[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
The Enneagram
A Lecture by Gurdjieff
In every man there has been implanted a need of (desire for)
knowledge, differing only in its intensity. But the passive human mind,
while utilizing every means possible to it of taking in (and working over)
impressions, often gets into an impasse in trying to find an answer to
the question "Why".
Man's eyes are dazzled by the bright play of the colors of multiformity,
and under the glittering surface he does not see the hidden kernel of
the one-ness of all that exists. This multiformity is so real that its single
modes approach him from all sides - some by way of logical deduction
and philosophy, others by way or faith and feeling. From the most
ancient times down to our own epoch, throughout the ages of its life,
humanity as a whole has been yearning for a knowledge of this one-
ness and seeking for it, pouring itself out into various philosophies and
religions which remain, as it were, monuments on the path of these
searches for the Path, leading to the knowledge of unity. These
searches radiate to the Path just as the radii of a circle join at the
center, getting closer into contact with each other the nearer they get to
the center. The goal itself determines the direction of the paths and
brings the wanderers on the paths to a knowledge of the one-ness
which reaches the depths where that knowledge becomes a reality to
the knower and cannot be communicated to another who has not
reached the same stage of development. The words and notions of
conversational language become dead and empty, conveying nothing to
him who does not carry such knowledge within himself. In the same
way as the sensation off tooth-ache cannot be impartod to one who has
not experienced it, and just as the difference of colors cannot be
conveyed to one blind from birth, and the wealth of auditory sensation
cannot be communicated to the deaf, similarly you cannot tell or relate
in words the depth of knowledge which has become part of a man's
being. The words and notions of different epochs change according to
conditions of place and time; unity is eternal and immutable. The laws,
acting in us, and producihg the plurality assumed by us, are everywhere
the same. From the most, ancient times humanity has understood this,
and by utilizing the language of symbols and formulas, more perfect
than our contemporary language, has gone on handing its knowledge
down to the succeeding generations. And everybody approaching the
symbol and possessing a complete understanding of it, possesses a
perfect synthesis of it. Speaking figuratively, he has this symbol within
himself. A symbol, by expressing the knowledge of the laws of unity,
has at the same time expressed the path to it. Side by aide with the
basic symbols, as if they absorbed into themselves wider spheres, there
started up and sprang into existence in subjection to them other
symbols and formulae. Everything in the world is one and is governed
by uniform laws, and for that reason the Emerald Tables of Hermes
Trismegistus put it; "As above, so below". All the laws of the cosmos we
shall find in the atom. And in any phenomenon existing as something
complete according to laws. (That is, in any whole.) The knowledge of
the laws of the plurality of the One was always based on the similitude
of the microcosm to the macrocosm - of man to the universe, and vice
versa. The fundamental laws of the 3 and of the 7, of the active,
passive, and neutral principles, the laws of activity, are to be found and
confirmed in everything, and therefore in arriving at a knowledge of the
world's structure, man was unable to avoId the path of self-knowledge.
Man's nearest and always readily accessible object of knowledge was
always himself, he being the expression of the action of all the laws of
the cosmos. The formula "Know Thyself" is, in this respect, full off the
profoundest meaning: it is one of the symbols of the knowledge of
truth. By becomhg acquainted with the symbols expressing the laws of
creation, man will learn the laws themselves, and by learning these in
himself he treads the path of self-knowledge, and in this sense every
symbol teaches us about ourselves. By learning to distinguish the laws
of evolution and involution, synthesis and analysis, yes and no, good
and evil, energy and matter, forward and retrograde movements, man
will also discern the reciprocal action of these laws.
He will learn the great laws known to the ancient wisdom, the laws of
the binary and ternary as applied to the cosmos and to oneself. By
binding them together, and enclosing them within the circle of eternity,
and their manifestations within the circles of recurrences and cycles that
happen according to law, within the circle of the spring of eternity on
the plane of our own time, within the circle of eternal vibration and of
the struggle with oneself on the path to self-knowledge, he with his
whole being, step by step traverses the path of construction in himself
of the great symbol which has come down to us under the name of
"Solomon's Seal".
