Remembering to Remember: Developing the Steward

Remembering to Remember: Developing the Steward

This post is from our friend Lindsey V. of the New York Center.

Be present at every breath. Do not let your attention wander for the duration of a single breath. ─ Gurduvani

We know that awakening does not happen accidentally. It requires conscious effort, repeated self-remembering, and the gradual development of an inner steward. The steward is a group of “I”s based on the Work, arising from the magnetic center, that act like a compass, directing our actions and preventing us from being carried away by the countless contradictory "I's" that make up ordinary consciousness. If we truly wish to awaken, an important question naturally follows: How do we strengthen the steward? How do we increase our desire to work? More simply, how do we remember to remember ourselves?

Only what is done consciously can be retained. ─ Rodney Collin

In In Search of the Miraculous, P. D. Ouspensky describes the steward as the part of us that begins to take responsibility for the "inner household." Instead of allowing each passing impulse, mood, or desire to take command, the steward learns to observe, discriminate, and remember the aim. Through the repeated application of the Work, the four lower centers gradually come into better balance, and an inner servant is formed that becomes capable of serving something higher. The steward is not an inborn faculty. It develops through sustained effort. The steward is the part of us that can remember the aim to awaken.

Gurdjieff emphasized that we ordinarily lose ourselves in whatever captures our attention. We forget ourselves, we forget our aim and become identified with the stream of impressions flowing through us. I had a vivid experience of this early in my own work. While teaching an all-day Saturday class, I often ate lunch at a nearby café that played classic rock. Although I enjoyed the music, I gradually noticed that it consistently carried me into imagination. I would suddenly realize I had been replaying old memories or drifting through pleasant fantasies. I would make an effort to become present, and then, a few bites later, I would once again be asleep.

At first I tried using the music itself as an alarm clock. Each familiar song became a signal to return to self-remembering. Sometimes it worked—but only briefly. Gurdjieff encouraged students to create "alarm clocks," deliberate reminders that interrupt our mechanical flow and call us back to presence. An alarm clock might be a ring on one's finger, walking through doorways, or the sound of a telephone. But he also observed that alarm clocks lose their effectiveness if they remain unchanged. Personality quickly adapts to them, and what once awakened us becomes incorporated into our sleep. For this reason, he advised changing them frequently.

If we do what we can, soon we shall be able to do what now seems impossible. ─ G.I. Gurdjieff

Eventually I realized that my steward simply was not yet strong enough for that environment and I chose to eat lunch at a different café that better supported my aim. Sometimes the Work means wisely choosing our environment or companions until the steward has grown stronger. Self-remembering has no momentum, but our efforts do accumulate.

Presence cannot be remembered; it must be renewed. ─ Jeanne de Salzmann

The steward grows only through practical work. Every sincere act of self-observation without judgment strengthens it. Whenever we notice irritation arising, observe a habitual complaint, or catch ourselves becoming identified, the steward has an opportunity to act instead of reacting mechanically. Intentional effort is its nourishment. Remaining patient, listening without interrupting, taking an intentional pause before opening a cell phone, or refraining from expressing a negative emotion gradually builds its strength. Conversely, criticism, unnecessary rushing, endless scrolling, and imagination dissipate the energy needed for awakening. One of the instinctive center's cleverest buffers is convincing us that these small moments are too small to matter. For this reason, small exercises and modest daily aims are very powerful.

Our Teacher has introduced an extremely effective method, the sequence, to strengthen the steward and reliably invoke presence. The sequence consists of a series of six short work “I”s intoned in a particular order. Marie Michaels describes this more fully in her post this week.

I wear a blue robe woven of six directions. ─ Bahauddin

The steward is developed through thousands of intentional efforts and moments of self-remembering. Every sincere observation and every return to the present strengthens this inner servant until it becomes capable of serving something higher. At this point, the steward itself quietly steps aside as higher influences begin to guide our lives more directly. As the Work matures, the contrast between sleep and presence becomes unmistakable, and the choice in each moment is clear. Ordinary life itself becomes the field of awakening.

Our lives are composed of many humble and inconspicuous moments that we must be present to. ─ The Teacher

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Pygmalion and Galatea, Jean-Léon Gérôme