|
G.I.Gurdjieff
|
Animated by an essentially pragmatic point of view, Americans were immediately attracted to the ideas of Gurdjieff. What could have spoken more forcefully to a people formed by a tradition of practical realism, disdainful of mere theory, and not hemmed in by abstract principles, than this teaching which had daily life for a field of application? At all levels, in all strata of United States society, an implicit question dominates: "Does it make sense?" In the mirror he held to mankind, Gurdjieff indicated the fundamental incapacity of men and women lacking a highly developed unbound attention to make contact with an omnipresent sacred reality. For many Americans, that did make sense, especially in America's mid-twentieth century period of skepticism and disillusionment. In the post World War II period of transition and beginning, simultaneous with the progressive diffusion of Eastern teachings, Americans were understandably uneasy with religious formalism. It was one of those rare moments when people were hungry for deeper, more authentic modes of life. The ideas of Gurdjieff and his precise, practical work methods did not influence only the thin strata of avant-garde intellectuals. Gurdjieff's ideas were viewed with considerable interest and warmth by corresponding circles connected to spiritual life, in particular such Zen figures as Daisetz Suzuki, Shinichi Hisamatsu, Rev. Asahina, Soen Nakagawa, and Nanrei Kobori. No doubt there is a profound connection between Zen and the teaching of Gurdjieff, in that they both propose that only with tough disciplines and practice is it possible to relate to a "changeless self." Theory without practice, words without an immediate connection to experience, is for followers of both Zen and Gurdjieff as fruitless as "pouring from the empty into the void." Similarly, for students of Gurdjieff, the dualistic separation of body and mind, the material and the spiritual, stuffing oneself with knowledge without developing corresponding being can only impede the circulation of life and lead to the destruction of the humanness of humanity.
Gurdjieff came, bringing with him a body of ideas which renewed access to many perspectives, attracting artists, scientists, philosophers, religious and lay persons. He showed a way that could be followed in the midst of ordinary activities, a way that did not call for cloister or blind obedience, a way indicated by the words of the Japanese poet, Takashi Tsujii:
Simply by the act of cutting stone
he measured the distance
between himself and the Supreme.
This essay by William Segal was published in Gurdjieff: Essays and Reflections on the Man and His Teaching, New York: Continuum, 1996.
Attention?Wish?Will?Free
Will
A Talk by Mr. de
Hartmann
From the Diary Notes of
Thomas C. Daly
In June, 1954, the de Hartmanns made a special visit to their newly
constituted Toronto Group, to give a clear direction to our Work.
On the evening of June 11, all the members met again in my parents
apartment, where we had originally begun as a provisional group
two years before.
Expectancy was in the air. During the first hour, while Mr.
de Hartmann gave a music lesson to someone else at a nearby hotel,
Madame de Hartmann questioned each and all of us together,
especially deeply: "Why are you here" "?What is your aim And
what do you wish??"
Typical answers: "To be free from ups and downs" , "To get rid of
negative emotions?" ," To become something real" .
To each answer she countered with: "Yes, but why, Why do you
want that? One can want all such things just to be approved of by
others, just to get on better in life,but why do you want that? "
By the end of the hour, our minds were empty of answers. We had
been brought to a level of pondering we had never before
experienced. Finally she planted a seed that grew inside this silence:
"There is only one important thing?to actually develop our
possibilities. We should not be content with anything else, or
anything less."
Into this atmosphere at last came Mr. de Hartmann, and it became
apparent that, instead of a reading as we usually had, de Hartmann
himself was going to speak to us directly from his own experience.
And he began to speak without notes and straight from the heart.
First he underlined four themes: "Attention,Wish,Will,Free
,Will." And then he proceeded to relate them to each other. In that
atmosphere of openness, his clarity, breadth of thought and obvious
wish for our own understanding penetrated so deeply that afterward
I felt I remembered it almost word for word, and wrote it down as
follows:
How do we perceive an object? Why that one object,
out of so many? Something connects us with that one
object, and not with others. It attracts our attention.
We pay attention to it. It attracts our attention through
one of our senses: our eye, ear, nose, and so on. Our
eye, ear or nose pays out attention to the object.
Our wishes, our desires, are connected with it in some
way. We want to have it; or we want to avoid it; or we
want to look at it more than we want to look at any
other object.
This morning I saw a dog with two small boys. Its
whole attention was glued to its two masters, watching
to see what they would do, which way they would go,
so he could quickly follow and be with them. He had
attention for nothing else. And his attention continued to
be concentrated on the two boys as long as I watched.
