cliches vs authenticity in action

from: http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-4w6h9eA8erTSjhX.bWOKOe_BRiw-?cq=1&p=2290

"Gurdjieff used to say that man is a machine. It is true. Unless you become a Buddha, you are a machine. What does the word 'Buddha' mean? 'Buddha' means one who is awakened, aware.
Become aware. The man of awareness has no character. You will be surprised: I say the man of awareness is characterless - not in the sense that you give to the word 'characterless', but in a totally different sense he is characterless. Because he has no past to dominate him, no structure, no pattern. He is pure freedom. He is innocent. He responds to the moment, with no ready-made responses, because if a response is ready-made it is not a response at all: it is a reaction. He mirrors the moment as it is, and in that mirroring, he acts.

The unconscious person reacts; the conscious person acts.

And if you can act consciously, TOTALLY in the moment, you don't create any karma, you don't create any structures. You always remain free; you always go on moving beyond the past. You go on slipping out of the past like a snake slips out of the old skin.

Then life has tremendous beauty - because then there is power. And it is not YOUR power, so there is no question of any ego trip. Ego comes from the past; it is part of the law of necessity. Ego is your character, good or bad, but ego is the prison that keeps you in bondage. Ego arises out of your whole past.

Just think for a moment: if you have no past, who are you? Suddenly the whole edifice of the ego collapses. The man of power is not really powerful in his own right: he is just a vehicle for the power of God. He has no claims. He simply functions as a representative of the whole. He is utter freedom, utter joy. He knows no boundaries, he is infinite. Space and time are no more relevant to him. He is beyond space, beyond time.

That is the meaning of being enlightened. Disappearing as a character, disappearing as a person, disappearing as an ego... and becoming one with the whole"