"During my last stay there, I
personally met several of these
terrestrial contemporary three-
brained beings who were already
two or three, or even four of
their centuries old I met them
chiefly in a small 'BROTHERHOOD'
composed of beings from almost
all of their 'religions,' whose
permanent place of existence was
in the middle of the continent of
Asia.

"The members of that brotherhood,
so it seems, discovered the
mentioned 'LAW OF ASSOCIATIONS'
in being-brains partly by
themselves and partly thanks to
information that reached them
from ancient times through
GENUINE INITIATES.

"As for the beings of the
contemporary community of ENGLAND,
who have become the chief victims
of that particularly maleficent
invention of the beings of the
ancient Greek civilization, they
not only practice it in the
process of their own existence
but they try as hard as they can
to infect the beings of all the
other communities with this same
evil. Moreover, by this maleficent
sport of theirs, these unfortunates
not only diminish still further the
already trifling duration of their
own existence but, in my opinion,
they will eventually bring about
the same fate for their community
as quite recently befell a large
community there named 'RUSSIA.'"
--Gurdjieff
--ch 29, FRUITS
--Beelzebub's Tales

"In the course of conversation,
it turned out that he was an
Italian, but knew Greek
because his mother was
a Greek, and in his
childhood, on her
insistence, he had
spoken this language
almost exclusively.

"He had formerly been a
Christian missionary and
had lived a long time in
India. Once, when he had
gone on some missionary
work into Afghanistan,
he was taken prisoner
by Afridi tribesmen
while travelling
through a certain
pass.

"He was then passed from
one to another as a slave,
fell into the hands of
various groups
inhabiting these
regions, and finally
arrived in this place
in the bondage of a
certain man.

WORLD BROTHERHOOD

"He had succeeded during his
long stay in these isolated
countries in gaining the
reputation of being an
impartial man who humbly
recognized and submitted
to all the local conditions
of life, established by
centuries. And so,
through the efforts
of this last master
of his, to whom he
had rendered some
important service
or other, he was
given his full
freedom and the
promise that he
could go wherever
he pleased in these
countries as though
he were one of the
local power-possessing
inhabitants. But just at
that time he accidentally
came in contact with certain
adepts of the 'World Brotherhood',
who were striving for what he had
dreamed of all his life, and,
having been admitted to their
brotherhood, he did not wish
to go anywhere else but ever
since then had lived with
them in their monastery.

FATHER GIOVANNI

"As our trust in this brother,
Father Giovanni—-which was the
name we called him when we
learned that he had once
been a Catholic priest
and had been called
Giovanni in his own
country-—was growing
all the time, we
considered it
necessary to
tell him who
we really were
and why we were
disguised.

"Listening to us with great
understanding and clearly
wishing to encourage us in
our strivings, he thought
for a few moments and
then, with a kindly,
unforgettable smile,
said:

"'Very well then ... in the
hope that the results of your
search will benefit my
compatriots also, I will
do everything I can to
assist you to attain
the aim you have set
yourselves.'

"The fulfilment of this
promise of his began by
his obtaining that same
day, from the proper
source, permission
for us to stay at
their monastery
until we should
become clear about
our plans and decide
what to do next in these
regions and how. On the
following day we moved
into the living-quarters
of the monastery and, first
of all, took a good rest,
which we really needed
after so many months
of tense life.

"We lived there as we
wished, and went everywhere
in the monastery freely, except
in one building where the chief
sheik lived and to which were
admitted each evening only
those adepts who had
attained preliminary
liberation.

"With Father Giovanni we went
almost every day to the place
where we had sat together the
first time we came to the
monastery, and there had
long talks with him.

INNER LIFE

"During these talks Father
Giovanni told us a great
deal about the inner life
of the brethren there and
about the principles of
daily existence
connected with
this inner life;
and once, speaking
of the numerous brotherhoods
organized many centuries ago
in Asia, he explained to us
a little more in detail
about this World
Brotherhood,
which any man
could enter,
irrespective
of the religion
to which he had
formerly
belonged.

"As we later ascertained,
among the adepts of this
monastery there were former
Christians, Jews, Mohammedans,
Buddhists, Lamaists, and even
one Shamanist. All were
united by God the Truth.

"All the brethren of this
monastery lived together
in such amity that, in
spite of the specific
traits and properties
of the representatives
of the different religions,
Professor Skridlov and I
could never tell to which
religion this or that
brother had formerly
belonged."
--Gurdjieff
--2nd Series, skridlov

"IF YOU GO ON A SPREE,
THEN GO THE WHOLE HOG,
INCLUDING THE POSTAGE."

