The Eternal Truths of the Nativity Scene

Picture the Nativity Scene. You probably don't even have to use your imagination - chances are you have a model crib set up in your house, or Christmas cards with a picture of this timeless tableau. And you know what it looks like by now, after years of celebrating Christmas.

In most churches you will find a model crib, although usually the baby Jesus is not placed in the manger until the night of Christmas Eve. When he is put there, generally by a child from the congregation, the significance of the moment is marked with carols and prayers.

This is the moment which symbolizes the new birth in Essence, which we may all experience.

What do you see?

Inside a stable, we have the central image of the mother and child. The baby, the Holy Infant, lies in a crib lined with straw, and his mother, Mary, bends over him with a loving gaze. In some versions, Mary holds the baby in her arms, so that all may see him and join with her in loving him.

Behind the mother and child stands Joseph, the stepfather of this child who is of divine origin. Joseph is his father on earth, the one who will protect, support and guide him to maturity; he is ever watchful, looking out for danger, permanently on guard.

In front we have the shepherds, humble peasants in their workaday clothes, perhaps carrying a lamb or two as a gift. Their flocks of sheep are sometimes shown in the background, quietly grazing.

The three kings, or wise men, the Magi, are often depicted in this scene, despite the fact that they arrived last of all. It's important that they are present, as we shall see. They, too, bear gifts; the traditional gold, frankincense and myrrh, symbolizing kingship, priesthood and divinity, and the bitterness of suffering and death.

Angels are usually present, too, sometimes shown on the thatched roof of a stable, sometimes in the background, silently offering their homage to the God-Man who comes in the form of a baby.

And many nativity tableaux show the obeisance of the animals, with the ox, ass, sheep and other farmyard creatures sometimes standing, sometimes kneeling, as the traditional story narrates. It's not in the Bible itself, but we all know of the legend of the animals kneeling at midnight to honour the
newborn king.

This scene, then, is the time-hallowed depiction of the timeless story that is so rich in symbolism that it delights our eyes and our heart, whether we are three years old, thirty, or ninety! The more we contemplate it, the more meaning we can find in it. No wonder that it is universally popular and easily recognized even by those who are not Christians.

In the Work, of course, it possesses an even more significant meaning.

First of all, of course, we realize that the baby, who is both God and man, represents for us our deepest self, our Essence, in which we may one day encounter Real I. That I is already present in us, just as the tiny baby is already God and King of the Universe, but we have to mature and grow in the spiritual life in order to be able to find it.

 In the same way, that baby in the manger will have to grow up, to gradually become aware of his mission, and ultimately to experience the greatest possible suffering in order to reign as that divine king which he innately is.

The angels are sometimes called the thoughts of God. Their name literally means "messengers", as you probably know, and their function in the nativity scene is to represent divine inspiration in that part of us which we call the Higher Intellectual Centre. This centre constantly tries to communicate with us, to inspire and guide us, but it is only when we are purified and educated in the spiritual life that we are able to listen to it.

Mary, as I wrote in the previous post, represents here the Higher Emotional Centre. Her role in the scene is to contemplate the majesty and mystery of this holy birth which her assent has made possible, and to portray the positive emotions which we, too, may experience when our emotional centre is purged of negativity.

Joseph begins his role in the gospels as the type of the Good Householder, whose role is to guide and protect the child and to ensure his family are safe. He teaches his divine son a trade, so that he may make a living in this world, but he does not seek a reward in life; he lives from his conscience, and always does the right thing. Gradually, he will come to represent the role of the Deputy Steward, and then, as he grows in understanding, the Steward, who guards the precious Work I's within us.

In the outer circle are the shepherds, representing the ordinary life I's, who do their job diligently. They, too, are Good Householders, because although they fulfil their roles in life they are also aware of higher possibilities. This awareness allows them to respond to the angels' message, so that they find their way to the stable and the child within.

The Three Kings, of course, represent the intellectual centre in us. They have reached the highest level possible for that centre in its life role, but they also have the possibility of receiving communications from the Higher Intellectual Centre. When they do, they understand that their own reasoning, based on human studies, has reached its limits. In worshipping the divine infant they also acquire the possibilities of the Higher Intellectual Centre, so that this role is shared between them and the angels, the evangeloi.

In the background we see the sheep, the I's in emotional centre which must be led and disciplined; and finally, the other animals present represent the instinctive/moving centre I's in us. They, too, have an important role to play, for without them we would not be able to respond to the higher levels. The instinctive centre usually needs no education, unless it has become pathological, and then it may need healing - the divine infant has also come to heal.

 The moving centre, however, must be educated so that it serves the needs of the entire human being, including - if we work on ourselves - our higher centres. They may be disciplined in many ways, of course, but in the Work the most important effort here is that which we make in the morning exercise, when the lesser I's must be still so that we may become conscious.

The Nativity Scene, then, in all its elements, pictures the order in which we, as spiritual pilgrims, ought to live our lives. Everything is directed towards appreciating and nurturing the Real I, through the new birth in Essence which we may all experience at Christmas if we have worked for it.

That I deserves our obeisance and our adoration, because it is the opening to the divine.

Only through Essence, which is that part of us that everything in life encourages us to neglect and overlook, may Real I be reached.

All the other I's within us must serve it; we must undergo a long training so that this right ordering becomes possible.

That is the Work. That is the Nativity Scene.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a new birth in Essence!

The World's Hope Comes From Outside

"The world's hope comes from outside it," says Professor Timothy Keller in his excellent book on Advent, "Hidden Christmas".

Indeed, it must be so.

The Christ child, the agent of our ultimate redemption, has a physical body, to be sure, composed of the elements of earth, just as his mother, Mary, is a human being.

His spirit, however, comes from God, directly from the Holy Spirit himself.

In a sense, this is similar to the state of every human being, as we saw in the previous post. We are all part of the animal creation, but our soul comes from God. The difference between our own state and that of Conscious Humanity - which includes Jesus, its Head, and all the many saints, messengers and teachers who have reached the highest state possible for a human being-  is that we are undeveloped; they have reached their highest potential and are Objectively Conscious.

We too are offered the chance to develop to this state, if we wish. This development may only be brought about by our willing cooperation with the forces of redemption, themselves springing from God, from a place far higher than this little, low-down planet, Earth.

We can't save ourselves. Earth cannot redeem herself. We need help, and we have, first of all, to acknowledge that need. If we think we are self-sufficient and can already "do", then we cannot be educated. Humility, the acceptance of our fallen and ignorant state, is the first prerequisite for any education in the realm of the spirit.

Mary, the virgin mother of Christ, is the most complete example of humility in the gospels. It is why she is the Chief Apostle, the Queen of Angels, and the model for all Christians.

From the very start, she accepts her role as one of "active passivity", of cooperating fully with God so that His aims may be accomplished through her.

"Be it done unto me according to thy word," she tells the Angel Gabriel at the Annunciation. She does not understand what is to happen, but she has been raised among conscious people dedicated to the service of God, and she knows that what is from Him will be good.

Whenever we encounter Mary in the gospels, her role is to direct us towards Jesus, He who is both God and man.

At the wedding in Cana, she tells the anxious steward and servants, who have run out of wine, to "Do whatever He tells you".

We meet her again in Bethany, where we see clearly once more that the role of Mary - the Mary within us all - is to sit at the feet of Christ and listen to His teaching.

That is the "better part", Jesus affirms. We cannot do anything unless we first listen to what God is telling us, unless we allow His teaching to enter into us and transform us. All our rushing around and Martha-like busy work leads nowhere unless informed by divine instruction and inspiration.

In the Work, all meetings begin with a passive Doh. This is the first requirement for any meeting to take place. We gather together in silence and we sit in the presence of our teacher, maintaining that silence, so that Work I's from a place deep within may come to the foreground of our awareness. Only then may we receive new energy and understand what is taught. Only then are we ourselves in a state worthy to speak.

Our passivity is really a state of watching and waiting while the little, formatory I's in the outer parts of centers die away and cease to draw our attention. In this sense we can call it an "active passivity", and it is in this state that we are able to receive teaching from a higher source.

Mrs Pogson explained that Mary represents the Higher Emotional Centre in us. Her "Be it done unto me according to thy will" is that state which we need to attain so that God may act within us.

Her passive waiting is the equivalent of the passive Doh at the beginning of a Work meeting. She is not passive for the sake of it, or because she is lazy or ignorant; quite the reverse. This state is one of high alert, of serene watchfulness.

Her virginal state symbolizes the purity of the Higher Emotional Centre, free from all other distractions.  There is nothing to take the attention away from God, Who speaks to that center not in words but in pictures, and through the inspiration of Positive Emotions.

It is in this "virginal" state that we must wait in Advent for the coming of Christ. We do not know exactly what to expect, because the new birth in Essence which we may experience will be utterly new, utterly different from our everyday experiences.

And the birth, although it takes place deep within, is ultimately a gift from outside our own limited consciousness.

In this way, the Christian religion is completely the opposite of New Age systems. The latter tell us that we can have anything we want, that we can influence the universe to bend to our will. The success of books based on this false premise shows how deepseated is the belief in the power of wishful thinking, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Christianity tells us the opposite, as do all the world's true religions. We are not all-powerful, far from it - and thank goodness for that. If we were, the world would be in an even worse state than it is at present. Our ability to "do" is limited, and ultimately we depend entirely on God for our wellbeing and our growth.

