A Harmonically Distributed Sensation—Part VII

Capital, Moissac

“ She has only automatic mind, she not understand that of mind is two kinds and she quite not have real mind mentation.”

— Gurdjieff and the Women of the Rope, 2012 Book Studio, page 188.

The overarching theme of these essays, when I began them, was the distribution of sensation throughout the body as a single expression of Being.

 The aim is to understand this energy as a whole form of independent consciousness, manifesting without words. This has a great deal to do with the above quote.

Attempting to understand this from the perspective of how a limb feels, or the energy in my spine or my feet, is helpful. But the permanent sensation of Being distributes itself throughout Being on the cellular level in such a way that it “fills” all the body. It becomes a resonant vibration that penetrates all of one’s awareness as a fundamental consciousness which is clearly separated from the part that thinks.  Understanding from any other perspective is fragmentary.

Understanding it, furthermore, from this practical point of view will explain, without words, a number of inner relationships that remain obscure and theoretical under other conditions.

We have the potential to become related to this field of energy. A real work of inner relationship begins with the manifestation of this energy, and being in a committed relationship with it requires a different kind of effort from within. This effort can’t be explained with words, but only sensed. It relates to what Jeanne de Salzmann repeatedly calls a demand.

 This word demand derives from the Latin demandare which means to hand over or entrust. In its turn, the two Latin roots that create it mean to formally order. 

Understanding the word from this point of view is helpful in sensing the gist of what she means by it. We  hand ourselves over to the sensation — our awareness of being,  the manifestation of harmonic energy. We begin to understand it as a duty: that which we are obliged by God to undertake as Beings. 

This is worth a great deal of pondering, because it clearly relates to Gurdjieff’s phrase Being-Parktdolg-Duty. 

Being-Duty itself, which touches a wide range of subjects, is deeply rooted in this question of a responsibility to our sensation.  

It isn’t so much a duty of beings as a duty to Be.

Wishing the best for you on this day,

Lee

Lee van Laer is a Senior Editor at Parabola Magazine.