The Self and the Seeker

The Self and the Seeker

From our friend, David Tuttle

What is the Self? Who is the seeker?

These are essential questions and one can only answer them for oneself. I wouldn't want to come to death and discover I had been wrong with the provisional answers I had been making to these questions. Evolution is a process of continually refining our internal reply to these questions and becoming more and more certain about where we are going in life.

In the second state of consciousness, everything is mixed together in our psychology. It is very difficult to sort out what we can trust from what we cannot trust. It is only when we reach the third and fourth states of consciousness, with the concomitant functioning of the higher emotional and mental centers, that we can truly know what we can trust in ourselves. When we have such a state, we reach certainty about ‘Who am I?’ and what is the Self. Repeated experiences of such states reinforce the certainty.

Once we have a taste of this, we don’t forget it. It is the memory of such a state, whether we are aware of it or not, that makes a direction for us, even in the second state. It is perhaps this memory that makes people begin to search for something else in life besides what it offers on the surface. Where does such a memory come from? Divine gift, past lifetimes, luck, pure chance - we cannot know.

Of course, this system and all other systems begin with the ego - it cannot be otherwise. We want to get something for ourselves that we do not possess. If the desire to work stems only from such a desire, it will not and cannot lead to a result. If it stems from having tasted higher reality, even though it is mixed in with the lower parts of our being, our work will eventually bear fruit.

My teacher used to tell us, “The system works, if you use it.” By following the suggestions given in the system, we gradually come to know our real self. All the terminology of the system is only a mask; when we have such an experience, we come to what is behind the mask. Yes - - only a mask, a shell; however, a useful and necessary one. The Gurdjieff system is a modern version of Plato's ladder of loves, where following one beloved eventually leads to following a still higher one and finally leads to the vision of oneness.

In addition, to sort out the real and the false in ourselves, the help of somebody who has successfully done this before is indispensable. The system adds that we cannot escape without outside help. It is not possible to find a way out of the dark labyrinth of the second state by ourselves alone. We need help.

Join the discussion

Image: Allegory of Simulation by Lorenzo Lippi