Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff (13 January 1872? – 29 October 1949) was
a Greek-Armenian enlightened mystic and a spiritual teacher of what came
to be called "the Work" or "The Fourth Way", in which he taught people
how to increase and focus their attention and energy through various
awareness exercises. According to his teachings, such inner development
is the beginning of a possible further process of change, and spiritual
evolution.
- Man such as we know him, is a machine.
- You must understand that ordinary efforts do not count; only
superefforts count.
- Sincerity is the key which will open the door through which you
will see your separate parts, and you will see something quite new.
You must go on trying to be sincere. Each day you put on a mask, and
you must take it off little by little.
- I ask you to believe nothing that you cannot verify for
yourself.
- If you want to lose your faith, make friends with a priest.
- It is very difficult also to sacrifice one's suffering. A man
will renounce any pleasures you like but he will not give up his
suffering.
- Faith of consciousness is freedom
Faith of feeling is weakness
Faith of body is stupidity.
- Without self knowledge, without understanding the working and
functions of his machine, man cannot be free, he cannot govern
himself and he will always remain a slave.
- Every one of those unfortunates during the process of existence
should constantly sense and be cognizant of the inevitability of his
own death as well as of the death of everyone upon whom his eyes or
attention rests. Only such a sensation and such a cognizance can now
destroy the egoism completely crystallized in them that has
swallowed up the whole of their Essence, and also that tendency to
hate others which flows from it.
- Man has the possibility of existence after death. But
possibility is one thing and the realization of the possibility is
quite a different thing.
- It is the greatest mistake to think that man is always one and
the same. A man is never the same for long. He is continually
changing. He seldom remains the same even for half an hour.
- In speaking of evolution it is necessary to understand from the
outset that no mechanical evolution is possible. The evolution of
man is the evolution of his consciousness.
- There is a cosmic law which says that every satisfaction must be
paid for with a dissatisfaction.
- Knowledge can be acquired by a suitable and complete study, no
matter what the starting point is. Only one must know how to
'learn.' What is nearest to us is man; and you are the nearest of
all men to yourself. Begin with the study of yourself; remember the
saying 'Know thyself.
- The sole means now for the saving of the beings of the planet
Earth would be to implant again into their presences a new organ ...
of such properties that every one of these unfortunates during the
process of existence should constantly sense and be cognizant of the
inevitability of his own death as well as the death of everyone upon
whom his eyes or attention rests. Only such a sensation and such a
cognizance can now destroy the egoism completely crystallized in
them.
- A man may be born, but in order to be born he must first die,
and in order to die he must first awake.
- It is impossible to recognize a wrong way without knowing the
right way. This means that it is no use troubling oneself how to
recognize a wrong way. One must think of how to find the right way.
- Two things in life are infinite; the stupidity of man and the
mercy of God.
- Hope of consciousness is strength
Hope of feelings is slavery
Hope of body is disease.
- Man has no individual I. But there are, instead, hundreds and
thousands of separate small "I"s, very often entirely unknown to one
another, never coming into contact, or, on the contrary, hostile to
each other, mutually exclusive and incompatible. Each minute, each
moment, man is saying or thinking, "I". And each time his I is
different. Just now it was a thought, now it is a desire, now a
sensation, now another thought, and so on, endlessly. Man is a
plurality. Man's name is legion.
- Man has no permanent and unchangeable I. Every thought, every
mood, every desire, every sensation, says "I".
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