Now try to see an attitude in yourself. I mean, really try. Realize that you have not got an open mind. I want—as always—examples based on your own self-observation. I do not want questions such as: ‘Is an ‘I’ the same as an attitude?’ Do you yourself know that you yourself have fixed attitudes and that you practically know nothing of them? Have you noticed when you are speaking from attitudes? Do you understand from this talk why the mind cannot change as long as it is full of attitudes? Do you understand that you cannot undergo ‘change of mind’ or what Christ called metanoia as long as your mind is fixed and walled into attitudes, into compartments, in which nothing can grow?
And let me say frankly—do you understand that your whole life may be spoiled by the existence of these attitudes lying under the surface of your mind and unrecognized by you? Recollect: you cannot change yourself unless you change your attitudes. Try therefore to see the results of attitudes. Notice when you feel shocked, for example. Notice when you feel intolerant, contemptuous, etc. Notice when you tut-tut at things. Notice when you judge, and if you can, notice when you are speaking from attitude. Notice your intonation and your expression and notice how bored others become. I suppose a person could speak all day from attitude without saying a single interesting thing.
Maurice Nicoll, “Note on Observation of Intellectual Centre and Useless Thinking and Wrong Thinking” in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 4, p. 1172-1173).
Today, do not try to change an attitude; simply catch it in the act, especially when it appears as certainty, judgment, or a subtle shock at what does not fit your usual way of seeing.
Today’s Aim
To recognize one fixed attitude before it speaks or acts.
Notice
The moment you inwardly dismiss someone.
A quiet feeling of superiority or contempt.
The impulse to correct before understanding.
The tone of certainty in your own voice.
How quickly you become shocked or intolerant.
Whether others stop listening while you continue speaking.
Practice
Choose one recurring situation today—a conversation, a meeting, or a familiar relationship. Instead of following what you think, observe how you are thinking. When you notice a fixed attitude speaking, do not suppress it or defend it. Simply recognize: This is an attitude.
Let the observation be the work.
Remember
An attitude cannot be seen while you are speaking as it; it is seen only when you stand a little apart from it.
“I will observe the ‘I’ in me that wants to be right.”
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