THE IMPORTANCE OF THE VIRTUOUS QUALITIES
“G. told me of his work in Moscow. I did not fully understand him. It transpired from what he said that in his work, which was chiefly psychological in character, chemistry played a big part.”
— Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous
“We pitiable creatures do not think, Of the Lord who dwells within with sixteen Kalas* (i.e. virtues),
Then we wonder why we enter the mother’s womb, And later pass away again and again.”
— Tirumantiram, verse 185
* [The 16 Kalas are: 1. Mercy 2. Gentleness 3. Patience 4. Dispassion 5. Constancy 6. Spiritual Prosperity 7. Cheerfulness 8. Rapture 9. Sense of Propriety 10. Meditation 11. Quietude 12. Gravity of Demeanor 13. Effort 14. Emotionlessness 15. Magnanimity 16. Concentration]
I’ve talked about how the astral body is formed from the hydrogens arising out of breath (or, the breath octave), and the mental body is formed from the hydrogens arising out of impressions (the impressions octave). However, hydrogens alone do not provide for the longevity of the higher bodies; nor do hydrogens alone provide the bodies with their appropriate placement within scale, as represented by the Ray of Creation. The astral body, for example, corresponds to the level of All Planets on the Ray. As far as Being goes, the level of All Planets would represent pure, developed Essence, rather than the Personality of the physical body (at the level of the Earth) — as Nicoll says. The astral body, which is primarily an emotional vehicle, is the paragon of developed Being; the fully formed kesdjan body exhibiting the aspects of sainthood.
The astral body and its emotions, or virtues, is at the level of All Planets, on the Ray of Creation. The physical body, along with its Personality and its own emotions, is at the level of the Earth. Gurdjieff says Man is not born with the completed higher bodies.
So, in other words, the second body must have within its Essence the nature of All Planets, or the nature of sainthood. Simply attempting to create second body from the hydrogens of the breath octave would not imbue the kesdjan body with that placement of scale.
The physical body, which we all have, has the potential to do great good or great evil. There is nothing within us which guarantees we produce either a good or a bad action. Each of us was born into a specific lineage and environment that automatically determines the level of Being we have. Some say (as the Buddhists do) that our previous actions have determined our circumstances; with this life’s actions determining our future circumstances, for better or worse. Nothing is set in stone. We move continuously up and down the scale of Being (or samsara) throughout all our lives.
According to the Buddhists, our moods and thoughts are temporary; all our lives are a series of ups and downs.
This essentially is also the Gurdjieff belief system. Man is not a permanent entity; he is purely a physical body, his actions a response to outward stimuli. The idea behind crystallizing a kesdjan body is that man should produce something psychological within himself which has a higher, fixed structure, which can overcome the physical body’s unconscious tendencies, and which can even survive the death of the physical body. The astral body, along with its three formed centers, is relatively permanent, and its actions (that of Love and Compassion, etc) resonate or echo within the realm of the solar system, lasting essentially forever.
That internal psychological structure — the “psychological body” or kesdjan body — must be formed from the Essence of All Planets. And the Essence of All Planets is infused with the positive qualities derived from the direct emanation of the Absolute. It is these qualities — Faith, Hope, and Love, etc — which resonate at the level of All Planets, and which have the durability to last as long as the solar system exists.
"The seven worlds of the ray of creation represent seven orders of materiality. The materiality of the moon is different from the materiality of the earth; the materiality of the earth is different from the materiality of the planetary world; the materiality of the planetary world is different from the materiality of the sun, and so on.
"Thus instead of one concept of matter we have seven kinds of matter, but our ordinary conception of materiality only with difficulty embraces the materiality of worlds 96 (Moon) and 48 (Earth). The matter of world 24 (All Planets) is much too rarefied to be regarded as matter from the scientific point of view of our physics and chemistry; such matter is practically hypothetical. The still finer matter of world 12 (Sun) has, for ordinary investigation, no characteristics of materiality at all.”
