BEING PARTKDOLG DUTY

conscious labours and intentional sufferings. This

belongs tothe spiritual reality and we cannot think about
it in any ordinary way. Unless we can see something
beyond this world being-partkdolg duty cannot mean
anything to us. It is about going beyond this world into
some different kind of action.

Conscious labours must always come

under the requirement of acting without regard to the
fruits of action.
Mr Bennett gives a A fine example of seeing a spiritual reality
something beyond our world.....Air gives us a picture of
limitless generosity, giving itself
freely to all. Everythinglarge and small, necessary or
destructive, good or bad is given the same air to breathe.
Air
Can be for us a representation of the limitless compassion
by
which everything is supported. In reality, air is that
compassion;
it has the qualities we ascribe to it not by virtue of our
thinking but in a way far more concrete than we can imagine.
We are surrounded by spiritual qualities, but they do not
belong to beings and certainly not to us people. They are
part
of the working that sustains this life. ^
Gurdjieff uses the words conscious labor. What kind of
labour can be called conscious and what is it to make efforts
consciously? Everything that lives has to exert itself. A plant

has to thrust its roots down into the ground and thrust its
leaves
up into the air. Everything has to work in order to live. This is
not conscious work, it is a necessity of functioning at all. All
that lives has got to fulfil that minimum requirement and so
have we.
t can be put as plainly as this: whenever we see something
that must be done it means that we become conscious.
Seeing
what is necessary and seeing what is necessary, as
necessary, is
the first condition of conscious labour. It is only when we do
what has to be done simply because it has to be done that
work
can liberate us from our own egoism. If we work for a
reward,
this reward is bound to be connected with the satisfaction of
something in us and almost certainly this something will
include our own egoism, self-love.
I

Gurdjieff always presents the idea of conscious labour as

connected with service to the future, as the sower sows the
seed in hope but unconcerned with who will reap the
harvest.
In Beelzebubs Tales all those who reach objective reason
through
conscious labour and intentional suffering are people who
serve the future of mankind. This connection with the future
is
intrinsic to what conscious labour is; it is not just a matter of
emphasis, taking for granted ordinary ideas of service in the
present situation. Conscious labour is preparing a better
future.

The sower is followed by the reaper who in his turn is

preparing the future. The grain is not to be consumed in the
harvest field; it is to be stored and converted into flour and
later made into bread. At every step the fruits of action are to
be enjoyed in the future. Why must this be so? It is because
the
future is the realm of creation; it is open to be created while
the
present is closing up, perishing, coming to an end. The
closer
we come to the present moment of time the more this
perishing
is inevitable.
Q. In what you have said there is something very true, very
substantial. It had a profound effect. But now it all begins to
recede when I think of the prospect of doing something in the
world. How are we to conduct ourselves. What are the difficulties?
What sort of attitude should we have?
J. G. B. If you come into this Work only for what you can get
for yourself, you will be disappointed. But something else can
enter, the realization that it does not matter what one can get
for oneself as long as one can do something that is necessary.
That is a real step in our transformation.

Throughout the text, nuances of meaning that have given Gurdjieffs

writing a magical
quality have been spoiled by the revisions.
We have come to understand for ourselves that a very real aspect of
Beelzebubs Tales is
not readily accessible to the formatory apparatus of the head-brain.
Again and again, this
can be seen whenever people obstinately go on trying to figure it out
upon encountering
the unfamiliar word or locution. On the other hand, when we simply
listen to it being read
relaxed, attentive, and open like a child something real is
definitely received. We
have experienced a broadening of our understanding, little by little, to
encompass a
knowing that is found in feeling as well as in thought. This experience

is reflected by
Louise Welch in Orage With Gurdjieff In America:
Beelzebubs Tales produced a powerful effect, but that is not to say it
was readily
grasped. There were
layers of meaning that people were touched by, but could not in any
way
formulateCould one listen, as
Orage advised, without giving way to constant verbal associations and
unrelated
imagery? Much of the
narrative was addressed to different levels of perception in people
(Gurdjieff had said
seven). The task
was to respond with the whole of ones mind, and not just with what
Gurdjieff called the
formatory
apparatus, that part of the brain which was busy classifying ideas and
objects, putting
them into pigeon
holes, and thereafter returning mechanically to them as statements of
truth. This was all
before the days of
the computer, but his description of the conclusions of the formatory
apparatus bears a
Close resemlance to a computer

To speak of Being-Partkdolg-duty without reference to Beelzebubs Tales to His

Grandson (BTTHG) is like speaking of baseball without ever going to a baseball game or
classical music without ever going to a concert. It is an integral part of BTTHG. The term
Being-Partkdolg-duty was first introduced in Tales. It is then repeated in Life is real
only then, when I am. It is an integral aspect of the Living Teaching Mr.Gurdjieff
brought to humanity in his Legominism All and Everything. To be even more specific, the
term appears for the first time in the book on page 104 and continues to appear
throughout the book until page 1179.
Here, we are in the face of what maybe the most central essential idea in the Living
Teaching that Mr. Gurdjieff brought to us. In this respect, it would be worthwhile to quote
from one of the most serious followers of the Living Teaching, namely Ren Zuber (Who
are you Monsieur Gurdjieff,? pp38-39.
How often he voiced the idea that there are only two ways of freeing the man (not yet
born) from the animal (who carried the man in embryo): conscious labour and suffering
voluntarily undertaken.

