Thoughts on “Memory working together with sense makes attention”
Exploring the mystery of attention
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The article below has been rewritten and enlarged from the one of the same name previously posted. The main theme within it is that great and mysterious subject of attention.
As always, familiarity with fundamental Fourth Way texts is assumed.
Please see Introduction and Bibliography for full citations of abbreviated references.
In her diary notes, Kathryn Hulme records the following, as produced in Gurdjieff and the Women of the Rope:1
Miss Gordon then asks a question – she tells him she tried the exercise but thinks she had her mind on it too much. “Where, Mr. Gurdjieff should the center of gravity be for this? In mind? In leg?” She explains to him how there came a stoppage when she tried.
Gurdjieff then says that “stop come because you have too much mind on this – must have attention. What is attention? Attention is working together of association of thought with association of feeling. Memory working together with sense makes attention. But feeling have two centers – solar plexus feeling, solar plexus brain and spine brain. Must have attention which means memory and sense working together on it. But must not philosophize – very dangerous philosophize. Be simple like monk, a monk given a task. You do with faith, not try knowing (with head) but sure-ing. (Gurdjieff touches his solar plexus region) Not knowing, but sure-ing.
“Attention is working together of association of thought with association of feeling.” This seems to be only part of the definition, and to mean: Attention is the working together of mental associations and feeling associations. Association is memory, so when Gurdjieff goes on to and say, “Memory working together with sense makes attention,” his use of the word memory seems to encompass “association of thought” and “association of feeling,” bearing in mind that he indicates that he is including both the “solar plexus brain and spine brain” with the word feeling here.