Gurdjieff’s Early Talks 1914-1931
Prieure, Feb 9, 1923 – Two Spirits
It is said in some ancient teachings that on the day God created man he also created for each man two spirits — the spirit of good and the spirit of evil, or as they are called, an angel and a devil, and placed the angel on the right of man and the devil on the left. Another ancient teaching says that when God sent spirits to work on the planets, the spirits asked God: “What shall we do there?” God divided the spirits according to their qualities and said: “You, on the right, will try to lead those who live there to heaven, and you, the other half, will try to lead them to hell.”
Then one of the leaders asked about the means permissible to those on the one side and those on the other. God answered: “You can use any methods and means you like. But there is one essential difference. Let the weapon of those on the right be — to do through ‘doing’, and the weapon of those on the left — to do through ‘it happens’. The method of those on the right must be through what is active and conscious, and the method of those on the left through what is passive and unconscious.”
In Search of the Miraculous
Chapter 1
“…I want you to understand one thing: it is impossible to become free from one influence without becoming subject to another. The whole thing, all work on oneself, consists in choosing the influence to which you wish to subject yourself, and actually falling under this influence. And for this it is necessary to know beforehand which influence is the more profitable.”
Notes from a Meeting with A.R. Orage, New York City, April 14, 1931
Among our possibilities there are some which, from our own point of view, are more desirable than others…
What kind of a future would you regard as agreeable? Ask yourself honestly. It will fall into one of three types:
- Is it doing something? Is there some particular achievement the doing of which you imagine would make you happy? Do you say to yourself, “If I could do that, I’d die happy?”
- Or is it knowing, or understanding something? Do you say, “If I could once understand such-and-such, I’d die happy?” People of this type are numerically fewer than the first.
- Or is at becoming something? Having become something as a result of the experiment we call life. People of this type, especially in the Occident, are very rare.
These three kinds are all. It is these or nothing. That is, nothing practicable, or even defineable.
Try to picture the day of your death. From having accomplished what would you pass contented out of this existence?…
(H)aving set your objective, you can compel yourself, in the face of all the hypnotic suggestions you may meet, to employ the means necessary for this end…
And for this there must be… will. For only this enables us to choose when two propositions are presented to us.
And our whole lives are a series of choices between two alternatives. We travel along a series of continually forking roads…
At each forking there is a choice between this or that (occasionally this, that, or that); at each of these points an atom of will exists…
(E)ach point equals a moment of choice between two possibilities…
(A)n aim — is the beginning of the making possible a choice…
Transcripts of Gurdjieff’s Meetings 1941-1946
Meeting Eighteen
The Aim. Always have an immediate aim. This is your objective. You must achieve this. There are many zigzags on the way. Do not delay. Always see the aim. Know where you are going and you will find the means to get there. …the aim should be clear and always before you.
Attention—Wish—Will—Free Will
A Talk by Mr. de Hartmann – from the Diary Notes of Thomas C. Daly
Thus there is an attention, and a will, for outside objects. An object attracts us; we do not attract the object. Objects govern us from outside. They make us do all sorts of things. It is not the woman who buys the hat, but the hat buys the woman. The man does not smoke the cigarette; the cigarette smokes the man, as Mr. Gurdjieff said. The attention and the will generated by outside objects, through the senses, are not our own. They are part of the mechanism of Nature: Nature works us. We do not conquer Nature; Nature conquers us. The attention and the will connected with the physical senses and outside objects are not our own. This will is not free, but answers the call of every outside object.
But there is another Attention, and another Will. Man has two natures: a lower, and a higher. The lower nature is like an animal’s…
For the higher nature, there is another Attention, and another Will, not born outside of us, but born in us… With this Attention, we can observe ourselves; with this Attention we can remember ourselves. With this Will, we can make efforts to attain our greatest aim: to complete ourselves.
But we must actually will it. Knowledge is not enough. It is good, and necessary, of course, but of itself it will change nothing in us. Understanding is necessary. We must have new knowledge: for instance, in order to know what can be wished. But unless we actually wish it, we will have no chance of obtaining anything. And wishing alone, is also not enough. We can wish forever, but unless we move toward what we wish we will never obtain it. We must will it.
But we do not have enough Will. And we do not have enough Attention. So we must increase them as best we may. And the only way to increase them is to make the right kind of efforts. Without efforts, nothing can increase. But if we turn all our Attention, all our Will, and all our Efforts, towards our big Aim, little by little… we will approach it: the big Aim.
The Reality of Being
6. The first initiation
Conscious struggle requires choice and acceptance. It must not be my state that dictates the choice. I must choose the struggle to be present and accept that suffering will appear. There is no struggle without suffering…. This is why it is so important always to remember what we wish—the meaning of our work and our Presence…