Emotions, as a powerful instrument of change, often go unnoticed by the majority of humanity. It is important to recognize that they are not merely a reflection of inner thoughts or a consequence of physical and physiological processes. On the contrary, emotions possess the ability to generate thoughts, just as thoughts can evoke emotions. They possess their own unique intelligence and retain memories of their existence. Emotions exhibit a certain level of awareness and, once triggered, they strive to envelop the entire human being, immersing themselves in their distinctive form of energy and nourishment. For individuals who are prone to experiencing negative emotions, any attempt to engage in negative thoughts or introspection will prove to be ephemeral, as the dominating counterpart emotion swiftly consumes them. According to the teachings of Gurdjieff, it is not usually the occurrences themselves that deplete the energy of those striving for personal growth, but rather the absence of expected events. The void between the inability to attain one’s desires and the incapacity to rationalise the reasons behind this inability, generates immense inner turmoil and energy loss.
Consider, for instance, the case of a man trapped in a recurring life pattern wherein he consistently gravitates towards women who possess maternal qualities but lack any sexual attraction towards men of his nature. Over time, he may develop a heightened awareness of his predicament and the perplexities he faces. However, he may find it insurmountable to articulate why his emotions persistently drive him towards such relationships. Emotions often evade analysis and resist examination, rendering them impervious to change through sheer intelligence and willpower alone. While there may exist reasons and instances that shed light on the origins and triggers of specific emotions, these details are prone to vanishing from memory or losing their grip on reality. Curiously, an emotion that yearns to be nourished and repeatedly resurfaces can paradoxically generate outcomes contrary to its intended effect. For instance, a man who dreads the experience of fear inadvertently gives rise to a fear-driven emotion, which inevitably engulfs him until it satisfies its innate need for energy and subsequently diminishes.
The inability to stop an emotion at will is the inability to take or reject a given emotion. We are continually being swamped by negative emotions and generally just accept them. Often people are their emotions – a sad man is a ‘sorry sight’, an angry person is ‘mouthy’, and so on. Emotions are something that is profoundly an integral part of human life and there isn’t a single day when we do not go through a wide range of emotions. Usually, we are habitual to express our emotions according to the situations we face in our routine life and we generally take them to extremes. According to Gurdjieff, expressing and letting emotions to govern our lives is equal to wasting vital energy. Energy is depleting solely because we are identified internally with the emotion and it has such a hold over us that we are unable to separate from it. This internal identification with emotion causes people to act contradictorily to their better judgment and creates unnecessary suffering. An example would be the person who feels infuriated and in the heat of the moment, they say something they may regret but their reasoning would tell them they should not have reacted this way.
Gurdjieff’s profound and insightful perspective on the intricate nature of human emotions reveals that when we are governed by our emotions, we are unable to achieve true clarity, characterized by their mechanical disposition, and thus live like programmed robots.
When an individual undergoes any emotional state, it profoundly impacts their emotional body. In such instances, the body, in its expressive state, generates energy at that level, bestowing upon the individual a remarkable liveliness that evokes persuasive and compelling attributes. This stark contrast is evident when comparing an individual consumed by anger with one who remains unaffected by such emotional eruptions. The very occurrence of emotional states also exerts a significant influence on the moving center. Those individuals with an abundance of energy in their emotional center are often compelled to manifest their emotions through physical expression. For instance, one might observe a rage-fueled individual forcefully striking a wall or a despondent soul slouched in their chair, embodying their emotional turmoil. However, it is crucial to acknowledge that this emotional energy expenditure and subsequent expression commensurate to the energy dissipation is not without adverse consequences. High-energy emotions possess the capacity to manifest as physical ailments, causing individuals to suffer from debilitating effects on specific centers within themselves. During such episodes, individuals find themselves rendered powerless, as these illnesses engender automatic and habitual reactions that sap their energy, leaving no room for healing and transformation.
It becomes abundantly clear that those who fall victim to the clutches of emotion find themselves devoid of any opportunity to transcend their current state. They are simply propelled forward by these forces, unable to break free from their emotional walls.
