The Gurdjieff Teachings Text
The Gurdjieff Teachings Text
The Gurdjieff Teachings Text
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BOOKS BYTHE SAME AUTHOR
Fantasy, Disillusionment, True Joy—An Essay on Self-Diagnosis
The Macrocosm and the Microcosm—An Essay on the Greater and the Lesser Worlds
Mystical Christianity—A Summary of the Teachings of Meister Eckhart and San Juan de la Cruz
The Dark Night—Statements Concerning the Trials and Rewards of the Spiritual Path
Music—The Language Of The Soul—A Presentation Designed to Inspire Creative Thought and
the Higher Emotions
Copyright © 1996
by
Bruce S. Fisher
Published by
SUBRU PUBLICATIONS
P.O. Box 3387
Prescott, AZ 86302-3387
Telephone: (928) 778-6965
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THE GURDJIEFFTEACHINGS
CL tPjcactical System of Jjt$ixuctuM
fwi Qitaininq MigAev Cen^xUeu^ne^^
tdwuijA Selfi-UwwtenedA
by
Bruce S. Fisher, Ph.D
i
List of Tables and Illustrations (cont.)
iii
JBeatlj Snb 3kebtrtf)
Me must Vie h the Otd before Me may be fteborn into the ttew
'Jesus — "The son of man shall send forth his angels, and they
shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them
which do iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire:
there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the
righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their fa¬
ther."
"He that findeth his life shall lose it; but he that loseth his
life for my sake shall find it."
v
AN ALCHEMICAL PRAYER
vii
THE FIRE OF THE PHILOSOPHERS
And again:
IX
THE WORKING OUT OF NEGATIVE KARMA
A Release of Tension
With every blow we receive, we pay off a debt; with every blow we slrike,
we incur a debl.
• Scenario (1): The other entity lets go of his or her end of the elas¬
tic band under tension first and it snaps back to sting you. You have
received the blow exclusively and by such relieved the tension be¬
tween the two of you and paid your debt. He or she serves as the
agent for your karmic culmination.
• Scenario (2): You let go of your end of the stretched elastic first
and the other entity gets stung to receive the blow exclusively—
relieving the tension between you and paying off his or her debt.
You serve as the agent for his or her karmic culmination.
• Scenario (3): A third party cuts the stretched elastic band in the
middle—between you and the other entity with whom you are kar¬
mically attached-—resulting in both of you being stung simultane¬
ously, but at only half the intensity of the above two cases. In this
scenario, the third party serves as the agent for a mitigated dual
karmic culmination.
• Scenario (4): You and the other entity both let go simultaneously of
the two ends of the tensed elastic band—which snaps back into it¬
self, and neither one of you gets stung in the process. In this case.
xi
neither of you receives a blow, but both are relieved of the tension,
the encumbrance disappears, and by a cooperative venture, both of
you have paid off your debts painlessly—the collaborative spirit
serving as the agent for karmic culmination.
Scenarios (1) and (2) explain why “bad things happen to good
people."
xii
THE PATH TO KNOWLEDGE OF THE REAL
Know the innermost Spiritual Self—the ONE LIFE—as Lord of the Chariot, the physical body
as the Chariot itself: know the Inner Intuitive Knower to be the Charioteer and the concrete
mind as the Reins.
The senses and emotions, they say, are the Horses, the inner and outer sense-objects the Path
on u;hich they run. The innermost Spiritual Self—the ONE LIFE—united to senses and mind is
said by the wise to be the Experiences
He who is without intuitive judgment and whose mind is not constantly controlled. his
senses and emotions become unmanageable like the vicious horses of a charioteer.
But he who has intuitive judgment whose mind is ever held firm. his senses and emotions
are controllable like the good horses of a charioteer.
He who is without intuitive judgment and is of uncontrolled mind, ever impure. he does not
reach the ultimate goal but wanders in the Ocean of the World.
But he who has intuitive judgment and is of controlled mind. ever pure, he attains that goal
of Conscious Immortality.
The man or woman who has intuitive judgment as his or her Charioteer; and the mind as
Reins, gains the End of the Road. That is the Supreme Abode of the All-Pervading Spirit of the
ONE LIFE—the Fire of the Father.
Higher than inertial matter and form are the active working senses.
Higher than these senses are the subtle objects of sense—the thought-forms projected by the
imagination onto the desire nature.
Higher than those objects is the concrete mind (which projected them).
Higher than the concrete mind is the Intuition—the Inner Knower—Root Earth.
Higher than the Intuition is the Great World Soul—the Divine Cosmic Pattern or World
Order—the 'Great SelJy—the Divine Spirit Son/Daughter—Root Air.
Higher than this 'Great Self is the Unmanifest Chaos. the First Matter of the Absolute, the
Divine Mother or Celestial Virgin—the Matrix or Mother-Space of the Objective World—Root
Water.
Higher than this Unmanifest Chaos is the ONE LIFE—the pure Spirit of the innermost SELF,
the Peaceful I AM. the Silent Witness—the Divine Father’—Root Fire.
Than this ONE LIFE there is nothing higher. He is the End. the Pillar marking the boundary
of the Great Void of the Absolute—He, God> the Ultimate and Supreme Goal.
Hidden in all things. this ONE LIFE is yet not visible. He is to be seen, however, by the keen
and subtle inner vision of those who are seers of the REAL.
The wise should dissolve all of the senses (with their inner and outer objects) in the concrete
mind, and that mind then dissolved in the intuitive Inner Knower. That intuttionaf
Knowledge Self he should dissolve fn the Divine Cosmic Pattern of the Great Self, and that
dissolved in the Silent Witness of the innermost Spirit of the 'Peaceful Self—the ONE LIFE
xiii
EXPLANATION OF BACKGROUND MATERIAL DIAGRAMS
2
DAEMON EST DEUS
INVERSUS
ABSOLUTE UNITY OR SELF
HEAVEN
IMMORTAL
MAN
(DEUS)
TH
MORTAL
MAN
(DAEMON) }
Worlds of Jorm
PHYSICAL
WORLD
HELL »
ESSENCE
OF <
HUMW MONAD
(Microcosmic Sun)
} SPIRIT
OF
UNITY
DIVINITY
ATMA-DIVINE SPIRIT SPIRIT
OF
(Will-Power) BEING
HIGHER/ SPIRIT
Human
ActiveX / Intelligence OF
DOING
ESSENCE
OF
SOUL
MAmNAS
LOWER
} ARCHETYPE OF
MIND
}
/Inimalistic
PRANAMAYIKOSHA ARCHETYPE
Eth eric-Vita I OF VITALITY
ESSENCE
OF
STHULA SARIRA
Gross Physical Body (Inertia)
} ARCHETYPE
OF BODY
BODY
L
SUBHUMAN LEVELS (Elemental) '
INCREASING DIVERSIFICATION 9
7 1
4
4
J
SOLAR LOGOS
“In which we live and move
and have our Being”
The Real
Innermost
Divine SELF
Part of "Our Father
which art in Heaven”
the
SOLAR
Evolution
The
3/0\d U
Upper”
SPIRITUAL
Triad
/ EG°\ The Spiritual or
“Higher" Self
6
LEVELS OF PRINCIPLES
UNMANIFEST UNITY (Parabrahman)
GODHEAD
Emanates Absolute, First Cause, Ineffable THE ABSOLUTE
Ground of All Being, ALL-IN-ALL
— Creative Word, First Ego of a Cosmos, a Center of
LOGOS
Conscious Energy from which
that Cosmos Emanates
Emanates Its
Conscious Energy
PEACEFUL SELF -Solar Logos
(Shanta Atman)
LIGHT OF THE LOGOS
(HOLY SPIRIT) DIVINE
}
GREAT SELF (Mahat Atman) SPARK
VIRGIN SPIRIT Divine Pattern or Cosmic
(Monad) Order-Direct Instrument
of Logos
DIVINE SPIRIT
(Atma)
DESIRE NATURE
Astral Body PERSONALITY
(Kama Rupa)
VEHICLES
LIFE PRINCIPLE (Prana) OF
EXPERIENCE
VITAL BODY IN WORLDS
(Pranamayakosha) OF FORM
(Linga Sarira)
DENSE PHYSICAL BODY
(Stula Sarira)
7
{Jjfie fficwic
When fire and water interact there is violent
boiling (the conflict or duality of opposite polarities)
which results in the vaporization of the liquid water
to form steam. Steam (which alchemically is the
airy element), then, is the reconciliation of fire and
water—itself combining the heat of the fiery element
and the moisture of the watery element. The
alchemical symbol for fire is the upward-pointing
triangle (still used in modern chemistry to denote
heat), that for water is the downward-pointing
triangle, while that for air is either the upward-
pointing triangle with a horizontal line intersecting
it, or the two triangles placed together to form the
Seal of Solomon. For us personally, this symbolizes
the balancing and harnessing of our polarities to
achieve the middle path of return to our inner
divinity, or Self-realization. An example of these
opposites would be to balance generosity and
joviality with control and limitation (shown preem¬
inently in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life). This polarity
in us constitutes the masculine and feminine
potencies within our being, and their balancing
and reconciliation as a neutral hermaphrodite force
results in the formation of the Philosopher’s Stone—
the Seal of Solomon in us. We then become a
hermaphrodite philosopher.
9
FIRE + WATER -► STEAM (or Air)
Active Resistive Reconciling
Force Force Force
10
THE LAW OF THREE:
3. A neutral, harmonizing or
reconciling, hermaphrodite
force.
11
&oesui Stick <Jrai
and a MidMc
12
THE LAW OF THREE OR OF TRIADS
• The great Law of Physics which states that “for every action there is
a reaction"—the principle behind jet and rocket propulsion;
• The negative electron, the positive proton, and the neutral neutron,
from which particles are comprised the atoms of the chemical ele¬
ments;
13
THE LAW OF SEVEN:
DO RE Ml - FA SOL LA SI - DO
14
THE LAW OF SEVEN OR OF OCTAVES
• Every Octave Contains Some Intervals which are Longer than the Others—
• If these special efforts are not made, then the process will “peter out. “
change direction, or possibly be completely reversed from its original objec¬
tive.