So that He may act in us, so that He may be born in us, we need to cultivate Mary's attitude of serene acceptance and contemplation. Then we will become aware of His presence, and He will be able to use us for our own highest and best good and for the good of the universe.

"Absolute stillness for as long as possible, that is what is best for you," says Meister Eckhart. That is the state in which we need to dwell for God to accomplish His will in us. That is Mary's inner state, and it is why she is the model for contemplatives from every denomination.

In Advent, we remain still, we wait, and we hope.

The Divine Child Within Us

The Catholic church where I attend Mass has a large statue of the Infant of Prague above the altar. In case you haven't seen it, that statue - which is reputed to have worked many miracles - consists of a beautiful young child, a boy aged about 3 years, wearing splendid robes and a golden crown. The image represents Jesus Christ as a King, but a non-threatening, delightful, very lovable king.

Everyone loves a baby! Until about 5 years old, children live entirely in their Essence. Then you can see the beginnings of Personality forming, but False Personality plays no part in their lives until about 6 or 7, when they start learning negative emotions from the adults around them. A very small baby or child is completely in Essence, and the Infant of Prague shows this truth very clearly.

Dr. Nicoll said that the smile of an infant has a cleansing effect on those around her. We respond directly to the love and joy of another's Essence, which he sometimes termed a person's "darlingness". And the advent of a baby, whether in myth or reality, is always a joyous event, no matter what the circumstances.

Counselling theory tells us that we each have an inner child. In Transactional Analysis (TA) terminology, that child is either "OK",  which is basically the same as being in Essence; or "not OK", which equates to being in False Personality.

Many therapies aim to address the concerns of our inner child. TA encourages clients to observe their thoughts and words, just as the Work does, and to see whereabouts in their inner world they are located at that moment. As well as the Inner Child, we also operate from an Inner Adult or Parent, and there are different voices within these categories. Observation tells us exactly where we are coming from in the present. Skilled counsellors can help us locate ourselves.

In this post, I want to look at the Inner Child, because we are expecting the birth of a Divine Child in the world at Christmas, and the image holds great significance for all of us.

When we are in Essence, we are ageless. Because the Essence is ever youthful, we often find it portrayed in mythology as a Divine Child, or Child Hero. Many religious myths describe miraculous births, and they all embody a universal truth: the Essence within, our spontaneous child, comes from elsewhere.

Essence is not born on Earth. What is born here is the body; the Essence simply continues its journey in a different form.

When you were born, your soul had already been created. Your body was assembled from the DNA
of your parents, but your Essence - your soul - came directly from God.

Essence, once created, is indestructible.

The Work teaches that we are here to learn, to experience difficulties, to grow. Our task at first is to develop Personality, so that we can live as Good Householders, but later it changes, and we need to develop our Essence.

A rich and strong Personality is an asset in the Work, because it creates better food for Essence. Gurdjieff would not accept students unless they had already achieved something in life, whether that was raising children or learning a trade. Someone with no life skills would not be able to nourish their Essence, and since this is the whole point of the Work it would be useless for them to attempt it.

Our Essence is our Inner Child, and that child, springing directly from the hand of God, is divine in origin. The Christmas story reminds us of our own origin, and touches the deepest, most spiritual part of us, our own Essence, where we meet with Real I.

In the Work, we say that Christmas symbolizes a new birth in Essence, and in previous posts we've looked at the reasons why cosmic conditions are especially ripe for such a development at this stage in the earth's yearly round. The whole of humanity could, if people worked on themselves, experience this new birth now. Only from inner work can real progress come, and now is the time for that work to reach its peak in those who are able to respond.

It takes many years before our work can directly benefit our Essence. First, we have to subdue False Personality so that it no longer has power over us, and there are no short cuts in this process. The subordination of Personality itself to Essence occurs later, and it is here that we learn to directly feed our Essence.

 Our Essence should direct our life, not our Personality. And it is this ideal state which is symbolized by the statue of the Infant of Prague. That child is a Divine King, and rules over His creation with benevolence and compassion, just as we are to rule our inner world.

For many people, unfortunately, False Personality, with all its negative emotions and fearful I's, all its anger and resentment, deceit and despair, is what directs their life. You have only to look around you to see that this is true. All the empty promises of consumer society gain their power only from False Personality. And yet, so many ruin their lives and the lives of those around them by chasing after these shadows; they die without ever having truly lived.

Personality rules the majority of so-called "civilized" people. They may have the ability to amass wealth, to organize their lives, to achieve their goals, and to influence others, but if they are not living from Essence then they, too, are inwardly dead. Personality relates to life, not to the spirit. Many people with strong personality are trapped in its shell. They want the rewards of life, not dreaming that there is anything more, but they may begin to catch glimmers of the spiritual world, and then they can choose to follow that, rather than life.

Counselling works on the Personality and the False Personality. Eventually, when a right inner order is reached, spiritual goals may be discerned, and it's then that the Work, or the inner, mystical teachings of religion, can become our way to wholeness.

Essence is born an infant, but to direct our life it must develop into an adult. The Divine Child remains the source of inspiration, but the child must be taught, must be educated in the ways of the world, so that - without ever identifying with them - it can steer a path though this world.

We nourish our Essence when we listen to its needs. Our Inner Child will tell us what it longs for, if we learn to hear its voice. Of course, this means that we have to put in many years of observation so that we understand where each inner voice is coming from. The voices often conflict, and we must be clear about which intuitions and impulses we should follow, and which we must at all costs avoid.

Essence longs for beauty. It is fed with beautiful images, music, poetry, scripture; with the beauty of nature and the awesomeness of mountains and seas.  Just as it appreciates beauty, it also creates beauty. Our creative powers come from our Essence, though it is Personality which knows how to express them in art, craft or writing.

Essence is fed with compassion. Every time we honour our compassionate I's, we are nourishing Essence. We need boundaries, of course, so here again much observation is vital, otherwise we will become codependent and sentimental. Learning to avoid these pitfalls is part of the education we must give our inner child.

Essence lives by Buried Conscience. We have to be very alert to follow its promptings, which always lead us to truth and openness. Lying kills Essence. Lying includes self-deception as well as the deception of others. Once more, observation is the only guide. And we must always be strictly honest with ourselves if our Essence is to flourish. Burying our conscience by self-calming measures leads only to the death of Essence.

People sometimes dream of children or babies. These dreams are often numinous, suffused with great meaning. It may be that a child comes to show us the way on a journey, or we are given a small baby to look after; we may see a neglected child crying for attention, or an infant running along a garden path. All these dreams, and many more, signify that our Essence, our Divine Child, is calling out to us. It needs us so that it may express itself in the world. And we need it, to be the guiding light of our entire life.

If you have a spare moment, you might study a picture of the Infant of Prague and think about what it symbolizes.

The priests who serve our church belong to the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest, and they chose that particular statue because they want us to know that our Heavenly King is a completely non-violent, non-judgmental, non-threatening King, He has not come to condemn us or to tyrannize us, as an earthly ruler might do. He wants to draw us by love alone, and in the form of a very young child He comes to solicit our compassionate response.

This Christmas, the Divine Child is calling to us. We await His birth with eagerness and joy. If we have worked for it, we too will experience a new birth within our Essence.

Advent Is Not Christmas

Although the shops are frantically trying to sell us quantities of stuff we don't need or even want, in the name of "Christmas", we must remind ourselves that we are in the season of Advent, not Christmas. Christmas does not arrive until December 24th, at midnight, and it will last for twelve days and nights. It is not yet here.

Advent is a feast that has largely been forgotten outside of the Catholic and Orthodox Eastern churches. Huge commercial pressures exist to manipulate the masses into believing that Christmas has already begun - and that it consists of worshipping Mammon, not Christ. An orgy of compulsive shopping annually takes over the Western world, and even reflective Christians can find it hard to disidentify and remember we are only in Advent.

Advent means that we are waiting for an important event to take place. It has not yet happened. We are not going to be ready for it to occur unless we prepare well, and for that we need a month of quiet reflection and inner work.

Not that we can't go out and buy some presents, of course. The best gifts are often those we've made ourselves, as they convey the message that energy, time and effort have been spent, and these are far more precious than mere money. One devout Catholic lady I know in West Wales makes 27 Christmas cakes every year. They are wonderful gifts, greatly appreciated, both because the person is an excellent baker and because the recipient knows the love and care that have gone into making each cake.

But a list of presents should represent only one aspect of Christmas, and each gift should be something thoughtful, something meaningful, not simply the ticking of a box or the crossing off of an item. Apart from offices or clubs who may operate a "Secret Santa" gift scheme every year, most Christmas presents are personal, given from individuals to their loved ones, family members or close friends. Considering their needs and perhaps unvoiced wishes is external considering and is a fine part of our Advent preparation.

We may decorate the house and office, but simply; evergreens are often brought indoors and wreaths and decorative candles lit, but the tree and its decorations are best left for the final few days of Advent. Then, in the last days before Christmas, perhaps on Christmas Eve itself, the atmosphere of hope and expectancy receives a huge boost and we are reminded of the celebration to come. Doing all this too early leaves many people jaded and bored. By the time Christmas arrives they may be thoroughly sick of the whole idea, not too mention out of pocket, hungover and with digestive problems!

During Advent, big parties and celebrations are inappropriate. We can't celebrate something that has not yet happened! It may be impossible to escape from office or club dinners, and so on, but while we may need to fulfil some obligations in this way, it should again be a question of externally considering those around us, rather than an invitation to guzzle and booze our way through December! We take part to help spread joy, not to over-indulge ourselves.

