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Gurdjieff y Ouspensky #3
Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of G. I. Gurdjieff and P. D. Ouspensky, Vol 3
pages 779-1226
- GenresNonfiction
447 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1952
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31 people want to read
About the author
Maurice Nicoll
217 books51 followersMaurice Nicoll (19 July 1884 – 30 August 1953) was a British psychiatrist, author and noted Fourth Way teacher. He is best known for his Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, a multi-volume collection of talks he gave to his study groups.
Nicoll was born at the Manse in Kelso, Scotland, the son of William Robertson Nicoll, a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. He studied science at Cambridge before going on to St. Bartholomew's Hospital and then to Vienna, Berlin, and Zurich where he became a colleague of Carl Gustav Jung. Jung's psychological revelations and his own work with Jung during this period left a lasting influence on Nicoll as a young man.
After his Army Medical Service in the 1914 War, in Gallipoli and Mesopotamia, he returned to England to become a psychiatrist. In 1921 he met Petr Demianovich Ouspensky, a student of G. I. Gurdjieff and he also became a pupil of Gurdjieff in the following year. In 1923 when Gurdjieff closed down his Institute, Nicoll joined P.D. Ouspensky's group. In 1931 he followed Ouspensky's advice and started his own study groups in England. This was done through a program of work devoted to passing on the ideas that Nicoll had gathered and passed them on through his talks given weekly to his own study groups.
Many of these talks were recorded verbatim and documented in a six-volume series of texts compiled in his books Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky.
Nicoll also authored books and stories about his experiences in the Middle East using the pseudonym Martin Swayne.
Though Nicoll advocated the theories of the Fourth Way he also maintained interests in essential Christian teachings, in Neoplatonism and in dream interpretation until the end of his life.
Nicoll was born at the Manse in Kelso, Scotland, the son of William Robertson Nicoll, a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. He studied science at Cambridge before going on to St. Bartholomew's Hospital and then to Vienna, Berlin, and Zurich where he became a colleague of Carl Gustav Jung. Jung's psychological revelations and his own work with Jung during this period left a lasting influence on Nicoll as a young man.
After his Army Medical Service in the 1914 War, in Gallipoli and Mesopotamia, he returned to England to become a psychiatrist. In 1921 he met Petr Demianovich Ouspensky, a student of G. I. Gurdjieff and he also became a pupil of Gurdjieff in the following year. In 1923 when Gurdjieff closed down his Institute, Nicoll joined P.D. Ouspensky's group. In 1931 he followed Ouspensky's advice and started his own study groups in England. This was done through a program of work devoted to passing on the ideas that Nicoll had gathered and passed them on through his talks given weekly to his own study groups.
Many of these talks were recorded verbatim and documented in a six-volume series of texts compiled in his books Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky.
Nicoll also authored books and stories about his experiences in the Middle East using the pseudonym Martin Swayne.
Though Nicoll advocated the theories of the Fourth Way he also maintained interests in essential Christian teachings, in Neoplatonism and in dream interpretation until the end of his life.
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July 20, 2023
Similar to the prior volumes, discusses different aspects of Fourth Way teachings in a simple way meant for the reader to understand the topic. Gives practical advice on how to apply it. A couple favorite excerpts:
“As has been said several times, we live in what is invisible to others. Our bodies are in visible space, but our thoughts and moods and fears and anxieties and feelings are invisible and constitute where we dwell in the psychological world. It is in this psychological world that we really live. So it has been said that we are all invisible. Through our visible bodies we try to signal to one another in a clumsy way. But actually we are invisible and nearly unknown to one another. This is very strange. Yet the more you reflect on it, the more will you see that it is true. We do not live in the external sense-given outer world, but in an invisible, inner psychological world. If we are in the same place in the psychological world, however, we understand our signals better and perhaps even do not have to signal in the usual manner.”
“You will remember that what is done from Personality is done through the force of external circumstances. External circumstances make you act. You are not free. That is, you cannot do. External circumstances acting on your machine cause it to react. This is not doing in the Work-sense. The machine does, not you. In fact, there is no You—that is, no Real 'I'. What you call 'I' is nothing but a changing collection of 'I's in the Personality acted on at the moment by external circumstances. To begin to do, one must stop the reactions of certain 'I's—that is, not do. All you can do is to remember yourself.”
“As has been said several times, we live in what is invisible to others. Our bodies are in visible space, but our thoughts and moods and fears and anxieties and feelings are invisible and constitute where we dwell in the psychological world. It is in this psychological world that we really live. So it has been said that we are all invisible. Through our visible bodies we try to signal to one another in a clumsy way. But actually we are invisible and nearly unknown to one another. This is very strange. Yet the more you reflect on it, the more will you see that it is true. We do not live in the external sense-given outer world, but in an invisible, inner psychological world. If we are in the same place in the psychological world, however, we understand our signals better and perhaps even do not have to signal in the usual manner.”
“You will remember that what is done from Personality is done through the force of external circumstances. External circumstances make you act. You are not free. That is, you cannot do. External circumstances acting on your machine cause it to react. This is not doing in the Work-sense. The machine does, not you. In fact, there is no You—that is, no Real 'I'. What you call 'I' is nothing but a changing collection of 'I's in the Personality acted on at the moment by external circumstances. To begin to do, one must stop the reactions of certain 'I's—that is, not do. All you can do is to remember yourself.”
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