— Gurdjieff In Search of the Miraculous, Chapter 5
As I said, all of us have the potential with our physical body to do good. But a good deed, done by us, as physical, unconscious men, will only temporarily affect our state of Being. Good deeds done by physical beings are not the same as good deeds done by saints, or by those deeds produced by the kesdjan body. Physical emotions proceed from a more external place, than that of spiritual emotions. As physical beings, we cycle up and down the scale of Being. If we do a good deed, its effect on ourselves is only temporary, lasting just seconds. Everything within us is constantly in flux, there is nothing permanent within us which is either lasting or which can be improved upon.
The Gurdjieffian ideal is to have something virtuous and permanent within us that can “Will” a good deed; with that good deed creating a lasting mark upon ourselves and the World. We need a vehicle (a second body) upon a higher level which has a definite structure and which can climb the scale of Being. We need a psychological body structure which can reliably exhibit positive qualities (such as loving kindness) towards others, and with which we can ascend the “side ladder to the Sun”, as Gurdjieff says.
THE SPIRITUAL BASIS OF THE SECOND BODY
“The very life of man is his love; and such as the love is such is the life, and even such is the whole man. But this is to be understood only of the ruling or governing love; for it is this that determines the quality of the man. This love has many others subordinate to it, which are its derivatives.”
— Swedenborg, True Christian Religion: n. 399
I had a Tibetan guru who used to say, “Motivation is very important.” And, in the search for immortality, certainly motivation — or one’s reason for living, for doing things — is also very important. The physical body by itself is evolved to acquire food and shelter. It is simply designed to procure its needs for survival. But the motivation of the second body, it’s reason for existing, must reflect a higher level of Being. As Swedenborg says in the above quote, we are defined by what we love most in life. We need to nurture very high ideals, which serve as the basis of an immortal higher body. In forming the astral body, one must have a very definite, clear vision of what is one’s central motivation, what is one’s main love. The motivation at the center of astral body formation not only influences the quality of that body, but is the very fetus from which the kesdjan body grows. That one main “love”, or ideal, is the seed from which grow the three main centers of second body, and around those which the entire second body itself is formed.
The organs, muscles, and skeleton of the physical body are designed to hunt and forage for food. The organs of the kesdjan body are its centers, which give it the power to feel emotions and to think thoughts. The physical body is meant for survival; but the kesdjan body must be meant for a spiritual purpose.
THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF THE SECOND BODY
" 'Hanbledzoin' is nothing else than the 'blood' of the 'kesdjan body' of the being, and just as the sum total of cosmic substances called 'blood' serves for the nourishment and renewal of the planetary body of the being, so in the same way 'hanbledzoin' serves for nourishing and perfecting the kesdjan body.
…
“ 'being-hanbledzoin’ is that which contemporary civilization calls ‘animal magnetism’”
— Gurdjieff, Beelzebub’s Tales Hypnotism
"'Hydrogen' 96 … is the matter of animal magnetism”
— Gurdjieff, In Search of the Miraculous, Chapter 9
However, there is a physical structure undergirding the formation of the second body too. The second body evolves from a part of us that we rarely use: the middle parts of our centers. The middle parts of our centers are closely tied to the breath; are in fact fueled by the energies transmuted in us from the breath. These middle parts of our centers are not used much by us, partly, because to function, they require an extra energy besides the breath — a “shock” — which we don’t naturally produce. The energy or shock which comes from intentional Self-Remembering.
These three yellow circles represent the astral centers which evolve out of the physical body’s middle divisions of centers.
They also portray the energies which fuel the astral centers: the lower emotional (re 96), the intellectual (mi 48), and the upper emotional (fa 24) centers. The body of the kesdjan itself is then formed around these three centers, when their energies are fused with spiritual qualities, as described below.
The breath fuels the middle parts of our centers. Self-Remembering (at do 48) allows the middle part of the intellectual center (using energy mi 48) and middle part of the emotional center (using energy fa 24) to gain energy.