This is already a high degree of attention, even if it is
only animal attention?much stronger than many
humans have.
Now we come to wish. Wish is only, as it were, a mere
point in space. If we only wish for an object, we will
never have it. In order to possess it, we must begin to
move toward it. This movement is the beginning of will.
If wish is a "point," this kind of will generates a "line,"
moving toward the object, with a view to possessing it,
or identifying with it.
At every level of the universe there are degrees of will.
The iron and lodestone: purely mechanical will,yet it
moves towards its goal. The caterpillar moves along
towards the leaf it wants to eat. The dog: sometimes a
dog so strongly wishes to be with his master that when
the master dies the dog will sit by his grave and never
eat or leave there till he dies himself. This is already a
very high degree of will,even if only an animal?s will.
Few humans attain it.
Thus there is an attention, and a will, for outside
objects. An object attracts us; we do not attract the
object. Objects govern us from outside. They make us
do all sorts of things. It is not the woman who buys the
hat, but the hat buys the woman. The man does not
smoke the cigarette; the cigarette smokes the man, as
Mr. Gurdjieff said. The attention and the will generated
by outside objects, through the senses, are not our
own. They are part of the mechanism of Nature:
Nature works us. We do not conquer Nature; Nature
conquers us. The attention and the will connected with
the physical senses and outside objects are not our
own. This will is not free, but answers the call of every
outside object.
But there is another Attention, and another Will. Man
has two natures: a lower, and a higher. The lower
nature is like an animal?s?more subtle and complex,
perhaps, but nevertheless it works in the same way.
The higher nature is the real one. It is incomplete, but
capable of growing into a full and complete Man.
For the higher nature, there is another Attention, and
another Will, not born outside of us, but born in us.
This Attention is the beginning of real Consciousness;
and this Will is the beginning of Free Will. With this
Attention, we can observe ourselves; with this
Attention we can remember ourselves. With this Will,
we can make efforts to attain our greatest aim: to
complete ourselves.
But we must actually will it. Knowledge is not enough.
It is good, and necessary, of course, but of itself it will
change nothing in us. Understanding is necessary. We
must have new knowledge: for instance, in order to
know what can be wished. But unless we actually wish
it, we will have no chance of obtaining anything. And
wishing alone, is also not enough. We can wish forever,
but unless we move toward what we wish we will
never obtain it. We must will it.
But we do not have enough Will. And we do not have
enough Attention. So we must increase them as best
we may. And the only way to increase them is to make
the right kind of efforts. Without efforts, nothing can
increase. But if we turn all our Attention, all our Will,
and all our Efforts, towards our big Aim, little by little,
like the caterpillar, we will approach it: the big Aim.
Later, verified with Madame de Hartmann, who made a single small
addition as printed above.
|
|
|
|
|
A man is one who can do.
|
Let Us Not Conclude
Some Reflections on the Specificity of This Teaching
by Henri Tracol
If specificity means what is "unique" in Gurdjieff's teaching, let us quickly set aside a possible preliminary misunderstanding: "specificity" is not inevitably, as one might fear, a doctrinaire claim to exclusivity. Because what is unique in any path of spiritual search is its own particular way of approaching and perceiving reality. And this teaching offers us a feeling of just that: something which goes beyond suggested forms of experience and investigation.
Mightn't we say that one of the clearest vocations of this teaching is that it tends to give birth in us to this faculty of orienting ourselves? And wouldn't this faculty be a fundamental necessity for such a teaching, as its natural position with respect to the major traditional structures, and yet, at the same time, reducible to none of them?
From the vantage point of such an orientation, I know I am nearer to what is "specific" to this teaching inasmuch as I feel invited to place myself inwardly in relation to whatever presents itself from the outside.
If sufficiently nurtured, this spiritual flair might allow us, over time, to recognize the degree of authenticity of any form of experience which offers itself to our search.
Let us suppose that this form seems to be the bearer of a truth of the same nature as the one which Gurdjieff's direct influence enabled us to actually live. Such a relation could hardly fail to capture the best of our attention and interest, spurring us on to further study. This similarity, however, would in no way authorize us to conclude there is an identity or a common heredity. Even less would it condone our playing the sorcerer's apprentice in order to establish, on an artificial basis, an assimilation or some sort of synthesis.
And in the opposite case, if this particular form seemed aberrant, illusory, or dangerous, this would in itself be a precious aid to become more aware of what is essential to preserve, as well as the risks we constantly run of making grievous errors and falsifications in our interpretations.
