When the Work Is Under Attack

When you begin to get force from the Work through your evaluation of it you must remember that it requires care. You may for days be unable to make proper effort, yet, as it was said, you know you are in some intermediary state. If you notice—if you have gone far enough—you are being tempted.

Negative 'I's, violent 'I's, rude 'I's, contemptuous 'I's, that do not wish to work, are trying to beat down your feeling of the Work. These periods are in fact very interesting if you will observe them and if you have a certain power of noticing by inner taste negative I’s.

Maurice Nicoll, “A Note on Personal Work" in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 2, p. 514)