Real conscience in the Gurdjieff Work is supposedly a key to inner evolution and higher consciousness. Yet, we know very little about it. Each of us may be familiar with some experience of "remorse of conscience" that occurs as a result of one’s unbecoming unconscious behavior. But even these experiences are little understood and rarely spoken of in depth in meetings. Gurdjieff's efforts in facilitating human evolution appear to be based on people being able to access real conscience. Still very few ever discuss their relation to their conscience. Why is this so, and what are the stumbling blocks to being able to access one’s real conscience? This paper explores conscience and the difficulty in accessing it and understanding it.
It is important at the beginning of our exploration to define what we really mean by conscience and what is the definition that Gurdjieff might have, as compared with a standard definition. The dictionary defines conscience as an inner feeling or voice viewed as acting as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of one's behavior. This definition is pretty much what an average person believes conscience to be. Also, it's important to differentiate conscience from morality. Gurdjieff makes a point that morality that is based on morals, varies from country to country. The definition of morality is a particular system of values and principles of conduct, especially one held by a particular person or society.
The conscience that most of us believe we have needs to be differentiated from Gurdjieff’s real conscience, which he says is located in our subconsciousness.
During the period of my year of special observations on all of their manifestations and perceptions, I made it categorically clear to myself that although the factors for engendering in their presences the sacred being-impulses of Faith, Hope, and Love are already quite degenerated in the beings of this planet, nevertheless, the factor which ought to engender that being-impulse on which the whole psyche of beings of a three-brained system is in general based, and which impulse exists under the name of Objective-Conscience, is not yet atrophied in them, but remains in their presences almost in its primordial state.
Thanks to the abnormally established conditions of external ordinary being-existence existing here, this factor has gradually penetrated and become embedded in that consciousness which is here called “subconsciousness,” in consequence of which it takes no part whatever in the functioning of their ordinary consciousness.
The conscience that most of us have is, for the most part, a passive conscience which, although it accompanies our behavior it does not direct our behavior. We may do things we don’t like and regret, and then say we feel guilty about it. Guilt is a feeling that is unpleasant and it may be as close as we come to a feeling of remorse. Additionally, the conscience we have can vary in terms of quality depending upon many factors.
For example, deep inside I may believe that I should not kill; this is a biblical commandment. However, if I’m a member of the armed forces, I believe I must kill to protect my country, and killing is considered correct and is a positive attribute soldiers must have. In addition, if I kill a lot of enemy soldiers, I will be celebrated, glorified and even given a medal. As you can see, there's a conflict between “thou shalt not kill” and “thou must kill.” This is an example of the difficulties one’s ordinary conscience runs into.
Our conscience can vary depending on our state of sleep or awakening. We do many things in a stressed or worried state and often, when we look back on our behavior, it is easy to see we acted incorrectly, and we feel bad about it. In this exploration, I look a little at ordinary conscience, but focus on the real, or as Gurdjieff refers to it, the objective-conscience buried in our subconsciousness.
The difficulty with our definition of ordinary conscience is that it is based on a simplistic understanding of right and wrong. It would be wonderful if life were simple and that everything we confronted could be separated into black and white or right and wrong. In reality, life is much more complex and often appears as an infinite spectrum of grays. So, what does Gurdjieff mean by objective-conscience? He doesn’t actually define it in words, but says it is the same for all people. He says it is a capacity existing within us and implies it already knows what the correct action is. We will have to accept that definition in the exploration and concentrate on the fact that conscience is an experience rather than a bunch of words.
For guidance, Gurdjieff says, “Every action of man is good in the objective sense, if it is done according to his conscience, and every action is bad, if from it he later experiences ‘remorse.’” The latter leads me to believe that objective-conscience is connected with a change in consciousness—a change in level from the waking-sleeping, moving upwards beyond ordinary consciousness to the level of self-consciousness and objective consciousness. However, to disprove my theory, Gurdjieff also points out that an individual may develop higher bodies and yet never develop an objective-conscience. ***
It is interesting that Mr. Gurdjieff focuses on the fact that our many unbecoming behaviors are not dictated by our conscience.
“Just at the beginning of this sixth personal sojourn of mine I soon categorically made clear, thanks to my experimental investigations, that most of the causes of the strangeness of their psyche are found not in that usual consciousness of theirs, in which alone they have already automatized themselves to exist in what is called their waking state, but in that consciousness of theirs which, thanks to their abnormal ordinary being-existence was gradually driven within their common presence and which although it should have been their real consciousness, yet remains in them in its primitive state and is called their ‘subconsciousness.’
