Gurdjieff
“…The will of the Absolute creates the worlds of the second order and governs them, but it does not govern their creative work, in which a mechanical element makes its appearance…
“We live in a world…very far from the will of the Absolute and in a very remote and dark corner of the universe. —In Search of the Miraculous, Chapter 4
Man is the being who can “do,” says this teaching. To do means to act consciously and according to one’s will…
Will is a sign of a being of a very high order of existence as compared with the being of an ordinary man. Only men who are in possession of such a being can do. All other men are merely automata…like…clockwork toys… —Views From the Real World, New York, February 1924
“The evolution of man is the evolution of his will, and ‘will’ cannot evolve involuntarily. The evolution, of man is the evolution of his power of doing, and ‘doing’ cannot be the result of things which ‘happen.’ —In Search of the Miraculous, Chapter 3
Free will is the function of the real I, of him whom we call the Master. He who has a Master has will. He who has not has no will. What is ordinarily called will is an adjustment between willingness and unwillingness. For instance, the mind wants something and the feeling does not want it; if the mind proves to be stronger than the feeling, a man obeys his mind. In the opposite case, he will obey his feelings. This is what is called “free will” in an ordinary man…
Real free will can only be when one I always directs, when man has a Master for his team. An ordinary man has no master; the carriage constantly changes passengers, and each passenger calls himself I. Nevertheless, free will is a reality, it does exist. But we, as we are, cannot have it. A real man can have it. —Views From the Real World, New York, March 1, 1924
A.R. Orage
‘Gurdjieff speaks of essence “wish” and personality “want”. Since I have a three-centered essence, which is a minute replica of the world, of God, in my essence I cannot but have the same wish as he has. I must discover what this essence wish is…
‘I myself do not originate the wish—it happens to me. Will is self-initiated…
‘Every wish of which we are conscious derives from one of our three centers… When all three centers have the same wish, this is what we call Will. Then a man can say “I wish” with his whole being. It is “I am-ness”…
‘God, the Absolute, created the great universe by an act of conscious will, by overcoming inertia, inert matter. As we, in our small ways, develop real will, so shall we become like God, become Sons of God. How do we begin?. —Teachings of Gurdjieff: A Pupil’s Journal, C.S. Nott, Chapter III—Orage’s Commentary On Beelzebub
Gurdjieff
‘…Take some small thing which you are not able to do, but which you wish to do. Make this your God. Let nothing interfere. Only strive to fulfill your wish…At present many of you have an abnormal appetite for doing things which are too big for you. This appetite keeps you from doing the small things which you could do. Destroy this appetite. Forget these big things. Make your aim the breaking of some small habit.
‘If you wish you can. Without wishing you never can. Wish is the most powerful thing in the world. Higher than God. Of course, I speak of conscious wish; and with conscious wish everything comes.’ —Teachings of Gurdjieff: A Pupil’s Journal, C.S. Nott, New York and Fontainebleau 1923-5
A.R. Orage
Wish is in relation to an object… In relation to the object, we are like an iron filing to a magnet. If the iron filing could speak, it would probably say, “I’m crazy about that magnet. I simply must possess it.”…
The filing is negatively charged, but to itself it gives the psychological impression of a great and driving passion.
Will is choice—according to reason, and not according to wish. In wish—drawing the filing towards the magnet—there is no choice.
(O)ur whole lives are a series of choices between two alternatives. We travel along a series of a continually forking roads…
At each forking there is choice between this or that… at each of these points an atom of will exists.
At each forking of the road, there is will vs. wish…
The development of will is brought about by the repetition of choices. We imagine that once we have willed, the rest will follow of itself, forgetting that… a line is a series of points; and…each point equals a moment of choice between two possibilities…
The essence of will is the calculation of means; that is, to what extent A is preferable to B…
We must stress the necessity of aim; because without aim no exercise of will is possible. —Gurdjieff’s Emissary in New York: Talks and Lectures with A.R. Orage 1924-1931 —Tuesday, 14 April 1931
Mme. de Salzmann
Two opposite poles act on my Presence… I know their action by my sensation of them… Here are two…currents…without a relation with each other. In order for the higher force to…influence the heavier matter, there must be a current of intermediate intensity… This would be a purer emotional current, in which the material of my usual subjective emotions does not enter… (W)hen I awaken to the vision of these two forces acting at the same time…I am seized by a will, a wish that is the essence of the feeling of “I” in all its purity. It is the will to be what I am, awakening to my true nature— “I Am.”…
In the act of being present, I voluntarily obey and submit, renouncing my own will and at the same time asserting a different will over the functions. —The Reality of Being, #104 Obedience and will