But What About Conscience?

Photo: a section of honeycomb prepared for sale, on hand block printed tablecloths from India.

Perhaps the fourth great failure, if there is one in the work, is the way that Gurdjieff appeared to demote love as a practice when he wrote about conscience.

I say “appeared” because I believe perhaps he was misunderstood. Conscience is, after all, the metaphysical umbilical cord that feeds the fetus of love in the womb of Being. It is, in other words, not the central aim of the work, but an accessory organ needed to feed what has to be born. Perhaps we’ve focused too much on it; we’ve concentrated too much on bringing the life blood that is needed for what is to be born, so much so that we have forgotten the aim, and we think the umbilical cord is the child.

If that’s true — and I think the suggestion deserves a fair hearing —then we’ve "forgotten ourselves in the work," mistaken a tool for that which is ultimately being crafted. Perhaps, with all our emphasis on practice, we’re those craftsmen who have fallen in love with their tools instead of remembering what the point of having them is. This reminds me of all the guitar players I know who collect many dozens and sometimes even hundreds of instruments, stashing them away like pack rats.