The dark side of ourselves means the side of ourselves that we do not know or do not accept and that the object of self-knowledge by the method of self-observation was to bring this not yet known side of ourselves into the light of consciousness. The whole object of self-knowledge is to make more conscious our knowledge of ourselves. The idea is that when you have many things in you that you do not know and do not accept—i.e. things that are not conscious to you yourself—then these things complicate your life very much and cause all sorts of situations which would be avoided through self-knowledge.
We put this unknown or unconscious side of ourselves into other people. We project this side of ourselves and see it in other people. The Work says that we live in a very small part of ourselves. This means that our consciousness extends to a very small part of ourselves. Such a situation makes us very badly related to other people, to life and to ourselves. The idea of this Work is to enlarge consciousness. We have, we are told, to become far more conscious to ourselves through direct self-observation, so that all sorts of narrow pictures that we have of ourselves are destroyed and we begin to live in a larger edition of ourselves. We can take it as a general rule in the Work that when we are up against someone else we may be sure that that is the very thing we have to work on in ourselves. This gives us an entirely different orientation and in my opinion it is the beginning of real work. The thing you criticize so much in other people is something lying in the dark side of yourself that you do not know or acknowledge.
Maurice Nicoll, “The Unobserved Side of Yourself” in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 3, p. 831).
Working Note: For Today’s Inner Effort
Orientation: Use others to see what is not known in yourself.
What to Notice:
A strong reaction to someone’s behaviour.
Criticism that feels justified and repeated inwardly.
Seeing faults clearly in others without seeing yourself.
Refusing or resisting the idea: “this is in me.”
A brief hesitation where this possibility appears.
Work Effort for Today:
When criticizing, stop and turn attention inward.
Say: “this may be in me.”
Do not argue with this thought.
Hold the reaction without expressing it.
Remember: What you react to in others points to your dark side.
