Essential teachings from Maurice Nicoll, whose wartime talks in England became the Wisdom classic, Psychological Commentaries of Gurdjieff.
Continual awareness of the inexplicable mysteries of life is one of the signs of Magnetic Center. The Nature of Magnetic Center "The magnetic center in a man means his power of distinguishing between influences which are life influences and created within the sphere...
In Jesus you see a heart centered approach emerging in his teaching. The marriage of heaven and earth in the ground of the heart. The living colors of the rainbow that appear in the sky … we see unity in diversity An Intermediary Zone “Doubt is more than a...
Our heart is really the spiritual vessel in us that mediates between our finite being and the infinite that loves us. Cynthia Bourgeault The Call to Inner Selection "You have not begun to select—to separate—to throw away the bad and put the good into vessels. If you...
“It is said: ’Forgive us of our debts as we forgive our debtors.’ Feeling you are owed, feeling debts, stops everything. You hold back yourself and you hold back the other person.” Maurice Nicoll The Spiritual Balance of Forgiveness "It is the balance whose one scale...
“Unless you cancel your debts, nothing in you can grow. It is said in the Lord's Prayer: ‘Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.' Feeling you are owed, feeling debts, stops everything.” Maurice Nicoll Debts and Debtors The Heaven-Earth Balance Grace operates...
“When the mind comes into the heart, the new operating system of nonduality kicks in.” Cynthia Bourgeault The Multiplicity of Ordinary Being "Not one of you here has a real permanent, unchanging 'I'. Not one of you here has real unity of being. All of you are nothing...
"The higher creates the lower on every successive level in the Great Chain of Being.” Maurice Nicoll Recognition of Higher and Lower "All esotericism begins with the idea that there is something higher. Exoteric systems, such as religions, say that this something...
“In the Lords Prayer there are innumerable ideas. Each phrase has inner octaves." Maurice Nicoll Sacred Gestures of Exchange “Many people have observed that when you say the Lord’s Prayer you look at how exchange is so much a part of it. This becomes particularly...
What is Worry? “Every time you say ‘I am so worried,’ you give energy to it. You should not speak your worry.” Maurice Nicoll, Informal Work Talks and Teachings 1940-1950, p132. “QUESTION: What is worry? Does the Work say anything about worrying? How can it be...
Spiritual awakening: “Heaven is not a place that you die into, but a place that you awaken to, and you awake now, and you awake in the next moment, and the next moment, and the next moment.” Cynthia Bourgeault The Foundation of Spiritual Awakening “The obedient mind...
“This unity of opposites, this reconciling force, is a third thing, a Third Force, connecting both opposites and yet different from either.” Maurice Nicoll The Cross as Unity of Opposites “The Cross is the union of two pairs of opposites, and the practice of the Cross...
The parable of the wise and foolish virgins must be understood beyond its literal meaning - the lamp represents spiritual teaching while oil symbolizes the fruit of actual inner work. Knowledge alone creates lamps without oil; only through practical application of...