Theos-Talk Archives (March 1995 Message tl00154)

Hi Keith,

The idea of the food chain in which everything eats everything
else is not really out in left field at all.  As I understand it,
it underlies all esoteric philosophy, one only has to look for
it.  Sometimes, it is even spelled out for us.  It is, for
example, a cornerstone of Gurdjieff's teaching.

Here is Ouspensky quoting Gurdjieff:

"According to this diagram (The Diagram of Everything Living),
every kind of creature, every degree of being, is defined by what
serves as food for this kind of creature or being of a given
level and for what they themselves serve as food, because in the
cosmic order each class of creature feeds on a definirte class of
lower creatures and is food for a definite class of higher
creatures."

P.D.  Ouspensky, "In Search of the Miraculous" pp.  322-323 The
whole idea of self-transformation, in my view, is that we use the
energy that is transformed by our organism (our chemical factory
according to Gurdjieff), for the crystallization of our higher
being bodies, the interpenetrating bodies posited by theosophical
teaching.  In other words, the esotericist who has learned the
techniques of energy transmutation "eats himself", this is what
alchemy is all about, whereas for the ordinary person who does
not understand working on oneself, the energy that is given off
by the organism and not used fruitfully for i.e.  locomotion or
reproduction, is used by higher cosmic forces both during one's
life and at one's death.  No energy is ever wasted, it cannot be
destroyed, only transformed (transmuted) for a different use in
the vast cosmic organism of which we are all a part.

Having a wonderful time.  Wish I were here.  Sy Ginsburg