A Passion for Understanding-Gurdjieff

7/28/2019 A Passion for Understanding-Gurdjieff

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A Passion for Understanding

Notes from an Orage Group, New York, 1927

by Frederick Schneider

Edited with commentary by Allan Lindh

The material that follows is drawn from the notes and letters of Frederick Schneider(18831933), who was a student ofA. R. Orage in New York in the late

1920s. While Schneiders notes overlap some of the material in C. S. Nott s

bookTeachings of Gurdjieffand the C. Daly King book, The Oragian Version,they have the advantage of being a contemporaneous report of Gurdjieffs teachingas

transmitted by Orageby a student who makes no pretensions of great understanding,

but is simply attempting to record what he has heard and seen. In addition, this material is

from the period when Orage was editing an early version ofBeelzebubs Tales, and thus may provide insights into Orages understanding of the book.

An interesting aspect of this material is the light it sheds on the apparent differencesbetween the food diagram outlined by Ouspensky in Chapter 9 ofFragments

and the description of human digestion in Chapter 39 of

Beelzebubs Tales. Schneiders notes outline what appears to be a third version of this

symbol, with some differences from the other two. It portrays the thinking, feeling andinstinctive minds as each having a plus and a minus part, and describes the movement

of attention among these six centers with and without the effort of self-remembering.

These differences raise in a concrete form the question of whether such discrepancies area consequence of a too literal interpretation of the diverse external forms by which an

internal teaching has been portrayed.

As to the materials authenticity, there are two questions to deal with. First is the questionof whether the original manuscript is genuine. Mr. Schneiders daughter clearly

remembers meeting Mr. Gurdjieff in New York as a teenager, and also remembers the

letters her father sent from the Prieur. Some of these notes are copies of letters by Mr.Schneider to an unidentified cousin, others are his brief summaries of lectures, and some

contain references to other students, as if they were sharing their notes. There is no doubt

in my mind that the old and faded carbons I worked from were Mr. Schneiders copies ofhis own notes, and that he was a member of one of Orages groups in 1927.

However there is a second and much more difficult question, and that is whether Mr.

Schneider accurately recorded Mr. Orages lectures. On this matter, people must exercisetheir own judgment. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. In addition, one

should remember that in the third series of his writings , Mr. Gurdjieffdiscusses his trip to New York in 1931 and his public renunciation of the form of the

Work that Orage had presented to his New York students.

Schneiders original notes are rough and unedited, necessitating extensive cutting and

rearrangement. Approximately 50% of the material has been deleted to removeredundancies, personal notes, and hopelessly obscure fragments. In addition, a very small

amount has been added to clarify indefinite pronouns and the like, although I have chosen

to preserve, for the most part, the agrammatical immediacy of the originals.


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Summary of Some Gurdjieff Lectures

1st Lecture20 January 1923

We cannot remember ourselves because it is only with our mind we try. The other two

centers have no interest in it, but they must change. For total change is possible only

through emotional and instinctive centers. Yet those two centers must be changed. Butthey have no language. Yet mind alone is not a human being, any more than a driver

alone is a whole equipage. The center of gravity of change is in the emotional and

instinctive centers. But these are concerned only with the present. Mind looks ahead, butthe desire to change must be in the emotional center, and the ability to change must be in

our body. But it must learn their language. This is the work of self-observation.

2nd Lecture

The first advantage of self-remembering is that one makes fewer mistakes in life. To

complete self-remembering three centers are necessary, and all must be artificiallystimulated, the intellectual from the outside, the other two from the inside. Distinguish

between sensation, emotion and thoughts. Thereafter say to each sensation, emotion andthoughtremind me to remember you.

3rd Lecture

Human work is with three centers. Any other is sub-human. For this reason it is thousand

times more precious to the human soul to scrub a floor consciously than to write 100masterpieces unconsciously. Combined three-center work is impossible until each center

has been taught to work by itself.

4th Lecture

Freedom is the ultimate goal of all schools, consciously or unconsciously. There are two

freedoms, the greater freedomfreedom from outside influences; the lesser freedom

freedom from inside influences. The two chief obstacles to the lesser freedom are self-pride and vanity (vanity is of the body, pride of accomplishment is of the mental or

emotional centers.) Self-pride of the real kind begins with the work of I. He who hasreal self-pride is already half free.

Last LectureChristianity

Until man separates himself from himself, he can neither do anything for himself, nor behelped. We have two aimsto separate I from it, and thereafter to govern it unaided

(freedom). An adult is one who seriously wishes to separate himself. Mind and essence

live separate lives. Essence is always changing, with food, people, weather, etc. Atpresent mind submits to serving this changing essence. Mind is governed by a devil

(changing essence). Do not let your mind slave for your essence. The thinking center isChristian. The emotional body is pre-Christian; the body is pagan. Emotional center withbody makes the devil, which the thinking center must learn to control.

Lecture of 25 January 1927


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Observe: voice, movements, gestures, postures, facial expressions, sensations. Awareness

without criticism. We are continually side-tracked from our intentions. Thousands of

influences sidetrack us. Individuality would be shown as a straight line.

