Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky 1 Quotes

“You will remember that every psychological or inner state finds some outer representation via the moving centre—that is, it is represented in some particular muscular movements or contractions, etc. You may have noticed that a state of worry is often reflected by a contracted wrinkling of the forehead or a twisting of the hands. States of joy never have this representation. Negative states, states of worry, or fear, or anxiety, or depression, represent themselves in the muscles by contraction, flexion, being bowed down, etc. (and often, also, by weakness in the muscles), whereas opposite emotional states are reflected into the moving centre as expansion, as standing upright, as extension of the limbs, relaxing of tension, and usually by a feeling of strength. To stop worry, people who worry and thereby frown too much or pucker up and corrugate their foreheads, clench their fists, almost cease breathing, etc., should begin here—by relaxing the muscles expressing the emotional state, and freeing the breath. Relaxing in general has behind it, esoterically speaking, the idea of preventing negative states. Negative states are less able to come when a person is in a state of relaxation. That is why it is said so often that it is necessary to practise relaxing every day, by passing the attention over the body and deliberately relaxing all tense muscles.”
― Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky 1

“History repeats itself because man remains at the same level of being—namely, he attracts again and again the same circumstances, feels the same things, says the same things, hopes the same things, believes the same things. And yet nothing actually changes. All the articles that were written in the last war are just the same as the articles written in this war, and will be for ever and ever. But what concerns us more is that the same idea applies to ourselves, to each individual person.”
― Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky 1

“When a man pities himself, he feels he is owed—like the dog. If you feel that you are owed, you will never begin truly to work on yourself.”
― Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky 1

“Whoever we are, we find ourselves, through self-observation, possessed of a certain small number of typical ways of reacting to the manifold impressions of incoming life. These mechanical reactions govern us.”
― Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky 1

“So we have to work in the midst of life, surrounded by all the misfortunes of life, and eventually life becomes our teacher—that is to say, we have to practise non-identifying in the midst of the happenings of life; we have to practise self-remembering in the midst of affairs; and we have to notice and separate ourselves from our negative emotions in the midst of all hurts and smarts in daily life.”
― Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky 1

“To change one's life is not to change outer circumstances: it is to change one's reactions.”
― Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky 1

“Meaning gives force and the more meaning this work has for you the more it will affect you emotionally and the more force will you obtain from it. For it is from the awakening of the emotional centre that the greatest force is derived.”
― Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky 1

“will now have to divide certain centres into positive and negative divisions, first of all, and then fill in, here and there, at present only some of the subdivisions, giving approximate definitions of their functions. Let us begin with the Intellectual Centre. Note.—Only the Moving Part of the Intellectual Centre is in any detail charted in this diagram. Note here the difference between Emotional Part of Moving Part of Intellectual Centre and the Emotional Part of Intellectual Centre as a whole. Notice what is meant.”
― Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky 1

“Now the idea in the Work is that just as we can change our position in the outer world by physical effort, so we can change our position in the inner world by psychological effort. And just as a man can be in a better or worse place in the outer world, so can he be in a better or worse place in the inner world. But because it is difficult to look into the inner world and see where one is standing in it, people let themselves, as it were, be anywhere inside, although they would not think for a moment of letting themselves be anywhere outside.”
― Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky 1