My teacher, Marian, used to point out that as the galaxy is sending us powerful energies now (see last week's post for a description of this process) these energies must be correctly received, and not allowed to become negative. In just the same way that meditation increases our higher hydrogens, but that energy may be dissipated uselessly unless we remain in attention, so the extra hydrogens that come to us freely from the heavens now must be treasured and used for good, not wasted.

She pointed out that people can very easily become negative about Christmas, due to the commercial pressures I've mentioned and to mental clutter from the past. We should watch out for negativity in our private thoughts and in our conversations, and when we feel this happening we should consciously transform the negative energies into positive ones. This may be done very simply and unobtrusively, and is a good Work exercise during Advent.

Christmas cards, letters and phone calls all increase our loving connections with friends and family and are very much a part of Advent. They help to prepare us all, even those who are unaware of the inner meaning of the season, so that the whole Earth may benefit from the spiritual energies we are all being showered with now.

So, repentance must be continuous during Advent; not a gloomy, condemnatory process, but an acknowledgement of our inner states, and of what needs to change. We wish to observe ourselves throughout this season, watching to see that nothing will impede the new birth, nothing delay or dim the transformation it will bring. We long to receive a new mind, the gift of metanoia, but first we must discard what we can of our old, useless I's.

All those selfish, False Personality I's that prevent us from relating properly to others must be allowed to die away in us. Far from going on a mindless shopping trip to acquire more stuff, we should be considering what we need to empty ourselves of, what we need to let go, so that when Christ is born, in our Essence, we will be in the right state of Being to realize what has happened.

That new birth in Essence is something to be devoutly wished for. And, just as a mother expecting her baby will make sure the house is thoroughly clean and ready for the precious new occupant, so we must be willing to "clean house" in our own internal world so that the Divine Child may live in us.

In the Eastern churches, Advent is a time of fasting in exactly the same way as Lent. Virtually a vegan diet is followed, preparing and "detoxing" the body ready for a healthy celebration at Christmas. Now is not the time to overeat and drink ourselves into oblivion. Recollection includes awareness of the body as well as of the mind. Sobriety is the watchword.

Advent is a season of quiet joy, happy expectancy, serene watchfulness. All the inner work that we have been carrying out since the beginning of Autumn will bear fruit at Christmas.

May we all enjoy a happy and fruitful Advent, and give the season its due importance in our yearly inner calendar!

Advent - Waiting and Watching

The Earth is still and quiet now. The last leaves are falling from the trees, colouring the landscape with brown, orange, red, gold, the tints of sunset. The late autumn winds hurry them on their way, and as December begins, we see many bare branches reaching out to the sky, stark and black against the sky as though in urgent supplication.

Days are approaching their shortest. The lessening of the sun's light is very noticeable now. Fields wait quietly for the next year's sowing; the landscape's greens are darker, the deep conifers shadowy and still, the grass no longer growing.

We are at the beginning of Advent, the time of waiting expectantly for the birth of Christ. It happened once in history, and it will happen again and again in our hearts at the time of the winter solstice for as long as the Earth remains.

The church marks the beginning of the liturgical year, yet another new start, new opening of opportunity, new hope for spiritual pilgrims.

The Advent season lasts four weeks, and culminates in Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the time when the longed-for birth will take place in the dark, small, quiet cave of our spirit; the new birth in Essence that we celebrate each Christmas. It happens every year, yet is always new.

Commercially, Christmas is in full swing already, shrilly demanding that we hurry to buy more and more unnecessary things, telling us that Christmas means spending money. But we Christians, and especially all of us in the Work, know better.

When we remember the position of the Earth in the Solar System now, we may recall from previous years that we are approaching a very significant area. This is a deep esoteric teaching from many traditions, and science confirms its importance in unexpected ways.

In the northern hemisphere we are tilting away from the Sun, and this shift is what brings about the seasons of autumn and winter. At the solstice we will be tilted as far away as is possible for us, hence the lessening of the light and the withdrawal of warmth.

At the same time, our planet is aligning itself with the axis of the galaxy: we are experiencing less solar light, but more energies from the furthest reaches of the Milky Way and from galaxies beyond this.

We can measure - to some extent - the influence of solar flares and radioactive materials as they bombard the Earth's poles. This activity increases for us during our winter period, and we may see some of its effects for ourselves if we're lucky enough to witness the beautiful display of the Northern Lights.

But the effects of the particles reaching the Earth are very far-reaching, and we don't know what all of them are. We do know that they affect magnetism and communications. They disrupt radio waves and cause computer failures; we don't know what their effects on our bodies and spirits may be.

Not long ago, wi-fi technology was regarded as completely benign. Only recently have scientists begun to track some of its negative effects, and have found that some people experience health problems, both mental and physical, when exposed to it.

Imagine, then, what effects - for good or ill - may result from the increase in radiations coming from the Sun itself and from beyond! From Sirius, the Sun of the Sun, and from huge stars and supernovae much further away than we can picture! We don't know what they may be, but we can surmise that many of us will be affected in ways we can't measure but may well experience if we can become sufficiently conscious.

The Work shows the relationship of Earth to other planets, Suns and galaxies in the magnificent diagram of the Ray of Creation. It bears repeated study, especially at cosmically significant times of the year, so that we can be more aware of how the human being is affected by differing frequencies, differing substances - or hydrogens - coming to us from the Sun or from outer space.

The important thing is to remember that we have a chance now - during Advent and Christmas - to experience something completely new within our psychology. This new birth may take place in our Essence, but we must prepare ourselves for it through quiet contemplation, self-remembering, and prayer.

 The majority of people are still unaware of its happening. Rushing around, asleep in their dreams of material riches, they don't understand the real enrichment that is possible for them, if only they would awaken now.

The universe has been designed by an intelligence so much greater than ours that we can't begin to grasp it. We may call that intelligence "God", as long as we remember that its creative activity manifests in our emotions as well as in our thoughts; in our surroundings - the macrocosm - as well as in our inner world, our own microcosm.

The increased help that comes to us each year must come from a place beyond ourselves. It cannot come from ourselves. We cannot heal ourselves. We did not create ourselves, and - quite contrary to the misguided and ignorant "New Age" teachings so popular now, that purport to show us how to grab hold of more "stuff" - we cannot create anything new without that help from outside, from God.

That is why Advent is a time of quiet waiting, but it is not the quietness of inactivity. We increase our personal work now, taking more time to remember ourselves, to observe ourselves, to detach ourselves as far as we can from all that is turned only towards Life.

Our Personality, and our False Personality, manifests in the chatter of various I's now, urging us to buy, eat, drink, party, and so on, as if this is the way to celebrate a new birth! But deep within, most people know otherwise, and we in the Work must redouble our efforts to disidentify from all those I's that turn us away from our Higher Centres, from our Essence, from God.

The Sun itself has a "God", and that "God" is the star we know as Sirius. It is from the Sun, from Sirius, and from the far ends of the universe that new possibilities speed their way to us now.

Advent is a time of seeming sleep for the Earth, but it is the time above all when we in the Work must awaken - or else miss these wonderful opportunities for another year.

To awaken, our own store of higher hydrogens must increase. We must have gold in order to create more gold. If we are not prepared, we will miss this great opening. Therefore, it's wise to use all means possible - traditional rituals such as candles, music, pictures, increased readings, longer periods of meditation and special attention exercises - to make ourselves ready for it.

Ready, in four weeks, to celebrate Christmas.

The End of the Liturgical Year and the Month of Reckoning

In November we've been pondering, among other things, the importance of remembering the fact of our death. With this inevitable event in view, we've considered how to prepare ourselves psychologically for this great transition.

This is not a gloomy thought, unless we've lived so heedlessly that we have good reason to fear death.

For most of us, death will bring a new chance to develop in ways that we can't begin to understand from our limited viewpoint here. I know, from my own Near Death Experience, that death is not the end of existence. There is more, much more, and it will be liberating beyond all our expectation - but we must be ready for it when it happens.

Of course, some people are in complete denial about their own death. We see this from the popularity of youth serums, plastic surgery, desperate attempts to prolong life by artificial means, and even a rise in those seeking to have their bodies frozen at the moment of death. The idea behind this is that, some day, it might be possible to resuscitate them so that they live again in the same body.

What an absurd and truly frightening proposition! If it ever happens, the revived bodies will have no functioning brain and will simply be zombies. The lost soul, which generally hovers around the physical body for a short time after death so that it can witness the body's ultimate disposal, and the honours accorded to the loved, departed one, will be condemned to languish for perhaps hundreds of years around the frozen, hopeless corpse.

If one day that corpse is revived, the soul will have no brain with which to think, no voice to express itself, no means of communicating with the living.

Will that soul be sent to its next stage, regardless of the fate of the body? We simply don't know. We may hope that Conscious Humanity, with wisdom and compassion, will release it from any lingering attachment to the frozen corpse, and that the soul will be able to journey on its way to the next stage of its existence. But we can't say for certain. It is a troubling situation.

And what it reflects - the denial of an afterlife and the frantic, doomed attempt to prolong life on this Earth - is even more troubling.

In the Work, as in all the great religions of the world, we know that our earthly life will some day come to an end. We prepare ourselves for it daily, reminding ourselves of what is important, what is ephemeral. The Catholic phrase "to make a good end" is relevant here. There's no need to fear death if we have repented of all our life's sins and errors, and if we've made our peace with our families, friends and with the God of our understanding. This is called "dying in a state of grace", and it is the aim of all religions to make this possible.

