Views from the Real World
Man is born, it is said, with a mechanism adapted for receiving many kinds of impressions. The perception of some of these impressions begins before birth….
The construction of these receiving apparatuses is the same, recalling…wax discs from which phonograph records are made. On these rolls and reels all the impressions received are noted down, from the first day of life and even before. Besides this, the mechanism has one more automatically acting adjustment, thanks to which all newly received impressions are connected with those previously recorded.
…(I)mpressions once experienced never disappear; they are preserved…where they are written down… —New York, February 1924 – For an exact study
Gurdjieff’s Emissary in New York-Talks and Lectures with A.R. Orage 1924-1931
There is a fourth center called “I,” but never will we receive passively an impression in that center… (E)ven God and all his angels cannot put an impression there. Only “I” can put impressions there… —Monday, 21 October 1929
…the fourth center…is inviolable it is individuality. No power external or internal can affect it, except you. It is the essence of our complete freedom and the essence of our responsibility. —Consciousness, Individuality and Will (notes of Annette Herter)
Facing one’s self occurs when the fourth center, the “I,” faces the other three centers objectively. The organism or any part of it cannot face itself. No one of the three centers can truly judge each other. Real judgment can only take place in the fourth center. —Tuesday, 27 January 1925
Views From the Real World
As a rule, at every moment of our life only one center works in us—either mind or feeling. Our feeling is of one kind when another center is not looking on, when the ability to criticize is absent. By itself a center has no consciousness, no memory; it is a chunk of a particular kind of meat without salt, an organ, a certain combination of substances which merely possesses a special capacity of recording.
Indeed it greatly resembles the coating of a recording tape. If I say something to it, it can later repeat it. It is completely mechanical, organically mechanical…
Now, if I say to one center that you are beautiful, it believes it. If I tell it that this is red—it also believes. But it does not understand—its understanding is quite subjective. Later, if I ask it a question, it repeats in reply what I have said. It will not change… in a thousand years—it will always remain the same. Our mind has no critical faculty in itself, no consciousness, nothing. And all the other centers are the same.
What then is our consciousness, our memory, our critical faculty? It’s very simple. It is when one center specially watches another, when it sees and feels what is going on there and, seeing it, records it all within itself. —New York, February 24, 1924 – Influences
Memory…is nothing more than observation of one center by another, or one center listening to another. —Prieuré, January 30, 1923
Views From the Real World
But we always forget… The taste of an experience remains only for a time… Things should be noted in the memory, otherwise you will forget. And what we want is not to forget. There are many things that are seldom repeated. Accidentally you see something, but if you don’t commit it to memory you will forget and lose it… —America, March 29, 1924 – Essence and personality
Meetings with G.I. Gurdjieff in Paris, 1944
J.B.: I have the impression that my self-remembering is not voluntary… I would like to do it in times when it’s difficult and I can’t do it… Sometimes I am in a good state, and I do it well…
Mr. Gurdjieff: The state is one thing and remembering is another thing. It is the business of the head. Do you remember often, or do you often forget?
J.B.: …Sometimes I decide to do it… and I forget. And also, very often, I do it without having decided in advance.
Mr. Gurdjieff: That is, when you must remember yourself, you forget; but when it’s unnecessary, you automatically remember. This is not our aim at all. You must get used to consciously remembering. You will only get there by making it your task to remember yourself with your full presence at four, five, and six o’clock — for example — and say, “I am”… What matters is to do it consciously… With an automatic decision, it is worthless…
Mr. D.: I do not understand…this word “consciously”…
Mme. De Salzmann: Intended in advance!
MR. D.: I do it like that.
Mr. Gurdjieff: Your decision is not strong. You don’t have to decide a lot of things. You must put yourself in a quiet, relaxed state, and in that state, fix your task. You try it. Ten times, a hundred times you fail. You continue, you strive. Little by little you will practice and you will get there. Not all at once… And this is the most important. Consciously remember yourself. Consciously, that is, by your own decision. To remember yourself and at the same time to come together, to enter deeply into yourself, whatever the conditions. If you can’t last long, do it for a short time. —Thursday August 3, 1944
…In this work, the role of your head is to act as a reminding factor. It is only useful for that. It has no value by itself… —Thursday November 2, 1944
Journey Through This World, C.S. Nott
…Gurdjieff said, ‘Mind not important. Can be useful, like policeman. Feeling and sensing nearer to Nature. Man must feel, feeling with sensing. From this begins self-remembering, consciousness of self.’ —Book 1 – Talks Continued
The Reality of Being
In order to know a living energy in myself, the memory of it is insufficient… But we live in memories, rememberings. Memory substitutes a dead image for a living thing, and prevents me from perceiving it. We impose something unreal, something that is not, in the place of what is. – 76. The resonance of “I am”