"Courageously and even joyously"

The above phrase is taken from a beautiful prayer that is said every day by members of a Catholic apostolate.

In context, it is "Lord ... bless my brothers and sisters ... and may we all glorify you and give proof of our love for you by bearing courageously and even joyously the cross which is ours" (my italics).

The prayer is spoken each morning by members of a Catholic apostolate for people with chronic sickness or disabilities, CUSA (Catholic Union of the Sick in America). It's part of a longer prayer, and there is also an evening prayer which accompanies their night time reflections. During the day, members are encouraged to raise their hearts and minds to God, and to remember that they carry a cross which, though painful and hard to bear, can bring healing to others and to mankind as a whole.

Despite its name, CUSA is international, with members in many countries who keep in touch with each other by letter or email, in smaller groups, and encourage one another to grow spiritually through the "joyous" acceptance of their crosses. Each group has a spiritual adviser who is a member of a religious order and who also suffers long-term sickness or disability.

In its attitude to suffering, CUSA is very close to the Work teaching.

The Catholic church, as far as I know, is the only Christian organization which has preserved Christ's sublime teaching on suffering. It tells us that when we offer up our personal suffering, whether physical or mental, we assist suffering people all over the world, and even assist Jesus Christ in his plan for the redemption of mankind.

St Paul exhorts us to join to Jesus's passion on the Cross all the suffering that is ours on Earth, and to bear all things with calmness and patience, including the difficult knowledge of our own inadequacy to the task.

Gurdjieff actually showed us how this cross-bearing could help others, could even help God. He taught that when we bear misfortunes and suffering with patience and goodwill, we create a very fine substance that God needs for his saving work, and which helps the universe to evolve. This substance he called "higher hydrogens".

All of us, Gurdjieff said, will release a quantity of this energy when we die. But, if we wish, we may also participate in God's plan for salvation by acting against our self-will during life, by bearing one another's unpleasant manifestations, by accepting all the many kinds of suffering that come our way and refusing to be defeated by them.

Of course, suffering takes many forms. One particular type, which all of us in the Work must bear, is that of seeing ourselves as we really are, with all our mechanicalness, negativity and ill-will. We must  look at the harm our False Personality causes, the many I's within us that harbour negativity, resentment, and so on. When we truly see all this without flinching and without turning away from it, we open the way for our own transformation and for the fine energy of creation, the higher hydrogens, to be released.

Catholic Christians, if they honestly try to live out their faith, are faced with the truth of themselves in their daily self-examination and also when they make confession to a priest. We're encouraged to leave nothing out, but to be completely honest and unsparing in our account of ourselves and the sins we've committed "in thought and in word, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do". And we ask for the prayers of others, especially the saints, to help us in our determination to avoid sin in the future. We know that the communion of saints is real, and that we can all help one another - both the living and those gone before us - in the great work of spiritual growth.

In the Work, it is our daily task to note the ways in which we continually fail to live up to our ideals, fail to keep our aim. But we don't become discouraged because of this - far from it! We know this honest facing of our failures is the necessary prerequisite to spiritual growth. We fail anyway, so to be given the opportunity to actually see what we are like, and how we behave, think and feel, is a tremendous blessing. We don't judge ourselves, we don't criticize ourselves for our failures. That is simply the way we are. We accept this knowledge, and resolve to renew our efforts.

God does not judge or criticize us when we are honest with Him. Jesus did not condemn the woman taken in adultery, but told her go and sin no more. That is what we must do, as Work students, as would-be Christians.

Members of AA do this each day when they take their inventory. Again, it is not an instrument of condemnation but an aid to greater self-knowledge, and to be welcomed. The love of God is made plain in the AA community, where AA members can be honest with one another and can forgive and help to heal the wounded member. M. Scott Peck says that AA shows what a truly Christian community would be like. And the same is true for all AA's offshoot organizations - Alanon, Narcotics Anonymous, Emotions Anonymous, and so on.

