“You have to understand that there are two kinds of change in personality. There is unconscious change. This is temporary. One set of experiences drives out another. Then the situation returns, and personality becomes as it was before. Conscious change in personality can be permanent. If we observe personality, we can find out what has to be changed, in such a way that it will not return as it was before.
"When you learn to observe yourself, you will learn to distinguish between what belongs to essence and what belongs to personality. Then you will be able to classify everything in yourself, and come to know essence. Personality cannot control essence. It can only prepare the way so that essence can wake up. Real control can only be in essence. All control in personality is imagination.
"People are related to one another by personality and by essence. It is chemical. In two people perhaps personalities love each other, but essences hate each other. Their essences will always quarrel, but personalities will forgive.
"First you must understand the situation as it exists now. What you call 'will' in yourself is only from personality. It has no connection with real will. Something touches personality, and it says 'I want' or 'I do not want', 'I like' or 'I do not like', and thinks it is will. It is nothing. It is passive. Will can be only in essence. Such as you are now, your essence has no will, only automatic impulses. The desires of essence are your own desires, but they are not conscious, they are not will. They arise automatically in you because you are like that.
"Essence and personality are even in different parts of the brain. Nearly everything that belongs to personality is in the formatory apparatus. Essence cannot use all this material, so it has no critical mind. It is trustful, but because it does not know, it is apprehensive. You cannot influence essence by logical argument or convince it. Until essence begins to experience for itself, it remains as it always was. Sometimes situations arise where personality cannot react, and essence has to react. Then it is seen how much there is in essence. Perhaps it is only a child, and does not know how to behave. It is no use telling it to behave differently, because it will not understand your language. Personality can easily be influenced, especially in modern man. Personality gives itself up to every suggestion, however absurd. Maybe sometimes the mind knows better, but then essence is timid. The mind may know that it ought to love all, but essence cannot, so it remains only words.
"With most people, essence continues to receive impressions only until it is five or six years old. As long as it receives impressions it grows, but afterwards all impressions are taken by personality and essence stops growing. Sometimes if education is not too unfavourable, the essence may continue to grow, and a more or less normal human being can result. But normal human beings are the exception. Nearly everyone has only the essence of a child. It is not natural that in a grown-up man the essence should be a child. Because of this, he remains timid underneath and full of apprehensions. This is because he knows that he is not what he pretends to be, but he cannot understand why.
"You cannot tell how essence can be changed and take a normal part in your life until you have more knowledge. For this, you need a new 'language'. At present, I could not tell you even if I wanted to. By self-observation, you will come to know what has to be changed and why; but, even if you know what has to be changed, you cannot find out how to work for yourself. Because essence is unique, each one needs an individual programme. But to establish an individual programme a long study is needed, not only by oneself, but also by others. This is how it is arranged for people in the Institute. When they come, they begin to study themselves, and others study them also. After a long time, it is possible to arrange for each one his own corresponding programme of work."
I quote from this and other lectures to illustrate the connection with the teaching of the Khwajagan. A man cannot enter the way so long as personality dominates. The surrender of personality is the fana-i-ahkam which is not true fana, but nevertheless indispensable if the seeker is to come under higher influences. The first surrender of essence is fana i efal and the final surrender of being is fanai sifat—the words efal and sifat stand for the outer and inner aspects of the essence. In all Gurdjieff's lectures at that time, the Sufi origin of his teaching was unmistakable for anyone who had studied both.
[J G Bennett: Gurdjieff, Making a New World]
