G. GURDJIEFF : Meetings with Remarkable Men

Unhappiness on earth is from the wiseacring of women.

He is stupid who is 'clever'.

Happy is he who sees not his unhappiness.

The teacher is the enlightener, who then is the ass?

Fire heats water, but water puts out fire.

Genghis Khan was great, but our policeman, so please you, is still

greater.

If you are first, your wife is second; if your wife is first, you had better be zero: only

then will your hens be safe.

If you wish to be rich, make friends with the police.

If you wish to be famous, make friends with the reporters.

If you wish to be full—with your mother-in-law.

If you wish to have peace—with your neighbour.

If you wish to sleep—with your wife.

If you wish to lose your faith—with the priest.

To give a fuller picture of my father's individuality, I must say

something about a tendency of his nature rarely observed in

contemporary people, and striking to all who knew him well. It was

chiefly on account of this tendency that from the very beginning, when

he became poor and had to go into business, his affairs went so badly

that his friends and those who had business dealings with him

considered him unpractical and even not clever in this domain.

And indeed, every business that my father carried on for the purpose

of making money always went wrong and brought none of the results

obtained by others. However, this was not because he was unpractical or

lacked mental ability in this field, but only because of this tendency.

This tendency of his nature, apparently acquired by him when still a

child, I would define thus: 'an instinctive aversion to deriving personal

advantage for himself from the naivete and bad luck of others'.

In other words, being highly honourable and honest, my father could

never consciously build his own welfare on the misfortune of his

neighbour. But most of those round him, being typical contemporary

people, took advantage of his honesty and deliberately tried to cheat

him, thus unconsciously belittling the significance of that trait in his

psyche which conditions the whole of Our Common Father's

commandments for man.

Indeed, there could be ideally applied to my father the following

paraphrase of a sentence from sacred writings, which is quoted at the

present time by the followers of all religions everywhere, for describing

the abnormalities of our daily life and for giving practical advice:

Strike—and you will not be struck.

But if you do not strike—they will beat you to death, like Sidor's

goat.

In spite of the fact that he often happened to find himself in the midst

of events beyond the control of man and resulting in all sorts of human

calamities, and in spite of almost always encountering dirty

manifestations from the people round him—manifestations recalling

those of jackals—he did not lose heart, never identified himself with

anything, and remained inwardly free and always himself.

The absence in his external life of everything that those round him

regarded as advantages did not disturb him inwardly in the least; he was

ready to reconcile himself to anything, provided there were only bread

and quiet during his established hours for meditation.

What most displeased him was to be disturbed in the evening when

he would sit in the open looking at the stars.

I, for my part, can only say now that with my whole being I would

desire to be able to be such as I knew him to be in his old age.

Owing to circumstances of my life not dependent on me, I have not

personally seen the grave where the body of my dear father lies, and it

is unlikely that I will ever be able, in the future, to visit his grave. I

therefore, in concluding this chapter devoted to my father, bid any of my sons, whether by blood or in spirit, to seek out,

when he has the possibility, this solitary grave, abandoned by force of circumstances ensuing chiefly from that human scourge called the herd instinct, and there to set up a stone with the inscription:

I AM THOU,

THOU ART I,

HE IS OURS,

WE BOTH ARE HIS.

SO MAY ALL BE

FOR OUR NEIGHBOUR.