The Bones of the Work

We were created a self-developing organism. We were created not only to serve Nature, but to serve another order of laws, spoken of in every page of the Gospels. We were created with the possibility of remembering ourselves—that is, of giving ourselves the First Conscious Shock. But you will see that it is only he himself, she herself, who can do this. I will speak perhaps next time further about this.

But if you want to see, formulate, understand and vision in your mind what this Work is about, all that is said above may assist you when you forget everything and fall asleep. The mind then can help—but only if you have registered the strength, the outline, and indeed the very bones of the Work in your minds. If the Work is still something on the blackboard and not in your most intimate thoughts, then nothing will help you. You will still be running around trying to find a bigger blackboard.

Maurice Nicoll, “Notes on Work on Oneself” in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 3, p. 1224)