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- Oct 9 3:01 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m004Ia7Lyc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKpOkZhYMac&t=8s
CH 48 From the author and LECTURE I
Chapter 48: From the authorFrom the authorBeelzebub's Tales
to His GrandsonAFTER six years of work,
merciless toward myself
and with almost continuous
tense mentation, yesterday
I at last finished putting
down on paper in a form, I
think, accessible to everybody
the first of the three series
of books I intended to write,
and in which I had decided
to develop a whole body of
ideas, which would permit
me to accomplish, first
in theory and then in
practice, by means I
had previously thought
out, three essential
tasks I had set
myself by means
of the first series,
to destroy in people
everything that in their
false representations appears
to exist in reality or, in
other words, to sweep away
without mercy "all the
rubbish accumulated in
human mentation over the
ages", by means of the
second series, to
prepare "new
constructional
material", and
by means of the
third, "to build
a new world."Having now finished the
first series of books, and
following the practice,
established on Earth
long ago, of never
concluding any such
"great undertaking"
without what some
call an "epilogue,"
others an "afterword,"
still others "from the
author," and so on, I
also now propose to
write something of
the kind.With this in view, I read
over very attentively this
morning the "preface" I wrote
six years ago, entitled "The
Arousing of Thought," in
order to take suitable
ideas from it for what
might be called a
corresponding
"logical fusion"
of that beginning
with this conclusion
I am now about to
write.THE ACCIDENTWhile reading that first
chapter, which I wrote only
six years ago, but which gave
me the sensation of having been
written long, long ago—-a sensation
that is now in my common presence
undoubtedly because during those
years I had to think intensely,
and even, as might be said, to
"experience" all the material
required for eight thick volumes,
as not for nothing is it stated
in that branch of genuine
science called the "laws
of association of human
mentation," which has come
down from very ancient times
and is known to only a few
contemporary people, that
"the sensation of the flow
of time is directly proportional
to the quality and quantity of the
flow of thoughts"—-well then, while
I was reading that first chapter,
which, as I said, I had thought
about deeply from every aspect
and "experienced" almost
exclusively under the
action of my voluntary
self-mortification, and
which, moreover, I had
written at a time when
the functioning of my
entire whole—-a functioning
that engenders in a man what
is called the "power to manifest
himself by his own initiative"—-
was utterly disharmonized, that
is, when I was still extremely
ill from the effects of an
accident that had occurred
to me not long before,
consisting in a "charge
and crash" of my automobile
at full speed into a tree
standing silently, like an
observer and reckoner of the
disorderly passage of centuries,
on the historic road between the
world capital of Paris and the
town of Fontainebleau—-a
"charge" which, according
to any sane human understanding,
should have put an end to my life—-
well then, from reading that
chapter there arose in me a
quite definite decision.Recalling my state during
the writing of that first
chapter, I cannot help
adding here—-owing to a
small weakness of mine that
always causes me to experience
an inner satisfaction whenever
I see on the faces of our
estimable contemporary
"representatives of
exact science" that
very specific smile,
peculiar to them alone—-
that although, after this
accident, my body was so
battered and "everything
in it so disordered" that
for months it presented a
general picture which might
be described as "a piece of
live meat in a clean bed," my
correctly disciplined "spirit,"
as it would usually be called,
despite the physical state of
my body, was not in the least
depressed, as it should have
been according to their notions.
On the contrary, its power was
even increased by the intense
excitation that had been
aroused in it just before
the accident by my repeated
disappointment in people,
particularly in those who
devote themselves to what
they call "science," and
by the disillusion caused
me by that ideal which had
gradually been formed in my
common presence thanks chiefly
to a commandment inculcated in
me in my childhood, which
affirms that "the highest
aim and sense of human life
is the striving for the
welfare of one's
neighbor," and
that this is
attainable only
through the conscious
renunciation of one's
own.And so, after I had attentively
read over that opening chapter
of the first series, written
in the conditions just
described, and had
recalled by
association
the texts of
the many succeeding
chapters which, according
to my conviction, are bound
to produce in the consciousness
of the readers non-habitual
impressions that always, as
is said, "engender
substantial results,"
"I"—-or rather that
"something" dominant
in my common presence
that now represents
the sum of the
results issuing
from the data
crystallized during
my life, data which,
among other things,
engender in a man who
has set himself the aim
of "mentating actively and
impartially" during his
responsible existence
the ability to
penetrate and
understand the
psyche of people
of various types—-
I decided, in concluding
this first series of my
writings, and urged by
the impulse called "love
of kind" that arose in me
at that moment, to limit
myself to appending the
first of a considerable
number of my lectures
that were read publicly
during the existence of
the establishment I had
founded under the name
of the "Institute for
the Harmonious
Development of
Man."That Institute, by the way,
no longer exists, and I find
it both necessary and opportune,
chiefly in order to pacify
certain types in various
corners of the world, to
declare categorically,
here and NOW, that I
have liquidated it
completely and
forever.It was with an impulse of
inexpressible grief and
despondency that I was
constrained to make the
decision to liquidate this
Institute, and also everything
organized and carefully prepared
for the opening, the following year,
of eighteen branches in different
countries—-in short, to abandon
everything I had previously
created with almost
superhuman labor—-
chiefly because, about
three months after the
aforementioned accident,
when the functioning of my
usual mentation had been more
or less reestablished, although
my body was still quite powerless,
I realized that the attempt to
preserve the existence of this
Institute, in the absence of
real people around me and
the impossibility of
procuring, without my
help, the enormous
material means
required, would
inevitably lead
to a catastrophe
that would result
for me, in my old
age, as well as for
many others wholly
dependent on me,
in a condition
of half-starved
"vegetation."The lecture I propose to
add as a conclusion to this
first series was read more
than once during the
existence of the
Institute by my
"pupils of the
first rank," as
they were then called.
