The Practice of Non-Critical Self-Observation

Remember that it is said that self-observation must be uncritical. You do not observe yourself in order to criticize yourself. If you do so it will at once stop self-observation and lead to internal considering. When self-observation begins to accompany you, you will notice that it is not critical: it is simply a slight degree of consciousness. It is not a critical consciousness, a judging consciousness, but an awareness.

As you know, we are told at first simply to observe and not to analye. To try to find causes is to analyze. We are told not to analyze what we observe in ourselves, but to observe, to notice, to be conscious of, to be aware of our inner states. This is based on the teaching that to make a thing conscious begins to change it.

Maurice Nicoll, “Further Notes on Deeper Self-Observation” and "Note on Internal and External Attention and Placing of Consciousness" in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 2, p. 560 and Vol. 4, p. 1251)