Notes on Laws of the Inner Cosmos, Part I: Introduction

The study of the forty-eight orders of laws to which man is subject cannot be abstract like the study of astronomy; they can be studied only by observing them in oneself and by getting free from them. At the beginning a man must simply understand that he is quite needlessly subject to a thousand petty but irksome laws which have been created for him by other people and by himself. When he attempts to get free from them he will see that he cannot. Long and persistent attempts to gain freedom from them will convince him of his slavery. 

—Gurdjieff to Ouspensky in In Search of the Miraculous, p. 84.

Gurdjieff’s third obligolnian striving instructs us to know ever more and more concerning the laws of world creation and world maintenance. 

Yet discussion about such laws in the Gurdjieff work seems rare. When it’s undertaken, discussion oft presumes Gurdjieff’s proposed laws are external laws, that is, laws that affect outer conditions and circumstances… well, they do sound like it. Examples such as the law of reciprocal feeding (simply put, creatures eat each other) the law of falling (gravity) and the law of catching up (orbit) seem  obviously centered on outer and physical aspects of the universe. 

…or are they?

 We see from various remarks that Gurdjieff made to Ouspensky, especially the above, that Gurdjieff meant us to understand the laws as inner laws, that is, laws that govern the development of our psychology and our Being.

Laws that operate in ourselves can hardly be construed as laws of planetary orbits or gravity, except by analogy. We’re thus led to a suggestion of making an effort to understand law in terms of inner law, not outer. This means we need to see and understand the laws of inner influences, inner forces, and their interactions with one another.

As the progress of these essays develops, I believe you'll see that Gurdjieff's laws are actually one of the "bones" buried in his book; they represent an extraordinarily sophisticated set of analogies that recapitulate his teachings about man's inner life in a cosmological allegory disguised as a story about spaceships, comets, planets, and solar systems. Once one recognizes it, one understands why he chose the vehicle: he's telling us about man's inner cosmos...

Duh!  

of course he's telling us about man's inner cosmos... it's his favorite subject!

****

It is impossible to study a system of the universe without studying man. 

At the same time it is impossible to study man without studying the universe. 

Man is an image of the world. He was created by the same laws which created the whole of the world. By knowing and understanding himself he will know and understand the whole world, all the laws that create and govern the world. And at the same time by studying the world and the laws that govern the world he will learn and understand the laws that govern him. 

In this connection some laws are understood and assimilated more easily by studying the objective world, while man can only understand other laws by studying himself.

Ibid, P. 75

Gurdjieff’s laws of world creation and world maintenance are reciprocal entities. They apply both inwardly and outwardly. This bears a close relationship to Swedenborg’s doctrine of correspondences, whereby outer objects and animals are correspondences: reflections by material analogy of inner or spiritual conditions and of the nature of God Himself. This brings together structures as apparently diverse as cells and galaxies into a class of objects linked by metaphysical concept: each level reflects the levels above and below it, even as it helps form them. The conceptual framework emphasizes a wholeness or unity of cosmic manifestation and purpose, as opposed to the starkly divided conceptualizations of modern western science.

Leaving the outer cosmos aside for the time being, we introduce ourselves to the idea of an inner cosmos. This cosmos is not just a physical entity in which meaty organs pulse and pump and palpitate; it’s a cosmos of feelings and ideas which have a metaphysical significance.

Couched in the simplest terms, the metaphysical, for a single human Being, is the realm of manifestation that begins at the edge of their own bodies. It’s not just the physical action and reactions that project themselves into this -meta which lies outside the physical body of an individual human being; feelings and ideas (thoughts) which have vibrational, but not corporeal, presences also project into this external physical space—which is thus truly metaphysical, that is, extraneous to the inner physical and psycho-spiritual world (cosmos) of an individual. 

The metaphysical significance of the inner cosmos is only apparent upon its emergence into the realm of interaction and relationship; yet everything that takes place in that (to the individual) metaphysical realm begins within. All of the metaphysical properties which can manifest begin inside the individual cosmos and, collectively, quite conclusively determine everything about the fate of one’s individual cosmos from an outer point of view. 

If you, as a reader, are thinking about the idea that everything formed in life is fixed permanently in place after death—an idea both the dervishes and Swedenborg believed to be true— you aren’t mistaken. In a certain sense the manifestations that leave a human being (externalize) only do so after they have “died”—completed their inward action in a human Being. Once they manifest outwardly—for example, I yell at my child— the results they can produce are fixed, because the deed that they produce is undertaken and cannot be withdrawn.

This particular thought bears much consideration, I think. 

The inward cosmos is thus the only place where things can take shape and change before “death,” death being in this case each instance of outwardness of manifestation. This means we need to understand and become fully responsible for what takes place in us before we manifest, if we wish for “different“ results. Mindfulness is not even the half of it; to be mindful alone is good, but not good enough. Awareness is nothing without aim and intention.

 The inner cosmos of a Being is, like the outer one, governed by law; yet the laws that govern a human being’s inner behavior and conditions are laws of spirituality and psychology, not things falling down or orbiting—again, except by analogy. If we understand Gurdjieff’s laws, as iterated, in terms of allegories relating to inner psycho-spiritual conditions and attitudes, perhaps we can gain a glimpse into the types of insight he felt a human being had the capacity to undertake. 

Today, may your heart be very close to God, 

and God very close to your heart.

Lee

Lee van Laer is a Senior Editor at Parabola Magazine.