You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Greatness
- Thread starter Kesdjan
- Start date
M
M. Howard
Guest
Hi,
Here are some tips.
Excerpts from:
IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS by P.D. Ouspensky.
A very important moment in the work on oneself is when a man begins to distinguish his personality and his essence. A man's real I, his individuality, can grow only from his essence. It can be said that a man's individuality is his essence, grown up, mature. But in order to enable essence to grow up, it is first of all necessary to weaken the constant pressure of personality upon it, because the obstacles to the growth of essence are contained in personality.
and
THE CASSIOPAEA GLOSSARY
ESSENCE (http://glossary.cassiopaea.com/glossary.php?id=295) (see also PERSONALITY, pasted below):
In common usage, the essence of something is its inherent quality or central, defining feature.
In 4th Way discourse, a man's essence is the totality of the qualities or propensities he is born with. As opposed to this, personality is the totality of the acquired or learned patterns of thought and emotion.
Essence is not directly observable since all interaction with people normally passes through the filter of personality.
Modern psychology attributes about 80 percent of observable characteristics of human psyche to factors of nature and only 20 percent to factors acquired from environment. Physical or psychological reflections of the 4th Way idea of essence would include things like features of the endocrine system having to do with stress and flight/fight responses or inherent abilities such as memory or IQ or predispositions such as verbal vs. visual thinking or left vs. right brain dominance.
There is however more to the concept of essence than this. Essence includes the concept of fundamental character, as in whether one's center of gravity is in the moving, feeling or thinking center. Even further, essence would include an idea of invariable moral character, i.e. tending towards truth or lies or service to self or service to others. There is some evidence that these features are genetically based and also reflected in observable brain functioning. For example, psychopaths, which would represent a serious flaw of essence, have distinctive brain electric patterns.
We could say that essence is what is left when the conditioning of culture and the multiple faces and acquired roles of little I's are stripped away. The Work may in principle bring essence and personality closer to each other. Gurdjieff comments that the education system of his time, and the modern one with all the more reason, favor personality at the cost of essence development by from the get go teaching hypocrisy and by teaching children to distrust their own senses. Personality is the only part that can thrive in a context of culturally conditioned lies and arbitrary value judgements.
Primitive societies are more favorable for essence development and make individuals that are less contradictory and maybe healthier in essence terms. However, they are no better for esoteric development because their cognitive or 'personality' side is under-trained.
Any work on essence needs to proceed through personality, since personality is the one part of man's inner life that can be reached. Disciplines of personality, such as self-remembering may in time benefit essence, although the 4th Way teaching is generally vague about any work on essence. Gurdjieff says that most often the growth of essence stops around the age of seven and man's essence is usually left in a state of stupidity or weakness.
There exists a set of psychophysiological features of man which are life-long or very slowly changing and which correspond to Gurdjieff's description of essence. The 4th Way and psychology seem to have reached compatible conclusions in this area.
See Man 1, 2 and 3, Personality, In Search of the Miraculous, Little I's.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PERSONALITY (http://glossary.cassiopaea.com/glossary.php?id=30):
In 4th Way psychology, personality comprises all acquired aspects of man's thinking and emotions. Little I's are the building blocks of personality, programs are what the little I's run, singly and in groups. Buffers are what separate groups of little I's, so that man can without being troubled or suffering cognitive dissonance behave in completely opposite ways in different circumstances.
All these things constitute personality. Personality is however necessary for esoteric progress but is not alone sufficient for it. In modern man, personality is generally developed at the cost of essence.
Essence is the set of capabilities or tendencies man is born with. Having one's center of gravity in the moving, feeling or thinking center is for example a part of essence. When man grows, essence guides the formation of personality but is generally left undeveloped.
The Work begins by shaping personality with the tools of self-observation, self-remembering and other methods. Essence as such is not readily accessible, hence work on personality is more practical and possible.
Sometimes the word false personality is used for personality when emphasizing its synthetic or anti-Work nature. Lying to self, pretentiousness, self-importance, subjectivity are for example attributes of 'false personality.'
Here are some tips.