“This subconsciousness is, however, just that part of their general psyche about which ... do you remember? I have told you already that it was first noticed by the Very Saintly Ashiata Shiemash, who constated that in that part of their psyche there are not yet atrophied the data for the fourth sacred impulse which is named ‘Objective-Conscience.’
The results of these behaviors that do not come from conscience are “remorse of conscience.” All and Everything is filled with examples of individuals who do things and experience remorse of conscience. The implication is that remorse of conscience is unpleasant and painful.
Let us take Mr. Gurdjieff at his word that a great deal of our unbecoming behavior is the result of consciousness without an objective-conscience connected to it. Because of this, we suffer remorse of conscience. It is important to mention that although Mr. Gurdjieff doesn't define conscience in words, he describes individuals who live by their conscience. In Beelzebub’s Tales, he starts off with the character of Belcultassi, who realizes something is wrong in his behavior and makes efforts to find out the causes of his behavior. He then gives the example of Ashiata Sheimash, who is a representative of the creator. Gurdjieff also describes the individuals who begin the major religions. The founders of the great religions demonstrate conscience. Throughout the remainder of the Tales we are given many examples of individuals whose lives are characterized by being directed by what is higher inside them. What is higher in them is their conscience.
To understand conscience in a larger framework, we need to become familiar with the positive aspects of conscience described by Gurdjieff. In The Tales, the positive aspects of conscience represent a hidden practice. They go side-by-side with another practice, which is the Obligolnian strivings. These two aspects of the Work, the positive aspects of conscience and the Obligolnian strivings are cornerstones of the fourth way. Let us begin by examining the positive characteristics of objective-conscience.
Often my experience of “remorse of conscience” is connected to an action I’ve done, which, after it is done, I recognize was not correct and makes me feel I did not act with integrity. I acted from a superficial part of me, perhaps causing harm to another, or did not fulfill an obligation I had taken on. The latter behaviors in some way represent a lack on my part and the subsequent understanding and feeling that my behavior was not as it might have been. My real conscience makes me aware of this—this awareness unpleasantly intrudes into my ordinary waking-sleeping state of consciousness.
Are there other aspects of the experience of conscience besides remorse of conscience that I can experience? Are there positive aspects to experience when my behavior comes from a deeper place within me? Am I aware at times of acting from such a place in myself?
Below is a section from Beelzebub’s Tales where Beelzebub tells Hassein about a statue that is called “Conscience” that is erected at the entrance of the cathedral of the Society Akhaldan. Beelzebub describes the characteristics of objective-conscience. Ask yourself can I, or do I, experience these in any way? Note that these characteristics are not about how we should be, but about how we need to work on ourselves. To work as if we have these capacities.
“It is extremely interesting to notice here that they erected at the chief entrance of that huge enclosure a rather large—large of course in comparison with the sizeof their presences—stone statue called ‘Sphinx’ which strongly reminded me of the statue I saw on my first descent in person to your planet in the city of Samlios, just opposite the enormous building belonging to the learned society Akhaldan and which was then called the ‘chief cathedral of the society Akhaldan.’
“The statue I saw in the city of Samlios and which greatly interested me, was the emblem of this society, and was called ‘Conscience.’
“It represented an allegorical being, each part of whose planetary body was composed of a part of the planetary body of some definite form of being existing there, but of the parts of those beings of other forms who, according to the crystallized notions of the three-brained beings there, had to perfection one or another being-function.
This is the first hint Gurdjieff gives us about conscience—each part of the statue represents an emotional being-function. The being-function is depicted by the parts of an animal’s body that most perfectly exemplifies a psychological trait. But what is a being-function? It appears it is an emotional characteristic of that animal.
“The main mass of the planetary body of the said allegorical being was represented by the trunk of a being there of definite form, called ‘Bull’
“This Bull trunk rested on the four legs of another being existing there, also of a definite form, called ’Lion,’ and to that part of the Bull trunk called its ‘back’ two large wings were attached similar in appearance to those of a strong bird-being breeding there, called ’Eagle.’
“And on the place where the head should be, there was fixed to the Bull trunk, by means of a piece of ‘amber,’ two breasts representing in themselves what are called ‘Breasts of a virgin.’
