Jesus said it like this when his disciples when they asked how to pray, "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tel you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go to your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This, then, is how you should pray:

Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one."

First of all Jesus isn't saying you can only pray kneeling next to your bed with the door locked, all by yourself. He is saying not to be a show. So many have decided to, rather than being a light for others through how they LIVE, but to "witness" by being a Bible basher, screaming condemnation from the street corners and by praying loud and extensive prayers that people have to take notice of.

We are called to be the "salt of the earth" and a "light in the darkness." This involves LOVING EVERYONE BUT HATING THE SIN. This involves living the lives that we would want Jesus to be proud of. This involves being not of this world. The Bible also commands us to pray continuously, which can (and should) be done without needing to create a stage for yourself, putting yourself in the limelight.

The second part of what Jesus was saying in Matthew is what people call the "Lord's prayer." In fact this is more of a students prayer, not to be recited word for word each and every day. It is a guideline of what can be said. One this that can be noted that we just read right over is the very beginning. "Our Father." In the Greek, the word that was used is 'Abba', better translated to 'Daddy.'

Years ago, my sister and I gave my dad a plaque for father's day that read, "Any man can be a father, but only a special man can be a dad." There is a distinct difference between these two names. It's not the formality, it's the relationship. A father gives his DNA to his child, a Daddy gives his heart and his life. Our Father in heaven created us to have an intimate relationship with him, like a DADDY and his child who he would give his life for (and he did on the cross at Calvary).

Now, the easiest way to pray is to talk like you would to a daddy, in conversation and the best part is not having someone to talk to, but someone who talks back. Just yesterday I prayed that my fiance's flight would not be delayed much longer (he had been waiting for about 4 hours and they still had an "unknown" departure). This may sound like a petty prayer to be lifted up to the creator of the universe but he was tired and worn out, just wanted to be home, even if only for the night. My heart ached for him and I knew that there was only one who could get the pilot there so they could take off. Not even 5 minutes after I said the prayer, I got a call saying they were loading the plane and getting ready to take off. My prayer was answered.

This is one of endless examples that I could give of answered prayers. Some claim these are "coincidences" but I can guarantee any individual who had a lump in an MRI and then it miraculously disappears in the next doctors visit would call it far beyond a "coincidence." What is overlooked by so many is that while they claim to believe one thing, so many worship idols.

It doesn't have to be a golden statue to be called an idol. Worship is whatever you give your attention to. Money, clothes, popularity and fame. These are all idols that people worship. Jesus once had a rich young man ask him how to get to heaven and when the rich man was faced with giving up his wealth he found himself in a predicament that could keep him from the Glory of God. It isn't about having money, its about having such a hold on it that not even the golden streets of heaven will get you to release the clutch on the check book. In this story, money was the idol.

So, you heard my story about how my God answered my prayer, as simple as it was. Now, when was the last time your check book or your famed movie star that you "idolize" or even your popularity answered your deepest need? Whether it was healing your dying mother or getting you to your plane on time, there is only one God that can talk back and change your life.

Prayer is alive and active conversation with a living God who desires a relationship...who answers you when you cry out?

After watching the video for about 5 times in the past week, I viewed it again in tribute of Larry. This time instead of concerating what Ellen had to say about the suituation, I was focused on he being gay and her coming out despite being the most hated or laughed at woman in Hollywood. Her coming out has invited many others to do so as well. Ellen is a hero to many and is a role model to all. She is to me. You know how everyone says, one person can change the world? Ellen has just proven that pharse. More people are coming out and more people are accpeting that their bestfriend just might be gay.

Ellen did change the world. She didn't do it alone. She had the support of her friends, producers, writers, family and fans. People accepted that their favorite comedian is gay and now Ellen's daytime tv show is very popular with many stars being featured. Ellen came out from hiding. Many people followed. Many more accepted that there are gays in the community of the United States.

Ellen spoke her mind and she told the truth. Someone else did the same. George Carlin.Some of you would know about George Carlin's death. Tragic. He was an entertainer who didn't care or worry about other people and always spoke his mind. This gave him his humour, finding loop holes and twisting reality. I didn't want to blog about his death. It is a sad thing. I didn't want to blog about it. d

I will say proudly that George and Ellen have changed the world in their own ways. This world and its people should always be ready for change. It will come and it can never be avoided.

I've been praying and praying for help from whatever god may be listening, but I think god has abandoned me for none of my prayers are answered and I feel very alone. I am so spiritually confused. I used to be a Christian, but couldn't accept a lot of what is in the Bible and what the Church preaches, so I became a Pagan. Yet, I can't let go of the nagging feeling that I'm going to hell for it.

Is there really one true god? Or are all religions just different paths to the same Divine Force? I look at the history of religion and see all the same myths and traditions, Christians stole a lot of their stuff from the Pagans. Several Pagan gods were born on December 25, of a virgin mother, and performed some of the same, or similar, miracles as Jesus. Many of the myths and traditions were alive and well in Pagan religions thousands of years before the appearance of Christianity.

What does that mean? How can Christianity be the one true religion when they merely copied from the Pagan religions?

And then there is all the hypocrisy in the Bible. For instance, Jesus never once spoke against homosexuality. The only time homosexuality is condemned in the New Testament is by the Apostle Paul, who also says that women should not wear make-up, should not speak in church, and should cover their heads in shame as they were 'made of man not of the glory of god.' However, Jesus did speak strongly against divorce and remarriage saying that anyone who divorces for any reason other than adultery and remarries are themselves committing adultery as in god's eyes they are still married to their first spouse. Yet, half of my church had divorced and remarried for reasons other than adultery. So all of a sudden that's okay, but it's still not okay to be homosexual?

It seems to me that the Bible is used merely as an excuse to justify their hatred and they ignore all the parts of it that are inconvenient to them. The Bible has been used to justify slavery, segregation, the domination and subjugation of women, and hatred of all others who do not follow the Christian god, to name just a few.

How can I follow such a god? I just can't. Yet, I'm still terrified of being abandoned to the flames of hell for all eternity.

I just want to have faith again. I want to be able to trust in a loving god who is guiding me and protecting me and giving me strength to go on throughout all the trials and tribulations of life.

I have no strength of my own. I am weak and weary and can no longer bear the weight of these burdens. I want to give up but am tethered to this life by the fear of going to hell. Suicide, after all, is apparently an unforgivable sin.

So, I'm left with no other choice but to go on in this life, lost and alone, with no god to speak of.

The doctrine of irresistible grace refers to the biblical truth that whatever God decrees to happen will inevitably come to pass, even in the salvation of individuals. The Holy Spirit will work in the lives of the elect so that they inevitably will come to faith in Christ. The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit never fails to bring to salvation those sinners whom He personally calls to Christ. 

At the heart of this doctrine is the answer to the question: Why does one person believe the Gospel and another does not? Is it because one is smarter, has better reasoning capabilities, or possesses some other characteristic that allows them to realize the importance of the Gospel message? Or is it because God does something unique in the lives of those that He saves?

If it is because of what the person who believes does or is, then in a sense they are responsible for their salvation and they have a reason to boast. However, if the difference is solely that God does something unique in the hearts and lives of those who believe in Him and are saved, then there is no ground for boasting and salvation is truly a gift of grace.

Of course the biblical answer to these questions is that the Holy Spirit does do something unique in the hearts of those who are saved. The Bible tells us that God saves people “according to His mercy…through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit”. In other words those who believe the Gospel and are saved do so because they have been transformed by the Holy Spirit. 

We focus all of our energies on this one verse hoping that it will somehow hold all of the answers and when we feel lost and confused we can’t seem to understand why God’s promise to Jeremiah no longer brings us hope and promise to our future.

It’s not because God has left us. It’s not because the promise has changed. It’s because we have become so short-sighted on this one verse of promise that we fail to see where exactly it is that God is leading us in our future.

Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to “trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.” In our own visions and ideas of the future, we are in control; we know how to handle every situation that we face. But, if we were to let go of our strong hold on life and truly lean on God in trust and faith beyond what we know, then God would lead us straight past what we plan for ourselves and into some much greater.

