Which Gurdjieff book says how he would swallow pastries whole to avoid enjoying them?
>>23531874I didn't know this guy was a writer too. I only knew him as a musician, but his music is rather boring.
>>23532041>I only knew him as a musicianThat's a bit like only knowing playboy for the articles. His boring music is supposed to unlock magic powers if you do a special dance.
Bump
>>23533631Lol. Good job saving this stillborn thread
>>23531874Never heard of that, and I spent years studying him and the writings of various figures/disciples around him, besides apposite sources.>>23532192It’s supposed to be like a form of “active meditation.” Similar to the Mevlevi dervish whirling (which is supposed to get you into a sort of trance). A more active form of meditation as opposed to classical seated meditation. But I’ve never done it myself and don’t especially care to.>>23532041I like the first song from this one:https://youtu.be/QAMQ3eKAMAU?si=lKElkxyqq1WvmPy0But a big part of it is de Hartmann’s help with the composition and piano playing, so it’s hard to put this all on Gurdjieff.
>>23531874>>23533800Ah, come to think of it, it’s in the first chapter (prologue) of Beelzebub. When he recounts the influence of his grandmother, on her deathbed, giving him the advice, “Never do as others do — either do nothing at all, or do something others have never done.” So he describes as a child even eating pastries that way for a while kek, besides other eccentric impositions he placed on himself.Not a very special detail, curious why you brought it up.
>>23533805I started reading 'Boyhood with Gurdjieff' and when it became immediately obvious that it had nothing to do with Gurdjieff's boyhood I was trying to figure out where I remembered it from.
>>23531874Ridiculous mustache
>>23531874whats the deal with this guy? new age guru? legit stuff?
>>23531874How do you guys feel about the dances?
>>23534414I mean that's an odd question since my kids already have parents and grandparents. But yeah, sure. He has a paternal and trustworthy look about him. Plus look at that mustache. People who can't be trusted around kids can't grow one of those.
>>23534414He was great with kids according to Fritz Peters' account. Certainly better than a public school teacher.
>>23531874>swallow pastries whole to avoid enjoying themThen why eat pastries at all? They don't any nutritional value
>>23531874pretty sure this guy played bass in 80s era King Crimson
>>23534380A simple comparison is that he was like a more masculine, rugged, honest Blavatsky who seemingly “walked the walk” more than she did. Their lifespans overlap pretty closely, from the turn of the 19th century throughout the early 20th century. Gurdjieff went on extensive travels as a young adult, throughout both East and West, looking for spiritual knowledge and answers to pressing existential questions he had (like, “What is the purpose of human life on Earth?”). In the process, he gained access to many uniquely privileged and rare situations the average person does not have access to (let alone experiencing multiple of these scenarios as opposed to just one), from staying with secretive dervish and Sufi communities and teachers and learning from them, to a stay in Tibet under the auspices of Tibetan Buddhists. He then eventually returned to the West to teach, when he felt (or was told) he was ready, also at times suggesting he was there under the orders of a particular sect of enlightened wise folk he’d found who take a universalist view on religion, called the Sarmoun Brotherhood or Sarmounis.From a modern lens, it’s easy to group him in with the “New Age” at a quick glance, but he came before the West even had such a fascination with Eastern culture (during the counterculture) and before the “New Age” became such a mass-produced, corporate phenomenon. He was also much more intelligent, genuinely wise, rigorous, and more challenging and demanding than the average New Age “guru”. His influence has had a sort of subconsciously very significant impact in Western culture, a good bulk of it countercultural. Pynchon alludes to “Ouspenskianism” in Gravity’s Rainbow (Ouspensky being an esotericist who became one of his most well-known disciples and wrote some of the most popular books on his teachings), Robert Anton Wilson and Timothy Leary deeply studied and were influenced by him, musicians from Robert Fripp (King Crimson) to Kate Bush have alluded to the teachings (with Fripp being a particular aficionado), Katherine Mansfield (the short story writer) sought guidance from him towards the end of her life, Jean Toomer (the black dude who wrote Cane) was a student of his, Aldous Huxley went to hear lectures by Ouspensky, and so on.Another fun fact is that a modernist literary magazine called The Little Review (which helped publish and boost the careers of many significant modernists in their early careers like Hart Crane, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Hemingway, Yeats, and James Joyce, including while Joyce was going through the “obscenity” row over Ulysses) was founded and co-headed by two Gurdjieff students, Jane Heap and Margaret Anderson. Also P.L. Travers, who created the Mary Poppin series in her novels, was also a devoted Gurdjieff student and it’s in fact said that the character of Poppins was inspired by G. (a female version of him).
