Self‑Remembering

We have to comprehend that we are asleep. If people were awakened, they could see, touch and feel the great realities of the Superior Worlds. If people were awakened, they would remember their past lives. If people were awakened, they would see the Earth just as it is. Currently, they are not seeing the Earth just as it is.

Samael Aun Weor The Fifth Gospel p. 81 (lecture: The Exercise of Self-Knowledge)

All the absurdities and all the contradictions of people, and of human life in general, become explained when we realise that people live in sleep, do everything in sleep, and do not know that they are asleep.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution Second Lecture

But the question is, how can a man awake? The Gospel teaching demands awakening, but does not say how to awaken. But the psychological study of consciousness shows that only when a man realises that he is asleep, is it possible to say that he is on the way to awakening. He never can awaken without first realising his sleep.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution Second Lecture

And he will be quite right, although at the same time quite wrong. This is nature's trick. He will be right because your question or your remark has made him vaguely conscious for a moment. Next moment consciousness will disappear. But he will remember what you said and what he answered, and he will certainly consider himself conscious.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution Second Lecture

In the fully literal sense these human beings are asleep; they are in the sleep-walking, sleep-talking, sleep-experiencing condition somewhat ludicrously known to us as the waking state. It is basically the unnatural passivity of ‘I’, reflected accurately and minutely in the neutralizing factor of consciousness, which renders the ordinary man an abnormal human being.

A. R. Orage The Oragean Version p. 153 (IV. The Greater Map) in C. Daly King’s words

Animals have sleep and waking states. We have sleep but not waking. When awake, we are lightly hypnotized.

A. R. Orage The Oragean Version p. 219 (V. Destination, “Oragean Aphorisms”, no. 100) as recorded by C. Daly King

Obviously, we are stuck inside a machine that spins incessantly, but we walk like sleepwalkers, unconscious, asleep people. We know nothing about ourselves because we never remember ourselves, our own Being. We have the mind too busy with illusory things, with what is fleeting.

Samael Aun Weor The Fifth Gospel p. 324 (lecture: The False World of Appearances)

The actual picture is somewhat different. Here we find the passenger unconscious within his vehicle, the coachman drunk upon the box, the horse rampaging about in terror-stricken hysteria or vicious rage and the carriage, equipped with a cleverly designed self-greasing mechanism which only rough roads will activate, creaking with burned-out axles along the artificially smooth streets of the city’s amusement centre. This picture is asserted to be a true one; the rational thing to do, is not to deny it but to investigate it.

A. R. Orage The Oragean Version p. 56 (II. The Local Map) in C. Daly King’s words

Self-Observation is not Self-Remembering, but it enables a man to realize he does not remember himself and that most of the time he has no distinct and separate feeling of himself, no proper sense of ‘I’, no real consciousness of himself.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 198 (Birdlip, 5 December 1942)

How many times is this said in the Gospels: “Awake, watch, sleep not!” But people do not understand it or they think it is a metaphor whereas it is literally true. If people awakened from sleep, if they began to remember themselves, the whole of life would change. And nothing can change in life unless people begin to awaken.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 198 (Birdlip, 5 December 1942)

This Work teaches as a principle that Man is asleep and that his greatest and most important task is to awaken.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 198 (Birdlip, 5 December 1942)

What does it mean that man is a machine? It means that he has no independent movements, inside or outside of himself. He is a machine which is brought into motion by external influences and external impacts. All his movements, actions, words, ideas, emotions, moods and thoughts are produced by external influences.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution First Lecture

We must understand that man can do nothing. But he does not realise this and ascribes to himself the capacity to do. This is the first wrong thing that man ascribes to himself. That must be understood very clearly. Man cannot do.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution First Lecture

Man is a machine, but a very peculiar machine. He is a machine which, in right circumstances, and with right treatment, can know that he is a machine, and having fully realised this, he may find the ways to cease to be a machine.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution First Lecture

First of all, what man must know is that he is not one; he is many. He has not one permanent and unchangeable 'I' or Ego. He is always different. One moment he is one, another moment he is another, the third moment he is a third, and so on, almost without an end.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution First Lecture

When man says 'I' it sounds as if he meant the whole of himself, but really even when he himself thinks that he means it, it is only a passing thought, a passing mood, or passing desire. In an hour's time he may completely forget it, and with the same conviction express an opposite opinion, opposite view, opposite interests. The worst of it is that man does not remember it.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution First Lecture

Another simile of the Oragean Version likens the empty word, “I,” to an exiled Prince instead of to the unconscious passenger. Deprived of his birthright he spends his existence outlawed from his land (the organism) while a succession of usurpers arrogates his duties to itself. Now Centre #3 seizes control, now Centre #1 and now Centre #2; and even their subordinates ape them in usurpation, for the members of that whole train of multiple personalities play out their automatic roles in a degraded succession upon the ravished throne. When shall that Prince awake?

A. R. Orage The Oragean Version p. 56 (II. The Local Map) in C. Daly King’s words

He now exercises three main functions, all automatic; reaction, emotion, thought. Where may he find any other function, different in kind from those, which he may be able even to begin to exercise? If he cannot find some such escape, he is lost whether he knows it or not.

