-16T21:24:47","modified_gmt":"2021-05-17T01:24:47","slug":"reading-gurdjieff-categorical-necessity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robcouture.com\/blog\/reading-gurdjieff-categorical-necessity\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading Gurdjieff: Categorical Necessity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Not<\/a><\/p>\n

I have heard some say, in approaching the work, that reading Mr. Gurdjieff\u2019s writings is entirely optional, that taking or leaving them is a matter of personal preference, conveniently forgetting how unconscious and habitual personal preference is.\u00a0Besides the practical examples of the reading of Mr. Gurdjieff\u2019s writings during group meetings, there is a passage in his third series that sheds more light on the importance of reading Beelzebub\u2019s Tales<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis benevolent advice of mine to you Americans, composing in the given case this group, and who became, thanks to a series of accidentally arranged circumstances of life, my nearest essential friends, consists in indicating the categorical necessity<\/strong> that each of you should cease entirely, at least for three months, the reading of your newspapers and magazines, and during this time should become as well acquainted as possible with the contents of all three books of the first series of my writings entitled An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man<\/em>. \u201c 3<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

Here, Gurdjieff advises the American pupils\u2014formerly under the tutelage of Mr. Orage\u2014to cease reading magazine and newspapers for three months and instead to become well acquainted with Beelzebub\u2019s Tales<\/em>.\u00a0Perhaps the modern equivalent, since few people today read physical newspapers or magazines, would be to stop watching television and videos, listening to news radio and podcasts, engaging social media, or aimlessly browsing the web, and instead spending that time acquainting oneself with the first series of Mr. Gurdjieff’s writings.\u00a0Considering only the length and not necessarily grasping the content, in taking this approach, the reader would need to read and acquaint themselves with the book at a pace of about 14 pages per day. This can be accomplished at a slower pace of 4 pages over a year.<\/p>\n

So we have read in Gurdjieff’s own words that reading Beelzebub’s Tales<\/em> is a categorical necessity. But why? Mr. Gurdjieff does not leave us without reasons:<\/p>\n

\u201cAn acquaintance with the contents of these books is quite indispensable for each of you, chiefly in order to obtain directly or indirectly information elucidated from all sides regarding all those definite notions upon which will be based and from which will logically derive all the problems which are pursued for practical attainments. \u201c 2<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let\u2019s break this passage down.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn acquaintance with the contents of these books is quite indispensable for each of you\u2026\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, familiarizing oneself with Beelzebub\u2019s Tales<\/em> is absolutely necessary. Why?<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 chiefly in order to obtain directly or indirectly information elucidated from all sides regarding all those definite notions\u2026\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, the reason for doing this is mainly to get clear, all-around information about certain ideas.\u00a0As an aside, some take Gurdjieff\u2019s aim for the first series as purely destructive and that no ideas can be derived from it. Besides the absurd literalness of this, here Mr. Gurdjieff has informed us otherwise.<\/p>\n

Next, what is the purpose of obtaining this information?<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 upon which will be based and from which will logically derive\u2026\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These ideas will serve as a foundation and a logical source. For what?<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 all the problems which are pursued for practical attainments.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What problems? The book does not have the subtitle \u201cAn Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man<\/em>\u201d for no reason. Within the text, man\u2019s life (and therefore your own life), individually and collectively, will be criticized impartially. There is something wrong with us and our way of life and solving these problems are worth pursuing and attaining, not as an intellectual exercise, but practically.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just for this purpose that your group was organized and is now reorganized to consist of people who have more or less cognized the absurdity of our ordinary life and who, although you have not yet sensed it with all your Being but are seriously striving to take in what you have cognized, are continuing to learn as many aspects of the objective truth as possible so as to determine, in accordance with this, your own real individuality, in order to manifest afterwards in everything in a way corresponding to a Godlike creature.\u201d 3<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Before approaching this work, one must to a certain extent be aware of the absurdity of ordinary life. If one is still thinking life on planet Earth is normal, this work may not be for them.\u00a0Or they may not yet have a deep sense of its absurdity, but they are serious about taking persistent initiative to deepen their sense of this absurdity.<\/p>\n

And in this, they are also continuing to learn many aspects of objective truth. Why?\u00a0To determine their own real individuality.\u00a0Real individuality is a topic worth exploring beyond this brief article (for example, in chapter 48 of the first series), but clearly it is something that one does not innately possess and is worth striving after, since, lacking it, one does not manifest “in a way corresponding to a Godlike creature” and is the cause of the absurdity of ordinary life.<\/p>\n

For all of the above, for gaining real attention<\/a>, and for merciless destruction<\/a> of our deeply rooted false beliefs and views, the reading of Beelzebub’s Tales<\/em> is a categorical necessity.<\/p>\n

\n

1<\/sup> Third Series<\/em>, p. 103.
\n2<\/sup>\u00a0ibid<\/em>., p. 103.
\n3<\/sup>\u00a0ibid<\/em>., p. 103.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have heard some say, in approaching the work, that reading Mr. Gurdjieff\u2019s writings is entirely optional, that taking or leaving them is a matter of personal preference, conveniently forgetting how unconscious and habitual personal preference is.\u00a0Besides the practical examples of the reading of Mr. Gurdjieff\u2019s writings during group meetings, there is a passage in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gurdjieffism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robcouture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robcouture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robcouture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robcouture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robcouture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/robcouture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":698,"href":"https:\/\/robcouture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions\/698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robcouture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robcouture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robcouture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}