And, considering that the
writing of these posts of
mine on these internet lists
has, so far, manifested in a
way quite contrary to one of
the fundamental commandments
of that universal teacher whom
everyone, including everyone on
these lists, particularly esteems,
Mullah Nasr Eddin, which he expressed
in the words:

NEVER POKE YOUR STICK
INTO A HORNET'S NEST

But with regard to the "something"
that is now "oozing" in the form
of agitated reactions to these
posts of mine, agitation that
has pervaded the whole system
animating of my own feelings,
and all of this in the face
of reactive animosity toward
me which must necessarily
arise in the reader, most
notably including those
"gay" and "girly" ones on
"parade" along with the "lesbians,"
my inner life is immediately quieted
when I remember, with Gurdjieff, the
ancient Russian proverb that states:

"THERE IS NO OFFENCE WHICH
WITH TIME WILL NOT BLOW OVER--
TIME GRINDS EVERY GRAIN INTO
FLOUR"

and which corresponds with a
saying by that Great, truly
Great American, Henry David
Thoreau:

THERE IS NO ODOR
SO BAD AS THAT WHICH
ARISES FROM GOODNESS
TAINTED

"Pardon me, Your Right Reverence,"
interrupted Beelzebub's devoted old
servant Ahoon, who had been listening
to these tales with the greatest interest.

"Do you remember, Your Right Reverence,
how often in that city of Gob we ourselves
had to flop down in the street at the cries
of beings of different forms?"

"Indeed I do remember, dear Ahoon," replied
Beelzebub. "How could I ever forget such
comical impressions?

"The fact is," he continued, turning to
Hassein again, "the three-brained beings
of the planet Earth are inconceivably PROUD
AND TOUCHY. IF SOMEONE DOES NOT SHARE THEIR
VIEWS [politically correct nonsense] OR AGREE
TO DO AS THEY DO OR CRITICIZES THEIR
MANIFESTATIONS, THEY ARE VERY OFFENDED AND
THEIR INDIGNATION KNOWS NO BOUNDS.

"And if one of them should happen to have
some power, he would order anyone rash enough
to criticize his conduct or to behave
differently from himself to be shut up
in the sort of place usually crawling
with 'rats' and 'lice.'

"And if the offended one should be PHYSICALLY
STRONGER, and no one were looking—-at least no
important power-possessing being with whom he
happened to be on bad terms—-he would simply
give the offender a good thrashing, as the
Russian Sidor once thrashed his favorite
goat.

"Well knowing this aspect of their strange
psyche, I had no desire to offend them and
incur their wrath. Furthermore, as I was
profoundly aware that to outrage anybody's
religious feeling is contrary to all morality,
I tried when existing among them always to do
as they did, so as not to be conspicuous and
draw attention to myself.

"Here it will do no harm to point out that,
owing to the ABNORMAL [onanistic] conditions
of ordinary existence there, the only beings
of that strange planet, especially during recent
centuries, who become notable and are therefore
honored by the rest, ARE THOSE WHO MANIFEST
THEMSELVES SOMEHOW OR OTHER MORE ABSURDLY THAN
THE MAJORITY. AND THE MORE ABSURD THEIR
MANIFESTATIONS, THE MORE STUPID, MEAN AND
INSOLENT THE TRICKS THEY THEY PLAY, THE MORE
CELEBRATED [politically correct] THEY BECOME,
AND THE GREATER IS THE NUMBER OF BEINGS ON
THEIR OWN CONTINENT, OR EVEN ON OTHER CONTINENTS,
WHO KNOW THEM PERSONALLY, OR AT LEAST BY NAME.

"On the other hand, an honest being who does not
behave absurdly has no chance at all of becoming
famous, or even of being noticed, HOWEVER KIND
AND SENSIBLE HE MAY BE."
--Gurdjieff
--ch 20, third flight

The circumstances and conditions
in which Gurdjieff was forced to
live and work, and to behave
"always to do as THEY did,"
such conditions as still
exist today.


" . . . a "something" began to
ooze . . . which had the property—-
as was only recently explained to
me by a famous meteorologist with
whom I chanced to become bosom
friends during frequent meetings
in the all-night restaurants of
Montmartre—of arousing an interest
in and a tendency to seek out the
causes of every suspicious "actual
fact", and this property, not
transmitted by heredity [which
is to say: NOT BY DIRECT LINEAGE]
to my common presence, gradually
and automatically led to my becoming
a SPECIALIST IN THE INVESTIGATION
of EVERY "SUSPICIOUS PHENOMENON"
that, as so often happened,
came my way.

