Читать книгу Enneagram For Dummies - Jeanette van Stijn - Страница 87

Examples of natural habits are eating when you’re hungry and sleeping when you’re tired. Other habits that have crept into your life, you find so pleasant that you immediately miss them when you deviate from them. These are rituals like taking the dog for a walk or watching a sports program. Self-observation, however, will never become a habit, no matter how much you benefit from it.

On this topic, Georges (or Gregor) Ivanovitch Gurdjieff, who brought the Enneagram to the West, says that people are like robots. They act purely mechanically and are programmed toward automatic reactions. People are sleeping — that’s how Gurdjieff expressed it. For the most part, humans aren’t aware of themselves, nor of the effect they have on others or the effect of others on them. They mostly lack will and just react. Surviving is a way to react to the environment. Gurdjieff talks about forgetting yourself: Humans even forget their intentions.

Gurdjieff searched for truth all his life, traveling a lot in the process and spending a great deal of time among spiritual groups whose wisdom he explored. The idea of forgetting themselves, their “sleep,” can be found in many traditions; Gurdjieff didn’t invent it. Buddha, for example, is also referred to as the awakened one. This term describes the various states of being, such as the state of being awake or not being awake. Becoming aware or being aware can be seen as not sleeping. People engage in self-observation and self-reflection when they are suffering but forget them again when they feel good. This is why internal suffering is often associated with the function of waking up again.

Think about some small thing you intend to do — something you've wanted to do every day for a while. It doesn’t have to be something useful. This is about the practice itself, about remembering this intention. This exercise is also part of mindfulness training. It helps to associate the intention with a certain time or place.

Maybe these examples will help when you search for your own intention:

 Consciously smile at your mirror image every morning.

 Every day before going to sleep, think about a person you love who is absent but whose photo you possess.

 In the mornings, think about what you’re planning for the upcoming day.

Observe how easy or difficult this is for you. It’s only about perceiving and noticing it; this is not about a judgment!