G. replied that no other arrangement was possible, because, owing to the very nature of the WORK, he could not have many pupils. At the same time, he did not desire and ought not — he emphasized this — to spend his own money on the organization of the WORK. His WORK was not, and could not be, of a charitable nature and his pupils themselves ought to find the means for the hire of apartments where they could meet; for carrying out experiments; and so on. Besides this, he added that observation showed that people who were weak in life proved themselves weak in the WORK. Fragments: One

“There are several aspects of this idea,” said G. “The WORK of each person may involve expenses, traveling, and so on. If his life is so badly organized that a thousand roubles embarrasses him it would be better for him not to undertake this WORK. Suppose that, in the course of the year, his WORK requires him to go to Cairo or some other place. He must have the means to do so. Through our demand we find out whether he is able to WORK with us or not. Fragments: One

“There are no conditions of any kind,” said G., “and there cannot be any. Our starting point is that man does not know himself, that he is not” (he emphasized these words), “that is, he is not what he can and what he should be. For this reason he cannot make any agreements or assume anyobligations. He can decide nothing in regard to the future. Today he is one person and tomorrow another. He is in no way bound to us and if he likes he can at any time leave the WORK and go. There are no obligations of any kind either in our relationship to him or in his to us. Fragments: One

He told me a great deal about carpets which, as he often said, represented one of the most ancient forms of art. He spoke of the ancient customs connected with carpet making in certain parts of Asia; of a whole village WORKing together at one carpet; of winter evenings when all the villagers, young and old, gather together in one large building and, dividing into groups, sit or stand on the floor in an order previously known and determined by tradition. Each group then begins its own WORK. Some pick stones and splinters out of the wool. Others beat out the wool with sticks. A third group combs the wool. The fourth spins. The fifth dyes the wool. The sixth or maybe the twenty-sixth weaves the actual carpet. Men, women, and children, old men and old women, all have their own traditional WORK. And all the WORK is done to the accompaniment of music and singing. The women spinners with spindles in their hands dance a special dance as they WORK, and all the movements of all the people engaged in different WORK are like one movement in one and the same rhythm. Moreover each locality has its own special tune, its own special songs and dances, connected with carpet making from time immemorial. Fragments: Two

“There are periods in the life of humanity, which generally coincide with the beginning of the fall of cultures and civilizations, when the masses irretrievably lose their reason and begin to destroy everything that has been created by centuries and millenniums of culture. Such periods of mass madness, often coinciding with geological cataclysms, climatic changes, and similar phenomena of a planetary character, release a very great quantity of the matter of knowledge. This, in its turn, necessitates the WORK of collecting this matter of knowledge which would otherwise be lost. Thus the WORK of collecting scattered matter of knowledge frequently coincides with the beginning of the destruction and fall of cultures and civilizations. Fragments: Two

“At the same time the beginning of the fourth way is easier than the beginning of the ways of the fakir, the monk, and the yogi. On the fourth way it is possible to WORK and to follow this way while remaining in the usual conditions of life, continuing to do the usual WORK, preserving former relations with people, and without renouncing or giving up anything. On the contrary, the conditions of life in which a man is placed at the beginning of his WORK, in which, so to speak, the WORK finds him, are the best possible for him, at any rate at the beginning of the WORK. These conditions are natural for him. These conditions are the man himself, because a man’s life and its conditions correspond to what he is. Any conditions different from those created by life would be artificial for a man and in such artificial conditions the WORK would not be able to touch every side of his being at once. Fragments: Two

“Then the fourth way differs from the other ways in that the principal demand made upon a man is the demand for understanding. A man must do nothing that he does not understand, except as an experiment under the supervision and direction of his teacher. The more a man understands what he is doing, the greater will be the results of his efforts. This is a fundamental principle of the fourth way. The results of WORK are in proportion to the consciousness of the WORK. No ‘faith’ is required on the fourth way; on the contrary, faith of any kind is opposed to the fourth way. On the fourth way a man must satisfy himself of the truth of what he is told. And until he is satisfied he must do nothing. Fragments: Two

“The method of the fourth way consists in doing something in one room and simultaneously doing something corresponding to it in the two other rooms — that is to say, while WORKing on the physical body to WORK simultaneously on the mind and the emotions; while WORKing on the mind to WORK on the physical body and the emotions; while WORKing on the emotions to WORK on the mind and the physical body. This can be achieved thanks to the fact that on the fourth way it is possible to make use of certain knowledge inaccessible to the ways of the fakir, the monk, and the yogi. This knowledge makes it possible to WORK in three directions simultaneously. A whole parallel series of physical, mental, and emotional exercises serves this purpose. In addition, on the fourth way it is possible to individualize the WORK of each separate person, that is to say, each person can do only what is necessary and not what is useless for him. This is due to the fact that the fourth way dispenses with a great deal of what is superfluous and preserved simply through tradition in the other ways. Fragments: Two

Parts of centers hardly came into these talks. G. said that centers were divided into positive and negative parts, but he did not point out that this division was not identical for all the different centers. Then he said that each center was divided into three parts or three stories which, in their turn, were also divided into three; but he gave no examples, nor did he point out that observation of attention made it possible to dis­tinguish the WORK of parts .of centers. All this and much else besides was established later. For instance, although he undoubtedly gave the fundamental basis for the study of the role and the significance of negative emotions, as well as methods of struggling against them, referring to non-identification, non-considering, and not expressing negative emotions, he did not complete these theories or did not explain that negative emotions were entirely unnecessary and that no normal center for them existed. Fragments: Three

“Man number four is not born ready-made. He is born one, two, or three, and becomes four only as a result of efforts of a definite character. Man number four is always the product of school WORK. He can neither be born, nor develop accidentally or as the result of ordinary influences of bringing up, education, and so on. Man number four already stands on a different level to man number one, two, and three; he has a permanent center of gravity which consists in his ideas, in his valuation of the WORK, and in his relation to the school. In addition his psychic centers have already begun to be balanced; one center in him cannot have such a preponderance over others as is the case with people of the first three categories. He already begins to know himself and begins to know whither he is going. Fragments: Four

“We are on the earth and we depend entirely upon the laws that are operating on the earth. The earth is a very bad place from the cosmic point of view — it is like the most remote part of northern Siberia, very far from everywhere, it is cold, life is very hard. Everything that in another place either comes by itself or is easily obtained, is here acquired only by hard labor; everything must be fought for both in life and in the WORK. In life it still happens sometimes that a man gets a legacy and afterwards lives without doing anything. But such a thing does not happen in the WORK. All are equal and all are equally beggars. Fragments: Five

“Self-study is the WORK or the way which leads to self-knowledge. Fragments: Six

“But even apart from this, attempts to analyze separate phenomena without a knowledge of general laws are a completely useless waste of time. Before it is possible to analyze even the most elementary phenomena, a man must accumulate a sufficient quantity of material by means of ‘recording.’ ‘Recording,’ that is, the result of a direct observation of what is taking place at a given moment, is the most important material in the WORK of self-study. When a certain number of ‘records’ have been accumulated and when, at the same time, laws to a certain extent have been studied and understood, analysis becomes possible. Fragments: Six

“Observation must begin from the beginning. All previous experience, the results of all previous self-observation, must be laid aside. They may contain much valuable material. But all this material is based upon wrong divisions of the functions observed and is itself wrongly divided. It cannot therefore be utilized, at any rate it cannot be utilized at the beginning of the WORK of self-study. What is of value in it will, at the proper time, be taken up and made use of. But it is necessary to begin from the begin­ning. A man must begin observing himself as though he did not know himself at all, as though he had never observed himself. Fragments: Six

“In order to find a way of discriminating we must understand that every normal psychic function is a means or an instrument of knowledge. With the help of the mind we see one aspect of things and events, with the help of emotions another aspect, with the help of sensations a third aspect. The most complete knowledge of a given subject possible for us can only be obtained if we examine it simultaneously with our mind, feelings, and sensations. Every man who is striving after right knowledge must aim at the possibility of attaining such perception. In ordinary conditions man sees the world through a crooked, uneven window. And even if he realizes this, he cannot alter anything. This or that mode of perception depends upon the WORK of his organism as a whole. All functions are interconnected and counterbalance one another, all functions strive to keep one another in the state in which they are. Therefore when a man begins to study himself he must understand that if he discovers in himself something that he dislikes he will not be able to change it. To study is one thing, and to change is another. But study is the first step towards the possibility of change in the future. And in the beginning, to study himself he must understand that for a long time all his WORK will consist in study only. Fragments: Six

“So that if one is WORKing on oneself properly, one must consider the possible supplementary changes, and take them into account beforehand. Only in this way is it possible to avoid undesirable changes, or the appearance of qualities which are utterly opposed to the aim and the direction of the WORK. Fragments: Six

“But in the general plan of the WORK and functions of the human machine there are certain points in which a change may be brought about without giving rise to any supplementary results. Fragments: Six

“Having fixed in his own mind the difference between the intellectual, the emotional, and the moving functions, a man must, as he observes himself, immediately refer his impressions to this or that category. And at first he must take mental note of only such observations as regards which he has no doubt whatever, that is, those where he sees at once to what category they belong. He must reject all vague or doubtful cases and remember only those which are unquestionable. If the WORK is carried on properly, the number of unquestionable observations will rapidly increase. And that which seemed doubtful before will be clearly seen to belong to the first, the second, the third center. Each center has its own memory, its own associations, its own thinking. As a matter of fact each center consists of three parts: the thinking, the emotional, and the moving. But we know very little about this side of our nature. In each center we know only one part. Self-observation, however, will very quickly show us that our mental life is much richer than we think, or in any case that it contains more possibilities than we think. Fragments: Six