“When I became interested on the continent Atlantis in this strange allegorical image, and then enquired about its meaning, one of the learned members of the Great Society of men-beings explained it to me as follows:
“‘This allegorical figure is the emblem of the society Akhaldan and serves for all its members as a stimulus constantly to recall and awaken in them the corresponding
impulses attributed to this allegorical figure.’“Further he continued: ‘“Each part of this allegorical figure gives to every member of our society in all the three independently associating parts of his common presence, namely, in the body, in the thoughts, and in the feelings, a shock for corresponding associations for those separate cognizances which in their totality can alone give us the possibility of
gradually getting rid of those undesirable factors present in every one of us, both those transmitted to us by heredity as well as those acquired by ourselves personally, which gradually engender within us impulses undesirable for us, and as a consequence of which we are not as we might be.
Here, Mr. Gurdjieff is saying something very important—it is that a shock is needed in the independently associating parts to get rid of “undesirable factors present in every one of us.”
The emblem is this shock.
“‘This emblem of ours constantly reminds and indicates to us that it is possible to attain freedom from what I have mentioned only if we compel our common presence always to think, feel, and act in corresponding circumstances according to that which is expressed in this emblem of ours.
“‘And this emblem of ours is understood by all of us, members of the society Akhaldan, in the following way: ‘“The trunk of this allegorical being, represented by the trunk of a “Bull,” means that the factors crystallized in us and which engender in our presences the impulses maleficent for us, those we have inherited, as well as those we have personally acquired, can be regenerated only by indefatigable labors, namely, by those labors for which among the beings of our planet, the Bull is particularly fitted.
What are the characteristics of the way that we labor and work on something? Are we lazy and easily fatigued? We need to look at the characteristics of how we labor, that is, how we do things. What would it mean to labor like a bull? Does it mean really hard, to put oneself fully into what we are doing, to pull with all our strength?
“‘That this trunk rests on the legs of a “Lion” means that the said labors should be performed with that cognizance and feeling of courage and faith in one’s “might,” the property of which “might” is possessed among all the beings of the Earth in the highest degree by the possessor of these legs—the mighty Lion. “The wings of the strongest and the highest soaring of all birds, the Eagle, attached to the Bull trunk, constantly remind the members of our society, that during the said labors and with the mentioned inner psychic properties of self-respect, it is necessary to meditate continually on questions not related to the direct manifestations required for ordinary being-existence. BT310
Here he says the labors must be done with “courage and faith in one’s “might.” What is meant for us by the word “might”? What is the relationship between courage and might?
‘“And as regards the strange image of the head of our allegorical being, in the form of the “Breasts of a virgin,” this expresses that Love should predominate always and in everything during the inner and the outer functionings evoked by one’s consciousness, such a Love as can arise and be present only in the presences of concentrations formed in the lawful parts of every whole responsible being in whom the hopes of our COMMON FATHER are placed. BT310
It is interesting that here again Gurdjieff focuses us on the fact that Love is a natural function of a whole responsible being and that it is to predominate in all our functionings. This certainly does not seem to be emphasized very much in Work groups. Rarely is love brought up in meetings. Why the latter is true should perhaps be explored.
“And that the head is fixed to the trunk of the Bull with “amber” signifies that this Love should be strictly impartial, that is to say, completely separated from all the other functions proceeding in every whole responsible being.’
“In order, my boy, that the sense of this latter emblem put into the material called there amber, may become quite comprehensible to you, I must add that amber is one of those seven planetary formations, in the arising of which the Omnipresent Active Element Okidanokh takes part with all its three separate, independent, sacred parts, in equal proportion; and in the process of planetary actualization, these intraplanetary and surplanetary formations serve for what is called the ‘impeding’ of the independent flow of these three localized independent sacred parts.”
It is important to notice here that this conscience and its working is dependent on our ability to actively imagine the attributes of an imaginary being—it is based on using “active imagination.”
“Active imagination" is used by Gurdjieff. It is a specific psychological practice that was used and developed by the psychologist Carl Jung. It is a capacity of mind where a person consciously engages with their unconscious mind by visualizing images and narratives, essentially having a dialogue with their subconsciousness while fully awake. It is different than "regular imagination" that refers to the general ability to create mental images or scenarios, either without necessarily aiming to access the unconscious mind or being intentional about it. Essentially, active imagination is a deliberate process to explore one’s unconscious through imagery, while regular imagination is a more general cognitive function that can be used for various purposes like planning or creative thinking, or just fantasizing.
