You Cannot Work on Nothing

You cannot work on nothing. At first all is in darkness and you can see nothing in yourself. Conscious objective self-observation begins to let in a ray of light and you begin to see some things dimly. This light, created by the friction of self-observation, should gradually get stronger by practice until you catch sight of something in you clearly and beyond any doubt.

You will probably be startled. If so, you are now in a position to make a personal aim—namely, to work against this thing you have seen in yourself.

Maurice Nicoll, “Personal Aim" in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 1, p. 173)