From G.I.Gurdjieff's Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, page 1,009, Penguin, Arkana Edition, 1999:
"Yes . . . my dear friend, if only the teaching of the Divine Jesus Christ were carried out in full conformity with its original then the religion unprecedently wisely founded on it, would not only be the best of all existing religions, but even of all religions which may arise and exist in the future."
And page 1,232 from the same book:
"The expression which has reached us from ancient times, "the first liberation of man," refers to just this possibility of crossing from the stream which is predestined to disappear into the nether regions into the stream which empties itself into the vast spaces of the boundless ocean.
To cross into the other stream is not so easy – merely to wish and you cross. For this, it is first of all necessary consciously to crystallize in yourselves data for engendering in your common presences a constant unquenchable impulse of desire for such a crossing, and then, afterwards, a long corresponding preparation.
For this crossing it is necessary first of all to renounce all the what seem to you "blessings" – but which are, in reality, automatically and slavishly acquired habits – present in this stream of life.
In other words, it is necessary to become dead to what has become for you your ordinary life.
It is just this death that is spoken of in all religions.
It is defined in the saying which has reached us from remote antiquity, "Without death no resurrection," that is to say, "If you do not die you will not be resurrected."
The death referred to is not the death of the body, since for such a death there is no need of resurrection.
For if there is a soul, and moreover, an immortal soul, it can dispense with a resurrection of the body.
Nor is the necessity of resurrection our appearance before the awful Judgement of the Lord God, as we have been taught by the Fathers of the Church.
No! Even Jesus Christ and all the other prophets sent from Above spoke of the death which might occur even during life, that is to say, of the death of that "Tyrant" from whom proceeds our slavery in this life and solely from the liberation from which depends the first chief liberation of man."
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