These three astral centers also serve in developing the three stories of the kesdjan body; the lower, middle, and top stories.
(Please refer to figure 57, page 319, of In Search of the Miraculous — Gurdjieff’s diagram regarding the four bodies and their energies.)
Not only must the middle parts of our centers be developed, but they must be developed into full-fledged centers in their own right. The middle parts of the intellectual and emotional centers must be formed into actual, independent centers — the centers of the second body. So the middle division of the intellectual center, working with mi 48, and the middle division of the emotional center, working with fa 24, must be developed into viable centers. Even the energies of re 96 (so-called “animal magnetism” — also called, “astral light”) must be used to form a center, the center of the second body’s lower story. When these middle parts of centers have been intentionally self-evolved into real centers, then the second body can grow upon that initial skeletal structure.
This is Nicoll’s diagram showing the three main divisions of the physical body’s emotional center. The middle division, in red, evolves into an independent center of its own — the astral body’s emotional center. The astral body itself grows out of the middle divisions of the centers, once they’re evolved.
Notice that the emotions proper to this division are: religious emotions, aesthetic emotions, and moral emotions, as well as conscience.
This middle division works with the hydrogen fa 24, a breath-octave energy (see Food Transformation Chart, above).
“Now La 24 alone cannot awaken the whole Emotional Centre. It supplies the self-love division. But the three substances 24 supply the Emotional Centre in all its three main divisions. That is, while La 24 supplies the outer division, Fa 24 supplies the middle and Re 24 the inner. Now if you take three men, they are the same in so far as they are men, but their potentialities may be different.”
— Nicoll, Commentaries p. 1648
THE KESDJAN BODY’S ETHICAL FOUNDATION
"The second way is the way of the monk. This is the way of faith, the way of religious feeling, religious sacrifice. Only a man with very strong religious emotions and a very strong religious imagination can become a 'monk' in the true sense of the word. The way of the monk also is very long and hard. A monk spends years and tens of years struggling with himself, but all his work is concentrated on the second room, on the second body, that is, on feelings. Subjecting all his other emotions to one emotion, that is, to faith, he develops unity in himself, will over the emotions, and in this way reaches the fourth room (the room bestowing immortality.)”
— Gurdjieff, In Search of the Miraculous Chapter 2
It is not fashionable these days to refer to religions as valid systems of spiritual development. There are perhaps some good reasons for that, although dismissing religions, along with the people who follow them, as somehow corrupt or ineffective or ignorant is itself probably an uninformed generalization. Not to mention leaning towards arrogance.
Aside from the overall level of Being of modern man, religions are basically systems of spiritual development; however they are systems which need to be comprehended, interpreted, and practiced individually. If one wants to try out a hypothesis, say, that God does — or doesn’t — exist, one should really ideally try out both sides of the question in one’s mental/emotional/physical life. But try both sides out sincerely and thoroughly, observing oneself, one’s development, and the outcome in one’s mental/emotional/physical life. In other words, one has to definitely ascribe to a side of the question for a while, and then ascribe to the other side, equally as thoroughly, for a while. Gurdjieff’s system can be followed without referring to a religion. But, in my opinion, being a Gurdjieffian without having any approach to ethics produces what Gurdjieff calls a “weak Yogi”, if even that.
One of the first things the fourth way system says to do, is to “refrain from expressing unpleasant emotions.” This is of course a way of purifying, training, and repolarizing the emotional center. There is sometimes a debate in the Work, whether the same idea could be equally expressed: that one should refrain from having negative emotions. Both formulas are expressed somehow in Fragments, I believe. However, I think the first formulation — to refrain from expressing unpleasant emotions — is a way of presenting the practice to a beginner. Not expressing negativity outwardly is a simple method of gaining control over one’s emotional life, a way of starting. Actually dealing directly with negative emotions internally, their inception, their antidotes, and even their roots, is perhaps a more advanced approach to emotions.