• These obstacles and the special efforts required to overcome them are pre¬
cisely the means by which the evolution of Consciousness and Form accord¬
ing to the universal laws which operate within the Divine Plan is ensured.
• The seven colors of the rainbow (three primary, three secondary plus in¬
digo. which is a synthesis of the other six):
• The seven Root Races and Epochs. Globes, Rounds or Revolutions, and Peri¬
ods or Planetary Chains (Great Cosmic Creative “Days” symbolized by the
seuen days of the week):
• The seven Worlds which make up every Cosmos, and the seven levels and
sublevels of each of these;
• The seven gateways of the human body (two eyes, two ears, two nostrils and
a mouth): and the seven “brain stars" (occult organs of the brain).
• . for this reason. God loves the number seven more than any other thing
under the heavens."
15
<ZJ
Number of Laws
Cosmic Scale Correlation (Restrictions)
ABSOLUTE INFINITE i
EARTH TERRESTRIAL 48
MOON SUB-TERRESTRIAL 96
ABSOLUTE
16
STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
17
THE SEVEN CONSCIOUSNESS CENTERS
(Taken from Ouspensky’s “The Psychology of Man’s Possible Evolution”)
• "All physical emotions: that is, all physical sensations which are
either pleasant or unpleasant. All kinds of pain or unpleasant
feeling such as unpleasant taste or unpleasant smell, and all
kinds of physical pleasure, such as pleasant taste, pleasant smell,
and so on."
18
(3) The Emotional Center — "(expresses the function of) feeling or
emotions: joy, sorrow, fear, astonishment, and so on." [We must
verify and ascertain, in the process of self-study, the difference in
nature and content between emotions and thoughts, since in our
ordinary thinking process, we freely mix the two.]
• “All the work of the intellectual center is divided into two parts:
affirmation and negation: yes and no. In every moment of our
thinking, either one outweighs the other or they come to a moment
of equal strength in indecision. The negative part of the intellec¬
tual center is as useful as the positive part, and any diminishing of
the strength of the one in relation to the other results in mental
disorders."
• “In the work of the instinctive center. . . both parts, positive and
negative or pleasant and unpleasant, are equally necessary for a
right orientation in life. It may be said that . . . pleasant and un¬
pleasant sensations . . . are the real guidance of all animal life on
earth and any defect in them results in a lack of orientation and a
consequent danger of illness and death."
• “In the moving center the division into two parts, positive and
negative, has only a logical meaning: that is, movement as opposed
to rest. It has no meaning for practical observation."
19
fear, as belonging to the negative part, things will look very simple:
but in reality they are much more complicated.”
• “At the same time, positive emotions such as ‘love', 'hope', ‘faith’
in the sense in which they are usually understood—-that is, as per¬
manent emotions—are impossible for a man in the ordinary state of
consciousness. They require higher states of consciousness; they
require inner unity, selfconsciousness, permanent T, and will. '
20
by personal self-justification and self-indulgence. Even when we
become tired of them we do not believe that we can become quite
free of them.”
• "In reality, we have much more power over negative emotions than
we think, particularly when we already know how dangerous they
are and how urgent is the struggle with (their expression). But we
find too many excuses for them, and swim in the seas of self-pity or
selfishness, as the case may be, finding fault in everything except
ourselves."
• "All that has just been said shows that we are in a very strange posi¬
tion in relation to our emotional center. It has no positive part, and
no negative part. Most of its negative functions are invented; and
there are many people who have never in their lives experienced
anv real emotion, so completely is their time occupied with imagi¬
nary emotions."
• “So we cannot say that our emotional center is divided into two
parts, positive and negative. We can only say that we have pleasant
emotions and unpleasant emotions, and that all of them which are
not negative at a given moment can turn into negative emotions un¬
der the slightest provocation or even without anv provocation."
• 'This is the true picture of our emotional life, and if we look sin¬
cerely at ourselves we must realize that so long as we cultivate and
admire in ourselves all these poisonous emotions we cannot expect
to be able to develop unity, consciousness or will. If such develop¬
ment were possible, then all these negative emotions would enter
into our new being and become permanent in us. This would mean
that it would be impossible for us ever to get rid of them. Luckily
for us, such a thing cannot happen "
21
r
r
r
r FOUR TYPES OF
r INDIVIDUALS:
r
i
• Good Householder
(Assumes Hesponsibililies in Life)
• Tramp
(Ms irresponsible in Lift*)
I • Lunatic
I (Has Talully M'nrenlislie Hauls)
• Hasnamuss
I (His or liar \Yeii-Mteing Oepemls
• upon Ilia Misery of Olliers)
23
P
THE HIERARCHY OF MANKIND
The Circles of Humanity
25
LEVELS OR CATEGORIES OF MAN
27
KNOWLEDGE & BEING:
• Knowledge is the aeeu mu In l ion
of fiiets wliieh makes it a rom-
modity.
• Being is the raparity to absorb
anil assimilate knowledge.
• I nderstanding requires a melding
of both.
••
• Personality is a role we play in
earthly life.
• Bsseuee is the iiermanent in us: it
routes down from the starry world.
29
KNOWLEDGE AND BEING; ESSENCE, PERSONALITY
AND FALSE PERSONALITY; THE MANY “l”S VERSUS
PERMANENT I
• Essence comes down from the starry world — which, in the Vi¬
sion of Hermes, was called the “seed-ground of souls"; person¬
ality arises out of the planetary world and is an investment which
the Higher Ego makes to develop Its essence.
31
presence. We feel a certain grace and majesty or awe. and respect,
even just viewing the man or woman on television or cinema.
• On the other hand, wc feel the power, substance and hidden no-
bilitu of the man or woman of limited knowledge and simple
personality — whose essence and being are quite well-developed.
• We. for example, upon retiring to bed at the end of the day —
may genuinely resolve to awaken and arise early the next morn¬
ing and begin, with enthusiasm, an ambitious project. We set
our alarm clock, say. for 5:00 AM. The alarm goes off the next
morning and we. feeling sleepy, tired and lazy, and completely
forgetting the resolution of the previous night, resentfully shut
off the alarm and go back to sleep.
32
• The problem in the above example is that the resolution of the
previous nighl ivasshallow — it was not backed up by an aspira¬
tion deep within our being, but was based upon a superficial wish
of the emotional nature, probably tied to false personality. Both
the previous night’s wish and the sensation of bodily fatigue and
drowsiness of the following morning were the basis and core of
two out of perhaps a hundred thousand different “P's or separate
persons or actors of the moment which we may possibly become.
“You pays y’er nickel and takes y'er chance.”
• Only the Divine Spark, the Virgin Spirit or Monad—the Inner Core
SELF—has the Right and Privilege to Say “I" — and It is, therefore,
our “Permanent I," our only real Self.
33
THE BASIC
PREMISES
35
SELF¬
REMEMBERING
it may In* described as a
wruinl Itreaihinui where we
breathe our attention in
and out—a hind of reflexive
proress of the Highet• Seif
projecting outwardly into
life's events. IIV* are aware
of ourselves experiencing
life events and of our reac¬
tions to them.
CHIEF FEATURE
• it is the huh around w hich
our personality revolves;
47
IDENTIFYING; INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL CONSIDERING;
CHIEF FEATURE; REMORSE VERSUS GUILT
49
• When we externally consider, we consider everything from the
other_person^pgint of view — or consider from the standpoint
of benefiting the other person.
50
THE APHORISMS OF GURDJ IEFF
Inscribed, in a special script above the utails of Ike Study House
at his Institute for the Harmonious Development of ttlan
located at the Chateau du Vrieute neat Paris
3. the worie the conditixinA Uje the more productive the work,
atwayA provided you remember the work.
6. dtele we can only direct and create condiUonA, tut not help,.
7, Know that thiA houAe can he uAe^ul only, to thoAe who. have
recoyniyed their, nothinyneAA, and who believe in the poAUlility of
chanyiny,.
S. Ojj you already know it H had and do it, you commit a tin di^icult
to redreiA.
11. A true riyn of a yaod man iAij he loueA hiA jjather and mother.
51
13. Only help, him who U, not an idleA.
18. Goniideo what people think ojf you,-net what they, iay.
19- ‘take the unde^Atandiny o^ the HaAt and the knowledge ojf the
fWeit-and then ieek.
30. Only, he who can take ca/te oj, what heionyA to otheAA may haoe hiA
own.
35. PememheA that he/ie wook iA not jpA wade i Aake but iA only a meanA.
^
36. Only he can he jnAt who iA aide to put himAel in the poUtion off
otheAA.
38. die udso Uoi pieed himAeljj ojf the diAeaAe oj "tomoAAOw"haA a chance
to attain what he came heAe jpA.
39• litedded id. he who had, a dout, bledded id, ho who had, nonet hut woe. and
ydief to him who had. it in embdyo.
30. (ledt corned, not f>,tom the quantity but fdom the equality of bleep.
33. 'the enedyy bpent an. actioe inne/i wank id, then and thede Idand,-
fodmed into a fdedh inppty, but that ipent on paddive wodk id, iodt
fodeved,.
33. One of the ledt meand, fad adoudiny the widh to wodk on yauddelf id, to
deatiye that {you, may, die at any, moment. Hut fiddt yon mndt leadn
how to keep, it in mind.
34. Gondcioud, love evoked, the dame in dedponde. Smotionat love evoked, the
appodite. Phydicat love dependi on type and potadity.
35. Gondcioud faith id, fdeedom. Zmotionat faith id, bhutedy. Mechanical
faith id, foolidhnedd,.
36. dlope, when hold, id, dtdenyth. dlape, with douttr id, cowaddice.
dlope, with fead, id, weaknedd.
53
IT IS THE NATURE OF
LIFE IN A
PERSONALITY
THAT WE MUST BE
UNDER ONE
tNFLUENUE OR
ANOTHER;
SO WE MIGHT AS
WELL UHOOSE THE
BEST OF THE LOT!
