What does it mean to give up your negative emotions? It means in the first place to follow what the Work says. But how can you give them up? First of all, you have to observe them, and then try not to identify with them. Most people, about five minutes after they get up in the morning, begin to identify with negative emotions— i.e. they identify with their habitual personal reactions to life. They do not observe what happens to them simply because they have no self-observation in the Work-sense. They let themselves go. They do not remember themselves. They do not hold themselves together internally. In other words, they instantly fall asleep on rising.
They pass the day in attracting to themselves situations and things that would not come to them if they remembered themselves. Half an hour’s work in the morning can make a great difference all day long. You can all see for yourselves what it means to be under the Law of Accident and the Law of Destiny or Fate. But people have to find this out for themselves. People often open letters the moment they get up. I wonder why. Is it necessary to be plunged immediately into the accidents of life without having formed in yourself a certain resistance to life, without having a certain sacred moment with yourself of Self-Remembering, so that life and all its accidents do not instantly rush in and occupy the whole psychology?
Maurice Nicoll, “A Note on the Law of Fate” in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 3, p. 803)
This Working Note offers a simple direction for practice — bringing the passage into your own observation and daily effort. Normally part of the supporting subscription; shared openly through February.
Working Note: For Today’s Inner Effort
Orientation: The passage directs attention to the beginning of the day, before negative identification takes hold.
What to Notice:
Tomorrow morning, observe the first five minutes after waking.
Notice the first mood that appears.
The first thought about the day.
The first small complaint or resistance.
See how quickly identification forms.
Watch the impulse to reach outward at once—phone, message, task.
Observe how life begins to enter before you are present.
Notice whether you remember yourself at all.
A Small Effort:
Before engaging with anything external, sit quietly for a few minutes.
Do not open messages.
Do not begin the day outwardly.
Sense the body.
Recall your aim.
Form a small inner resistance to immediate identification.
Begin the day with one act of Self-Remembering.
Remember: From the first moment.
Thank you to those who replied “yes” to the working circle. The response has been strong and encouraging. I’ll be starting with a small pilot group of 6–7 people and will reach out personally. If this first group goes well, I’ll open another.