Gurdjieff held that human beings are essentially machines. The only chance of a way out of humanity’s essentially mechanical existence is to become conscious enough to be able to use the higher emotional energy centre and to accumulate a certain amount of this energy so that it can crystallise a higher level of being. He makes an analogy with the way that a magnet can only acquire a higher, permanent energy to hold it in a different position in relation to other magnets by being made red hot. On cooling, the energy thus acquired is lost and the magnet returns to its former condition. In the same way, a man can only acquire a permanent transformation of being by accumulating a certain amount of this energy and sustaining the “intention” sufficiently for it to crystallise a permanent ‘I’ behind the flux of its “personal” and “formatory” I’s. Changes of being due to “faith” and “grace” have no permanent results since they are merely borrowings from the higher emotional centre.
Gurdjieff argued that emotions become dangerous when they are allowed to dominate our actions and decisions. He described two opposing forces that act on our emotions: the force of expansion, which seeks to amplify and indulge in emotions, and the force of contraction, which seeks to suppress and restrain them. People live in prisons they have built for themselves with emotion. Emotion, in fact, is what drives everyone in all they do. It is the single factor that motivates action in all decision-making. All people’s endeavors are motivated by the desire to escape pain or the fear of it, or the wish to gain pleasure be it physical or psychological. There is always an emotion driving every move, and it is our desire to escape negative emotions and acquire positive ones that is the motivating force of all conflicts between people. Exactly what emotions are, and the detailed functioning of emotional processes, however, is largely not understood in today’s world. Gurdjieff, states that understanding the role of emotions in human development is crucial for increased awareness and a more balanced inner life. According to Gurdjieff, emotions, particularly negative ones, play a significant role in generating energy. However, not all emotional states produce the same intensity of energy. Gurdjieff explains that there are certain emotional states in which a person finds comfort and feels at ease in their own skin. These states may give a temporary sense of stability and enjoyment, however, Gurdjieff warns that relying too much on such states can lead to prolonged periods of imbalance, resulting in an inability to perceive and comprehend reality, as well as a lack of motivation to pursue personal growth and self-development. In contrast, Gurdjieff argues that it is through experiencing and addressing negative emotions that true awakening and self-awareness can be attained. By grappling with and understanding these challenging emotions, individuals can unlock profound insights and liberate themselves from the limitations of their own inner world.
Gurdjieff stated that emotion is a core factor in conditioning and is the chief obstacle in the way of self-development. As mentioned, emotional reactions are automatic and mechanical and are often so quick that the person is unaware of the initial moment of the reaction. This automatic response comes from the associative nature of mentality, where one thought of experience will call up another associated thought or experience. This will invariably lead to action and the manifestation of emotion. Emotion cannot be eradicated as it is necessary for normal functioning, but through self-observation, Gurdjieff maintained that people could develop the ability to separate feeling and emotion, and thus only allow emotional manifestations that are purposeful. To be ‘awake’ during emotional encounters, observing them as any other situation in life, will eventually lead to a dissipation of the emotion and break the associative cycle of the action-emanating emotion. This is the starting point of a person being a true master of themselves, as the ability to lessen the impact of automatic emotional response puts them in a position of being able to choose their actions and the following consequences, rather than being a slave to the impulsive will of the emotions of the moment. This impact on conscious action ultimately changes the nature and quality of a person’s experiences in life and is indicative of true personal growth.
It is the beginning of self-awareness. Self-awareness is a state of self-remembering, a state of clarity in which our actions are under conscious control. Although the theory is considerably more complex, there is an immediate suggestion that inner development is the correction of an inherent imbalance between the inner and outer in favor of a more conscious realization of inner potentialities. It is a matter of gaining what Gurdjieff called real ‘I’s, instead of the false ‘I’s with which we are all so identified. A blunt but accurate assessment will likely show that we do not have conscious control of our actions, we are identified with our behavior, thoughts, and feelings while having very little understanding as to their actual cause. Self-awareness is key to freedom in that without it we have no real control, no real choice in anything we do. This is the ‘mechanical’ level of consciousness and hinders our ability to think rationally, discern truth from illusion, and experience life fully. Every impression a person receives is automatically recorded, and in its very nature, an emotional impression is of a far stronger force and therefore more deeply rooted than a purely intellectual one. This means that emotional events become factories producing associations of like emotions and are continually reinforced in similar situations. This is why people react according to their emotions rather than a decision based on logic and reason. Gurdjieff explained that the modern human lives under the illusion that he possesses consciousness, will, and genuine individuality, and that this is the biggest illusion that humanity holds. When an ‘individual’ is in a state of mechanicalness, they are governed by external influences, to which they are quite susceptible. These influences largely depend on the surrounding environment that the individual finds themselves in, and this has a profound impact on their emotional well-being. The people they interact with and the activities they engage in will invariably evoke certain emotional states within them. Furthermore, individuals can also be easily manipulated by the emotional atmospheres created by others, absorbing and internalizing these energies. Consequently, this double-edged aspect of the environment, both in terms of personal encounters and external influences, directly affects an individual’s emotional life. In the vast majority of cases, individuals tend to be emotionally incontinent, leaking their emotions uncontrollably in response to various ordinary life situations.