As well as the burden of self-knowledge, the additional crosses we are given vary with each individual. For some, they will be the trials imposed by those we live with and care about - the sick, the addicted, the continual calls on our love and goodwill.

For alcoholics and addicts it includes their particular addiction, along with the character defects that accompany it. There are many, too, who struggle with other forms of addiction, such as codependence, sex addiction, compulsive helping, addiction to spending, and much more.

For members of CUSA, as well as for many who've never heard of that organization, our crosses include chronic, ongoing physical and mental suffering which is part of daily lot and which would, without spiritual insight, become a means of destroying our faith and our hope.

Some members are physically disabled, like me. Many readers know that I use a wheelchair for much of the time and cope with various types of pain and disability as a result of a near-fatal car crash I experienced in 1983. The effects of that crash on my body will never disappear, and will get worse each year. But in contrast, the spiritual benefits - the insights, the understanding, the ability to carry my own cross, and much more - have been beyond all I could have imagined. The apparent catastrophe has been turned into a blessing, thank God. And it's the Work, the teaching of esoteric Christianity, which has brought about this reversal.

I'm also tremendously grateful to the many Catholic saints, such as St Therese of Lisieux, Padre Pio, and St John Paul II, who have offered us the example of their own suffering willingly borne and who have shown us the way to carry our own cross. And as well as trying to imitate their superb example, we can profit from their prayers. They understand suffering because, like Jesus, they have undergone it themselves. A god, a saint, who is beyond all pain and who had never suffered would be useless to us who must cope with suffering on Earth.

You don't have to be a Catholic to understand this teaching, but it definitely helps, because the church upholds and promotes the value of suffering whilst other churches - and the world at large - see suffering as quite useless. It is one of the reasons why Gurdjieff said the Catholic church was a true religious path, along with the Orthodox Churches; most Protestants have largely lost sight of the true value of suffering.

Other members of CUSA have serious mental problems, such as schizophrenia or depression; yet others battle with chronic, progressive conditions such as Parkinson's or Alzheimer's diseases.

But what joins us all together in CUSA is our love of God and our determination to use the crosses we have been given as a way of coming closer to Him and of taking part in his plan of salvation for the world.

And the phrase that I carry round with me at all times is that which I've quoted in the title of this post - "courageously and even joyously".

What a wonderful exhortation! And how impossible it sounds when we first hear it! We would all agree that courage is needed to bear our individual cross, but how can that cross possibly be carried "joyously"?

How can we be glad that we're physically handicapped, or mentally ill, or suffering the scourge of alcoholism? How can this possibly be turned to joy?

The answer is, of course, because it brings us closer to God, and most particularly to the sufferings God experiences in the person of Jesus.

Anyone who makes a serious effort to carry their cross not only with courage but also with joy will find a wonderful new energy, so fine as to be almost imperceptible at first, filling their spirit. If they are in the Work, they will know that this is a positive emotion, sent by God via the Higher Emotional Centre, to encourage them and console them.

It is the love of God made manifest to our limited perception.

And the only way to know that love is bear our cross - courageously and yes, even joyously.

Above all, keep in mind the words of Thomas a Kempis:

"Nothing, how little so ever it be, if it is suffered for God's sake, can pass without merit in the sight of God".

Identification

Identification is a kind of glue that joins us to something without our knowledge. It keeps us asleep. It is very dangerous, because it can ruin your own life and the lives of others by keeping you blind to important facts.

What you identify with depends on what kind of person you are. An emotional person may get identified with an emotional issue - a love affair, perhaps, or a family member, or a pet. An intellectual type will be likely to identify with a theory, a set of beliefs, an opinion. A moving centre person often identifies with something connected to their own body, perhaps their appetite or their . feeling of discomfort during an illness; they may also identify with political figures who they think may be able to bring about a change they believe is necessary.

Yet anyone can be identified with anything at all! It depends on how asleep you are, and what catches your interest.

