You’re Almost as Good Looking as Me

You’re Almost as Good Looking as Me

From our friend, Charles R.

The mechanical attitude about ourselves and our relationship to the world is called a feature. Each body type has a chief feature, a particular attitude around which the other features revolve. The main features include Dominance, Fear, Greed, Lunatic, Naïveté, Non-Existence, Power, Tramp, Willfulness and Vanity. None of the features are better or worse, or more to be desired or despised than any of the others. From one perspective, they may be the ‘talents’ mentioned in the Bible. Chief feature, and any of the features we are subject to, are among the mechanics of the lower self that, with help from a school, a teacher, and other students, help us transform these mechanical habits into self-remembering.

The feature of Vanity is a conceited concern about ourselves and our looks, and how we appear to others. It exhibits internally as self-pity or self-deprecation. The attitude ‘Woe is me!’ and similar, are the i’s that Vanity mechanically adopts during difficult moments.

Vanity attempts to attract and hold the attention of others. During conversations when we are speaking or writing, frequent use of the word ‘I’ is a good indicator that Vanity is manifesting. Expressing negative emotions is another way Vanity tries to draw attention to itself. Feelings of being ignored or feelings of not being noticed are indications that Vanity has submerged the effort to be present. Vanity also appears as hubris, for example, believing one does not need a school and a teacher to awaken higher centers.

The common belief is that the antidote to vanity is humility. But we can no more work on being humble than we can work to grow taller, or will a change in the color of our eyes. All school work is directed towards the crystallization of higher centers, not the development of humility. Humility and other qualities are by-products of the aim to awaken. For some, this proves too difficult a concept to accept, and is one of the reasons that the system is not popular. Indeed, George Gurdjieff, bluntly and unceremoniously stated, “The system does not flatter man.” Acquiescing to flattery is a surefire indication of Vanity.

So how is this feature circumvented? There are, among others, two effective solvents for Vanity; one is to choose self-remembering over self-pity; the other is to need a school, and know you need a school.

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Franz Hals, Cavalier Soldier 1624, Wallace Collection, London