In Search of the Miraculous
Chapter 4
“The three forces of the Absolute, constituting one whole, separate and unite by their own will and by their own decision, and at the points of junction they create phenomena, or ‘worlds.’ … In each of these worlds the three forces again act, …however, each of these worlds is now not the whole, but only a part… It is now a case of three wills, three consciousnesses, three unities… The three forces together form a trinity which produces new phenomena. But this trinity is different, it is not that which was in the Absolute, where the three forces formed an indivisible whole and possessed one single will and one single consciousness.
Views From the Real World
New York, March 1, 1924 – God the Word
…The difference between the creative activity of the Absolute and subsequent acts of creation consists in the fact that… the Absolute creates from Himself. Only the Absolute has Will; He alone sends forth the three forces from Himself. Subsequent acts of creation proceed mechanically, by means of interaction based on the same Law of Three. No single entity can create by itself—only collective creation is possible…
In our system we are similar to God—threefold. If we consciously receive three matters and send them out, we can construct outside what we like. This is creation…
Views From the Real World
New York, March 16, 1924 – The Actor
…Real art cannot be the work of an ordinary man. …And it is so with every profession; special knowledge is required…
If I am acting, I have to direct at every moment. It is impossible to leave it to momentum. And I can direct only if there is someone present who is able to direct. My thought cannot direct—it is occupied. My feelings are also occupied. So there must be someone there who is not engaged in acting, not engaged in life—only then is it possible to direct.
In order to be a real actor, one must be a real man. A real man can be an actor and a real actor can be a man.
Everyone should try to be an actor. This is a high aim. The aim of every religion, of every knowledge, is to be an actor…
In Search of the Miraculous
Chapter 1
“Man is a machine. All his deeds, actions, words, thoughts, feelings, convictions, opinions, and habits are the results of external influences, external impressions. Out of himself a man cannot produce a single thought, a single action. Everything he says, does, thinks, feels—all this happens. Man cannot discover anything, invent anything. It all happens.
Views From the Real World
The Education of Children
Mechanical manifestations and the manifestations of someone who can be called an individual are different, and their quality is different. The former are created; the latter create. The former are not creation—it is creation through man and not by him.
Views From the Real World
Berlin, November 24, 1921 – First talk in Berlin
…what you have had until today was not knowledge. It was only mechanical collecting of information. It is knowledge not in you but outside you. It has no value… You have not created it, therefore it is of small value… Combining is not creating.
The Reality of Being
130. The miraculous in action
…We always think of the aim, of the result, but never of the action itself. Nevertheless, the aim does not determine the action. It is the quality of the force entering an action that conditions it, that makes it automatic or creative….
…Each act, everything we do—working with wood or stone, making a meal or a work of art, or thinking—can be either automatic or a creation. In my habitual state I always proceed by repetition. When I have to produce something, the first thing I do is collect my memories on the subject. Then I put together all my experience and all my knowledge, and go forward.
The situation is completely different when my action is not a repetition but something new, an action that can only take place in the present moment to respond to a need I recognize right now… In a creative action, this comes from a life force that is irresistible, recognized as a truth I obey…
132. Something entirely new
A creation is the appearance of something entirely new. It is not a projection of what already exists, coming from memory, not a repetition of something known. Creation only appears in front of the unknown…
In ordinary life we can assemble and construct with elements of the known. But in order to create, it is necessary to be liberated by voluntary death, the death of the ego.
…If I understand the totality of existence in a connected world, I will see that in order to transform things outside me, I have to transform myself. As I approach a better quality in myself, I wish to participate in something higher in this one world…
116. Conscious struggle
Our work… to be vigilant.. requires an attitude, consciously maintained, in which the largest part of my attention is held within, engaged in this desired penetration. This practice, which conserves energy, is an act of creation.
In Search of the Miraculous
Chapter 5
“As has been said already, the will of the Absolute is only manifested… within itself… in world 3… This means that in world 3 the Absolute creates, as it were, a general plan of all the rest of the universe, which is then further developed mechanically. The will of the Absolute cannot manifest itself in subsequent worlds apart from this plan, and, in manifesting itself in accordance with this plan, it takes the form of mechanical laws.
…”On the earth we are very far removed from the will of the Absolute; we are separated from it by forty-eight orders of mechanical laws. If we could free ourselves from one half of these laws… we should be one stage nearer to the… immediate will of the Absolute.
“…the possibility for man… gradually to free himself from mechanical laws exists.