In life, we're encouraged by the mass media to become identified with our False Personality I's, our feelings of anxiety, petty worries, vanity and the wish to put a good spin on things. By doing so, advertisers can get us to buy products that promise to solve these non-existent "problems", while politicians can keep us hypnotized with lies and deception so that we don't question the prevailing system and its injustices.

Very often people identify with some major event in their lives and go to sleep for months, even years. Dr Nicoll told one student that she had fallen asleep on her birthday - six months previously! - and had only just woken up.

Identification is the main cause of failure to make progress in the Work, and it's the state in which the majority of people live for much of the time. That is why the world has so many problems.

If you can discover what you yourself are identified with, it will give a tremendous boost to your personal work on yourself. It will provide you with valuable material to work on, and show you the way forward in your progress towards greater consciousness.

Pause for a moment now, and ask yourself: with what do I identify?

Perhaps it's your work. Perhaps you are in a competitive environment and are pressured to produce more results, climb higher up the promotional ladder. If someone were to point this out to you, you would react strongly against the idea, but let your boss make a mild criticism of your efforts one day and you feel threatened, panicky, as though your very existence is being called into question.

Perhaps it's a family member and his or her problems. Often this is true of codependent people in a family where there's addiction or alcoholism. We concentrate on this problem to the exclusion of other matters, but our very identification prevents us from acting effectively towards this person. It also keeps us from seeing our own illness, that of codependence, and thus from doing anything about it.

Many people identify with their bodies, with their state of health. The shelves of bookstores and libraries everywhere, not to mention the internet, are full of information about mental and physical health problems, some of it useful, much of it not. People become preoccupied with the best way to improve this or that aspect of their health, and devote so much time and money to it that they become hypochondriacs or valetudinarians, like Mr Woodhouse in Jane Austen's "Emma". 

Sometimes it's something they've produced - a painting, a piece of writing, a roast dinner, a blog. I mention the latter because I'm writing one, and because, as a professional writer, I started out by being very identified with everything I wrote. I wanted it to be perfect, and the only cure was to work for a large, daily newspaper where each story or column I wrote would be snatched up by editors eager to meet deadlines. Perfect or not - and it never was, of course - off my story would go, and I had to give up any hope of controlling what happened to it. 

If you are identified with something, a sure giveaway is how you react to criticism. 

As a writer, I used to think of my stories as my "babies", so that when they were criticized or questioned I would feel my children were being threatened. This was an extremely difficult state to be in, of course, and I soon adopted the only professional attitude possible if one is to survive in the marketplace - I let go of what I'd written, wished it well, as it were, and turned my attention to something else.

Instead of feeling my stories were my babies, or even a part of myself, I began to see them as something I'd produced, which could be worked on further or let go. And once a story, an article, an essay or a book had "left home", it become impersonal. Yes, I'd written it, but in releasing it to an audience it was no longer my private property and I no longer felt my very existence was threatened if someone didn't happen to like it. I soon discovered this was the attitude of most professional writers and artists; it has to be, if we're to carry on creating. Otherwise, it's just too painful.

You may be identified with one thing or with many. Some people identify with every passing event, every interest. 

Identification is at the root of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Carried to an extreme, OCD prevents people from living full lives because they become identified with one portion of it to the exclusion of almost everything else. Thus, for example, someone identified with hygiene may feel compelled to wash their hands fifty times a day. Someone identified with food may follow a strict - and near-anorexic - diet, or go to the other extreme and insist on only the most "gourmet" morsels entering their mouths. They may spend hours searching for the perfect wine to accompany their meal, or the perfect Middle Eastern spice to complete their signature dinner party dish. They have made a god of their belly, as the Bible puts it.

Do you want to know what you are identified with? Look for what offends you. When did you last take offence about something that somebody said or did? What was the context?

One person I knew took offence when I mistakenly thought he was out of work and living on benefits. Since many alcoholics and addicts do lose their jobs, and have to accept benefits from the State in the early weeks and even months of their recovery, I could not see any reason for him to take offence. It is often a perfectly normal, sensible, thing to do in the circumstances. This man seemed to have no visible means of support and did not go to work each day, but he became furious at my mistaken assumption that he was living on benefits! He reacted far out of proportion to my mistake, and even when I apologized he bridled and pursed his lips; I don't think he ever forgave me.