Certain of them, by the
way, as it later turned
out to my sincere regret,
showed a predisposition in
their essence to the swift
transformation of their
psyche into the psyche
called "hasnamussian"—-
a predisposition that
soon became evident and
clearly discernible to all
more or less normal persons
around them when, at the
moment of inevitable
crisis—-due to my
accident—-in everything
I had thus far accomplished,
they, "fearing for their skins,"
that is, fearing to lose their
personal welfare, which by the
way I had created for them,
deserted the common work
and, with their tails
between their legs,
took themselves off
to their kennels where,
profiting by the crumbs
fallen from my so to say
"idea table," they opened
what I would call their
"schachermacher workshop
booths" and, with a secret
feeling of hope and perhaps
even of joy at their speedy
and complete release from
my vigilant control, began
manufacturing out of
various unfortunate,
naive people
"candidates for
lunatic asylums."I have chosen this particular
lecture because when I first
began to spread the ideas I
wished to introduce into
the life of people, it
was specially composed
here in Europe to serve
as the introduction or,
as it were, "threshold"
to the complete series of
lectures, the totality of
which alone can make clear
in a form accessible to
everybody the necessity,
and even the unavoidable
obligation, of putting
into practice the
immutable truths I
have elucidated and
established in half
a century of active
work, day and night,
and also to prove that
it is actually possible
to employ these truths for
the welfare of people. And
furthermore I chose this
lecture because,
happening to be
present at the
large gathering
where it was last
read publicly, I made
an addition to it which
fully corresponds to the
hidden thought introduced
by Mr Beelzebub himself
into his so to say
"concluding chord,"
an addition which,
by illuminating once
more that supreme objective
truth, will in my opinion
enable the reader to
perceive and
assimilate it
as befits a
being who
claims to
be made in
the "image
of God."LECTURE IThe Diversity,
According to Law,
of the Manifestations
of Human IndividualityLAST READ AT THE
NEIGHBORHOOD PLAYHOUSE
IN NEW YORK JANUARY 1924The investigations of many
scientists of past ages, and
also the data obtained at the
present time by means of the
quite exceptionally
conducted research
of the Institute for
the Harmonious Development
of Man according to the system
of G. I. Gurdjieff, have shown
that the whole individuality
of every man—-according to
higher laws and the
conditions of the
process of human life,
established from the very
beginning and gradually fixed
on Earth—-of whatever heredity
he is the result, and in
whatever accidental
conditions he arose
and developed, must
from the beginning of
his responsible life, in
order to respond to the
sense and predestination
of his existence as a man
and not merely as an animal,
indispensably consist of four
definite and distinct
personalities.The first of these
four independent
personalities is
nothing other
than the
totality
of the
automatic
functioning
proper to man,
as to all animals,
the data for which
are composed, on the
one hand, of the sum
total of the results
of impressions perceived
since birth from all the
surrounding reality, as
well as from everything
intentionally implanted
in him from outside and,
on the other hand, of
the result of the process,
also inherent in every animal,
called "daydreaming." And this
totality of automatic
functioning most people
ignorantly call
"consciousness"
or, at best,
"thinking."The second of the
four personalities,
functioning in most
cases entirely independently
of the first, is the sum of
the results of data
deposited and fixed
in the common presence
of every man, as of every
animal, through the six organs
called "receivers of vibrations
of different qualities"—-organs
that function in accordance with
the new impressions perceived,
and whose sensitivity depends
upon heredity and upon the
conditions of the preparatory
formation for responsible
existence of the given
individual.The third independent part
of the whole being is the
basic functioning of his
organism as well as the
play of the motor-reflex
manifestations acting upon
each other within that functioning—-
manifestations whose quality likewise
depends on heredity and the
circumstances prevailing
during his preparatory
formation.And the fourth personality,
which should also be a distinct
part of the whole individual, is
none other than the manifestation
of the totality of the results of
the already automatized functioning
of the three enumerated personalities
separately formed and independently
educated in him, that is to say, it
is that part of a being which is
called "I."In the common presence of a man,
for the spiritualization and
manifestation of each of the
three separately formed parts
of his entire whole there is
an independent "center-of-gravity
localization," as it is called, that
is to say, a "brain", and each of these
localizations, with its own complete
system, has for the totality of its
manifestations its own
peculiarities and
predispositions
proper to it
alone. Consequently,
in order to make possible
the all-round perfecting of
a man, a corresponding, correct
education is absolutely indispensable
for each of these three parts—-and not
such a treatment as is given nowadays
under the name of "education."Only then can the "I"
that should be in a man
be his own "I."TO HARMONIZEAccording to the serious
experiments and investigations
already mentioned, which were
carried on over many years,
or even simply according to
the sane and impartial
reflection of any
contemporary man,
the common presence
of every man—-particularly
of one who for some reason
claims to be not just an
ordinary, average man, but
one of the "intelligentsia,"
in the genuine sense of the
word—-should consist of all
four of these distinct and
quite definite personalities,
and each of them should be
developed in a
corresponding
way so that
during his
responsible
existence the
manifestations
of these separate
parts will harmonize
with one another.To illustrate more clearly
the diversity of origin and
nature of the personalities
manifested in the general
organization of a man,
and also to underline
the difference between
the "I" that should be
in the common presence
of a "man without quotation
marks," that is, a real man,
and the "pseudo I" that people
today mistake for it, one can
very well make use of an
analogy which, though worn
threadbare by "spiritualists,"
"occultists," "theosophists,"
and other contemporary specialists
in "catching fish in muddy waters,"
with their prattle about the "astral
body," the "mental body," and other
such bodies that are supposed to
exist in man, can nevertheless
throw light on the question we
are now considering.