Supposing We Lived From Essence .....

We know that eventually, one of the goals of personal work is to be able to live from our Essence. For many people, that seems quite impossible. Modern life emphasizes the importance of the Personality, and we really do need to have a well developed, thoroughly rounded Personality in order to function in life. And this is right, for one day, the riches in Personality will be useful in feeding Essence, helping it to become strong enough to direct our life.

Unfortunately, the world facilitates to an even greater extent the growth of False Personality. You know how much global capitalism deliberately exacerbates anxiety, fear, anger, greed, lust and so on. Advertising leads us to believe that by satisfying these traits we will achieve happiness. But they are insatiable! As someone wise has said, our needs can always be satisfied; our wants, never.

The False Personality I's can so easily direct our lives. For many people this is exactly how they live. You have only to watch any soap opera to see how this is so. And the media themselves, through those very soaps, dramas, films, and so on portray this lower form of living as the norm, so unless people are living as Good Householders and no longer believe in life they easily succumb to this propaganda.

But suppose we disidentified from our False Personality? We saw in the previous post how much more freedom we would enjoy if we lived under 48 laws rather than the 96 that False Personality imposes.

Suppose we used our Personality just as much as is necessary for life, and then allowed it to feed our Essence?

Essence would then be able to express itself, and ultimately to guide our entire life. We would live under 24 laws, with much greater freedom.

Gurdjieff remarked that very often you find people who've lived all their lives in the country are closer to Essence than are city people. The disadvantage they face is that their Personalities are less developed and so are unable to feed their Essence. Their Essence cannot then grow.

Today, this is less common. Mass media reach everywhere, and the growth of the internet and computer technology means that many people are now influenced by them, even those living in the depths of the countryside.

But generally, older people from rural areas really can be closer to their Essence. What they are like will depend a great deal on their culture and national character. In England, much of the population is under the influence of Saturn, and in many areas of the countryside people do tend to be slower to speak, are suspicious of strangers, are extremely clannish and slow to change. This is also true of Scotland, whereas in Ireland and to a lesser extent in Wales much of the population are more mercurial in their Essence, more voluble, eager to strike up conversations with strangers, and willing to look beyond their own village for inspiration. This is all part of their Essence.

It's quite common in the Irish countryside to see older men and women sitting outside their houses, hoping to hold a conversation with stray passers-by. This satisfies an Essence need for them. You rarely see this in England.

But to take your own Essence - what does it long for?

We know that every Essence carries a longing for the heavenly realms whence it came. That within us is a nostalgia for that beauty, that love, that true perception of reality, that peace and fellowship with other Essences.

No matter how covered up our Essence may be, the closer we come to living from it, the more these desires will manifest.

But those desires will express themselves in very different ways, and with different emphases. For one person, a longing for beauty means craving for art; another prefers the beauty of nature; for some, it is music that most satisfies that craving; while for yet another it is the loving fellowship with family and friends that is most important.

In the Work, we observe ourselves to see what is real and what is unreal; what is from Essence, and what is from Personality and even False Personality.

When you feel a longing for the peace and quiet of the countryside, or for the beauty of the sea-shore, this may well be your Essence expressing its wishes. If you can, try to satisfy them. Seek out the surroundings that bring joy and gratitude to your Essence; you will discover from observation what they are.

 For me, it is the seaside that is one of my preferred environments, rivaled only by the beauty of hilly countryside with woods and running water in rural settings. When I am in any of these surroundings, my Essence is filled with joy. It feels at home.

Another Work student prefers the countryside, especially woodland areas, and likes to live in a caravan or some other small shelter so that she may be closer to nature, not hemmed in by four walls.

 Buildings which express sacred architecture are also very vivifying to Essence. Whether it's a Gothic cathedral, such as Chartres or Salisbury; an exquisite mosque, in Samarkand or Bokhara; or a Zen temple and surrounding garden in Kyoto, all these spaces were created by conscious men and women to elevate our perceptions and delight the Essence. They can lift us to the heavenly dimension that is the true home of Essence.

If you lived according to your Essence, you would seek out such settings and enjoy them as often as possible. Your Personality has a part to play here, for you may need to make travel arrangements in order to satisfy this longing. You might even want to move house to live closer to a setting your Essence loves.

