Frases de George Gurdjieff
George Gurdjieff
Fecha de nacimiento: 13. Enero 1866
Fecha de muerte: 29. Octubre 1949
George Ivánovich Gurdjíeff fue un maestro místico, escritor y compositor armenio, quien se autodenominaba como un simple Maestro de Danzas.
George Gurdjieff nació a finales del siglo XIX en la Armenia del entonces Imperio ruso, su principal obra fue dar a conocer y transmitir las enseñanzas del Cuarto Camino en el mundo occidental. Una personalidad misteriosa y carismática, con un agudo sentido crítico, y una elevada cultura tradicional, acaparó la atención de muchos, guiándolos hacia una posible evolución espiritual y humanitaria. Falleció el 29 de octubre de 1949 en Neuilly-sur-Seine, Francia.
Según los autores que han estudiado su obra, sus planteamientos constituyen un conjunto de ideas interrelacionadas muy innovadoras, que tienen el objetivo de producir la evolución consciente en el hombre.
«Gurdjíeff mostró que la evolución del hombre [...] es el resultado del crecimiento [y desarrollo] interior individual; que tal apertura interior es la meta de todas las religiones, de todos los caminos, [...] pero que requiere un conocimiento directo y preciso, [...] pero que sólo se puede adquirir con la ayuda de algún guía con experiencia y a través de un prolongado estudio de sí y del trabajo sobre sí mismo».
Frases George Gurdjieff
„La gente no tiene idea de hasta qué punto es arrastrada por el miedo. Este miedo no es fácilmente definible. […] Hay momentos en que este miedo se vuelve casi una obsesión.“
Fuente: Miedos. Identificación. Essentuki, 1917.
„Sólo puede ser justo quien es capaz de ponerse en el lugar de otros.“
Fuente: Los Aforismos, #26 (del toldo en el "Study House", Prieuré).
„Al hombre le es dado un número determinado de experiencias; al economizarlas, prolonga su vida.“
Fuente: Los Aforismos, #37 (del toldo en el "Study House", Prieuré).
„Durante el tiempo que pasé en el desierto para ejercitarme, afronté dos huracanes más. Uno de ellos, a decir verdad, no fue muy violento, pero hubiera sido imposible moverse y orientarse dentro de él con los recursos ordinarios; sin embargo, con mis zancos, andaba libremente sobre la arena en el curso de esos dos huracanes, en cualquier dirección, como si hubiese estado en mi cuarto. La única dificultad consistía en no tropezar, porque siempre hay en las dunas, por todas partes, huecos y montículos, sobre todo durante las tempestades.“
Fuente: Gurdjieff, G.I. Encuentros con hombres notables, Del Todo y de Todo (segunda serie). Colección Ganesha, Buenos Aires, 1980.
„Faith cannot be given to man.Faith arises in a man and increases“
All and Everything: Meetings with Remarkable Men (1963)
Contexto: Faith cannot be given to man. Faith arises in a man and increases in its action in him not as the result of automatic learning, that is, not from any automatic ascertainment of height, breadth, thickness, form and weight, or from the perception of anything by sight, hearing, touch, smell or taste, but from understanding.
Understanding is the essence obtained from information intentionally learned and from all kinds of experiences personally experienced.
„So we have to deal with them indirectly in order to free ourselves from several at once.“
All and Everything: Views from the Real World (1973)
Contexto: LIBERATION LEADS TO LIBERATION. These are the first words of truth — not truth in quotation marks but truth in the real meaning of the word; truth which is not merely theoretical, not simply a word, but truth that can be realized in practice. The meaning behind these words may be explained as follows:
By liberation is meant the liberation which is the aim of all schools, all religions, at all times.
This liberation can indeed be very great. All men desire it and strive after it. But it cannot be attained without the first liberation, a lesser liberation. The great liberation is liberation from influences outside us. The lesser liberation is liberation from influences within us.
At first, for beginners, this lesser liberation appears to be very great, for a beginner depends very little on external influences. Only a man who has already become free of inner influences falls under external influences.
Inner influences prevent a man from falling under external influences. Maybe it is for the best. Inner influences and inner slavery come from many varied sources and many independent factors — independent in that sometimes it is one thing and sometimes another, for we have many enemies.
There are so many of these enemies that life would not be long enough to struggle with each of them and free ourselves from each one separately. So we must find a method, a line of work, which will enable us simultaneously to destroy the greatest possible number of enemies within us from which these influences come.
I said that we have many independent enemies, but the chief and most active are vanity and self-love. One teaching even calls them representatives and messengers of the devil himself.
For some reason they are also called Mrs. Vanity and Mr. Self-Love.
As I have said, there are many enemies. I have mentioned only these two as the most fundamental. At the moment it is hard to enumerate them all. It would be difficult to work on each of them directly and specifically, and it would take too much time since there are so many. So we have to deal with them indirectly in order to free ourselves from several at once.
These representatives of the devil stand unceasingly at the threshold which separates us from the outside, and prevent not only good but also bad external influences from entering. Thus they have a good side as well as a bad side.