David said something similar to Solomon as he knew he was at the end of his life. “Get to know the God of your ancestor. Worship and serve him with your whole heart and with a willing mind. For the LORD sees every heart and understands and knows every plan and thought. If you seek him you will find him.” (1Chronicles 28:9). We don’t serve some ambiguous God, disconnected and uninterested. We serve a God who loves us enough to die on a cross so each and every one of us can not only have a plan and a purpose, but so that we can spend eternity with him once we have lived out that plan he created us for.

I don’t believe that we were necessarily created for one thing, perhaps thousands of little things that affect lives beyond our scope. But whatever it is that we have as our purpose, we will not only change other people’s lives, but have our life changed. From a doctor who saves a life to a teacher who changes a child’s heart to a sales associate whose smile brightens the day of someone stuck in depression.

Lives are changed everyday by you and by me beyond what we see.

The plans that God has for us will be revealed as we seek him, love him and live for him day by day.

There is a great confusion out in the realm of Christianity saying if you are saved and living right you will be blessed with happiness, wealth and anything you ever wanted. That sounds good to me but it does not measure up with scriptures.

Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. -2 Timothy 3:12

So goes the example of our Saviour: Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. -John 15:20

We need to start in verse 20; we need to separate persecution and prosecution. If we sin and suffer the consequences of it we cannot cry out they are persecuting me! You get pulled over for doing 50 mph in a 35 zone and you get a ticket, you broke the law and that defiantly falls under the later not the former.

So how do we deal with the real trials that come along in life? I know recently at work I have been dealing with a situation that just plain crossed the line into harassment. I was so severe that a manager that witnessed it asked me if I wanted to pursue harassment charges against this individual. For some reason, I didn't want to at that time. As it continued I wondered if I did the wrong thing. Then I came across the verses in 1 Peter 2 listed above and while not easy, it was the way God wanted me to deal with it: To follow in His steps.

The phrase follow in His steps is thought provoking. I think of my childhood where it would snow in the winter and my Dad would go out to clean the driveway and I would follow him out. I could see his footprints in the snow, and would hit as many as I could but I could not hit them all, but I followed them as close as I could and stayed in his path. We are not God but we can be obedient and follow as close as we can. We are given a few commands (don't you hate that word, but these are not written as suggestions!):

• Did no sin: He is the Great High Priest that was temped in all ways yet sinless! this should be our goal. While we do sin, it should be our goal not to sin.
• No Guile in His mouth: There was no deceit. He was honest and forthright and so should we, as becoming the saints of God.
• Did not exchange evil for evil. As we are commanded we should bless our enmies and pray for them that despitefully use us.
• Took His sufferings without threatening. How unlike us! When we feel the slightest injustice we want vengeance! Our feelings were hurt and that is not right! How dare they! They are unsaved, how do we actually expect them to act? They crucified Jesus, do we expect them to love us? (See verses above).
• Committed Himself to the Righteous Judge. God will deal with it, so we can relax. He may not do it in the way we would (Get them now! They looked at me funny, they were mean to me!) but may use the situation (and us) to draw them closer to Him. Not what I would choose, but He did have compassion on me when I was unsaved.

I did not say this is easy, just right. And fortunately we do not have to do it alone. God within us, the Holy Spirit, will guide us if we let Him.

Just something to think about.

“O could I tell, ye surely would believe it!
O could I only say what I have seen!
How should I tell or how can ye receive it,
How, till He bringeth you where I have been?”

This poem was at the bottom of todays My Up most for His Highest by Oswald Chambers, and it reflects what I feel in my heart right now. As Jeremiah says “I have a fire that is shut up in my bones” that is what I feel. I wish there was some way to express to everyone what God has brought me through and has shown me. I wish that I could say something that would open your eyes to see clearly. I wish I could do or say something that would rain God’s kingdom in the hearts of every man, women, and child. I wish that, instead of making everyone mad with my words, everyone would embrace my words, eat them, and let them be to your mouth sweet as honey.Unfortunately, my words mean nothing. I may say something that will make you think, or maybe even seek out the truth, but words are just that…words.

The truth is, we must all walk the same path. Now, I have heard people say that we are all on deferent paths but the same destination, and that is a false teaching. We must all walk the very same path. One may interpret their experiences they have on that path somewhat different than their cohorts, but it will be the same path.

We must all walk the same road as Christ. We have our own Calvary road we must travel. We have our cross we must bare, and there are no words I can say that can make you walk that road. I can only hope that my life can illuminate that path, so you can see “The Way”. My prayer is that God will use my life any way He sees fit, so you, my beloved, can see Him…The Way, The Truth, and The Life.

the Prieuré where Gurdjieff's Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man was housed
(fully functional from 1922-1924)
photo with thanks to Gilgamesh Pictures, click on image to enlarge.

Fasting in Christianity and Gurdjieff

Joseph Azize,
17 March 2008

1. Introduction
2. Fasting: Definitions and Reasons
3. The Constantinople Notes of Mr. Ferapontoff
4. “Palm Sunday”, the Tchekhovitch and Nott Lists
5. Fasting at the Prieuré
6. The Account of Fasting in Beelzebub
7. Mme Claustres on Fasting
8. Prince Ozay
9. Christianity
10. Final Comments

1 Introduction

There is reason to explore the possible relationship of Gurdjieff’s ideas and practices to those of Christianity. I will here just take one particular topic: fasting. Eventually, we may be able to draw some larger conclusions. As Ouspensky said: “We are not trying to found a church or a sect, but simply to promote a method of education and study” (Daily News, 19 February 1923, p. 1). There need not be any conflict between Christianity and the use of Gurdjieff’s methods.

To anticipate, the value of fasting can, I think, be expressed in Gurdjieff’s terms thus: fasting causes changes in the tempo of the body’s metabolism, and hence upsets the long-established coordination of intellectual, feeling and organic instinct (the “Zoostat”, see the chapter “Hypnotism”, p. 559). This shock to the Zoostat presents an opportunity, but only an opportunity, for “real notions” to pass to the subconscious (which ought to be our real consciousness and to become active in the entirety of a man, pp. 24-5 and 579). The shock also allows impulses in the subconscious, such as conscience, to play a role in our lives. Gurdjieff also refers to the health benefits of fasting.

However, as a general rule, there is no fasting in the contemporary Gurdjieff tradition, although attention is paid to how one eats, and to oneself as one eats. Here Christianity can take something which is consistent with its own traditions from Gurdjieff, and the Gurdjieff students could, and I would say should, take something from Christianity.

The reader could closely consider pp. 71-4 of Solange Claustres’ Becoming Conscious with G.I. Gurdjieff. She relates Gurdjieff’s teaching that concentrated attention consumes a good deal of energy and material substance, therefore, anyone engaged in such work “should eat the best quality foods, nutritious and rich in vitamins.” (p. 73) If this is so, and I believe from experience that it is, then people on any religious path could give more consideration to the quality of their food. For example, I would contend that both on the grounds given by Mme Claustres, and because it goes against essential values, we should not eat refined sugar, industrially processed foods, or smoke. Gurdjieff gave indications in the chapter “America”, which are not always followed in the Gurdjieff groups. Then there are serious questions of how the growers, reapers and producers of the food have been paid for their services. The Gurdjieff groups are well placed to conduct research into this and to organize food supplies which would not offend against conscience.

In the final analysis, the questions of food itself, what to eat, how much and how to eat it, and production, are all related to the question of fasting, which is how Mme Claustres treats them. And abstinence from food and drink is also related to abstinence in other ways (such as of the senses). As we shall see, Gurdjieff also related fasting to other topics such as repentance and confession, and this is correct. There is a very real connection between these issues.

2 Fasting: Definitions and Reason

What is fasting? The Catholic tradition distinguishes fasting from food and drink from abstinence. The law of abstinence, in a relatively recent formulation, bound all Catholics from the day after their fourteenth birthday, to their death. The law of fasting bound all adult Catholics (generally from their eighteenth birthday until the age of 60, i.e. until midnight completing their fifty-ninth year.)

The law of abstinence forbade the use of meat, but unlike the Orthodox tradition of fasting, which forbade eggs, animal fats and olive oil, the Catholic law of abstinence allows all these. Fish and cold-blooded animals such as clams are always permitted in the Catholic rules of abstinence, even if they are not recommended. Water, and even milk and fruit juices are always permitted, even when fasting. So the law of abstinence does not restrict the amount of food one eats, but only the type.

