Pages 49–60
No. 4 will begin with improvement of instruments. If you have to work in any particular branch of science, you have a certain instrument for this work and get certain results. But suppose you can have a better instrument; you will immediately get better results. So science No. 4 is connected with improving the instrument of knowing, with improving man's functions and state of consciousness. Q. Can you tell us more what man 1, 2 and 3 means? A. This refers to the centre of gravity at moments of important decisions. Man No. 3 would act from theory, man No. 2 on the basis of emotional likes and dislikes, man No. 1 on the basis of physical likes and dislikes. Q. To understand examples of conscious art one must have knowledge that an average person has not got? A. Not only knowledge, but knowledge and being. There are two sides of us which must be developed. In speaking about knowledge and being it is necessary to start from the beginning. Try to think how you look at it yourself, what your attitude to those two ideas was before you met this system. We are all in the same position. We want knowledge, but we do not realize that there are obstacles in ourselves that prevent us from acquiring this knowledge. I will start with myself. Before I met the system I read a great deal and made many experiments. From these experiments I got interesting states, understood several laws, and I naturally wanted a continuation of these states. But I saw that for this more knowledge was necessary. Then I met this system. In the system particular stress was laid on being. According to this system no more knowledge is possible until one's being is changed. Soon after we heard about knowledge and being our groups divided into two camps. The first camp thought that the whole thing was change of being, that with change of being we would get more from the knowledge we already have. The second camp (to which I believe I alone belonged) said that even in our present state of being we can get much more knowledge than we have, that we are not so saturated with knowledge that we cannot absorb more. Later I understood that both are necessary. Take an example of two men: one knows the four rules of arithmetic, the other does not. Naturally the first will be in a better position, although their level of being is the same. The more a man knows about mathematics, the better is his position in a certain profession. So knowledge can increase even with the same being. And he may know more not only in mathematics; he may know many other things, have more psychological knowledge. On the other hand, you notice that you give two people knowledge (I am speaking of psychological knowledge), and one gets it, while the other cannot. Evidently his being is not prepared. So people are not in the same position in this respect. The relationship of knowledge and being is a very big question. I want
you to think about it and follow what I have just said. Try to find your own examples. Knowledge can lead very far. The question is, can one take it? Can one absorb it? One kind of knowledge we can get, another kind we cannot, so we cannot speak in general about it. For instance, take psychological knowledge: such as we are we can learn very much, and certain things can become much dearer. But every moment a man's know ledge depends on his being. This is what we do not understand. A man can get only as much knowledge as his being allows, otherwise his knowledge will be just words. If knowledge is given to several people, one of them gets it, others do not. Why? Evidently because their being is different. Q. I do not understand clearly what 'being' is. A. It is you, what you are. The more you know yourself, the more you know your being. If you have never learnt that you have being, the being of all people will be the same to you. Someone who has never heard of self-remembering, if you ask him, will say that he can remember himself. This is one being. Another knows he does not remember himself—this is a different being. A third is beginning to remember himself—this is a third being. This is how it must be taken. We understand the difference of objects, but in ordinary thinking we do not understand the difference of being. What do we learn in this system? First that we are not one, that we have many 'I's, that there is no central 'I' in control. This is the state of our being. The result is mechanicalness—we are machines. If we manage to be less mechanical, less divided in ourselves, if we manage to have more control of ourselves, it will mean that our being has changed. When I met this system, it showed me that change of being was necessary, because we are not what we think ourselves to be. If we were what we think we are—if we had consciousness, will, if we could 'do', then only knowledge would be necessary. But we all think of ourselves differently from what we are in reality. And it is exactly this difference between what we are and what we think we are that shows what is lacking in our being. So two things are necessary: change of knowledge and change of being. Q. But we are constantly changing! A. No, we are in one room, running from one corner to another, not changing. In one corner we think we are one thing, in another we think we are different. We cannot change just because we have gone from one comer to another. What looks like change is change through imitation, change of conditions, likes and dislikes. This state of consciousness in which we are now always moves up and down. 'Down' means that we are nearer to sleep, 'up' means that we are nearer to the possibility of awakening. We are never in exactly the same state, but these small changes only mean marking time on the same spot.