55
A-, B- & C-
IAFLIIENCES
• . I-Inh'lui'mu's: Mundane
people, life events anti
activities.
• H-Mnflucttces: Ordinary
religious and psycho¬
logical teachings anti
people
51
Magnetic Center
is that center in us
which attracts us like
a magnet to a wisdom
school and the
esoteric teachings.
h ””Cn'=influ@n©@ will
s©irve as the catalyst.
59
o
csp
Great fleas have little fleas
upon their backs to bite 'em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas,
and so ad infinitum.
And the great fleas themselves, in turn,
have greater fleas to go on;
While these again have greater still,
and greater still, and so on.
—Augustus De Morgan
60
A Person Develops
His or Her Spiritual
Potent ini through:
Conscious Effort
• Effort inspired by— and
made from the vantage
point of— the two Higher
Centers of Conseiousness
Intentional Suffering
• In which one is incessantly
aware of the actual cause of
one’s pain and desists from
any self-pity—#.#*.. “suffering
without whimpering 99
THE THREE LINES
OF WORK
Work on Oneself
• This develops the skills of
self-observation ami $elf-
rememberutg
65
ANTAHKARANA -"THE BRIDGE ACROSS TOMORROW"
which differ with every school of philosophy and sect. Thus Sankaracharya
renders the word as ‘understanding’; others, as 'the internal instrument,
the Soul, formed by the thinking principle and egoism’; whereas the Oc¬
cultists explain it as the path or bridge between the Higher and the Lower
Manas, the divine Ego, and the personal Soul of man. It serves as a medium
of communication between the two, and conveys from the Lower to the
Higher Ego all those personal impressions and thoughts of men which can,
by their nature, be assimilated and stored by the undying Entity, and be thus
made immortal with it, these being the only elements of the evanescent
personality that survive death and time. It thus stands to reason that only
that which is noble, spiritual and divine in man can testify in Eternity to his
having lived.”
presses it.”
66
f RPENT
Higher Mind
(Manas)
Focal Point
Connection
Lower Mind
(Kama Manas)
67
THE FIRST STEP
Jraettius in The Regimen of Sol"
‘This color discovers plainly that the two natures are united
[this is the division of attention in self-observation that does the work
and generates the heat] and if they are united, they will certainly
operate one upon the other, and alter and change each other from
thing to thing, and from state to state, until all come to one nature and
Substance Regenerate, which is a new Heavenly Body.
“But before there can be this renovation, the old man must
necessarily be destroyed, that is, thy first Body must rot and be
corrupted. and lose its form. that it may have it repaid with a new
form, which is a thousand times more noble.
71
THE FIRST STEP
As we become more advanced in our development, the first part, the Observer,
will become the active agent of the higher Ego, and the Personality, or second part,
will become the passive servant of the Higher Ego through which the Egp may
express itself more and more completely at this present Plan eta ry level.
Superior agrees with the inferior and the inferior with the Superior to
The creation of the OBSERVER signals the birth of the CHRIST CHILD in us. Its
development in the beginning is precarious, and as Jesus admonished:
"£7t would be better for a man that a millstone be placed first about
his neck and he cast into the sea than he should offend one of these
little ones,"
73
THE CORE THEORY OF
TRANSMUTATIONS
CARRIERS OF THE LIFE-FORCE IN
THE PRODUCTION OF ALCHEMICAL
TRANSMUTATIONS
The vital body or etheric double, which replicates and interpenetrates the
dense physical body a tom-for-atom, functions in two major ways. Its first
function is to serve as the medium for the Vital Force (which originates from the
San) to maintain and propagate the dense physical body. This vegetative
function is carried out through use of the two lower “prismatic" or predominant¬
ly particulate ethers or plasmas of Potency, or degree of agglomeration, “96". We
have here a relative number which describes the vibratory rate of various levels
of energy or force-matter in a table of values ranging from the finest "First
Matter of the Absolute," or undifferentiated "Chaos" (MOTHER SPACE)1, of
potency "1", to the hypothetically densest substance "24,576" postulated to exist
in "Black Holes,"2
The second function of the vital body is to serve as the medium of sense
perception and memory of immediate life-events or impressions. This sentient
function is carried out through use of the two higher "plastic" or predominantly
wavelike ethers or plasmas of Potency "48", Tn this capacity, the vital body acts
as an interface between the physical brain and the psychic centers of the desire
iThis is the Ground of the Objective Worlds, and is the state of maximum randomness or disorder [entropy i
^Please refer to the 'Table of Potencies of Force-Matter" on page 86. and also the table and diagram at tire
end of this essay.
79
(astral] body and mental body, transmitting impulses from these centers to the
physical brain.
The first transmutation of Spiritual Alchemy takes place with the vital
body. Here, repetition of aesthetic and altruistic practices, and the reading of,
and meditation on. inspirational writings, brings the Life-Force to bear as a
digestive agent (analogous to an enzyme)—or in alchemical terms, the Azoth—of
Potency “24", the vibratory rate of our highest (finest) emotional force-matter
("desire-stuff’). This digestive energy is carried by the emotional force of our
highest aspirations, and it transmutes lower etheric substance "96" to higher
etberic substance "48", This digestion may be thought of as the breaking up of
larger agglomerates into smaller agglomerates of "Ultimate Physical Atoms."3
It may also be looked upon as the merging of a higher and a lower vibration into
one of intermediate vibratory rate:
“?4”'ww' higher
ASPIRATION
i 'XfXJXP “48”
SENTIENT ETHER
SOUL BODY
The next transmutation, which may be called "the First Great Alchemi¬
cal Transmutation of ‘Base Metals' into *Silver\ ” involves work on
the emotional (desire or astral] and concrete mental bodies. This transmutation
occurs in two steps: The first step "digests" the "food" of raw impressions—
etheric. astral and mental “substances" of potency “48"—to (1) the highest
3The “Ultimate Physical Atom" or *A7iu” is the fundamental energy pattern of the Physical World, A
conception of it has been portrayed in the 'Babbitt Atom" shown at the end of this essay. Please refer, also, to the
table entitled'' Atomic and Molecular Organization of World levels" at ihe end of this essay.
80
emotional force-matter {"desire-staff") or medium of the finest, positive,
aesthetic and altruistic feelings (Potency “24" that has cognitive power): and (2)
average mental force-matter (“mind-stuff") of Potency "24" that serves as the
medium for enhanced day-to-day reasoning and reckoning.
This first step consists of a special act of self-awareness, which may be
called, variously, "Self-Remembering." "Self-Rccollectedness" or ‘‘Prayerful¬
ness." and which brings to bear the Life-Force as "Azoth" of potency “12", a
"digestive" agent having the vibratory rate of our highest (finest} concrete
"mind-stuff.” It may be called the "LUNAR AZOTH," and acts through the force
of our attention or awareness being directed and focused from the perspective of
the highest level of our concrete or analytical mental organization—our
intellectual discriminatory power
LUNAR
AZOTH
FINER "DESIRE STUFF"
-►'WW'“24”
AVERAGE "MIND-STUFF"
“48”/\AA/' base metal
Self-Remembering, which acts as a "Conscious Shocks bringing us to a
more intense state of awareness than we normally experience in our ordinary
“waking” consciousness, may be described as a "breathing in and out” of the
attention or awareness between external and internal events on the one hand,
and our inner reaction to these events on the other hand. In other words, we are
experiencing things like bodily sensations, emotions and thoughts generated
either from within ourselves or through an external event like an encounter
with another person, while at the same time, being aware of ourselves experienc¬
ing these things' in this way, bv gathering in all our attention and focusing it
deliberately through an act of will, our state of conscious-awareness is raised.
We become more truly awake, the required shock is administered, and although
often uncomfortable, we can respond much more intelligently to situations than
we normally do.
This process, as can be seen, brings down the force which digests the
"food-of-impressions” and enables us to consciously assimilate our life
experiences. In this manner we learn and develop ourselves much more than we
ordinarily would from these experiences. We also become more psychically
energized and stimulated (you can actually feel these energies). Normally, as so
81
often happens, people take in impressions4 for the most part unaware of them
and store them subconsciously where they may fester unresolved. This
frequently is a source of anxieties and other negative emotions that are
destructive to health by virtue of the fact that they enervate rather than energize.
much greater wisdom and broader perspective. This more potent “digestive"
agent “6” may be called the “SOLAR AZOTH.” and acts to transmute average
concrete “mind-stuff*—“24” to highest concrete"mind-stuff‘—'" 12”, our
Alchemical Silver. This is accomplished through the power of an aspect of the
Vital Force or Prana directed from die Splenic Chakra, and/or an aspect of the
4We literally breathe in pictures of life events, as they occur, impressed upon the "reflecting ether,'1 that most
evanescent of the physical plasmas, This is carried by the freshly-aerated blood to the left ventricle of the heart
where the impressions carried by the etheric medium are "downloaded” into the seed atom of the phy sical body
located there This important energy pattern (called by' Rosiovdans the “Book of God” ) saves as the permanent
record (for the duration of the physical life) of life events, to sene as a subconscious mind. These events wilt be
experienced in reverse order by the consciousness upon the death of the physical body.
5 In this vein, the word “religionH means literally ~re-linking," and the word yoga’ means literally yoking*br
"connecting14
82
Kundalini Serpent Fire or Creative Force directed from the Root Chakra.
Highest “desire-stufF or Astraf force-matter—"24" might also be transmuted in
this second step. In any event, this "mind-stufF—“12", our Alchemical Silver,
must be accumulated in sufficient quantity before we can carry out the “Second
Great Alchemical Transmutation of ‘Silver into ‘Gold* "—the “digestion" of
substance "12" into substance “6". Substance "12" can be squandered and its
formation inhibited in so many ways* for example:
U SOLAR
AZOTH
SILVER
“ 24”wat
\ WAA/VW
“ 12”
FINEST
CONCRETE
FINEST "DESIRE-STUFF" "MIND-STUFF"
AVERAGE "MIND-STUFF"
So this, then, suggests a deeper meaning to the admonition of the Christ that:
'd<LO him who hath, more will be given; but with him who
hath not, even that tittle that he hath will be taken away."
