Gurdjieff:
(T)o separate oneself from oneself, does not require much strength, it only needs desire, serious desire… If a man cannot do it, it shows that he lacks the desire of a grown-up man…
Our mind, our thinking, has nothing in common with us, with our essence—no connection, no dependence. Our mind lives by itself, and our essence lives by itself. When we say “to separate oneself from oneself” it means that the mind should stand apart from the essence. Our weak essence can change at any moment, for it is dependent on many influences: on food, on our surroundings, on time, on the weather, and on a multitude of other causes. But the mind depends on very few influences, and so with a little effort, it can be kept in the desired direction. Every weak man can give the desired direction to his mind. But he has no power over his essence; great power is required to give direction to essence and keep essence to it. (Body and essence are the same devil.)…
Speaking of the mind I know that each of you has enough strength, each of you can have the power and capacity to act not as he now acts.
The mind is capable of functioning independently, but it also has the capacity of becoming identified with the essence, of becoming a function of the essence. In the majority of those present, the mind does not try to be independent, but is merely a function.
In order to understand better what I mean, I shall give you an example: now, in a calm state, not reacting to anything or anyone, I decide to set myself the task of establishing a good relationship with Mr. B., because I need him for business purposes and can do what I wish only with his help. But I dislike Mr. B. for he is a very disagreeable man. He understands nothing. He is a blockhead… I am so made that these traits affect me. Even if he merely looks at me, I become irritated. If he talks nonsense, I am beside myself. I am only a man, so I am weak and cannot persuade myself that I need not be annoyed—I shall go on being annoyed.
Yet I can control myself, depending on how serious my desire is to gain the end I wish to gain through him. If I keep to this purpose, to this desire, I shall be able to do so. No matter how annoyed I may be, this state of wishing will be in my mind. No matter…how beside myself I am, in a corner of my mind I shall still remember the task I set myself. My mind is unable to restrain me from anything, unable to make me feel this or that toward him, but it is able to remember…
This is precisely what anyone who has a serious desire not to identify himself with his essence can do. This is what is meant by “separating the mind from the essence”…
And so I say that with a serious…grown-up man—whatever he decides, whatever problem he has set himself, that problem will always remain in his head. Even if he cannot achieve it in practice, he will always keep it in his mind… (H)is mind will not forget the problem he has set himself. He has a duty…
No one can help him in this remembering, in this separation of oneself from oneself. A man must do it for himself…
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You have probably heard things said…on the subject of what a man wishes. I can say about the majority of those who are here now, that they do not know what they wish, they do not know why they are here. They have no basic desire. At every moment each one wishes something…
But if a man has a million desires, and no predominant one, then not a single desire can be satisfied… It is true that it is not easy to wish; but the mind must always remember what it wishes… —Views From the Real World, Prieuré, February 28, 1923
Mme. de Salzmann:
Without knowing what I want, I will not make any effort. I will sleep… I must always, again and again, come back to this question: What do I wish? It must become the most important question of my life…and…I must not forget why I wish… —The Reality of Being, 7. Can we become conscious?
Gurdjieff:
“Work on oneself must begin with the driver. The driver is the mind. In order to be able to hear the master’s voice, the driver, first of all, must not be asleep, that is, he must wake up. Then it may prove that the master speaks a language that the driver does not understand. The driver must learn this language. When he has learned it, he will understand the master. But concurrently with this he must learn to drive the horse, to harness it to the carriage, to feed and groom it, and to keep the carriage in order—because what would be the use of his understanding the master if he is not in a position to do anything?… The horse is our emotions. The carriage is the body. The mind must learn to control the emotions. The emotions always pull the body after them. This is the order in which work on oneself must proceed. But observe again that work on the…driver, the horse, and the carriage, is one thing. And work on the ‘connections’—that is, on the ‘driver’s understanding,’ which unites him to the master; on the ‘reins,’ which connect him with the horse; and on the ‘shafts’ and the ‘harness,’ which connect the horse with the carriage—is quite, another thing. —In Search of the Miraculous, Chapter 5