Gurdjieff, on The Way |
“"The chief difficulty in understanding the idea of the way,"' said G., "consists in the fact that people usually think that the way" (he emphasized this word) "starts on the same level on which life is going. This is quite wrong. The way begins on another, much higher, level. This is exactly what people usually do not understand. The beginning of the way is thought to be easier or simpler than it is in reality.
Excerpt taken from In Search of the Miraculous by P. D. Ouspensky, pub. Paul H. Crompton Ltd, 2004, p 199.
The beginning of the way depends
precisely upon... the capacity for discriminating between the
two kinds of influences... Speaking in
general and taking normal life under normal conditions and a normal man... difficulties
are equal for everybody. The difficulty lies in separating the two kinds of influences.
If a man in receiving them does not separate them... they act in the
same way, on the same level, and produce the same results. But if a man in receiving
these influences begins to discriminate between them and put on one side those which
are not created in life itself, then... after a
certain time a man can no longer confuse them with the ordinary influences of life.The results of the influences whose source lies outside life collect together within
him, he remembers them together, feels them together. They begin to form within him
a certain whole... after a certain time they form within him a kind of magnetic center, which
begins to attract to itself kindred influences and in this manner it grows."
Excerpt taken from In Search of the Miraculous by P. D. Ouspensky, pub. Paul H. Crompton Ltd, 2004, p 200 (substantially editedfor brevity.)
"Therefore it is impossible to answer the question, from what does the way start? The way starts with something that is not in life at all, and therefore it is impossible to say from what. Sometimes it is said: in ascending the stairway a man is not sure of anything, he may doubt everything... At the same time, what he attains is very unstable; even if he has ascended fairly high on the stairway, he may fall down at any moment... But when he has passed the last threshold and enters the way, all this changes. First of all, all doubts he may have about his guide disappear and at the same time the guide becomes far less necessary to him than before. In many respects he may even be independent and know where he is going. Secondly, he can no longer lose so easily the results of his work and he cannot find himself again in ordinary life. Even if he leaves the way, he will be unable to return where he started from.
Excerpt taken from In Search of the Miraculous by P. D. Ouspensky, pub. Paul H. Crompton Ltd, 2004, p 201 (editedfor brevity.)