|
Thomas de Hartmann
|
Osho on
Gurdjieff and de Hartmann Music
Question: Beloved
Osho, In a book I read about Gurdjieff, it was said that two of his
disciples, who had been with him for a long time and in a very intimate way
- for example, de Hartmann, who played his music - suddenly left him. Can
you explain why this seems to happen again and again in the master-disciple
relationship?
Osho : Turiya, the question is something of deep significance and with
profound implications. It is something in the very nature of things that
this kind of thing happens again and again, and will continue to happen
again and again; it cannot be stopped. De Hartmann lived with George
Gurdjieff for perhaps the longest period of any of his other disciples,
perhaps forty years or more. He was a great genius as far as music is
concerned, and he was playing music for special meditations, which Gurdjieff
had devised.
The music was also devised by Gurdjieff; de Hartmann had to bring the device
into reality. Gurdjieff was a strange master, everything about him had the
quality of strangeness. He himself was not a musician, but he understood
what kind of vibrations could create certain states in man. His
understanding was about man, his meditation, his mind, the possibility of
his receiving certain vibrations and being affected by them. He would
explain his whole program to de Hartmann, and de Hartmann had become such an
expert that he would make it a reality.
But de Hartmann was not a disciple -- this was where the trouble arose. He
had come to George Gurdjieff to be a disciple, but his genius about music
took him on a different route: rather than being a disciple, he became an
associate. He started working for Gurdjieff insofar as he needed music for
his special dances, and he forgot completely why he had come. Gurdjieff
reminded him many times: "de Hartmann, you are a perfect master as far as
music is concerned, but you had not come here to play music.
And now your ego is feeling so fulfilled and contented that you don't want
to sit among the disciples. You have forgotten that your basic motive was
not to play music here." The separation was bound to happen one day, because
finally Gurdjieff became very hard. And he said to de Hartmann, "You have to
stop music completely, because music has become a barrier. Your music has
helped others tremendously, but for yourself it has become a barrier. You
stop music completely! Burn all your musical instruments." This was too much
for de Hartmann.
He was not an ordinary musician. He left Gurdjieff rather than leave music.
And because he had lived for forty years with George Gurdjieff, and had
remained in a very intimate relationship... but not as a disciple, remember
-- that was forgotten; that was why the problem arose. The intimacy was
because of the music; Gurdjieff needed a musician. He was taking his
disciples around the world, showing people the immense effect of vibrations.
In New York, in one of his shows, the disciples were dancing...
They have to dance intensely and totally; they have to forget the whole
world. But if the music stops, then they have to stop in whatever position
they are in -- if the hand is up, it remains up; if their eyes are open,
they remain open, they don't blink -- a total stop. If one leg is up in
dancing, it remains where it is. And when the dance came to its climax, he
gave the indication to de Hartmann to stop. As the music stopped, every
dancer had to stop -- just like statues, as if suddenly they had become
marble statues, no movement.
It is a tremendous experience. In that gap, when all movement has stopped,
you simply feel your existence, your isness. But when he said to de Hartmann
to stop... the dancers were moving in a certain round and they were so close
to the edge of the stage that with the sudden stop, one dancer fell from the
stage. Because there was no way, you could not do anything -- whatever
happened, happened, you had to stop. On top of him, another dancer fell. A
whole line of dancers went on falling from the stage, as if they were dead
bodies.
The people who had seen that show could not believe... the silence of the
disciples, their becoming centered, created a new vibration. Even the people
in the audience who had no idea of any meditation certainly felt a new
breeze, a silence surrounding them, and a peacefulness. For years, the
intelligentsia of New York talked about the dance. They could not believe
what had happened; it was simply sheer magic. But nothing happened to de
Hartmann. He was just a technician: he played the music -- he was an expert
-- and when the indication was given he stopped it.
But he remained in close proximity to Gurdjieff for forty years, and people
naturally thought that he was a disciple, and a very close disciple. And
when he left Gurdjieff, he maintained the illusion -- perhaps he himself was
in the illusion -- that he was a disciple, that he had learned everything
that Gurdjieff knows... forty years is enough. That's why he went to America
to open his own school. A desire to become a master is a simple ego
number. His statement, Turiya, when he said to people, "You are more
important to me than Mr. Gurdjieff," is simply shameful -- but this is the
category of the Judas.
In every master's life there are bound to be Judases. It seems to be the law
of nature that the people who come to a master don't come with the same
motivation. A few come to seek the truth, a few come to learn how to be a
master.
In the life of Basho, one of the great mystics of Japan, there is a
beautiful incident.
He was sitting with his disciples and a man came and he said, "I also want
to join."
Basho said, "There is no barrier; the doors are open, you can join. But let
me tell you: disciplehood is an arduous thing. Are you ready for it, or is
it just curiosity? If it is just curiosity then don't waste your time,
because soon you will have to leave. If it is a sincere search that you are
ready to stake everything -- life included -- only then can you be a
disciple."
