K Harish
A central idea in George Gurdjieff ’s philosophy was that man is in deep sleep. He is an automaton and each of his actions, thoughts and feelings are just passive and mechanical responses to stimuli. Things just happen, with no true and independent thought or action. Without self-knowledge, he says, man will remain a slave, a plaything of the forces acting upon him.
Gurdjieff considered human beings incomplete, but endowed with an ability to develop potential. The way is self-observation, the beginning of a long journey of self-discovery. In the process, your deceptive sense of self becomes apparent. Gurdjieff calls them ‘I’s. The ‘I’s are false personalities that appear and disappear at will, to which you are continually enslaved. Your deeds or emotions are determined by the peculiar characteristics of each ‘I’ — a schizophrenic existence that seems to tear your life, swinging you across happiness and sorrow.
Gurdjieff ’s teachings divide man into three centers: the moving, thinking and emotional centres. The moving centre is responsible for physical work, thinking centre for logical reasoning, and emotional centre for emotional states. We need to harmonise all the three centres equally.
But most of our lives are limited to one or, at best, two centres. Our lasting memories are ones where our physical, emotional and thinking centres have combined to create a complete experience. Man cannot do this by himself. He must work in a group with like-minded people. To overcome their sleep, they can wake each other up.
DISCLAIMER
The views expressed in the Article above are Author’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."
Courtesy: Economic Times: Speaking Tree: Aug, 18, 2018
K Harish
A central idea in George Gurdjieff ’s philosophy was that man is in deep sleep. He is an automaton and each of his actions, thoughts and feelings are just passive and mechanical responses to stimuli. Things just happen, with no true and independent thought or action. Without self-knowledge, he says, man will remain a slave, a plaything of the forces acting upon him.
Gurdjieff considered human beings incomplete, but endowed with an ability to develop potential. The way is self-observation, the beginning of a long journey of self-discovery. In the process, your deceptive sense of self becomes apparent. Gurdjieff calls them ‘I’s. The ‘I’s are false personalities that appear and disappear at will, to which you are continually enslaved. Your deeds or emotions are determined by the peculiar characteristics of each ‘I’ — a schizophrenic existence that seems to tear your life, swinging you across happiness and sorrow.
Gurdjieff ’s teachings divide man into three centers: the moving, thinking and emotional centres. The moving centre is responsible for physical work, thinking centre for logical reasoning, and emotional centre for emotional states. We need to harmonise all the three centres equally.
But most of our lives are limited to one or, at best, two centres. Our lasting memories are ones where our physical, emotional and thinking centres have combined to create a complete experience. Man cannot do this by himself. He must work in a group with like-minded people. To overcome their sleep, they can wake each other up.
DISCLAIMER
The views expressed in the Article above are Author’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."
Courtesy: Economic Times: Speaking Tree: Aug, 18, 2018