I’ve been keen to get back to this area, but it requires the right mood to write about.
Fritz Peters came to live at Gurdjieff’s Fontainebleau in France as a young boy, 11 years old. I don’t recall why. He later wrote of his experiences. The value in his books is in the detail - always remember that with people of wisdom, the real treasures are in the little things that happen. So I won’t ruin this book for you if I tell of one of the main stories.
Fritz was set to mow the lawn, which was apparently huge. It took him all week to mow it. Eventually G came to him and said he wanted him to mow it in only two days. Fritz was gobsmacked, but he was a good boy so he did his best and eventually was able to get it all done in time.
Then G came to him and said he had to mow it in one day. One day!! Fritz couldn’t believe it - it was impossible. G left it to him, and to his credit Fritz eventually pulled it off - he completed the whole job in one day. G was pleased.
Then G told him, that no matter what happened to him (G), Fritz was to mow the lawn every week, and under no circumstances was he to stop it, no matter who told him to stop. Fritz didn’t know what that was all about, so he just carried on. Not long after that G had his famous car accident, and they brought him back to Fontainebleau in a coma.
The whole place was in a flap, but poor Fritz had his orders, and carry them out he did. The doctor and ‘hierarchy’ became increasing concerned about G, and the doctor told everyone they had to be very quiet. By this time the whole place was in suspension, as it was likely G would die, and then it would all be over. Still Fritz kept up his lawn mows. Soon he was told by the heavies in the place that he should stop. But you see, G ran Fontainebleau in a way that only he had the authority, and as it was not a ‘normal’ scene there, no one really had the confidence to demand Fritz that he cease his loud mowing that went on from dawn to dusk. So he kept mowing.
Eventually, Fritz was an outcast as everyone felt that if G died it would be Fritz’s fault. Remember, he was just a little kid, but he knew what G had said to him, so out he went mowing, with tears in his eyes, and completely confused - but G was like that, you just had to trust him, so onward he mowed, with doctors looking disapprovingly down from the window of the room G was lying in unconscious.
When it got really too much for him one day, as he mowed, he looked up at the window, and saw G looking down at him. He burst into tears. What people didn’t fully believe was G’s injunction that only discomfort can help you.
G was mighty pleased with Fritz, so when he could barely walk, G came down to see Fritz and told him to follow him. G was obviously in a lot of pain, but he took Fritz to a large field beyond the lawn, and told him that as well as the mowing the lawns, he also had to scythe the high grass of this field - all in one day! Fritz couldn’t believe it - G must have gone mad, but G then grabbed a scythe and began to do it himself, in obvious agony, with sweet pouring off his forehead from the pain and exertion. Fritz got the message.
G held firmly to the belief that we are cowards, and will never push ourselves. We always say we are doing our best, but he said we had no idea of what our best was, and that only by pushing ourselves way way beyond what we thought was our best would we come close to discovering a power that lies buried deep inside us. It was getting to this power that was one of G’s main teachings and efforts.
Unfortunately, Fritz failed a subsequent test G set him, and from that moment on G ‘dropped’ him. There were no second chances with G - Fritz was devastated.
Years later, in the USA, Fritz (a young man) accompanied G on a train. To the horror and embarrassment of Fritz, G kept pulling the foulest evil smelling cheeses out of his bag, which stank the carriage out - Fritz couldn’t stop him. G would do anything to throw everyone into a tizz - I will explain why later.
