The most important thing is self-remembering. You must try to remember yourselves at least once a day, and you must do it willingly, from yourselves. All other work on oneself ultimately depends on self-remembering. Only half a minute is necessary, and even if it consists in nothing else than stopping your thoughts and trying to relax everything, it is better than nothing. Don’t think about self-remembering, but do it. At first it is best to do it at some definite time that you decide upon. The first sign that you are doing it rightly is that you have a distinct feeling of force entering you, as if something had opened in you. Immediately you feel this, stop. You must stop instantly, and forget about the whole thing.
Another form of self-remembering is called making ‘inner stop’ in oneself. This is done in connection with self-observation. For example you observe that you are beginning to talk in a certain mechanical way, or that you are getting annoyed with somebody, etc. You then make ‘inner stop’, as it is called, but this must be made completely, as if something were cut off. It does not matter if later on the things you are trying to stop come back. Let me say before going on that all self-observation should be accompanied by some degree of self-remembering. Remembering why you are observing yourself and feeling the presence of the work in your mind while observing yourself is a degree of self-remembering.
Maurice Nicoll, “A Note on Self-Remembering” in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 1, p. 38-39).
Working Note: For Today’s Inner Effort
Orientation: Remember yourself once today by your own decision.
What to Notice:
The beginning of mechanical talking.
Annoyance starting to form.
Inner talking carrying you away.
Forgetting the Work while observing yourself.
Work Effort for Today:
Make one complete inner stop.
Pause without outward display.
Sense the body briefly.
Leave the reaction unexpressed.
Remember: Stop completely. Remember yourself. Then let it go.
For Your Reflection:
What would happen if you remembered yourself for just half a minute?
So much of the day is carried along by habit that we rarely notice we’ve been swept away until much later. But even a brief moment of willingly returning to ourselves can quietly change the quality of the next moment. Not by striving, but by simply becoming present. Perhaps today there is one ordinary moment that is waiting for your attention.
How does this show up in your own experience? Join the conversation in the comments below.