So you see, evolution of man is quite possible, but it is possible only by changing knowledge and changing being; and changing being means acquiring consciousness. It cannot come by itself, it cannot 'happen'. Q. Does one acquire knowledge of oneself through self-observation? A. Self-observation is connected with certain definite practices. If you just start observing how things happen, you will miss many things, but if you try to struggle against some of the things you see, for instance against small habits, you will at once begin to see many things which ordinarily you do not notice. Everyone has many small habits, habits of walking, habits of moving their hands, habits of sitting, standing, speaking in a certain way. This struggle is not for any particular results but merely for self-observation. Perhaps later you will find that you have to get rid of certain habits, but at present this struggle should be merely for self-study At the same time, if we want to develop consciousness and improve our functions, almost from the very beginning of self-observation we are advised to try and stop some of our functions which are not only useless but definitely harmful. For instance, in observing yourself, particularly in observing the emotional function, try to stop as much as possible all expression of negative emotions. Many people's lives practically consist of that, they express negative emotions at every possible moment, on any occasion, whether suitable or unsuitable, they can always find something wrong in everything. The chief tendency of man 1, 2 and 3 is to express immediately all his negative emotions. If he makes an effort to stop this expression it gives him material for observation, and he sees himself from quite a different angle. If he makes serious efforts in this direction, very soon he will become convinced that he has no will, because it is a most difficult thing to stop this expression of negative emotions. At the same time it is necessary. Another useless function is talk, we talk too much. We talk and talk and talk, and we never really notice it. Generally we think we talk very little, much too little, but particularly those people who talk most think that they never talk. This is a very useful subject for watching. You will see how your day passes, how many mechanical things you say in certain conditions, how many other mechanical things in other conditions. Or you will notice that you just talk and talk because it gives you pleasure, or fills your time. It is necessary to watch it and stop at least some of this unnecessary talk. Talk, imagination, lying and expressing negative emotions. are in fact our chief functions. Now if you want to ask me anything I will try to explain. We must try not only to study these ideas in the form in which they are given but also to apply them in connection with different problems. They give good keys for the solution of many of them. Q. When you speak about lying are you referring to what we say or to our thoughts too?
A. At present it is quite enough to take only what we say. Later we shall have to study our thoughts too—that would be lying to ourselves. It is the same thing, but we have to begin with the actual things we say, and in the beginning lying will need a certain effort to verify. It is always speaking about things we do not know. We do not call it lying—that is our escape, we give it some good name, and then we can accept it. Q. I should like to know more exactly what is meant by being. I understood it is something more permanent as opposed to a sort of shirting collection of 'I's. A. Do not make it too complicated. All of you is your being. Knowledge is separate. You can visualize separately all that you know, but all that you are, apart from what you know, is your being. In this division you consist of two things: what you know and what you are. From the point of view of development, the idea is that work on knowledge without work on being is not sufficient. Knowledge is limited by being. In the state in which you are, if you get more knowledge you will not be able to use it, to understand it, to connect it. Development of knowledge is not sufficient, for at a certain moment it has to stop, and instead of leading you forward it will lead you backwards, because if your acquiring of knowledge is not followed by change of being, all your knowledge will become distorted in you. Then the more knowledge you acquire, the worse off you will be. Q. What part does being play in the attainment of knowledge? A. Being is your state. In one state you can acquire certain knowledge, but if another state develops you can acquire more knowledge. If you are divided into different 'I's all contradicting one another, it is very difficult to acquire knowledge because each part will acquire it by itself and understand it by itself, so you will not have much understanding. If you become one, then certainly it would be easier to acquire knowledge, to remember it and understand it. Being means state, inner conditions, all together, not separate. Q. Does not our being grow with knowledge? A. No, being cannot grow by itself. Knowledge, even very good knowledge, cannot make being grow. You have to work on knowledge and being separately, otherwise you will cease to understand the knowledge you acquire. Work on being is different work—a different effort is necessary. Generally speaking, we know more about our knowledge than we know about our being. We know how little we know about ourselves; we know how, at every moment, we make mistakes about everything; we know how we cannot foresee things, how we cannot understand people, how we cannot understand things. We know all that and realize that it is all the result of our insufficient knowledge. But we do not understand the difference between people's being. It is useful to take a piece
