Borrowed Shoes Don’t Fit: The Necessity of Individual Effort

If you ask me what this Work promises, I will answer you by saying that it promises nothing. You must begin by realizing what you actually are now. You are not yet conscious. When you see this, you must begin by remembering yourself.

This system promises nothing. But if you work, you will get something. Let us say, you will receive leather with which to make shoes. But you must make the shoes yourself, so that they fit you. They must be your own shoes—not borrowed shoes.

Maurice Nicoll, “On Realizing that One is Not Conscious" in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 3, p. 1003-1004)