The Divine Mercy and Self-Compassion

This Sunday, Catholics celebrate the Feast of the Divine Mercy. If you're a Catholic, you already know all about this feast. If not, a brief summary is in order: the Divine Mercy is a traditional Christian feast which had fallen into disuse, but during the earlier part of the 20th Century a Polish nun, Sister Faustina, was asked by Jesus to revive it, and to have a special picture painted which would illustrate the way that Jesus's mercy and compassion radiate to the whole world. The Feast of the Divine Mercy always takes place on the first Sunday after Easter Sunday. It therefore falls on the Octave of Easter, and emphasizes the central meaning of the whole festival of Easter - the loving kindness of God towards us, the God who would rather go through the agony of death than lose a single soul to sin. That face of God is that of the father of the prodigal son; when we turn to him he runs towards us and celebrates our return. You may have seen the Divine Mercy image in a Catholic church or bookshop. It shows Jesus standing with His right arm raised in blessing, with two rays - one red and one white - radiating from His Sacred Heart, sending compassion to all. Jesus told Sister Faustina, now canonized as St. Faustina, that He longed for the whole world to trust in His Divine Mercy. He wished everyone not only to trust in His Mercy, but also to show mercy towards others in thought, word and deed. The reason for wishing this Feast to be re-established today, He told St. Faustina, was that we are now much closer to His Second Coming, and when He arrives He will administer the final judgement. Anyone may obtain mercy now, but if they fail to trust in Him they will face His judgement when He comes again. Clearly, we all wish to obtain Mercy, and now is the era in which Jesus wishes Mercy to spread throughout the world, Mercy towards others but also towards ourselves; in this aspect, the Divine Mercy has much in common with the self compassion movement. Self compassion is a school of thought which emphasizes being compassionate and merciful towards ourselves. It's not an excuse for selfish behaviour, but is an antidote to all the harsh, critical, harmful I's in us that are ready to step in and condemn us every time we make a mistake. Self compassion is being recognized as a helpful approach in counselling, and while in itself it is not a spiritual discipline, it's certainly a healthy way of seeing oneself as one truly is. As such, it can help us in our work efforts. From working on ourselves we've seen how critical and judgmental we often are towards ourselves, how we often stop ourselves from making accurate observations because we're afraid to look. That fear comes from the feeling that we are unworthy and constantly fail, which is quite true; but we also know that the critical, judging I's which bedevil our attempts to know ourselves are completely useless, and so far from helping us to progress, they actually hinder us and involve us in a vicious circle. We see something, some I, which another I rushes in and judges. The result is a war of separate, small I's, getting nowhere and sabotaging our personal work. We are all taught that these attitudes are useless, and that we need to dis-identify from these critical, condemnatory I's so that we may see ourselves as we really are. But - for some types more than others - these critical I's are very strong. They clamp down on our attempts at self-observation and cause mayhem. For intellectual centre types, especially, they can pose a very serious threat to personal work. And people who judge themselves harshly also judge others, and can be difficult companions, so that their relationships suffer and family life is problematic. The antidote is self compassion, although it is not necessarily expressed in those terms. A Work teacher, a Work group, can be models of self compassion and compassion towards one another. We observe ourselves as accurately as we can, without self-justifying, and report on our observations to the group. We see that we are all in the same state, all too often falling far short of the aims we set ourselves, and that this is simply how we are. Our teachers don't condemn us for it, and neither do our fellow students. This process is similar to the Little Way of St Therese and fosters true humility and self acceptance. And as for identifying with the critical I's, this is simply futile. It perpetuates the inner conflicts which stop us from seeing ourselves and from giving ourselves the First Conscious Shock. In the Work, therefore, we have to learn to let go of these I's and their negative, harmful companions, the harsh thoughts, the condemnations, even - at time - the despair. I think we Catholics may have an easier time in some respects. If we regularly go to Confession, we acknowledge our faults and receive assurance from the priest, who represents Christ to us, that we are forgiven, absolved, given a fresh start. If we are particularly prone to judgementalism, either towards ourselves or towards others, our confessor may remind us of the words of Christ to the woman taken in adultery. She was about to be stoned to death, surrounded by a crowd who all condemned her for her wickedness. Jesus stops them from killing her by saying, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone". Of course, nobody is without sin, and so the crowd disperses and spares the woman's life. Jesus asks her, "Does anyone now condemn you?" "No," she replies. "Neither do I condemn you," Jesus tells her. "Go and sin no more." We may take this as a literal story or as an allegory. The crowds of condemning I's are those which rail against us, in our own False Personality, condemning us to death for our perceived sins. None of them have the right to kill; all are guilty of some sort of sin, because they are in error and cannot see the truth, the whole picture. In such a state, we may fear that Jesus - our Real I - will also condemn us. But this doesn't happen. Instead, He tells her to go - and also, which is very important, to sin no more. The whole story shows us how to have compassion on ourselves, and compassion towards others. It's important that we admit our shortcomings, our sins, the many ways in which we fall short; and if we honestly do so, we have the chance to try again, to continue our life, our personal work, free of condemnation and with the aim of "sinning no more". To be told that one is granted absolution in the Confessional is a very important part of life as a Catholic. We hear those words, we understand them as coming from Christ, from our Real I if we are in the Work, and we experience release and mercy. We go on our way lighter in heart and with a new energy to use in our efforts. We are loved in our littleness, in our imperfection, as long as we are humble enough to admit our faults and to try again. Compassion towards ourselves includes the acknowledgment that we have fallen short of our aims, and the wish to do better; it sees that we do indeed fall short, but, like St. Therese, uses that understanding for self-acceptance. At the same time, we see that we harm ourselves when we miss the mark, or sin. So real self compassion includes the determination to avoid sin and to live according to our Real Conscience. If we do this, then no matter how many times we may fail, we are not condemned. We are picked up, consoled, loved and set on our feet once more with a new chance. That is real self compassion. Note: The description I have given of the Divine Mercy Feast is very abbreviated. It is a truly inspiring devotion, and if you want to know more you could visit the Divine Mercy Message website, and also - if you are really interested, as I am - read the Diary of Saint Faustina. It's very long, but also very rewarding.

