The Third Force: Observing Opposites to Awaken

We have to observe the whole swing [of the pendulum] from one extreme to the other in order to discover our particular opposites.

An increase in consciousness in regard to our emotional life through the making of the opposites conscious by following the swing in Time, and so seeing how they are connected, shifts consciousness gradually towards the middle zone of the pendulum, to a third place lying between the opposites which becomes receptive of new emotions not on the pendulum. We acquire a middle.

If you can observe the pendulum through a full swing you will be sometimes astonished at what the opposite of any particular state turns out to be and so realize why you could not get released.

Maurice Nicoll, “On Having No Middle" in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 5, p. 1563)