Last week I looked at the self-compassion and mindfulness practices, and whether they were real, spiritual paths. And it's clear that they are not. They are psychological, not spiritual, and while they may offer their followers some much-needed respite and reassurance, they don't go beyond the individual practitioner.
As counselling techniques they are admirable. They seem to be especially helpful to women, and less so for men, which I think says much about how women are treated - and how we treat ourselves - in western society today.
Women are often very stretched by having to care for their spouse and family, look after the house, work at a profession and maintain difficult standards in every sphere. We try to have it all, and we can't. And then we berate ourselves for our failures!
In this context, times of mindfulness and of self-compassion can be very useful indeed, even more so than the cliche of running oneself a bath, lighting a candle, and so on. What is needed is a change in consciousness, a break from the endless cycle of "shoulds" and "oughts" which plague so many of us.
Men, however, seem to find action more helpful in calming anxiety and stress. This is hardly surprising in our society, where so much emphasis is given to action rather than to creative non-action, but in the East it is traditionally a male guru who teaches meditation and helps his followers to tame their wayward thoughts and feelings
But true spirituality consists in none of these things by themselves.
We practise "sitting" and various forms of meditation, among which I include the Work's morning exercise, in order to wake up, to become more conscious. But that is not the end.
Gurdjieff repeatedly reminded his followers how difficult it is to be a Christian. He never repudiated his faith, and he spoke only with appreciation and respect of the world's religions. And he emphasized that it is impossible to make progress in the Work just by working on and by oneself.
Essential as is that first step, it is only the beginning of a long journey out of our limited selves, our False Personalities, through the idiosyncfrasies of the Personality and into the Essence, towards Real I as our goal. Our Essence is the part of us which is most spiritual - indeed, it is the only part from which our spirit may grow. And Real I is the locus where our individual Essence meets with God.
To reach spiritual understanding, we need to work with others and to work for the sake of the Work itself. These are the second and third lines of Work, and they are vital to all progress.
We find that when we try to relate to others in the Work we can't simply fall back on our False Personality or our Personality. We need to relate to them with our Essence, because anything else will strike a false note. We will soon be caught out if we try to keep on our everyday mask, our "persona".
In the Work, we gradually learn to relate to people through externally considering them. We put ourselves in their place, moving completely away from our own limited, self-centred viewpoint and entering the experience of the other.
We do this both with fellow students in the Work and with those outside it, people we meet in our everyday lives, our families, colleagues and friends. We practise external considering in all circumstances, towards those we like and even more towards people we can't stand! And this again takes the focus away from our petty concerns and helps us to act with real understanding and compassion.
Eventually, we come to appreciate that the Work is so much greater than psychology. It is a way of reaching enlightenment, the shortest and surest way for those of us raised in the West who don't have access to a "guru" and whose responsibilities don't permit them to leave everything and live out their lives in a monastery.
And it is much more than that. The great creative power we call God has made it possible for us to evolve spiritually, and He has so directed our evolution that as we reach more enlightened states of consciousness so we also help the very universe itself to evolve.
So our ultimate responsibility is towards that great Being, and towards all of Conscious Humanity, all of whom cooperate in the task of ordering and maintaining the universe, and helping everyone who genuinely wishes to reach a higher level.
We are not alone; and we cannot work for ourselves alone.
Unlike the many self-help methods which claim to increase the practitioner's personal power, and which in reality do nothing of the kind but lead them further into delusion and materialism, spiritual paths emphasize the need for humility before God, and compassion to all beings.
When we acknowledge that there is indeed a God who directs our lives when we ask Him, we humble ourselves before that great source. We realize our own nothingness. Far from "bigging ourselves up" or bragging about our achievements, we acknowledge that we can do nothing without God's help, and that everything we try to do on our own inevitably comes to nought.
This is where the psychological and the spiritual paths diverge. To the psychologist who does not believe in God, everything begins and ends with the human being. There is nothing beyond. What a profoundly depressing world view this is!
The spiritual person knows she is under a great obligation to serve the highest; that she is bound to manifest compassion towards everyone she meets, in whatever form she can, even when that compassion may necessitate acting the part of anger, as a wise teacher must sometimes do.
She knows that on the spiritual path there are definite obligations that we all incur, ethical standards that we ignore at the cost of our own enlightenment.
And she longs with all her being to offer devoted service to the One who is above all, who has created her and everything that exists.
The self-help methods can never teach you such an attitude - and without it there is no growth in understanding.
As the Talmud says, "If I for myself only, what am I?"
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I'm taking a break from this blog for three weeks, as I prepare for the publication of my book "A Raging Thirst" in paperback, on CreateSpace.
I hope and pray that it will reach anyone who may be helped by it.
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