Gurdjieff on Daydreaming (In Search of the Miraculous)

"'Imagination' is one of the principal sources of the wrong work of centers. Each center has its own form of imagination and daydreaming, but as a rule both the moving and the emotional centers make use of the thinking center which very readily places itself at their disposal for this purpose, because daydreaming corresponds to its own inclinations. Daydreaming is absolutely the opposite of 'useful' mental activity. 'Useful' in this case means activity directed towards a definite aim and undertaken for the sake of obtaining a definite result. Daydreaming does not pursue any aim, does not strive after any result. The motive for daydreaming always lies in the emotional or in the moving center. The actual process is carried on by the thinking center. The inclination to daydream is due partly to the laziness of the thinking center, that is, its attempts to avoid the efforts connected with work directed towards a definite aim and going in a definite direction, and partly to the tendency of the emotional and the moving centers to repeat to themselves, to keep alive or to recreate experiences, both pleasant and unpleasant, that have been previously lived through or 'imagined.' Daydreaming of disagreeable, morbid things is very characteristic of the unbalanced state of the human machine, After all, one can understand daydreaming of a pleasant kind and find logical justification for it. Daydreaming of an unpleasant character is an utter absurdity. And yet many people spend nine tenths of their lives in just such painful daydreams about misfortunes which may overtake them or their family, about illnesses they may contract or sufferings they will have to endure. Imagination and daydreaming are instances of the wrong work of the thinking center.

"Observation of the activity of imagination and daydreaming forms a very important part of self-study.
--Gurdjieff
--ch 6, In Search of the Miraculous

Real Conscience as a positive emotion
is a guide for us for right action because
it is in the light of Real Conscience as it
comes through from Real "I" that we can look
on our contradictory selves and simply see
the various contradictions as we are seen
from a higher level and in this way we
can get an idea of how we are looked
on by what is highest in us. We
cannot do this willy nilly by
"decision" alone, but if we
try WE GET AN IDEA and for
a moment we can see how we
have been without any
positive emotion and
this is what Real
Conscience is.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Gurdjieff
• Jung
• psychology