I find that the Work is filled with practices such as sittings, remembering oneself, internal and external considering, non-identification, and others that require one to use active imagination. What is interesting in Jung’s work is that he believed that active imagination was a means to access the subconsciousness. I believe that connecting with our subconsciousness and methods that facilitate this can provide a shortcut to inner growth and transformation. The emblem of the Society Akhaldan was such a shortcut if used properly.
You may remember that just a short while ago, I stated that Gurdjieff really does not define conscience, and yet I appear to show that he does. I think both statements are true; he defines it, and yet, in actuality, perhaps intentionally doesn't define it clearly. Here is Gurdjieff’s unusual definition. He defines conscience as the ability to feel everything that one feels at the same time. Further, he says is we cannot do this because different emotions are kept separated from each other by what he refers to as buffers.
Conscience is a state in which a man feels all at once everything that he, in general, feels, or can feel. And as everyone has within him thousands of contradictory feelings which vary from a deeply hidden realization of his own nothingness and fears of all kinds to the most stupid kind of self-conceit, self-confidence, self-satisfaction, and self-praise, to feel all this together would not only be painful but literally unbearable.
If this is true, that we cannot feel all that we feel at the same time, how then are we to get in touch with our conscience other than through accidental shocks? The latter occurs when we have behaved in a manner that causes us painful emotions due to the fact we come in contact with multiple feelings and parts of ourselves at the same time. What is happening when we experience remorse of conscience? I surmise that what is taking place is that a number of buffers have either disintegrated or dissolved sufficiently that we feel numerous conflicting emotions simultaneously that conflict with each other. An example is useful here.
I have a friend who, a part of me finds to be very obnoxious. I listen carefully to him for a long period of time, and when he finally stops, I perhaps get out one sentence before he starts speaking again. I have told him about this a number of time,s but it has been to no avail because he continues the behavior.
One day, finally being frustrated with the continuance of his behavior, a more aggressive part of me came forward and I told him that he has a major problem and that he needs to stop doing it. I continued further, he needs to stop believing that he is a guru and speaking to people this way. And unless he does this, that is stops this behavior, I will have to call it out in a meeting with other people.
Following this exchange, I found myself experiencing remorse of conscience. Why is this so? I believe it is due to the fact that prior to this time, and although I had spoken to him about his behavior, my comments to him had been delivered in a relatively intentional and conscious manner. Whereas, on this occasion, there was more aggressive emotion in what I was saying. When I looked inside myself, I found underneath this aggressiveness an attempt to emotionally shame him for his behavior and have him look forward with a bit of fear to what might happen if his behavior continued.
I cannot evaluate whether or not what I said to him on this occasion was correct or incorrect. However, I can say that the complexity of the situation left me with a number of feelings that came together in a moment and made me feel remorse. The feeling of remorse was one of having done something wrong, even though I didn't really understand exactly what it was. But there was some sadness and regret for having spoken to him the way I did.
Using this example, one can see that there were a number of feelings that came together very quickly which I was not really aware of in the moment. The overall effect of these feelings was remorse. Remorse feels as if it has regret, sadness, and shame in it. This raises a major question for me. Is there more to conscience than just shame, sadness, and regret? I believe there is a need to explore other possibilities.
There is another important question needing to be asked: if conscience is, in fact feeling everything I feel, then can one bring this about inside oneself more often in one’s inner work? I don't believe Gurdjieff gives a clear indication of how this is to be done. The problem is similar to the difficulty faced if one waits for accidental shocks to wake one up from our waking-sleeping state of consciousness. The cure for the latter is to remember oneself, observe oneself and work on oneself as the means around just waiting for the accidental experience of a shock to enlighten you. Is there a way to work with our emotions in some manner that allows us to access conscience more often or at will? I believe there is, but it is not spoken of in the Work and generally we continue our work using self-observation and believing that somehow by doing that we will make more connection with conscience. Is this really true or are we fooling ourselves?
I believe that to get in touch with the objective-conscience more often I need a practice that facilitates this and cannot simply wait for accidental and unconscious behavior, and my observation of it to bring me the experience of conscience. It appears that the entire system of work on oneself developed by Gurdjieff is based on conscience. This is certainly what Gurdjieff leads us to by recounting the inner and outer work of Ashiata Sheimash. What was Ashiata Sheimash doing and what was the foundation upon which his behavior and transmissions were based on? They were based on using conscience as a mechanism to subjectively and objectively remove interior buffers within a person so that one can see the truth of oneself, evolve, and act in accordance with conscience. Conscience is a catalyst of transformation.
