The Two Nourishments of the Work

Your inner relation to the Work, whereby it will nourish you, depends on two things. One is your own perception of the truths it teaches. Some of these truths are that you are asleep and your special task is to awaken from sleep, that one is a multiplicity and not a unity, that one does not remember oneself, that one identifies and internally considers, that one constantly submits to the power of negative emotions and False Personality, that one has only Imaginary 'I' and makes the fatal mistake of taking it as Real I.

The second thing that determines your inner relation to the Work is doing the Work. If you connect yourself by your own inner perception with the truths of the Work and by doing them realize their good, you will receive the two foods necessary for the development of Essence. Just as the physical body requires literal food and drink for its nourishment, so does the psychological body require the two psychological foods of good and truth, which the Work can supply.

Maurice Nicoll, “The Antagonism Between the Self-Love and the Work" in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 5, p. 1620-1621)