04.07.09
Rajneesh’s Gurdjieff imitations
One of the strangest development of the post-Gurdjieff era is the interloper Rajneesh who couldn’t make up his mind if he should integrate Gurdjieff into his teaching or just cut him out and move on. Rajneesh is a good example of the way someone of much more advanced consciousness can be fooled by Gurdjieff, whose romantic touches seduce people, and blind them to the reality: this man is no more than an occultist, with no real development beyond that.
Anyone connected with Rajneesh needs to be careful indeed: behind all the fine words is a frustrated Gurdjieff imitator who wants to ‘play master’, that is marshall a group of people as disguised slaves, the Gurdjieff game, and take away their spiritual freedom.
It is hard to find this strain in the midst of the immense flood of eclectic crap that Rajneesh peddles as his ‘new teaching’.
I recommend doing what Rajneesh did: avoid at all costs having a guru, and proceed alone!!!
mybrainisafleamarket said,
06.07.09 at 11:40 am
A very unexpected celebrity/Gurdjieff connection:
At the gym, I found an issue of GQ for July 2009 with Sacha Baron Cohen on the cover.
In it, there is an interview of Harold Ramis, who wrote and directed such movies as Animal House, Caddyshack, Ghostbusters,Meatballs, National Lampoon’s Vacation, etc)
Ramis did some of his best work with Bill Murray, the actor. But later, Bill Murray cut off contact. The interviewer for GQ, Brett Martin asks a number of questions.
Ramis spoke appreciatively of Bill Murry:
He was 18 when I met him, and he was already that way. He’d been strong enough to defy all the Jesuit priests teaching at Loyola Academy. He was just the biggest rebel in the world. Its his job to defy all your expectations.
Brett Martin: ‘The fact tht he;s cut off contact with you seems heartbreaking..what happened?
Ramis: I don’t know. You’d know, ask anyone in Hollywood. Everybody has a Bill Murray story. He just punishes people, for reasons they can’t figure out. He was a student of Gurdjieff for awhile, the Sufi mystic. Gurdjieff used to act really irrationally toh is studnets almost if trying to teach them object lessons. Ther’s a great story along these lines that John Belushi tells about Del Close, the improv teacher. Jim went up to Del once, and he said, “Del, I want you to know, that I really, really trust you.” And Del kneed him in the balls, really hard, and asked, “You still trust me?” Bill was always teaching people lessons like that. If perceived someone as being too self important or corrupt in some way that he couldnt stomach, it was his job to straighten him out.
Brett Martin. ‘Do you thnk he judged you as corrupt?’
Ramis; I have no clue. And because its unstated, it sends me to my worst fears. Did he think I was weak? Or untrue? Did I betray him in some way? With no clue or feedback from him, its this kind of tantalizing mystery. And that may be the point.
Brett Martin. ‘To leave you…’
Ramis ‘Baffled.’
(Commentary from MBFM)
I do not think this is ‘teaching’. To me it reads as sheer cruelty from a desperately insecure and unhappy person who wants others to feel as off balance, insecure and unhappy as he, so that, if only temporarily, he can transfer his misery and bafflement to a mark and temporarily feel in control.
Getting involved with Gurdjieff work would merely rationalize this and provide a system for a dynamic that is just miserable human behavior, period.
Anyone who slams you that way and will not tell you why is just transferring their misery onto you, onto you.
The only lesson is to step out of the frame and see its Gurdjieff and Murry who are unhappy people, trying to get a cheap sense of control.
Go and read the full interview in the July 2009 issue of GQ. It was unexpected to find this description of the lingering pain from a man who had been on the recieving end of sadistic mindfuck rationalized as being a ‘lesson’using Fourth Way twaddle.
My hunch is Murry was probably bullied by some authority figure in his helpless childhood and perhaps suffered traumatic abandonments and betrayals by caregivers and he was forbidden to feel betrayed or saddened, by being told these betrayals were for his own good or served some character building purpose.
When people are tortured this way in childhood and dont get insight and healing for it, they may feel frightned when a relationship (romantic or a creative partnership as with Ramis) deepens and touches their hearts.
They may fear this intimacy and find a way to sabotage the relationship so they can stay in control of how it ends.
And in some cases, may invoke abusive pseudo spirituality such as that of Gurdjieff or Castaneda and call it a ‘lesson’ or call this sadistic abandonment ‘sorcerer’s affection–Amy Wallace describes this in her autobiography, Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
The only thing we can do with people like this is see them as having no control over a dangerous part of themselves and stay out of reach so they cant claw us again. And if possible warn others to be on their guard–be nice to these folks but never, ever become intimate with them, because that intimacy is what will trigger them to lash out and teach you one of their so called ‘lessons.’
Ramis:
The Gurdjieff Con » A very unexpected celebrity/Gurdjieff connection said,
06.07.09 at 12:48 pm
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