Disorder Observed

self-observation is our only recourse

We live and die within fantasies of self.

Self-certainty of rightness, goodness, judiciousness, ethics, sensitivity, and clarity are our sleep.

I write this from within that state. I commit grave errors from within it. So do you.

“Disorder observed is already order,” wrote philosopher Jacob Needleman (1934–2022), a student of G.I. Gurdjieff’s ideas, in his 1970 The New Religions.

He referenced inner experience. Certainty—the epitome of disorder—cannot withstand observation. But danger lurks: where analysis begins, observation ends.

Observation is a subtle—and unsustainable—state.

Can you sit for ten minutes? Can you? How about two? We lay claim to abilities belied by even the slightest effort.