of paper and write down what constitutes our being. Then you will see that it cannot grow by itself. For instance, one feature of our being is that we are machines; another— that we live in only a small part of our machine; a third—this plurality that was spoken about in the first lecture. We say 'I', but this 'I' is different every moment. We have many 'I's all on the same level and there is no central 'I' in control. This is the state of our being. We are never one and never the same. If you write down all these features you will see what would constitute a change of being, and what can be changed. In each particular feature there is something that can change; and a little change in one feature means also a change in another. The more you know yourself, the more you know your being. If you do not know yourself, you do not know your being. And if you remain on the same level of being you cannot get more knowledge. Q. In order to work on being, is it necessary for us to occupy all our time during the day, not to have any spare time? A. You begin with the impossible. Begin with the possible; begin with one step. Try to do a little, and results will show you. There is always a limit, you cannot do more than you can. If you try to do too much, you will do nothing. But, little by little, you will see that right thinking, right attitudes are necessary. It needs time, because for so long people have been in the power of negative emotions, negative imagination, lying, identification, and things like that. But little by little these will disappear. You cannot change everything at once. You must always think about the next step—only one step. We can understand the next step as being a little more collected than now. When we have understood that, we can think of it as being still more collected— but not completely, not finally. Q. Shall we be able to judge the change of our being without deceiving ourselves? A. Yes, but before you are able to judge the change, you must know your being as it is now. When you know most features of your being, you will be able to see changes. We can judge the level of our being by the instability of our 'I'—what we call 'I'—because one moment one part of us says 'I', another moment another part. If you observe well, you will find how different you are, even in the course of one day. One moment you decide to do one thing, another moment another thing. It is this constant changing even in the course of twenty-four hours that really shows the level of our being. Q. On what does the difference in level among ordinary sleeping people depend? A. On reliability. There are more reliable people and less reliable people. This is also true in the work. Unreliable people cannot get much. Q. Do we all start on the same level?
A. More or less, but there are variations. The chief thing is reliability. Q. How does one develop one's being? A. All that you have learnt, all that you have heard about the possibility of development, all refers to being. First of all, development of being means awakening, since the chief feature of our being is that we are asleep. By trying to awake we change our being; this is the first point. Then there are many other things: creating unity, not expressing negative emotions, observation, study of negative emotions, trying not to identify, trying to avoid useless talk—all this is work on being. It is true that in this way you acquire certain knowledge, but if it is simply intellectual knowledge it is put separately. Being is power, power to 'do', and power to 'do' is power to be different. Q. I do not understand this distinction of knowledge and being working together. It seems that in self-study they are so mixed that it is hard to see which is which. A. Yes, but at the same time it is possible. We know what knowledge means. We know that knowledge is relative and depends on our capacities, Actually we can acquire a sufficient amount of knowledge to start with in our present state; but very soon we realize that in order to acquire more knowledge, deeper or larger knowledge, of things we really want to understand, we must change our being, for our present capacities for acquiring knowledge are very limited. So even from the point of view of acquiring knowledge we come to the necessity of changing being, other-wise we will only have words and will not know what they mean. Q. Have the ideas of the system any value from the point of view of change of being? A. Ideas by themselves cannot produce change of being; your effort must go in the right direction, and one thing must correspond to another. You make an effort on one line and you must make an effort on the other line. You can change nothing without a system; even with a system it is difficult. Q. What is meant by 'work'? A. 'Work' in the sense we use this word in the system means work for acquiring knowledge and for the study of change of being. You have to have some clear objective and work for it, so 'work' includes acquiring knowledge and self-control in order to reach your objective. Q. Why has nature made man incomplete, left him half-way? A. It is a good question only as long as you do not understand what a man can acquire. When you do, you will realize that those things can only be acquired by man's own efforts. What can be developed in man is consciousness and will, and they can be developed only if man realizes that he docs not possess them. When he realizes that, he will see that they can only be got, not given. Man is created in the only way he can be created. All that can be given is given; no more can be given. Otherwise it would
