In Search of the Miraculous
Chapter 4 (drastically excerpted)
“…by its very nature everything in the Absolute constitutes one whole …(and) possess a full and independent will, full consciousness…
…”The three forces of the Absolute, …create phenomena, or ‘worlds.’ …depend(ent) entirely upon this will …(H)owever, each of these worlds is …not the whole …It is now a case of three wills …In the worlds of the second order, …there is no longer a single will but three wills, …in which a mechanical element makes its appearance.
…”The chain of worlds …forms the ‘ray of creation’ in which we find ourselves…
“…in a given world, the greater the mechanicalness, the further it is from the will of the Absolute. We live in a world …very far from the will of the Absolute…
…”every phenomenon, of whatever magnitude it may be, is inevitably the manifestation of three forces; one or two forces cannot produce a phenomenon, …And in the subjectively observed phenomenal world we see in phenomena only the manifestation of one or two forces. If we could see the manifestation of three forces in every action, we should then see the world as it is…
Chapter 3
“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.’
Chapter 14
“Man, in the normal state natural to him, is taken as a duality. He consists entirely of dualities or ‘pairs of opposites.’ All man’s sensations, impressions, feelings, thoughts, are divided into positive and negative, useful and harmful, necessary and unnecessary, good and bad, pleasant and unpleasant… This is the duality in which proceed …the whole life of man. Any man who observes himself, however little, can see this duality in himself.
“… everything is equally mechanical, equally independent of will, and leads equally to no aim of any kind. The understanding of duality in oneself begins with the realization of mechanicalness and the realization of the difference between what is mechanical and what is conscious. This understanding must be preceded by the destruction of the self-deceit in which a man lives who considers even his most mechanical actions to be volitional and conscious and himself to be single and whole.
“When self-deceit is destroyed and a man begins to see the difference between the mechanical and the conscious in himself, there begins a struggle for the realization of consciousness in life and for the subordination of the mechanical to the conscious. For this purpose a man begins with endeavors to set a definite decision, coming from conscious motives, against mechanical processes proceeding according to the laws of duality. The creation of a permanent third principle is for man the transformation of the duality into the trinity.
Views From the Real World
New York, March 1, 1924
Question: Has free will a place in your teaching?
Answer: Free will is the function of the real I, of him whom we call the Master. He who has a Master has will. He who has not has no will. What is ordinarily called will is an adjustment between willingness and unwillingness. For instance, the mind wants something and the feeling does not want it; if the mind proves to be stronger than the feeling, a man obeys his mind. In the opposite case, he will obey his feelings. This is what is called “free will” in an ordinary man. An ordinary man is ruled now by the mind, now by the feeling, now by the body. Very often he obeys orders coming from the automatic apparatus; a thousand times more often he is ordered about by the sex center.
Real free will can only be when one I always directs, when man has a Master for his team. An ordinary man has no master; the carriage constantly changes passengers and each passenger calls himself I. Nevertheless, free will is a reality, it does exist. But we, as we are, cannot have it. A real man can have it.
Transcripts Of Gurdjieff’s Meetings 1941-46
Meeting Twenty-Nine – Thursday, 10 August 1944
Question: You told me that I lacked organic will. From where can I get this impetus which will give me an organic will?
Gurdjieff• Only one means can help you; you must suffer organically; for instance, not eat enough. Or this, your organism does not like the cold, endure cold water. Do the opposite from that to which your organism is accustomed to do. Make it suffer.
Psychological Commentaries, Maurice Nicoll, Vol 4, Maurice Nicoll
On Willing What You Have To Do
Today I will speak to you about one method of Self-Remembering in terms of the following Work-phrase: “Try to will what you have to do.” I once said by way of commentary that when the telephone rings you must not let it take you to it but go to it. By this I mean, will it.
…..Now this is all I have to say about this aspect of Self-Remembering —namely, taking in impressions more consciously—in fact, transforming them 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.
I was talking to some people about this idea of willing what happens to you and one person said: “Don’t you think it applies to the smallest things, willing to wash the dishes, to do the stove?” …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.
The Reality of Being
#104 Obedience and will
Two opposite poles act on my Presence and communicate entirely different vibrations. I know their action by my sensation of them. I am sensitive to the attraction of the earth; I obey it. And I am sensitive to the attraction coming from higher spheres, and I also obey it. But I do not realize this; I am too passive. Here are two forces, two currents, two densities without a relation with each other. In order for the higher force to be absorbed and influence the heavier matter, there must be a current of intermediate intensity, another voltage that could galvanize the whole. This would be a purer emotional current in which the material of my usual subjective emotions does not enter. This current appears when I awaken to the vision of these two forces acting at the same time. As soon as I awaken to this vision, I am seized by a will, a wish that is the essence of the feeling of “I” in all its purity. It is the will to be what I am, awakening to my true nature—”I Am.”
…Only a voluntary force can liberate me from the power of an involuntary force. …In the act of being present, I voluntarily obey and submit, renouncing my own will and at the same time asserting a different will over the functions.