Frases de George Gurdjieff

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“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.”

“Al hombre le es dado un número determinado de experiencias; al economizarlas, prolonga su vida.”

“El amor propio es señal de una elevada opinión de uno mismo. Si un hombre tiene este amor propio, esto demuestra lo que él es.”

“Sólo quien sabe cuidar lo ajeno puede poseer lo propio.”

“Traten de verse a sí mismos, porque no se conocen. Deben darse cuenta de este riesgo; el hombre que trata de verse a sí mismo puede ser muy infeliz, porque verá muchas cosas malas, mucho que querrá cambiar, y ese cambio es muy difícil. Es fácil empezar, pero una vez que hayan abandonado su silla, será muy difícil conseguir otra, y esto puede causar una desdicha muy grande.”

“Así que tenemos que tratar con ellos indirectamente para liberarnos de varios a la vez.”

“Sólo puede ser justo quien es capaz de ponerse en el lugar de otros.”

“Es imposible recordarse de sí mismo. Y la gente no recuerda porque quiere vivir sólo por medio de la mente. […] Y otras partes del cuerpo no tienen ningún deseo de recordar.”

“El razonamiento activo se aprende con la práctica; debería ser practicado durante mucho tiempo y de muchas maneras variadas.”

“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.”

“"La fé no le puede ser dado al hombre, la fé nace y crece en el hombre."”

“Rest comes not from the quantity but from the quality of sleep.”

“KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING ARE QUITE DIFFERENT. Only understanding can lead to being, whereas knowledge is but a passing presence in it.”

“Here we can only direct and create conditions, but not help.”

“Man has the possibility of existence after death. But possibility is one thing and the realization of the possibility is quite a different thing.”

“I find it necessary on the first page of this book, quite ready for publication, to give the following advice:
:Read each of my written expositions thrice:
:Firstly: at least as you have already become mechanized to read all your contemporary books and newspapers.
:Secondly: as if you were reading aloud to another person.
:And only thirdly: try and fathom the gist of my writings. Only then will you be able to count upon forming your own impartial judgment, proper to yourself alone, on my writings. And only then can my hope be actualized that according to your understanding you will obtain the specific benefit for yourself which I anticipate, and which I wish for you with all my being.”

“Every one of those unfortunates during the process of existence should constantly sense and be cognizant of the inevitability of his own death as well as of the death of everyone upon whom his eyes or attention rests. Only such a sensation and such a cognizance can now destroy the egoism completely crystallized in them that has swallowed up the whole of their Essence, and also that tendency to hate others which flows from it.”

“Man has no permanent and unchangeable I. Every thought, every mood, every desire, every sensation, says "I."”

“It is the greatest mistake to think that man is always one and the same. A man is never the same for long. He is continually changing. He seldom remains the same even for half an hour.”

“Don't judge a man by the tales of others.”

“Remember you come here having already understood the necessity of struggling with yourself — only with yourself. Therefore thank everyone who gives you the opportunity.”

“The sole means now for the saving of the beings of the planet Earth would be to implant again into their presences a new organ … of such properties that every one of these unfortunates during the process of existence should constantly sense and be cognizant of the inevitability of his own death as well as the death of everyone upon whom his eyes or attention rests. Only such a sensation and such a cognizance can now destroy the egoism completely crystallized in them.”

“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.”

“Here there are neither Russians nor English, Jews nor Christians, but only those who pursue one aim — to be able to be.”

“ACCORDING TO the numerous deductions and conclusions made by me during experimental elucidations concerning the productivity of the perception by contemporary people of new impressions from what is heard and read, and also according to the thought of one of the sayings of popular wisdom I have just remembered, handed down to our days from very ancient times, which declares: “Any prayer may be heard by the Higher Powers and a corresponding answer obtained only if it is uttered thrice:
:Firstly—for the welfare or the peace of the souls of one’s parents.
:Secondly—for the welfare of one’s neighbor.
:And only thirdly—for oneself personally.”

“Formerly, it may be said, my whole being was possessed by egoism. All my manifestations and experiencings flowed from my vanity. The meeting with Father Giovanni killed all this, and from then on there gradually arose in me that "something" which has brought the whole of me to the unshakable conviction that, apart from the vanities of life, there exists a "something else" which must be the aim and ideal of every more or less thinking man, and that it is only this something else which may make a man really happy and give him real values, instead of the illusory "goods" with which in ordinary life he is always and in everything full.”

“Conscious faith is freedom. Emotional faith is slavery. Mechanical faith is foolishness.”

“Sincerity is the key which will open the door through which you will see your separate parts, and you will see something quite new. You must go on trying to be sincere. Each day you put on a mask, and you must take it off little by little.”

“It is very difficult to explain what takes place in me when I see or hear anything majestic which allows no doubt that it proceeds from the actualization of Our Maker Creator. Each time, my tears flow of themselves. I weep, that is to say, it weeps in me, not from grief, no, but as if from tenderness.”

“A man will renounce any pleasures you like but he will not give up his suffering.”

“Remember your self always and everywhere.”

“You must understand that ordinary efforts do not count; only superefforts count.”

“There is nothing compulsory. One is not asked to violate cherished beliefs or accept any of the ideas presented. Rather, a healthy skepticism is encouraged.”

“From my point of view, he can be called a remarkable man who stands out from those around him by the resourcefulness of his mind, and who knows how to be restrained in the manifestations which proceed from his nature, at the same time conducting himself justly and tolerantly towards the weaknesses of others.”

“Only help him who is not an idler.”

“The worse the conditions of life the more productive the work, always provided you remember the work.”

“One of the best means for arousing the wish to work on yourself is to realize that you may die at any moment. But first you must learn how to keep it in mind.”

“Man such as we know him, is a machine.”

“If you want to lose your faith, make friends with a priest.”

“In literature, science, art, philosophy, religion, in individual and above all in social and political life, we can observe how the line of the development of forces deviates from its original direction and goes, after a certain time, in a diametrically opposite direction, still preserving its former name.”