The Gurdjieff Aphorisms

The Gurdjieff Aphorisms

What is an aphorism? Wiki definition

Like what “it” does not like.

The highest that a man can attain is to be able to do.

The worse the conditions of life the more productive the work, always provided you remember the work.

Remember yourself always and everywhere.

Remember you come here having already understood the necessity of struggling with yourself—only with yourself. Therefore thank everyone who gives you the opportunity.

Here we can only direct and create conditions, but not help.

Know that this house can be useful only to those who have recognized their nothingness and who believe in the possibility of changing.

If you already know it is bad and do it, you commit a sin difficult to redress.

The chief means of happiness in this life is the ability to consider externally always, internally never.

Do not love art with your feelings.

A true sign of a good man is if he loves his father and mother.

Judge others by yourself and you will rarely be mistaken.

Only help him who is not an idler.

Respect every religion.

I love him who loves work.

We can only strive to be able to be Christians.

Don't judge a man by the tales of others.

Consider what people think of you—not what they say.

Take the understanding of the East and the knowledge of the West—and then seek.

Only he who can take care of what belongs to others may have his own.

Only conscious suffering has any sense.

It is better to be temporarily an egoist than never to be just.

Practice love first on animals, they are more sensitive.

By teaching others you will learn yourself.

Remember that here work is not for work’s sake but is only a means.

Only he can be just who is able to put himself in the position of others.

If you have not by nature a critical mind your staying here is useless.

He who has freed himself of the disease of “tomorrow” has a chance to attain what he came here for.

Blessed is he who has a soul, blessed is he who has none, but woe and grief to him who has it in embryo.

Rest comes not from the quantity but from the quality of sleep.

Sleep little without regret.

The energy spent on active inner work is then and there transformed into a fresh supply, but that spent on passive work is lost for ever.

One of the best means for arousing the wish to work on yourself is to realize that you may die at any moment. But first you must learn how to keep it in mind.

Conscious love evokes the same in response. Emotional love evokes the opposite. Physical love depends on type and polarity.

Conscious faith is freedom. Emotional faith is slavery. Mechanical faith is foolishness.

Hope, when bold, is strength. Hope, with doubt, is cowardice. Hope, with fear, is weakness.

Man is given a definite number of experiences—economizing them, he prolongs his life.

Here there are neither Russians nor English, Jews nor Christians, but only those who pursue one aim ~ to be able to be.

~ G. I. Gurdjieff 1924

BUFFERS

ISOM: Ch IV


" 'Buffer' is a term which requires special explanation. We know what buffers on railway carriages are. They are the contrivances which lessen the shock when carriages or trucks strike one another. If there were no buffers the shock of one carriage against another would be very unpleasant and dangerous. Buffers soften the results of these shocks and render them unnoticeable and imperceptible.
"Exactly the same appliances are to be found within man. They are created, not by nature but by man himself, although involuntarily. The cause of their appearance is the existence in man of many contradictions; contradictions of opinions, feelings, sympathies, words, and actions. If a man throughout the whole of his life were to feel all the contradictions that are within him he could not live and act as calmly as he lives and acts now. He would have constant friction, constant unrest. We fail to see how contradictory and hostile the different I's of our personality are to one another. If a man were to feel all these contradictions he would feel what he really is. He would feel that he is mad. It is not pleasant to anyone to feel that he is mad. Moreover, a thought such as this deprives a man of self-confidence, weakens his energy, deprives him of 'self-respect.' Somehow or other he must master this thought or banish it. He must either destroy contradictions or cease to see and to feel them. A man cannot destroy contradictions. But if 'buffers' are created in him he can cease to feel them and he will not feel the impact from the clash of contradictory views, contradictory emotions, contradictory words.