There is a distinction between the Western (Latin) and the Eastern Catholic traditions of fasting. The Latin Catholic law of fasting allows but one full meal a day, which is generally the mid-day meal. Should a person desire, they may have small collations, generally something very modest like a piece of toast, at breakfast and evening. Some recommend nothing more than a small collation in the evening, should it be needed, so that sleep not be entirely impossible. However, the size of the collations depends upon local custom. The Eastern Catholic law of fasting allows no food whatsoever, but only water before noon, and from noon there is no restriction.

In the Catholic discipline, if one fasts one also abstains. Hence, on days of fasting, when Catholics eat, they may have fish. In the Eastern rites, however, partly perhaps because of the scarcity of fish, but not only for that reason, vegetarianism is preferred on days of fast. However, this preference is, I am informed by Orthodox friends, disappearing.

When, then, does one fast? The general rule is that Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, the first and last days of Lent, are days of fasting. It is also recommended, and in the Eastern churches it is or at least was essential, that one fast throughout the whole of Lent. Then, there are other smaller fasts, too, which vary from rite to rite. One of these, the Fast of Nineveh, seems to be named after the fasting Ninevites of the Book of Jonah. These fasts were associated with other feasts, such as Christmas and the Assumption.

Why fast? To start with, the physical benefits of prudent fasting are apparent. A study of the Mormons, who fast on the first Sunday of each month, missing two meals, showed substantial health benefits. Another study of what we would call abstinence in the Greek Orthodox Church, showed that abstinence had significant value. This is important, and should be of importance to the Gurdjieff tradition. The first Obligolnian striving relates to the care of the body. In the scenario of the Struggle of the Magicians, the pupils of the white and black magicians are distinguished by the health of their bodies and their postures. The physical body, after all, is part of essence. It should be cared for. Here, both the Christian and Gurdjieff traditions agree, at least in theory, although in practice too little is done. Incidentally, Mr Adie used to take very great interest in the health of his pupils, and I know that he would recommend to overweight persons that they lose weight: however, he did all of this counselling in private. In all the time I knew him and in all the tapes of meetings I have heard, he never once raises these issues in groups. So far as I know, he never used fasting. However, Leon MacLaren most definitely did.

Physical benefits would be sufficient to raise fasting as a serious matter for research within both traditions. But there is more.

3 The Constantinople Notes of Mr. Ferapontoff
I refer here to a privately published 17,530 word document held by Mr Adie, titled the “Constantinople Notes of Mr. Ferapontoff”. These notes were made by Boris Ferapontoff, a pupil whom Gurdjieff evidently considered to be one of his finest (he was named as one of the assistant instructors and did in fact take movements, de Hartmann, Our Life with Mr. Gurdjieff: Definitive Edition, pp. 177 and 210 ). They appear to be Ferapontoff’s notes of the lectures which Ouspensky commenced giving in Constantinople in 1920 (Miraculous p. 382). However, they are clearly not verbatim and so would appear to be the intellectual property not of Ouspensky but of Ferapontoff. Of fasting, these notes say the following, which is consistent with, but expands what Ouspensky records in Miraculous at pp. 357-8. At pp. 30-1 of the manuscript, we read:

Fasting. It cleans off the rust. The machine works at a greater speed. At times it produces unhealthy excitations, visions, voices. Some kinds of ecstasy pass through strange forms. If as a rule a man uses a great deal of food, then while fasting he must work still [31] more. He should saw wood for about five hours a day for as long as a week. Eating nothing will do no harm if it is possible to work, otherwise one would be poisoned. An outlet should be found for the substances which are secreted for the digestion of food. If a starving man is alone, he will die.

Under the influence fasting secret sides of a man may be aroused. What he had dreamt about. Another cannot take this into account.

Fasting is used as an experiment, for self-study, for hygiene. To learn not to use superfluous energy for digestion. But neither fast nor starvation change the habits of the stomach. The momentum is still greater. It is only in the beginning that the organism may appear to have learnt something.

The first sentence, “it cleans off the rust”, might be understood in terms of Gurdjieff’s teaching prior to the experiment in fasting at Essentuki, that the centres work in a disordered unison. A definite activity of the intellectual centre necessarily brings a definite work of the other centres, and vice versa. Therefore, unless the work can touch all parts of a person at once, the results of efforts will be temporary and lopsided (pp. 347-8 Miraculous). The point is developed there, but also in other places, such as in the “First Talk in Berlin” in Views from the Real World. However, Gurdjieff stressed this at the time he introduced the fasting exercises.

The idea can be developed in this way: we are accustomed to take certain postures of thought, of emotion and of body. An example was given to me recently by a friend who described how when her husband even recalls how he was bullied as a child, he hunches over, and she can see that he is actually fearful. The intellectual memory brings a certain set of postures, and these, of course, limit whatever thoughts and emotions might be available. These thoughts, emotions and organic instincts can be thought of as “rusted” together into place. That is, his psychic freedom is limited by the accretions of time. Our organic feeling of ourselves is conditioned by nothing so much as our foods: our eating and drinking, breathing and perception. Changing the intake of food and drink will immediately upset conditioned networks of reaction.

If I am correct, Gurdjieff is saying that man realises new possibilities of free movement through the unaccustomed feeling of hunger, and, I would add, the unaccustomed impression of depriving oneself of food and perhaps drink. Through fasting, the rust which holds the man-machine to a small repertoire of habitual arrangements is partially cleared away. This would explain why in “Palm Sunday” he said that fasting was a means of cleansing. It cleanses the machine of what I call “the unwanted accretions of time”.

I am not the only one who finds that fasting brings an unexpected but wholly welcome sense of freedom, not only physically, but in the feeling and the intellect, too.

Ferapontoff’s notes coincide with what Gurdjieff said in “Palm Sunday”, i.e. “Fasting is used as a means of altering our metabolism and, consequently, of altering the tempo of life and movement in us.” The machine comprises all the centres, except of course for the higher intellectual and emotional which are connected to, and permeate, but are not of the machine. Even small experiments with fasting provide more perceptions, finer feelings, and a smoother working of the moving and especially the instinctive centres. The role of the instinctive centre is of critical importance in spiritual development, but it is dangerous to interfere with it. Therefore, one does not directly tamper with it, but uses the other centres, and this has an effect upon the instinctive centre. For instance, it is important to sleep well: as Gurdjieff often said, sleeping and waking are inextricably bound, although the relationship is not simply one to one. Fasting improves sleep: I speak as someone with a lifelong history of sleep apnoea, related to my facial bones and secondary effects.

How should one fast in order to have these results? One fast a year will not yield lasting results. And the extent of the fast will differ from person to person: a fact on which both the Christian ascetics and Gurdjieff agree.

The next sentences in Ferapontoff might be rephrased: “At times fasting produces unhealthy excitations, visions, voices. One can experience a kind of ecstasy, which takes strange forms.” Certainly, many people feel light headed when they initially start fasting. I have no knowledge of anything beyond this.

By and large, the sentences on working while fasting do not add anything to the comments in Ferapontoff or Miraculous, but they make sense. Personally, I do not change my daily routine in the least when I fast, and in fact find that fasting seems to make physical exertion (e.g. in the gym) more delightful. Finally, to these sentences was added in the words “If a starving man is alone, he will die.” I suspect that what is meant is that a fasting man is in greater danger of starvation if alone. This may well be true: St John Chrysostom did permanent damage to himself by his fasting when he was alone.

But I suspect there is more than this: one should not change one’s impressions by going off alone while fasting. Impressions are a food, and if one is used to being around people, one should fast in the accustomed circumstances.

There is always the imperative of common sense. Gurdjieff’s comments should not be taken absolutely. For example, I would say that one should not drive while fasting if one becomes in the least light headed while fasting, and if there is any danger of being held up in heavy traffic without food or drink which one may require.

The question is, how to judge what is needed? Fasting may help us sense how much food and drink we need. With food, pleasures and sleep, said Gurdjieff, there is a limit to what is necessary, and immediately after this point has been reached, sin begins. “A sin”, said Gurdjieff, “is something which is not necessary.” And this must be true: sin is not necessary. But then, for Gurdjieff “Sins are what keeps a man on one spot if he has decided to move and if he is able to move.” (Miraculous p. 357). For people who are not on the way or approaching it, there is no sin simply because they are not going anywhere. As we shall see in section 9, this is similar to the teaching of St Maximos the Confessor.

