Mar 19 (edited) • Daily Lessons
Gurdjieff - The soul
This is advanced spirituality. Much like learning a new language you must study to understand. If at first it feels confusing to read….read again.
THE DIVINE BODY OF MAN; ITS POSSIBILITIES AND MANIFESTATIONS ACCORDING TO LAW. ORDINARY MAN HAS NO SOUL.
"Ordinary man has no soul. Only in the course of life is it possible for him to acquire a soul. A soul is a great luxury beyond what is provided by nature and is possible only for a few. For all ordinary manifestations a soul is not necessary.
A soul cannot be born from nothing. It is material as is everything existing, although it is formed of very fine matter. In order to acquire a soul it is first necessary to accumulate the required substance.
In order to accumulate the substance required for the formation of the soul we must know where it originates and how to accumulate a sufficient quantity of it. A soul requires a large amount of these substances. The body only produces a very small quantity of it each day. This substance is generally used up by ordinary manifestations (in emotions, thoughts, etc).
We must learn to economize these substances, not to waste on trifles.
Something of this substance must be left over each day beyond that used for ordinary manifestations.
If crystals are placed in a fixed amount of water they dissolve – up to a certain point – after which they precipitate at the bottom of the container.
This point at which crystals will no longer dissolve in solution is called the point of saturation. So it is with the salts which provide the material for the formation of the soul.
Continually within the human organism substances useable for the formation of the soul are being produced, but if needed for ordinary manifestations they quickly dissolve and are dispersed to different parts of the body. There must have been formed a quantity sufficient for crystallization in order to form a soul.
The crystallization of these substances takes the same form as the physical body but may be separated from it.
There are many categories of bodies called the soul. All others are only soul in relation to a lower manifestation.
If a man should die before the full crystallization of these substances into a higher scale body then along with the death of the physical body the partially formed higher being body also disintegrates and the parts disperse according to their scale of emanation. Parts which originate planetarily return to the planet. Parts which originate in the atmosphere and come from other planets or from the sun return to the atmosphere from which they where taken through the process of extracting second being food from the air.
Even though duration of life is different for astral body from that of physical body, it is nevertheless subject to eventual death. Just like the physical body, the astral body must live among corresponding conditions, and like a newborn baby is vulnerable to destruction to starvation, even unless it receives an education corresponding to the world within which it lives. It cannot exist independently, and is disintegrated just like the physical body if it cannot derive what it needs from the surrounding world.
The second body of man is only a soul when taken in relation to the first body of man, the planetary body. In this respect it represents the affirming force. If we take the physical body as the denying principle, with the reconciling principle represented by the special magnetic attraction between them. This magnetizing force is not possessed by just anyone, and without it mastery of the physical body by the astral is not possible (for that, one must create magnetism by intentional suffering).
Higher bodies can be developed only after the second body has been formed.
A third body can be formed within the second. This is sometimes referred to as the mental body of man. In relation to this second and first bodies this third body will be the active principle and the passive once again will be represented by the physical body but this time with the second body representing the reconciling principle.
Still, this is not the soul in the real meaning of the word soul. When the physical body dies the astral body may disintegrate with it, leaving the mental body existing by itself. Even though it is immortal in a limited sense, it will sooner or later die also.
The complete development for man of the soul can only be accomplished with the crystallization of a fourth body, which alone can be called the soul of man in the real sense of the word. The real soul is immortal within the limits of the solar system and to this body belongs Real Will. It is the master of the carriage, and forms the active principle in relation to all the lower bodies considered as a whole.
Following the death of the physical body these four bodies may become separated and exist apart from one another. It is possible for the astral body to reincarnate accidentally within a physical body more or less identical with that in which it was formed originally, but the mental body is able to consciously choose a form for itself in the physical world if it wishes to do so.
A devil is willing to give the substance necessary for the formation of a soul because the chances are in his favor that it will not escape his domain. The devil is the moon’s representative on earth. He considers the substances manufactured in small quantities in the body which can be used for the formation of the soul as his food. He can eat these ‘seeds’ every day. This does not satisfy him, because the seeds are very small. He can choose to sow his seed taking the chance that it may grow and become larger in quantity.
Of course by doing this he also takes the chance of losing this seed – or as our esteemed Mulla Nasser-eddin said, ‘By throwing yogurt into the lake, it may possibly turn the whole lake into yogurt. What a small risk for so great a result!’
Since so few people are able to complete this aim, he loses very little and has much to gain. He hopes that those who work on developing a soul will eventually become tired of the struggle and allow themselves to drift along in the great river instead of fighting to cross to the other river of evolutionary life.
The battle for souls which occurs between Her Majesty the moon and His Endlessness the Sun-Absolute does not take place in Heaven, but on planets, because only man, and not angels, are possible vessels in which development of Real Souls can take place.
Along with the soul must be developed objective conscience – not just subjective conscience for oneself in relation to everything – Real Will, and sense of Obligation to the Absolute. Without these additional qualities, even an Immortal soul will eventually be drawn back to the planetary substance and become food for the moon."
--George Gurdjieff
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Gurdjieff - The soul
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