Holy Week in the Work

Since the autumn, we've been looking at the way the Christian year has been arranged. We've seen that for two thousand years the church's liturgical cycle has taken advantage of cosmic variations in the positions of the planets and stars, which can help us in our inner work. Other festivals before Christianity had also made use of these times, because various Messengers had known of the changes in the position of the Earth, the planets and our Sun which could be used to encourage an increase in consciousness. The Egyptian and Greek religions, in particular, which preceded our Christian era, gave their followers feasts and fasts which corresponded to the energies available for initiates. But here I'm looking at Christianity, because that is the religion which today, I believe, embodies the most conscious planning by learned men and women so that even now we may study the Christian year and learn which type of inner work best corresponds to each festival. Now we've arrived at Holy Week, the most important time of the entire Christian year and the period when much understanding and an increase in Being may be obtained if we make the right efforts. On the largest possible scale of understanding, Dr. Nicoll told his students that "The sacrifice of Christ was to decrease entropy for humanity". And he explained that every time we make some small sacrifice, every time we accept a small death on our own level, which is what we've been attempting to do throughout Lent, we increase the possibility of becoming more and more alive in the most real part of ourselves. We increase our inner order, and work against entropy. Mrs. Pogson pointed out that while Adam in the Garden of Eden acted from self-will and disobeyed God, thereby losing his right to live in Paradise, Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane lay down his self-will and obeyed the Will of His Father. His choice demanded conscious suffering, but from that suffering came the great and holy triumph of Easter Sunday. He came to show us the way which we may all follow, which leads to eternal life. On a physical level, too, everything changed after the Crucifixion. The drops of blood and water which flowed from the wounds of Jesus fell upon the Earth and purified it, reaching backwards and forwards in time simultaneously so that all of mankind now had the chance to become conscious. The festival of Easter is almost always celebrated at the same time as the Passover of the Jews. The very few exceptions occur when the Jewish year, which is lunar, has to insert an extra month so that the solar and lunar calendars agree. Both festivals are, at root, festivals of freedom. As the Israelites were led out of Egypt and out of bondage to their material desires and mental addictions, so at Easter all mankind is shown how to be free from the slavery of the multitude of I's within us and to reach that point in ourselves which alone is real. How does the Earth's position in space relate to the timing of Easter? If you remember our previous discussions of cosmic time, you'll recall that a period of concentrated work began for us in early autumn, when we focused more on internal tasks after the summer holidays. In September, the Earth starts to move closer to the energies which come from the highest level of the cosmos, from far away, which are better able to reach us at this time. The Earth revolves around the Sun, of course, but we recollect that the Sun also revolves around its own "Sun", the star Sirius. And all Suns, all stars, revolve around the central Sun of the galaxy. There is much to ponder here. The special position of our planetary journey which began in the autumn takes us within the Sun's own orbit of Sirius, and in direct alignment with the forces of the Ray of Creation. The moon also plays a part in reflecting light to us here on Earth, and increasing the powers of the different energies that reach us. By the time the Earth has come to the spring equinox, it is beginning to move away from the alignment with Sirius and the further reaches of the universe; it then begins a new phase of the annual journey which focuses more on working in the world, in Life. Before the Earth leaves the elliptical orbit of the Sun around Sirius, a final Full Moon at this stage of the pilgrimage reflects back increased energies to us on Earth, and this Full Moon is what is important at the festivals of Passover and Easter. From time to time suggestions have been made that we should fix a date for Easter, to be the same every year just as Christmas always falls right after the Winter Solstice. As we can see, this would be a huge mistake as far as our inner work is concerned. We would no longer receive the extra boost which now benefits our Work life, and this would make our transformation even more difficult than it currently is. We need all the help we can get from the cosmos, and Easter shows us that harmony between inner and outer worlds is actually made more possible when we align ourselves with those special energies. For us in the Work, Holy Week is the most concentrated phase of this whole annual cycle. What is conceived now, at Easter, may be born at Christmas in Essence. What we now sacrifice will enable new life to rise from our most real part. The Gospel narratives of Easter are extremely interesting, and one of the most fruitful tasks for this time is to see all the different I's at work around the events of Holy Week. The Pharisees, Pilate, the crowds which first acclaim Jesus and then reject Him, the Roman soldiers, the disciples who simply can't stay awake - all these I's are within us. Most interesting of all is Judas, who plays the part of the betrayer in this cosmic drama. Gurdjieff says that Judas is actually a great saint because he understands the need for his action - to bring about the events that lead to the death of Jesus - and also that he would be hated and reviled for what he had done, until the very end of time. Such a person needs courage and equanimity, together with real devotion to the Master, and his part could only be played by a conscious man far above the level of Being of the crowds. We might ponder on the meaning of this role, and whether we ourselves would have been prepared to play it. Which of our I's take the uppermost role in the drama of Holy Week? Do we have the courage of Judas and Jesus Himself, as we draw closer to the crucifixion? Do we watch and pray, as Christ asks us to do, or do we fall asleep along with the other disciples? Do we give up any attempt to understand and to work on ourselves, like Pontius Pilate? Or do we accept the Will of the Father, and steadily set our face towards Jerusalem, unwavering in our knowledge of what is to come, and our acceptance of the conscious suffering that will be our task?