Light of the Solar Logos." This is a second “conscious shock" wrhich, without
exaggeration, completely shatters for an instant our Identification with the
Personality. The impact of this “shock" brings down the Universal Life-Force to
bear in the most potent form that we can possibly endure and still preserve the
83
integrity of our individuality.
SILVER ▼ FORCE-MATTER
“ 2 ” VWV OF THE
FINEST "MIND-STUFF" AUGOE1DES
84
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL PRINCIPLES
(Compare horizontally, not vertically)
85
TABLE OF POTENCIES OF FORCE-MATTER
ABSOLUTE (can't get any finer)
<at><i>
THE FATHER (Pure Spirit) Root Fire
86
THE TRANSMUTATIONS OF SPIRITUAL ALCHEMY
87
r “ATOMIC” AND “MOLECULAR” ORGANIZATION OF WORLD LEVELS
Hiaher Mental
(Higher Manas)
CAUSAL BODY 1 494
2 (5,764,801)
ABSTRACT MIND 3
4 Borderland
5 Purgatorial Region
6
7 13,841,287,201 (496)
5 Chemical Region
6
7 Up to 5.5 X 1013 (55 trillion) in the
largest chemical atoms, e.g. Uranium
89
THE ULTIMATE PHYSICAL ATOM (“ANU”)
The number of
primary coils
(spirillae) in
each “wire” is
reported to be
1680 =7!+ 3
(7! = 7x6x5x4x3x2x1)
po^i||;y€)END
Earth
ALL ARE FINALLY
Water MERGED IN THE
HOLY SPIRIT
Material Fire
Air
Ether
* Copper (Venus) and Tin (Jupiter) unite to form the alloy Bronze—the transmuted
emotions or desire body. This is the first transmutation of Spiritual Alchemy.
91
SUMMARY OF THE TRANSFORMATIONAL ENERGIES
AND TRANSMUTATIONS OF SPIRITUAL ALCHEMY
FOODS
DIGESTIVE ENERGIES
93
II. SUMMARY OF ALCHEMICAL TRANSMUTATIONS
IN SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT
(tin).
The less energetic of the two ethers of sentience (level 48). called
the "light ether.” which probably consists of “particles" or energy wave patterns
of the order of electrons, correlates or resonates with the desire or astral body,
and most likely is the one transmuted to “desire-stuff' 24. The more energetic
of these, called the "reflecting ether,” which probably is made up of more
evanescent energy wave patterns of the order of neutrinos, correlates or
resonates with the concrete mental body, and is most likely the one transmuted
to average "mind-stuff” 24.
94
THE SILVER TRANSMUTATION
Conscience that sees the "big picture”— the global perspective, the REAL.
95
reconcile as the neutral substance 6. the abstract "mind-stuff of the Causal
Body or Augoeides. which may be looked upon as our Alchemical Gold.
96
The Stages of fthakti yoga
Intensifying the Devotional ttature—the Hey to the Second Conscious Shock
"Sta££ S—She Peaceful — J.he man worships (fed without the fixe of tone in
him, without its fmadnessf in his Sixain—just the commonplace love, a tittle higher than mere
forms and ceremonies and symbols, Sul not like the madness of intensely active tone."
n Stage 2—Sexvantship — 3t annex when the man thinks he ix die servant of the
£orcL She attachment of the faithful sexvant is his ideals Shis, stage am also take die form
of the lave of a child fox its fathex—(Jod is our 3ather* 3n this stage we axe in a subordinate
posltum of relationship*"
"Stag* 3—3riendship — r3hou axt mix Beloved fxiend.T CL man is able ta open
up his heaxt ta (jod as he would ta a close fxiend. Shexe is the idea af equality between two
friends* (fad becomes out fxiend ta whom we can confide the deepest secrets af mix hearts and
who will not judge us. harshly fax them„ (fed is then mix playmate—we axe so immexsed in
puxe love that we da not even hnow that he is Qadl"
"Stage 4—Stoning Qod not as (Sur Sathex hut as &wt Child — Shis is a
discipline ta enable us ta detach all ideas, of power fxom the concept of Qod. She idea af
pawex fixings with it awe* Shexe should be no awe in love* So conceive Qod as mighty,
majestic and glaxiousf ax the Jtord of the illnivexsey ox as. the Qod of (fads, the lover says he
does not cure. 3t is to avoid this association with (fad of the fear-creating sense of powex that
he worships (fed ax hix own child. 3he child rx position is that of the receiver, and out of love
fax the child, the devoted parents will give up theix bodies a fuuulxed times over. 3Ais ix the
idea of the SSaby Jesus with Christians..rt [find so we should took upon it when the birth af
the Christ Child occurs in us.J
"Stage 5—Sweet — Us the lave between man and woman. 3n this representation
of divine love, Qod is out husband. 'We axe all women; thexe axe no men in this world; there
ix But one man, and that is 3ief our dieloved, (III that love which man gives to woman, ox
woman to man, has here ta be given up to the jCord. Who in this Universe is. more fit ta become
the husband but 3ie. Whom else can this heaxt lorn? 3ie is the most beautifulf the mast
sublime—3ie is beauty itself, sublimity itself. 3a him who has been blessed with such a
relationship, the whole of nature changes, worldsi vanish, suns and moons die oat, and the
Universe itself melts away into that one infinite ocean of love* 3fUx is the perfection of the
madness af love."
"Uhl, but the true spiritual lover does not rest even there; even the love of husband
and wife ix not mad enough for hint, so that he takes up also the idea of illegitimate love,
because it is so strong; the impropriety of it is not at all the thing he has in view* 3he nature
of this love is such that the more obstructions there are for its free play, the stronger and more
passionate it becomes*"
Swanti Vitte&ananda
97
THE ENNEAGRAM AS AN
ALCHEMICAL DIAGRAM;
THE FOOD OCTAVES
The Enneagram, or nine-sided figure,
is the great teaching diagram that is the
hallmark of the Gurdjieff system. It is
especially valuable in demonstrating the
principles of the threefood octaves which
constitute the essence of the alchemical
transmutations that lead to Self-
Realization. It contains within itself the
Laws of Seven and of Three—as the octave
of process and the trinity of the three
shocks which drive the octave to comple¬
tion.
The following series of diagrams dem¬
onstrate how the Enneagram is construct¬
ed, and the completion of the three food
octaves which results in the final enlight¬
enment of the individual.
To construct the Enneagram, first
draw an equilateral triangle and then
circumscribe it with a circle.
100
10)
Next, we divide the circumference of
the circle into nine equal parts. This can
be conveniently done with a computer
graphics program by using the polygon
tool, setting it for nine sides in the star
mode at maximum acuteness, and then
aligning it with the circle to position the
nine points.
102
103
The basic Enneagram diagram is completed in the
following steps. First, number the nine points along
the circle from I to 9, starting at the point just to the
right of the apex (top) of the triangle. Next, calculate
the fraction 1+7 to the 7th decimal place to give the
number 0,1428571, and then draw lines from the
numbered points In the sequential order of this decimal
fraction to complete a closed geometrical figure. Draw
arrows at each point of this figure to indicate the
direction of movement.
Notice that the numbers 3, 6 and 9 which occur
at the points of the triangle do not appear explicitly
in the repeating sequence of numbers 142857 that
make up the infinite series of the fraction 1+7, but the
number 9 does appear implicitly in its occult sum:
i.e., 1+4+2+8+5+7 = 27; 2+7 = 9.
Notice, also, that the numbers 3, 6 and 9 are
internally symmetrical with one another in that their
sums and products add up occultly to the number 9
or themselves, e.g., 9x6 = 54, 5+4 = 9; 9+6 = 15,
1+5 = 6; etc.
104
1-5-7= 0.1428571 . . .
105
In the next step, we first set up the
three food octaves, color-coding them
black, red and green, respectively. Each
octave will be described in the manner
of the diatonic musical scale with halftone
intervals—or a slowing-down—occurring
between mi and fa, and between si and
the do of the next octave. The rule is
that the octave will stop at these intervals
until the required shock is administered
at the points of the triangle. The first
food octave begins at do 768 (ordinary
solid edible food) at the apex of the trian¬
gle, proceeds with this food being liquefied
in the stomach (re 384j, and stops at
mi 192 at the point where insoluble
proteins and starches have been digested
to soluble polypeptides and polysaccha¬
rides by the action of the saliva and
stomach enzymes (of potency 192),
106
1 -7= 0.1428571 . .
9 DO 768
! RE 384
Ml 192
107
The First shock—a Mechani¬
cal shock—is administered as do
192 (the breathing in of air in ordi¬
nary respiration), and this occurs
at point 3 at the lower right corner
of the triangle. This shock induces
the first food octave (black) to com¬
plete itself up to si 12 (highest
concrete ''mind-stuff') as well as
to begin a new octave—the second
food octave (red)—at point 3. This
new octave will stop at mi 48,
which together with sol 48 of the
first food octave, comprises the
food of raw impressions—our
alchemical base metal.
108
1 -r7= 0.1428571 . .
\ DO 768
9
] RE 384
LA 24 7 2 Ml 192
MECHANICAL
SOL 48 4 FA 96 SHOCK
Ml 48 RE 96
C Breathing
Air
109
The second shock—the first conscious
shock—is administered as do 48 (the bregffung
of awareness in and out. or Self remembering),
and this occurs at point 6 at the lower left comer
of the triangle. This shock induces the second
food octave (red) to complete itself up to la 6
(Abstract "mind-stuff'), which is as far as any
octave can go at our level of being, as well as to
begin a new octave—the third food octave (green)—
at point 6. This new octave will stop at mi 12,
which together with sol 12 and si 12 of the first
two food octaves, comprise the stuff of our highest
concrete intellectual activity—our alchemical
silver.
no
1 -r7= 0.1428571 . .
