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ken wilber
February 2009 
In praise of Obyvatel
Posted on Oct 11th, 2007
by 
jpjako
jpjako
When I was younger I worked as the editor of a fanzine called Being Different. That was way back when I though being different was an end and a light unto itself. Since then I've started to feel otherwise.
Gurdjieff once said that his method of waking up, the Work, can only begin from the level of ordinary man, obyvatel as he called it. No "lunatic" or a "fool" can have the required stabilty in themselves for working out for one's salvation. Having had a lot of new stuff and challenges in my life in the past six months, I finally agree with him. Being different is required, for sure: it is the power that makes us want to go beyond what is given to us. But attaining something from that beyond requires us to work.
Work is the normal man's territory. We have both the Normal Man and the Extraordinary Man in us. So we need to keep alive a playfulness that draws us towards something different; and we need the stability, the seriousness, the grit of the normal man to continue that playful exploration.
Gurdjieff once said that his method of waking up, the Work, can only begin from the level of ordinary man, obyvatel as he called it. No "lunatic" or a "fool" can have the required stabilty in themselves for working out for one's salvation. Having had a lot of new stuff and challenges in my life in the past six months, I finally agree with him. Being different is required, for sure: it is the power that makes us want to go beyond what is given to us. But attaining something from that beyond requires us to work.
Work is the normal man's territory. We have both the Normal Man and the Extraordinary Man in us. So we need to keep alive a playfulness that draws us towards something different; and we need the stability, the seriousness, the grit of the normal man to continue that playful exploration.
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