Now let us imagine a person who says: “This idea that Man, that Woman, is asleep cannot seriously apply to me. I am far from being asleep. I agree others are. But I am unusually lively and always on the spot—and, by the way, I simply cannot stand that fellow over there who is always shewing off and making out he’s different from other people.” Everyone makes remarks of this kind. It is due to a lack of consciousness. They are unaware that so often they are just what they are so critical of in others. They are unconscious of their own psychology. The consequence is that they see what is in them projected outside them like a magic-lantern slide on to another person.
The imaginary person mentioned above does not see that it is they themselves who are always boasting and making out that they are different from other people. Because they do not see it in themselves, they are over-critical of it in others. If they saw it in themselves they would not be. Now the point that I wish to emphasize in this connection is that in the Work people do not practice self-observation in relation to something as definite as noticing the same thing in themselves as they are critical of in others.
Maurice Nicoll, “Definite, Topical and Concrete Self-Observation” in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 5, p. 1597-1598).
Working Note: For Today’s Inner Effort
Orientation: See in yourself what you criticize in others.
What to Notice:
A sharp criticism of someone’s behaviour.
Inner certainty: “they are like that.”
Not connecting it to yourself at all.
The same attitude appearing in you in another form.
Resistance to seeing any similarity.
Work Effort for Today:
When you criticize, stop inwardly.
Name the exact trait.
Look for it in yourself now.
Do not justify or compare.
Remember: The fault you see clearly in others is in you.