LA 6
I DO 768
SI 12
SOL 12 8 RE 384
Ml 12
LA 24
FA 24 7 Ml 192
RE 24
DO 48 ^ 3 DO 192
FIRST MECHANICAL
CONSCIOUS SOL 48 4 FA 96 SHOCK
SHOCK Ml 48
RE 96
C breathing Awareness
9k and Gut
D C
Wreathing
Vn Air
D
THE ENNEAGRAM AND THE FOOD OCTAVES
The third shock—the second conscious
shock—is administered as do 6 (the bj^attung
in of the "Holu Spirit1' or most potent enzyme that
we can work with at our present level of being),
which can best be described as a state of self¬
surrender to and adoration of Supreme Being,
and this occurs at point 9 at the apex of the
triangle—where we first began. This last shock
induces the third food octave (green) to complete
itself up to fa 6—as far as it or any other octave
can go. This energy, together with La 6 of the
second food octave and do 6 of the fourth octave
of our new level of being reached at this culmi¬
nation of our work on ourselves, comprise the
stuff of the causal body—our alchemical gold,
and in us, truly the Holy Grail.
Notice that the trinity of si 12, sol 12 and
mi 12 constitutes the purified and transmuted
concrete mind; and the trinity of la 24, fa 24
and re 24 constitutes the purified and transmuted
emotional organization. Notice also that each
shock involves a process ofbregthing.
1-7=0.1428571. . .
DO Start of 1st Octave
First Food Octave
RE
Second Food Octave MI
Third Food Octave ^^First Interval
FA
SOL
I^A
the Holy Spirit SI
—Second Interval
Self-Surrender, Adoration DO Start of 2nd Octave
THE PURIFIED f SI 12
AND TRANSMUTEDJ cf\l AO 8 RE 384
CONCRETE MIND VUL IZ
(MENTAL BODY) \ MM2
THE PURIFIED LA 24 7 Ml 192
& TRANSMUTED
EMOTIONS _ FA 24 '
(DESIRE BODY) IRE 24
DO 48 DO 192
FIRST
CONSCIOUS SOL 48 MECHANICAL
a FA 96
SHOCK Ml 48 RE 96 SHOCK
C breathing
Pranic Breathing
)
of the Attention (Pranayama)
"Behind personality Is
real and permanent
T; and behind real
and permanent *1* is
BOD.”
117
WHAT THE
• It is the ultimate subjective in us-
the “silent witness behind” every
objective construct, a pure unity.
R Joyride
121
THE LIFTING OF THE VEIL
With the average person, more or
less completely immersed in mundane
life concerns, the inner light of real
and permanent "I" is, for all practical
purposes, totally veiled and obscured.
The subtle vision of the higher centers
which comprise the inner knower—
which alone is capable of seeing the
REAL—are "asleep" in that individual.
This man or woman has not yet opened
himself or herself up to access these
higher faculties, but instead, uses only
the lower intellectual center—the mind
which is the "slayer of the REAL."
124
125
Further development and ad¬
vancement of the intuitive faculty
equips the understanding to perceive
the core of the spiritual sun immersed
in its own pure cosmic matrix or
Mother Space.
136
127
With further opening up of the
higher centers and the concomitant
development of the intuitive faculty,
the inner vision is now able to per¬
ceive the subtle spiritual sun hidden
behind the brilliantly shining orb
revealed at first sight. A thin veil,
however, still obscures the exact na¬
ture of the spiritual sun.
When the inner vision has become
more accustomed to the brilliance of the
inner light, the source of the latter can
now be perceived as the outline of the
glorious microcosmic sun which is the
expression of the Human Monad—the
true core SELF and the home of real
and permanent "I".
132
With further advancement in
the understanding, the individual
now begins to free himself or herself
of core attachments. This step
forward completely lifts the veil of
lower mind to reveal the inner light
in its full brilliance—which at first
is blinding to the inner vision.
130
With further work on oneself, continued
study of the ancient wisdom teachings, and
an increase in awareness—the mind is
cleared of useless constructs (much like a
computer memory bank is purged of unneeded
files) and the understanding is enhanced
and developed through the opening up of
the intuitive capabilities of the higher centers
of consciousness. The inner light is now
perceived more as a focused energy source,
although its total effulgence is still somewhat
veiled and obscured by residual attachments.
135
With the exposure of the person
to a religious or mystical experience,
or through the initial study of eso¬
teric subjects, he or she is opened
up to the existence of the inner
light—which, however is still largely
obscured by the individual's mind
being cluttered with large numbers
of related as well as unrelated men¬
tal constructs, notions and beliefs.
The final stage of Self-Realization
is attained when the fully-matured
understanding is able to perceive the
inner microcosmic sun as a lesser
whole which is part of a greater
whole or macrocosm—which itself
is part of a still-greater whole within
an infinite hierarchy of cosmic scale
of being.
Gurdjieff Quotations
and
Nicoll Commentaries
GURDJIEFF QUOTATIONS
GURDJIEFF ON STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
(Taken from Maurice Nicoli in “Psychological Commentaries...”)
145
MASTERING THE ANIMAL
(From “Secret Talks with Mr. G.”by I.D.H.H.B., Inc.)
147
"To get the attention of the animal when one wishes to activate
this struggle, one must summon the animal with knowledge. In the
old sense conjure means 'with knowledge.’
“If one can converse with one's own animal, one can speak with
any animal, for all two-brained and one-brained animal languages are
the same. This is the real meaning of the story of St. Francis of Assisi
who knew how to talk to the animal, and to master them with love. It
is even possible to do this with wild animals eventually.
“To make the animal obey, one must begin with small things.
The development of a special inner will starts in the moving center. I f
you know how to do in one center, it gives clues necessary for work in
directing attention of all centers.
“The battle to master the animal is like angel and devil. What
was once heaven for you and which said place you wished formerly to
keep as quiet and calm as possible now becomes a field upon which a
series of pitched battles ensues. This struggle is a function of being.
It is not something one can decide to do or not to do.
“Compare this to a burglar locked inside a safe accompanied in¬
voluntarily by a bomb which is preset to explode at an unknown time.
The bomb cannot be reached and the fuse and timer cannot be dis¬
mantled until he opens the safe. He does not know the combination of
the safe but he has all his burglar’s tools and knowledge of safes and
locks. He must work quickly and effectively. At the same time he
must not think even once of the possible consequences while working
to release himself from this situation. If even for a moment he loses
himself it could have been the crucial time he otherwise needed. Per¬
haps the margin of error is only one moment. In this case the bomb
explodes and he is killed. Although he must work under extreme
pressure, he must not allow tensions to interfere with his skills. This
is exactly how you must work with the animal in order to master it.
You must become in every respect a professional.
“Various factors in mastery of the animal become important
where they were not important before. To begin with, one must be
very cunning. In this way. one can exact promises from the animal in
exchange for little things—-but these little concessions must be harm¬
less; and if possible, whimsical.
“For instance, one can allow the animal to ‘go to the zoo for one
day' in return for making a funny face in front of eveiyone. One must
offer something harmless but interesting to the animal in exchange for
something small the animal would not mind doing as a task to pay.
"If you cannot think immediately of a way for the animal to pay,
you must not do this. Only with a definite exchange is this technique
genuinely effective. This method is called bargaining factor.
“After the promise has been extracted the animal is given its
reward. This is the reward factor. The animal should not be totally
satisfied, but the reward must not be denied. The animal gets very an¬
gry and lashes back dangerously.
“In order to bargain with the animal, one must know very well
what the animal wants.
148
“Any aid used in making bargains with the animal is called an as¬
sisting factor. It may be Armagnac, cigarette, Turkish coffee. It takes
experience to be able to use assisting factors. One must get the animal
pleasantly tipsy without getting drunk oneself.
“Study to find the vulnerability factor of the animal. However,
you must hide your own vulnerability.
“In bargaining with the animal, you must know when you are
able to say 'no' and when you are not. If you try to stop the animal and
you allow it to disobey, even one time, it will never obey you again. It
will not take you seriously. You must say 'no' only when you have will
to enforce 'no.'
149
MAURICE NICOLL
COMMENTARIES
From "Psychological Commentaries
on the Teaching of G. I. Gurdjieff
and P. D. Ouspensky,f
THE FIRST GREAT STAGE
"The first great stage of this Work (of personal transformation)
is to awaken out of sleep. When that is strongly enough established a
man knows what he has to sacrifice, what he has to die to, and he be¬
comes able to sacrifice it, to die to it, and then his rebirth begins—that
is, real transformation. But for a long time he is between two issues
and then he must have great patience with himself and not expect to
attain what he has not yet sufficiently paid for. We spoke once about
patience as a very conscious thing which has nothing to do with resig¬
nation. When we cannot break through our bad states we must be pa¬
tient with ourselves knowing the situation but being unable for the
Lime being to do anything about it. We quoted the words of Christ
which he spoke to his disciples when he was telling them what they
would have to endure. He said: ‘In your patience ye shall win your
souls.' (Luke XXI 19). which means your relationship to Real ‘I"
CHIEF FEATURE
The supreme effort of the Work lies in making effort against
your Chief Feature, whether you are digging in a field or listening to a
meeting or cooking or traveling by train or are alone with yourself or
surrounded by other people. The reason is that Chief Feature enters
into the way you think, the way you relate yourself to others, it enters
into your emotions and enters into your movements and the way you
do your life-work as well as into your conceit and appetites and quar¬
rels. But it is very difficult even to begin to catch glimpses of your
Chief Feature and it is quite useless to speculate theoretically on what
it is. I would advise you to think about what was said at the beginning
of this paper—i.e., about making intelligent effort based on self¬
observation. I would ask you this question: Wit ere through self-obser¬
vation do you perceive that you avoid making certain kinds of effort?
