Cleansing Our Psyche From Mental Clutter

When we reach the mid-to-late Autumn season in the Earth's journey around the Sun, we can't avoid seeing the increase in darkness that occurs now.

Psychologically and spiritually, this increase affects us at unconscious levels. Every Northern Hemisphere culture has rituals to mark this enormously important change, when we clear out the old and prepare to receive the new in every centre.

We don't know exactly how and when all these rituals developed. Some are very practical, and must have been handed down by early groups of hunter-gatherers, who needed to know the changes occurring now in order to prepare for winter. There would be a lack of fresh meat and vegetation, and a consequent need to kill and preserve whatever was available now to see the families over the winter shortages.

But, more urgently today, this season affects us mentally and emotionally, too, and brings with it spiritual implications. From the earliest times when homo sapiens began to create art and ritual, conscious beings have taught the need for special festivals, and have created rituals that would bring out the inner meanings of these times.

Right now, the increasing darkness unconsciously reminds us f the inevitability of death. To those of us in later years, the fact of our own death becomes very real as we enter the seventh and eighth decades of our lives, and in late Autumn we see our own existence reflected in the changes occurring in Nature at this time.

Gurdjieff taught - as do all major religions - that we should constantly bear in mind our own death, and that it could happen at any time. We don't even know whether we'll live to see the next hour, let alone the next day, or month, or year. We could stand up from our computer and keel over with a heart attack or a stroke.

This realization is not far-fetched or alarmist; the great mythological researcher and Work teacher Joseph Campbell met his own death in just such a way. He stood up from his desk after writing the last line of his final book, and was felled with a massive stroke. He suffered no pain, and it was in every respect an honourable, much-to-be-desired death, a suitable end to a life given to spreading Knowledge and Understanding.

In the Western hemisphere, to mark the change in the year, we have "Halloween", a time when the veil between the worlds of life and death was thought to be lifted, and spirits of the dead could roam throughout the material world.

Special prayers are said for the dead throughout the month of November, in every Catholic church, to remind us of the transience of life and the need to ponder the afterlife.

In England, we also celebrate "Bonfire Night", which ostensibly marks the occasion of the discovery of a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament, but as Mrs Pogson pointed out, it must be a ritual far older than a mere four hundred years. She suggested the etymology of the word "Bonfire" was actually "bone fire", when human and animal remains were cremated.

It's traditional to burn a "guy" on the bonfire, a replica of a human being complete with mask and clothing. A deeper and older tradition, which we have always celebrated in the Nicoll line of Work, encourages us to create our own masks, embodying a particular set of I's from which we wish to be free. In the ritual of mask-burning, often accompanied by fireworks, we celebrate freedom from the old habits and attitudes, and welcome the new possibility in which we wish to live, that of coming under fewer laws, of being reborn.

We need rituals, because they present the Higher Emotional Centre with an unforgettable picture of what is desired, what is to be sought. As we know, this centre does not think in words, but is visual, which is why such rituals and traditions affect us so deeply. Simply thinking about these matters is not sufficient. Practical, visible rituals must be carried out so that we are imbued with their meaning at every level. This is not magic, but a reflection of our psychological reality and a seeking of new beginnings.

In all the Christian and Jewish cultures with which I'm familiar, rituals with this underlying import exist, and encourage followers to cast off the old and outworn in their spiritual lives in order to welcome a new possibility.

Immediately after this time of cleansing, we enter the month of November, when Christians are exhorted to think of the Four Last Things: Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell.

Again, the importance of keeping our own death constantly before us is paramount.

We are going to die, that is certain. After death, what will remain of us? The Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths, although they have different ideas of what life after death will be like, all assert that it exists and that our physical death is not the end of our existence. Afterwards we will continue in a different form, receiving the appropriate reward or punishment for what we've done (or failed to do) on Earth.

The Work puts it a little differently. We are told that our Essence is immortal, but if it has learned nothing, if it has not developed, then there is no place for it to continue to evolve. We have to bring with us after death something that we have learned, something that we have achieved, if we are to continue our individual existence. This is the price exacted by the Sun in order for us to have the chance of evolution during our time on Earth.

We know that Jesus Christ is the leader of Conscious Humanity, and we are told that we will be judged by Him after our death, but this is not to be thought of as some sort of magistrate's court in the sky, when we will be fined or imprisoned for our misdemeanors!

On the contrary, if we have developed at all then we will be assigned to the place and the situation most appropriate for our next stage of existence. We might call this Purgatory, which is best conceived of as a school for self-perfecting, a place, or rather a state, where we will see exactly what we are like, what we have done, and what we need to do so that we may evolve further. It may be a time of great remorse, of suffering for our shortcomings, but it will be a cleansing, a preparation that is entirely necessary for us, and so we will not resent it but welcome it.

If we have not developed, however, the spark of Essence within us will be assigned to the melting pot from which new individuals are born, and the Personality and False Personality will perish. It must be so.  In the Gospels, the Parable of the Talents puts this reality very clearly.

That is why this time of year is a very important stage in our annual pilgrimage around the Sun. We are given it so that we may turn within, assess where we are and what we need to do next, and then prepare ourselves for the new life that may be born within us at Christmas.

It's time to ask ourselves what we wish to become, what we would desire to take with us into our existence after death - and to cast off the old while we still have the time to do so.

The Uniqueness of the Work

The Work is not remotely like any other way to understanding. It has much in common with the world's major religions, because all its teachings can be found in them, but unlike religions, it does not demand any outward form of worship or the acceptance of any particular theology.

It has something in common with counselling, since it is a way to understand oneself. Counselling, however, aims to help clients function normally in everyday life. While some counselling theories include a spiritual component, this is not the basic aim of the counselling process.

The Work takes over where counselling leaves off. It assumes the Work student is competent to function at the level of life, can support himself or herself, is not a scrounger or an idler, and has reasonably good relationships with family and friends.

It then helps the student to get to know his own psychology at a much deeper level than counselling can - or should - attempt. (Of course, I'm using masculine pronouns to include both men and women here).

The Work is not part of the occult world, although it is esoteric: as Gurdjieff described it, it is "esoteric Christianity".

The Work encourages the study of various esoteric systems such as the tarot, the I Ching, astrology and so on, but it does not seek to use them for fortune telling, or divination.

Why not? Because one of the greatest obstacles to spiritual progress is the student's False Personality, which is ruled by an Imaginary I - and to practice occult systems for monetary gain, or to win admiration from other people, artificially boosts this undesirable aspect of the student's psychological makeup.

The student becomes identified with his imagined prowess in such practices, and his Pride and Vanity are increased to an alarming extent. So much so, in some cases, that it becomes quite impossible for the truths of the Work to penetrate the thick crust which Pride and Vanity form around the False Personality. This crust shuts out the light of the Work and the student will make no progress in the Work - indeed, will become a drain on the energy of the teacher and the group.

The Work is not just such another system, as some students imagine.

It can't simply be added on to the knowledge a student may already have about such subjects.

This fact was best expressed by the Head of Conscious Humanity, known as Jesus in the Gospels, when He said that you can't pour new wine into old wine skins. The new wine is strong and potent, and will burst the old vessels so that all will be lost.

Likewise, He said, you can't patch up an older garment by sewing on a piece of brand new material. Again, the old can't take the strain of bearing with the new. The whole cloth will fall apart.

The Work must be seen and appreciated for what it is - a radically different, thoroughgoing approach to self-knowledge and knowledge of the cosmos, which can't be understood with the old I's that we use to study other systems.

We have to allow the Work to gradually penetrate us, to gently shine its searching light on the dark places of our Personality and False Personality so that we see those proud and vain I's for what they are; a useless, conceited attempt to aggrandize ourselves in the eyes of others.

We cannot use the Work to build up our Personality or False Personality, as those other systems may be used (or, rather, misused).

It doesn't work.

In the supportive, encouraging setting of the Work group, under the guidance of an understanding teacher, the student is gradually shown the futility of his False Personality, with its useless, harmful I's and its opposition to real truth. He is shown how to escape from its imprisonment and to begin to taste real freedom.

He is given his first, bitter-sweet taste of remorse of conscience as he begins to see his own mistakes, his own lies, his own ill-will. The Work does not condemn him for these things. The Work shows him that they are simply unreal, not-him, not part of his Essence, and definitely not part of his Real I.

To see the truth of how we have lived, how we've behaved, can be very painful. But it is a cleansing pain, akin to the probing of a surgeon's scalpel as it cuts away dead and decaying flesh. It hurts, yes, but this is necessary for us to heal.

Some people, however, can't bear the pain of real insight and immediately turn away. It may happen after a few months or after many years in the Work. The moment will come for each persevering student when he is given the chance to see himself, to really see and understand how he has been the slave of I's that seek his and other people's ill being. These I's lie to us and deform our relationships, bringing only accidents, misunderstandings and disasters. Such a realization cannot be pleasant, by its very nature.

The teacher's role here is to help the student undergo this cleansing process - called in Christianity the Way of Purgation - without jumping in to condemn or deny the reality he is being shown. As the Bible tells us not to judge, so does the Work. Such judging is quite useless - it is merely one set of mechanical I's opposing another - and leaves the student no better off. Instead, we simply allow ourselves to see the truths we are shown, without flinching or denying their existence.

