Orage
Conscious labor consists of having an objective in life as a life aim, an aim which can be pursued the whole of your life. It does not depend on the vicissitudes of life. It is the aim for which you took the trouble to be born. —Gurdjieff’s Emissary in New York: Talks and Lectures with A.R. Orage 1924-1931, Notes of Blanche B. Grant
Gurdjieff
Remember that here work is not for work’s sake but is only a means. —Views From the Real World, Aphorisms
“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.” —In Search of the Miraculous, Chapter 6
Mme. de Hartmann
In June, 1954, the de Hartmanns made a special visit to their newly constituted Toronto Group, to give a clear direction to our Work…
During the first hour…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, From the Diary Notes of Thomas C. Daly
Henriette Lannes
Mr. Gurdjieff said that the most difficult thing is to know what one wants. I only begin really to work when I know what I want… —Return to Now, Henriette Lannes, Further Exchanges with a young group
Gurdjieff
Go out one clear starlit night to some open space and look up at the sky, at those millions of worlds over your head. Remember that perhaps on each of them swarm billions of beings, similar to you, or perhaps superior to you in their organization. Look at the Milky Way. The earth cannot even be called a grain of sand in this infinity. It dissolves and vanishes, and with it, you. Where are you? And is what you want simply madness?
Before all these worlds ask yourself what are your aims and hopes, your intentions and means of fulfilling them, the demands that may be made upon you, and your preparedness to meet them….
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… It is very easy to stumble and fall…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 over curious 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. —Views From the Real World, Essentuki, about 1918
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…
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… —G.I. Gurdjieff Paris Meetings 1943, December 23, 1943
Take a small thing which you now are not able to do, and make this your aim…. Let nothing interfere. Only aim at this… Now you have an appetite to do things too big for you. This is an abnormal appetite…and…keeps you from doing the small things you might do. Destroy this appetite, forget big things. Make the breaking of a small habit your aim. —Views From The Real World – New York, December 9, 1930
We get nowhere because we never pay attention to simple everyday things… (I)ts very typical: everyone thinks about far-off things, and no one ever thinks about the simple things taking place here… —G.I. Gurdjieff Paris Meetings 1943, Saturday, October 9
Ouspensky
Miss M: It seems that when one is doing things like washing-up, dusting, lighting fires or even walking, which are purely automatic, one should find opportunities for observation. I find, however, that I tend to day-dream even more than usual. Could you give us some advice as to how to do this kind of work for self-observation?
Mr. O: Effort is necessary, doing things in an inconvenient way—that will remind you. —A record of some of the meetings held by P. D. Ouspensky between 1930 and 1947, Thursday. March 19th 1936