“This is why in school work, which includes the destruction of ‘buffers,’ a man must be ready to obey another man’s WILL so long as his own WILL is not yet fully developed. Usually this subordination to another man’s WILL is studied before anything else. I use the word ‘studied’ because a man must understand why such obedience is necessary and he must learn to obey. The latter is not at all easy. A man beginning the work of self-study with the object of attaining control over himself is accustomed to believe in his own decisions. Even the fact that he has seen the necessity for changing himself shows him that his decisions are correct and strengthens his belief in them. But when he begins to work on himself a man must give up his own decisions, ‘sacrifice his own decisions,’ because otherwise the WILL of the man who directs his work WILL not be able to control his actions. Fragments: Eight
“The fear of being subordinated to another man’s WILL very often proves stronger than anything else. A man does not realize that a subordination to which he consciously agrees is the only way to acquire a WILL of his own.” Fragments: Eight
“The question of WILL, of one’s own WILL and of another man’s WILL, is much more complicated than it seems at the first glance. A man has not sufficient WILL to do, that is, to control himself and all his actions, but he has sufficient WILL to obey another person. And only in this way can he escape from the law of accident. There is no other way. Fragments: Eight
“No, it does not mean this at all,” G. answered him. “Fate is better than accident only in the sense that it is possible to take it into account, it is possible to know it beforehand; it is possible to prepare for what is ahead. In regard to accident one can know nothing. But fate can be also unpleasant or difficult. In this event, however, there are means for isolating oneself from one’s fate. The first step towards this consists in getting away from general laws. Just as there is individual accident, so is there general or collective accident. And in the same way as there is individual fate, there is a general or collective fate. Collective accident and collective fate are governed by general laws. If a man wishes to create individuality of his own he must first free himself from general laws. General laws are by no means all obligatory for man; he can free himself from many of them if he frees himself from ‘buffers’ and from imagination. All this is connected with liberation from personality. Personality feeds on imagination and falsehood. If the falsehood in which man lives is decreased and imagination is decreased, personality very soon weakens and a man begins to be controlled either by fate or by a line of work which is in its turn controlled by another man’s WILL; this WILL lead him until a WILL of his own has been formed, capable of withstanding both accident and, when necessary, fate.” Fragments: Eight
“Now imagine that a man decides to think in a new way. But he feels in the old way. Imagine that he dislikes R.” He pointed to one of those present. “This dislike of R. immediately arouses old thoughts and he forgets his decision to think in a new way. Or let us suppose that he is accustomed to smoking cigarettes while he is thinking — this is a moving habit. He decides to think in a new way. He begins to smoke a cigarette and thinks in the old way without noticing it. The habitual movement of lighting a cigarette has turned his thoughts round to the old tune. You must remember that a man can never break this accordance by himself. Another man’s WILL is necessary, and a stick is necessary. All that a man who wants to work on himself can do at a certain stage of his work is to obey. He can do nothing by himself. Fragments: Seventeen
“Even if a man recognizes this and begins to struggle with it, his WILL is not sufficient. You must understand that a man’s WILL can be sufficient to govern one center for a short time. But the other two centers prevent this. And a man’s WILL can never be sufficient to govern three centers. Fragments: Seventeen
“Let us try to follow what occurs. A man is walking, or sitting, or working. At that moment he hears a signal. A movement that has begun is interrupted by this sudden signal or command to stop. His body becomes immovable and arrested in the midst of a transition from one posture to another, in a position in which he never stays in ordinary life. Feeling himself in this state, that is, in an unaccustomed posture, a man involuntarily looks at himself from new points of view, sees and observes himself in a new way. In this unaccustomed posture he is able to think in a new way, feel in a new way, know himself in a new way. In this way the circle of old automatism is broken. The body tries in vain to adopt an ordinary comfortable posture. But the man’s WILL, brought into action by the WILL of the teacher, prevents it The struggle goes on not for life but till the death. But in this case WILL can conquer. This exercise taken together with all that has been said is an exercise for self-remembering. A man must remember himself so as not to miss the signal; he must remember himself so as not to take the most comfortable posture at the first moment; he must remember himself in order to watch the tension of the muscles in different parts of the body, the direction in which he is looking, the facial expression, and so on; he must remember himself in order to overcome very considerable pain sometimes from unaccustomed positions of the legs, arms, and back, so as not to be afraid of falling or dropping something heavy on his foot. It is enough to forget oneself for a single moment and the body WILL adopt, by itself and almost un-noticeably, a more comfortable position, it WILL transfer the weight from one foot to another, WILL slacken certain muscles, and so on. This exercise is a simultaneous exercise for the WILL, the attention, the thoughts, the feelings, and for moving center. Fragments: Seventeen
“But it must be understood that in order to bring into action a sufficient strength of WILL to keep a man in an unaccustomed position an order or command from the outside: ‘stop,’ is indispensable. A man cannot give himself the command stop. His WILL WILL not obey this command. The reason for this, as I have said before, is that the combination of habitual thinking, feeling, and moving postures is stronger than a man’s WILL. The command stop which, in relation to moving postures, comes from outside, takes the place of thinking and feeling postures. These postures and their influence are so to speak removed by the command stop — and in this case moving postures obey the WILL.” Fragments: Seventeen