Gurdjieff
“A man usually has many unnecessary, imaginary fears. Lies and fears—this is the atmosphere in which an ordinary man lives. Just as the conquest of lying is individual, so also is the conquest of fear. Every man has fears of his own which are peculiar to him alone. These fears must first be found and then destroyed. —In Search of the Miraculous, Chapter 11
P.D. Ouspensky
You must understand that many things you ascribe to things outside you are really in you. Take for instance fear. Fear is independent of things… You are afraid, and then you choose what to be afraid of. This fact makes it possible to struggle with these things, because they are in you…
We often invent objects for an emotion when the emotion is already there. Take envy, fear, suspicion. We think the emotion is produced in us by something outside, when in reality it is in us, we only look for an object afterwards, and in this way we justify it…
If you observe yourself, you will see causes outside remain the same, but sometimes they produce negative emotion in you, sometimes not. Why? Because real causes are in you, there are only apparent causes outside… It is a question of observation. —The Fourth Way, Chapter XIV
Madame de Salzmann
In facing life, I am driven by the force of my ordinary “I,” whose very possibility of existing depends on the world that surrounds it. This “I” has a deep fear of being nothing, and is afraid of not having security, power, possessions… There is almost constant…general fear…of…vulnerability…
My wish to know my feelings must be stronger, without either excusing or rejecting them. My thought has to be keen and precise in order to be free from their effect, and my attention must not weaken or deviate if I am to see their meaning and the extent of their influence on my life… —Reality of Being, #33. I blindly trust my feelings
By its very nature fear is inevitably opposed to our entire search. But…(h)ave we ever experienced it as a reality in itself, and not simply the feeling that precedes or follows an event? When we are truly face-to-face with the event—for example, with danger—are we afraid? In fact, fear only arises at the moment the thinking fixes on the past or the future. If our attention is in the active present… when we are wholly present, fear does not exist. We see that we do not know, that we cannot respond. In this state of complete uncertainty, we can discover that which is true. If we wish to penetrate deeply in ourselves and see what is here and even beyond, we must have no fear of any kind, not of failure or of suffering, and above all not fear of death…
(D)eath…is always considered in terms of survival… But this survival is only the survival of what is known…merely a hollow projection of the thought, that…comes from the imagined “I” created by our identifications—my family, my home, my work achievements… —Reality of Being, #74. Free of fear and illusion
Gurdjieff
I can always be afraid, but this fear must not take over completely. It must remain localized somewhere in the function where it appeared. It must not have any influence over the rest. My body was afraid, but not me; whereas you, you yourself become fear–your whole presence is nothing but fear.
This happens because your head is not independent, not detached, not free from the rest. Your head is your ‘self.’ It is your Reason. That is where your intelligence is. This is your individuality. Everyone has a body, everyone has feeling, but rare are those who have a head that lives an independent life—free, never influenced. Only the head can be just; only the head can be impartial. The head must have the initiative, whereas with you at present, it’s all the rest that has the initiative. And the rest is shit, a piece of meat.
For you, at present, the head must be…a watch man, always turned inward to see with inner sight, and to know these two parts: body and feeling. It must watch with a strong attention, but without tensing, and know where the impulses come from… Only then will it be able to play its role, which is to direct, to initiate. —G.I. Gurdjieff Paris Meetings 1943, Thursday, June 8
You don’t have consciousness yet, but you have logic… The logic is weak. It has become a function of your organism. On the contrary, it is the organism which must submit, and become a function of your logic…
We must show it that the logic…has grown, that it is strong, so that the organism is afraid… For example… If you don’t feed it every time it refuses what logic wants…it will get scared…you will take away its pleasure. Whether it likes it or not, it will submit. It will fear. It will consider logic. Today it does not consider anything. It is your boss…
If it continues like this, you will die as a slave. If you want another future… logic must acquire authority… —Meetings with G.I. Gurdjieff in Paris 1944, Thursday June 1, 1944
Z: I would like to know how to have the courage to fall into error and go forward towards knowledge.
Gurdjieff: For that not necessary big thing. If for instance you know that you are zero, if you have understood that your are merde—a nullity, and if you do not wish to be merde, and if that is your starting point for knowledge, then you must risk—”That or nothing.” If you have already felt that, and that you can be something other, then you risk nothing. Why are you afraid? You have nothing to lose. Don’t pity yourself. — Transcripts of Gurdjieff’s Meetings 1941-1946, Meeting Seven