The Teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff

"Self-Observation & Self-Remembering" 

 

Wednesday, March 11 · 6:30 - 7:30 PM  

• Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, East Liberty
  2nd Floor, Meeting Room 1
  130 Whitfield Street
  Pittsburgh, PA 15206 

We will continue to hold Wednesday meetings, at the same time and location,

through the end of March.

"Self-observation is very difficult.  The more you try, the more clearly you will see this.  At present you should practice it not for results but to understand that you cannot observe yourselves.  In the past you imagined that you saw and knew yourselves.  I am speaking of objective self-observation. ... If you simply realize you cannot, it will be right.  To come to it is your aim."

                                                              -  Gurdjieff, from Views from the Real World

The Teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff

"Essence, Personality and Self-Development" 

 

Wednesday, March 4 · 6:30 - 7:30 PM  

• Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, East Liberty
  2nd Floor, Meeting Room 3
  130 Whitfield Street
  Pittsburgh, PA 15206 

We will continue to hold Wednesday meetings, at the same time and location,

through the end of March.

"…we are divided into two parts. One part is what we are born with; it contains the seed of the qualities rightfully belonging to us…. We shall call it our “essence”. The other part is what we have acquired – all our knowledge and most of what attracts us, most of our behavior.

Personality develops as a result of external circumstances (place, time and environment) and it depends entirely on them.

Both are necessary for life; and if a man wants to know himself, to know “his life,” he must first become able to differentiate between them in himself."

                                                              -  Jean Vaysse, from Toward Awakening

The Teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff

"Self-Observation" 

Monday, February 17 · 6:30 - 7:30 PM  

• Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, East Liberty
  2nd Floor, Meeting Room 2
  130 Whitfield Street
  Pittsburgh, PA 15206 

We will continue to hold Monday meetings, at the same time and location,

through the end of March, except for Monday, February 24.

"This need for something to be changed in us is certainly the first observation of ourselves offered by the exigencies of life; sometimes abruptly or brutally and sometimes more gradually as a result of a need, a question or an inner demand.  A man's whole wish for a future evolution and the strength of his commitment to it often depend on the quality, the intensity and the force of this observation."

                                                              -  Jean Vaysse, from Toward Awakening

A Series of Discussions:

The Teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff

"What is the Role of Language in the Search for Being" 

Monday, February 10 · 6:30 - 7:30 PM  

• Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, East Liberty
  2nd Floor, Meeting Room 2
  130 Whitfield Street
  Pittsburgh, PA 15206 

We will continue to hold Monday meetings, at the same time and location,

through the end of March, except for Monday, February 24.

"And you know, don't you, that the talks of my dear grandfather always bring out tales of places where he has been, and you know also how delightfully he tells them and how much new and interesting information becomes crystallized in our presences from these tales."

                                                                -- Gurdjieff, from All and Everything

A Series of Discussions:

The Teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff

"Sleep and Awakening"

Monday, February 3 · 6:30 - 7:30 PM  

• Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, East Liberty
  2nd Floor, Meeting Room 2
  130 Whitfield Street
  Pittsburgh, PA 15206 

We will continue to hold Monday meetings, at the same time and location,

through the end of March, except for Monday, February 24.

"No matter; this secret call is still alive, prompting him from within to try, and to try increasingly, to realize the significance of his presence here on earth.  For he is here to awake, to remember, and to search, again and still again."

                                              Henri Tracol, from "Without Sleep, No Awakening"

A Series of Discussions:

The Teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff

"Sleep"

Monday, January 27 · 6:30 - 7:30 PM  

• Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, East Liberty
  2nd Floor, Meeting Room 1
  130 Whitfield Street
  Pittsburgh, PA 15206 

We will continue to hold Monday meetings, at the same time and location,

through the end of March, except for Monday, February 24.

"A modern man lives in sleep, in sleep he is born and in sleep he dies.  About sleep, its significance and its role in life, we will speak later.  But at present just think of one thing, what knowledge can a sleeping man have?  And if you think about it and at the same time remember that sleep is the chief feature of our being, it will at once become clear to you that if a man really wants knowledge, he must first of all think about how to wake, that is, about how to change his being."

                                                           -- Gurdjieff, from In Search of the Miraculous

A Series of Discussions:
The Teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff

                 "The Wish to Work" 

Wednesday, January 8 · 6:30 PM  

• Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, East Liberty
  2nd Floor, Meeting Room 1
  130 Whitfield Street
  Pittsburgh, PA 15206 

Our next meeting will be on Monday, January 27, same location.

