This post is a comparison of CC’s heightened awareness and second attention with Gurdjieff’s self-remembering. I can’t say for certain if they are the same, but they certainly share some characteristic traits. Let me know what you think, but do try the exercise for self-remembering first. I’m not as interested in mental speculations (but if you see some obvious discrepency, feel free to point it out). Otherwise, if you have some familiarity with both s-r and h.a., let me know what your experience is.

For one, both entail a loss of ‘normal’ memory.
Two – both achieve a lucidity of sorts.
Three is somewhat speculative. I don’t recall if CC explained why the first att is called the first and the second att is called the second… the first attention is not the first attention that we encounter in our lives. When we are born, we still remain undomesticated and non-language-minded (?), we don’t talk to ourselves and we haven’t yet formulated an “I” as a doer. The first attention that we encounter is the second attention. Of course this assumes birth as a beginning point, which is relative.
Anyway, I had my own idea why they could be called the first and second. In Gurdjieff’s teachings (and in advaita/non-duality) our “ordinary” attention encompasses, or is aware of, only one point at a time. For example, if we are having a conversation with someone (in the first att) our attention becomes absorbed in either what they (the object) are saying or we get absorbed in our own heads, our own internal world of thoughts/mind (as the pseudo-subject).

hi-tech schematics: 😉

self ————> other

or

self <------------ other The arrow represents the direction of the self's attention. In self-remembering an effort is made to maintain a portion of attention towards self (mainly through awareness of sensory perceptions - that it is you who are seeing, hearing, touching… incorporate smell and taste later when you become more adept at it… basically remain aware that “I am” or “I am present as this body”) while directing a portion towards the other (that which you are looking at and listening to – the external world, your environment). In this way the arrow of attention is directed to two different points simultaneously:

self <------------> other

Try it while reading the above again – read the words while simultaneously being aware that “I am”. Feel your feet on the floor, your hands against whatever they are placed on, hear the hum of the computer and whatever other sounds may be present, feel any tension in your body… get grounded IN your body… and remain so as you read these words.

Once you finish reading, you may pop back into uni-directional attention, and you may notice you don’t quite remember what you just read, because you read it with your intuitive level engaged as well as your intellect. This is something like what CC describes as his experience in heightened awareness. But this is a small taste, a beginning. In true self-remembering, you’ll forget yourself totally. You’ll be splitting your attention towards self and other simultaneously, as you’ve practiced many times before, and then suddenly… you’ll become aware that you are neither the first or second point, but a third point witnessing the other two. That will be the true self-remembering.
Try it while taking a walk. If you’re successful, you’ll find yourself “coming to” or “waking up” back into “ordinary” awareness and you won’t remember how you got there; that is, you won’t recall the walking in time and distance from the moment you enter self-remembering to the moment you pop out of it. Very disorienting for the identity!
As far as I’m aware, there is still something watching out for my body or looking over it, taking care of it. But you may not want to take this walk near traffic for the first few times, until you feel safe with it.

So maybe this is why its first attention (one direction of attention) and second attention (two directions). Maybe not. It’s still fun. Ultimately, we probably can’t say if it’s CC’s heightened awareness unless we’ve been slapped on the A.P. by a nagual. But, like I said, there are definite common characteristics. So you might want to incorporate self-remembering into your practices. But know beforehand, as with all warrior-seer techniques, this will bring your world down. Expect that your personal identity will crumble the more you enter any attention other than the one-directional, absorbed, “identified” attention.

Hsin Hsin Ming:

A Verbal Expression of the Direct Experience of Awakening

The Perfect Way is not so difficult if you have no preferences.
Once you stop loving this and hating that, it becomes clear with no disguises.

But make just the smallest distinction between one thing and the other and you create infinite separation. So if you want to live in truth, then do not have any opinions for or against anything.

Setting your likes against your dislikes is the disease of the mind.
If you do not know the deeper meaning of the Way, your peace of mind is needlessly disturbed.

Though the Way is as perfect as the vastness of space, where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess, it is your choosing to accept and reject things that prevent you from seeing the true nature of life.

Do not live seeking answers from the external world or by sinking into your inner feelings of emptiness.
Just calmly and impartially see, feel, hear, taste, the oneness of things and duality will disappear into itself.

When you strive to create stillness by stopping the mindââ?¬â?¢s natural activity, the resulting quiet is itself active and in motion. As long as you remain attached to one or the other of these extremes you can never realize that which is “not two.”

