One of the fundamental points to understand about the work required for growth, and this Gurdjieff emphasizes, is that, it does not begin at the level of life but originates from a different level. Many individuals who believe they are interested in growth attempt to go about it as they would approach any other project, whether it is working on one’s job, studying for some profession, designing a building or composing music.
The path of spiritual growth cannot be attempted successfully in this way. The desire for true growth must originate from a source in the individual which he/she has very likely never worked with before; his/hers essential nature. Just about everything we do on the level of life deals with personality and physical survival. The level of life relates to money, power over others, and approval from others, sensory pleasures, intellectual pleasures, the inferiority- superiority complex and the instinct for survival. All of these relate to the realm of ordinary of ordinary experience.
But the work for growth relate to the level of one’s inner being. It is not motivated by any other desire but the inner hunger for essential self-fulfillment. It brings no external rewards; it satisfies no instincts; it does not appeases to the senses.
The work for growth arises from a deeper self-awareness of the hunger to gain self-mastery and to liberate oneself from the bondage of emotions. One must be aware that there are two distinctly separate sides to man’s and woman’s nature: the essential and the existential. The essential represents the content of life; the existential is the framework.
Therefore, if you have a genuine desire to grow, you must learn that these two aspects of your nature exist, that they are separate, and that the spiritual is the side that must be intuitively clear if you are to attain a truly fulfilled level of life: a life beyond the level of ordinary existence.
