G.I.Gurdjieff

Man is subject to many influences, which can be divided into two categories. First, those that result from chemical and physical causes, and second, those that are associative in origin and are a result of our conditioning.

To free oneself of chemico-physical influences, one has to be passive.

Here the law of attraction operates. Like attracts like, that is, everything goes toward the place where there is more of the same kind.

If we are
calm, our emanations are heavy, so other emanations come and can be absorbed, as much as we have room for. They occupy empty places where there is a vacuum, and remain where there is calm, where there is no friction. But if we are agitated, we have not enough emanations, for they are going out to others. And if there is no room, if everything is full, emanations may hit against us but they rebound or pass by.

To become free of influences of the second, that is, the associative kind requires an artificial struggle. Here the law of repulsion acts. Where there is more, little can be added, and where little, more is added—that is, it is the reverse of the first law. With influences of this kind everything proceeds according to the law of repulsion.

This new method consists in the following: when thought is already here, we try to feel, and when we feel something, we try to direct our thought on our feeling. Up to now, thought and feeling have been separated. We begin to watch our mind, to feel what we think. We prepare for tomorrow and safeguard ourselves against deceit.

Realizing the imperfections and limitations of ordinary language, the people who have possessed objective knowledge have tried to express the idea of unity in “myths,” “symbols” and certain “verbal formulas” that, in being transmitted without alteration, have passed on the idea from one school to another, often from one era to another. “Myths” and “symbols” were intended to reach man’s higher centers which function in higher states of consciousness. The aim was to transmit ideas inaccessible to the intellect, and to transmit them in such a way that they could not be misinterpreted. “Myths” were intended for the higher feeling center; “symbols” for the higher thinking center. This is why all attempts to understand or explain “myths” and “symbols” with the ordinary mind, or the formulas and the expressions that summarize their content, are doomed from the start.