The Violin in the Case: The Potential of Small Will

The Work says that you have no real permanent will because you have no real permanent 'I'. But it says that you have a small degree of will, comparable with the degree of freedom of movement a violin has in its case. But it will all depend in what direction you use the small will that you naturally have.

If you never use it in connection with the directions given by the Work, you will not develop any further will. But it is impossible to get this point of view aright unless one has the possibility of viewing one's own life from the judgment of esoteric teaching—that is, unless one sees the necessity of inner development. If you view yourself, as the result of your personal self-observation, in the light of the directions given by the Work, you will recognize sooner or later where you are deficient.

Maurice Nicoll, “Paper III — On Effort in the Work” in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 1, p. 249-250)