Work for Next Meeting

Challenge

When you notice a situation in a group going off course, cup one ear. Sense your feeling and your part in it.

Reading

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The Unbearable Lightness of Self-Calming

Reflections on the Challenge

When you notice something that feels hollow or charlatan-like, bow your head for a moment, ask what is absent, and observe your feeling without criticism.

• Experiences

  L had noticed a news report that the rebranded W H Smith stores (with the made-up name TG Jones) were struggling, which recalled an earlier instance of inauthenticity a year before, when the new name was adopted. He had also observed growing inauthenticity in YouTube videos, which often included fake voices and content. This led to feelings of emptiness, sadness, and frustration. Later, in a Japanese restaurant, the waitresses - who appeared to be Japanese - were not, and could not read the Japanese words on the wallpaper. These apparently Japanese words themselves turned out to be fake. He had felt a sense of resignation.

  N had observed several instances of fabricated or misleading content, particularly in AI-generated YouTube videos presenting invented stories about well-known figures. He had recognised these as lacking any basis in reality, which led him to question the misuse of information and the ease with which falsehoods could be presented convincingly. He had also noticed examples of distortion within political discourse, where statements appeared disconnected from truth and were used to promote particular agendas. In one such moment, he had paused and bowed his head, reflecting on the extent to which truth seemed to be disregarded, and experiencing a sense of concern at this tendency.

  J had encountered a talk at a society meeting which he experienced as markedly hollow. The speaker, a senior diplomat, had presented ideas that appeared contradictory, yet seemed fully believed within his own frame of reference. J had recognised this as an instance of hollowness not merely performed, but sincerely held. He had felt a sense of disillusionment, particularly in contrast to expectations of greater depth or integrity in such a context.

• Responses

  T responded to J’s account by expressing surprise that such hollowness could appear in contexts assumed to carry authority and integrity. She questioned whether charlatanism might extend even to the highest levels, and noted the tendency to expect it in some domains but not others. J clarified that the example concerned a diplomatic context rather than the military itself. He reflected on a tendency for people to invest authority in certain figures or systems, treating their statements as unquestionable, and suggested this arose from a search for certainty.

Beelzebub’s Tales, Chapter 33

• Passage

  But when several participants of this Trusteeship accidentally learned that the initiative for many useful measures had issued from me—some foreign doctor or other, not even a European—then every kind of habitual, as it is called ‘intrigue’ and ‘protest’ arose against the proposals coming from me, and also against the head of the Trusteeship himself...

  They happened to be among the leaders of this Trusteeship, in consequence of the fact that in the presences of the hereditary power-possessing beings of that period there had again already become finally fixed and had become the inviolable part of their essence always the same ‘inner overlord’ of theirs, maleficent for the terrestrial three-brained beings, named by them 'self-calming,’ which by itself became for those unfortunates the sense and aim of their existence. And therefore in order not to make any being-effort at all, they insisted that these learned physicians should also unfailingly take part in this important institution of great social significance.

• Discussion

  N observed that institutions often fragmented into factions, with competing positions emerging quickly. He noted that the original aim could then be lost as opposing sides formed and pulled in different directions.

  J noted that “self-calming” becoming “the sense and aim” pointed to a wider tendency to mistake a means for an end. He suggested that practices intended to serve a purpose could become ends in themselves, leading to a form of inner passivity. L emphasised that the Gurdjieff Work required effort, and that an orientation towards calming oneself made such effort less likely. He linked this to tendencies that discouraged active engagement or responsibility. T suggested that avoiding thought or decision could lead to passivity, where individuals became followers rather than thinking for themselves. She contrasted this with the necessity of making conscious choices in practice.

Dissuasion

Reflections on the Challenge

Once a day, when you switch on an electric light, clench your teeth and notice how you feel about a current bureaucratic obstacle.

• Experiences

  T had switched on her studio light, clenched her teeth, and brought to mind difficulties with community group administration. She had felt frustration at handling more than her share of organisational work, particularly when invoices were incorrect and routine processes lacked order and smoothness. On another occasion, turning on the light had reminded her of the car service appointment system. After clenching her teeth, she had reflected on repeated phone calls, unanswered messages, and contradictory automated responses. Being told she was first in the queue and then diverted to voicemail, and later missing return calls while working, had heightened her sense of bureaucratic confusion. She had observed how digital systems appeared to multiply inefficiency rather than resolve it.

  N had encountered repeated medical and administrative complications during a family member’s hospitalisation. After an urgent call suggesting possible deterioration, he had tried to arrange further care but had met procedural obstacles and delays. Long waiting times, repeated tests, and persistent follow-up calls had heightened his sense of institutional rigidity and confusion. During these episodes he had remembered the challenge and clenched his teeth, observing his anxiety and frustration in the face of impersonal systems. He had also applied the practice while dealing with Land Registry delays, when documents he had already submitted were reported missing. Again, he had clenched his teeth and noted his irritation at administrative inefficiency.

