Reciprocal Maintenance

In the ecosystem of all creation (called by Gurdjieff the Trogoautoegocrat), There is an active exchange – a giving and a receiving, a dynamic equilibrium – not only from higher realms to lower but also from lower to higher. There are no closed systems. Everything belongs, everything is in dynamic relationship, and cosmic harmony is sustained by the giving and receiving of energy by all beings. P.D. Ouspensky recounts Gurdjieff’s description of the interdependent relationships of different classes of beings: “Above all, … [i]n nature everything is connected and everything is alive. The diagram of this classification is called the ‘Diagram of Everything Living’ [commonly known as the step-diagram].

“According to this diagram every kind of creature, every degree of being, is defined by what serves as food for this kind of creature or being of a given level and for what they themselves serve as food because, in the cosmic order, each class of creature feeds on a definite class of lower creature and is food for a definite class of higher creatures. …

“Each square denotes a level of being …The hydrogen [number] in the lower circle shows what the given class of creatures feeds on. The hydrogen in the upper circle shows the class which feeds on [them]. And the hydrogen in the middle circle is the average hydrogen of this class, showing what these creatures are” (Ouspensky quoting Gurdjieff, In Search of the Miraculous, pp. 322-324).

As Work students, we serve as living transformers for the transubstantiation of energy. We give as we receive.