Sealing the Vessel: The first two realizations
The first Realization:
We are vessels into which the world flows.
Gurdjieff’s enneagram represents the vessel, which on this level of Being—earthly incarnation, existence within the flesh--is the body.
The “inner walls” of the vessel are the six inner flowers, and these are also the sensory tools for higher, or finer, inner impressions.
Together with the “outer walls” of the five conventional senses, which take in coarser outer impressions, there are 11 states of fragmentation, comparable to 11 of the 12 tones in the 12 tone scale.
These 11 elements are separated; it is in the creation of unity—the exchange of substances—between the “11 elements” that the scale, or octave, is completed and forms the full 12-tone scale. That is to say, it is in the blending and meeting of the inner and outer impressions that the vessel is made whole.
Separation of the coarse from the fine, as practiced in alchemy, is learning to distinguish the difference between inner and outer impressions, and understanding that man’s two natures are formed from these two different sets of impressions.
The vessel we inhabit is the seat of the Holy Spirit. This means that the vessel is the container for what is called the Original Self, which can only be remembered by reunifying the fragments of the vessel. The purpose of the vessel is to receive, to contain, and to release the Dharma.
Only if the vessel's inner walls are whole can the Dharma be contained. And only if the Dharma is contained can it be released.
To contain the Dharma is to surrender, which involves an inner act of intentional suffering, or allowing. I won’t be speaking of that further in this essay, but readers should keep it firmly in mind.
In our ordinary state of inner and outer separation, the vessel cannot hold the Dharma. This state is called “illusion” because in every case, it only perceives that portion of the Dharma which can be sensed by the part that takes it in. To “re-member” is to reassemble the parts of the vessel.
In becoming whole, the vessel is opened.
What I see this morning, which prompts me to offer this material, is the following. It is the key to the question of the vessel.
How does one seal the vessel?
What opens the vessel is intentional inner awareness, and what seals the vessel is also intentional inner awareness.
Intentional awareness invested within each of the six inner flowers closes the “gap” between the chakras.
The gaps are caused by blockages at each note, or point. When energy moves through evolution in the inner octave, if it reaches a blocked center, it deflects, thus thwarting the evolution of the octave. Because the inner vessel is not whole, the energy "leaks" out at each point instead of circulating, and it runs wild through the system. (This is referred to as wrong work of centers in The Gurdjieff system).
When the flowers are "opened" with invested attention and intention—thus receiving the finer impressions they were built for—the inner energy flows correctly according to the laws of the enneagram.
This effectively forms a "seal," because the "opening" of the flowers allows the energy to circulate within the octave instead of pouring out at every point. Zen tradition refers to this opening as "breaking the joints," referring to the knots—i.e. blockages-- between segments of bamboo.
Thus the opening of the individual chakras with attention and intention is actually also the closing of the gaps in the octave- hence the term "seal". It may seem contradictory, but it isn't at all. Opening and closing are two ends of one stick.
If all the blockages are removed, circulation becomes complete and in one sense actually "STOPS"--because at that point ALL THE PARTS HAVE BECOME ONE THING, ie, a single note in a higher octave.
Hence Gurdjieff’s emphasis on what he calls conscious labor and intentional suffering.
In opening the vessel, the vessel is sealed, and in sealing the vessel, the vessel is opened. Sealing and opening are the same thing.
If we know that as we open, we seal, and as we seal, we open, our vessel can then be prepared to receive the Dharma.
We empty the vessel in order to fill the vessel, and ultimately, we fill the vessel so that it may be emptied again.
Our first and greatest obstacle is our attachment to the outer five senses. We are identified with these senses; this distracts us. Our whole world is created through these senses. We remain unaware of fully half of what is real.
Only by developing an awareness of the inner six senses, creating a relationship with the flowers, can we begin to balance our state. And the question I have visited very often in essays-- investment of the attention with intention within the inner centers -- has everything to do with this work.
The second realization:
There is no I, there is only Truth. the way to the Truth is through the Heart.
Through some advisory assistance from a close friend, it came to my attention today that these words—which are not my own, but were given to me—have a significant nuance which needs to be expounded on, lest mistaken impressions arise.
“I” and “We”—the two aspects of Being which I discussed at more length in my original essay on the enneagram—are both aspects of one single Truth, which consists of an essential, universal individuality—undividedness, or, oneness of all.
This oneness does embody personhood, but—inevitably--combines unity and multiplicity within itself. In this manner it transcends what we call “I,” because it contains both singularity and multiplicity, whereas “I” is polarized, expressing only the first aspect of singularity.
Gurdjieff calls this “His Uni-Being-Endlessness: God, Allah—the heart of the universe and of Being itself.
When whole, the vessel reveals the Heart. The Heart is the center of the vessel, and the when the heart is opened, then and only then will Truth be known.
The inner meaning of this is that, as the Gnostics taught and the Sufis still teach, there is a path directly to God that lies within the effort of Being.