This was the Alpha and Omega of his teaching, his final message, the bottle which he
cast upon the waters, before disappearing into the ocean.
One would have to be deaf and blind not to recognize that this thought and the Christian
tradition are identical in essence.
But what is being-Partkdolg-duty? What are conscious labors and intentional suffering?
First of all, conscious labors and intentional suffering are described as the sole possible
means foreordained by our common father creator endlessness for the assimilation of
the cosmic substances required for the coating and perfecting of the higher beingbodies. (BTTHG, p. 792).
During a recent gathering of several students of the teaching of Mr. Gurdjieff these
questions were asked. I went with a conviction I knew what being-Partkdolg-duty was
and I left with the sensation that I did not know. That to me means that I now understand
less which means that I am beginning to really understand. My participation in that
gathering was centered on exposing my views on what being-Partkdolg-duty is for me as
I saw it.
We cannot approach the understanding of being-Partkdolg-duty by the positive. We have
to do it by the negative. We cannot say what being-Partkdolg-duty is because it is never
said in Tales. The only time in which the term intentional suffering is specifically alluded
to in very clear terms is when Saint Buddha tells His disciples that the greatest
intentional-suffering can be obtained in your presences if you compel yourselves to be
able to endure the displeasing-manifestations-of-others-towards-yourselves.(BTTHG,
p. 242). We can only approach the understanding of conscious labors and intentional
suffering in the same way that the impulses of Faith, Love, and Hope are approached: not
by saying what they are but by saying what they are not. (See chapter The Legominism
Concerning the Deliberations of the Very Saintly Ashiata Shiemash Under the title of
The Terror of the Situation, pp 353-65).
And since the teaching in Beelzebub is essentially by example, we can also understand
what conscious labors and intentional suffering are by following the examples of beings
like Belcultassi, Hamolinadir, Choon-Kil-Tez and Choon-Tro-Pel, Hadji-Asvatz-Troov,
Makary Kronbernkzion, and many others. Of course, not by imitating what they did
because that by itself violates the injunction Mr. Gurdjieffs grandmother gave to him
before she gave up her soul directly into the hands of His Truthfulness, the Archangel
Gabriel:
Eldest of my grandsons! Listen and always remember my strict injunction to you: In life
never do as others do. Either do nothingjust go to schoolor do something nobody
else does.
We do not imitate what others do; we use their examples as a way of bringing conscious
labors and intentional suffering to our being according to ones individuality. BeingPartkdolg-duty is not a theory but an actualization in our lives. We actualize being-

Partkdolg-duty by practicing conscious labors and intentional suffering in our everyday

life and we share about them with others via examples.
Example of Conscious Labors
Writing this paper is a very good example of conscious labors. All throughout the writing
I had to labor consciously in order not to fall prey to the numerous being-impulses arising
from the crystallizations in me of the consequences of the organ Kundabuffer, impulses
such as suggestibility, vanity, self-pride, arrogance, fear, envy, laziness, and many others.
Like Belcultassi I had to work on developing the potency to be sincere with myself and
leave behind the lies coming from my abnormalities. I was very lucky that all the time
during the editing of this paper I had near me three ladies who have followed the teaching
of Mr. Gurdjieff for many years, all the time reminding me to come down to a more
normal level of expressing myself. With me, they too labored consciously or tried to in
order to produce a final result that would conform faithfully to the real spirit of the
teaching of Mr. Gurdjieff.
In writing this post, I became fully aware of how conscious labors demand discipline and
dedication. My own experience in this respect resonated with the call from Mr. Gurdjieff
for the need of a concrete program of work and how the so-called disease of tomorrow
affects my life. There were times in the writing of this paper when I had to remember
myself again and again of the importance to me of undertaking this endeavor. This
experience in conscious labors also showed me the meanings of being responsible and of
fulfilling what may be called ones word of honor. I saw very clearly that the real
meaning of ones word of honor is to complete what one has in ones essence promised
oneself to do. In this sense it became clear that conscious labors come from essence and
leads to the fulfillment of the wish of our essence.
Example of Intentional suffering
I was at a faculty meeting at the university where I teach. Another professor who is well
known around for his offensive remarks during faculty meetings (he has been advised to
attend sensitivity training programs but has always refused and since he is a tenured
professor no other way is available to deal with him) referred to me by saying that I had
not done something I was supposed to have done. His remark immediately stirred
negative emotions in me. It was not the first time this has happened but this time my life
of reaction became the center of gravity for hours to come.
That evening while driving home I was submerged in my negative emotions. Why had he
told me that in front of my other colleagues? Why had he not called me apart and let me
know what he thought about me? These were the questions I was asking myself with my
feelings more than my thoughts. The negative feelings lasted the rest of the evening and I
went to bed with them.
The next morning, during my morning sitting, I could see how the negative emotions
were coming back, proving that old devils know how to reincarnate. I felt very

