Now what is it we have to observe in ourselves to change our psychology? ... Are you making internal accounts all the time? Are you feeling that you are unhappy or badly treated or not given your right position? Are you always self-justifying when in a sense you know you are at fault? Are you indulging in long trains of negative emotion? Notice when you take offence and then think about False Personality. This is especially important for some of you. Try to see False Personality in yourself through self-observation. Try to see how it complicates your ordinary life in such a way that when you might with a little more consciousness have taken a situation calmly you prefer to make an uproar.
Try to observe your opinions and when you are speaking from your opinions without any real thought. Pull yourself up sometimes and say to yourself: ‘What are you thinking about? What are you feeling?’ Observe it. Observe how much of the time you are fast asleep and reacting mechanically the whole time, not giving that conscious shock to yourself called Self-Remembering. Observe how you never make any real effort but always avoid real effort. Observe all your forms of internal considering and try to observe your fantasies about yourself and don’t believe them. Observe what you are caught by, what you are always held down by, and what turns you sour, and work against these things by inner separation.
Maurice Nicoll, “Commentary on the Observation of One’s Psychology” in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 3, p. 797).
Working Note: For Today’s Inner Effort
Orientation: Observe one mechanical manifestation of False Personality.
What to Notice:
Taking offence inwardly.
Internal accounts beginning.
Speaking from fixed opinions without observing.
Negative imagination gathering force.
Work Effort for Today:
When a reaction begins, ask inwardly:
“What am I thinking? What am I feeling?”
Separate from the reaction before speaking or acting.
Remember: Observe first, separate, then remember the Work.
For Your Reflection
What story are you telling yourself today?
It’s surprisingly easy to believe every thought that passes through the mind. We explain ourselves, rehearse old grievances, or imagine how things should have been. But what happens when we observe those inner stories instead of immediately believing them? Even a brief moment of seeing can create a little space between ourselves and our habitual reactions—and that space is where real work begins.
How does this show up in your own experience? Join the conversation in the comments below.
The Weekly Aim
Each evening, I will review the day for five minutes without judgment.