As Dr Nicoll puts it, there are many processes which can only take place in the dark, and when a light is shone upon them, they stop. So it is with the ill will stirred up in us and other people by our own negative emotional I's, our own destructive thought patterns, our own unacknowledged pride, vanity, deceitfulness and arrogance.

The light of the Work will heal and cure, if only we endure it without turning away. And we will find that, as we continue to see ourselves in its healing rays, we are given a taste of real freedom that is quite unforgettable, and quite unlike anything else.

There are two ways in which people may escape the feeling of powerlessness and impotence so many find unpalatable and seek to deny.

One is to add on other "assets", including occult skills, to make other people see the student as someone powerful, to be noticed, to be admired. Of course, this is merely building the hot air pie of the False Personality ever taller.

The other is to allow those vain, conceited, impotent I's to be gradually deprived of their power over us, so that enlightment may come, and we may see ourselves - and the world around us - as they truly are.

Only then may we understand the great, hidden truths of the cosmos which the Work wishes to show us.

Eventually, this is goal of all true religions, and this is why we may compare their teachings to those of the Work. Whether Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist or Hindu, all lead the sincere disciple to see the truths of themselves, and through this insight to reach liberation from False Personality.

Eventually, through admitting our powerlessness, we may become truly able to "do".

It may, however, take many lifetimes for the religious seeker to reach such understanding. Many will never make it.

The Work offers a short cut, which is why it's sometimes called "The Way of Accelerated Completion". If you deeply long for freedom and understanding, the Work will show you how to reach them and will offer you the conditions to achieve them in this lifetime. The rest is up to you.

The Power of Admitting When We're Wrong .... And Need Help

To Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, there are four important sentences which lead to wisdom. He insists that all new recruits to his department in the Quebec Surete learn them and use them often. They are:-

"I was wrong."

"I made a mistake."

"I don't know."

"I need help."

Of course, Gamache is a fictional creation, the brainchild of Louise Penny, whose insightful crime novels are written with much heart.

But the above lines are worth memorizing, because we all need to use them, and even more so if we're in the Work or working the Steps, or both.

Without honesty, without admitting when we're wrong and when we need help, we can never see the truth about ourselves. And if we can't see that, we can't change. We stay stuck at a particular note in the octave, a certain level in the Steps, and we can make no further progress.

We've all known people in the Work who are quite unable to see themselves, incapable of honesty about themselves. They may glimpse the truth for a moment, but they find it so frightening that they quickly turn away and let a whole crowd of self-important I's take centre stage to distract them and us from the truth.

In the Steps, it's necessary to be honest so that we can make a personal inventory; first, we work the first three Steps so that we have enough emotional and spiritual support to be able to stand seeing the truth, and only then do we go on to list our defects and assets.

In the Work, we must be honest if we are to attain any spiritual insight. If we believe we are always in the right, why do we want to work on ourselves? Obviously, at a deep level we know that all is not right within us, and that we need to learn, to change. But superficially we may be too frightened to admit that truth into our consciousness, let alone to our teacher or to others in the group. And when this happens, we end up leaving the Work before we have achieved any real progress.

Either we leave of our own accord, because we realize that we are not getting anywhere, even though we don't understand why; or we are told to leave, because our unwillingness to make real efforts is a drain on the energy of the group and the teacher.

We've all come across the Work student who is so bright they seem to make great progress - and then it all suddenly stops. Why? Because never have they seen themselves as they are. Never have they seen their own real character defects, in the language of the Steps; in the Work, they are asleep, and so blind to the reality of themselves.

They cannot feel remorse. Therefore, they cannot change. We see in such a student's life the evidence of willed blindness in the broken relationships that litter their past. Everything would change in an instant if they could only take a long, clearsighted look at themselves, but this is precisely what they refuse to do. They lack the courage to allow themselves to feel remorse.

This theme is particularly relevant now because Autumn is the time of year when remorse and spiritual change are inextricably linked. On Tuesday evening Yom Kippur - the Day of Atonement - begins, when Jews all over the world fast, pray, and seek forgiveness from God for the sins they've committed against Him in the previous year.

But - and this is what makes this fast so unique - they do not seek God's forgiveness for sins committed against other people. God cannot forgive them the harm they have caused another person. Therefore, in the ten days which are called the High Holy Days in Judaism, the period leading up to the most sacred day of the year, they are obliged to seek out everyone they have wronged in the preceding year, and sometimes even people they've harmed years ago, if the need comes into their consciousness.

Recently, I read how one Jewish woman was greatly surprised to receive a telephone call from someone she hadn't seen since High School, many years ago. That person was now dying of cancer, and had called to ask for her to forgive him for bullying her in school. Needless to say, she did so, and it was a very moving conversation in which both were healed of old wounds.

Jesus tells us that if we have a grudge or resentment against someone we need to deal with it before we approach God.  We need to forgive whoever has harmed us, just as we ourselves need forgiveness from others.

Without honesty, we stay at a low level in the Work Octave. We've all known students who, each meeting, tell the group solemnly how they've carried out the task perfectly - even when we know quite well that they didn't, because nobody could.

Or they missed doing the task that week, but it was all right, because they learned something ..... and they justify their omission on the grounds that they understood better than the teacher or their fellow group members what it was they needed to learn. They are never, ever wrong. Their sleep is never disturbed.

In AA, we come across the same reactions countless times. The alcoholic who's still basically a "dry drunk" continues to whitewash his own misdeeds, or blames other people for them. It was his parents' fault for the way they brought him up ..... or his girlfriend's, for being late to a date .... or their best friend's, for allowing him to carry on drinking when he was way over the top.

Only when someone admits, at last, that there is nobody else to blame - that he alone is responsible for his mistakes, that he was wrong, and needs help - can they begin to recover from addiction.

And only when a Work student sees clearly how they've messed up their task, forgotten to remember themselves, caused harm to others in the group and have failed to pull their weight - for whatever reason - can she start, for the first time, to really work.

Our contemporary culture encourages everyone to believe they're right, that they must never apologize, that their insecurities must always be indulged and soothed. That serves to calm and justify, but not to increase consciousness. Such attitudes put us to sleep, and sleep is what so many people want.

If we are to wake up, we need to ask for the gift of insight; insight into ourselves, and to how we fall short. It is painful, but it is the pain of the surgeon's knife, which must be wielded before healing may take place.

The Jewish New Year is a Spiritual Reminder for Everyone

Happy New Year - or Shana Tova, for all you Hebrew speakers!

The Jewish New Year begins at sundown on Sunday, October 2nd, and is celebrated for two full days. During that time, families sit down to special celebratory meals, which will always include plenty of sweet things, eaten to symbolize our wish for a "sweet" New Year. In our household we have apples dipped in honey, and for a special dessert I always make sugar-free, diabetic-friendly cake or pudding. It doesn't sound wonderful, I admit, but it tastes great! And my blood sugar doesn't suffer.

The pomegranate is a special symbol of the New Year and appears on many tables. Round and red and bursting with nourishing seeds, it shows the blessings that we may expect if we are living with spiritual intent.

For observant Jews there are special synagogue services with once-a-year prayers and readings, and people greet each other with wishes for a happy year and that they, their friends and families be inscribed in the Lord's Book of Life.

The good news is that you certainly don't have to be Jewish to celebrate the Jewish New Year. And I much prefer it to the secular January New Year of Western custom, when people get drunk, make fools of themselves and get up to all sorts of mayhem just because of a change in the calendar! I never saw the point of that.

The spiritual New Year, however, is full of meaning for everyone on a spiritual path. I thoroughly recommend adopting at least one of the spiritual customs that Jewish people observe at this time, because the time of year is right for reflection now. We might add special prayers to our morning preparation, add more Work readings during the day. Perhaps we need to accentuate our daily appointments with ourselves, changing the times so that we include more "snapshots" of ourselves.

We can all practice the custom of making amends to those we've hurt, as I'll explain in a moment.

Why is the Jewish New Year celebrated at this time?

Cosmically, the position of the Earth in relation to the Sun and other stars has changed significantly since Midsummer. We have just passed the Autumn Equinox, when days and nights are of equal length, and now we can begin to see for ourselves how the hours of light are becoming less, the hours of darkness increasing.

It is this time that is most propitious for pondering spiritual matters, going within and reconnecting ourselves with our spiritual purpose, drawing closer to the God of our understanding and seeking His help in our new beginning. Over the summer we may have become immersed in the world of nature, in our secular holidays and our worldly ambitions, in other words, in Life; now, we turn our face to the world of Spirit and towards our Creator.

For, just like the secular January festival, this spiritual New Year is also marked by resolutions, this time concerning our relationship to God and to our neighbours.

In these special New Year days, we remember ourselves and why we are here.

We recall our spiritual aim, and review how far we have kept it and where we've strayed from it.

We renew our intention to be ever more aware of our need for God. The Jewish New Year mystically marks the anniversary of the day when God created man. What is our purpose? Have we lived up to it? What do we wish to be during the year that is to come? What do we need to work on?

Whom have we hurt, to whom do we need to apologize, to make amends? In many respects, preparing for the Jewish New Year is akin to making a Twelve Step amends list. If we can possibly do so, we make restitution to anyone we've harmed; if not, we swallow our pride, say we are sorry, and we mean it. And if the person has died, we resolve never again to repeat the mistakes we have made, and to become better people in the future.