uncomfortable and all I wanted was to get rids of all those bad feelings; but I could not do
it. I was the slave of my feelings. It was a bad sitting.
I drove to work with my heavy load. After I arrived to my office, my state of being began
to change. My thoughts began to separate themselves from my feelings. For the first time
in almost twenty-four hours I was able to think. One of the first thoughts that came to my
mind was the idea I had read so many times about enduring the displeasing
manifestations of others towards oneself. My thoughts became focus and sharp, to the
point that my negative feelings were gone. The more I thought the more my power of
reasoning somehow was amplified. It was as if the energy that had been driving my
negative emotions had transformed itself and was now driving my power of reasoning.
Through my mind passed a detailed review of all the moments I had thought on enduring
the displeasing manifestations of others towards oneself. I concluded with a final and
simple thought: Given the fact that I had to share part of my life with this person, the
source of my negative feelings, I had better get used to endure his displeasing
manifestations towards me. At that very instant this simple realization became fixed in
my being. I felt liberation. And I also felt sort of an electric current moving through my
head accompanied by a pleasant sensation. I felt so light and good that I even thought of
searching for my colleague and thanking him for having given me the opportunity to
work on myself. That day I gave one of my best lectures. Never again I experienced
negative feelings towards my colleague and from that day on I saw him as a friendly
person. I have to add that the object of my negative feelings did not change; it was my
attitude towards the object that changed.
That evening while driving home I still felt good and my thoughts were still active and
clear, although not as powerful as in the morning. I became centered on the phenomenon
resembling an electric current that had passed through my head during my morning
experience. By association I remembered that I had read in Beelzebubs Tales something
about some psychic chemical results but I could not pinpoint the exact context in which
these words had been used. I resolved to consult my copy of BTTHG as soon as I got
home.
At home I went straight to the Guide & Index to Beelzebubs Tales to His Grandson and
searched under psychic chemical results. Unfortunately, there is nothing listed under
these words. (I later checked again and found out that the entry under which these words
appear is Trentroodianos; but who could remember this word and its connection with
the other three words, that is to say, with psychic chemical results). I had to search
directly into the book. Fortunately, by now I have a good feeling as to where different
materials are more or less located in the book. It was not too difficult to find the place
where the words I was searching for are located. I found the material I was searching for
on pages 242 and 243 of the book. I will now quote the part of that material concerning
this paper. Here is:
and the greatest intentional-suffering can be obtained in your presences if you
compel yourselves to be able to endure the displeasing-manifestations-of-otherstowards-yourselves

 and so that by frequently producing in their presences this sacred being-actualization

toward the manifestations displeasing to them of other beings similar to themselves, there
might thereby be evoked in them what are called those Trentroodianos, or, as they
themselves would say, those psychic-chemical-results which, in general, in the presence
of every three-centered being, form those sacred being-data, which actualizes in the
common presence of the three-centered beings, one of the three holy forces of the sacred
being-Triamazikamno; and this holy force in beings always becomes affirming towards
all the denying properties already present in them.
What surprised and elated me the most was the connection made between psychicchemical-results and intentional suffering through enduring the displeasing
manifestations of others towards oneself. I now had a confirmation of my experience of
that morning. I became also aware that my experience connected me with the practice of
intentional suffering and that for this practice I first needed to engage myself in conscious
labors, while in my previous experience in connection with writing this paper, I never
experience intentional suffering or, at least, I was not aware of this suffering so explicitly
as it was the case with the matter of bearing the unpleasant manifestations of my
colleague. This is another indication, at least to me, that conscious labors can exist
without the practice of intentional suffering and that, furthermore, intentional suffering
must always preceded by some form of conscious labors. The sequence is meaningful and
inevitable.
In any case, after my being able to find a confirmation in BTTHG of my experience, I felt
real satisfaction. For the third time in my life I had been able to verify a concrete
experience using the material in Beelzebubs Tales.