So, there is a question as to how much one eats even if one is not fasting. Christianity speaks of Gluttony as being one of the seven deadly sins, and I am sure every religion has the same concept.

I would paraphrase the final pertinent comments from Ferapontoff’s notes thus: “Under the influence of fasting secret sides of a man may be aroused. Dreams may take on reality for him. Another person cannot take this into account, and so the fast should be moderate.” If this is a fair rewording, then I suggest that a man always be ready to break his fast if he feels that it may be necessary, whether because he will otherwise faint and he is alone, or because he is losing the ability to distinguish dreams from reality.

Finally, note that Ouspensky says that fasting can be used in three ways:

1. as an experiment,
2. for self-study,
3. and for health reasons.

Further, he says, fasting may help us to use only the energy we need when we digest food. You will not change the stomach’s habits, but you will make it easier for the stomach to more intelligently regulate itself after it has been fasting. One should not break a fast with an expansive banquet.

4 “Palm Sunday”, the Tchekhovitch and Nott Lists

We now come to Gurdjieff’s comments in the privately published “Palm Sunday, 19 March – 1 April 1923” and the Ferapontoff notes. The “Palm Sunday” talk or talks took place in the Prieuré years (see the chronology in Wellbeloved, Gurdjieff, Astrology and Beelzebub’s Tales, p. 235), when Gurdjieff was using fasts.

These notes open with Gurdjieff advising his audience to learn some words by heart, these were:

1. Fasting,
2. Prayer,
3. Passion,
4. Repentance,
5. Confession,
6. Communion,
7. Forgiveness,
8. Suffering,
9. Tranquillity,
10. Death, and
11. Life.

Then, concerning fasting, he said that fasting in itself did not have meaning. Rather, fasting was used as a means to other ends: the ends of altering the metabolism and thus altering the tempo of life and the tempo of movement in those who fast.

This is an extremely significant statement. Anyone who has grasped what Gurdjieff intends to convey in Beelzebub and especially in the chapter “Hypnotism” will understand that the change of tempo of metabolism is, to him, a key in the change of consciousness. Gurdjieff continued, stressing that fasting was not for the sake of anybody else, and certainly not in honour of saints. This would seem a trite point, but he was stressing that “It is necessary to fast with an aim and intention”, and that these had to be for oneself. Parenthetically, it is interesting for me to remark how often Gurdjieff spoke of the necessity of aim, something to which Mr Adie returned time and again, insisting that without aim all is equal, that without aim, talk of evolution is a farce.

Gurdjieff then made a puzzling statement: he asserted that people now fast because they have fasted before, but as to why, practically no one has thought. This is just plain wrong: there is abundant evidence that throughout the last two and a half millennia fasting has never been without a rationale. It is an odd comment. What was Gurdjieff’s purpose in saying something both so palpably and gratuitously incorrect? Anyhow, he continued, saying that fasting was a means of cleansing, and could be effective only if during the fast certain conscious measures were taken. Then, the section on fasting abruptly ends, and the very next word is “Prayer”. I will mention briefly his interesting definition that prayer is thinking in a certain definite direction. He then moved to passion, saying that passion is a state similar to the gnawings of conscience. By the way, Ouspensky is recorded as having attempted, unsuccessfully, to define “passion”. Gurdjieff then spoke of “repentance” and “confession”, which he described as “something very good and very essential. It is impossible to do anything without confession …”

According to the notes, Gurdjieff then returned to the topic of fasting, saying that real Christians fasted in Lent by eating nothing at all for the first three days, and that these days were called the fast of St Theodore, for he was the founder of the Christian pre-Easter fast. However, for a week before the fast of St Theodore, they were to stop eating anything which might stick in the teeth, such as meat. Fish, he stated, could be eaten only twice throughout Lent. I shall return to these comments later, as they tie in with his statements in Beelzebub.

Lists are also produced by in C.S. Nott’s Teachings of Gurdjieff and in Tu L’Aimeras by Tchesslav Tchechovitch. Except in presentation, the French volume is superior to the English (Gurdjieff: A Master in Life), which tidies up the random order of chapters, and publishes some excellent photographs. But that hardly atones for the omissions which sometimes are clearly to make the book more palatable for the public, e.g. the story of the spectral appearance of Katherine Mansfield after her death is expunged from the English. But other omissions seem senseless. One such is that Tu L’Aimeras concludes with some words without commentary. Here they are with my translation and a note of where each word comes in the Palm Sunday list. In the right hand column:

1. La vie Life (11)
2. La jeûne Fasting (1)
3. La prière Prayer (2)
4. Le péché Sin
5. Le remords Remorse = Passion (3)
6. Le repentir Repentance (4)
7. La confession Confession (5)
8. Le rachat Redemption
9. Le pardon Forgiveness (7)
10. La communion Communion (6)
11. LA VIE LIFE (11)

“Life” appears twice in this list, but “sin”, “remorse” and “redemption” do not appear in the Palm Sunday list. That list has words which are not found here: passion (3), suffering (8), tranquillity (9) and death (10). Perhaps “remorse” is the equivalent of “passion”. In “Palm Sunday” Gurdjieff referred to “passion” as the “gnawings of conscience”. In French, remords is formed from re + mordre, “again to bite”. So I consider that a safe equation. “Tranquillity” may be equivalent to “redemption”, but that is not quite as clear.

I cannot discern a clear progression in the sequence of terms, although I can see, for example, why confession might follow repentance. However, perhaps terms 2-10 can be taken synchronously as events, processes and occurrences which must fill the gap between “life” and “LIFE”. Tchekhovitch’s list commences with life at one level, and is completed or fulfilled by a new or greater life, hence the capitals in the original. It is important that both in Gurdjieff’s list “fasting” comes first, while in Tchekhovitch’s it would be first but that he has reproduced “life” beforehand.

And, in my view, for the reasons adumbrated above, fasting is important because it can kick-start spiritual development from the ground up. it is a means of directly affecting the tempo of the body, for a conscious aim. It provides us with a shock, and hence a chance to disturb our mechanicalness, for a transcendent purpose. It is therefore a form of what Gurdjieff called “hypnotism”, or more precisely, can lead to hypnotism, meaning that it can open a channel of communication between our deeper consciousness and our “waking consciousness”, and even to higher faculties. It can also act as a catalytic agent for the transformation of reproductive energy.

Now, let us deal with Nott’s words from p. 72 of Teachings. Without any real introduction or attempt to date it, Nott says that Gurdjieff wanted them to think differently about familiar words:

1. Sin
2. Prayer
3. Fasting
4. Confession
5. Repentance
6. Supplication
7. Submission
8. Atonement
9. Death
10. Resurrection
11. Life

This is very similar to the Palm Sunday list, but Nott omits “Passion”, “Communion”, “Forgiveness”, “Suffering” and “Tranquillity”. Nott also adds “Sin”, “Supplication”, “Atonement”, “Submission” and “Resurrection” which are not in Palm Sunday.

Nott’s list differs from Tchekhovitch’s in that it omits “Remorse”, “Redemption”, “Forgiveness” and “Communion”. To Tchekhovitch’s list it adds: Supplication”, “Submission”, “Atonement”, “Death” and “Resurrection”. Of course, some of these words may be equivalents, e.g. “Communion” for “Atonement”. But unlike the list in Tchekhovitch, both Palm Sunday and Nott explicitly include “Death”, and both of these follow “Death” with “Life” or even with “Resurrection” and “Life”.

Each of these terms, says Nott, has a psychological application. For example, fasting can purify the body and alter its metabolism, but beyond this, it can refer to abstention from “useless unwilled manifestations (and) the constant giving way to negative emotions.” Nott links fasting to abstinence, that is, fasting in the intellectual and emotional centres. This, too, is known in Christian monastic writings, as we shall see. However, Nott does not deal with the other words, but moves straight on to telepathy.

