Last time we spoke about observing internal considering from the aspect of making accounts against other people. If you remember, it was said that making internal accounts against other people has to do with always thinking that other people are happier or better placed than we are, that they do not understand our difficulties, and, as a consequence we are always feeling that we are owed something.
In a discussion here it was explained that if your Time-body is full of these internal accountings it is in a bad state. It is full of negative emotions based on the idea that other people have never behaved rightly to you, have never understood you and your difficulties. As was said at this meeting, such a Time-body is a bad kind of Time-body to have. It was also added that when two people marry they do not only marry their physical bodies but they marry their Time-bodies. A person may look wonderful but has a negative Time-body and as a result marriage will not be so beautiful as romance paints it. Now to transform the Time-body, if it is negative, you must work on yourself now and stop now this facile mechanical way of taking everything that happens to you.
Maurice Nicoll, “Further Note on Observing Internal Considering” in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 4, p. 1331).
Working Note: For Today’s Inner Effort
Orientation: Observe internal accounts as they arise in the present moment.
What to Notice:
Remembering an old hurt and renewing it inwardly.
Feeling that someone owes you understanding.
Comparing your situation with another person’s.
Inner talking that keeps a grievance alive.
Work Effort for Today:
Cancel one internal account immediately.
Do not continue the inner argument.
Return attention to the present moment.
Sense the body briefly and let the account stop.
Remember: Nothing is owed now; stop the account and observe.
