"Cannot prayer help a man to live like a Christian?" asked someone.
"It depends upon whose prayer," said G. "The prayer of subjective man, that is, of man number one, number two, and number three, can give only subjective results, namely, self-consolation, self-suggestion, self-hypnosis. It cannot give objective results."
"But cannot prayer in general give objective results?" asked one of those present.
"I have already said, it depends upon whose prayer," G. replied.
"One must learn to pray, just as one must learn everything else. Whoever knows how to pray and is able to concentrate in the proper way, his prayer can give results. But it must be understood that there are different prayers and that their results are different. This is known even from ordinary divine service. But when we speak of prayer or of the results of prayer we always imply only one kind of prayer—petition, or we think that petition can be united with all other kinds of prayers. This of course is not true. Most prayers have nothing in common with petitions. I speak of ancient prayers; many of them are much older than Christianity. These prayers are, so to speak, recapitulations; by repeating them aloud or to himself a man endeavors to experience what is in them, their whole content, with his mind and his feeling. And a man can always make new prayers for himself. For example a man says—'I want to be serious.' But the whole point is in how he says it. If he repeats it even ten thousand times a day and is thinking of how soon he will finish and what will there be for dinner and the like, then it is not prayer but simply self-deceit. But it can become a prayer if a man recites the prayer in this way: He says 'I' and tries at the same time to think of everything he knows about 'I.' It does not exist, there is no single 'I,' there is a multitude of petty, clamorous, quarrelsome 'I's. But he wants to be one 'I'—the master; he recalls the carriage, the horse, the driver, and the master. 'I' is master. 'Want'—he thinks of the meaning of 'I want.' Is he able to want? With him 'it wants' or 'it does not want' all the time. But to this 'it wants' and 'it does not want' he strives to oppose his own 'I want' which is connected with the aims of work on himself, that is, to introduce the third force into the customary combination of the two forces, 'it wants' and 'it does not want.' 'To be'— the man thinks of what to be, what 'being,' means. The being of a mechanical man with whom everything happens. The being of a man who can do. It is possible 'to be' in different ways. He wants 'to be' not merely in the sense of existence but in the sense of greatness of power. The words 'to be' acquire weight, a new meaning for him. 'Serious' —the man thinks what it means to be serious. How he answers himself is very important. If he understands what this means, if he defines correctly for himself what it means to be serious, and feels that he truly desires it, then his prayer can give a result in the sense that strength can be added to him, that he will more often notice when he is not serious, that he will overcome himself more easily, make himself be serious. In exactly the same way a man can 'pray'—'I want to remember myself.' 'To remember'—what does 'to remember' mean? The man must think about memory. How little he remembers! How often he forgets what he has decided, what he has seen, what he knows! His whole life would be different if he could remember. All ills come because he does not remember. 'Myself—again he returns to himself. Which self does he want to remember? Is it worth while remembering the whole of himself? How can he distinguish what he wants to remember? The idea of work! How can he connect himself with the idea of the work, and so on, and so on.
"In Christian worship there are very many prayers exactly like this, where it is necessary to reflect upon each word. But they lose all sense and all meaning when they are repeated or sung mechanically.
"Take the ordinary God have mercy upon me! What does it mean? A man is appealing to God. He should think a little, he should make a comparison and ask himself what God is and what he is. Then he is asking God to have mercy upon him. But for this God must first of all think of him, take notice of him. But is it worth while taking notice of him? What is there in him that is worth thinking about? And who is to think about him? God himself. You see, all these thoughts and yet many others should pass through his mind when he utters this simple prayer. And then it is precisely these thoughts which could do for him what he asks God to do. But what can he be thinking of and what result can a prayer give if he merely repeats like a parrot: 'God have mercy! God have mercy! God have mercy!' You know yourselves that this can give no result whatever.
"Generally speaking we know very little about Christianity and the form of Christian worship; we know nothing at all of the history and origin of a number of things. For instance, the church, the temple in which gather the faithful and in which services are carried out according to special rites; where was this taken from? Many people do not think about this at all. Many people think that the outward form of worship, the rites, the singing of canticles, and so on, were invented by the fathers of the church. Others think that this outward form has been taken partly from pagan religions and partly from the Hebrews. But all of it is untrue. The question of the origin of the Christian church, that is, of the Christian temple, is much more interesting than we think. To begin with, the church and worship in the form which they took in the first centuries of Christianity could not have been borrowed from paganism because there was nothing like it either in the Greek or Roman cults or in Judaism. The Jewish synagogue, the Jewish temple, Greek and Roman temples of various gods, were something quite different from the Christian church which made its appearance in the first and second centuries. The Christian church is—a school concerning which people have forgotten that it is a school. Imagine a school where the teachers give lectures and perform explanatory demonstrations without knowing that these are lectures and demonstrations; and where the pupils or simply the people who come to the school take these lectures and demonstrations for ceremonies, or rites, or 'sacraments,' i.e., magic. This would approximate to the Christian church of our times.
