There is another state of yourself available. You have seen it for yourself. By knowing this, by affirming it to yourself deeply, you verify the Work. So you make the Work real to yourself and so it becomes real in you—that is, helps you, transmits force to you. It begins to calm you, widen you, a very important early result. But if you are always arguing to yourself about words used in the Work, or, worse still, never really think about it, how can it connect with you? As Gurdjieff said: “Do not listen to the words—try to hear internally the meaning.”
One reason why we do not establish the Work in ourselves is because we only think of ourselves—yes, all the time. This is Internal Considering. False Personality is only concerned with itself and is always fascinated with how it is treated. We are most asleep when identified with it. You can see why. All emotions turn into False Personality. Now to think of the Work means stepping out of False Personality. But the False Personality hates the Work, because the Work will eventually destroy it. Every act of Self-Remembering weakens the False Personality. At the third level of consciousness False Personality cannot breathe—cannot exist. It lives in the second level of consciousness—the so-called Waking State.
Maurice Nicoll, “Notes on Different Qualities of Consciousness” in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 4, p. 1243)
Working Note: For Today’s Inner Effort
Orientation: Step out of internal considering into remembering the Work.
What to Notice:
Moments of being occupied with how you are seen or treated.
Inner complaints, comparisons, or hurt feelings.
The sense of “me” at the center of everything.
Work Effort for Today:
When internal considering starts, shift attention to the Work.
Do not follow the thought about yourself.
Sense the body briefly and divide attention.
Remember: “Do not think only of yourself.”