From the standpoint of the Work, we ask ourselves which I's are helpful to our development? Which are harmful? What is the direction our personal work must take if the coming year is to see us develop as God would wish?

Without God, the Jewish New Year reminds us, we are nothing. We are dust. We did not make ourselves, as my Work teacher, Marian, often said. We think that we are "doing" in the world, when in reality every breath we take, every movement we make, exists only through divine decree. Without God, we can do nothing; indeed, without Him, we truly are nothing.

In the Jewish New Year, tradition holds, God decides who will live and who will die during the year to come; who will prosper, who will fail; whose health will improve, who will fall sick; and so on. Every decision God makes is planned for us, for our best and highest good, if we remember our connection to Him and truly intend to live out this connection in our daily lives.

That is why people wish each other the blessing of being inscribed in the Book of Life; there are other Books that are less propitious, and we certainly don't want to find our names written in them.

To each person will be given according to their needs and their merits. What seems like good fortune to us, however, may not be; what seems like a curse may be a blessing, to those with spiritual insight. We trust that, as long as we are doing our best to follow God's Will for our lives, He will give us exactly what we need for our best development.

The New Year is the time when God, the true and only Ruler of the Universe, picks up each one of us and gathers us into His bosom. He examines us with a loving gaze and sees where we are, what we need, what we may become.

To the spiritually aware, the prodigal son is home again in his Father's arms.

We have been lost, but now are found, as the hymn says.

We are loved.

We are remembered.

And we remember.

So You Want To Become A Work Teacher .......

Generally, when someone says they'd like to become a Work teacher, it's a sign that they're not ready.

In order to be able to teach the Work we have to have above all a sense of our own littleness, our own inadequacies in the light of the vast and awe-inspiring teachings of the Fourth Way. We need humility, for humility is the number one requirement both for learning and for teaching the Work.

Someone who's actually ready for this difficult task will feel great diffidence. They'll question whether they really are ready, whether their knowledge and understanding are enough to be able to help students. They won't mind admitting their own ignorance when students ask questions they can't answer; they'll say they don't know and will refer the question to their own teacher, and they will be grateful for all the help their teacher can give. They won't boast or brag about their achievements, for in the light of the Work as a whole they will know they are very small indeed.

Therefore, they won't let the position go to their heads; quite the reverse. Each time a real teacher conducts a Work group, he remembers his own powerlessness, and prays for the help of Conscious Humanity. He doesn't stand on his dignity and doesn't demand any kowtowing from members of his group, although he does ask that they show respect to the role of the teacher and towards the Work as a whole, and he sees whether they have the right attitude by the questions they ask, and the observations they bring.

You don't just wake up one day and decide to teach the Work! No, you must first be asked by your own teacher, who will see when a student is ready to begin taking on limited responsibilities. The teacher may already know of one or two newcomers who could form the start of a small, beginning group for the novice teacher. Or he may suggest that the student try to find a few possible candidates among her own acquaintances, or perhaps put up a small notice in a public library or bookshop.

It's vital that the beginning teacher maintain close contact with her own teacher throughout the process. She will in any case be a continuing student, going to regular Work meetings or maintaining the relationship with her teacher through phone calls and emails. The constant support and help of one's teacher is absolutely necessary when one first begins to teach the Work. Without it, the novice teacher is doomed to fail. And if the student does not continue to work on herself with her own teacher, she will not last long when she herself begins to teach; she will stagnate and be no use to her students.

The whole lineage of the Work is brought into play when a new teacher starts out; energy is passed down the line from Conscious Humanity through the student's own Work teacher, and then on to the new students. The beginning teacher must acknowledge that she is merely a link in the chain, that she needs help. And she must be able to generate her own energies to pass on to the students in her group, in addition to what is received from higher up.

When the student teacher has collected a nucleus of beginners - which should be no more than three or four, at the very most - she will make sure that her own teacher is kept fully informed about the potential students. Normally, the Work teacher will meet all the potential new students before the group gets underway, to make sure that they are all suitable candidates for the Work.

A novice teacher won't necessarily be able to judge this; the new students must all be Good Householders, and they must also be mentally stable and well grounded, so that the Work won't harm them at all, and neither will any of them harm the group or the novice teacher. Damage can and does happen. Vetting is extremely important. If distance is a problem, the newcomers need to be interviewed by the supervising Work teacher by phone or Skype, at the very least; otherwise they cannot be allowed into the new group.

When the group gets underway, the novice teacher keeps her own teacher fully informed about each meeting. She lets her teacher know what has been read, what observations have been given, and what new task has been set. She normally sends her teacher written notes, keeping copies for herself so that an invaluable record is formed. The notes are there for both her and her teacher to refer to when discussing the progress of individual students, as well as the novice teacher's own development.

By doing this, the novice ensures that she is teaching the Work as it was passed down to her by her own teacher, not deviating or distorting it in any way.

The supervising teacher will normally attend the new group meetings from time to time, and will invite all members to take part in a Work weekend at least once a year, more often if this is practicable.

After a year or so, the novice teacher will have gained enough experience and confidence that she will be able to carry on and enlarge her group, and will be equipped to continue teaching the Work as long as may be necessary. She will always keep her own teacher well informed about the group, and will always make sure that written notes are sent. As time goes by, however, less time will be spent discussing the progress of the new group; the novice teacher will become a seasoned leader in due course, and can handle most of the problems herself, without referring to her teacher.

The supervising teacher will always be available for consultations, however, and if he spots a problem that the new teacher hasn't noticed he will be able to help her nip it in the bud before it spoils the group's work.

Why do we need to keep this accountability? Why can't the teacher just get on with leading the group as he or she sees fit?

The answer is clear. The Work is a hierarchy. We are always answerable to our own teachers, and the help they give us is even more necessary if we ourselves become teachers in turn. We must always remember that we are responsible to Conscious Humanity when we take on the position of Work teacher. We owe it to them to swallow our pride - which in any case will always spoil our own work if we don't let go of it - and ask for help. Only someone willing to ask for help, and to act on it, is worthy of becoming a Work teacher.

It isn't easy. It's the most difficult task I've ever undertaken, even though I taught at University level for many years and was used to planning lessons, helping students, and directing groups. The Work demands all these skills and more: it demands our own continual spiritual work, because we dare not rest on our laurels.

We become accountable not just to our teacher but to our students, too, and we owe it to them and to the whole hierarchy of Work teachers who came before us, stretching all the way back to Gurdjieff himself, to maintain the legacy they bequeathed us, and to advance its knowledge in the present world.

Teachers are always looking for students who they believe can carry the Work forward after their own retirement or death, whichever comes first.

But it is a huge responsibility; it is very taxing; it demands that the potential teacher be able to work at a sufficient level to generate enough energies to support her students as well as for her own personal work; and there is no guarantee of success.

Most Work students will never become teachers, and this is no disgrace. We are all here to learn. And one good student is worth an infinite number of poor teachers.

Thoughts On the Gurdjieff Glut Throughout The Internet

If you're interested in Gurdjieff - and you must be, if you're reading this - then you will surely have noticed that in the last few years there's been an enormous glut of Gurdjieff materials on the internet.

Is this a good thing? And how can we judge the value of each article, website or book?

Of course, more genuine material about Gurdjieff is always welcome. We need as many notes of meetings, accounts of personal encounters with the great teachers, and serious, well-thought-out articles on the Work as we can find. Books by real Work students and teachers on their own experiences on the Fourth Way are a valuable accompaniment to our personal Work journey.

The problem with the internet is that anyone can publish anything at all on it, and the reader is hard put to distinguish the false from the real.

So how can we decide whether something's worth reading or not? We need guidance, especially if it concerns something relatively expensive, such as a new book on the Work. Enormous sums of money can be thrown away on worthless matter unless we're very careful and discriminating.

And even the free websites and articles can do a lot of damage. People can get a wrong impression of the Work from reading something by an individual or group who's left the Work, either of their own free will or because they were thrown out of it - not to mention the pieces written by those who've had no real experience of a Work school at all, but are Fourth Way wannabees, writing from theory only.

And this falseness damages the Work as a whole. It lures away students who have Magnetic Centre and hinders them from finding the real teaching they seek.

I've always maintained that the only safe path to learning about the Work is to join a real group. By "real", I mean a group in the lineage of Gurdjieff, Ouspensky and Nicoll. And to verify the lineage of any group or individual, you need to know whether they're connected with any of the Gurdjieff Foundations around the world, which promote only genuine Gurdjieffian material, or with the Study Society based in London, when the material concerns Ouspensky.

The Nicoll line of groups still exists - that is my own lineage - and any Nicoll Work teacher will at some time have been connected with the Foundations and will maintain good relations with them. If you come across a site purporting to be of the Nicoll line, contact the teacher and find out his or her lineage and current affiliations. Don't be fobbed off by clever window dressing. If there is a real group with a real teacher they will be only too happy to tell you their credentials.

Books are much harder to judge. One sure guide, if you can find it, is of course to ascertain the lineage of the author. Many books out there now, available from Amazon and elsewhere, are genuine and worthwhile. The authors are affiliated with one of the three lines I've mentioned above, and the materials they publish are well worth reading.

Others, however, are useless - or worse than useless, because they give quite wrong ideas about the Work. These come from individuals who've left the Foundation, or been thrown out; who have seen a chance to make money out of their limited experience of the Work; and are unscrupulous enough to try to gull innocent readers into buying their products. Some may actually believe what they write, and if so, they can be even more dangerous, because more persuasive!

