Twice in a row, now, Toomer experiences one truth and then, immediately afterwards, its apparent opposite: rather, I think, he sees one pole of a matter, then the other pole, […]

Toomer develops his insight that the health of psyche and body are interrelated in a manner stimulated by his direct insight that “the entire ordinary self oppresses and deranges the […]

Toomer’s relationship to his body now began to change. He had previously made observations such as how, looking around his apartment as if for the first time, he saw the […]

This third chapter, “Birth above the Body,” treats of the conception of a new understanding of his being, the body, and how our usual identification with the body keeps us […]

Part I of this series is: http://www.josephazize.com/2023/08/11/in-practical-terms-what-is-self-remembering/ Gurdjieff said that the key to everything was to remain separate. I think this is what is behind Toomer’s experience that: [My life] was […]

Part I of this series is: http://www.josephazize.com/2023/08/11/in-practical-terms-what-is-self-remembering/ I am going to jump from what was written there to a description of a state which we can fairly call “self-remembering.” It comes […]

What is it like to be able to remember myself, in practical terms? Surely there can be no one comprehensive answer, as each “self” is unique (at least theoretically). But […]

This follows a line begun in this post, albeit in a tangent: https://www.josephazize.com/2023/06/14/was-gurdjieff-spied-on/ In 1931, Ethel Merston began a stormy relationship with a 13-year-old girl known to us only as “Claire.” […]

The Moral: Idries Shah’s writing on St Francis of Assisi brought me to a fairly important understanding: his technique, I contend, was to write such utter balderdash that anyone who […]