External Considering, Conscience and Compassion

External Considering, Conscience and Compassion

From our friend Lindsey V. of the New York Center.

The aim of the system is to bring man to conscience. — P.D. Ouspensky

With even a little self-observation, we begin to verify the Fourth Way teaching that ordinary human beings live mechanically, identified with countless contradictory ‘I's. One moment we are generous, the next resentful; one day truthful, the next self-justifying. Yet we rarely experience these contradictions together because they are separated by what Gurdjieff called buffers—psychological barriers that protect our self-image.

Conscience is a state in which a man feels all at once everything he ordinarily feels separately. — P.D. Ouspensky

Buffers spare us the overwhelming pain of seeing ourselves as we truly are, yet they also prevent the awakening of conscience. We sometimes experience brief pangs of conscience, often in quiet moments, when an uncomfortable truth breaks through our defenses. Gurdjieff acknowledged the necessity of buffers, saying, "If a man had no buffers he could not live for a single day." Yet the aim of conscious work is gradually to loosen their hold.

Gurdjieff taught that conscience is not something we acquire; it already exists within every human being. What differs is not conscience itself but the buffers and conditioning that conceal it. As he summarized,

Conscience is the same in all men; only buffers are different. — G.I. Gurdjieff

One of the most practical methods for weakening buffers is external consideration. Instead of reacting from wounded pride or self-importance, we make an intentional effort to understand another person's circumstances by being present to them. A colleague's impatience may arise from exhaustion rather than hostility. A friend's silence may reflect personal difficulties rather than rejection. Each time we suspend automatic judgment and genuinely try to see through another person's eyes, identification weakens and personality loosens its grip.

This truth became deeply personal while I was caring for my elderly father. At times he became impatient and uncharacteristically difficult with me. I struggled to understand his behavior until one day, standing beside him, I suddenly and viscerally felt his fear and panic at no longer being able to depend upon his own body. His once capable hands could no longer open a simple package of crackers. In that moment of conscience my irritation disappeared, replaced by understanding. Nothing outwardly had changed but it was the beginning of genuine compassion towards him.

Rodney Collin observed that higher influences become available only when the noise of personality begins to quiet. External consideration creates these conditions. As self-concern diminishes, moments of objective emotion become possible. These belong to the higher emotional center, which responds with understanding rather than reaction and perceives unity where personality sees separation. Conscience belongs to our essence and reveals our contradictions without self-justification. Though this recognition can be painful, it is also liberating because it is grounded in truth.

The lower self has no conscience. — The Teacher

From an awakened conscience arises authentic compassion—not sentimental pity, but the direct recognition that others struggle under the same fears, identifications, and mechanical habits that we ourselves experience. Instead of condemnation, conscience produces humility; instead of superiority, understanding.

These teachings become real only through practice. One exercise that I have found helpful is whenever I notice myself justifying my behavior or blaming another person, to pause and ask, "What contradiction am I avoiding seeing?" The impulse to defend oneself often points directly to a buffer.

As external consideration weakens our buffers, conscience awakens, the higher emotional center begins to make itself known and compassion gradually becomes the natural expression of a more conscious human being.

I know myself now, and I feel within me,

A peace above all earthly dignities,

A still and quiet conscience. — William Shakespeare

Join the discussion

Penitent Magdalene, Titian, 1560's