'Eating Light' - A Discussion and Exercise for Imagination (Gurdjieff)
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2022 12:26 am
I came across this post and don't think it really needs any commentary. It goes to show that all we speak of here as developing imagination, higher cognition, living thinking, etc. is not some theory derived by Steiner or any other personality, but the common ideal possession of humanity which has been expressed through a variety of thinkers and can be developed by any individual today, regardless of philosophical or religious knowledge.
Solar Emanation: the use of Light and Image in the making of a Technicolour Dream Coat
A Head for Spirits-
Gurdjieff gives various different exercises that are connected to the 'Second World' and/or 'Inner World of Man'. Many of these exercises involve the use of intentional 'visualization'. This capacity is developed so as to function better, and also, the ableness for the simultaneous engagement of this inner aspect and the outer world is developed.
Developing the mental 'dexterity' and kind of 'vision' that is at work in such visualization exercises, has been considered as necessary for the development of the 'perception' of the 'Second World', which has also been called the 'Spirit World'. If the engagement with this second world is related to the development of the ‘Second Body’, then such mental exercises and abilities are involved in the development and functioning of this second body.
A common principle in these kind of exercises, involves opening the mind to another layer/level of ‘inner vision’, via exercising the given capacity for intentional visualization. This kind of effort and attention has been used in the various construction of sacred images and icons as used in the different religious traditions. The development of a greater inner stability and clarity, when it comes to the formation and use of 'inner images', has been related to the development of Being.
A particular kind of inner image is used in the work of the ‘Head Brain’, where it is used to enable and co-ordinate the action of the ‘Spinal Brain’. Stability and dexterity of the 'imaginal realm', and a greater degree of control over such, is used in establishing the connection with higher centers. The 'stuff' or substance of the mind must be made 'supple', and this done through its exercise. A greater coherence of this substance enables its use in the contact with higher centers, and it is used in the manifestation of an aim where the action of the various centers and functions needs to be made to correspond to the aim. It is used in the direction of the various centers and functions, the true 'inner authority' issues its commands through such a layer/level of mind.
Scratching Plato's Temple-
What is often regarded as the 'Spirit World' or 'World of Spirits', may come to be seen as residing 'in one's head'. A certain 'turning inwards' of attention may throw light upon what is considered as the realm of 'mind'. An intensity of light may reveal a vast 'landscape' inhabited and populated by familiar and unfamiliar faces and forms. The up-turned eyes may look upon the inner domed ceiling and see the familiar angelic choruses, gods, and divinity reaching out.
A greater light, presence, and participation in the 'mental space' reveals a living world, populated by autonomous and/or semi-autonomous 'entities'. One participates in this world to the degree that one is conscious of it. The 'Spirit world' does not just exist 'in one's head' as one's own 'subjective' fabrication. One participates in this world as a living world populated by living 'entities', it is therefore a 'co-creation'. The common feature of the 'Spirit world' is the element of 'life' or 'living-ness', everything is living and, thereby, must be interacted with as something living, as something with a degree of its own 'self affirmation' and being. What is 'dead' or 'inert' in the general world, is living in the 'Spirit world'.
In relation to 'mind' and 'thinking', general thought has the character of the dead and inert. General thought and thinking can be manipulated in a certain fashion without presenting any serious obstacle or resistance, just because it is a dead or inert material. In general thought, the 'content' is regarded as dead or inert and is thereby related to as dead and inert. It may be seen to be dead to the extent that I do not really enter into it, to the extent that I myself am dead to thinking.
There is another kind of thinking, in which everything 'thought' is living. Anything 'thought about' in this way, is entered into and related to as something real and living in itself. In this way, everything 'is what it is' and openly expresses and communicates what it is. To think of something in this way is then to know it directly, and here the word 'know' relates much more to the way it is used in the Bible, to represent sexual intercourse. What is known is done so as a tangible, visceral, intense experience of inter-penetration and inter-permeation. What is known has a degree of reality and independence of its own.
Again, this 'living thinking' is not confined to 'one's head'. This kind of thinking is itself involved in the experience and knowing of a sensory world. This thinking itself is involved in the process whereby a sensory world is known, recognized, and processed etc. To the extent that this thinking remains in the 'background' unnoticed, the external world appears 'dead' and 'impenetrable'. The external world simply then becomes one of 'moving surfaces' whose 'inner' nature cannot be known, a division of 'phenomena' and 'noumena' so to speak. The 'inner nature' then becomes something remote and not accessible to direct experience, requiring some compensative form of middle-man in terms of a certain kind and process of 'reasoning'.
