As we've seen in previous posts, the conscious men and women who composed the cycle of the Christian Year did so out of their profound understanding of the workings of the cosmos.
Not only did they completely understand the meaning of the Christian religion and its mystical completion, they also knew of the various energies available to us on the Earth at different times of the year.
Hence, each seasonal festival, each liturgical season, encourages us to focus on a particular practice that will benefit us for the growth of our higher being bodies.
At each change of season, the Earth receives the energies appropriate to the practices appropriate to it.
Now we're entering Lent, and the energies of the cosmos which reach us now are subtly different from the preceding seasons, those of Christmas, the Epiphany and Candlemass.
We all now see and experience the great increase in light that reaches us from our Sun during late February and the beginning of March, compared to the darkness of the time before and after Christmas. We notice the changing weather patterns, and the growth of new plants which appear at the very beginning of Spring. Birds are nesting, and we sense an increased urgency to the cycles of nature now, as the currents of new life begin to pour into our Earth's biosphere.
Lent is, in fact, the ancient word for Spring, and its arrival means that we are being asked to make some sacrifice that will help to purify us for the great Easter festival which comes at the end of this 40-day period.
Traditionally, as in Advent, Orthodox Christians and, formerly, all Catholics fast from flesh foods during Lent. The exceptions are fish and dairy foods, and such a diet may in fact be the very best for our health if we're not among those whose genetic heritage demands more protein than the Lenten fare supplies. I happen to be among them, and am what is termed an "obligate carnivore", so a compete abstinence from meat and poultry is detrimental to my health.
One of the habits I gave up after I discovered this fact was that of feeling guilty because I couldn't follow a vegan or vegetarian diet! Both made me very weak and ill, and hence less fit for working on myself - but the lingering guilt was a habit of my thinking and emotional centres that I had to work on in past years.
Many of us carry around completely useless guilt and shame from past faulty thinking, whether derived from introjected parental attitudes or acquired later on from other sources, such as a perfectionist, punishing religion.
In the past, the Jansenist stream of Christianity imposed a regime of puritanism on the French Catholic community, and it took the insights of saints such as Therese of Lisieux to point out the fallacy of their philosophy.
In a very similar fashion, the original Puritan sects, and the many breakaway groups which copied them, took the attitude that all of us are miserable sinners, and deserve constant punishment for our attachments to earthly pleasures, even those of the most innocent kind. Music itself was banned from some churches, not to mention dancing.
Today there are quite a few fundamentalist churches which preach such an un-Godly approach to life in the name of spirituality. Many critical, judgmental religious writers and preachers think of God as an ill-willed magistrate in the sky, out to get you for the most minor infringement of his rules, or just bent on making sure that nobody enjoys themselves, ever!
All this is very far from Orthodox or Catholic beliefs,the only streams of Christianity which Gurdjieff sanctioned as genuine, and they are certainly not those of the Work.
Sacrificing perfectionist and judgmental habits of thought can be a very good way for many of us to work on ourselves during Lent.
The practice of self-compassion, though not in itself a spiritual discipline, can actually help us to become free of these severe attitudes, and thus help us grow in our spirituality - and that's the whole point of Lent, after all. If you're not familiar with the term, there are many websites which explain it and give help for those want to practise it, whether you're a Christian, a Buddhist or from any other religious background or none.
Paradoxically, giving up our harmful, punishing thoughts, and the behaviours that can follow, may be a very good way to "give up" something for Lent! In other words, we may "give up" giving up!
At the same time, we also want to experience the life-giving, enhancing energies of Spring which we've noted above. But there has to be a balance here, and this is the real purpose of Lent - to help us to keep a balance between two types of excess, that of self-indulgence, such as with overeating or sex addiction, and the practice of puritanical thinking.
Obviously, if someone has a serious addiction problem the practice of Lenten sacrifice won't be enough to help them give up the harmful substance or practice. Again, there's plenty of help out there, but I write this blog to help those already in recovery and especially anyone interested in the Work and in Christianity.
Living in balance, remaining conscious of the pulls exerted from both directions and yet keeping ourselves centered equally between these poles, can be the most fruitful Lenten discipline of all.
Of course, there are many harmful habits to be given up! If perfectionism and judgmentalism are not among your most pressing concerns, there's sure to be something which you need to sacrifice. Worrying, perhaps? Black and white thinking? Making accounts? Choose your habit, and decide to observe it and disidentify from it during the coming 40 days. At the end, you will be freer and happier, and all the more ready to celebrate Easter.
Whatever you choose to give up for Lent, try to select something that is mechanical and which you know is harmful to yourself and to others.
Then your preparation will bear great fruit at Easter. You will purified and freed from something which has been holding you back - maybe for many years - and stopping you from reaching your spiritual goals.
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