Dark NIght - or Depression?

As a counsellor, I've often worked with clients suffering from depression. A combination of therapies usually works best, by which I mean anti-depressant medication together with psychotherapy. The client's mood first has to be stabilized with medication before the "talking cure" can be effective, and we're fortunate today in having many different anti-depressants for doctors to prescribe. Often it's a matter of trial and error, but eventually the medication begins to kick in and the client is able to look at the reasons behind the depression and work on improving his mood - and, if necessary, making beneficial changes in his life. We talk about endogenous depression (the kind that originates in a brain disorder, so that insufficient endorphins are manufactured, or they are dissipated too fast to be of help). Anti-depressants relieve this type of depression, but psychotherapy is also very helpful in encouraging the client to look at factors in his life which may be contributing to the mood disorder. The second type of depression is called reactive, because it's brought on by disturbing and difficult life events. The client is reacting to something that has happened, possibly after a long period of stress. Here, too, anti-depressants can be useful, because whatever the cause of the depression the client must be in a stable and rational state of mind to benefit from counselling or psychoanalysis. Of course, in real life it's very difficult to distinguish between the two, because usually both types are present, with one or the other predominant. Long-term stress affects the brain's chemistry; endogenous depression leads to more stress, as the client withdraws more and more from life and fails to tackle his problems. You can't really separate the two forms in reality, so anyone with severe depression also needs to see a doctor for an assessment as to suitability for anti-depressant medication. But recently my attention has been drawn to a third type of psychological disturbance, one that often mimics depression but which is not identical to it. I'm talking about the so-called "dark night of the soul", described by St John of the Cross and other mystical writers, in which Christians who are following the Way of Illumination can suddenly be plunged into seeming darkness. I'm referring to Christians, but followers of other religions may also face similar experiences; I'm not familiar with the forms they would take, however, and am not qualified to write about them. Here, I'm talking about a specifically Christian experience which many devout followers of Jesus face in their walk towards closer union with God. The pilgrim is actually moving closer to God in the so-called dark night of the soul, but it seems quite otherwise. He becomes intensely aware of his own sinful nature and the great difference between his own being and that of God. The individual feels that God is further away from him than ever, and with this perception (which is erroneous) comes a sense of great sadness. Previously, he had enjoyed his prayer times and participating in the Eucharist; now, he is deprived of these consolations and feels abandoned. In this sense of sadness the dark night imitates depression. Inexperienced counsellors, especially if they are not from a background of faith, may mistake one for the other. And the situation is further confused by the fact that both may coexist. A depressed client may be undergoing the dark night as well as depression - and the person who knows, from his or her spiritual director, that he is in the dark night may also be depressed. The most helpful way to distinguish between them, and to give the client the maximum psychological and spiritual help, is for a counsellor and parish priest to work closely together when faced with someone in this situation. I have been doing this recently with a middle-aged woman whom I'll call Julie. Obviously, this is not her real name, and I've altered other personal details to preserve her anonymity. She gave permission for me to tell her story, because she thought it might be useful to others, and I agree. Julie, at 55, was experiencing a state of depression brought on by a quarrel with one of her adult children. Her son, whose marriage was breaking up, accused Julie of bringing him up unwisely so that he could not relate well to women; he implied that his own problems were all Julie's fault. As a single mother, deserted by her partner after the birth of their son, Julie had always worried that she was an inadequate mother, and her son's accusations triggered an acute sense of guilt, of total uselessness and failure as a parent and as a human being. No wonder she was depressed. Her parish priest, however, thought that something else might be going on, and with Julie's permission we talked about her situation and what might be happening to her. He knew Julie to be a devout Christian, and felt that she was in a process of deeper enlightenment that could emerge after she had lived through the dark night. Julie's depressed mood was stabilized by anti-depressant medication, but she still felt deeply unworthy. As a practicing Christian who regularly attended Mass and prayed and meditated every day, Julie began to feel increasingly cut off from God. Her sense of God's absence was different from depression. She did not feel the self-loathing that had assaulted her during her depression, but she did feel her own sinfulness, and wondered what had gone wrong in her relationship with God. Nothing was wrong, her parish priest told her: her situation was typical of what is experienced by every pilgrim and would-be saint, and would come to an end when it had run its course. It was, he said, a form of purification that is necessary to enjoy greater union with God, and this is what would happen as long as Julie stayed faithful to her prayer life. The dark night of the soul was, said the priest, actually a case of being blinded by the light! The tremendous love and light of God so overwhelm the seeker's soul that it feels like darkness at first, but the pilgrim who persists will find at last that he is enjoying a closeness to God that he has never before been able to attain. One state - depression or dark night - does not exclude the other. If anyone feels that he might be going through either of these processes, it's really important to discuss it with a priest as well as a doctor. In Julie's case she found that she did indeed feel closer to God in the end, but if she had not sought treatment for depression she might never have realized the underlying, beneficial process taking place in her soul. Gurdjieff describes the dark night experience in "All and Everything". The souls approaching most closely to God feel deeply their own sinfulness, and their separation from their Creator. Even their very existence as individuals can come to seem painful. They want to dissolve into unity with God, but cannot do so by their own efforts. This story is very illuminating and deserves serious study by all Work students, but especially by anyone who thinks they may be experiencing a dark night. May all who undergo this darkness come through it stronger, wiser and closer to their goal.

