04-07-2020, 06:34 PM
I agree with Agua.
I have however also noticed a theme, more central in some spiritual circles and also brought out in Q'uo channeling, where the counterpoint is made that people often focus too much on "doing" and too little on "being". There's much to explore in that, relating to what is really STO and the nature of the human condition.
Gurdjieff has it that "in order to Do, it is necessary first to Be". Gurdjieff's teaching centers around the poor state of being of humanity, and the need to develop the lower being in order for conscious doing to really become possible. In that sense, moralizers who push people to endlessly do for others are directing others to put the cart before the horse.
Yet, people naturally tend to be the most concerned with "what to do", not "how to be". Life tends to present a flow of pressing matters which make the question of "what to do" central.
Those who can do something well, however small and simple it may be, have enough "being" that it is possible to "talk seriously with them" about spiritual matters, according to Gurdjieff. But he found that for the most part, people simply "do things just anyhow", as if mindless machines, even when great emotion or great thought is involved.
I have been thinking that the Q'uo, and other sources, who advise people to focus on "being" do so because generally, people are not capable of sensibly "doing" all that much. If "being" was in order, then the most generally helpful advice may have been very different.
There's a lot which, if done in the world, could greatly help others. Sometimes individuals are given clear choices and opportunities to do something great. But in general, the flow of what humanity does on the mass scale looks like water circling a drain.
I have however also noticed a theme, more central in some spiritual circles and also brought out in Q'uo channeling, where the counterpoint is made that people often focus too much on "doing" and too little on "being". There's much to explore in that, relating to what is really STO and the nature of the human condition.
Gurdjieff has it that "in order to Do, it is necessary first to Be". Gurdjieff's teaching centers around the poor state of being of humanity, and the need to develop the lower being in order for conscious doing to really become possible. In that sense, moralizers who push people to endlessly do for others are directing others to put the cart before the horse.
Yet, people naturally tend to be the most concerned with "what to do", not "how to be". Life tends to present a flow of pressing matters which make the question of "what to do" central.
Those who can do something well, however small and simple it may be, have enough "being" that it is possible to "talk seriously with them" about spiritual matters, according to Gurdjieff. But he found that for the most part, people simply "do things just anyhow", as if mindless machines, even when great emotion or great thought is involved.
I have been thinking that the Q'uo, and other sources, who advise people to focus on "being" do so because generally, people are not capable of sensibly "doing" all that much. If "being" was in order, then the most generally helpful advice may have been very different.
There's a lot which, if done in the world, could greatly help others. Sometimes individuals are given clear choices and opportunities to do something great. But in general, the flow of what humanity does on the mass scale looks like water circling a drain.