A. R. Orage The Oragean Version p. 77 (II. The Local Map) in C. Daly King’s words

So, what acts here, in this painful world in which we live, is a machine equipped with a great computer. Not the Being, but the machine is acting here. We could say that the machine is a machine, that the Being is the Being.

Samael Aun Weor The Fifth Gospel pp. 300–301 (lecture: Intelligent Assimilation of Impressions)

In the presence of a glass of liquor, the sleeping man ends up drunk. When the sleeping man finds himself in the presence of the opposite sex, he ends up fornicating. The sleeping man identifies with everything around him and forgets himself.

Samael Aun Weor 7 Lectures and the Lamasery Exercises pp. 52–53 (6. S.O.L. Key)

People forget themselves completely; they forget their own profound inner Being because they identify with the circumstances. Normally, people are asleep because of this, because they identify with the circumstances that surround them, and each one has his little psychological song, as I said there in my book Revolutionary Psychology.

Samael Aun Weor The Fifth Gospel p. 87 (lecture: The Exercise of Self-Knowledge)

But to add to our misfortune, our negative emotions, self-love, and self-esteem fascinate and hypnotize us, never permitting us to remember ourselves, to see ourselves exactly as we are.

Samael Aun Weor Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology p. 70 (Chapter 15: Individuality)

It is necessary, then, to know that all the “I’s” that we currently have are the result of undigested, untransformed impressions, and this is lamentable. Unfortunately, people never remember themselves. That is why impressions reach our mind and remain like that, completely untransformed, giving rise, as is natural, to the psychic aggregates, to the “I’s”.

Samael Aun Weor The Fifth Gospel p. 299 (lecture: Intelligent Assimilation of Impressions)

For most people, even for educated and thinking people, the chief obstacle to their attaining the state of consciousness called Self-Remembering lies in the fact that they think they possess it already.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 196 (Birdlip, 5 December 1942)

Of all the thoughts and feelings that pass through him mechanically he is scarcely conscious of a millionth part.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 197 (Birdlip, 5 December 1942)

Some students of psychology have proposed to live in a state of alertness from moment to moment, but suddenly they fall asleep, perhaps upon meeting a friend in the street, upon entering a store to buy something, etc., and hours later, when they remember their decision to live alert and awake from instant to instant they realize they had fallen asleep when they entered such and such a place, or met such and such a person, etc., etc., etc.

Samael Aun Weor Fundamental Education p. 33 (Chapter 3: Authority Figures)

The most important deduction one can make after making this experiment in the right way is that man is not conscious of himself. The illusion of his being conscious of himself is created by memory and thought processes.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution First Lecture

The difficulties he has in observing these four manifestations— lying, imagination, the expression of negative emotions and unnecessary talking—will show man his utter mechanicalness, and the impossibility even of struggling against this mechanicalness without help, that is, without new knowledge and without actual assistance. For even if a man has received certain material, he forgets to use it, forgets to observe himself; in other words, he falls asleep again and must always be awakened.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution Second Lecture

We are completely mechanical with the exception of Self-Observation and what makes that possible. Self-Observation is the letter, A, of consciousness; it is the first conscious ability that can be attained; if you cannot do that, you are completely unconscious.

A. R. Orage The Oragean Version p. 219 (V. Destination, “Oragean Aphorisms”, no. 99) as recorded by C. Daly King

Disciple: Master, is remembering oneself simply a psychological attitude or is it to think “here I am” with a present thought of ourselves?
Master: If you say “here I am” you can be affirming your robot, you are simply affirming the robot. The robot says: “Yes, I am here”, see, that is the robot. It is not about that; it is about not forgetting one’s own Being, which is something different. He normally lives in the Milky Way and is not currently incarnated in the robot, because the Ego and the Being are incompatible. It is about not forgetting the Being, it is not about affirming the robot, but about affirming the Being, which is different.

Samael Aun Weor The Fifth Gospel p. 303 (lecture: Intelligent Assimilation of Impressions)

But not forgetting one’s own Being is extraordinary. Why do fallen angels exist? Because they forgot themselves for an instant, which was more than enough to go head first to the precipice. One should not forget oneself. I am not stating that it is about affirming the machine, the robot, no. Not forgetting oneself means not forgetting one’s profound inner Being.

Samael Aun Weor The Fifth Gospel p. 303 (lecture: Intelligent Assimilation of Impressions)

Disciple: Master, I would like to know if remembering oneself would then be like reaching a state so that one provokes the search, a profound longing to find the Being, and one maintains it the twenty-four hours of the day so that then the mechanical world does not fascinate one.
Master: In the remembrance of oneself, of one’s own Being, it is clear that the force of longing exists. The latter expresses itself vividly through the emotional understanding. This allows one to digest the impressions; that is all.