There are some excellent websites out there, and some very worthwhile publishing houses. If you buy something from the Eureka press, you're in safe hands. Websites such as my personal favourites, which include the wonderful zenyogagurdjieff, are definitely worth checking out. I always try to read his latest post, and have also found much to stimulate my intellectual centre on the websites of Charles Tart and other Foundation-linked men and women. Well-known publishing houses, with a good reputation, are usually reliable. Self-published books may be very good or they may be quite worthless - I speak as one who's published a book myself, which I obviously think is worth reading! But my experience of this process showed me just how easy it is these days to get into print, and why it's a case of "caveat lector" on the internet and elsewhere.

Some authors who claim to write about the Work seem to be just self-seeking, self-justifying liars. They make untrue assertions and give wrong ideas. Some may even be hasnamusses.  The Work has always taught that we need to check everything out and verify it for ourselves, but the huge glut of materials now available makes that very, very difficult, if not impossible.

So - use your judgement. Consult the rest of your group and your teacher, if you have one. And if you don't - then try to find one, as that is the only way you can really, fruitfully work on yourself. Books and articles alone won't do it. Nor will discussion groups, useful though they are in counselling and therapy. They operate at a life level and can't raise the members to a higher level than life.

Beware of websites that advertise Fourth Way groups, but don't have a lineage, or won't say what it is. To produce results, a Work group must have a teacher, someone whose Being is at a higher level than that of his or her students. Without such a teacher, a group is merely a counselling, self-help group, and although that can be useful in many ways, it won't teach anyone the Work or provide the conditions for individuals to work on themselves.

The teaching cannot arise from the mass of people; it comes from above, from a level higher than life. Just as our normal state of waking sleep consists of warring factions of different I's until Deputy Steward or Steward begins to organize them, so a group without a Work teacher has no way out of life-level conflicts. Discussions go round in circles. No progress is made, and much energy is wasted.

As the original teachers are now passing away, an increase in efforts is very necessary for the Work to maintain its standards. We are passing through a difficult interval in the Work, when new shocks are needed. The addition of new, genuine materials is very, very welcome to all of us who try to work on ourselves in the great Tradition of the Fourth Way, in a lineage that descends from the Messengers themselves, Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, and Nicoll. But don't be misled by people claiming to be of this tradition but having no antecedents in this lineage. They aren't Work groups at all, and they won't help you. They may ruin your chances of ever meeting the Work in its genuine form, or of staying with it if you do.

Could You Be Used By Something Higher?

What is the overall aim of the Work?

When we ponder this question, we realize that in sowing the seeds of the Fourth Way for our time, Gurdjieff was setting up groups all over the world that could channel higher energies and assist in the evolution of the universe.

Of course, we ourselves have our own personal aims, which are quite valid. Do you seek understanding? Wisdom? Enlightenment? To be able to be a real Christian - or Muslim - or Buddhist - or Jew? To be a compassionate, enlightened person? To serve God and humanity in the unique way you were created to do?

All these are legitimate aims for us. We always break them down into smaller steps, as to achieve this great a leap would be too much for us, and every year we review our aim in the light of our personal work, our group, and the Work as a whole.

One day my teacher, speaking of Aim, made what to me was a startling statement.

She said, "We need to make it possible for us to be used by something higher".

To be used? Wasn't that a rather negative idea? Nobody wants to be used by anyone or anything, in ordinary life. That would limit our freedom, wouldn't it?

But Mrs Davison went on to explain that Conscious Humanity, whom we may picture as being at the level of the Sun in our solar system relative to our own individual existence, needs to work through conscious men and women on Earth. In fact, that is our purpose - to be transformers of higher energy.

In a previous post I wrote how progress through political means is always an illusion. Only people whom we call "lunatics" in the Work believe that by changing anything in the material world we will bring about progress to mankind. Changes occur, yes, but they don't lead to better conditions for all; they eventually turn into their opposite, because they are directed by sleeping people.

The only real progress is achieved when people become more conscious. Then, the higher beings which guard the Earth and the Solar System can send their energies through them to enlighten the Earth and transform it, at the same time as they also transform us.

This is a wonderful aim, and it's an example of what Gurdjieff called "thinking longer thoughts", or "active mentation".

In each generation conscious men and women act as channels through which this enlightening and vivifying energy can reach the Earth. They have fulfilled their "earthly mission", as it were, and in the process have achieved personal enlightenment.

And this is the aim of the Work: to offer us the conditions so that each one of us may become transformed in this way, and be a living vehicle for God and His saints, known and unknown, to transform the universe with their energies.

Gurdjieff was clearly such a person. So, I believe, were Ouspensky, Dr Nicoll, Mrs Pogson and all the great Work teachers, both those who've become household names and many more whose names have vanished but whose work lives on in the form of their students' understanding.

Not only people in the Work may be used in this way, of course.

In our time, we have the example of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the little Albanian nun who devoted her life to serving the poor and destitute who were dying on the streets of that city. Her work has spread to many countries and has brought light and love to hundreds of thousands of humanity's poorest members in their hour of greatest need. She was recently officially recognized as a saint by Pope Francis, but she was a saint long before anyone outside the church knew of her work.

St Therese of Lisieux, another nun, this time one who lived her short, adult life within the confines of an enclosed Carmelite community, also allowed herself to be completely transformed by God. She wrote of her experiences and of her way to holiness, "the Little Way", or "the Way of Spiritual Childhood", and her writings have changed the lives of millions of people all over the world, from all religious backgrounds and none. Her method bears great similarities with the Work.

Other world-changers whose names we know and revere would surely include Nelson Mandela, who became a vehicle for the forces of reconciliation in South Africa; Sir Winston Churchill, who inspired the Allied Forces in their extraordinary victory over the demonic forces of Nazism in World War II; Anwar Sadat, who as Prime Minister of Egypt defied death threats and persecution to achieve peace with Israel, a peace which cost him his own life, as he had feared, but deemed it worthwhile to pursue anyway; and Dag Hammersjold, the United Nations Secretary General whose Christian faith informed his life and work, and ensured that under his leadership the U.N. was truly a mediator for peace in the world.

The Catholic Pope Saint John Paul II, also known as Saint John Paul the Great, is yet another example of how an individual may be so transformed by personal evolution as to be used by Conscious Humanity; in this case, to liberate millions of people from the grip of the Iron Curtain, and set them free to practice their faith, both Catholics and Russian Orthodox Christians. The Russian Orthodox church is undergoing a tremendous revival in Russia and other countries that belonged to the Soviet Empire; so, too, is the Catholic church, which is flourishing today in countries that were officially atheist before this great Pope freed them from the tyranny of materialism.

Among us there are many great souls, some of them famous, most of them not. I would include my own teacher, Marian Davison, along with the other Work teachers I mentioned above, in this number. She devoted an enormous amount of time and energy to teaching the Work to her groups, which included those she inherited from Mrs Pogson and many which she herself started. Even after she officially retired from teaching, aged 70, blind and in poor health, she never turned away any sincere student who was prepared to undertake the difficult work of transformation. She taught us by telephone or through personal meetings long after her groups had been dissolved, and she remained faithful to the Work until her very last day on Earth, when she slipped peacefully away in hospital.

What does it take to be used by something higher?

First of all, the Emotional Centre must be so purified that it no longer experiences negative emotions. False Personality must wither away and become totally silent. Our Intellectual Centre must be able to contemplate the vastness of the universe and the power of God to transform all of it through evolution. Only when we realize the enormity of the task can we offer our small contribution, knowing that, in the words of the Talmud, "You may not be able to finish the task, but neither are you free to refrain from doing it".

Our Moving Centre must become more conscious, so that it helps rather than hinders our personal work.

Only then, when our lower centres are purified and working harmoniously, can our Higher Centres be heard.

Our entire Personality, though necessary for life and for many Work tasks, must become passive to Essence. Essence knows and understands our true purpose, but in most people it remains a silent, helpless, unheard voice.  When we become more conscious we don't insist on our own way any more, the desire of the Personality or False Personality. We no longer even desire it.

It is our Higher Centres which will guide us in our tasks and channel the energies of Conscious Humanity into our daily lives.

Our Essence becomes active, and we live more fully and more consciously. We know what has to be done, and we know how to do it.

Eventually, our aim is to come under the guidance of Real I, that part of us which is both human and divine, and which longs to bring to us and to the entire planet those forces of reconciliation, love and consciousness which alone bring progress.

At this time of year, the time of turning within, it's good to remember our aim and to form the intention that we, too, may be used by something higher.

Autumn and Elul: Time to Turn Within and Reflect

Elul is the Hebrew name for the month that begins this weekend with the New Moon in Virgo. It is the month when, according to the Kabbalah, we are called to turn within, examine ourselves, repent and draw closer to God.

The mood of turning within pervades all Nature now. For those of in the Northern Hemisphere it's  easy to recognize the signs that this time is now upon us. Leaves begin to change colour and fall from the trees. Days are becoming shorter and the darkness is encroaching. The weather changes, too, and frequently sends us rain and gales, all the more inducement to stay indoors, read, ponder and reflect.

Summer holidays are over. Schools and universities prepare for the new term, and Work groups begin to meet again after the summer break.