>>23536770>Katherine Mansfield (the short story writer) sought guidance from him towards the end of her lifeDidn't she literally die by overworking herself at his cult bootcamp
>>23535071That's not quite fair. Sometimes there are situations where it's easier to eat a pastry than to refuse it. Sometimes a pastry will seem to force itself on you.
>>23536781There’s a big controversy around that but if you read Fritz Peters’s “Boyhood with Gurdjieff” (referenced here >>23534192>>23534856) he says it was pretty much bullshit, having been there while she was there. Mansfield already seemed on the verge of death from tuberculosis, and she was going there for spiritual solace. Moreover, in keeping with her health, Gurdjieff in fact elected to precisely NOT let her take part in actual more heavy, back-breaking exercise. She was allowed to mostly stay in a bed in the farm they had there at the chateau, and I think occasionally go to and hear lectures when she was up for it, besides mild activity that refreshed her like working on simple things in the garden, nothing involving too much physical labor.In letters she sent out to acquaintances while she was there, she claimed she got great solace and was finding more meaning in her life, being happy to be there, she didn’t complain of anything particularly untoward going on.
To answer OP's question: the pastry thing comes from "Meetings with Remarkable Men" iirc. He was talking about how as a child he felt a strong urge to not do as others did. If the other kids would slowly savour their precious pastry (good shit was rare in the olden days) then he'd swallow the whole thing in one gulp. And if other kids hated taking medicine, then he'd savor it like it was a delicacy and ask for more.The point he was trying to get across by relating this is that even as a child he sensed that it was imperative to not be like other people. If one acts and thinks the way that most people do, then one runs the danger of ending up like most people do - as delusional and mechanical meatsuits destined to die long before they're buried.
>>23536878so basically he was a 19th century edgy goth
>>23536770>but he came before the West even had such a fascination with Eastern cultureOrientalism comes in waves and he was very much part of one
>>23536878Would he gulp or savor the Beyond Meat™?
>>23536770Quite the entrepreneur and went out of his way to accommodate expatriated Russians.
>>23537003If a young Gurdjieff was alive today, I assume he would feel an instinctual urge to behave in a manner that is diamatreically opposed to the behaviours displayed by those who are being lulled into a waking sleep. Thus he would reject the basedboy and all he represents. Given Gurdjieff's clearly stated contempt for homosexuality, he'd probably call basedboys faggots and mock them mercilessly.
>>23537124You're seeing in my last post what I'm seeing, right? I didn't write that. I wrote that post in a .txt document first and I'm looking at it right now. One word was replaced 2 times in my post. Why the fuck would that happen?
>>23537131Your mechanicalness changed the words when you stopped remembering yourself.
>>23536793>Boyhood with GurdjieffI finished it and the only mention of Mansfield was her gravestone. Must be the sequel that elaborates on her death.
>>23537131retarded newfag
>>23538265No, I stopped coming to this shithole years ago cause of stuff like this. Occasionly look through the archives for the odd gem hidden amongst the bots and glowops.
>>23538211You may be right, it must be the sequel “Gurdjieff Remembered”, I read an edition that I think had both in it but with “Boyhood With Gurdjieff” front and center on the cover, so I forgot there’s two parts to it.
>>23539557It’s a filter for the word “söy” (sans umlaut) that’s been on the board for years now, it either turns into “onions” or “basedboy” if you’re adding -boy to the end of it. Mods/admins are indeed gay for doing it, but in fairness people spammed it a lot.Onionsonionsbasedboy
>>23539714Ah, ok. And I just realized that this thread is on \lit\ rather than \x\. Pardon my schizo-ness. Nice to see bookfags take an interest in Gurdjieff. I'd recommend "Undiscovered Country: A Spiritual Adventure" by Kathryn Hulme for anyone who'd like to read a nice memoir about an aspiring female author living in the 1920's and 30's. It's a great read regardless of one's interest in Gurdjieff... but really it's hard not to enjoy Hulme's portrayal of him. He was quite a joker and lover of life.