Samael Aun Weor The Fifth Gospel p. 305 (lecture: Intelligent Assimilation of Impressions)

The most important conscious effort is to remember oneself. This always is difficult because we all forgot ourselves long ago, but it is quite impossible if a man has no sense of higher influences and cannot see the difference between A and B influences in life. Self-remembering must have an emotional factor, not of self, not of personality, but of something deeper, or, if you prefer it, higher than one’s ordinary self. The factor of will enters in self-remembering—not self-will, but conscious will.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 92 (Birdlip, 19 December 1941)

Now as regards the question: “Which self must I remember when I try to remember myself?” First, remember the self or ‘I’ that knows what your aim is. This brings all the ‘I’s in you that wish to awaken into consciousness.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 199 (Birdlip, 5 December 1942)

Second, there is such a thing as real ‘I’ in us. But we are always being what we are not, substituting one ‘I’ after another in place of the trace of real ‘I’ that we have access to. Trying to feel the pure feeling of ‘I’ doing this, ‘I’ saying this, ‘I’ sitting here, ‘I’ being negative, and so on, can become sometimes a form of Self-Remembering. Full Self-Remembering is consciousness of real ‘I’ which stands above all the ‘I’s artificially created by life in us.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 200 (Birdlip, 5 December 1942)

Finally, no one can remember himself unless he feels that there is something higher than himself. Unless he feels this, his Self-Remembering will always lead him into False Personality.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 200 (Birdlip, 5 December 1942)

When one remembers oneself and works on oneself, when one does not become identified with all the problems and sorrows of life, in fact one is traveling along the vertical path.

Samael Aun Weor Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology p. 20 (Chapter 3: Psychological Rebellion)

Disciple: Venerable One, what relationship or with what mind is self-remembering and self-observation related to?
Master: Well, obviously, self-remembering is related to the superior mental center, as is self-observation. However, I think –and I have always said– that the emotional center –I am especially referring to the superior emotional center– has more penetrability, more omniscience, more wisdom, and it is more important.

Samael Aun Weor The Fifth Gospel p. 264 (lecture: The Seven Minds and the Seven Truths)

To be aware of yourself. When we forget ourselves we commit errors; we always need to be aware of ourselves, otherwise, we forget ourselves and we commit many errors.

V.M. Rabolú The Rebel Eagle (Christmas Message 1992–1993) p. 10 (Part 1, “Work upon the Details for the Death of the Ego”)

Ah! The remembrance of oneself; well, that is a personal matter, and it is the capacity of intelligence that each one has to retain it in material life.

V.M. Litelantes Litelantes en España (Ediciones Gnósticas, Barcelona, 2001) “Primera visita a España” — interview in Madrid, September 1981 translated from the Spanish

It is the fact that the consciousness in man, whatever it means, never remains in the same state. It is either there or not. The highest moments of consciousness create memory. Other moments man simply does not remember. This more than anything else produces in man the illusion of continuous consciousness or continuous awareness.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution First Lecture

These glimpses of consciousness come in exceptional moments, in highly emotional states, in moments of danger, in very new and unexpected circumstances and situations; or sometimes in quite ordinary moments when nothing in particular happens. But in his ordinary or 'normal' state, man has no control over them whatever.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution First Lecture

You will be very astonished when you realise how little you actually remember. And it happens in this way because you remember only the moments when you were conscious.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution First Lecture

We generally think that we possess self-consciousness, that is, that we are conscious of ourselves, or in any case that we can be conscious of ourselves, at any moment we wish, but in truth 'self-consciousness' is a state which we ascribe to ourselves without any right.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution Second Lecture

Self consciousness is a state in which man becomes objective towards himself, and objective consciousness is a state in which he comes into contact with the real, or objective world from which he is now shut off by the senses, dreams and subjective states of consciousness.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution Second Lecture

This is the fact that consciousness can be made continuous and controllable by special efforts and special study.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution First Lecture

In the state of sleep we can have glimpses of relative consciousness. In the state of relative consciousness we can have glimpses of self-consciousness. But if we want to have more prolonged periods of self-consciousness and not merely glimpses, we must understand that they cannot come by themselves, they need will action. This means that frequency and duration of moments of self-consciousness depend on the command one has over oneself.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution Second Lecture

You must remember that we have found the weak spot in the walls of our mechanicalness. This is the knowledge that we do not remember ourselves; and the realisation that we can try to remember ourselves. Up to this moment our task has only been self-study. Now, with the understanding of the necessity for actual change in ourselves, work begins.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution Fourth Lecture

But once, in the Greek New Testament class on Sundays, taken by the Head Master, I dared to ask, in spite of my stammering, what some parable meant. The answer was so confused that I actually experienced my first moment of consciousness—that is, I suddenly realized that no one knew anything. This is a definite experience and was my first experience of self-remembering—the second being the sudden realization that no one knew what I was thinking—and from that moment I began to think for myself, or rather knew that I could.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 8 (Letter to Mr. Bush, 27 April 1941)

The third state of consciousness is Self-Remembering or Self-Consciousness or the state of Self-Awareness. It is usual to consider that we have this state already and are always aware of ourselves and that we act, think and feel with full consciousness of what we are doing. But Western science has overlooked the fact that we do not possess this state of consciousness. And we cannot create it in ourselves by immediate desire alone, or decide that we will henceforth always live in a state of Self-Consciousness. But this third state constitutes the natural right of Man as he is and if Man does not possess it, it is because of the wrong conditions of his life. To-day this state of consciousness occurs only in the form of rare flashes and it is only by long practice, by trial and error, that a man can begin to re-establish a state of Self-Remembering in himself.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 155 (Birdlip, 19 June 1942)

For there is an answer. There is a fourth type of activity in which a human being can engage and which is not thinking or feeling or doing in the usual meaning of the terms. To realize this distinction clearly is the first necessity of the first step of the Method.

