In one sentence
Successful living, in this collection, means becoming less reactive, possessive, performative, and ego-driven. The method is disciplined self-awareness: finish what you start, keep promises, manage attention, transform difficult emotions, serve others without controlling them, and loosen identification with possessions, reputation, fixed opinions, and personal history.
Overview
The article by Nick Newman, published May 23, 2016, reproduces 82 brief principles introduced as a recollection of teachings associated with George Ivanovich Gurdjieff, rather than as Jodorowsky’s wholly original system. The list moves from inner attention and practical discipline to relationships, money, criticism, illness, death, sacred space, risk, and meditation. Its recurring instruction is not to suppress difficult impulses but to redirect them into more constructive forms.
Core ideas
Attention before self-improvement
Begin by observing thoughts, sensations, feelings, desires, and actions in real time. The list treats awareness as the foundation for changing behavior rather than relying on abstract self-images.
Completion and craftsmanship
Finish what you begin, work as well as possible, plan concretely, keep contracts and promises, pay for services, arrive on time, and avoid unnecessary speech or movement. Integrity is presented as repeated execution, not aspiration.
Nonattachment to identity and possession
Do not define yourself by labels, appearance, possessions, fame, old ideas, or other people’s praise and blame. The stronger version is radical: accept that nothing ultimately belongs to you, while still caring responsibly for what is temporarily in your hands.
Generosity without ego
Help people become self-sufficient rather than dependent; give secretly; share fairly; make service inconspicuous; and acquire things in order to share them. Helping becomes another form of vanity when it is used to obtain admiration, pity, or control.
Emotional transmutation
Fear is treated as a disguised desire; pride can become dignity; anger can become creativity; greed can become appreciation of beauty; envy can become admiration; and hate can become charity. The key model is transformation rather than denial or elimination.
Relational humility
Treat people as close relatives, listen from their position during disagreements, admit another person may be superior, avoid seduction and threats, apologize plainly, retract mistakes quickly, and do not seek to dominate attention or gain obedience.
Speech, judgment, and reputation
Speak only as much as needed, do not complain, avoid discussing personal problems or bragging about sexual exploits, and do not judge without sufficient knowledge. Do not defend an idea merely because it is yours, and do not react compulsively to either praise or blame.
Courage balanced with restraint
When genuinely undecided between action and inaction, the list favors taking the risk of acting. Yet this is paired with restraint: avoid useless friendships, debt, overconsumption, fashion-following, self-display, and visits made merely to kill time.
Practical takeaways
- Use a brief daily check-in: What am I thinking, feeling, wanting, and doing right now?
- Choose one unfinished task and complete it before starting a comparable new one.
- Before criticizing someone, list the factors you actually know and the ones you are assuming.
- When emotionally activated, name the impulse and identify a constructive channel for it—for example, turn anger into making, writing, or problem-solving.
- Give help in a way that increases the other person’s capacity rather than your own importance.
- Practice immediate correction: acknowledge mistakes, apologize to the affected person, and retract inaccurate claims without defending your pride.
- Separate identity from possessions, status, opinions, and past roles; describe yourself in ways that leave room for change.
- Create a small physical space devoted to reflection, prayer, meditation, art, or another personally meaningful practice.
Caveats and counterpoints
- The article’s title and presentation can make the list sound like Jodorowsky’s original commandments, but the introduction explicitly attributes the underlying principles to Gurdjieff, via Reyna d’Assia, and notes that Jodorowsky encountered them through his own life and work.
- Several rules are deliberately absolute and can conflict with ordinary ethical or practical judgment. For example, silence is not always wiser than contradiction, risk is not always preferable to hesitation, and keeping personal problems private can become isolation or prevent necessary support.
- Some advice assumes a high degree of self-control and social freedom. Immediate payment, avoiding debt, limiting possessions, and refusing to seek sympathy may be unrealistic or harmful under poverty, illness, abuse, disability, or unequal power conditions.
- The list favors individual transformation and offers little guidance about structural injustice, collective action, or situations where accommodation and dependence are necessary. Its usefulness is greatest as a set of prompts for self-observation, not as a universal code.
Questions worth revisiting
- Which commandments describe genuine discipline, and which might merely reflect the author’s preferred temperament?
- When does nonattachment become emotional avoidance or failure to take responsibility?
- How can one help others without making them dependent while still offering sustained care when dependence is unavoidable?
- Which difficult emotion do I most often suppress instead of transforming?
- Where would direct speech, disagreement, or asking for help be more ethical than silence or self-containment?
Return to this when…
Return to this list when you feel scattered, ego-defensive, resentful, or overly attached to status and possessions. Read it selectively as a diagnostic tool: choose one principle that exposes a current habit, test it for a week, and note where the rule needs modification rather than obedience.