"And when, of course with the
cooperation of our All-Common
Master, the Merciless Heropass,
that is, the "flow of time," I
was transformed into the young
man I have already described,
this new property became a
REAL INEXTINGUISHABLE HEARTH,
always burning, of
CONSCIOUSNESS.

"The second vivifying factor I
mentioned, which brought about
the complete fusion of my dear
grandmother's injunction with
all the data making up my
individuality, was the
totality of impressions
received from information
I chanced to acquire concerning
the origin here on Earth of a
principle, which later became—-
as was demonstrated by Mr. Allan
Kardec during an "absolutely
secret" spiritualistic séance—-
one of the chief "LIFE PRINCIPLES"
among beings arising and existing
on all the other planets of our
Great Universe.

"This ALL-UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLE
OF LIVING is formulated in the
following words:

"IF YOU GO ON A SPREE,
THEN GO THE WHOLE HOG,
INCLUDING THE POSTAGE."

"As this now-universal principle
arose on the same planet as you
and where, moreover, YOU SPEND
MOST OF YOUR TIME LOLLING ABOUT
ON A BED OF ROSES AND FREQUENTLY
DANCE THE FOX TROT, I consider
that I have no right to
withhold from you the
information I have that
will help you understand
certain details of the origin
of that universal principle.

RUSSIA

"Soon after the inculcation
in my nature of the new inherency
I mentioned, that is, the unaccountable
striving to learn the real causes of all
sorts of "actual facts," I arrived for
the first time in the heart of Russia,
in the city of Moscow, where, finding
nothing else for the satisfaction of
my psychic needs, I occupied myself
with investigating Russian legends
and sayings. And one day—-whether
accidentally or as a result of
some objective lawful chain of
circumstances, I do not know—-I
came across the following story.
Once upon a time a certain Russian,
who to all appearances was just a
simple merchant, had to go on some
business or other from his provincial
town to this second capital of his
country, the city of Moscow, and
his son—his favorite one, because
he resembled only his mother—-asked
him to bring back a certain book.
When the great, unconscious author
of this all-universal principle of
living arrived in Moscow, he and a
friend of his, as was and still is
the custom there,

GOT "BLIND DRUNK" ON GENUINE RUSSIAN VODKA.

"And when these two members
of one of the large contemporary
groupings of biped breathing creatures
had drunk the proper number of glasses
of this 'RUSSIAN BLESSING,' and were
launched on a discussion about what
is called 'PUBLIC EDUCATION'—a topic
with which it has long been customary
to begin a conversation—our merchant
suddenly remembered by association
his dear son's request, and decided
to set off at once with his friend
to a bookshop to buy the book.

"In the shop, after looking
through the book that the
salesman had handed him,
the merchant asked its
price.

"The salesman replied that
the book cost sixty kopecks.

"Noticing that the price marked
on the cover of the book was only
forty-five kopecks, our merchant
first began to ponder in an unusual
way—-ESPECIALLY UNUSUAL FOR RUSSIANS—-
and then, with a certain movement of
his shoulders, he straightened himself
up like a RAMROD and, throwing out his
chest like an officer of the guards,
said after a little pause, very
quietly but in a tone of great
authority:

"'But it is marked here
forty-five kopecks. Why
do you ask sixty?'

"Thereupon the salesman, putting
on the 'oleaginous' face proper
to all salesmen, replied that
indeed the book cost only
forty-five kopecks, but
had to be sold for sixty
because fifteen kopecks
were added for POSTAGE.

"At this reply our Russian
merchant was greatly perplexed
by these two quite contradictory
but obviously reconcilable facts,
and something visibly began to
proceed in him, and gazing up
at the ceiling he again began
to ponder, this time like an
English professor who has just
invented a capsule for castor
oil, then, suddenly turning
to his friend, he delivered
himself for the first time
on Earth of the verbal
formulation which,
expressing in its
essence an indubitable
objective truth, has
since assumed the
character of a
proverb.

"And he put it to his
friend as follows:

"'Never mind, old fellow,
we'll take the book. Anyhow
WE'RE ON A SPREE TODAY, AND
"IF YOU GO ON A SPREE, THEN
GO THE WHOLE HOG,
INCLUDING THE
POSTAGE."'"
--Gurdjieff, arousing of thought

James Wyly