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Extract
from
In
Search of the Miraculous1
by
P.
D. Ouspensky
"Do such works of objective art
exist at the present day?" I asked.
"Of course they exist," answered G (G.
I. Gurdjieff). "The great Sphinx in Egypt is such work of art, as well
as some historically known works of architecture, certain statues of gods, and
many other things. There are figures of gods and of various mythological beings
that can be read like books, only not with the mind but with the emotions,
provided they are sufficiently developed. In the course of our travels in
Central Asia we found, in the desert at the foot of the Hindu Kush, a strange
figure which we thought at first was some ancient god or devil. At first it
produced upon us simply the impression of being a curiosity. But after a while
we began to feel that this figure
contained many things, a big, complete, and complex system of cosmology. And
slowly, step by step, we began to decipher this system. It was in the body of
the figure, in its legs, in its arms, in its head, its eyes, in its ears;
everywhere. In the whole statue there was nothing accidental, nothing without
meaning. And gradually we understood the aim of the people who built this
statue. We began to feel their thoughts, their feelings. Some of us thought that
we saw their faces, heard their voices. At all events, we grasped the meaning of
what they wanted to convey to us across thousands of years, and not only the
meaning, but all the feelings and the emotions connected with it as well. That
indeed was art!”
1. In
Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching,
Routledge
& Kegan Paul Ltd., London, 1950
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