A further important point is that these three extraordinary lists show how closely aligned Gurdjieff’s teaching really was to the traditional Christianity of the monastic and eremitic mystics. After all, he is more likely to have found references to confession, communion and resurrection in Christianity than in Islam or Buddhism. That the ideas are in a talk titled “Palm Sunday” seems quite appropriate. These considerations make sense of the statement attributed to Gurdjieff that Christianity was the ABC of his system (James Webb, The Harmonious Circle, p. 520). Taking all three lists together, we now have the following words:

1. Life
2. Sin
3. Fasting,
4. Prayer,
5. Passion = Remorse,
6. Repentance,
7. Confession,
8. Communion = Atonement,
9. Forgiveness,
10. Suffering,
11. Tranquillity,
12. Death,
13. Redemption = Resurrection, and
14. LIFE.

Once on a weekend work at Newport, after Mr Adie had died, we tried to make use of the technique of keeping the mind occupied by learning lists of foreign words. Gurdjieff used this at the Prieuré: entire pages of Orage’s notebooks are filled with some of these lists, and may still be viewed at the Brotherton Library in Leeds. However, for whatever reason, our attempt proved to be a disappointment. My sense at the time was that we did not persevere with sufficient understanding. Perhaps we could have read the chapter “Yelov”, where Gurdjieff speaks about how learning languages can keep the intellect usefully employed.

But, also, I think, there is a connection between such a task and fasting: both restrict and direct the activity of a centre. We might have had a different result if we had combined the word list task with a fast. If the list is of the type which Gurdjieff gave his pupils on Palm Sunday 1923, and which both Nott and Tchekhovitch found useful, then the aim and purpose of the fast, and of one’s life, is evoked. The fast is more than a physical exercise. It becomes a physical exercise which changes the tempo of the metabolism and the orientation of the entire person. For all we know, the use of a list of words, and especially such words as these (in English or in some foreign language) aids a beneficent type of hypnotism to work its magic. Bennett said that the fast at the Prieuré was followed with mental exercises combined with manual labour (Witness, p. 89), which would seem to support this suggestion.

The use of such lists can be a massive influence, every bit as much as taking a medicine. But they cannot just be used one day as a sort of curiosity and then put aside. They need to be used by people who understand something of what this progression from life to resurrection to LIFE means, and have awakened religious feeling. Then, perhaps, the steady use of such material could affect a life, and not just a part of it.

5 Fasting at the Prieuré
How did Gurdjieff use fasting at that time? Dr Mary C Bell, in the poorly organized and often superficial notes she wrote (available online and in the Gurdjieff International Review) states that the fast at the Prieuré “excited us a great deal.” While it was voluntary, the great majority of people chose to undertake it. First, they prepared themselves with enemas (why, I do not know). For two days, she said, they were allowed water, but on the third day, no water at all. Then, on day four, they were allowed the juice of one orange and on the fifth the juice of two oranges. Some people were taken off the fast at the end of a week, which they found disappointing (sic), while others continued for as long as three weeks. Dr Bell was required to weigh everyone and to take their pulse twice or even thrice a day. People generally, she said, lost a kilo a day for the first four days, then remained stationary, with some even putting on a small amount of weight.

Bell’s final remarks were that through the fast physical work and exercises in the Study House continued as usual. This is consistent with Gurdjieff’s advice to Ouspensky that when fasting one had to work and perspire in order to use up the substances elaborated by the body for the digestion of food (In Search of the Miraculous, p. 358). When the fast was completed, Bell continued, “the intake of food during the first twenty-four hours was carefully restricted.” Also, people’s complexions “vastly improved.”

Bennett’s account is a little different, and I suspect, more accurate where it conflicts with Bell’s. Bennett reports that Gurdjieff said the fast must be undertaken voluntarily and “without fear”. It was intended to effect a change of metabolism, and “to be of any benefit the first preliminary was an enema.” (Gurdjieff: Making a New World, p. 146) Bennett continues that the fast was individual: most were allowed to drink water only, but some began with prostokvasha (Russian sour milk) and others were allowed “oranges in plenty”. Some, he says, were allowed to fast only for one day, some for two, some for three days and others up to a fortnight. Bennett also says that the fast was broken over two days: on the first day strong bouillon was given, and the next day, beef steak. As with Bell, he notes that the usual heavy manual work continued (p. 146). When one reads this, one wonders why Gurdjieff ever ceased using fasting.

I will pause here to note that according to the report in the Daily News of 16 February 1923 reported on the front page, under the heading “New Life Cult for ‘Harmonious Development’, Feasts and Fasts”:

… M. Gurdjieff, who, believing in the value of many Eastern methods, while rejecting others, may enjoin upon an advanced student a fast of as much as three weeks. About a month ago he asked for volunteers for a fast. Fifteen students responded and went without food for a period, under medical care, while continuing to perform their usual heavy manual labour.

Every detail here, except for the number 15 can be corroborated. Therefore, it is likely that Gurdjieff did indeed experiment with fasting on 15 volunteers as stated. This may indicate that Gurdjieff was experimenting with fasting. Why should we today not do so? Incidentally, Christian ascetical writers also insist on the use of individual fasting regimes. As we shall see, Gurdjieff used fasting even in the War years in Paris, and here, too, his fasts were individual.

6 The Account of Fasting in Beelzebub

In Beelzebub Gurdjieff makes some extended comments on fasting, but they are chiefly critical. In the chapter “Beelzebub in America”, he comes to fasting from his discussion of Christianity and Islam. Christianity possessed good customs “for the preservation of health and for the maintenance of the foundations of morality necessary for a happy life …” (pp. 1010-1011). Of these, he says, nothing remains but the “custom of periodic fasting, that is, of abstaining at certain times of the year from the consumption of certain edible products.” (p. 1011). However, even this custom is disappearing, and where it is maintained, its observance is so changed that “no shock is obtained from it for the fasters”, although the shock is the reason for its institution (p. 1011). More than five pages are then devoted to a satire of the Russian Orthodox attitude to fasting: it is simply an occasion to improve their cuisine by eating interesting fish dinners.

It seems rather a long time to spend on parody when nothing has been said about the nature of the desired “shock”. Gurdjieff initially gives the impression that the fast was instituted by Jesus (p. 1016), but then goes on to give another laboured account, this time of the institution of fasting in 214, at the “secret Kelnuanian Council”. The issue there was the virtues of vegetarianism. The details are found at pp. 1016-22. The result, however, of this Council was that it was decided to institute abstinence from meat at certain times of the year. The problem I have with this type of material is that it is impossible to test it for oneself. And this, of course, runs counter to Gurdjieff’s stated principle that he does not give “in a prepared form … the opinions of another” so as to allow one’s own “logical confrontation” (pp. 1165-6). What logical confrontation can there be with such stories? A great deal in Beelzebub is of a different form, and one can engage with it, and test it within one’s own experience. But these tales? I confess, I am disappointed that in 13 pages Gurdjieff said nothing of significance about this important question of fasting: how to fast, what its purpose is, and why. There is more in Ferapontoff and Palm Sunday’s brief accounts than in Beelzebub. I note that there seems to be no entry in Alan Poole’s concordance for “fast” and “fasting”.

7 Mme Claustres on Fasting

Solange Claustres’ Becoming Conscious with G.I. Gurdjieff is under-estimated. In it she recounts some of the most important material I have seen since In Search of the Miraculous. In one short chapter she mentions that a small group which was working intensively on inner exercises with Gurdjieff was given “some phases of fasting” (p. 71). The fasts were said to take different forms for different people. She herself had to leave half of her food uneaten on her plate. Then, one day Gurdjieff had her break her fast by eating a hearty meal and finishing each plate. This would seem to break the rule that one does not beak a fast with a banquet, but then her fast had not been complete. After that meal, she was to return to her fast. Gurdjieff had not wanted her to get used to fasting. I suspect that this means that people can become accustomed even to the effects of fasting.

At this time, Gurdjieff told Mme Claustres that the movements were a medicine. As we have seen with Ouspensky, comments Gurdjieff made at the same time as giving his students fasts seem to shed a light on fasting, even if not directly related. One evening with Gurdjieff, fatigued and troubled, and not having eaten during the day, she ate everything on her plate, her fast quite forgotten (pp. 71-2). Gurdjieff ordered her to cease her fasting.

