Goodwill and the Balance of Knowledge and Being

At this time of the year the idea of Goodwill is mentioned on Christmas Cards, in religious services, in hymns, and so on. In the Gospels the message from the Angels at the Birth of Christ is said to be: "Peace on earth and goodwill towards men." A strange message if you think. I mean, that apparently goodwill can only come from something higher than we are. Many sides are possible for the instrument of self-observation to make one more conscious of one's ordinary state.

You may have knowledge and even a certain understanding of the knowledge of this Work. Unless you work on being, from which originates the Will—the Good Will—you may be trying to know and understand this Work on the basis of a level of being which is usually full of ill-will towards other people—that is, jealousy, covetousness, etc. Will belongs to the side of being but intake of this Work belongs to the side of knowledge. As you know, it is said that unless level of being and level of knowledge develop equally, a man, a woman, will not have real understanding. In fact, the Work says that understanding is the result of a certain ratio between growth of knowledge and growth of being.

Maurice Nicoll, “On Goodwill” in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 4, p. 1349-1350)