Views From the Real World
…I take it that everyone who comes here has realized the necessity of doing something, that he has already tried by himself, and that his attempts have led him to the conclusion that in the conditions of ordinary life it is impossible to achieve anything. And so he begins…to search for places where, owing to prearranged conditions, work on oneself is possible. —Prieuré, August 21, 1923
Real Life Behind Appearances
by Michel Conge
If I reach the point where a certain quality of being can…often be found, I can no longer lose my direction…. From that point on, I truly have a direction. I can grope around… I can live through painful crises, certainly, but even during my crises… my direction…remains, and something doesn’t completely break off. That’s what really counts.
And you feel that it’s true for everything: for my everyday life, for the way I behave. If, somewhere in the background, I could retain a trace, a taste, of that direction, all the pain of existence, all the difficulties, would appear in a different light. Because they are conditions.
Whereas, for the present, I don’t understand, I don’t consider them as conditions, everything appears so hard, so unjust, abnormal… This existence that we live through “events” is nothing but conditions. You must understand that we make a mountain out of them because we identify with it all; and so we are defeated.
If I could connect with myself, and remain connected, things would be altogether different. I would understand that these conditions are not me; these difficulties in life are not Life itself. I have life inside me; I am life. But I find myself entangled in this or that form, this or that event, in such and such a happening. I can learn to make use of all these forms; but for the present I don’t use the events happening to me; it seems rather that they use me, which is altogether different…I lose my heart to them, I lose my thinking, I lose everything. And I end up battered. —The Conditions of Life
Inner Octaves
by Michel Conge
…I must die to certain conceptions, certain harmful ideas that have taken root in me, certain illusions. Above all, I have to die to my own ignorance… I have to die to this kind of inner web…of associations, preconceived patterns of thought, and things that I have never verified, and which prevent me from opening up to another perspective—a vast perspective.
…I absolutely need to be; and this thirst is just as genuine as my physical thirst and hunger. Only, I must cure myself of…my way of seeing everything…always upside-down, inverted. If I cure myself of this, then everything becomes possible, and what I aspire to will come about. —Serving
The Real Question Remains | Gurdjieff: A Living Call
by Henri Tracol
In fact, our real purpose should remain, from end to end, to know ourselves as we are, and… constant struggling against our weaknesses, since all our ordinary manifestations are under the sway of suggestions that make us “reflect reality upside down,” for the sake of supporting and perpetuating our self-complacency.
Now, to “work on an all-around knowledge” of ourselves…is possible only as a result of “correctly conducted self-observation,” which implies the conscious mobilization and active cooperation of all our centers… (And)…“a man must decide, once and forever, that he will be sincere with himself unconditionally, will shut his eyes to nothing, shun no results wherever they may lead him, be afraid of no inferences, and be limited by no previous, self-imposed limits,” and he must be warned that to accept the inferences of such a self-observation, and not lose heart, he must “have great courage”…
For one who…is ready…there comes the moment of truth. At the very instant he awakens and sees his situation for what it is—that is, almost desperate—a reversal takes place: instead of giving up the struggle, he accepts the challenge with his eyes wide open. He stands up as a “man” and feels ready to try his utmost—because that is where he finds his genuine “raison d’être”…
…(C)reation of conditions is precisely the task which the great Saint Ashiata Shiemash, the prototype of master-awakeners imposes on himself in Gurdjieff’s legendary Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, in order to allow the appearance “in the ordinary consciousness of men, of the being impulse of objective conscience, the data (or potential elements) of which remain intact in their subconscious.”
Such conditions necessarily present many aspects, and should continually adapt themselves to the circumstances of the disciples, in order to meet the necessary objectives of their spiritual development. In his teaching, Gurdjieff used every means which appeared opportune to him, according to the degree of understanding of his pupils. There was a time for theoretical studies, a time for experimentation, for verifications, so that each one could put his own understanding to the test, in life conditions…
The Reality of Being
by Jeanne de Salzmann
I must be present to my life if I wish to know what I am. When I open to forces of a higher level, I am able to participate at that moment, but staying there is not my role, my place. I cannot maintain myself in this relation, and after a certain time I only imagine it…
…I have to see myself being a machine, to know myself as a machine, and to be here while functioning as a machine. My aim is to experience being mechanical and never forget it.
Ordinary life opposes my knowing higher possibilities hidden in me. It does this in a natural and implacable manner, which subjects me to being the way I am today. But when I see in myself the opposition of two lives, two different levels subject to different laws, I feel the necessity of a way, a direction. Without this opposition I would not feel it, and I would not learn to see myself as I am. Only in the conditions of my everyday life can I study where my force and where my weakness lie… —41. Only in everyday life