Aim: The Light in the Distance

All personal aim on a small scale is a means, not an end. It is to make you think and awaken, to keep you awake. Aim is on different scales. Aim on a great scale is to be awakened from sleep, to attain inner liberation. But to say that this is one's aim is not enough.

You may see something in the far distance as your aim but in order to get to it you find that many lesser aims are necessary. You may say you want to go to China. But to get there, you must do many things in between and you must have enough money to buy a ticket. Mr. Ouspensky said that aim is like this: You see far off a light that you wish to reach. But on approaching it, you find many lesser lights, like lamp-posts along a road, that you must pass one by one, before you attain the final aim.

Maurice Nicoll, “Personal Aim" in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 1, p. 174)