The Introduction — p4 notes

When reading The Tales, the terms World Creation and World Maintenance are often glossed  over by the reader. Most likely, they will presume that Gurdjieff is referring to “the way the Universe works” and leave it at that, without any further thought.

We believe it worthwhile to think in these terms:

World Creation is the conception of a new cosmic unit, a concept that naturally includes the act of creating a new human life, but should (we believe) also include the act of crystallizing a body Kesdjan and crystallizing a soul. In other words, to become familiar with the laws of world creation implies becoming familiar with the laws that govern our inner world.

In respect of World Maintenance, we must also include the maintenance of the exterior world in which we participate as well as our inner world.