It turned out he was living on an insurance payout that he had been awarded when he was the victim of a car accident. It was his vanity that had been offended - he was identified with his public image, and wanted to be seen as a man of means rather than a person who was temporarily out of work. A huge False Personality "hot air pie" was the cause of his identification!

Another person became offended when a friend thought she had been "dumped" by a boyfriend. Oh no, the offended party insisted, it was she who had done the dumping! She could not bear to have anyone think she had been rejected, so great was her vanity. She would rather be seen as cruel than abandoned. Again, a massive False Personality attitude was at the root of her offended feelings.

What offends you? When did you last feel you were - quite justifiably, of course - outraged? Can you see what lies behind the feeling of outrage, or insult, that you experience now when you think of it? What aspect of your existence is being questioned? What I's in False Personality are conspiring to drive this feeling?

It might be something as minor as having to wait for a long time in a supermarket queue, a feeling of "it isn't fair", or "why does it have to happen to me, of all people". Or it could be that you felt left out in a group discussion, or failed to be recognized in the street by a passing acquaintance. Any minor incident can lead to a feeling of being offended. And this feeling is the clue that we are identified with something or other.

What would happen if you gave it up?  

A good Work exercise, especially for Lent when we are looking for things to sacrifice, is to give up being offended. Try it for one day; then a week; then two. If you are so free of False Personality that nothing at all offends you, you are either very fortunate or you have worked hard on disidentifying from vanity. Or you are deceiving yourself.

Either way, seeing what you identify with is a great step forward on your spiritual path, and you may be amazed to see how much of your life has been lived in that state. 

Adult ADHD - An Often Overlooked Condition

When you see the abbreviation ADHD, what comes to mind?

A hyperactive child? A disruptive, overactive little boy or girl, who's probably going to need Ritalin? Or just a naughty little kid who needs more discipline at home (a commonly held misunderstanding)?

Chances are you thought of one or all of the above. The common perception of ADD or ADHD (Attention Deficit Disorder, sometimes with hyperactivity) is that it applies only to children, and they are always physically restless, often disruptive in class, lack concentration and need medications or stricter home discipline. The latter, by the way, is totally inappropriate, since children with this condition need help with building skills, not punishment for something they didn't choose to do.

 Children with this condition are often restless, but they are not always disruptive, and their state has  nothing to do with "being naughty".

What's more, it's now increasingly diagnosed among adults. You, or someone you know, may have this condition without ever having been aware of it - yet it may have had profound effects on your life.

In this post, I want to look at Adult ADHD.

How can tell whether you have it?

Signs and symptoms include having trouble concentrating and staying focused. You may be someone who's easily distracted by minor stimuli, quickly move from one activity to another, who becomes easily bored and dislikes intellectual work that requires sustained focus, or directed attention, as it's called in the Work. If you are, in fact, in the Work, a perceptive teacher would set you tasks to help develop your Intellectual Center, but this alone may not be enough.

Perhaps you struggle to complete tasks? You may enjoy starting new projects, but have problems following through. You may easily lose track of time and fail to meet deadlines. You feel badly about this, but finishing tasks is a recurring problem for you, though you don't understand why.

You may be forgetful and disorganized. This is not, for you, a matter of lacking will-power. You actually find it really difficult to remember important dates and times, and you may miss appointments.

Your home or work environment quickly becomes messy and cluttered, with dirty cups and dishes, piles of paper, and unread mail stacking up on the table. Because all this is hard to clean, your home or workplace may actually become dirty. It all seems an impossible task to clear up, so you never begin.

You may be impulsive - frequently blurting out thoughts and feelings that are rude and inappropriate towards others. You may have poor self-control, and may also have addictive tendencies.