Can conscience be connected to pondering? And what is pondering? Can people go back to the memory they had of objective conscience? Can they find the part of them that acted the way it did, why it behaved in the way it did? Just ask, maybe an answer comes, maybe not.
Gurdjieff in ISOM states that buffers form in early childhood, but he doesn’t really say how or why this occurs. I think it is very important to get some understanding of why and how buffers form. This may hold clues to how one might learn to get past buffers intentionally. Gurdjieff says the following:
"But fortunately for man, that is, for his peace and for his sleep, this state of conscience is very rare. From early childhood, 'buffers' begin to grow and strengthen in him, taking from him the possibility of seeing his inner contradictions and therefore, for him, there is no danger whatever of a sudden awakening.
We need a way to understand and verify how these buffers form and why one part of us remains ignorant of another part. From my experience as a psychologist, I have found that different parts of myself are a result of the strategies a part of me employed as a reaction to outer and inner impressions at a particular time or situation in my life. I am generalizing here, but these separate parts and their strategies almost always formed as survival or safety reactions to life experiences.
For example, I remember as a child wanting to fit in with a group of other kids. I didn’t want to be left out and wanted to belong to the group—it was safer in the group. In Jr. High School, I was in a meeting of students who were discussing problems they were having with our French teacher. A part of me noticed how everyone focused intensely on one or another student as they spoke about the teacher. A part of me wanted that type of focus to be on me and I quickly found something that I could say that brought everyone’s attention to me. The need for attention for that part of me exists to this very day. Fitting in was very important to this part—it made me feel safe. Then, after fitting in this part wanted to be the object of everyone’s attention—this too made me feel secure and safe. If I am correct, that many parts of my personality formed around strategies to achieve safety for my growing personality and ego, then I need to find a way to access these different parts and get to know them.
As time goes on and more and new parts are formed depending on accidental circumstances, parts that have already been formed may or may not take part in a person’s behavior. In this way, different parts become dominant in different situations. We have a part that handles school and peer relationships, another that is dominant in home life, another that develops as a result of puberty and increased sexual desires that motivate new types of behaviors. Each of these parts is triggered by different stimuli and they do not need to know each other since they are specific to a situation.
Another very important and interesting fact Mr. Gurdjieff told us is that as a result of Kundabuffer, the human consciousness was split into two distinct parts, a conscious part and a subconsciousness. He says that our real conscience was relegated to our subconsciousness, which would make sense if one recognizes that our different parts do not know each other and we remain unaware of them together. Therefore, due to this separation of parts and our ability to be directed by one part at a time, we remain unable to feel all our feelings. It is important to note that each separate of part of us has its own repertoire or gestures, emotions and thoughts. Thus, because we cannot feel or experience all of our parts and remain ignorant of them, it is only through accidental shocks that our parts bump up against each other. This can happen when I realize I have done something that I feel real shame about, or when I make a mistake that might cause harm to another. Then two or more different parts may be simultaneously triggered.
The way to access the subconsciousness is right inside of us and yet we do not realize it.
According to Ouspensky, Gurdjieff described conscience to his early groups as follows.
"If a man whose entire inner world is composed of contradictions were suddenly to feel all these contradictions simultaneously within himself, if he were to feel all at once that he loves everything he hates and hates everything he loves; that he lies when
he tells the truth and that he tells the truth when he lies; and if he could feel the shame and horror of it all, this would be the state which is called ‘conscience.’ A man cannot live in this state; he must either destroy contradictions or destroy conscience. He cannot destroy conscience, but if he cannot destroy it, he can put it to sleep, that is, he can separate by impenetrable barriers one feeling of self from another, never see them together, never feel their incompatibility, the absurdity of one existing alongside another.
If Gurdjieff is correct, then for an ordinary person, conscience would not be something they would want to experience. Perhaps this is one reason that conscience is pushed down into our subconsciousness, that is, it is too much for an ordinary person to bear. But perhaps one might be able to learn to bear conscience if it were experienced gradually rather than all at once. If that is the case, then again, we need to know how to access our different feelings and learn to tolerate them together.
Exercise: Remember the negative memory you had that is characterized by the experience of objective conscience. Remember pondering it a bit and asking why? Now, remembering the experience and why that part of you acted the way it did, see if you can hold both with understanding and compassion without judgment of yourself or the part that acted that way.