"The Christian church, the Christian form of worship, was not invented by the fathers of the church. It was all taken in a ready-made form from Egypt, only not from the Egypt that we know but from one which we do not know. This Egypt was in the same place as the other but it existed much earlier. Only small bits of it survived in historical times, and these bits have been preserved in secret and so well that we do not even know where they have been preserved.
"It will seem strange to many people when I say that this prehistoric Egypt was Christian many thousands of years before the birth of Christ, that is to say, that its religion was composed of the same principles and ideas that constitute true Christianity. Special schools existed in this prehistoric Egypt which were called 'schools of repetition.' In these schools a public repetition was given on definite days, and in some schools perhaps even every day, of the entire course in a condensed form of the sciences that could be learned at these schools. Sometimes this repetition lasted a week or a month. Thanks to these repetitions people who had passed through this course did not lose their connection with the school and retained in their memory all they had learned. Sometimes they came from very far away simply in order to listen to the repetition and went away feeling their connection with the school. There were special days of the year when the repetitions were particularly complete, when they were carried out with particular solemnity—and these days themselves possessed a symbolical meaning.
"These 'schools of repetition' were taken as a model for Christian churches—the form of worship in Christian churches almost entirely represents the course of repetition of the science dealing with the universe and man. Individual prayers, hymns, responses, all had their own meaning in this repetition as well as holidays and all religious symbols, though their meaning has been forgotten long ago."
「祈祷能不能帮助一个人像个基督徒一样生活？」有人问。
「这得看是谁的祈祷，」葛吉夫说，「主观人的祈祷，也就是第一、第二、第三类人的，只能带来主观的结果，换句话说，就是自我安慰、自我暗示、自我催眠，它无法带来客观的结果。」
「但一般的祈祷不都带来客观的结果吗？」现场有人问道。
「我已经说过，这得看是谁的祈祷，」葛吉夫回答。