Being Tested in the Work

Anyone on a real spiritual path has to face tests. The Work is no exception. If you are truly working on yourself, you will be tested again and again until the Work becomes stronger in you than any other influence.

The nature of these tests changes throughout your life.

The earliest test may come as a difficulty in locating a teacher. You may find a meeting time or place that is really difficult for you to get to, or which demands a sacrifice of something you enjoy. For me, the first meeting I went to was 50 miles away from where I lived, and as a penniless student I had great difficulty in coming up with the train fare. There were many evenings when I was tempted not to go; but I wanted the Work so much that I found ways to get there in spite of the many problems.

Having overcome the first difficulty, you now find you're being asked to carry out tasks that you really, really don't like! Why should you have to miss a night's sleep, for example? Or dress up as something weird and unpleasant? Or trek miles and miles to a distant Work location for a special weekend? How can you be asked to do these things? Don't they know how hard you're trying and how difficult they're making things for you?

Of course "they" do!

The purpose of all these difficulties is to show you your different I's. You don't know what you're really like until you are tested, and I's which have become habitual and which you don't even know you have start making their presence felt.

The Work proceeds from the outer to the inner, from the surface to the depths. What are you willing to sacrifice for the sake of the Work? And what do you believe you can never, ever give up?

Whatever your problems, you are facing the same process that we all go through. We have to get to know ourselves thoroughly, and the only way we can do this is by observation. And, since we habitually take the easy path through any situation, it's only through having to deny our habitual I's their sleep that we can see ourselves as we really are.

Without excuses. Without justifying. And without lying.

Our unpleasant habits in all centres come out to parade themselves. We begin to see that we are not exactly the nice, kind, pleasant person we thought we were. Far from it.

In life, when faced with a difficulty, we choose the path of least resistance. We try to get our own way, and when that doesn't work we manipulate or force others into doing what we want. In the Work we can't get away with this sort of behaviour. Our fellow students are sure to object, and our teacher won't allow us to become lazy or to make excuses for our unpleasant manifestations.

Tests cause us to look ever deeper within, and we start to have a pretty good idea of what we're really like.

Just as important as this knowledge is what we do with it. We don't justify our shortcomings, but own up to them. We see ourselves as we really are, and we don't flinch from observing our buffers, our contradictions, our conceit, our arrogance. If we refuse to see, we will be tested again and again on the very same point until we can no longer deny our reality.

Neither do we judge or criticize ourselves, however. Such an attitude shuts down all observation and puts us to sleep. We simply see ourselves, acknowledge our various I's, and choose to disidentify with them so that they gradually lose their power over us. With this test comes much suffering, but it is the type of suffering which cleanses and enlightens us. It is the only way we learn.

The Work shows us that nothing in our False Personality is worth anything at all. It has to go. All those I's which stifle our Essence and commit psychological violence against ourselves and others have to be let go and allowed to die away. It will take a long time, perhaps many years, for this to happen.

An important part of the process of becoming aware is to get to know our Chief Feature. Dr. Nicoll describes it as the axis round which our False Personality revolves, and when we have seen it our Work becomes more focused.

Even so, it is very easy for the Chief Feature to take on new forms, and this is the origin of the many stories all over the world about shape-shifters. These fairy tales reflect the truth that our I's are experts at disguising themselves, and only continuous self-observation without judging or excusing will subdue their influence.

Self-observation goes on for the rest of our life. And if we become complacent, thinking we now know everything about ourselves and that our False Personality has no more power over us, we are sure to be tested, perhaps in a very big way. The saying that "Pride goes before a fall", which is actually a quotation from the Bible, is quite true. You will observe it in yourself many times.

If you are ever authorized to teach the Work, you will be sure to face a major test. You will be challenged in every way, so that your False Personality is revealed in all its manifestations; this is an inescapable fact for everyone who reaches a certain stage in the Work.

Not everyone can or should be authorized to teach, but if you reach the stage of knowledge which shows your own teacher that you might be able to pass on some of the Work to new students, your Being will be tested so that you see what you have to work on in yourself.  Without this, you would be a terrible teacher! You would teach from False Personality, and this is a great pitfall.

If your teacher sees that this is happening, you will be immediately told to stop teaching; your authorization will be revoked, and you will have to take a long, hard look at the I's which have allowed such a difficult situation to develop. Some people cannot face this task, and leave the Work at this point. Their False Personalities, or even their Personalities, take them away from the Work altogether. This stage is an initiation, and only students who truly value the Work, who can see the good of the Work regardless of their own progress, or lack of it, will be able to carry on.

At this point, only humility will keep you in the Work - the sort of humility which enables you to be taught, and thus to teach others.

False Personality, as we know, has no place in the Work, but what of the Personality? In fact, our Personality probably contains a number of I's which are useful in the Work. In my case I had learned to teach and to counsel in life, and when used in a Work group these I's were often helpful. But there is still much in the Personality that will have to be discarded because it doesn't support the Work.

It is your Higher Centers which will guide you through all the tests you face in the Work. And this will only be the case when you have purified your emotional and intellectual centres sufficiently to allow the Higher Centers to be heard.

When you reach this stage, your self-knowledge will be very thorough indeed. You will still be tested, because this process continues for our lifetime as long as we are treading the path of the Work, but the tests will be very different.

