Mr. Segal
Self-observation is very difficult. We are well cushioned from seeing ourselves. Our egoism insulates us; our self-image prevents seeing in depth. I may see a gesture, but do I see where it comes from? I can hear the tone of my voice, but am I able to trace back and observe from where the inflection comes, what thoughts and feelings it is connected with? Do I see the source of a negative emotion? The very question, “What is self-observation?” needs to be kept alive. —Opening, The Structure Of Man, On Transformation
A.R. Orage
The first step is observation of your own behavior. The three centers no one sees; we will never see our own centers. When you look at someone else you do not see three brains; you see…behavior. —Gurdjieff’s Emissary in New York: Talks and Lectures with A.R. Orage 1924-1931, VII Monday, 18 November 1929
Observe concurrently the five manners of behavior: tone of voice, posture, gesture, movements and facial expressions…
(T)hrough the same medium…we use in studying others…(w)e propose…observing our objective forms of overt behavior… When you can report on these you can report on the kind of person under your hat…
Don’t classify. Don’t change your manner of behavior when aware, but try to continue it. You will find your manners of behavior…undergo change—not that you will change them. It isn’t your emotional reaction that is to bring about the change… —Ibid., II Monday, October 14, 1929
The effort to non-identify and the effort to self-observe are to be made together. These two constitute the alpha and omega of the System…—Ibid., January 1925
Our makeup is…essence…and…personality. We must discover, if possible by self-observation, what this essence is; people’s way of life must be in accordance with their essence to produce a balanced and happy life. There is no success or happiness in working against essence… —Ibid., Mrs. Hare’s Notes
Gurdjieff
“(S)elf-observation, if rightly conducted, bring(s) man to the realization…that…he lives…in a small part of himself… (T)he vast majority of his possibilities remain unrealized, (and) the vast majority of his powers are left unused.
“When a man comes to realize the necessity…for work on himself with the object of changing… the character of his self-observation must change …
“For this purpose a man must learn to take, so to speak, ‘mental photographs’ of himself at different moments of his life, and in different…states…(T)hese…must contain simultaneously everything that a man can see in himself… Emotions, moods, thoughts, sensations, postures, movements, tones of voice, facial expressions, and so on. If a man succeeds in seizing interesting moments for these photographs he will very soon collect a whole album of pictures of himself which, taken together, will show him quite clearly what he is. But it is not so easy to learn how to take these photographs at the most interesting and characteristic moments, how to catch characteristic postures, characteristic facial expressions, characteristic emotions, and characteristic thoughts. If the photographs are taken successfully and if there is a sufficient number of them, a man will see that his usual conception of himself, with which he has lived from year to year, is very far from reality.
“Instead of the man he had supposed himself to be, he will see quite another man. This ‘other’ man is himself, and at the same time, not himself… You must learn to divide the real from the invented. And to begin self-observation…it is necessary to divide oneself. A man must realize that he indeed consists of two men.. —In Search of the Miraculous, Chapter 8
(O)ne must try to keep constantly the organic sensation of the body… continually without interrupting one’s ordinary occupations—to keep a little energy… The key to everything—remain apart. Our aim is to have constantly a sensation of oneself, of one’s individuality, this sensation cannot be expressed intellectually, because it is organic. It is something which makes you independent when you are with other people. —Transcripts of Gurdjieff’s Meetings 1941-1946, Meeting 1
Maurice Nicoll
As long as a man takes what he observes as himself he cannot separate from it. It is like standing on a plank and trying to lift it… For a long time we are asleep to the significance of self-observation and its real goal, which is inner separation…
Self-Observation begins with the establishing of Observing ‘I’ in your own inner world. Observing ‘I’ is not identified with what it observes… Try to understand what it means to divide yourself into two—an observed side and an observing side—and try to feel the sense of ‘I’ in the observing side, and not in the observed side… This is the beginning of inner freedom… (and) is the new point of growth in you. —Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1, Birdlip, July 3, 1943 Commentary on Self-Observation and ‘I’s
Mme. de Salzmann
Gurdjieff taught the necessity of self-observation, but this practice has been mostly misunderstood. Usually when I try to observe, there is a point from which the observation is made, and my mind projects the idea of observing, of an observer separate from the object observed. But the idea of observing is not the observing. Seeing is not an idea. It is an act, the act of seeing… This observation is not that of a fixed observer looking at an object. It is one complete act, an experience that can take place only if there is no separation between what sees and what is seen, no point from which the observation is made. Then there is a feeling of a special kind, a wish to know…that embraces everything that I see, and is indifferent to nothing… When I begin to see, I begin to love what I see… –Reality of Being, 10. Self-observation