When Someone Leaves the Work

There have always been those who drift in - and then out of - the Work. In Work language, they're called Tramps. They have no Magnetic Centre, but they are attracted by passing novelties and see the Work as another possible interest. When it becomes clear that they are not going to be carried along in a group as a passenger, or when they themselves lose interest, they leave. They have never been part of the Work, so they can't be said to have left it.

If a student leaves the Work after having studied it and worked on themselves for a while, however, the problem is usually that the Work has touched a sore spot. The Work has "trodden on their corns". And, instead of staying in front of the problem and working with their offended I's with the help of their teacher, the student simply decides to leave. It is huge disappointment to the teacher when that happens, because such a state of discomfort, if persevered with, can bring enlightenment.

But if the conflicted student leaves, he now becomes a problem for the group. He poses a danger: what should be done about him, so that he won't threaten the work of the group?

In earlier days, the direction was simple. If someone left the Work, they must be avoided. The remaining students were to have nothing to do with them. 

Why? Because, harsh as it sounds, this was the best solution.

To understand this school rule, we need to see what actually becomes of the person who's left the Work; how do they behave, and why would they pose a danger to the others?

We know that the Work penetrates through our Personality to our Essence, and on the way it illuminates the problems of the False Personality, which must be dissolved. The False Personality surrounds Personality like a crust, but Essence recognizes the truths of the Work, and desires that the crust should be broken. 

With perseverance and courage, the Work touches the outer parts of centres, then reaches the middle parts, and finally the inner, where real transformation may take place.

But at any time before that transformation has occurred, the False Personality - and especially the Chief Feature - knows it is under threat, and will try to defend itself. 

Sometimes it does so by persuading the student that he must at all costs leave the Work - that the Work is dangerous (which it is, to all that is false and unreal in us), and threatens the student's survival (which it certainly does not, unless the student is too identified with the False Personality to see beyond it).

The False Personality and the Chief Feature can gang up against the Personality and Essence, as it were, so that a real inner battle takes place. And sometimes the student, desperate to end a trying state of conflict and unwilling to take the advice of their teacher and Work colleagues, decides the only way to escape from it is to leave the group.

And for a while, indeed, the conflict may seem to subside. But not for long. If the student has been really touched by the Work, his Essence knows that it has tasted truth. And Essence longs for that taste to be renewed and continued, because the truth brings light, and light brings healing.

The student is then in a constant state of battle. And, having left the group and cut himself off from his teacher, he has no help in conquering the False Personality.

For a while, his Work memory may carry him, but not for very long. In such a state, he needs more than intellectual knowledge and memory; he needs real help in the form of spiritual energies, those higher hydrogens which the group has helped him to generate within himself, and the energies of the teacher, who has supported and nourished him hitherto.

Without that support, the student will be lost. He can no longer work on himself.

To attain any feeling of peace, however spurious, he must at all costs convince himself that he did the right thing in leaving.

And there lies the danger for the rest of the group. 

In attempting to calm himself and justify his actions, he will try to draw others into the battle, against the Work and against the teacher. If he can persuade other people to join him in leaving the Work, his False Personality and Chief Feature will stay quiescent and his Real Conscience - which longs for the Work - may be silenced, at least for a while.

So he will argue against the Work with the students who remain, if they are foolish enough to meet with him. These days, a blanket ban is impossible to enforce, but common sense and respect for the group and their teacher means that most students will voluntarily avoid the company of the dissenter. If by chance they do meet, sensible students will refuse to discuss the Work with the one who has abandoned it, because they no longer share the same values. 

They know the Work is too precious, too valuable, for them to wish to put themselves at risk of losing it.

Sometimes students who leave after several years will persuade themselves that they can carry on working by themselves, but as we have seen, such work cannot long continue. It is no longer sustained by the teacher, no longer nourished by the group. They may pretend to themselves that they are working, but that is all it is, a pretence. At the deepest level, they know that.

Occasionally, students may try to form a breakaway Work group. It, too, will be a fake, a counterfeit. The ex-student cannot create a real Work community, because he has voluntarily cut himself off from the source. Without an authorized, experienced teacher - someone capable of conducting the spiritual energies of the group and of adding to them with their own higher hydrogens - the group becomes a shadow play. 

Of course, if the remaining students are secure in their own group, and respect their teacher, they will not be easily persuaded to leave it for an imitation. But, until that deep transformation takes place and raises the state of Being, each Work student harbours I's that doubt and question the Work. Normally, such questions will be discussed with the teacher. But if the stage of doubt coincides with meeting a discontented former student, then real damage may be done to those who remain.

This was the reason why the ban was instituted. 

The best course of action today, if we meet someone who has left the Work, is to simply decline to discuss it with them. We change the subject, refuse to argue. If we think the ex-student has real regrets over what he has done and sincerely longs to rejoin the group, we refer him back to the teacher. It may be possible that someone feels true repentance and has completely changed his attitude towards the Work. If so, he might be allowed back into the Work, though not into the same group as before. He will probably be placed in a different group altogether, and will have to start again.

Actually, this happens very, very rarely. In the real world, most students who leave the Work don't dare face the agony and remorse of conscience that genuine repentance brings. They would rather keep trying to convince themselves - and others - that they were right all along. And this is a tragic end to their Work life.

We know that meeting the Work is a great privilege. It comes only to those with Magnetic Centre, and only for a space of three lifetimes. After that, our chance to work on ourselves in the Fourth Way will be permanently over.

And we don't know in which lifetime we are currently living. Is this the first time we have met the Work? Did we meet it in a previous life? In two previous lives? We cannot be certain. Therefore, let everyone who values the Work and who wishes with all their heart to remain in it, stay strong in the face of temptation.

This is the inner battle, and we have the help of all our Work teachers, from Gurdjieff to the present, to help us win. And we have the great sustenance of Conscious Humanity, who, in their compassion, long for all those who are in the Work to be transformed.