A. R. Orage The Oragean Version p. 97 (III. The Boat) in C. Daly King’s words

Self-Consciousness is that state in which a man is fully and currently aware of the operations of his organic mechanism, i.e., of his body. Self-Observation is the means whereby the state of Self-Consciousness begins to be established and it is evident at once that the activity of Self-Observation implies and presumes a definite dichotomy within the man’s general presence; that is, Self-Observation presumes a real and valid distinction between the observer and the observed, between the being himself and his observed organism. In the Oragean Version this distinction is formulated in the phrase, “I” and “It”.

A. R. Orage The Oragean Version p. 97 (III. The Boat) in C. Daly King’s words

These two distinguishable elements, “I” and “It”, must be clearly present in the pupil whenever he performs an act of Self-Observation. In order to accomplish this he must be clearly aware not only of what he observes but also that it is he, or “I”, who is making the observation. Such a realization on the part of the observer is called Self-Awareness. Self-Awareness is not synonymous with Self-Observation; it is, instead, a fundamental requirement of Self-Observation.

A. R. Orage The Oragean Version p. 98 (III. The Boat) in C. Daly King’s words

There is thus a division of attention accompanying the observatory act; to the one hand one withdraws from the usual identification with his organism and is aware that he is the now separated “I” and, to the other, one is aware of the specific organic phenomena taking place, as it were, outside of “I”. Self-Remembering refers precisely to the first of the latter awarenesses, viz., it refers to that part of the attention which at the moment is focused upon the “I” and not upon the It or organism.

A. R. Orage The Oragean Version p. 126 (III. The Boat) in C. Daly King’s words

This process of division of which we speak, is called Non-Identification and in it “I” is placed apart from the body; the act of Self-Remembering is that included part of the act of Self-Observation which is directed upon “I” and not upon the phenomena that are the objects of Self-Observation. In fact, Self-Remembering is identical with Self-Awareness.

A. R. Orage The Oragean Version p. 126 (III. The Boat) in C. Daly King’s words

Self-Remembering consists in the establishment of the dichotomy that genuinely exists between “I” and It, between the at first almost empty reality of the ultimately subjective entity which proposes to engage in the self-observatory activity and, to the other hand, that objective organism to which he is related and which he is about to observe. In short, Self-Remembering comprises the effort of non-identification from the physical body which is essential to any correct or successful practice of Self-Observation.

A. R. Orage The Oragean Version p. 228 (Appendix: The Ouspenskian Version) in C. Daly King’s words

We must know how to pay attention without identification. When we pay attention to something or someone, but forget ourselves, the result is fascination and the sleep of the consciousness.

Samael Aun Weor Fundamental Education p. 44 (Chapter 4: Discipline)

Attention divided into three parts—subject, object, location—is in fact conscious attention.

Samael Aun Weor Fundamental Education p. 45 (Chapter 4: Discipline)

We possess some Conscience and it is this percentage of Conscience that has to be used in Self-Observation.

V.M. Rabolú Gnostic Science p. 135

Self-Observation is vital. Through Self-Observation we are aware of ourselves, at the same time we can spot the reaction and expression of this or that Ego.

V.M. Rabolú Gnostic Science p. 136

No, there are three Centres, or Brains, of Manifestation of the Ego, there are; Sex, Heart and Mind. It is from these three Brains that the reaction arises. Do you understand me? When we are in Self-Observation, we feel the reaction of a Psychological Element surfacing within us at a certain moment. If, however, we identify with any impression, be it a person, a phrase, the presence of something or whatever, it is a sign that we were not in Self-Observation. That is why we cannot feel the reaction, we cannot feel anything, because we are identified.

V.M. Rabolú Gnostic Science p. 137

If you could place the feeling of ‘I’ fully in self-remembering, and all that it means, you would not identify. But this is conscious placing, because no one can self-remember mechanically. To remember oneself is a conscious act, a conscious placing of ‘I’, requiring attention to begin with.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 169 (Birdlip, 10 October 1942)

It means that a man looks out and looks in simultaneously. He observes, say, the person, and observes his own reaction to the person, at the same time. He “sees” the impression coming from the person and “sees” his own reaction to it together. This increased state of consciousness is Self-Remembering.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 194 (Birdlip, 30 November 1942)

When one learns to live in a state of alert-perception, alert-novelty, when one remembers oneself from instant to instant, from moment to moment, when one never forgets oneself, undoubtedly, he will become conscious.