“At the same time as we watch the WORK of the centers we shall observe, side by side with their right WORKing, their wrong WORKing, that is, the WORKing of one center for another; the attempts of the thinking center to feel or to pretend that it feels, the attempts of the emotional center to think, the attempts of the moving center to think and feel. As has been said already, one center WORKing for another is useful in certain cases, for it preserves the continuity of mental activity. But in becoming habitual it becomes at the same time harmful, since it begins to interfere with right WORKing by enabling each center to shirk its own direct duties and to do, not what it ought to be doing, but what it likes best at the moment. In a normal healthy man each center does its own WORK, that is, the WORK for which it was specially destined and which it can best perform. There are situations in life which the thinking center alone can deal with and can find a way out of. If at this moment the emotional center begins to WORK instead, it will make a muddle of everything and the result of its interference will be most unsatisfactory. In an ‘unbalanced kind of man the substitution of one center for another goes on almost continually and this is precisely what ‘being unbalanced’ or ‘neurotic’ means. Each center strives, as it were, to pass its WORK on to another, and, at the same time, it strives to do the WORK of another center for which it is not fitted. The emotional center WORKing for the thinking center brings unnecessary nervousness, feverishness, and hurry into situations where, on the contrary, calm judgment and deliberation are essential. The thinking center WORKing for the emotional center brings deliberation into situations which require quick decisions and makes a man incapable of distinguishing the peculiarities and the fine points of the position. Thought is too slow. It WORKs out a certain plan of action and continues to follow it even though the circumstances have changed and quite a different course of action is necessary. Besides, in some cases the interference of the thinking center gives rise to entirely wrong reactions, because the thinking center is simply incapable of understanding the shades and distinctions of many events. Events that are quite different for the moving center and for the emotional center appear to be alike to it. Its decisions are much too general and do not correspond to the decisions which the emotional center would have made. This becomes perfectly clear if we imagine the interference of thought, that is, of the theoretical mind, in the domain of feeling, or of sensation, or of movement; in all three cases the interference of the mind leads to wholly undesirable results. The mind cannot understand shades of feeling. We shall see this clearly if we imagine one man reasoning about the emotions of another. He is not feeling anything himself so the feelings of another do not exist for him. A full man does not understand a hungry one. But for the other they have a very definite existence. And the decisions of the first, that is of the mind, can never satisfy him. In exactly the same way the mind cannot appreciate sensations. For it they are dead. Nor is it capable of controlling movement. Instances of this kind are the easiest to find. Whatever WORK a man may be doing, it is enough for him to try to do each action deliberately, with his mind, following every movement, and he will see that the quality of his WORK will change immediately. If he is typing, his fingers, controlled by his moving center, find the necessary letters themselves, but if he tries to ask himself before every letter: ‘Where is “k”?’ ‘Where is the comma?’ ‘How is this word spelled?’ he at once begins to make mistakes or to write very slowly. If one drives a car with the help of one’s mind, one can go only in the lowest gear. The mind cannot keep pace with all the movements necessary for developing a greater speed. To drive at full speed, especially in the streets of a large town, while steering with the help of one’s mind is absolutely impossible for an ordinary man. Fragments: Six

The second thing was the demand “not to express unpleasant emotions.” I at once felt something big behind this. And the future showed that I was right, for the study of emotions and the WORK on emotions became the basis of the subsequent development of the whole system. But this was much later. Fragments: Six

Some of those present said that during attempts at self-observation, what they had felt particularly strongly was an incessant flow of thoughts which they had found impossible to stop. Others spoke of the difficulty of distinguishing the WORK of one center from the WORK of another. I had evidently not altogether understood the question, or I answered my own thoughts, because I said that what struck me most was the connectedness of one thing with another in the system, the wholeness of the system, as if it were an “organism,” and the entirely new significance of the word to know which included not only the idea of knowing this thing or that, but the connection between this thing and everything else. Fragments: Seven

“Such a course of things, that is, a change of direction, we can observe in everything. After a certain period of energetic activity or strong emotion or a right understanding a reaction comes, WORK becomes tedious and tiring; moments of fatigue and indifference enter into feeling; instead of right thinking a search for compromises begins; suppression, evasion of difficult problems. But the line continues to develop though now not in the same direction as at the beginning. Work becomes mechanical, feeling becomes weaker and weaker, descends to the level of the common events of the day; thought becomes dogmatic, literal. Everything proceeds in this way for a certain time, then again there is reaction, again a stop, again a deviation. The development of the force may continue but the WORK which was begun with great zeal and enthusiasm has become an obligatory and useless formality; a number of entirely foreign elements have entered into feeling — considering, vexation, irritation, hostility; thought goes round in a circle, repeating what was known before, and the way out which had been found becomes more and more lost. Fragments: Seven

“When a man comes to realize the necessity not only for self-study and self­observation but also for WORK on himself with the object of changing himself, the character of his self-observation must change. He has so far studied the details of the WORK of the centers, trying only to register this or that phenomenon, to be an impartial witness. He has studied the WORK of the machine. Now he must begin to see himself, that is to say, to see, not separate details, not the WORK of small wheels and levers, but to see everything taken together as a whole — the whole of himself such as others see him. Fragments: Eight

“This is a very serious moment in the WORK. A man who loses his direction at this moment will never find it again afterwards. It must be remembered that man such as he is does not possess the means of distinguishing ‘I’ and ‘Ouspensky’ in himself. Even if he tries to, he will lie to himself and invent things, and he will never see himself as he really is. It must be understood that without outside help a man can never see himself. Fragments: Eight

“Right external considering is very important in the WORK. It often happens that people who understand very well the necessity of external considering in life do not understand the necessity of external considering in the WORK; they decide that just because they are in the WORK they have the right not to consider. Whereas in reality, in the WORK, that is, for a man’s own successful WORK, ten times more external considering is necessary than in life, because only external considering on his part shows his valuation of the WORK and his understanding of the WORK; and success in the WORK is always proportional to the valuation and understanding of it. Remember that WORK cannot begin and cannot proceed on a level lower than that of the obyvatel,1 that is, on a level lower than ordinary life. This is a very important principle which, for some reason or other, is very easily forgotten. But we will speak about this separately afterwards.” Fragments: Eight

“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

“A very important moment in the WORK on oneself is when a man begins to distinguish between 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. Fragments: Eight

“If essence is subject to the influence of fate, does it mean that compared with accident fate is always favorable to a man?” asked somebody present. “And can fate bring a man to the WORK?” Fragments: Eight

Those who could not pay or who could pay very little always understood that they could not count upon getting something for nothing, and that G.’s WORK, his journeys to Petersburg, and the time that he and others gave to the WORK cost money. Only those who had money did not understand and did not want to understand this. Fragments: Eight

“Energy is spent chiefly on unnecessary and unpleasant emotions, on the expectation of unpleasant things, possible and impossible, on bad moods, on unnecessary haste, nervousness, irritability, imagination, daydreaming, and so on. Energy is wasted on the wrong WORKWORK of centers; on unnecessary tension of the muscles out of all proportion to the WORK produced; on perpetual chatter which absorbs an enormous amount of energy; on the ‘interest’ continually taken in things happening around us or to other people and having in fact no interest whatever; on the constant waste of the force of ‘attention’; and so on, and so on. Fragments: Nine

“In beginning to struggle with all these habitual sides of his life a man saves an enormous amount of energy, and with the help of this energy he can easily begin the WORK of self-study and self-perfection. Fragments: Nine

“The WORK of the factory consists in transforming one kind of matter into another, namely, the coarser matters, in the cosmic sense, into finer ones. The factory receives, as raw material from the outer world, a number of coarse ‘hydrogens’ and transforms them into finer hydrogens by means of a whole series of complicated alchemical processes. But in the ordinary conditions of life the production by the human factory of the finer ‘hydrogens,’ in which, from the point of view of the possibility of higher states of consciousness and the WORK of higher centers, we are particularly interested, is insufficient and they are all wasted on the existence of the factory itself. If we could succeed in bringing the production up to its possible maximum we should then begin to save the fine ‘hydrogens.’ Then the whole of the body, all the tissues, all the cells, would become saturated with these fine ‘hydrogens’ which would gradually settle in them, crystallizing in a special way. This crystallization of the fine ‘hydrogens’ would gradually bring the whole organism onto a higher level, onto a higher plane of being. Fragments: Nine

” ‘Learn to separate the fine from the coarse’ — this principle from the ‘Emerald Tablets of Hermes Trismegistus’ refers to the WORK of the human factory, and if a man learns to ‘separate the fine from the coarse,’ that is, if he brings the production of the fine ‘hydrogens’ to its possible maximum, he will by this very fact create for himself the possibility of an inner growth which can be brought about by no other means. Inner growth, the growth of the inner bodies of man, the astral, the mental, and so on, is a material process completely analogous to the growth of the physical body. In order to grow, a child must have good food, his organism must be in a healthy condition to prepare from this food the material necessary for the growth of the tissues. The same thing is necessary for the growth of the ‘astral body’; out of the various kinds of food entering it, the organism must produce the substances necessary for the growth of the ‘astral body.’ Moreover, the ‘astral body’ requires for its growth the same substances as those necessary to maintain the physical body, only in much greater quantities. If the physical organism begins to produce a sufficient quantity of these fine substances and the ‘astral body’ within it becomes formed, this astral organism will require for its maintenance less of these substances than it required during its growth. The surplus from these substances can then be used for the formation and growth of the ‘mental body’ which will grow with the help of the same substances that feed the ‘astral body,’ but of course the growth of the ‘mental body’ will require more of these substances than the growth and feeding of the ‘astral body.’ The surplus of the substances left over from the feeding of the ‘mental body’ will go to the growth of the fourth body. But in all cases the surplus will have to be very large. All the fine substances necessary for the growth and feeding of the higher bodies must be produced within the physical organism, and the physical organism is able to produce them provided the human factory is WORKing properly and economically. Fragments: Nine

“It has been explained before that in ordinary conditions of life we do not remember ourselves; we do not remember, that is, we do not feel ourselves, are not aware of ourselves at the moment of a perception, of an emotion, of a thought or of an action. If a man understands this and tries to remember himself, every impression he receives while remembering himself will, so to speak, be doubled. In an ordinary psychic state I simply look at a street. But if I remember myself, I do not simply look at the street; I feel that I am looking, as though saying to myself: ‘I am looking.’ Instead of one impression of the street there are two impressions, one of the street and another of myself looking at it. This second impression, produced by the fact of my remembering myself, is the ‘additional shock.’ Moreover, it very often happens that the additional sensation connected with self-remembering brings with it an element of emotion, that is, the WORK of the machine attracts a certain amount of ‘carbon’ 12 to the place in question. Efforts to remember oneself, observation of oneself at the moment of receiving an impression, observation of one’s impressions at the moment of receiving them, registering, so to speak, the reception of impressions and the simultaneous defining of the impressions received, all this taken together doubles the intensity of the impressions and carries do 48 to re 24. At the same time the effort connected with the transition of one note to another and the passage of 48 itself to 24 enables do 48 of the third octave to come into contact with mi 48 of the second octave and to give this note the requisite amount of energy necessary for the transition of mi to fa. In this way the ‘shock’ given to do 48 extends also to mi 48 and enables the second octave to develop. Fragments: Nine