We may fear pain, of course, but not death itself, which we believe - and some of us know, through having had Near Death Experiences - signals the end of pain and the start of a new form of existence, ultimately filled with joy and bliss in the presence of Conscious Humanity.

The liturgical year has always sought to bring us back to this fundamental fact in its readings and meditations for November. The great festival of Christ the King, held either at the beginning or end of November, depending on which church calendar is followed, reminds us that Christ - the leader and head of Conscious Humanity - is ultimately in charge of all creation. He will usher us into eternal life, if we have lived according to His precepts.

For those who have not done so, death may come as the complete end. Again, we don't know. We are told, however, that even the most earthbound, sinful soul may be granted the grace of "final repentance", that is, seeing the harm they have done in their lifetime, their need to repair that harm, and to repent of the great sorrow they have brought to their Creator. Anyone who repents then will face a prolonged period of reparation and sorrow after death before they are made ready to proceed further into the afterlife.

We can't say, therefore, whether any particular individual has been eternally condemned. Even horrendous, historical "hasnamuss" figures, such as Hitler or Stalin, may have eventually repented. But it is not a given, and we can only admit that we don't know, once again.

What should concern us here is the state of our own Being. Have we worked on ourselves today? Are we more awake this year than last? Have we forgiven others, and have we sought the forgiveness of those we have hurt this year? Have we been honest with ourselves about our own misdeeds, or have we become mired in self-justifying? Do we live in awareness of our own death, and with the constant, unflagging effort of self-perfection that this knowledge brings?

In the Work, as in the Christian faith and the Twelve Steps, we're encouraged to make a daily inventory and to measure how far we've lived up to our ideals, and where we've fallen short. But in the autumn, culminating in the month of November, this reckoning encompasses the entire previous year.

For most of us, the annual November report card will say "Could do better".

As the liturgical year draws to a close now, we remind ourselves that the purpose of our life is to work on ourselves, to overcome our mechanicalness, to become purified and ready to meet our own death whenever it may come.

And, after this annual reckoning, we look towards Advent and Christmas for the chance to celebrate a new birth in us, and in the world.

Advent Sunday begins this weekend, and I wish everyone a joyful and reflective season as we get ready to welcome the new birth that can occur for each of us at Christmas.

The angels proclaim "Peace on Earth to men of good will". That peace will be ours when we have worked on ourselves, have developed our understanding along with our will, so that we can practice that which we know to be necessary: the unending task of awakening, which prepares us for a higher state of Being.

"There is a crack in everything ... " - Leonard Cohen and the Kabbala

Leonard Cohen, who died last week, was a profoundly influential and much-loved singer and poet who drew many ideas from the Kabbalah.

Although later in life he identified as a Buddhist, his love of and reverence for the Jewish faith and especially its mystical teachings shone through everything he wrote.

One of his most famous lines, "There is a crack in everything - that's how the light gets in", is a trenchant reframing of a well known idea from the Kabbalist text, the Book of Splendour (in Hebrew, the Zohar).

Many people who profess to "know" the Kabbalah know only the basics of the diagram of the Tree of Life, the Sefirot, often used in so-called magical arts.  This diagram is indeed very important to understanding how the energies of God work in particular situations, but to know only this - along with some Hebrew letters - is to remain ignorant of the Kabbalah's most profound ideas.

One of these, to which Cohen is referring in the line quoted above, is that when God created the world, he first made vessels of clay into which he poured his light and love. Sadly, the light proved too strong for the frail vessels, and they shattered.

Subsequently they were re-formed, but inside them the light of God was now imprisoned, making what the Kabbalah calls the "sparks of holiness" that are to be found in everything existing.

The light may be liberated by the intentional acts of conscious men and women, the Kabbalah says, and it explains how this may be achieved.

In these teachings, the Kabbalah's theories come very close to those of Buddhism and to the Work. For, just as in the Buddhist Noble Eightfold Path and in the Work's instructions to act consciously and not from a state of sleep, the Kabbalah says that our intentions, our state of Being when we carry out a particular action, make that action fruitful or otherwise.

The light of imprisoned splendour may be freed from its shell of matter only when awakened people act to deliberately let it out, as it were.

What is this but a different way of speaking about enlightenment and the role of higher energies - hydrogens, as the Work terms then - in spirituality?

And what does this mean in practice?

Judaism teaches that very ordinary, everyday day acts can be elevated to the realm of the spiritual when blessings are said and when spiritual intentions guide our actions. So, for example, the act of preparing and eating a meal is to be carried out in a state of waking, with consciousness, and blessings said before we eat. By doing so we liberate the sparks of holiness that are to found in the food we eat - the higher hydrogens - and then the holiness that dwells within us is increased and also set free when needed. If you study the Food Diagram, you will see how this actually takes place.

Of course, this is the very essence of the Work teaching about consciousness! In the Work we're not told to say particular blessings: that is optional, although I, along with many others, find saying grace and other blessings during the day is extremely helpful in focusing my attention.

But living in a state of awakening means that we are already in a state of higher consciousness than when we forget and fall asleep, living solely in life, acting mechanically and without intention.

Judaism prescribes many blessings to be said at various times during the day, over different daily actions, and if all are them are remembered, the Kabbalist - including many Orthodox Hassidic men and women who would not necessarily claim that title - lives in a state of awakening. And this is exactly what we are told to do in the Work.

Similarly, Christianity and Buddhism also prescribe certain prayers and blessings to be said in a state of self-remembering during our ordinary daily lives, and in just the same way we will find if we obey these guidelines that we are living in a state of awakening. The Work calls prayers and blessings "reminding factors", and they are important aids to staying awake, just as surrounding ourselves with sacred pictures and reading Work books also provide necessary reminders.

In many ways I believe Leonard Cohen was well on the way to enlightenment. If you look at his birthchart, his chief influences were those of Neptune and Mercury; Neptune inspired him with the highest ideals for mankind and universal spiritual awakening, while Mercury enabled him to study higher teachings and to communicate them through his work as a poet and singer.

In his daily life he was often misunderstood and criticized, and trusted the wrong people, but he took everything that happened as a means to spiritual progress.

One example I find particularly poignant is his love for, and unselfish dedication to, the Jewish people and especially the State of Israel. He greatly admired the morality and idealism of the Israeli Defence Force, and gave free concerts to them and to many others in Israel.

When the Palestinians protested that he was ignoring them and their own wishes for peace, Cohen immediately offered to put on a free concert in Ramallah, to share his songs and his longing for peace with the Palestinian people.

They, however, refused, saying that they would not have anything to do with someone who had visited Israel! And that was the end of that peace initiative.

Cohen did not allow their rejection to cause him to hate them, however, and to the end of his life he wished profoundly for peace and reconciliation in the Middle East; his daily actions and his attitudes to those around him embodied these ideals in material form.

We've said goodbye - or rather, "So long, Leonard" - to one of the greatest popular singers and poets of our time. His ideals and his music will continue to inspire as long as people remember his songs; and through them, the ideals of the Kabbalah will also find expression.

Judging versus Discerning

We know we are not to judge - the Bible, the Work, and many other spiritual belief systems tell us so. And for good reason. We never have all the facts, so we can't make accurate judgements; we are often wrong; and if we judge ourselves, we can't be objective.

What's more, judging usually equates to condemning, and by condemning ourselves we trigger toxic shame and prevent ourselves from seeing what we're really like. We shut down the observing I too quickly, because the results are distressing. Then, without insight, we can no longer see ourselves clearly and so cannot develop or change at all.

When we judge others, our vision is similarly handicapped. We can't know, for example, exactly why someone has behaved in a certain way, and it's possible - no, likely - that if we came from a similar background and had similar problems, we would behave in just the same way. It's always a case of "There but for the grace of God, go I".

Take the example of a heroin addict. A young woman, addicted to this expensive drug, is forced to prostitute herself to buy more of the heroin she needs in order to function. She's open to exploitation from dealers and pimps, and puts herself in great danger every time she walks the streets.

It's easy to look at someone like this and judge her as stupid, feckless or simply a "bad lot".

But if you had grown up in a deprived home, with a single parent struggling to cope with multiple children by different fathers, or with two inadequate parents unable to set boundaries; insufficient income to provide for the family's needs; and a set of addiction genes that predisposed you to become hooked on opiates - all circumstances I've seen in any number of counselling clients - then you might very well have taken the same path.

So, judging in this way is out of bounds to anyone on a spiritual path. It's foolish. It does no good and can cause much harm.

Similarly, we can't look at any individual and decide that because of their behaviour and lack of remorse they are destined for permanent destruction, "going to hell", incapable of change.

We don't know whether someone will be given the grace of final repentance. Perhaps, on their death bed, they will deeply regret their actions and yearn for another chance. And perhaps, since the God of our understanding - of any spiritually inclined pilgrim's understanding - is a God of great compassion and mercy, this person will indeed be offered a second chance, after a necessary term in what we think of as purgatory, the process of purification by which our faults and sins are cleansed from us.

We must, however, exercise our judgement in deciding the best way to treat other people and the best path to follow for our own development.

When we advise people not to judge, we mean that we are not to judge people. But their actions, their choices, their way of life can and must be judged if they happen to cross our path, because what we make of them determines how we may relate to them.