There will be subtle inner temptations and outer problems which make working on the third line of the Work extremely difficult at times. But by now you will know yourself well enough to be able to meet these tests as they arise.

You will have been turned and twisted and bent out of shape so many times that you will have developed the ability to return to the sure path of the Work.  And this is the purpose of all the tests you have undergone.

Strengthening Essence

In most people, Essence is born childlike and weak.

The part of us that we call Essence is born with us. It includes everything that we are physically - our colouring, our inherited weaknesses and strengths, all our genetic heritage - and all our spiritual and psychological potential.

Just because we have that potential at birth, however, does not mean that we will develop and realize it.

Many people die without having developed their Essence at all. In such a case, Dr Nicoll taught, the very fine substance of which Essence is composed returns to the common melting pot, from which new Essences are taken when a person is to be born.

If we do not develop Essence, we have no individuality. If there is no individuality, how can there be any survival after death?

This is not what the church teaches, of course. It is a very ancient tradition, older than the church, and known to esoteric groups before Christianity existed.

If someone is born into a family which follows a traditional religion, that person will begin to develop Essence. To be a spiritual person, to follow any of the real religious paths, one has to resist temptation, to work against what is mechanical and strengthen the spiritual will.

For this reason, all the religions which Gurdjieff recognized do teach belief in a soul, or developed Essence. The soul is nourished when a child is raised by people who genuinely try to follow a religious path, and who guide the child wisely so that he or she will detach from negative emotions, at least to some extent.

If efforts are made during childhood and adolescence, then even if the maturing adult decides to discard their religion, the soul will have begun to grow, thanks to the nourishment it received from the parents and other adults in childhood.

And when the soul has once begun to grow, it will call out to the inner man or woman and crave more nourishment, more strength, as it recognizes its own desire for development.

Society is so disordered today, however, that few people receive wise guidance as children, and even fewer recognize their inner longings once childhood is past. Instead, we are encouraged to forget about spiritual progress and focus on material goals - money, status, power, sexual satisfaction, and so on. This is what drives the money-making machinery of advertising and big business. This is the real danger of our day.

We live in a haze of lies, a web of falsehood which surrounds us during our waking moments and invades our dreams.  We are told the way to happiness lies in getting more and more stuff, having bigger and better orgasms, being feted as a "celebrity" in the media, or simply by satisfying all our physical needs as though we were merely animals.

If we were not kept hypnotized in this way, nobody would believe the obvious lies inherent in our materialistic society. We would refuse to buy those things we really don't want or need. We would see other people as they really are, instead of through a distorting lens of False Personality. We would keep in mind the fact of our own death, and the need to make constant, unflagging efforts during our brief lifetime.

In short, we would work on ourselves.

Even in those times when there is no Fourth Way School, echoes of former schools persist. There is always a mystical side to outer religions, and a path that may be found by a sincere seeker. And it is only when treading that path that we experience the real satisfaction that a pilgrim knows even when he or she is suffering, the knowledge that we are moving ever closer to our Real I, whatever name it may be given. And this experience is the same for all spiritual seekers, everywhere. The inner teachings of all religions all embrace the same reality.

Today, we have the Fourth Way, and the teachers and groups that exist in the authorized lineages of the Work.

We know that by working on ourselves we are strengthening Essence and weakening Personality, and this is the task that is most strongly encouraged during Lent.

Of False Personality there is no need to speak, for we all realize that it is the fake, the unreal, the delusional system of I's that leads us away from the Work unless we stay awake. We know how to recognize these I's, and we understand that we must detach from them whenever they make themselves known.

The Personality does have its uses in the Work, however.  We need to use Personality I's in order to carry out our jobs, to provide for ourselves and our families, and to organize our lives so that inner work takes priority once our responsibilities to others have been discharged.

We know that it is the task of Personality to serve Essence. Personality must create the conditions our Essence needs in order to grow. Essence must not remain weak and childlike, for if it fails to develop there can be no inner peace, no real progress. Progress takes place as the Work penetrates deeper within us, from the outermost I's in moving parts of centres to the innermost places where the Work is difficult and painstaking - but where alone real awakening can occur.

In the Christian religion we are told that Jesus withdrew to the wilderness to prepare for his earthly mission. We can't do that - most of us have family responsibilities and worldly duties that we have to carry out.

But we can all set aside periods at the beginning of each day, during the day, and again in the evening, when we carry out a psychological reversal and focus on our inner tasks. This is why we have a Morning Preparation every day, and why we choose to make appointments with ourselves in the day; we need to know where we are in our inner world, and what we need to do next for our spiritual progress.

During Lent we are encouraged by the Work and by the Christian tradition to take on extra tasks. Prayer and fasting are the names given by the church to these acts. In the Work, making Aim, putting in effort, and asking for help from a higher level constitute prayer for us. Fasting means to abstain from identifying with the I's in Personality and False Personality which spoil our inner work.

Lent is the time when, following the tradition as recommended in the Work, we may make some real progress in strengthening our Essence. And when one person ascends in the scale of Being, it affects everyone else.

Lent - What Are You Giving Up This Year?

As we've seen in previous posts, the conscious men and women who composed the cycle of the Christian Year did so out of their profound understanding of the workings of the cosmos.

Not only did they completely understand the meaning of the Christian religion and its mystical completion, they also knew of the various energies available to us on the Earth at different times of the year.

Hence, each seasonal festival, each liturgical season, encourages us to focus on a particular practice that will benefit us for the growth of our higher being bodies.

At each change of season, the Earth receives the energies appropriate to the practices appropriate to it.

