Wagga Wagga Gurdjieff

03/05/2026

To follow the ideas and methods of the system fully, it is necessary to recognize and agree upon two points: the low level of consciousness and the practical absence of will and individuality in man. When these are accepted, it is very useful and necessary to learn the right use of two ideas, two words, 'useful' and 'harmful'; because it is rather difficult to apply these words to a psychological state and find what is useful in the psychological structure of man and what is harmful in it. But if you regard man from the point of view of his possible development, it becomes dear that what helps his development is useful, and what hinders it is harmful. It is very strange that it is necessary even to explain this, but unfortunately our ordinary thought, particularly when it meets with serious problems, does not use this idea; somehow we lose the understanding of what is useful and harmful. Our thought has acquired many bad habits, and one of them is thinking without purpose. Our thinking has become automatic; we are quite satisfied if we think of and develop possible side-issues without having any idea why we are doing it. From the point of view of this system such thinking is useless. All study, all thinking and investigation must have one aim, one purpose in view, and this aim must be attaining consciousness. It is useless to study oneself without this purpose. There are reasons to study oneself only if one has already realized that one does not have consciousness and one wishes to attain it. Otherwise it becomes just futile. Attaining consciousness is connected with the gradual liberation from mechanicalness, for man as he is is fully and completely under mechanical laws. The more a man attains consciousness, the more he leaves mechanicalness, which means he becomes more free from accidental mechanical law.

—P.D. Ouspensky, The Fourth Way,

03/01/2026

YOUNG MAN: You have arrived at man, now?
OLD MAN: Yes. Man the machine—man the impersonal engine. Whatsoever a man is, is due to his make, and to the influences brought to bear upon it
by his heredities, his habitat, his associations. He is moved, directed,
commanded, by exterior influences—solely. He
originates nothing, not even a thought.
Y.M. Oh, come! Where did I get my opinion that this which you are talking is
all foolishness?
O.M. It is a quite natural opinion—indeed an inevitable opinion—but
you did not create the materials out of which it is formed. They are
odds and ends of thoughts, impressions, feelings, gathered unconsciously from a thousand books, a thousand conversations, and from streams of thought and feeling which have flowed down into your heart and brain out of the hearts and brains of centuries of ancestors. Personally you did not create even the smallest microscopic fragment of the materials out of which your opinion is made; and personally you cannot claim even the slender merit of putting the borrowed materials together. That was done automatically—by your mental machinery, in strict accordance with the law of that machinery’s construction. And you not only did not make that machinery yourself, but you have not even any command over it.
[“What Is Man? and Other Essays” by Mark Twain]

21/11/2025

To decrystallize the properties of the malificient organ kundabuffer means the continual separation of ones individuality from those features of the body namely self-love,self-pride and vanity which means freedom from the the chains of this Earth, while walking upon it.

Have you separated 'I' from 'it'??

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25

PA: You advised me to go over my past, to feel remorse, but I come up against two things: I feel that there is a wall in me that I can’t get past. And secondly, even if I see clearly what I’ve done, I can’t man­age to feel disgust. If it were someone else who had done it, I would feel disgusted, but not when it’s me.

Gurdjieff: This comes from your self-love, which is like a big ‘dog’ in you, and which is always there. It is a factor that must be decrys- tallized in you. It is not integral to your nature, but it is the result of your upbringing. Because of this, it will be less difficult for you to decrystallize it. On the other hand, when certain characteristics are inherited over several generations, they are as hard as stone and special methods are necessary.When this impulse of self-love arises, counteract it with the remorse that you feel by remembering the painful consequenc­es that this self-love has brought about for you and for others. Take a specific moment during the day to work at feeling remorse. Picture to yourself specific events from your past, and, as if they were like a lighted candle in front of you, concentrate on them. Stop. Be merciless with yourself. Do not let yourself be distracted. You will see that if you have a moment of sincere remorse, your state will change, and your way of being will be altered, even for a while afterwards.

PA: I would like to know what you mean by decrystallizing a factor, and how it is possible.

Gurdjieff: To descrystallize means to divide, to separate from oneself, from ones individuality. These factors will not cease to exist - nature remains nature - and they will always be there, but you will be able to manifest them or not. You will be free of them, because they will be distinct from your individuality

GI Gurdjieff Meetings With Mr.Gurdjieff In Paris 1943

18/11/2025

What do you have to lose??

'ALL OR NOTHING'

THURSDAY, AUGUST 19

L:Mr. Gurdjieff, I have noticed that at the basis of all my negative emotions, there are two things: on the one hand, my opinion of my­self, and on the other, a certain fear. If I manage to remember my nothingness, the opinion that I have of myself changes and doesn’t bother me anymore. But this fear increases and that is what deter­mines the negative emotion and prevents me from resisting. I have not found any way to struggle against this fear.

Gurdjieff: You must decide: ‘All or nothing’. You know this ex­pression; it is simple: ‘All or nothing’. If you acknowledge your past nothingness, a real nothingness, eh? - then decide: either you wish to transform your nothingness into something, or you let yourself go to the devil. You must either be something or die like a dog. If you decide ‘all or nothing’, then your fear has hardly any importance. If you decide to die like a dog, then that’s another thing.(Addressing JK) You, you can decide: ‘All or nothing’. You are not afraid?

JK: No

Gurdjieff: (To L) So, fear is nothing. Do you understand what I said about how to eliminate your fear? What you first said about your opinion of yourself is fou-fou. Your father was already fou-fou. So, what opinion can you have? You are a nonentity, m***e. No cere­mony about that. You represent nothing. You must understand that. Objectively, what opinion can you have? You cant do anything. It is all imagination; you can’t even roll a cigarette.You must decide on the basis of your nothingness: ‘All or noth­ing’. This all or nothing’ can eliminate your fear. Either something will happen, or you will let yourself die like a dog. You must not exist as you are. You are a source of poison, for your neighbour and for everyone. Or you will cease being such a source of poison in order to acquire a true individuality - real, not based on fantasy. ‘All or nothing’ - it’s a good way to kill your fear.

MEETINGS WITH MR.GURDJIEFF 1943

01/10/2025

The Parable

Gurdjieff asked his students to imagine a large household with many servants but no real master present. The servants quarrel, steal, and act for themselves rather than for the good of the house.

At times, one servant puts on the master’s clothes and pretends to be the master—giving orders, but with no real authority. This is like the many “I’s” in a man who constantly replace one another.

The only hope for order is the Chief Steward: a servant who has some real knowledge of the master’s wishes and some loyalty to him. If the steward can gather authority, he can bring the household into a state of relative order in anticipation of the master’s return. When the true master finally comes back, he can recognize the steward and confirm him in his role.

⸻

Meaning in Gurdjieff’s Work
• The House → a human being.
• Servants → the many contradictory “I’s” that take turns ruling us.
• False masters → mechanical identifications, moods, habits that temporarily dominate.
• Chief Steward → a developed, more permanent “I” that can remember the Work, hold intention, and organize life around a conscious aim.
• Master → higher consciousness or real “I,” which is not present at the start but can appear once the house is prepared.

⸻

Practical Implications
• Inner work begins with recognizing the chaos of many small “I’s.”
• Through self-observation and effort, one tries to form a center of gravity (the Chief Steward).
• This center is still not the true Master but prepares conditions for it.
• The parable emphasizes responsibility, order, and preparation for higher states of being.

30/09/2025

https://open.substack.com/pub/scottmallett/p/getting-rid-of-the-ego-initiation?r=37l5sp&utm_medium=ios

Why the Modern Spiritual Quest for Self-Annihilation Is a Dead End