Other signs that are often taken for another problem include mood swings, irritability, short temper with explosive outbursts, hypersensitivity to criticism and low self-esteem.

The restlessness so often accompanying this disorder in children may, in adults, be expressed as a mental restlessness rather than a physical state. You may have racing thoughts, be easily bored, crave excitement and talk excessively. 

In attempt to overcome this restlessness, some adults develop a tendency to hyperfocus, or obsess about one or two things to the exclusion of others. This coping mechanism may help them to complete a task, but it often causes relationship problems when those around you cannot understand why you keep focusing on some minor detail which, to them, is irrelevant. Or they may resent the time you spend reading or at the computer, when you find something that absorbs your attention and brings some relief from your wandering thoughts.

You could have all of these symptoms, or just a few. Only a trained professional can make a diagnosis and ensure you get appropriate help, but it's worth considering whether you may have Adult ADHD if any of the above descriptions ring a bell.

And it's not all bad news.

Someone with this condition will often be a creative thinker, and when they learn to channel the flow of ideas and calm their racing thoughts they may have much to offer the world and themselves.

It's relatively easy these days to get help for this condition. Usually, this will include counselling - especially involving behavioural and cognitive work - together with practicing organizational skills and developing systems to keep you focused on daily tasks and setting up useful routines. Sometimes medication is hepful, but that is a very individual decision which is best be taken in consultation with a psychiatrist trained in this field. Not everyone needs it; in fact, most manage very well without it.

Let me illustrate this condition by describing someone I know well, who was diagnosed with Adult ADHD; she's the daughter of a friend, and I've known her since she was a baby. I'll call her Ruth.

At school, Ruth was recognized early on as being exceptionally intelligent. She passed tests with ease and often came top of her class, but her desk was the most messy in the room and the work she handed in was frequently missing pages or was stained with tea or coffee. Her handwriting was very hard to read, so she used a word processor whenever possible.

At home, her room was described by her parents as "a complete tip". Toys, clothes, books and school papers were strewn all over the floor. Every time her mother made an attempt to tidy up, the effect was lost within a day or two. In the end, the rest of her family gave up the effort - but the room had to be cleaned for health and hygiene reasons, and this was a frustrating process for everyone, often ending in tears.

Eventually, when Ruth was ten years old, a wise and perceptive teacher spotted what seemed to her the signs of a newly discovered condition, then described as a form of learning disability: Attention Deficit Disorder. In Ruth's case, she had no problem paying attention to theories and facts in the classroom, which was why she was always top in most subjects. But she simply could not organize her work or her desk! Nor could she organize her room at home.

Ruth was emphatically not a "naughty" child, whatever that may mean. She had a real problem for which she was not responsible and which threatened to overwhelm her, and she needed help.

Her teacher took time every day to help Ruth organize her books and folders. She suggested to her parents that their daughter could benefit from seeing a child psychologist, and he did indeed offer her extra help in the form of a support group, counselling and more training in organization skills. No medication was needed, to everyone's relief.

Ruth eventually won a scholarship to an American Ivy League University, where she did outstandingly well in humanities and in sciences, an unusual combination. After graduate school she took a series of jobs which offered her the chance to use both her reasoning skills and her creativity, and today she holds down an important position in an international company. She finds her job fulfilling and rewarding==, and her home life is also happy, except for the fact that she could never quite take to organizing and cleaning her house! Fortunately, she has an understanding spouse, and can afford to employ a cleaner.

I'm interested in this condition because I believe a relatively large number of people struggle with it, and are undiagnosed.

Of course, any of the symptoms I've mentioned could point to another condition. To get the right diagnosis it's essential to consult a specialist. But, if you're someone who experiences problems with impulsivity, organization, focusing, mood swings or obsessional thinking, it would be well worth finding out whether you might have Adult ADHD.

Everyone has some of these problems, some of the time. You may have Adult ADHD if you suffer from more than one, and if they cause you real problems in your daily life.

As well as individual counselling and group support, there is much you can do to improve your own
condition.