I'm reminded of my experiences some 50 years ago when I worked in the locked inpatient ward of Kaiser Hospital in Richmond, California. This was during the height of the LSD revolution in the United States and throughout the world. There were many young, usually black men, who had taken LSD, became psychotic and began hallucinating. Their psyches had been opened too quickly and they were feeling so many things that they became psychotic. It is important to note that many drugs today give one a taste of what it is like to feel a multitude of feelings at the same time. People use these drugs that perhaps were originally sacred drugs to give a glimpse of a higher state of consciousness. Now, such drugs are often used in a recreational way to have a good weekend or a more powerful experience during the weekend. There are even new forms of psychotherapy using psilocybin, ketamine and similar drugs to enhance therapy and make people more sensitive. I do not advocate these methods, although in some cases for individuals with extreme psychological difficulties, they may prove useful. However, any artificially induced state of consciousness is quite distinct from learning to gradually “tolerate” the different parts of oneself and the conflictual feelings that exist because of our different parts.
I am using the word “tolerate” here with a specific meaning. Tolerate does not mean one puts up with uncomfortable feelings, but rather it means to become deeply interested in any emotional state I find myself in. Mechanically, I move amongst many emotional patterns that can be triggered by impressions coming mainly from outside, but also from my inner world. Outer impressions brought in by my senses stimulate inner impressions, and the entire dance between my reactions to outer and inner impressions generally occurs without my awareness. At a certain point in my work, I found it is necessary to focus on my emotional life and find out about what is going on there. My experience has shown me that it is not possible to be a real man or woman, be conscious and have my conscience present unless my emotional center is cleaned up and has many experiences that mature it.
Work ideas and concepts alone do not replace emotional experience as a way to grow emotional life and the ability to connect to my conscience. Getting to know how to access conscience feels more like a necessity every day. As a psychologist, I’ve helped many to recognize and know their inner contradictions by experiencing them. There are methods available to help a person know and understand the different parts they have.
From my experience, newer psychological methods exist to help a person gradually learn about their different parts and dissolve buffers. This does not destroy a person or drive them mad, as Mr. Gurdjieff implied, if it is done gradually and compassionately. Just the opposite. It is through getting to know, understand, and accept one’s different parts in a compassionate practice that leads to the ability to access conscience. Wouldn’t such practices be important if one wanted to come in contact with one's conscience more often? I suggest that the reader begin to hold the possibility that psychology has developed ways to help individuals get to know and understand their different parts without their going mad. Let’s look at why buffers may form to begin our exploration.
<h2>Relationship Between Fear & Conscience</h2>
In this section, I look at how the inability to understand our fear keeps us from being able to access conscience and why conscience gets relegated to the subconsciousness? What is it about our waking-sleeping consciousness that might make it impossible for conscience to exist in our ordinary consciousness? I believe one major difficulty is that fear has worked its way into every functional aspect of the three centers. What do I mean by that? I mean that fear has become a motivating force for the great majority of human behavior. This situation is mentioned in passing in The Tales. Here, Gurdjieff says the following about fear:
“…it becomes perfectly obvious that all these fears from which there does not arise in a man an impulse, as we said, to hang himself are expressly permitted by Nature to the extent to which they are indispensable for the process of our ordinary existence. And indeed without them without all these, in the objective sense, ‘flea bites,’ which appear to us as ‘unprecedented terrors’ we could not have any experiencings at all, whether of joy, sorrow, hope, disappointment, and so on, nor could we have all those cares, stimuli, strivings, or in general any of the impulses that constrain us to act, to attain something, and to strive toward some aim.”
Exercise: Think about something that you need to do. See if it is possible to come in contact with a part of you that does not want to do the thing you need to do. Hold the two parts of yourself clearly by feeling both emotional pulls, the need to do the action, and not wanting to. Now leave it.
Fear appears to have woven its way into and is now connected with every other human emotion, thought and even bodily sensation. For example, if I notice that I feel like I am getting a cold, I might become scared that I’ll miss the party on Saturday, and I don’t want to miss the party. Or, I make a mistake at work and am embarrassed by my mistake. Then, I worry that I might make another mistake and what will others think of me. Or, I write a check to a friend and later, I’m not sure if I deposited my own paycheck and am afraid the check I wrote will bounce. Or, I am going out on a date, and there is heavy traffic. I don’t want to be late and am afraid what my date will think of me. Or, I’m late for an airplane trip and afraid that my entire vacation will be ruined if I miss the plane. Can you see how fear is connected and involved in all these areas of my life? Fear that at one time in my ancestors was an emotion to keep me from freezing to death or being eaten by a lion, now is there all the time, triggered by the smallest “flea bite” occurrences of my life. But still, how does fear keep me from feeling or experiencing my conscience? Remorse of conscience can provide a clue to the answer.
