Logion 8, the parable of the net full of small fishes, and hidden among these is one large, exceptional fish. A ‘B influence’ is the large, exceptional fish.
“A influences are created by life. They arise within the life of mechanical humanity from the interests of business, money-making, science, sport, politics, from the interests of conquest, intrigue, crime, power, from the interests of wealth, position, display and possessions, and from all the necessary interests of food, clothing, housing, law, order, and so on. B influences do not arise from life. Their source of origin is different. They have nothing to do with business, money-making, politics, sport, and so on. They come from outside the circle of mechanical life. In all ages and at all times we can find evidence of their existence in a certain class of literature, in certain religious ideas, in many ancient writings, in teachings that have been preserved to us, often in all sorts of disguised forms, in allegories, in fairy-stories, and so on. If anyone wishes for a clear example of B influences now existing in life, let him take as an example the New Testament, or rather, the four Gospels, which alone contain the teaching of Christ, and let him only take the recorded words of Christ.” Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries, p31-32.
“It is from the circle of conscious humanity that B influences originate. But they originate, not as B influences, but as C influences. It is only when they are sown into mechanical life that they become B influences. This happens, because, as C influences, they cannot exist in mechanical life, but become changed and altered in such a way that they only approximate their original form. But it can be kept alive and transmitted by means of schools having a direct connection with people who have reached that degree of inner evolution and consciousness belonging to the circle of conscious humanity. In these schools, C influences can exist and be transmitted orally—that is, by oral teaching—from one person who understands, to another, who begins to understand, and so to another who does not yet understand.” Commentaries, p34.
“Why are the Gospels not an example of C influences? We must remember that the Gospels appeared a long time after Christ died—from fifty to one hundred years after. It is not at all certain who were their authors. It is incorrect to suppose they are merely records written on the spot by eye-witnesses. Luke, for example, never heard Christ. He was a pupil of Paul, who of course never heard Christ, and who quarrelled with the school at Jerusalem and apparently got his teaching in some school near Damascus.” Commentaries, p35.
“B influences exist in life and they speak another language because they originate from a source outside life—from what are called C influences—that is, from people who have undergone individual evolution. C influences do not come from the circle of mechanical humanity, but from the conscious circle of humanity. But it is impossible for C influences to reach life directly. They would not be understood. Theirs is another language, one which we must learn slowly. Life alters them into B influences.” Commentaries, p91.
“Without positive ideas—that is, without contact with C influences via B influences—all the real meaning of Man perishes. He is cut off from influences that could change him. So he becomes wholly under the power of A influences. He then serves life and the big machines of life—politics, trade, war, mass-exercise, mass-propaganda, etc. He will not possess Magnetic Center. He will not seek positive ideas. His inner mind is shut. His inner life dies, and, esoterically speaking, he becomes useless, meaningless, dead.” Commentaries, p996.
“Logion 8, about the fisherman who casts his net into the sea and draws it up from below, full of small fishes. Hidden among these is one large, exceptional fish that he seizes. And immediately throwing back all the rest without a second thought. A ‘B influence’ is the large, exceptional fish. When you spot it, then it allows you to throw back all the other ones because they’re dead weight. You don’t need all these little things pulling you in all directions.” Cynthia Bourgeault, Kanuga Nov 2015, 18:27 Day 3.5 Afternoon Teaching.
“When there is something in you that can recognize qualitatively the difference between an A influence and a B influence and are able to distinguish them and sort of let go of the self-canceling cacophony of the mutual demands of the weather-cocking personality when there’s something that begins to grow in us and this would classically be what the teaching calls the heart as the organ of spiritual perception which can recognize the difference and which can act according to what it recognizes. Then you’re able to steer a truer course. And at that point in Gurdjieff’s teaching it’s the classic variation on when the student’s ready the master appears. Then a person of C influence will emerge to begin to take you across.” Cynthia Bourgeault, Claymont 2012 Gurdjieff for Christian Contemplatives, 44:00 20 Saturday Afternoon Teaching.
Logion 8
Yeshua says...
A true human being
can be compared to a wise fisherman
who casts his net into the sea
and draws it up from below full of small fish.
Hidden among them
is one large, exceptional fish
which he seizes immediately,
throwing back all the rest without a second thought.
Whoever has ears let them understand this.
Page numbers for Maurice Nicoll refer to Psychological Commentaries on the Teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Eureka Editions:2020) unless stated otherwise.
Quotations from the Gospel of Thomas are from Lynn C Bauman, Ward J Bauman, Cynthia Bourgeault, The Luminous Gospels (Praxis 2008)
Read more Impressions on the Parables.
Read the Impression introducing the Gospel of Thomas.
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