| A few quotations
from G.I. Gurdjieff to start with |
|
| I cannot develop you; I can create
conditions in which you can develop yourself. |
|
| Man's obligation is to co-operate
with the laws which operate the universe. The realization
of the working of certain laws is the kingdom of heaven. The
obligation goes with the fact that man has a unique place.
But the awareness of his place is not a gift of nature. No
man by wishing or by taking thought can do anything about
his development. He must do something unique. This method
offers this unique activity. |
|
| Since we have no technique for
development, our life is like a dream. In dreams we don't
choose or invent events. Our life is like that. And we can't
voluntarily wake from this dream. We wake, or develop, only
if the dream becomes unbearable or if someone shakes us awake. |
|
| The octave was originally a formula
to explain cosmic truths, only later it was used musically. |
|
Five Obligations:
1. Preserve your life. (Be just to the body; satisfy its needs;
treat it as a good master treats a good servant.)
2. Find your place in the scheme. (Understand the meaning
and aim of existence. Know more and more concerning the laws
of world creation and maintenance.)
3. Develop yourself. (Constant unflagging need for self-perfection
in the sense of Being. Improve your 'Being', make 'Being'
efforts.)
4. Help others to develop. (Assist in the most rapid perfectioning
of other beings.)
5. Pay back. (To lighten the load of the Creator, pay back
in gratitude and effort for the fact that Evolution has helped
you to get this far.) |
|
| When you have finally grasped the
meaning of 'transformation' and realized how false your picture
of yourself has been, when you have discovered the kind of
person you really are... this is the moment when you can say
you have begun at the beginning. |
|
| It is almost a desire of man to
be asleep. We are so asleep that unless life becomes too difficult
we don't wake up. A shock can waken you. But you must find
your reasons for wanting to wake up. |
|
| When you see how mechanical you
are you begin to wake up. Just as at the moment of waking
from a dream you know you have been asleep. In dreams you
are running down energies which you did not use up during
the day. |
|
| You cannot change by mind alone.
You must begin with the body. Bring body and emotions into
line. The body is the only tool you have to work with. Make
it a good tool. Resent the body's control of you. Try to establish
the physical as something apart from the 'I'. The beginning
of adult life is the knowledge that we have an 'I'. Our bodies
are fertilizers for a soul. The personal equation between
you and your body is pernicious. Our body is as much an object
of the outside world as a tree, a plant or a stone. |
|
| Introspection is bad - we have nothing
to look into. |
|
| You have found how difficult it
is to manage your body. Our minds don't move. Our environment
has paralysed our minds. Try exercises of mental stretching. |
|
| Self-observation is conscious suffering.
We live only seventy years because of the useless suffering
we submit to. We must sacrifice automatic suffering. |
|
| Dig out your essence. Discover your
type. This will be an active alternative against unconscious
behaviour. |
|
| Conscious suffering is arrived at
by putting yourself in a situation agreeable to one centre
and very disagreeable to the two others. Object: to get stretch.
To get out of mechanicality. |
|
| One of the great chief features
is always self-love; complete self-love. The little thing
you put on the scales of a balance that tip them down is usually
your chief feature. Your chief feature is an outgrowth of
you emotional attitude towards yourself. Chief feature is
never a good thing, but, once found, it can be used consciously. |
|
| We are 1 percent ourselves and
99 percent sociological. The personality is the mask you have
to hide your essence. The mask is very difficult to discover.
Everyone has reasons for protecting himself. |
|
| You don't have to lose your mask
if you don't want to. But know it. You can alter it when you
know it. You cannot change anything without knowing it. |
|
| The human race is in decline because
of useless emotion. Emotion today is merely fermentation.
Observe and you may get an idea during the observation.
This changes the centre of gravity (from fermentation to emotion):
a 'conversion'. |
|
| When we don't do self-observation
we eat ourselves. |
|
| Mind is the faculty of taking thought.
Its real process is pondering (reflection). The subject matter
should be large, true fact such as the organization of the
universe, etc. Its object is to group these ponderings into
great wholes. But we cannot hold before our minds for one
second the whole evidence about anything. |
|
| Every situation in the world has
a positive, negative and a neutral force. The neutralizing
force is the form-giving force. |
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