The characteristic of most religions, as well as the kesdjan body in particular, is that they both harbor a distinct set or system of ethical formulations. And most religions, and the kesdjan body too, have one fundamental ethical quality which serves as the central focal point of that system. In forming the ethical nature of the astral body, I think it wise for one to personally pick a particular religion with which one has an affinity. Each religious system has its own system of ethics. Then one divines that religion’s central ethical formulation, to use to create the seed for the second body’s centers. Simply vaguely saying, “I choose to act ethical or moral” is not a strong way to make a definite foundation for second body. The ethics of each religious system have a definite character, and work together as a system. The kesdjan body, when built upon the ethical basis of a religious system, will eventually reflect the character of those same ethical qualities, when fully crystallized.
ETHICAL SYSTEMS
“The emanation of the Most Most Holy Sun Absolute Itself they called 'Theomertmalogos,' or 'Word-God.'”
“…crystallizations received directly from the sacred Theomertmalogos, within the limits of the solar system where the being has arisen and existed, can never decompose…”
— Gurdjieff, Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson
The collection or list of ethics in a religion is not hard to discern. They are usually repeated often together to encourage memorizing. The single, central ethical principle underlying a religion is, however, a little more complicated to discover, and might take study.
Christianity has the oft-repeated seven virtues:
SEVEN VIRTUES (Catholic) — WIKIPEDIA
-- 4 Cardinal Virtues:
1. Prudence 2. Justice 3. Temperance 4. Courage
-- 3 Theological Virtues
1. Faith 2. Hope 3. Charity
Then, there are the Gifts of the Holy Spirit:
GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT — WIKIPEDIA
1. Wisdom 2. Knowledge 3. Counsel 4. Fortitude 5. Understanding 6. Piety 7. Fear of the Lord
The central virtue or moral trait in Christianity would be Love: Love of God and Love of neighbor. If I were to base the creation of the kesdjan body on a Christian quality, I would choose this Love, in creating the emotional center of the astral body.
Buddhism has the list of the Six Perfections, along with the Four Abodes of Brahma:
BUDDHISM : THE SIX (or TEN) PERFECTIONS — WIKIPEDIA
1. Generosity, Giving of Oneself 2. Virtue, Morality, Proper Conduct 3. Renunciation 4. Transcendental Wisdom, Insight 5. Energy, Diligence, Vigour, Effort 6. Patience, Tolorence, Forbearance, Acceptance, Endurance 7. Truthfulness, Honesty 8. Determination, Resolution 9. Good Will, Friendliness, Loving-kindness 10. Equanimity, Serenity
BRAHMAVIHARAS (SUBLIME ATTITUDES, lit. "ABODES OF BRAHMA") also called, "The Four Immeasurables" — WIKIPEDIA
1. Loving-kindness or benevolence 2. Compassion 3. Empathetic Joy 4. Equanimity
As far as I can gather, the central ethical aspect of Buddhism would be Compassion, although Loving Kindness is also important and central to Buddhism. If I were deciding upon Buddhist ethics as a foundation for creating the kesdjan body, I would probably choose to use the quality of Compassion in forming the kesdjan emotional center.
Yoga or Hinduism has the ethical precepts which can be found in the Yoga Sutras. I am running low on time and energy, so I won’t list them here. But the central take-away I get from study of the Yoga ethics is non-harming. Non-harming or harmlessness is a somewhat difficult quality to acquire, especially in my own experience. In America, that quality is not something that is overtly encouraged in society. Being a law-abiding citizen outwardly is encouraged, but adopting the personal aspect of ahimsa is not rewarded too much.
I know there are other great religions which embody ethical principles, but I know less about them. Although I do admire many of the followers of them!
A SYSTEM FOR CREATING THE ASTRAL BODY
“Whoever knows these two together: The unmanifest and the perishable, Will cross death by the perishable And attain immortality through the unmanifest.”
