Views From the Real World
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 1924
For an exact study, an exact language is needed
First of all everyone should understand his own mechanicalness. This understanding can come only as the result of a rightly formulated self-observation. As to self-observation—it is not so simple a thing as it may seem at first sight. Therefore the teaching puts as the foundation stone the study of the principles of right self-observation. But before passing to the study of these principles a man must make the decision that he will be absolutely sincere with himself, will not close his eyes to anything, will not turn aside from any results, wherever they may lead him, will not fear any deductions, will not limit himself to any previously erected walls. For a man unaccustomed to thinking in this direction, very much courage is required to accept sincerely the results and conclusions arrived at. They upset man’s whole line of thinking and deprive him of his most pleasant and dearest illusions. …But man’s self-observation, however seriously and sincerely it may be carried out, by itself cannot draw for him an absolutely true picture of his internal mechanism. —p. 72
The teaching which is being expounded gives general principles of the construction of the mechanism, and with the help of self-observation a man checks these principles. The first principle of this teaching is that nothing shall be taken on faith….
…The starting points of this self-observation are:
1) that we are not one.
2) that we have no control over ourselves. We do not control our own mechanism.
3) we do not remember ourselves. If I say ‘I am reading a book’ and do not know that ‘I’ am reading, that is one thing, but when I am conscious that ‘I’ am reading, that is self-remembering. —p. 80
NEW YORK, MARCH 13, 1924
Self-observation is very difficult. The more you try, the more clearly you will see this.
At present you should practice it not for results but to understand that you cannot observe yourselves. In the past you imagined that you saw and knew yourselves.
I am speaking of objective self-observation. Objectively you cannot see yourselves for a single minute, because it is a different function, the function of the master.
If it seems to you that you can observe yourselves for five minutes, this is wrong; if it is for twenty minutes or for one minute—it is equally wrong. If you simply realize that you cannot, it will be right. To come to it is your aim.
To achieve this aim, you must try and try.
When you try, the result will not be, in the true sense, self-observation. But trying will strengthen your attention, you will learn to concentrate better. All this will be useful later. Only then can one begin to remember oneself.
If you work conscientiously, you will remember yourselves not more but less, because self-remembering requires many things. It is not so easy, it costs a great deal.
The exercise of self-observation is sufficient for several years. Do not attempt anything else. If you work conscientiously, you will see what you need. —p. 88
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 9, 1930
Question: How can we gain attention?
Answer: There is no attention in people. You must aim to acquire this. Self-observation is only possible after acquiring attention. —p. 90
In Search of the Miraculous
“Knowledge of oneself is a very big, but a very vague and distant, aim. Man in his present state is very far from self-knowledge. Therefore, strictly speaking, his aim cannot even be defined as self-knowledge; self-study must be his big aim. …
“The chief method of self-study is self-observation. Without properly applied self-observation a man will never understand the connection and the correlation between the various functions of his machine, will never understand how and why on each separate occasion everything in him ‘happens.’
“But to learn the methods of self-observation and of right self-study requires a certain understanding of the functions and the characteristics of the human machine. Thus in observing the functions of the human machine it is necessary to understand the correct divisions of the functions observed and to be able to define them exactly and at once; and the definition must not be a verbal but an inner definition; by taste, by sensation, in the same way as we define all inner experiences.
Chapter 7
…G. put a question to which all those present had to answer in turn. The question was: “What is the most important thing that we notice during self-observation?”
G. was obviously dissatisfied with our replies.
“Not one of you has noticed the most important thing that I have pointed out to you,” he said. “That is to say, not one of you has noticed that you do not remember yourselves.” (He gave particular emphasis to these words.) “You do not feel yourselves; you are not conscious of yourselves. With you, ‘it observes’ just as ‘it speaks’ ‘it thinks,’ ‘it laughs.’ You do not feel: I observe, I notice, I see. Everything still ‘is noticed,’ ‘is seen.’ … In order really to observe oneself one must first of all remember oneself” (He again emphasized these words.) “Try to remember yourselves when you observe yourselves and later on tell me the results. Only those results will have any value that are accompanied by self-remembering. Otherwise you yourselves do not exist in your observations. In which case what are all your observations worth?”
Chapter 8
“It has been said before that self-study and self-observation, if rightly conducted, bring man to the realization of the fact that something is wrong with his machine and with his functions in their ordinary state. A man realizes that it is precisely because he is asleep that he lives and works in a small part of himself. It is precisely for this reason that the vast majority of his possibilities remain unrealized, the vast majority of his powers are left unused. …
“When a man comes to realize the necessity not only for self-study and self-observation but also for work on himself with the object of changing himself, the character of his self-observation must change. …
“For this purpose a man must learn to take, so to speak, ‘mental photographs’ of himself at different moments of his life and in different emotional states: and not photographs of details, but photographs of the whole as he saw it. In other words these photographs must contain simultaneously everything that a man can see in himself at a given moment. Emotions, moods, thoughts, sensations, postures, movements, tones of voice, facial expressions, and so on. …
“Instead of the man he had supposed himself to be he will see quite another man. This ‘other’ man is himself and at the same time not himself. … You must learn to divide the real from the invented. And to begin self-observation and self-study it is necessary to divide oneself. A man must realize that he indeed consists of two men.
Reality of Being – #10 Self-observation
Gurdjieff taught the necessity of self-observation, but this practice has been mostly misunderstood. Usually when I try to observe, there is a point from which the observation is made, and my mind projects the idea of observing, of an observer separate from the object observed. But the idea of observing is not the observing. Seeing is not an idea. It is an act, the act of seeing. Here the object is me, a living being that needs to be recognized in order to live a certain life. This observation is not that of a fixed observer looking at an object. It is one complete act, an experience that can take place only if there is no separation between what sees and what is seen, no point from which the observation is made. Then there is a feeling of a special kind, a wish to know. It is an affection that embraces everything that I see and is indifferent to nothing. I need to see. When I begin to see, I begin to love what I see. No longer separate, I am in contact with it, intensely, completely. I know, and this knowing is the result of this new condition. I wake up to what I am and touch the source of true love, a quality of being.
…To observe without contradiction is like following a fast current, a torrent, anticipating the rushing water with one’s look, seeing the movement of each little wave. There is no time to formulate, to name or to judge. There is no more thinking. My mind becomes quiet and sensitive—very alive but quite. It sees without distortion. Silent observation gives birth to understanding, but this truth must be seen. Order is born from understanding disorder. To be disorder and, at the same time, present to the disorder brings the knowing of a different possibility, a different order of things.