I repeat, just like clocks, people can be of different makes. No matter how hard a man tries, even if he is put in a glass case, when his time comes the spring runs out. And once the mechanism is dead, no matter how clean and whole it is, no matter how much you try to warm it up, blow on it—if the spiral spring is missing—the man is gone.
Yet I can do something to live longer. Thoughts have a definite length. I can unwind them very fast—then the end comes quickly, or I may unwind them slowly, and the end will come more slowly. When we live as we do we think mechanically and quite unnecessarily. We very seldom think when necessary. So we could be much more economical.
The secret is very simple. If any man really succeeds in understanding and learning to spend only as much as is necessary he will be able to economize a great deal of energy.
Now look inwards at your thinking. You will see that you think all the time, associations flow on unceasingly. Now if you begin to think intentionally, you will find that you think very slowly, whereas when thoughts run on by themselves they flow very fast.
Compare the two states: one, when our thoughts flow fast and the other when they flow slowly. For example, we are impatiently waiting for someone. We are all the time occupied with the thought—when will the person we are waiting for come? What happened to him, why isn’t he here? Has he had an accident? It seems to us we have been waiting an hour at least. We look at the watch and find it has been only five minutes.
Another example. You sit in a comfortable chair. You are resting, nothing worries you. For the moment you do not want to think of anything important. Your thoughts flow slowly. It seems to you that you have been sitting thus for five minutes, whereas you sat for a whole hour.
Time is our thoughts. We can measure time by our thinking. If we spend many thoughts, time seems long to us. If we spend few thoughts—time seems short. Time stands in direct ratio to the flow of associations.
Just as in the thinking center, associations go on in other centers also.
The secret of prolonging life depends on the ability to spend the energy of our centers slowly and only intentionally. Learn to think consciously. This produces economy in the expenditure of energy. Don’t dream.
Premise: Thinking slower makes time appear to pass faster, and thinking faster makes time appear to pass slower. (Per the two paras following "Consider")
Thesis: The secret to living longer is to alter one's perception of time, by thinking slower.
But given the premise, thinking slower would make appear to pass faster. Ergo, it would make life feel shorter, not longer.
In fact, the premise actually supports the exact opposite thesis: that the secret to long life is to think as fast as possible.
HTML can be so powerful when used as DOM instead of plain string as is sadly used in most html templating engines on the backend, one example of DOM template engine built by myself https://github.com/givanz/vtpl
Yet I can do something to live longer. Thoughts have a definite length. I can unwind them very fast—then the end comes quickly, or I may unwind them slowly, and the end will come more slowly. When we live as we do we think mechanically and quite unnecessarily. We very seldom think when necessary. So we could be much more economical.
The secret is very simple. If any man really succeeds in understanding and learning to spend only as much as is necessary he will be able to economize a great deal of energy.
Now look inwards at your thinking. You will see that you think all the time, associations flow on unceasingly. Now if you begin to think intentionally, you will find that you think very slowly, whereas when thoughts run on by themselves they flow very fast.
Compare the two states: one, when our thoughts flow fast and the other when they flow slowly. For example, we are impatiently waiting for someone. We are all the time occupied with the thought—when will the person we are waiting for come? What happened to him, why isn’t he here? Has he had an accident? It seems to us we have been waiting an hour at least. We look at the watch and find it has been only five minutes.
Another example. You sit in a comfortable chair. You are resting, nothing worries you. For the moment you do not want to think of anything important. Your thoughts flow slowly. It seems to you that you have been sitting thus for five minutes, whereas you sat for a whole hour.
Time is our thoughts. We can measure time by our thinking. If we spend many thoughts, time seems long to us. If we spend few thoughts—time seems short. Time stands in direct ratio to the flow of associations.
Just as in the thinking center, associations go on in other centers also. The secret of prolonging life depends on the ability to spend the energy of our centers slowly and only intentionally. Learn to think consciously. This produces economy in the expenditure of energy. Don’t dream.
Gurdjieff's Early Talks 1914-1931
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