In Search of the Miraculous
“…it is important that you should define your own aim. The teaching by itself cannot pursue any definite aim. It can only show the best way for men to attain whatever aims they may have. The question of aim is a very important question. Until a man has defined his own aim for himself he will not be able even to begin ‘to do’ anything. How is it possible ‘to do’ anything without having an aim? Before anything else ‘doing’ presupposes an aim.” —Chapter 6
1938 Wartime Meetings With Gurdjieff
Gurdjieff: …You have not the right to have desire only. This is not enough. It will give nothing… 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. Later I will indicate another aim. You must attain the first one first; the aim should be clear and always before you. —Meeting Eighteen
The Diary Notes of Thomas C. Daly
In June, 1954… to their newly constituted Toronto Group… …Madame de Hartmann questioned each and all of us together, especially deeply: “Why are you here?—What is your aim?—And what do you wish?”
Typical answers: “To be free from ups and downs” … “To get rid of negative emotions” … “To become something real” …
To each answer she countered with: “Yes, but why? Why do you want that?—One can want all such things just to be approved of by others, just to get on better in life—but why do you want that?”… —Attention, Wish, Will, Free Will a Talk by Mr. de Hartmann
G.I. Gurdjieff Paris Meetings 1943
Gurdjieff: You must have an aim, a serious aim. And you must establish a relationship between your task and your aim, an aim you cannot forget. Your task concerns your aim, and brings you to your aim… It is in accomplishing your task relentlessly, without considering your mood, that you will succeed in having will. You must do this gradually. It will increase. One cannot have will all at once. One cannot go to the pharmacy to buy will.
…You set yourself an aim. It can be this or that, whatever you wish…
Fix this in yourself. Tell yourself this frequently. Think about it often. This aim will establish factors for self-remembering in you. After that choose a task. Do this or that. Establish a contact between your aim and your task. Your task will remind you of your aim. If you remember yourself, you think of your task – one evokes the other.
(Question): What can I take as a task?
Mme de Salzmann: See for yourself. Choose a task in relation to your aim.
Gurdjieff: Choose. You know what you are lacking, what you need. Choose your task yourself. It is better… Do your task; I don’t want to advise you. And do it. Begin again. One thing must constantly remind you of the other. The action of one must call up the other. In this way, you will acquire will. One perfects the other. You automatically create will… —December 23, 1943
Talks and Lectures with A.R. Orage 1924-1931
(Will) implies that, having set your objective, you can compel yourself—in the face of all the hypnotic suggestions you may meet…
…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 a continually forking roads…
What would be the criterion of right choice?…
The clear definition of…an aim…is the beginning of the making possible a choice. Choices bring into play will… (T)his will is not automatic. The other road will always have attractions… (T)here are, at least at the outset, primroses. The primrose path is merely the downhill road of wishes. —Gurdjieff’s Emissary in New York:Talks and Lectures with A.R. Orage 1924-1931 —Tuesday, 14 April 1931
G.I. Gurdjieff Paris Meetings 1943
Gurdjieff: …We get nowhere because we never pay attention to simple everyday things. …its very typical: everyone thinks about far-off things and no one ever thinks about the simple things taking place here…
Our aim is Place de l’Étoile; there is a lamp-post there that we can see. Between here and there, there are about forty lamp-posts, but everyone looks at the one at Place de l’Étoile. If you don’t start by looking at the first lamp-post, you could fall flat on your face a thousand times. You must start with the first, and then the second, before thinking of reaching the goal. You must forget for the moment the lamp-post at Place de l’Étoile. —Saturday October 9
Views From the Real World
…Bear in mind that your sight has the property of presenting distant objects as though they were near. Beguiled by the nearness of the aim toward which you strive, blinded by its beauty and ignorant of the measure of your own strength, you will not notice the obstacles on the way; you will not see the numerous ditches across the path. In a green meadow covered with luxuriant flowers, in the thick grass, a deep precipice is hidden. It is very easy to stumble and fall over it if your eyes are not concentrated on the step you are taking.
Do not forget to concentrate all your attention on the nearest sector of the way—do not concern yourself about far aims if you do not wish to fall over the precipice.
Yet do not forget your aim. Remember it the whole time and keep up in yourself an active endeavor toward it, so as not to lose the right direction…
Do not be overcurious nor waste time on things that attract your attention but are not worth it. Time is precious and should not be wasted on things which have no direct relation to your aim.
Remember where you are and why you are here. —Essentuki, about 1918