“We have followed the development of two octaves. The third octave, that is, the octave of impressions, begins through a conscious effort. Do 48 passes to re 24; re 24 passes to mi 12. At this point the development of the octave comes to a stop. “Now if we examine the result of the development of these three octaves, we shall see that the first octave has reached si 12, the second la 6, and the third mi 12. Thus the first and third octaves stop at notes which are unable to pass to the following notes. “For the two octaves to develop further, a second conscious shock is needed at a certain point in the machine, a new conscious effort is necessary which will enable the two octaves to continue their development. The nature of this effort demands special study. From the point of view of the general WORK of the machine it can be said in general that this effort is connected with the emotional life, that it is a special kind of influence over one’s emotions. But what this kind of influence really is, and how it has to be produced, can be explained only in connection with a general description of the WORK of the human factory or the human machine. Fragments: Nine

“If we now take the WORK of the human factory as a whole, we shall be able to see at the moments when the production of fine substances is arrested by what means we can increase the productivity of the factory. We see that, under ordinary conditions and WORKing with one mechanical ‘shock’ the factory produces a very small quantity of the fine substances, in fact only si 12. Working with one mechanical and one conscious ‘shock’ the factory now produces a much greater quantity of the fine substances. Working with two conscious ‘shocks’ the factory will produce a quantity of the fine substances such as, in the course of time, will completely change the character of the factory itself. Fragments: Nine

“The study of the WORK of the human organism as a chemical factory shows us three stages in the evolution of the human machine. Fragments: Nine

“The first stage refers to the WORK of the human organism as it has been created by nature, that is to say, to the life and functions of man number one, number two, and number three. The first octave, that is, the octave of food, develops in a normal way to mi 192. At this point it automatically receives a ‘shock’ from the beginning of the second octave, and its development goes on consecutively to si 12. The second octave, that is, the air octave, begins with do 192 and develops to mi 48 where it stops. The third octave, that is, the octave of impressions, begins with do 48 and stops there. Thus seven notes of the first octave, three notes of the second, and one note of the third octave represent a complete picture of the WORK of the ‘human factory’ in its first or natural stage. Nature has provided only one ‘shock,’ that is, the ‘shock’ received from the entrance of the second octave which helps mi of the first octave to pass to fa. But nature did not foresee and did not provide for the second ‘shock,’ that is, the ‘shock’ that would help the development of the third octave and thereby enable mi of the second octave to pass to fa. A man must create this ‘shock’ by his own personal efforts if he desires to increase the output of the fine hydrogens in his organism. Fragments: Nine

“The second stage refers to the WORK of the human organism when a man creates a conscious volitional ‘shock’ at the point do 48. In the first place this volitional ‘shock’ is transmitted to the second octave which develops as far as sol 12, or even further up to la 6 and so on, if the WORK of the organism is sufficiently intense. The same ‘shock’ also enables the third octave to develop, that is, the octave of impressions which in this event reaches mi 12. Thus in the second stage of the WORK of the human organism, we see the full development of the second octave and three notes of the third octave. The first octave has stopped at the note si 12, the third at the note mi 12. Neither of these octaves can proceed any further without a fresh ‘shock.’ The nature of this second ‘shock’ cannot be so easily described as the nature of the first volitional ‘shock’ at do 48. In order to understand the nature of this ‘shock’ it is necessary to understand the meaning of si 12 and mi 12. Fragments: Nine

“The third stage in the WORK of the human organism begins when man creates in himself a conscious second volitional ‘shock’ at the point mi 12, when the transformation or transmutation of these ‘hydrogens’ into higher ‘hydrogens’ begins in him. The second stage and the beginning of the third stage refer to the life and functions of man number four. A fairly considerable period of. transmutation and crystallization is needed for the transition of man number four to the level of man number five. Fragments: Nine

“When the ‘table of hydrogens’ has been sufficiently understood, it shows immediately many new features in the WORK of the human machine, establishing clearly before anything else the reasons for the differences between the centers and their respective functions. Fragments: Nine

“The moving center WORKs with ‘hydrogen’ 24. ‘Hydrogen* 24 is many times quicker and more mobile than ‘hydrogen’ 48. The intellectual center is never able to follow the WORK of the moving center. We are unable to follow either our own movements or other people’s movements unless they are artificially slowed down. Still less are we able to follow the WORK of the inner, the instinctive functions of our organism, the WORK of the instinctive mind which constitutes, as it were, one side of the moving center. Fragments: Nine

“The emotional center can WORK with ‘hydrogen’ 12. In reality, however, it very seldom WORKs with this fine ‘hydrogen.’ And in the majority of cases its WORK differs little in intensity and speed from the WORK of the moving center or the instinctive center. Fragments: Nine

“In order to understand the WORK of the human machine and its possibilities, one must know that, apart from these three centers and those connected with them, we have two more centers, fully developed and properly functioning, but they are not connected with our usual life nor with the three centers in which we are aware of ourselves. Fragments: Nine

“It is the lower centers that are undeveloped. And it is precisely this lack of development, or the incomplete functioning, of the lower centers that prevents us from making use of the WORK of the higher centers. Fragments: Nine

“If we consider the WORK of the human machine from the point of view of the ‘hydrogens’ which WORK the centers, we shall see why the higher centers cannot be connected with the lower ones. Fragments: Nine

“If the emotional center were to WORK with hydrogen 12, its WORK would be connected with the WORK of the higher emotional center. In those cases where the WORK of the emotional center reaches the intensity and speed of existence which is given by hydrogen 12, a temporary connection with the higher emotional center takes place and man experiences new emotions, new impressions hitherto entirely unknown to him, for the description of which he has neither words nor expressions. But in ordinary con-ditions the difference between the speed of our usual emotions and the speed of the higher emotional center is so great that no connection can take place and we fail to hear within us the voices which are speaking and calling to us from the higher emotional center. Fragments: Nine

“In order to obtain a correct and permanent connection between the lower and the higher centers, it is necessary to regulate and quicken the WORK of the lower centers. Fragments: Nine

“Moreover, as has been already said, lower centers WORK in a wrong way, for very often, instead of their own proper functions, one or another of them takes upon itself the WORK of other centers. This considerably reduces the speed of the general WORK of the machine and makes acceleration of the WORK of the centers very difficult. Thus in order to regulate and accelerate the WORK of the lower centers, the primary object must consist in freeing each center from WORK foreign and unnatural to it, and in bringing it back to its own WORK which it can do better than any other center. Fragments: Nine

“In order to regulate and balance the WORK of the three centers whose functions constitute our life, it is necessary to learn to economize the energy produced by our organism, not to waste this energy on unnecessary functions, and to save it for that activity which will gradually connect the lower centers with the higher. Fragments: Nine

“All that has been said before about WORK on oneself, about the formation of inner unity and of the transition from the level of man number one, number two, and number three to the level of man number four and further, pursues one and the same aim. What is called according to one terminology the ‘astral body,’ is called in another terminology the ‘higher emotional center,’ although the difference here does not lie in the terminology alone. These are, to speak more correctly, different aspects of the next stage of man’s evolution. It can be said that the ‘astral body’ is necessary for the complete and proper functioning of the ‘higher emotional center’ in unison with the lower. Or it can be said that the ‘higher emotional center’ is necessary for the WORK of the ‘astral body.’ Fragments: Nine

“The results of the WORK of a man who takes on himself the role of teacher do not depend on whether or not he knows exactly the origin of what he teaches, but very much depends on whether or not his ideas come in actual fact from the esoteric center and whether he himself understands and can distinguish esoteric ideas, that is, ideas of objective knowledge, from subjective, scientific, and philosophical ideas. Fragments: Ten

“There is also the possibility of being awakened by mechanical means. A man may be awakened by an alarm clock. But the trouble is that a man gets accustomed to the alarm clock far too quickly, he ceases to hear it. Many alarm clocks are necessary and always new ones. Otherwise a man must surround himself with alarm clocks which will prevent him sleeping. But here again there are certain difficulties. Alarm clocks must be wound up; in order to wind them up one must remember about them; in order to remember one must wake up often. But what is still worse, a man gets used to all alarm clocks and after a certain time he only sleeps the better for them. Therefore alarm clocks must be constantly changed, new ones must be continually invented. In the course of time this may help a man to awaken. But there is very little chance of a man doing all the WORK of winding up, inventing, and changing clocks all by himself, without outside help. It is much more likely that he will begin this WORK and that it will afterwards pass into sleep, and in sleep he will dream of inventing alarm clocks, of winding them up and changing them, and simply sleep all the sounder for it. Fragments: Eleven

“Therefore a man who wants to awake must look for other people who also want to awake and WORK together with them. This, however, is easier said than done because to start such WORK and to organize it requires a knowledge which an ordinary man cannot possess. The WORK must be organized and it must have a leader. Only then can it produce the results expected of it. Without these conditions no efforts can result in anything whatever. Men may torture themselves but these tortures will not make them awake. This is the most difficult of all for certain people to understand. By themselves and on their own initiative they may be capable of great efforts and great sacrifices. But because their first effort and their first sacrifice ought to be obedience nothing on earth will induce them to obey another. And they do not want to reconcile themselves to the thought that all their efforts and all their sacrifices are useless. Fragments: Eleven

“No WORK of groups is possible without a teacher. The WORK of groups with a wrong teacher can produce only negative results. Fragments: Eleven

“The next important feature of group WORK is that groups may be connected with some aim of which those who are beginning WORK in them have no idea whatever and which cannot even be explained to them until they understand the essence and the principles of the WORK and the ideas connected with it. But this aim towards which without knowing it they are going, and which they are serving, is the necessary balancing principle in their own WORK. Their first task is to understand this aim, that is, the aim of the teacher. When they have understood this aim, although at first not fully, their own WORK becomes more conscious and consequently can give better results. But, as I have already said, it often happens that the aim of the teacher cannot be explained at the beginning. Fragments: Eleven

