Dossier Zelfkennis: Waarom Geschiedenis zichzelf blijft herhalen

De mens: hoe groter 'geest', hoe groter 'beest'…
door Tsenne Kikke - maandag 10 oktober 2022 20:06

Enkelingen kunnen, dankzij de juiste 'school' misschien evolueren, terwijl er voor de massamens niets anders opzit dan te blijven involueren. Een groot geluk is dat geen mens dit verstaat. Tevens maakte ik reeds eerder de melding dat enkelingen zaken uitvinden of verbeteren, en de leden van de massa het kunnen aankopen, indien ze er het geld voor hebben. Maar dit geeft de gewone mens het valse gevoel dat we allemaal aan het 'evolueren' zijn. Nochtans is niets minder waar: zowel het inhoudelijke van de massamens evenals het bewustzijnsniveau zijn identiek aan die van duizenden jaren geleden. Het is dus niet omdat men vandaag de dag met kernwapens kan dreigen en niet meer met knots, zwaard, speer, of met boog en pijl moet komen aandraven om angst aan te jagen, dat de mens die ze hanteren 'geëvolueerde wezens' zijn. In 1916 zei Gurdjieff daar het volgende over...

Ouspensky: "On another occasion Gurdjieff spoke about the latest inventions of science and of Man's apparent progress." He said: "Yes, machines are making progress, but not Man."

In answer to a question whether Man had not progressed far beyond what he used to be, even in historical time, he answered: "It is strange how you so easily believe in this word progress. It is as if this word hypnotized you, so that you cannot see the truth. Man does not progress. There is no progress whatever. Everything is just the same as it was thousands, and tens of thousands of years ago. It is only the outward form that changes. The essence does not change. This is because Man remains essentially just the same. 'Civilised' and 'cultured' people live with exactly the same interests as the most ignorant savages. Modern civilisation is based on violence and slavery, but these take different outer forms. All these fine words about progress and civilisation are merely words. If Man is the same, life is the same."

Ouspensky: "This of course produced a particularly deep impression on us, because it was said in 1916, at the time when the latest manifestation of 'progress' and of 'civilisation', in the form of a war such as the world had not yet seen, was continuing to grow and develop, drawing more and more millions of people into its orbit.

I remembered that a few days before this talk I had seen two enormous lorries loaded to the height of the first floors of the houses with new unpainted wooden crutches. For some reason I was particularly struck by these lorries. In these mountains of crutches for legs which were not yet torn off there was a particularly cynical mockery of all the things with which people deceive themselves. Involuntarily I imagined that similar lorries were sure to be going about in Berlin, Paris, London, Vienna, Rome and Constantinople. And, as a result of all this horror, all these cities, almost all of which I knew so well and liked just because they supplemented and gave contrast to one another, had now become hostile both to me and to one another and separated by new walls of hatred and crime."

I spoke about these lorry-loads of crutches and of my thoughts about them.

"What do you expect?" said Gurdjieff, "People are machines. Machines have to be blind and unconscious; they cannot be otherwise, and all their actions have to correspond to their nature. Everything happens. No one does anything. 'Progress' and 'civilisation', in the real meaning of these words, can appear only as the result of conscious efforts. And only each single man can make conscious efforts. But no one wants to do so. Progress is only possible in each single man. It cannot appear as the result of unconscious, mechanical actions. And what conscious effort can there be in machines? And if one machine is unconscious then a hundred machines are unconscious, and so are a thousand machines, or a hundred thousand, or a million. And the unconscious activity of a million machines must necessarily result in mass-destruction and mass-extermination. It is precisely in unconscious involuntary personal manifestations that all evil begins. This is the origin of evil. You do not yet understand and cannot imagine all the results of this accumulation of evil, from small sources. But the time will come when you will understand. If Man behaved consciously, all this evil would cease. But Man is not conscious."

"One difficulty in thinking in this way is due to the fact that people think that the masses do things. They do not realize that only individuals do anything. Cultures have been founded by individual men, never by the masses. Humanity, the masses, never do anything save that they destroy often enough what individual men have built. All progress in the sciences is the work of individual men, not of the masses. All art, architecture, music, is due to the work of individual men. The explanation is that a mass of people is on a lower level than a single individual and so, from this point of view, evolution is only possible for individuals and not for the masses."

"Vind mensen, die in zichzelf zowel de motivatie als de aangeboren drijfveer hebben om aan hun Innerlijke Zelf te werken, en we zullen hen gidsen."

- DIMschool vzw, de énige gespecialiseerd in Zelfkennis, zijnde: het kennen van het Zelf -
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