Now we're entering Lent, and the energies of the cosmos which reach us now are subtly different from the preceding seasons, those of Christmas, the Epiphany and Candlemass.

We all now see and experience the great increase in light that reaches us from our Sun during late February and the beginning of March, compared to the darkness of the time before and after Christmas. We notice the changing weather patterns, and the growth of new plants which appear at the very beginning of Spring. Birds are nesting, and we sense an increased urgency to the cycles of nature now, as the currents of new life begin to pour into our Earth's biosphere.

Lent is, in fact, the ancient word for Spring, and its arrival means that we are being asked to make some sacrifice that will help to purify us for the great Easter festival which comes at the end of this 40-day period.

Traditionally, as in Advent, Orthodox Christians and, formerly, all Catholics fast from flesh foods during Lent. The exceptions are fish and dairy foods, and such a diet may in fact be the very best for our health if we're not among those whose genetic heritage demands more protein than the Lenten fare supplies. I happen to be among them, and am what is termed an "obligate carnivore", so a compete abstinence from meat and poultry is detrimental to my health.

One of the habits I gave up after I discovered this fact was that of feeling guilty because I couldn't follow a vegan or vegetarian diet! Both made me very weak and ill, and hence less fit for working on myself - but the lingering guilt was a habit of my thinking and emotional centres that I had to work on in past years.

Many of us carry around completely useless guilt and shame from past faulty thinking, whether derived from introjected parental attitudes or acquired later on from other sources, such as a perfectionist, punishing religion.

In the past, the Jansenist stream of Christianity imposed a regime of puritanism on the French Catholic community, and it took the insights of saints such as Therese of Lisieux to point out the fallacy of their philosophy.

In a very similar fashion, the original Puritan sects, and the many breakaway groups which copied them, took the attitude that all of us are miserable sinners, and deserve constant punishment for our attachments to earthly pleasures, even those of the most innocent kind. Music itself was banned from some churches, not to mention dancing.

Today there are quite a few fundamentalist churches which preach such an un-Godly approach to life in the name of spirituality. Many critical, judgmental religious writers and preachers think of God as an ill-willed magistrate in the sky, out to get you for the most minor infringement of his rules, or just bent on making sure that nobody enjoys themselves, ever!

All this is very far from Orthodox or Catholic beliefs,the only streams of Christianity which Gurdjieff sanctioned as genuine, and they are certainly not those of the Work.

Sacrificing perfectionist and judgmental habits of thought can be a very good way for many of us to work on ourselves during Lent.

The practice of self-compassion, though not in itself a spiritual discipline, can actually help us to become free of these severe attitudes, and thus help us grow in our spirituality - and that's the whole point of Lent, after all. If you're not familiar with the term, there are many websites which explain it and give help for those want to practise it, whether you're a Christian, a Buddhist or from any other religious background or none.

Paradoxically, giving up our harmful, punishing thoughts, and the behaviours that can follow, may be a very good way to "give up" something for Lent! In other words, we may "give up" giving up!

At the same time, we also want to experience the life-giving, enhancing energies of Spring which we've noted above. But there has to be a balance here, and this is the real purpose of Lent - to help us to keep a balance between two types of excess, that of self-indulgence, such as with overeating or sex addiction, and the practice of puritanical thinking.

Obviously, if someone has a serious addiction problem the practice of Lenten sacrifice won't be enough to help them give up the harmful substance or practice. Again, there's plenty of help out there, but I write this blog to help those already in recovery and especially anyone interested in the Work and in Christianity.

Living in balance, remaining conscious of the pulls exerted from both directions and yet keeping ourselves centered equally between these poles, can be the most fruitful Lenten discipline of all.

Of course, there are many harmful habits to be given up! If perfectionism and judgmentalism are not among your most pressing concerns, there's sure to be something which you need to sacrifice. Worrying, perhaps? Black and white thinking? Making accounts? Choose your habit, and decide to observe it and disidentify from it during the coming 40 days. At the end, you will be freer and happier, and all the more ready to celebrate Easter.

Whatever you choose to give up for Lent, try to select something that is mechanical and which you know is harmful to yourself and to others.

Then your preparation will bear great fruit at Easter. You will purified and freed from something which has been holding you back - maybe for many years - and stopping you from reaching your spiritual goals.

When A Student Leaves the Work .....

People come and go in the Work, for different reasons. Some attend for a few weeks or months, but realize it's not for them, and leave. All groups experience this sort of fluctuation. It's actually quite good for a group to be in the company of such tramps or lunatics, as it can spur the members on to renew their own efforts.

Occasionally, people attend meetings for several years, but without really conjoining with the Work. They may undertake the exercises - or at least, those of which they personally approve, for they are sure they know best! - but their observations are superficial and they don't take the Work deeper into their centres.

They're afraid of the changes they will be called on to make if they let the Work become real to them, and so they leave.

More serious is the situation of people who leave the Work after studying and practicing it, as well as they can, for ten years or more. Theirs is a difficult state, and it's always, without exception, the result of identifying with the False Personality.

As the Work penetrates into inner parts of centres, False Personality puts up a tremendous fight. Those who are honest with themselves see exactly what is happening, and resist the temptation to identify with the I's which are opposed to the Work. They draw on their Work I's, sometimes called Deputy Steward or Steward, to strengthen their resolve and resist the urge to give up.

The I's in False Personality, and most especially those connected with Chief Feature, always resist the Work with the arsenal of weapons they have at their disposal. They insult the Work and their teacher, pour scorn on the ideas, raise doubts and difficulties in the mind of the student.

