Has anyone here read or studied Gurdjieff? People who have met him, have called him a master [or awakened]. (I don't like the word enlightened. What is the definition of enlightened? I think it is more of a spectrum than a single event. People who call it an event only reached the first stop of connecting to the Akashic records/Gaia/the collective unconscious.)
There is one criticism targeted at Gurdjieff. None of his students ever reached his level.
I have read a few books about his philosophy by one of his students named PD Ospensky. He was an extremely intelligent and rather unique individual.
I believe he used to constantly devise tricks to surprise his students, with the purpose of keeping them awake! Some of his writings are very esoteric, though.
Gurdjieff sounded like a rascal to me. I don't know if he was really enlightened or not.
But students who follow others in order to learn how to be individuals are like people who are having promiscuous sex in order to be more chaste.
It's sort like buying a book that says, "Think for Yourself! We Can Show You How! Just obey these easy to follow instructions...."
It's funny that people will say that the answer is within and all that and yet at the same time they encourage others to follow and obey. The best way to own slaves is to help people believe the illusion that they are freeing themselves and becoming independent while they give up their agency and originality.
Maybe the best way is to eschew what other people think and start going on your own path. I think the biggest obstacle to this is dealing with a very basic, painful, embarrassing level of making tons of mistakes over and over until you just learn for yourself.
I've been incredibly slow at it. Retardedly slow. But I have made some progress.
Hi,
'There is one criticism targeted at Gurdjieff. None of his students ever reached his level.'
I haven't read his work but :-- did any of Jesus's disciples reach His level? or Buddha's, Lao Tse, or any of the great teachers, I don't honestly know of any of the great teachers contemporaries who achieved the same level as their teacher.
I believe that the answer is within ourselves but sometimes we need to be guided along the way. The way of the teacher may not necessarily be suited to your specific needs so we try various teachers and methods till we find a way which is compatible to us.
As far as I understand it there are many paths to enlightenment though most culminate in the same feelings of being reborn, bliss, seeing everything in a new way etc. Awakening is being aware that we are not our bodies and that we can start or continue our path towards enlightenment.
Love and light,
Faune
If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.