Waking Up Where You Are Asleep

This is most important— you cannot remember yourself unless you know through sincere observation that you are asleep in some specific sense. Then you must awaken in this part of yourself and try to be what you know. It is necessary to be what you know by working on yourself.

All this brings us to the 'Octave' of the Work, one note of which is the application of the Work to your being. This leads to new being and its refreshment. The subject of the Work, each one of you, is yourself. So, unless you observe yourself, there is nothing to work on.

Maurice Nicoll, “Knowledge and Being" in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 4, p. 1404)