Contemplation

"They did this because at that time two facts had become clearly manifest the decline of the Christian religion, and the disappearance in ordinary people of the capacity for "contemplation," that is, for the state in which alone the truths indicated in detail by genuine religious teachings can be understood." (30)

Pondering

Aiësiritoorassian Contemplation, Active Mentation, Being Contemplation

Pondering is an active process leading to the development of the Higher Intellectual center and Objective Reason. Pondering is a word that Gurdjieff uses interchangeably with Active Mentation and Contemplation throughout Beelzebub's Tales. Contemplation is itself prefixed with many qualifiers throughout the Beelzebub's Tales. See the examples below.

Contemplation and Active Mentation are related together on page (31). Active Mentation and Active Pondering are mentioned together on page (32). Other references to contemplation, pondering and active mentation appear throughout the book and are listed below. We know these various terms are related because they are all mentioned in conjunction with the process of transmuting the sacred substances abrustdonis and helkdonis for the growth of the higher being bodies.

being-contemplation	pondering of my purified Reason
intentional contemplativeness	active pondering
aiësiritoorassian contemplation	ponder on the sense of their own existence
intentional contemplation	pondering of the blessed highest being-bodies
being-contemplation	the capacity to ponder and reflect
active and conscious contemplation	active mentation

"through active mentation, there should proceed more intensively in you the proper elaboration of the sacred substances 'abrustdonis' and 'helkdonis,' required for coating and perfecting both your higher being-parts." (33)
"active and conscious contemplation, and in this state performed these corresponding sacred mysteries, so that there should be transmuted in them the sacred substances abrustdonis and helkdonis." (34)
"As for the sacred cosmic substances required for the coating of the 'highest being-body,' which they call the 'soul,' these substances can be assimilated and correspondingly transformed and coated in them, just as in us, only through the process of what is called 'aiësiritoorassian contemplation,' actualized in their common presence with the conscious participation of their three independent spiritualized parts." (35)
'intentional contemplation,' which is the principal factor for the assimilation of those sacred cosmic substances." (36)

***

The practice of Pondering works according to the Law of Three by setting up a collision or 'zernofookalnian friction' between the Affirming force of newly received impressions and the Denying force of previously acquired data which leads via the resulting Reconciliation to the development of Objective Reason and the formation of the sacred substances 'abrustdonis' and 'helkdonis' which are required for the coating and perfecting of the higher being bodies. This process is similar to the practice of Intentional Suffering where the struggle against the mechanical manifestations and desires of the planetary body produces a 'Disputekrialnian friction' which leads to the formation of the sacred substances 'abrustdonis' and 'helkdonis' for coating the higher being bodies.

"It is only thanks to this 'third force' in the process of the blending of newly perceived impressions of every kind that there are crystallized in a being, on the basis of the sacred Triamazikamno, data for the cognizance and understanding proper to that being alone; and it is only during these processes of the crystallization of data for consciousness in the presence of three-brained beings that what is called 'zernofookalnian friction' takes place, which gives rise in them to the formation of the sacred substances 'abrustdonis' and 'helkdonis,' required for the coating and perfecting of their higher parts." (37)
"ponder on the sense of their own existence, and so to acquire data for the elucidation and reconciliation in themselves of that 'individual collision,' as it is called, which often arises in three-brained beings from the contradiction between the concrete results flowing from the processes of all the cosmic laws and the results presupposed and even definitely expected by their 'sane logic ' And so, correctly evaluating the essential significance of their own presence, they become capable of being aware of the place truly corresponding to them in these common-cosmic actualizations." (38)

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