Where do you always get negative? At what point do you always iden¬
tify? At what point do you find things intolerable? Or again, what do
you feel is vour right? What is owed to you before you can consent to
do anything? We all have a favorable idea of ourselves, but when we are
stirred up by what we think intolerable in external circumstances we
soon realize that we are very limited people capable of only a little
good-will and very little effort. You may be quite sure that your Chief
Feature has something to do with all this. We have to make effort be¬
yond this narrow limit in which we usually make effort. G(urdjieff)
said that only extra effort counts and I fancy that each one of us should
know now what extra effort is, whether intellectual, emotional, or
physical. If we cannot get beyond our mechanical limitations, if we
only remain in the narrow sphere of ourselves, we have no chance of
becoming No. 4 Man—i.e.. Balanced Man. We shall have no idea (of)
what extra effort means. A man whose center of gravity is in the
153
moving Center would never for a moment think that he has to make
intellectual effort and really think. He will not see where extra effort
lies for him. And if he decides to make extra effort he will only dig
longer in the field. But this is not intelligent effort which I now con¬
nect with extra effort."
MM2
“If we could act consciously in every situation we would not in¬
ternally consider. Internal considering sends us to sleep more than
anything. It wastes energy. If we could externally consider only it
would save energy. If we could act consciously in every situation we
would create energy. To act consciously would mean to act without
identifying. Identification leads to unconscious action. To act con¬
sciously in every situation would be to act without identification. To
act without identification is one way to give oneself the First Conscious
Shock. To give oneself the First Conscious Shock is to create energy.
Two new energies are thereby formed in the human machine—the en¬
ergy 24 at the early potential stage denoted by Re. and energy 12, at
the note Mi. These two newly created energies appearing in the ma¬
chine, by reason of the First Conscious Shock being given, strongly af¬
fect the working of the Emotional and Sex Centres respectively. The
energies Fa 24 and Sol 12 are also created. You will notice that their
octave position is not so potential as Re 24 and Mi 12. but they also
influence the Emotional and Sex Centres, altering the quality of their
working. The hydrogen Si 12, produced by the mechanical shock of
breathing, by its position in the octave has the least potentiality for de¬
velopment—that is, for differentiation. It is old. so to speak, and more
fixed. It has the least youth. The creation of these new energies, not
present in mechanical and sensual-minded man, has to do with the ul¬
timate transformation of the Sex Centre into the Higher Emotional
Centre, and its very gradual withdrawing from the Instinctive Centre,
the identifying, and the negative states and self emotions that charac¬
terize the working of Emotional Centre. All the three energies 12 can
become Hydrogen 6 under the pulsations of the Second Conscious
Shock which makes contact with the Higher Centre gradually possible.
But for the Second Conscious Shock to begin to act in you Mi 12 must
be present in sufficient amounts and retained at the wanted times.
Here we miss much by sleep and habit. I mean we are not watching,
not sensitive internally. There is a turning wheel of opportunities and
some opportunity is not noticed when we are being helped. None of
these conditions, of course, will be fulfilled if a person is chronically
negative and identified or will not see insincerity—a bad fault—or fol¬
lows appetite and self only and does not. in short, work. In that case,
none of the special energy Mi 12 will be created; and the Work will
not help. He will see nothing extraordinary in life: he will have no vi¬
sion of the Work: he will not transform any impressions and will con¬
tinue in the odours of the sensual mind and its dead worlds. It is quite
154
useless asking me questions about the Second Conscious Shock. I say
to you only that it is impossible to understand anything about it until
Mi 12 is present and stored enough in you. In brief, you must give
yourself the First Conscious Shock before you can get to know the na¬
ture of the Second Conscious Shock, and get to know what it is and all
about it in its many aspects, and so create Mi 12, and prevent it falling
downwards to the sensual level, until it shews you the direction of the
Second Conscious Shock. For, like Joseph, it can interpret Pharaoh's
dreams. Now to remember yourself in endlessly different situations is
good. Also to act more consciously, which can only begin with notic¬
ing mechanical reactions after they have taken place and remembering
them and then acting differently, is very good work indeed. As was
said, that would be giving or seeking to give oneself the First Con¬
scious Shock. I have watched it being done. But people stay in their
dreary outworn psychological clothes—in their old reactions—and cling
to them. To remember oneself is surely not to remember these gar¬
ments? By doing that, I fancy not a trace of the presence of Mi 12 will
ever be found in you. That lovely youth will avoid you—like poison.
“So we have to think about the First Conscious Shock and its
primary importance in the Work, for without Mi 12 there is little
change of being. I have said I speak only of the First Conscious Shock.
In this connection I will add that people here must not be satisfied to
remain as they are. There is far too much self-complacency or indif¬
ference. Consider carefully, if you are not. at bottom, satisfied with
yourself as you are, and only would like another car. It is not necessary
to point out that if you are satisfied any attempt at Self-Remembering
that you make will go to make you still more satisfied with yourself as
you are. The adoration of this mess called oneself is the commonest
and most binding and limited religion. It is accompanied by often very
funny rites. But it is inadvisable to make fun here. We explode, we
flush, we pale, we are furious, and we never forgive. What a state we
are all in without exception! Yet even so. it is possible to work, and to
work afresh and often at the First Conscious Shock: and to discover it
for ourselves, as we are at our particular stage. Our very violence in¬
deed provides us with material for Self-Remembering. We surely can¬
not remain satisfied with ourselves after slowly perceiving these
unstable foundations of our ramshackle being, which the least person
in the Kingdom of Heaven could cause to blow up with a trifling re¬
mark. Yes, we sorely need to be bom anew; and not of blood and flesh
this time, but of Water and Spirit. That would mean another and quite
new foundation: and so a New Man. The Work is all about this step."
TIME-BODY
"In connection with a remark that the feeling of Eternity enters
into Self-Remembering, and does not enter into self-observation, we
can remind ourselves of some of the ideas on Time which are acces¬
sory to this teaching. There are three visible accessible dimensions
155
and three invisible and ordinarily inaccessible dimensions. From this
point of view the real world is six-dimensional. Owing to our limited
senses we know only a three-dimensional world moving in Time and
this we take as the real world—that is, as reality, as all that is or can
be. We base our thoughts on this visible three-dimensional world
moving in Time. That is. our way of thinking is moulded on this real¬
ity which is evident to our limited senses. It is. however, necessary to
change our way of thinking if any development in the level of Being or
any increase of consciousness is the aim. This teaching, as it is so of¬
ten emphasized, is to make us think in a new way. Let me here ask
you: have you begun yet through contact with the ideas of this Work to
think in a new way? For this to become possible the mind must be
changed by new ideas, by means of which new. hitherto unused con¬
nections are opened. In this way new and wider realities of the mind
appear beyond the given narrow realities of the senses, with a corre¬
sponding increase of consciousness. Briefly put. one is aware of more
than one was, and this in many unusual directions. Not only is the
general range and grasp of the mind increased, but the awareness of
oneself. For instance, to be told that one is asleep and mechanical and
that one does not know oneself are new ideas. When applied practi¬
cally, through self-observation, these ideas open up many new connec¬
tions in the mind—in fact, so much so that the whole conception and
feeling of oneself begins to alter and a new self may become percepti¬
ble, hidden at some distance behind what we have up to now thought
to be ourselves and the only possible form of ourselves. Let us take
this point in connection with dimensions. The 4lh dimension is that of
Time. We do not see Time or ourselves in Time. We do not see the
Time-Bodies of ourselves or of things. We think the past is dead. Our
lives are living lines in living Time. Owing to our relation to Time,
however, we see only a point in Time and then another and so on, and
we call them present moments. Notice well that our five senses only
work in the present moment, only register the present moment—not
the past or the future. To see this clearly is the starting-point, in my
opinion, of being able to understand something about dimensions be¬
yond the senses. Do you realize clearly that you can only see or handle
or taste an apple in the present moment? You cannot do so a moment
ago or a moment hence—that is, in the past or in the future. So you
are limited to this doubtful thing called the present moment, and all
else we call past or future and regard as having no real existence. So
we limit all possible existence to the present moment and imagine
God exists only in it. This is called in this teaching, however, a cross-
section of Time. Yet we are never in contact with this fleeting present
moment to which we confine all existence. It is actual—yet it is
doubtful—not to the senses but to consciousness. Our senses relate us
to a present moment but our consciousness does not. We are not con¬
scious in this present moment of the senses. It is too small and too
quick to be properly conscious in. Our consciousness, working above
sense, is a mingled confused thing, composed of past, present and an¬
ticipated future. By memory and by imagination we tend to live behind
156
or in front of the present moment and cannot crowd ourselves into it.
So we are never really in the external world as registered by the
senses. They render things as it were like a succession of photo¬
graphs made to follow in moving rapid succession, like a film. Yet,
strange to say, each present moment is eternal. The present moment
is both in Time and in Eternity. It is the meeting-place of Time and
Eternity. Eternity enters every present moment in moving Time, at
right angles to it. That is why, sometimes, in a state of Self-
Remembering—that is, in the 3rd State of Consciousness—we feel Eter¬
nity. That is also why some things in the past stand straight out of
Time—often trivial things. This is because at any moment, into any
quiet unremarkable ordinary moment, the dimension of Eternity en¬
ters and we may happen to become conscious of it.
Time Time
Rest Future
Eternity
Time Time
Eternity
157
Personality. It is not surprising that Self-Remembering can give a
feeling utterly different from that given by our relation to hurrying,
anxious Time. Essence, being eternal, has not the feelings of Person¬
ality which are of Time only. To think from Time gives no real feeling
of oneself, or rather it gives a wrong feeling—our usual feeling of our¬
selves. This is our usual sense of ourselves. We can notice how in¬
complete it is. Why do people act as they do? Because they do not
feel themselves rightly. We know already that the Work teaches that
we were created as an experiment—as self-developing organisms—and
therefore we can understand why we feel incomplete and why a man,
moulded only by life—that is, having only his acquired Personality ac¬
tive—must always feel incomplete, unfinished, and so internally help¬
less. It is not the force of life which lies in Time that can make
Personality passive—how could it. when it is the force that made it?
Only another force coming from a different direction can make Per¬
sonality passive and feed Essence—the eternal part of us. One can
then begin to see that all esoteric teaching must have the quality of
Eternity about it, and being so can develop Essence, which is eternal.
