Edward’s Diary Entry 25 – Virtue 6: Readiness to make sacrifices

I took “fire” as the symbol for this Virtue, not very well understood or practised by me as yet. Obviously an “updated” version of this Virtue was needed, as ancient texts seem very confusing and obviously great harm has been done by human misinterpretations over the millennia – sacrifice involved killing animals... of course only the “clean” animals (the “dumb” ones that are easy to catch, as Gurdijeff noted, not the cleverer or stronger ones like lions and tigers and hyenas!) uprooting plants and flowers, felling trees, and even making human sacrifices… While studying this Virtue I acquired a book from India where I read how Gandhi rejected “yajna” as absurd in its religious form (burning wood) because there was simply very little wood left in India! And burning what little there was would have been a crime. He had to make a new approach based on modern reasoning against dyed-in-the-wool religious rites. So “yajna” became spinning in villages! Obviously, burning wood was OK when India was full of forests in ancient times, but today it would be absurd. So we go back to the original meaning of “sacrifice” as “performing sacred rites” in the sense of “a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or water to be given with a pure heart,” as attributed to Krishna. So I buy, light and burn incense, buy candles and light them, buy flowers from my street sellers for charity and put them in a vase. I sacrifice time, energy and intentions spent on “other things” and not on self-inquiry. I burn away other things that do not help towards progress. I practise calmness and gentleness to find the right moment to make a sacrifice. I bow down in the mornings and spend time wishing well to dead relatives and friends. The contrary, unwillingness to make sacrifices, has to be watched, as this is due to inertia and lack of mindfulness. Relinquish what others may think of you, allow yourself to be wrong, sacrifice your self-image. As long as your intentions are good, Edward, and you stick to your Plan, you don’t have to cry like Eric Burdon about your “being misunderstood”.