I have no doubt that a right understanding of the role of #Conscience in human life will be the master-idea that will regenerate the spiritual existence of mankind.
- #JGBennett, Preface to 'The Crisis in Human Affairs' (1946)
#JGBENNETT ON #GURDJIEFF AND #CONSCIENCE
"The ability to perceive the relationship of our own personal existence to the greater needs of the world to which we belong is called by Gurdjieff the 'Sacred Impulse of Divine Conscience.'
Freedom of choice enters in ways so small that they are hardly noticeable.
When we change the quality of our attention, we transform something which enables our level of being to rise."
- #JGBennett, 'Fallen Leaves'
I cannot empty my mind, it will not stay empty. So I must put what I choose to put there.
A force comes when I begin to experience my lack of it.
- #JGBennett, 'Fallen Leaves'
This disintegrates, but it leaves a trace behind and this trace grows until it becomes the heart of our True Self, that is our Real I."
- #JGBennett
#JGBENNETT ON THE EXERCISE OF FREE WILL
"The only way in which free-will is exercised is in the act of sacrifice. When this act is made, we have a period of Freedom when what we do and what we are are one and the same.
Humans exist on the earth in order to produce energy of a certain quality and intensity, and this energy is liberated through their experiences of joy and suffering, and through their response to the forces of death and birth.
- #JGBennett
When I do not work on my #attention, it always identifies itself with something and I become the slave of that something with which I am identified. But when I work with it, it enables me to pass through an inner transformation by which I become conscious of myself.”
- #JGBennett
#JGBENNETT ON THE IMPORTANCE OF ATTENTION
" #Attention is the most two edged of weapons. It is both the key to freedom and the cause of slavery.
This happens over and over again, to such an extent that we become accustomed to it and cease to see how important it is – and really how wonderful it is – that we should be able to come back again after having been lost."
- #JGBennett, 'Death and Resurrection', in 'Sunday Talks At Coombe Springs'
#JGBENNETT ON LOSING AND FINDING
"We do not have within us a principle of stable existence. What we find in ourselves, on the contrary, is a principle of renewal, of return, of being lost and found again.
This earth has a great destiny ahead, & man is at the core of it. Man is in an early stage of his evolution. He has only really humanised to a very small degree– & relatively few truly 'human' beings exist in the world. But this great destiny will come. For this, we have to survive.
- #JGBennett
The third and highest gradation of #individuality transcends the limitations of any single species and is present in an entity that can be aware of the universal pattern of life and understands its role as the cosmic reconciling force.”
- #JGBennett
#JGBENNETT ON THE THREE GRADATIONS OF TRUE INDIVIDUALITY
“The first is that in which the entity can be conscious of its own genetic constitution and direct its activity according to this awareness. This is the #individuality which consists in ableness-to-be oneself.
J. G. Bennett
An immense destructive power is at work and it can be combated only upon the invisible planes of understanding and love.
- #JGBennett, from the preface to his autobiography ‘Witness,’ 1974.
One can go further and say that it must be a “do-it-yourself psychology,’’ by which I mean that we must find and live by our will and not look to anyone else to do the work for us."
- #JGBennett, 'A Spiritual Psychology'
#JGBENNETT ON THE SOUL
"The soul is an artifact, the result of our life experience. It may be transient and it may be immortal, depending upon whether or not our will, that is, our spirit, has taken possession of it.
#GURDJIEFF ON WORKING ENOUGH
If is too difficult, make easier. Do only half. You work too hard. Not forget your organism knows better. For instance during menstruation, only do what wish. Lie more. Only do I AM. At least once every hour. Not work so hard.
- #JGBennett, 'Idiots in Paris'
When you realise you cannot work and yet you have to, that’s the moment when the Work is present.
- #JGBennett, #Gurdjieff -ian
If we could actually see the whole story, we would never dream of bartering immediate gain for future loss.
- #JGBennett
In the mating of animals, in the pollination of flowers, in the photosynthesis of chlorophyll in the sunshine, and in a myriad other ways, Nature shares in the universal Freedom. Man looks upon nature & sees that it is beautiful, but does not understand that it is free."
- #JGBennett
"The whole of life is maintained by the flow & reflux of involution & evolution, and at each reversal of direction there is a moment of freedom.
- #JGBennett
The question remains whether effort is necessary for the perfecting of the soul, or whether acceptance alone will bring about the transformation?
I would be inclined to answer that acceptance is necessary, but that effort is obligatory.
- #JGBennett
If a new world is to come, we must first create it in ourselves. You may ask how the work of a few people can change the world. It has always been so. Ideas are powerful, not organizations. Nothing can be done by outward force; everything can be done by inner strength.
- #JGBennett
Even this little gives us some freedom to work. It is said that it is always possible for us to ‘remember ourselves’ even if it is only for a fraction of a second. It is very important that we do what we can do with the amount of conscious energy that we have."
- #JGBennett, 'Deeper Man'
#JGBENNETT: ‘WHEN CONSCIOUSNESS IS IN US’
"When consciousness is in us, we see that our ordinary state of awareness is like sleep, or like ‘flatland’. We see that in this ordinary state we believe ourselves to be some being that is there, whereas in reality there is no such being.
The time span of immediate interest is very short for the average man, and the historian, whose profession is to see the process objectively, is usually dominated by the modes of thought that are fashionable in his own time.”
- #JGBennett
#JGBENNETT ON RECOGNIZING THE TIME
“For one who stands by the seashore on a stormy day, it is not easy to discern the moment when the tide turns. So in the historical process it is hard for the contemporary student to recognise the signs of a new age.
#Conscience is the line of communication we have with the higher. It is really the line of communication we have with the Cosmic Individuality.
- #JGBennett, 'Talks on Beelzebub’s Tales'
We too must not forget that our work is invisible to the contemporary world; but its fruits will appear in their season.”
- #JGBennett, 'Sermon on the Mount'
