GURDJIEFF, G.I. â Life is real only then, when I am - Integral Book

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As the mention of such a free attitude toward my correspondence is asort of confession of one of my secrets, slipped in involuntarily, I feelthe need also to confess something else regarding the correspondenceaddressed to me. This would be in perfect accord with that fundamentalprinciple of mine, always applied by me in ordinary life, and which isformulated by the words: "If one is on a spree, one must not stop attrifles." (See "The Arousing of Thought," Beelzebub's Tales to HisGrandson.)After my motor accident, already mentioned, making an exceptiononly of the representatives of the French government, I closed the doorsof my house to all people, both those who already knew me and thosewho had only heard about me and were curious to see me—probablywith the aim, as most of them believed, of finding out for themselveswhat I was like and what my ideas were. When in the second year I wasespecially "bombarded" with big piles of letters, I commissioned one ofthe people near me to open these letters without giving them to me, andif there were no what are called "enclosures" nor any indication of theirimmediate dispatch, to destroy them in such a way that not even their"astral smell" should remain in my house, but if there were enclosures,then, as I had the habit of expressing myself, according to the numberof English, or at worst American, "zeros" adorning them, to act in thefollowing way:If one zero adorned the enclosure, then the letter was to be destroyedwithout residue and the enclosure given to the children living in myhouse for buying toys; if the enclosure had two zeros, the letter was tobe given forthwith to my private secretary and the enclosure to thekitchen administration on duty in the Prieuré; and only those letterswere to be handed to me personally which were adorned with three ormore of the aforesaid zeros.
This arrangement of mine, by the way, still continues today, but inthe near future, that is to say, the moment I finish this first book of thethird series of my writings, I propose to change this arrangement insuch a way that all the letters and telegrams without exception are to bedestroyed and the enclosures with no fewer than four zeros, handed tome, those with three to my secretary, those with two to the childrenliving in my house, and all the enclosures with one zero will be sent tothe poor children of the towns of Fontainebleau and Avon.Now that I have publicly confessed to such an unceremoniousattitude not only toward my correspondence but also toward people,some of whom were at that time and perhaps still are considered invarious European countries powerful and even "illustrious," it will beright to say that if my consciousness allowed my particular nature tomanifest such a "boldness" and even to express it in written form,making it accessible to the perception of every two-legged breathingcreature, in spite of his representing, in the sense of comprehension,some geometrical figure such as a "cube," "square," or "zigzag," it isbecause I have already succeeded in fulfilling the greatest part of thetask I set myself, in spite of all kinds of obstructive factors—both thosewhich arose according to law and those engendered by various typesamidst us who unfortunately bear also the name of "man" and who, asexplained in a very ancient legend, arising and existing among us ordinarypeople, are usually formed by Nature in such a way that tworesults ensue: firstly, the cosmic substances transformed through themduring their vegetation and not, as they themselves believe it, their life,serve as "cathode elements" for the maintenance on Earth of "objectiveGood" in the life of all humanity, and that, secondly, the elementscomposing their common presence are transformed after they perish toserve
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PREFATORY NOTE Although this text i
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Tales to His Grandson, that the Thi
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first thing, is to prepare a nucleu
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PROLOGUE I am. . .? But what has be
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"black" thoughts, I had decided to
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with the impressions with which dif
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It would, strictly speaking, even b
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Under such conditions of tension ye
Page 20 and 21: Only the next morning, when it bega
Page 22 and 23: On this original instrument I then
Page 24 and 25: And I also knew that the reason for
Page 26 and 27: there, then also in an almost delir
Page 28 and 29: Instead of lying down to sleep awhi
Page 30 and 31: I could not attain the state of "re
Page 32 and 33: The difference between Him and my s
Page 34 and 35: always in my various general states
Page 36 and 37: Even my propensity during this peri
Page 38 and 39: physical body of mine, but sucked f
Page 40 and 41: From such a "promenade," it was dis
Page 42 and 43: my exposition, I made it a custom i
Page 44 and 45: ciently long and serious mentation,
Page 46 and 47: First to die, from a long-standing
Page 48 and 49: The fact is that my mother knew not
Page 50 and 51: I began once more to remember these
Page 52 and 53: From the very beginning, from the 1
Page 54 and 55: already here, that, in their compos
Page 56 and 57: All three of the aims, self-imposed
Page 58 and 59: So, thanks to this, the third reaso
Page 60 and 61: Although all the strange will-tasks
Page 62 and 63: wits got together purposely to thin
Page 64 and 65: which follow almost all the misunde
Page 66 and 67: INTRODUCTIONNovember 6th, 1934Child
Page 68 and 69: y me at the end of 1930 and the beg
Page 72 and 73: as a supplement to the used-up prod
Page 74 and 75: The result of this was that at subs
Page 76 and 77: opinion, generally for every reader
Page 78 and 79: Expecting with indubitable certaint
Page 80 and 81: "I am not yet certain if it really
Page 82 and 83: FIRST TALKdelivered by me on Novemb
Page 84 and 85: life of people by means of the Inst
Page 86 and 87: of achievement of the required data
Page 88 and 89: advice and direction concerning sev
Page 90 and 91: Coming Good, was first noticed by t
Page 92 and 93: ing himself with his whole being of
Page 94 and 95: standings which had an equal relati
Page 96 and 97: data for their psychic functioning,
Page 98 and 99: SECOND TALKdelivered by me in the s
Page 100 and 101: other "a flea on a chain," I consid
Page 102 and 103: enthusiasm was that during our stay
Page 104 and 105: as much as my deep occupation with
Page 106 and 107: during these years, I want, simulta
Page 108 and 109: actualized and which could contribu
Page 110 and 111: the former group, a list of whose n
Page 112 and 113: fulfilling of which advice may alon
Page 114 and 115: wrote after I had very definitely s
Page 116 and 117: of all sorts of blind events and as
Page 118 and 119: strength always and in everything,
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whole lexicon of words in the Engli
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to concentrate each separate part s
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and the third part should follow th
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FOURTH TALKdelivered by me on Decem
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discussions and deliberations of th
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ers of his group, but all at once,
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what Mr. Gurdjieff has said here in
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my head in the cushions which, by t
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those who belonged to the second gr
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inherent only in man, I wish to giv
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FIFTH TALKto the same group on Dece
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in people in general, particularly
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At the beginning it is necessary to
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In my opinion, it is only by fulfil
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phenomenal stupidity of people who
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ciations automatically flowing in m
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THE OUTER AND INNER WORLD OF MAN Al
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presence of a man who has attained
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presence of man, ordinarily perceiv
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part of the brain, the second, in a
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Work went so well that by nine o'cl
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woke up my secretary who was sleepi
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as soon as I should begin the writi
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was not a 'blood brother' of his an
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"All present sat or kneeled quietly
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In short, irrespective of my unquen
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I took The New York Times, a huge,
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THE OUTER AND INNER WORLD OF MANTHE
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logical Clinic for the Aged of the
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in general and of its separate impo
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which have already been mentioned.O
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The first is the outer world—in o
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This principle, which is beyond sci
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And as soon as a man begins to thin
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GURDJIEFF, G.I. â Life is real only then, when I am - Integral Book

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GURDJIEFF, G.I. â Life is real only then, when I am - Integral Book