The Shop of the Universe: How Specific Aims Transform Us

In the Work it is said that it is necessary to have aim. Without aim, we in the Work drift. Aim must have a definite formulation. To aim to be better in a vague sense, is not asking. When it is said: "Ask and ye shall receive," it means to ask something real, something you have seen and wish to change. Often I have given you the example of a person going into a shop—the shop of the Universe—and, going to the counter, the person is asked: "What do you want?" The person hums and haws and says: "Oh, I really don't know—I want—let me see—I want—let me see—I want—"

"Yes, what do you want?" asks the shop-keeper. The person does not know. That is one reason why the Work teaches you in detail, specifically, what you must observe in yourself and work against. If you went into that great shop and said: "Yes, I want to stop making these internal accounts against others, I want to cease always blaming life and others, always feeling resentful, and thinking that others have not behaved rightly to me, always thinking that if I had had different conditions I would have been marvellous. I want you to sell me something to make me see I am wrong, because I dimly see the idea and yet I cannot get hold of it deeply enough." Well, what do you think? That is a real request.

Maurice Nicoll, “Commentary on Aim” in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 3, p. 1096)