Beste eclecticus,
In al de vele jaren dat onze Werkgroep bestaat, hebben we het al minstens tientallen malen over het metafoor 'Paard-Rijtuig-Koetsier' gehad - en, elke herhaling werkte misschien als druppel om zelfs de sterkste rots ietwat verder uit te hollen. Toch is het mogelijk dat die uitholling niet voor iedereen even diep is. Om die reden staat er in de rubriek 'Eclecticus' een tekst uit 1945 over, getiteld: 'The parable of the Horse, Carriage and Driver'. Hieronder vind je er de beginselen van...
"In speaking of the inner state of a mechanical man, Gurdjieff made many analogies. On some occasions he compared the inner state of a man to a Carriage, Horse and Driver - and he emphasized that it was very important for us to think about what these three distinct things in Man mean. The point of the analogy is that these three distinct things are not in right relationship to one another. The Driver is not on the box of the Carriage; the Horse is not properly fed, nor rightly harnessed to the Carriage; and the Carriage itself is in a bad condition. "What," Gurdjieff asked once, "is the reason of all this? The reason is that the Driver is sitting in the public house spending his money on drink and giving no food to the Horse and no proper care to the Carriage. In order to change this state of affaire," Gurdjieff said, "it is necessary that the Driver receives a shock, to awaken him."
Now the interpretation of this analogy or parable can be approached from many different sides, some of which have already been explained. Tonight I will take up more especially the point that the Driver after realizing his state must eventually climb up on to the box of the Carriage - that is: he must rise in his level to reach a place of control. But first we must understand that it is possible to take the rousing of the Driver in many steps. He must be shaken out of his drunken slumber, and then he must stand up, and then move himself out of the sphere of the public house, and then observe the Horse, and then the Carriage, and so on. After attending to the Horse and Carriage he must climb on to the box and finally take hold of the reins and start driving as best he can.
Our state is comparable to that represented in the parable of the Tower of Babel. From that parable, apparently we once had inner unity but something went wrong and multiplicity appeared – namely: from being one we became many. In general, our Being is defined in the Work as being characterized by multiplicity as distinct from the Being of a Conscious Man. We are a crowd of different 'I's pulling in different directions, all with their own forms of self-will, and what we rather grandly call our will is nothing but the resultant of all these different wills. So our task is to attain unity, and no single 'I' that we know or can observe at present has the strength to give us this unity and arrange and subordinate all the 'I's into a whole. We can however form substitutes for Real 'I' which, beginning with Observing 'I', are called in ascending sequence of importance and power Deputy-Steward and Steward. We are fortunate if we have a Deputy-Steward to look after our household affairs and still far more so if we ever attain to that level where we have Steward controlling affairs. But beyond Steward lies Master or Real 'I', the reaching of which is the chief aim of all. You will see in the parable of the Horse, Carriage and Driver that there is no chance of our attaining to the level where Master or Real 'I' exists, or of hearing his voice and receiving his instructions as to what we have really to do with our lives unless we first of all waken out of the sleep, out of the stupor that we exist in, which is represented by the Driver sitting in a drunken sleep in the public house. The first task then is to awaken the Driver for unless this has taken place the Horse cannot be attended to, nor the Carriage. The Carriage can be said to represent the body and people may think that they can start only with the body but this is wrong - in fact, it may put the Driver into a deeper sleep. What is the method of this Work in regard to the awakening of the Driver and the nature of the shock?..."
"De meester van de koets" uit 1997
Het verhaal, een metaforische beschrijving van de menselijke innerlijke toestand, begint wanneer een negentiende-eeuwse koets stopt op het centrale plein van de een of andere stad. De koetsier opent de deur, in de verwachting zijn meester te ontmoeten, maar een menigte vreemdelingen stapt uit. De koetsier, overstuur en verward, zoekt hulp bij andere koetsiers... Hij zal ontdekken dat hij deel uitmaakt van een zeer oude allegorie. Zo begint een reeks mythische avonturen, waarbij zijn zoektocht op vele verschillende niveaus kan worden begrepen, zeer eenvoudig, maar ook symbolisch voor een véél grotere betekenis.
Cyril Lanier: "The charm and apparent naivete in this short film are deceptive. The viewer, like the carriage driver, may well be called into posing a serious question: 'Am I the master of myself?'... The story, a metaphoric description of the human inner condition, is tinged with mystery. Picture a Nineteenth Century carriage with an old fashioned carriage driver at the reins. The cabby opens his door, expecting to find his master, but a crowd of strangers steps out. The driver, upset and confused, seeks help from other carriage drivers. Thus begins a series of mythic adventures where the driver struggles to face his inner obstacles while continuing his search.The bonus interview adds considerably to the understanding of the aims of the production and its place within the Gurdjieff Work."
Bonus Interview
Over de samenstelling ervan... Meer uitleg via deze link.