A Reminder of What the Work is About

You cannot alter yourself directly. You can only alter by means of certain kinds of effort. These efforts are shown us. There is the great effort of non-identifying—not identifying, with yourself, to begin with. (What a fine fellow I am!). There is the great effort of Self-Remembering. This is the first effort of all, but very difficult.

There is the great effort of self-observation. There is the great and continual effort of living more consciously towards yourself, towards others in the Work and towards the Work itself. All this increases consciousness. Things alter by your becoming more conscious, more aware of them, by observation, by noticing without criticism, by gradual separation from them.

Maurice Nicoll, “A Reminder of What the Work is About” in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 2, p. 681).