Now if you begin to externally consider another person over a considerable period, you must again and again put yourself in the other person’s place. In this way you become more conscious. The object of the Work is to become more conscious. Self-observation makes you more conscious of yourself: external considering makes you more conscious also of others. Through externally considering, things you were not conscious of before are revealed to you.
Let us take a simple example of revelations of this kind: you put yourself in another person’s position and after a time you realize that you expect this person to do things you would not think of doing yourself—for example, you expect this person perhaps to put up with conditions that you would not put up with for a moment. Do you see that you have gained in consciousness? Now if you have a revelation of this kind it means that you are really beginning to externally consider, to understand what it means to put yourself in another person’s position.
Maurice Nicoll, “Internal Considering and External Considering” in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 1, p. 265).
Working Note: For Today’s Inner Effort
Orientation: Practise external considering in one definite relationship today.
What to Notice:
Expecting something from another person that you would resist yourself.
Judging another without seeing their situation.
Impatience when someone acts differently from your wishes.
Inner insistence that your position is the only one.
Work Effort for Today:
Put yourself in the other person’s place.
Pause before reacting inwardly.
Ask: what might this look like from there?
Allow the reaction to soften without expressing it.
Remember: Leave your position briefly and see from the other side.
