Source Text
Real self-remembering is not in centers, it is above centers. It can’t interfere with the work of centers. Daydreaming, lack of aim or wish, considering, identification, negative emotions, weakness, ego, etc., all keep us from self - remembering. If I observe myself and find things I dislike about myself, I must wish to see more. I can tell myself, “I am in the work,” make occasional efforts, and think I am getting somewhere, using this to calm myself when I occasionally see something I don’t like – this will get me no result. I must be willing to keep the picture of myself as I am in front of me, accepting it as truth before the picture can change. Awakening does not depend upon what is born, it depends on magne tic center, and magnetic center depends on what one is interested in. People have different capacities, but not for awakening.
No one says, “Increase what you do enormously.” You have to increase the quality of the thinking and the effort which goes into this Work. It should not be a random effort.
You could not possibly realize all the different people in you fighting each other. They do not even know each other or know they are fighting each other. Until there is some acquaintanceship between your emotional center and mental center, and one or the other of them with your physical body, what can there be but this chaos?
One always wants a quick answer; it doesn’t matter whether it is right or wrong.
My life hangs in the balance. I get to these important places but I don’t do anything important there. I please something in myself, instead of feeding something in myself. Mrs. W: I realized when I came back after the Christmas vacation that I was badly out of touch because I hadn’t worked consistently. Mrs. Benson: Don’t complain about what life offers you if you can’t make an effort.
What a fool to take fifth-best, to take inequality and be nobody, when I needn’t. To me the worst tragedy is not the fool who sits and pretends, but the person who has struggled successfully in the past and doesn’t put forward a strong effort, who doesn’t see that it is there, that it is possible
Being frantic is part of your nature. You will always be up or down. It is nothing. Some people are phlegmatic and some people are very volatile.
have to take the material that is there.
The whole purpose of this work is to find out your difficulties, be willing and able to face them. You have conceded that you have seen this.
takes many years to finally arrive at the place where I recognize and accept this one grain of truth.
AI Summary
Gurdjieff Group Work With Rita Romilly Benson by W. May presents key insights from the Gurdjieff tradition. The 10 passages above capture the essential teachings.
Core Themes:
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Key Passages: Highlights 1, 3, and 10 are particularly representative.
This entry was generated from Readwise highlights. Expand with additional context as appropriate.