“Therefore, the first aim of a man beginning WORK in a group should be self-study. The WORK of self-study can proceed only in properly organized groups. One man alone cannot see himself. But when a certain number of people unite together for this purpose they will even involuntarily help one another. It is a common characteristic of human nature that a man sees the faults of others more easily than he sees his own. At the same time on the path of self-study he learns that he himself possesses all the faults that he finds in others. But there are many things that he does not see in himself, whereas in other people he begins to see them. But, as I have just said, in this case he knows that these features are his own. Thus other members of the group serve him as mirrors in which he sees himself. But, of course, in order to see himself in other people’s faults and not merely to see the faults of others, a man must be very much on his guard against and be very sincere with himself. Fragments: Eleven

“Furthermore, in the WORK of self-study one man begins to accumulate material resulting from self-observation. Twenty people will have twenty times as much material. And every one of them will be able to use the whole of this material because the exchange of observations is one of the purposes of the group’s existence. Fragments: Eleven

“General conditions at the beginning of the WORK are usually of the following kind. First of all it is explained to all the members of a group that they must keep secret everything they hear or learn in the group and not only while they .are members of it but forever afterwards. Fragments: Eleven

“The idea of this restriction consists in the fact that they are unable to transmit correctly what is said in the groups. They very soon begin to learn from their own personal experience how much effort, how much time, and how much explaining is necessary in order to grasp what is said in groups. It becomes clear to them that they are unable to give their friends a right idea of what they have learned themselves. At the same time also they begin to understand that by giving their friends wrong ideas they shut them off from any possibility of approaching the WORK at any time or of understanding anything in connection with the WORK, to say nothing of the fact that in this way they are creating very many difficulties and even very much unpleasantness for themselves in the future. If a man in spite of this tries to transmit what he hears in groups to his friends he will very quickly be convinced that attempts in this direction give entirely unexpected and undesirable results. Either people begin to argue with him and without wanting to listen to him expect him to listen to their theories, or they misinterpret everything he tells them, attach an entirely different meaning to everything they hear from him. In seeing this and understanding the uselessness of such attempts a man begins to see one aspect of this restriction. Fragments: Eleven

“This also must be clearly and properly understood. People do not realize what a big place in their lives is occupied by lying or even if only by the suppression of the truth. People are unable to be sincere either with themselves or with others. They do not even understand that to learn to be sincere when it is necessary is one of the most difficult things on earth. They imagine that to speak or not to speak the truth, to be or not to be sincere, depends upon them. Therefore they have to learn this and learn it first of all in relation to the teacher of the WORK. Telling the teacher a deliberate lie, or being insincere with him, or suppressing something, makes their presence in the group completely useless and is even worse than being rude or uncivil to him or in his presence. Fragments: Eleven

“The fundamental demands which have been enumerated provide the material for rules which are obligatory for all members of a group. In the first place rules help everyone who wants to WORK to avoid everything that may hinder him or do harm to his WORK, and secondly they help him to remember himself. “It very often happens that at the beginning of the WORK the members of a group do not like some or other of the rules. And they even ask: Can we not WORK without rules? Rules seem to them to be an unnecessary constraint on their freedom or a tiresome formality, and to be reminded about rules seems to them to be ill will or dissatisfaction on the part of the teacher. Fragments: Eleven

“In reality rules are the chief and the first help that they get from the WORK. It stands to reason that rules do not pursue the object of affording them amusement or satisfaction or of making things more easy for them. Rules pursue a definite aim: to make them behave as they would behave ‘if they were,’ that is, if they remembered themselves and realized how they ought to behave with regard to people outside the WORK, to people in the WORK, and to the teacher. If they remembered themselves and realized this, rules would not be necessary for them. But they are not able to remember themselves and understand this at the beginning of WORK, so that rules are indispensable, although rules can never be either easy, pleasant, or comfortable. On the contrary, they ought to be difficult, unpleasant, and uncomfortable; otherwise they would not answer their purpose. Rules are the alarm clocks which wake the sleeping man. But the man, opening his eyes for a second, is indignant with the alarm clock and asks: Can one not awaken without alarm clocks? Fragments: Eleven

“Besides these general rules there are certain individual conditions which are given to each person separately and which are generally connected with his ‘chief fault,’ or chief feature. “This requires some explanation. “Every man has a certain feature in his character which is central. It is like an axle round which all his ‘false personality’ revolves. Every man’s personal WORK must consist in struggling against this chief fault. This explains why there can be no general rules of WORK and why all systems that attempt to evolve such rules either lead to nothing or cause harm. How can there be general rules? What is useful for one is harmful for another. One man talks too much; he must learn to keep silent. Another man is silent when he ought to talk and he must learn to talk; and so it is always and in everything. General rules for the WORK of groups refer to everyone. Personal directions can only be individual. In this connection again a man cannot find his own chief feature, his chief fault, by himself. This is practically a law. The teacher has to point out this feature to him and show him how to fight against it. No one else but the teacher can do this. Fragments: Eleven

“The study of the chief fault and the struggle against it constitute, as it were, each man’s individual path, but the aim must be the same for all. This aim is the realization of one’s nothingness. Only when a man has truly and sincerely arrived at the conviction of his own helplessness and nothingness and only when he feels it constantly, will he be ready for the next and much more difficult stages of the WORK. Fragments: Eleven

“But it must be remembered in this connection that a ‘black magician,’ whether good or evil, has at all events been at a school. He has learned something, has heard something, knows something. He is simply a ‘half-educated man’ who has either been turned out of a school or who has himself left a school having decided that he already knows enough, that he does not want to be in subordination any longer, and that he can WORK independently and even direct the WORK of others. All ‘WORK’ of this kind can produce only subjective results, that is to say, it can only increase deception and increase sleep instead of decreasing them. Nevertheless something can be learned from a ‘black magician’ although in the wrong way. He can sometimes by accident even tell the truth. That is why I say that there are many things worse than ‘black magic.’ Such are various ‘occult’ and theosophical societies and groups. Not only have their teachers never been at a school but they have never even met anyone who has been near a school. Their WORK simply consists in aping. But imitation WORK of this kind gives a great deal of self-satisfaction. One man feels himself to be a ‘teacher,’ others feel that they are ‘pupils,’ and everyone is satisfied. No realization of one’s nothingness can be got here and if people affirm that they have it, it is all illusion and self-deception, if not plain deceit. On the contrary, instead of realizing their own nothingness the members of such circles acquire a realization of their own importance and a growth of false personality. Fragments: Eleven

“At first it is very difficult to verify whether the WORK is right or wrong, whether the directions received are correct or incorrect. The theoretical part of the WORK may prove useful in this respect, because a man can judge more easily from this aspect of it. He knows what he knows and what he does not know. He knows what can be learned by ordinary means and what cannot. And if he learns something new, something that cannot be learned in the ordinary way from books and so on, this, to a certain extent, is a guarantee that the other, the practical side, may also be right. But this of course is far from being a full guarantee because here also mistakes are possible. All occult and spiritualistic societies and circles assert that they possess a new knowledge. And there are people who believe it. Fragments: Eleven

“The struggle against the ‘false I,’ against one’s chief feature or chief fault, is the most important part of the WORK, and it must proceed in deeds, not in words. For this purpose the teacher gives each man definite tasks which require, in order to carry them out, the conquest of his chief feature. When a man carries out these tasks he struggles with himself, WORKs on himself. If he avoids the tasks, tries not to carry them out, it means that either he does not want to or that he cannot WORK. Fragments: Eleven

“It often happens that, having stopped before some barrier, usually the smallest and the most simple, people turn against the WORK, against the teacher, and against other members of the group, and accuse them of the very thing that is becoming revealed to them in themselves. Fragments: Eleven

“Sometimes they repent later and blame themselves, then they again blame others, then they repent once more, and so on. But there is nothing that shows up a man better than his attitude towards the WORK and the teacher after he has left it. Sometimes such tests are arranged intentionally. A man is placed in such a position that he is obliged to leave and he is fully justified in having a grievance either against the teacher or against some other person. And then he is watched to see how he will behave. A decent man will behave decently even if he thinks that he has been treated unjustly or wrongly. But many people in such circumstances show a side of their nature which otherwise they would never show. And at times it is a necessary means for exposing a man’s nature. So long as you are good to a man he is good to you. But what will he be like if you scratch him a little? “But this is not the chief thing; the chief thing is his own personal attitude, his own valuation of the ideas which he receives or has received, and his keeping or losing this valuation. A man may think for a long time and quite sincerely that he wants to WORK and even make great efforts, and then he may throw up everything and even definitely go against the WORK; justify himself, invent various fabrications, deliberately ascribe a wrong meaning to what he has heard, and so on.” Fragments: Eleven

“What happens to them for this?” asked one of the audience. “Nothing — what could happen to them?” said G. “They are their own punishment. And what punishment could be worse? “It is impossible to describe in full the way WORK in a group is conducted,” continued G. “One must go through it. All that has been said up to now are only hints, the true meaning of which will only be revealed to those who go on with the WORK and learn from experience what ‘barriers’ mean and what difficulties they represent. Fragments: Eleven

“You must realize that the teacher takes a very difficult task upon himself, the cleaning and the repair of human machines. Of course he accepts only those machines that are within his power to mend. If something essential is broken or put out of order in the machine, then he refuses to take it. But even such machines, which by their nature could still be cleaned, become quite hopeless if they begin to tell lies. A lie to the teacher, even the most insignificant, concealment of any kind such as the concealment of something another has asked to be kept secret, or of something the man himself has said to another, at once puts an end to the WORK of that man, especially if he has previously made any efforts. Fragments: Eleven

