Hip Quotes: Gurdjieff

Lecture by Gurdjieff quoted in J.G.Bennett’s  ‘Making a New World’.

 

“Freedom leads to freedom. Those are the first words of truth. You do not know what truth is because you do not know what freedom is. All the ‘truth’ that you know today is only truth in quotation marks. There is another truth but it is not theoretical; it cannot be expressed in words. Only those who have realized it in themselves can understand that truth.

Now I will give you a detailed explanation of those words I have spoken. It rests on the following basis. The freedom I speak about is the freedom that is the goal of all schools, all religions, of all times. And in truth, I tell you that this freedom can be a very great one. Everyone wishes for it: but it can never be attained without the first kind of freedom that I will call the Lesser Freedom. The Greater Freedom is the liberation of ourselves from all influences acting outside ourselves. The Lesser Freedom is the liberation of ourselves  from all influences acting within ourselves. For a start – for you who are beginners – the Lesser Freedom is a very big one indeed, as it is not subject to your dependence upon outside influences.

You have to understand that so long as you are the slave of inside influences you cannot come under the action of outside influences. This is perhaps even a good thing, so long as you have no inner freedom. You must understand that the man who is freed from inside influences begins to fall under the play of outside influences.

Inner influences, that produce in you inner slavery, come from many independent sources. That is to say, there is a great heap of independent factors that cause man to be inwardly a slave. These influences are different for different people. In one case one influence is strongest, and in another case another. But in every one without exception there are so many factors of slavery that, if you had to struggle with each one you would need such a long time that half a lifetime would not be enough.

Therefore we must find such a means or method of working as will enable us to destroy simultaneously as many as possible of the enemies within us from which flow these influences that produce slavery.

As I have said, there are many such independent enemies: but two of the chiefest are Vanity and Self-Love. In one doctrine, these are even called the chief ambassadors of the devil. It may be added, by the way, that for some reason they are called Madame Vanity and Monsieur Self-Love. I have quoted merely two of these inner enemies as characteristic, because it would lead too far to mention them all now.

We have so many slaves within us – each of these slaves wishes to be free, but it is difficult for each slave to work directly and straightforwardly. It is especially difficult for our slaves to contend with these enemies, because none of our slaves has enough time. At one moment one slave is present : at another moment it is another slave, and to contend with these enemies requires a great deal of time. In the upshot, it has to be done indirectly in order that we can get rid of several of the enemies simultaneously.

For this, we have to understand how these enemies work and from where they get their power. You must know that these representatives of the devil stand all the time on the threshold and deny entry to all outside influences – both good and bad. Accordingly, they have both good and bad sides. If anyone wishes to limit the entry of outside influences, it is well for him that these sentinels exist. But if, for some reason or other, anyone wishes that every kind of outside influence should enter him, then he must free himself from these two sentinels. Only it is necessary to understand once and for all that it is impossible to select the influence one wishes. For example, it is impossible to select only good influences. The sentinels are only undesirable for those whose real aim is freedom. Those who have this aim must strive by every means in their power to liberate themselves first of all from these two enemies – vanity and self-love.

To do this there are a heap of methods and many different means. But I, Gurdjieff, would personally advise you to get rid of them, without subtilizing, by merely reasoning simply and actively with yourself.

This is possible by active mentation: and I must warn you that if you fail, or find it impossible by this means, then some other means must be found, because there is no hope of going further until some of those enemies have been eradicated.

For instance, self-love or false pride takes up half of our time and half of our life. If anyone or anything outside us should hurt our pride, we are injured, not only for the time being, but for a long time afterwards. And that wounded feeling, acting by inertia, closes the portal and so shuts out life.

I live! Life is outside. I am alive so long as I am connected with the outside. If life only exists inside me, this is no life at all. When I ‘behold myself’ I find that I am linked up with the outside world. Everything lives after this wise and cannot exist without this linkage.

One experience fades away and hardly has time to do so when another takes its place. Our machine is so built that it has not various places in it in which different experiences can subsist at one and the same time. In us, there is one place where experiences can be, and if that place is occupied by experiences of one kind that are undesirable, there can be no question of its being occupied with experiences of another kind which may be desirable. You have to grasp and realize as a fact that your experiences cannot lead to any kind of achievement or liberation unless you have lived through them. You must have experiences – even more perhaps than you can possibly imagine, both pleasant and unpleasant – but you must not let them make slaves of you. On the contrary, you must use them in order to prepare a place in which you can be free.

We do not own ourselves and do not posses real pride of self. Pride of Self is a big thing. As much as we must blame pride as it is ordinarily understood, so much do we need that Real Pride which unhappily does not exist in us.

Pride of Self is the sign of being in possession of oneself. If a man has Self-Pride it proves that he is. But as I said in the beginning, Self-Pride is also the Devil’s representative. Self-Pride is the chief enemy, the chief obstacle to all our achievements. Pride is the main tool and representative of hell. Pride is also one attribute of the soul. By Pride it is possible to discern the spirit. Pride of Self is the indicator and proof that such a one is part of Heaven. Pride of Self is ‘I’. ‘I’ is God. Consequently it is needful to have pride. Pride is hell. Pride is heaven. These two, both bearing the same name, externally both of the same substance, are wholly different and opposite. No one by merely superficial examination – even if he continues a whole lifetime – will ever succeed to discern one from the other.

There is a saying ‘Those who have Pride are already half-free’. And if we take those who are sitting round here, each one has so much pride that he has more than enough to spare. This is a paradox. We are full to the brim with pride and yet we have not the slightest freedom for ourselves. The aim must be to have Pride. If we attain to have pride we shall thereby be made free from many of the foes who are installed in us. We may even free ourselves from the main ones – Madame Vanity and Monsieur Self Love.

If you wish for Freedom – even the Lesser Freedom – you must be ready to pay a big price.

Sometimes people complain to me that they cannot do the tasks I give them. What do they expect? It is enough if you see the possibility of doing them – the rest depends upon the strength of your own wish to be free. At present you cannot do, because you are not free.

You must understand that you cannot begin with freedom – freedom is the goal, the aim. People say God created man free. That is a great misunderstanding. Freedom cannot be given to anyone – even by our all-loving Creator Himself. God has given to man the biggest thing He can – that is the possibility to become free. The desire for freedom exists in every man worthy of the name – but people are stupid and think they can have outward freedom without inner freedom. All our evil comes from this stupidity. Unless we desire, first of all, to be free from our own inner enemies, we shall only go from bad to worse.