"Working on oneself is not so difficult as wishing to work, taking the decision.  This is so because our centers have to agree among themselves, having realized that, if they are to do anything together, they have to submit to a common master.  But it is difficult for them to agree because once there is a master, it will no longer be possible for any of them to order the others about and to do what they like.  There is no master in ordinary man."

                                                                                -- Gurdjieff

                                                                                     from "Views From the Real World"

A Series of Discussions:
What is the Gurdjieff Work?                        
Wednesday, December 11 · 6:30 PM

• Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, East Liberty
  2nd Floor, Meeting Room 1
  130 Whitfield Street
  Pittsburgh, PA 15206 

We will resume weekly meetings on January 27, 2020. These meetings will also be from 6:30-7:30 in Room 2 at the East Liberty Carnegie Library.

Man's possibilities are very great.  You cannot conceive

even a shadow of what man is capable of attaining.

But nothing can be attained in sleep.

In the consciousness of a sleeping man his illusions,

his 'dreams' are mixed with reality.

He lives in a subjective world and he can never escape it.

And this is why he can never make use of all the powers

he possesses and why he always lives in only a small part of himself.

-- Gurdjieff

A Series of Discussions:
 What is the Gurdjieff Work?                            
Monday, December 2 · 6:30 PM 

• Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, East Liberty
  2nd Floor Meeting Room 3A
  130 Whitfield Street
  Pittsburgh, PA 15206 

We have one more discussion scheduled this year, on Wednesday, December 11. This meeting will also be from 6:30-7:30 at the East Liberty Carnegie Library.

A Series of Discussions:
What is the Gurdjieff Work?
          Forms of the Work                      
Monday, November 25 · 6:30 PM 

• Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, East Liberty
  2nd Floor Meeting Room 3B
  130 Whitfield Street
  Pittsburgh, PA 15206 

We have scheduled two more discussions on December 2 & 11. These meetings will also be from 6:30-7:30 at the East Liberty Carnegie Library.

" . . . and from then on there gradually arose in me that 'something' which has brought the whole of me to the unshakeable conviction that, apart from the vanities of life, there exists a 'something else' which must be the aim and ideal of every more or less thinking man, and that it is only this something else which may make a man really happy and give him real values, instead of the illusory 'goods' with which in ordinary life he is always and in everything full."

                                                                                     -- G. I. Gurdjieff
                                                                                             from Meetings With Remarkable Men

A Series of Discussions:  
What is the Gurdjieff Work?  
            An Introduction                 

Monday, November 11 · 6:30 PM 

• Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, East Liberty
  2nd Floor Meeting Room 3B
  130 Whitfield Street
  Pittsburgh, PA 15206 

We have scheduled three more discussions on November 25, December 2 & 11. These meetings will also be from 6:30-7:30 at the East Liberty Carnegie Library.

"Who am I? I need to know.  If I do not know, what meaning does my life have?  And what in me responds to life?  So, I must try to answer, to see who I am. 

. . . I may begin to suspect that I am not what I believe.

. . . The search for myself begins with questioning . . ."

                                             -- Jeanne de Salzmann

A Series of Discussions:
                  The Teachings of 
           G.I. GURDJIEFF
                       and the 
 Struggle for a Meaningful Existence

Inner and Outer Life

• July 11 · 6:30 PM 
• Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, East Liberty
  2nd Floor Meeting Room
  130 Whitfield Street
  Pittsburgh, PA 15206 

We have scheduled one more discussion on July25th.  This meetings will also be on Tuesday evening (6:30-8:00) at the East Liberty Carnegie Library.

Many indications, which impartial observation can soon transform into conviction, lead us to feel that there are two natures in us. One of them is personal or individual, is relatively accessible to our usual means of perception, and is both organic and psychic (or animal and animated). The other, much less easy to perceive, is experienced as our participation in something far greater than the individual. Thus we call it spiritual, even universal; and, in fact, we hardly know how to speak about it.

                                                                                    -- Jean Vaysse,  "Toward Awakening"

A Series of Discussions:
                 The Teachings of 
             G.I. GURDJIEFF
                           and the 
Struggle for a Meaningful Existence

How to Understand Self-Study?

• June 27 · 6:30 PM 
• Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, East Liberty
  2nd Floor Meeting Room
  130 Whitfield Street
  Pittsburgh, PA 15206 

We have scheduled two more discussions on the following dates:  July 11th and  July25th.  These meetings will also be on Tuesday evening (6:30-8:00) at the East Liberty Carnegie Library.


