Martin Gurdjieff Practice Book 2

Food for the growth of the soul - New exercise suggestions for inner work
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-3-7597-2602-5
Verlag: BoD - Books on Demand
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 180 Seiten

From the rich wealth of experience of his work with people, Bruno Martin inspires with his new practice book to deepen and strengthen the conscious inner "work on oneself". The foundation of these insights is based on the methods of G I. Gurdjieff and John G. Bennett, which he has adapted and further developed to meet today's needs. The new exercises in this Gurdjieff Practice Book 2 can lead "seekers of truth" into previously unrecognized experiences of connection with themselves. From this conscious "self-remembering", a harmonious unfolding of one's own being can take place, for one's own good and for the good of the community. The exercises in this new practice book not only expand the existing spectrum of ways of inner work, they can also serve as "food for the soul".

Bruno Martin, born in 1946, was a student of the British mathematician and philosopher John G. Bennett, who opened up the worlds of consciousness of G. I. Gurdjieff and P. D. Ouspensky to him. Outer and inner spiritual paths brought Bruno Martin into richly experiential encounters with Advaita Vedanta and other Indian teachings, with various forms of Buddhism and Sufism and broadened his spectrum for his own teaching. Bruno Martin has been using various methods in his seminars for over 50 years to encourage people to "wake up to reality". His experiences and research into Eastern wisdom teachings and Western ways of expanding consciousness have led him to constantly question familiar ways of thinking. In his numerous books, he conveys new approaches for the practice of a conscious and creative life. www.gurdjieff-work.de - www.brunomartin.de

Autoren/Hrsg.