It's very important that you ensure you have a nourishing and healthy diet, for example. You need a wide variety of nutrients, many of which can improve your mood, and you should avoid sugar, because it will exacerbate your problems. Plenty of whole grains, fruit and vegetables are essential and will help improve your mood.

Getting enough sleep, organizing your environment, and taking sufficient exercise are important for everyone, but especially for someone with ADHD. You may benefit by employing a cleaner to help with your home space.

Work on your relationships in order to improve your mood and increase your support network. Try not to take offence easily, and don't be over-sensitive to well-meant criticism. Most people want to help you when they understand your problems: let them. They may not understand that you have a specific condition, so explain to your friends that you have been diagnosed with Adult ADHD, and tell them that you need their support to help deal with it.

Learn meditation to calm your racing thoughts. Your spiritual connection is extremely important, reminding you not to become immersed in the daily problems you face. If you are in the Work, the morning exercise is the best way to become calmer, and you may practice short periods of "sitting" and sensing your body during the day whenever you find yourself becoming anxious.

You may be surprised to discover how much better you feel when you've learned how to cope with this condition. Like Ruth, you can then harness all your creative energy and use it for your own benefit and that of those around you.

Giving Up Unnecessary Suffering For Lent - And For Ever!

This week sees a powerful combination of astrological influences that usher in Lent, the Chinese New Year, and the very important Jewish month of Adar, the herald of Spring. Lent means "Spring" in Old English, by the way, and as we all know, it's the time when Christians meditate on the 40 days that Christ spent in the wilderness, battling temptations.

We mark the season of Lent by giving up something that is normally part of our life. Christians the world over practice this sacrifice, and if they have saved money by doing so, they donate the savings to charity. Orthodox Christians give up meat and eat a semi-vegan diet. Most Western Christians will give up an item they like, such as chocolate or coffee, which they will miss; when they do so they remember the great sacrifice Christ made at His Passion, to which the Lenten season leads us.

In the Work, we also give something up for Lent. What we choose, however, is something that's hindering our spiritual progress.

We've seen from observing ourselves how much we have to sacrifice before we can awaken, and it can be generally summed up as "unnecessary suffering". That is all the Work ever asks us to sacrifice, but it is a huge undertaking.

Why? Because, paradoxically, unnecessary suffering is the very last thing people want to give up!

What, then, do we mean by this suffering?

It is our mechanicalness. It includes negative emotions, negative thinking, unnecessary patterns of action that are burdensome to ourselves and those around us, and even actions which might seem to others to be praiseworthy but which are part of our unnecessary suffering. This list is only a beginning. Everyone has to think for themselves about what constitutes their own favorite form of unnecessary suffering. Then pick one item - just one, but it should be a form of unnecessary suffering that takes up your time and energy.

Let's take an example. Think of someone who's a compulsive helper. Someone who's always rescuing people from the consequences of their own actions. She - it's usually a woman - steps in with money, a spare bed for the night, and endless listening to someone's real or imaginary problems; a seemingly bottomless concern for others marks all her actions. Her door is always open, her purse always at the ready.

And yet, no lasting good ever comes of it.

The "rescued" alcoholic returns to his drinking. The abused partner goes back to her abuser. The money that a feckless person squanders is soon needed again, and those who've come to see this rescuer - let's call her Louise - as an unpaid counsellor, mother substitute and unlimited caregiver never stop demanding more and more from her. She's taught them to do that. She's encouraged their dependence. She would never admit it, but it feeds her self-importance, or False Personality, by giving her a belief that she is needed.

No wonder she's feeling depleted and lacking in energy. Her health suffers. Her life fills up with other people's demands, and yet the calls on her time never seem to do any real good to anyone.

As the saying goes, give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

Louis is always giving out fish, but the recipients never need to learn how to fish for themselves, because they know they can simply come back to her.

This is only one example of unnecessary suffering, but it's a common one.