  L had frequently encountered bureaucratic loops while attempting to arrange a car service. Phoning the number provided had led either to an engaged tone or to an automated message directing him to a website. The website, in turn, no longer allowed bookings and redirected him back to the same phone number. After several days he had eventually reached a person, only to be told there was no record of an existing service agreement, requiring him to bring documentation with him. During these episodes he had remembered the challenge and clenched his teeth, observing his frustration and sense of circularity. He had also noticed similar “Kafkaesque” frustrations described by others, showing how prevalent such loops are.

• Responses

  Responding to N and L, T observed that systems intended to increase efficiency often required the customer to undertake excessive labour. She noted that when records were missing or services untraceable, individuals were forced to search for their own “evidence” in a virtual environment where tangible accountability seemed absent. She connected this to her own experience of doing work that institutions should have managed.

  N agreed that identification systems were frequently inconsistent, with individuals never quite sure how they were recorded. He described the frustration of having to repeat information or correct errors within prescription services and local authority processes. He remarked that when administrative mistakes could not be removed from a system, it felt like a persistent “black mark” attached to one’s identity. L suggested that a decline in administrative continuity and responsibility had become more noticeable over time. He contrasted earlier experiences of attentive service with present-day fragmentation, where responsibility seemed diffused across systems and personnel. He proposed that such dysfunction reflected a broader pattern of automatic behaviour.

  T described how repeated non-communication had left her with a feeling of deadness and dread, as though her existence were unacknowledged within the virtual loop. The absence of human reciprocity had intensified the impact more than the practical inconvenience itself. N added that direct human contact could sometimes cut through bureaucratic inertia. He noted that speaking to a specific individual, establishing rapport, and following up personally often proved more effective than remaining within automated channels. He suggested that while systems were designed to minimise human intervention, responsibility ultimately still rested with someone.

  L concluded that the underlying issue was a lack of conscious attention. Whether paper-based or digital, systems functioned mechanically when attention was absent; the essential difference lay not in the technology but in the quality of presence brought to it.

Beelzebub’s Tales, Chapter 33

• Passage

  In one department I had to sign a certain paper; in another to answer questions having nothing to do with chemistry; while in a third it was explained to me and I was advised how I must manage with the equipment of the laboratory so as not to be poisoned, and so on and so forth.

  It turned out as I later elucidated, that I had been, without at all suspecting it at the time, with an official among whose obligations was that of dissuading from this intention those who wished to set up chemical laboratories.

  But the most amusing of all was that, for obtaining this permit it was necessary in turn to apply to those official servants who had not even the remotest notion of what in general a laboratory was.

• Discussion

  L pointed to the figure of the official whose job was “dissuading from this intention”, suggesting that organised resistance appears precisely when someone genuinely tries to do something. T agreed that bureaucracy could be seen as friction: the extra effort required once one commits to an aim “with heart and mind and soul”. She treated bureaucratic obstruction as an outer expression of inner resistance, where additional intentional effort is demanded.

  N said that rules and red tape were part of modern life, and that one needed both will and humour to meet them. He emphasised that ignoring systems could “bite back”, so the task was to clear a way through without unnecessary emotional investment.

  L proposed that the underlying cause was automaticity, whether expressed through old paperwork or modern screens. T agreed that the decisive factor was not the medium but the likelihood of something real arising from direct human reciprocity. L said that conscious attention was required to escape the loop — without it, systems become mechanical irrespective of whether they are paper-based or digital.

Automatic-Habit

Reflections on the Challenge

The first time you notice the sun this month, be aware of any thought; thereafter, recall what you thought about the last time, deliberately try to think of something different, and if you succeed, make a Eureka gesture and notice how you feel afterwards.

• Experiences

  L described several occasions during the month when he noticed the sun and worked with the challenge. About a week after the meeting, during a cloudy period, he noticed the sun appearing while writing his morning journal. As this was the first instance, there was no previous occasion to recall. On the next clear day, he saw the sun and remembered that earlier moment and deliberately thought of something different, making the Eureka gesture. He noted a feeling of increased energy and a sense of promise. A few days later, while using a virtual reality environment, he again noticed the "sun". He recalled the previous instance, made the gesture, and felt anticipation connected with his creative work. Another day, on his way back from an art session, he noticed the sun once more, remembered the virtual reality occasion, and repeated the Eureka gesture. He observed that the challenge required sustained continuity of attention, both in recalling previous instances and in consciously registering what he was doing at the time.