“As I have said already, one of the first demands is sincerity. But there are different kinds of sincerity. There is clever sincerity and there is stupid sincerity, just as there is clever insincerity and stupid insincerity. Both stupid sincerity and stupid insincerity are equally mechanical. But if a man wishes to learn to be cleverly sincere, he must be sincere first of all with his teacher and with people who are senior to him in the WORK. This will be ‘clever sincerity.’ But here it is necessary to note that sincerity must not become ‘lack of considering.’ Lack of considering in relation to the teacher or in relation to those whom the teacher has appointed, as I have said already, destroys all possibility of any WORK. If he wishes to learn to be cleverly insincere he must be insincere about the WORK and he must learn to be silent when he ought to be silent with people outside it, who can neither understand nor appreciate it. But sincerity in the group is an absolute demand, because, if a man continues to lie in the group in the same way as he lies to himself and to others in life, he will never learn to distinguish the truth from a lie. Fragments: Eleven

“One must realize in general that positive efforts and even sacrifices in the WORK do not justify or excuse mistakes which may follow. On the contrary, things that could be forgiven in a man who has made no efforts and who has sacrificed nothing will not be forgiven in another who has already made great sacrifices. Fragments: Eleven

“This seems to be unjust, but one must understand the law. There is, as it were, a separate account kept for every man. His efforts and sacrifices are written down on one side of the book and his mistakes and misdeeds on the other side. What is written down on the positive side can never atone for what is written down on the negative side. What is recorded on the negative side can only be wiped out by the truth, that is to say, by an instant and complete confession to himself and to others and above all to the teacher. If a man sees his fault but continues to justify himself, a small offense may destroy the result of whole years of WORK and effort. In the WORK, therefore, it is often better to admit one’s guilt even when one is not guilty. But this again is a delicate matter and it must not be exaggerated. Otherwise the result will again be lying, and lying prompted by fear.” Fragments: Eleven

“A group must WORK as one machine. The parts of the machine must know one another and help one another. In a group there can be no personal interests opposed to the interests of others, or opposed to the interests of the WORK, there can be no personal sympathies or antipathies which hinder the WORK. All the members of a group are friends and brothers, but if one of them leaves, and especially if he is sent away by the teacher, he ceases to be a friend and a brother and at once becomes a stranger, as one who is cut off. It often becomes a very hard rule, but nevertheless it is necessary. People may be lifelong friends and may enter a group together. Afterwards one of them leaves. The other then has no right to speak to him about the WORK of the group. The man who has left feels hurt, he does not understand this, and they quarrel. In order to avoid this where relations, such as husband and wife, mother and daughter, and so on, are concerned, we count them as one, that is, husband and wife are counted as one member of the group. Thus if one of them cannot go on with the WORK and leaves, the other is considered guilty and must also leave. Fragments: Eleven

After this G. passed to individual tasks and to the definition of our “chief faults.” Then he gave us several definite tasks with which the WORK of our group began. Fragments: Eleven

“The WORK of every man can proceed in three directions. He can be useful to the WORK. He can be useful to me. And he can be useful to himself. Of course it is desirable that a man’s WORK should produce results in all three directions. Failing this, one can be reconciled to two. For instance, if a man is useful to me, by this very fact he is useful also to the WORK. Or if he is useful to the WORK, he is useful also to me. But if, let us say, a man is useful to the WORK and useful to me, but is not able to be useful to himself, this is much worse because it cannot last long. If a man takes nothing for himself and does not change, if he remains such as he was before, then the fact of his having by chance been useful for a short time is not placed to his credit, and, what is more important, his usefulness does not last for long. The WORK grows and changes. If a man himself does not grow or change he cannot keep up with the WORK. The WORK leaves him behind and then the very thing that was useful may begin to be harmful.” Fragments: Eleven

“A very important role in the human machine is played by a certain kind of accumulator. There are two small accumulators near each center filled with the particular substance necessary for the WORK of the given center. Fragments: Eleven

“In the first instance the intellectual center, and in the second the moving center, draw the energy necessary for their WORK from the small accumulators. When an accumulator is nearly empty a man feels tired. He would like to stop, to sit down if he is walking, to think of something else if he is solving a difficult problem. But quite unexpectedly he feels an inflow of strength, and he is once more able to walk or to WORK. This means that the center has become connected with the second accumulator and is taking energy from it. Meanwhile the first accumulator is refilling with energy from the large accumulator. The WORK of the center goes on. The man continues to walk or to WORK. Sometimes a short rest is required to insure this connection. Sometimes a shock, sometimes an effort. Anyway, the WORK goes on. After a certain time the store of energy in the second accumulator also becomes exhausted. The man again feels tired. Fragments: Eleven

“This means that the center has become connected directly to the large accumulator. The large accumulator contains an enormous amount of energy. Connected with the large accumulator a man is literally able to perform miracles. But of course, if the ‘rolls’ continue to turn and energy which is made from air, food, and impressions continues to pour out of the large accumulator faster than it pours in, then there comes a moment when the large accumulator is drained of all energy and the organism dies. But this happens very seldom. Usually the organism automatically stops WORKing long before this. Special conditions are necessary to cause the organism to die exhausted of all its energy. In ordinary conditions a man will fall asleep or he will faint or he will develop some internal complication which will stop the WORK a long time before the real danger. Fragments: Eleven

But new people appeared only at large meetings at which G. took part. Meetings of the original group were at that time held separately. And it was quite clear why this should have been so. We were already beginning to get free from the self-confidence and the knowing of everything with which people approach the WORK and we could already understand G. better than before. Fragments: Twelve

“You must realize that each man has a definite repertoire of roles which he plays in ordinary circumstances,” said G. in this connection. “He has a role for every kind of circumstance in which he ordinarily finds himself in life; but put him into even only slightly different circumstances and he is unable to find a suitable role and for, a short time he becomes himself. The study of the roles a man plays represents a very necessary part of self-knowledge. Each man’s repertoire is very limited. And if a man simply says ‘I’ and ‘Ivan Ivanich,’ he will not see the whole of himself because ‘Ivan Ivanich’ also is not one; a man has at least five or six of them. One or two for his family, one or two at his office (one for his subordinates and another for his superiors), one for friends in a restaurant, and perhaps one who is interested in exalted ideas and likes intellectual conversation. And at different times the man is fully identified with one of them and is unable to separate himself from it. To see the roles, to know one’s repertoire, particularly to know its limitedness, is to know a great deal. But the point is that, outside his repertoire, a man feels very uncomfortable should something push him if only temporarily out of his rut, and he tries his hardest to return to any one of his usual roles. Directly he falls back into the rut everything at once goes smoothly again and the feeling of awkwardness and tension disappears. This is how it is in life; but in the WORK, in order to observe oneself, one must become reconciled to this awkwardness and tension and to the feeling of discomfort and helplessness. Only by experiencing this discomfort can a man really observe himself. And it is clear why this is so. When a man is not playing any of his usual roles, when he cannot find a suitable role in his repertoire, he feels that he is undressed. He is cold and ashamed and wants to run away from everybody. But the question arises: What does he want? A quiet life or to WORK on himself? If he wants a quiet life, he must certainly first of all never move out of his repertoire. In his usual roles he feels comfortable and at peace. But if he wants to WORK on himself, he must destroy his peace. To have them both together is in no way possible. A man must make a choice. But when choosing the result is very often deceit, that is to say, a man tries to deceive himself. In words he chooses WORK but in reality he does not want to lose his peace. The result is that he sits between two stools. This is the most uncomfortable position of all. He does no WORK at all and he gets no comfort whatever. But it is very difficult for a man to decide to throw everything to the devil and begin real WORK. And why is it difficult? Principally because his life is too easy and even if he considers it bad he is already accustomed to it. It is better for it to be bad, yet known. But here there is something new and unknown. He does not even know whether any result can be got from it or not. And besides, the most difficult thing here is that it is necessary to obey someone, to submit to someone. If a man could invent difficulties and sacrifices for himself, he would sometimes go very far. But the point here is that this is not possible. It is necessary to obey another or to follow the direction of general WORK, the control of which can belong only to one person. Such submission is the most difficult thing that there can be for a man who thinks that he is capable of deciding anything or of doing anything. Of course, when he gets rid of these fantasies and sees what he really is, the difficulty disappears. This, however, can only take place in the course of WORK. But to begin to WORK and particularly to continue to WORK is very difficult and it is difficult because life runs too smoothly.” Fragments: Twelve

On one occasion, continuing this talk about the WORK of groups, G, said: “Later on you will see that everyone in the WORK is given his own individual tasks corresponding to his type and his chief feature or his chief fault, that is, something that will give him an opportunity of struggling more intensively against his chief fault. But besides individual tasks there are general tasks which are given to the group as a whole, in which case the whole group is responsible for their execution or their non­execution, although in some cases the group is also responsible for individual tasks. But first we will take general tasks. For instance, you ought by now to have some understanding as to the nature of the system and its principal methods, and you ought to be able to pass these ideas on to others. You will remember that at the beginning I was against your talking about the ideas of the system outside the groups. On the contrary there was a definite rule that none of you, excepting those whom I specially instructed to do so, should talk to anyone either about the groups or the lectures or the ideas. And I explained then why this was necessary. You would not have been able to give a correct picture, a correct impression. Instead of giving people the possibility of coming to these ideas you would have repelled them for ever; you would have even deprived them of the possibility of coming to them at any later time. But now the situation is different. You have already heard enough. And if you really have made efforts to understand what you have heard, then you should be able to pass it on to others. Therefore I give you all a definite task. Fragments: Twelve

It proved that friends and acquaintances asked very shrewd questions to which most of bur people had no answers. They asked for instance what we had got from the WORK and openly expressed doubts as to our “remembering ourselves.” On the other hand others had themselves no doubt whatever that they “remembered themselves.” Others found the “ray of creation” and the “seven cosmoses” ridiculous and useless; “What has ‘geography’ to do with this?” very wittily asked one of my friends parodying a sentence from an amusing play which had been running shortly before this; others asked who had seen the centers and how they could be seen; others found absurd the idea that we could not “do.” Others found the idea of esotericism “entertaining but not convincing.” Others said that this idea in general was a “new invention.” Others were not prepared to sacrifice their descent from apes. Others found that there was no idea of the “love of mankind” in the system. Others said that our ideas were thorough-going materialism, that we wanted to make people machines, that there was no idea of the miraculous, no idealism, and so on, and so on. Fragments: Twelve

“How can we recognize people who are able to come to the WORK?” asked one of those present. Fragments: Twelve

