In Search of the Miraculous, P.D. Ouspensky
“…A man’s real I, his individuality, can grow only from his essence. It can be said that a man’s individuality is his essence, grown up, mature… —Chapter 8
Gurdjieff’s Emissary in New York: Talks and Lectures with A.R. Orage 1924-1931
…We have to make an effort to get at essence… Get at motives, then more easily you will get at essence… —Monday, 12 April 1926
…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… —Mrs. Hares Notes – imagination and thought
Chief feature is the relation between essence and personality. —Tuesday, 1 January 1924
We begin by protecting our inner essential lives… —Beyond Behavior – Kathryn Hulme Papers
The essential wish leads to chief-feature. The organism seems complicated but in fact the chief- feature is the mainspring… to everything, since all wishes arise from it. Hence it is the point of focus for control of the organism… It is only from continued observation of the organism that chief-feature can be found. —Second Year Monday, 9 November 1925
…an essential wish involves the harmonious, (but not necessarily equal), desire of all three centers. As to this work none of us really wish it with all of our three centers, for if we did, then this wish could be stopped (destroyed) by nothing, but must achieve its end. For this is the nature of an essential wish. —Tuesday, 3 February 1925
…It is the mainspring of action. Why do you do things? For what do you do them? For example, Gurdjieff, when challenged to tell a distinguished Russian general what his chief feature was, said, ‘Fear.’ The general finally admitted that he did fear to face his wife, unless he had been heroic. This fear in connection with his wife was the motor behind all he did. —Friday, 20 March 1925
…Chief feature (is experienced) as being the opposite of what one likes to pretend is one’s chief characteristic. One who seems to act independently, (is) really most dependent… —Monday, 21 December 1925
Chief feature is a pretence that you have now the development that you wish to have. —Tuesday, 1 January 1924
Vanity, fear, etc. these are some of the backgrounds of chief features. They will manifest according to the seventy-odd types. But even within these types, the features will not be exactly similar. For each point on the globe, and each minute, marks a different configuration of the planets… —Orage Meeting, Thursday, 25 June 1925
…Look for chief feature in 5 things: Greed; Self-pride; Lying; Fear; Sex. Chief feature can often be a combination of one or many of these 5… It is always the last little thing making you act as you do. It is in every situation. Look for it.
Chief feature is not nice… not ever a good thing; but once found it can be used consciously… —Beyond Behavior – Kathryn Hulme Papers
Exchanges Within, John Pentland
…Don’t believe anyone who tells you your chief feature. You work. A great teacher can give you guidance, but he can’t do the work for you. The best step for you is to try to come to a more deep separation, something which is under all this talk about chief feature. This teaching is mostly in our feelings, but we wish to come to something separate from our feelings.
The Fourth Way, P.D. Ouspensky
(Ouspensky): I have known people who gave a name to their chief feature and for some time remembered it, and then forgot. You must come near to it yourself. When you feel it yourself, you will know. If you are only told, you may easily forget. When you find many manifestations of your false personality, you may find your feature. —Chapter 7
A Study of Gurdjieff’s Teaching, Kenneth Walker
At another meeting Ouspensky… said that the discovery of one’s chief weakness and the struggle against it was an important part of the work, but that Chief Feature was so carefully protected by buffers that a man was seldom able to discover it by himself…
‘If you can look at the pattern of your whole life,’ (said) Ouspensky, ‘you may be able to see the same sort of problem continually recurring in it, and ending in the same sort of impasse. If you manage to do this, you are likely to be in the neighbourhood of your Chief Feature. Understand that your Chief Feature is an axis in yourself around which a great many other things are revolving, and that explains why the fruits of your chief weakness are continually recurring…’
Someone asked if there were any one fault in personality which was a greater obstacle to inner development than anything else. Ouspensky replied without hesitation that vanity was an outstanding hindrance. He said that G. had always laid special emphasis on the importance of vanity and had used these words about it: ‘The fundamental cause of almost all the misunderstandings arising in the inner world of man… is chiefly due to the psychic factor found in man’s being at an early age, and due to wrong education, the stimulation of which gives birth in him to the impulse of vanity.’
Further Teachings of Gurdjieff: Journey Through This World, C.S. Nott
Always the same motive moves Chief Feature. It is like the bias in bowling, which prevents the ball going straight. Always Chief Feature makes us go off at a tangent. It is something mechanical and imaginary, and is found in the emotional part of essence. It gives the tone pitch to the three centres, and forms the pattern of our wishes. It arises from one or more of the seven deadly sins, but chiefly from self-love and vanity…
In Search of the Miraculous
“The study of the chief fault and the struggle against it constitute, as it were, each man’s individual path…
“The struggle against the ‘false I,’ against one’s chief feature or chief fault, is the most important part of the work, and it must proceed in deeds, not in words. —Chapter 11