G.I. Gurdjieff
“Man is always in a state of identification, only the object of identification changes.
“A man identifies with a small problem…and he completely forgets the great aims with which he began his work… In work on themselves people are so much identified with separate aims that they fail to see the wood for the trees. Two or three trees nearest to them represent for them the whole wood.
“‘Identifying’…deceives a man at the moment when it seems to him that he is struggling with it. It is…because a man naturally becomes more easily identified with…things that interest him most, to which he gives his time, his work, and his attention. (To) free himself…a man must…not be afraid of seeing all the subtle and hidden forms which identifying takes…
“Identifying is the chief obstacle to self-remembering. A man who identifies with anything is unable to remember himself. In order to remember oneself it is necessary first of all not to identify. But in order to learn not to identify man must first of all not be identified with himself… He must remember that there are two in him, that there…is ‘I’ in him, and there is another with whom he must struggle and…conquer if he wishes…to attain anything… Freedom is first of all freedom from identification. —In Search of the Miraculous Chapter 8
Jean Vaysse
For the man who has undertaken to be himself, identification is in fact one of the most terrible enemies. At the very moment he believes he is struggling against it, he is still in its clutches. The more he is interested in things, and particularly in work on himself… the greater is the risk of identifying with them; thus a man who wishes to free himself…must be constantly on guard… —Toward Awakening, Jean Vaysse —Awakening and Obstacles
Mme. de Salzmann
I try to see how I am in a state of identification, to experience how I am when I am identified. I need to know the enormous power of the force behind identification and its irresistible movement. This force, which sustains us in life, does not want self-remembering. It drives us toward manifestation and refuses the movement inward.
To see myself in identification is to see what I am in life. But each time I remember my higher possibilities, I go away, I refuse what I am in life. And this refusal prevents me from knowing it… I must be clever in order to catch myself without changing anything… I need to know myself as a machine—to be present while I function as a machine. Who am I in life? I must experience it, have a more conscious impression of it… —Reality of Being, 6. The first initiation
In order to see my identification, I have to accept as a fact my powerlessness to remain present. I have to experience it…again and again to know it. In order to know a force, I have to resist it. So I resist being identified in order to know the force with which I am identified. But what does it mean to “resist”?…
I struggle not to disappear so quickly in the activity, and I try to see what is required to be present. What do I sacrifice in a moment of work?… —The Reality of Being, 42. The source of manifestation
G.I. Gurdjieff
Question: … I am never free. I am identified either with the other, or with my personality…
Gurdjieff: This is why the work exists. Everyone is like you. This is why we do exercises: so that you can become inwardly free and outwardly able to play a role… Now it must be put into practice. Begin with small things. Take a task: with one person, then two. Learn little by little. Your state, your situation, it is the same for everyone. We forget we are identified…
(Y)ou must, sooner or later, have a state of consciousness that is defined as follows: inwardly not to identify, and outwardly to play a role. —Paris Meetings 1943, Thursday, September 2
Mme. de Salzmann
(W)hat Gurdjieff meant by “playing a role,” (is) a practice so often misunderstood. Inside we have to…identify with nothing, and outside we play a role. One supports the other. If we do not outwardly play a role, it is impossible not to be identified… —The Reality of Being, 48. Playing a role
G.I. Gurdjieff
You understand what it is to be free. To identify with nothing. The most important part of our slavery is dependent upon factors…crystallized in us…which are related to… relationships with people….
(Y)ou must be an absolute egoist. All love, all respect for whomever it may be, you must liquidate; it is necessary that love be transformed into hatred. You must specially influence yourself and work in order to never have close union with anyone. You must neither love nor esteem internally, nor have any sympathy or antipathy. I say internally, not externally. Externally you must play your role. But not internally… —Transcripts of Gurdjieff’s Meetings 1941-1946 —Meeting Seventeen, Thursday, 9 December 1943