(54.) Maurice Nicoll 1 - The Four Bodies of Man (I), Parts III and IV, p.221-5
This is number (54.) of our sequential postings from Volume 1 of Maurice Nicoll’s Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky.
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Part III. The Work speaks almost from its starting-point of the Essence in Man being undeveloped. It defines a growth of Essence as a change in the level of Being: and it speaks very often about making Personality passive so that Essence can develop. Especially does it speak of False Personality or Imaginary 'I' and of the necessity of observing ourselves in regard to these and separating from them. The object of this is to allow something else to grow. Essence can develop. It is where a man can grow from. And in connection with the development of Essence a second body can grow. But it cannot do so as long as Personality is active and controls the inner life.
Let us take the idea of inner separation. In my case I must observe Nicoll and continually try to separate from the reactions and habits of Nicoll. In your case, if your name is Smith, you must separate from Smith. What is your name? Repeat it silently to yourself. Then understand you must observe and separate yourself internally from all that your name stands for in yourself. Is this clear? Let us suppose that in this Group, Miss Robinson, Mr. Smith, Mr. Black, Miss Browne, and so on, are all sitting here. They are all the time being Miss Robinson,
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Mr. Smith, Mr. Black, Miss Browne, in various ways, pleasant and unpleasant. Now in the work of inner separation lies the whole first task of practical work. Mr. Smith feels he is superior to Miss Browne and she in turn feels superior to Mr. Smith, and so on, endlessly. All this is very difficult to explain in words. You must have the intelligence to see what is meant. Now you know that Personality is active and Essence is passive in mechanical man and this is due to the action of Life that keeps this relationship between Personality and Essence. Life is the neutralizing force that keeps Personality active and Essence passive
There is only one force that can change this relationship of Personality and Essence—a force coming from outside life. This is the Work, or, in general, conscious influences, coming from the Conscious Circle of Humanity, outside mechanical life.
This new arrangement is a reversal of the former arrangement. A reversal of sign has taken place. It begins when Work in a man begins to become stronger than life. And this means that something organized has been made in a man that controls him. For the Work, coming from Conscious Influences, can form, in suitable soil, a receptive organ through which a man can receive force—that is, his "daily bread".
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And since Essence is the most real part of a man and Personality relatively unreal, for this organ to form itself aright, it must eventually form itself out of what is most real and sincere in a man. It cannot form itself in the external man, nor in the hypocrite in a man which is the False Personality. So you will understand that many thoughts enter here concerning the relation of Personality and Essence, in connection with the idea of something new forming itself as a result of a development of Essence. For this reason let us consider once more what the Work says about the relation of Personality and Essence.
You all know how extraordinary the teaching of the Work is about Personality and Essence. It says that Personality must be properly formed first of all, and, unless it is, Essence cannot grow beyond a limited point. Essence grows a little and then Personality must form round it. Then Essence can grow by using the food of Personality, that is, by making Personality passive. So you see that Man, properly understood, is a series of experiments on himself. A badly-formed Personality, in conjunction with a childish Essence, handicaps a man. The idea is that a man must go out of himself into life, and, as it were, come back again—a movement similar to that of the prodigal son. Life must act on a man fully before Essence can grow beyond its natural point. What is extraordinary is that often people think that Essence can grow by itself. The Work says it cannot. It can grow to a certain point where it is still childish. And then it stops. Personality must now form the potential, eventual food for Essence and so Personality must be formed and become active. A man must learn all about the life he is born into on this earth. Later, if he has magnetic centre, and if he wishes, he may find the means of making his developed Personality passive by long inner work. By doing so, he feeds Essence, through inner struggle. So the Work, which is the right, second education, starts with making Personality passive by inner separation, non-identifying, self-remembering, and so on.
Now the formation of second body is connected with a growth of Essence, which is internal to Personality. The second body is not made of the matter composing Personality, which is roughly H 48, but of planetary matter, which is roughly H 24. But a man cannot start from Essence. Essence must be taught to develop. The Work does not start from Essence. It starts, in a man having magnetic centre, from those 'I's in him which wish to work, and they form "Deputy-Steward". This is the first point of Work made in a man. It can break up: or it can become stronger. These 'I's must teach Essence—that is, Personality must, at first, teach Essence. But as Essence grows—that is, as the Work becomes more and more real and essential in a man—the Work of Deputy-Steward passes into that of the Steward. This can be expressed in this diagram:
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which is the same as the one you know as:
Notice that the Higher in Diagram II becomes in Diagram I the inner. What is higher is more internal in a man and what is lower is more external. Deputy-Steward must then struggle not only with wrong or ignorant 'I's in Personality, with wrong mental and emotional habits, with False Personality, with sleep, with imagination, with internal considering, with identifying, with lying, with negative emotion, with self-justifying, and so on, but also with undeveloped or childish Essence. For the evolution of the man himself depends on a development of his Essence: and a development of his Essence is connected with the formation in him of "second body".
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Part IV.—Let us now look briefly at the diagram of the Four Bodies of Man, when they are fully developed:
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Such a man, having these bodies developed in him, is in the right order internally. Internal things rule over outer things. To use the Christian terminology, the Celestial or Divine Body rules over the Spiritual Body: the Spiritual Body rules over the Natural Body: and the Natural Body rules over the Corporeal or Physical Body. Next time we will speak of these bodies.