Summary for “Healing Fire - 1”
With the consideration of fire in the previous article, “The Fire of Consciousness”, as symbolising remorse, awareness, suffering, and the reconciling force in transformation, we return to the question of the healing possibilities of fire, begun in the post, “Burning,” and the connection with intentional suffering.
Gurdjieff spoke in the third series of All and Everything of the possibility of regulating health by means of intentional suffering [p.153]. Although “intentional suffering” is a technical term peculiar to Gurdjieff, there can be found, to a certain extent, correspondences and similarities in other traditions. Gurdjieff left many hints about this special process, scattered in different places in his writings, but what it is exactly, and how it works, is left to the reader-seeker-student on this way to work and find out for themselves. Nevertheless, we can help each other with sharing our findings and ponderings.
Along with touching on why intentional suffering might regulate health, a key question pursued in this series of posts is: Is the process of intentional suffering about going back to the fire?
It seems important, by the way, in contemplating and using the powerful force present in suffering, always to bear in mind that suffering can take many forms. Suffering can easily become mechanical and self-indulgent, and Gurdjieff reminds us that, “Only conscious suffering has any sense [Views p.274].”
The content of the following Members’ post, Healing Fire – 1, includes the following:
– intentional contact between the inner and outer world.
– suggestion for using the analogy of the scenarios of Gurdjieff’s burns treatments as a guide for inner work with intentional suffering.
– hetero-intentional and auto-intentional and something in between.
– the use of mesmeric passes as an attentional device in healing.