Purpose of the Gurdjieff Work

This was an assessment of the Gurdjieff work, and what its function is, in comparison with Jeff Brooks' work. This was from February 2014.

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Several months ago I had an exchange with mapeli on the forum, where we explored our experiences with the Russian esotericists Gurdjieff and Ouspensky. In response to one of mapeli's comments, I said the following:

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They [Gurdjieff and Ouspensky] definitely overstate the pre-contemplative states, and do not mention any of the genuinely supernormal stuff like Jhananda does. But I understand what Gurdjieff's intentions were when he designed his school. The Gurdjieff work (its obtuseness included) is designed to take streamwinners, perfect them with knowledge of the "way out of the world," and then by the end hope to turn those streamwinners into once-returners. It is designed off of the old mystery schools, which functioned in the same way.

You, myself, Jhananda (and most of the people who find their way to Jeff Brooks) are, or are set to become, nonreturners or arahants. For us we have already struggled through being the lower noble persons, and that is why our lives have been so fortunate in that everything we needed to make progress in the holy life was given to us directly or fatefully.

So, those esoteric schools affect more people than Jhananda does, but it is focused on the long-term, two to four lifetimes' of progress, and on people who are just taking the first steps onto the "way." But Jhananda, if we wanted to say that he had a destiny, is there to give guidance to people who are already very advanced spiritually. So he teaches a small number of people, but very generously.

I wanted to re-visit this very interesting subject. First, I would like to take a passage from Ouspensky's book The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution. In it there is an analogue between the Buddha's idea of the four noble persons, and Ouspensky's concept of "Man No 4, 5, 6, and 7":

Quote from: P. D. Ouspensky

In ordinary life we meet only these three categories of man. Each one of us and everyone we know is either no. 1, no. 2, or no. 3. There are higher categories of man, but men are not born already belonging to these higher categories. They are all born no. 1, no. 2, and no. 3, and can reach higher categories only through schools.

Man no. 4 is not born as such. He is a product of school culture. He differs from man no. 1, no. 2, and no. 3, by his knowledge of himself, by his understanding of his position, and, as it is expressed technically, by his having acquired a permanent center of gravity. This last means that the idea of acquiring unity, consciousness, permanent “I,” and will—that is, the idea of his development—has already become for him more important than his other interests.

It must be added to the characteristics of man no. 4, that his functions and centers are more balanced, in a way in which they could not be balanced without work on himself, according to school principles and methods.

Man no. 5 is a man who has acquired unity and self-consciousness. He is different from ordinary man, because in him, one of the higher centers already works, and he has many functions and powers that ordinary man—that is, man no. 1, 2, and 3—does not possess.

Man no. 6 is a man who has acquired objective consciousness. Another higher center works in him. He possesses many more new faculties and powers, beyond the understanding of an ordinary man.

Man no. 7 is a man who has attained all that a man can attain. He has a permanent “I” and free will. He can control all the states of consciousness in himself and he already cannot lose anything he has acquired. According to another description, he is immortal within the limits of the solar system.

Were you able to find the analogue? He is explaining it in terms very foreign to Buddhism, however:

Man 4 = streamwinner
Man 5 = once-returner
Man 6 = nonreturner
Man 7 = arahant

Another thing I wanted to explore was my concept (above) that the school of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky focuses on the first two - streamwinners and once-returners - while Jhananda is focused on the latter two - nonreturners and arahants.

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Miss J. You said you will tell us in what sense we can call this a school?

Mr. Ouspensky. I think I have answered it. Only a two-degree school is possible. Another school may be a school today and not a school tomorrow, as it happened with the Moscow school. Also long ago I explained that organization which is a school for one person is not a school for another. Much depends on personal attitude and personal work.

"Only a two-degree school is possible." In other words, an esoteric school like that run by Ouspensky is focused on the first two levels of noble people. (1) It helps laypeople become streamwinners, then (2) guides them through the transformation into being once-returners.

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Mrs. D. Would it be possible for everyone in a school to progress from No. 4 to No. 5, or only for a few?

Mr. Ouspensky. There is no limitation in principle. But you must understand that there is an enormous difference between No. 4 and No. 5. Man No. 4 is a man who has acquired a permanent center of gravity, but in everything else he is an ordinary man. Man No. 5 is very different. He already has unity, he has permanent “I,” he has the third state of consciousness, i.e., self-consciousness. That means he is awake, he can always when he needs remember himself and higher emotional center works in him, and this gives him many powers.

Mrs. D. The idea then is to attempt to get to No. 5?

Mr. Ouspensky. First you must think of how to become man No. 4, otherwise it will be just fantasy.

One has to be a streamwinner to become a once-returner. Here is also a very unique description of what a once-returner is. Also, for Ouspensky, a streamwinner is defined by his possessing a special kind of knowledge.

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Mr. A. The chief immediate objectives you recommend are elimination of emotional life?

Mr. Ouspensky. No, quite different; emotional life is most important. The system speaks of elimination of negative emotions. Negative emotions are an intermediate state between sanity and insanity. A man whose center of gravity is in negative emotions cannot be called sane and cannot develop. He must become normal first.

Mr. A. Why I spoke of the elimination of emotional life was because you said that all our emotions are potentially negative.

Mr. Ouspensky. Yes, potentially, but it does not mean that they all become negative. Emotional center is the most important in us for our development. There are many things one can understand only with emotional center. Intellectual center is very limited, it cannot take us very far. The future belongs to the emotional center.

But it must be understood that negative emotions are not really in the emotional center. They are controlled by an artificial center, and this is our only chance of getting rid of them. If their center was real, and not artificial, there would be no chance of getting rid of them, because it would mean that they are useful, or may be useful, in some way. The artificial center is created by a long wrong work of the machine. There is nothing useful about it. Because of this, negative emotions can be eliminated; they do not serve any useful purpose.

Mrs. S. So none of us use the emotional center rightly?

Mr. Ouspensky. Why not?

Mrs. S. You said we have no positive emotions?

Mr. Ouspensky. Positive emotions are quite a different thing, they belong to the higher emotional center. Man. No. 5 has positive emotions. All our emotions can become negative, although, as I said, it does not mean every emotion will become negative. At the same time our emotions are not reliable so long as there is no control and so long as we are asleep. But they will become more and more reliable if we become less asleep and acquire more control.

What does this remind us of? Notice how he talks about the developing of the emotions being key in becoming a once-returner. It sounds very much like the opening of the heart chakra. Also notice how he says that the once-returner has "positive emotions." That is indeed a reference to the joy of the first samadhi.