The period beginning now lasts for 40 days and culminates in the Jewish New Year, Rosh HaShanah. It's a time for cleansing and purification, which the number 40 symbolizes in many traditions. We recall the 40 days of Noah's flood, when the Earth itself was cleansed and purified; the 40 years of the Israelites' wandering in the wilderness, to allow them to shed their old, slavish attitudes and get ready to enter their new life of freedom in the Promised Land; and also the 40 measures of water with which God prescribes the ritual purification bath - the origin of Christian baptism - to be filled.

In his "Theory of Celestial Influence", Rodney Collin shows us a diagram of the year divided into periods of 40 days, the period of time for each cosmic "energy shift" to be fulfilled. The conscious men and women who created the Jewish and Christian calendars knew of these periods, and designed religious festivals appropriate to maximize the energies of each 40-day span.

Other religions also utilize these energies and celebrate festivals that reflect them, but its most accurate form in the West is given to us in the Judeo/Christian traditions. They are what most of us have grown up with, and Gurdjieff always recommended that the religion we followed in our childhood is the best and most suitable for us as adults.

Forty, then, is the number of repentance and renewal.

And Elul gives us the chance to carry out this process with the assistance of those particular cosmic energies that reach the Earth in greater strength at this nodal point of the year.

Kabbalists renew their studies and prepared themselves spiritually to meet God in the Heavenly Court. Of course, we will all one day stand before this Court at the end of our earthly life, when we shall see ourselves exactly as we are and experience all we have done from the point of view of others who've been affected by us, for better or worse.

Christian tradition tells us that we will already be cleansed if we've truly repented of any harm we have done, and the Work reminds us that real repentance involves reliving difficult situations with the empathy that the Work calls "external considering".

With this in mind, we go back and imaginatively live through difficult situations, entering into the feelings of the other person or people. It's an exercise called in the Work "Blessing the Past", and it's essential to carry it out every time there has been a painful or difficult interaction in our lives. It frees us from its effects and releases the other person. It leads to Remorse of Conscience, the basic state we most need to experience if we are to make true progress in the Work. Without real remorse, in fact, there can be no spiritual progress at all. The spiritual life is not all "roses, roses", as Gurdjieff pointed out.

Normally, we shun painful memories and block them out. But this does not remove their effects, and the negative I's in our False Personalities may be busy plotting revenge or feeling self-pity in the dark. Some of these I's may stem from early childhood neglect or abuse, for in the unconscious mind there is no sense of time. What happened long ago feels as raw as if it were yesterday, and they steal our energy today.

 In the Work, we are told that light must be shed on these very dark areas of our psyches. If this process is too painful to be borne, we can seek the help of counselling to face the inner demons that may plague us and hinder our progress. But somehow or other, it is a necessary task and nobody can evade it forever.

In Twelve Step groups, great importance is given to the making of our personal inventory, in which we honestly disclose to God and to one other human being "the exact nature of our wrongs". Unless we carry out this step, we can't go on to fulfill the others. Without it, the addict or alcoholic will inevitably drink again some day, and that drink could lead to his death.

The Bible tells us that everything that is now hidden away shall one day be known; Christians, Jews and Muslims all believe that after death God will see us as we really are, and we shall see ourselves in this way. The more willing we have been in our lifetime to undergo the suffering of repentance and purification, the easier will be our passage to a different realm when we die.

The most important aspect of Elul is the fact that God Himself begins to draw closer to mankind now.

He asks us the important question, "What are you living for? What is the real purpose of your life?" and examines us to see whether we are truly living up to our sacred aim.

The Kabbalists affirm that the real purpose of life is to become as close to God as possible. When we do this, our attitudes to everything are cleansed and changed. We long to serve Him, and to help others to find Him. We awaken to our poor stewardship of the environment, too, and our need to care for the beautiful planet on which we live. If we do not, the conditions for our very existence will disappear.

We realize how far mankind has wandered from the heavenly purpose for which we were all created; how wars, abuse of every kind, cruelty and neglect have entered into the sphere of the Earth through mankind's sleep.

In the Work, we make extra efforts to wake up now, at this time when our efforts are so royally supported by higher forces - by Conscious Humanity.

We willingly do whatever we can to repair the damage we have caused in our own world, whether that be in relationships, in our lack of care for the Earth, in indifference to the suffering of others

Before the 40 days of purifications are complete we will encounter the magnificent archangel, St. Michael, if we have properly prepared ourselves for this meeting. On September 29th, his feast day, we celebrate his leadership of the forces of good, of spiritual evolution, in their battle against decay, entropy and corruption, which are all objectively evil.

The Archangel Michael is Christ's own representative in this battle, and he will lead us too if we make ourselves fit to be used by him in this great battle.

Our life on Earth, our participation in the Work, is the preparation we must undergo so that we become useful to Conscious Humanity.

And Elul offers the needed energies to all who wish to be of that number.

Looking for a Work Teacher in the UK

If you're living in the United Kingdom and looking for a Work teacher, this post is for you.

The UK is the country I know best, though I spent many years in the USA and also lived for a while in Israel. In the former, the various groups affiliated with the Gurdjieff Foundation in New York have only a fairly loose association with it, and are not closely supervised by the Foundation - at least, not compared with the situation in the UK. It's much easier to find a group in the USA than it is here. And Israel is the only country in the Middle East that is secure enough to protect the existence of a Work group, and there is one main group, affiliated to the Paris Foundation.

In the UK, however, the situation is very different.

Here, the Gurdjieff Society, located in London, oversees most groups, and it keeps a fairly tight rein on them. Some of the teachers are good, and some are less so. I've known teachers from the Society who frankly bullied their students and hadn't a clue how to teach anything. They might have known a lot about the Work, but they didn't understand how to teach, how to model the Work for their students, or how to create the conditions in which each student could learn for themselves. Others were completely ineffectual, and while the students may have enjoyed the social gathering they certainly didn't learn how to work on themselves.

 Each seeker must decide for herself whether a particular group and its teacher are for her. And it's a difficult process because you simply don't know what to expect.

 A Work teacher is usually quite an ordinary person who makes no claim to supernatural powers or to be able to ensure anyone else's progress in the Work. He doesn't dress outlandishly, most likely won't drive a fancy car, and won't try to impress you with his esoteric knowledge. He doesn't go around telling people he's a Work teacher. He generally keeps quiet about it in ordinary life, because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself. You may or may not like him personally. If not, give him a try anyway.

Run a mile if there is any sign of bullying, any attempt to intimidate students, or to hint at "hidden powers", esoteric knowledge and so on. A boastful Work teacher is a contradiction in terms. Any boasting or bragging comes from arrogance and is part of that person's False Personality, which should play no part in the life of a Work teacher. What's more, a Work teacher must be able to generate and conduct the higher hydrogens which students need for their development. If someone is unable to do this, she will be an ineffectual teacher.

 Also beware of the teacher who seems over-eager to include you. All Work teachers have to turn away more students than they accept, and if they take you on immediately without any kind of interview you should beware of getting stuck with someone who just wants to play the numbers game. Students are not, as they might imagine, eagerly snapped up. To take on a difficult or disruptive student would hinder the progress of the existing group and waste the teacher's energy. On the other hand, a good student, someone with the necessary humility as well as Magnetic Centre, can be a help to the entire group. It's up to the teacher to decide, and to be very discriminating in their choice.

A major problem in the UK is that the groups who trace their descent directly from Gurdjieff and his personal students often give short shrift to Ouspensky, Dr Nicoll, Bennett, Rodney Collin and Beryl Pogson. They consider these teachers to be inferior to Gurdjieff, and they don't usually mention them at all. They discourage students from reading their books, and if you insist you will be asked to leave.
At least, this was the situation until a few years ago, when I had my most recent meeting with a teacher from the Foundation. They were still very rigid in this respect, and it deprives students of a huge range of really important and useful material.

On the other hand, the Ouspensky-descended groups associated with the Study Society at Colet House in London display a similar attitude towards all teachers other than Ouspensky. Some do allow Dr Nicoll's Commentaries to be read, because Nicoll was a close friend as well as a student of Ouspensky. Generally, however, Gurdjieff is anathema to them.

The Nicoll groups, who - as the name shows - trace their descent from Maurice Nicoll, are much more open to other writings. Dr Nicoll studied at the Prieure with Gurdjieff and was a student and friend of Carl Jung as well as Pyotr Ouspensky. All Nicoll groups encourage readings from the three teachers and from others who also illuminate the Work.

When my own teacher, Marian Davison, began teaching, she was encouraged and helped by Dr Bernard Courtney Myers and Dr Francis Roles, the former from the Gurdjieff Foundation and the latter from what become the Study Society. In those days - the 1960s - the situation was much more fluid and there was cooperation between all the branches of the Work. It was only later that barriers began to grow and obstacles were thrown in the way of mutual help. This, to me, was a huge step backwards.

I'm a teacher in the Nicoll line, so this is the branch which I know best, although I've also been fortunate enough to study the Work in groups in America, Israel and in London which were affiliated with the Foundation. (In regard to the latter I met Mme. de Salzmann in New York and was blessed with the experience of studying with Dr Courtney Myers in London, both of them excellent teachers: I haven't met anyone else of that calibre in either location, however). I studied in the only Work group that exists in Israel. But Marian remained my teacher throughout, and I kept in touch with her through letters, notes and phone calls.

