What Is Gurdjieff's Self-remembering?

Robert Greene describes Gurdjieff's self-remembering as looking deeply at a moment and telling yourself you are remembering it and will remember it. A day in July from three years ago stays blank because you were asleep and not paying attention. Some moments you do remember come while attention is on and a shock hits, and the exercise asks for that kind of focus every day: I'm remembering, I'm experiencing it in the moment.

Uspensky, a famous Russian mystic who was deeply depressed and suicidal, became a disciple of Gurdjieff and practiced on a vase of flowers. He told himself he was remembering it, seeing it, and looking at it today. After 30 seconds the mind wanders and he cannot hold it. After a minute the flower started looking different while he told himself that in three years it would be stamped in memory. After months of attending to simple objects, he walked outside and the houses looked almost alive. Everything was intense and the world was altering. Then attention dropped. He came to in a tobacconist on the other side of Moscow or St. Petersburg, buying cigarettes three hours later, asking what had happened.

Full attention is the contrast that shows ordinary life is sleep. While he was remembering, he was awake. Once he stopped remembering, hours disappeared without notice. The exercise can alter neurology and how things are perceived.