121.     “When I was at the Institute in France I used to be told at about six o’clock in the morning when I was on a certain job that I had to go to a different job. I used to think how unfair this was. I did not understand that the concentrated work on being back the Institute was carrying out was partly about this becoming negative when you cannot do what you wish to do. Of course, this is very difficult work on oneself because it seems unreasonable, as in the case of a novice who was told to plant cabbages and tended them with the greatest care and went out one morning and found that they had all been ploughed up on purpose because he was so identify. Apart from this it is a good thing to what you find yourself having to do because it frees you inside.” (1315, 9 July 1949, 359^th commentary)

122.     “… on one occasion when O. asked G. what sin was, G. said it was going too far in one direction. … Since the aim of the Work is to develop all centres rather than one, you can see that to be one-sided is  not to be balanced and is therefore “missing the mark”. So you can see that G.’s answer about what sin is and the Gospel’s definition of sin as missing the mark fall into a common meaning.” (1341, 12 November 1949, 371^st commentary)

This is complementary to the passage in In Search of the Miraculous where Gurdjieff tells Ouspensky that: “… ‘sin’ is something which is not necessary. …  Sins are what keep a man on one spot if he has decided to move and if he is able to move. Sins exist only for people who are on the way or approaching the way. And then sin is what stops a man, helps him to deceive himself and to think that he is working when he is simply asleep. Sin is what puts a man to sleep when he has already decided to awaken. And what puts a man to sleep? Again everything that is unnecessary, everything that is not indispensable.” (357)

123.     “One definition of self-remembering was given in ancient days that runs as follows: “I come out of everything else into myself”.” (1342, 19 November 1949, 372^nd commentary)

This is of some particular interest to me, because Mrs Staveley picked up on it in one of her themes.

124.     This is possibly from Gurdjieff: “… we are born as self-developing organisms in this somewhat evil life on earth which the Work calls a pain-factory, in order, by a certain kind of work on ourselves, to reach something inherent in us (as a new being is inherent in an egg) which is called Real I.” (1348, 18 December 1949, 375^th commentary)

125.     Again, we are not sure this was Gurdjieff: “On one occasions one of my teachers said to me: “Try to express your negative emotions in the most pleasant way that you can so as not to hurt.” (1365, 11 February 1950, 383^rd commentary)

126.     “I remember once when G. came to London and the idea was that he was going to find a house to start his Institute, some of us took him up to the top of Hampstead Heath. My wife and I took him through a large house near the White Stone Pond which was for sale. He walked through it saying nothing and came to a small room on the ground floor. He said something which was translated to us as: “Room for confession.” I got rather a shock thinking that the work had something to do with confession in the ordinary sense. However, his eyes were so inscrutable but I did not quite make out what he meant. Later I discovered but there is no little tiny room in the Work but you have to confess to yourself that you were wrong.” (1379, 17 March 1950, 388^th commentary)

127.     This is a very important saying, and unfortunately Nicoll does not give its source, but I would venture to say that it is most likely Gurdjieff, or at a stretch, Ouspensky: “… the Work says that everything eats everything else and it adds, “We should try to be eaten by the right people” – namely archangels rather than devils.” (1387, 15 April 1950, 392^nd commentary)

128.     “… G. once said: “Behind Real I lies God.” But G added that not all the Ray is represented in us.” .” (1388, 15 April 1950, 392^nd commentary)

129.     “As you know, the Work says we are covered with many overcoats or, as Ibsen says, Man is like an onion with many skins which can be peeled off, and G. used that image.” (1388, 15 April 1950, 392^nd commentary)

Nicoll returned to this saying that Gurdjieff used the onion metaphor, and Ouspensky the coats (1403, On 24 June 1950, 400^th commentary)

130.     This can only be, directly or indirectly, from Gurdjieff: “The Work mentions this strange idea that the Level of Being designated by the Sun would not have created the sensitive connecting machine so as to enable the force to pass from Fa to Mi, unless it got something for itself – namely, Man’s development up to its level. For that reason, that Level of Being represented externally by the Sun made Man a self-developing organism so as to save him from the groaning creation of organic life.” (1411, 22 July 1950, 404^th commentary)

131.     “As G. once said: “I want a man to reach a stage of understanding this Work so that he can be bent, twisted and turned, yet he will always point in the same direction.” (1413, 29 July 1950, 405^th commentary)

132.     “Take a howling mob of people, as G. once said about war.” (1421, 2 September 1950, 409^th commentary)

133.     “Of course, you have heard that the object of this Work is to awaken us from this strange state of sleep, which we called waking state, and, as Gurdjieff once said, in so many words: “The hypnotic power of life is so terrible that we have to think of strong antidotes to wake people up from this hypnotism.” (1423, 9 September 1950, 410^th commentary)