Differentiating Feeling from Sensing ~ George Gurdjieff Views from the Real World For example, here I sit. Owing to my unaccustomed posture my muscles are unusually tensed. As a rule I have no sensation of my muscles in my established customary posture. Like everyone else I have a limited number of postures. But now I have taken a new, unusual position. I have a sensation of my body, if not the whole of it, at least of some parts of my body, of warmth, of the circulation of the blood. As I sit I feel that behind me there is a hot stove. Since it is warm behind and cold in front, there is a great difference in the air, so I never cease to sense myself thanks to this extreme contrasting difference of the air. Tonight I had rabbit for supper. Since the rabbit and the habur-chubur were very good I ate too much. I sense my stomach and my breathing is unusually heavy. I sense the whole time. Just now I have been preparing a dish with A. and have put it in the oven. While I was preparing it, I remembered how my mother used to prepare this dish. I remembered my mother and remembered certain moments connected with this. These memories aroused feeling in me. I feel these moments and my feeling does not leave me. Now I look at this lamp. When there was as yet no lighting in the Study House I thought that I needed precisely this kind of light. At that time I made a plan of what was required to obtain this kind of lighting. It was done, and this is the result. When the light was switched on and I saw it, I had a feeling of self-satisfaction; and the feeling, which was aroused then, continues—I feel this self-satisfaction. A moment ago I was walking from the Turkish bath. It was dark and, as I could not see in front of me, I hit a tree. I remembered by association how, on one occasion, I was walking in similar darkness and collided with a man. I received the impact of this collision in my chest, so I let fly and hit the unknown man who had run into me. Later I found out that the man was not to blame; yet I hit him so hard that he lost several teeth. At the moment I had not thought that the man who had run into me might be innocent, but when I had calmed down, I understood. When later I saw this innocent man in the street, with his disfigured face, I was so sorry for him that when I remember him now I experience the same pang of conscience I felt then. And now, when I hit the tree, this feeling came to life in me again. I again saw before me the unhappy, bruised face of this good man. I have given you examples of six different inner states. Three of them relate to the moving center and three to the emotional center. In ordinary language all six are called feelings. Yet in right classification those whose nature is connected with the moving center should be called sensations, and those whose nature is connected with emotional center, feelings. There are thousands of different sensations which are usually called feelings. They are all different, their material is different, their effects different and their causes different. In examining them more closely we can establish their nature and give them corresponding names. They are often so different in their nature that they have nothing whatever in common. Some originate in one place, others in another place. In some people one place of origin (of a given kind of sensations) is absent, in others another place of origin may be lacking. In yet other people, all may be present. The time will come when we shall endeavor to shut off artificially one, or two, or several together, to learn their real nature. At present we must have an idea of two different experiences, one of which we shall agree to call feeling and the other sensation. We shall call feeling the one whose place of origin is what we call the emotional center; while sensations are those so-called feelings whose place of origin is in what we call the moving center. Now, of course, each one must understand and examine his sensations and feelings and learn approximately the difference between them.
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 00:16:36 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015