In the case of the young prostitute I suggested above, we would see that the only way to help her would be, first of all, to advise her to come into recovery. And that would be possible only if the woman herself wished to do so. We can't compel anyone to follow the path we know would be best for them. Each of us has our own destiny, our own fate, and to interfere with the fate of another is a very serious spiritual crime.

Saving them, however, is mandatory, if we're given the chance to do so. And sometimes, of course, we are. We may be in the right place at the right time to suggest going into rehab; we may, if we have gained their confidence by refusing to judge or condemn them, be listened to, and our advice may be taken.

And, as far as looking at our own behaviour is concerned, of course we have to judge the effects our actions have on ourselves and others; we have to discern whether we're on the right path or whether we've strayed from our ideals; we have to decide which I's we want to cultivate and strengthen, and which are harmful and must be given no more of our time or energy.

I think, in these case, "discernment" is a better term than "judgement".

Discernment is a gift of the Holy Spirit. As mature Work students, following the Fourth Way, we are practising Christianity in its deepest and most essential form, and we can and must use the gift of discernment to our own and others' benefit.

We can't discern the final destiny of any individual soul, but we can discern the likely outcome of a course of action.

We may not condemn anyone - including ourselves - to a sorry end, but we must discern the best course to follow in any situation so as to avoid such an end ourselves.

And we must discern, from long observation, the value of the different I's in various centres which habitually take over our Personality and False Personality, so that we recognize them and detach from the useless, energy-sapping I's and allow the useful, valuable I's to act in their place.

This process is part of contemplating the Four Last Things which the Catholic church puts before us for consideration during the month of November.

Death; Judgement; Heaven; Hell - all these are worthy of pondering, and discernment will show us how to live in order to achieve the one, and avoid the other.

Death, of course, comes to all of us, but if we have lived well, using discernment, then there will be nothing to fear. It is simply the journey to a different, higher plane, where all we have done and all we need to do will be placed before us, and where we, seeing ourselves in the Light, Love and Truth of Conscious Humanity, will choose the next stage for our development.

We may have many lessons still to be learned on Earth, or we may be ready to enter a different form of existence. But we shall see, with perfect discernment and with the help of the only good and wise Judge, God Himself, however we choose to name Him, who we are and where our next stage will be lived.

What Kind of Legacy Will You Leave?

In November, our thoughts turn to the dead and to the life beyond the grave.

Throughout the Western world, customs and traditions mark this time of the year as a special period for remembering those who've died. We've noted in previous posts how some of these traditions have filtered down to us today, from Hallowe'en to All Saints and All Souls Day. But the Christian church has set aside the entire month of November to honour the dead, and it encourages us to meditate on the Four Last Things at this time of year: Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell.

In the United Kingdom we mark the respect owed to our fallen dead, those who have fought to defend our nations in times of war. Annually, we commemorate this occasion on November 11th, since the ending of the First World War actually occurred at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. We buy poppies and wear them to show support for all the fallen in all the wars, and the debt we owe to them. To honour them in this way is to honour peace and to regret violence.

Prominent in all these rituals and observances is the truth transmitted by the Catholic and Orthodox Christian churches: that we are all born to die, and that we must hold in mind the thought of our own death, which could happen at any time.

We learn from Gurdjieff that we should always and everywhere bear in mind that we, and everyone we know, are going to die, and that fact - which is not pessimistic but realistic - is a great spur to our personal work.

But another thought ought also to concern us: the legacy transmitted by our own ancestors, and the legacy which we ourselves will some day leave.

I'm not talking about money and material goods, which are beyond our control. but the spiritual and psychological legacy of our past which has affected our lives, and which much of our own personal efforts is directed to overcome or to appreciate, as the case may be.

In the Work, of course, we don't talk about our childhood experiences, because what matters is now, and what we're doing right now to work on ourselves.

In therapy, in the Twelve Steps, and in the myriad occasions of everyday life, we can't help bearing in mind that much of what we do, think and feel is not our own, but something which has been handed down to us through many generations, whether we wanted it or not!

Courageous therapeutic work is often necessary to overcome a negative legacy. I remember clients who were sexually abused and who worked extremely hard to detach themselves from the harm that was caused them, so that their lives might proceed free from the evil effects their abusers brought about.

There may have been a legacy of depression, with both physical and psychological causes. Someone brought up by a depressed parent will often become a depressed child and adult. And there may also be recognizable physical causes for such a legacy; genes for depression, alcoholism and drug addictions are already being discovered, and we can expect much more scientific work along these lines as we uncover the secrets of our DNA.

In the Work, we believe such physical causes are part of our Essence. A faulty Essence is the legacy of many of us today, but with careful personal work, and therapy as and when it is indicated, these faults may be overcome and a complete end put to the harmful psychological symptoms that accompany them.

As the Bible says, the "sins" of the fathers - the occasions of "missing the mark", or hamartein in Greek - are visited on the third and fourth generations. They may continue indefinitely until someone has the courage and foresight to undertake the difficult work of ending them in their own life.

We ourselves transmit a physical and psychological legacy to our own children.

 If we don't have any biological children, we certainly have people whom we affect in many ways, and who are influenced by our own behaviour. And what we do today, of course, affects the future of the entire planet and the human race.

Are we working on ourselves to leave a beneficial legacy behind us?

Will we transmit the knowledge we have been given in the Work, and in other spheres? Will we inspire those around us to work on themselves, as they may have seen us do?

Or, on the contrary, will we leave a legacy of loss and misfortune?

We may have quite unknowingly and unavoidably passed on a legacy of alcoholism or addiction. We can't help this. But we can choose how we treat our children if they manifest this disease. We can avoid enabling them, we can encourage them to come into recovery, and we can - if we ourselves have worked on these conditions - present them with an example of how to handle such a legacy so that it becomes actually beneficial.

For instance, we may, as many have done, enter a Twelve Step programme, and we can then tell our children what we are doing and how it is helping us. They will see the results for themselves, and it may well encourage them to do likewise. We may not have actually been alcoholics or addicts, but if the gene is in our family we will have been affected by it. Our wisest course will be to attend the Twelve Step Alanon groups, so that we can learn the best ways of handling such a family problem, and show our own children and others by example how to deal with it.

In our day to day lives we also transmit a legacy, less dramatic but just as powerful. We choose whether to meet an adverse event with courage and determination, or whether to ignore problems until they become very difficult to deal with.

We meet other people with compassion when they harm us, and with remorse if we have harmed them. All this is part of our legacy. They will remember how we behaved, for better or worse. We can cause them harm or we can benefit them: the choice is ours. But one or the other is inevitable.

We use difficult circumstances as a chance to develop new skills and discard old attitudes. We meet  events consciously, and remember the importance of choosing the right Third Force.  We ask ourselves, is our Third Force that of Life, or is it the Work - are we acting expediently or according to our conscience?

We transmit the legacy of the Work when we act according to our understanding of it. We know which I's are useful are which are harmful; we allow the former a voice, and detach from the others. We refuse to pass on the harm we ourselves have received from others.

We know when to put the necessary shocks into an octave, whether it be in our personal work or in undertaking some concrete task in the world. This, too, is our legacy.

What do you want to people to say at your funeral?

What would you like your obituary to say?

As a Work exercise, particularly appropriate to November, you might try writing your own obituary. It will show you what your legacy may be - and encourage you to pass on only good to future generations.

Cleansing Our Psyche From Mental Clutter

When we reach the mid-to-late Autumn season in the Earth's journey around the Sun, we can't avoid seeing the increase in darkness that occurs now.

Psychologically and spiritually, this increase affects us at unconscious levels. Every Northern Hemisphere culture has rituals to mark this enormously important change, when we clear out the old and prepare to receive the new in every centre.

We don't know exactly how and when all these rituals developed. Some are very practical, and must have been handed down by early groups of hunter-gatherers, who needed to know the changes occurring now in order to prepare for winter. There would be a lack of fresh meat and vegetation, and a consequent need to kill and preserve whatever was available now to see the families over the winter shortages.

But, more urgently today, this season affects us mentally and emotionally, too, and brings with it spiritual implications. From the earliest times when homo sapiens began to create art and ritual, conscious beings have taught the need for special festivals, and have created rituals that would bring out the inner meanings of these times.

Right now, the increasing darkness unconsciously reminds us f the inevitability of death. To those of us in later years, the fact of our own death becomes very real as we enter the seventh and eighth decades of our lives, and in late Autumn we see our own existence reflected in the changes occurring in Nature at this time.

Gurdjieff taught - as do all major religions - that we should constantly bear in mind our own death, and that it could happen at any time. We don't even know whether we'll live to see the next hour, let alone the next day, or month, or year. We could stand up from our computer and keel over with a heart attack or a stroke.

This realization is not far-fetched or alarmist; the great mythological researcher and Work teacher Joseph Campbell met his own death in just such a way. He stood up from his desk after writing the last line of his final book, and was felled with a massive stroke. He suffered no pain, and it was in every respect an honourable, much-to-be-desired death, a suitable end to a life given to spreading Knowledge and Understanding.

In the Western hemisphere, to mark the change in the year, we have "Halloween", a time when the veil between the worlds of life and death was thought to be lifted, and spirits of the dead could roam throughout the material world.

Special prayers are said for the dead throughout the month of November, in every Catholic church, to remind us of the transience of life and the need to ponder the afterlife.

In England, we also celebrate "Bonfire Night", which ostensibly marks the occasion of the discovery of a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament, but as Mrs Pogson pointed out, it must be a ritual far older than a mere four hundred years. She suggested the etymology of the word "Bonfire" was actually "bone fire", when human and animal remains were cremated.

