Just another Life

Milkweed

The Ouspensky Phenomenon supposes that if we teach ourselves to think about reality in a different way we can open our consciousness to the idea that oneness is interconnected with many-ness. His Fourth Way combined the way of the physical body, the way of the emotions and the way of the mind. These are the three proud heritages of the Fakir, the Monk and the Yogi. Ouspensky placed his Fourth Way into the the midst of ordinary everyday life. He didn't seek a separation from the world in order to follow the Fourth Way instead he gave the Fourth Way a dimension, a mathematical quality within the context of his understanding of the four dimensions within consciousness. Here it's frightfully useful to accept that the esoteric as a mindset is communicated Symbolically. What does that mean. For some it means proper training within a culture that includes heavy doses of peer pressure that allows us to gain a familiarity with the language of Symbols. Others, such as Saint Teresa of Avila and Doctor of the Catholic Church, prefer the nine phases of prayer that permit direct and wordless communication with God on judgement day. Others like the black and white of manuals. It's a cozy snuggle between the Active Life and the Contemplative Life Hannah Arendt sought an understanding of. The decent thing about Ouspensky, as he approached his end time, he was able to realize the path he'd chosen was a long, arduous, complex, mostly torturous and possibly a wasted one. Money helped, here our man was comfortably situated but the equation of his that had required four dimensions of consciousness couldn't maintain an integrity and like an intriguing quantum observation it collapsed.  

The Ouspensky Phenomenon

 

Path of Righteousness

The Ouspensky Phenomenon could be defined as a socially affordable Snake Oil. It might be inaccurate to call it an example of myth and politics unless it was an economy and I was a politician. Then I could confidently declare the fundamentals of Snake Oil alive and well in the Ouspensky Phenomenon. The issue of course that challenges language is a definition of the Ouspensky Phenomenon. What is it? Of the facets available to think about, two jump up and down quite loudly. The first is the Far East, somewhere beyond the Muslim frontier, some new flavor of Cool Aid had started entering fashion in the West when the Magi introduced themselves to Mary. The second facet is this. Ouspensky's second book found it's way to the United States where it was discovered by an American Archaeologist who'd found in it a theme for one of his buildings, he translated Ouspensky's second book into English and published it. The book sold well, years later when Ouspensky discovered a reputation waiting for him he was able to recoup a suggestion of his royalties. Of the two, start with the Magi.

"The Philosopher must bow down to the Microscope" John Walking Stewart

Foots etc..

The "Five Pecks of Wheat" was more likely five Pecks of Rice. It was the entry fee for an early Daoist community. It was enough to satisfy the Celestial Masters, the professionals who ran the departments of heaven like well ordered drill sergeants. Not everyone was guaranteed a reward, only about 18000 people would have the correct balance of life force to survive the apocalypse. Being good was a competitive sport. Back then, like today, there was of course no shortage of advice on how to polish the QI. In excess of two thousand years after the first Five Pecks Grand Master, a philosopher and esoteric known in English as PD Ouspensky's exploration of the fourth dimension and an extended visit to Nepal produced a sought after 1912 book called Tertiary Organum. It was a made in a lifetime Lamarkian evolutionary journey. The gist of his account was some people achieve enlightenment through an extraordinary physics and are heaven bound, others don't and aren't. Grand Master Zhang Daoling ran a small empire. Ouspensky developed a bit of cult, he died in Surrey, England, in 1947.

Disappointing endings

Tools of a Trade

It might be a bit of a stretch but there are similarities between my Friend Baxter and Hannah Arendt's exemplar of a virtuous public servant, Cato the Elder.  A somewhat random and possibly a confusing offering that may require an explanation of Scipio's role in the Second Punic War. Worth remembering this was the Roman Republic, not that bowl, indeed bowel of gruel and vice Rome became after it had allowed Julius Caesar following his victories in Gaul and Britannia to effectively engage in a date rape at home. Two hundred or so years prior to that depressing event, Scipio was a new wave sort of chap, exactly the sort of Roman who gave Cato the creeps.  Hannibal Barca, son of Hamilcar Barca of Carthage, Rome's opponent in the Second Punic War may have been more like Cato. You don't take your Elephants across the Alps, along with your breakfast table, storytellers, a parrot, and your mistresses, unless you're fundamentally a conservative sort of chap, which may well have been why Cato who was pretty much terrified of Carthage had convinced himself that Rome's chosen champion, Publius Cornelius Scipio, was far too weak minded and cretinous to stand a chance against The Carthaginians. In the end it might have done the Roman Republic a massive favor if Hannibal had wiped the floor with Scipio, cutout the hero worship of Emperors, this tragic, weak-kneed search for populist saviors. The Punic Wars maybe a niche subject, and granted a very few of us have been subjected to the warped punishment of having to study History of the Roman Republic while in detention, but amongst those of us who've had that rare privilege, a very few of us had risked further punishment by vocally supporting Hannibal in the detention room, and while most of us could have happily garroted Cato the Elder a very few of us, the more imaginative ones perhaps, were devastated when we heard that Scipio had defeated Hannibal.