|
XXXIX
IN SPEAKING OF his
methods of self-development and proper
growth, Gurdjieff would often emphasize the fact that there
were many dangers that would inevitably be encountered in
the process. One of the most frequent obstacles was that, at
times, the performance of a particular exercise (he was refer-
ring to individual exercises prescribed by him for particular
individuals) would produce a state of exhilaration or well-
being. He said that while such a state of exhilaration was
proper to the correct and serious performance of such exer-
cises, one danger lay in our misconception of "results" or
"progress"; it was necessary to remember that we should not
expect results at all. If we did an exercise expecting a certain
result, it was valueless. But, if we achieved a recognizable
result, such as a feeling of genuine well-being, even though
this was a proper, temporary, result, it did not in any sense
mean that one had "achieved" anything permanent. It could
mean that some progress was being made but it was then
necessary to work that much harder in order to make such
"results" a permanent part of oneself.
He referred, frequently, to a sort of riddle: a man, accom-
panied by three mutually hostile organisms, a lamb, a wolf,
and a cabbage, arrives at the edge of a river which has to be
crossed in a boat which can only carry two -- the man and one
other -- "passengers" at a time. It is necessary to transport
himself and his "companions" across the river without the
possibility of one of them being able to attack or destroy the
other. The important element in the story was that the general
human tendency was to try to find a "short-cut", and the
moral of the story was that there is no short-cut: that it is
essential, always, to make the necessary number of trips to
ensure the safety and well-being of all the passengers. He said
that in the beginning, even though it would seem a waste of
valuable time, it would frequently be necessary to make
extra trips rather than to risk any possible danger. However,
as one became accustomed to his exercises and methods, one
should eventually be able to make only the exact number of
trips required and still not endanger any passenger. It was
also necessary to recognize the fact that in the case of the man,
the lamb, the wolf and the cabbage it would be necessary to
take some of the passengers on a return trip which would also
seem a waste of time.
He used the same "riddle" as an example of the "centres"
or "brains" of man; the man representing the "I" or the
consciousness and the other three the physical, emotional, and
mental centres. In addition to stressing the fact that the
physical centre was the most developed of the three, he said
that the mental centre was practically undeveloped, and that
the emotional centre, which was partly developed -- but in all
the wrong ways -- was completely "savage". He said that we
responded to the needs of the body compulsively, which was
proper as long as our bodily habits were good ones, since it
was necessary to satisfy the needs of the body, or "machine",
in the same sense that one would take proper care of a motor
car since it was our only means of "transportation". With the
emotional centre, since we knew almost nothing about it,
the problem was much more difficult. Most of the errors of
violence that were committed in the course of life were
emotional, since we did not know how to use emotion properly
in the course of our lives, and had only learned to form
improper emotional habits from the moment we were born.
He said that emotional "needs" existed that were just as
compulsive as our physical needs such as hunger, sleep, sex,
etc., but that we did not understand what they were and knew
nothing at all about how to satisfy such emotional "cravings".
One of the first steps was to understand that emotion was a
kind of force within us. He frequently compared it to a balloon
or to the reservoir of air that served to make a pipe-organ
function. The pipes of the organ could be considered examples
of various types of emotion, each pipe labelled differently:
i.e., one pipe would be anger, another hate, another greed,
another vanity, another jealousy, another pity, and so forth.
One step towards the proper use of emotion was to be able
to use the force or "air" in the reservoir in whichever of the
pipes was proper or appropriate in a given situation, in much
the same way as one consciously struck a certain note on an
organ in order to produce a particular tone. If, for example,
one felt -- for whatever reason -- anger, when anger was not
appropriate to a particular circumstance or situation, instead
of expressing anger, it should become possible for us to con-
sciously divert that energy into whatever emotion was necessary
or proper at the time. All existing emotions, all feelings, had
purpose; there was a reason for their existence and a proper
use for each one of them. But without consciousness or know-
ledge we used them blindly, compulsively and ignorantly,
without any sort of control, producing the same effect in our
emotional life as would have been produced, musically, by
playing a pipe-organ as an animal might play it, without any
knowledge, and without music -- simply at random. The great
danger of uncontrolled emotions was that "shock" generally
produced effects in oneself and in others, and the force of
shock was emotional. If from lack of consciousness or know-
ledge, one felt -- mechanically -- anger, instead of, for instance,
compassion, at a time when compassion was the proper
emotion, only havoc and chaos could be produced.
Most of the problems in communication and understanding
between individuals resulted from just such emotional shocks
which were inappropriate, unexpected, and therefore usually
harmful and destructive. One of the subtler dangers involved
in this was that people frequently tried to use a "shortcut"
to the use of proper emotions. While feeling anger, they would
attempt to control this feeling and express a different emotion --
such as happiness, or love, or anything except anger. Since,
whether we knew it or not, the simulated emotion did not
convince other people emotionally, the result was that, in spite
of the outward expression, the actual emotion or feeling would
have been "recognized" as anger in any case, and having been
sensed or felt in this way by another individual, in spite of
not having been expressed honestly, it could be even more
dangerous as it could only serve to arouse, although perhaps
unconsciously, suspicion and hostility.
Go to Next Page
|