THE MEANING OF SELF-STUDY

A soon we begin to question ourselves about our own identity and nature, either as a result of shocks in life or under the influence of exceptional moments, the question arises as to whether, instead of giving ourselves up more or less completely to events and thus to a course of evolution which we cannot control at all, there might not be in that evolution something which depends on us and could be influenced by us.
Thus it becomes obvious that the wish to be fully himself will not leave a man completely unaffected, and his first necessity, which is as urgent as the organic need to eat, should be to-find out if something in this direction is effectively possible for him, and in what way.

In the beginning, the only thing that can be asked of a man who engages in this search is that he should understand the necessity of making his way tirelessly along the path whatever happens, and that he should understand that nothing but self-study, rightly conducted, can lead him to self-knowledge and the great Knowledge.

                                                                           -- Jean Vaysse,  "Toward Awakening"

A Series of Discussions:
               The Teachings of 
           G.I. GURDJIEFF
                      and the 
Struggle for a Meaningful Existence

What is Work On Oneself?

• June 13 · 6:30 PM 
• Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, East Liberty
  2nd Floor Meeting Room
  130 Whitfield Street
  Pittsburgh, PA 15206

We have scheduled an additional three discussions on the following dates.  All of these meetings will be on Tuesday evenings (6:30-8:00) at the East Liberty Carnegie Library.

• June 27th
• July 11th
• July 25th

Previously, we began with the topic The wish to be myself; then, To be myself begins with self-knowledge; and lastly, Self-knowledge begins with work on oneself.
On June 13th, we'll continue this line of development with What is work on oneself?
Work on oneself has a number of aspects.  The realization of our possibilities first depends upon our active participation.  Intentional effort is necessary, as we open to the question, what is required?

I do not know myself. I begin to feel I must come to a moment of Presence that is more complete. What I need above all is to have an impression—as deep as possible—of myself. . . .
We need to see what is in the way, and we need to understand why receiving an impression is so difficult. It is not because I do not wish to receive it. It is because I am not able. I am always closed, whatever the circumstances of life. At times, maybe for a flash I am open to an impression. But almost immediately I react. The impression is automatically associated with other things and the reaction comes. The button is pushed and this or that thought, emotion or gesture must follow. I cannot help it, first of all because I do not see it. My reaction cuts me off from the impression, as well as from the reality it represents. This is the barrier, the wall. In reacting, I close. 

                                                            - Madame De Salzmann,  "The Reality of Being"

A Series of Discussions:
               The Teachings of 
           G.I. GURDJIEFF
                      and the 
Struggle for a Meaningful Existence

Topic:   Self-Knowledge Begins with Work on Myself
                               Tuesday, May 30 at 6:30 PM 

Meetings will begin with a brief presentation of the topic, and then open up for discussion.  We'll intend to finish each meeting with some practical exercise to illustrate the kind of effort required.
                
Next Meeting:  To be announced

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, East Liberty
2nd Floor Meeting Room
130 Whitfield Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15206

A Series of Discussions:
               The Teachings of 
           G.I. GURDJIEFF
                      and the 
Struggle for a Meaningful Existence

Topic:   To Be Myself Begins with Self-Knowledge
                               Tuesday, May 16 at 6:30 PM 

Meetings will begin with a brief presentation of the topic, and then open up for discussion.  We'll intend to finish each meeting with some practical exercise to illustrate the kind of effort required.
                
Next Meetings:  Tuesday May 30th at 6:30 PM    (Topic to be announced)

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, East Liberty
2nd Floor Meeting Room
130 Whitfield Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15206

A Series of Discussions:
                 The Teachings of 
           G.I. GURDJIEFF
                      and the 
Struggle for a Meaningful Existence

Topic:  I Wish To Be Myself                Tuesday, May 2nd at 6:30 PM 

So many different ways to say this, but everything begins with a wish of some sort like this ... a wish to be myself, or, maybe a wish simply to be, to be present, or, a wish for a more authentic existence.  First is the wish, then the question: How to realize my wish?  How can I actualize this wish 'to be myself'? What is necessary? 

Meetings will begin with a brief presentation of the topic, and then open up for discussion.  We'll intend to finish each meeting with some practical exercise to illustrate the kind of effort required.
                