As well as choosing your surroundings, if you lived according to your Essence you would seek to create a peaceful atmosphere wherever you happen to be. You would avoid quarrelsome, angry people like the plague they are. You would refrain from watching violent films, dramas, or television programmes, or listening to the deadening vibrations from much popular music.

Living according to your Essence would mean that you paid close attention to everything you did, because no detail of your life is too insignificant to form part of your spiritual evolution. The Kabbala tells us that every action should be carried out with the intenton of liberating the sparks of holiness that reside in each particle of matter, in every human soul, in every animal. In Essence, we offer love and gratitude to all that nourishes us, to everyone who crosses who our path. Essence delights in creating order and beauty in our surroundings, and cleaning a room can be satisfying and holy work.

To find out more about your Essence, think back to your childhood. What did you enjoy doing? What absorbed you and brought you joy? For me, it was painting, writing, exploring, and enjoying the beauty of nature. Even as a very young child I loved to pick flowers and chase butterflies, and later tried to draw them and write about them. Music, too, was a very early delight. The day I found an old piano in a barn and sat down to play it was the start of a lifelong love affair. What sparked your own childhood joy and delight? What happy pursuit do you remember most vividly?

You know you are not living according to your Essence when you feel vaguely that something is wrong, that all is not well. That you need something, but you don't quite know what. When you experience the "great nostalgia", that is your Essence clamouring  to be heard. Your task is to listen. You may not be able to give Essence what it wants right at that moment, but by remembering yourself and observing the I's that are trying to express themselves you give Essence the honour and relief of being heard.

If we all lived according to our Essence, there would be no wars. No disputes between neighbours, no misunderstandings between friends. The lion would lie down with the lamb, as the Bible puts it. Of course, this means our inner lion, our inner lamb; all our instincts and positive emotions would exist comfortably together, and be governed by Real I.

If only we lived according to Essence!

Living Under Fewer Laws

We're often told in the Work that as we become more conscious, we will be able to live under fewer laws.

In my early days as a Work student I wasn't at all sure what that meant. Mathematics was never my strong point, and I puzzled over the different levels of laws, trying to see what it could mean for my own personal evolution and that of others.

The greatest help to my understanding was Dr Nicoll's "Commentaries", where he explains the concept very clearly and gives examples of each level.

Firstly, we know that different parts of the Ray of Creation are under appropriate numbers of laws. The Moon is said to be governed by 96 orders of laws, the Earth by 48, the Planets by 24, and so on. The Sun itself is under only 12 orders of laws. All these levels are possible for us to contain within ourselves, but the higher levels come only when we work on ourselves. They are not found naturally in mankind.

Beyond the Sun comes the level of the galaxy, the Milky Way, at 6 orders of laws; then the sum of all galaxies, at 3 orders; and finally, the Absolute itself, which we cannot comprehend with our limited intellect, under only One law.

 As we are, without working on ourselves, we may collectively live under the 48 laws that are proper to life on Earth. And most of us, without such work, actually live under 96 laws, because of the compulsions of False Personality.

To live at a higher level, we must be able to come under fewer laws.

 We know that the level of the Sun corresponds to Conscious Humanity; I think of Jesus Christ in this connection, as He is at the level of the Sun for us. And the Work says that we may have the Sun within ourselves, that we can become a Sun to our own individual microcosmic solar system.

 So, according to our degree of evolution, we may be living under 96, 48, 24 or 12 orders of laws.

What does this mean in practical terms?

Think of False Personality. That is the part of us which restricts and confines us, which distorts our Personality and compels us to behave in ways that are incompatible with our highest understanding. If I am living under the laws of False Personality, it means that, for example, when someone treads on my toe I don't simply feel the pain and then let it go. I nurse it and encourage it; it sparks anger in me and that anger turns into long-standing resentment.

I then feel a great dislike towards the person who stepped on my foot - "Who do they think they are, to step on me! Don't they know how important I am?" - and a sense of outrage that is fed by pride and arrogance.  I may seem to accept their apology, but deep down I see them as my foe, and a wish to similarly harm them may arise in my False Personality without my awareness.

In all of the above I'm governed by 96 orders of laws. I am under a compulsion to retaliate, a law which arises from my negative emotional centre, which should not exist amongst three-brained beings, but which does because I, like everyone else, have been raised by people who themselves were compelled to act in certain ways by their own negative emotional centres.  I am unable to control my own manifestations and must arouse antagonism in everyone around me.