The 'Spirit world' may be regarded both as that which is involved in and required for the creation and experience of 'mind' or 'a' mind, as well as being involved in how a 'world' is formed and known. The external world may appear to be void of 'spirits' to the extent that such 'spirits' have been 'internalized' and screened off through a certain form of 'thinking'. I may have banished them to the nether regions in favour of a certain sense of self in my own mind and thinking. To connect with the 'Spirit world' is then both and 'internal' and 'external' affair, involving both 'thought' and 'perception'. This world itself may be considered as that which links 'thought' and 'perception', 'mind' and 'senses', and enables their two-way interaction and communication.
In another sense, 'Hanbledzoin', as the 'spirit blood' or 'blood of the spirit', may literally be considered as the 'stuff' which 'dreams' are 'made of'.
Eating Light-
Images can be used in all sorts of ways, as they have an evident power. This is the same for outer, or sensory images, as well as inner, or mental images. The ‘refraction’ and ‘reflection’ of light bear the quality of ‘brilliance’; otherwise expressed as ‘dazzling’ and ‘shining’ etc. The apparent ‘movement’ of light, present in the example of light shining upon a crystal or on the surface of water etc, has a certain quality to it. This quality can be engaged intentionally and can be used to influence one’s given state of being. If the quality of ‘brilliance’ is brought into the body and feelings, it can stimulate the ‘subtle’ nature of the body. This is to say that brilliance bears, or corresponds to, a certain ‘somatic’ property. In many cases, the first thing a child will want to do upon seeing a brilliant gem stone, after touching it, is to put it in their mouth or lick it and taste it etc. A child may of course engage in this same process towards many things, and this may simply be taken along the lines of a ‘biological’ and ‘evolutionary’ behaviour that is rooted in the acquisition of food etc etc. I would suggest that the case is otherwise. The world of colour and texture is much more alive and real for the young child, colour and texture provide much more ‘impressional food’ for the young child. Sensations and feeling are more open to the realm of light, texture, and form etc. This is to say that the young child understands the language of light, colour, and texture, and reads this language as it speaks in terms of sensations and feelings. As adults, we may have to learn to reconnect with this realm and re-learn its language, such that we may utilize this language in regard to utilizing our feelings and sensations. This is part of developing ‘being-language’ and concerns understanding of the ‘laws’ of form as they relate to human experience.
One form of inner exercise involves the attempt to create, and hold before oneself, a particular inner image. The inner image is given as much detail as possible, and it is held before oneself with as much directed attention as possible. Different images can be brought together, and movement can also be introduced to the images, in order to develop the complexity and give greater exercise to the attention and mind. The creation of an inner image, and its intentional engagement or direction, can provide a means for the liberation of a higher energy and it can also serve in the way of transforming the given state of consciousness and one's functional capacities. Through this kind of inner exercise, one can become conscious of the processes and capacities that are utilised in the creation and holding of an inner image. Generally, these capacities are simply used, with no attention being paid to how they are used, how these capacities work. So, a man uses visualization and imagination but has no notion of how it is that he does so. Through the intentional use of visualization there is the potential opportunity to gain direct contact with the 'mechanisms' and capacities themselves, rather than the common situation where there is only awareness of the results of these capacities. To become conscious of the 'mechanisms' and capacities themselves represents a transformation in the state or form of consciousness. This has a direct bearing on the development of the 'subtle' senses/faculties and access to the subtle/astral realm.
In terms of sense impressions, awareness can be directed to the quality of light itself, rather than being so much focused on the forms that are 'clothed' by this light. To focus on the light instead of the form can give rise to similar states as are found through the use of 'brilliance' and 'reflection', a certain 'somatic' state can be produced in the body and this can give a potential connection to the 'subconscious' as expressed in such things as 'hypnotism', and this state has potential uses in terms of de-crystalization and healing. In being aware of the light, we can become aware of the 'source' of light, as related to the sun. This can provide a direct experiential connection between oneself and the sun, the sun is felt as a direct presence in one's experience. This presence of the sun can be brought into one's body, the connection can be amplified, and this can produce a similar effect in terms of access to the subtle realm and 'subconscious'. This contact with the presence of the sun can facilitate a separation between the inner and outer world, giving greater coherence to both. A greater organic presence can be established in the body, and a greater psychic presence can be established in the mind, the energy and material of each can be brought to a greater state of cohesion and their relationship can be developed.
Both inner and outer light can be used to bring order to the functions of mind and body, and they can also be used to pass the threshold between the world of 'form' and the world beyond 'form'. This process begins by the establishment of the 'subtle' vision, where a finer level of attention is developed that can receive and engage with impressions of a finer nature. This subtle vision concerns the development of attention such that it is able to engage with the finer and faster actions and content of the centers/brains. Most of the activity of the centers/brains lies below the threshold of the subjective attention/awareness, and hence it takes work to develop the capacity to register and engage with the more subtle content of the centers/brains. This development concerns the interaction of the different centers/brains, such that they may share their individual impressions in a way that leads to a unification of their functioning. The development of the subtle vision requires a certain operational unity between the centers/brains, such that they can come to function as one 'organ' of perception and reason. This evidently requires a balance and mutuality to the centers/brains that is not present in our common functioning and states.
