G.I.Gurdjieff

Finally, the moving center working in place of the thinking produces,
for example, mechanical reading or listening, as when we read or listen to words without understanding their meaning. This usually happens when the attention that should be directing the thinking is occupied with something else, and the moving center attempts to replace it. This kind of substitution easily becomes a habit, because the thinking center tends to become distracted not by useful thought or contemplation, but rather by daydreams and the play of the imagination. Observation of these activities is an important part of self-study.

This is particularly difficult because, in order to see and “record” them, we first have to free ourselves from them, if only for a moment. It is impossible to observe a habit while in its grasp, but all it takes to feel and see a habit is to struggle, no matter how ineffectually, against it.

The coarsest and most accessible is the connection between the moving center and the formatory apparatus. This connection is the most “audible,” like a large pipe, the quickest to form and to be filled. The second is the connection with the sex center. The third is the connection with the feeling center, and the fourth the connection with the thinking center.

In our relations with other people, we have to recognize that to endure the manifestations of others is a big thing, the last thing for us. Only a perfect man or woman can do this. So, we start by making our aim the ability to bear one manifestation of one person that we cannot now endure without reacting. If I “wish”—that is, if I “will”—I “can.” Without “willing,” I never “can.” Will is the most powerful thing in the world. The chief cause of our weakness is our inability to apply our will to all three of our centers simultaneously. With conscious will, everything comes.

“Identifying” is one of our most insidious foes because it penetrates everywhere and fools us just when we think we are struggling against it. To free oneself from identifying is especially difficult because we naturally become more easily identified with things that interest us most, those to which we give our time, effort and attention. The only way to free oneself from identifying is to be constantly on guard and merciless with oneself, that is, ready to see without fear all the subtle and hidden forms that identifying can assume.

he first step in self-remembering is to not identify. But in order to do this, one first has to stop identifying with oneself, stop calling oneself “I” all the time. We have to keep in mind that there are two in us. There is oneself—that is, “I” in us—and there is another person, whom we must struggle with and overcome if we wish to attain anything. So long as we identify or are susceptible to being identified, we are the slave of everything that happens to us. “Freedom” means, first and foremost, freedom from identification.

So far, we have been speaking about “internal considering,” that is, identifying with others. The opposite of this is “external considering,” which can also serve as a means of fighting against it. External considering is based on an entirely different attitude toward people that involves adapting oneself to their requirements and weaknesses.

By considering externally, we do what makes life easier for ourselves and for others.

Buffers play a significant role in the relation between personality and essence. A very important moment in our work is when we begin to distinguish between our personality and our essence. Our real “I,” our individuality, can grow only from our essence. But there are obstacles to this growth contained in personality, which is constantly exerting pressure on essence. In order for inner growth to begin, personality must become passive, and essence must become active. This can happen only if buffers are weakened or removed, because it is by buffers that personality holds essence in subjection.

It is by means of buffers that we can always be in the right. They thus help us not to feel our “conscience.”