(Jean Vaysse) Thought is the function of the intellectual center. All mental processes are included in this: the reception of intellectual data, analysis, comparison, the formation of ideas, and of reasoning and imagining, and recording in the intellectual memory.
But thought is of various kinds (and qualities), according to the level on which this center is working…
…Indeed, for the intellectual center to become capable of other than purely reactive and automatic thinking, it has to function on another level, the level of a presence and of a stable, all-enveloping, soundly established I. Then independent thoughts are possible… that conform with our overall sense of individuality and which characterize real “subjective” thought.
As for… real “objective” thought, ordinary man has no knowledge of it. It is on a still higher level, and pertains to the higher intellectual center. —Toward Awakening, Jean Vaysse – Centers and functions
(Ouspensky:) In the intellectual centre, the mechanical part includes in itself all the work of registration of impressions, memories and associations. This is all that it should do normally, that is, when other parts do their work. It should never reply to questions addressed to the whole centre, it should never try to solve its problems, and it should never decide anything. Unfortunately, in actual fact, it is always ready to decide and it always replies to questions of all sorts in a very narrow and limited way, in ready-made phrases, in slang expressions, in party slogans. All these, and many other elements of our usual reactions, are the work of the mechanical part of the intellectual centre.
…It is called a ‘formatory apparatus’…
It is always possible to recognise ‘formatory thinking.’ For instance, formatory centre can count only up to two. It always divides everything in two: ‘bolshevism and fascism,’ …and so on. We owe most modern catchwords to formatory thinking, and not only catchwords but… modern popular theories…
The emotional part of the intellectual centre consists chiefly of what is called an intellectual emotion, that desire to know, desire to understand, satisfaction knowing, dissatisfaction of not knowing, pleasure (of) discovery and so on, although again all these can manifest themselves on very different levels.
The work of the emotional part requires full attention but in this part of the centre attention does not require any effort. It is attracted and held by the subject itself, very often through identification, which usually is called ‘interest,’ or ‘enthusiasm,’ or’ passion,’ or ‘devotion.’
The intellectual part of the intellectual centre includes in itself a capacity for creation, construction, invention and discovery. It cannot work without attention, but the attention in this part of the centre must be controlled and kept there by will and effort. —Psychology of Man’s Possible Evolution, P.D. Ouspensky – Fifth Lecture
(Gurdjieff:) …All the stimuli coming from the centers are transmitted to the formatory apparatus, and all the perceptions of centers also are manifested through the formatory apparatus. It is not a center but an apparatus. It is connected with all the centers.
…Every local stimulus in the centers, every association, provokes associations in the formatory apparatus.
…centers are composed of matter which is animate, but the matter of the formatory apparatus is inanimate. The formatory apparatus is simply a machine, just like a typewriter which transmits every impact… —Views From the Real World – Prieuré, January 29, 1923 – Formatory apparatus
Our essence consists of many centers, but our personality has only one center, the formatory apparatus. —Views From the Real World – America, March 29, 1924 – Essence and personality
(Gurdjieff:) All the elements of the psyche of man—perceptions, sensations, conceptions, ideas, emotions, creation—are instruments of knowledge…
…Everyone agrees that the aim of intellect is knowledge. But we are not clear about our emotions: joy, anger, jealousy, pleasure, artistic creation; we do not see that all activity, all emotions, serve knowledge. We believe that creation demands knowledge, but how does it serve knowledge? How do religious emotions serve knowledge?
We oppose emotion and reason. We speak of cold reason, of intellect superior to emotion. This is an error in definition. Intellect taken as a whole is also emotion.
…In man the growth of conscience consists in the growth of the intellect and the growth of superior emotions which accompany it… in growing they become more intellectual and at the same time, the intellect assimilates the emotions. ..
A new order of receptivity comes from the union of intellect and superior emotions, but is not created by them. A seed… springs from the ground, but is not created by earth. A grain is necessary. A grain may be there or not. If it is there, then it can be cultivated.
Man today understands much with intellect, but also with sentiments… There are things and relations which can only be understood emotionally, and only with certain emotions. One must love in order to understand someone who loves. Etc.
…The sign of the growth of emotion is the liberation from the personal element. Personal emotion fools, is partial, unjust. —The Meaning of Life, Gurdjieff – (originally read to Pentland Groups as “Pure and Impure Emotions”
(Mme. de Salzmann:) My relation with my thinking mind must change. I have to see its conditioning and lose all illusion of its capacity to perceive directly what is beyond its functioning. Truth simply cannot be thought… I need to see that my thought is held back by the stubbornness of an idea or the attachment to a form…
Why is it that my mind never discovers anything new? I am a prisoner of all the impressions deposited in me. I am conditioned by the reservoir of my memory, the result engraved in me of the influences that have touched me. It is all that I have to answer with in life. Little by little, I unconsciously accept this state of conditioning, and the energy of my mind deteriorates. My mind is sapped in its vitality and strength. It simply accumulates more and more information.
I can discipline my mind, polish my knowledge. It can even become brilliant. But I remain in the realm of the known. How could I go beyond this way of thinking so that something new could appear? —The Reality of Being # 26 Not Knowing