Part of the work that was given to me some years ago was to reassemble this knowledge from a personal inner perspective based on actual experience, and to reconnect Gurdjieff’s enneagram with what is called the Great Vehicle: the path that leads to the heart of Christ, and liberation.
Allow me to explain: to attain these two realizations does not mean that one has arrived anywhere. To attain the realizations is simply to organically know the Way within the body. This is where the journey begins, not where it ends.
By properly understanding this diagram in the context of its inner meaning, and its connection to the vessel that we dwell within, many things become possible that cannot be known in any other way.
The role of negative emotion
“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
This phrase has a specific meaning in relationship to the idea of containment, which is the inner practice of sealing the crucible of Being, the vessel we dwell within.
Containment is a practice in many religions. Why it needs to be a practice can be explained by proper understanding of the enneagram.
Every negative emotion we have- every judgment, every inner movement arising from ordinary being which, in our nearly perpetual state of inattention, faults or devalues the existing moment, person, or thing—is a trespass.
The word “trespass” is a more accurate word than “sin,” which is what the modern version of the prayer uses. This because when energy which belongs in the right evolution of the octave “leaks” out of the vessel, it trespasses the boundaries of the octave it belongs in and collapses into different, repetitive, state.
Gurdjieff’s practices of non-expression of negative emotion and outer considering, Christ’s compassion, Buddhism’s mindfulness, are all practices specifically aimed at containing energy within the vessel. Intention and awareness--conscious action, or third force—are required in order to avoid such “deflections of the octave.”
To reject, to be negative, is to fail to take in what arrives. Each judgment or negative emotional impulse, spits what must be accepted—allowed, or suffered—back out into the world, instead of allowing its energy to enter the parts that perceive so that it can feed us. So in judgment, in rejection, we unconsciously force the very food we need for our development out of the vessel—it’s a form of inner “vomiting.”
“Lead us not into temptation” refers to our habit of inviting such negativity, of actually encouraging such leaks; “deliver us from evil” refers to being granted the grace of having an inner wish not to act on such impulses.
A careful examination of the inner process during daily life will help us to see just how often we engage in activity which “breaks the seals” on our vessel. Our habits are unconscious; taken from a certain point of view every unconscious action becomes a trespass.
This is why Gurdjieff said that man is constantly losing all the energy he needs for his development, and why he urged us to go against our habits—the idea has an inner, as well as an outer, meaning, after all. Our outer habits are bad enough, but they pale in comparison to our inner ones. We can change outer behavior all we want, and create the appearance of goodness and change, but if we do not change our inner behavior, nothing can really ever change at all.
Of course it sets an impossibly high standard to expect of ourselves that we remain forever conscious. We cannot “do” that—and, indeed, the prayer itself recognizes that. This is why this particular passage begins with a request to forgive us our trespasses. The understanding that we will trespass is implicit.
The further understanding that help is available in this matter is also implicit. The very structure of the enneagram itself shows us this visually in the form of the triangle—the law of three-in its role as vehicle for arrival of the energy that gives the shocks required to allow the evolution of the scale.
The only way in which we can ultimately understand and integrate all of the ideas in the Gurdjieffian oeuvre is by understanding the enneagram. Gurdjieff told Ouspensky that men used to judge each other’s level of development by what they understood about this diagram. That’s because if taken properly, every single idea in Gurdjieff’s teaching can be understood from the point of view of the diagram, and integrated into one’s overall understanding of Being and its relationship to the cosmos.
I cannot stress this enough: if we rightly understand the diagram, it explains everything that is necessary for our inner development. That right understanding begins with the understanding that we are the crucible—that this diagram is a picture of our inner process. It’s how we work.
That is where our responsibility begins: how do we fill our vessel, and with what?
We’re not judged by the contents of our vessel so much as held accountable.
The whole point of life is that we reach the moment of death with the contents of our crucible—whatever they may be—completed. At that moment we are what we are. If the crucible is full of excrement, that is what we will have in our hands when we face the moment of accountability. Accountability is the principle behind karma, and it—rather than the cruder understanding of judgment as offered by the old testament—is the principle behind the global meaning of sin in Christianity.
Gurdjieff’s work approaches this set of ideas by offering the concept of responsibility.
The word is the choice of a true adept: it synthesizes the essential Buddhist concept of action-within-life with the Christian idea of accountability and illustrates a relationship in life—work within life—in the sense of the response that we offer as we discover ourselves within each “point” or note on our inner octave. Responsibility is the antidote for trespasses: as was pointed out yesterday, to be aware, to be responsive, is to begin to apply the required hermetic seal.
Hence Jeanne De Salzmann’s famous adage to “stay in front of our lack.” This effort creates a moment when we bring the requirements of our inner work—the attention to integrity of the inner, emotional vessel—into contact with the inflowing impressions of our outer life.
In itself, this is action within life—work within life—which helps seal the vessel.
And hence, of course, the ongoing emphasis in the Gurdjieff work on “work in life.”