Solar Emanation: the use of Light and Image in the making of a Technicolour Dream Coat
A Head for Spirits-
Gurdjieff gives various different exercises that are connected to the 'Second World' and/or 'Inner World of Man'. Many of these exercises involve the use of intentional 'visualization'. This capacity is developed so as to function better, and also, the ableness for the simultaneous engagement of this inner aspect and the outer world is developed.
Developing the mental 'dexterity' and kind of 'vision' that is at work in such visualization exercises, has been considered as necessary for the development of the 'perception' of the 'Second World', which has also been called the 'Spirit World'. If the engagement with this second world is related to the development of the ‘Second Body’, then such mental exercises and abilities are involved in the development and functioning of this second body.
A common principle in these kind of exercises, involves opening the mind to another layer/level of ‘inner vision’, via exercising the given capacity for intentional visualization. This kind of effort and attention has been used in the various construction of sacred images and icons as used in the different religious traditions. The development of a greater inner stability and clarity, when it comes to the formation and use of 'inner images', has been related to the development of Being.
A particular kind of inner image is used in the work of the ‘Head Brain’, where it is used to enable and co-ordinate the action of the ‘Spinal Brain’. Stability and dexterity of the 'imaginal realm', and a greater degree of control over such, is used in establishing the connection with higher centers. The 'stuff' or substance of the mind must be made 'supple', and this done through its exercise. A greater coherence of this substance enables its use in the contact with higher centers, and it is used in the manifestation of an aim where the action of the various centers and functions needs to be made to correspond to the aim. It is used in the direction of the various centers and functions, the true 'inner authority' issues its commands through such a layer/level of mind.
Scratching Plato's Temple-
What is often regarded as the 'Spirit World' or 'World of Spirits', may come to be seen as residing 'in one's head'. A certain 'turning inwards' of attention may throw light upon what is considered as the realm of 'mind'. An intensity of light may reveal a vast 'landscape' inhabited and populated by familiar and unfamiliar faces and forms. The up-turned eyes may look upon the inner domed ceiling and see the familiar angelic choruses, gods, and divinity reaching out.
A greater light, presence, and participation in the 'mental space' reveals a living world, populated by autonomous and/or semi-autonomous 'entities'. One participates in this world to the degree that one is conscious of it. The 'Spirit world' does not just exist 'in one's head' as one's own 'subjective' fabrication. One participates in this world as a living world populated by living 'entities', it is therefore a 'co-creation'. The common feature of the 'Spirit world' is the element of 'life' or 'living-ness', everything is living and, thereby, must be interacted with as something living, as something with a degree of its own 'self affirmation' and being. What is 'dead' or 'inert' in the general world, is living in the 'Spirit world'.
In relation to 'mind' and 'thinking', general thought has the character of the dead and inert. General thought and thinking can be manipulated in a certain fashion without presenting any serious obstacle or resistance, just because it is a dead or inert material. In general thought, the 'content' is regarded as dead or inert and is thereby related to as dead and inert. It may be seen to be dead to the extent that I do not really enter into it, to the extent that I myself am dead to thinking.
There is another kind of thinking, in which everything 'thought' is living. Anything 'thought about' in this way, is entered into and related to as something real and living in itself. In this way, everything 'is what it is' and openly expresses and communicates what it is. To think of something in this way is then to know it directly, and here the word 'know' relates much more to the way it is used in the Bible, to represent sexual intercourse. What is known is done so as a tangible, visceral, intense experience of inter-penetration and inter-permeation. What is known has a degree of reality and independence of its own.
Again, this 'living thinking' is not confined to 'one's head'. This kind of thinking is itself involved in the experience and knowing of a sensory world. This thinking itself is involved in the process whereby a sensory world is known, recognized, and processed etc. To the extent that this thinking remains in the 'background' unnoticed, the external world appears 'dead' and 'impenetrable'. The external world simply then becomes one of 'moving surfaces' whose 'inner' nature cannot be known, a division of 'phenomena' and 'noumena' so to speak. The 'inner nature' then becomes something remote and not accessible to direct experience, requiring some compensative form of middle-man in terms of a certain kind and process of 'reasoning'.
The 'Spirit world' may be regarded both as that which is involved in and required for the creation and experience of 'mind' or 'a' mind, as well as being involved in how a 'world' is formed and known. The external world may appear to be void of 'spirits' to the extent that such 'spirits' have been 'internalized' and screened off through a certain form of 'thinking'. I may have banished them to the nether regions in favour of a certain sense of self in my own mind and thinking. To connect with the 'Spirit world' is then both and 'internal' and 'external' affair, involving both 'thought' and 'perception'. This world itself may be considered as that which links 'thought' and 'perception', 'mind' and 'senses', and enables their two-way interaction and communication.
