The questioner was Polly, who said that she wanted to struggle with negative emotion, remembering what was said about how once the negative emotion had been expressed it was too […]
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Category: Articles
What Is Mysticism?
Introduction Before I came across Gurdjieff, and I was very young at the time, only eighteen, I was attracted by the idea of a mystic union with God. I had […]
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Bennett on the Relationship between Sex and Spiritual Development (Part Three)
The second chapter of Bennett’s short book Sex: The Relationship between Sex and Spiritual Development, titled “The Sexual Act”. It begins out by denying that the “primary function” of the […]
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Bennett on the Relationship between Sex and Spiritual Development
A number of years ago I read Bennett’s short, 74 page book, Sex: the Relationship between Sex and Spiritual Development. I was impressed by it then. I made a number […]
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The Strange Death of Europe
Douglas Murray’s The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity and Islam (Bloomsbury, 2017) is an intelligent, stimulating and important book. It really is about the “strange death” of a continent: […]
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Altars and Alterations (Part II)
Further to recent discussions of the proper form of layout for Maronite churches, I chanced across the splendidly illustrated and recent book by Nicholas N. Patricios, The Sacred Architecture of […]
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Hatred
Meaning and Etymology First, what does the word mean? The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary says that the root, ”hate,” has the primary meaning of “to hold in very strong dislike,” […]
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Sentimentality: A Disease of the Feeling
Sentimentality is a disease. Orage said that it is “an escape of emotional gas but not through the centre for which it was intended” (Gurdjieff’s Emissary, 455). That is, the […]
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St Isaac (23 August)
The feast of St Isaac of Monteluco (died c. 550) is celebrated on 23 August. He is often confused with St Isaac of Nineveh (died c. 700). Both are also […]
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Beguilement in Nicephorus
In his treatise on sobriety, Nicephorus the Solitary says that the method which he will teach has the happy effect of “leading him who practises it, without labour or sweat, […]
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