Facing the Second Force Within

Always expecting to be different is wishing. It is a kind of continual, vague 1st Force. It will summon a continual, vague 2nd Force which will appear as something lying in outer circumstances. But the 2nd Force is not in outer circumstances, but in oneself.

You may find this difficult to believe, but when we have no self-knowledge everything seems to be the fault of something outside. Our senses are turned outwards. We do not observe ourselves.

Maurice Nicoll, “Commentary on Second Force in Oneself" in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 2, p. 542)