For those of us who have experienced remorse of conscience, try to remember it and note for yourself that “remorse of conscience” is painful—it is painful emotionally and painful in the body. It is not an emotion that I want to experience often. Gradually, there is a fear of the pain of remorse of conscience—it can be scary and even painful. The experience of conscience is something parts of me really do not want to experience. In addition, the different parts that form my personality, which is run by my ego is not particularly interested in experiencing contradictions. In fact, personality and ego are generally afraid of contradictions. That is why when a friend, partner or other person points out their inconsistencies or contradictions, most people defend themselves and the other person must be wrong. It is difficult for most people to see and accept their contradictions. The denial of contradictions is one reason for the utilization of many addictive substances and distracting activities in modern society. Substance abuse using marijuana, cocaine, alcohol, or amphetamines block people from experiencing conscience and experiencing conflicts between contradictory parts of themselves.
Objective-conscience, as differentiated from morality and the many artificial beliefs instilled by religion, is experienced so rarely that when it is experienced, it is painful. The human organism moves away from pain as a natural and automatic reaction. When you are afraid, there is a tendency to behave in one of five ways, all of which are attempts to move away from fear or the pain fear causes. You can accomplish moving away by tightening your muscles, which is referred to as freezing, to avoid feeling the pain in your body that comes from fear. You can also escape fear by fleeing a situation and running away, which can also take the form of distracting yourself. Additionally, you can become aggressive and fight as a reaction to fear. These are the 3F's: freeze, flee, and fight, and there are two more. The additional and less recognized reactions to fear are affiliation and submission. We see affiliation in church groups and other groups of all kinds that people join to feel more secure. Of course, this is not the only reason for joining a group. Submission is another way to react to fear and one can see this in animals and in people. The weaker animal subjects itself to the stronger. All these methods of reacting to fear go in the opposite direction from being able to experience one’s conscience, especially freezing and fleeing.
In general, people do not like the truth and objective-conscience is a truth-teller. One can see in the current world’s reactions in many nations that leaders attempt not to see the truth. People are more comfortable having a strong leader tell them about the reality of life, even if that reality is filled with falsehoods and cruelty. To have to think for oneself and face the incongruities of life is confusing and scary and thus conscience is forced down in most people. One can see the latter tendency is the election of authoritarian leaders throughout the world. People want to be told what to do, what to think, what to feel—even if it goes against their emotional compass and their conscience.
There are ways to access conscience other than the experience of “remorse of conscience.” I'm going to talk about a couple of practices here that can be useful and are relatively simple. The first practice is a simple practice of learning to ask your “why” you behave in a certain way. How is this to be done? It is simple. For example, I notice a particular unbecoming behavior of mine, such as I’m jealous, or that I just told a lie, or I got angry and was fully identified with wanting to get my own way. It could be anything of this nature. I must not only notice that I have this unbecoming behavior, but hopefully I have observed it and maybe even was able to sense my body.
But let's imagine that those are the beginning steps and have taken a few of them.
The next step is to recognize that the behavior represents only a part of me acting this way and is not all of me. I address my question to that part of me that has behaved in an unbecoming way.
Exercise: Find a behavior that you are somewhat ashamed of that you do. I ask, why do I behave this way? When did I first act like this and what was going on around me at the time? I may realize I’ve acted this way many times.
In this way, I begin to recognize that a part of me that perhaps has taken on this role of being angry, or lying, or doing something unbecoming many times, even since I was young, and for which I am now experiencing remorse of conscience. These questions and questions like them can lead in a number of directions. The questions can make a connection with my subconsciousness, that part of us which Gurdjieff says was separated from normal consciousness following the introduction of Kundabuffer. The questions also expand my understanding of myself and can help me realize that my conscience woke up in reaction to my observation and consciousness of my behavior. This process helps me recognize that I have many parts. I might realize experientially that I have parts that don't know each other.
Each of these parts has may have a whole set of different sensations, emotions, and thoughts connected with them that I might begin to understand. These characteristics of a part can be noted and remembered.
This process enlarges the transformational possibility of understanding myself that begins with simple self-observation. Through such a process, I learn about myself at a deeper level and learn to “tolerate” my different parts and hopefully understand them in a compassionate way. This type of work is transformational in its nature. As I understand myself more, my behavior will be transformed.
