(24.) Maurice Nicoll 1 - Commentary on Effort (I) - pp.91-96
This is number (24.) of our sequential postings from Volume 1 of Maurice Nicoll’s Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky.
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Links to each commentary will be put on the following Contents page, as we progress through the book:
Birdlip, December 19, 1941
COMMENTARY ON EFFORT - Part I.
Part I.—When a person in this Work has ceased to make any efforts, he is often said to be drifting. To drift means to have no direction. In other cases he is said to have fallen asleep. To fall asleep in the Work means simply to forget all about it. For example, a person may become so immersed in life that he forgets everything relating to the Work. He is then not merely drifting, but fast asleep. In this conversation I am going to speak about effort. The Work depends on effort. It is based on effort but effort of a certain kind. First of all, effort is, in general, distinguished into two kinds, mechanical and conscious. In a general sense, mechanical effort is what we have to do, what life makes us do. All animals, all nature, all organic life, of which we form a small part, have to make mechanical effort. Let us take an example. If it is raining you must put up your umbrella. This is exactly what is meant by mechanical effort, and by such efforts we adapt to life.
Conscious effort means effort that is not necessary in life and is not occasioned by life. That is, life is not the cause of it; the source of its origin does not lie in life. This means that some source other than the interests of life is necessary in order to make conscious effort, through which conscious effort becomes possible. Have you ever asked yourself if you really believe that there are any influences not belonging to life and coming from another source? Let me remind you of what this teaching says. There are two kinds of influences in life itself called A and B influences. A influences are created within life—by its clash and friction, by its jealousies and hatreds, by its ambitions, its wars, its crimes, its commerce, its interests, its laws, and so on. But B influences exist in life and they speak another language because they originate from a source outside life—from what are called C influences—that is, from people who have undergone individual evolution. C influences do not come from the circle of mechanical humanity, but from the conscious circle of humanity. But it is impossible for C influences to reach life directly. They would not be understood. Theirs is another language, one which we must learn slowly. Life alters them into B influences. But the point is that this system is based entirely on the existence of these other influences, distinct from life, called B and C influences—actually on C influences. That is why we have to learn a new language. You must understand that if man had not an inner secret destiny, if man were not a seed, and often a very unhappy one, there would be nothing for him save life and its interests. But the inner destiny of man does not lie in life. This seed that is man is capable of its own evolution and only certain kinds of light and heat can develop it—not the light and heat of the sun which governs external life and is the source of it. I say all this here because unless the two destinies of man are formulated in your own minds it is difficult to understand what
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the Work is about. The Work is what is called the Fourth Way, as distinct from the three other Ways. It is in life and so a person must know how to be in life and how to use life and get what he wants from life and at the same time be in the Work. This is only possible for certain kinds of people—namely, "Good Householders"—who are those who do their duty in life but do not believe in life. And you must realize that in this Work it is not demanded of you that you give up life or anything of that kind. On the contrary, this Work makes you realize that you must use life as far as you can for experience. But you must not trust life and get lost in it and think that the goal lies in life-experiences.
Conscious efforts are efforts to awaken from the sleep induced by life in humanity. As you know, it is not in the interests of nature that man should awaken, for then he ceases to serve nature. Such efforts would be impossible if man were merely a product of nature, whose sole function was to adapt to life. Why I say this at this point is that if you do not see for yourselves and are certain that there are in life two quite different sorts of influences, two kinds of things, two kinds of literature, two kinds of historical figures, then it will be impossible to make conscious efforts beyond a very limited degree. This is because in making the effort of personal work, the emotional centre must open out and must take its right part: and if it is only turned to life and personal ambitions, etc., it cannot come into its right action.
In making effort it is necessary to consider from what part of oneself the effort springs. A person may make effort against negative emotion in public, for example, for fear of making a fool of himself before others or of losing his job, etc. This is mechanical effort. As soon as he is at home, he will express his negative emotions. Conscious effort is quite different and springs from a different part.
When a man feels the existence of A and B influences and realizes that C influences must exist outside life, to account for the presence of B influences within life, he begins to feel the existence of something higher than himself. This begins to awaken the emotional centre and to make conscious effort possible. Otherwise the man will only feel self-emotions and remain in the narrow sphere of himself.
