词条 | Sarmoung Brotherhood |
释义 |
The Sarmoung Brotherhood was an alleged esoteric Sufi brotherhood based in Asia. The reputed existence of the brotherhood was brought to light in the writings of George Gurdjieff, a Greek-Armenian spiritual teacher. Some contemporary Sufi-related sources also claim to have made contact with the group although the earliest and primary source is Gurdjieff himself, leading some scholars to conclude the group was merely a fictional teaching device.[1] NameAccording to the author John G. Bennett, a student and aide of George Gurdjieff who first mentioned the concept, the word sarmoung uses the Armenian pronunciation of the Persian term sarman, which may mean either "he who preserves the doctrine of Zoroaster" or "bee".[1] Regarding the meaning, Bennett writes:
However, in the Persian language, 'sarman' has no meaning[2], and the actual word for a bee is 'zebh' or plural 'zobabeh'.[3] Gurdjieff's accountThe Brotherhood was also sought by Georges Gurdjieff on his journeys (pre-1912) through Southwest and Central Asia.[1][4] Describing the contents of an old letter written by a monk which he had obtained, Gurdjieff writes:-
Gurdjieff goes on to relate the Sarmoung to the Nestorians, descendants of the ancient Byzantine, their expulsion from Mesopotamia and the city of Ninevah. Gurdjiieff's experiences on these journeys, and a sketchy account of his somewhat mysterious relationship with the Sarmoung Brotherhood, can be found in his autobiography Meetings with Remarkable Men. He claims he made contact with a representative of the Sarmoung through his friend, the Dervish Bogga Eddin (Bahauddin), in Bukhara. The chief monastery of the society was said to be located somewhere in the heart of Asia, about twelve days' journey from Bukhara by horse and donkey. Once he arrived at the monastery, Gurdjieff discovered that his old friend Prince Lubovedsky was already there. The Prince tells Gurdjieff that he had met a representative of the Sarmoung at the house of the Aga Khan in Kabul, Afghanistan.[5] During his stay at the monastery, Gurdjieff recalls seeing a complex and ancient tree-like apparatus used to indicate bodily postures and train temple dancers. Gurdjieff's attempts to establish a link between the Brotherhood, ancient Sumer, and even "pre-sand Egypt", was an intriguing attempt at acquiring esoteric knowledge that had been passed down from antiquity.[1][6] Major Martin's accountAccording to Account of the Sarmoun Brotherhood (1966, 1982) by Major Desmond R. Martin, a major centre of the contemporary Sarmoun Brotherhood was in the Hindu Kush mountains of northern Afghanistan. Major Martin was an associate of the writer and Sufi teacher, Idries Shah.[7] In the account, the motto of the Sarmouni is said to be "Work produces a Sweet Essence" (Amal misazad yak zaati shirin), work being not only work for God and for others but also self-work. In relation to this, it is maintained that just as the bee accumulates honey, so the Sarmouni accumulate, store and preserve what they term "true knowledge" (which is equally seen as existing as a positive commodity and associated with the spiritual gift or energy of Baraka).[7][8] In times of need this is released once more into the world through specially trained emissaries.[7] He describes a tree-like, multi jointed apparatus, similar to one described by Gurdjieff, and also a "No-Koonja" or nine-pointed figure, similar to Gurdjieff's Enneagram. The account hints that the central Asian activities of the Sarmoun are to be shut down and the organisation shifted to the west, and mentions an absent chief of the order, the Surkaur, who lives in a place called Aubshaur or "waterfall" (Another account of a visit to a remote monastery, published anonymously in the Times, links the Sarkar to Idries Shah[9]). Martin's account ends with a description of a symbolic ritual whose theme is the revival of the "dead letter" of traditional teaching. O. M. Burke's and Idries Shah's accountsA lengthy account of an encounter with the Sarmouni is given in Among the Dervishes (1973) by Omar Michael Burke, an associate of (or pen name of [10]) Idries Shah. He takes the term "Sarmouni" to be synonymous with the Amudaria dervishes. He describes the Sarmouni as a diffuse set of groups, rather than being located in a single monastery. Some groups have no permanent headquarters and meet in the open or private houses. In some cases, whole villages blend Sarmouni practices with their day-to-day lives. He describes them as having a practical orientation, and avoiding mystification and personality-cults. They occasionally display extrasensory perceptions, but do not attribute great significance to them. He reports meeting a nonagenarian with memories of "Jurjizada" (Gurdjieff). He also says they owe their allegiance to the "Studious King" (a literal translation of Idries Shah's name), and agrees with Major Martin that their teaching has been exported and adapted to the West. (He mentions the Azimiyya, a modern international Sufi order). Sarmoung teachings according to Idries ShahIdries Shah himself does not describe any personal contact with the Sarmoung, but mentions the "Sarmouni" several times in his writings. For instance, in Tales of the Dervishes he attributes a teaching story to a Sarmouni called Pir-i-Do-Sara (d. 1790). He also offers a following "Sarmouni recital", beginning:- {{quote|"He who knows and does not know that he knows: he is asleep. Let him becomeone, whole. Let him be awakened. He who has known but does not know: let him see once more the beginning of all. He who does not wish to know, and yet says that he needs to know: let him be guided to safety and to light. He who does not know, and knows that he does not know: let him, through this knowledge, know". }}[11] Other accountsIn Studies in Comparative Religion (Winter 1974), it is said that according to the Armenian book Merkhavat, the Sarmoung Brotherhood, also referred to as the 'Inner Circle of Humanity', originated in ancient Babylon circa 2500 BC,[12] at around the time the Egyptians built the Great Pyramid of Giza. The Ouspensky Foundation state that the brotherhood was active in the golden Babylonian time of Hammurabi (1728-1686 BC) and is connected with Zoroaster, the teacher of Pythagoras (born c. 580 BC–572 BC, died c. 500 BC–490 BC). According to the Foundation, Pythagoras stayed for twelve years in Babylon.