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.