Gurdjieff Studies

(L.S. Morris' Orage notes, 17 OCTOBER I927, as in "Orage's Commentary on Gurdjieff's 'Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson'," Book Studio, p.260-1)

"...The only sure means is a daily attempt to ponder the meaning of life and by an attempt to deal with the situation not only without complaining but spiritedly. Here we have a taste of normal activity."

(A.R. Orage)

"...His normal understanding has been converted into abnormal. He has only glimpses, shadows of his real passion to understand and to overcome...

There are no magical means which would not destroy the possibility of a normal awakening..."

"Though designed to have a passion for understanding and power to develop it man has departed from the norm. Man is in a state of hypnosis..."

"…there is nothing accidental or unnecessary in nature and…there can be nothing; everything has a definite function; everything serves a definite purpose."

(Gurdjieff in "In Search of the Miraculous" - P.D. Ouspensky, p.305)

(8.) A.R. Orage - ARE WE AWAKE? “HOW can we prove to ourselves at any given moment that we are not asleep and dreaming?”

[Full essay in link for short time]

journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com/p/8-ar-orage...

"...What if we should wake up and find waking life a dream, and our present sleep and dream merely dreams within a dream?"
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(A.R. Orage - from "Are we Awake?" in "Psychological Essays")

"HOW can we prove to ourselves at any given moment that we are not asleep and dreaming? Life circumstances are sometimes as fantastic as dream circumstances; and change with the same rapidity..."

...We are shortly coming up to essay number (8), namely, the middle of the set of fifteen. A sentence summarising the "quintessence" of each so far is given.

...There are hints of underlying motives as well as the surface meanings, and a deep connection with Gurdjieff’s teaching in the form that Orage gives it in his explicit teaching groups...

Orage Essay Summaries Keeping the quintessence in mind.

Regarding the current project of Orage’s "Psychological Essays" being sent out, it’s useful to see each essay in its place in the sequence of the set of fifteen, & to keep what has gone before in mind, as they seem to be building upon each other.

journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com/p/essay-summ...

(Gurdjieff in "In Search of the Miraculous" - P.D. Ouspensky, p.240)

journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com/p/current-li...

"…But here there is something new and unknown. He does not even know whether any result can be got from it or not… But to begin to work and particularly to continue to work is very difficult and it is difficult because life runs too smoothly."

"…it is very difficult for a man to decide to throw everything to the devil and begin real work. And why is it difficult? Principally because his life is too easy and even if he considers it bad he is already accustomed to it. It is better for it to be bad, yet known..."

"…The soul should be turned inwards, but ordinarily it is turned outwards towards some object or person in the world of the senses and remains undeveloped. This should not be."

(Maurice Nicoll - "Commentaries on the Psychological Teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky," Vol.V, p.1695)

"…This is the same as saying that your function of relationship to the external world is weak. We will now touch briefly on the meaning of soul. The soul is the function of relationship to Higher Centres…"

"Now Personality is the function of relationship to the external world. It is what relates you to things. If you have a weak, untrained Personality, your relationship to the external world is a weak one, and you are probably a nuisance to others…"

" '…and the Gurdjieff method is designed to shift the centre of gravity to formal and then to objective reasoning by making use of this material.' "

(Orage in "Teachings of Gurdjieff" by C.S. Nott, p.166)

" '…we have to go from formal to objective. The material of the language of gesture, posture, tone of voice, facial expression, and movement, is the material of formal reasoning…"

"'…We have reached the conclusion that we have two forms of reasoning, formal and associative, and the distinction is made without reference to objective reason. It is not possible to develop objective reason so long as our centre of gravity remains in associative reasoning…"

" 'In verbal reasoning we substitute association for real experience. We cannot yet explore the character of objective truth and the character of the technique for attaining this…"

(7.) A.R. Orage - HOW TO LIVE MORE "We may compare time to a string on which beads are threaded."

(A.R. Orage - "How to Live More," in "Psychological Essays")

[Full essay in link for limited time]

journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com/p/7-ar-orage...

"At the same time, however, that we complain of being bored or of things being dull, we also complain that we have too little time at our disposal. When we are aware of the passage of time, we are dull; and when we are not aware of it, then time goes all too quickly."

"TIME seems long or short to us according as it is filled or empty. We may compare time to a string on which beads are threaded. When the beads are very close together we are not aware of the string. The farther they are apart the more the string shows...

"…But in order to enable essence to grow up, it is first of all necessary to weaken the constant pressure of personality upon it, because the obstacles to the growth of essence are contained in personality."

(Gurdjieff in "In Search of the Miraculous" - P.D. Ouspensky, p.163)

"A very important moment in the work on oneself is when a man begins to distinguish between his personality and his essence. A man's real I, his individuality, can grow only from his essence. It can be said that a man's individuality is his essence, grown up, mature…"

journalgurdjieffstudies.substack.com/p/current-li...

"...The struggle against lying in oneself and the struggle against fears is the first positive work which a man begins to do."

(Gurdjieff, in "In Search of the Miraculous," by P.D. Ouspensky, p.230)

"..These fears must first be found and then destroyed. The fears of which I speak are usually connected with the lies among which a man lives. You must realize that they have nothing in common with the fear of spiders or of mice or of a dark room, or with unaccountable nervous fears..."

"A man usually has many unnecessary, imaginary fears. Lies and fears—this is the atmosphere in which an ordinary man lives. Just as the conquest of lying is individual, so also is the conquest of fear. Every man has fears of his own which are peculiar to him alone…"