The Perfection, part 2

The meaning of the passage about remorse is a reference to what happens to an individual who develops deep enough levels of Organic Sensation of Being to open a pathway to the arrival and development of Organic Feeling. 

Organic Feeling can’t exist in the absence of Organic Sensation. Hence the great emphasis on understanding through direct experience the resolution of levels of inner vibration which lead to Organic Sensation. Years of work need to be put into this one aim, which ought to be the fundamental and only aim in one’s inner work until it is achieved. Organic Sensation is, within the inner circles of the Gurdjieff work, traditionally associated with the development of the astral body (Gurdjieff’s first higher being-body.) 

  Once an Organic Sensation of Being develops, and enough inner ground is prepared (Gurdjieff’s “coating of being-bodies”), Organic Feeling arrives. This faculty has an ability to sense and understand life in ways that are functionally and categorically impossible without its presence; there is no point in discussing it with those who haven’t experienced it firsthand. And of course there’s always the danger that folk who learn of it will misunderstand and think they have attained it in one way or another. The point is that this is one of those objective states Gurdjieff described in which there can be no argument between two who have truly experienced it, as to what it consists of. It only results in one experience; and it only has one “result.” This is what is meant by objective. It isn’t a state, furthermore, that can be exploited for personal gain in any way; it stands apart from such considerations because it is pure, that is, it has conclusively moved beyond the level of self-interest. Organic Feeling, if it were well understood (which it is not) is associated with the development of what Gurdjieff called the mental body, or second higher being-body.

When Organic Feeling arrives, a faculty is awakened which connects a human Being directly to planetary and solar influences. Gurdjieff spoke about and wrote of this kind of influence a good deal, but in this case (unlike the allegory of purgatory) the meaning is quite literal. 

Organic Sensation connects a human being to the influences of the Moon, which are (contrary to much misunderstanding in the Gurdjieff practice) absolutely essential  for the absorption of certain rooted astral emanations.

Organic Feeling connects a human Being to the emanations of the sun—not just through solioonensius, Gurdjieff’s word for the process (which refers, by the way, explicitly to solar flares and their action) but also to a wide range of emanated solar influences, which are constant and ongoing, such as the emanations from coronal holes in the sun, and various openings in the earth’s magnetic fields which allow greater or lesser amounts of solar emanations to influence one’s Being. 

And there is an important key to this hidden teaching: the section of the book within which it is introduced. The passage is a teaching from Ashiata Shiemash, whose name means “ray of light from the sun.” Coming under the influences of his teaching actualy means “coming under solar influences.” This is meant to be understood as an actual physical event, whereby the emanations of the sun tangibly and materially begin to affect the organism.

Part 3 of this series will be published on Dec. 6.

Warmly,

Lee

Announcing the publication of 

The Reconstruction of the Soul

The Reconstruction of the Soul is a wide-ranging investigation of symbolism in High and Late Medieval art. It includes detailed analyses of the Unicorn Tapestries at the Cluny Museum and the Cloisters in New York, as well as detailed examinations of the mysterious, erotic and bizarre symbolism in The Cathedral of St. Lazare in Autun.

Along the way, it traces the roots of Western esoteric art from Babylon to ancient Greece, revealing traditions that are still alive today, some 3000 or more years later.

The material is illustrated with photographs taken by the author on location in France and New York, as well as source material from various museums.

It will appeal to anyone interested in the symbolic transmission of the world's Western esoteric heritage.

All funds from your purchase of this book will go to support the translation of important historical documents related to the Gurdjieff tradition.

The author is currently at work on a second volume which will explore even earlier (!) influences on esoteric art and practice. Anticipated publication of this follow-up work will be late 2019.

Lee van Laer is a Senior Editor at Parabola Magazine.