The most important conscious effort is to remember oneself. This always is difficult because we all forgot ourselves long ago, but it is quite impossible if a man has no sense of higher influences and cannot see the difference between A and B influences in life. Self-remembering must have an emotional factor, not of self, not of personality, but of something deeper, or, if you prefer it, higher than one's ordinary self. The factor of will enters in self-remembering—not self-will, but conscious will.
There are two sides to the Work where effort can be made, and these are the only two sides on which a man can evolve. The first is on the side of knowledge, and, in the case of this Work, the effort lies in thinking about the ideas and forming one's own individual intimate and inner connection with their meaning, and nothing is more important to start with. A man must think, speculate and ponder, take into his mind,
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dwell on in his own way, imagine and form his phantasies, his own sense of the Work, as a genuine starting-point in himself. For once he forms some starting-point, if it is wrong it can be modified. The Work then begins to shed a light in the mind. The second is on the side of one's being. Efforts on the side of knowledge are different from efforts on the side of being. It is quite easy to find this out for oneself. Man can develop in two directions and two only—on the side of knowledge and the side of being. Only these must go hand in hand. The resultant is understanding. As was said earlier, this Work must be based on understanding. One cannot adapt to it, as one does to life, outside oneself. Understanding is the most powerful force we can create in ourselves. Nothing better can be sought for in the long run than understanding: and in the Work a man is defined as his understanding. A man is his understanding. To-day I wish to speak only of effort on the side of being. Efforts directed upon one's being are different, as was said, from efforts directed to thinking about the knowledge of this system. The two sides of a man—the side of his knowledge and the side of his being—must be united to form understanding. This Work gives us more knowledge than we have being for. But it is very difficult to unite this knowledge with being. The whole task, however, is to do so, and the first necessity is to value the knowledge— that is, to like it, to wish it, to feel a desire for it. Knowledge can only unite with being through some emotion, through some desire, through willingness. One must will what one knows. Otherwise knowledge cannot unite with being. You cannot work on your being apart from the knowledge of this system and you cannot have any practical knowledge of this system unless you apply it to your being and you cannot apply it to your being—that is, it cannot enter your will and so act on you—if you do not wish it, desire it. A man's ordinary state is that he does not will what he knows. We act from our state of being, not from our knowledge. It is our will that acts and our will arises from our level of being. So a man knows better but acts worse, and as long as he is in that state, he has no unity in himself and so no understanding, because there are two separate sides in him. For knowledge to act on being there must be desire, or delight, or pleasure, in the ideas of the Work, for nothing can pass from the side of knowledge to the side of being without desire or pleasure or longing—that is, without willingness. Then a man will wish to live with what he knows, to live his knowledge, and his will and his knowledge will begin to coalesce. It is here that the whole valuation of the Work and its inner background comes in. Everything in the Work starts from valuation and this means wanting something, for you do not value a thing if you do not want it. This brings in the will, and it is through the will—through willingness—that you begin to apply the knowledge to your being. If you do apply it, then your knowledge will begin to turn into understanding through a union between the will of your being and the knowledge in your mind. As you know, understanding is defined clearly in this system. Understanding is the arithmetical mean between your knowledge and your being. So you see that to have know-
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ledge of these ideas is not enough. It is quite easy to see when a person only has knowledge but not understanding of this Work. If you understand something you can speak of it in different ways; if it is merely knowledge you will speak of it from memory.
Now as regards efforts on being. Everyone must make conscious effort on his being every day, and especially at this period of time when everyone is going to sleep. If you wish to take life as your teacher, then, as was said in a previous paper, you must practise non-identifying with what life brings you, pleasant or unpleasant, for a certain time every day. Life demands mechanical effort, but if you practise non-identifying, it becomes conscious effort. Only do it for a certain time—say an hour— and keep conscious and observe yourself carefully. For instance, make your aim not to object to anything for an hour. This helps you to see what non-identifying means. Afterwards you can relax as regards work and do what you want if you like. But either work or don't work, and know what you are doing. Do not be in between centres. Do not drift for lack of any mental direction—and do not at this time fall asleep. To relax is not necessarily to fall asleep.
