We have heard the expression “Lord Have Mercy”. But what does it mean? What would an act of Mercy be for me? Give me beauty, health, money? Would it be to bring happiness to others? Do I know what I’m asking for or do I expect that the Lord will just give me whatever I need in terms of mercy?
P.D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous
Gurdjieff: Take the ordinary God have mercy upon me! What does it mean? A man is appealing to God. He should think a little, he should make a comparison and ask himself what God is and what he is. Then he is asking God to have mercy upon him. But for this God must first of all think of him, take notice of him. But is it worth while taking notice of him? What is there in him that is worth thinking about? And who is to think about him? God himself. You see, all these thoughts and yet many others should pass through his mind when he utters this simple prayer. And then it is precisely these thoughts which could do for him what he asks God to do. But what can he be thinking of and what result can a prayer give if he merely repeats like a parrot: ‘God have mercy! God have mercy! God have mercy!’ You know yourselves that this can give no result whatever.
G.I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson
Holy God,
Holy the Firm,
Holy the Immortal,
have mercy on us
Jeanne de Salzmann, Reality of Being
In man it is the mind that is opposed to the body. The neutralizing force is the wish that unites them, connects them. Everything comes from the wish, the will. To represent God, it is necessary to represent these three forces. Where the three forces are reunited, God is. Where our attention is, God is. When two forces are opposed and a third unites them, God is here. We can say, “Lord, have mercy on me.” We can ask for help, to come to this in ourselves. The only help is this. Our aim is this, to contain, to unite these three forces in us . . . to be.
I need to open and receive the impression of a finer vibration. ?For this a new feeling needs to appear that allows the vibration to spread. This is why Gurdjieff had us say, “Lord have mercy,” which opens us to a feeling of our nothingness and awakens a deeper energy.
The exercise begins with the consciousness that I am here. I say to myself, “Lord have mercy,” each time with a sensation in the four limbs, successively-right arm, right leg, left leg, left arm. I do this three times, and rest for one or two breaths. Then I breath consciously, saying “I Am”: with “I,” I take in the active elements of the air and mix them with the result obtained in the four limbs, and with “Am,”" I exhale and distribute this into the sexual region. I repeat this second step three times.
I then recover the result from the sexual region and send it to the spine, exhaling with “Am.” I begin again the filling of the four limbs, remix with the active elements of air, recharge the sexual region, recover from the sexual region and send it to fill the solar plexus. And I do the same to fill the head. Then I feel the whole Presence “I Am” throughout the body
I nourish this Presence by taking the active elements from inhaling and sending them into the legs and the abdomen, then in succession the chest, the right arm, the left arm and the head. I make an inner act of engagement, saying to myself, “I wish to be. I wish and I can be. I will do everything to make this last for a specific time. I will take all necessary measures to crystallize in myself this result for being. I will do everything to be.”
