Gurdjieff: Essays and Reflections on the Man and his Teachings
edited by Jacob Needleman and George Bake, Beginning to See, by Jaques le Vallois
…(I)s this not another illusion of mine, to believe that I can intervene and bring about a change of attitude in myself? The pretense of wishing to be, the expectation of results, are traps to be constantly avoided…What to do? …When I realize that this discontent does not come from what I do or what I don’t do… another dimension appears in me, a new vision that illuminates my condition, freeing me from it.
…How to begin to see—but really see—that I’m not free? This underlying malaise… still makes me dream that a change would come about if I finally decide to take the bull by the horns, if I could demonstrate a little more will. All this is more illusion……The will to escape is not enough.
This Fundamental Quest, Henriette Lannes
Part III – Exchanges
…If there is no minimum of demand, it is impossible to feel concerned. We must return to the impression of our refusal, our rejection of life, and question ourselves. This, too, is what we are. This current that we slide into has no beginning and no end. This slide toward manifestation or sleep represents a certain current of energy. But there is also a current of awakening, and it is the relationship between these two that is now the very basis of our search. Our feeling of concern arises from this precise place, from the middle of a fundamental contradiction. The heart of our work is at this place.
Views From the Real World
London, 1922
…we do not recognize that we are machines, and we do not know the nature and working of our mechanism… We are governed entirely by external circumstances. All our actions follow the line of least resistance to the pressure of outside circumstances.
The Reality of Being
Introduction
What is necessary, in us and around us, is the creation of …an attention that resists surrounding influences and does not let itself deteriorate…
Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson
Chapter 39 – The Holy Planet Purgatory
“…Heptaparaparshinokh, is formulated by cosmic Objective Science in the following words: ’The flow of forces follows a line that constantly deflects at specific intervals and unites again at its ends. ‘
“(The) sacred Triamazikamno consists of three independent forces, which…”Objective Science calls… by the following names: the first, the ‘affirming force’ or the ‘pushing force’ or simply the ‘force plus’ the second, the ‘denying force’ or the ‘resisting force’ or simply the ‘force minus’ the third, the ‘reconciling force’ or the ‘equilibrating force’ or the ‘neutralizing force ‘
“…three-brained beings of this planet …before the consequences of the properties of the organ kundabuffer had been crystallized in their common presence…
“…expressed the hidden meaning of these forces, and their longing to receive from them a beneficent effect for their own individuality, by the following prayers:
Sources of divine rejoicings, revolts, and sufferings, direct your actions upon us
Holy Affirming, Holy Denying, Holy Reconciling, transubstantiate in me for my being, or
Holy God, Holy the Firm, Holy the Immortal, have mercy on us.
The Reality of Being
42. The source of manifestation
In order to see my identification… I have to experience it, and seek 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…
…We must see our mechanicalness, and we can only see it by resisting it.
47. The struggle for being
…When we resist, a different quality of energy, of Presence, appears with a different taste—a momentary center of gravity. But what does it mean to resist?
Spiritual Physics
(transcriptions of Jerry Brewster meetings) Chapter 7 – Work Ideas
JB :…We’ve spoken about interference, participation, and experimentation… I need to start with interference… There are many octaves in interference…
At first, your center of gravity is in personality. As you move closer to essence you can open the attention to… a place that could later ‘participate’ with your life; a new place in yourself that could be separate from the functions… This work we call ‘centering.’ Many people are not yet able to move from interference to participation. There’s a lot of work that has to be done first.
Transcripts of Gurdjieff’s Meetings 1941-1946
Meeting Eight
You must educate your body with your head, consciously. …It is simple. …it is so that God created your body and your intellect. It is a very simple thing. …man must educate his body to be submissive to him. …If the body directs, you are a nullity, a peasant—if you direct your body you are intelligent. Thus, choose what you want. Intelligent or peasant? …The more you want to direct your body, the more it opposes you. And in resisting you, the more strength it gives you.
The Reality of Being
44. The way down
…To conduct a more conscious struggle, I need to know my capacity—what I am able and what I am unable to do—and I need to anticipate the resistance. …My passivity does not wish to give up and is a very cunning beast. …I cannot today be present in just any circumstance. It is important to choose an activity that corresponds to my measure, to my capacity to be present…
115. I must live the insufficiency
Throughout the course of our work we encounter resistance in ourselves. At each moment there is negation of whatever is affirmed… Yet without this negation we might not have the possibility to evolve. Our energy would not be transformed.