The idea of the Work is that if you work on yourself now and take things more consciously and prevent yourself from mechanically feeling bitter about how people treat you, you are not only transforming the future but your conscious effort about yourself will also transform the past. That is to say, by working on yourself more consciously now through observing when you take situations in life negatively, you can alter not only the future but the past.
Have you noticed today what you have taken negatively from the standpoint of internal considering—namely, from the standpoint of thinking that the person did not behave rightly to you or that it started raining just when you wanted to have a picnic? You can alter your Time-body both in the future and the past by noticing and not agreeing with how you mechanically take events now. Of course, if you take things negatively, you have got to observe and acknowledge that you do so.
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 how you are taking events inwardly now.
What to Notice:
A complaint forming about a person.
A grievance renewed by memory.
Disappointment turning into a negative state.
Agreement with the thought: “This should not have happened.”
Work Effort for Today:
Do not agree with the negative interpretation.
Acknowledge the reaction without identifying.
Separate from the inner complaint.
Return to self-remembering for a moment.
Remember: Observe the reaction; do not give it your I.