In another sense, 'Hanbledzoin', as the 'spirit blood' or 'blood of the spirit', may literally be considered as the 'stuff' which 'dreams' are 'made of'.
Eating Light-
Images can be used in all sorts of ways, as they have an evident power. This is the same for outer, or sensory images, as well as inner, or mental images. The ‘refraction’ and ‘reflection’ of light bear the quality of ‘brilliance’; otherwise expressed as ‘dazzling’ and ‘shining’ etc. The apparent ‘movement’ of light, present in the example of light shining upon a crystal or on the surface of water etc, has a certain quality to it. This quality can be engaged intentionally and can be used to influence one’s given state of being. If the quality of ‘brilliance’ is brought into the body and feelings, it can stimulate the ‘subtle’ nature of the body. This is to say that brilliance bears, or corresponds to, a certain ‘somatic’ property. In many cases, the first thing a child will want to do upon seeing a brilliant gem stone, after touching it, is to put it in their mouth or lick it and taste it etc. A child may of course engage in this same process towards many things, and this may simply be taken along the lines of a ‘biological’ and ‘evolutionary’ behaviour that is rooted in the acquisition of food etc etc. I would suggest that the case is otherwise. The world of colour and texture is much more alive and real for the young child, colour and texture provide much more ‘impressional food’ for the young child. Sensations and feeling are more open to the realm of light, texture, and form etc. This is to say that the young child understands the language of light, colour, and texture, and reads this language as it speaks in terms of sensations and feelings. As adults, we may have to learn to reconnect with this realm and re-learn its language, such that we may utilize this language in regard to utilizing our feelings and sensations. This is part of developing ‘being-language’ and concerns understanding of the ‘laws’ of form as they relate to human experience.
One form of inner exercise involves the attempt to create, and hold before oneself, a particular inner image. The inner image is given as much detail as possible, and it is held before oneself with as much directed attention as possible. Different images can be brought together, and movement can also be introduced to the images, in order to develop the complexity and give greater exercise to the attention and mind. The creation of an inner image, and its intentional engagement or direction, can provide a means for the liberation of a higher energy and it can also serve in the way of transforming the given state of consciousness and one's functional capacities. Through this kind of inner exercise, one can become conscious of the processes and capacities that are utilised in the creation and holding of an inner image. Generally, these capacities are simply used, with no attention being paid to how they are used, how these capacities work. So, a man uses visualization and imagination but has no notion of how it is that he does so. Through the intentional use of visualization there is the potential opportunity to gain direct contact with the 'mechanisms' and capacities themselves, rather than the common situation where there is only awareness of the results of these capacities. To become conscious of the 'mechanisms' and capacities themselves represents a transformation in the state or form of consciousness. This has a direct bearing on the development of the 'subtle' senses/faculties and access to the subtle/astral realm.
In terms of sense impressions, awareness can be directed to the quality of light itself, rather than being so much focused on the forms that are 'clothed' by this light. To focus on the light instead of the form can give rise to similar states as are found through the use of 'brilliance' and 'reflection', a certain 'somatic' state can be produced in the body and this can give a potential connection to the 'subconscious' as expressed in such things as 'hypnotism', and this state has potential uses in terms of de-crystalization and healing. In being aware of the light, we can become aware of the 'source' of light, as related to the sun. This can provide a direct experiential connection between oneself and the sun, the sun is felt as a direct presence in one's experience. This presence of the sun can be brought into one's body, the connection can be amplified, and this can produce a similar effect in terms of access to the subtle realm and 'subconscious'. This contact with the presence of the sun can facilitate a separation between the inner and outer world, giving greater coherence to both. A greater organic presence can be established in the body, and a greater psychic presence can be established in the mind, the energy and material of each can be brought to a greater state of cohesion and their relationship can be developed.
Both inner and outer light can be used to bring order to the functions of mind and body, and they can also be used to pass the threshold between the world of 'form' and the world beyond 'form'. This process begins by the establishment of the 'subtle' vision, where a finer level of attention is developed that can receive and engage with impressions of a finer nature. This subtle vision concerns the development of attention such that it is able to engage with the finer and faster actions and content of the centers/brains. Most of the activity of the centers/brains lies below the threshold of the subjective attention/awareness, and hence it takes work to develop the capacity to register and engage with the more subtle content of the centers/brains. This development concerns the interaction of the different centers/brains, such that they may share their individual impressions in a way that leads to a unification of their functioning. The development of the subtle vision requires a certain operational unity between the centers/brains, such that they can come to function as one 'organ' of perception and reason. This evidently requires a balance and mutuality to the centers/brains that is not present in our common functioning and states.