They have to, because it's a fight to the death!

There comes a time for every student when the temptation to abandon all they've accomplished in the Work and to side with their False Personality, their Imaginary I, becomes particularly acute. All of us who are long-time students and/or authorized teachers have fought this battle.

Why is it so difficult?

Because the student begins to see - to really understand - that to continue in the Work will totally change their priorities. And they don't want to give up their most cherished I's. They can't imagine life without, for example, their self-importance, their conceit; they can't bring themselves to give up gossiping, or worrying, or compulsively helping, or their favourite form of negative emotion, whatever their individual addiction happens to be.

Vanity and Pride maintain the False Personality and preserve its mask. They form a tight crust around the Essence of the student, and real courage is needed to break through it.

If the student will persevere, and ask for help, they will be given it. Their teacher will set them particular exercises to overcome their individual problems, and Conscious Humanity will send them extra support in the form of very fine energies that will enable their Work I's to grow stronger and to resist the temptations that are encompassing them.

But the basic battle is always the same: to remain clear-sighted, honest, and unflinching in the face of the knowledge they now have of themselves. They must carry on their task of observing their False Personality I's, and disidentifying with them. They must continue to purify their Emotional Centre so that their Higher Centres can speak to them and show them the way.

And absolute honesty - with themselves and with their teacher - is fundamental to success. Without it, they will fail, and will leave.

It's always sad when someone loses the fight after many years in the Work.

All a teacher can do is to provide the right conditions for students to be able to work on themselves. Nobody else can do the Work for them. And if what they learn about themselves is too terrible to acknowledge, because they have not asked for help and have not called on the resources available to them, then they may decide it's easier to maintain their illusions about themselves than to face reality, and they leave the Work.

When this happens, the other students in the group, and the Work teacher, have to leave the student to face the consequences of their choice.

Those consequences will include the feeling of being abandoned, the knowledge that is always there at the back of the mind that they have thrown away something infinitely precious. They will discover that their habitual sleep is now less easy, because they have seen a part of their reality; and their conscience, however deeply it may have been buried, pushes them to change.  But now, outside the Work, the chances are slim that they will be able to achieve any real change, and their suffering increases.

The best hope for such a student is to follow the path of the Good Householder, preferably associated with one of the traditional religions so that they have clear ethical and moral guidelines, and the company of other pilgrims on the way.

Even here, if they persevere, they will be brought back once more to  the point that led them to leave the Work - seeing their own False Personality, their own helplessness, their nothingness. And without the Work to help them through this stage, they may once more abandon the spiritual way, and fall back asleep.

We don't talk about the Work with former students. That's a very important school rule, and the reason is obvious - those who leave, have to try to justify their choice to themselves. They know, deep down, that they made a poor choice, so they have to keep persuading themselves that, after all, they were right - their own False Personality knew best!

And in order to persuade themselves of what they basically know to be a lie, they try to convince others of the same. They lie constantly, to themselves and to others, to keep up the pretence that all is well.

We are told never to talk badly about the Work, and to keep company with someone who's abandoned the Work would lead to bad talking. We avoid it, and them.

We don't completely shun them, as various cults are said to do. If our paths cross, we greet them in a friendly but impersonal way, but we avoid conversation with them as much as possible.  We can't take the risk of their wrong attitude to the Work beginning to affect us, so we stay away from them as far as we can.

The teacher cannot talk about the Work with them any more, since they have made their choice. There is no violence in the Work, and everyone is free to choose to leave, if they wish. But they must accept the loss of their teacher and the friendship of the group members.

What their ultimate fate will be, we don't know. They must have had Magnetic Centre to have persevered with the Work as long as they did, but now they have left, they have no way to satisfy the hunger for truth that will have grown in them over the years.

We're told that we have three lifetimes in which to meet the Work. What we do not know is which lifetime we are currently living - whether it's our first, our second, or third.

Personally, I would not want to take the risk of losing the Work for ever. I have been given so much, have been so greatly changed, over the years I've been in the Work that there is nothing for which I'd willingly exchange it.

But someone who hasn't understood the real value of the Work - or who has, but can't face the effort they know they must make to persevere with it - loses sight of the fact that it may be their last chance to meet with it.

Perhaps they will encounter it again in their next life, if they are given one. But if not, they've thrown away that pearl of great price which gave meaning to their existence, and the only way they may continue their progress is by the long, hard Way of the Good Householder.

We should be very sorry when someone leaves the Work - and very grateful, too, that we have remained.

The Work and Our Surroundings

We've moved! Now we're settling in to our new life by the sea, in a little Arts and Crafts house which we're filling with our books, art and music. It will take months before we've finished putting it all together, but already we can confirm that it's a wonderful move, and that this is the place where we intend to spend the rest of our lives.

The Work tells us that our Being attracts our Life. After more than 40 years in the Work, half as a student and half also as a teacher, I can attest to the way in which our circumstances change according to our needs.

If we're living "in the Work", then Conscious Humanity arranges for us to have the very best surroundings for our own development. To someone brought up in a palace, this could well mean life in a tiny apartment with few belongings. Their task would be to learn to do without the material goods and luxuries that they may have depended on before they met the Work.

For me and for my husband, however, both of us in the Work, we've found that each house move has brought us different tasks and challengers, to meet which we have had to change and adapt, observing ourselves and externally considering those around us in order to live in harmony.

This final move - at least, we hope and pray that it proves to be so! - has given us the most beautiful surroundings, by the sea, in a lovely, genteel resort town with huge parks and lakes, and with plenty of resources of every kind.

