OUSPENSKY AND SMALL ACCUMULATORS
Before talking about Gurdjieff’s Great Accumulator, let’s review Ouspensky’s introduction to the Small Accumulators. The notion that we can collect and store energy in ourselves. To fill our small accumulators, we plug “leaks” – avoid gabbing, a certain tone of laughter, nervous gestures, spinning daydreams, etc. We each have our own particular brand of leaking energy. Too often we make an effort to “put money in the bank” but then throw it away on things we don’t need, like the after-hours party.
GURDJIEFF AND THE LARGE ACCUMULATOR
But beyond the work of refueling our moving, emotional and intellectual centers, Gurdjieff speaks of the Large or Great Accumulator. This is something else altogether. Rather than a place of energy storage for energies we create, this storage center is outside ourselves and is more powerful than we can know. Apparently it is from this source that permanent transformation is possible. It seems Gurdjieff had difficulty directly connecting many of his pupils to the great accumulator as he himself had been.
The question with the Great Accumulator, is how to connect to it and not get fried in the process? I may not be much of a candidate in the first place, and if I was, I’d probably get fried to a crisp. Mrs. Popoff would wish us well by saying, “May your sun rise.” That has taken on a new meaning for me . So now what?
INNER WORK
One thing I’m learning in my old age in the Work, is not to sweat the big stuff. I am more interested in what is unfolding in front of me. Last week for instance—I’d set myself to write blogs to prepare for the next couple of Mondays. However, I was pulled to go hang with my kids and grandkids in the beautiful lakeside setting where we were having a large family gathering for the week. I didn’t join them on the dock, but I wasn’t getting to my writing either. My shoulders were tense, my emotions were unsettled; I couldn’t concentrate. I asked myself, “Am I making the right decision to write or should I be with the family?”
But I’d committed to this blog and I’d set myself a task for the day. This was my Work. My struggle with Yes and No. I saw my tense shoulders and let them go. I felt the emotional tug and asked it to calm. I relaxed the conflict in my thoughts about what was “important.” Focusing on my aim, I plugged the leaks as best I could and carried on with the task at hand.
How else will I find my way to any connection with the Great Accumulator? All I can do is the Work that I can do now. I doubt there is a more direct connection for me. Perhaps my work with filling the small accumulators with energy and not constantly expending it will open me to “something I do not understand.” I leave myself open. I need to bate the hook with Wish, throw out the line of Aim, and be patient as only a good fisherman can be.