The man said, "I am not prepared. I never thought that to be a disciple
costs so much." And then he said, "Then what about the master? -- I can
become the master. If it is easier, then I can drop the idea of being a
disciple; I can become the master."
Basho said, "We will not prevent you from being a master, but unless one has
passed through the arduous path of disciplehood, one cannot be a master --
although it is very easy. If there was some back door, I would have allowed
you in. But there is no back door; you will have to come through the right
channel of being a disciple."
The man said, "Then I will think it over, and I will come again," and he
never came again.
A few people simply come to the masters because they see a certain dimension
of fulfillment for their ego, their ambition. To them, it is the same: to
have power, prestige, respectability, richness, or to be a great master with
thousands of disciples. They have no desire to know the truth, no search for
knowing oneself. To them, to be a master is just like any other ambitious
project of the world -- to be a rich man, to be a politician, to be a prime
minister, to be a governor. And you cannot prevent them, because sometimes
when they come and they try to understand, they change. They see that when
they came they had come with a wrong motive, but now that motive has been
dropped. So they cannot be prevented from the very beginning... and one
never knows when they will change; it may take years.
The master has to be patient. But these
people are in a hurry, because life is slipping out of their hands.
Judas betrayed Jesus not for any other reason. It was not for thirty silver
coins that he betrayed Jesus; he betrayed Jesus because he was the only
educated disciple. He was more educated and cultured than Jesus himself.
Moving with Jesus, seeing his teachings, he could easily visualize himself
as a great master, greater than Jesus: "Because this man is simply a
carpenter's son, knows nothing much; still he has created a great stir in
the country."
It was a very simple arithmetic: Judas could see that if this man is
removed, he can prove himself to be a great master; but if this man is alive
he will always remain a disciple. Either he had to revolt against him and
create a totally different following, which is more arduous... This was far
better, if Jesus could be removed in some way. And Judas was bound to be the
leader, with an established following. It is just like a shop with a
credibility of hundreds of years -- rather than opening a new shop... You
may be offering better things to the world, but still, the old name has a
credibility, an established credibility.
The competition is going to be tough and very difficult. The best way is
somehow get the name of the old shop -- just old bottles filled with new
wine. Nobody bothers about the wine, everybody looks at the bottle -- but
the bottle has to be old. The old bottle is the proof of old wine. Simple
logic...
And to remove Jesus was easy, because the Jews were after him and things
could be done in such a way that nobody would ever know that Judas had done
it. But he forgot one thing: nobody would ever know that Judas had done it,
but how can Judas forget it? That realization came only later on. That
realization came only when Jesus was crucified. Judas was in the crowd. He
could not believe that he had done this -- just to become a master, he had
betrayed a friend, a master who loved him, trusted him.
And now he forgot all about the old ego trip. Something new that he had
never thought about, a great repentance, a guilt... within twenty-four hours
he committed suicide. De Hartmann was not a disciple at all, but he knew
certain techniques that Gurdjieff was practicing with disciples. He had
become a technician. Because he had to supply the music to every technique,
he knew the techniques in every detail -- but he had never practiced them;
his work was to supply the music.
But this is how the mind deceives you. Your
own mind leads you astray. De Hartmann could not prove himself to be a
master -- without Gurdjieff, the music fell flat. He knew the technique, he
knew the music, but he was not aware that the technique, the music, all were
alive because of the living presence of a master. He was only a
technician. That is the difference between a technician and a master.
Now if something goes wrong with the electricity any technician can come and
fix it, but that does not mean that he is Edison who discovered electricity.
Although he knows everything, he is not Edison. That master touch will be
missing. It took three years for Edison to discover electricity. He started
with many colleagues and students -- he was a professor. And by and by,
because every experiment went on failing, people started deserting him: "He
seems to be mad, he is trying to do something impossible. Hundreds of
experiments have failed, but that man seems to be strange... every day,
early in the morning, he comes back to the lab with the same enthusiasm, the
same zest."
All his colleagues were feeling that it would be better to do something else
-- "We are wasting our time." They were all frustrated. Except for Edison,
nobody had any enthusiasm, and within three years all his colleagues and
students had left. But Edison continued, and one night at three o'clock...
the whole night he had been working, because he was coming so close. And
that was his logic -- he was saying to his colleagues, "Don't desert me; you
are deserting at the wrong time. We have tried hundreds of experiments and
they have all failed.
That means that the one experiment which is going to succeed is coming
closer. Finally we will sort it out. We are dropping those which are going
to fail, they are not on our list anymore. The list is becoming shorter --
soon we will be able to find the right method." They said, "Three years have
been wasted, and we cannot imagine how long this `soon' is going to take."
And that night he started to feel from the very beginning of the evening
that he was coming closer: "Things are fitting; the puzzle is to be settled
tonight." He went on and on and on, and by three o'clock he saw the first
electric bulb. It was so much light! No human eye had ever seen it before;
people had seen only candles.
His wife was sleeping in the other room. She had been calling him again and
again -- "It is time to go to sleep."
He said, "Not tonight; you just go to sleep and don't disturb me. I am so
close, and I don't want to miss. Tomorrow things may be different, I may
have forgotten something. Today I cannot leave it."