When I was authorized to teach on my own, I was initially very reluctant to take on the responsibility. I agreed to do so when Marian gave me her blessing. She said that reluctance is a sign of humility, and it indicated that I was ready to teach. Someone who actively wants to teach is usually not ready, and is discouraged. Such a person may want to call themselves "a Work teacher," and add it their esoteric CV, as it were, but not actually to take on the hard work and inevitable suffering that results from one's labours as a teacher.

(Incidentally, this post is not an advertisement for myself! I'm not currently accepting any new students, because I want to focus on my writing. That is the main way in which I now attempt to disseminate Work teachings).

The various Nicoll groups continued after the death of Dr Nicoll, most taught by Beryl Pogson. After her death, Mrs Davison continued her work and took over Mrs Pogson's groups, while beginning new "nursery" groups in London and Brighton.

Some Nicoll groups chose to join the Foundation after Dr Nicoll died, and they have now merged with it and no longer exist in their own right.

Most, however, carried on their independent lines of work, because they believed - as did Mrs Pogson, Mrs Davison and myself - that to exclude huge areas of study, including the invaluable books by Dr Nicoll and Rodney Collin, among others, was to deprive students of a real aid to development.

We deliberately kept away from the Foundation after we realized that some of their teachers were determinedly trying to take over the independent Nicoll groups, and were shutting down the areas of study with which they disagreed. Indeed, they closed down some groups completely. We thought this was authoritarian and very short-sighted, not in the spirit of Gurdjieff or Ouspensky, and quite contrary to the teaching of Dr Nicoll.

 It's interesting to consider that the three founders of the Work each began with a concentration on a particular centre; Gurdjieff clearly favoured the Moving Centre to begin with, Ouspensky the Intellectual Centre, and Dr Nicoll the Emotional Centre, with his work in psychoanalysis. Of course, as each developed and attained a higher level of Being, they transcended the levels of Man No 1, 2 and 3, and became Balanced before going on to reach even greater heights.

 Nicoll students believe that without any one of the founders, the Work is incomplete, and therefore the Nicoll line seems to us to be the true continuation of the Work, in the sense that Gurdjieff, Ouspensky and Dr Nicoll understood it and wished it to be handed on.

Nicoll groups are known for the depth and breadth of their studies, including science, esotericism and the Work.  Some groups learned Ancient Greek and Latin so that we could study the Gospels and similar writings, as well as Old Testament Hebrew so we could understand the Kabbala and Gematria.

We all studied various arts and crafts from weaving to woodcuts, and held Work weekends so that a real community could be experienced. Mrs Davison continued with the methods that Mrs Pogson and Dr Nicoll had begun, and included her own special knowledge of astrology and Sufi teachings. She was a sheikh in the Sufi Order to which I belonged, and so was able to bring a special understanding of Sufism to the Work. Sufi poetry and teaching was an important part of our studies.

We studied the Tarot in its esoteric sense; the Renaissance scholars, including Marsilio Ficino; alchemy; the Greek philosophers; the early Christian fathers and their contemporaries; and some Gnostic writers. From this we gained a sense of the enormous influence of Work ideas on humanity, and their supreme importance to mankind's survival through past and future changes and cataclysms. We now form, we believe, a special type of Ark.

The Nicoll groups today are few and far between. The group I taught in Bournemouth has now disbanded due to the advanced age of its members. A very small, embryonic group existed for a while in West Wales, but it has now closed and there is currently no Nicoll group in Wales. Other groups I know of are located in East Anglia and the far southwest of England.

Unlike the Foundation and the Study Society, we didn't form a strict, hierarchical organization with an extensive administration. Each teacher knows of one or two others, and can ask for a Movements Teacher to visit their group when it reaches a certain size.

For the large number of Gurdjieff groups that existed all over the world, tight organization was necessary and was the only way in which they could have survived. Nevertheless, the Foundation and the Society have both suffered to some extent from this type of structure, which was inevitable.

When you try to organize a spiritual association, you lose much of its original spirit. You can't nail to jelly to a wall. Boxes have to be ticked, hoops jumped through and strict criteria met. The Work loses some force with every new generation of students, because with the best will in the world teachers who never knew the founders of the Work are at a disadvantage and can't pass on the full knowledge of the Work to their students. Creating barriers between the lines of descent furthers the ossification of the remaining groups, prevents the sharing of knowledge, and is unhelpful.

The Nicoll line kept the spirit of the Work best, but by avoiding the pitfalls of over-organization we also lost some of the benefits, mainly that we have no central office to disseminate information about groups and locations.

 In order to meet a Nicoll line teacher, you need to be in the right place at the right time, and to be ready to learn; it is the Conscious Circle of Humanity who will lead you there, if you have Magnetic Centre. Someone will have heard of someone who teaches; sometimes there may be a very small, very discreet notice in a library. If there is no Nicoll teacher in your area, then this contact is impossible. In that case, it is simply not your Fate to meet a Nicoll teacher in your current lifetime. That line of Work may not be right for you; perhaps the Work itself is not for you.

Of course, you always have the option of contacting the Foundation, which I would personally choose in preference to the Study Society simply because it's more open to outside influence, although not very much. The Society people I've met are very likeable, spiritually evolved people, however, and you might find yourself more drawn to them, especially if you are interested in the Sufis, because they are home to a group of Mevlevi dervishes and practice their ceremonial whirling dance.

You'll find all sorts of groups on the internet claiming to be the bearers of the Gurdjieff Work, but there are many charalatans and wolves there, and even with Magnetic Centre it's very difficult for a beginning student to find a real Work teacher.You do need to look at the group's lineage, if it has one. If it does, you may be able to check whether it is genuine by contacting a sister group. If they trace their lineage back to someone who was known to have been excluded from the Work - and such groups do exist - they could be dangerous and harmful, and I'd shun them like the plague.

On the internet, the best contacts are, I believe, the Gurdjieff Society in London, or - if you really prefer Ouspensky - the Study Society.

James Moore, a former member of the Society, left because of the distasteful, behind-the-scenes power struggles into which he was unwillingly drawn when his own teacher, Henriette Lannes, was passed over in favour of another whom he considered inferior. Moore started his own group, in Kent. I have not been to it and I don't know whether he is still alive, but if I lived in that part of the world I would think it worth checking out. He wrote the best biography ever published of Gurdjieff, and his later gossipy memoirs are very enjoyable, if somewhat scurrilous, reading!

 Fourth Way schools surface for a while every couple of hundred years in the West, at times when civilization is in crisis, and then disappear once again. The Work makes itself more accessible at times of great change, and creates Arks wherein its invaluable teachings may be preserved. When its task is done, it disappears. The schools carry on their work in secret until the time is right for a new dissemination of the teachings. The particular form in which it manifested at one time may never recur. This may well be the fate of the Nicoll groups.  If it is, then the Nicoll line has fulfilled its mission for this period of time.

We can't deny that humanity is facing greater dangers than ever before. The atrocities committed by terrorists, whether "lone wolves" or agents of Isis, or other branches of radical Islam, threaten everyone in the world today, especially Christians, Jews, and secular Westerners. They hate mysticism and kill peace-loving Muslims. Nowhere is now safe from their terrible evil. They are hasnamusses, and spare no one who disagrees with them. Other terrorist groups exist alongside them, and all are the enemies of mankind.

Simultaneously, the earth suffers from climate change, which could now be irreversible, and from pollution on a worldwide scale that is killing off many forms of life. Every day, new species become extinct. It is more urgent than ever that each and every Work student realizes the importance of their task. We must contribute to the evolution of organic life in the way that the Work teaches, and we must be willing to form an Ark within ourselves so that this teaching is never lost. If you feel called to this tremendous task, and if it is your Fate to be part of it, then you will meet the Work.

Conscious Humanity will make it possible for you to take part.

I wish you joy and ultimate fulfillment in your search.

What is the Fourth Way, Anyway?

The  Fourth Way - sometimes called the Way of Accelerated Completion - is unique. Unlike other ways of spirituality, which require living for long periods of time in a monastery or ashram and taking vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, the Fourth Way is followed in the midst of ordinary life.

The circumstances in which you are living when you meet the Work are the very ones you need for your development at that time, so you should not change them. As you evolve and develop, so your circumstances will change to suit your evolving needs.

Don't leave your job, or your spouse, or your home when you begin studying the Work. Eventually you may be led to make far-reaching changes in your way of life; then again, you may not. If you do, you will understand what it is you need, and what will help your spiritual development.

 Relationships are vitally important in the Work, which encourages loving, considerate relations in your family, with your husband or wife, your friends and with those you meet in your everyday life.

Unlike Buddhism, the Work does not teach an ideal of non-attachment. Instead, it shows the student how spiritual evolution takes place in our relationships, and how we can evolve by becoming more sensitive, more intuitive, more compassionate towards others.

Of course, relationships are very important in any enclosed community, too. And undoubtedly those formed within monasteries and ashrams are based, ideally, on attentive consideration to others. But in the Fourth Way, we are to practice this type of relationship, which is called "external considering", towards everyone who crosses our path, and most of all within our families and in our friendships.

We don't take vows of poverty in the Work. Wealth is not to be a goal in itself, but a means to help others and to further the goals of the Work, if we are given the opportunity. We are advised in the Work that our goals are to be spiritual, based on our spiritual needs and those of other people, and not "life goals", such as getting rich, buying more and more goods, being admired, or grabbing a promotion. These events, should they occur, are to be used for our spiritual life, and not for feeding our worldly ambitions.