It's traditional to burn a "guy" on the bonfire, a replica of a human being complete with mask and clothing. A deeper and older tradition, which we have always celebrated in the Nicoll line of Work, encourages us to create our own masks, embodying a particular set of I's from which we wish to be free. In the ritual of mask-burning, often accompanied by fireworks, we celebrate freedom from the old habits and attitudes, and welcome the new possibility in which we wish to live, that of coming under fewer laws, of being reborn.

We need rituals, because they present the Higher Emotional Centre with an unforgettable picture of what is desired, what is to be sought. As we know, this centre does not think in words, but is visual, which is why such rituals and traditions affect us so deeply. Simply thinking about these matters is not sufficient. Practical, visible rituals must be carried out so that we are imbued with their meaning at every level. This is not magic, but a reflection of our psychological reality and a seeking of new beginnings.

In all the Christian and Jewish cultures with which I'm familiar, rituals with this underlying import exist, and encourage followers to cast off the old and outworn in their spiritual lives in order to welcome a new possibility.

Immediately after this time of cleansing, we enter the month of November, when Christians are exhorted to think of the Four Last Things: Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell.

Again, the importance of keeping our own death constantly before us is paramount.

We are going to die, that is certain. After death, what will remain of us? The Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths, although they have different ideas of what life after death will be like, all assert that it exists and that our physical death is not the end of our existence. Afterwards we will continue in a different form, receiving the appropriate reward or punishment for what we've done (or failed to do) on Earth.

The Work puts it a little differently. We are told that our Essence is immortal, but if it has learned nothing, if it has not developed, then there is no place for it to continue to evolve. We have to bring with us after death something that we have learned, something that we have achieved, if we are to continue our individual existence. This is the price exacted by the Sun in order for us to have the chance of evolution during our time on Earth.

We know that Jesus Christ is the leader of Conscious Humanity, and we are told that we will be judged by Him after our death, but this is not to be thought of as some sort of magistrate's court in the sky, when we will be fined or imprisoned for our misdemeanors!

On the contrary, if we have developed at all then we will be assigned to the place and the situation most appropriate for our next stage of existence. We might call this Purgatory, which is best conceived of as a school for self-perfecting, a place, or rather a state, where we will see exactly what we are like, what we have done, and what we need to do so that we may evolve further. It may be a time of great remorse, of suffering for our shortcomings, but it will be a cleansing, a preparation that is entirely necessary for us, and so we will not resent it but welcome it.

If we have not developed, however, the spark of Essence within us will be assigned to the melting pot from which new individuals are born, and the Personality and False Personality will perish. It must be so.  In the Gospels, the Parable of the Talents puts this reality very clearly.

That is why this time of year is a very important stage in our annual pilgrimage around the Sun. We are given it so that we may turn within, assess where we are and what we need to do next, and then prepare ourselves for the new life that may be born within us at Christmas.

It's time to ask ourselves what we wish to become, what we would desire to take with us into our existence after death - and to cast off the old while we still have the time to do so.

The Uniqueness of the Work

The Work is not remotely like any other way to understanding. It has much in common with the world's major religions, because all its teachings can be found in them, but unlike religions, it does not demand any outward form of worship or the acceptance of any particular theology.

It has something in common with counselling, since it is a way to understand oneself. Counselling, however, aims to help clients function normally in everyday life. While some counselling theories include a spiritual component, this is not the basic aim of the counselling process.

The Work takes over where counselling leaves off. It assumes the Work student is competent to function at the level of life, can support himself or herself, is not a scrounger or an idler, and has reasonably good relationships with family and friends.

It then helps the student to get to know his own psychology at a much deeper level than counselling can - or should - attempt. (Of course, I'm using masculine pronouns to include both men and women here).

The Work is not part of the occult world, although it is esoteric: as Gurdjieff described it, it is "esoteric Christianity".

The Work encourages the study of various esoteric systems such as the tarot, the I Ching, astrology and so on, but it does not seek to use them for fortune telling, or divination.

Why not? Because one of the greatest obstacles to spiritual progress is the student's False Personality, which is ruled by an Imaginary I - and to practice occult systems for monetary gain, or to win admiration from other people, artificially boosts this undesirable aspect of the student's psychological makeup.

The student becomes identified with his imagined prowess in such practices, and his Pride and Vanity are increased to an alarming extent. So much so, in some cases, that it becomes quite impossible for the truths of the Work to penetrate the thick crust which Pride and Vanity form around the False Personality. This crust shuts out the light of the Work and the student will make no progress in the Work - indeed, will become a drain on the energy of the teacher and the group.

The Work is not just such another system, as some students imagine.

It can't simply be added on to the knowledge a student may already have about such subjects.

This fact was best expressed by the Head of Conscious Humanity, known as Jesus in the Gospels, when He said that you can't pour new wine into old wine skins. The new wine is strong and potent, and will burst the old vessels so that all will be lost.

Likewise, He said, you can't patch up an older garment by sewing on a piece of brand new material. Again, the old can't take the strain of bearing with the new. The whole cloth will fall apart.

The Work must be seen and appreciated for what it is - a radically different, thoroughgoing approach to self-knowledge and knowledge of the cosmos, which can't be understood with the old I's that we use to study other systems.

We have to allow the Work to gradually penetrate us, to gently shine its searching light on the dark places of our Personality and False Personality so that we see those proud and vain I's for what they are; a useless, conceited attempt to aggrandize ourselves in the eyes of others.

We cannot use the Work to build up our Personality or False Personality, as those other systems may be used (or, rather, misused).

It doesn't work.

In the supportive, encouraging setting of the Work group, under the guidance of an understanding teacher, the student is gradually shown the futility of his False Personality, with its useless, harmful I's and its opposition to real truth. He is shown how to escape from its imprisonment and to begin to taste real freedom.

He is given his first, bitter-sweet taste of remorse of conscience as he begins to see his own mistakes, his own lies, his own ill-will. The Work does not condemn him for these things. The Work shows him that they are simply unreal, not-him, not part of his Essence, and definitely not part of his Real I.

To see the truth of how we have lived, how we've behaved, can be very painful. But it is a cleansing pain, akin to the probing of a surgeon's scalpel as it cuts away dead and decaying flesh. It hurts, yes, but this is necessary for us to heal.

Some people, however, can't bear the pain of real insight and immediately turn away. It may happen after a few months or after many years in the Work. The moment will come for each persevering student when he is given the chance to see himself, to really see and understand how he has been the slave of I's that seek his and other people's ill being. These I's lie to us and deform our relationships, bringing only accidents, misunderstandings and disasters. Such a realization cannot be pleasant, by its very nature.

The teacher's role here is to help the student undergo this cleansing process - called in Christianity the Way of Purgation - without jumping in to condemn or deny the reality he is being shown. As the Bible tells us not to judge, so does the Work. Such judging is quite useless - it is merely one set of mechanical I's opposing another - and leaves the student no better off. Instead, we simply allow ourselves to see the truths we are shown, without flinching or denying their existence.

As Dr Nicoll puts it, there are many processes which can only take place in the dark, and when a light is shone upon them, they stop. So it is with the ill will stirred up in us and other people by our own negative emotional I's, our own destructive thought patterns, our own unacknowledged pride, vanity, deceitfulness and arrogance.

The light of the Work will heal and cure, if only we endure it without turning away. And we will find that, as we continue to see ourselves in its healing rays, we are given a taste of real freedom that is quite unforgettable, and quite unlike anything else.

There are two ways in which people may escape the feeling of powerlessness and impotence so many find unpalatable and seek to deny.

One is to add on other "assets", including occult skills, to make other people see the student as someone powerful, to be noticed, to be admired. Of course, this is merely building the hot air pie of the False Personality ever taller.

The other is to allow those vain, conceited, impotent I's to be gradually deprived of their power over us, so that enlightment may come, and we may see ourselves - and the world around us - as they truly are.

Only then may we understand the great, hidden truths of the cosmos which the Work wishes to show us.

Eventually, this is goal of all true religions, and this is why we may compare their teachings to those of the Work. Whether Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist or Hindu, all lead the sincere disciple to see the truths of themselves, and through this insight to reach liberation from False Personality.

Eventually, through admitting our powerlessness, we may become truly able to "do".

It may, however, take many lifetimes for the religious seeker to reach such understanding. Many will never make it.

The Work offers a short cut, which is why it's sometimes called "The Way of Accelerated Completion". If you deeply long for freedom and understanding, the Work will show you how to reach them and will offer you the conditions to achieve them in this lifetime. The rest is up to you.

The Power of Admitting When We're Wrong .... And Need Help

To Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, there are four important sentences which lead to wisdom. He insists that all new recruits to his department in the Quebec Surete learn them and use them often. They are:-

"I was wrong."

"I made a mistake."

"I don't know."

"I need help."

Of course, Gamache is a fictional creation, the brainchild of Louise Penny, whose insightful crime novels are written with much heart.

But the above lines are worth memorizing, because we all need to use them, and even more so if we're in the Work or working the Steps, or both.

Without honesty, without admitting when we're wrong and when we need help, we can never see the truth about ourselves. And if we can't see that, we can't change. We stay stuck at a particular note in the octave, a certain level in the Steps, and we can make no further progress.

