Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff
(c. 1872-1949)

Armenian-Greek Mystic, Spiritual Teacher

birthdate: January 13
birthplace:
Alexandropol, Armenia (Russian Empire)

QUOTES

Without self knowledge, without understanding the working and functions of his machine, man cannot be free, he cannot govern himself and he will always remain a slave.

"Self-observation brings man to the realization of the necessity of self-change. And in observing himself a man notices that self-observation itself brings about certain changes in his inner processes. He begins to understand that self-observation is an instrument of self-change, a means of awakening."

If you help others, you will be helped, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps in one hundred years, but you will be helped.

Would a CONSCIOUS human being destroy himself through war, and crime, and quarrels? No, a man simply knows not what he does to himself.

Look back at the hour that has passed, as if it was the last hour for you on the earth and that you have just acknowledged that you have died. Ask yourself, were you satisfied at that hour? And now reanimate yourself again and set up the aim for yourself. In the next hour (if you are lucky to live one more) try to extract from life a little more than you did in the last hour. Define, where and when you should have been more aware, and where you should have put more inner fire. And now open your eyes wider, and by this I mean - open more possibilities for yourself, be a little more brave, than you were in the previous hour . . . If we look at each hour like at a separate life unit, you can try to do as much as you can to use every unit totally. Force yourself and find the way to make the next hour much more than the one before, but also be aware that you have taken care of the debts you collected till now. Increase the self-sensing and self-knowledge of yourself, and also increase the ability to master yourself, this will change the work of your machine . . . To live the rest of your life rehearsing your death hour by hour - is not at all pathological. . . . Each moment, taken alone, represents the particle of the eternal Creation . . . Therefore each moment we can extract the most subtle substances, that we can call "the essence of life". . . Real life is not a change of activity, but a change of the quality of the activity. I remind you once again, learn to live each of your hours with a bigger benefit . . . Look at life like at business. Time is your money for life.

 

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