P.D. Ouspensky
Self-remembering is not only self-awareness, it means also a certain capacity to act in a certain way, to do what you want. You see…we divide consciousness from will. Consciousness means will. In Russian, for instance, the same word is used for will and for freedom. Consciousness means will, and will means freedom…
(I)f you work too much on understanding and knowledge and disregard will, then instead of growing stronger your will will become weaker, or remain the same as it was. If will remains undeveloped, the development of understanding cannot help much. One can understand a great deal and not be able to do anything about it. So from the very beginning one must start making serious efforts to develop will… —The Fourth Way, Chapter X
G.I. Gurdjieff
“(M)an’s chief delusion is his conviction that he can do… All that befalls a man, all that is done by him, all that comes from him—all this happens…in exactly the same way as rain falls as a result of a change in…temperature…of the atmosphere… as snow melts under the…sun, as dust rises with the wind… —In Search of the Miraculous, Chapter 11
“There is…what ‘happens,’ and there is ‘doing’… There cannot be two kinds of ‘doing’… (I)mitation of the outward appearance of ‘doing’…cannot give any objective results… —Ibid., Chapter 11
“The evolution of man is the evolution of his will, and ‘will’ cannot evolve involuntarily. The evolution, of man is the evolution of his power of doing, and ‘doing’ cannot be the result of things which ‘happen.’ —Ibid., Chapter 3
A.R. Orage
Will is choice—according to reason, and not according to wish. In wish…there is no choice.
(O)ur whole lives are a series of choices between two alternatives. We travel along a series of a continually forking roads…
At each fork there is choice between this or that… (A)t each of these points an atom of will exists…
The development of will is brought about by the repetition of choices. We imagine that once we have willed, the rest will follow of itself, forgetting that…a line is a series of points; and…each point equals a moment of choice between two possibilities… —Gurdjieff’s Emissary in New York: Talks and Lectures with A.R. Orage 1924-1931 —Tuesday, 14 April 1931
Maurice Nicoll
The 2nd Force or force of resistance exists in everything… Everything that prevents you from keeping your aim is 2nd Force, —Psychological Commentaries, Vol 1, Birdlip, January 25, 1942, The Law of Three
Today I will speak to you about one method of Self-Remembering (described by) the following Work-phrase: “Try to will what you have to do.” I once said…when the telephone rings you must not let it take you to it, but go to it. By this I mean, will it… (To) will what (I) have to do, for instance, scrubbing the scullery, as I had to do at the Institute, peeling the potatoes, lighting the fire at dawn, and all the rest of it… I will reduce Second Force, but if I hate what I have to do I will increase Second Force, possibly so much that I will become a nervous wreck…
How many of us, when we have a job of any kind, really say to it: “Now, we have to do a job; let’s go to it.” This is one form of Self-Remembering, to take your life from the standpoint of always being up against Second Force in which case you… (take) in impressions more consciously… by willing what happens. As regards myself, I find I have to will that I am getting older—that is, I have to will that I cannot lift, build, dig, etc., and instead of feeling up against it all, I have to will the fact that I cannot do these things…
So we are told in this Work that we must bring a more conscious attitude to the whole of our lives—to will what is inevitable.—Psychological Commentaries, Vol 4, Amwell, 22.4.50, On Willing What You Have to Do
(I)t is a good thing to will what you find yourself having to do, because it frees you inside —Ibid., Vol 4, Amwell, 9.7.49, Two Ways of Meeting Events
Mme. de Salzmann
I need to know my capacity— what I am able, and what I am unable to do— and I need to anticipate the resistance. There are obstacles that I must understand… It is important to choose an activity that corresponds to my measure, to my capacity to be present… —The Reality of Being, 44. The way down
P.D. Ouspensky
(I)n oneself ‘doing’ very often begins by not doing. Before you can do something that you cannot do, you must not do many things which you did before…
If you can refrain from talk when you have an inclination to talk, that is already ‘doing’. ‘Doing’ begins with going against the current—first in yourself, in personal things… —The Fourth Way, Chapter X
A.R. Orage
‘Will is self-initiated…
‘God, the Absolute, created the great universe by an act of conscious will, by overcoming inertia, inert matter. As we, in our small ways develop real will, so shall we become like God, become Sons of God. How do we begin? Again, I repeat Gurdjieff: “Take some small thing you wish to do which you cannot now do, and compel yourself to do it”—Teachings of Gurdjieff: A Pupil’s Journal, C.S. Nott, Chapter III—Orage’s Commentary On Beelzebub