Forewarned of the danger,and faced with the endless number of guises through which what is "unique" in this teaching might appear to us,we will feel the need to rediscover, there again, the guarantee of a right orientation,and we will naturally look to find it at its very origins.
Gurdjieff's teaching belongs to what he calls the fourth way. As an embodiment of a fourth way school, it does not have a form defined once and for all,which means: neither dogma nor ritual, strictly speaking.
It ceaselessly disappears, and ceaselessly must be discovered and rediscovered.
It imposes no preliminary renunciation but requires, within the frame of ordinary life, a set of appropriate conditions in view of a genuine work upon oneself.
It opens upon the perspective of a profound transformation of being through awakening and self-knowledge.
It presupposes in oneself a sincere quest for truth, the realization of one's own "nothingness," the recourse to effort,and to super-effort,toward the development of his power of consciousness.
It also allows the individual to discover and realize certain hidden possibilities, by means of simultaneous and coordinated engaging of one's intellectual, emotional, and physical capacities toward a voluntary concentration upon the struggle which takes place within the self between one's positive and negative tendencies.
This perpetual struggle is carried on within every seeker according to the principle of relativity which regulates the relations among the different energy levels in human nature, as in the universe.
But among these lines of force inherent in the fourth way, what is an altogether essential component of this type of teaching, is that above all, the principal demand is the demand for understanding; that the individual must do nothing that he does not understand; that he must "satisfy himself of the truth of what he is told."
However, this primary requirement is the source of many misunderstandings: we must unfailingly return to the meaning that Gurdjieff gives to this imperative necessity for a living comprehension, in which our being totally engages itself. We are far from the false requirements of the ordinary individual who arrogates to himself the right to reduce any truth to a mental construct governing the movement of his associative thinking.
Moreover, the emphasis is placed upon the person, on the individual search for knowledge, upon the work that one must do to know oneself in order to transform and fulfill oneself.
The doctors in tradition have been quick to brand this primacy accorded to individual experience ("each person must initiate himself") as a tendency toward "humanism," which spawns the most nefarious deviations.
Indeed, regularly forgetting its cosmic and metaphysical perspective risks depriving this search of any possible breadth and reducing the Work, for some people, to a kind of flimsy psychological inquiry, while it encourages in others their latent predilections to a "pseudo-mysticism" devoid of any real content.
Gurdjieff thus reserves an important place for profound meditation, for silence, as a return to the source of all knowledge. We are there before a truly spiritual practice, wherein the indispensable theoretical vision is not arbitrarily separated from a vivifying contact with ongoing experience, just as it is lived and felt.
The errors too often voiced with regard to the meaning given both to "individual search" and to "practice" serve to show the urgency of an imperative task: to try to digest what is essential in the ideas so as not to distort them, and to understand as quickly as possible the master's aim, the principle of balance without which the Work could not exist.
Efforts to understand and to test the ideas: this is what gives this teaching its dynamic character: the growth of being indeed demands both a direct knowledge and a gradual mastery of the movements of our energy as it manifests itself on different levels.
Ultimately, however, what is unique and irreplaceable in Gurdjieff's teaching is Gurdjieff himself.
Certainly, nothing could be more obvious to someone who lived this experience at his side, and who naturally feels called upon to bear witness.
A few years later, Gurdjieff,as a man,left us forever.
And yet : How not feel his intimate presence within us as a permanent source of self-remembering?
What is it, then, that allows a master's influence to perpetuate itself once he has disappeared?
It is not so much an orthodoxy as a mode of perception inherited from him and which should appear through all things, in the heart of the most intimate experiences as well as on the level of everyday life.
We are quickly overwhelmed on every side, however , and it is the unknown which wins out. In the long run, this calls upon us to perceive such a gift as an enigma,and as a challenge.
This is what is ceaselessly suggested, in countless ways, in Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, from the "Friendly Advice" to the reader:
"Read each of my written expositions thrice:
Firstly,at least as you have already become mechanized
to read all your contemporary books and newspapers;
Secondly,as if you were reading aloud to another person;
And only thirdly,try to fathom the gist of my writings."
,to "The Arousing of Thought," through the last chapter "From the Author."
The adventure continues,in depth. It keeps alive in us the evidence of a hidden continuity: consciousness offers itself to us endlessly. But to welcome it, to take part in it, to sustain it, to bear witness to it, so many efforts must be attempted, must be renewed,so many "super-efforts." It is just that which Gurdjieff calls the "Work."
to be continued
This essay was previously published in Gurdjieff: Essays and Reflections on the Man and His Teaching, New York: Continuum, 1996.
