React Less, Remember More

Now let us turn to another thing that we can and must observe— namely, the absence of Self-Remembering in oneself. Do you try to take life from the Work point of view or do you take it from your mechanical reactions to life ? If you bring the Work in between what happens in life and how you react to life, you will already be beginning to remember yourself.

For example, something unpleasant has happened to you. Logically, you have every right to be upset. But if you are negative it is your fault. So if the Work and all its teaching intervenes between you and your reaction, you will be able to develop your being through the power of the intervening Work, by not reacting mechanically. The Work can transform you. As long as you react mechanically at every moment your level of being will remain as it is. There will be no self-transformation.

Maurice Nicoll, “Observation of Certain I’s" in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 4, p. 1330)