The relationship between thought and emotion means that understanding emotions is an essential part of being able to manage one’s behavior and mental state. Understanding also goes deeper in that emotions can have a hidden motive. For example, a sudden burst of anger may not be with the person or event that provoked it, but a reflection on an earlier event. Thus, understanding the source of current emotions can be a difficult task.
Gurdjieff’s method for understanding emotions is the practice of self-observation and thorough analysis of one’s inner workings. By devoting oneself to self-observation, an individual embarks on a transformative journey, creating a clear distinction within their being: the observer and the observed.
In time, the person will realize the unconscious and mechanical nature of his emotions. That is to say, an emotion can be provoked by an external force and the current state of a person’s internal energies. The emotion that the person feels is not the desired emotion he would wish to have expressed and the results of the emotion-based actions are regretted. This division in the person’s conscious attention is the key to making a change. The person must realize that for every negative emotion, there is a negative result and it is not worth the energy used. To eliminate the negative emotions, which he said were such a strong influence on human behaviour, Gurdjieff suggested that a person should not ‘stick’ to them – should not identify with these inner states, and should come to a real understanding of the harm they do. He did not deny the validity and worth of emotions, rather he thought most were of a quality and intensity not suited to the circumstance in which they occurred. He said that if a person could separate from the emotional state when it was not appropriate, they could later, at a more suitable time and in controlled circumstances, experience the emotion more fully and come to an understanding of its cause. This he said would provide the possibility of purification and transformation of even very strong emotions into higher states of emotional being.
And since humanity has been endowed with the function of emotions by the Maker, they could be utilized and enabled to carry out His will. So it is said that emotions should be utilized in the right way, e.g. anger should be used only to overcome laziness to do things that in ordinary time would cause you to become angry, and then it would disperse. But this is difficult to apply, and again it is using one negative emotion to disperse another negative one, this will lead us further being in a state of unconsciousness and recurrence of similar mistakes. The correct method is that emotions should, in due course, be entirely conscious. But this cannot be achieved by a direct struggle with the emotions, for any suppression or resistance of emotions only leads to there being more acts of being in a state of unconsciousness. The suffering that a person should willingly subject themself to should not be devoid of meaning, for example, engaging in self-flagellation or engaging in other severe or detrimental activities. Similarly, it should not consist of actions that may appear beneficial to the average person in regular life, such as attempting to be more sociable or working harder. This type of action is beneficial for those who have not yet had a deep realization and are satisfied with their current lives, without any pressing need to break free from their ignorance.
It follows that we can only learn from an emotion if we are truly aware of it at the moment that it occurs. If we instead reflect upon a past event, it is not the same as remembering the emotion. This reflection requires a certain level of detachment which is impossible for a person governed by their emotions. It is self-observation that represents a key feature of Gurdjieff’s method. Only through it can a person genuinely and authentically learn the intricate and complex workings of their machine, that is to say, fully grasp and comprehend the mechanical functioning of their body, emotions, and thoughts. Gurdjieff firmly asserted with unwavering conviction that only when a person achieves this level of profound understanding and awareness, they can truly and comprehensively recognize the complete scope and magnitude of their mechanicalness and genuinely aspire to transform and alter it.
Danny Metcalfe is a writer residing in the North-East of England. He has had poems, short stories, and essays published in various magazines. His first poetry collection was praised for being ahead of its time. He is currently writing his first novel.
Hermes Risen 