All those who have evolved have left memorials behind them in teachings, parables, and other directions for those still in prison on earth. These constitute the map and compass, the chart, the secret instructions for freedom in spirituality.
The Nature of Our Prison
“The Work teaches that we are in prison and not at all a pleasant prison. Some even enjoy the prison. But there is a way out of this prison and the secret has been handed on from generation to generation. It is a curious secret just as the prison is a curious one, for the prison is not composed of literal stone walls and ramparts and guards or literal chains and dungeons. And the fact of its existence is due to our looking the wrong way round, in the wrong direction. I advise you all to read the Myth of the Cave in Plato’s Republic and think about what it means. It will help you to realize how ancient and how authoritative this teaching is.” Maurice Nicoll, Informal Work Talks and Teachings: 1940-1950, p113.
“To the sensual mind a prison must have walls and bolts and bars. The prison we are in has none. It is chiefly made of states. In the Work we study them. All wrong emotions keep us in prison.” Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries, p1709.
“Gurdjieff used to say that no one realizes his own situation. ‘All of you,’ he said, ‘are in prison, and all you can wish for, if you are sensible people, is to escape. No one, however, can escape from prison without the help of those who have escaped before. Only they can teach you in what way escape is possible.’ At one time his favorite statement was that if a man in prison is to have at any time the chance of escape he must realize first of all that he is in prison. So long as he fails to realize this, so long as he thinks he is free, he has no chance whatever. If we do not realize our mechanicalness we imagine we are free. We imagine that we do everything from ourselves, by our free will. This prison that Gurdjieff so often spoke about is first of all your Personality.” Commentaries, p416.
The Recognition of Our Prison
“What is meant is a psychological prison that must be escaped from. Everyone is in the prison of themselves. If a man could really stand behind himself-that is, stand behind every side and every manifestation of himself, whether he thinks it good or bad—then he would be able to see the prison he lives in. But, in order to do this, he must become passive to himself. He must see all his reactions, whether he regards them as good or bad, passively. He must see all the opinions he expresses, whether he regards them as good or bad, passively. He must see his attitudes. And when he has reached this stage, by long self-observation, then he is really divided into two men—one active and the other passive. The passive man stands inside or behind the active man. The passive man at this stage is powerless, but although he is powerless in the face of the active man, he is now conscious of him. He sees his prison.” Commentaries, p284.
“If you try to remove a difficulty and do not accept it, another one will come. We are in a prison, but we can go to a better place in a prison.” Maurice Nicoll, Informal Work Talks and Teachings: 1940-1950, p132.
The Way Out of Prison
“In the Work, we all have a very powerful instrument in us called non-identifying. If a man is always identified with his inner state of the moment, with his thoughts and his moods, etc. then he cannot change. For a man to shift from the position he is in, he must first divide himself into two. That is, he must be able to observe his state. If he is his state, then nothing can take place. If he divides himself into an observing side and an observed side—that is, becomes two—then he begins to be able to shift his position, to change internally. Do you understand the depth of this idea? It is the way out of the prison of oneself.” Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries, p169.
“What is the way out from this prison in which these laws constantly interact and play on humanity like a set of different-coloured spotlights? The Work, the Gospels, and all esoteric teaching say the same thing: to begin to escape from these 48 orders of laws governing this planetary prison called the Earth a man must cease to see the final solution in changing external conditions but must see it in changing himself. He must begin to change his relationship to this world and in order to do so he must begin to observe himself and the world and work on his mechanical reactions to it. This is the whole meaning of the Sermon on the Mount which has nothing to do with being pious but has a far deeper meaning and a far more interesting meaning.” Commentaries, p763
The Kingdom Beyond the Prison
“In the Gospels it is said: ‘The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for behold the Kingdom of God is within you.’ It is not something outside that if you would only join you would be liberated. When it is said in the Gospels that the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven is within you, by the Kingdom of Heaven is meant a state in which the hypnotism of life no longer acts on us and in which we are invested with the influence of ideas coming from a quite different source.” Commentaries, p554.
“All those who have evolved have left memorials behind them in teachings, parables, and other directions for those still in prison on earth. These constitute the map and compass, the chart, the secret instructions, and, in our case, the Work itself. If you follow these directions—that is, if you think from the ideas of the Work, you are no longer driven by life even though you may still be living in life.” Commentaries, p252.
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 113
His students asked him,
"On what day will the kingdom arrive? "
"Its coming cannot be perceived from the outside," he said.
"You cannot say, 'Look, it's over there,'
or, 'No, here it is.'
The Father's realm is spreading out
across the face of the earth,
and humanity is not able to perceive it. "
Page numbers for Maurice Nicoll refer to Psychological Commentaries on the Teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Eureka Editions:2020) unless stated otherwise.
Quotations from the Gospel of Thomas are from Lynn C Bauman, Ward J Bauman, Cynthia Bourgeault, The Luminous Gospels (Praxis 2008)
Maurice Nicoll, Informal Work Talks and Teachings 1940-1950, Eureka Editions: 1995.
Read the Impression introducing the Gospel of Thomas.
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