The Five Obligolnian Strivings

  "The first striving: to have in one's ordinary being-existence everything satisfying and absolutely indispensible for the planetary body.

     "The second striving: to have a constant and unflagging instinctive need for self-perfecting in the sense of Being.

     "The third: the conscious striving to know ever more and more about the laws of world-creation and world-maintenance.

     "The fourth: from the beginning of one's existence the striving to pay as quickly as possible for one's arising and individuality, in order afterward to be free to lighten as much as possible the sorrow of our Common Father.

     "And the fifth: the striving always to assist the most rapid perfecting of other beings, both those similar to oneself and those of other forms, up to the degree of the sacred 'Martfotai,' that is, up to the degree of self-individuality.

--From “Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson,” G. I Gurdjieff.