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.
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