The Perfection, part 3

Once under solar influences, one can’t escape their constant presence, which manifests independently of personal preference or inclination, and puts Being under an entirely new set of obligations and obediences which cannot be properly outlined in texts. 

The most important thing that can be said about all of this is that it provokes a progressive openness to receiving the particles of sorrow referred to in the second passage. 

This receiving is a three-centered activity which produces an exquisite anguish which will inevitably be understood as an essential form of inner work, an experience of intentional suffering, and a sacred obligation which touches the soul so directly that no other order of experience can possibly mimic it. 

Developing this capacity within Being is one of the most essential aims of Gurdjieff’s practice. This is often either profoundly misunderstood or not understood at all; and this aim itself is what sets Gurdjieff’s practice and teaching well apart from so-called “enlightenment” teachings and other spiritual practices. To come under solar influences causes, one might say, a different kind of inner enlightenment that's not only invisible to outsiders... there is no incentive to reveal it. It is a secret, personal inner work.

The adept has to work for themselves to develop and understand the capacities and consequences of this; and comparatives fall by the wayside in the process. One might point out there are no white gowns or halos to be had here.

I would only add this caution: interpreting these matters from any perspective of one’s ordinary day-to-day experience is a great mistake. Never assume anything; in these matters, that which understands, understands, and everything else is conjecture and foolishness.

Now we come to the meaning of the second passage, which is taken from The Holy Planet Purgatory. The passage explains, in a parenthetical way, the entire process of suffering that results from the development of the astral and mental bodies; yet the result of the experience of suffering on this level is an infrequent but real possibility of a visitation of God Himself.

This may seem ludicrous and entirely allegorical; yet what it refers to is a very real perception granted from time to time as a result of the action of intentional suffering on the order of solar emanations. This perception is what I call The Perfection; and it has had its precedents, for example, in Ibn Arabi’s description of The Reality, another word for God’s Presence. 

The Perfection is not a sighting of God; however, in the sense of God as an external entity; it is, rather, an inner vision of God, for God, through God’s eyes. 

That inner vision typically manifests as a three-centered, but profoundly feeling-saturated, perception of the world and Being which contains simultaneous understandings from all three centers that impress the absolute unity of all Being upon one’s inner parts.  This is what Gurdjieff describes as a vision which can “soothe” the sufferers in Purgatory. 

It's sublime... it's The Perfection.

As such, the descriptions of Purgatory are hardly allegorical or removed in distance from Earth; they are events and circumstances that may take place within life, right here, 

if and when our inner effort qualifies us for the experiences.

Such insight is truly hard won; and never guaranteed.  

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.