We've all known people in the Work who are quite unable to see themselves, incapable of honesty about themselves. They may glimpse the truth for a moment, but they find it so frightening that they quickly turn away and let a whole crowd of self-important I's take centre stage to distract them and us from the truth.

In the Steps, it's necessary to be honest so that we can make a personal inventory; first, we work the first three Steps so that we have enough emotional and spiritual support to be able to stand seeing the truth, and only then do we go on to list our defects and assets.

In the Work, we must be honest if we are to attain any spiritual insight. If we believe we are always in the right, why do we want to work on ourselves? Obviously, at a deep level we know that all is not right within us, and that we need to learn, to change. But superficially we may be too frightened to admit that truth into our consciousness, let alone to our teacher or to others in the group. And when this happens, we end up leaving the Work before we have achieved any real progress.

Either we leave of our own accord, because we realize that we are not getting anywhere, even though we don't understand why; or we are told to leave, because our unwillingness to make real efforts is a drain on the energy of the group and the teacher.

We've all come across the Work student who is so bright they seem to make great progress - and then it all suddenly stops. Why? Because never have they seen themselves as they are. Never have they seen their own real character defects, in the language of the Steps; in the Work, they are asleep, and so blind to the reality of themselves.

They cannot feel remorse. Therefore, they cannot change. We see in such a student's life the evidence of willed blindness in the broken relationships that litter their past. Everything would change in an instant if they could only take a long, clearsighted look at themselves, but this is precisely what they refuse to do. They lack the courage to allow themselves to feel remorse.

This theme is particularly relevant now because Autumn is the time of year when remorse and spiritual change are inextricably linked. On Tuesday evening Yom Kippur - the Day of Atonement - begins, when Jews all over the world fast, pray, and seek forgiveness from God for the sins they've committed against Him in the previous year.

But - and this is what makes this fast so unique - they do not seek God's forgiveness for sins committed against other people. God cannot forgive them the harm they have caused another person. Therefore, in the ten days which are called the High Holy Days in Judaism, the period leading up to the most sacred day of the year, they are obliged to seek out everyone they have wronged in the preceding year, and sometimes even people they've harmed years ago, if the need comes into their consciousness.

Recently, I read how one Jewish woman was greatly surprised to receive a telephone call from someone she hadn't seen since High School, many years ago. That person was now dying of cancer, and had called to ask for her to forgive him for bullying her in school. Needless to say, she did so, and it was a very moving conversation in which both were healed of old wounds.

Jesus tells us that if we have a grudge or resentment against someone we need to deal with it before we approach God.  We need to forgive whoever has harmed us, just as we ourselves need forgiveness from others.

Without honesty, we stay at a low level in the Work Octave. We've all known students who, each meeting, tell the group solemnly how they've carried out the task perfectly - even when we know quite well that they didn't, because nobody could.

Or they missed doing the task that week, but it was all right, because they learned something ..... and they justify their omission on the grounds that they understood better than the teacher or their fellow group members what it was they needed to learn. They are never, ever wrong. Their sleep is never disturbed.

In AA, we come across the same reactions countless times. The alcoholic who's still basically a "dry drunk" continues to whitewash his own misdeeds, or blames other people for them. It was his parents' fault for the way they brought him up ..... or his girlfriend's, for being late to a date .... or their best friend's, for allowing him to carry on drinking when he was way over the top.

Only when someone admits, at last, that there is nobody else to blame - that he alone is responsible for his mistakes, that he was wrong, and needs help - can they begin to recover from addiction.

And only when a Work student sees clearly how they've messed up their task, forgotten to remember themselves, caused harm to others in the group and have failed to pull their weight - for whatever reason - can she start, for the first time, to really work.

Our contemporary culture encourages everyone to believe they're right, that they must never apologize, that their insecurities must always be indulged and soothed. That serves to calm and justify, but not to increase consciousness. Such attitudes put us to sleep, and sleep is what so many people want.

If we are to wake up, we need to ask for the gift of insight; insight into ourselves, and to how we fall short. It is painful, but it is the pain of the surgeon's knife, which must be wielded before healing may take place.

The Jewish New Year is a Spiritual Reminder for Everyone

Happy New Year - or Shana Tova, for all you Hebrew speakers!

The Jewish New Year begins at sundown on Sunday, October 2nd, and is celebrated for two full days. During that time, families sit down to special celebratory meals, which will always include plenty of sweet things, eaten to symbolize our wish for a "sweet" New Year. In our household we have apples dipped in honey, and for a special dessert I always make sugar-free, diabetic-friendly cake or pudding. It doesn't sound wonderful, I admit, but it tastes great! And my blood sugar doesn't suffer.

The pomegranate is a special symbol of the New Year and appears on many tables. Round and red and bursting with nourishing seeds, it shows the blessings that we may expect if we are living with spiritual intent.

For observant Jews there are special synagogue services with once-a-year prayers and readings, and people greet each other with wishes for a happy year and that they, their friends and families be inscribed in the Lord's Book of Life.

The good news is that you certainly don't have to be Jewish to celebrate the Jewish New Year. And I much prefer it to the secular January New Year of Western custom, when people get drunk, make fools of themselves and get up to all sorts of mayhem just because of a change in the calendar! I never saw the point of that.

The spiritual New Year, however, is full of meaning for everyone on a spiritual path. I thoroughly recommend adopting at least one of the spiritual customs that Jewish people observe at this time, because the time of year is right for reflection now. We might add special prayers to our morning preparation, add more Work readings during the day. Perhaps we need to accentuate our daily appointments with ourselves, changing the times so that we include more "snapshots" of ourselves.

We can all practice the custom of making amends to those we've hurt, as I'll explain in a moment.

Why is the Jewish New Year celebrated at this time?

Cosmically, the position of the Earth in relation to the Sun and other stars has changed significantly since Midsummer. We have just passed the Autumn Equinox, when days and nights are of equal length, and now we can begin to see for ourselves how the hours of light are becoming less, the hours of darkness increasing.

It is this time that is most propitious for pondering spiritual matters, going within and reconnecting ourselves with our spiritual purpose, drawing closer to the God of our understanding and seeking His help in our new beginning. Over the summer we may have become immersed in the world of nature, in our secular holidays and our worldly ambitions, in other words, in Life; now, we turn our face to the world of Spirit and towards our Creator.

For, just like the secular January festival, this spiritual New Year is also marked by resolutions, this time concerning our relationship to God and to our neighbours.

In these special New Year days, we remember ourselves and why we are here.

We recall our spiritual aim, and review how far we have kept it and where we've strayed from it.

We renew our intention to be ever more aware of our need for God. The Jewish New Year mystically marks the anniversary of the day when God created man. What is our purpose? Have we lived up to it? What do we wish to be during the year that is to come? What do we need to work on?

Whom have we hurt, to whom do we need to apologize, to make amends? In many respects, preparing for the Jewish New Year is akin to making a Twelve Step amends list. If we can possibly do so, we make restitution to anyone we've harmed; if not, we swallow our pride, say we are sorry, and we mean it. And if the person has died, we resolve never again to repeat the mistakes we have made, and to become better people in the future.

From the standpoint of the Work, we ask ourselves which I's are helpful to our development? Which are harmful? What is the direction our personal work must take if the coming year is to see us develop as God would wish?

Without God, the Jewish New Year reminds us, we are nothing. We are dust. We did not make ourselves, as my Work teacher, Marian, often said. We think that we are "doing" in the world, when in reality every breath we take, every movement we make, exists only through divine decree. Without God, we can do nothing; indeed, without Him, we truly are nothing.

In the Jewish New Year, tradition holds, God decides who will live and who will die during the year to come; who will prosper, who will fail; whose health will improve, who will fall sick; and so on. Every decision God makes is planned for us, for our best and highest good, if we remember our connection to Him and truly intend to live out this connection in our daily lives.

That is why people wish each other the blessing of being inscribed in the Book of Life; there are other Books that are less propitious, and we certainly don't want to find our names written in them.

To each person will be given according to their needs and their merits. What seems like good fortune to us, however, may not be; what seems like a curse may be a blessing, to those with spiritual insight. We trust that, as long as we are doing our best to follow God's Will for our lives, He will give us exactly what we need for our best development.

The New Year is the time when God, the true and only Ruler of the Universe, picks up each one of us and gathers us into His bosom. He examines us with a loving gaze and sees where we are, what we need, what we may become.

To the spiritually aware, the prodigal son is home again in his Father's arms.

We have been lost, but now are found, as the hymn says.

We are loved.

We are remembered.

And we remember.

So You Want To Become A Work Teacher .......

Generally, when someone says they'd like to become a Work teacher, it's a sign that they're not ready.

In order to be able to teach the Work we have to have above all a sense of our own littleness, our own inadequacies in the light of the vast and awe-inspiring teachings of the Fourth Way. We need humility, for humility is the number one requirement both for learning and for teaching the Work.

Someone who's actually ready for this difficult task will feel great diffidence. They'll question whether they really are ready, whether their knowledge and understanding are enough to be able to help students. They won't mind admitting their own ignorance when students ask questions they can't answer; they'll say they don't know and will refer the question to their own teacher, and they will be grateful for all the help their teacher can give. They won't boast or brag about their achievements, for in the light of the Work as a whole they will know they are very small indeed.

Therefore, they won't let the position go to their heads; quite the reverse. Each time a real teacher conducts a Work group, he remembers his own powerlessness, and prays for the help of Conscious Humanity. He doesn't stand on his dignity and doesn't demand any kowtowing from members of his group, although he does ask that they show respect to the role of the teacher and towards the Work as a whole, and he sees whether they have the right attitude by the questions they ask, and the observations they bring.

