Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson
“ ‘…from time to time …these favorites of yours .. are moved by the particular inner impulse which they call ‘remorse of conscience. ‘
“(W)hen they happen to receive and experience some kind of moral shock, the associations proceeding in them…almost always become changed, calmed, and even for a time entirely cease.
“(A)utomatically…a combination of functioning…frees…data present in their ‘subconscious’ for the manifestation of the divine impulse of Objective Conscience, and temporarily allows it to participate(s) in the functioning of their ordinary consciousness, with the result that this ‘remorse of conscience’ begins to proceed in them…
“Here it is necessary to say that these favorites of yours…have become experts in preventing… ‘remorse of conscience’ from lingering long in their common presence.
“No sooner do they begin to sense a twinge or even the slightest ‘prick’ of…this being-impulse than they immediately ‘squash’ it, whereupon…(it) promptly subsides. —Chapter 27 – The order of existence…Ashiata Shiemash
Paris Meetings 1943
Question: Mr. Gurdjieff, I would like to ask you, what to do to develop remorse, to feel it in a more active way?
Gurdjieff: Remember your past with all your manifestations. Remember all the bad things that have resulted from them. Collect all the facts. Remember your past life. Remember your relationships with others. Your manifestations have had…more or less serious results. I am sure that many people have had to suffer from these very bad results. Gather the facts, make a list of these people, and really think about it. This thinking will awaken all the factors for remorse of conscience…
If you wish for stronger remorse of conscience, look around you among those you know. I’m sure that you will have more remorse of conscience. Think in this way. Then, make…a list of all those who have had a relationship with you, and why they have suffered harmful results from you. It is the best way to feel remorse of conscience. —Thursday, October 14
Transcripts of Gurdjieff’s Meetings 1941-1946
(Gurdjieff): When remorse comes without self-love, it gives us the desire for something better. But when it is mixed with self love, it weighs you down. The effect of true remorse is hatred of yourself, repugnance towards yourself. These two things make up true remorse of conscience…
Only through this impulse can you transcend your nothingness. You should rejoice that an impulse has awakened in you a real will to change. You must not stand on ceremony with self love. Self-love is your greatest enemy… The feeling of remorse can make reparation for all things all the mistakes (y)our parents, of your educators, your childhood companions. You must acquire the inner freedom which will make you worthy to become a candidate for future man… You must succeed in bringing remorse of conscience to a point where it becomes hatred of self and hatred of your past, of your parents, of the upbringing you have had. Curse everything. Call upon your ideal to help you to bear the burden and to become worthy of it. On one hand you curse your past; on the other, in the name of your future, you give your word—as against this curse—to help them [parents] as much as you can. You must reach the point where conscience speaks mercilessly in you. —Meeting Twenty-Four – Thursday, 20 April 1944
Paris Meetings 1943
Mme de Salzmann: Make use of (remorse). It is not a negative emotion. This will help you work. It is the best help.
Question: How to master remorse?
Mme de Salzmann: …Direct your thought consciously. You can awaken real remorse. Then you will know how you must be in order not to fall back again, not to be taken. When I have remorse I am open, I am sincere. My sincerity shows me what I must be in order not to always repeat the same thing. In the moments you spoke of, on the contrary, I am closed to everything except my self-love. I justify what is in me…
Gurdjieff: There is a very ancient tablet of commandments, a marble tablet that it is still possible to see, on which is engraved: ‘Today exists to repair yesterday and to prepare tomorrow.’ He who does this is a man: in preparing tomorrow, you can repair yesterday. You must know this. Do not expect to receive; do it as a service, as an obligation: repair your past.
Question: What to do about emotions that destroy everything?
Gurdjieff : You have planted. You reap. You have planted special kinds of vegetables… Today you are obliged to harvest them. Why did you plant them if you didn’t like them? …But you didn’t know. Half of that is your fault; those who brought you up are responsible for the other half. It is a fact. The parents must pay. And you, if you are a good son, you must help so that their payment is not so great. You must help them so that their punishment is reduced. With your work, by repairing yesterday, you lessen their sins. It is a new source of work for you. It is the only door to remorse of conscience…
One must remember oneself, consciously collect oneself. And at the same time, if the fruits are not desirable, make them into material for remorse of conscience, for when the work becomes harder. Now, the past is finished… You can only repair; all you can do with these moments is to make them into reminding factors… —Thursday, July 8