Conscious life seen as a little death.

“If you practice dying to things in yourself, gradually you will become more and more alive.” Maurice Nicoll, Commentaries p665

“There will be a death and a resurrection, as there always follows a resurrection from what we die to” Maurice Nicoll, The Mark p149 .

“Everything we do consciously remains for us: everything we do mechanically is lost to us” Commentaries p99

 “Whatever you do mechanically is lost forever, and whatever you do consciously remains with you.” Commentaries p668

“When you do conscious work or any act of altruism, it is for the future” Cynthia Bourgeault 

Maurice Nicoll’s Easter message from 3/31/1945 is a short letter to his Group about the practical work of letting small identifications die. He says that every death, every sacrifice, even small daily ones, results in a resurrection. “There will be a death and a resurrection, as there always follows a resurrection from what we die to.” p149 Maurice states that “the idea of resurrection is that the quantity of force that would have gone into this thing (that we sacrificed) and has been genuinely sacrificed from one’s deepest will, reappears in a higher form, on another level.” p663 Maurice is talking of effort in the work, which gives Force towards higher Being.

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

All quotations from Cynthia Bourgeault are from The Vocabulary of Wisdom.

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