“How to recognize them is another question,” said G. “To do this it is necessary to a certain extent ‘to be.’ But before speaking of this we must establish what kind of people are able to come to the WORK and what kind are not able. Fragments: Twelve

“You must understand that a man should have, first, a certain preparation, certain luggage. He should know what it is possible to know through ordinary channels about the ideas of esotericism, about hidden knowledge, about possibilities of the inner evolution of man, and so on. What I mean is that these ideas ought not to appear to him as something entirely new. Otherwise it is difficult to speak to him. It is useful also if he has at least some scientific or philosophical preparation. If a man has a good knowledge of religion, this can also be useful. But if he is tied to religious forms and has no understanding of their essence, he will find it very difficult. In general, if a man knows but little, has read but little, has thought but little, it is difficult to talk to him. If he has a good essence there is another way for him without any talks at all, but in this case he has to be obedient, he has to give up his will. And he has to come to this also in some way or other. It can be said that there is one general rule for everybody. In order to approach this system seriously, people must be disappointed, first of all in themselves, that is to say, in their powers, and secondly in all the old ways. A man cannot feel what is most valuable in the system unless he is disappointed in what he has been doing, disappointed in what he has been searching for If he is a scientist he should be disappointed in his science If he is a religious man he should be disappointed in his religion If he is a politician he should be disappointed in politics If he is a philosopher he should be disappointed in philosophy If he is a theosophist he should be disappointed in theosophy If he is an occultist he should be disappointed in occultism And so on But you must understand what this means I say for instance that a religious man should be disappointed in religion This does not mean that he should lose his faith On the contrary, it means being ‘disappointed’ in the teaching and the methods only, realizing that the religious teaching he knows is not enough for him, can lead him nowhere All religious teachings, excepting of course the completely degenerated religions of savages and the invented religions and sects of modern times, consist of two parts, the visible and the hidden To be disappointed in religion means being disappointed in the visible, and to feel the necessity for finding the hidden and unknown part of religion To be disappointed in science does not mean losing interest in knowledge It means being convinced that the usual scientific methods are not only useless but lead to the construction of absurd and self contradictory theories, and, having become convinced of this, to begin to search for others To be disappointed in philosophy means being convinced that ordinary philosophy is merely — as it is said in the Russian proverb — pouring from one empty vessel into another, and that people do not even know what philosophy means although true philosophy also can and should exist To be disappointed in occultism does not mean losing faith in the miraculous, it is merely being convinced that ordinary, accessible, and even advertised occultism, under whatever name it may pass, is simply charlatanism and self decep­tion and that, although somewhere something does exist, everything that man knows or is able to learn in the ordinary way is not what he needs So that, no matter what he used to do before, no matter what used to interest him, if a man has arrived at this state of disappointment in ways that are possible and accessible, it is worth while speaking to him about our system and then he may come to the WORK But if he continues to think that he is able to find anything on his former way, or that he has not as yet tried all the ways, or that he can, by himself, find anything or do anything, it means that he is not ready I do not mean that he must throw up everything he used to do before This is entirely unnecessary On the contrary, it is often even better if he continues to do what he used to do But he must realize that it is only a profession, or a habit, or a necessity In this case it is another matter, he will then be able not to ‘identify’ “There is only one thing incompatible with WORK and that is ‘professional occultism,’ in other words, professional charlatanism All these spiritualists, healers, clairvoyants, and so on, or even people closely connected with them, are none of them any good to us. And you must always remember this and take care not to tell them much because everything they learn from you they might use for their own purposes, that is, to make fools of other people. Fragments: Twelve

“Quite true,” replied G. “Therefore we must first of all establish of what precisely we are speaking — of what moment in a man’s development and of what level of being. Just now I was simply speaking of a man in life who had no connection whatever with the WORK. Such a man, particularly if he belongs to the ‘intellectual’ classes, is almost entirely composed of personality. In most cases his essence ceases to develop at a very early age. I know respected fathers of families, professors full of various ideas, well­known authors, important officials who were almost ministers, whose essence had stopped developing approximately at the age of twelve. And that is not so bad. It sometimes happens that certain aspects of essence stop at five or six years of age and then everything ends; all the rest is not their own; it is repertoire, or taken from books; or it has been created by imitating ready-made models.” After this there were many conversations, in which G. took part, during which we tried to find out the reason for our failure to fulfill the task set by G. But the more we talked the less we understood what he actually wanted from us. Fragments: Twelve

“Well then, you spoke before of your family. Would it not be very much easier for you if they became interested in our ideas and joined the WORK?” Fragments: Twelve

“Then the other question — ‘Is sexual abstinence useful for the WORK or not?’ Fragments: Twelve

“Speaking in general, what is the most correct form of life in this connection from the point of view of the WORK?” Fragments: Twelve

“It is impossible to say. I repeat that while a man does not know it is better for him not to attempt anything. Until he has new and exact knowledge it will be quite enough if his life is guided by the usual rules and principles. If a man begins to theorize and invent in this sphere, it will lead to nothing except psychopathy. But it must again be remembered that only a person who is completely normal as regards sex has any chance in the WORK. Any kind of ‘originality,’ strange tastes, strange desires, or, on the other hand, fears, constantly WORKing ‘buffers,’ must be destroyed from the very beginning. Modem education and modem life create an enormous number of sexual psychopaths. They have no chance at all in the’ WORK. Fragments: Twelve

“The sex center WORKs with ‘hydrogen’ 12,” he said on this occasion, “that is to say, it ought to WORK with it. This is si 12. But the fact is that it very rarely WORKs with its proper hydrogen. Abnormalities in the WORKing of the sex center require special study. Fragments: Twelve

“This is the ‘abuse of sex.’ It is necessary, further, to remember that the sex center WORKs with ‘hydrogen’ 12. This means that it is stronger and quicker than all other centers. Sex, in fact, governs all other centers. The only thing in ordinary circumstances, that is, when man has neither consciousness nor will, that holds the sex center in submission is ‘buffers.’ ‘Buffers’ can entirely bring it to nought, that is, they can stop its normal manifestation. But they cannot destroy its energy. The energy remains and passes over to other centers, finding expression for itself through them; in other words, the other centers rob the sex center of the energy which it does not use itself. The energy of the sex center in the WORK of the thinking, emotional, and moving centers can be recognized by a particular ‘taste,’ by a particular fervor, by a vehemence which the nature of the affair concerned does not call for. The thinking center writes books, but in making use of the energy of the sex center it does not simply occupy itself with philosophy, science, or politics — it is always fighting something, disputing, criticizing, creating new subjective theories. The emotional center preaches Christianity, abstinence, asceticism, or the fear and horror of sin, hell, the torment of sinners, eternal fire, all this with the energy of the sex center. … Or on the other hand it WORKs up revolutions, robs, bums, kills, again with the same energy. The moving center occupies itself with sport, creates various records, climbs moun­tains, jumps, fences, wrestles, fights, and so on. In all these instances, that is, in the WORK of the thinking center as well as in the WORK of the emotional and the moving centers, when they WORK with the energy of the sex center, there is always one general characteristic and this is a certain particular vehemence and, together with it, the uselessness of the WORK in question. Neither the thinking nor the emotional nor the moving centers can ever create anything useful with the energy of the sex center. This is an example of the ‘abuse of sex.’ Fragments: Twelve

“I was just waiting for that question,” he said. “But you already ought to understand that it is just as impossible to explain to a man who has not yet begun to WORK on himself and does not know the structure of the machine what the ‘abuse of sex’ means, as it is to say what must be done to avoid these abuses. Right WORKWORK on oneself begins with the creation of a permanent center of gravity. When a permanent center of gravity has been created everything else begins to be disposed and distributed in subordination to it. The question comes to this: From what and how can a permanent center of gravity be created? And to this may be replied that only a man’s attitude to the WORK, to school, his valuation of the WORK, and his realization of the mechanicalness and aimlessness of everything else can create in him a permanent center of gravity. Fragments: Twelve

And he at once put another still more difficult question to me in the same way as before. And I again answered it in a natural voice. Z. and S. were visibly astonished at what was taking place, especially Z. This conversation, if it can be called a conversation, proceeded in this fashion for not less than half an hour. G. put questions to me without words and I answered them speaking in the usual way. I was very agitated by the things G. said to me and the things he asked me which I cannot trans­mit. The matter was concerned with certain conditions which I had either to accept or leave the WORK. G. gave me a month’s time. I refused the time and said that no matter how difficult what he demanded was I would carry it out at once. But G. insisted on the month’s time. Fragments: Thirteen

He said once that there was no sense in our going on any further in this way and that we ought to make a definite decision whether we wanted to go on with him, wanted to WORK, or whether it was better to abandon all attempts in this direction, because a half-serious attitude could give no results whatever. He added that he would continue the WORK only with those who would make a definite and serious decision to struggle with mechanicalness in themselves and with sleep. Fragments: Thirteen

“How they value the WORK,” he said, “and what a miserable idiot I am from their point of view; how easily I am deceived! You see that they have ceased to understand the most important thing. In the WORK the teacher of the WORK cannot be deceived. This is a law which proceeds from what has been said about knowledge and being. I may deceive you if I want to. But you cannot deceive me. If it were otherwise you would not learn from me and I would have to learn from you.” Fragments: Thirteen

“And what is it that they most of all desire to preserve? First the right to have their own valuation of ideas and of people, that is, that which is more harmful for them than anything else. They are fools and they already know it, that is to say, they realized it at one time. For this reason they came to learn. But they forget all about this the next moment; they are already bringing into the WORK their own paltry and subjective attitude; they begin to pass judgment on me and on everyone else as though they were able to pass judgment on anything. And this is immediately reflected in their attitude towards the ideas and towards what I say. Already ‘they accept one thing’ and ‘they do not accept another thing’; with one thing they agree, with another they disagree; they trust me in one thing, in another thing they do not trust me. Fragments: Thirteen