Unnaturally resist natural temptation to act in natural way. When attempting to observe

oneself, dont speculate, analyze, criticize; when something is seen, immediately become

aware of something elseIMMEDIATELY.

There have been 9000 years of civilization, 8 or 10 civilizations. This civilization will

die, making same errornot working in harmony with nature Self-consciousness,being aware of body that has been presented to us. Have control of physical body. Aware

that you have a body. Self-conscious, one is actually aware of others We are not free,

because we fear. Fearabsence of self-consciousness. We are not free to choose our

body. What body would we have chosen? Couldnt control conditions of birth. [Oureducation was] limited to conditioning. In school, we are subjected to forcible ignorance.

At majority free? Not a thing we say, feel, hasnt been conditioned. No freedom in us.

Object of life to attain greater freedom.

Lecture of 31 January 1927The object-to stop energy leaks. There is a means to create new energy, but why createnew energy when you have not stopped the leaks? Stop the leaks first. Until you have, it

would be like trying to hold water in a sieve. To review, a human being is made up of six

centers:

1- (1 minus) Thinking, passive, formulating center, word box, forebrain;

1+ (1 plus) Real thinking, individuality, positive, organ of real thought, rear brain;

2- (2 minus) Emotional, passive, solar plexus;2+ (2 plus) Consciousness, higher emotions, heart;

3- (3 minus) Physical, end of spine;

3+ (3 plus) Will, sex organs, creative center.

It is by awareness without criticism that you stop the leaks. When you observe, are aware,

the excess energy of the three passive centers, 1-, 2-, 3-, that is, thinking, emotional, and

physical, spills over into the other three centers: individuality, consciousness and will.Leaks of 1-, 2-, 3- are respectively, day-dreaming, emotional anxiety, and physical

tension.

Nothing is understood until a year after these lectures. It takes that long to get the realsignificance. That is why Orage repeats so much of former lectures. Impressions

automatically received, response necessarily automatic. Again, you cant make a

conscious response [to an impression] unconsciously received. Centers 1-, 2-, 3- aresubject to education. We dont invent English-we speak English. We dont invent

emotions-we act emotions. We dont invent gestures, postures, movements-we copythem. You can tell a foreigner, westerner, etc. from his speech, actions, etc. Self-

observation for one hour a day will add one month (not exaggerated) to your real life.Most people like day-dreaming, sad emotions-they keep sad letters, they like the

sensation of dying. Observe and soon you will find you can do something. Centers 1-, 2-,

3- cannot do

Consider air as menu. Can select and take from it what we want. Can stay in a stuffy


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room 6 hours and feel fine. Its what we absorb in breathing [that matters]. Air is one

kind of food. Then there is ordinary food, meat, vegetables, etc. Then there are food

impressions. Go into room. What you see, the kind of impressions, will determine kind ofthoughts you will be able to exercise. Thinking food = impressions, emotional food = air,

physical food = meat, vegetables, etc. Events initiated in one direction end up in opposite

direction. WE ARE WARNED AGAINST SELF-IMPROVEMENT!!!!!!!!!!Letter of 6 February 1927

Pythias. Last Tuesday another Orage lecture. I want to write about it for my own benefit,to see what I have absorbed and retained. So am making a carbon to send to you. I may

write up subsequent lectures. Am not so good at it, and this may not interest you. If so, let

me know and I will save two cents, and wear and tear on a carbon sheet.

Nature is a factory turning out machines. After years and years of turning out lower forms

of vegetable matter and living things, it succeeded in manufacturing reptiles. Later it

added mammals to its accomplishments, and finally, human beings, of which it is turningout millions a year. Each is an improvement over the former. Humans are turned out with

three springs, intellectual, emotional, physical. Mammals, two springs; reptiles, onespring. In human beings, the three springs are wound up at birth according to heredity.

All not the same. A person may be born with one spring wound up to last two hundredyears; her second spring eighteen years; third, ninety years. The respective springs run

down according to original intensity of winding, and to extent they are used If born

with springs wound all three the same-then athletic person will have her physical springunwind first; artist, musicians, poets, etc., have their emotional spring run down first;

scientists, etc., have their intellectual spring run down first and so on. But there is such a

thing as economizing. A spring wound not so tight at birth may outlast the other springsby economizing. The idea of these lectures is to learn how to economize and not have

your springs run down

Man is stupid to think he is wise because he has read. Consider the story of an ass whofinds himself on a prairie with all the grass burned off. Says he, I must be fat to have

eaten all the grass. What the world is we do not know and cannot know. What others tell

us means nothing. They have seen it with different thoughts, emotions, sensations thanours. What impresses them may not impress you and visa versa.

Yours clear as mud, Damon.

Letter of 15 February 1927

Pythias. Most people never take these lectures seriously. If studying a language, or

mathematics with a tutor, with daily lessons that must be learned, one would spend timeon them, but when left to ones own initiative, effort is absent.

Taking up the six observations again. Gestures often offset speech, give wrong

impressions of what you say. We give ourselves away with our hands while sayingsomething different. Gestures


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A Passion for Understanding-Gurdjieff