Prijzen worden aan de meet uitgedeeld, niet eerder
Een puur onwetende mens, die in zijn gehele leven
Zijn tijd, energie en aandacht aan het stoffelijke lichaam besteedt
En dus niet aan een voertuig, dat klaar staat om over te nemen
Van zodra dat lichaam wordt afgeworpen, net als een afgedragen kleed
Zal, net als al zijn lotgenoten, als hij oud is en versleten
En wanneer dat stoffelijke het laat afweten
Een prijs betalen: reeds in de Oudheid alom bekend en geweten.
Zelfs Boeddha, Gurdjieff en vele anderen wisten ons te vertellen
Dat mensen, die zich vergroeien met hun hersencellen
En zich onmogelijk van het lichaam kunnen scheiden
Automatisch één worden met hun smarten, lijden en pijnen
Zich er niet van zullen kunnen onthechten... dit, tot op de dag van overlijden.
Nochtans kan eender welke aandoening
Leiden tot een innerlijke verzoening
Gebaseerd op de ware realiteit
Dat ook jij niet enkel en alleen dat lichaam zijt.
Correctie - Na diepgaande zelfreflectie:
Weet, dat het lichaam het verlengde is van het brein,
En dat een mens meer 'had kunnen Zijn' - ik bedoel: aan die finishlijn.
Maar, tijdens het korte leven wil geen mens daarvan iets weten
Klampt zich liever vast aan denkbeeldige goden van valse profeten
In de hoop dat er een hel, vagevuur of hemel bestaat
Waardoor het heengaan eerder aanzien wordt als een vlucht, of wanhoopsdaad.
Hierna volgen enkele aforismen, die tot na-denken kunnen stemmen
Gericht aan hen, die het lef hebben om tegen de stroom in te zwemmen...
- There do exist enquiring minds, which long for the truth of the heart, seek it, strive to solve the problems set by life, try to penetrate to the essence of things and phenomena and to penetrate into themselves. If a man reasons and thinks soundly, no matter which path he follows in solving these problems, he must inevitably arrive back at himself, and begin with the solution of the problem of what he is himself and what his place is in the world around him. For without this knowledge, he will have no focal point in his search. Socrates’ words, “Know thyself” remain for all those who seek true knowledge and being.
- Like what 'it' does not like.
- The highest that a man can attain is to be able to do.
- The worse the conditions of life the more productive the work, always provided you remember the work.
- Remember yourself always and everywhere.
- Remember you come here (in this Study House) having already understood the necessity of struggling with yourself - only with yourself. Therefore thank everyone who gives you the opportunity.
- Here (in this Study House) we can only direct and create conditions, but not help.
- Know that this house can be useful only to those who have recognized their nothingness and who believe in the possibility of changing.
- If you already know it is bad and do it, you commit a sin difficult to redress.
- Self-observation brings man to the realization of the necessity of self-change. And in observing himself a man notices that self-observation itself brings about certain changes in his inner processes. He begins to understand that self-observation is an instrument of self-change, a means of awakening.
- The chief means of happiness in this life is the ability to consider externally always, internally never.
- Do not love art with your feelings.
- A true sign of a good man is if he loves his father and mother.
- Take the understanding of the East and the knowledge of the West - and then seek.
- If you want to lose your faith, make friends with a priest.
- Judge others by yourself and you will rarely be mistaken.
- Only help him who is not an idler.
- Respect every religion.
- The greatest untold story is the evolution of God.
- Knowledge and understanding are quite different. Only understanding can lead to being, whereas knowledge is but a passing presence in it.
- What is possible for individual man is impossible for the masses.
- I love him who loves work.
- The power of changing oneself lies not in the mind, but in the body and the feelings. Unfortunately, however, our body and our feelings are so constituted that they don’t care a jot about anything so long as they are happy. They live for the moment and their memory is short. The mind alone lives for tomorrow. Each has its own merits. The merit of the mind is that it looks ahead. But it is only the other two that can 'do'.
- We can only strive to be able to be Christians.
- Don't judge a man by the tales of others.
