A Talk to the Gurdjieff Group

I am very happy that you came all the way here to see us. I heard many things from my shaykh about your master, Gurdiieff, the closeness he felt towards him and how, after he died, John Bennett used to come frequently to see him. Gurdjieff met Grandshaykh Abdullah Daghistani, at least, once. Some of John Bennett's American followers met Shaykh Nazim.

In the path to God, we do not think that there are differences between brothers. All masters are one in this universe. All of them are the same. If you met this or that one, in our belief, it is the same; for all of them receive their power from One who is the center of everything, whose name in Arabic is Allah, the God, our Lord.

One day, Gurdjieff met our Master secretly. Our Grandshaykh wished nothing to be known of that meeting and so it was not mentioned. All that was said in Gurdjieff's books was that he met some saints in Damascus and Baghdad with no mention of names. Still, he ordered John Bennett to meet with Grandshaykh frequently and allowed him to mention these meetings in his books. That is why John Bennett spoke about

Grandshaykh. On the occasion of their secret meeting, Grandshaykh gave permission to Gurdjieff to use the power of the Nine Points with which some of you, I think, are familiar. However, he did not give Gurdjieff permission to use all that power and so Gurdjieff did not pass the full measure of that power on to his followers. The power Grandshaykh gave Gurdjieff was like that of a reflection in a mirror--resembling the original, but not the original. The secret of it he kept in his heart. Why? Because he knew that at the end of this world someone is coming who will use that power completely in all the earth. That time is the time of perfection and everything, at that time, will attain its perfection and be complete. And all saints in this world, in this universe, await that miraculous age.

We live now in a time of darkness. Saints now do not display their power. Look now how many people are following Gurdjieff? One thousand? Fifty-thousand? One hundred thousand? One million? How many people are there in this world? In whose hands are they left? Have they been forgotten or left aside? Impossible. Saints have the power to attract many to their association. But they do not use it because they do not have permission. It is given them for specific purposes and is not to be used everywhere and on every occasion. And that is the reason why saints nowadays see only certain people, special ones. You cannot find diamonds everywhere, they are rare. I likewise, the followers of saints are very rare, like stars on dark nights. All of you are like stars on dark nights, heralding that golden age to come when this has passed away. On that day, you and the followers of other saints will be shining and all saints will come together and use that miraculous power given to them by Allah. And on that day, everywhere in this world you will find peace.

That is why Gurdjieff did not fully unfold the secret that was in his heart but used only some of it. Many saints have passed away having used only a portion of their secrets. Yet there will come a time at the end of this world when that one who is to come will restore everything.

We have been created, you and I, by our Lord. He has not left us alone to ourselves. In everything, we are equal. Human beings, I repeat, are equal in everything both women and men. There is no "man", no "woman" in the name "human being." That expression includes everything without discrimination. God did not say, "This is a man, this is a woman." He said "human beings." God said that He sent prophets and saints as a mercy for human beings; He did not say, "I send saints and prophets for men," or, "I send saints and prophets for women." That is why you can find among the saints both women and men. There are women who are considered saints and there are men that are considered saints. In God's eyes there is no discrimination. Everyone is equal. Each human being has a light in his and her heart. This light is the light of sainthood. Unfortunately, most human beings are not uncovering or discovering what they have, but they are burying it under more and more veils of hard-heartedness and love of this life.

God has created us with love. He did not create us for hell fire. When we who have children see them do something bad, we try to correct them. We do not burn them up. We do not put them in hell. We try to correct them. We do not even beat them, that is not allowed. We only try to correct them, and tell them: 'This is right'; 'This is wrong'. God did not create human beings for punishment. Many people nowadays say this, but it is not true. They are showing a cruel side of human nature which is evil and springs from Satan. God is merciful, God is full of love, God is Light. With His mercy and love He created us. Why are we not using that love and mercy which God has given us, that love and mercy for which we were created? Why are we not using it to reach out to others?

If a woman loves a man or if a man loves a woman, you will find one near the door of the other. Both are desiring to reach their beloved. Not for one second do they wish to be left without some connection to their beloved. When two persons love each other, they are always together. But what about God who put that love in our heart in the first place' who possesses all love, who, in fact, has Oceans of love? Don't you think that He loves you? He loves everyone! That love that Godd put in our hearts, the love which makes us live together, He possesses all of it, completely, in His hands. What about Him? Does He not love I the servant whom He created with His own hands? Why are we not using that love and coming to Him? Why are we not opening those secrets our Lord has planted in our hearts?

Sometimes you find a person who is childless. Yet that person loves someone unrelated to him, so she or he writes a will which will make an unrelated person heir to everything. This comes from love. God loves us. He created us and he is giving us everything. Why are they not taking what He is giving us and using it? Rather, people are running away from those gifts. But that is why He sent prophets and messengers, and after them saints, masters of this universe. There are one-hundred and twenty-four thousand saints on this earth, running here and there to look into people's hearts, to bring them back to God. It is for that reason that saints know each other and meet one with another.

Once I heard from my shaykh: When I say "heard", it means that if you only hear, it is not complete; when you hear and see, it is complete. And even then it is not complete. When you hear, see, and feel, then it is complete, and even then it is still not complete; when you hear, see, feel, and smell, then it is complete. Nowadays many people are reading books. [Pointing to a murid] Every time I see him he has a computer in front of him. I ask him, "Do you have Beethoven in here?" He says yes, the Fifth Symphony. He plays it, but you can only hear. You cannot see. You cannot feel as if you were in an auditorium and Beethoven is playing. Where is Beethoven? Is he inside that computer? Can you see him? No. You can only hear him. So when I say "heard", I mean not that I heard; for the highest level is when you can see completely.

We are reflections just as everything here, in this mortal life, is a reflection. We are mere imitations of our ultimate realities. Our ultimate realities, however, are in the presence of our Lord. In this respect, do not think that you are ever away from your Lord. We are, in this life, reflections. It is just as when you look into a mirror and see images. But the realities where are they? Our real selves are in the presence of our Lord; there we exist in a real fashion. Here, we are not really existing. Here, we are imitating. When are we truly existing? We truly exist when our images match our realities.

The aim of the saints is to take you to your real self. That is why they spoke and wrote books. They tried to teach you in order to reach out to you. When a saint says something, you cannot escape seeing it, smelling it, feeling it. This is the power of the saints. It is not the power of the saint to let you take his book and read it. When you read, you do not feel, you do not see, you are only reading. You must receive power directly from his heart, not from words written in books. And that power of saints is communicated to the hearts of their followers. If a group of people are following a saint, you see them united. But when you observe people who do not follow saints, who read books by themselves and do not take a guide, you will find them separated. The power of a saint is always felt through his followers.

My shaykh once said: "Saints are like the circumference of a circle. On that circumference, there are an infinite number of points--millions and billions, no one knows how many. Yet the center is but a single point. In the center you cannot have many points, you have only one point. And from that point each saint receives light, receives power. The radii extend to every point on the circumference but the distance from that center to each point on the circumference is the same."

Excerpted from the book Mercy Oceans Shore of Safety

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Дата добавления: 2015-11-14