Martin, Bruno

Leseproben

6. What is Inner Work?
"It is difficult to observe mental activity if we are not struggling with it. This struggle produces conscious energy that enables our inner being." John G. Bennett10 Those who follow the path of transformation often read about "inner work". But how can I work on myself "internally"? Pyotr D. Ouspensky, one of the protagonists of Gurdjieff's teachings, emphasizes: "Recognizing sleep is the only true thing. You have to discover ways to wake up, but first you have to realize that you are asleep." First of all, this is the biggest challenge: but how can you recognize that you are asleep? You are asleep and don't realize it. When we wake up from a sleep, we realize that we have been asleep. But in everyday life, we are mostly in "waking sleep". We do all sorts of things and engage in many activities. But most of these things can happen "automatically" because they are practiced and routine. We are not really awake and are usually so identified that we do not realize that we are not in contact with our inner, "second life". It is only when we realize this - and this requires practice in paying attention - that we even notice that we ar entangled in everyday life - we can wake up. And then we can work on noticing this situation more and more often. The inner work can only begin when we have installed an inner alarm clock with the help of self-observation that rings loudly so that we wake up from our "everyday sleep". The next step is to notice how many things we are identified with, for example the car, the children, our professional position and much more. It's worth making a list of everything you identify with - if you've noticed it at all. The prerequisite for this is always noticing, the preliminary stage of alert attention. If I do not observe self-critically and impartially what I do, how I behave, how I feel or perceive myself and how I react to other people, then I am not in a position to work internally. It is important to take stock of myself and keep doing something unusual to wake up - unless events in the outside world wake me up. But inner work is more than that: every external action that I carry out with awareness and attention strengthens my inner being. If I have to water the flower pots outside, I don't just go out and fill the watering can and so on. The moment I realize that I have this task ahead of me, I should approach it deliberately. I don't fill the watering can automatically, but with attention. I go to the pots with alert attention, watering the flowers with the awareness that they need the water. If you have 79 flower pots scattered around the garden - as in our garden - there is an additional attention exercise... It makes a difference in me when I dedicate special devotion to every action, every activity. Every action carried out with the appropriate intention and attentive devotion has an effect on the development of the inner being. In fact, it is like what happens in our body: The cells are constantly renewing themselves, the blood flows unnoticed, digestion works without us doing anything, etc. The same principle applies to what happens in our "inner being", our being. Every action, every thought, every external action has an effect on my inner being - without me being able to perceive it directly. This is comparable to what happens in the physical body. Both are beyond the scope of ordinary perception. The physical level is "below" the threshold of consciousness and the spiritual level is "above" this threshold. The only area that we can actually perceive lies in between. "You see, this self-development does not happen inevitably, not mechanically, there is no guarantee. It depends on the effort. People often ask: 'Why have I been working for so many years and haven't had any experience of higher centers? And I ask them: 'Have you really been working for so many years? You start from the time you've been hearing these ideas, but you don't try to calculate how much you've actually worked - how many days, how many hours or minutes a day. If you do that calculation, you'll see that there's no reason to expect any results yet, even though you may have heard about it a long time ago," Ouspensky writes on inner work.11 Another aspect of inner work are the 'inner exercises'. If you manage to bring more and more attention and mindfulness to the "outer" activities, this practiced attention can also be better directed inwards. Anthony Blake writes in the preface to Bennett's Deeper Man: "It is not understood how an inner work can be exact and as precise as any other kind of work. In what is called inner exercises, for example, the kind of exercises Bennett taught, there is a kind of work that is completely equivalent to any other technical quality work. Unfortunately, few see this. The majority take these exercises as a means of producing inner states that they then enjoy. The inner exercises are there to enable us to experiment with, and become convinced of, the real properties of the higher worlds. Their power and significance are in the fact that they utilize the maximum of our powers of intention and attention." 12 It is almost impossible to convey in words which impulse has an influence on our "inner being". If the focus of my actions, feelings and thoughts is directed towards the inner world, my attitude and activities have an effect. In most cases, I cannot consciously perceive what is actually happening inside, how something is processed or assimilated. But in the end it shows in my behavior. For example, if I can quickly re-center myself in difficult situations, then I may no longer feel stressed when certain circumstances are "stressful". A lot also depends on whether I can perceive which energies are available at any given time. Let go of your stress When you are in a stressful situation, try to focus your attention on your breath, breathing in deeply through your nose and out through your mouth. At the same time, focus some of your attention on the area near the solar plexus. Breathe consciously into this area and think as you breathe out: I let go of my tension, the breath carries it away. Do this exercise for a few minutes, if possible. Then feel the sensations throughout your body and let go of anything that is causing you stress. There is another aspect of "inner work". Observe yourself: Where does the drive to do this inner work come from? From the personality - because you have read the books and think that this direction will make you better and more successful in life - or because an inner urge from your being inspires you to work on yourself? It's not easy to tell the difference. You may be struggling with the inertia of your body. Normally, the active force that makes the decision lies in the everyday personality. This is easy to see, as an action is usually preceded by a mental process and "ordinary" thinking is predominantly part of the "personality".13 It can also be an emotional impulse, which also arises in the personality. The physical body is naturally subject to the law of inertia and initially behaves as a "negating" force in relation to the personality. If the body is "led by the head" to move or learn something new, it blocks it at first. If you "want" to, it is usually possible to get the body to do something anyway, but this costs additional energy. Then, of course, you achieve a result with this strategy, which brings the third force into play. The "will of the personality" has prevailed. But what have you achieved in the end? You have strengthened the personality. It collects the "fruits of labor", not the being. Since the body is closely linked to the being, it was "defeated" in this action by the power of the personality. This is because the personality is able to use the active power from the triad of the super-personal spirit for "self-will". For other people (and for your own self-image) you are then seen as "strong-willed". For many, this fact is not easy to understand. "I have made an effort to overcome physical inertia or mental resistance, that must be a good thing!" But it is precisely this success that strengthens the attachment to the personality and its narrow world. If you are inclined by conviction to work on unfolding your being and anchoring yourself in the second, spiritual world, you should learn to use a different strategy of action. Inner work requires creative skill. Even on a spiritual path, physical activities make sense because they generate the necessary energy for inner growth - but only if they are based on the right attitude. If the personality is involved, then we also do everything that is apparently necessary for this inner growth. The tricky thing is that the personality can be very deceptive. We can have the feeling that everything is under control, that we are doing everything right, that we are making an effort to fight negative emotions, for example. Afterwards, we are proud of our achievement - but all our efforts are appropriated by the personality as "success". How can we recognize that the personality wants to dominate? The clearest way to recognize this is when a tension arises between desire and external influences: "Actually, I'd rather watch soccer, but I have another important task to do." This creates an inner conflict that brings my will into play: "What do I choose?" The difficulty is to shift the inner work towards the being. We have to develop a sense of when we undertake this inner work from the essence, from an inner drive and not from the personality that has taken these thoughts for itself. The essence is initially quite weak, it...