For development to be harmonious, a person must act on all three working centers, namely the motor, emotional, and intellectual centers. The instinctive and sexual centers provide support for the harmonious functioning of the three levels of a person.

The instinctive center operates on energy, and for this, it must be in a healthy state. This means that a healthy lifestyle is required for it to function properly.

The sexual center must also support the work of the three levels of a person with its energy. To do this, there should be no expenditure of sexual energy for orgasm, and there should also be no waste of sexual energy through other centers. These include negative emotions in the emotional center, obsession in the intellectual center, and exhausting or extreme sports in the motor center. Obsession in the intellectual center is its passionate identification with various things, such as gambling, extremist ideas of revolution or terrorism as with the mujahideen, as well as other identifications where unhealthy passion, fanaticism, and obsession with various ideas, manias, even leading to schizophrenia are present. This is the action of sexual energy in the intellectual center.

What does the collaborative work of the three levels, namely the intellectual, motor, and emotional centers, mean? For example, when someone builds a vacation home by themselves, in the intellectual center, there must be a plan, meaning they have to see what needs to be done and why. In the emotional center, it’s the desire to do it faster and better, and in the motor center, it’s the concrete action towards that goal.

However, in life, it often happens that people use only one center. In the same construction work, but as a hired worker, a person operates solely with the motor center. The foreman thinks about what and how should be done because the worker, at that time, indulges in daydreams and idle thoughts, meaning their intellectual center is idle. The foreman also replaces the emotional center by motivating the workers, as there is no desire to work in their emotional center, only a desire to be lazy and an expectation that the work will eventually be finished.

The foreman, although acting with the intellectual and emotional centers, does not do the work themselves. However, since two centers are already working in them, they are more cohesive than the laborers. Because they have an emotional center, they have a sense of responsibility, strictness, and similar qualities that allow them to manage the construction site.

It is most challenging to be whole in intellectual work, for instance, behind a computer, as the motor center is minimally engaged in such activities. Therefore, it is essential to engage in physical activities like sports in such cases. However, the crucial aspect is to activate the emotional center in the form of conscience and responsibility for the task, ensuring that the work is comprehensive, rather than resembling that of an animal, such as a donkey harnessed to a cart, or that of an involuntary laborer who relies on someone else to think about how and what should be done.

Acting primarily through one center or even two is a path toward degradation because true human development can only occur when all three centers work together. Ancient societies understood this better and often worked while singing, which activated the emotional center and prevented the intellectual center from daydreaming.

It is highly beneficial to explore new types of activities. In doing so, the intellectual and motor centers naturally cooperate, and when a person approaches them with enthusiasm or a sense of duty, all three centers function harmoniously together.

Gurdjieff and his disciples constantly ventured into new professions, and as soon as they mastered one skill to the point of it becoming mechanical, they transitioned to another type of activity.

However, for spiritual work, this is not sufficient. Human beings consist of both the animal and the divine, and it is necessary to awaken the divine within and subdue the animal within us. The animal within us represents our body with all its desires, instincts, and negative emotions. This animal lacks rationality; instead of reason, it is enveloped in a hypnotic sleep induced by the influences of a sick society and conformity to a mindless crowd, all headed towards degeneration.

To awaken the divine, one must cultivate the seven treasures of the soul. However, it is impossible to do this alone. It can only be done in a group of people striving for the same goal, who will awaken and help each other under the guidance of the Teacher.

Since all people are born with their own cosmogram, each has a predisposition to one of the seven treasures, which, in turn, grow like lotus flowers from the mud of the seven qualities of the beast.

 

 

Saturn in the animal represents cruelty and suppression. In the divine, it represents strictness.

Jupiter in the animal signifies fear, while in the divine, it stands for conscience.

Mars represents anger and irritation, which must be transformed into selflessness through spiritual work.

Venus symbolizes greed, which should become love.

The Moon represents laziness, passivity, weakness, and the energy of Tamas, which should be transformed into peace and detachment.

The Sun signifies selfishness as something closed, limited, and primitive, which should become an all-encompassing and non-identifying consciousness.

Mercury represents restlessness, anxiety, loquacity, and daydreaming, which should be transformed into prayer and reverence for God.

So, based on the qualities you have, you should develop the missing ones. Just as the sun is the center of our solar system and the ego is the essence of the beast, consciousness is the essence of the divine. So, first, you should understand what consciousness is and practice it in all life circumstances, as there is no value in what you do in dreams or identification. You should be present in what you are doing.

The very first step in mindfulness is creating silence in the mind. Later, you can also think while observing thinking, but first, you must stop the inner dialogue and dreams, that is, uncontrolled imagination.

After that, you should investigate yourselves, especially the work of the centers and the constant switching between false personalities. This will be the right work of your intellectual center.

For harmonious development, you must activate exalted emotions, that is, the other treasures of the soul. This will be the right work of your emotional center.

And all of this should be expressed in actions of your motor center, in service to the divine and help to people.

Exalted emotions must be cultivated; they do not arise on their own, just as consciousness does not. Dance can serve this purpose; listen to divine chants or other exalted songs and attune yourselves to them to evoke exalted emotions and express them in dance while maintaining consciousness in the intellectual center. This will be a holistic action of the three centers.

In the future, you can also dance G. I. Gurdjieff’s dances, which were developed to overcome mechanicality and cultivate exalted emotions.

Similarly, in other matters, you should properly engage the three centers, that is, perform actions for the benefit of others with consciousness and exalted emotions.

Observe the centers and ensure that all three centers work harmoniously together so that they do not act in a disjointed manner, and the work does not become unconscious and mechanical in one center while others are occupied by negative emotions or dreams.

Strive for all seven treasures of the soul to be present in every matter and be constantly present in you. Cultivate them in 1-2-3 in each matter, and then it will not be in vain.