I have found from years of working with clients. Behavior is not transformed by trying to will it to change, that is, willing to stop a particular behavior, but it is transformed through the process of understanding.
1. Another direct method of working to access conscience is given by Gurdjieff in The Tales through the image of the Society Akhaldan’s statue named Conscience. He tells us of the different characteristics the statue symbolizes and tells us very simply this is one way we can begin to access conscience. We need to act (Study ourselves) with courage, faith, and make indefatigable efforts to evolve our inner life and being. We must make these efforts while keeping in mind what is higher that we're striving toward and remember all that we do must be done with love.
This final practice I mention is the framework upon which the system of the fourth way is based and the arena where conscience can manifest—
2. It requires practice in manifesting the “being-obligolnian-strivings.” Each of these strivings is an entryway to conscience. We don't usually view the strivings as a practice, but I assure you they are. I list each of the strivings as a reminder to all of us of their being a direct means to access one’s conscience.
“All the beings of this planet then began to work in order to have in their consciousness this Divine function of genuine conscience, and for this purpose, as everywhere in
the Universe, they transubstantiated in themselves what are called the ‘being-obligolnian-strivings’ which consist of the following five, namely:
“The first striving: to have in their ordinary being-existence everything satisfying and really necessary for their planetary body.
“The second striving: to have a constant and unflagging instinctive need for self-perfection in the sense of being.
“The third: the conscious striving to know ever more and more concerning the laws of World-creation and World-maintenance.
“The fourth: the striving from the beginning of their existence to pay for their arising and their individuality as quickly as possible, in order afterwards to be free to lighten as much as possible the Sorrow of our COMMON FATHER.
I suggest that this 4th striving above is one where we need to pay considerable attention to especially to understand what the “beginning of their existence signifies.”
“And the fifth: the striving always to assist the most rapid perfecting of other beings, both those similar to oneself and those of other forms, up to the degree of the sacred ‘Martfotai,’ that is, up to the degree of self-individuality.
3. I suggest with the 5th striving the importance of paying considerable attention to and pondering what Mr. Gurdjieff means by “other beings, both those similar to oneself and those of other forms.”
In these practices mentioned above you are building toleration for the different parts of yourself and you are dissolving buffers.
It's important to dissolve buffers gradually and intentionally, and not to wait years and years for accidental shocks that might occur from being in a group, going to a workday, or going through a divorce to finally transform you. Regardless of how many years someone has been in the Work they might still not feel the confidence expressed by the statue Conscience. There are often in one’s life insufficient shocks for an individual to learn to tolerate their different parts, to learn about all their inconsistencies and the polarizations existing between their parts, and develop a compassionate understanding of them. We have the possibility to speed up the transformation process so we can have the agency to act with courage and clarity while reaching for what is higher with compassionate love for all those we come in contact with.
The three practices mentioned above can help one move toward objective-conscience and greater self-understanding, These are just a few of many different psychological practices that exist. Such practices are needed at this time as the world speeds up and the responsibilities that a human being has to handle are increasing.
New methods of learning about oneself are needed because the time framework allotted to us in physical bodies is not infinite. We need many ways of transformation so we can have more agency in the world to become human beings having the courage to work hard, hold higher values and be compassionate to ourselves and others. Time is running short, and we need to enlarge our practice repertoire. Doing the same thing over and over without evaluating its usefulness is stupid. It is time to move forward to find new ways to connect with objective-conscience and our subconsciousness. We need to be looking for new ways to support our existing practices, experiment with others, and find new transformative practices that can be useful and expand our work.
A final image that holds the message of Beelzebub’s Tales is the character of Beelzebub with all his traits. Honesty, courage, creativity, remorse, compassion, empathy, action.
In summary, there are a number of ways to access objective-conscience and it is important to do so intentionally rather than waiting for accidental shocks. In light of this need to make direct connection with objective conscience, please be open to new material.
Endnotes
1. G. Gurdjieff, All and Everything, First Series: Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1950), 359.
2. Ibid, 342.
3. Ibid, 530.
4. Ibid, 308.
5. Ibid, 309.
6. Ibid, 309-310.
7. Ibid, 310.
8. Ibid, 310.
9. Ibid, 310-311.
10. P. D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1949), 155.
11. Ibid, 156.
12. Ibid, 155-156.
13. Gurdjieff, All and Everything, First Series: Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, 1223-1224.
14. Ibid, 386.
Bibliography
Gurdjieff, George I. All and Everything, First Series: Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1950.
P. D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1949.