If you recognize this pattern in yourself, why not take Lent as a time to give up rescuing people? You can always go back afterwards, if you really want to, but just try not intervening, not handing out money, not listening to endless tales of woe, for the next six weeks and observe how you feel.

Do you feel guilty? There's absolutely no need. You are not in charge of the world, and it will carry on running very well without your intervention. Those you've been "helping" may finally learn to help themselves, which is what they really need.

Do you fear loneliness? You may lose some of your false friends, but those who know and really appreciate you will be glad to see you taking more care of yourself and less care of your usual "lame ducks".

I don't mean that we should all become uncaring, because a world without love would be unbearable. But compulsive helping is not really caring at all. Consciously helping is good; it takes insight and determination, and will be the equivalent of teaching people to fish; but this constant rescuing, if you're prone to it, is a real nuisance. It takes the focus away from you and your own needs, away from your spiritual development; away, that is, from the most important thing you have to do in this life. And it stops the people you "rescue" from ever becoming independent.

If you make an aim to give it up, the chances are you will find you have so much more energy and time after these 40 days that you won't want to go back to this mode of living.

Other forms of unnecessary suffering include worrying, brooding over resentments (internal considering), hypochondria, procrastination, and making requirements. For some people it will be venting anger, arguing, complaining, insisting on your "rights"; the list goes on and on.

You'll be able to think of many more.

I suggest choosing one of them - but make it something you know is really a problem for you. You may not be a compulsive helper, but perhaps you're addicted to your smartphone, say, and can't switch off for long. Try taking a whole day at the weekend to be free from its tyranny. During the week, take one or two hours a day of your free time and instead of emailing, talking or texting, read something serious that will stimulate your intellectual centre and help your spiritual development instead of wasting your energy.

Or maybe your favourite form of suffering is worrying. What if my liver packs up? What if the money I'm owed doesn't arrive? What if so-and-so gossips about me behind my back? What if I lose my job? What if my partner leaves me? What if my new colleague doesn't like me?

We can and must give up all forms of worry. They not only exhaust us, they also spoil our health and make us poor company. And they distract us from thinking about more important matters, such as the fact that we and those we love could die at any time, and then all this petty negativity will become the nothingness it truly is! And we would have let it steal our joy.

While we obviously need to take action so that we avoid disasters, we do so simply and without holding on to the negative thought. We let it go, and we practice self-remembering. Essence doesn't worry about anything, it simply IS. And all we can ever do is the Very Next Thing, as Mrs Pogson says.

What you choose to sacrifice for Lent is up to you, but if you are in the Work, do choose. Pick something real, and stick with it for 40 days until Easter. Each day, note how well you've done, or how you've failed, and write down your honest observations. Of course you will fail, and that's really helpful, because it will teach you things about yourself that you didn't know. If we never failed, we would never learn anything about ourselves.

And self-knowledge, self-observation are the first steps to increased understanding.

At Easter, the Passion of Christ depicts the great cosmic drama of the sacrifice of the False Self, the Imaginary I, with all its unnecessary suffering that does so much harm to ourselves, those around us, and the world at large.

If we have made our own small sacrifice during Lent, we will be able all the better to take part in the glorious Day of Resurrection, when Real I rises triumphant from its time in darkness. And for a while, we have the chance to lighten the suffering of God.

Groundhog Day: Deja Vu All Over Again

Today, February 2, is Groundhog Day. It's also Candlemas and Imbolc, the Christian and Celtic festivals which respectively celebrate the Purification of the Virgin Mary and the beginning of Spring.

We can already see the increase in physical light now; the extra length of the days is noticeable and very heartening. If we are sensitive, we intuit a subtle shift in cosmic energy as the Earth moves to a different part in her yearly orbit, away from the intense inwardness of the Winter Solstice and Christmas, and on towards the fresh energies of Spring.

Groundhog Day, celebrated in the USA, is the day when a groundhog is released from his lair and watchers determine whether the little rodent can see his shadow. If he can, it presages six more weeks of cold; if not, the weather will get milder.

