Maurice Nicoll - Simple Explanation of Work Ideas [1 eBook - PDF] (Fourth Way)

Simple Explanation of Work Ideas
By Maurice Nicoll

Dr. Maurice Nicoll was an early student and proponent of the Gurdjieff Work. Dr. Nicoll led groups involved in the study and practice of Gurdjieff's ideas in England untill his death in 1953. He complied an extensive series of talks and introductions to practical effort that is one of the major literary contributions offered by Gurdjieff's early pupils.

p. one wrote:

Everyone is two people - the person we suppose ourselves to be, and what we really are. Only Self-Observation shows us this. We cannot understand that we are two people unless we begin to understand what it means to observe ourselves. We see a world outside: that is what our senses give us. But the senses are turned outwards from oneself and cannot see what one is. But we have an organ inside ourselves which can observe this thing called oneself. By means of it we can see our thoughts, feelings, moods. This is the beginning of becoming another person. Our life depends on this thing called 'oneself. If we wish to have a different life, we first of all have to realise what kind of life we have now. All forms of suffering are due to this 'oneself. As long as we remain this 'oneself our life cannot alter. It will always attract the same misfortunes, disappointments, and so on. So the Work begins with seeing what one is like, what kind of person one is. For example, if we treat people without consideration for their feelings and do not know it, we shall always be suffering from their wish to keep away from us. But not seeing what we are like we blame others. Unless we see that we are behaving like this we cannot change. Other people realise what we are like: as we are, we do not - until we begin to observe ourselves. Through not seeing what we are like, we believe we are not properly treated. If we observe what we are thinking and feeling, what we are saying, how we are acting, after a time a new memory begins, a memory about ourselves. From then on, we begin to realise we are not what we supposed ourselves to be. We will begin to behave differently, not to blame other people, not to feel owed something. We will begin to realise we are two people and always have been. What we have supposed ourselves to be is imaginary.

Amazon Review
It is exactly as the title says: a simple explanation of work ideas. Nicoll has done well to pre-digest this teaching so that those unfamiliar with the teaching can be nourished by it. It covers the necessary basic concepts of genuine self-transformation, addressing man, not as he is, but as he can be. This book is not for those who are 'into self-help' or the popular spiritual discipline of the day. It is for those who are sincere in their wish to be different, to contact the inner circles of mankind through which the teachings originate. While first contact with it is superficial, any actual and sincere efforts made according to this books suggestion, will reveal deeper and deeper layers of the essential human being that one is.

This is a fairly short read, and yet it arrives due to a great effort spanning mny lifetimes. Read this with reverence. It is for real. MsSVig