“And the most amusing part is that they imagine they are able ‘to WORK’ under such conditions, that is, without trusting me in everything and without accepting everything. In actual fact this is absolutely impossible. By not accepting something or mistrusting something they immediately invent something of their own in its place. ‘Gagging’ begins — new theories and new explanations which have nothing in common either with the WORK or with what I have said. Then they begin to find faults and inaccuracies in everything that I say or do and in everything that others say or do. From this moment I now begin to speak of things about which I have no knowledge and even of things of which I have no conception, but which they know and understand much better than I do; all the other members of the group are fools, idiots. And so on, and so on, like a barrel organ. When a man says something on these lines I already know all he will say later on. And you also will know by the consequences. And it is amusing that people can see this in relation to others. But when they themselves do crazy things they at once cease to see it in relation to themselves. This is a law. It is difficult to climb the hill but very easy to slide down it. They even feel no embarrassment in talking in such a manner either with me or with other people. And chiefly they think that this can be combined with some kind of ‘WORK.’ They do not even want to understand that when a man reaches this notch his little song has been sung. Fragments: Thirteen

“Man, in the normal state natural to him, is taken as a duality. He consists entirely of dualities or ‘pairs of opposites.’ All man’s sensations, impressions, feelings, thoughts, are divided into positive and negative, useful and harmful, necessary and unnecessary, good and bad, pleasant and unpleasant. The WORK of centers proceeds under the sign of this division. Thoughts oppose feelings. Moving impulses oppose instinctive craving for quiet. This is the duality in which proceed all the perceptions, all the reactions, the whole life of man. Any man who observes himself, however little, can see this duality in himself. Fragments: Fourteen

“Strengthening this decision and bringing it constantly and infallibly into all those events where formerly accidental neutralizing ‘shocks’ used to act and give accidental results, gives a permanent line of results in time and is the transformation of trinity into quaternity. The next stage, the transformation of quaternity into quinternity and the construction of the pentagram has not one but many different meanings even in relation to man. And of these is learned, first of all, one, which is the most beyond doubt, relating to the WORK of centers. Fragments: Fourteen

“The development of the human machine and the enrichment of being begins with a new and unaccustomed functioning of this machine. We know that a man has five centers: the thinking, the emotional, the moving, the instinctive, and the sex. The predominant development of any one center at the expense of the others produces an extremely one-sided type of man, incapable of further development. But if a man brings the WORK of the five centers within him into harmonious accord, he then ‘locks the pentagram within him’ and becomes a finished type of the physically perfect man. The full and proper functioning of five centers brings them into union with the higher centers which introduce the missing principle and put man into direct and permanent connection with objective consciousness and objective knowledge. Fragments: Fourteen

“Therefore, because of the tendency referred to in our thinking, it often happens that exact knowledge concerning details, communicated to a man before he has acquired an understanding of the essential nature of a thing, makes it difficult for him to understand this essential nature. This does not mean that exact definitions do not exist on the way of true knowledge, on the contrary, only there do they exist; but they differ very greatly from what we usually think them to be. And if anyone supposes that he can go along the way of self-knowledge guided by an exact knowledge of all details, and if he expects to have such knowledge without first having given himself the trouble to assimilate the indications he has received concerning his own WORK, then he should first of all understand that he will not attain knowledge until he makes the necessary efforts and that only of himself and only by his own efforts can he attain what he seeks. No one can ever give him what he did not possess before; no one can do for him the WORK he should do for himself. All that another can do for him is to give him the impetus to WORK and from this point of view symbolism, properly perceived, plays the part of an impetus of this kind for our knowledge. Fragments: Fourteen

“One must learn to pray, just as one must learn everything else. Whoever knows how to pray and is able to concentrate in the proper way, his prayer can give results. But it must be understood that there are different prayers and that their results are different. This is known even from ordinary divine service. But when we speak of prayer or of the results of prayer we always imply only one kind of prayer — petition, or we think that petition can be united with all other kinds of prayers. This of course is not true. Most prayers have nothing in common with petitions. I speak of ancient prayers; many of them are much older than Christianity. These prayers are, so to speak, recapitulations; by repeating them aloud or to himself a man endeavors to experience what is in them, their whole content, with his mind and his feeling. And a man can always make new prayers for himself. For example a man says — ‘I want to be serious.’ But the whole point is in how he says it. If he repeats it even ten thousand times a day and is thinking of how soon he will finish and what will there be for dinner and the like, then it is not prayer but simply self-deceit. But it can become a prayer if a man recites the prayer in this way: He says ‘I’ and tries at the same time to think of everything he knows about ‘I.’ It does not exist, there is no single ‘I,’ there is a multitude of petty, clamorous, quarrelsome ‘I’s. But he wants to be one ‘I’ — the master; he recalls the carriage, the horse, the driver, and the master. ‘I’ is master. ‘Want’ — he thinks of the meaning of ‘I want.’ Is he able to want? With him ‘it wants’ or ‘it does not want’ all the time. But to this ‘it wants’ and ‘it does not want’ he strives to oppose his own ‘I want’ which is connected with the aims of WORK on himself, that is, to introduce the third force into the customary combination of the two forces, ‘it wants’ and ‘it does not want.’ ‘To be’ — the man thinks of what to be, what ‘being,’ means. The being of a mechanical man with whom everything happens. The being of a man who can do. It is possible ‘to be’ in different ways. He wants ‘to be’ not merely in the sense of existence but in the sense of greatness of power. The words ‘to be’ acquire weight, a new meaning for him. ‘Serious’ — the man thinks what it means to be serious. How he answers himself is very important. If he understands what this means, if he defines correctly for himself what it means to be serious, and feels that he truly desires it, then his prayer can give a result in the sense that strength can be added to him, that he will more often notice when he is not serious, that he will overcome himself more easily, make himself be serious. In exactly the same way a man can ‘pray’ — ‘I want to remember myself.’ ‘To remember’ — what does ‘to remember’ mean? The man must think about memory. How little he remembers! How often he forgets what he has decided, what he has seen, what he knows! His whole life would be different if he could remember. All ills come because he does not remember. ‘Myself — again he returns to himself. Which self does he want to remember? Is it worth while remembering the whole of himself? How can he distinguish what he wants to remember? The idea of WORK! How can he connect himself with the idea of the WORK, and so on, and so on. Fragments: Fifteen

“The fourth way is never without some WORK of a definite significance, is never without some undertaking around which and in connection with which it can alone exist. When this WORK is finished, that is to say, when the aim set before it has been accomplished, the fourth way disappears, that is, it disappears from the given place, disappears in its given form, continuing perhaps in another place in another form. Schools of the fourth way exist for the needs of the WORK which is being carried out in connection with the proposed undertaking. They never exist by themselves as schools for the purpose of education and instruction. Fragments: Fifteen

“The WORK itself of schools of the fourth way can have very many forms and many meanings. In the midst of the ordinary conditions of life the only chance a man has of finding a ‘way’ is in the possibility of meeting with the beginning of WORK of this kind. But the chance of meeting with such WORK as well as the possibility of profiting by this chance depends upon many circumstances and conditions. Fragments: Fifteen

“The quicker a man grasps the aim of the WORK which is being executed, the quicker can he become useful to it and the more will he be able to get from it for himself. Fragments: Fifteen

“But no matter what the fundamental aim of the WORK is, the schools continue to exist only while this WORK is going on. When the WORK is done the schools close. The people who began the WORK leave the stage. Those who have learned from them what was possible to learn and have reached the possibility of continuing on the way independently begin in one form or another their own personal WORK. Fragments: Fifteen

“But it happens sometimes that when the school closes a number of people are left who were round about the WORK, who saw the outward aspect of it, and saw the whole of the WORK in this outward aspect. Fragments: Fifteen

“Having no doubts whatever of themselves or in the correctness of their conclusions and understanding they decide to continue the WORK. To continue this WORK they form new schools, teach people what they have themselves learned, and give them the same promises that they themselves received. All this naturally can only be outward imitation. But when we look back on history it is almost impossible for us to distinguish where the real ends and where the imitation begins. Strictly speaking almost everything we know about various kinds of occult, masonic, and alchemical schools refers to such imitation. We know practically nothing about real schools excepting the results of their WORK and even that only if we are able to distinguish the results of real WORK from counterfeits and imitations. Fragments: Fifteen

“But such pseudo-esoteric systems also play their part in the WORK and activities of esoteric circles. Namely, they are the intermediaries between humanity which is entirely immersed in the materialistic life and schools which are interested in the education of a certain number of people, as much for the purposes of their own existences as for the purposes of the WORK of a cosmic character which they may be carrying out. The very idea of esotericism, the idea of initiation, reaches people in most cases through pseudo-esoteric systems and schools; and if there were not these pseudo-esoteric schools the vast majority of humanity would have no possibility whatever of hearing and learning of the existence of anything greater than life because the truth in its pure form would be inaccessible for them. By reason of the many characteristics of man’s being, particularly of the contemporary being, truth can only come to people in the form of a lie — only in this form are they able to accept it; only in this form are they able to digest and assimilate it. Truth undefiled would be, for them, indigestible food. Fragments: Fifteen

“Transitions from one level of being to another were marked by ceremonies of presentation of a special kind, that is, initiation. But a change of being cannot be brought about by any rites. Rites can only mark an accomplished transition. And it is only in pseudo-esoteric systems in which there is nothing else except these rites, that they begin to attribute to the rites an independent meaning. It is supposed that a rite, in being transformed into a sacrament, transmits or communicates certain forces to the initiate. This again relates to the psychology of an imitation way. There is not, nor can there be, any outward initiation. In reality only self-initiation, self­presentation exist. Systems and schools can indicate methods and ways, but no system or school whatever can do for a man the WORK that he must do himself. Inner growth, a change of being, depend entirely upon the WORK which a man must do on himself.” Fragments: Fifteen

“You will remember that when we spoke of the WORK of the ‘three-story factory,’ I pointed out to you that most of the energy produced by the factory is wasted uselessly, among other things energy is wasted on unnecessary muscular tension. This unnecessary muscular tension eats up an enormous amount of energy. And with WORK on oneself attention must first be turned to this. Fragments: Seventeen

“In speaking of the WORK of the factory in general it is indispensable to establish that it is necessary to stop useless waste before there can be any sense in increasing the production. If production is increased while this useless waste remains unchecked and nothing is done to stop it, the new energy produced will merely increase this useless waste and may even give rise to phenomena of an unhealthy kind. Therefore one of the first things a man must learn previous to any physical WORK on himself is to observe and feel muscular tension and to be able to relax the muscles when it is necessary, that is to say, chiefly to relax unnecessary tension of the muscles.” Fragments: Seventeen