And when you do not understand this you fail in two ways. By denying the reality you insist upon its very existence and by insisting upon the emptiness you are denying its reality.

The more that you talk and think about Liberation the further away you wander from the truth. Stop this attachment to all speech and thought about being Awake and you will soon find it everywhere.

Go within to your source and you will find meaning but if you look outside of yourself all meaning will be lost. To be Liberated for just a moment is to transcend the appearance and emptiness in the world.

Do not search for new truths – just stop all attachment to your beliefs and judgments. Be ever vigilant of all dualities while you carefully avoid the pursuit of new ones.

If there is even a trace of this or that, of right or wrong, you will be left in confusion.
Although all duality comes from that which is “not two”, do not be concerned even with this “One Without a Second.”

Have no objections to or blame for anything in the world and your life will flow in front of you.
And when your discriminating thoughts no longer exist, your mind as you knew it, will no longer exist.

You (as the subject) believe in your separate existence because of external things seen as objects.
Yet neither the inner subject nor external object can exist without each other.

Understand the relativity of you and the other and you understand the basic reality – that which is “Not Two”. In this reality you cannot tell one from the other as each contains the whole world within.

Do not discriminate between what is coarse and what is fine and you will not be for or against anything.
Living in the Great Way is your nature. Neither easy nor difficult – it simply Is.

Relying on your limited views creates fear and indecisiveness – the faster you hurry, the slower you go.
You cannot pick and choose your attachments. Even attachment to the idea of Liberation points away from the truth.

Let things be as they are, accept life as it is, in this way there is neither expectation nor disbelief.
See the flow inherent in life and move effortlessly with it and you will live freely and undisturbed.

When your thoughts are in bondage the truth is always hidden behind the cloudy and unclear mind.
And the disturbing practice of judging yourself and the other only leaves you empty and weary inside.
No benefits can ever be gained from constant judgments and separations.

To live freely in Non-duality is to accept everything as indistinguishable, even the world of senses and ideas. To accept everything completely, totally is identical with true Liberation.

The wise man makes no efforts to do anything, but the foolish man binds himself in nothing but doing.
There is only one truth, One Taste – not many; your separation originates from attachments and judgments.

To seek the no-mind of Liberation with the mind of identity is the greatest of all mistakes.
Opposites originate as illusions from within your mind; with Liberation there are no opposites – no liking of this or disliking of that.

All forms of duality come from the illusory boundaries created within your mind.
They are like dreams, hallucinations, phantoms in the air and it is foolish to try to hold onto them.
Gain and loss, right and wrong, you must eliminate these thoughts now, once and for all.

If you never sleep, there will be no dreaming and all your dreams will naturally come to an end.
In the same way, if your mind creates no distinctions then all things are seen as they are, One Fundamental Reality.

If you understand the mystery of that which is “not two” you will be released from all bondage.
When you are able to see all things as equal, without distinction, you have reached your true identity.

No comparisons or analogies are possible in this causeless, relation-less state.
Think carefully about the motion that exists in stillness and the stillness that exists in motion, both movement and stillness disappear.

When these dualities no longer exist, Advaita itself cannot exist.
And in the Absolute, this end of everything separate, there are no rules, no laws, and no descriptions.

Only here and now can all your struggles be stilled, your doubts and indecisiveness disappeared and an Liberated life becomes possible. And in each moment, you are free from your bondage, you are attached to nothing and nothing clings to you. All becomes clear, empty, and self-illuminating without any effort from your mind.

When doubts come up, just say “not two” and you will flow directly into harmony with this reality.
In this “not two” you and everything are no longer separate, you and everything are no longer excluded.
No matter when and no matter where, Liberation means entering this truth.
And in this truth there is no time, no space, no differentiation; a single moment is infinite.

There is emptiness within you and emptiness outside you and still the universe is always right in front of you. When your personal definitions and self-constructed boundaries disappear the universe is both infinitely large and infinitely small ~ there is no difference.

It is also this way with Being and non-being.
Do not waste any time wallowing in doubts and arguments that have nothing to do with this reality.

Everything is the One, and the One is in everything; no boundaries except those created by your mind.
If you can realize just this, you will no longer worry about your and the worlds non-perfection.

To live with this conviction is the way to non-duality, because the non-dual is already unified with the mind that trusts in the Way.

Words!
The Way is beyond all language, because within the Way there is no past, no
future and no present.