Copyright � 1996 Henri Tracol
Featured: Fall 1999 Issue, Vol. III (1)
Revision: October 1, 1999
|
|
|
|
|
Talks and Writings
|
Selected Excerpts from the
Talks and Writings of
G. I. Gurdjieff
Every branch of science endeavors to elaborate and to establish an exact language
for itself. But there is no universal language. For exact understanding exact
language is necessary.? This new language is based on the principle of relativity;
that is to say, it introduces relativity into all concepts and thus makes possible an
accurate determination of the angle of thought?making it possible to establish at
once what is being said, from what point of view and in what connection. In this
new language all ideas are concentrated round one idea. This central idea is the
idea of evolution ? and the evolution of man is the evolution of his
consciousness.
G. I. Gurdjieff, paraphrased from page 70 of IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS
Philosophy and Religion
THERE DO EXIST ENQUIRING MINDS, which long for the truth of the heart, seek it, strive to solve
the problems set by life, try to penetrate to the essence of things and phenomena and to
penetrate into themselves. If a man reasons and thinks soundly, no matter which path he follows
in solving these problems, he must inevitably arrive back at himself, and begin with the solution
of the problem of what he is himself and what his place is in the world around him. For without
this knowledge, he will have no focal point in his search. Socrates? words, ?Know thyself?
remain for all those who seek true knowledge and being.
VIEWS FROM THE REAL WORLD, p. 43 [pb]
LIBERATION LEADS TO LIBERATION. These are the first words of truth?not truth in quotation
marks but truth in the real meaning of the word; truth which is not merely theoretical, not simply
a word, but truth that can be realized in practice. The meaning behind these words may be
explained as follows:
By liberation is meant the liberation which is the aim of all schools, all religions, at all times.
This liberation can indeed be very great. All men desire it and strive after it. But it cannot be
attained without the first liberation, a lesser liberation. The great liberation is liberation from
influences outside us. The lesser liberation is liberation from influences within us.
VIEWS FROM THE REAL WORLD, p. 266
RELIGION IS DOING; a man does not merely think his religion or feel it, he ?lives? his religion as
much as he is able, otherwise it is not religion but fantasy or philosophy. Whether he likes it or
not he shows his attitude towards religion by his actions and he can show his attitude only by
his actions. Therefore if his actions are opposed to those which are demanded by a given
religion he cannot assert that he belongs to that religion.
IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS, p. 299
ONE MUST LEARN TO PRAY, JUST AS ONE MUST LEARN EVERYTHING ELSE. Whoever knows
how to pray and is able to concentrate in the proper way, his prayer can give results. But it
must be understood that there are different prayers and that their results are different. This is
known even from ordinary divine service. But when we speak of prayer or of the results of
prayer we always imply only one kind of prayer?petition, or we think that petition can be
united with all other kinds of prayers.? Most prayers have nothing in common with petitions. I
speak of ancient prayers; many of them are much older than Christianity. These prayers are, so
to speak, recapitulations; by repeating them aloud or to himself a man endeavors to
experience what is in them, their whole content, with his mind and his feeling.
IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS, p. 300
THE COMMANDMENT INCULCATED IN ME IN MY CHILDHOOD, enjoining that ?the highest aim
and sense of human life is the striving to attain the welfare of one?s neighbor,? and that this is
possible exclusively only by the conscious renunciation of one?s own.
BEELZEBUB?S TALES, p. 1186
ALL THE BEINGS OF THIS PLANET THEN BEGAN TO WORK in order to have in their consciousness
this Divine function of genuine conscience, and for this purpose, as everywhere in the Universe,
they transubstantiated in themselves what are called the ?being-obligolnian-strivings? which
consist of the following five, namely:
The first striving: to have in their ordinary being-existence everything satisfying and really
necessary for their planetary body.
The second striving: to have a constant and unflagging instinctive need for self-perfection in
the sense of being.
The third: the conscious striving to know ever more and more concerning the laws of
World-creation and World-maintenance.
The fourth: the striving from the beginning of their existence to pay for their arising and their
individuality as quickly as possible, in order afterwards to be free to lighten as much as possible
the Sorrow of our Common Father.
And the fifth: the striving always to assist the most rapid perfecting of other beings, both
those similar to oneself and those of other forms, up to the degree of the sacred ?Martfotai? that
is up to the degree of self-individuality.