Through all Time, through all the ages, esoteric teaching remains the
same. It always says the same things. It always teaches the same
things. It is above Time and change. It is Eternity in Time—and so it
speaks always of eternal life.
“To return: the 4th dimension of Time contains all one's life.
We experience it moment by moment. It runs very fast and is only
halted by the feeling of now. Our life lying extended in this dimen¬
sion, inaccessible to our senses, is all there—in this invisible dimen¬
sion. For this reason everything we do now affects the past as well as
the future of our life. One act of non-identifying now’ influences your
past as well as your future. Your relation to people in the past will
change, by work on yourself now. Not only will you change your own
past, but possibly theirs. This is veiy difficult to grasp so I come back
to the beginning of this paper where it was said that to change our
Being and to increase consciousness wTe need new7 ideas beyond those
given by the senses. It was said in so many words that as long as our
thinking is based only on the evidence of the senses, the mind cannot
think differently and new connections cannot be opened. You will say
that the past is dead, over, finished—just because your senses do not
register it. If they did. you would think differently, but as they do not,
you will say that the idea of the past life actually existing is nonsense.
That is what it is. It is ‘nonsense,’ for the external senses do not reg¬
ister it, since they can only register the moment of Time called the
present. The higher dimensions are not realities of the external
senses, but of the internal senses. For instance, my whole life can be
internally seen in a certain state of consciousness. Why? Because it is
there. Where? In Time. And my future? It is also there, in the di¬
mension that we experience as Time through which we are moving.
Then I am pre-destined? Yes and No, because there are many parallel
lines of Time like telegraph wires and one can be on one or another
according to one’s inner state. If you enjoy your negative emotions you
158
will follow one line, and the lowest. To rise in a vertical movement
one rises and follows another parallel line by non-identifying and by
Self-Remembering—in short, by the Work, which enters Time at righL
angles and so is always vertically above you, whatever line you follow,
and never in the future, for the future is in horizontal Time. One
might speak of one's vertical future, however, as distinct from one’s
horizontal future. If Being develops, the direction is vertical. One will
see one's life differently. Higher Being is above lower Being. At this
moment you can go with ‘I's below you or above you. You can spoil
something silently in yourself or not. You can say something to your¬
self or not. It will all remain in the Time-Body, but on different levels,
according to its quality. All the life is there—in the Time-Body. But by
work now, things can be changed in the past and the Time-Body con¬
nected in a different way—as one might loop up bits of a long, flexible
string and lengthen others. When we feel that all the past is there and
living in the dimension of living Time, our sense of ourselves alters.
Indeed, it alters very much, by our realizing first that passing Time
cancels nothing and secondly that one can change things in the past
now—not by useless sad regret, but by active work on ourselves. We
are not connected with a dead past but wdth a living past. Every act of
work vibrates through the whole Time-Body and alters things in it. I
can act now on my past. I can change now my behaviour thirty years
ago. Later on, we will speak of recurrence of re-entering our lives
once more and finding perhaps that some things have been changed,
so that we begin to awaken earlier."
159
anxiety, violence and negativeness. Into this feeling of T of which I
speak the feeling of Eternity enters every moment of Time, but in a
direction we can never find as long as we are identified wholly with
the Personality. While the Personality is wholly active, the direction is
closed. Personality directs us to Time—to passing Time—that is. Life.
Diagrammatically. the dimension of Eternity enters the dimension of
Time at right angles. As the feeling of Time increases by self-
observation and we begin to take time-photographs of ourselves—that
is, studies of Ts over long periods—the hypnotism of the present mo¬
ment registered by the senses becomes lessened. The “present" is no
longer confined to the instant—but broadens gradually into all one's
life, as consciousness expands. We begin, in fact, to understand living
Time—that is, we begin to understand that our lives lie in the invisible
dimension of Time and are not confined to the snapshots of Time that
our senses register. The past is living in its own present—and is
changing. How can it be changing? Through reaching our conscious¬
ness. Consciousness is light: light changes everything. Shut in the
prison of the senses we disbelieve in dimensions other than those of
space which the senses shew us. How, if we believe only in what we
can see, can we ever develop? How can we touch centres that are su~
pra-sensible? How can we undergo change of mind—the first step in
the development that esotericism teaches as being a man's meaning?
If you believe there is nothing behind the scenes of visible life and that
Nature created itself, how can you remember yourself? If you believe
you are your visible body and that you cease with it, how can you re¬
member yourself? When this Work says Essence comes down from
the Stars it says something that can alter your life. The source of Es¬
sence is vertical to Time. Our origin is not in Time—in the past. This
is a strange idea. But it is an idea that is necessary. It changes the
mind and this is the first thing necessary. We begin to think in a new
way—and how much there is lo think about in a new way—and reach
back to, in one's life, and change. One can see one's life quite differ¬
ently—but not if one does not understand that it is living and is af¬
fected by all we do now and understand now. New understanding is
the most powerful force we can create in the Work. It comes from
new ideas. This force of new understanding not only alters the future
but it alters the past. The whole Time-Body of a person is connected,
just as one end of a stick is connected with the other. Tap it any¬
where and it vibrates through its length. But the Time-Body is not
straight. It is a circle, not quite closed.
“This brings us to recurrence. The teaching is that if we do not
‘work’ on ourselves the life recurs just as before. Nothing is altered.
Why? Because we have not altered anything in ourselves. What does it
mean to alter something in oneself? It means a growth of Essence. If
Essence grows it will not attract the same life in recurrence. In the
Work by the term ‘development' is meant a new growth of Essence,
This can only take place by some manifestation of Personality ceasing
to be active through the power of the Work. A man sees, through the
light of the Work and his understanding of it. some negative manifesta-
160
tions of himself, let us say. By further observation he sees it more and
more fully, extending through his life. Wishing to work on himself—
that is, valuing the Work practically and not sentimentally—he begins
to separate from it, in, so to speak, cold blood—deliberately. When he
feels himself near the Ts that lead into it, into this bad psychological
place in himself, he does not identify with these negative Ts in this
place that always exists. If he finds that he is tending to get too close
to them he remembers himself and when he feels the Work—that is,
when he is in the presence of the Work-Ts—he recalls the observa¬
tions he has made hitherto on this negative state and the moments of
insight into it that he has had and what he has understood of the
meaning of the Work and why he himself is working. In this way he
strengthens his aim. He has given himself the First Conscious Shock
and so created new hydrogens, new force. With this new force which
he has created his power of not identifying is increased.
"Now work of this kind, which is against one or other manifesta¬
tion of the Personality, produces the right conditions for the growth of
Essence. A struggle must necessarily take place at every stage of this
growth. If Personality wins then there is no growth. Personality and
self-will absorb the force and remain active and Essence gets nothing
and so remains passive. So we must be tempted. One prays not to be
led into temptation but delivered from evil, from Personality. Here we
must think individually. The struggle is between what is unreal and
what is real. But in this struggle it is only the light of the Work—that
is. the force and illumination coming from Conscious Man in the form
of esoteric teaching, as is the Work we study—that can separate you
from Personality. This force is counter to the force of life. It sets up
war in the man. But otherwise Essence cannot become active. Life
made and keeps Personality active. The Work is to make Personality
passive by the methods of the 4th Way so that Essence can grow and
eventually become stronger than Personality, so that a man is no
longer worked from outside—from life. This means the emergence of
a new man, a new woman. This is the development meant—not an in¬
crease of what you are but the emergence of another new person, by
making what you are now passive, along those lines taught so clearly by
the Work. If Essence grows after Personality has been formed, it will
not attract the same life in recurrence. But unless a man has another
light than that of the visible Sun he will not be able to make Personal¬
ity passive. He will not understand what it means. If he meets some
pseudo-teaching his efforts will only increase Personality and he will
remain on the wheel of mechanical recurrence.
“You will understand therefore why it is said that a man with
right Magnetic Centre is already at a far higher level of Being than oth¬
ers, howTever prominent, or scientific, and so on, who are without it
and can only believe in their senses. The point of entry into esoteric
teaching is the Magnetic Centre which can distinguish between things
of life—that is, A influences—and things of Conscious Humanity—that is,
B influences. Without this point of entry a man cannot separate him¬
self from Personality because the force of life will hold him to it. The
161
development of Essence will then be impossible. The man lives and
dies a seed, an acorn, and the Work says he can be eaten by pigs, a
painful business. He forms a source of food for what is beneath the
Earth. A man into whom knowledge from Higher Man has entered,
who begins to understand and to realize what he is, and eventually
sees his own nothingness, who begins to work, this man can make
Personality passive. That is, the Work makes it passive if he is of use.
In that man there will be a growth of Essence. He will not go round in
the same circle of life. If the development of Essence becomes full, if
the essential man grows to his full stature—he will no longer experi¬
ence life at the level of this Earth. It is that level called the Sun that
demands the life of Man as well as the Earth and Moon. The Sun de¬
mands the developed organism—Conscious Man. So Man was created a
self-developing organism and given an Essence that came from the
level of the Starry Galaxy.”
162
connect his machine with my machine he could know Paris through
me and see what I saw. It would also be possible for him to observe an
idea entering into my brain in one way and into another person's brain
in a different way and he would then understand why we never agreed
about anything and always remembered differently and were continu¬
ally quarreling. The brain is a small machine with a very high storage
capacity and millions of wires connecting different parts of it. It is
much the same in eveiyone, but the connections used are different in
different people. When you judge another person it is certain connec¬
tions you judge used by him, that do not correspond with the connec¬
tions used by you. So one realizes that one's past also lies not only in
rolls in centres but in the connections acquired by upbringing be¬
tween these millions of wires that are now habitually used—that is, the
paths in the brain that we always walk along. Among millions of other
possible paths, our past, then, is one form, one possibility, one pat¬
tern, and one set of streets in a vast town. Now you see what is meant
when it is said in this teaching that Time for us is the fulfillment of
one line of possibilities but that at every moment there are lines
branching out in every direction and so infinite possibilities, and that
Eternity is the fulfillment of all possibilities. You remember one defi¬
nition that Christ gave of God—that with God all things are possible.
