Alejandro Jodorowsky reports that Gurdjieff gave these “Commandments for living” to his daughter Reyna D’Assia. They were published in a book entitled The Spiritual Journey of Alejandro Jodorowsky.
Accept that nothing belongs to you.
Admit that someone else may be superior to you.
Always finish what you have begun.
Be conscious at every moment of what you are thinking, sensing, feeling, desiring, and doing.
Be on time.
Conquer your aversions and come closer to those who inspire rejection in you.
Conquer your fears, for each of them represents a camouflaged desire.
Develop your generosity – but secretly.
Develop your imagination.
Ground your attention on yourself.
Do not adorn yourself with exotic ideas.
Do not allow yourself to be impressed by strong personalities.
Do not become attached to anything that can destroy you in the course of time.
Do not complain.
Do not contract debts; acquire and pay immediately.
Do not eliminate, but transmute.
Do not encourage others to imitate you.
Do not establish useless friendships.
Do not express judgment or criticism when you are ignorant of most of the factors involved.
Do not follow fashions.
Do not have your photograph taken with famous people.
Do not forget your dead, but accord them a limited place and do not allow them to invade your life.
Do not keep useless objects.
Do not lie or steal, for you lie to yourself and steal from yourself.
Do not react to what others say about you, whether praise or blame.
Do not seduce.
Do not sell yourself.
Do not speak of your personal problems.
Do not take up too much space.
Do not think of the profits your work will engender.
Do not try to be everything to your spouse; accept that there are things that you cannot give him or her but which others can.
Do not try to distinguish yourself by your appearance.
Do not try to make others feel for you emotions such as; pity, admiration, sympathy, or complicity.
Help others to help themselves.
Help your neighbor, but do not make him dependent.
In any discussion, put yourself in the other person’s place.
Justify yourself to no one, and keep your own counsel.
Keep your promises.
Learn to receive and give thanks for every gift.
Live on money you have earned.
Look directly, and do not hide yourself.
Make no useless movements or sounds.
Make work plans and accomplish them.
Obtain things in order to share them.
Organize what you have disorganized.
If you are hesitating between doing and not doing, take the risk of doing.
If you are meditating and a devil appears, make the devil meditate too.
If you decide to work to help others, do it with pleasure.
If you lack faith, pretend to have it.
If you offend someone, ask his or her pardon; if you have offended a person publicly, apologize publicly.
Transform your anger into creativity.
Transform your envy into admiration for the values of the other.
Transform your greed into respect for beauty.
Transform your hate into charity.
Transform your pride into dignity.
If you are hesitating between doing and not doing, take the risk of doing.
If you are meditating and a devil appears, make the devil meditate too.
If you decide to work to help others, do it with pleasure.
If you lack faith, pretend to have it.
If you offend someone, ask his or her pardon; if you have offended a person publicly, apologize publicly.
Transform your anger into creativity.
Transform your envy into admiration for the values of the other.
Transform your greed into respect for beauty.
Transform your hate into charity.
Transform your pride into dignity.
When someone asks your opinion about something or someone, speak only of his or her qualities.
When someone is speaking to an interested audience, do not contradict that person and steal his or her audience.
When you become ill, regard your illness as your teacher, not as something to be hated.
When you perform a service, make your effort inconspicuous.
When you realize you have said something that is mistaken, do not persist in error through pride; instead, immediately retract it.
Pay for services performed for you.
Regard what does not belong to you as if it did belong to you.
Respect contracts you have signed.
Say no more than necessary.
Sleep and eat only as much as necessary.
Stop defining yourself.
Treat everyone as if he or she was a close relative.
Whatever you are doing, do it as well as possible.
Wherever you live, always find a space that you devote to the sacred.