But more than that, Groundhog Day is also a  marvellous, Work-based film, which has been voted one of the most spiritual movies ever made. And for good reason. If you haven't seen it, do beg, buy or borrow a copy and watch it as soon as you can.

Chances are, though you probably already know the story. Obnoxious weatherman Paul is sent to cover the annual groundhog release for a television station. Embittered, angry, thoroughly resentful, he makes enemies wherever he goes. Everyone dislikes him, and he seems to have no chance of happiness.

And then something mysterious happens. Paul finds himself waking up to Groundhog Day over and over again. It's always the same day, always the same sequence of disastrous events, always the same people he meets. What can he do to change it? Will he be trapped forever in this particular day? In despair he even tries to kill himself, but to no avail - Groundhog Day recurs, ever the same morning, no matter what he's done the previous day.

Clearly inspired by the story "The Strange Life of Ivan Osokin" by P.D. Ouspensky, the film depicts the theory of recurrence, that we will have to go back over and over the same events until finally we begin to change.  In daily life, those of us in the Work know that this is what actually happens. We don't - thank goodness - have to live through the same day recurring forever until we change. But we do encounter the same sort of situation, the same types of people, the same circumstances in our lives until we see that what needs to change is us.

And so Paul slowly begins to make little changes. He becomes more helpful, no longer punches someone he dislikes, shows a little patience with a child. And as the day goes on, as it recurs and his life changes, he eventually becomes completely transformed. He does find happiness. People start to like him. He enjoys his newfound popularity, and - in the end - gets just what he wants. I won't describe it any further in case you haven't seen the film, but suffice it to say it is a parable of the Work teaching on how to change.

It's not surprising that this film reflects the Work. Its star, actor Bill Murray, has been in the Work for many years, and a number of his films - The Razor's Edge and Lost in Translation, for example - embody spiritual values.

I once encountered Mr Murray, at a Work weekend in upstate New York, and was impressed by his modesty. I'd been asked to clean a room ready for a group meeting, and Murray walked in unexpectedly; he said very little, but what I noticed was the way that, unlike every other actor or actress I've ever met (and as a journalist I met quite a few),  he was not concerned with my perception of him. Many celebrities look at you with brief, split-second glances, the purpose of which is not to notice you, for you are of no significance to these august beings, but to clock whether you're properly noticing them.

Murray, however, was fully present and showed no vanity, no concern over whether we knew who he was. He was there to work, as were we, and that was all that mattered.

The film's scriptwriter, Danny Rubin, denies any spiritual intention. Of course he does. To label a popular film as "spiritual" would be to give it the kiss of death and deny it the audience it deserves.
Yet in 2006 the film was granted cult classic status when it was added to the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". And audiences the world over have recognized it as a truly spiritual, uplifting, enlightening film which works on every level to entertain while conveying its deeply meaningful message.

It is, in the Work sense, an objective work of art.

British entrepreneur Paul Hannam has just published a book entitled "The Wisdom of Groundhog Day". Hannam says the film literally changed his life. He saw it when he was at his lowest ebb, his business failing, his marriage in ruins, and his own mental state one of great distress. Today, having assimilated the lessons of Groundhog Day, he's a happier, more fulfilled person, both in his private life and professionally. He now runs a business teaching "emotional intelligence", and wants to pass on the insights he gained from the film.

  In a recent article in the Daily Telegraph, Hannam is quoted as saying, "I want to notice what's going on around me, but to do so in the right frame of mind, by interrupting negative behaviour cycles". As a working description of self-remembering, this is a good start.

For this practice of "noticing ... in the right frame of mind" is exactly what we try to do when we work on ourselves. The film showed Hannam how it was possible to change one's life by changing one's being; that by making small, positive changes every day, working on our negative thoughts, negative emotions and destructive patterns of behaviour, we can in the end reach a higher state of consciousness.

The film shows that, "irrespective of our circumstances, we can create an amazing day," Hannam adds.

And by living more consciously day by day, we ultimately transform our entire being - and affect everyone around us.