BEELZEBUB?S TALES, pp. 385?386
IT IS VERY DIFFICULT TO EXPLAIN WHAT TAKES PLACE IN ME when I see or hear anything
majestic which allows no doubt that it proceeds from the actualization of Our Maker Creator.
Each time, my tears flow of themselves. I weep, that is to say, it weeps in me, not from grief,
no, but as if from tenderness. I became so, gradually, after meeting Father Giovanni.?
After that meeting my whole inner and outer world became for me quite different. In the
definite views which had become rooted in me in the course of my whole life, there took place,
as it were by itself, a revaluation of all values.
Before that meeting, I was a man wholly engrossed in my own personal interests and
pleasures, and also in the interests and pleasures of my children. I was always occupied with
thoughts of how best to satisfy my needs and the needs of my children.
Formerly, it may be said, my whole being was possessed by egoism. All my manifestations
and experiencings flowed from my vanity. The meeting with Father Giovanni killed all this, and
from then on there gradually arose in me that ?something? which has brought the whole of me to
the unshakable conviction that, apart from the vanities of life, there exists a ?something else?
which must be the aim and ideal of every more or less thinking man, and that it is only this
something else which may make a man really happy and give him real values, instead of the
illusory ?goods? with which in ordinary life he is always and in everything full.
Professor Skridlov, MEETINGS WITH REMARKABLE MEN, pp. 245?246
YES, PROFESSOR, KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING ARE QUITE DIFFERENT. Only
understanding can lead to being, whereas knowledge is but a passing presence in it. New
knowledge displaces the old and the result is, as it were, a pouring from the empty into the
void.
One must strive to understand; this alone can lead to our Lord God.
And in order to be able to understand the phenomena of nature, according and not
according to law, proceeding around us, one must first of all consciously perceive and
assimilate a mass of information concerning objective truth and the real events which took place
on earth in the past; and secondly, one must bear in oneself all the results of all kinds of
voluntary and involuntary experiencings.
MEETINGS WITH REMARKABLE MEN, p. 242
FAITH CAN NOT BE GIVEN TO MAN. Faith arises in a man and increases in its action in him not as
the result of automatic learning, that is, not from any automatic ascertainment of height, breadth,
thickness, form and weight, or from the perception of anything by sight, hearing, touch, smell or
taste, but from understanding.
Understanding is the essence obtained from information intentionally learned and from all
kinds of experiences personally experienced.
MEETINGS WITH REMARKABLE MEN, p. 240
ALL RELIGIONS SPEAK ABOUT DEATH DURING THIS LIFE ON EARTH. Death must come before
rebirth. But what must die? False confidence in one?s own knowledge, self-love and egoism.
Our egoism must be broken. We must realize that we are very complicated machines, and so
this process of breaking is bound to be a long and difficult task. Before real growth becomes
possible, our personality must die.
VIEWS FROM THE REAL WORLD, p. 86
THE SOLE MEANS NOW FOR THE SAVING OF THE BEINGS OF THE PLANET EARTH would be to
implant again into their presences a new organ, an organ like Kundabuffer, but this time of such
properties that every one of those unfortunates during the process of existence should
constantly sense and be cognizant of the inevitability of his own death as well as of the death of
everyone upon whom his eyes or attention rests.
Only such a sensation and such a cognizance can now destroy the egoism completely
crystallized in them that has swallowed up the whole of their Essence and also that tendency to
hate others which flows from it?the tendency, namely, which engenders all those mutual
relationships existing there, which serve as the chief cause of all their abnormalities unbecoming
to three-brained beings and maleficent for them themselves and for the whole of the Universe.
BEELZEBUB?S TALES, p. 1183
WILL IS A SIGN OF A BEING OF A VERY HIGH ORDER OF EXISTENCE as compared with the being
of an ordinary man. Only men who are in possession of such a being can do. All other men are
merely automata, put into action by external forces like machines or clockwork toys, acting as
much and as long as the wound-up spring within them acts, and not capable of adding anything
to its force.
VIEWS FROM THE REAL WORLD, p. 71
Faith of consciousness is freedom
Faith of feeling is weakness
Faith of body is stupidity.
Love of consciousness evokes the same in response
Love of feeling evokes the opposite
Love of body depends only on type and polarity.
Hope of consciousness is strength
Hope of feelings is slavery
Hope of body is disease.