“Stop” had an immense, influence on the whole of our life, on the understanding of our WORK and our attitude towards it. First of all, attitude towards “stop” showed with undoubted accuracy what anyone’s attitude was to the WORK. People who had tried to evade WORK evaded “stop.” That is, either they did not hear the command to “stop” or they said that it did not directly refer .to them. Or, on the other hand, they were always prepared for a “stop,” they made no careless movements, they took no glasses of hot tea in their hands, they sat down and got up very quickly and so on. To a certain extent it was even possible to cheat with the “stop.” But of course this would be seen and would at once show who was sparing himself and who was able not to spare himself, able to take the WORK seriously, and who was trying to apply ordinary methods to it, to avoid difficulties, “to adapt themselves.” In exactly the same way “stop” showed the people who were incapable and undesirous of submitting to school discipline and the people who were not taking it seriously. We saw quite clearly that without “stop” and other exercises which accompanied it, nothing whatever could be attained in a purely psychological way. Fragments: Seventeen

“Again you speak in your own way,” said G. “I was not talking of people at all. They are going nowhere and for them there are no sins. Sins are what keep a man on one spot if he has decided to move and if he is able to move. Sins exist only for people who are on the way or approaching the way. And then sin is what stops a man, helps him to deceive himself and to think that he is WORKing when he is simply asleep. Sin is what puts a man to sleep when he has already decided to awaken. And what puts a man to sleep? Again everything that is unnecessary, everything that is not indispensable. The indispensable is always permitted. But beyond this hypnosis begins at once. But you must remember that this refers only to people in the WORK or to those who consider themselves in the WORK. And WORK consists in subjecting oneself volun­tarily to temporary suffering in order to be free from eternal suffering. But people are afraid of suffering. They want pleasure now, at once and forever. They do not want to understand that pleasure is an attribute of paradise and that it must be earned. And this is necessary not by reason of any arbitrary or inner moral laws but because if man gets pleasure before he has earned it he will not be able to keep it and pleasure will be turned into suffering. But the whole point is to be able to get pleasure and be able to keep it. Whoever can do this has nothing to learn. But the way to it lies through suffering. Whoever thinks that as he is he can avail himself of pleasure is much mistaken, and if he is capable of being sincere with himself, then the moment will come when he will see this.” Fragments: Seventeen

But the principal part of the WORK which began at that time were the rhythmics to music and similar strange dances which afterwards led to the reproduction of the exercises of various dervishes. G. did not explain his aims and intentions but according to things he had said before, it was possible to think that the result of these exercises would be to bring under control the physical body. Fragments: Eighteen

This may appear strange and unexpected after all I have written so far, but it had accumulated gradually. I wrote that I had for some time begun to separate G. and the ideas. I had no doubts about the ideas. On the contrary, the more I thought of them, the deeper I entered into them, the more I began to value them and realize their significance. But I began very strongly to doubt that it was possible for me, or even for the majority of our company, to continue to WORK under G.’s leadership. I do not in the least mean that I found any of G.’s actions or methods wrong or that they failed to respond to what I expected. This would be strange and completely out of place in connection with a leader in WORK, the esoteric nature of which I have admitted. The one excludes the other. In WORK of such a nature there can be no sort of criticism, no sort of “disagreement” with this or that person. On the contrary, all WORK consists in doing what the leader indicates, understanding in conformance with his opinions even those things that he does not say plainly, helping him in everything that he does. There can be no other attitude towards the WORK. And G. himself said several times that a most important thing in the WORK was to remember that one came to learn and to take no other role upon oneself. Fragments: Eighteen

I was beginning to get very interested in my groups. I saw a possibility of continuing the WORK. The ideas of the system found a response and obviously answered the needs of people who wanted to understand what was taking place both in them and around them. And around us was being concluded that brief little epilogue to Russian history which had frightened our friends and “allies” so much. Ahead of us everything was quite dark. I was in Rostov in the autumn and beginning of winter. There I met another two or three of the St. Petersburg company as well as Z. who had arrived from Kiev. Z. like P. was in a very negative frame of mind in relation to all of the WORK. We settled down together in the same quarters and it seemed that talks with me made him revise many things and convince himself that the original valuations were right. He decided to try to get through to G. in Tiflis. But he was not fated to accomplish this. We left Rostov almost at the same time, Z. leaving one or two days after me, but he arrived in Novorossiysk already ill and in the first days of January, 1920, he died of the smallpox. Fragments: Eighteen

I was very glad to see G. and to me personally it seemed then that, in the interests of the WORK, all former difficulties could be set aside and that I could again WORK with him as in St. Petersburg. I brought G. to my lectures and handed over to him all the people who came to my lectures, particularly the small group of about thirty persons who met upstairs in the offices of the “Miyak.” Fragments: Eighteen

At the beginning of summer G. closed his Institute and went over to Prinkipo. Somewhere about this time I told him in detail of a plan I had drawn up for a book to expound his St. Petersburg lectures and talks with commentaries of my own. He agreed to this plan and authorized me to write and publish it. Up till then I had submitted to the general rule, obligatory for everyone, which concerned G.’s WORK. According to this rule nobody under any circumstances had the right to write even for his own use anything connected with him or his ideas, or any other participants in the WORK, or to keep letters, notes, and so on, still less to publish anything. During the first years G. insisted strongly upon the obligatory nature of this rule and it was supposed that everyone accepted in the WORK would give his word to write nothing (and it goes without saying to publish nothing) referring to G. without special permission, even in the event of his leaving the WORK and G. Fragments: Eighteen

Soon after my arrival in London I began to give lectures in continuation of the WORK at Constantinople and Ekaterinodar. I learned that G. had gone to Germany with his Tiflis company and with those of my Constantinople people who had joined him. He tried to organize WORK in Berlin and Dresden and intended to purchase the apartments of the former Institut Dalcroze in Helleran near Dresden. But nothing came out of it all and in connection with the proposed purchase some strange events took place which ended in legal proceedings. In February, 1922, G. came to London. I at once invited him, as a matter of course, to my lectures and introduced him to all who were coming to them. This time my attitude towards him was much more definite. I still expected a very great deal more from his WORK and I decided to do everything I could to help him to organize his Institute and the preparation of his ballet. But I did not believe it was possible for me to WORK with him. I saw again all the former obstacles which had begun to appear in Essentuki. This time they had appeared even before he arrived. The outward situation was that G. had done very much towards the accomplishment of his plans. The chief thing was that a certain cadre of people, about twenty, had been prepared, with whom it was possible to begin. The music for the ballet had almost all been prepared (with the co-operation of a well-known musician). The organization of the Institute had been WORKed out. But there was no money to put all this into practice. Soon after his arrival G. said that he thought of opening his Institute in England. Many of those who came to my lectures became interested in this idea and arranged a subscription among themselves to cover the material side of the business. A certain sum of money was immediately given to G. to prepare for the passage of the whole of his group to England. I continued my lectures, connecting them with what G. had said during his stay in London. But I had decided for myself that if the Institute opened in London I would go either to Paris or to America. The Institute was finally opened in London but for various reasons it failed. But my London friends and those who came to my lectures collected a considerable sum of money for him and with this G. bought the historic Chateau Prieuré in Avon near Fontainebleau, with an enormous neglected park, and in the autumn of 1922 he opened his Institute there. A very motley company assembled there. There were a certain number of people who remembered St. Petersburg. There were pupils of G.’s from Tiflis. There were people who had come to my lectures in Constantinople and London. The latter were divided into several groups. In my opinion some had been in far too great a hurry to give up their ordinary occupations in England in order to follow G. I could have said nothing to them because they had already made their decision when they spoke to me about it. I feared that they would meet with disappointment because G.’s WORK seemed to me not sufficiently rightly organized and therefore to be unstable. But at the same time I could not be sure of my own opinions and did not want to interfere with them because if everything went right and my fears proved to be false then they would undoubtedly have gained by their decision. Fragments: Eighteen

Others had tried to WORK with me but for some reason or other they had parted from me and now thought that it would be easier for them to WORK with G. They were particularly attracted by the idea of finding what they called a short cut. To this, when they asked my advice, I of course advised them to go to Fontainebleau and WORK with G. And there were others who came to G. temporarily, for two weeks, for a month. These were people who attended my lectures and who did not want to decide themselves, but on hearing about other people’s decisions had come to me and asked whether they ought to “give up everything” and go to Fontainebleau and whether this was the only way to go on with the WORK. To this I said that they should wait until I was there. Fragments: Eighteen

“You must realize that there are three kinds of breathing. One is normal breathing. The second is ‘inflation.’ The third is breathing assisted by movements. What does this mean? It means that normal breathing goes on unconsciously, it is managed and controlled by the moving center. ‘Inflation’ is artificial breathing. If for instance a man says to himself that he will count ten inhaling and ten exhaling, or that he will inhale through the right nostril and exhale through the left — this is done by the formatory apparatus. And the breathing itself is different because the moving center and the formatory apparatus act through different groups of muscles. The group of muscles through which the moving center acts are neither accessible nor subordinate to the formatory apparatus. But in the event of a temporary stoppage of the moving center the formatory apparatus has been given a group of muscles which it can influence and with whose help it can set the breathing mechanism in motion. But its WORK will of course be worse than the WORK of the moving center and it cannot go on for long. You have read the book about ‘yogi breathing,’ you have heard or have also read about the special breathing connected with the ‘mental prayer’ in Orthodox monasteries. It is all one and the same thing. Breathing proceeding from the formatory apparatus is not breathing but ‘inflation.’ The idea is that if a man carries out this kind of breathing long enough and often enough through the formatory apparatus, the moving center which remains idle during this period can get tired of doing nothing and start WORKing in ‘imitation’ of the formatory apparatus. And indeed this sometimes happens. But so that this should happen many conditions are necessary, fasting and prayer are necessary and little sleep and all kinds of difficulties and burdens for the body. If the body is well treated this cannot happen. You think there are no physical exercises in Orthodox monasteries? Well, you try to carry out one hundred prostrations according to all the rules. You will have an aching back that no kind of gymnastics could ever give. Fragments: Eighteen