He said, She said

Overheard recently in my neighborhood mystically-bent coffee-shop.

>
>She said:
>"Regarding the approach of Mr. Nyland
>(Fourth Way teacher and student of
>Mr. Gurdjieff), we were taught to make
>a wish to make an effort to Work.
>Let me explain it to you."
>(and then, she did...)
>
>He replied:
>"This was not at all the specific approach
>as explained by Mr. Nyland."
>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A couple, perhaps irrelevant to you, comments:

Of course, this kind of banter happens all the time between so-called students of mystical teachings, religions, philosophies, etc.

The one who is apparently (according to himself, sometimes even alone) "supposed to know" tells those who apparently (according to themselves, and most of the time to everyone else) "don't know", his particular version of "the Secret", and STILL they don't get it.

There he is, sitting at the front of the class, with all his nearest and dearest sitting around him in a large circle, arranged from his most favorite - sitting, let's say, to his left - to his least favorite - who is now sitting to his right (funny that) - and he whispers "the Secret" into his most favorite's anxious and willing ear, now straining to receive "the entire undiluted message", who then whispers it to the next, who then whispers it to the next, etc., etc., until "the Secret" has travelled all the way around the room.

Now what?
Has everybody "gotten it"?
Hardly.

But later, there is an abundance to argue over (er, discuss), even for months and years after the "one who knows" has finally left the stage and can no longer "clear up the mess", er, matter.

It's NOT that the "one who was supposed to know" didn't know - though, maybe he didn't.
It's NOT that the listeners didn't get it - though, probably they didn't.

It's that the followers happily - not "getting the full message" - and literally spend the rest of their short lives, willingly arguing over (discussing) the true and real MEANINGS of what the originator actually said, as though through that faux-effort, that imaginary effort, they each will come to a greater understanding, though of what they have almost no idea.
Hardly.

Of course, all this kind of nonsense happens all the time.

What if "the ways" are just roadblocks, to keep otherwise "promising people" from searching any further - digging any deeper - into the mystery?

"Hardly!!"

The problem of so-called 'lineage groups' OR 'the telephone game'

All teachings and religions put much importance on the idea of lineage, believing (quite wrongly - but then, how could they possibly know this!?!) that if MY current teacher was in a group led by a person who was in a group (and so on and so on...) that originally was led by the Mr. Mainman Hisself, that *therefore*, MY current group/teacher MUST be valid, relevant, useful to my higher possibilities.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

This waking-up game, this enlightenment game, is a solitary affair from the beginning to the end, and this understanding is the Alpha and Omega of actually achieving anything. Why? Because - and you can never really get away from this - it's the classic "Telephone Game")

No matter WHAT the originator/dominator tells his first small group of friends - who absolutely are there in the first place because they are and must be passive to his teaching and authority (because if they were truly, genetic alpha mammals, they would never be there in the first place even if they believed, somehow, the originator/dominator actually knew some secret(s)), primarily (which is always the case in such "groups/congregations") because they not only WANT to be led/dominated, they NEED to be led and dominated, i.e., told what to do, and what to think... ("thinking" being the main operative word there.)

But, again, it's always a "telephone game" because what the originator tells them outright, is ALWAYS just a minuscule part, *at best*, of what he knows and understands at the time, and no matter how intently the group listens to what he says, they MUST miss the best parts ("best" being the extremely important word here - because the "best" is never revealed!), and in the end of the inevitable movement of this supposed "new information" (thought energy) they've just heard throughout their automatic/mechanical/associative "thinking process" it will not only NOT be precisely what they were told, it will be quite different. And if you want a law to conform yourself to this piece of news, it's this: that which is seen only partially, is not just seen "incorrectly", it's seen as >>something else<<. That's why, in the "telephone game" the 13th person in the circle, hearing only a piece of the originators message, doesn't see the original message at all, but SEES/HEARS something else entirely.

In this thing - waking up, enlightenment - unless you originate the information yourself, you can not know if what you're repeating is the thing itself, or something else entirely - NOR CAN YOUR LISTENERS.

Lineage is absolutely irrelevant in this master game, this search for the miraculous, no matter what you've been previously told. AND, anything you have previously been told, can only have an ill effect upon your objective possibilities, though you can almost never realize this, ONCE you've been duly "sworn in and suited up" to the status of "member". Just as, rather than actually going to Paris can be delayed, almost indefinitely - and quite happily so by many people - by reading large coffee-table picture-books about Paris, joining email lists discussing the wonders of Paris, corresponding by telephone and email with actual living Parisians, and dreaming about walking the streets and visiting the sights and points-of-interest (which you now can see in your "mind's eye", thanks to the multitudes of picture books - authored by Parisians AND non-Parisians - which were eagerly soaked up with characteristic vim and vigor.)

Even if an originator/dominator tells enough about "the secret(s)" to someone, and he/she apparently "wakes up", it IS NOT NOR CAN BE the fault of the other guy. Now, there is a new originator/dominator walking around, who not only WOULD NOT, but COULD NOT, repeat the same metaphorical/symbolical stories he "got from" playing his earlier telephone games, but would absolutely - if and only if he had the interest in doing so (passing on something to other living humans - which is NOT a given in any case) - invent new and even (to him) MORE INTERESTING expressions of the mystical journey.