True External Considering: Working on Oneself, Not the Other

It will be very easy for your attempts at external considering to turn into an increased form of internal considering. You must calculate second force—that is, the difficulties.

It will be useless, of course, if you start off from a superior position and try to put the other person right. Remember that when you feel offended you are beginning to internally consider. You must be quite passive to the other person and work on yourself all the time, if you can, and not get offended.

If you are sincere in your aim, you may be able to carry it out. You must never find fault, or show that you are finding fault. You must be ready to bear false accusations And of course you must be ready to bear the unpleasant manifestations of the other person and not lose your temper and begin to chant: "Here am I doing my best to be nice", and so on.

Maurice Nicoll, "Internal Considering and External Considering: VI” in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 1, p. 271 )