A man’s harmonic development takes place when his knowledge grows proportionally to his being.

Theoretical knowledge is not enough to feed his being.

Work on the line of being is a practical and living experience; it's very different from the study and research typical of the knowledge line. These are two different and separate lines of growth.

The evolution of these two lines constitute what is called " WORK ON OURSELVES".

WORK ON THE KNOWLEDGE LINE

The growth of knowledge is linked to the ideas Gurdjieff expounded and to the theoretical knowledge of certain mechanisms to be found in many ancient schools of thought. The more we understand these ideas, the more easily we will have a theoretical model as a reference for our practical experimentation. The more we understand what we have to do to develop our consciousness, the more correct our practical application will be. The lack of clear understanding often causes incorrect, parasitical work. When our theoretical preparation is clear, we'll be able to start work on the being line.

WORK ON THE BEING LINE

It's impossible to change our being without first understanding how it is structured. The more we know ourselves the more we will understand our being. To know ourselves we have to observe ourselves and this is the beginning of the work on this line. But what does "developing our being" mean? Developing our being means waking up, as our main characteristic is the fact that we are asleep. If we try to wake up we will change our being. Developing our being also means creating unity, not expressing negative emotions, observing, studying negative emotions, trying not to identify ourselves, avoiding useless talk. The purpose of the work on our being is to acquire the ability to be different.