Samael Aun Weor The Fifth Gospel p. 299 (lecture: Intelligent Assimilation of Impressions)

You see how difficult it is to keep the consciousness awake from instant to instant, from moment to moment, and from second to second, and that’s foremost, to not forget oneself for even an instant if one has true yearnings to awaken.

Samael Aun Weor 7 Lectures and the Lamasery Exercises p. 54 (6. S.O.L. Key)

Now this is the chief point in work upon oneself. If one realises that all the difficulties in the work depend on the fact that one cannot remember oneself, one already knows what one must do.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution Fourth Lecture

We cannot become conscious at will, at the moment when we want to, because we have no command over states of consciousness. But we can remember ourselves for a short time, at will because we have a certain command over our thoughts. And if we start remembering ourselves, by the special construction of our thoughts; that is, by the realisation that we do not remember ourselves, that nobody remembers himself, and by realising all that this means, this will bring us to consciousness.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution Fourth Lecture

But, if we have no control over consciousness itself, we have a certain control over our thinking about consciousness, and we can construct our thinking in such a way as to bring consciousness. What I mean is that by giving to our thoughts the direction which they would have in a moment of consciousness, we can, in this way, induce consciousness.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution Fourth Lecture

You noticed three things. First, that you do not remember yourself; that is, that you are not aware of yourself at the time when you try to observe yourself. Second, that observation is made difficult by the incessant stream of thoughts, images, echoes of conversation, fragments of emotions, flowing through your mind and very often distracting your attention from observation. And third, that the moment you start self-observation something in you starts imagination, and self-observation, if you really try it, is a constant struggle with imagination.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution Fourth Lecture

You will, if you are persistent, be able to do this for two minutes. This is the limit of your consciousness. And if you try to repeat the experiment soon after, you will find it more difficult than the first time.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution First Lecture

To remember oneself is a surrender of oneself. One realizes one’s helplessness. It is impossible to self-remember if one does not realize and understand that better influences can reach us. In one book written some eight centuries ago, by someone belonging to the Sufi schools, the writer compares Self-Remembering with coming to the surface of the sea and drawing in air. “This air,” he says, “is miraculous, and will last a whole day, even when one is at the bottom of the ocean.”

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 319 (Birdlip, 26 July 1943)

Self-Remembering no more constitutes the complete act of Self-Observation than does the cue or reminder which causes the subject to recall his intention to self-observe. And if the process stops merely at the point where Self-Remembering takes place, then no Self-Observation has been performed.

A. R. Orage The Oragean Version p. 126 (III. The Boat) in C. Daly King’s words

As to the Oragean Version the case is explicit and has already been stated: that Self-Remembering by itself will accomplish nothing and that the cause of the actual transformation of the given physical substances is exactly the activity of Self-Observation, and neither one of its preliminaries nor anything else.

A. R. Orage The Oragean Version p. 229 (Appendix: The Ouspenskian Version) in C. Daly King’s words

For every type of practice we should start with Concentration. This takes place when one thought alone is achieved; on an object, on a subject, on a place. Without Concentration we achieve nothing, absolutely nothing. Why? Because there is distraction and when there is distraction, when the student is not doing what he is doing, then the practice becomes mechanised and in being mechanised, it cannot give any positive results.

V.M. Rabolú Gnostic Science p. 141

'Identifying' or 'identification.' is a curious state in which man passes more than half of his life. He 'identifies' with everything: with what he says, what he feels, what he believes, what he does not believe, what he wishes, what he does not wish, what attracts him, what repels him. Everything absorbs him, and he cannot separate himself from the idea, the feeling or the object that absorbed him.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution Second Lecture

The second sleep-producing state, akin to identification, is considering. Actually, 'considering' is identification with people. It is a state in which man constantly worries about what other people think of him; whether they give him his due, whether they admire him enough and so on, and so on.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution Second Lecture

On the other hand if one receives impressions in a state of identification, one simply does not notice them and their traces disappear before they can be appreciated or associated. In the state of identification one does not see and one does not hear. One is wholly in one's grievance, or in one's desire, or in one's imagination. One cannot separate oneself from things or feelings or memories and one is shut off from all the world around.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution Third Lecture

Negative emotions depend on identification; if identification is destroyed in some particular case, they disappear.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution Fourth Lecture

There exist very complicated moments in life in which one has the marked tendency to identify easily with the events and to forget oneself completely. In those instances, one does foolish things which lead to nothing. If we could be alert, and instead of losing our head in those moments we could remember ourselves, we would discover with surprise certain “I’s”, the possibility of whose existence we had not the least suspicion.

Samael Aun Weor Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology pp. 141–142 (Chapter 29: Decapitation)

The experimental attitude toward life consists in Experiment for the sake of consciousness, not for the sake of reform. It likewise involves a full and realistic non-identification, which is completely denied and repudiated by a concern for the usually imaginary organic benefits of non-smoking, for instance.

