Dossier Zelfkennis: Over een inleidende tekst met betrekking tot het Enneagram

Kom meer aan de weet over de 'Eerste Bewuste Schok'…
door Tsenne Kikke - vrijdag 4 november 2022 3:38

Beste eclecticus,

In Eclecticus staat er nu een zoveelste tekst over Gurdjieff's Enneagram. Nu mag je al weten dat ikzelf me niet geheel akkoord kon verklaren vanwege het feit dat men er het Scheppingsverhaal bij betrok. Zo staat er, bijvoorbeeld: "Now on the seventh day another man is apparently created. Of this man it is said that 'God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and Man became a living soul'." Om deze reden vraag ik jou nu al om het artikel met een open geest te lezen, maar dan wel 'bewust', of toch zo bewust mogelijk. Jij weet wel wat ik ermee bedoel, namelijk: met tenminste 'twee verdiepingen'. In elk geval is de inleiding écht interessant, waarvan hieronder slechts een klein gedeelte werd afgedrukt. Geniet ervan!...

"We have already spoken of the idea of a shock being necessary for the progressive development and continuance of a thing and we have seen how the Law of Seven can from one point of view be called the Law of Shock. In the development of a thing, whether it be the growth of a living creature, or the development of an idea, or the learning of a difficult subject, or the carrying out of some enterprise, or the transformation of one thing into another, the successive stages can be represented by the notes of an ascending octave: Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, etcetera. Now, a shock must come between the stage Mi and the stage Fa for that thing to proceed in its right order of development. Otherwise it will deviate from its course and become something else. The stage Fa will not be reached. We are familiar with the fact that civilization does not proceed beyond a point, and that also we do not, personally. This is because a shock is necessary and is not given, or not received, or not created.

Let us study the shocks in Man. In the case of Man, the first shock necessary for his life does not have to be created. It is given at the point 3 in the Enneagram and received as air that we breathe in. If a man refused to breathe - which is not possible - he would die. Or, if he breathed in something which is not air, such as carbon monoxide, the shock would still be given but not received - that is: he would breathe but not take in air, and so would die. You must reflect on these two sides of a shock and also upon the fact that the shock of air has to take place at not too long intervals. The giving and receiving of this shock is essential to life. If it is not given, the physical organism ceases to work. Remember here that everything breathes, including the earth. It is very interesting to realize that everything breathes and that this shock is necessary in all things. But since the Law of Seven or Law of the Shock is in all things (together with the Law of Three) it is not so surprising.

In the case of Man two other shocks are possible, but not essential. They are not given him or received but must be created. The position of the three shocks is shown at the angles of the triangle at the points 3, 6 and 9. A man who only has the first shock, at 3, at work in him, is a man of a particular kind. A man who has the first and second shocks working in him is a man of a different kind. A man who has all these three shocks at work in him is a man utterly different from the first or second man.

The creation of these three kinds of men is described in progressive order in the first two chapters of Genesis in connection with the 7 days of creation, which divides Man into 7 different categories and does not take him as one and the same or as equal.

The first broad distinction is made between Mechanical Man and Conscious Man. The first description of Man in Genesis is of mechanical, or dead Man - in verse 2. In the Work mechanical humanity is said to be asleep and sometimes to be dead, as when it is said that many people walking about are long ago dead. Likewise in the New Testament, Christ refers to 'the dead burying their dead'. Mechanical Man has no shock at work in him save the mechanical shock of breathing. However, the term breath or breathing is something also applied to the second shock, as we shall see. The point here is that in Genesis, and in this Work, and in the New Testament, the idea of dead Man appears, the dead, living Man. To awaken from the state of being a dead person, a man or a woman must give himself or herself the second shock, at point 6. This person is described in Genesis as following on the 'dead' man.

Let us consider the 'dead' man first. It is impossible to describe him briefly. He is the man of the senses, without an inner life, the man who ascribes his powers to himself, the man of self-esteem, for whom everything real lies in the outer world, the man who has not begun to think or feel beyond himself. This man is called in Genesis 'waste and void'. This is the man of darkness in whom there is no light. Shall we each suppose that we are not in this state ourselves? This state of darkness of a man is referred to both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. It is said in Isaiah: "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light." (IX 2) and in John: "The light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not." (I 5) which means that esoteric teaching represented in Christ came as light to those in darkness of mind and understanding.

As we have seen, Mechanical Man is given and made to receive the first shock at point 3. This enables him to live a physical existence. But he does not give himself the shock at point 6 or the shock at point 9. When he begins to study the nature of the shock at point 6 and to try to give himself this shock, he makes a step in the direction of consciousness and inner evolution. One reason why things go as they do in the world is that Man is not properly conscious but assumes that he is. As was said previously, from one side the object of this Work is to increase consciousness. First one must become more conscious of oneself. Paradoxically, one has to become conscious of the fact that one is not conscious. By direct self-study one has to realize that one passes most of one’s existence in a state of sleep. However, in this state the shock at point 3 is given and received regularly. If our breathing depended on our conscious attention we would not remain alive very long."

"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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