Beelzebubs-Tales-to-His-Grandson-by-G-I-Gurdjieff

distinct ways of understanding, having nothing in common, have existed fromthe most ancient times up to the present day."The first way of understanding exists there and passes from onegeneration to another through such three-brained beings as were the membersof the learned Society of Akhldanns on the continent of Atlantis, and throughsuch as those who, several centuries later, after the second transapalnianperturbation, were beginning, although in a different manner, to acquirealmost the same data in the foundation of their common presence, and whowere called 'initiates.'"This way of understanding is expressed there as follows:'Every deed of a man is good in the objective sense if it is doneaccording to his conscience, and every deed is bad if from it he laterexperiences remorse."And the second way of understanding arose soon after the 'wise invention'of the great King Koniutsion, and, passing from generation to generationthrough ordinary beings there, it gradually spread over almost the entire planetunder the name of 'morality. '"Here it will be interesting to note one particularity of this morality whichwas grafted on to it at the very beginning, and ultimately became part andparcel of it."Just what this particularity of terrestrial 'morality' is you can easilyrepresent to yourself and understand if I tell you that, both inwardly andoutwardly, it has acquired the unique property that belongs to the being named'chameleon.'"And the strangest and most original aspect of this particularity of the'morality' there, especially of the contemporary 'morality,' is that itsfunctioning automatically depends on the moods of the 'local authorities', andthese moods in their turn depend, also automatically, on the state of the foursources of action existing there under the names of 'mother-in-law,' 'digestion,''John Thomas,' and 'cash. '