A. R. Orage The Oragean Version p. 118 (III. The Boat) in C. Daly King’s words

One of the most important things to observe in oneself is the state of being identified. A man cannot remember himself if he is identified. And the more he is identified with himself, the less can he remember himself.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 198 (Birdlip, 5 December 1942)

A man who identifies with everything is unable to remember himself. In order to remember oneself it is necessary not to identify. But in order to learn not to identify a man must first of all learn not to be identified with himself.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 253 (Birdlip, 22 February 1943)

To be identified and to be in a state of Self-Remembering is impossible. It is not merely that the taste of each is contradictory. It is rather that the two states are incompatible. The more identified we are, the more are we in life under the mechanic laws of this planet. The more we are in a state of Self-Remembering the more are we under conscious influences. In the Work the idea of Self-Remembering—that is, the Third State of Consciousness, where help can only reach us—is always given in conjunction with non-identifying.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 333 (Birdlip, 15 September 1943)

There is no love between the brothers, they have forgotten their own Being, and they only live in the world of the Ego, in the world of reactions. When one forgets about one’s own Being, one reacts violently. If one forgets one’s own Being in the presence of a bottle of wine, one ends up drunk; if one forgets one’s own Being in the presence of the opposite sex, one ends up fornicating; if one forgets one’s own profound inner Being in the presence of an insulter, one ends up insulting.
The most serious in life is to forget oneself.

Samael Aun Weor The Fifth Gospel p. 169 (lecture: The Word and the Sacerdotal Magisterium)

(It is to be noted that, as a by-product of the Self-Observation of the bodily symptoms of negative emotions, those emotions themselves tend rapidly to disappear. And they vanish even more quickly when there is Participation in their physical symptoms.)

A. R. Orage The Oragean Version p. 113 (III. The Boat) in C. Daly King’s words

The Master talks in other terms about what I am explaining now, he used other terms such as: “We have to die from moment to moment and from instant to instant.” I did not understand this sentence and used to say: “What is going to die from instant to instant, from moment to moment?” He is referring to these minute manifestations that we do not pay attention to, which we think are not defects. That is the food which is feeding the defect. We are feeding it through all those minute roots. Then, if we start to take them away, the ego dies. It starts to decay once and for all, because it feeds from all of these. Therefore, the minute manifestations are the life of the ego. If we start to take them away, the result is the death.

V.M. Rabolú The Rebel Eagle (Christmas Message 1992–1993) p. 9 (Part 1, “Work upon the Details for the Death of the Ego”)

Of course! If we are alert with ourselves we realise the reason for that detail… In the moment that we ask the Divine Mother, we should be certain that she eliminates it, we should have that confidence and that faith in the Divine Mother.

V.M. Rabolú The Rebel Eagle (Christmas Message 1992–1993) p. 11 (Part 1, “Work upon the Details for the Death of the Ego”)

Then, this is very important: at every instant to be alert to oneself and to realise about all those minute details. A cent –you pick up a cent which is not yours; that is theft before the Law. That person is a thief, and here a cent costs nothing, but over there what counts is not the value but the defect.

V.M. Rabolú The Rebel Eagle (Christmas Message 1992–1993) p. 30 (Part 1, “The First Mountain”)

They do nothing, because, in these studies one must be at all moments in Self-Observation, that is, doing something for oneself.

V.M. Rabolú Gnostic Science p. 144

When one realizes one is mechanical in some definite respect, it gives a shock—actually, it is a moment of self-remembering.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 99 (Birdlip, 3 January 1942)

So, the past and present impressions must be transformed into different cosmic forces, and this is possible by not forgetting ourselves, by not forgetting our own Being. When one does not forget oneself, when one lives in a state of alert-perception, alert-novelty, then one transforms these impressions into something different.

Samael Aun Weor The Fifth Gospel p. 302 (lecture: Intelligent Assimilation of Impressions)

If by understanding the work, you can accept life as a truly esoteric work, then you will be in a constant state of self-remembering. This state of self-consciousness will naturally lead you to the living terrain of the transformation of impressions, and thus normally –or supra-normally, better said–, to that of a different life, as far as you are concerned naturally.

Samael Aun Weor The Fifth Gospel p. 311 (lecture: Psychological Protection Against Impressions)

Impressions that are taken in in a state of Self-Remembering become emotional. Even the simplest thing can become interesting or beautiful and reflect some meaning you had never perceived.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 199 (Birdlip, 5 December 1942)

If you can, through the understanding of the work, take life as work, then you are in a state of self-remembering. This state of consciousness leads to the transformation of impressions—and so of life as regards yourself.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 52 (Birdlip, 30 July 1941)

Three lines of work are necessary, first of all, because one line awakes a man who falls asleep over another line. If one really works on three lines, one can never fall asleep completely; in any case one cannot sleep as happily as before; one will always awake and realise that one's work has stopped.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution Third Lecture

You must understand that all rules are for self-remembering. First, they have a purpose in themselves, and second they are for self-remembering. There are no rules that are not for self-remembering, although in themselves they may have a different aim.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution Lecture held on Thursday, 23 September 1937

Well, that is how these things are... Sometimes one despairs and is filled with laziness about continuing these studies; then, just as they give to you, they take away from you, and they keep you like that. That is why, the more they draw you away (from the path), the more constancy you must have in continuing to study, until they no longer take away but give you more; and little by little you retain it more.