BEELZEBUB?S TALES, p. 361
Science and Psychology
IN RIGHT KNOWLEDGE the study of man must proceed on parallel lines with the study of the
world, and the study of the world must run parallel with the study of man. Laws are everywhere
the same, in the world as well as in man. Having mastered the principles of any one law we
must look for its manifestation in the world and in man simultaneously.? This parallel study of
the world and of man shows the student the fundamental unity of everything and helps him to
find analogies in phenomena of different orders.
IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS, p. 122
AS EVERYTHING IN THE UNIVERSE IS ONE, so, consequently, everything has equal rights,
therefore from this point of view knowledge can be acquired by a suitable and complete study,
no matter what the starting point is. Only one must know how to ?learn.? What is nearest to us
is man; and you are the nearest of all men to yourself. Begin with the study of yourself;
remember the saying ?Know thyself.?
VIEWS FROM THE REAL WORLD, p. 25
BUT OBJECTIVE KNOWLEDGE, THE IDEA OF UNITY INCLUDED, belongs to objective
consciousness. The forms which express this knowledge when perceived by subjective
consciousness are inevitably distorted and, instead of truth, they create more and more
delusions. With objective consciousness it is possible to see and feel the unity of everything. But
for subjective consciousness the world is split up into millions of separate and unconnected
phenomena. Attempts to connect these phenomena into some sort of system in a scientific or
philosophical way lead to nothing because man cannot reconstruct the idea of the whole starting
from separate facts and they cannot divine the principles of the division of the whole without
knowing the laws upon which this division is based.
IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS, p. 279
EVERY PHENOMENON, ON WHATEVER SCALE and in whatever world it may take place, from
molecular to cosmic phenomena, is the result of the combination or the meeting of three
different and opposing forces. Contemporary thought realizes the existence of two forces and
the necessity of these two forces for the production of a phenomenon: force and resistance,
positive and negative magnetism, positive and negative electricity, male and female cells, and so
on. But it does not observe even these two forces always and everywhere. No question has
ever been raised as to the third, or if it has been raised it has scarcely been heard.
IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS, p. 77
ALL THIS AND MANY OTHER THINGS CAN ONLY BE EXPLAINED WITH THE HELP OF THE LAW OF
OCTAVES together with an understanding of the role and significance of ?intervals? which cause
the line of the development of force constantly to change, to go in a broken line, to turn round,
to become its ?own opposite? and so on.
Such a course of things, that is, a change of direction, we can observe in everything. After a
certain period of energetic activity or strong emotion or a right understanding a reaction comes,
work becomes tedious and tiring; moments of fatigue and indifference enter into feeling; instead
of right thinking a search for compromises begins; suppression, evasion of difficult problems.
But the line continues to develop though now not in the same direction as at the beginning.
Work becomes mechanical, feeling becomes weaker and weaker, descends to the level of the
common events of the day; thought becomes dogmatic, literal. Everything proceeds in this way
for a certain time, then again there is reaction, again a stop, again a deviation. The development
of the force may continue but the work which was begun with great zeal and enthusiasm has
become an obligatory and useless formality; a number of entirely foreign elements have entered
into feeling?considering, vexation, irritation, hostility; thought goes round in a circle, repeating
what was known before, and the way out which had been found becomes more and more lost.
The same thing happens in all spheres of human activity. In literature, science, art,
philosophy, religion, in individual and above all in social and political life, we can observe how
the line of the development of forces deviates from its original direction and goes, after a certain
time, in a diametrically opposite direction, still preserving its former name.
IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS, p. 129
I ASK YOU TO BELIEVE NOTHING that you cannot verify for yourself.
VIEWS FROM THE REAL WORLD, p. 78
THE EVOLUTION OF MAN CAN BE TAKEN AS THE DEVELOPMENT IN HIM of those powers and
possibilities which never develop by themselves, that is, mechanically. Only this kind of
development, only this kind of growth, marks the real evolution of man. There is, and there can
be, no other kind of evolution whatever.?
In speaking of evolution it is necessary to understand from the outset that no mechanical
evolution is possible. The evolution of man is the evolution of his consciousness. And
?consciousness? cannot evolve unconsciously. The evolution of man is the evolution of his
will, and ?will? cannot evolve involuntarily. The evolution of man is the evolution of his power of
doing, and ?doing? cannot be the result of things which ?happen.?
IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS, pp. 56, 58
BUT THE BEING OF TWO PEOPLE CAN DIFFER from one another more than the being of a mineral
and of an animal. This is exactly what people do not understand. And they do not understand
that knowledge depends on being. Not only do they not understand this latter but they
definitely do not wish to understand it. And especially in Western culture it is considered that a
man may possess great knowledge, for example he may be an able scientist, make discoveries,
advance science, and at the same time he may be, and has a right to be, a petty, egoistic,
caviling, mean, envious, vain, na�ve, and absent-minded man. It seems to be considered here
that a professor must always forget his umbrella everywhere.
IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS, p. 65
THERE ARE TWO LINES ALONG WHICH MAN?S DEVELOPMENT PROCEEDS, the line of knowledge
and the line of being. In right evolution the line of knowledge and the line of being develop
simultaneously, parallel to, and helping one another. But if the line of knowledge gets too far
ahead of the line of being, or if the line of being gets ahead of the line of knowledge, man?s
development goes wrong, and sooner or later it must come to a standstill.
IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS, p. 64
THE POWER OF CHANGING ONESELF LIES NOT IN THE MIND, but in the body and the feelings.
Unfortunately, however, our body and our feelings are so constituted that they don?t care a jot
about anything so long as they are happy. They live for the moment and their memory is short.
The mind alone lives for tomorrow. Each has its own merits. The merit of the mind is that it
looks ahead. But it is only the other two that can ?do.?
VIEWS FROM THE REAL WORLD, p. 222
DURING THE PERIOD OF MY YEAR OF SPECIAL OBSERVATIONS on all of their manifestations and
perceptions, I made it categorically clear to myself that although the factors for engendering in
their presences the sacred being-impulses of Faith, Hope, and Love are already quite
degenerated in the beings of this planet, nevertheless, the factor which ought to engender that
being-impulse on which the whole psyche of beings of a three-brained system is in general
based, and which impulse exists under the name of Objective-Conscience, is not yet atrophied
in them, but remains in their presences almost in its primordial state.
BEELZEBUB?S TALES, p. 359
THE GENERAL PSYCHE OF MAN IN ITS DEFINITIVE FORM is considered to be the result of
conformity to these three independent worlds. The first is the outer world?in other words,
everything existing outside him, both what he can see and feel as well as what is invisible and
intangible for him. The second is the inner world?in other words, all the automatic processes
of his nature and the mechanical repercussions of these processes. The third world is his own
world, depending neither upon his ?outer world? nor upon his ?inner world?; that is to say, it is
independent of the caprices of the processes that flow in him as well as of the imperfections in
these processes that bring them about. A man who does not possess his own world can never
do anything from his own initiative: all his actions ?are done? in him. Only he can have his own
initiative for perceptions and manifestations in whose common presence there has been formed,
in an independent and intentional manner, the totality of factors necessary for the functioning of
this third world.
LIFE IS REAL ONLY THEN, WHEN ?I AM,? pp. 172?173
ONE OF MAN?S IMPORTANT MISTAKES, one which must be remembered, is his illusion in regard
to his I.
Man such as we know him, the ?man-machine,? the man who cannot ?do,? and with whom
and through whom everything ?happens,? cannot have a permanent and single I. His I changes
as quickly as his thoughts, feelings and moods, and he makes a profound mistake in considering
himself always one and the same person; in reality he is always a different person, not the one
he was a moment ago.
Man has no permanent and unchangeable I. Every thought, every mood, every desire,
every sensation, says ?I.? And in each case it seems to be taken for granted that this I belongs
to the Whole, to the whole man, and that a thought, a desire, or an aversion is expressed by this
Whole. In actual fact there is no foundation whatsoever for this assumption. Man?s every
thought and desire appears and lives quite separately and independently of the Whole. And the
Whole never expresses itself, for the simple reason that it exists, as such, only physically as a
thing, and in the abstract as a concept. Man has no individual I. But there are, instead, hundreds
and thousands of separate small I?s, very often entirely unknown to one another, never coming
into contact, or, on the contrary, hostile to each other, mutually exclusive and incompatible.
Each minute, each moment, man is saying or thinking, ?I.? And each time his I is different. Just
now it was a thought, now it is a desire, now a sensation, now another thought, and so on,
endlessly. Man is a plurality. Man?s name is legion.
IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS, p. 59
TRY TO UNDERSTAND THAT WHAT YOU USUALLY CALL ?I? IS NOT I; there are many ?I?s? and
each ?I? has a different wish. Try to verify this. You wish to change, but which part of you has
this wish? Many parts of you want many things, but only one part is real. It will be very useful
for you to try to be sincere with yourself. Sincerity is the key which will open the door through
which you will see your separate parts, and you will see something quite new. You must go on
trying to be sincere. Each day you put on a mask, and you must take it off little by little.
