Spiritual aim through self-observation.

“The psychological meaning of the Pharisees refers, not to certain people who lived long ago, but to oneself now—to the Pharisee in oneself, to the insincere person in oneself, who, of course, cannot receive any real and genuine psychological teaching without turning it into an occasion for merit, praise and award.” Maurice Nicoll, The New Man, Chapter 1 Part 2

Maurice Nicoll talks about aim and how aim is related to our sense of self: “There are two stages in aim. First, you begin through self-observation to formulate an aim, more or less clear to you. Second, you have to be able to pay for it.” p1096 “It is said many times in the Work that a man is defined by his understanding.” Commentaries, p1097 And a person’s aim arises from their understanding. 

Maurice continues, “The Gospels, on the practical side, are about the Pharisee in us.” Commentaries, p1098.  The Pharisee within, the False Personality, or ego, is full of self-justification and a tendency to focus on outward appearances and worldly accomplishments. The Work teachings, like the Gospels, say: “Unless a man, a woman, can begin to realize their own nothingness as a fact of self-observation, nothing can take place in them.” Commentaries, p1098. This, for me, echoes “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”

Through self-observation, we may see where our aim lies. Then, we can ask for help intelligently. We may get help, but only by paying for it—by giving up something precious. The work says, “First of all, you must sacrifice your suffering.” Commentaries, p1098. What does this mean? It means we love our suffering. We love our dislikes, judgments, narratives of self, and on and on. We may see them and dislike them and would want them to be gone but we are also addicted to them. 

Maurice refers to two parables found in the Gospels about mixing the new with the old—the one about wine and wine skins and the one about sewing new cloth onto old clothes. “You cannot attach the Work on to yourself as you are,” said Mr. Ouspensky. “You must let the ideas of the Work change your thinking. To think that all you have to do is to remain mentally as before and merely attach this Work on to your previous ways of thinking as something extra is simply not to understand what this Work is about.” Commentaries, p1162

The parables are as follows:
“No man rendeth a piece from a new garment and putteth it upon an old garment; else he will rend the new and also the piece from the new will not agree with the old. And no man putteth new wine into old wine-skins; else the new wine will burst the skins, and itself will be spilled, and the skins will perish. But new wine must be put into fresh wine-skins. And no man having drunk old wine desireth new: for he saith, The old is good.” (Luke V 36-39)

Maurice points out something interesting about the two parables. They appear in three Gospels just after John the Baptist and the Pharisees have come to confront Jesus about not following the rules about fasting. “Do you understand that these two parables are not about actual cloth or bottles? Do you see that they mean you cannot tack on, cannot merely attach, the ideas of esoteric teaching on to your previous ways of thinking?” Commentaries, p1162

“Now you see it is no good tacking on this Work-Idea of Man being in a state of hypnotic sleep to our ordinary ways of thinking. It will not fit. It will be like old and new cloth, or new wine in old skins. It is an utterly different idea from any of the ordinary ideas we have about life. To think from it is to think in an utterly new way. Have you begun to think from this idea—both as regards life, other people and especially as regards your own self? Do you yourself comprehend, through self-observation, that you yourself are also asleep?” Commentaries, p1163

“Everyone is in a state of hypnotic sleep which cannot be thrown off save by direct help from those who have awakened and left behind them ideas to think from and instructions to follow.” p1163 Maurice calls our consciousness “an indescribable and unfathomable mystery” and a gift that we do not use. We place our consciousness on the wrong things. “One must learn to control consciousness by placing it. Consciousness is like light—what will we cast this light on?” Commentaries, p1164 

M says, “Where your consciousness is, there you are.” p1164 The idea that a person can place their consciousness is valuable. Eventually, we can learn to place our consciousness on a higher level. This is where we begin to get help. The reward for seeing is more seeing. 

Yeshua’s sayings in the Gospel of Thomas also emphasize a shift from external validation to inner spiritual awareness:

Logion 3:
Yeshua says...
If your spiritual guides say to you,
"Look, the Divine Realm is in the sky,"
well then the birds will get there ahead of you.
If they say, "It is in the sea,"
then the fish will precede you.
No, divine Reality exists
inside and all around you.
Only when you have come to know your true Self
will you be fully known—realizing at last that you are
a child of the Living One.
If, however, you never come to know who you truly are,
you are a poverty-stricken being,
and it is your "self" which lies impoverished.

Logion 70:
Yeshua says...
When you give birth
to that which is within yourself,
what you bring forth will save you.
If you possess nothing within,
that absence will destroy you.

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Page numbers for Maurice Nicoll refer to Psychological Commentaries on the Teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Eureka Editions:2020) unless stated otherwise. 

Page numbers for Maurice Nicoll’s The New Man refer to Martino Fine Books, Eastford CT, 2019

All quotations from the Gospel of Thomas are from Lynn C Bauman, Ward J Bauman, Cynthia Bourgeault, The Luminous Gospels (Praxis 2008)

Read the Impression introducing the Gospel of Thomas.