V.M. Litelantes Litelantes en España (Ediciones Gnósticas, Barcelona, 2001) “Primera visita a España” — interview in Madrid, September 1981 translated from the Spanish

The remembrance of oneself is something interesting. When one remembers oneself, he originates totally different forces to the ones of his fellow men, distinct forces, forces that make him a completely different person from the others.

Samael Aun Weor The Fifth Gospel p. 299 (lecture: Intelligent Assimilation of Impressions)

It is interesting to know that those who create such forces become different, even their life potencies multiply. If we put two people in an inhospitable place, with bad food, bad environment, etc., one who never remembers himself, who lives a mechanical life, and the other who always remembers himself from moment to moment, who is always remembering his own Being, who never forgets his intimate Being, you can be absolutely sure that the first one will die very soon and that the second one will live despite the inhospitable environment, because he is surrounded by forces different than those of others.

Samael Aun Weor The Fifth Gospel p. 299 (lecture: Intelligent Assimilation of Impressions)

When one gives oneself the shock of self-remembering, a miraculous change is produced in the entire working of the body, so that the cells receive different nourishment.

Samael Aun Weor Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology p. 106 (Chapter 23: The World of Relationships)

Later on you will learn that the practice of self-remembering, connected with self-observation and with the struggle against imagination, has not only a psychological meaning, but it also changes the subtlest part of our metabolism and produces definite chemical, or perhaps it is better to say alchemical, effects in our body.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution Fourth Lecture

If someone succeeds in transforming the totality of one’s impressions, he will be a truly blessed one, because the Being will stay in him and he in the Being, and then he will have real existence, then he will indeed be able to do because he will have the Being incarnated.

Samael Aun Weor The Fifth Gospel p. 302 (lecture: Intelligent Assimilation of Impressions)

One is the extraordinary and astonishing aliveness presented by the appearance of so-called inanimate objects; for instance, an ordinary brick wall may look no longer dead and inanimate but instead may give one the most surprising impression of a peculiarly living thing and the view of so much more active an object as a tree may occasion a considerable amazement. Another, rather opposite effect is the unusual appearance of deadness presented by the human beings who may come into view at such moments. Of course it is not that they are really dead but that they suddenly seem to be somewhat less than half-alive; and for the first time one registers in personal experience that they are really sleeping, really submerged in unreal daydreams, really scarcely conscious at all.

A. R. Orage The Oragean Version p. 127 (III. The Boat) in C. Daly King’s words

The purpose of the Method is to bring each candidate more energy, more activity, more consciousness, more life; not less in any of these cases.

A. R. Orage The Oragean Version p. 128 (III. The Boat) in C. Daly King’s words

Similarly, if you experience a moment of real consciousness, a moment of self-remembering, you will feel that it is just as if you were insulated from life and that nothing could touch you. And such would be the case if we were always in a state of self-remembering. Our task is to try to imitate higher states of consciousness, so as to attract them.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 29 (Birdlip, 12 June 1941)

And although one always goes to sleep again after a moment of real self-remembering, and often for years, yet such moments of consciousness stand always in higher parts of centres and remain and await, as it were, the further moments of realizing, more consciously, what life actually is—that is to say, they are never lost, and, although forgotten in one way, stand in the background of oneself always, and come forward at critical moments to guard you.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 9 (Letter to Mr. Bush, 27 April 1941)

Very soon you will realise that all your work upon yourself is connected with self-remembering and that it cannot proceed successfully without this. And self-remembering is partial awakening, or the beginning of awakening. Naturally—and this must be very clear— no work can be done in sleep.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution Fifth Lecture

No, this work is from instant to instant, as Master Samael says, that is a truth; to be on alert with ourselves. What happens then? We immediately begin to awaken the Conscience, we do not forget ourselves. This is a very good exercise.

V.M. Rabolú The Rebel Eagle (Christmas Message 1992–1993) p. 10 (Part 1, “Work upon the Details for the Death of the Ego”)

If you get used to always living with your attention divided in those three parts: subject, object, and location, you get used to doing it daily and at all times, from instant to instant and from second to second, because that habit is deeply engraved in the consciousness, and at night, when you’re asleep, you’ll end up doing the same exercise you do in the physical; then, the result is the awakening of consciousness.

Samael Aun Weor 7 Lectures and the Lamasery Exercises p. 63 (6. S.O.L. Key)

When we do not make the mistake of becoming identified with people, things, and ideas, we save creative energy and quicken within us the awakening of consciousness.
Whoever wants to awaken consciousness in the superior worlds should begin by awakening here and now.

Samael Aun Weor Fundamental Education p. 45 (Chapter 4: Discipline)

For with right methods and the right efforts man can acquire control of consciousness, and can become conscious of himself with all that it implies. And what it implies we in our present state do not even imagine.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution First Lecture

But between Waking and Self-Consciousness there is a greater difference and a greater increase in human value than between Sleep and Waking.

