Why Gurdjieff Says We Need A "Critical Mind" In The Work

"It is useless to come here unless you have a critical mind".

Thus read one of the sayings attached to the wall of the Study House at the Prieure.

At first glance, this sounds a little odd. When we think of a "critical mind" in a Life context, we probably associate the phrase with someone who's always arguing, objecting or putting up difficulties. Such a person is emphatically not suited to the Work unless they can overcome such unhelpful habits of thinking.

 If they have Magnetic Centre and find their way to a group, the teacher will have her own work cut out in trying to help the student to discard these bad habits. And they may be so ingrained that a student is quite unable to rid themselves of this type of purely negative thinking, and will have to leave the Work altogether.

What, then, did Gurdjieff himself mean by the phrase "a critical mind", and why is it so essential for  work on ourselves?

First, we need to remind ourselves that our Intellectual Centre consists of two major areas, one positive and one negative. Unlike the Emotional Centre, which ideally does not have a negative division - a situation achieved usually only after years of painful work on ourselves - the Intellectual Centre is meant to have a negative part.

Why? Because without it, we could not evaluate ideas. We would be unable to compare, contrast, assess and either accept or discard thoughts and theories. We would have no way of evaluating the Work, for how is one to do this if one cannot compare it with other systems, and see where the Work differs or agrees with them?

For most people starting out in the Work today, a university education is part of their background. If they have been well taught at undergraduate level, they will know how to weigh up different ideas and how to assess their value. There will still be a lot of old ideas that will need discarding, but they will have been trained in the basic thinking processes that give them the expertise to do this.

If they can avoid the trap of "wiseacring" - indulging in pointless speculation for its own sake rather than as an aid to enlightenment, something all too common in academia - their Intellectual Centre will be able to help them in the Work. It will be much easier for someone with a well trained mind to eventually achieve metanoia.

Yet a degree isn't vital when it comes to studying and practicing the Work. Gurdjieff himself had studied at a military academy, but he did not have a university education as we know it. Although many of his male students did have such a background, his female students usually did not. University education was widely closed to women before the middle part of the 20th century, and even then a woman had to be unusually gifted and persevering before she could be accepted at a university.

What is vital, however, is that the student should have undergone some sort of mental training that will help him or her to separate ideas, weigh them, evaluate them and - in the case of the Work - apply them. If she does not possess such a background, her teacher will instruct her to study the type of material that will help in developing her mind. She may be asked to read theology, or philosophy, or science, and then to evaluate the ideas in a cogent manner. It is hard going, but it is necessary.

Without the ability to do this, there can be no progress in the Work.

While it's obvious that the type of person I mentioned at the start of this post, the chronically negative, complaining individual who loves to argue for its own sake, is not likely to last long in the Work unless they are willing to change these profoundly unhelpful habits of thought, the opposite type is just as difficult to teach.

I'm thinking now of the student who's read each and every self-help book, studied every esoteric system, as far their mental capacity allows, and who completely approves of them all. Such a person can't possibly appreciate the Work, because they can't understand how the Work differs from all other systems. They have no critical ability.

Such a student may have read, say, Louise Hay, and loved it. They loved it so much they got identified with it! Then they went on to read A Course In Miracles, and loved that too. Again, they became identified. When the Celestine Prophecies came along they devoured that too, as they did with The Power of Now, Rosicrucianism, Anthroposophy and everything else they could find.

They did not ponder each system of ideas. They did not see how each differs subtly from the rest, how each has helpful ideas but also theories which contradict other systems. Because they did not perceive these differences, they accepted them all uncritically, and when they met the Work they could not see how it differed from all their previous studies. They simply tried to add it on to what they had already read, and the result was a muddle.

It's as though such a student has gulped down everything they could find and has a monumental case of mental indigestion!

Asking them to explain how each system differs from the others, and to outline each one's stronger and weaker aspects, let alone compare any of them to the Work, proves fruitless. They identified with each set of ideas as they came across them, and they are so thoroughly glued to them that they can't break free and judge them objectively.

They have completely neglected to apply the negative side of their Intellectual Center. They probably didn't even know they had one. And unless this sort of casual, uncritical acceptance of any and all "spiritual" ideas can be broken, such a student will not get very far in the Work.

Unless we can begin to think in a new way - to undergo a true metanoia, or repentance - we will stay at the same level. We will not progress. The Work contains many fertilizing ideas that can shock us into thinking differently, more profoundly. But we need to reflect on, not just uncritically swallow, these ideas.

To ponder in the Work sense means to apply both the Emotional and the Intellectual Centres in thinking about a Work idea. We can often feel the good of the Work before we can truly understand it, but the work on Knowledge - carried out by the correct functioning of the Intellectual Centre - is absolutely vital to spiritual growth.

All genuine thinking, says Dr Nicoll, requires an effort, and this is something that people are generally unwilling to make. Without real effort in the Intellectual Centre, however, the Work will fall on stony ground. It will lead nowhere.

We must constantly evaluate what we have heard and read about the Work. We must "think longer thoughts", as Gurdjieff said. Unless we do this, we will not be able to change our thoughts, will not undergo this essential metanoia, which Jesus Christ and all the great spiritual teachers have urged.

We must discard our mechanical associations, our mechanical likes and dislikes. We must thoroughly digest and apply the Work ideas until we can think about Life from the point of view of the Work - and not the other way round.

When we do this, Dr Nicoll says, "You will begin to occupy higher divisions of the Intellectual Centre, and through this maybe you will change the state of your being".

Maybe,

There are no guarantees, but genuine effort and perseverance will meet with eventual understanding. And that is the use, the necessity, of having what Gurdjieff calls "a critical mind".