Next Meetings:  Tuesday May 16th at 6:30 PM
                            Tuesday May 30th at 6:30 PM    (Topics to be announced)

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, East Liberty
2nd Floor Meeting Room
130 Whitfield Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15206

MEETING & DISCUSSION
Teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff
Thursday, June 30th, 6:30 - 8:00
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, East Liberty
2nd Floor Meeting Room
130 Whitfield Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
  
Disc­ussion: "Where Our Attention Is"

I wish to be conscious of myself. Yet, as I am at this moment, can I know myself, can I be conscious of myself? I cannot. I am too scattered. I feel nothing. But I see that I am asleep, and I see the symptoms of this sleep. I have forgotten the sense of my existence, I have forgotten myself. And at this moment I receive a shock: I am awaking, I want to wake up. Then, having scarcely felt the shock, I feel myself taken again, held back by the elements of my sleep—associations that turn around, emotions that take me, unconscious sensations. I feel myself fall back into forgetfulness.
We do not realize how passive we are, always pulled along by events, people and things. We begin an activity with great interest, fully aware of our aim. But after a certain time the impulse weakens, overcome by inertia. Our understanding diminishes, and we feel the need for something new that will restore the interest, the life. Our inner work progresses like this in stages, and always depends on new forces. It is determined by laws. We must get rid of the idea that progress is continuous in a straight line. There are stages where the intensity diminishes and, if we wish not to fall back, a force must appear that is more active.
The passive “man” in us, the only one we know, is the one we trust. But as long as we remain passive, nothing new can appear. We must become active in relation to our inertia, the passive work of our functions. If we wish to change, we must look for the new “man” in ourselves, the one who is hidden. This is the one who remembers, who has a force that can only be brought by our wish, our will, and must grow degree by degree. It is necessary to see that a more active state, a greater intensity, is possible.
I need to recognize that in my usual state my attention is undivided. When I open to the outside, I am naturally interested in it. My attention goes there. I cannot prevent myself. If my force of attention is entirely taken, I am lost in life, identified, asleep. All my capacity to be present is lost. I lose myself, the feeling of myself. My existence loses its meaning. So, the first step is a separation in which my attention is divided.
Our effort must always be clear—to be present, that is, to begin to remember myself. With the attention divided, I am present in two directions, as present as I can be. My attention is engaged in two opposite directions, and I am at the center. This is the act of self-remembering. I wish to keep part of my attention on the awareness of belonging to a higher level and, under this influence, try to open to the outer world. I must make an effort to remain related, an effort of attention. I try to know truly what I am. I struggle to stay present, at the same time with a feeling of “I” turned toward a better quality and with an ordinary feeling tied to my self, my person. I wish to see and not forget that I belong to these two levels.
We must see where our attention is. Where is our attention when we remember ourselves? Where is our attention in life? Order can be born in us only if we enter into direct contact with disorder. We are not in the disorder. We are the state of disorder. If I look at what I really am, I see the disorder. And where there is a direct contact, there is an immediate action. I begin to realize that my Presence is where my attention is.  

                                              - Madame De Salzmann,  "The Reality of Being"

Meetings will be on hold for several weeks.  Check back for updates.

MEETING & DISCUSSION
Teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff
Thursday, June 23rd, 6:30 - 8:00 
Panera (meeting room)
5430 Center Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15232

