Question: How does it happen that the truths which we believe and which we are sure of do not penetrate deeply? Why do they remain at the surface without really changing our life?
Gurdjieff: We are divided. It is a fact. Consider that we have two independent organisms in us. One is the result of our education, of everything we have acquired. The other is our original organism.
This original body functions only when I am relaxed, quiet, and alone. But when I return to active life it is weak and it is no longer able to have an influence. It is the other organism which then takes over, and I can no longer do what I have decided to do. I am back to my habitual ways of doing things.
Choose precise tasks for yourself. Before you immerse yourself in life, when you are alone at home, let go of your tensions and make a program for yourself. Represent to yourself how you will act during the day, and give yourself your word to follow this program exactly. You will fail ten times, or even twenty times but the twenty-first time you will be able to do what you decided when you were alone. There is no other way for now. You must make a program.
I repeat, come to a quiet and relaxed state. Only then establish your program for the day. Then go into life and try to do exactly what you have decided. If you do it, reward yourself. If you forget, punish yourself…
You must accustom yourself to struggle. Little by little this struggle will give results which will accumulate within you. This gives strength for the future. You fail one time, ten times. But each struggle brings results, a substance accumulates in you. It is this substance which will help you carry out conscious decisions…
Life is one thing, inner work another-their substantiality is different. When you begin your work, you must be in a state of active vigilance. Your only task is your work.
Before beginning, you must prepare yourself: relax, collect yourself. And then, with all your presence, you work.
Be an absolute egoist. Forget all the rest. Forget your God, your husband, your son, money. Afterwards, put the work aside and return to things of ordinary life. This is difficult. At the beginning you can’t do it for long; you are quickly tired. If you work five minutes too long, you will be drained of all energy. That is why it is necessary to increase little by little, in order to get accustomed to it – five minutes, six minutes, then ten minutes. Only in this way can you rightly begin to prepare yourself to acquire the state that corresponds to a true man.
If you work longer than that, it proves you are not working with all your presence, but only with your head. You could do that for a thousand years without gaining anything from it.
Work for a short time, but work well – with all your presence. Then let your ordinary life go on in its usual way; otherwise you will become a psychopath.
Excerpts from a Meeting with Gurdjieff in 1943. The 147th birth anniversary of
Gurdjieff will be observed on January 13.
G. I. Gurdjieff
Thank You For Your Vote!
Sorry You have Already Voted!
