Our World Situation - a Gurdjieffian Perspective

Gurdjieff would often say that humankind required a 'shock' in order to wake itself up to the 'terror of the situation'.... perhaps a reference to the world situation today: definitely a reference to our collective slumber.

Ouspensky, in his In Search of the Miraculous, quotes Gurdjieff as saying:

'There is a definite period for a certain thing to be done. If, by a certain time, what ought to be done has not been done, the earth may perish without having attained what it could have attained.'

The Teaching emphasizes that without a certain higher energy reaching the earth - which can only take place through people who are sufficiently sensitive to be open and receptive to it - then the 'earth will fall down'...

Sufficient numbers of 'receptive individuals' are needed to transmute, and transmit, certain energies. These energies, it seems, are increasingly radiating our cosmic sector: our solar system specifically, whether we refer to this in astronomical terms as passing through the photon belt, as we indeed are.

A critical mass of humanity is required to start awakening to aid the process of solar/stellar, planetary, and human evolution. It does not require a majority - for this will never be reached in time - it only requires quality. A sleeping mass does not transmit energy well... such energies are thrown off into physical and emotional attachments, and distracted into other channels by a deliberate social governing agenda. As Frank Herbert so masterfully said in Dune: 'the sleeper must awaken'.

One of the highest forces is conscience and unconditional Love: part of human life must surely be about receiving and transmitting such forces and energies. Gurdjieff would say that the earth is degenerating, or devolving, from lack of these transmitted energies. This capacity needs to be provoked and stimulated within people. We need to be able to handle higher vibrations. It will be essential for the coming years.

We can say that the earth is in ecological crisis and humanity is in spiritual crisis - and a similar response is required for both as the two crises are fundamentally tied to the same source. Humanity needs to get a move on, not just physically but psychologically and spiritually as 'time' is both speeding up and running out simultaneously. Our lack of contribution may be said to be behind much of our life dissatisfaction and disconnection.

Yet we can connect - the cords are in place; we need only to ask, reach out, and to sincerely offer our intentions to do so. These such unprecedented times that we find ourselves in are ripe opportunities for personal growth, and for gaining knowledge and understanding. Why? Because now we are moving through a civilizational shift.

This is what Gurdjieff had to say:

'There are periods in the life of humanity which generally coincide with the beginning of the fall of cultures and civilizations, when the masses irretrievably lose their reason and begin to destroy everything that has been created by centuries and millenniums of culture. Such periods of mass madness, often coinciding with geological cataclysms, climatic changes, and similar phenomena of a planetary character, release a very great quantity of the matter of knowledge. This, in its turn, necessitates the work of collecting this matter of knowledge which would otherwise be lost. Thus the work of collecting scattered matter of knowledge frequently coincides with the beginning of the destruction and fall of cultures and civilizations.'

It is not the end - there is never an end - it is about transition and, importantly, about transformation. And the transformation requires that we, individuals of humanity, participate through our own creative and positive energies. And the Dear Earth will thank us for it... I'm sure...

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