In search of the miraculous
I RETURNED to Russia in November, 1914, that is, at the beginning of the first world war, after a rather long journey through Egypt, Ceylon, and India. The war had found me in Colombo and from there I went back through England. When leaving Petersburg at the start of my journey I had said that I was going to "seek the miraculous." The "miraculous" is very difficult to define. But for me this word had a quite definite meaning. I had come to the conclusion a long time ago that there was no escape from the labyrinth of contradictions in which we live except by an entirely new road, unlike anything hitherto known or used by us. But where this new or forgotten road began I was unable to say. I already knew then as an undoubted fact that beyond the thin film of false reality there existed another reality from which, for some reason, something separated us. The "miraculous" was a penetration into this unknown reality. And it seemed to me that the way to the unknown could be found in the East. Why in the East? It was difficult to answer this. In this idea there was, perhaps, something of romance, but it may have been the absolutely real conviction that, in any case, nothing could be found in Europe.
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- 1. Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
2. In Search of the Miraculous by P.D. Ouspensky
I was a teen really into philosophy so maybe not applicable.
- I second the G.I. Gurdjieff recommendation, but maybe start with any one of the books of "Psychological commentaries" by Nicoll, or "In search of the miraculous" by Ouspensky.
- It's weird to me that Gurdjieff is never mentioned when people talk about enneagram. I guess the personality stuff is inspired by Gurdjieff but deviates from it. But I would bet a lot of HN readers would dig Gurdjieff. If you're into absurdist new age stuff, it's a precursor to things like Discordianism, but def with more woo.
Meetings with Remarkable Men is a great book, though I doubt much of it is true it paints a really colorful picture of the time period.
In Search of the Miraculous is also a great book, but I think the author was jaded and a bit cynical about Gurdjieff so should also be taken with a grain of salt.
- It is a good idea anyway not to internalize such a fundamental idea based on comments by a random person on the internet, regardless of whether it is actionable or not.
It just appeared to me that this question is something that interests you, so I wanted to point you to a direction that I have found helpful.
The general process, which appears to be common to various approaches, is to practice specific kind of meditation long enough that you start to see your automatic reactions to the sub-consciously made decisions to slow down, so you are in a way creating room for something before the immediate reaction, and then you can verify the truth in what I describe by yourself. So there is no need to believe what I say or nothing directly actionable that I can transmit through this medium that would be helpful to you.
Few books I have found interesting on the subject: Gallwey: Inner Game of Tennis, Ouspensky: In Search of the Miraculous, Nicoll: Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky
- I have been participating in a group for over ten years that studies the ideas of Gurdjieff.
It can be said to be spiritual, kind of a meta-religion. It is compatible with religions, and most participats practice something else as well.
From Gurdjieff my most important daily practice is "self-observation". I take on various aims to facilitate it. One example of such an aim could be "when walking, walk faster than normal". I try to meditate daily as well, but I am not so successful in that.
If you are interested, "In Search of the Miraculous" by Ouspensky is a good starting point.
- Wikipedia is not a great starting point to approach spiritual things.
Bohr, the Nobel-winning physicist, had a horse shoe on top of the front door of his country cabin. When he was asked whether he believed it brings him good luck, his reply was "I was told it works regardless I believe in it or not."
There is no need to believe in such things, and belief -- in the sense you are using the word -- does not "help" you. It may even be a hindrance.
More interesting question could be: can I find useful things about myself that I can personally verify that would be difficult or impossible to learn otherwise?
A book called Inner Game of Tennis (not related to Gurdjieff) talks about the inner game that elite athletes need to learn. For example, if you are practicing how to make the perfect tennis forehand hit, you are struggling with a part of yourself that tries to control your movement. However, you need to learn to let go, and let the body to do the movement. The part that wants to control the movement is very poor in doing that. So there are these various parts in myself, and it is essential to learn how they operate.
If you are intrigued, reading "In Search of the Miraculous" by Ouspensky or one book from "Psychological Commentaries" by Nicoll could be a better starting point than Wikipedia.
