Theos-Talk Archives (March 2003 Message tt00420)

Hi all,

As the subject of war (and peace) makes every heart tick
faster, this quote may be interesting.

"'There was a question about War. How to stop wars? Wars
cannot be stopped. War is the result of the slavery in
which men live. Strctly speaking, men are not to blame for
war. War is due to cosmic forces, to planetary influences.
But in men there is no resistance whatever against these
influences, and there cannot be any, because men are
slaves. If they were Men and were capable of 'doing'(had
Will), they would be able to resist these influences
and refrain from killing one another.' 'But surely those
who realize this can do something?'said the man who asked
the question about war. 'If a sufficient number of men
came to a definite conclusion that there should be no war,
could they not influence others?'
'Those who dislike war have been trying to do so almost
since the creation of the world' said G. 'And yet there has
never been such a war as the present(the First World War).
Wars are not decreasing, they are increasing and war cannot
be stopped by ordinary means. 
All these theories about universal peace, about peace
conferences, and so on, are again simply laziness and
hypocrisy.
Men do not want to think about themselves, do not want to
work on themselves, but think of how to make other people
do what they want. If a sufficient number of people who
wanted to stop war really did gather together they would
first of all begin by making war upon those who disagreed
with them. And it is still more certain that they would
make war on people who also want to stop wars but in
another way. And so they would fight. Men are what they are
and they cannot be different. War has many causes that are
unknown to us. Some causes are in men themselves, others
are outside them. One must begin with the causes that are
in man himself. How he can be independent of the external
influences of great cosmic forces when he is a slave of
everything that surrounds him? He is controlled by
everything around him. If he becomes free from things, he
may then become free from planetary influences.
(...) Let us take some event in the life of humanity. For
instance; war. There is a war going on at the present
moment. What does it signify? It signifies that several
million of sleeping people are trying to destroy several
million of other sleeping people. They would not do this,
of course, if they were to wake up. (...) How many times
have I been asked whether wars can be stopped? Certainly
they can. For this it is only necessary that people should
awaken. It seems a small thing. It is, however, the most
difficult thing there can be because this sleep is induced
and maintained by the whole of surrounding life, by all
surrounding conditions.
(....)The vast majority of people who call themselves
Christians have no right whatever to do so, because they
not only fail to carry out the demands of their religion
but they do not even think that these demands ought to be
carried out.
Christianity forbids murder. Yet all that the whole of our
progress comes to is progress in the technique of murder
and
progress in warfare. How can we call ourselves Christian?
No one has the right to call himself a Christian who does
not carry out Christ's precepts. A man can say that he
DESIRES to be a Christian if he tries to carry out these
precepts. If he does not think of them at all, or laughs at
them, or substitutes for them some inventions of his own,
or simply forgets about them, he has no right whatever to
call himself Christian." (...)

from: In Search Of The Miraculous - Fragments of an Unknown
Teaching. The Teachings of G.I.Gurdjieff recorded by
P.D.Ouspensky




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Katinka Hesselink
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-Those who observe, learn, a whole life long.
-Wie observeert, leert , een heel leven lang.
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http://www.katinkahesselink.net