Aphorism: “Like what it does not like.”
In Search of the Miraculous
Chapter 7
…”What is the most important thing that we notice during self-observation?”
“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.)
Spiritual Physics, Jerry Brewster
Chapter 3
Bringing Work methods to get self-knowledge, you suddenly see active personality for what it is; and struggle to be free of it…
One example would be “like what it does not like.” When we say, “Like what it does not like” what is ‘it’? ‘It’ is active personality, my habitual strong likes and dislikes. I go against what active personality is attracted to at that moment. I use this to awaken;…
…Every moment there is an automatic inclination to do something in a way to protect oneself. We are never out of opportunities to go against personality.
A Study of Gurdjieff’s Teaching, by Kenneth Walker
Sayings of Gurdjieff
We are sheep kept to provide wool for our masters who feed us and keep us as slaves of illusion. But we have a chance of escape and our masters are anxious to help us, but we like being sheep. It is comfortable.
Return to Now, Henriette Lannes
Excerpt from a letter
Only the person who is inwardly active stops being a straw in the churning waters of life. He closes himself intentionally to all useless influences. He tries to discern what is truly food for his being and what is poison—or simply baggage of no value.
Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson
Chapter 21
“One day while instructing some of his closest initiates, Saint Buddha spoke …about a means for the possible destruction in their nature of the consequences of the properties of the organ kundabuffer, transmitted to them by heredity.
…” ‘One of the best means of rendering ineffective the predisposition in your nature to crystallize the consequences of the properties of the organ kundabuffer is “intentional suffering”;…
Chapter 32
“As a rule, on all the planets of our Great Universe where three-brained beings breed, the perfecting of Objective Reason can proceed only from personal conscious labor and intentional suffering.
Transcripts of Gurdjieff’s Meetings 1941-46
Meeting 15
Question: I don’t see exactly what path to follow and what aim to have in view.
Gurdjieff: A path isn’t necessary. It is only necessary that you obtain results in yourself. Collect, accumulate the results of struggle. You will need them for continuing. You must accumulate; you have batteries in you in which you must accumulate this substance, like electricity. This substance can only be accumulated by struggle. Therefore create a struggle between your head and your animal.
…Continue your struggle, but without waiting for results. Accumulate the results of the process of struggle. When we struggle interiorly with thought, feeling and body, that gives a substance in the place where it belongs. We have no interest today in knowing where that place is. Accumulate. It is this that is lacking in you.
… What is necessary is that you must have in you the process of struggle. What means shall you employ? That isn’t important. Struggle. You know better than I what struggle. For example, whatever your body likes, whatever you have the habit of giving it, don’t give it any more. The important thing is to have a continual process of struggle, because you need the substance that struggle will give you.
Meeting 18
Gurdjieff: …The present is the result of the past. If you have acquired a bad habit in the past, you must stop it. I see that I have the habit of always turning my thumbs in the same direction. Stop. This is repairing. Do not make the same error again and prepare for the future, prepare for the future. Practise, practise as you would to play the piano. … Repeat, repeat.
Question: I see how I spend hours a day occupied with very small paltry feelings, very vile. Should I attach myself to a task to remedy this…?
Gurdjieff: It is the same for everybody. … For you, it is only now that you see this. This is what we wish to change. Do everything that you do well. Even eating. If you eat well, you pray well. Be wholehearted in everything you do. One must work precisely on something precise. Work should not be a desire, but a need, a need. …You have not the right to have desire only. This is not enough. It will give nothing. Create a need in yourself. Repeat, repeat, repeat. You never repeat enough. Everything that comes easily to you, make “tchik”(destroy). Choose something which costs you something, which is an effort. That which is easy is bad for your interior life.
Meeting 20
[A man asserts he cannot work well, can do nothing to his satisfaction, is troubled by conscience.]Gurdjieff: It is impossible to do this all at once, one must search. Begin with a small thing. When you wake, remember consciously to put on the left sock first, instead of the right one, remembering yourself. Wash the left ear first, not the one you are in habit of washing. Make a programme. Always either a fly, or something else, will appear to prevent you from carrying out this programme. But even if there is a fire, do what I tell you.
Meeting 24
Question: …Where can I get the force which will give me physical will?
Gurdjieff: Only one thing can help you. You must suffer physically. For instance, don’t eat enough; be hungry. Or, if your organism doesn’t like cold water, make yourself bear cold water. Same with hot water. Do the opposite of what your body is in the habit of doing. Make it suffer. It is the one and only way to make the force you lack. Not a mental suffering. We have seven kinds of suffering. For you, bodily suffering is necessary. With your mind you can mercilessly govern your body, make it suffer…Afterwards you will be able to work on yourself. I am glad you came to this question by yourself.
Meeting 12
Question: Could you show me a task? I have tried several, but none of them suits me and I do not know which one to choose.
Gurdjieff: Look. I take up an unusual posture, a posture which is difficult for my body because I am not used to it. In …my two centres—feeling and sensation… I sense the awkwardness of my posture and I feel the awkwardness of it. For I am not accustomed to it. With my head I look to see what it is. I study. Ah, yes! It is like that. And here, it is like that. That is the way you do this. It is a simple thing. You keep the three centres separate in you. You understand this very simple thing. It is an unpleasant posture. I may fall. I look: I sense this: I feel that. Ah! Yes—it is like that. I observe. With my head, I collect material. I compare. With my head, with my logic, I find the reasons: why, how. On the one hand, I sense, on another, I feel. And in this way, do you see, the three centres are occupied with this work. You separate your three centres. … Up to now, you have not yet separated your three centres. In many things you have gone further, but as far as this very simple thing is concerned, you are an outsider. Every man must recognise in himself three qualities of sensation. In each person there are three centres, three directors. And these three directors can give a fourth one, who can be the “I.”
Views From the Real World
What is the method of the Institute?
Question: What is the role of suffering in self-development?
Answer: There are two kinds of suffering—conscious and unconscious. Only a fool suffers unconsciously.
…Sooner or later everything is paid for. … Suffering can be voluntary and only voluntary suffering has value. One may suffer simply because one feels unhappy. Or one may suffer for yesterday and to prepare for tomorrow. …I repeat, only voluntary suffering has value.
Return to Now, Henriette Lannes
Excerpt from a memoir by Henri Thomasson, her student
“We are on a steep mountainside and any impression of having arrived somewhere is deceptive. We must think. We must learn still better how to sacrifice our sleep.”
…“What we always forget is that the direction … is to help us advance from one submission to another. One kind of submission is abject and in essence misleading. But a second kind is intentional and, little by little, we can understand its meaning. …Submission to a will that is more enlightened, and which itself has been forged in submission, is the only avenue open to us insofar as we cannot find a relation in ourselves with a level that is more intelligent, more conscious, and more capable of guiding our lives.
For those who have begun to see themselves, this submission is no longer impossible. They know that they need it.