"'being-partkdolg-duty,' that is to say, thanks to those factors which, from the very first arising of three - brained beings, were destined by our Uni-Being Common Father to be the means for self-perfecting." (8)

Being Partkdolg Duty

This term covers the core practices of the Gurdjieff Work and gives an indication of what is required of us in our daily Work. They are similar to the yamas and niyamas of the Noble Eightfold Path of Raja Yoga : non-violence, truthfulness and honesty, non-indulgence and austerity, non-possessiveness, cleanliness, contentment, self-observation, awareness of higher consciousness.

It includes the practice of :

Conscious Labor

Intentional Suffering

Five Obligonian Strivings

The Four Commandments

***

Conscious Labor and Intentional Suffering

And as for these factors, which are the sole possible means for the assimilation of the cosmic substances required for the coating and perfecting of the higher being-bodies, today we call them 'conscious labor' and 'intentional suffering. (9)

"And this is because the thought never enters the heads of these hapless contemporary 'monks' that, although it is indeed possible to perfect themselves by means of this substance, this can proceed only if the second and third being-foods are intentionally absorbed and consciously digested in one's presence, which is possible only for one who has already accustomed all the parts of his presence to fulfill consciously both 'sacred being partkdolg duties,' that is, 'conscious labor' and 'intentional suffering.'" (10)

"To tell the truth, my boy, I did not understand at once all that he told me, it all became clear to me only later when, during my studies of the fundamental cosmic laws, I learned that these sacred substances 'abrustdonis' and 'helkdonis' are precisely those substances which enter into the formation and perfecting of the higher being-bodies of the three-brained beings—that is, the 'kesdjan body' and the 'body of the soul'—and that the separation of the sacred 'askokin' from the two other substances proceeds when beings, on whatever planet they may be, transmute these sacred substances in themselves for the forming and perfecting of their higher bodies, by means of conscious labor and intentional suffering." (11)

"And so, my dear Hassein, when it became clear that there had entirely disappeared from the psyche of your favorites the instinctive need for conscious labor and intentional suffering in order to take in and transmute in themselves the sacred substances abrustdonis and helkdonis—thus releasing the sacred askokin for the maintenance of the Moon and Anulios—Great Nature was constrained to adapt herself and to extract this sacred substance by other means, one of them being precisely that periodic terrifying process of reciprocal destruction." (12)

***

The terms  'abrustdonis' and 'helkdonis' refer to the two being foods of Air and Impressions.

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