Figure 1. Solomon's Seal
What I have just said shows how difficult it is to convert the language of
symbols into our own language, how little purpose there is in
interpreting the symbol to a man who has not attained to an
understanding of it. And however strange it may be, the fact remains
that the sense of the symbol, the discovery of its nature, can only be
given to, and received by, him who previously knew already, and for
him the symbol will be the synthesis of his knowledge, the same
formula for the expression of knowledge as it was to him who
constructed it. Will a man unacquainted with this system of symbols
understand a great deal if he is told that the knowledge of unity by the
means of self-knowledge and self-perfection for man is the
neutralization of the binary by the ternary and its transmutation into the
quaternary in order to close the pentagram and realize the "Seal of
Solomon", or if I draw thus:
Figure 2. Symbolic Path
But let us suppose that we are talking of the harmonic development of
man's body, and as the law is everywhere one we apply the stated
formula to this development. How can we translate the quoted formula
in that relation? What must we substitute in order to decipher it? All
sensations, impressions, feelings and thoughts of man are divided into
correct and incorrect, necessary ones and useless ones, pleasant and
unpleasant, pleasure and pain. This is the binary along which all
impressions, all life of man, travel.
This binary is every person who looks into himself. We may live by
these transitory dimensions, giving ourselves up to their current and
allowing them to carry us away. But to the whole of this process going
on within us apart from our will, to all these "it wishes" we may oppose
our "I wish", bind together yes and no, provoke a dispute between two
opposites, a struggle of two principles, and neutralize them by the
tertiary. A great dispute, if it is not purposeless, must give a result, a
conclusion and an effect, and then four elements will be available: yes,
no, dispute, result; that is, the transmutation of the binary into the
quaternary. That is the first half of the formula. The second part of it
speaks for itself and thereby points out the direction of the solution.
Every result representing the completion of a circle gives something
new, which in its turn can act reciprocally with something else. This
"something", expressing itself conditionally, may be right or wrong, that
is, it either provokes the formation of that for which it was produced, or
obstructs it. Take any circle you like: let us suppose that I urgently
need for my purpose some information or other which I can only get
from one of my acquaintances. But I am not on good terms with him,
he having once insulted me, and in order to apply to him for the
required information I have had to sustain a tough fight with my self-
pride. There might be many other considerations entering into the
matter, such as the fear of a refusal, or of unpleasantness on his part,
etc., which we will not go into now. In the upshot I resolved to go to
him with my request and at all costs to get an answer. If my conclusion
is firm enough not to allow any contingencies to shake it, my decision
will assist my undertaking. But if under the influence of different
considerations I come to the opposite decision, it will obstruct my
errand, but it may be that it will conduce to the preservation of my
composure and a saving of my nervous energy. In any case as regards
my errand it will be a hindrance. Consequently, every result must be
considered in relation to what a given effect was produced for.
But as we are speaking about the harmonic development of the physical
body, of man's machine, every "dispute" in us must lead to
development, that is, to the acquisition of a new, non-habitual
functioning of that machine. We know that in it are five main centers:
thinking center, formulatory apparatus, emotional center, moving and
sex centers. The one-sided development of any one of them leads to
hypertrophy, the type of a one-centered man. There will be five such
main types. But if all five centers are developed in one man, he "locks
up" within himself the pentagram by the fact that he brings his life and
the work of all five centers into harmonic correspondence. By
manifesting according to law and living harmoniously he represents the
finished physical type of man. He is the type of the synthesis of 5 in 1.
He is one, and at the same time five, for he can live just as one of the
five and like all together. He is a six pointed star, and by becoming the
possessor of this harmony and isolating himself in it from all outside
influences, locking himself up in an independent circle, in a life enclosed
in himself, he is the personal realization of "Solomon's Seal".
Figure 3. Man as Pentagram
You see how the series of symbols quoted is expounded when applied to
the process we are considering. Nor is this a full interpretation. It can
be vidualized and understood by those who in this respect already
possess certain knowledge and understanding. But a symbol that
expresses an all comprehens°ve law, is ipso facto itself all
comprehensive and for that reason it cannot be interpreted in a way
that is not exhaustive, it can only be lived through (experienced).
I once more return for a while to the process of the harmonic
development of the physical body already considered by us, and will
remind that according to the fundamental law of the octave every
finished process is a transition of the note "Do" through a series of
successive notes to the "Do" of the next octave. The seven basic tones
of the octave express the law of the septenary and the "Do" of the next
octave added to complete the process, gives the 8 steps of a complete
octave, being the symbolical expression of the binary of the
quaternaries: "Do, re, mi, fa" - "sol, la, si, do". In each of these
quaternaries: "Do, re, mi, fa" - "sol, la, si, do", there is one interval:
"mi-fa", and "si-do", requiring the participation of an outside force, and
only from the outside. If we consider the process at the point of
completion, we shall get with these two intervals 9 steps - the ternary
of the ternaries, three trinities. By adding the top "Do", we complete the
process of the ninth step.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]