God is not in Time but in Eternity, outside Time, having nothing to do
with Time. That is why, in order to understand aright what is above
us, we have to get rid of Time in our thoughts. We have to get away
from Time altogether in order to reach a level of ourselves that is
above us. Time and space prevent us from reaching a possible and ac¬
tually existing higher level of ourselves. A man must be re-born out of
Time and Space—for his mind, if awakened, can understand and reach
to a higher dimensional world in which there is no Time and all is—
not was. That is why we have to start with the realization that all our
life lies living in the invisible 4th Dimension and that the past is living.
The past is—not mas—and so can be changed. I can change my past by
working on myself now. You can change the past as well as the future
now if you remember yourself and cease identifying with a typical path
that you usually follow as, say, in judging others. So what we do now in
order to gain new knowledge so as to understand how to think in a
new way—by making new connections, for that is the start of all
change of Being—is truly important. Among other things you begin to
think in a new way if you think of passing time as an illusion. What is
the reason of this illusion? One reason is due to these rolls in centres
of which we were speaking, apart from what was said earlier. When
they turn they give the sensation of the past, of what was, and so we
think of the past as non-existent, dead, and irremediable, and from
that derive an entirely wrong feeling of ourselves—yes, from that and a
hundred other things. Rolls are necessary—otherwise we would have
no memory. But memory is not new meaning, new inspiration. It is
not the same as consciousness in the 4lfl Dimension which is some¬
times experienced when the carbon dioxide in the blood reaches a
certain concentration. Then there can be direct access to the 4lh Di-
163
mension of Time. A certain kind of breathing can result in this. It is
then like going to Paris, instead of remembering about it. Paris, is. not
was. If you could see rightly into a person's brain, you could see, say,
an illness coming. The brain is strung on to Time like a ring sliding
along a rope. It is a machine passing through Time—through one of
the possible lines of Time—and there is left in it a slight deposit on
these rolls. This is memory. Memory is slight. We remember very lit¬
tle. We mix-remember or forget nearly everything. But in the 4lh Di¬
mension itself, apart from memory, all our life stands just as it was in
every detail of thought, feeling, sensation, movement, perception and
action. At death all the life together—the entirety of the life—forms a
certain kind of food and according to its quality it is absorbed either by
what lies below the Earth in scale of creation—namely, the Moon—or
by a higher level—namely, the Sun. So we are not our bodies, but all
that is laid down in our lives apart from memory. We are our total lives
from birth to death. This is our Time-Body. It is all present, all there;
and if I work on myself now, observe myself, see where I am identi¬
fied. see what accounts I am making against others, how I justify my¬
self and forgive no one, how I think only how others are wrong, how I
judge people mechanically without seeing into their lives or seeing
how self-satisfied and complacent I am, how I am not at all what I
imagine—in fact, if I begin to work on myself from the esoteric ideas of
this Work which seek to transform us. then I may be able to change
my Time-Body by getting on to another level of Time, on to another
line where everything in the past is altered—so that when I re-enter
my life at the moment of birth I find things are different and even re¬
member my previous recurrence, possessed perhaps of a strange
feeling of familiarity—of having been there before. This is because
when real memory is opened, at death, when the book of our life is
opened—not only what others did is recorded, but your own smugness,
your own meritoriousness, your own cruelties and dislikes, what you
did, what you felt, and thought, are also recorded. This is too strong
medicine to bear, save by long, sincere, uncritical self-observation. So
instead of such a powerful degree of direct consciousness we are mer¬
cifully given memory on rolls and are not allowed to have access to real
memory, which only Conscious Man can bear and has. We, as me¬
chanical people, groping in the dark, could not bear such an intense
light. Gradually, however, by work on oneself, this range of conscious¬
ness increases, and with it our Personalities begin to lose power—and
Essence begins to develop.
“You can catch perhaps a glimpse of what I am speaking of—
namely, how little we can trust to the memory deposits on rolls in
centres. If people only realized that what they call absolutely certain
memory is not certain and that, in fact, they cannot trust memory on
rolls in centres and that what they are sure happened did not happen
as they remember—it would lead to a freeing of themselves from the
brain-machinery and as a result a loosening of everything in them and
a new feeling of themselves. This Work, from many different angles of
approach, is to free a man, a woman, from their habitual, rigid, set
164
feeling of themselves, and eventually create a new sense of T, a new
feeling of oneself. How many evil accounts against others, how many
bitter grievances, are kept alive against others on the basis of this
faulty memory on rolls, which, if we could experience real contact
with the Time-Dimension, would utterly vanish. But few are yet pre¬
pared enough by the Work to begin to see and bear what really hap¬
pened. If we had real memory we could never have negative emotions
against others. But as we are we have to begin the other way round—
that is, to notice and separate from our negative emotions. This is
called ‘preparation of lower centres for the reception of higher cen¬
tres.’ Higher centres work in higher dimensions. They embrace the
whole life,"
COMMENTARY
165
txe is lower or worse than another. All are necessary—top, middle and
lower storey. Each contains marvelous machines, marvelous radios.
Now a one-sided man can become easily ill psychologically because he
is so imbalanced in the Work-sense. He wears himself out by living in
so small a part. To ordinary understanding a man who always says and
does the same thing is regarded as steady and reliable, and so a Bal¬
anced Man. But in a situation foreign to him, he will find himself dis¬
tressed and incapable. Or he cannot think about ideas to which he is
not accustomed. In short, underneath his fagade, he is rather help¬
less. once life changes a little. As long as life remains much the same,
he appears reliable and balanced. Yes. life balances him. as it does
most of us. Life gives us a mechanical balance. But this does not mean
we have any real conscious balance in ourselves. If we could use all
centres in the three-storey house equally and used each one for the
right situation, then we would become flexible to life. It is in this
flexibility that the idea of balance lies and so of Number 4 Man. Re¬
gard a man crossing a tight-rope. Is he rigid, always the same? On
the contrary, he is continually altering his position and indeed this or¬
dinarily is called balancing. So Balanced Man. in the Work-sense, or
Number 4 Man. if you were to meet him, might seem strange and con¬
tradictory to your view of a balanced man as a rigid man always the
same, who always behaves in the same way and always repeats the
same things, and so, from your way of thinking, is a reliable man. Do
you see what is meant? Do you see how the Work uses its words in a
special manner, which does not correspond with their ordinary usage?
166
creasing consciousness, a narrow, small, one-sided man or woman,
living, so to speak, in one small room of their large three-storey being,
will not be able to develop. They will live and die undeveloped, even if
they have made a million by small transactions. And since they have
changed nothing in themselves, their lives will recur as before. Not
only so, but each recurrence may be on a worse level.
167
will remember it earlier next time.’ That is, every moment of realiza¬
tion now, in self-work, not only affects the future but can alter the
past. so. re-traversing one's bit of Time, one is warned by oneself last
time.
“In discussing the idea of recurrence, in connection with the
conception of a six-dimensional world, composed first of the three
visible dimensions of Space and the (to us) invisible fourth dimension
of the world that we experience as Time, Mr. Ouspensky said that the
possibility of change begins only with the possibility of remembering
yourself now. He said: ‘In this sense the idea of recurrence is not
necessary.' At that time, when I Ireard this, I thought that the idea of
the repetition, the recurrence, of everything, would make one’s Self-
Remembering stronger—and I no longer think it but know it. From
daily experience in the daily recurrence in which you all are now. you
know that if you repeat a thing it will repeat and master you eventually,
so that you cannot change it. Mr. Ouspensky talked at that time about
how so many things prove we have lived before—that our lives are re¬
sults of recurrences. Take the sudden genius exhibited in small chil¬
dren—say. for music. About Number 4 Man he said, in answer to a
question as to whether Number 4 Man recurs as Number 4 Man: ‘No.
Only Number 5 Man can recur as Number 5. Number 4 Man has to
make himself again, only it will be easier or earlier.' He added: ‘A
Conscious Man need not recur—that is, return to the same place in
Time. He may re-incamate—that is, go back and be bom in another
part of historical Time where he can prevent things from going as they
did.’
168
BIBLIOGRAPHY
IDHHB. Inc. — “Secret Talks with Mr. G" (To a specially formed group
as recollected by his pupils).
171
/lYiOWZ <me AUTHOR
173
"*7he two hiyher dated, ojjcondciondnedd one inacceddibJe to- Man, andatthouyk he may. have
f/tadtel ojj thede dated, he id unable to- underdtand them faom the point a j view, a^ tUode dated in which
it id udnat fad him to he. *1he two uduat, that id, the towed dated o/ condciondnedd, are fardt, deep,
that id a paddive date in which Man. dpendd a third, and very ofaen hoihid Ufa, and then, the date
in, which men. dpend the other pact ojj theid lived, in which they walk the ddeetd, wdite bookd, talk
on tanye dubjectd, take pact in politicd, kill one anothed, which they reyard ad active, and call 'dead
condciondnedd' od the 'wakiny date a£ conddondneid.'
hhe third date o£ condciondnedd id ' £elj- Reutemberiny' od Selj- Conddondneid, od Selj-
HwaAeneid. 9t id uduat to condided that we haAje thid date o£ condciondnedd, od that we can have it
i^ we want it. Qud icience and phtlodophy have overlooked the fad that we da not poddedd thid dtate
°& condciondnedd and that we cannot create it in onrdelved by deUre od decidian atone.
" "Ihe fanrth dtate condciondnedd id catted the Objective State o/ Qonddondnedd. 9n thid
dtate a man can dee thinyd ad they ode. fyladhed a^ thid dtate o j condciondnedd aide occur, in Man.
9n the reliyiond aj all nationd, there are indicationd oj the peddibitity a£ a dtate oj condciondnedd o£
thid kind which id, catted £,ntiyhtenment and variond other named, hut which cannot be dedcribed
in, wordd. Hut the only Uuyht IdJay to Objective Qonddondnedd id thronyh, the development o£ Sdj-
Gondciondnedd."