Conversations with Mme. Ouspensky 1939-40 at Lyne, from notes of Robert S. de Ropp
For consciousness, collection of attention is necessary. Attention is as oil in the lamp. Consciousness is the light. Where there is consciousness things are illuminated.
…The whole struggle centers round one point, direction of attention.
Teachings of Gurdjieff: A Pupil’s Journal, CS Nott
(Gurdjieff said) “People in general have no real attention. What they think is attention is only self-tensing. First you must strive to acquire attention. Correct self-observation is possible only after you have acquired a measure of attention.”
Attention and Two Natures, Michel Conge
…the fundamental idea is: I am the attention. Where my attention is, there am I. If the attention is weak, I am weak, if it is mechanical, I am mechanical, if it is free, I am free.
What Is the Attention (from the papers of William Segal)
…attention is an instrument. While an instrument for one’s use, it is clear that the attention is not “mine” in any narrow sense. Having it at one’s disposal allows a person to face the fact that it does not originate with him at all. One is there to serve it, not the converse.
…There is the attention, and there is one’s service to it. Though its source is surrounded by mystery, the attention communicates higher, finer energies, ones beyond the mind’s capacity to represent. When a person is able to find the place of active stillness, and so, to receive these vibratory energies, they pass through him, and into the coarse, denser substances of ordinary life. The life is then enriched, refined, and made also to serve a higher intelligence.
…it is not correct to say that the attention is only a receiving apparatus. It also transmits…God speaks to man, but also man speaks to God. …Just as life needs to be vivified by the infusion of finer vibrations, those very same vibrations require the mixing of coarse material for their maintenance. Without the upwards transmission of energies through the attention, the effort of sustaining the universe would give in to entropy.
…The attention lives in, and through the body. Returning to the body is a gesture of welcoming the attention…Welcomed by a person, the attention is then ready to serve its cosmological function.
The Reality of Being
#8 The watchman
Who is present—who is seeing? And whom? The whole problem is here.
In order to observe ourselves we need an attention that is different from our ordinary attention. We undertake the struggle to be vigilant, to watch—the struggle of the watchman. We seek to have a watchman in us who is stable. The one who watches is the one who is present. Only the watchman is active. The rest of me is passive. The watchman must take an impression of the inner state while trying to see everything at the same time and have a sense of the whole. We must learn to distinguish between the real “I,” which is nowhere to be seen, and the personality, which takes over and believes it is the only one who exists. …. I believe I need to pay attention when, in fact, I need to see and know my inattention
…I must always remember that I do not know what I am, that the whole problem is who is present. Self-observation by my usual thought, with its separation between the observer and what is observed, will only strengthen the illusion of my ordinary “I.”
The Reality of Being
#10 Self observation
…Gurdjieff taught the necessity of self-observation, but this practice has been mostly misunderstood. …Seeing is not an idea. It is an act, the act of seeing.
…This observation is not that of a fixed observer looking at an object. It is one complete act, an experience that can take place only if there is no separation between what sees and what is seen, no point from which the observation is made.
Spiritual Physics, excerps from talks of Jerry Brewster
In the food diagram, Gurdjieff describes how the transformation of energies takes place up to a certain point with mechanical shocks, and then everything stops. To keep the transformation going ‘the first conscious shock’ is needed… He describes this as bringing self-remembering to receiving impressions.
…impressions should come through the mind and join the body. According to Kenneth Walker, Gurdjieff said, “The mind’s function is to receive impressions, that it’s an apparatus to bring in impressions.” Practically, it really begins more with the ‘sensation of `I,” a work brought by Mme. de Salzmann. …you want to have the sensation of ‘I,’ including the sensation of ‘I am-ness,’ which is not just ‘I’ having sensation. …
…The sensation of “I” becomes finer…, and at some point it merges into the ‘feeling’ of “I” …The action of the attention is mysterious, …the simultaneity of the attention opening to the two forces brings in another kind of consciousness. This could be what Mme. de Salzmann meant by, ‘the look from above.’ You don’t become the higher consciousness; but it coexists with the level you’re on, though it is only with the simultaneity of the attention that this happens. …True simultaneity of attention is a very big thing; it demands an expansion that has been atrophied in us….
…Gurdjieff, said, “Bring self-remembering to an impression.” …If self-remembering is the …octave from the sensation of ‘I’ to the feeling of ‘I,’ is there an …octave of impressions ranging from my mind being partially blocked by good thoughts to ‘quiet mind ‘ or ‘no mind’ where that impression could be received and open my awareness as a whole? Is it possible to be so sensitive as to be able to feel the impact of the impression?
The Reality of Being
#24. Coming together
“Attention is the conscious force, the force of consciousness. It is a divine force. The search is for contact with an energy coming from the higher parts of our centers. At times we have an intuition of it that is less strong or more strong. This intuition is the action on us of higher centers from which we are separated by our attachment to our functions. When this action is felt, it affects the body which then receives more subtle and alive sensations. It affects the thought, which becomes capable of holding under its look what is immediately present. It affects the emotions, giving rise to a new feeling.
But this action, coming from the higher centers, is not to be sought from outside or brought about forcibly by some function of the lower centers. In order for this action to be felt by my body, mind and feeling, there must be a certain state of availability. Here is the obstacle, the barrier. The quality of energy of the lower centers must correspond to the vibrations of the higher centers. Otherwise, the relation is not made and the lower centers do not express the action of the higher on the level of life. They do not serve as intermediaries, they are not called to serve. As a result, they do not have any conscious activity and do not feel any need to be purified.
Why does this relation with the higher centers not appear? Is it so difficult? The reason is that between the lower centers there is no relation, no common aim, no common interest. They do not feel any need for coming together. This is because we do not see, and we do not experience, their isolation and what it means. Nevertheless, in order for transformation to take place, there must be a total attention, that is, an attention coming from all the parts of me. In order for a certain blending to occur, my thinking, my feeling and my sensation must be together.
The laws governing the universe are here and act in us. The aim is that all the forces, which are within ourselves, turn toward a center and again form a whole. It is this movement in an ascending direction that we must learn. But everything that is below holds us back. It must all be purified. In this coming together, the energy acquires a different quality. The aim of this reuniting is the power to be.