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Gurdjieff: Knowledge of the materiality
Published in El Rigel Wed, 25/01/2012 - 09:15
Assumption
"During a conversation with Gurdjieff in our group - which has already become a regular - I asked:

 - If the ancient knowledge survived, if any, knowledge that is different from our science and philosophy, or even surpassing it, why is it so carefully hidden, why not make the common property? Why do people have this knowledge, do not want it passed into the mainstream of life for a better, more successful fight against fraud, evil and ignorance?

 Probably, this question arises in every human being who first meets with the ideas of esotericism.

 - To this there are two answers - Gurdjieff said. - First of all, this knowledge is not hidden, and secondly, by its very nature it can not be shared. We first consider the second of these terms. And then I'll show you that knowledge (he emphasized the word) is much more accessible to those who are able to learn than commonly believed, the trouble is that people do not want to or knowledge, or is unable to accept it.

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 "But above all it is necessary to understand another, namely why knowledge can not belong to all, can not even belong to many.'s The law. You do not understand this, because you do not understand that knowledge, like everything else in the world, financially. This material and this means that it has all the hallmarks of materiality. One of the main features of materiality - is that matter always has a limit, that is, the amount of matter in a given place and under these conditions is limited. Even the desert sand and the sea water is is certain, the same amount of material particles. So, if knowledge of the material, which means that in this place and at this time there is a certain amount of it. could say that for a certain period of time, say, for a century, mankind has before a certain amount of knowledge. But even from observations we know that the matter of knowledge has very different characteristics depending on whether it is taken in small or large quantities. received in large quantities in this place, say, a single person, the knowledge gives excellent results, but taken in small quantities, so every person of a large number of people, or it "does not give any results, or, contrary to expectations, can bring even negative. Thus, if a certain amount of knowledge distributed among millions of people, each person will receive very little, and a small amount of knowledge will not change anything either in his life or in his understanding of things. And no matter how many people got a small amount of knowledge in their lives will not change anything, unless it can be, will be more difficult.

 "If, on the contrary, large amounts of knowledge is concentrated in a small number of people, then knowledge will give very significant results. From this point of view, it is much more profitable to stored knowledge of a narrow circle of people, and not the masses would dissipate.

 "If we take a certain amount of gold gilding and solve a lot of things we need to know or calculate precisely how many items can be covered with this gold. If we try to gild the more of them, they were covered with gold, uneven spots, and will look much worse than subjects who did not were gilded. Actually, we're just losing our gold.

 "The distribution of knowledge is based on exactly the same principle. If knowledge is given to all, no one gets. If it persists among the few, everyone will be so many that it would be sufficient not only to maintain but also to increase the received.

 "At first glance, this theory seems unfair, because the position of those who, so to speak, denied knowing that others can get most of it is very sad and undeservedly more difficult than it should be. However, in reality the circumstances do not are, in the distribution of knowledge is not the slightest injustice.

 "In fact, the vast majority of people do not want any knowledge, these people give up their shares and do not take even that portion which falls to them in the general distribution for the needs of daily life. This is especially true in times of mass madness, such as war, revolutions and the like, when people seem to lose even what little grain of common sense, that they possessed, and turn into perfect machines, huge masses yielding total destruction, that is, losing even the instinct of self-preservation. Consequently, large amounts of knowledge remains, so to speak, not in demand and can be shared among those who understand their value.

 "This is not unfair, because those who receive knowledge, not assign anything strange, do not deprive others of anything there. They take only what is rejected by others as useless, that would still be lost if they do not take.

 "The gathering of knowledge by some people due to the fact that other people reject this knowledge.

 "In human life there are times when the masses of the people are beginning to irreparably destroy and destroy everything that was created over the centuries and millennia of culture. These periods generally coincide with the beginning of the decline of culture and civilization, such periods of mass madness, often coinciding with geological cataclysms climate change, and their like planetary character, release a huge amount of knowledge. This, in turn, makes it necessary to work on the collection of knowledge that otherwise would be lost. Thus, the work of collecting the scattered matter of knowledge often coincides with the beginning of the destruction and ruin crops and civilizations.

 "This aspect of the matter is clear. Crowd does not want knowledge, and does not aspire to it, and its leaders in their own interests seek to increase her fear of everything new and unknown, her dislike for the new. Slavery in which mankind lives is based on this fear. Hard imagine the horror of this slavery. We do not understand that they lose people. But to understand the cause of this slavery, enough to see how people live, what is the purpose of their existence, the object of desire, passion and aspirations, what they dream about what they say, what are and what are worshiped. Think about what to spend money modern civilized humanity, even leaving aside the war, think that requires the highest costs, which brings together the biggest crowds. If we for a moment reflect on the matter we will see that humanity in its current state, with the interests which they live, can not expect anything more than what it has. But, as I said, the way things were and can not. If knowledge is to be shared by all, everyone will be so few that remain the same stupid, how it was. However, due to the fact that the knowledge they want to have a very few people - are taking it to, say, each faces - and the opportunity to acquire become more reasonable. All may not be reasonable, even if it had, and wished. And if they really are reasonable, it would not help the cause. There is a general equilibrium, which can not be broken.

 "That is one aspect. Another, as I have said, is that no one and no secret, there is no mystery. But the acquisition or transfer of real knowledge requires a great deal of work and effort on the part of the person who receives and from the one who gives. And those who have knowledge, do everything they can to pass and give it to the largest possible number of people, facilitate their approach to knowledge and training yourself to accept the truth. But no one can impart knowledge power, and As I said before, unbiased review of the life of the average person, aware of the fact that fills his day with the things that interest him, this minute show correct to blame the people who own the knowledge that they hide it, do not people want to pass, do not want to teach others what they know themselves.

 "Anyone who wants to gain knowledge, he should take the first effort to find its source, and to approach it, and by using the instructions that are given to all, but which people generally do not want to see and recognize. Knowledge can not come to people of course, if they will not show effort on their part. They understand this when it comes to knowledge of the Ordinary, but in the case of much knowledge, if they are allowed to exist, they prefer to expect chegoto quite different. Everyone knows that if one wants, for example, to learn the Chinese language, it will take several years of hard work, everyone knows that mastering the fundamentals of medicine to five years, and for the study of music or painting two times longer. Yet there are theories that claim that knowledge can come to man without much effort on his part that he can get it in my sleep. mere existence of these theories explains why knowledge can not come to the people. At the same time it is important to understand that independent human effort to achieve something something in this direction can not be successful. person acquires knowledge only with those who have it - it is necessary to understand from the beginning. need to learn from someone who knows. "

 

(Excerpt from the book, PD Ouspensky, "In Search of the Miraculous")

 

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