At three o'clock, suddenly the light... It was almost like lightning in the
house. The wife said, "You idiot, put that light out! Neither are you going
to sleep nor will you allow me to sleep. And from where did you get this
light?"
And he was sitting with unblinking eyes in a state of awe... unbelievable!
It has happened!
And the poor woman was saying, "Turn the light off."
He said, "This light is never going to be turned off. Now it is going to be
on forever and ever." Now every electrician knows -- but he is only a
technician, he is not an Edison. He can fall into the illusion that he is
also as knowledgeable as Edison himself, but the charisma is not there, the
genius is not there. Those miracle-making hands are not there.
De Hartmann tried hard in America, because
in America Gurdjieff had been such a success. He went through the same
cities giving the same shows, but everything fell flat. He could not figure
out what was wrong -- because the songs were the same, the dances were the
same, the music was the same, the musician was the same... "And that man Gurdjieff was not doing anything, he was simply standing there. All that he
used to do was to tell me, 'Stop!' Just that much, anybody can do. And I
myself know at what point he used to say stop, so I stop myself at those
points, exactly at those points -- but the magic is not there."
He forgot that he had never been a disciple -- and he had become a master!
He forgot that he had been only a musician. If he had remembered that he was
only a musician -- and in that too, he was brought to such refinement by
Gurdjieff, not by himself -- things would have been different. Turiya, the
same thing happened with Ouspensky, who was really a disciple. De Hartmann
can be simply cancelled; he was never a disciple.
But Ouspensky was a disciple, and one of the foremost disciples. But again,
something took him away, and that something was similar to de Hartmann's
music -- that was Ouspensky's intelligence. He was a world-famous
mathematician, a great writer. Even before meeting Gurdjieff he was known
all over the world. Nobody knew Gurdjieff. In fact, it was Ouspensky who
made Gurdjieff's name known to the world; the whole credit goes to Ouspensky.
In this whole century there has not been another writer of the same caliber.
He writes with such authority, with such beauty -- and that became his fall,
because Gurdjieff became famous through his books. Gurdjieff was not a
writer; he had no special talent which is recognized by the world. He was
purely a master. He could transform human beings, their consciousness, but
that is not an art recognized by the world. And when Ouspensky saw that he
had made Gurdjieff world-famous, why should he bother? He knew everything
about what Gurdjieff was teaching, he had written everything; through him
the whole world knew about the teaching of Gurdjieff... "I myself can
teach."
He started a school in London. And such ungratefulness... he would not use
Gurdjieff's full name; he would simply call him "G". Just to avoid the full
name, Gurdjieff, he would use only the first letter, G. And he made it clear
to his students, that "Gurdjieff was right as long as I was with him. I left
him because he started going wrong. So his teaching is valid till I left him
-- beyond that, it has no significance." But he was just a schoolteacher, a
professor, with no aura of a master. It was really ridiculous to see him
pretending to be a master, because even in teaching higher principles of
consciousness he was using a blackboard.
Just the old habit of being a mathematician... So he would write on the
blackboard, as if the people who had gathered were students. He would not
look into anybody's eyes. He was not an impressive personality. He would
have been perfectly good as a professor in a university, but to be a master,
to belong to the category of Gautam Buddha, Gurdjieff and Krishnamurti, is a
totally different matter. He tried hard, but he could not manage anything;
nothing happened.
And you will be surprised to know that the whole world condemned Gurdjieff,
nobody condemned Ouspensky, nobody condemned de Hartmann. In fact, they had
nothing worth condemning either. Gurdjieff had a teaching, a methodology to
transform humanity. But these persons wanted to be masters. Seeing the power
of Gurdjieff, they became power hungry. Seeing his influence, they started
feeling inferior; they wanted to move away and create their own sphere of
influence. They all failed.
So it seems to be in the very nature of
things that this will go on happening. Wherever there will be a master,
there will be Judases, Ouspenskys, de Hartmanns. With Mahavira there was
Goshalak. With each great teacher, these people have followed like shadows
-- hungry for power. But to be a master is not an ego game. The power of
the master is not of the power of the ego; it is the power of his
humbleness, it is the power of his nothingness.
So these people will continue to happen, but they don't make even a dent in
human evolution. They simply spoil their own life and a great opportunity
that was given to them.
Source: "Osho
Upanishad" - Osho
Related Links
Osho - Gurdjieff Sacred Dances
Osho -
Gurdjieff early Childhood
Osho - Gurdjieff Strange Methods
Osho - Gurdjieff and His disciple Nicoll
Osho - Gurdjieff Meditation
to Disciples
Osho - Gurdjieff on Need of
Master Help
Osho - Gurdjieff and His disciple
Ouspensky
Osho -
Gurdjieff has divided art into two
categories
Gurdjieff Free Books Download
Osho -
Gurdjieff Wife Enlightenment
Gurdjieff Sacred Dance youtube Video
^Top
Back to Gurdjieff Teachings |
|