Neither do we take vows of obedience. We respect our teachers and value their instruction and example, but they are not seen as gurus or as possessing superpowers. We don't accept anything in the Work unless we can test it for ourselves, although to begin with we have to take some teaching on trust, to be verified later, when we are capable of doing so.

Unlike New Age or other self-help groups, the Work connects us directly with a higher level of Being, the circle of ascended saints, mystics and teachers whom collectively we call Conscious Humanity. They are headed by Jesus Christ, the supreme example of what a human being may become.

They ceaselessly work through the major religions on earth, and they seek to help everyone who sincerely asks for it. New Age groups and similar structures cut themselves off from help, however, because so many deny the existence of any Power greater than themselves, and claim that any ordinary human being can, without supernatural help, become enlightened. Such an attitude is based on arrogance, whereas for a spiritual seeker humility is an essential quality.

The Work tells us that to reach a level higher than life itself, we need help from an even higher level to get there.

The higher blends with the lower to actualize the middle.

That is what Gurdjieff taught, and he was referring to the need for help from a level far above that of ordinary life if we are to awaken.

The higher level - Conscious Humanity - reaches down to us, the lower level of ordinary human beings in life, and by means of special energies gives us the power to reach beyond our regular state. Our efforts attract the help we need. And the energies which we receive lift us beyond our own life level, to a level intermediate between the state we were formerly in, and that of the members of Conscious Humanity.

This lifting up must be repeated again and again, so our efforts need to be regular and unflagging.

But we cannot do it by ourselves; we cannot lift ourselves up by wishing it were so.

It is absolutely essential to attract the help we need from that higher level, and we must not make the mistake of thinking that the needed power lies within ourselves. That is just wishful thinking. Efforts must be made constantly, but alone they would not take us very far.

The Fourth Way teaches that life provides all the materials we need in order for our efforts to bear fruit. We have everything around us that we may use for our own development. We don't need special circumstances, although Work weekends and retreats can be very helpful in focusing and enhancing our efforts.

The energy we seek is to be found through the efforts we make, through our group efforts, and through our own teacher's ability to channel and conduct energies from a higher level.

To begin with, we absolutely must have a group and an authorized teacher, or we will be wasting our time, playing at spirituality instead of living it. Eventually, we will be able to work on ourselves and life will become our teacher, but even if we find ourselves without a group, as can happen, we still remain mystically linked to the chain of higher beings that leads all the way through the minor saints and unknown mystics all over the world up to the great saints, sheikhs, prophets and holy men and women who have evolved to be much closer to the Holy Sun Absolute.

Without that living chain, our efforts would be far less potent. We could, it is true, live out our lives by following a traditional, spiritual path in one of the major religions, as a Good Householder. But our evolution would be much slower and it would take us many lifetimes to achieve the higher state of Being we seek.

Fourth Way schools appear for a time, carry out their work secretly and in silence, and then disappear.  But the efforts that students make whilst part of such a school can live on forever, and help the evolution of the entire universe.

The Work is certainly not for everyone, and the Fourth Way is not the only way to enlightenment. But it is certainly the quickest, and I remain eternally grateful that in this lifetime I was able to find and become part of such a school.

New Age Bullying - A Subtle Form Of Abuse

"You create your own reality".

"Illness is the result of faulty mental patterns".

"There are no accidents".

"There are no mistakes".

"You chose that lesson".

These statements all sound good, don't they? And so they are, when we apply them to ourselves in order to understand our own situation.  Looked at in the context of our own lives they can be very helpful. Nevertheless, they can't be applied in a general way to everybody. If we force these beliefs on other people, we risk becoming New Age bullies.  And unfortunately, many people, in a mistaken attempt to be "helpful", do just that.

The spread of New Age thinking, as popularized in "The Secret", in books by Wayne Dyer, Louise Hay, and many, many other best-selling authors, can be both deceptive and harmful when applied in a blanket way to people suffering from various illnesses or forms of abuse. It can be a form of abuse in itself, because it blames the victim and can make a bad situation even worse. There is a kernel of truth in all these beliefs, but the error comes when we try to interpret situations that other people are facing by assuming they caused their own problems.

Perhaps they did; perhaps not. We have no right to assume that they did, just because we ourselves are attempting to live more consciously and have some insight into our own circumstances. Most people are not sufficiently awake to be able to live by such truths, and to apply them across the board to everyone is unfair and hurtful.

Let's take a closer look.

First, the idea that "You create your own reality" is, indeed, true in so far as it applies to our own mental state. We know from the Work - and from other traditions - that we have the power to transform our thinking and to let go of negative emotions. If used in this context and applied to ourselves, as spiritual pilgrims, the statement is perfectly true. We have a right not to be negative, and we may all exercise that right whenever we choose, whatever the circumstance.

Unfortunately, it's also often applied to victims of disasters, to those suffering from abuse of various kinds, and to poor and oppressed peoples around the world.

I've even seen it used in connection with the Boxing Day Tsunami that claimed the lives of 250,000 people. How on earth did those innocent victims "create" that reality? Of course, they didn't. It was a natural disaster that was most likely the result of the Earth's response to a lack of higher hydrogens, as we say in the Work.

Nature will from time to time bring about such disasters when more fine energies are needed for the work of evolution, and people caught up in them have nothing to do with causing it. Some may have chosen such a way to perish, of their own free will, before they were born. It is hard to understand why, but it is not impossible. Perhaps they chose to do so in order to become more compassionate in their future lives. But they would have to be highly evolved in order to choose such a situation, and the vast majority were simply people who happened to be in the wrong place when Nature caused this convulsion. And none of them, not even the most spiritually advanced, caused such a catastrophe.

Nor do we have the right to blame victims of abuse. Once, in a terrible distortion of New Thought principles, it was even said about a ten-year-old victim of sexual abuse. She "chose this reality", the therapist insisted to the child's appalled mother. Clearly, this is not only insulting and untrue, it is a form of bullying. If we all create our own reality, nobody is to blame for harming anyone else. Suck it up. You chose it. Even if you're a child raped by her grandfather, as this young victim had been.

How dreadful that anyone should think this way.

Similarly, I once met a self-styled New Age counsellor who told a friend, who suffered from ovarian cancer, that "she had caused her illness through negative thinking".

What arrogant nonsense!

We know from the Work that we live in a fallen creation, and that we are subject to the Law of Accident. Our genes play a part in illness, as does our mental state, but a relatively minor one in many cases. My friend contracted ovarian cancer because she came from a family where there were several such cases in each generation, and at that time nobody had heard of gene therapy, or even knew which genes were faulty.

In a way, we do choose our lives. Before we are born, we each decide which type of life will be most helpful to our own development. This teaching has been a platform of esoteric thought ever since the time of Plato, whose magnificent poem "The Story of Er" illustrates this situation in a very clear way.

But we are also subject to accidents, which can occur at any time. Perhaps the cancer was part of my friend's choice; many people of evolved spirituality have suffered in this way. It may have been what my friend wanted her present life to contain. Equally, however, it may have been the result of an accidental exposure to toxins in the environment or in her food that switched on the genes which  precipitated the disease - things over which she had no control.

The Work tells us that our Being attracts our life. When we reach a certain level, we come under the Law of Fate rather than, as is the case for most people most of the time, the Law of Accident. But we have no way of telling which is which in the life of another person; the most we can do is offer comfort and support, and be compassionate in our approach to the sick and suffering.

And living under the Law of Fate will not necessarily mean living in luxury - far from it.

My friend with ovarian cancer died of her illness. It was, in the end, a way for her to come to terms with negative thought patterns which pervaded her family, and to forgive them, and let them go.  I saw her grow in consciousness throughout the year before she died. So it was, very possibly, part of her chosen life; but it was not necessarily that, and we must not make this assumption, because it's so hurtful to those who are ill. They may come to this realization themselves, but to force your beliefs on them is a subtle but very harmful form of bullying.

Similarly with the statements that there no accidents, no mistakes, no coincidences. Of course there are! For the more awake among us, these happenings may be used for our own spiritual growth, and I hope that is how all Work students - and teachers - take them. Many events which seem like accidents are in fact part of our Fate, but we can't always be sure when it concerns the life of another person.

Gurdjieff pointed out that the Law of Accident is the way most people live, and that we are under a great many restrictive laws down here on Planet Earth, so that bad things can and do happen to good people, as another book puts it. Most people do not create their own reality.

And again, when that phrase is used to blame people for their own poverty and oppression, it becomes bullying. It is exactly like Reaganomics, or Thatcherism! They blamed the poor for their own state. It's a central tenet of American belief that nobody need be poor, that everyone can better themselves, create prosperity, live abundantly. It's preached all day, every day, by tele-evangelists.

Americans love it, because it absolves society of the need to help the poor and sick among them. They don't need to pay higher taxes to provide help to the poor. Why should they, if the poor and sick are themselves to blame for their plight? But could there be anything more unChristian, more harsh, more judgmental than this belief?

It is certainly not what Christianity or the Work teaches.

In our lives, we need to examine our circumstances very carefully to see what negativity we ourselves may have caused by our harmful I's. We can do this, because everyone reading this blog is to some extent spiritually awakened, and able to take responsibility for their own lives.