Excerpts from:
IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS by P.D. Ouspensky.
A very important moment in the work on oneself is when a man begins to distinguish his personality and his essence. A man's real I, his individuality, can grow only from his essence. It can be said that a man's individuality is his essence, grown up, mature. But in order to enable essence to grow up, it is first of all necessary to weaken the constant pressure of personality upon it, because the obstacles to the growth of essence are contained in personality.
and
THE CASSIOPAEA GLOSSARY
ESSENCE (http://glossary.cassiopaea.com/glossary.php?id=295) (see also PERSONALITY, pasted below):
In common usage, the essence of something is its inherent quality or central, defining feature.
In 4th Way discourse, a man's essence is the totality of the qualities or propensities he is born with. As opposed to this, personality is the totality of the acquired or learned patterns of thought and emotion.
Essence is not directly observable since all interaction with people normally passes through the filter of personality.
Modern psychology attributes about 80 percent of observable characteristics of human psyche to factors of nature and only 20 percent to factors acquired from environment. Physical or psychological reflections of the 4th Way idea of essence would include things like features of the endocrine system having to do with stress and flight/fight responses or inherent abilities such as memory or IQ or predispositions such as verbal vs. visual thinking or left vs. right brain dominance.
There is however more to the concept of essence than this. Essence includes the concept of fundamental character, as in whether one's center of gravity is in the moving, feeling or thinking center. Even further, essence would include an idea of invariable moral character, i.e. tending towards truth or lies or service to self or service to others. There is some evidence that these features are genetically based and also reflected in observable brain functioning. For example, psychopaths, which would represent a serious flaw of essence, have distinctive brain electric patterns.
We could say that essence is what is left when the conditioning of culture and the multiple faces and acquired roles of little I's are stripped away. The Work may in principle bring essence and personality closer to each other. Gurdjieff comments that the education system of his time, and the modern one with all the more reason, favor personality at the cost of essence development by from the get go teaching hypocrisy and by teaching children to distrust their own senses. Personality is the only part that can thrive in a context of culturally conditioned lies and arbitrary value judgements.
Primitive societies are more favorable for essence development and make individuals that are less contradictory and maybe healthier in essence terms. However, they are no better for esoteric development because their cognitive or 'personality' side is under-trained.
Any work on essence needs to proceed through personality, since personality is the one part of man's inner life that can be reached. Disciplines of personality, such as self-remembering may in time benefit essence, although the 4th Way teaching is generally vague about any work on essence. Gurdjieff says that most often the growth of essence stops around the age of seven and man's essence is usually left in a state of stupidity or weakness.
There exists a set of psychophysiological features of man which are life-long or very slowly changing and which correspond to Gurdjieff's description of essence. The 4th Way and psychology seem to have reached compatible conclusions in this area.
See Man 1, 2 and 3, Personality, In Search of the Miraculous, Little I's.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PERSONALITY (http://glossary.cassiopaea.com/glossary.php?id=30):
In 4th Way psychology, personality comprises all acquired aspects of man's thinking and emotions. Little I's are the building blocks of personality, programs are what the little I's run, singly and in groups. Buffers are what separate groups of little I's, so that man can without being troubled or suffering cognitive dissonance behave in completely opposite ways in different circumstances.
All these things constitute personality. Personality is however necessary for esoteric progress but is not alone sufficient for it. In modern man, personality is generally developed at the cost of essence.
Essence is the set of capabilities or tendencies man is born with. Having one's center of gravity in the moving, feeling or thinking center is for example a part of essence. When man grows, essence guides the formation of personality but is generally left undeveloped.
The Work begins by shaping personality with the tools of self-observation, self-remembering and other methods. Essence as such is not readily accessible, hence work on personality is more practical and possible.
Sometimes the word false personality is used for personality when emphasizing its synthetic or anti-Work nature. Lying to self, pretentiousness, self-importance, subjectivity are for example attributes of 'false personality.'
A
atreides
Guest
I liken this question to Luke Skywalker asking Yoda how he will tell the Light side of the Force from the Dark Side of the force. See The Empire Strikes Back.