The One Thing We Can Do

Now the Work teaches that you have to do certain things which takes the form of not doing certain things as, for example, in general, not identifying—that is, not putting your feeling of 'I' into all your mechanical reactions. So the Work consists for a long time in not doing things, according to the instructions laid down so clearly in this Work on its practical side.

"Then do you mean that we can do nothing at all?"

Yes, you can do one thing. You can remember yourselves. That is the only thing said on the positive side of doing in this Work. Everything else is a process of not doing, not behaving mechanically.

"How can I remember myself?"

By realizing that you never remember yourself.

“But I am sure that I always remember myself.”

You may be sure that you always remember yourself but just notice whether you do. Do you always speak quite consciously, knowing exactly what you are going to say? You must observe sincerely and see whether it is quite true. If you are sincere with yourself you will find that you do and think and feel mechanically and that for the greater part of the day you are not aware of yourself at all.

Maurice Nicoll, "Commentary on One’s Level of Being" in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 3, p. 848)