be the same as to take a man from the street and make him a general; he would not know what to do. This is a subject for discussion; we cannot be given those qualities, we must earn or buy them. This is the only way to acquire them. Real knowledge, objective knowledge is knowledge which comes from higher mind. Such knowledge shows us how to study man, how to study the universe, and also how to study the one in relation to the other. With objective knowledge it is possible to know the real world by making use of the principles of relativity and scale and by knowing the two fundamental laws of the universe: the Law of Three and the Law of Seven. The approach to objective knowledge is through the study of objective language. You remember, I said that the study of this system begins with the study of a new language, and I gave you several examples: centres, division of man into No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and so on, identifying, considering, self-remembering. These are all expressions of this language. The next step is the study of oneself, the study of the human machine, and the understanding of man's place in the universe. This knowledge of oneself is both an aim and a means. But as I said, if a man wants to develop, knowledge alone is not sufficient; he must also work to change his being. Only, change of being is so difficult that it would be almost impossible if knowledge were not there to help him. So knowledge and being must grow side by side, though the one is quite separate from the other. Neither knowledge nor being separately can give right understanding, because understanding is the resultant of a simultaneous growth of knowledge and being. Growth of knowledge means a transition from the particular to the general, from details to the whole, from the illusory to the real. Ordinary knowledge is always a knowledge of details without knowledge of the whole, a knowledge of leaves, or the veins and serrations of the leaves, without knowing the tree. Real knowledge not only shows a given detail but the place, the function and the meaning of this detail in relation to the whole. Q. If knowledge exists on different levels, then we can only have the knowledge belonging to our level? A. Quite right, but if we had all the knowledge that we could get on our level, our level would change. The point is, we do not have all the knowledge possible to us on our level—we have too little. Q. Is knowledge only given in direct connection with the work? A. From the very beginning you are given certain ideas and told certain things about the human machine; for instance, about the four functions, about different states of consciousness, about the fact that we live in a
state which goes up and down, sometimes nearer to self-consciousness, sometimes nearer to sleep. When you heard this you were also told to prove it for yourselves. If you only hear about these things, or read about them, they remain merely words. But when you begin to verify them for yourselves, when you understand each function in yourselves and find out your own feelings and sensations connected with each of them, then it becomes knowledge. Being is something quite separate. You can make all possible efforts in your present state, yet you will feel that there is more to be got out of your knowledge, but your being is not adequate. So it is necessary to work on being, make it stronger, more definite. Then from the same words you will be able to extract more knowledge. Q. If understanding is the resultant of knowledge and being, I cannot see how they combine. A. Any moment you understand something, your understanding is a combination of your knowledge and your being. Understanding is the result of experience: a certain experience in being and a certain experience in knowledge. Q. It is still not clear to me what you mean by being and state of being. A. Instead of looking for definitions, try to find illustrations. The being of a man is all that he is. Many things enter into being. You can be more conscious or more asleep, more divided or more whole, more interested in some things and less interested in other things; you can lie more or lie less, dislike lying or lie without any embarrassment, be more consistent or less consistent, have a feeling of mechanicalness or not; you may have no great conflicts in yourself or you may consist of conflicts, have comparatively few negative emotions or be immersed in negative emotions. Generally, state of being means a greater or lesser consecutiveness of actions. When one thing contradicts another too much, it means weak being. We do not realize that if a man is very inconsistent it makes his knowledge unreliable. Development of one line only, either knowledge or being, gives very bad results. Being includes all your power to 'do'. Knowledge is only auxiliary; it can help. But in order to change our being—and this is where knowledge comes in—we must first realize and understand our present state. As we begin to understand the state of our being, we begin to learn what to do with ourselves. Q. What did you mean when you said that development of either knowledge or being alone gives bad results? A. It may help if I tell you how I first heard about it. If knowledge develops beyond being, the result will be a 'weak Yogi'—a man who knows everything and can do nothing. If being develops beyond knowledge, the result is a 'stupid saint'—a man who can do everything and docs not know what to do.