Now Mme Claustres provides the material with which we can make a connection between movements, fasting and eating. One must learn, said Gurdjieff, to discriminate in our feeling of impressions, air and food. The food of impressions includes “human relationships, business, leisure interests, reading …” and so on (p. 73). As mentioned above, we need the very best and most nutritious foods. In the movements, we can make a “conscious choice in receiving impressions”. The head directs, and we choose to bring sensation of one part of the body to consciousness, and thus make a connection between thought and body (p. 73). The movements are complex, the sensations and feelings associated with them are not imaginary; and thus, she adds, if one does not pass beyond simply remembering and performing the movements, the “real work of this teaching” is not applied (p. 74).

The connection, perhaps, is that fasting is a form of impression and a source of impressions (e.g. of the absence of food and the desire for it). One receives new impressions of one’s body and psyche. The faster cannot but be aware of his hunger or thirst: there is a possibility for a deeper connection between thought and body. Fasting provides an endless number of “reminders given by my body”, as Mr Adie would say. By being able to restrict one’s intake of any food at all, one is perhaps more capable of refusing to eat bad food. It is simply not necessary to eat confectionary, and there are many reasons why one should not eat it. That, however, is the subject of a different essay.

More than we know, we are slaves to our appetites. One can say that fasting is not necessary to break this slavery, and theoretically that is correct. However, my own experience is that nothing at all helped break mechanical habits half so effectively as fasting.

8 Prince Ozay

We must mention Paul Duke’s The Unending Quest which, some believe, narrates meetings with Gurdjieff under the name “Prince Ozay”. I have not seen that volume, but only the booklet of extracts from it, titled On A Single Breath. The “Indications Press” do not tell us which pages they have used, nor do they provide the references to Ouspensky and Gurdjieff which are to be found in that volume. There have been, to my knowledge, two good treatments of the “Ozay material”, that of James Webb in The Harmonious Circle, and an unpublished essay by Paul Taylor. Moore seems to uncritically accept that Ozay are one and the same, despite the fact that Webb aptly queried that the equation. As Webb said, there are striking similarities between the Ozay story and the tale in Glimpses of the Truth, and it seems hard to imagine that there would have been both an Ozay and a Gurdjieff in Russia at the same time (pp. 85-7). In his paper, Taylor demonstrates that the Ozay account cannot simply be a straightforward relation of a meetings with Gurdjieff under an assumed name. My view is that we do not know the whole truth. Dukes was a friend of Ouspensky (Webb, p. 84), and Ouspensky revised Glimpses. I think the likeliest hypothesis is that the Ozay episodes are a disguised record of Dukes’ meetings with Gurdjieff, and that Ouspensky had a role in the disguising, possibly providing Dukes with Glimpses. I suspect that Ouspensky had a hand in its writing, for it strikes me as being like a chapter of Miraculous. It certainly is on that level.

However, it is still not possible to say that these ideas were those of Gurdjieff, and leave it there. Yet, they are extremely powerful ideas, and demand to be treated before we turn to Christianity. I shall give page references to On A Single Breath.

Dukes observed to Prince Ozay that “prayer is not a physical thing, it is spiritual”. Ozay replied: “Where is the borderline? If prayer has nothing to do with physical functions, why should all the great religions, including those founded on your Bible, insist on the association of prayer with fasting? … prayer in its highest form would seem … to have something to do with the digestion, and even with the quality and circulation of the blood.” (p. 23) Dukes asked whether he would have to fast. The bemused Prince replied that he would, but not right then (p. 27). For the Prince, Dukes learned, chanting was bound up with everything else, including physique, physics and philosophy (pp. 32-3).

On another occasion, Dukes asked why the Lord’s Prayer besought God to give us this day our bread if it is connected with fasting. “You’ve got it wrong”, the Prince replied, “It isn’t with the Lord’s Prayer that fasting is tied up, but with the discovery of the note on which such prayers should be chanted. Without fasting you can’t discover the Name.” (p. 34) Which name?, asked Dukes. The Prince replied with a question: what does Dukes understand when he prays “Hallowed be thy name”? Having stumped Dukes, Ozay connected the “name” in that prayer with the logos of St John’s Gospel. The logos, he explains, is the first sound, “What you might call the world’s tonic note.” It can only be felt, as it is inaudible. But an echo of it can be heard, for each sound is replicated on a different level by the law of octaves (p. 35) “The function of prayer”, according to Ozay, “is not to beg or to extol, but to attune.” It is the body and the soul which are attuned by prayer (pp. 35-6) (Incidentally, attuning, begging and extolling are not necessarily exclusive concepts, but surely attuning would have priority if the petition or the adoration is to reach a higher level than the ordinary.) We are instruments, said Ozay, even musical instruments, hence the importance of fasting and other exercises, for:

… you can’t possibly reflect finer vibrations when your body – or soul, if you prefer – is loaded with a lot of food gurgling in the stomach, or while the blood makes a din chasing about in the veins and arteries. … Fasting is one branch of the art of prayer … but it is also an art in itself and needs to be studied systematically, not in an amateurish or haphazard way. (pp. 36 and 38)

On another occasion, and Dukes makes the point that it was a different occasion, Ozay said that God could be “achieved” not by activity but by “cessation of activity. Cessation to the utmost limit of diet, breath and sex. These are the three pillars on which prayer is built.” (pp. 38-9) Each of these has to be disciplined by restraint. Then, and only then, insisted Ozay, can one “begin to act consciously.” (p. 39) The physical body has to be trained to be a “fit temple of the spirit.” (p. 40) (I note in parentheses that the use of organs and instruments in churches was described as crippling and debasing, p. 43)

One can see why, except that this is more overtly religious than what we are accustomed to from Gurdjieff, it is strongly reminiscent of his key concepts. I think Ouspensky had a role in it: the quality of this thought is extraordinary.

9 Christianity

Jesus fasted for forty days: Matthew 4:2, and expected that Christians would fast in the future: Matt. 9:14-5; Luke 5:33-5. The most important statement on fasting is the one in Matthew 6:16-8, effectively not to identify with fasting, and not to try to impress with one’s fasting, i.e. not to consider. It is difficult to deal with any statement by Jesus, one should really set these statements in context, and so many issues are involved. For example, a full treatment of fasting in the New Testament would also take into account Jesus’ mysterious statement in Matt 6:22-3 about how the lamp of the body is the eye, and if the eye is single all the body is full of light. I do not think the placing of these passages is accidental: we are before a mystery, and perhaps are well advised to admit it.

However, we can say more from the patristic tradition. As is so often the case, perhaps the most important material is found in St John Cassian. In On the Eight Vices, reprinted in the Philokalia, vol. 1, he states:

… about how to fast and what and how much to eat … the Holy Fathers … have not given us only a single rule for fasting or a single standard and measure for eating, because not everyone has the same strength; age, illness or delicacy of body create differences. But they have given us all a single goal: to avoid over-eating and the filling of our bellies. They also found a day’s fast to be more beneficial and a greater help toward purity than one extending over a period (of up to seven days). Someone who fasts for too long, they say, often ends up by eating too much food. The result is that at times the body becomes enervated through undue lack of food and sluggish over its spiritual exercises …

Cassian went on to relate fasting to all forms of moderation and temperance, that is, like Gurdjieff, he saw fasting as a form of abstinence which may be generalised into other areas. Similarly, in The Ladder of Divine Ascent, St John Climacus said:

Step 14, 33 Fasting is the coercion of nature and the cutting out of everything that delights the palate, the excision of lust, the uprooting of bad thoughts, deliverance from incontinence in dreams, purity of prayer, the light of the soul, the guarding of the mind, deliverance from blindness, the door of compunction … a cause of stillness … health of body, agent of dispassion, remission of sins, the gate of Paradise and its delight.

St John Climacus did not agree with Evagrius that one should fast on bread and water (a blanket prescription which Cassian also explicitly states in wrong): that, he said, is like telling a child to climb a ladder in one stride. Rather, he held, when we seek different foods we seek what is proper to our nature. One should not deny all foods at once but only different foods at different times: now fattening foods, now heating foods, or omit pleasant additives. But we should always allow ourselves satisfying and digestible food (Step 14, 12) Similarly, St Thalassios the Libyan said that “To fast well is to enjoy simple food in small amounts and to shun other people’s esteem.” (On Love, Self-Control … IV 31, in Philokalia vol. 4, p. 327) As with Gurdjieff, fasting is associated with more than simply abstention from food: it has a psychological side. In respect of moderation in fasting, St Maximos the Confessor wrote in the Four Hundred Texts on Love, IV 63 that we should practice ascetic disciplines only to the measure appropriate to our body’s strength.

