The ‘present’ is no longer confined to the instant—but broadens gradually into all one’s life, as consciousness expands.”
- #MauriceNicoll, ‘Commentaries on the Psychological Teachings of Mr. G. I. #Gurdjieff and Mr. P.D. #Ouspensky’
#MAURICENICOLL ON THE CURVATURE OF TIME
“As you know, modern physics says that Time is curved. This means that it is a circle. It is not an extended line, but a line that bends round on itself and comes back to the same place ... The past is living in us.
Remember the sign of intelligence is the power of adaptation and that all strength in the Work means flexibility, not rigidity. Your "strong man" in life is usually, from the Work angle, merely a man crystallized in Personality—a one-track man.
- #MauriceNicoll, 'Commentaries,' Vol.I, p.236
In the Work, everything can become useful — once the Work has begun to penetrate one's mind and will and being, and no longer lies merely in the memory. Then, "all life becomes your teacher", #Gurdjieff once said.
- #MauriceNicoll
Which of you have observed yet that you are working more for greater comfort than for #consciousness?
- #MauriceNicoll
The most important thing is to realise that we do not remember ourselves, and that for this reason we do not actually exist as individuals in our experience.
- #Gurdjieff, via #MauriceNicoll, 'Commentaries ...,' 'Self Remembering. First and Second Conscious Shock' Vol. 3: 786-787
There is a kind of gap in Man which he should fill himself and which unless he fills it leads to continuing in binaries—that is, he continues in the opposites.
- #Gurdjieff, via #MauriceNicoll, 'Commentaries ...,' 'Self Remembering. First and Second Conscious Shock' 3: 786-787
Everyone has to distinguish in himself what has to be worked on, his reason for living his life. Man is born into this planet with an inner task and life is so arranged that he cannot find himself and his meaning through life alone, but only through seeing what this inner task is.”
- #MauriceNicoll
#MAURICENICOLL ON THE ONE NEEDFUL THING
“Everyone is born into the world with one lesson to learn from the esoteric standpoint, one task to perform in regard to himself, and unless he begins to see it, his life is really meaningless. We have to remember something we have all forgotten.
It cannot act on him, for a man unites with truth only through his love, as it were, and in this way his being is changed."
- #MauriceNicoll, 'Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of #Gurdjieff and #Ouspensky,' Vol. 1
#MAURICENICOLL ON DELIGHTING IN THE WORK
"It is only through some kind of delight, some feeling of joy or pleasure or some genuine affection or desire, that a person can work and bring about any change of being in himself. Fear, for example, will not act in this way.
#Gurdjieff always said that there were two supreme things in the Work discipline: to remember oneself and to relax.
- #MauriceNicoll
To reach it, a man must reach a higher level in himself. If everyone did this, the level of life on this earth would change."
- #MauriceNicoll
#MAURICENICOLL ON THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
"The level above Man is called the Kingdom of Heaven or Kingdom of God in the Gospels. It has many other names in different writings. In the Gospels, it is said that the Kingdom of Heaven is within. It is at a higher level of a man.
All our theories of improving the world, while we are still asleep, merely intensify the sleep of humanity.
- #MauriceNicoll
He sees life in another light, not as an end but a means, & this enables him to take what happens in life so that he learns from life & all that happens in life & in this way life becomes his teacher.
- #MauriceNicoll, ‘Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of #Gurdjieff & #Ouspensky,’ Vol. 1
#MAURICENICOLL ON THE ONLY LIFE'S WORK THAT MATTERS
"If a man begins to take life as work, then his whole relationship to existence begins to change, because the meaning of life changes for him.
The idea that all life is based on transformation is so obvious, physically, that really not to see it is due to mental blindness or to a deliberate dislike of seeing any meaning in anything—and this is a common modern disease that leads to negative emotion by itself.
- #MauriceNicoll
Every psychological event, whether it be a sensation, or a feeling or a thought, consumes a certain amount of energy if it is identified with, whereas if you are in a state of Self-Remembering energy will be created and conserved for further use.
- #MauriceNicoll, ‘Commentaries,’ Vol.II, p. 710
#Gurdjieff had once said that the only hope for the world was that man should eventually reach a higher level of being, in other words, that he should wake more out of his sleep.
- #MauriceNicoll, in #KennethWalker, ‘The Making of Man’
We are surrounded by liberating ideas, whether we feel them or not.
- #MauriceNicoll
#Esoteric teaching is not an imaginary thing. It is the most real thing in the world–more real than a cheque, more real than a house, more real than another person.
- #MauriceNicoll
Maurice Nicoll
Many people crystallize out in their negative emotions. I advise you to avoid such people.
- #MauriceNicoll
For realising our own helplessness puts us into the Third State of Consciousness where help can reach us."
- #MauriceNicoll, 'Psychological Commentaries on the teaching of #Gurdjieff and #Ouspensky’
#MAURICENICOLL ON THE PARADOX OF RADICAL ACCEPTANCE
"It is a necessary part of this Work that everyone must eventually pass, to see in ourselves by sincere observation, how we cling to our negative emotions with one hand and try to free ourselves with the other.
To begin to realise one's own nothingness as a practical experience is to begin to cease identifying with oneself."
- #MauriceNicoll, 'Psychological Commentaries on the teaching of #Gurdjieff and #Ouspensky’ Vol 1
#MAURICENICOLL ON THE MEANING OF AWAKENING
"To awaken means to realise one's nothingness, that is, to realise one's complete and absolute mechanicalness, and one's complete and absolute helplessness. And it is not sufficient to realise it philosophically in words.
that is to say, we have to practise non-identifying in the midst of the happenings of life; we have to practise self-remembering in the midst of affairs; and we have to notice and separate ourselves from our negative emotions in the midst of all hurts and smarts in daily life.”
- #MauriceNicoll
#MAURICENICOLL ON INNER WORK IN LIFE
“So we have to work in the midst of life, surrounded by all the misfortunes of life, and eventually life becomes our teacher —
#MAURICENICOLL ON THE SERIOUS VERSUS THE LAUGHABLE
"One of Dr. Nicoll's favourite aphorisms was 'Serious things cannot be understood without laughable things'.