If you compare this system with others you will find that it is precisely in the importance it gives to this idea of being that it differs from other systems, philosophical and otherwise. Other systems are concerned with knowledge or conduct. They assume that, such as we are, we can know more or behave differently. In religious systems 'faith' and 'conduct' are generally regarded as being voluntary. One can be good or bad—it is arbitrary. But this system has the idea of different levels of being. On our present level of being there is one knowledge, one conduct, one faith, all determined by being. But first comes knowledge—how little we know. You begin to study yourselves: you realize that you are machines but that you can become conscious. The machine starts on a certain level of being. All it can or cannot do is dependent upon this level. Try to understand what is meant by being, levels of being, change of being. This system says that everything—forces, energies, different kinds of activity, they all depend on the level of being. We cannot know more because of our level of being. At the same time the slightest difference in the level of being opens up new possibilities for knowledge and for 'doing'. All our powers are determined by our level of being. Q. I understood we were all on the same level? A. Yes, in comparison with man No. 4. But there are people who are further away from the level of man No. 4 and others who are nearer to it. As in everything else there are degrees. There is a big distance between the two levels, but there are intermediate states. It is the same in ourselves: each of us can be different at different moments. There is a slight difference between people, but it is not enough to measure being. All normal people are born on the same level and have the same possibilities. No one can be born higher than the ordinary level. We cannot attain anything without special training. The slight differences between people are differences in functions, but real difference of being is difference of state of consciousness. Difference in functions is a one-sided difference. Q. Could you explain more about the degrees that exist between us and man No. 4? I want to understand. A. This is a right question; and you can understand it by observing other people and yourself. There are men No. 1, 2 and 3 who are not at all interested in the possibility of development or in acquiring knowledge, or in anything like that. Then there are those who have the possibility of a certain understanding, but it moves from one thing to another—it is not a directed interest. Then there may be directed interest, the beginning of magnetic centre, meeting with influence C and so on. So man 1, 2 and 3 can be very different—he may be nearer to possibilities of development, further from these possibilities, or even without any possibilities. Q. How can one understand other people's knowledge unless one is on the same level?
A. Do you mean who can teach, whom one can trust and so on? On the level where we are we can judge about people's knowledge, but not about their being. We can see without mistake who knows more. But about being mistakes are easily possible. Suppose you meet someone who knows more than you do but you suspect that his being is lower. You will be wrong, because it is not your business to Judge his being. Leave his being alone, and try to learn from him. We are not capable of seeing levels of being higher than our own; we can judge about the level of being only on the same level as ours or lower. It is important to remember this principle. Q. Is this system a system of knowledge? A. This system is not so much a system of knowledge as a system of thinking. It shows how to think differently, what to think differently means, why it is better to think differently. To think differently means to think in different categories. One thing is in our way—we do not know what it means 'to know'. We must try to understand what to know means; this will help us to understand what it means to think in new categories. Q. What is the origin of this system? A. I will not speak of details, but of the principle—of what must be its origin in principle. To serve a useful purpose, to have any weight, a teaching must come from men of a higher mind than ours, otherwise it will not help and we will remain on the same level. If a teaching comes from a higher level, we can expect something. If it comes from the same level as ours, we can expect nothing. We have enough material for evaluation. We can ask ourselves: was it invented on the same level as ours or on a different level? If the amount of material we have does not enable us to judge, we must wait. But only we ourselves must judge. If I say anything about it, you cannot verify it. It is useful to think about this; only you must find answers for yourselves. Q. Has it been handed down for ages? A. How can you verify it? Q. I will take your word for it. A. You must not believe anything. Q. Can you tell us where to look for its origin and traces? A. In yourself. Has it given you something you did not have before? Q. Surely it is impossible to understand the system until one reaches the level it was originated on? A. Understanding is relative. We can understand many things on our level: only then can we move on. We cannot jump. Certainly with the help of this system we can understand better about ourselves and about life than with any other system I know. If we can say that we got from it what we could not get in any other way, then we must continue to study it. We must have valuation. After a very short time one can tell. Personally,