All in all, this is a psychological prison.

If, however, I live at the level of Good Householder, that of a "normal" life on Earth, I will come under half the number of laws. This level corresponds to Personality, and if my Personality is developed, and if I'm living according to my Real Conscience, I know that over-reaction to an accidental injury is quite unnecessary and will damage me and the person who caused me pain.

I accept their apology, and if they are quite unaware of having stepped on me I choose not to draw their attention to it, but simply let it be.

I feel the physical pain, let it go, and remain unaffected by it. I may choose to avoid getting close to a particularly clumsy person, but I won't hold any anger or resentment towards them. I go on my way, and give the matter no further thought. I'm not imprisoned by my False Personality.

Such a level of life will be under only 48 orders of law, and you can see how much more freedom it brings me.

This level - 48 laws - is that at which all of us three-brained beings are meant to live, at the very least. Good Householder should be the "default setting" for all of us, but because, as I have mentioned, we have all been raised by people with False Personalities we find that, without a good emotional education such as that which one of the great religions or the Work can give us, we fall back on our own False Personality at the slightest provocation, and live under far more laws than is necessary.

Disidentifying with False Personality I's gives us a real taste of freedom. We have more room within ourselves, and we give other people more room. These conditions can lead to an increase in consciousness.

If we have worked on ourselves, either by a traditional religious discipline or through the Work itself, we may eventually reach the level of Essence, the level of the planets. Then, our Essence directs our entire life. This is freedom indeed! We live by the values of Essence, which among other things include love of truth, justice, harmony, compassion, beauty, and peace. At this level, we are not imprisoned by the habits of Personality and we have left False Personality far behind.

After many years, perhaps many lifetimes, of work, we may one day reach the level of the Sun, with only 12 laws governing us. This is the level of the man or woman with good will. It is the level of Conscious Humanity.

Ouspensky puts it this way, "A growth of what belongs to a man means a growth of Essence. A growth of what does not really belong to a man means a growth of Personality". As that which does not belong to us gradually falls away, only the real, the Essence, is left. This is a huge increase in freedom.

Someone living at the level of Essence knows what she needs, and what other people need, in each situation, and is motivated by love, compassion, the search for harmony, and the desire for truth. She controls her manifestations so that these values are furthered, and not those of Personality or False Personality. If we are in the presence of such a person, we may know intuitively that they are living at a higher level, and we are aware of a different quality in their Being, a quality which - if we are able to receive it - helps our own transformation to take place.

This is the secret behind the Eastern practice of darshan, seeking out the presence of "saints", "mystics", "gurus", and evolved spiritual beings of all religious persuasions. We feel their difference from us, and we long to become more like them. These people may be quite unknown to others, may never have achieved fame or recognition beyond their own sphere, but we know when we are in the presence of someone higher than us, and we are grateful.

For any transformation to occur in us, for any change in Being which will allow us to come under fewer laws and live in greater freedom, we all need to let ourselves be transformed by higher energies, the energies of the Work.

What would it mean to live at the level of the Sun? Although it's difficult to imagine, for most of us are far below it, we know of the many verified accounts of conscious beings, or saints, that they can perform seeming miracles, may appear in two places at once, may appear to others after their own physical death. Such people are not bound by the 48, or even 24, laws which govern the rest of us. They seem to make nature obey them.

 Jesus manifested this power when he stilled the winds and waves of the Sea of Galilee. In recent times, saints such as Padre Pio have shown similar powers, appearing before other people at a great distance, performing miracles of healing and prophesying the future.

One day, if we work for it, we may reach the same state. It may take many lifetimes. But it is not impossible; it is within our reach some day, and it is the condition of which St. Paul speaks when he says that service to God is perfect freedom.

Sex, Drugs, AA and the Work

Aha! Thought that title would get you!

Seriously, though, it's important to know where both AA and the Work stand on these subjects, whether you want to follow the Twelve Steps or to work on yourself as a student of Gurdjieff - perhaps both, as I do.

Drugs first.

Don't.

Just don't.

In AA, we avoid drugs because they spoil our sobriety. You might not think you have a problem with pot, for example, but if you want to stop drinking you need to avoid any substance which skews your thought processes. You can't recover from any addiction as long as you are using a mind-altering drug; only prescription medications are allowed.

In the Work, I've known one or two people who smoked pot at weekends, but they usually didn't last very long as Work students. Here, too, we seek for absolute clarity of mind, at even greater depth than is needed for the Twelve Steps.