— Atha Īśopanisat
I would like to outline now my theory of birthing the kesdjan body, from a combination of the energies of the middle divisions of the centers along with the higher ethical qualities. My theory of second body formation has a certain technical nature to it, that, I hope, allows for a clear communication of its steps and techniques, using the ideas and vocabulary of the Work.
There are only a few main concepts and techniques in my theory of second body creation:
1. To develop, in one’s daily sitting, the capacity to sense and identify the various hydrogens within the body, including the hydrogens of a mental or emotional nature (e.g. h 48, h 24).
A. The technique used is to sense with each breath — while meditating — the higher hydrogens which reside within the breath itself: within the lungs, or within the chest or back area or within the head. The higher substances are produced with each breath; the challenge is to sense them.
a. The location of each hydrogen is determined by its placement on the Food Transformation Chart (e.g. fa 24 is located in the chest or back area, but on the astral level.)
b. Refer to chart, figure 39, above: (Re 96 manifests in the chest area, is “astral light”, and is used to create the astral lower emotional center. Mi 48 manifests in the head, is energy of astral thought, and is used to create the astral intellectual center. Fa 24 manifests in the chest or back, is energy of astral emotions, and is used to create upper astral emotional center.)
2. To have the ability to differentiate between hydrogens along the breath octave from those along the edible food octave (for instance, re 96 — or “astral light” along the breath octave, vs. fa 96 — or “animal magnetism” along the food octave).
3. To channel or manifest higher emotions, such as Gurdjieff ’s Faith, Hope, and Love.
4. The practice of developing second body starts with the formation of three astral centers; one ‘bottom story’ center in the chest (using re 96), one ‘middle story’ center for thinking in the head (mi 48), and a ‘top story’ emotional center again in the chest or middle part of the body (fa 24). The initial formation of astral body goes:
A. A specific hydrogen in the body is selected and identified along the breath octave (e.g. re 96 — an energy called animal magnetism or “astral light”), as it is produced by the breath.
B. Next, a single quality is generated from Higher Emotional Center (e.g. “Loving Kindness”) and then, through the power of Attention, it is concentrated within the same area of the selected hydrogen.
C. Finally, the two components — the selected hydrogen “atom” as well as the higher quality (in the examples, re 96 and “Loving Kindness”) — are fused together through a type of spiritual activity of the physical heart center: either an emanation of love, or an emanation of awareness.
D. Either one of these emanations from the heart are focused, again by the power of the Attention, directly onto and into the aforementioned two components. This process, in my subjective experience, “seals” or fuses the two types of “matters”, one material and one Spiritual, together. The two “matters” are thus made stable together in the body.
a. This process initiates the creation of the three astral centers.
As Swedenborg says in the quote above, we are essentially ruled by one primary love or desire. That one main emotion also has other subsidiary emotions which are connected to it. So, when initiating the process outlined above to make the second body, one should start by working with the main ethical principle of the system one has chosen. For Christian ethics, that would be love of God and neighbor. For Buddhist ethics, that would be compassion. And the same for other spiritual systems of ethics: choose the main central ethical principle. The idea is to have a center of gravity, or center of reference within oneself, around which the other system’s qualities can gather. The other ethical qualities of that same system then fit logically and neatly along with that foundation. It is similar to building a house: you start with a foundation, a foundation of perhaps love, or compassion, or harmlessness. Then the other qualities (such as the six perfections in Buddhism) fit perfectly over that initial foundation (such as, compassion).
It’s important to keep in mind that the ethical qualities are wedded to the energies of the breath. The breath octave energies — particularly re 96 (astral light) — are focal points for the building of the astral body. On the other hand, once the second body has been initially formed, the higher qualities of that body can be a center of focus themselves, or points of Attention in sensing the higher body.
As well, in generating the spiritual qualities, those qualities should have a substantial feel to them, having an actual material nature to them. They should have a physical feeling, within one’s body; and should possess a definite physical location — a definite placement within the selected hydrogens with which one is pairing them.
