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Heaven and Hell
292. With every individual there are good spirits and evil spirits. Through the good spirits, man has conjunction with heaven, and through the evil spirits with hell. These spirits are in the world of spirits, which lies midway between heaven and hell. This world will be described particularly in the following pages. When these spirits come to a man they enter into his entire memory, and thus into his entire thought, evil spirits into the evil things of his memory and thought, and good spirits into the good things of his memory and thought. These spirits have no knowledge at all that they are with a man, but when they are with him they believe that all things of his memory and thought are their own.
293. The reason that spirits who communicate with hell are also adjoined to man is that man is born into evils of every kind, consequently his first life can only be from them. Therefore, unless spirits of a nature like his own were adjoined to man he could not live, nor indeed could he be withdrawn from his evils and reformed. He is therefore held in his own life by means of evil spirits and withheld from it by means of good spirits, and by the two kept in equilibrium. Being in equilibrium, he is in his freedom, and can be drawn away from evils and turned towards good, and good can also be implanted in him, which would not be possible at all if he were not in freedom. Freedom is not possible to man unless spirits from hell act on one side and spirits from heaven on the other, and man is in between.
295. The spirits associated with man are such as he himself is in respect to his affection or love; but the Lord associates good spirits with him, while evil spirits are invited by the man himself. The spirits with man, however, are changed in accordance with the changes of his affections
ON WORKING FOR OTHERS
The first line is work on oneself, which begins with sincere and uncritical self-observation according to what we are taught by the Work to observe. The second line is work in connection with one another, to understand one another and not to react mechanically to the unpleasant manifestations of others in the Work, to learn a common language and so externally consider them. The third line is to help those teaching the Work and to assist in the transmission of it.
(from Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff & Ouspensky; Vol 3; p900; Maurice Nicoll)
Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments offered in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to keep the focus on understanding the Text in terms of its application to the inner life along with reinforcing any key LP principles that have been highlighted in the exchanges.
