We take a look at all aspects of living an Optimal Life as makers and creators.I’m reading a couple of bizarre yet strangely related books right now. I started with PD Ouspensky’s In Search of the Miraculous
because I’d been following the path of Yoga and Meditation knowledge for the past few years now. I’m consistently intrigued and following multiple, disparate paths to see where they take me. In Search of the Miraculous was a path recommended on an Internet Marketing board, of all places, even though the topic has nothing to do with marketing. What I find fascinating about this book is that it suggest a Fourth Way of knowledge and possible enlightenment as taught by GI Gurdjieff in the first half of the 20th Century.
While only halfway through the book, I find the premise intriguing. Essentially there are three primary ways to enlightenment, as I am understanding it. The first is through the physical, or the Fakir. This is the person who will contort themselves into various positions for hours, days or months at a time to master or overcome the physical pain. Of course you permanently fuck up your body, so this is not so intriguing to me, nor the authors.
The second way is through one’s faith and emotions and is called the way of the monk. This is often described as heart-centered personal development and is the subject of most new age drivel.
The third way is the way of the Yogi, which is the path that I’ve been working through for a few years now, when the normal responsibilities of western life haven’t taken precedence for me. This is mastery through mental habits and capabilities and often accompanies work with a guru of some sort.
The fourth way, as taught by Gurdjieff is thought to try to overcome the bad points of the other three schools. It is an attempt to combine mastery of all three without retreating from society to do so. It’s admirable but as to whether it will hold up to scrutiny, I will have to see through the remainder of the book.
Of course like any intriguing philosophy it’s been commercialized and bastardized by various schools in the name of Gurdjieff that by many accounts miss the mark entirely, an assertion that I cannot support or deny as I refuse to get involved in any formal school that has the pretenses of possible cult-like practices…which has also led me away from Sadhguru, one of my primary sources of yogic knowledge in recent years.
The second book (actually a series of nine books) that I stumbled upon basically because it occasionally quotes and refers to Gurdjieff is Laura Knight-Jaczyk’s “Wave” series. In this series, she and her associates have allegedly channeled a group of beings from an alternate dimension called The Cassiopians (a word that I can never f’n spell right). A dubious premise especially for the skeptic but there’s actually some highly intriguing information in the series and if you can suspend your judgement of the weird for a bit, I think you might dig this series.
The books is called Soul Hackers: The Hidden Hands Behind the New Age Movement (The Wave Series, Volume 2)
I do suggest you start with the first book so that you can get the background, or spend some time on the author’s website reading the abundance of free information there. I am told that most of the information from the books is free on her site.
Despite the very bizarre nature of this latter book, it did lead me to a nice exposition of breathing exercises that I found very pleasant and helpful that I wanted to share with everyone here. They are free, though I do believe in Karma and that if you get value out of something, you should find a way to compensate the creator. I’ve ordered four of the author’s books and am making my way through the second one now. Check out this site for the breathing exercises, Eiriu Eolas.
Of course both books could be full of shyt, so decide for yourself.
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