Evolution is necessary to the Individual Himself

"But, at the same time, possibilities
of evolution exist, and they may be
developed in SEPARATE individuals
with the help of appropriate
knowledge and methods. Such
development can take place
only in the interests of the
man himself against, so to speak,
the interests and forces of the
planetary world. The man must
understand this: HIS EVOLUTION
IS NECESSARY ONLY TO HIMSELF. NO
ONE ELSE IS INTERESTED IN IT. AND
NO ONE IS OBLIGED OR INTENDS TO
HELP HIM. On the contrary, the
forces which oppose the evolution
of large masses of humanity also
oppose the evolution of individual
men. A man must outwit them. And
ONE man can outwit them, humanity
CANNOT. You will understand later
on that all these obstacles are
very useful to a man; if they
did not exist they would have
to be created intentionally,
because it is by overcoming
obstacles that man develops
those qualities he needs.

"This is the basis of the correct
view of human evolution. There is
no compulsory, mechanical evolution.
Evolution is the result of conscious
struggle. Nature does not need this
evolution; it does not want it and
struggles against it. Evolution can
be necessary only to man himself
when he realizes his position,
realizes the possibility of
changing this position,
realizes that he has
powers that he does
not use, riches that
he does not see. And,
in the sense of gaining
possession of these powers
and riches, evolution is
possible. But if ALL MEN,
or most of them, realized
this and desired to obtain
what belongs to them by right
of birth, evolution would again
become impossible. What is possible
for individual man is impossible for
the masses.

CORRELATION OF MAGNITUDES

"The advantage of the separate
individual is that he is very small
and that, in the economy of nature, it
makes no difference whether there is one
mechanical man more or less. We can easily
undertand this correlation of magnitudes
if we imagine the correlation between a
microscopic cell and our own body. The
presence or absence of one cell will
change nothing in the life of the
body. We cannot be conscious of
it, and it can have no influence
on the life and functions of the
organism. In exactly the same way
a separate individual is too small
to influence the life of the cosmic
organism to which he stands in the
same relation(with regard to size)
as a cell stands to our own organism.
And this is precisely what makes his
'evolution' possible; on this are
based his 'possibilities.'"
Gurdjieff
ch 3, In Search of the Miraculous

ON THE QUESTION OF SELF-EVOLUTION

"On account of the great importance of this question, I repeat and underline that all this is indispensable in order that in a man working upon himself should arise and accumulate, as could only lawfully proceed, the needed energy for the possibility of continuing to work with the intensity of striving and power of action upon himself which alone permits the transmutation of oneself from this 'nullity' into that 'something,' which he ought to have been according to even his own 'good sense'; this latter, although rarely, does manifest itself in each contemporary man at those moments when the surrounding conditions do not prevent the manifestation of this good sense, that is, to be such as a man ought to be, the, as is said, 'acme of Creation,' and not what he has become in reality, especially in recent times, namely, as in moments of self-sincerity he knows himself to be--an automatically perceiving and in everything manifesting himself domestic animal."
Gurdjieff, p83, LIR

THIS NULLITY:

" . . . the most important work for a man who has already cognized with his Reason his real significance--that is to say, who has cognized his error in the sense of the exaggerated importance given to his individuality, which represents, according to his own impartial in a quiet state, almost a complete 'nullity'--is to acquire the ableness to direct for a definite time all his possibilities and all his strength only for the purpose of constating as many as possible of the physical as well as the psychic abnormal facts proceeding in his various functionings, that is, to exercise what is called 'self-observation.'"
Gurdjieff, p81, LIR

"It is obligatorily necessary to do so chiefly in order that such undesirable facts, cognized only by his mind, which are still empty of significance for his common presence, gradually assimilating into his nature, should begin to crystallize a steady conviction about everything learned, and through this, as it must lawfully proceed, should come forth in his common presence for the possibility of further work upon himself, an energy of great intensiveness, with the help of which alone is a further work upon himself possible and which is manifested, by the way, in a persistent striving to achieve the 'power' during the daytime in his so to say 'waking state,' for a definite time, to 'remember himself.'

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Education

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• Gurdjieff