Evolution of Consciusness (35)-Desire & Gurjeff Self-Remembering

Anatomy of desire and Gordjieff Self-Remembering

Life is all about desire, however troublesome it may be.

Usual but serious metaphor is camel eating fruits along with thorns

 and bleeding but continuing to do so.

Human desire is much more complex.

We will try to see the simplicity (kernel) behind the complexity in this post.

Desire is felt as an urge ‘to be’, ‘to have’ or ‘to do’ something that gives pleasure or

satisfaction, and also to avoid pain or suffering.

Fundamental urges meant for Preservation, Procreation etc, which are independent of the

Ego or the Personality also comes to the surface in the form of Desire.

How this mute Drives are felt as personal desire is another topic.

 If we take bodily need to have water.

It is expressed as a desire to drink water, pleasure in drinking and

a feeling of ‘satisfied-thirst’.

Generally

Everything one does is out of desire including

Desire to avoid pain,

Desire to remain content,

Desire to eliminate desire,

And Desire for God or Enlightenment

It is obvious that all desires can not be realized, so fear, frustration, struggle etc.

exist along with desire.

To avoid negative impact arising out of desires in one’s life and society,

Desires are categorized into good, bad, necessary, not essential, luxury etc to have some

control over them and permissiveness as well wherever resistance is futile.

But it is evident that,

Spite of both Control and Permissiveness, frustration and struggle still persists in one’s

life and as well as in the society because of desire.

Approaches of Control or Permissiveness are addressing the desires in its concrete or

particular forms and hold good for some time before breaking up.

So, instead of approaching concrete or particular desire,

We will try to approach desire in its abstract or generic form.

Now,

we will see the basic or general structure of Desire and its mechanism.

One can put it as a sequence for easier understanding

It begins with,

1) Perception of an object.

 2) Contact with the object.

3) Sensation generated by the object.

4) Association of sensation with an Idea or Image in the memory

5) Idea or Image qualifying the object as desirable or undesirable

6) Desire to seek or avoid the object.

It is from the 4^th stage that the desire as such comes into existence.

Let us take an example,

 A person is status conscious and strongly believes that owning a luxury car will improve

his social standing.

Supposing he happens to travel in a luxury Car, we will see how the ride affects his

Consciousness. 

Now the steps,

1)      Rides in a Luxury Car (Perception and Contact)

2)      Pleasant sensation is experienced

3)      Pleasant sensation is associated with his ‘Status Image’ of the Car

4)      The ‘I’ with the ‘Status Image’ qualifies the Car as essential for status.

5)      Desire arises to own such a Car.

Let us look at it the other way.

Supposing he has no status image associated with the Car, what would be the out come.

He will still enjoy the ride as before and might even say ‘It is an excellent Car to have’.

But,

Since there is no particular ‘I’ or personality with ‘(Car) Status Image’ in the Ego-Self,

There is no creation of an association or bond between the sensation and the ‘Me’.

So, once the ride is over,

The sensation ends or consummated leaving no residue to linger on.

Result is,

There won’t be any urge to own the car or frustration of not owning the car.

So, it is the Image in the memory that is responsible for desire not the sensation itself.

In this case, the image can be easily deduced but may be difficult in other cases.

For instance, among the similar cars, one may prefer a particular model.

The preference may have more than one image in the background.

Now,

One can logically understand the mechanism of desire,

But, to be effective in real life, one has to be consciously aware of  the mechanism.

Self-Remembering and becoming conscious of Desire.

Normally, things happen fast like Contact, Sensation and Desire.

Mind acts mechanically, impulsively and one do not remember one self during the

episode of a particular Desire.

To become aware or conscious,

One has to be attentive and ‘remember one self’, when desire rises.

One has to hold on to the consciousness as such during ‘sensation’.

One has to stay with the situation (Sensation) without engaging the past to recognize the

Sensation (Associating with an Image) or ending the situation by taking a decision

(Resisting or yielding to it).

As we mentioned before,

Mind will stagger for a while and then become calm and stable.

Here,

The perception is not distorted –Not qualified by the past or concluded by a decision. 

In this perception (reversed one), one can become aware or see that,

It is not the Object that creates the Desire but an Image in the ‘Me’ finds the object

desirable.

Now, one can identify and analyze the image, its background and features consciously

(It is not analysis done after the episode like Postmortem).

This stops the mechanical nature of the mind and enables one to have conscious control

over desire.

This control in turn enables the person to accept or decline the ‘Desire’.

This is not Resisting or Yielding to the desire, which has frustration behind.

One has to test it in every occasion possible.

Again,

Self-Remembering here is not about eliminating the desire but becoming conscious,

making a conscious response instead of impulsive mechanical reaction.

This will help one to identify imaginary needs and false personalities in the ego-self.

This in turn may bring one little closer to the True-Self.