connecting oneself to the Greater Mind

"You know that all this Work-and all real forms of esoteric teaching-are designed to make it possible for a man to begin to feel the influences of Higher Centres. These centres, the Higher Mental and the Higher Emotional Centres, correspond to what is called Greater Mind. But you must remember that logical thinking, based on the senses turned outward to the external world, does not put us in touch with these Higher Centres, which exist in everyone and are fully developed and send their influences down to us. Our trouble is that we have not any receptive apparatus to hear them with. For that reason one definition of this Work is:

"the preparation of lower centres for the reception of the influences coming from Higher Centres. All that this Work teaches practically - namely, self-observation, non-identifying, Self-Remembering, not making internal accounts, not internally considering, not justifying, not going with negative 'I's, not being depressed, making Personality (especially False Personality) passive, separating from negative states, breaking buffers, destroying pictures, seeing ingrained attitudes, and not accepting them, stopping wrong imaginations, in fact, all that this Work teaches, is to purify lower centres for the hearing of Higher Centres. When a man wishes to keep in touch with this Work which really means to keep in touch with any moments of insight or Self-Remembering that he has had, from Higher Centres, then he begins to have a psychology."

Gurdjieff 
(Maurice Nicoll Vol.3)

why bother to try to teach them

F.P.: "In that case," I asked, "how can they ever learn anything from you - or from anyone else?"

Gurdjieff: "Maybe they not learn anything ever."

F.P.: "Then why bother to try and teach them?"

He smiled, indulgently. "Because is possibility, even if very small, may learn."

Fritz Peters - Gurdjieff Remembered

the emergence of "New Men"

"Its possible that millions of men may be in this unhappy situation, but that must not stop us. Even if there are millions of incomplete half-men - thanks, objectively, to their own fault - with all the suffering this implies, this number can be more readily accepted if even one man escapes the sad fate that awaits all who do not fulfill their duty to nature."

There were immediate protests: “By what right do you assert such things? For what purpose?”

Mr. Gurdjieff smiled compassionately, and said gravely, "You know, one who has been freed can save ten others; these ten can then save a hundred; these hundred, thousands; these thousands, millions. So, millions of suffering and unhappy human beings can cause millions of joyful human beings to appear. Such could be the blessing brought by the emergence of these ´new men’. As for my right to say this, it arises from my duty to serve objective knowledge."

Tchekhovitch - Gurdjieff a Master in Life

only he who sees that he is imprisoned has a chance of freedom

“I knew some sorry prisoners,” Mr. Gurdjieff continued, “who brought up three generations of spiders, which they succeeded in taming and even in teaching tricks. Another became friends with mice and rats, and still another shared his bread with sparrows. Each of these prisoners looked for a way of adapting to his condition and of finding a means to escape, not from the prison, but from himself. But only he one who sees that he is imprisoned in himself has a chance of freedom; that is, if he really desires it and is intelligently prepared. One needs to think very carefully and see who is in prison and what the prison consists of.”

Gurdjieff a Master in Life p.41

Gurdjieff charging a pupil with energy

All the time I was sitting there it was as if I were being charged with electricity, magnetized with energy from Gurdjieff; as if a force were passing between us.

Although I had felt listless and tired when I arrived, and had sat for two hours apparently doing nothing, I was now charged to the brim with bubbling energy, like a battery. Actually, I had made an effort to be active inside - not passive and fidgety.

Also I had learnt something: I was reminded of what a Rishi in India had told me - that it was possible for a teacher to teach a pupil without a word being said. ‘There are times when it is necessary to do nothing - but not to be idle’, as a Chinese saying has it.

C.S. Nott - Teachings of Gurdjieff

You have no idea how many people he’s rescued

I was still reeling a little from this incident, wondering whether I should have told this disagreeable individual off, when I was approached timidly by the elevator boy, who had heard everything.

“That man hates Monsieur Gurdjieff,” he said. “But I love him. How lucky you are to travel with him!” This difference of opinion was interesting, so I asked him, “Why? Do you know him well?”
“Of course! He comes here every year. He s a wonderful man.” The young fellow had an unusual accent, and I commented on it. “Ah! I come from Russia, but now I’m French.” “Is it because you’re Russian that you know him so well?” “Yes,” he answered.

“He does so much good here for all the refugees. He comforts them; he helps them with money. You have no idea how many people he’s rescued from destitution. As for the manager, he despises Russians and must be jealous.”

Michel Conge - Inner Octaves p.198

a man with an immense compassion for all mankind

“But behind all that strength, and behind what appears to be ruthlessness, I saw something else. If need be, he could probably be brutal and ruthless, but only in the way that a surgeon is ruthless and brutal when he has the job of removing a malignant growth. Behind all that decision, and all that strength, I caught a glimpse of a man with an immense compassion for all mankind. There is a gentleness, patience and compassion there, as well as a great strength. There is also plenty of mirth and laughter as well as determination and decision. But the word which came to my mind first and which remained with me all the time that I was with him, was the word ‘compassion’. He made me think of the Buddha as he sat cross-legged on that divan and, for me, Buddha is a wise teacher, very richly endowed with compassion.”

Dr. Kenneth Walker

you had an extraordinary impression

With him, you had an extraordinary impression. When he was speaking with you, you continually had the impression that you were, for him, the only person who existed in the whole world. That is something very rare. One second later he would shift his attention to someone else and you no longer existed but that was normal. It seemed very normal to us. It’s something that everyone, to some extent, has a taste of - this potential which is impossible to realize by oneself - it appeared when you saw that man; when you saw him in himself, complete, missing nothing that was happening, noticing even the tiniest details. It was visible in his carriage, in the way he held himself, he was always very calm, quiet, completely and precisely corresponding to what the moment demanded.

Maurice Desselle

the Majority of people over 40 are Zombies

Men cease “thinking originally” at thirty-five years, women at forty years.

The majority of people over forty are one-third to two-thirds dead and merely survive thanks to circumstances over which they have no control.

A.R. Orage - Commentary on BT