The Pendulum Within: The Great Thief of Self

The pendulum is the great thief within. I only remind you that you have to find some method of managing it; or else it will take away anything it gives. It is uncomfortable to see a person totally asleep or unguarded, temporarily at one end of the pendulum, full of excitement, terribly happy, looking forward to a new life and so on. In this state the person is wholly identified with one end of the swing of the emotional pendulum. There is no sign of Self-Remembering. Notice this point.

A few days later the pendulum has swung to the opposite side. The person is now dejected and miserable, bitterly disappointed, everything seems to have gone wro ng and there is nothing to look forward to. The person is again wholly identified with one end of the swing of the emotional pendulum. Notice that there is again no sign of Self-Remembering.

If you let yourself identify mechanically with each of the two opposites in turn—that is, with one side and then the other side of the emotional pendulum, wholly believing each with your whole feeling of 'I'—you will remain helplessly on the pendulum, swinging to and fro from excitement to depression, from depression to excitement.

Maurice Nicoll, “On Having No Middle" in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 5, p. 1561)