How to Be a Student: Notes (Part One)

Notes for Part 1 of a proposed two-part seminar on being a student of the path.

See also our previous basic materials, posted online.

Most of the below is taken from several Fourth Way sources based upon the work of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky.

Recapitulation of the fundamental ideas of the Work according to Ouspensky:

1 A human is not a completed being. Nature develops us only up to a certain point, then leaves us either to develop further by our own efforts, or to live and die as we were born.

2 We ascribe to ourselves powers and faculties which we do not possess, and which we will never possess unless we can develop into completed beings.

3 We do not realize that we are actually machines, with no independent movements, brought into motion by external influences. The most important quality which we ascribe to ourselves but do not possess is consciousness.

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“Consciousness” refers to a state of greater awareness than our ordinary waking state. It is a particular kind of awareness of ourselves, of where we are at the moment, and in the broader context of the cosmos.

We must have an aim, otherwise no study can have any result. If we realize that we are asleep, the aim is to awaken. If we realize that we are machines, the aim is to cease to be machines.

If we want to be more conscious, we must study what prevents us from remembering ourselves.

The main obstacles for most students are imagination, self-deception, preconceptions, and expectations. These are all negative emotions, based on identification.

You cannot struggle with these obstacles without remembering yourself more, and you cannot remember yourself more without struggling with these obstacles.

The causes of negative emotions are not in external reasons, they are in ourselves.

Suffering, in itself, is not negative emotion. It can produce negative emotion only if you identify with it.

Imagination consists in ascribing to oneself some knowledge, power, or quality which one does not possess. Just letting things come into the mind may be harmless as long as it is free from identification.

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NOTES ON WORK (published in Ouspensky's “The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution”)

1 Notes on Decision to Work

Think very seriously before you decide to work on yourself with the idea of changing yourself, to work with the aim of becoming more conscious and of developing connection with higher centers.

If you begin the journey and then go back, all that you acquired may crystallize into something negative in you.

If you do this work sincerely and remember the principles, it will bring you to the realization of your state and your needs.

You have to do gigantic work if you want to transform. If you want to work seriously you have to conquer many things in yourself.

Try to understand the necessity for deliberate suffering and conscious effort. These are the only two things that can change you and bring you to your aim.

Deliberate suffering means attitude toward suffering. It becomes deliberate if you do not rebel against it, if you do not try to avoid it, if you do not accuse anyone, if you accept it as a necessary part of your work at the moment and as a means for attaining your aim.

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2 Notes on Work on Oneself

Need to work on four lines:

mind (the various “I”s)

consciousness (self-observation, self-remembering)

emotions (negative emotion, identification)

will (mechanical self-will vs. real will)

Try to understand the meaning of silence in the work, the meaning of sincerity and the meaning of truth. (See “Four (or five) Powers of the Sphinx”)

to know

to will

to dare

to endure

to transcend

You must understand the necessity for being careful when saying “I.” Try to understand which part of you is speaking or thinking, and name it accordingly.

You must always return to the idea of Permanent “I” and realize how far you are from it, and how many efforts are necessary in order to reach it.

You must clearly understand the necessity of self-observation for self study.

Work on consciousness can give results only when it becomes as near to permanent as possible. Spasmodic, interrupted work cannot give results.

Realize that mind can only prepare you for this work, and only guide you a certain distance. You can go further only with the help of will and emotions.

Work on emotions must be practical from the beginning; it begins with the struggle against imagination and mechanical talk. Next, work on identification and self-deception.

Try to understand that suffering is the only active principle in us which can be converted to higher feeling, higher thought and higher understanding.

These efforts will lead you to the awakening of conscience, which is the simultaneous feeling of all contradictory emotions. This is a necessary step for transferring yourself to the higher level of consciousness.

Think about yourself, realize how many opportunities you had and how many you have already lost and continue to lose daily.

Use the concept of deaths and rebirths to help you remember. You do not know how much time remains to you in this form. If you do not transform, everything will be repeated again, all mistakes and all loss of opportunity. You will have to look for your chance to work on consciousness again next time.

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3 Additional Points (from Ouspensky's book Conscience)

One beginning condition is that you must believe nothing. Belief will not help; belief is deadening. It has not sufficient power.

The chief feature of our being is that we are many, not one. If we want to work on our being, to make it correspond better to our aim, we must try to become one. The first step is to create a permanent center of gravity.

When a student begins this course of study, the magnetic center brings the observing “I” into being. This “I” has to educate the rest of personality and essence.

The more you understand false personality the more you will remember yourself. “You” is what really is, and you must learn to distinguish it from the many false “yous.”

One of the misfortunes of our uninitiated state is that we are full of non-existent things. One of our advantages is that none of these things is permanent yet.

Fals personality is imaginary “I.” It acts as a center for negative emotions, imagination, deception, and identification.

If for a long time one goes on without making sufficient efforts or doing anything seriously, then instead of becoming one, one becomes divided into two, so that all features are divided into two groups: one part useful to the work and another part opposed.

To struggle with false personality, always do something that false personality does not like and you will very soon find out what it does not like.

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4 Will

Life is not long enough for changing our being if we work on it as we do at everything else in life. Enormous effort is necessary to change even one small thng.

Self-remembering is of no use without remembering the aims of the work and the original fundamental aim. If aims are not remembered emotionally, years may pass and one will remain in the same state.

Without spiritual work, we live under the law of accident, cause-effect, and fate.

It is not enough to educate the mind; it is necessary to educate the will and emotions. Struggle must be by will, by intention. You must be aware of your intention.

Will can be seen at moments when there is strong desire to do or not to do something. Only those moments are important.

In this work you must work beyond your forces. Only then can you change. If you do only what is possible, you will remain where you are.

It is necessary to forget less and remember more. It is necessary to keep certain realizations, certain things you have already understood, always with you.

Definite aims to work on:

To be one

To be free (how? when one acquires control of machine)

To have will

To be awake

Knowledge and understanding cannot help if one does not work on being. One can understand and not be able to do anything.

Self-remembering is not an intellectual or abstract thing; it is moments of will. It is not thought, it is action. If it were just dreaming “I am,” it would not be anything of value.

One must realize one's position and be prepared to pay. The more one is prepared to pay, the more one acquires. Payment is a most important principle in the work.