「人必须学习祈祷，就像人必须学习任何其它事情一样。凡是知道如何祈祷而又能以适当方式专注的人，他的祈祷就能带来结果。但必须了解，有许多不同的祈祷而且它们的结果也都不同，这一点甚至从普通的礼拜仪式就能知道。但当我们谈及祈祷或祈祷的结果时，我们经常意指一种祈祷——祈求，或我们认为祈求可以联合所有其它的祈祷，这当然不是真的，大部份的祈祷与祈求一点关系也没有。我说的是古代的祈祷；它们有许多都比基督教来得久远，这些祈祷像是重述要点；透过大声或对自己重复它们，一个人努力去经验它们里面的东西、它们的整个内容，用他的头脑和感觉。而且一个人经常可以为自己制造新的祈祷，例如一个人说——『我想要变得认真。』（I want to be serious)但整个重点在于他如何说它，如果他只是重复它，就算一天一万次而心里老想着还有多久就要结束、就要晚餐等等之类的，那么它就不是祈祷而只是自欺而已。但如果一个人以下列方式朗诵的话它就可以变成祈祷：他说『我』并且尝试同时想起关于他所知的一切『我』。它并不存在，并没有一个单一的『我』，有的是一大堆琐碎、喧嚣、争论不休的『我』群，但他想要成为一个『我』——主人；他回想起马车，马，驾驶以及主人，『我』就是主人。『想要』——他想到『我想要』的意义，他有能力要吗？对他而言一直都是『它想要』或『它不想要』，但对这『它想要』或『它不想要』他奋力以他的『我想要』来抗争，这『我想要』与工作自己的目标有关，也就是说，把第三力引进到习常的两个力量（『它想要』与『它不想要』）的组合当中。『变得』(to be)——这人思考这『变得』以及『素质』（being）意味什么。对于机械人的素质而言一切都是发生的，而一个能做的人的素质又是如何。『变得』可能有许多不同的方式，他要『变得』不只是存在的层面，还要在力量的高贵层面。『变得』这字对他带来重量与新意。『认真』——这人想着变得认真（to be serious）意味什么，如何回答自己非常重要。如果他了解这意味什么，如果他为自己正确界定变成认真的意思，同时又感觉到他真的渴望它，那么他的祈祷就产生结果。他能增强力量，也更常注意到他不认真的时候，这将使他更容易征服自己，使他自己认真。就是以这相同的方式使人能够「祈祷」——『我要记得自己』，『记得』——『记得』意味什么？这人必须想一想关于记忆，他记得多么的少！对于他所决定的、他所看见的、他所知道的是多么常忘记！如果他能记得，他的整个一生一定会不同，所有恶事的来临都是因为他不记得。『我自己』——他再次回到他自己，他要记得的是哪一个自己？值得去记得整个自己吗？他如何能分辨要记得的是什么？工作的构想！他如何能将自己关连上工作的构想？等等，等等。
「在基督教的礼拜中有很多正是像这样需要去反思每一个字，但他们在机械重复或吟唱中丧失了所有的意义。
「看看一般的愿上帝的慈悲降临于我！它意味什么？一个人对上帝祈求，他应该稍微想一想，他应该做个比较并且问自己，上帝是什么以及他是什么，然后他祈求上帝将慈悲降临于他。但为了这，上帝首先必须想到他、注意到他，但他值得被注意吗？他里面有什么值得去想的？谁又该来想他？是上帝祂自身。你们看，在他说出这简单的祈祷之前都应该先想想这些以及很多其它的想法，而正是这些想法能够为他做到他所祈求上帝的，但如果他只是像个鹦鹉一样重复：『上帝慈悲！上帝慈悲！上帝慈悲！』他又能想些什么？这祈祷又能产生什么结果？你们自己知道这不会产生任何结果。
「一般来说，我们对基督教以及基督教的礼拜形式所知甚少；我们对许多事情的源头和历史都一无所知。例如在教堂或寺庙中聚集信徒与礼拜仪式是依据特别的仪式进行的；这些源自那里？很多人一点也不会想到这个问题，许多人认为礼拜的外在形式、仪式、吟唱诗歌等等都是教堂的神父发明的，另一些人则认为这些外在形式部份是从异教，部份是从犹太教借来的，所有这些都不是真的。基督教教堂或寺庙源起的问题比我们所想的还要有趣得多。首先，在公元第一世纪基督教所进行的礼拜形式不可能源自于异教信仰，因为不管是希腊或罗马的祭典，还是犹太信仰中都没有类似的东西。犹太教堂或寺庙，希腊与罗马各种神祉的寺庙与第一、二世纪基督教教堂的外观完全不同。基督教教堂是——一所学校，是人们都已忘记的一所学校。想象在一所学校里，老师们给予演讲与演绎示范，却不知道这些是演讲与示范；而学生们或只是来到学校的人们将这些演讲与示范当作是祭典，或仪式，或『圣礼』，亦即魔术（magic)，这就蛮接近我们当代的基督教教堂。
「基督教教堂，基督教礼拜的形式，并不是教堂的神父发明的，而全都是从埃及已建构好的形式借来的。只不过这不是我们所知的埃及，而是我们所不知道的埃及。这埃及仍然在同一个地方，但它存在于更久远以前，在历史的洪流中只有一小部份流传下来，而这一小部份保存得非常隐密，使我们甚至不知道它们被保存着。
「当我说这史前埃及是耶稣诞生之前好几千年的基督教，也就是说那时的宗教含有构成真正基督教的相同原则与构想，对许多人来说这似乎有点奇怪。这史前埃及存有许多特别的学校称为『反复吟颂的学校(schools of repetition)』。在这些学校中会有几天，而在某些学校中甚至可能每一天，以某种科学的浓缩形式公开反复吟颂，让人可以在这些学校学习，有时这些反复吟颂会持续一周或一个月。幸亏有这些反复吟颂，那些通过这过程的人才不会失去与学校的联系，也才能将一切所学保存记忆中。有时他们从很远的地方来只是为了聆听反复吟颂，为了在离去时还能感觉到与学校的联系。一年当中还会有一些特别的日子，会有特别完整的反复吟颂，那时他们执行特别庄严---这些日子本身会有某种象征的意义。
「这些『反复吟颂的学校』被当成基督教教堂的一个典范——基督教堂中的礼拜形式几乎完全重现了科学上处理宇宙与人的反复过程，个人的祈祷、颂歌、祈祷文等等在这反复吟颂中都有它们自己的意义，就如同节日以及所有的宗教象征一样，然而它们的意义很久以前就已被遗忘。」
用户评论