Views From the Real World
Everywhere and always there is affirmation and negation, not only in individuals but in the whole of mankind as well. If one half of mankind affirms something, the other half denies it. … This is a mechanical law and it cannot be otherwise. It operates everywhere and on every scale—in the world, in cities, in the family, in the inner life of an individual man. One center of a man affirms, another denies. We are always a particle of these two.
It is an objective law and… It is impossible to free oneself from it. Only he is free who stands in the middle. If he can do this, he escapes from this general law of slavery. But how to escape? It is very difficult. We are not strong enough not to submit to this law. We are slaves… Yet the possibility exists of our getting free from this law; if we try slowly, gradually, but steadily. From the objective point of view this means, of course, to go against the law, against nature, in other words, to commit sin. But we can do so because a law of a different order exists as well… —New York, February 20, 1924
In Search of the Miraculous
“…(E)very phenomenon, on whatever scale…from molecular to cosmic…is the result of the combination, or the meeting of, three different and opposing forces… Contemporary thought realizes…the necessity of…force and resistance, positive and negative… male and female…and so on. But…(n)o question has ever been raised as to the third, or if it has been raised, it has scarcely been heard.
“…(O)ne force, or two forces, can never produce a phenomenon… (I)t is only with the help of a third force that the first two can produce what may be called a phenomenon, no matter in what sphere.
“…The first force may be called active… the second, passive… the third, neutralizing… The first two forces are more or less comprehensible to man, and the third may sometimes be discovered either at the point of application of the forces, or in the ‘medium,’ or in the ‘result’… —Chapter 4
Gurdjieff’s Emissary in New York
Talks and Lectures with A.R. Orage 1924-1931
The neutralizer is the invisible plan, idea, form, or organization, within which positive and negative function. For example, hydrogen is the form of two elements, a nucleus, and a part that moves about it. The pattern of this relation is the neutralizer… The form contains positive and negative, but is not visible in itself… —Monday, 21 December 1925
…(In a tug of war…on a rope you tie a) handkerchief in middle, and watch (the) stress of both forces. Everything is tug of war between positive and negative forces. All we see is (the) handkerchief. —Orage meetings, Monday, 4 January 1926
In Search of the Miraculous
“…(B)y studying himself, the manifestations of his thought, consciousness, activity—his habits, his desires, and so on—man may learn to observe and to see in himself the action of the three forces… A man may feel desire and initiative. But all this initiative may be absorbed in overcoming the habitual inertia of life, leaving nothing for the purpose towards which the initiative ought to be directed. And so it may go on until the third force makes its appearance, in the form, for instance, of new knowledge… Then the initiative, with the support of this third force, may conquer inertia and the man becomes active in the desired direction.
“Examples of the action of the three forces, and the moments of entry of the third force, may be discovered in all manifestations of our psychic life, in all phenomena of the life of human communities and of humanity as a whole, and in all the phenomena of nature around us.
“But at the beginning it is enough to understand the general principle: every phenomenon, of whatever magnitude it may be, is inevitably the manifestation of three forces… and if we observe a stoppage in anything, or an endless hesitation at the same place, we can say that, at the given place, the third force is lacking. —Chapter 4
Views From the Real World
Everything in the world…is in motion and is constantly being transformed…from the finest matter to the coarsest, and vice versa…
This transformation…in two directions, which is called evolution and involution, proceeds…on all levels… —Essentuki, 1918
…(Y)ou can find out how it works in you. In accordance with the law, you can follow either the law of evolution or the law of involution…
…Passive man serves involution; and active man, evolution. You must choose… In both cases we are slaves, for in both cases we have a master… —New York, March 1, 1924 – God the Word
…Between the positive and the negative principles there must be friction, suffering. Suffering leads to the third principle. It is a hundred times easier to be passive so that suffering and result happen outside and not inside you. Inner result is achieved when everything takes place inside you…
Every man dislikes suffering, every man wants to be quiet. Every man chooses what is easiest, least disturbing, tries not to think too much… —New York, February 22, 1924
The Reality of Being
In man it is the mind that is opposed to the body. The neutralizing force is the wish that unites them, connects them. Everything comes from the wish, the will… Where the three forces are reunited, God is. Where our attention is, God is. When two forces are opposed and a third unites them, God is here…. Our aim is this, to contain, to unite these three forces in us … to Be. —12. The sacred manifests as inner consciousness