Meetings With Remarkable Men
An untrammeled conscience will always know more than all the books and teachers put together. —IV Bogachevsky
‘conscience is the most valuable thing in a man… —VI Abraham Yelov
Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson
Ashiata Shiemash…explained…what…Objective Conscience is, and how factors for its manifestation arise in the presence of three-brained beings…
“‘The factors for the being-impulse of Objective Conscience arise…from the localization in their presence of particles of the “emanations of the sorrow” of our All-Loving and Long-Suffering, Endless Creator; that is why the source of manifestation of genuine Conscience in three-centered beings is sometimes called the “Representative of the Creator.”
” ‘And this sorrow is formed in our All-Maintaining Common Father from the struggle constantly proceeding in the Universe between joy and sorrow’…
‘(O)wing to the data crystallized in our common presence, for engendering in us the divine impulse of Conscience, “all of us” and the whole of our essence, in its very foundation, are and must be only suffering…
‘the constant struggle between…functioning issuing from…our planetary body, and… from… functionings…which…in their totality actualize…Reason in three-centered beings.
” ‘Consequently…we…must always…struggle with the two quite opposite functionings…in our common presence, the results of which are…sensed by us either as “desires” or as “nondesires.”
” ‘And so, only he who consciously assists the process of this inner struggle, and consciously assists the “non-desires” to prevail over the “desires,” behaves in accordance with the Being of our Common Father Creator Himself, whereas he who consciously assists the contrary only increases His sorrow. —Chapter 27 …Ashiata Shiemash
Views From the Real World
From the time when man began to live on the earth, from the time of Adam…there gradually formed in us an organ, the function of which is conscience. Every man has this organ, and whoever is guided by conscience automatically behaves in accordance with the Commandments. If our conscience were open and pure, there would be no need to speak about morality. Then, unconsciously or consciously, everyone would behave according to the dictates of this inner voice.
Conscience is not a stick with two ends. It is the quite definite realization, formed in us through the ages, of what is good and what is bad. Unfortunately, for many reasons, this organ is usually covered over with a kind of crust…
Only intense suffering or shock pierces the crust, and then conscience speaks… —New York, March 1, 1924
In Search of the Miraculous
“Conscience is a state in which a man feels all at once everything that he in general feels, or can feel. And as everyone has within him thousands of contradictory feelings, which vary from a deeply hidden realization of his own nothingness, and fears of all kinds, to the most stupid kind of self-conceit, self-confidence, self-satisfaction, and self-praise, to feel all this together would not only be painful but literally unbearable.
“If a man…were suddenly to feel all…contradictions…within himself…that he loves everything he hates, and hates everything he loves… he lies when he tells the truth, and that he tells the truth when he lies; and if he could feel the shame and horror of it all, this would be the state which is called ‘conscience.’ A man cannot live in this state; he must either destroy contradictions or destroy conscience…
“But fortunately for…his peace and…his sleep…(f)rom early childhood ‘buffers’ begin to grow and strengthen in him, taking from him the possibility of seeing his inner contradictions and…sudden(ly) awakening. Awakening is possible only for those who seek it, and…are ready to struggle…and work on themselves…to attain it. For this it is necessary to destroy ‘buffers’…
‘Buffers’ lull a man to sleep, give him the agreeable and peaceful sensation that all will be well, that no contradictions exist, and that he can sleep in peace. ‘Buffers’ are appliances by means of which a man can always be in the right. ‘Buffers’ help a man not to feel his conscience. —Chapter 8
“Conscience is a general and a permanent phenomenon. Conscience is the same for all men and conscience is possible only in the absence of ‘buffers’… (C)onscience of a man in whom there are no contradictions…is not suffering; on the contrary it is joy of a totally new character, which we are unable to understand. But even a momentary awakening of conscience in a man who has thousands of different I’s is bound to involve suffering. And if these moments of conscience become longer, and if a man does not fear them, but on the contrary cooperates with them, and tries to keep and prolong them, an element of very subtle joy, a foretaste of the future ‘clear consciousness’ will gradually enter into these moments…
“(C)onscience is the fire which alone can…create the unity which a man lacks… —Chapter 8
P.D. Ouspensky
So be on the look-out for inner contradictions, and these will lead you to the discovery of buffers. Pay particular attention to any subject on which you are touchy. You have perhaps attributed to yourself some good quality, and that is an idea which lies on one side of the buffer, but you have not as yet seen clearly the contradiction which lies on the other side of it. Nevertheless you are a little bit uncomfortable about this good quality, and that may mean that you are in the neighborhood of a buffer.’ —A Study of Gurdjieff’s Teaching, Kenneth Walker
Jerry Brewster
All centers have buffers, and they are very simple; a buffer could manifest as the raising of an eyebrow; it could be the phrase, “so that’s life;” it could be a shrug of the shoulders or a mental phrase. If you can take in an impression of this…as the buffer comes in and connects itself to something lower, let’s say self-pity, you can feel the contradictions. In feeling the contradictions, Gurdjieff says, “It will cause in you the rising of conscience.” —Spiritual Physics, What are buffers?