"'Buffers' are created slowly and gradually. Very many 'buffers' are created artificially through 'education.' Others are created under the hypnotic influence of all surrounding life. A man is surrounded by people who live, speak, think, and feel by means of 'buffers.' Imitating them in their opinions, actions, and words, a man involuntarily creates similar 'buffers' in himself. 'Buffers' make a man's life more easy. It is very hard to live without 'buffers.' But they keep man from the possibility of inner development because 'buffers' are made to lessen shocks and it is only shocks that can lead a man out of the state in which he lives, that is, waken him. ..." ~ G.I. Gurdjieff

The Good Householder: Part II

OBYVATEL Part II: ISOM pages 362 - 363

"People of the objective way live simply in life. They are those whom we call good people. Particular systems and methods are not necessary for them; making use of ordinary religious or intellectual teachings and ordinary morality, they live at the same time according to conscience. They do not of necessity do much good, but they do no evil. Sometimes they happen to be quite uneducated, simple people, but they understand life very well, they have the right valuation of things and a right outlook. And they are of course perfecting themselves and evolving. Only their way can be very long with many unnecessary repetitions."

   "I had for a long time wanted to get G to talk about repetition but he always avoided it. So it was on this occasion. Without answering my question on repetition he continued."

" It often seems to people of the 'way', that is, of the subjective way, especially those who are just beginning, that other people, that is, people of the objective way, are not moving, but this is a very big mistake. A simple obyvatel may sometimes do such work in him that he will overtake another - a monk or even a yogi."

"Obyvatel is a strange word in the Russian language. It is used in the sense of an 'inhabitant', without any particular shade. At the same time it is used to express contempt or derision -'obyvatel'- as though there could be nothing worse. But those who speak in this way do not understand that the obyvatel is the healthy kernel of life. And from that point of view of the possibility of evolution, a good obyvatel has many more chances than a 'lunatic' or a 'tramp'. Afterwards I will perhaps explain what I mean by these two words. In the meantime, we will talk about the obyvatel. I do not wish to say that all obyvatels are people of the subjective way; nothing of the kind. Among them are thieves, rascals, and fools; but there are others. I merely wish to say that being a good obyvatel by itself does not hinder the 'way'. And finally there are different types of obyvatel. Imagine, for example, the type of obyvatel who lives all his life just as other people around him, conspicuous in nothing, perhaps a good master who makes money, and is perhaps even close fisted. At the same time, he dreams of monasteries, for instance, and dreams some time or other that he will leave everything and go into a monastery. And such things happen in the East and in Russia. A man lives and works, then when his children are grown up; he gives everything to them and goes into a monastery. This is the obyvatel of which I speak. Perhaps he does not go into a monastery; perhaps he does not need this. His own life as an obyvatel is his own way."

"People who are definitely thinking about ways, particularly people of intellectual ways, very often look down at the obyvatel, and in general despise the virtues of the obyvatel. But they only show by this their own personal unsuitability for any way whatever. Because no way can begin from a level lower than the obyvatel. This is very often lost sight of on people who are unable to organize their own personal lives - who are too weak to struggle with and conquer life, dream of the ways, or what they consider are the ways, because they think it will be easier for them than life and because this, so to speak, justifies their weakness and their inadaptability. A man who can be a good obyvatel is much more helpful from the point of view of the 'way' than a 'tramp' who thinks himself much higher than an obyvatel, I call 'tramps' all the so called 'intelligentsia' --- artists, poets, any kind of 'bohemian' in general who despises the obyvatel and who at the same time would be unable to exist without him. Ability to orientate oneself in life is a very useful quality from the point of view of the work. A good obyvatel should be able to support at least twenty persons by his own labor. What is a man worth who is unable to do this?"

"What does an obyvatel actually mean?" asked someone. "Can it be said that an obyvatel is a good citizen?"

"Ought an obyvatel to be patriotic?" someone else asked. "Let us suppose there is war. What attitude should an obyvatel have towards war?"

"There can be different wars and there can be different patriots," said G. "you still believe in words. An obyvatel, if he is a good obyvatel, does not believe in words. He realizes how much idle talk is hidden behind them. People who shout about their patriotism [or anything else] are psychopaths for him and he looks on them as such."

"And how would an obyvatel look upon pacifists or upon people who refuse to go to the war?"

 "Equally as lunatics! They are probably still worse."