The Work speaks of Self-Remembering from several different angles. The first is that a Man, a Woman, capable of 4 States of Consciousness, knows only two states, the so-called waking state, which we take as full consciousness, and sleep. However, both of these states are called sleep by the Work. For this reason it speaks of Humanity asleep, of the evils of life being incurable as long as we are asleep, and so on. It says that we should, normally, be in the 3rd State of Consciousness which it calls the State of Self-Remembering, Self-Awareness and Self-Consciousness, and was born to be in this state. But we fell asleep, through hypnotism.
This part of the teaching we are studying is of such importance that it must be repeated often. In observing other people, in observing the world, in observing ourselves, we gradually realize that the reason why things are as they are is because we are in hypnotic sleep. This is the real explanation. And this idea has been taught for thousands of years. But so powerful is the hypnotism playing on humankind on Earth that it is not realized. We are hypnotized into believing we are awake, fully conscious, that we have Real Being, Real Will, Real ‘I’, and that we know ourselves and can do. We cannot see that we are a machine and that everything we do the machine is doing.
Maurice Nicoll, “Further Commentary on Self-Remembering” in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 3, p. 1136).
Working Note: For Today’s Inner Effort
Orientation: Remember that mechanicalness appears as ordinary waking life.
What to Notice:
Taking yourself as fully awake.
Speaking from a mechanical “I.”
Being carried away by impressions.
Forgetting that the Work is your aim.
Work Effort for Today:
Question one moment of certainty.
Pause and remember yourself.
Sense the body briefly.
Continue without believing the mechanical “I.”
Remember: I am not awake. Remember yourself before the machine continues.
For Your Reflection:
What if being “awake” isn’t the same as being present?
Most of us move through the day convinced we are fully here, yet only later realize how much happened without our conscious participation. There is no need for discouragement in seeing this. Simply noticing our absence is already a different quality of attention. Perhaps today you can ask, “Am I truly here in this moment, or only moving through it by habit?”
How does this show up in your own experience? Join the conversation in the comments below.