As adumbrated above, St Maximos the Confessor said something similar to Gurdjieff on the concept of proper or necessary enjoyment of things and sin. He wrote in the Four Hundred Texts on Love, III 86, Philokalia IV p. 97:

Food was created for nourishment and healing. Those who eat food for purposes other than these two are therefore to be condemned as self-indulgent, because they misuse the gifts God has given us for our use. In all things misuse is a sin.

This does not mean that one can take no pleasure at all in food: for “appetites and pleasures which are in accordance with nature are not reprehensible, since they are a natural consequence of natural appetency,”, and thus satisfying hunger or thirst will naturally produce a legitimate pleasure, but the intellect can transcend such pleasures: it is not controlled by them (Various Texts on Theology II 90, Philokalia IV p. 206). Perhaps in Gurdjieff’s terms one could say that we are not identified with them.

Fasting was associated with the weakening of sensual desires (e.g. St John Climacus, and St Maximos the Confessor) but whether it was solely because the body was weaker or because one practised fasting of the sexual appetite, too, is often ambiguous. As we have seen, in fact, one is not necessarily weaker when faster. I suspect, and I put it no more highly than that, that fasting affects people differently. For some, the feeling of having less food and drink than usual may indeed of itself weaken the sensual appetite.

But fasting should also go with what one might call the chastity or the discipline of the eyes. Certainly, the monastic and eremitic fathers said that it was to be used with other means, e.g. St Thalassios the Libyan said that “Moderate fasting, vigils and psalmody are natural means for achieving a balance in the body’s temperament.” (On Love, Self-Control … III 35, in Philokalia vol. 4, p. 321) That is, keeping awake praying and chanting the psalms helps to harmonize our bodies. The body is, in other words, responsive to these combined influences more than it is to their single influence.

10 Final Comments
Bennett makes some very deep comments on fasting in Witness, although I do not agree with them in their entirety, they are worth pondering and it is essential to bear them in mind. First, he notes the extreme value fasting has in Islamic lands (pp. 27 and 79-80). Fasting does, he says, influence the relationship between mind and body: although he practised it regularly, he never became accustomed to it, but dreaded his weekly fast of about 36 hours. However, Bennett wrote, he gave it up because it engendered an inner sense of superiority, and he wanted people to notice that he was fasting. Even if one hides the fact of fasting, he said, it leads to pride (pp. 79-80).

Of course, as he has stated it, there is a lack of common sense here: on this basis no one would make any effort in any religion and certainly not in the Gurdjieff tradition.

Who can ever vouch that an effort they make is unaccompanied by something impure? Bennett does, however, make a better point when he says that when the fasting is undertaken by a community it is different: it is then an obligation (p. 80). I would say that while fasting by a community can be good, it can only be good – or bad – for individuals. There is no reason known to me to think that it does not make the rich more attentive to the poor. Personally, too, I suspect that Bennett’s fast of 36 hours was too lengthy.

I think that what comes from this is that there is no reason why an intelligent person could not experiment with moderate fasting. If you are unsure, seek medical advice. If you feel confident, you could take the eastern Catholic diet of no food before 12 noon on one day, but allowing yourself as water or even tea and coffee. And one should make an exception when promising to oneself to take a fast: if one becomes too lightheaded, one will eat something modest.

The thing is, however, to have a conscious aim or a religious intent (which comes to the same thing) and to use common sense and intelligence.

It's been over a month now since I began my quest and I am proud to report that I have bought not one thing from China, except for a candle from White Barn Candle Co. for a friend's birthday that apparently had its metal top "Assembled in China". I only discovered my mistake in the very fine print as I was wrapping it and didn't feel that a candle mainly made in the U.S.A ought to be taken back considering the birthday is very soon. Next time I will know. My life has not been affected as much as I thought it would be except in the area of purchasing clothing and with that I have not bought any clothes since before Christmas (and for now, I think that is a good thing).

I've been thinking a lot about children in China and about missions, particularly Christian missions, in the country. My impression had always been that China, as a nationally atheist country (deemed so by the Communist Party), just frowned up religion but took little action against it. It was not until I was in High School and heard a moving story at a conference about people who smuggle Bibles in to China or work as a part of underground missions did I realize the potential danger that surrounded various churches.

In the 1970's the Chinese government loosened restrictions on religious groups within the country under the condition that they be registered with the state and also, follow all rules imposed upon them. There are three major groups: Three-Self Patriotic Movement, China Christian Council (Protestant) and Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (which disavowed the Pope). But, the fastest growing movement are unregistered house churches where Christians meet at "underground" services in order to have freedom to worship without restriction but also face arrest, interrogation, loss of property etc. if they are discovered. Time Magazine has a great article here

Also, in gearing up for the 2008 Olympics, government officials having been expelling missionaries left in right:

"This is the largest expulsion of foreign missionaries since 1954 when the Chinese Communist government expelled all foreign religious workers after taking power in 1949," reported a VOM source. "At least five different mission agencies and sources within the Chinese government report that in February 2007, the government launched a massive expulsion campaign against foreign Christians."

"In spite of the public face of religious freedom the Chinese government tries to convey through its state run system, the arrests of Chinese Christians, and now the expulsion of active Christian visitors is a demonstration of their true nature," said Tom White, executive director for Voice of the Martyrs.

The government's effort, however, is facing an uphill battle, because of estimates, reported by WordNetDaily, that 3,000 people are being added daily to the Christian church in China, mostly the house-churches that do not register with the government and therefore are considered part of those "evil cult activities."

Last week's reports raised concern over the house-church pastors who had been arrested, and now are facing possible sentences to China's famous "re-education" camps, and about the half dozen house-church leaders who were arrested in one city. They are facing fines of about $1,500.

Read the full story here

It makes my heart heavy to think of the persecution that exists in the world, especially in China.

Until next time . . .

Kate

Due to work, I only helped with a couple batters for cookies and they were out of the house before Christmas came.  Gifts are still under the tree, but no one is there as we are all spread around the nation this year.  Amazingly I got a white Christmas this year, snow fell in Denver, CO this morning leaving a beautiful fresh powder for us to trample through, making snow angels.  I love it and its been a beautiful and wonderful day with my future in-laws, but it doesn't feel like Christmas.

Christmas is celebrating the birth of Christ and all that he has done for us through that humble beginning and humble death on the cross.  It also is about family, coming together and celebrating together in a special way (though different for each family) and remembering that birth together.  I return tomorrow and I have begun to realize that Christmas is not something that must be done a certain way or on a specific day.  It's a feeling of love and remembrance of the birth and life of Jesus.

So, while I cherish and love the traditions that are very much a part of my Christmas, there is so much more that I love above all of it.

Merry Christmas everyone, and God bless you all.

I take offense that Christmas is now a political issue rather than a spiritual issue.  But most of all I take offense that it doesn't matter what offends me, because I am Christian.  I take offense that my rights are not the same as atheists, agnostics, scientologists, or whatever else people want to call themselves.  I take offense that I am told to keep quiet about my views but am expected to hear others shouting profanities where my children are playing and learning.  I take offense that 5 year olds come home saying the f-word having learned it at public school from a classmate and I am told by others that it is simply freedom of speech, despite how I would want a child raised.  I take offense that I have to lower my morals to meet everyone elses.

I weep for this country that I love because when the men that created it wrote our constitution, they PRAYED TO GOD for guidance and for direction.  I weep for this country that I love because that same constitution is being walked all over by judges who have decided to overstep their boundaries and start creating laws (because our elected officials aren't doing it anyway).  I weep for this country that I love because I see it falling to pieces and crumbling before my very eyes.  I weep for those who are lost and yell to throw me in jail because I speak against homosexuality (I don't hate the homosexual..I hate their sin...the act of their lifestyle, I love them as persons and if that is worthy of a hate crime then I am guilty).  I weep for those who are lost and yell that they not only hate this war but hate the soldiers who hate been risking their lives to fight for their freedom to yell.  I weep and cry out to God to come save us from this and yet give us more time to save those souls who are so incredibly lost.

So here I stand wishing everyone a politically incorrect Merry Christmas, praying for the lost, and weeping for my country that is so lost in the sea if sin.