For a man who wishes to discriminate among the influences he receives, it is an advantage to have these watchmen. But if a man wishes all influences to enter, no matter what they may be — for it is impossible to select only the good ones — he must liberate himself as much as possible, and finally altogether, from these watchmen, whom some considerable undesirable.
For this there are many methods, and a great number of means. Personally I would advise you to try freeing yourselves and to do so without unnecessary theorizing, by simple reasoning, active reasoning, within yourselves.
„Death must come before rebirth. But what must die? False confidence in one’s own knowledge, self-love and egoism. Our egoism must be broken.“
All and Everything: Views from the Real World (1973)
Contexto: All religions speak about death during this life on earth. Death must come before rebirth. But what must die? False confidence in one’s own knowledge, self-love and egoism. Our egoism must be broken. We must realize that we are very complicated machines, and so this process of breaking is bound to be a long and difficult task. Before real growth becomes possible, our personality must die.
„Objective knowledge, the idea of unity included, belongs to objective consciousness. The forms which express this knowledge when perceived by subjective consciousness are inevitably distorted and, instead of truth, they create more and more delusions.“
In Search of the Miraculous (1949)
Contexto: Objective knowledge, the idea of unity included, belongs to objective consciousness. The forms which express this knowledge when perceived by subjective consciousness are inevitably distorted and, instead of truth, they create more and more delusions. With objective consciousness it is possible to see and feel the unity of everything. But for subjective consciousness the world is split up into millions of separate and unconnected phenomena. Attempts to connect these phenomena into some sort of system in a scientific or philosophical way lead to nothing because man cannot reconstruct the idea of the whole starting from separate facts and they cannot divine the principles of the division of the whole without knowing the laws upon which this division is based.
„A man can keep silence in such a ways that no one will even notice it. The whole point is that we say a good deal too much. If we limited ourselves to what is actually necessary, this alone would be keeping the silence.“
In Search of the Miraculous (1949)
Contexto: A man can keep silence in such a ways that no one will even notice it. The whole point is that we say a good deal too much. If we limited ourselves to what is actually necessary, this alone would be keeping the silence. And it is the same with everything else, with food, with pleasures, with sleep; with everything there is a limit to what is necessary. After this "sin" begins. This is something that must be grasped, a "sin" is something which is not necessary.
„In properly organized groups no faith is required; what is required is simply a little trust and even that only for a little while, for the sooner a man begins to verify all he hears the better it is for him.“
In Search of the Miraculous (1949)
Contexto: In properly organized groups no faith is required; what is required is simply a little trust and even that only for a little while, for the sooner a man begins to verify all he hears the better it is for him. <!-- Ch. 11, p. 288
„By liberation is meant the liberation which is the aim of all schools, all religions, at all times.“
All and Everything: Views from the Real World (1973)
Contexto: LIBERATION LEADS TO LIBERATION. These are the first words of truth — not truth in quotation marks but truth in the real meaning of the word; truth which is not merely theoretical, not simply a word, but truth that can be realized in practice. The meaning behind these words may be explained as follows:
By liberation is meant the liberation which is the aim of all schools, all religions, at all times.
This liberation can indeed be very great. All men desire it and strive after it. But it cannot be attained without the first liberation, a lesser liberation. The great liberation is liberation from influences outside us. The lesser liberation is liberation from influences within us.
At first, for beginners, this lesser liberation appears to be very great, for a beginner depends very little on external influences. Only a man who has already become free of inner influences falls under external influences.
Inner influences prevent a man from falling under external influences. Maybe it is for the best. Inner influences and inner slavery come from many varied sources and many independent factors — independent in that sometimes it is one thing and sometimes another, for we have many enemies.
There are so many of these enemies that life would not be long enough to struggle with each of them and free ourselves from each one separately. So we must find a method, a line of work, which will enable us simultaneously to destroy the greatest possible number of enemies within us from which these influences come.
I said that we have many independent enemies, but the chief and most active are vanity and self-love. One teaching even calls them representatives and messengers of the devil himself.
For some reason they are also called Mrs. Vanity and Mr. Self-Love.
As I have said, there are many enemies. I have mentioned only these two as the most fundamental. At the moment it is hard to enumerate them all. It would be difficult to work on each of them directly and specifically, and it would take too much time since there are so many. So we have to deal with them indirectly in order to free ourselves from several at once.
These representatives of the devil stand unceasingly at the threshold which separates us from the outside, and prevent not only good but also bad external influences from entering. Thus they have a good side as well as a bad side.
For a man who wishes to discriminate among the influences he receives, it is an advantage to have these watchmen. But if a man wishes all influences to enter, no matter what they may be — for it is impossible to select only the good ones — he must liberate himself as much as possible, and finally altogether, from these watchmen, whom some considerable undesirable.
For this there are many methods, and a great number of means. Personally I would advise you to try freeing yourselves and to do so without unnecessary theorizing, by simple reasoning, active reasoning, within yourselves.
