Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson
Chapter 27 – The order of existence created for men by the Very Saintly Ashiata Shiemash
“…Ashiata Shiemash then explained…
…”’The factors for the being-impulse of Objective Conscience arise in three-brained beings from the localization in their presence of particles of the “emanations of the sorrow” of our All-Loving and Long-Suffering, Endless Creator…
“‘And this sorrow is formed in our All-Maintaining Common Father from the struggle constantly proceeding in the Universe between joy and sorrow.’
‘In all the three-centered beings of our entire Universe without exception, including us men, owing to the data crystallized in our common presence for engendering in us the divine impulse of Conscience, “all of us” and the whole of our essence in its very foundation are and must be only suffering.
‘And we must be suffering, because this being-impulse can come to its full manifestation in us only through the constant struggle between two quite opposite ‘complexes of functioning’ issuing from two sources of quite opposite origin, namely between… our planetary body and … functionings arising … from the coating and perfecting of our higher being-bodies within this planetary body of ours….
“‘Consequently, …we men…owing to the presence in us also of the factors for engendering the divine impulse of Objective Conscience, must always inevitably struggle with the two quite opposite functionings… the results of which are always sensed by us either as “desires” or as “non-desires.
“‘And so, only he who consciously assists the process of this inner struggle, and consciously assists the “non-desires” to prevail over the “desires,” behaves in accordance with the Being of our Common Father Creator Himself, whereas he who consciously assists the contrary only increases His sorrow.”
First Initiation (excerpt)
A Talk given by Mr. Gurdjieff to a Paris Group, September 16, 1941, edited by Dr. Michel de Salzmann, and translated by Pierre Elliot. Also attributed to Mme. de Salzmann in “Gurdjieff: Essays and Reflections on the Man and His Teaching,” Ed. Jacob Needleman and George Baker.
…I need to recognise in myself a part that is higher than other parts. It is by my attitude towards this part that I demonstrate the respect I have towards it. In this way I shall respect myself and my relationship towards others will be governed by the same respect.
…But you will find that this is not easy – and it is not cheap. You have to pay dearly. For defaulters, lazy people, parasites – no hope. One must pay dearly, pay at once, pay in advance. Pay from oneself by sincere, conscientious, disinterested efforts.
The more you are prepared to pay without sparing yourself, without cheating or tampering, the more you will receive. And from then on you will get to learn something about your own nature. You will see all the tricks and falsehoods to which you resort in order not to pay on the nail. You need to pay with your plausible theories, your deep-rooted convictions, your prejudices, your conventions, your “I like this” and your “It does not suit me”, without bargaining, without pretending and honestly, by sincerely trying to see, while you are passing your false coinage.
…And if you observe in this manner, paying from yourself, without self pity, by giving up all your imaginary riches for one moment of reality, then you may suddenly see what you have never seen before. You will see that you are not what you believe. You will see that there are two of you… When you have seen your two natures, on that day truth will have been born in you.
In Search of the Miraculous
Chapter Eleven
“…people very often make a mistake… They think that the efforts they have previously made, their former merits, so to speak, give them some kind of rights or advantages, diminish the demands to be made upon them, and constitute as it were an excuse should they not work, or should they afterwards do something wrong. This, of course, is most profoundly false. Nothing that a man did yesterday excuses him today. Quite the reverse, if a man did nothing yesterday, no demands are made upon him today; if he did anything yesterday, it means that he must do more today. This certainly does not mean that it is better to do nothing. Whoever does nothing receives nothing…”
Transcripts of Gurdjieff’s Meetings 1941-1946
Meeting Fifteen
…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 you are doing has no importance. 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 anymore. The important thing is to have a continual process of struggle, because you need the substance that struggle will give you.
Views From the Real World
New York, February 22, 1924
Inside us we have a horse; it obeys orders from outside.
…But the horse has no education whatever. It …knows no languages, it never went to school.
First of all you must realize that you are not you. …believe me. You are the horse, and if you wish to start working, the horse must be taught a language in which you can …tell it what you know and prove to it the necessity of, say, changing its disposition. If you succeed in this, then, with your help, the horse too will begin to learn…
Question: Why was the horse not educated?
Answer: Education needs time, needs suffering; life becomes less peaceful. At first they did not educate it through laziness, and later they forgot altogether. … It is a hundred times easier to be passive so that suffering and result happen outside and not inside you. Inner result is achieved when everything takes place inside you. …
Every man dislikes suffering, every man wants to be quiet. Every man chooses what is easiest, least disturbing, tries not to think too much.