“In reality only self-initiation, self presentation exist. Systems and schools can indicate methods and ways, but no system or school whatever can do for a man the work that he must do himself. Inner growth, a change of being, depend entirely upon the work which a man must do on himself.”
— Gurdjieff, In Search of the Miraculous Chapter 15
"The fourth way is sometimes called the way of the sly man. The 'sly man' knows some secret which the fakir, monk, and yogi do not know. How the 'sly man' learned this secret—it is not known. Perhaps he found it in some old books, perhaps he inherited it, perhaps he bought it, perhaps he stole it from someone. It makes no difference. The 'sly man' knows the secret and with its help outstrips the fakir, the monk, and the yogi.”
— Gurdjieff, In Search Chapter 2
BREATH AND POWER, COMBINED IN MANTRA
Mantra is traditionally an Eastern function of religion, perhaps of either Hinduism or Buddhism. And the use of mantra within religion is closely tied to the Guru, who imparts the mantra to the disciple. Traditionally, the disciple is “empowered” to repeat the particular mantra. The Vedas, the earliest Hindu scriptures, were the first mantras. One doesn’t, in my opinion, need a guru or an empowerment to intone a Vedic scripture. Nor, I don’t believe, does one need permission to repeat a religious mantra, if one is sincere. However, there is little doubt in my mind that a Guru’s help makes all the difference in the world, for real fulfillment in so-called mantra yoga. It is like the difference between doing something as an amateur and doing something as a professional.
In studying the science of mantra, I recommend the books by Dr. David Frawley. He writes about everything from ayurveda to yoga to the mind to the spiritual science of tantra. He speaks of mantra having both the aspects of breath (which includes “prana”) and meaning (which might be an aspect of mind).
There is a connection of the astral body with breath, as you know. And at some point, after the second body has been initiated, it is possible to “feed” the kesdjan body through the breath and meaning of mantra. Or as Gurdjieff says, to coat the kesdjan body. The idea is to focus one’s attention on the second body, while directing the element of air into that body while repeating mantra. I recommend carrying out an actual “sadhana” with mantras, for the purpose of imparting a spiritual quality to one’s astral body, for example, the quality of love or compassion.
The Tibetan deity of compassion is Chenrezi, and the two prayer services in the following links are permissible for anyone to perform. The services consist of several main parts: a lineage prayer (so there’s a connection with previous gurus), a refuge prayer (for connection with the Buddha), an aspiration to Bodhichitta, mantra repetition, meditation, and dedication of merit (for proper motivation of the prayer).
If one wanted to simply repeat a mantra one had picked up, that would be fine. But as I have said, it is the higher quality or feeling that goes with the material form that makes something spiritual and effectively eternal.
Here is a link to the Chenrezi prayer services:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iECIiWG86HAV_vwiGbMKrdkNhQr5TN4f?usp=sharing
The “deity” or bodhisattva of Chenrezi becomes over time the astral form of the practitioner. The vajrayana Buddhists believe that the higher bodies are a result of the accumulation of merit and wisdom. My theory of kesdjan body formation entails the gathering of the spiritual qualities as a means of accumulating merit. The third body — the mental body — is a result of the gathering of wisdom.
THE PURUSHA (BODY) OF SOUND
There is one other possible application of breath I know of, in making the kesdjan body. That is the purusha of sound, as described by David Frawley in his two books, Yoga and Ayurveda, and Mantra Yoga and Primal Sound: Secrets of Seed (Bija) Mantras.
The purusha of sound is a method of taking all the syllables of the Sanskrit alphabet and intoning each one in correspondence to a specific part of one’s body. The result, in my experience, is a transformation of the body’s pranic sheath into a legitimate outer part of the astral body. In other words, the physical body itself ends up connected in a higher, and more etheric way, to the kesdjan body. The East Indian tradition says that the senses along with the power of movement depart with the astral form at death. Creating the body of sound is a good first step in giving the kesdjan body the powers of sensation and movement.
