just kidding - 2 of 2

that story – transacting business in his sleep – is cute in its own right: business dealings in his sleep, recognizing the situation, and some sort of compromise accepting as real based on it's not being real, or something ...

but there's a few trains of ideas here.

first, i was was walking thinking thinking thinking and tried for a moment to attend to something other than thoughts: sensation or presence or self-remembering or centers ... and the thinking thinking thinking reclaims its ground. or does it?

does the “joke” convey something archtypal? at once there are multiple levels! the mullah had a glimpse of another level which perspective led him to return to that former level and on one hand take what he could but also to compromise … all sorts of possibilities, but related to the different realities – the different values – of different levels.

after my walk home and it seemed that my thinking is just too strong but then i read that mullah story – at face value a joke perhaps, but also exactly on point – one glimpse of my empty reality and i'm all too keen on returning to dreaming – perhaps it is not momentum, but a wilfull turning away, or rolling over to resume sleeping? or perhaps i am engaged in negotiation on an impossible level and have a have a moment of wakening, but finding nothing, return to what i have on a lower level.

there's a jokes and stories where someone farts or says something with a sexual innuendo, like those Till Eulenspiegel anecdotes, but what levels do those evoke?

gurdjieff invites us to compare:

It is not for nothing that our incomparable teacher, Mullah Nassr Eddin frequently says:

“Without greasing the palm, not only it is impossible to live tolerably anywhere but to breathe.”

And another terrestrial sage, named Till Eulenspiegel, who also based his wisdom on the crass stupidity of people, has expressed the same idea in the following words:

“If you don’t grease the wheels the cart won’t go.”

if you google eulenspiegel you’ll find the crassest stories – perhaps gems are hidden in shit, or perhaps it is truly a descending octave. (notwithstanding gurdjieff's saying outright when introducing the mullah in his first series,

Mullah Nassr Eddin, or as he is also called, Hodja Nassr Eddin, is, it seems, little known in Europe and America, but he is very well known in all countries of the continent of Asia; this legendary personage CORRESPONDS to the American Uncle Sam or the German Till Eulenspiegel. Numerous tales popular in the East, akin to the wise sayings, some of long standing and others newly arisen, were ascribed and are still ascribed to this Nassr Eddin.

however, the word CORRESPONDS indicates they serve a corresponding function but i'd hesitate to equate them, just as a handle to turn on water at a sink might CORRESPOND to a handle to flush a toilet - possibly. however, looking further, i see a quote from the 1931 version of B'sTs, indicating,:

Mullah Nassr Eddin or, as he is otherwise called, Hodja Nassr Eddin, is, it seems, little known in Europe and America. He is very well known, however, in all the countries of the continent Asia. This legendary personality IS LIKE the Russian 'Kusma Prutkov', the American 'Uncle Sam', or the English John Bull'. To this Mullah Nassr Eddin are ascribed numerous popular tales of the East, akin to sayings of the wisdom of daily life. They also now continue to ascribe to him various witticisms recalled from long ago as well as those newly made.

so perhaps IS LIKE indicates a greater correspondence than CORRESPONDS?)

further, consider, with regard to multiple levels within a story, and not least because i've dragged Till Eulenspiegl into this, consider:

"Thanks to this 'grammatical rule' of theirs, in any exchange of opinions the listener is first obliged to consider each proposition as if it were liable to happen, which arouses in him a certain 'being-diardookin' or, as they would say, a certain 'experiencing.' And only later the speaker, in conforming to their grammatical rule, finally pronounces their famous 'nicht,' with the result that there is produced in their common presence each time something that slowly but surely gives rise to the aforesaid specific character of their common psyche, and all this should help you to elucidate the original problem I have set you."

these are not mere musings. i attended lots of what are referred to as "celebrations" - celebrations of gurdjieff's birthday are often sombre, dry, dull - even dour. special too – don't get me in trouble for saying they are not! – but not particularly “celebratory.” granted people might find themselves in higher and more positive states, because negativity results from wrong functioning of centers, etc., and a more vivified, energetic state is more joyful. but at my meager level of being, it seems something is missing, and i wonder about joy's cousin, humor.

if laughter is an expression of a NO meeting a YES, perhaps we can identify their levels? are they the same or does one have to be higher? is there lateral humor as well as ascending and descending humor? do we start with a no or with a yes? and is the next yes or no higher or lower? and if those are 1-2-3 and 2-1-3 might one introduce 1-3-2 or 2-3-1 or even induce a humorous triad starting with 3? because that’s what i’m trying to do here!

(just kidding!)

reading through that thread it seems characteristic that nassr eddin stories either respond to a lower level out of values of the higher or vice-versa.

Otherwise, as they say, 'With what may the Devil not joke?'—they might hear about your insulting them and, to use another of their expressions, 'lay you by the heels.' There is no harm in recalling here another wise saying of our dear Mullah Nasr Eddin: 'What on earth will happen next? A flea might swallow an elephant!'

i wonder what the role of the court jester is - the fool - the one who can say anything and get away with it! recently, my mom related about some joke tellers who just tell jokes one after another which are not related to anything, as opposed to a joke that fits the situation. perhaps the riddle here is to be between two rivers, a simultaneity of experience, to cast one in relationship to the other.

Offered some food from the king's court, Bohlul put it in front of a dog. As the hungry animal began to eat with gusto, Bohlul turned to the courtiers: "Don't tell him it is from the king's banquet."