- Consider what people think of you - not what they say.
- There is a cosmic law which says that every satisfaction must be paid for with a dissatisfaction.
- Man must use what he has, not hope for what is not.
- Knowledge can be acquired by a suitable and complete study, no matter what the starting point is. Only one must know how to 'learn'. What is nearest to us is man; and you are the nearest of all men to yourself. Begin with the study of yourself; remember the saying 'Know Thyself'.
- You must know how to take when it is not given, to steal if necessary, but not wait for somebody to come and give it to you.
- Only he who can take care of what belongs to others may have his own.
- Only conscious suffering has any sense.
- Wish is the most powerful thing in the world. Higher than God.
- It is better to be temporarily an egoist than never to be just.
- Practice love first on animals, they are more sensitive.
- By teaching others you will learn yourself.
- Life is real only then, when 'I am'.
- Remember that here work is not for work’s sake but is only a means.
- Only he can be just who is able to put himself in the position of others.
- The advantage of the separate individual is that he is very small and that, in the economy of Nature, it makes no difference whether there is one mechanical man more or less. We can easily understand this correlation of magnitudes if we imagine the correlation between a microscopic cell and our own body. The presence or absence of one cell will change nothing in the life of the body. We cannot be conscious of it, and it can have no influence on the life and functions of the organism. In exactly the same way a separate individual is too small to influence the life of the cosmic organism to which he stands in the same relation (with regard to size) as a cell stands to our own organism. And this is precisely what makes his 'evolution' possible; on this are based his 'possibilities'.
- If you have not by nature a critical mind your staying here is useless.
-He who has freed himself of the disease of 'tomorrow' has a chance to attain what he came here for.
- Blessed is he who has a soul, blessed is he who has none, but woe and grief to him who has it in embryo.
- 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.
- Rest comes not from the quantity but from the quality of sleep.
- Sleep little without regret.
- Man lives his life in sleep, and in sleep he dies.
- Better to die than live in sleep.
- It is impossible to recognize a wrong way without knowing the right way. This means that it is no use troubling oneself how to recognize a wrong way. One must think of how to find the right way.
- If knowledge outweighs being a man knows but has no power to do. It is useless knowledge. On the other hand if being outweighs knowledge a man has the power to do, but does not know, that is, he can do something but does not know what to do. The being he has acquired becomes aimless and efforts made to attain it prove to be useless.
- The energy spent on active inner work is then and there transformed into a fresh supply, but that spent on passive work is lost for ever.
-Conscious love evokes the same in response. Emotional love evokes the opposite. Physical love depends on type and polarity.
- Conscious faith is freedom. Emotional faith is slavery. Mechanical faith is foolishness.
- Hope, when bold, is strength. Hope, with doubt, is cowardice. Hope, with fear, is weakness.
- Man is given a definite number of experiences - economizing them, he prolongs his life.
- A man can keep silence in such a ways that no one will even notice it. The whole point is that we say a good deal too much. If we limited ourselves to what is actually necessary, this alone would be keeping the silence. And it is the same with everything else, with food, with pleasures, with sleep; with everything there is a limit to what is necessary. After this "sin" begins. This is something that must be grasped, a "sin" is something which is not necessary.
- Here (in this Study House) there are neither Russians nor English, Jews nor Christians, but only those who pursue one aim - to be able to be.
- A man can only attain knowledge with the help of those who possess it. This must be understood from the very beginning. One must learn from him who knows.
- In speaking of evolution it is necessary to understand from the outset that no mechanical evolution is possible. The evolution of man is the evolution of his consciousness.
- 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 that has swallowed up the whole of their Essence, and also that tendency to hate others which flows from it.
- 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.
- A considerable percentage of the people we meet on the street are people who are empty inside, that is, they are actually already dead. It is fortunate for us that we do not see and do not know it. If we knew what a number of people are actually dead and what a number of these dead people govern our lives, we should go mad with horror.
- A man will renounce any pleasures you like but he will not give up his suffering.
- G. I. Gurdjieff 1924 -