Act vs. State: The Journey to Self-Remembering

There is a difference in quality between the state of Self-Remembering and an act of Self-Remembering, and many degrees of quality between acts of Self-Remembering; yet the least of these is greater than the fullest Self-Observation. The act of Self-Remembering is a conscious effort made in order to remember oneself. The state of Self-Remembering is the result of the act and the quality of the state of Self-Remembering depends on the quality of the act—i.e: the quality of the effort made to remember oneself

The act of trying to remember myself is to endeavour by trial and failure to reach some new state of oneself called the State of Self-Remembering. If already I know how to reach this state then the act or effort that I make will put me into this state. But I cannot expect at first by performing the act of Self-Remembering to reach the State. It will only be by long work, by innumerable acts, that I gain any success in reaching the state that I aim at reaching.

Maurice Nicoll, “Self-Observation and Self-Remembering" in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 2, p. 534)