It is not uncommon to find inter-racial social mixing among the Christians. However despite all the Islamic injunctions regarding racial equality, Muslims as a community still are not as racially mixed socially as Christians. Inter racial marriages, social gatherings, and friendships are still rarer among Muslims. This is true more for some races than others. This is primarily due to the fact that most of Adult American Muslims are still immigrants with their own cultural and traditional mindset.

But when it comes to the Mosque, Muslims are united as no other American community. People of all races, ethnicity and cultures united in worship.

However Christianity for some reason has not achieved a racially mixed congregation in line with other social and cultural fronts. Despite all the successful racial desegregation the society has undergone in the past 150 years we still have Black, Korean, Chinese, Latino and largely white churches. Wonder why.

The U.S. Center for World Mission estimated in 1997 that Christianity's total number of adherents is growing at about 2.3% annually. This is approximately equal to the growth rate of the world's population. Islam is growing faster: about 2.9% and is thus increasing its market share. At this rate, Islam would surpass Christianity as the world's main religion by 2023 CE.

Most Christian sources predict that Christianity will retain its numerical lead over Islam beyond the year 2025. For example, futurist John Gary stated in 1997: "In no probable statistical scenario reaching out to the year 2200, does Islam surpass Christianity in absolute number of adherents."

Psalm 27:14 reads...

Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.

So many times this summer I prayed for guidance and direction. I also prayed for patience (which I greatly lack) that I may have hope and "wait upon the the Lord." The peace and assurance that I live with today and a result of living in God's plan and will for me and a result of answered prayers for that guidance and direction. Today I was reading Jude (a nice short read if you only have a minimal amount of time) which then took me Daniel 10.

This is one of Daniel's final visions and concerns him to the point of fasting and praying. For 21 days there was no answer and then an angel comes to him telling him, "“Don’t be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven."

Now there is more to the story but it was that verse that struck a chord with me today. He told him that from the very day he had begun to pray for understanding and to humble himself before God, his request was heard. Not after 7 days or after he had performed the correct rituals. Not from anything but humbling himself before God and submitting his prayer before the the Almighty.

How awesome is our Father that he loves us so much that as soon as we cry out to him he hears us? Think of a young child who has fallen and begins to cry. From inside the house his daddy hears his cries and runs to see what has happened and what he can do to make it better. Sometimes he can mend the cut with medicine the eases the pain while other times all he can do is hold his beloved child hurting deep inside because the wound needs to heal on its own and there will be some pain involved. That is God. When we cry out he hears us and holds us tight, sometimes he can do something to ease the pain while other times He knows that the pain will bring about strength, healing, and wisdom that we wouldn't be able to gain without going through that hurt. But all the while, he holds us close, whispering in our soul "I love you this much" and he stretches out his hands as wide as he can and there on both hands are the scars of love that he bore on the cross to save us.

I found that waiting on the Lord provides me with peace and assurance. I still struggle sometimes but ultimately it comes down to listening for God's guidance and trusting in His ways (which are so much better than my own). When you wait upon the Lord he will renew your strength (Is 40:1). Love Hope and Believe.

• Over 100,000 victims of clergy sexual abuse have come forward in the United States (alone).
• Experts say more than 80% of sexual abuse victims never report their abuse.
• Most countries are just beginning to report clergy abuse.
• On July 16, 2007, Cardinal Roger Mahony (Archbishop of Los Angeles) and the Roman Catholic Church in Los Angeles apologized for abuses by priests after 508 victims reached to a record-breaking settlement worth $660m. Since 2002 nearly 1,000 people filed sexual abuse claims in California. Earlier a $157m settlement was paid by the diocese of Boston.
• Since 1950, sexual abuse has cost the US Catholic Church over one billion dollars in legal settlements and expenses (not including the LA settlement).
• Pope Benedict XVI was accused of conspiracy to cover up sexual abuse in the United States. At the Vatican's request, President Bush granted the pope immunity from prosecution. (Explains why the Catholic Church strongly supported Bush in 2004).
• The John Jay Report (2004) commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, was based on surveys completed by the Catholic dioceses in the United States. The Report found accusations against 4,392 priests in the USA, about 4% of all priests who served between 1950 and 2002. The study also revealed that 10,667 people reported that they had been abused by priests as children during that period.
• A.W. Richard Sipe, a psychotherapist, former priest and author of 'Sex, Priests and Power' estimates that about 6% of priests have had sexual relations with children. He calls the John Jay study's finding that fewer than 11,000 children have been abused "not possible. That's low-balling."

Considering that only 20% of the victims report their abuse, we come up with the staggering figure of approximately half a Million Americans or almost one in a hundred Catholics having been sexually abused by Priests. Amazingly tragic, but makes you think again!
Read more here.
Other denominations.
More about the movie.

That isn't what is coming to mind tonight though, but the background was needed to make sense of anything else.  What is on my mind is one race in particular.  My dad came to every single race I ever ran, cheering me on even as I was whining and complaining that I couldn't do it anymore.  He was there.  We had a race very early one morning in south Florida that ran down a road, over a bridge, by some soccer fields, and around a fence that hid the finish.  Following this race I had to leave immediately to go to a band practice for a competition and so it was a full day and there was no exception to my dad being there to any other race.

Prior to the start of the race my dad gave me a little piece of paper that had a single verse written on it,

"but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. 

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." 

Isaiah 40:31

Now, that wasn't my best race.  I think I finished in 33-34 minutes, but as I got tired I told myself, "run and not grow weary, walk and not faint..." Over and over, and yeah, I did walk, no I didn't break any amazing time records (I was one of the last to finish), but it was a good race that I felt good about.

    What the verse is applicable to is waiting on the Lord; trusting in God to be there for us when we need him.  My dad wrote it for me to use during a literal race, but also to use in the race of life.  Tonight he and I discussed some issues and fine details with my living at home (finances, expectations, ect.) and as I continue on in life I know that he is still there cheering me on (as is my mom).  This race is tough and sometimes I stop running, panting, whining and crying out that I can't do it.  That's when God calls us to cry out to him.  I am blessed to have amazing parents who are there for me no matter what, but even when they can't be there for me, God is always there.  Sometimes he calls us to be patient and "wait upon" him but he also promises that if we are faithful he will "lift us up on the wings of eagles" to heights that we could never imagine.

Now what struck me as odd as I read all of these was that in America, this word of "surrender" is given as a negative connotation ("as to the police" or to loose hope as in the definition from #3). How often have we taken our surrender to God as a negative rather than the gift that it is? In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus is teaching about the promise of rest for the soul as he said "Come to me all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly and the burden I give you is light."

To surrender to God is a something that has to be learned (and I believe continually worked on) but it is not a burden but a mercy, it is a gift of grace from a Lord who loves his children and wants to help them. For the only thing he asks of us is to love him, for if we love him with all we are and give ourselves completely to him (surrender) then the other "commandments" that he desires will naturally fall into place.

What does it take to love God? Matthew 22:37-40 says that Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the greatest commandment. A second equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself' (Lev. 19:18, as the Jewish leaders would know that Jesus was quoting this from scripture) All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments."

So, love with all your heart mind, soul, and strength or to put it in a way that is more literal to what it actually means, Love God with all of your desires and all of your affections, love him with all of your will and emotions, love him with all of the intellect and reason you can muster, and finally, love him with every physical fiber in your being through your services to God.

It was said in a sermon I heard recently that love is and inner commitment to God that I show through my conduct: by obeying him, by following him, by becoming like him, by asking for his wisdom, and by simply telling him I love him. That last one is one that I think we often over look but is so incredibly vital. I love to hear "I love you" from Kyle, from my parents, from the people that I love; why would it be different from our Heavenly Father who loves us with a greater love than we can even comprehend?

A while back I wrote out 1 Corinthians 13, inverting the word "Love" with "God." Read through that again and remember to tell God that you love him. He is waiting for you to surrender yourself to him so that he can show you how much he loves you and all he asks in return is that you love him back. "For my burden is light..."

Casting Crowns is a Christian group that writes its songs to minister to the church and people who already call themselves Christians.  On their album, Lifesong, there is a song called "Praise You in the Storm."  Right now I feel that storm.  I feel the winds of doubt and unqualified drafts wipping me around this way and that.  I feel the rain of not being good enough pelting down on to my head, drenching me with questi