Gnosis in a Hundred PagesPage 1 of 100

Before the first page

Four short pages to start. The first is an exercise you do while you read it. The next three say what Gnosis is, what it asks of you, and where the whole book is going.

Read this page as if watching yourself

The first exercise begins before the first idea: notice yourself reading.

Read to me

0:00 / –:––
While the eyes follow the words, part of you turns back toward the one who reads.

You are reading these words. That is easy to know. It is harder to notice.

Try it now. While your eyes move along this line, let part of your attention turn back toward the one who is reading. Notice how you are sitting. Notice your breath. Notice the voice in your head that says these words as you read them.

Something just changed. A moment ago there was only the page. Now there is the page and you. Your attention has split in two: half on the words, half on yourself.

Attention divided: half on the world, half on yourself.

That small split is where this whole book begins. Most of the day, attention pours out in one direction. It goes into the phone, the conversation, the worry, and nothing is left for the one doing it. The tradition of Gnosis calls this being asleep. It calls the split you just made the beginning of waking up.

You do not need to believe anything to try this. You only need to do it and see what you notice. Everything in these hundred pages is meant to be tested that way: by you, in your own day.

Try this

  1. The next three times you reach for your phone, stop for one breath first.
  2. In that breath, notice your hand, your face, and what you were hoping to find.
  3. Then use the phone as you meant to.

Words on this page

Divided attention
Keeping part of your attention on yourself while you look at the world. Later pages call it watching yourself.

In the old words

“To know and to observe are different.”

Treatise of Revolutionary PsychologySamael Aun Weor
On the next pageWhat the word Gnosis means, and why belief is not enough.2. Gnosis means knowing