  T described an instance that occurred while she was waiting at a railway station in the late afternoon. As the setting sun shone along the railway lines and illuminated the railings and ramp where she was standing, she recalled her earlier thought on first seeing the sun blazing across the scene. That earlier thought had arisen from something she had recently read: that the Sun, in relation to other stars, is a yellow dwarf. She noted that this felt ego-crushing, particularly given her human inability to look directly at it. On this occasion, she deliberately thought something different. She reflected that although she loved to see the Sun, it exerted power over her physical being, as it was too bright and blinding to look at without damaging the very sight through which she perceived the world. She then made the Eureka gesture.

Beelzebub’s Tales, Chapter 33

• Passage

  And they did not know this, as I later understood, simply because no one had ever applied to them for this permit, and on this account these unfortunate beings had not acquired the customary for them what is called ‘automatic-habit’ for the manifestation of such a ‘being-duty’ as theirs of this kind.

• Discussion

  T suggested that people entered bureaucratic roles in order to earn a living and, in doing so, gradually lost their own sense of agency. She described this as a process by which individuals became increasingly automatic, almost zombie-like.

Bolshevism and Other Stories

Reflections on the Challenge

When you realise you are walking, bring to mind a creative project you are engaged in, and briefly alter your gait with a swagger or tacking motion. Notice how close it is to your heart, then relax your walk into what feels natural.

• Experiences

  L had become aware that he was walking along a road, and deliberately altered his gait from side to side. He brought to mind a creative musical project he was working on and sensed it lay very close to his heart. He then turned his attention to a second creative project – developing a web-based application – and noticed that, although it also felt close to his heart, it drew him away from the act of composing itself. Having observed this distinction, he allowed his walking to return to what felt natural.

  T described two occasions during the month when, while walking, she had remembered the challenge. On the first, she was walking towards the studio in order to work alone and without distraction. She had brought to mind her creative project of regular daily work there. While remembering this, she swayed her hips as she walked, before resuming a normal forward walk. On another occasion, she was walking to get somewhere on time and had remembered the challenge while aware of a list of tasks that needed to be completed beforehand. She recalled that her daily Pomodoro of composing was the third item on that list. She tacked back and forth across the pavement several times, and it started to feel like a dance. As she did so, the stress of the to-do list eased, and she sensed her composing practice as a kind of lighthouse beacon she was steadily moving towards, despite the other demands along the way.

  J described one occasion during the month when he had deliberately altered his walk while thinking about his creative projects. He had noticed that adopting a swagger-like movement brought with it a heightened sense of personal ownership of the work – a feeling of “this is my project” – he disliked this feeling of 'self importance' which stood out clearly to him as different from his usual engagement with the creative process.

• Responses

  L observed that J seemed to relate to his creative work with sincerity rather than self-identification, and suggested that this might have made the swagger element of the challenge feel unnecessary or ill-fitting for him. J agreed with this characterisation, adding that altering his gait had introduced a sense of self-consciousness and grandiosity. He felt that concentrating on changing his walk had reduced his ability to concentrate on his creative project, fragmenting rather than strengthening his focus. L replied that such interruption could itself be valuable, suggesting that breaking habitual movement might also interrupt habitual patterns of thought. He added that even creative work, while not habitual in content, could become absorbing in a way that risked a comfortable loss of awareness.

  T emphasised that the challenge was not intended to assess the creative project itself, but to bring thinking, feeling, and moving together in the present moment. She noted that the moving centre is often neglected, and that deliberately altering movement could counter its tendency to operate unconsciously.

Beelzebub’s Tales, Chapter 33

• Passage

  ... the majority of them carried in themselves the germ of that ‘particular-functioning-of-their-common-presences’ which had already long before been habitually arising in your favorites owing to a certain combination of two independent causes coming from outside.

  The first of these causes is a common cosmic law which exists under the name of ‘Solioonensius,’ and the second is a sharp deterioration of the conditions of the usual being-existence of the beings on some part or other of the surface of this planet of yours.

• Discussion

  L pointed out that this second cause was readily recognisable, referring to the way social and organisational conditions often degrade over time. He suggested that deterioration was treated here not as accidental, but as something with its own momentum.

  T added that such deterioration could make escapism more understandable, as people seek relief from constricting or dehumanising conditions.

• Passage

  ... the totality of these manifestations among the beings of the large community was this time called there ‘Bolshevism.’

  ... I touched upon this question in this place only to give you a representation of the already particularly abnormal conditions of being-existence among which my activities among the beings of this large community flowed at this period

• Discussion

  T drew attention to the wording of the passage, noting that Gurdjieff first referred to a “large community” and then stated that it was “this time called there ‘Bolshevism’.” She observed that the emphasis lay on how a name was applied to the community as a whole, rather than on any detailed explanation at this point.