97. “He cannot see that he is a machine and that everything he does the machine is doing and that he ascribes to himself a thousand and one things that he does not possess. “For”, as Gurdjieff said once, “this sleep of Man, of which I am speaking, is not ordinary sleep, but hypnotic sleep.” .” (1136, 6 March 1948, 295th commentary)
98. This is possibly from Gurdjieff: “The Work says the first sign of intelligence is the power of adaptation. When people refuse to adapt to new circumstances, they begin to die.” (1141, 27 March 1948, 297th commentary)
99. “Gurdjieff once said: “A man must have sodium in him to combine with the chlorine of life. Then he can make sodium chloride—which is a salt. But if he has nothing in him to combine with life, he cannot make this salt.” (1147, 3 April 1948, 298th commentary)
100 and 101. “Gurdjieff once said: “Try to see things without associations.” Now if we could see things without associations we would be transported into a world of marvels. Impressions would fall on Essence. Gurdjieff was once asked: “What happens when impressions fall on Essence?” He replied: “Everything becomes more vivid.” (1152, 10 April 1948, 299th commentary) For this last comment, see also (1197, 23 July 1948, 314th commentary)
102. “On one occasion it was said by Gurdjieff that in order to understand one another we must learn a common language. Ouspensky said that when people study this Work they begin to learn a common language and by so doing can begin to understand one another. It was also said by Gurdjieff that there is a Universal Language, by means of which all people in the world can converse with one another. In this connection Gurdjieff said that conscious art, as distinct from subjective art, is an example of Universal Language.” (1153, 17 April 1948, 300th commentary)
103. “Gurdjieff once said that people came to him and said they would give up everything to follow him. But when it came to giving up their ingrained attitudes they were offended and left.” (1167, 15 May 1948, 304th commentary)
104. “Gurdjieff said: “If a man knows how to make coffee, to such a man I can speak.” Many remarks of Gurdjieff’s, like this one, sound trivial; but, knowing how he spoke, I realized that what he meant was a man who could plant coffee, grow it, look after it, and finally make coffee in a cup for you. That is, he meant a man who thoroughly knew his job. “To such a man,” Gurdjieff said, “I can speak.” Yes—but why did he say this? Because such a man has been up against the second force of life—the difficulties of labour, the diseases of the coffee-berry, the gathering of the berries, the storing of them, the transport of them, the marketing of them, the export of them, and all the hundred and one things that belong to such a business. In saying, with apparent simplicity, that he could speak to a man who could make coffee, Gurdjieff meant something far deeper than at first sight. He did not mean a man who buys tinned coffee and makes a cup for himself. He meant a man who knows all about coffee from beginning to end. Now such a man in the Work is called a Good Householder.” (1179-80, 12 June 1948, 308th commentary)
105. “Now we are taught that we have a right not to be negative. One must, of course, reflect all one’s life on the meaning of this. Someone has apparently given us this right. But Gurdjieff also said: “We have a right to remember ourselves. Man, in fact, is born into this right but he falls asleep.” (1185, 26 June 1948, 310th commentary)
106. I think the person in question was Nicoll himself, or possibly his wife: “On another occasion Gurdjieff said to someone who was looking at a bed of flowers: “You think. I only look.” I fancy he meant that this person was thinking what variety of peony was growing. Of course, in that case you are trying to see beauty through formatory centre. Emotional beauty is quite different.” (1186, 26 June 1948, 310th commentary)
107. “I told you the story about how a man in France, when the pigs got into the tomatoes, walked very slowly, to avoid identifying and muscle-tension, and told Gurdjieff. I fear that Gurdjieff roared at him and leapt, so to speak, about 400 yards to those pigs. This is a good example of wrong use of centres—as if, when the house is on fire, you observe your Moving Centre and carefully try to make every movement consciously, with full deliberation.” (1187, 26 June 1948, 310th commentary)
108. This one is decidedly unusual. You will need to read the full post for yourself, but he does attribute the key idea to Gurdjieff. “Gurdjieff speaks of the Unmanifested Earth and the Earth—that is, the Manifest Earth.” (1188, 3 July 1948, 311th commentary)
109. “Gurdjieff said that to Conscious Humanity we are just like silly monkeys who never understand but only imitate.” (1189, 3 July 1948, 311th commentary)
110. “”To shift from where you are”, Gurdjieff said, “it is necessary to divide yourself into an observed and an observing side.” (1203, 7 August 1948, 316th commentary)
111. “Of this teaching, as originally given, Gurdjieff said: “A man may be under the Law of Accident: or he may be under the Law of his Fate: or he may be under the Law of Will.” He added: “A man—that is, a real Man, a conscious Man—is under the Law of Will.” On another occasion, when he said that Humanity in general is under the Law of Accident, he was asked about psychology. He said: “A mechanical man has no psychology. He is a machine. He reacts always in the same way to any external stimulus. A machine has no psychology. How could a machine have a psychology? Only a man who begins to know himself and work on himself can be said to begin to have a psychology. And if a man has Real ‘I’, and so Real Will, then indeed has he a psychology.” Gurdjieff was asked how a man could pass from the Law of Accident to the Law of Fate. He said, in so many words: “Only by a growth of Essence, which is what belongs to him. A machine-man, a mechanical man, reacts from Personality, which does not belong to him. Personality is under more laws than Essence. To speak briefly,” Gurdjieff went on, “Personality is under 48 orders of laws and False Personality under 96, Essence is under 24 orders of laws, and a right development and growth of Essence can lead even further, say, to a man being under only 12 orders of laws —that is, under the laws of the Sun. Then,” added Gurdjieff, “he is under the Law of Will.” (1205-06, 21 August 1948, 317th commentary)
112. “Gurdjieff used to say: “What do you want?” This is almost like saying: “What do you evaluate?” (1225, 16 October 1948, 324th commentary)
to be continued