In the early days of the Work, we read that G sometimes administered drugs to students, with their full consent, as he believed that doing so could give them and their fellow pupils a glimpse into Essence and enable them to experience Higher Centres. But such experiments were strictly monitored, and very rare. Today I don't know of any Work group or teacher currently carrying out such a procedure. There's no call for it, anyway. Almost everyone interested in mysticism these days will have tried some sort of psychedelic drug, and realized that it was a dead end.

All cultures use mind-altering drugs of some sort, including alcohol. Higher hydrogens exist in plants, and can be extracted for various reasons. But dependence on drugs is extremely dangerous, as we all know, and there's no certain way of knowing who will turn out to be an addict before the drug is used.

Moreover, although drugs such as LSD and peyote do open Higher Centres, the experience is short-lived and uses up the body's own store of higher hydrogens in the process. Long-term damage may result, even death. This is why deep depression - sometimes insurmountable and leading to suicide - is not uncommon among drug users and alcoholics.

As for one's sexual conduct, there are very few general guidelines. Everything depends on the needs of the individual. If someone is a sex addict, clearly they have to become abstinent in order to recover. On the other hand, there are many AA members and Work students who live fulfilling sex lives, and this is fine, as long as nobody is being coerced or exploited.

Neither the Work nor AA asks followers to be celibate. But both advocate conducting one's sex life in a responsible manner, not simply using another person's body to fulfil one's own desires.

Those who wrote the AA Big Book certainly had a sense of humour, for the section concerned with sex begins on page 69! And then, if you turn to page 96 and read it as a continuation, there's a very interesting and funny juxtaposition ... at least, that's the case in the original Big Book. I don't know whether it applies to more recent editions, but knowing how clever and creative alcoholics are, it probably does.

Both AA and the Work advocate moderation, but each person has to live their relationships, including those of a sexual nature, according to their personal needs and those of their partner.

Nothing must be done to another person without their consent, and as sex stirs deep emotions we have a responsibility to our spouses or partners to honour their feelings as well as our own.

This is true for the Twelve Steps and for the Work. I have known Work students to be thrown out of their group for acting irresponsibly towards other members in this way. One man in my teacher's senior group attempted to sleep with all the female members, one by one, and was told in no uncertain terms to leave.

But the Work is not puritanical. It can encompass all sorts of relationships, which to others might seem irregular, as long as those relationships are conducted lovingly and responsibly.

AA says something very similar: it asks members to think of the well-being of the spouse or partner in a sexual relationship, and to put it before our own. If we do that, we will be living according to our conscience, and will have nothing for which we need reproach ourselves.

Living by the standards of Real Conscience is one of the chief aims of Work students, of course, and by conducting every relationship, whether sexual or not, in its light, we will be acting according to our highest standards.

And it's good to remind ourselves that the Work teaches that every sexual encounter, because it's so deeply physical, is a meeting of Essences.

What's more, our society is so fraught with sexual anxiety, fed by advertising and exacerbated by constantly comparing ourselves to others, that it's good to remember that absolutely no harm ever came to anyone by living a celibate life - if that is your circumstance.

Eulogy for a Good Householder

What is a Good Householder? An obyvatel, Gurdjieff tells us, is someone who lives at a higher level than most people. He or she follows their conscience, lives ethically and responsibly, supports themselves and their own family, and yet "does not believe in life".

By not believing in life, Gurdjieff meant that the Good Householder does not think the ultimate purpose of existence is to accumulate wealth, fame, sensual pleasure or any of life's other rewards. These things may be enjoyed if they come to us, but they are not the goal of life.

Instead, the Good Householder, who may be of any religion or none, finds the meaning of his or her life in fulfilling duties, or dharma.  A Good Householder may be rich or poor, of any profession or trade, and does not necessarily own a house. Usually, a Good Householder has a family, but he or she may live alone. If that is the case, however, they are generally involved with the community in some way, since they want to contribute to the good of the world, not to simply exist.

When I think of a Good Householder, I think of my Uncle George, who died peacefully this weekend at the age of 95.

George Vandenburg was born into a poor Jewish family in London's East End in 1920. According to Jewish tradition, education is highly valued, and George was very well educated despite his parents' poverty. What little money the family had left after feeding, clothing and educating their six children was spent on books, concerts and the theatre.

