Gurdjieff used to give this experiment to everyone who came to become a disciple. He would give the person his own pocket watch and tell him, “Keep it in front of you, watch the second hand and choose any word – your name. Keep just that name in your mind, and tell me for how long you can keep it – fifteen seconds, thirty seconds, at the most, forty seconds, not even one whole minute.”

Mind is in a flux. So those who want to become disciples because of some mind thing are not going to stay. There is no need to say no to them, they will be going themselves.

But the master knows perfectly well when somebody comes with an urge from the heart, with an urge that he can stake his whole life for and he will not turn back. Only these few people attain to fulfillment.

Everybody has the potential, but everybody is not ripe at this moment – perhaps at some other time, in some other life, with some other master. But one day is going to come in everybody’s life that is a turning point, a 180 degree turn, and then disciplehood is a beautiful growth.

Then the whole energy is moving in one direction with one intention, with no diversions. Then the distance from the goal is less. The more intense is your urge, the smaller is the distance. If your intention is total, then there is no distance at all; then you need not come to the goal, the goal comes to you.