Key points and concise ideas
- The Work requires effort: real, invisible, internal psychological work—not theory or inspiration.
- Apply ideas to yourself: change comes from practice in daily life, not discussing concepts in general.
- Start with a sincere desire to change: dissatisfaction can fuel transformation, but only if you genuinely want concrete self-change.
- Work must be voluntary and understood: know what you’re doing and why; casual or legalistic practice can become harmful or discouraging.
- Knowledge first—then assimilation: esoteric ideas must be understood and digested, not memorized by rote.
- Practice converts knowledge into understanding: consistent effort produces “organic” understanding through direct experience.
- Awakening is practical: higher states of consciousness are approached through specific efforts, not mere belief.
- Divide attention: stay aware of outer circumstances while simultaneously observing inner reactions and states.
- Self-observation is foundational: it precedes (and prepares for) self-remembering, which cannot be forced.
- Observe without judgment: criticism and self-condemnation distort perception and block progress.
- Non-identification: notice thoughts/feelings without becoming them; create a small inner distance.
- Use negativity as a cue: let unpleasant states remind you to observe, trace causes, and disengage mechanically.
- Reduce negative imagination: see it as wasted attention/energy; return to facts and present observation.
- Let personality become passive: soften reactive momentum to make room for more conscious presence.
- Honest seeing is painful but liberating: clear observation can be harsh at first, yet opens compassion and a deeper identity.
The teachings of Gurdjieff are called the Work, because they require real effort that each of us can make invisibly and internally. This is inner psychological work that requires each of us to apply and practice the ideas, not merely in general, but upon ourselves. This practical application leads to personal change that opens onto a new level of awareness, knowledge and understanding.
The ideas which Gurdjieff presents us have power, the power of genuine psychological and spiritual transformation during daily life. This is a tailor-made work for those who cannot escape their ordinary obligations and yet need it as desperately as oxygen in order to have meaning and purpose in their lives. This work is about self-change.
The subject of the work is you yourself. Before you begin practicing the psychological work of the fourth way, as it is known, you must first have a strong desire to change the kind of human being you are. Reaching out metaphysically, seeking meaning and authenticity and growth into what you were born to become.
This kind of dissatisfaction with yourself is a prerequisite because work can then use the energy of that desire to fuel the real change it is aimed at. Since work is a path devoted to concrete change, so must the student be seeking actual change. Each student must be willing to undertake the efforts necessary due to a sincere longing for personal development.
The work must be done willingly, and this is the most critical point. First, you must understand what you are doing and why you are doing it before you can do it willingly. If you try to engage in the work practices in an uninformed or casual way, or out of curiosity, or if you are simply following the directions given you by your teacher in a legalistic manner, you will find that you have bitten off more than you can chew and the work will become hazardous to you.
Again, if you are generally satisfied with yourself, the work will only offend you. Or if you imagine that you can gain the kind of self-mastery which will give you the power to fulfill your dreams and desires and thus be satisfied, you will be in for a rude shock. None of these approaches will get you anywhere in the work.
From the outset, you must willingly be seeking sincere self-change for the work to work in you. If you understand this clearly and you have the right attitude, which is conscience toward the work, then you begin with acquiring knowledge. Gaining knowledge is the first effort in the work because you cannot get the right results until you understand how and why and what you must do.
Since the work is esoteric knowledge, it is of a special quality which requires thinking. You cannot learn about the ideas and exercises intellectually by rote using your ordinary memory and get any results. The ideas of this system need to be assimilated into your consciousness by way of understanding, which is not the same thing as knowing.
This requires personal work, thought and reflection in a flexible mind which doesn’t presume it understands everything already. You can spend your lifetime studying the knowledge of the fourth way, becoming a technical expert and never actually be in the path of the work. Knowledge comes first, but it goes nowhere until you apply it to yourself, to your being.
No amount of knowledge alone creates change, but when you begin to practice what you have learned, you receive light and gradually the ideas become organic understanding by way of the personal experience you have in practicing them. Studying this esoteric teaching will give you small shocks of awakening if you reflect on the ideas. The idea that humanity is asleep is a shock only slightly less alarming than the idea that you are asleep.
The idea of self-evolution and different levels of consciousness is a shock, and the idea of multiplicity and mechanicalness can leave you reeling. You can find momentary mind expansion, but not permanent personal transformation in the knowledge of this teaching. Transformation, which clearly indicates change, happens in and through your individual effort to apply this knowledge to yourself by way of practicing its teaching.
Too many students confuse knowing about the ideas of the understanding that only comes with the enlightenment gained in practical efforts. You may know that you do not remember yourself, but that knowing doesn’t mean you are remembering yourself. You have to make the efforts to actually remember yourself in order to understand what it means that you don’t remember yourself.
You may know quite well that you must observe yourself, but never get beyond merely noticing this or that randomly. Or you may have a very clear grasp of the idea of mechanicalness without ever having observed your own. You cannot have the perspective of the third state of consciousness unless you reach up into it in a practical way through your effort.