The family was unable to afford a university education, however, and there were in any case limits to how many Jewish students a university would accept. Then, as now, anti-Semitism was rife. George went to work in a factory when he left school, and was quickly promoted to manager. But World War II saw him called up, like most able-bodied young men, and when the war ended he had to start again at the bottom of the ladder.

The vicissitudes of post-war economics meant that secure jobs were very hard to come by, but George's abilities and managerial skills gained him an excellent reputation and he was always sought after, so that he was unemployed for only a very brief period.

He married, raised three sons, and rose to a high position in his field; but then, once again, misfortune struck and the factory where he worked was forced to close.

Without complaining, George found a new position hundreds of miles away, and he and his family relocated to the North of England, where none of them had ever lived before, and where they knew nobody.

They soon settled in, however, and when his children were accepted into university he took on extra work so that they should not have to start their lives with a huge burden of debt. 

So far, this could be the story of many people's lives. What, then, was so remarkable about George?

First of all, what struck everyone about him was his cheerfulness and refusal to give in to self-pity. This is life, and in life bad things happen, and all one can do is to get on with whatever task we are given. Such was his philosophy, learned from his parents, and eventually passed on to his children. It is what Mrs. Pogson calls turning our attention to "the very next thing", and it is the attitude that George had learned and which he embodied.

His philosophy affected me profoundly, for I too was an honorary member of his family when I was very young.  George acted as a father towards me for several years, when my own father was in hospital, recovering from tuberculosis. My mother, my younger brother and I went to live with my grandparents and with Uncle George, who was still a young man, still living at home.

I remember his unfailing kindness to everyone, especially towards children and those weaker than himself. He devoted many hours to taking poor children from the East End on picnics and outings, and he was tireless in his efforts to bring hope into their lives. 

He was a very even-tempered man, whether by nature or by training, and I never knew him to lose his temper. He did, however, act the part of an angry father when one of the children had actually done something reprehensible, such as lying about their homework, or about their whereabouts. He would explain why they needed to be punished, so that we all knew what we had done wrong, and why it was wrong. And then we accepted our punishments calmly, whether that was the loss of pocket money or the cancellation of a planned outing. 

In this way, he modeled the ideal of fatherhood to his own children and his nephews and nieces. And in everything he did he was unfailingly wise, reliable, loving and compassionate.

And George was also fun to be with. He was a well balanced person, although he'd never heard of Balanced Man, playing the clarinet, learning foreign languages even into his 80s, and teaching football and cricket to his sons.

He believed in no particular religion, but thought that the world would be much better run if it were  ruled only by kind people - men and women who really cared about others and were not in politics for their own ends.

If he had a fault, it was in being too compassionate and too trusting. If he had been in the Work, he would probably have been asked - as I was - to read and understand the story of King Appolis, in All and Everything. Work students will recall the tale of the very kind king who placed too much trust in his servants, but in my uncle's case his trust was seldom misplaced; the only ill-effect it had was on his own and his family's finances, when he loaned money to a relative who was unable to repay it. The phrase "generous to a fault" could have been coined for Uncle George.

He died as considerately as he had lived, quietly and without fuss, in a nursing home where he'd been admitted after a short illness. Nobody was at his bedside when he passed away, and I believe this was deliberate on his part. Knowing how distraught his wife and children would have been, and wishing to spare them as much pain as possible, he died in solitude, a peaceful expression on his face.

When someone like this dies, the world is the poorer. Although he'd never heard of the Work, he created higher energies throughout his life, and released a great amount of spiritual substances at his death. 

A Good Householder is a very valuable person; he or she contributes much to the spiritual evolution of mankind, and although they are unknown and unsung, they are no less valuable - and often much more so - than many of the so-called great and good who occupy the headlines.

In the past, I believe it was easier for people to live as Good Householders than it is today. With today's more chaotic economic circumstances and the destruction of so many traditional values, it's getting harder to affirm the need for a life based on conscience and ethical duty. Global capitalism - or Mammon, as the Bible calls it - opposes evolution and seeks to condemn us all to becoming passive consumers, looking to money and objects to fulfill our deepest desires, which of course they never can.

People like my Uncle George, of blessed memory, remind us that what matters is how we live and who we are, how we treat others, and not what we have.

May Good Householders everywhere flourish, may their lives be cherished and their example copied.