A. R. Orage The Oragean Version p. 95 (III. The Boat) in C. Daly King’s words

The Method here presented can be looked upon as a practical means of altering our habitual state of consciousness to one more becoming and natural to triply integrated beings such as we can soon discover we in fact are. And we can also discover for ourselves, without further reliance upon outside allegation, whether or not it be possible to raise our own level of consciousness from that of the hypnotic state called Waking to that of a clear Self-Consciousness.

A. R. Orage The Oragean Version p. 222 (V. Destination) in C. Daly King’s words

And just one of the purposes of Self-Observation is eventually to bring the whole lifespan into full and clear awareness; that is why there is no special time or place for its practice and why also the attempt is to make the activity as long and as continuous as possible.

A. R. Orage The Oragean Version p. 208 (IV. The Greater Map) in C. Daly King’s words

Thus the subject, by concentrating his attention at the point of obstruction between the centres #3 and #4, i.e., by expending his conscious effort solely upon the work of Self-Observation, will automatically commence bringing all three higher centres into normal function.

A. R. Orage The Oragean Version p. 134 (III. The Boat) in C. Daly King’s words

When a man remembers himself he lifts himself in the vertical line upwards and tastes for a moment a new state. This happens when a man no longer merely thinks about self-remembering, but actually does it—when he no longer tries to escape from negative states by thinking himself out of them, but stops all his thoughts and lifts himself up into self-remembering. And it is only by this inner movement that new influences can reach him. As you know it has been repeatedly said that “help” can only reach a man if he remembers himself—i.e. it can only reach the third state of consciousness.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 103 (Birdlip, 12 January 1942)

Aim in the Work is always connected with the act of self-remembering. This is because in the state of self-remembering a man can receive help, which cannot reach him in his ordinary states of consciousness. Certain influences in the Universe can only penetrate as far as the third state of consciousness, where a man is conscious to himself or self-conscious. If at the same time as he remembers himself he remembers his aim, he may get help. For example, he may understand his aim better.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 172 (Birdlip, 26 October 1942)

The Third State of Consciousness is the state of Self-Remembering, which man should possess but which he has gradually lost because of the wrong conditions of his life. To-day it can be said only to occur in the form of very rare flashes. It is the creation of this Third State of Consciousness that forms the First Conscious Shock—that is, the first object of the work is to recover this lost state, namely, to make a man remember himself until eventually he does not merely have rare flashes of increased consciousness (over which he has no control) but can create in himself increasing degrees of self-remembering by deliberate efforts. These efforts, which belong to the First Conscious Shock, gradually cause the machine to work more rightly. Many wrong functions, both in the psychic and physical spheres, acquired by the wrong working of the machine in the two lowest states of consciousness—that is, in darkness—then begin to disappear of themselves.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 57 (Birdlip, 27 August 1941)

He already has unity, he has permanent 'I', he has the third state of consciousness, i.e., self-consciousness. That means he is awake, he can always when he needs remember himself and higher emotional centre works in him, and this gives him many new powers.

P. D. Ouspensky The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution Lecture held on Thursday, 23 September 1937

Christianity has always insisted upon the Mystery of the Incarnation, viz., how does a spirit which is the son of God, have the use of a physical body? Self-Observation is only a survey of the body; Participation is practice in making it work; Experiment is seeing what you can do with it; and all of these are the preliminaries of Incarnation. Reincarnation is a problem which can arise only subsequently to the accomplishment of Incarnation.

A. R. Orage The Oragean Version p. 218 (V. Destination, “Oragean Aphorisms”, no. 75) as recorded by C. Daly King

When we speak of meditation, it is not to think, neither about the good nor the bad, to have the mind blank. This, then, gives you the opportunity to go to the electronic worlds with your Essence alone, with your Soul and over there you can move at free will without having to say to the Master. “Would you investigate this thing for me,” or to ask permission. No! You go and do it in full consciousness. That is called “Turiya”. That is why when you manage, for instance, to do this, the Hierarchies cry out in a choir, “May he become a Turiya!” Turiya means continuous consciousness, not that you achieved meditation only once, and only once moved with full consciousness in the causal world.

V.M. Rabolú The Rebel Eagle (Christmas Message 1992–1993) p. 36 (Part 1, “The First Mountain”)

To those of you who have had moments of Self-Remembering in life, when you have seen some quite ordinary thing or person in an entirely new way, it will not be astonishing if I say that such moments have the same quality or inner taste as have those rare and unusual dreams of which I am speaking. You suddenly see new meaning and in the case of dreams you feel that they have new meaning of the same order (although you cannot grasp it) as when you realize the Ray of Creation in yourselves and particularly the Side-Octave from the Sun. When you begin to see their significance you will not be surprised if I say that there are forces in you working upon you all the time to make you awaken, to heal you, to cure you—if you can only listen to them.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 354 (Birdlip, 20 November 1943)

The act of Self-Remembering is an attempt to put us somewhere in the middle of this swing. Being in the middle is to be in the state of Self-Remembering. Working on being identified is separating oneself so that one is not swung from one side to the other. It can be said that Self-Remembering is striving to be in Third Force and that non-identifying is striving not to be in the two opposite forces.

Maurice Nicoll Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, Vol. 1 p. 333 (Birdlip, 15 September 1943)