What is our Jerusalem? Except for adherents of traditional faiths, it is not the city of Jerusalem itself. So what is our Jerusalem? This is the question that leads on to looking at the Gurdjieff teaching specifically.
So much could have been learned from Judeo-Christian tradition — all of the values I’ve mentioned, and more still. Had there been real teachers when we were young, had there been real teachers in our adolescence and in later years, these things could have been coordinated and learned at a deeper level. But by and large, religion has proved to be deficient in that regard. Of course, not everybody was raised in a religion, and certainly not everybody today adheres to a religion; some of us have rejected religion, some are indifferent to it. Nonetheless, we are all infused with these values in a kind of cloud-like state, not thick enough to be active in our lives. There is a cloud of Judeo-Christian values in us, all the same.
The first half of religion has been communicated well; the second half has been forgotten. The second half is method.
Gurdjieff said that the first half of religion has indeed been communicated. It's roughly what we have been speaking of, though of course there is much more. We have been looking only at Psalms. The first half of religion has been communicated well; the second half has been forgotten. The second half is method.
Here is a passage from one of Gurdjieff’s talks with his pupils. It contains what is, for me, a famous question:
"Doctor X, are you a Christian?" Gurdjieff was talking to some 60 people, residents of the institute he founded outside of Paris in the 1920s. "The institute", he began, "can give very little. The program of the institute, the power of the institute, the aim of the institute, the possibilities of the institute can be expressed in few words. The institute can help one to be able to be a Christian. Simple. That is all. It can do so only if a person has this desire, and a person will have this desire only if he has a place where constant desire is present. Before being able, one must wish. Thus, there are three stages: to wish, to be able, and to be. The institute is the means.
Before being able, one must wish. Thus, there are three stages: to wish, to be able, and to be.
“Let us examine this question. ‘Doctor X, are you a Christian? What do you think? Should one love one's neighbor or hate him? Who can love like a Christian? It follows that to be a Christian is impossible. Christianity includes many things. We've taken only one of them to serve as an example. Can you love or hate someone to order? Yet Christianity says precisely this, to love all men. This is impossible. At the same time, it is true that it is necessary to love. First, one must be able. Only then can one love. Unfortunately, with time, modern Christians have adopted the second half—to love—and lost view of the first, the religion which should have preceded it. Let everyone ask himself simply and openly whether he can love all men. If he has had a cup of coffee, he loves. If not, he does not love. How can that be called Christianity?’"
I’m sure you understand what he's saying: half of religion is missing.
It is true that it is necessary to love. First, one must be able. Only then can one love.
Now at Gurdjieff’s institute there was a marvelous space called the Study House, richly decorated. This was where they had meetings and also practiced the sacred dances or Movements. On the walls here were aphorisms written in a special script—about 35 or so aphorisms, Gurdjieff's own sayings representing a kind of code for the residents. One of the aphorisms reads as follows: "Here there are neither Russians nor English, Jews nor Christians, but only those who pursue one aim, to be able to be."
Biblical scholars or close readers will hear an echo. In St. Paul's letter to the Colossians, you can read: "Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free. But Christ is all and is in all." These words and their meaning were surely in Gurdjieff from an early age. They were part of his internal cloud. He rewrote this in a way that takes the emphasis away from the highest, from “Christ is all,” to the person: "Here, there are neither Russians nor English, Jews nor Christians, but only those who pursue one aim, to be able to be."
"Here, there are neither Russians nor English, Jews nor Christians, but only those who pursue one aim, to be able to be."
The institute, Gurdjieff himself, and all that he created had to do with direct work on oneself, the missing part of religion. For him, the enactment of religion was the creation of real human beings. It wasn't initially to relate to the highest, as if one could, as if one were ready to. It was the creation day by day, struggle by struggle, hope by hope, exercise by exercise, working with others, whether you like them or not, to create real human beings. That for him was the essential and, yes, preliminary religious act.
The rest would follow. To create real human beings takes time and intelligent community life:
A community that nurtures high regard for one another, without sentimentality:
Respect—learning what respect is for one another
A feeling for others that doesn't become a burden for them
A sense of balance
Intelligence about relationships
The possibility of connection to the Highest
This all develops, of course, with stops and starts, difficulties and resolutions, within the week-to-week life of the community.
Another feature of a Gurdjieffian community is that when you close the door of the house of work and go to your home and life and profession, you are on your own. The teaching is carried inwardly, but you are, I am, just another person, another person with a specific role in life. There are no outer signs, so to speak, that mark off a member of such a community. When you return, you become part of the community again, engaged with all of its blessings and burdens. This is one of the lessons of a house of work: to come and go.
Watch for the final post -- Prayer: "You Must Pray With All Your Presence" -- in early September.