Getting into the third state of consciousness, awakening, is made possible mostly by way of making your personality passive, by going against the mechanical momentum of sleep which is always asserting your personality. Remember that the third state is available to you at all times, above your ordinary state, accessible by the means of practicing self remembering and self observation and non-identification, which are conditions of consciousness in the third state. You can create these conditions yourself by doing the work yourself.
This is what self-evolution means. This is an incredible idea that you can raise yourself up into higher levels of being and consciousness within yourself by doing the work and in doing so you can receive enlightenment. The magnitude of this gift of opportunity exceeds words, yet it is verifiable and true.
Your evaluation of the work will deepen and grow as you learn to appreciate the significance of this gift. If you find this esoteric path, you may consider yourself blessed. The work begins with dividing one’s attention.
If you have had no experience in this practice, try the following. While being aware of your external experience, become concurrently aware of your inner state. This internal awareness is the beginning of self-observation.
Self-observation is the foundation effort in this process. Its value cannot be overestimated and all development proceeds from that point. You must intentionally turn a portion of your attention inward in order to observe yourself.
It is essential not to judge or criticize what one observes in oneself. These emotions will distort what one observes and inhibit progress. Try to disassociate with your justifying and observe the feeling objectively.
Keep tracking back to find the source of an unpleasant experience. Continued self-observation will give you knowledge, understanding and the possibility of detachment and liberation from this recurring state in you. All wrong work loses force when it is seen through self-observation.
Use the recognition of an unpleasant experience as your reminding factor and third force to not identify. You are then using the problem to solve the problem. What you are encountering is negative imagination.
This is a major interference with the process of self-development and drains us of a great deal of energy. We most often discover that events turn out quite different than our imagination led us to believe. Negative imagination is a classic type of unnecessary suffering which the work teaches to get rid of mercilessly.
Negative imagination not only steals force, it is a complete waste of one’s attention, energy and time. Half an hour of negative imagination results in a lost half hour of your life. Before pursuing day two, before pursuing self-remembering, you must develop the skill of self-observation.
There is a vast difference between self-observation and self-remembering. The latter is the result of a stage of growth in the work and it cannot be forced. The basis of the work is self-observation, not self-remembering.
This is the only way to make progress in the work, namely through this persistent effort of seeing what you are and why you function the way you do. To do this self-observation correctly, one part of your attention is focused on your external circumstances, the other part is directed inward in order to observe your internal states and reactions. You see yourself interacting in the world as an objective observer might.
In your changing inner states, note the contradictions. With your divided attention, observe yourself, not something else. You are then a silent witness to the activity within you which reveals to you your stimulus-response nature, personality distortions, imbalance of centers and leads towards knowing what you must work on.
Practice self-observation uncritically. Do not become identified with what you observe. Try to separate psychologically from all negative thoughts, states and feelings.
Release anxiety. Let personality be passive and observe. There is no doubt that honest self-observation hurts.
It is painful to see in a more objective way the artifice, immaturity, selfishness, absurdities and uncontrolled tendencies of behavior. Most people will do anything to avoid seeing themselves for what they are or have become. That is why this work is not popular, will never sell well next to the feel-good teachings, and will cause upheavals in those who encounter it.
Merely reaching the point of seeing ourselves as others see us requires a level of dedication to this work which can endure severe necessary suffering. This work is not for the faint-hearted, the amateur seeker, the gatherer of eclectic information. It can be devastating and brutal when you come face-to-face with realizations about yourself.
But then it becomes profoundly liberating and inspiring. It is true that we need to be merciless with ourselves, seeing things for what they are. But this mysterious practice of self-observation is about creating a new quality of awareness within yourself, and clearing the ground for a new sense of identity.
Ultimately, it leads to a development of being that is characterized by great compassion, even for the mechanical and chaotic aspects of yourself. Higher consciousness allows one to see the impartial and larger picture, and this can only lead to an understanding that does not condemn. The old self, therefore, must not be what is doing the observing, otherwise you are lost in a labyrinth that leads to dead ends.
Something new is being created, a directed attention that is purified of the filters, illusions, attitudes we take as our identity. This delicate development is a birthing process of sorts. Discernment is indeed a key word here, detecting different qualities and tastes of energies, recognizing what is toxic and what is of a higher order.
The effort of self-observation not only gives you new information, reveals ways of seeing that were unknown before, but most especially, paves the way for a new, deeper self to be born. This watchfulness or vigilance, as long as it remains independent of features, moods, etc., will generate a recovery of your essential nature, which is buried beneath acquired personality. Further, it will lead to the conscious presence of your spiritual nature.
Remember that this is not the way of self-denial, but of understanding. As defined in the work, understanding is the result of knowledge and being. Self-observation gives you knowledge on how to create being.
There is something to be learned about negativity and its power over us that we can all verify. It does not matter how often you find yourself in sleep, only that you recognize it. Observing negativity is one of the most informative ways to gain understanding about oneself and about the nature of sleep.
You can use the feeling of negativity to remind yourself to observe. How are you negative? What is the source of your negativity? Anger? Pain? Fear? Make a practice of observing your negativity and separating some observing eyes from it. Don’t identify with it.
Become passive to it. If it continues to take place, let it, but try not to give it your attention.