Many of our escapes are involuntary: addiction and dissociating from painful feelings are two examples. Anyone who has worked with a strong addiction—compulsive eating, compulsive sex, abuse of substances, explosive anger, or any other behavior that’s out of control—knows that when the urge comes on it’s irresistible. The seduction is too strong. So we train […]
Face the shadow side of yourself, but do not identify with it. It represents only part of who you are. Totally identifying with the shadow leads to much evil in the world. If you live there, you will be driven and motivated by fear, guilt, shame, and even malice. So there is a difference between
“Try Not to Express Negativity” by Stephen Aronson Stephen Aronson Of all Gurdjieff’s directions and suggestions for the practical implementation of his ideas, the one which seems most persistently misunderstood is his recommendation to “Try not to express negativity”. Regardless of how often students may be reminded that the Work may be about psychological evolution,
