Looking for nothing

"Seemingly trivial ideas are often hard to grasp. One assumes one is looking for something substantial, when in fact there is nothing there, and so one falsely believes that one has failed to see what one was looking for."

-- Sufi wisdom

Pace and Silent Time (Bukowski)

 

Krishnamurti: Structured Affirmation Pattern 1

Structured Affirmation Pattern taken from Krishnamurti teachings

Listen without effort
Look without motive

Observe without division
Observe without the observer

See thought without the movement of time
See thought without the thinker
See the truth of the mind

Know without expectation
Know without conditioning
Know without division

Function without conditions
Renew the mind free of time
Transform without thought

Krishnamurti Affirmations

 

Affirmations taken from various book notes.
Questions and statements from original texts paraphrased into affirmations.
Partial statements reworded to stand alone.

Listen without fear
Listen without projection
Listen without effort

Look without belief
Look without motive

Learn without authority
Learn without conditioning

Know without expectation
Know without conditioning
Know without division

See the truth of the mind
See the truth of conditioning

See the truth, not the verbal structure
See the truth, not the explanation

See thought without the movement of time

Observe the whole
Observe the observer
Observe without division
Observe the thinker not separate from thoughts
Observe the experiencer not separate from experiences

Be aware of the whole process of movement of the self

Function outside the field of mind
Function without conditions

Discard mechanical processes of thought

Renew the mind free of time
Renew the mind free of process

Transform without thought

Development of Systems (Gurdjieff)

God and microbe are the same system, the only difference is in the number of centers.  Our development is like that of a caterpillar that develops into a butterfly. We must die as caterpillars and be reborn as the chrysalis that becomes the butterfly. It is a long process, and the butterfly in the end lives only a day or two, but the cosmic purpose is fulfilled.

To know the sense and aim of our existence we must suffer consciously, deliberately and with an aim, but as we are now we cannot really suffer for one franc and to know even a little of the real world as it is we must suffer for a million francs. We must destroy our buffers, and do many other things.

-- Gurdjieff, from Views from the Real World

Making Personality Passive (Nicoll)

 

from Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky Vol. 3 (Maurice Nicoll) p. 878

Solve et Coagula (Crowley)

There are only two operations possible in the Universe: Analysis and Synthesis. To divide, and to unite. Solve et coagula, said the Alchemists. If anything is to be changed, either one must divide one object into two parts or add another unit to it. This principle lies at the basis of all scientific thought.

-- Crowley, from The Book of Thoth

Force and Thought (Bennett)

We are enslaved by the thoughts which correspond to our weaknesses. If we allow ourselves to live in daydreams, we become idlers and dreamers. But if we want to achieve, it is not sufficient to think. We have also to put force into our thoughts.

Not every idea has power to change our life.  I do not find that if I think noble thoughts or entertain fine projects in my mind that they have a corresponding effect on my behavior.  We must distinguish between the thoughts that act upon us while we remain passive and the thoughts which become effective only in so far as we ourselves give them force.

-- J.G. Bennett, from Is There 'Life' On Earth?

Illusion of Freedom (Nicoll)

We have the idea and feeling that we are free, not machines. It is possible to dissolve the machine of personality and become free. For this it is necessary to pay for a long time. The Work is to make this payment right. It begins with Self-Observation.

When you think of the meaning of 'freedom,' you must ask: Freedom from what? What do you want to be free from?

One of the most marvelous experiences is to realize how much useless Second Force (Resistance) we create in ourselves due to our imagination, and how endless forms of Second Force arise simply because we possess attitudes which we do not observe, which complicate everything in our lives, creating unnecessary Second Force. To separate oneself a little from one's ingrained attitudes and buffers is to experience a degree of freedom.

We must put ourselves under more laws to become free [of lower laws.] One must put oneself under the laws of the Work to reach any development. All freedom in the esoteric sense is due to inner development on Knowledge and Being. This forms a new level of Understanding.

Your level of Being attracts your life.

A higher level of Being is always freer than a lower level.

-- Maurice Nicoll, from Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky Vol. 2

Keeping the Work alive (Nicoll)

'It is important to keep the Work alive in oneself, to hear its ideas over and over, to think of them, and try to act from them. If it dies out in one through the demands and pressure of life, it may be difficult to awaken it again.

To habitually disagree is to use only the negative part of the center. It is to be intellectually in reverse, the wrong use of a center. But a person who thinks only on the side of affirmation will never grasp the system either. It will never become 'real' to him, for he will not have passed through any temptations in regard to it or struggled and worked it out for himself by degrees.'

-- Maurice Nicoll, from Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol 1.