Now as regards working on special things in yourself and making effort in regard to them—that is, on the side of your being, on the kind of person you are and the way you react. First take your negative self—that is, your daily negative emotions. Try to see first of all that you are negative and acknowledge it. This helps by itself. Now, as you know, it takes another person to make you negative. So ask yourself some questions such as these :
(1) Do I think I am badly treated by someone?
(2) Am I jealous of someone?
(3) Is it mechanical disliking?
This helps you to formulate your situation to yourself. Now try to formulate the answers to yourself. Then try to think what external considering means. External considering means putting yourself in another person's position and realizing his or her difficulties. It is one way of transforming life. So now become the person you think has treated you badly or the person you are jealous of, etc. Try to do this sincerely. It requires a conscious effort. Visualize yourself as the person and reverse the position—that is, you become the person you dislike or hate or criticize, and you are now looking at another person, called yourself. As a rule this will cure you very quickly, if you can do it. But if you are in an evil state of negative emotion—as we all are at times—nothing will help you save realizing what you yourself are like—that is, what evil you have in you and what you are really like. This is painful. But we cannot change without pain. The Work is a mirror and everyone in it can help you to see your own self in that mirror. But you will not understand this unless you see yourself in others or others in yourself. External considering is the main way to deal with negative emotions. But it is necessary to understand what it means. It depends on visualization. External considering takes some time. It is difficult to do sincerely—
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that is, lightly. It requires always a very great effort to do it. But it acts on being directly. Some find it impossible because they cannot imagine they might be someone else, especially a person they despise. This makes the Work difficult for them after a time.
Now let us speak of efforts on depression. Depression is not the same as being negative. There is one interesting thing about depression to be noticed—namely, that it affects all centres, even the instinctive centre. Depression is not due only to loss of hope and belief in the future, although this is a common cause. It can arise simply from making no efforts of any kind so that the centres are water-logged, so to speak, and on the other hand the state itself, however caused, is one in which the energy in centres turns sour. It can arise simply from a picture of oneself, as when one imagines one is always, let us say, successful, and finds one is not. But whatever its cause, the state of depression must be recognized and every kind of effort made to overcome it. I say effort, because effort only will change the state, even the effort of doing just ordinary small necessary things. But it is the conscious effort of remembering yourself that will instantly lift you out of depression. The reason is that it brings you into Work 'I's—that is, into the 'I's that feel the influences of the Work—and out of life 'I's in which the depression is centred. And here I must add that you must fight to have the Work in you. You must fight in your mind for the Work, to keep it alive, otherwise it begins to get cold.
Now take the question of conscious effort on mechanicalness. This is a very big question. Begin with talking, outer and inner. Talking is the most mechanical thing in a person. Remember it does not only mean talking at the time, but talking afterwards. I must warn you that it is always easy to see when a person has been talking badly. And talking is not merely saying things, but writing them or shewing them in some way by intonation, by gesture, by hinting, and so on. Hinting is a very bad example of wrong talking. Finally, it means talking inside oneself. Try to think over what you have said during the day and then think of the rules. People often infect one another by bad talking—that is, they are dangerous to one another. And remember here that what I say to anyone in private is not to be talked about. That is a definite rule. Now take another mechanical habit apart from talking. First you must observe whether it is a bad habit—i.e. if it puts you asleep. There are good habits which are mechanical—but why try to alter them? Distinguish between good and bad mechanical habits. Notice a clear example—i.e. laziness, greediness, etc. Try to overcome it for a short time—that is, while you have the force to do so. Never work on yourself beyond the point that it is useful, for then effort ceases to be conscious and becomes in turn mechanical. Everything becomes mechanical in time. Remember that. Everything you do consciously is preserved for you: everything you do mechanically, since you did not do it, is lost. So efforts must be conscious. Actually, there are no such things as mechanical efforts in the Work. They belong to life. There is a class of efforts called
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in the Work efforts to avoid effort. This means that people make all sorts of useless and unnecessary efforts and avoid making the effort that is required. You remember the clown at the circus. He rushes about doing all sorts of useless things. This clown is ourselves. But we will speak of useless efforts next time.