Not Identifying with Negative States

A person sitting in this room, appearing just as others, can be in a quite different inner state and experience quite different emotions and thoughts from everyone else and yet show nothing outwardly unusual. Often Mr. Ouspensky emphasized that there were better states of ourselves and that everyone knew it. Asked once what the Work is all about, he said: "It is about reaching a better state of oneself, learning how to, learning what efforts are needed and what to avoid and knowing how to maintain it. Reflect on all the Work-teaching practically, if you have not done so already.”

“Begin to make an effort to see what it is about. It is not very difficult. Why, for example, does it speak so much about not identifying with negative states? You must understand," he said, looking on us all, "that a negative state is not a better state of oneself. It is a worse state. But some of you do not yet understand."

Maurice Nicoll, "The Idea of Payment in the Work" in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 3, p. 1063)