I learnt very much from this system in a short time and, with its help, I even began to understand things I had met with in other systems and had not understood. For instance, take 'sleep' in the New Testament. People do not notice it, yet it is constantly spoken of there, it is constantly said that people are asleep, but can awake, though they will not awake without efforts. The system explains not only itself but also what is true in other systems. It explains that if people want to understand one another, under standing is possible only among people who are awake. In ordinary life everything is a hopeless tangle; people are not meant to understand one another in ordinary life. If that were meant, people would be created differently. Man must complete himself by his own efforts. We can realize this if we realize the nature of will and consciousness. Capacity to understand is connected with this. If people begin to work with the aim of gaining consciousness and will, they will begin to understand one another. In life, with the best intentions, there are only blunders. People are machines: they are not made to understand one another. Q. Is it possible to understand the reason of this muddle? What is the purpose of being made so? A. To see the danger and to try and begin to understand our situation. People never understood one another, but in our time the situation in life is becoming more and more complicated and dangerous. At the same time, such as they are, people serve the purposes of the moon and the earth. But of this we will speak later. It is a mistake to think of our times as being like any other. Now there are exceptional difficulties and exceptional facilities. Q. The difficulties are likely to be increased with time? A. Yes, but not beyond a certain limit—beyond this limit it becomes an impossibility. It is important to realize, not in theory but through seeing facts, that people do not understand one another and that the situation is becoming more and more complicated. If people have machine-guns, it is more dangerous. And they have machine-guns in many senses. So each misunderstanding becomes more deep and more complicated. Q. What is the end? A. We cannot say; that would be fortune-telling. Certainly we cannot expect any good from that. You see, all our ordinary views of things are no good, they do not lead anywhere. It is necessary to think differently, and this means to see things we do not see now, and not to see things we see now. And this last is perhaps the most difficult, because we are accustomed to see certain things: it is a great sacrifice not to see the things we are accustomed to see. We are accustomed to think that we live in a more or less comfortable world. Certainly there are unpleasant things, such as wars and revolutions, but on the whole it is a comfortable and well-meaning world. It is most difficult to get rid of this idea of a well-meaning world. And then we must understand that we do not see things themselves at all. We see like in Plato's allegory of the cave only the reflections of things, so that what we see has lost all reality. We must realize how often we are governed and controlled not by the things themselves but by our ideas of things, our views of things, our picture of things. This is the most interesting thing. Try to think about it.
CHAPTER III Self-study and improvement—States of consciousness and functions— Degrees of consciousness—Division of functions—Self- remembering— Mechanicalness—Study of functions of the four centres—Subdivision of centres—Attention—Formatory apparatus—Wrong work of centres— Four kinds of energy— Stopping leaks—Negative emotions—Stopping the expression of negative emotions—Change of attitudes. IN THIS SYSTEM, WHICH STUDIES MAN AS AN INCOMPLETE BEING , particular stress is laid on self-study, and in this sense the idea of self-study is necessarily connected with the idea of improvement. As we are, we can use very little of our powers, but study develops them. Self-study begins with the study of states of consciousness. Man has the right to be self-conscious, even such as he is, without any change. Objective consciousness requires many changes in him, but self-consciousness he can have now. Yet he has not got it, although he thinks he has. How has this illusion started? Why does man ascribe self-consciousness to himself? He ascribes it to himself because it is his legitimate state. If he is not self-conscious, he lives below his legitimate level, uses only one-tenth of his powers. But as long as he ascribes to himself what is only a possibility, he will not work for the attainment of this state. Next the question arises: why does man not possess self-consciousness if he has all the necessary arrangements and organs for it? The reason for this is his sleep. It is not easy to awake, for there are many causes of sleep. The question is often asked: do all people possess the possibility of awaking? No, not all: very few are capable of realizing they are asleep and of making the necessary efforts to awake. First, a man must be prepared, he must understand his situation; second, he must have enough energy and a sufficiently strong desire to be able to get out. In all this strange combination that is man, the one thing that can be changed is consciousness. But first he must realize that he is a machine, so as to be able to tighten some screws, loosen others, and so on. He must study; that is where the possibility of change begins. When he realizes that he is a machine, and when he knows something about his machine,