Gurdjieff travelled extensively in his ‘learning’ period. One of the main issues he strove to understand and resolve, was the odd capacity and facility which human beings had for adopting any bullshit which came their way. He found this extraordinary, that otherwise perfectly sane people would drop all semblance of sanity and froth at the mouth over some story they were fed. Even kill for these ‘narratives’ of the mind (he moved through many war zones).
The core of this idea of his - kundabuffer - was the natural state of ‘freedom of the mind’ which all properly developed humans should have by right of birth. Kundabuffer was what robbed people of this freedom. To comprehend kundabuffer, you must first grasp the concept of a free mind - one that is inherently resistant to being sold some tale. There are many ways in which we forfeit our mental freedom.
The key to understanding kundabuffer, is that we should be the natural inheritors of an inner world which is in complete ownership by ourselves, not by some unknown manipulator or by the flux of outer circumstances. This is such a difficult state to attain, despite that Gurdjieff felt mental freedom was relatively easy - one just had to earnestly desire it. Unfortunately it is not easy, and despite long years of allegiance with philosophies of freedom, little can change, due to the instillation of the organ kundabuffer.
TIOTT has
here posted on the historical aspects of this instillation, which is separate to this examination but fascinating nonetheless, and much could be said about how this situation came about.
Why do we so willingly give over our sovereignty of mind?
How do we give it away?
Why?, is a question of the dark intent of the organ kundabuffer. The most critical aspect of this is the comprehension that we don’t do this of our own free will. It is STOLEN! I wish everyone could see that, in the moment in which it is lost. Alas, it is a rare person who can see this. When your control is lost, it is NOT YOU! It is something inside your mind - a foreign instillation - which has the amazing ability to make you believe it is you. I could talk to you all night of this, and in an instant, you will forget. I can’t begin to explain the feeling of seeing this soul-milking before my eyes, despite everything - despite years of work. Kundabuffer is buried so deep.
How?, is the purpose of this post. I will give a few instances, but actually the complexity of how, is endless.
1. Choice. We always fall for the kundabuffer contrivance that someone, something, some situation, is causing us to behave in some way. Don Juan said “No one is doing anything to anybody.” But we never grasp what this really means.
I posted on the situation of some people feeling there was some barrier preventing them from engaging fully in Soma. That was one instance of drawing the dots. We always think the barrier is out there. ‘They’ are preventing me from my freedom: kundabuffer.
Breaking the spine of kundabuffer is owning choice. I and only I have the choice to do as I wish. No one is stopping me, but this ubiquitous ‘they’ may be creating a veil of illusion - that is the world we inhabit. Only I have the power to claim choice, to exercise choice, to call that veil bullshit, and to realise the barriers are all inside. Einstein formulated the law of relativity, because he was totally ignorant of all the previous theories. He had no mental barrier to overcome.
Kundabuffer - the passive position - is to blame others.
Ownership of choice is the first key to dethroning kundabuffer.
2. Mood. How often are we upset because of someone else’s behaviour? Ownership of mood is the second key to dethroning kundabuffer.
So you have to do this or that because some person is being an arsehole. Their action, or lack of actions, creates this state of intense annoyance, even obsessive anger. So many different situations. The most common one is when we are left to clean up a mess while some other person just wanders off and enjoys themself. We do the dirty work while fuming at the lazy, inconsiderate behaviour of another.
Another situation is when we perceive some person is manipulating, and this causes us to close down and hide - all the while despising them.
Our mood is our responsibility. The mood and actions of others are their responsibility. Our actions are the actions we perform in a life that is poignantly short. These acts are all we have. To cripple our precious life with emotional regarding of others, is the worst insult we can spit at our own life. It doesn’t matter what anyone else is scheming or more importantly what we think they are doing. Our actions exist. That is our existence - no outer circumstance can alter the preciousness of this moment.
When you allow kundabuffer to inflame your mood, you lose your soul. Actions are actions - pleasant or unpleasant. If you decide to do them, then own that decision, and just focus with joy and skill at the doing. This is about the power of living a deliberate life. Ownership of decision! Ownership of mood. Don’t allow kundabuffer to sour your aura, your life.
3. Stories. How often do we buy in one gulp the story of another when presented with emotion? I have a friend who if I discuss some issue, will hold his ground and maintain a sceptical stance. But if the conditions are right - like when he watches a TV program well designed with the music and photography, he is a goner - won over immediately. We are suckers for those who know how to manipulate our beliefs.
What amazes me is how when we are fed these attitudes, we will often hold onto them till we die! It takes a new generation to call irrelevant the crap their parents have clung to all their lives. But these stories are never based on well grounded information - they always travel enclosed in emotive and mostly sarcastic inflections. Why do we fall for sarcasm? Why do we admit into our brains so easily an attitude which belittles something or someone? We snigger with them and then thank god we are not one of the fools they are targeting.
Disabling kundabuffer is all about reclaiming the freedom of our inner world. Not being a sucker for every passing wind which spins us this way and that.
Kundabuffer: picture for a moment a vast crowd of people laying down and uncovering their bellies - some powerful being glides by on the support of light which issues from the bellies of every prone slave. Feel this image - see the mass of people exposing their bellies to prop up the golden, glorious, passing parasite. Are you one of those prone, willing donors?
Take refuge in the difficult, the struggle, the beauty of an action for its own sake. Take refuge in inner active.
Gurdjieff saw kundabuffer as the state of being internally passive. Only by inner active - choice, decision, ownership, responsibility, and above all... dissonance. These are the marks on the path of awakening.
Kundabuffer is the power which is pulling us back into sleep. Anything which disturbs our sleep, dislodges kundabuffer.
