S02/E24: "Sloth" - Physical Laziness as Mechanical Resistance

The body is an animal.

This is a description offered without contempt.

The organic body operates under the laws of animal nature.

It knows food, rest, and the avoidance of effort beyond those needs.

It wishes nothing else.

Left entirely to itself, it will eat, rest, and do nothing beyond what is immediately required by its own organic satisfaction.

The body is functioning correctly according to its own design.

The question is which direction the authority runs.

Either the body commands the person or the person commands the body.

These are the only two available positions.

The body in the position of command produces a predictable result.

The most comfortable available option is taken at every decision point.

The position is adjusted for maximum comfort.

The effort is calibrated at the minimum necessary.

The task that requires departure from the habitual baseline is deferred.

The person whose body commands always locates a reason to wait.

Educate the body as you would educate an animal.

It must obey, not command.

A trained animal serves the aim.

An untrained one runs the household.

Never let the body do as it wants consistently.

The more it's directed, the more it resists, and that resistance is the raw material of this work.

Each refusal to yield to the pull generates something no other approach can.

Gurdjieff gave a concrete exercise for this to a student working against the urge to smoke, and it generalizes any habitual pull.

At the moment of longing, say a fixed phrase directed at the craving itself.