Switch Off The Robot And Try To Remember Oneself

Gurdjieff was of the opinion that we should try to remember oneself. He believed that during most of our lives it is the machine or the robot who sees and experiences whatever is there.

Colin Wilson told of “… how in all moments of deep happiness, we get the feeling that could be expressed: ‘What, me – here?’ I am not only aware of what is happening to me, but that it is happening to me.”

Gurdjieff though, realised we aren’t always in deep happiness mode, and asked, “Why should we experience so much, only to forget it immediately afterwards? Half our experience rolls off us like water off a duck’s back. Yet experience is food, whose purpose is to enable is to evolve.”

Self remembering is no mean feat but, to the likes of Ouspensky, the effort was worthwhile. He wrote:

“Thus, for instance, at that time I used to like to wander through St Petersburg at night, and to sense the houses and the streets. St Petersburg is full of strange sensations. Houses, especially old houses, were quite alive; I all but spoke to them. There was no imagination in it. I did not think of anything, I simply walked along while trying to remember myself and looked about; the sensations came by themselves.”

I guess the suggestion is that we should try to wake up – properly – and become more aware.

Lots of what we do is carried out without proper thought, almost with robot like routine. I realised this again the other day when I had been out somewhere in my car and then for a moment wasn’t too sure where I was on my journey. I had no awareness of having driven a certain distance. We tend to do so much on automatic while the real us is hidden below the surface.

So, like Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, we should perhaps make an effort to remember oneself. Just thought I’d mention it while I remember …

Other 67 Not Out Posts:
Gurdjieff Transmitting And Receiving Energy
Get Keyed Up Said The Witch And Gurdjieff Agrees
How The Witch Raised A Dead Woman From Her Grave