Discussion: "I Do Not Know Myself"
Who am I? I need to know. If I do not know, what meaning does my life have? And what in me responds to life? So, I must try to answer, to see who I am. First, my thought steps back and brings suggestions about myself: I am a man or woman who can do this, who has done that, who possesses this and that. My thinking volunteers possible answers from all that it knows. But it does not know what I am, does not really know me in this moment. Then I turn to my feeling. It is among the centers most capable of knowing. Can it answer? My feeling is not free. It has to obey the “me” who wants to be the greatest, the most powerful and who suffers all the time from not being first. So, my feeling does not dare. It is afraid, or doubts. How can it know? Then, of course, there is my body, the capacity to sense my body. But am I my body? In fact, I do not know myself. I do not know what I am. I know neither my possibilities nor my limitations. I exist, yet I do not know how I am existing. I believe my actions are affirming my own existence. Yet I am always responding to life with only one part of myself. I react either emotionally or intellectually or physically. And it is never really “I” who responds. I also believe I am moving in the direction I want to go and that I can “do.” But in fact I am acted upon, moved by forces that I know nothing about. Everything in me takes place, everything happens. The strings are pulled without my knowing. I do not see that I am like a puppet, a machine set in motion by influences from outside. At the same time, I sense my life passing as if it were the life of another person. I vaguely see myself being agitated, hoping, regretting, afraid, bored . . . all without feeling that I am taking part. Most of the time I act without knowing it and realize only afterward that I said this or did that. It is as though my life unfolds without my conscious participation. It unfolds while I sleep. From time to time jolts or shocks awaken me for an instant. In the middle of an angry outburst, or grief or danger, I suddenly open my eyes—“What? . . . It’s me, here, in this situation, living this.” But after the shock, I go back to sleep, and a long time can pass before a new shock awakens me. As my life passes, I may begin to suspect that I am not what I believe. I am a being who is asleep, a being with no consciousness of himself. In this sleep I confuse intellect—the thought functioning independently from feeling—with intelligence, which includes the capacity to feel what is being reasoned. My functions—my thoughts, feelings and movements—work without direction, subject to random shocks and habits. It is the lowest state of being for man. I live in my own narrow, limited world commanded by associations from all my subjective impressions. This is a prison to which I always return—my prison. The search for myself begins with questioning where “I” am. I have to feel the absence, the habitual absence, of “I.” I must know the feeling of emptiness and see the lie in always affirming an image of myself, the false “I.” We are all the time saying “I,” though we do not really believe in it. In fact, we have nothing else in which we can believe. It is the wish to be that pushes me to say “I.” It is behind all my manifestations. But this is not a conscious impulse. Usually I look to the attitude of others in order to be convinced of my being. If they reject or ignore me, I doubt myself. If they accept me, I believe in myself. Am I only this image that I affirm? Is there really no “I” who could be present? In order to respond, I need to know myself, to have a direct experience of knowing myself. First, I have to see the obstacles that stand in the way. I must see that I believe in my mind, my thinking—I believe it is I. “I” wish to know, “I” have read, “I” have understood. All this is the expression of the false “I,” my ordinary “I.” It is my ego that prevents me from opening to consciousness, from seeing “what is” and what “I am.” My effort to awaken cannot be forced. We are afraid of emptiness, afraid to be nothing, and so we make an effort to be otherwise. But who makes this effort? I must see that this too comes from my ordinary “I.” All forcing comes from the ego. I must no longer be fooled by an image or an ideal that is imposed by the mind. I need to accept emptiness, accept to be nothing, accept “what is.” In this state, the possibility of a new perception of myself appears. 

                                                              - Madame De Salzmann,  "The Reality of Being"

Next Meeting: 
Thursday, June 30th (6:30-8:00 at E. Liberty Carnegie Library)

MEETING & DISCUSSION
Teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff
Tuesday, June 14th, 6:30 - 8:00
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, East Liberty
2nd Floor Meeting Room
130 Whitfield Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15206 

Disc­ussion: "The Life Force"

We wish to live, to be in life. From the moment we are born, something in us seeks to affirm itself in the outside world. I want to be heard and seen, to devour the world. At the same time, I do not want to be devoured. I want to be first, always. But all too soon I encounter the resistance of the world, and the basic impulse of self-affirmation has to take others into account. My affirming often assumes curious, even though common, forms such as self-pity or a refusal to express oneself.
 
I wish to live, I agree with life. I do everything to live, and this same force maintains the life of my body. I wish for something or to do something, and when the wish appears, this force is here. It impels me toward manifestation. Throughout my life, in everything I do, I seek to affirm this force. There is no act, however small, that is not an affirmation. If I speak to someone or write a letter, I affirm this force, I affirm my intelligence. Even if I merely look at someone, it is this force. If I hang up my coat, it is this force. Behind this unbridled affirmation, there is surely something true. This force in me is irrepressible. At the same time, I do not know what the affirmation is based on. I believe I am affirming myself. I identify with this force. Yet even though it is in me, this force is not mine. And in affirming it as my own, I do not see that I separate myself from it. In wanting to attribute its power to myself, I cut off its action. I create an inner world that is deprived of the action of this life force. My sense of “I,” of my self, is heavy and inert.
 
We need to see our childishness in relating to the life force, always wishing to have more. The child wants to have, the adult wants to be. The constant desire for “having” creates fear and a need to be reassured. We need to develop an attention in us that would relate the whole of ourselves to a higher force.
 
There is only one source of energy. As soon as my energy is called in one direction or another, a force appears. Force is energy in movement. There are different directions, but the source is the same. The life force, the force of manifestation, is always in movement. It has to flow. And I am entirely taken by it, I am swept along. I begin to suspect that I will always be taken if I do not also turn toward another, unknown part of myself.
                                                           
                                                        - Madame De Salzmann,  "The Reality of Being"

Upcoming Meetings: 
Thursday, June 23rd (6:30-8:00 at Panera, 5430 Center Ave)
Thursday,  June 30th (6:30-8:00 at E. Liberty Carnegie Library)