[13] (Merkabah mysticism is in fact a form of Jewish esotericism, which Gurdjieff possibly encountered in an Armenian translation). In The Masters of Wisdom, J.G. Bennett states that the Sarman left Babylon before the arrival of the Alexander the Great (who reigned 336-323 BC), moved up the Tigris and made their headquarters in the abandoned capital of the Assyrian Kings, close to modern-day Mosul in northern Iraq.[14] In Gurdjieff in the Light of Tradition (2002), the Perrenialist Whitall Perry wrote that Gurdjieff believed that the northern Sufi orders could well be under the hidden direction of the Khwajagan - the 'Masters of Wisdom' - themselves in turn delegated by the Sarman 'Inner Circle', the 'Assembly of the Living Saints of the Earth'.[15] In The People of the Secret, Edward Campbell (writing as Ernest Scott), another associate of Idries Shah, describes studies in extrasensory perception being undertaken in the contemporary Sarmoun monastery in Afghanistan.[8] The Canadian diplomat and Gurdjieffian James George has speculated, on the basis of the similar name and location, that Surmang, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery currently within Chinese borders may be real basis of the Sarmoung.[16] Surmang has been more recently associated with the renowned and controversial Kagyu teacher Chogyam Trungpa. In 2007, Buddhist priest Rev. José M. Tirado presented a paper to the All & Everything Conference in Loutraki, Greece detailing the probable Buddhist influences on Gurdjieff´s teachings, and linking "Sarmoun" to the Surmang monastery, in "Beelzebub´s Buddhas".[17] SkepticismMark Sedgwick, the coordinator of the Unit for Arab and Islamic Studies at Aarhus University writes:
James Moore, in his biography of Gurdjieff, writes [20] See also
Literature
References1. ^1 2 3 Bennett, John G., Gurdjieff: Making of A New World, pp 56-57, Bennett Pub. Co., 1992. {{ISBN|0-9621901-6-0}}. 2. ^http://dsalsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/search3advanced?dbname=steingass&query=sarman&matchtype=exact&display=utf8 3. ^http://dsalsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/search3advanced?dbname=hayyim&query=%D8%B2%D9%86%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%B1&matchtype=exact&display=utf8 4. ^Moore, James, Gurdjieff: The Anatomy of a Myth: A Biography, Element Books, 1993. {{ISBN|1-85230-450-2}}. 5. ^1 Gurdjieff, G. I., Meetings with Remarkable Men, Penguin (Non-Classics), 1991. {{ISBN|0-14-019037-6}}. 6. ^Gilbert, Adrian G., Magi: The Quest for a Secret Tradition, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1996. {{ISBN|0-7475-3100-5}}. 7. ^1 2 Martin, Major Desmond R., "Account of the Sarmoun Brotherhood", Documents on Contemporary Dervish Communities, a symposium collected, edited and arranged by Roy Weaver Davidson, Octagon Press 1966, 1982. {{ISBN|0863040152}}. First publication: Major Desmond R. Martin, The Editor of The Lady, "Below the Hindu Kush", The Lady, vol. CLX11, No. 4210, December 9, 1965, p. 870. 8. ^1 Scott, Ernest, The People of the Secret, p74, Octagon Press, London, 1985. {{ISBN|0-86304-038-1}}. 9. ^Elusive Guardians of the Ancient Secrets 10. ^Moore, James (1986). "Neo-Sufism: The Case of Idries Shah". Religion Today 3 11. ^[https://www.scribd.com/doc/53683296/Sarmouni-Recital Sarmouni recital] 12. ^Studies in Comparative Religion, pp 25, 214, Tomorrow Publications, Winter 1974. 13. ^Ouspensky Foundation: History of the Work of Gurdjieff. Retrieved on 2008-11-14. 14. ^Bennett, John G., The Masters of Wisdom, pp 57, 64, Bennett Books, 1995, {{ISBN|1-881408-01-9}}. 15. ^Perry, Whitall N., [https://books.google.com/books?id=P466D9-bXpEC Gurdjieff in the Light of Tradition], p7, Sophia Perennis, 2002. {{ISBN|0-900588-75-6}}. 16. ^{{cite web|last1=Fordham|first1=Walter|title=Interview with James George: June 27th, 2003|url=http://www.chronicleproject.com/stories_15.html|website=Chronicles of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche|accessdate=1 April 2015|date=October 2003|quote=Gurdjieff spent three and a half years in Tibet. He wrote ... that he was taken to a central Asian monastery in Kashmir or Tibet called a monastery of the Sarmoung brotherhood. Now, Surmang, the seat of Trungpa's lineage, is just a transposition of vowels, which I think, may conceal where Gurdjieff received much of his teaching.}} 17. ^http://www.endlesssearch.co.uk/philo_buddhist_influences_tirado.htm 18. ^1 Sedgwick, Mark. "European Neo-Sufi Movements in the Inter-war Period" appearing in [https://books.google.com/books?id=7cjFFgvUdDUC Islam in Inter-War Europe], edited by Natalie Clayer and Eric Germain. Hurst, London. 19. ^Nathalie Clayer-Eric Germain [https://books.google.com/books?id=7cjFFgvUdDUC Islam In Inter-War Europe], p. 208, Columbia University Press, 2008 {{ISBN|978-0-231-70100-6}} 20. ^Moore, J. Gurdjieff, The Anatomy of a Myth. Element books, 1991, p31 External links
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