Shifting Yourself: The Work of Liking What You Dislike

When you have this pause in you, this momentary consciousness in a new place—you can begin even to like what you dislike. As was said, if you can stop mechanical disliking— the common source of loss of force and negativeness—by catching the impression of the disliked person before it fully engages the acquired machine you take as yourself—then this work on yourself will lead you to the possibility of sounding the next note in this octave—namely, of beginning to like what hitherto you so easily, so continually, so unchallengeably, so automatically, disliked.

One must shift oneself from what one is. And if you continue to dislike mechanically you cannot shift yourself. All mechanical reactions to life, to others, keep you exactly where you are. Remember, work on yourself must be accompanied by work in regard to others. In beginning to like what you dislike, start with a person you know. First, stop disliking. Then see for yourself what happens.

Maurice Nicoll, “On Finding Solutions” in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 3, p. 981)