To decrease the time not self observing, it’s necessary to examine what your attention is diverted by and gets lost in.

Self observation is a study of attention, a way of meditating with your eyes open as your daily life goes on. Humans are complex beings, and daily life is full of distractions and events attention can get lost in. It is much more easily directed and tracked if placed on a human being’s naturally distinct fields of operation.

So much has been written about Chakras, energy vortexes somehow able to release hidden powers if you meditate on them. There are phrases like “contemplating your navel” or “opening the third eye.” The most you’re likely to get out of that kind of practice is a headache, but like all myths, there is some element of truth there. Human manifestations fall into certain distinct categories, and there is some correlation with points on the physical body, but only a practical approach can unleash the information and powers within.

 In the Hindu system, these categories are called chakras, mirrored in the branches of Jnana, Bhakti, and Hatha yoga. Gurdjieff and Ouspensky refer to them as the Intellectual, Emotional, and Physical Centers. Points on the body do have some relation to different manifestations, but for practical purposes it’s better to focus on events in the human system: emotions, thoughts, and movements, referred to hereafter as Fields of Activity.

Early attempts at self observing are often difficult because a person can so easily get lost in what’s happening. Awareness is easily overcome by the sequence and rush of occurrences in daily life. Observing for the workings of the distinctly different fields of activity enables the observing self to stay more focused and on track. It makes self observation more lively and interesting by revealing where and how the attention is lost.

Deep awareness and understanding of the fields of activity is a necessary stepping stone to higher abilities. It reveals how these separate parts of a human being operate independently of one another like separate brains or identities and how they frequently go awry trying to do the work of one another.

The three fields of activity have very different speeds of operation. Emotions are the fastest. Consider how quickly you feel anger or fear, or how quickly you can decide whether you like something or not. Movements are the second fastest. Think about your moves catching a ball or getting dressed. The slowest is thinking. Stringing words together to formulate thoughts is a much longer process than feeling an emotion or moving the body. Being aware of the speeds of fields of activity will help you better understand their distinctive functions.

Part of the path to higher consciousness is getting emotions, thoughts, and movements back in balance, what Gurdjieff calls the “Harmonious Development of Man.” In the terminology of yoga, you can look at this body and mind harmony as balancing the lower chakras to accumulate the needed energy to pierce the navel knot and have the energy flow to the higher chakras. Both paths make it clear that without bringing the lower centers or chakras into their appropriate working order, the higher centers or chakras cannot and will not be attained. This is a safety mechanism built in by nature to prevent the empowerment of unbalanced or unethical people. No amount of navel gazing or focusing on the third eye will change that.

In a person with higher consciousness, the emotions, thoughts, and movements operate in harmony, but in the “normal” human they are all out of kilter. Not only does this cause a person a lot of misery in life, but it also drains a tremendous amount of energy away as a conglomeration of big and small leaks every day. This prevents any accumulation of the energy needed to reach the higher functions.

Everyone is a different combination of imbalances. Extremes of this are personified by the stereotypical jock, geek, or drama queen. Lopsided development stands in the way of achieving higher consciousness for a number of reasons besides leaking energy so there is not enough to reach the goal. Over-intellectualizing leads to analysis paralysis, thinking about something in the abstract rather than feeling or sensing the reality of it. Being overly emotional can cause disruptions of focus that blocks moving forward or prevents logically reasoning when needed. Too much development in the physical realm at the cost of the others can lead to hedonism and a disregard for mental and emotional intelligence. All three sides must be developed equally to reach the goal.

You can think of this in relation to the story of the three blind men and the elephant. The first man feeling the elephant’s trunk described it as a snake-like creature, the second felt its side and reported it was like a wall, and the third blind man feeling its tusk insisted the animal was like a sword. A sighted man seeing all of the elephant at once explained to them they were each feeling only one part of the animal. Like the three blind men’s perceptions, awareness of the fields of activity is distorted in the everyday so-called normal human state. Their functions are also very unbalanced. One dominates the entire human system. One tries to do the work of another. None of them work efficiently or in harmony.

Using the wrong field of activity is an absurd waste of time and energy, like trying to change a flat tire using an egg beater. Examples of this are thinking out each movement required to tie your shoes or defending a point based on your emotions about it.

In some sense all consciousness work is the study of attention – what draws and holds it and whether it is mechanically used or willed toward a subject. Looking deeper into the workings of attention can help you gain new insights into your work. This could also be seen as discerning further divisions in the fields of activity.

We can assign a field of activity to each kind of attention, then apply each of those divisions to the individual fields themselves. 

     How attention is directed or drawn can be seen in three different ways:

Unconscious, it is mechanical or physical.

Attracted by a strong interest, it is emotional.

Willed and held on the subject intentionally, it is intellectual.

     Examples of each kind of attention in each field of activity:

Physical Field of Activity

Mechanical – tapping, fidgeting

Emotional – dance, games, pleasure in movement

Intellectual – Tai Chi or Hath yoga

Emotional Field of Activity

Mechanical – negative emotions

Emotional – still unwilled but less primitive, not purely mechanical

Intellectual – Artistic creation

Intellectual Field of Activity

Mechanical – associative thought

Emotional – desire to know held by passion

Intellectual – willed effort to hold on subject

Fields of Activity Main Points

The lower “chakras” or “centers” are real, tangible fields of emotional, intellectual, or moving activity.

Observing and differentiating between emotions, thoughts, and movements makes self observation way more interesting and productive.

The three fields of activity have different speeds.

Everyone has a different imbalance of these fields of activity, and they must be brought into harmony before the higher areas of consciousness can be reached.

Fields of Activity Exercises

Add to your morning intention the goal of observing the three fields of activity.

During your evening evaluation, give examples of each field of activity you observed during the day.

List two examples of when your emotions moved very quickly.

Get dressed thinking out each movement. Was this slow and awkward?

Which field of activity do you think is more predominant in you? In other people you know?

Fields of Activity Glossary of Terms

Bhakti Yoga – Focusing attention on a subject that generates heightened positive emotion, usually a guru, saint, icon, or god

Center – Gurdjieff and Ouspensky’s term for the physical, emotional, or intellectual field of activity

Chakra – Sanskrit yogic term for the physical, emotional, or intellectual field of activity

Emotional Field of Activity – Human manifestations of emotions, feelings, moods, temperament, disposition

Field of Activity – A person’s physical, emotional, or intellectual manifestations

Harmonious Development of Man – Gurdjieff’s principle that consciousness cannot rise to a higher plane unless the emotional, intellectual, and physical parts of a human are developed in a balanced way

Hatha Yoga – Physical movements done slowly and with concentration to increase limberness

Intellectual Field of Activity – Human manifestations of thought, reasoning, logic, formation of ideas and words

Jnana Yoga – Branch of yoga that intellectually examines the different properties of each level of consciousness

Physical Field of Activity – Human manifestations of movement

Yoga – Physical, emotional, or intellectual discipline engaged in for increased health or spiritual awareness. First described by Patanjali in his Sutras in the 5^th century B.C., and widely used by followers of Hinduism and Buddhism.

IV. Identification – Losing Focus