A discourse on organic gratitude, part III

The third factor enters here — and it's by no means always present, because the action of the first two parts as they integrate must create a “charge”, that is, a prepared atmosphere with enough energy in it, in order for the third part to come into play.

That third part is an awakened, organic, or, if you will, integrated sense of feeling. Here we come to the crux of what Mr. Gurdjieff referred to as “three centered work;” because it is this entry of feeling as a foundational, awakened, and organic entity that truly rounds out the experience that initially takes place between the sensation and the intelligence. The action of feeling in this particular situation is unmistakable and objective — it will always produce the same result in a human Being if they acquire the other two faculties, because it is related to a higher property within the realm of existence and has, in fact, a very tiny thread that connects it to what I called The Perfection.

 Its relationship to The Perfection is a matter that I can’t get into right this instant; instead, let’s focus on its relationship to the other two centers. Organic and integrated feeling enters the equation between molecular sensation and silent intellect as a third, and superior, form of intelligence that has the ability to see one’s position in life in an uncompromised way. Because it’s suffused with the presence of God, it always produces a sense of religious gratitude. Feeling has this capacity in a way that none of the other parts do; and the sense of religious gratitude is the only sense we are capable of acquiring that shows us how extraordinary our life is, how deep the gifts we receive are, and how are unworthy we are of our existence itself.

Now, it’s easy to write flashy words about this; but it is very different to have an organic feeling of gratitude that penetrates to the marrow of the bones. That organic gratitude can only arise as a vibration of a certain magnitude that corresponds to foundational vibrations within the other two parts. If the foundational vibration of sensation is insufficient, it cannot form a relationship with of the foundational vibration of the silent intelligence; and if those two foundational vibrations do not have a correspondence and a magnitude of sufficient force, it is impossible for the magnitude to support the entry of feeling, which intensifies the vibration of very great deal.

Jeanne Salzmann  wrote about it a very good deal in her notes, speaking of intensity and concentration and so on. From her notes, I get the impression that she believed it was possible to somehow participate in the creation of this force; and I think she is probably right, but the participation does not take place in any conventional sense, and the difficulty we have when we read her notes is that we are unable to take them in any way other than conventionally. This creates a substantial obstacle to using her notes as any form of “help.”

When it is not there, there is no organic gratitude, but rather just the theory of it, and I can talk about that as much as I like. I can make it sound wonderful. That’s how words function. But those things are absolutely meaningless relative to the actual presence of organic gratitude, which is always an incremental experience of The Perfection. Every time it comes, we are irrevocably penetrated by God and by His understanding. Another way of putting it is that it represents an entrée into the angelic kingdoms; but that is again a little inaccurate, because the angelic kingdoms are filled with independent Beings of their own, and they rarely have anything to do with us. I think the point I’m trying to get at here is that the rate of vibration, the magnitude, has a relationship to the angelic kingdoms. When Jesus Christ said that the kingdom of heaven was within, he was referring to this phenomenon; because if the orders of magnitude of the foundational vibration corresponds to one another, the doors to the kingdom of heaven are cracked open just a tiny bit.

Organic gratitude gives me a level of insight that I am incapable of within my ordinary life, which is far too influenced by the lower levels of Being.

I see, in this state, that each and everything is a gift. I see how fortunate I am.

The instinctive impulse that this feeling produces is one of worship.

Once again, it is unmistakable to anyone who has experienced it. If you’d like to read about an individual that experienced it a very great deal, you should definitely read The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. This book describes quite accurately the way in which he worked — which was both instinctively perfect and absolutely correct — the states it produced, the impulses it provoked, and so on. It is, in fact, an exact record of what I’m trying to describe in this essay. It may be the only truly precise essay, or series of essays, I’m aware of that goes over this territory in an accurate way.

This particular book was given to me by my teachers back when I was in my 30s. They gave it to our whole group. Now, my teachers were unsung heroes of the Gurdjieff work, not people who had charismatic followings or climbed up the ladder of the organization hierarchy. They worked quietly and privately with our group in such a way that most of us gained at least some level of understanding of what I am speaking of here; and that is most certainly unique relative to what I have seen with other teachers, who gave extensive direction, but failed to do so as selflessly as necessary. My own teachers never tried to teach; they helped us to understand how to live. There is a difference. In any event, they gave us this book because it so perfectly summarized what they were hoping we would learn from them. It summarized their aim for us.

Hosanna.

Lee van Laer is a Senior Editor at Parabola Magazine.