You don't just wake up one day and decide to teach the Work! No, you must first be asked by your own teacher, who will see when a student is ready to begin taking on limited responsibilities. The teacher may already know of one or two newcomers who could form the start of a small, beginning group for the novice teacher. Or he may suggest that the student try to find a few possible candidates among her own acquaintances, or perhaps put up a small notice in a public library or bookshop.

It's vital that the beginning teacher maintain close contact with her own teacher throughout the process. She will in any case be a continuing student, going to regular Work meetings or maintaining the relationship with her teacher through phone calls and emails. The constant support and help of one's teacher is absolutely necessary when one first begins to teach the Work. Without it, the novice teacher is doomed to fail. And if the student does not continue to work on herself with her own teacher, she will not last long when she herself begins to teach; she will stagnate and be no use to her students.

The whole lineage of the Work is brought into play when a new teacher starts out; energy is passed down the line from Conscious Humanity through the student's own Work teacher, and then on to the new students. The beginning teacher must acknowledge that she is merely a link in the chain, that she needs help. And she must be able to generate her own energies to pass on to the students in her group, in addition to what is received from higher up.

When the student teacher has collected a nucleus of beginners - which should be no more than three or four, at the very most - she will make sure that her own teacher is kept fully informed about the potential students. Normally, the Work teacher will meet all the potential new students before the group gets underway, to make sure that they are all suitable candidates for the Work.

A novice teacher won't necessarily be able to judge this; the new students must all be Good Householders, and they must also be mentally stable and well grounded, so that the Work won't harm them at all, and neither will any of them harm the group or the novice teacher. Damage can and does happen. Vetting is extremely important. If distance is a problem, the newcomers need to be interviewed by the supervising Work teacher by phone or Skype, at the very least; otherwise they cannot be allowed into the new group.

When the group gets underway, the novice teacher keeps her own teacher fully informed about each meeting. She lets her teacher know what has been read, what observations have been given, and what new task has been set. She normally sends her teacher written notes, keeping copies for herself so that an invaluable record is formed. The notes are there for both her and her teacher to refer to when discussing the progress of individual students, as well as the novice teacher's own development.

By doing this, the novice ensures that she is teaching the Work as it was passed down to her by her own teacher, not deviating or distorting it in any way.

The supervising teacher will normally attend the new group meetings from time to time, and will invite all members to take part in a Work weekend at least once a year, more often if this is practicable.

After a year or so, the novice teacher will have gained enough experience and confidence that she will be able to carry on and enlarge her group, and will be equipped to continue teaching the Work as long as may be necessary. She will always keep her own teacher well informed about the group, and will always make sure that written notes are sent. As time goes by, however, less time will be spent discussing the progress of the new group; the novice teacher will become a seasoned leader in due course, and can handle most of the problems herself, without referring to her teacher.

The supervising teacher will always be available for consultations, however, and if he spots a problem that the new teacher hasn't noticed he will be able to help her nip it in the bud before it spoils the group's work.

Why do we need to keep this accountability? Why can't the teacher just get on with leading the group as he or she sees fit?

The answer is clear. The Work is a hierarchy. We are always answerable to our own teachers, and the help they give us is even more necessary if we ourselves become teachers in turn. We must always remember that we are responsible to Conscious Humanity when we take on the position of Work teacher. We owe it to them to swallow our pride - which in any case will always spoil our own work if we don't let go of it - and ask for help. Only someone willing to ask for help, and to act on it, is worthy of becoming a Work teacher.

It isn't easy. It's the most difficult task I've ever undertaken, even though I taught at University level for many years and was used to planning lessons, helping students, and directing groups. The Work demands all these skills and more: it demands our own continual spiritual work, because we dare not rest on our laurels.

We become accountable not just to our teacher but to our students, too, and we owe it to them and to the whole hierarchy of Work teachers who came before us, stretching all the way back to Gurdjieff himself, to maintain the legacy they bequeathed us, and to advance its knowledge in the present world.

Teachers are always looking for students who they believe can carry the Work forward after their own retirement or death, whichever comes first.

But it is a huge responsibility; it is very taxing; it demands that the potential teacher be able to work at a sufficient level to generate enough energies to support her students as well as for her own personal work; and there is no guarantee of success.

Most Work students will never become teachers, and this is no disgrace. We are all here to learn. And one good student is worth an infinite number of poor teachers.

Thoughts On the Gurdjieff Glut Throughout The Internet

If you're interested in Gurdjieff - and you must be, if you're reading this - then you will surely have noticed that in the last few years there's been an enormous glut of Gurdjieff materials on the internet.

Is this a good thing? And how can we judge the value of each article, website or book?

Of course, more genuine material about Gurdjieff is always welcome. We need as many notes of meetings, accounts of personal encounters with the great teachers, and serious, well-thought-out articles on the Work as we can find. Books by real Work students and teachers on their own experiences on the Fourth Way are a valuable accompaniment to our personal Work journey.

The problem with the internet is that anyone can publish anything at all on it, and the reader is hard put to distinguish the false from the real.

So how can we decide whether something's worth reading or not? We need guidance, especially if it concerns something relatively expensive, such as a new book on the Work. Enormous sums of money can be thrown away on worthless matter unless we're very careful and discriminating.

And even the free websites and articles can do a lot of damage. People can get a wrong impression of the Work from reading something by an individual or group who's left the Work, either of their own free will or because they were thrown out of it - not to mention the pieces written by those who've had no real experience of a Work school at all, but are Fourth Way wannabees, writing from theory only.

And this falseness damages the Work as a whole. It lures away students who have Magnetic Centre and hinders them from finding the real teaching they seek.

I've always maintained that the only safe path to learning about the Work is to join a real group. By "real", I mean a group in the lineage of Gurdjieff, Ouspensky and Nicoll. And to verify the lineage of any group or individual, you need to know whether they're connected with any of the Gurdjieff Foundations around the world, which promote only genuine Gurdjieffian material, or with the Study Society based in London, when the material concerns Ouspensky.

The Nicoll line of groups still exists - that is my own lineage - and any Nicoll Work teacher will at some time have been connected with the Foundations and will maintain good relations with them. If you come across a site purporting to be of the Nicoll line, contact the teacher and find out his or her lineage and current affiliations. Don't be fobbed off by clever window dressing. If there is a real group with a real teacher they will be only too happy to tell you their credentials.

Books are much harder to judge. One sure guide, if you can find it, is of course to ascertain the lineage of the author. Many books out there now, available from Amazon and elsewhere, are genuine and worthwhile. The authors are affiliated with one of the three lines I've mentioned above, and the materials they publish are well worth reading.

Others, however, are useless - or worse than useless, because they give quite wrong ideas about the Work. These come from individuals who've left the Foundation, or been thrown out; who have seen a chance to make money out of their limited experience of the Work; and are unscrupulous enough to try to gull innocent readers into buying their products. Some may actually believe what they write, and if so, they can be even more dangerous, because more persuasive!

There are some excellent websites out there, and some very worthwhile publishing houses. If you buy something from the Eureka press, you're in safe hands. Websites such as my personal favourites, which include the wonderful zenyogagurdjieff, are definitely worth checking out. I always try to read his latest post, and have also found much to stimulate my intellectual centre on the websites of Charles Tart and other Foundation-linked men and women. Well-known publishing houses, with a good reputation, are usually reliable. Self-published books may be very good or they may be quite worthless - I speak as one who's published a book myself, which I obviously think is worth reading! But my experience of this process showed me just how easy it is these days to get into print, and why it's a case of "caveat lector" on the internet and elsewhere.

Some authors who claim to write about the Work seem to be just self-seeking, self-justifying liars. They make untrue assertions and give wrong ideas. Some may even be hasnamusses.  The Work has always taught that we need to check everything out and verify it for ourselves, but the huge glut of materials now available makes that very, very difficult, if not impossible.

So - use your judgement. Consult the rest of your group and your teacher, if you have one. And if you don't - then try to find one, as that is the only way you can really, fruitfully work on yourself. Books and articles alone won't do it. Nor will discussion groups, useful though they are in counselling and therapy. They operate at a life level and can't raise the members to a higher level than life.

Beware of websites that advertise Fourth Way groups, but don't have a lineage, or won't say what it is. To produce results, a Work group must have a teacher, someone whose Being is at a higher level than that of his or her students. Without such a teacher, a group is merely a counselling, self-help group, and although that can be useful in many ways, it won't teach anyone the Work or provide the conditions for individuals to work on themselves.

The teaching cannot arise from the mass of people; it comes from above, from a level higher than life. Just as our normal state of waking sleep consists of warring factions of different I's until Deputy Steward or Steward begins to organize them, so a group without a Work teacher has no way out of life-level conflicts. Discussions go round in circles. No progress is made, and much energy is wasted.

As the original teachers are now passing away, an increase in efforts is very necessary for the Work to maintain its standards. We are passing through a difficult interval in the Work, when new shocks are needed. The addition of new, genuine materials is very, very welcome to all of us who try to work on ourselves in the great Tradition of the Fourth Way, in a lineage that descends from the Messengers themselves, Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, and Nicoll. But don't be misled by people claiming to be of this tradition but having no antecedents in this lineage. They aren't Work groups at all, and they won't help you. They may ruin your chances of ever meeting the Work in its genuine form, or of staying with it if you do.