But the great majority of people are simply unable to do this, and to blame them for their suffering is unfair and inhumane.

And when it comes to teaching "prosperity spirituality", that you can get a lot of "stuff" if you just wish hard enough, this is a stage that most people have outgrown by their early twenties.

Suffering has its place; so does health. We need to examine our own lives in the light of our understanding, but what we cannot, must not, do is to decide for another person that their suffering is "part of their chosen reality", and is therefore somehow their fault.

We may offer help, guidance, support. We can suggest different ways of living, encourage better education, show people who've actually made poor choices that there is a better way to live. But if they had been capable of so thinking without our help, they would have done so before they ended up in difficult situations!

We do not create ourselves, we are created. We can, if we are sufficiently awake, attract the circumstances which are best for our own development. But that will probably not lead to a life of comfort and ease, with wealth and good health in plenty! Then, we would simply stagnate.

So, please don't blame the victim. If they could have chosen otherwise, they would.

Your Higher Power

In AA, as in other Twelve-Step programmes, it's vitally important that we come to believe in a power greater than ourselves, a power that is loving and compassionate, that will restore order into our unmanageable lives.

In the Work, we have the plethora of diagrams, from the Step Diagram to the Ray of Creation, to illustrate the teachings of all mystical religions - that there is a Higher Power, called the Most Holy Sun Absolute in the Work, and by the names for God used by different, valid religious paths.

The Twelve Steps teach alcoholics and addicts how to begin to live a normal life, called in the Work the way of the Good Householder.

Mystical traditions and Fourth Way schools begin with this level of being, and teach those who are willing and able to follow their instructions how to live in such a way that we may ultimately be used by something higher, by God or Conscious Humanity, for transforming consciousness. In working on ourselves, it's not simply our own Being that is raised. Our eventual aim is to become useful in the great work of transformation and evolution throughout the universe.

We can see that the Fourth Way and the mystical path begin where AA and its offshoots leave off.

What both have in common - what is absolutely vital if any progress is to be made in either of these methods of raising our level of Being - is the concept of God, a Higher Power.

And this is where these ways differ from so much of what is taught in New Age thinking.

The appeal of a great deal of the New Age, whether it be casting candle spells, fortune-telling, rune magic and so on, is that the New Age follower is invited to become his or her own higher power. And this, of course, is impossible! We can't lift ourselves spiritually by our own bootstraps. We need help.

Exactly the same methods may be used by the mystic as by the New Age devotee; casting horoscopes, for example, which is used by Sufis and by New Agers alike, or carrying out rituals to impress truths upon the Higher Emotional Centre.

Yet the difference is in the Third Force, that which motivates them.

In the Work, we want to become more conscious not only for our own sake but for that of the rest of the Ray of Creation. We want to help God, as it were. Conscious Humanity, whom we may picture at the level of the Sun in our solar system, has given mankind huge possibilities, but wants something in return - our efforts.

Working for purely selfish ends, for life reasons, might be possible to begin with, but the student who continues to work just for themselves soon realizes that progress depends on a higher level, not solely on themselves and their own actions. We need help. We cannot "do", and we must acknowledge this fact before we can transcend the mi-fa gap and receive the help that is vital if we are to continue the octave of ascent.

In the Twelve-Step programmes, too, a newcomer may wish simply to stop drinking for his or own personal benefit, and although this can be enough to keep them going to meetings, it does not go very far. It is simply Step One, which says that we admitted we were powerless over alcohol, and that our lives had become unmanageable.

Immediately after Step One, however, come Steps Two and Three, which encourage us to seek the help of God as we understand Him.

Later, we learn from AA and the Big Book that the real purpose of becoming sober is so that we may be of maximum service to others and to God. This comes as a real - and salutary - shock to many.

Inevitably, alcoholics and addicts have already made more than one attempt to sober up before they ever enter the world of AA.  They tried doing it themselves, or with the help of family members or friends, and they failed.

They could not do it because they were trying to work on their drinking or drugging problem at a purely life level. But addiction is not simply a mental or physical illness; it is primary a spiritual illness. To succeed in the heroic task of achieving sobriety, help from a higher level - the level that most of us call God - is absolutely vital. We simply cannot do it by purely human means.

I want to draw your attention to the need for a Higher Power in both the Work and in AA because it is what differentiates them from so many New Age teachings which strive to make the follower the sole authority over his or her life.

Granted, there may be vague references to some greater power that can be invoked to help in the devotee's progress, but it is often very fuzzy, and written about as though it were within the follower's power to control; as if God Almighty could become the servant of the New Age practitioner.

This is one of the ways that we can know a false teaching from a true.

True religions, like the Twelve Step programmes, require that we conceive of a power infinitely greater than ourselves. That power is not simply strong. It is a loving, compassionate, merciful and just Power which asks that we live according to certain moral and ethical standards, that we do battle with our uncooperative I's (the real meaning of "jihad" in Islam, by the way); that we become willing to bend the knee, as it were, and surrender control to that God who alone can bring order out of chaos.

Without the help of God, we are bound to fail. With it, there are no limits to our progress except those that we ourselves create,

As AA says, we find that trying to do our own will always leads to failure and even death, whereas striving to do the Will of God is the gateway to life.

A Daily Reprieve

I've just been given a piece of good news from my diabetes specialist - she says I am officially no longer diabetic!

Having kept to a very strict diet for the last five years, I've managed to get my blood sugar levels down to those of a normal, non-diabetic person, and have kept them there for the last four. So I'm now merely suffering from "impaired glucose tolerance". I'll still continue to be monitored regularly for blood sugars, kidney and liver function, cholesterol and so on, but it does seem as though my current regime has effected a cure.

It is not, however, a complete, everlasting cure. If I don't keep to my diet, if I don't constantly monitor my food intake, if I put on weight, then I will at some point become diabetic again.

 To me, this is just like my alcoholism - I don't have a permanent cure, because there isn't one. I do have what the AA Big Book calls "a daily reprieve", and my continuing good physical health is dependent on my maintaining a "fit spiritual condition".

Our spiritual health, of course, depends on our relationship with God, with our Higher Power; on receiving help from Conscious Humanity.

The Work talks of Real I, and Buried Conscience. These are the means by which we may contact God in our daily lives, whatever name we choose to give this wholly beneficent and loving higher power.
We're told, moreover, that God will also speak to us through our Higher Centres, whether in images (as in dreams) or in thoughts, but the problem is that our minds are filled with so much low-level chatter for so much of the time that we simply can't hear what those centres are saying to us.

Marian Davison, my Work Teacher, explained it thus: We don't have to create or develop our Higher Emotional or Higher Intellectual Centres. They are already there within us. They constantly try to communicate with us, but we fail to listen, or mistake the voices of various I's in our lower centres for those coming from a higher level.

This is an easy mistake to make. On a minor level, we may all be tempted to think that giving in to this or that petty I is the "Will of God". On a major level, such errors bring about terrible destruction. Think of the "holy" war now being waged by radical Islamists in the Middle East and increasingly in the West. The homicidal bomber thinks he is doing the will of his god, as though any good, loving God would will the destruction of human beings, his precious creatures.

For an historical example, we may look at the dreadful, tyrannical way in which Henry VIII forced his will on his subjects, destroying churches and monasteries, putting innocent people to death and forcing the kingdom to break away from the Catholic church in the mistaken belief that his lust for a particular woman was a manifestation of the will of God.

Such mistakes can easily happen to us. If we don't make the Work our priority every day, we will soon lose the ability to hear our Higher Centres. This is why we must always begin the day with the Morning Exercise.

 No matter how busy our schedule may be, no matter what exciting - or boring! - events we may be planning, the Morning Exercise will ensure that we start out in our right mind. Then, during the day, we have a touchstone to which we may return, an experience of self-remembering that will remind of us of the state in which we ought to live each day.

It was explained to me early on in the Work that we are given a certain amount of higher hydrogens overnight, in sleep. By remembering ourselves at the very start of the day, and by returning to moments of greater consciousness during the daily round, we build on and increase this store so that we can - if we are diligent - end the day in a state of peace and equanimity. Gradually, this process enables us to create our Higher Being Bodies, which we must have if we are to progress further after this limited Earthly life.

It takes a long time before we are able to do this. And one of the main problems we all face is that we leak energy so easily! Someone says something which offends us, a motorist cuts in in front of us, we drop a favourite plate and break it - any small incident can lead to the loss of the entire day's store of higher hydrogens, and leave us depleted, with no energy at all.

Unless we learn to observe ourselves continually throughout the day we cannot avoid losing force in this way. But, after perhaps years of patient observation, we gradually come to know ourselves better and learn what takes energy from us, and how to avoid such situations; if, nevertheless, they do occur, we learn how to disidentify with the negative thoughts and emotions they elicit, stand back, and refuse to let our force be stolen by those I's.

It is, just like addiction and like diabetes, a daily reprieve. We are not "cured" of being negative, or of having various harmful I's. We always need to be on our guard against letting them take over. But eventually, just like the alcoholic or addict who makes each day an occasion for recovery, the new way of life can become a reality which brings about a deep change within us.

It takes many years. But it is, just like an addiction, a matter of living "one day at a time". We cannot have tomorrow's energy today; we have just enough help, just enough higher hydrogens, for this day. And living this day well, we are more likely to do so tomorrow, and tomorrow, and the day after that.