When the Work Touches You

Now you must understand, all of you, that this doctrine of 'I's does not relieve you of all responsibility. Only a fool can imagine that. To reject 'I's or to select 'I's is a very real thing. To go with wrong 'I's must give you real pain, real suffering. This is useful suffering.

You must learn to hate 'I's in yourself. Otherwise you will make the Work trivial, an excuse for doing just what you want. There are periods when the Work comes down very hard on you. Then it passes for a time. But if it never comes down hard on you, you may be sure it is not yet willing to touch you.

Maurice Nicoll, “Self-Observation" in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 2, p. 443)