VIEWS FROM THE REAL WORLD, p. 240
FROM MY POINT OF VIEW, HE CAN BE CALLED A REMARKABLE MAN who stands out from those
around him by the resourcefulness of his mind, and who knows how to be restrained in the
manifestations which proceed from his nature, at the same time conducting himself justly and
tolerantly towards the weaknesses of others.
MEETINGS WITH REMARKABLE MEN, p. 31
On Attention and Understanding
of Beelzebub's Tales
by G. I. Gurdjieff
Question: Sir, I asked you last Thursday, if there was a way to develop attention; you said that attention was measured in the degree that one remembers oneself. You told me to especially look into myself. I especially asked you that because I wasn't able to put my attention on the reading of Beelzebub. During this week I understood that attention was what I was. As many "I's" as there were, so many different attentions. I wanted to ask you if there was, for developing attention, only the method of "I am" or if there are other special methods?
Gurdjieff: One thing I can tell you. Methods do not exist. I do not know any. But I can explain now everything simply. For example, in Beelzebub, I know, there is everything one must know. It is a very interesting book. Everything is there. All that exists, all that has existed, all that can exist. The beginning, the end, all the secrets of the creation of the world; all is there. But one must understand, and to understand depends on one's individuality. The more man has been instructed in a certain way, the more he can see. Subjectively, everyone is able to understand according to the level he occupies, for it is an objective book, and everyone should understand something in it. One person understands one part, another a thousand times more. Now, find a way to put your attention on understanding all of Beelzebub. This will be your task, and it is a good way to fix a real attention. If you can put real attention on Beelzebub, you can have a real attention in life. You didn't know this secret. In Beelzebub there is everything, I have said it, even how to make an omelet. Among other things, it is explained; and at the same time there isn't a word in Beelzebub about cooking. So, you put your attention on Beelzebub, another attention than that to which you are accustomed, and you will be able to have the same attention in life.
***************************************
Gurdjieff's Aphorisms
inscribed in a special script
above the walls of the Study House at the Prieur�
an excerpt from Views From the Real World
Like what "it" does not like.
The highest that a man can attain is to be able to do.
The worse the conditions of life the more productive the work, always provided you remember the work.
Remember yourself always and everywhere.
Remember you come here having already understood the necessity of struggling with yourself?only with yourself. Therefore thank everyone who gives you the opportunity.
Here we can only direct and create conditions, but not help.
Know that this house can be useful only to those who have recognized their nothingness and who believe in the possibility of changing.
If you already know it is bad and do it, you commit a sin difficult to redress.
The chief means of happiness in this life is the ability to consider externally always, internally never.
Do not love art with your feelings.
A true sign of a good man is if he loves his father and mother.
Judge others by yourself and you will rarely be mistaken.
Only help him who is not an idler.
Respect every religion.
I love him who loves work.
We can only strive to be able to be Christians.
Don't judge a man by the tales of others.
Consider what people think of you,not what they say.
Take the understanding of the East and the knowledge of the West,and then seek.
Only he who can take care of what belongs to others may have his own.
Only conscious suffering has any sense.
It is better to be temporarily an egoist than never to be just.
Practice love first on animals, they are more sensitive.
By teaching others you will learn yourself.
Remember that here work is not for work's sake but is only a means.
Only he can be just who is able to put himself in the position of others.
If you have not by nature a critical mind your staying here is useless.
He who has freed himself of the disease of "tomorrow" has a chance to attain what he came here for.
Blessed is he who has a soul, blessed is he who has none, but woe and grief to him who has it in embryo.
Rest comes not from the quantity but from the quality of sleep.
Sleep little without regret.
The energy spent on active inner work is then and there transformed into a fresh supply, but that spent on passive work is lost for ever.
One of the best means for arousing the wish to work on yourself is to realize that you may die at any moment. But first you must learn how to keep it in mind.
Conscious love evokes the same in response. Emotional love evokes the opposite. Physical love depends on type and polarity.
Conscious faith is freedom. Emotional faith is slavery. Mechanical faith is foolishness.
Hope, when bold, is strength. Hope, with doubt, is cowardice. Hope, with fear, is weakness.
Man is given a definite number of experiences,economizing them, he prolongs his life.
Here there are neither Russians nor English, Jews nor Christians, but only those who pursue one aim,to be able to be.
Copyright � 1924 G. I. Gurdjieff
|
|
|
|