 We feel that we are at last planted in the place where we most truly belong, out of all the many we have inhabited in this life; different continents, different environments, and different neighbourhoods. All have given us material for our personal work. But here, in this little seaside town, we're more free than ever before to concentrate on our inner lives and our closest relationships, since we're now living near to our families.

Christianity has always taught that God will bring good out of every situation as long as we are honestly trying to do His will.

And the Work goes further: Conscious Humanity - all the great saints and holy ones, at the head of which is Jesus Christ - takes a keen interest in the wellbeing of anyone sincerely working on themselves.

They do so because our own personal transformation is of tremendous significance to them. When we evolve, when we become able to cooperate with them in aiding the evolution of our planet and ultimately of our part of the Ray of Creation, they rejoice greatly! They are constantly looking for men of women of "good will", as the Bible says, people who can join in the Great Work of the evolution of the universe.

And, because the Fourth Way is so demanding and intense, and can produce results in a much shorter time than any of the religions, Conscious Humanity willingly helps us by giving us the very best circumstances for our development.

They ensure that we will meet exactly those challenges that we need.  And that does not mean we will have an easy time. Far from it!

Depending on our individual situation, we could be placed in financial hardship, causing us to work harder to support ourselves while at the same time keeping in mind our ultimate goal of spiritual growth; or we might find ourselves embroiled in difficult family situations, that encourage us to purify our emotional centre as quickly as possible so that we can externally consider others and see what needs to be done.

It might be that - as has happened to me quite frequently over the course of my 70-something years - we are called to physically move over large distances, so as not to become too dependent on our physical or human environment, and to be willing to leave behind everything familiar in order to follow our higher purpose.

The Work will do this for us, and while we always have a choice in these matters, we will slowly become more able to understand what's best for our development, and hence be able to adapt to many different circumstances - just as Gurdjieff did over his long and eventful lifetime.

Someone living according to an orthodox religious path will be able to see the hand of God at work in their lives, and will see what conduces to leading a good, conscientious life in the midst of challenges.

But the Work is quicker! It speeds things up! And if we can see what each change calls on us to do, how we can best develop in understanding and Being with every new situation, we will find ourselves one day in the best of all possible worlds - for us, that is.

Of course, this life is only one stage in our pilgrimage. Our development continues after physical death, though in exactly what form we cannot know. But we can trust that the unfoldment that has begun here and now will give us the very best circumstances now, and in eternity - and that, in God's wonderful celestial economy, what is good for us is ultimately good for the universe.

The Last Week of the Christmas Season

Yes, this is the last week of the Christmas season. If you've long since taken down your decorations, planted your tree and removed your Christmas cards, don't worry - the Christmas season is a lot more comprehensive than that.

As we've seen in previous posts, Christmas is about receiving Light. And for us in the Work, the birth of the Light means a new birth in Essence.

From the end of October through until February 2nd, the Earth's journey round the Sun exposes it to certain frequencies which are received in greater concentration at this time of the year. They originate from far higher in the Ray of Creation, and it is for this reason that the feast of Christ's birth has long been celebrated on December 25th, following the Shortest Day (the Winter Solstice) on December 21st.

 From the 21st until the 25th, the Sun appears to stand still - the origin of the word "solstice" - and then, from the 25th, begins its apparent movement to lengthen the days once more. The conscious men and women who created the spiritual festivals knew of these special times, and they placed appropriate feasts and fasts to take advantage of them.

By February 2nd, the increase in solar light is obvious. We notice that the days are lengthening once more, and the first flowers of spring, tiny snowdrops and crocuses, begin to appear. At this time, ewes begin to lactate, giving February 2nd its Celtic name of "Imbolc", or incoming milk.

To Christians, it's known as Candlemass, another festival of light, when candles were traditionally taken to church to be blessed for the coming year.

It's more significantly celebrated as the Feast of the Presentation of the Virgin, because forty days after the birth of a child women would go to church (and before that, to the Temple in Jerusalem) to be "purified".

More than this, however, it is the festival when the infant Christ is shown to the elders of the Temple and makes His first public appearance.

The Bible describes this occasion as the day when Simeon, a man who who had long watched for the coming of the Messiah, realized that Jesus (Yeshua, in Hebrew) was the answer to the thousand-year longings of the Jewish people. His famous "Song of Simeon" may be found in the Gospel of Luke, ch.2, vv 29-32.

What does this have to do with the Work?

You will remember that at Christmas, the entire Earth celebrates the birth of the Divine Child. We've prepared for this event by pondering our own death, and the urgent need for us to work on ourselves, during November; by fasting during Advent in expectation of the new birth in Essence to take place on December 25th; by protecting that new life from Second Force both within and without (Herod, in the Bible); and now by getting ready to show this light to the world at the Feast of the Presentation,

In other words, we continue to watch over our inner Divine Child, to ponder over what we have learned during this season, while readying ourselves for the tests we will have to face in life.

We are still in a special season, and the proximity of the Sun to Sirius and to the most sensitive areas of the galaxy will continue to be experienced through this next feast until the great, triumphant celebration of Easter.

We know that during Lent, which this year begins at the end of February, we will face extra tests and challenges, but by now our understanding will, we hope, be strong enough to withstand temptations and trials.

The season of Lent marks the time of concentrated testing for us, which is followed by the intense concentration of Holy Week. We realize that we must place the Work first if it is to survive the season of tests and trials, which are intended to strengthen us to the point where we are able to sacrifice our Imaginary I, the entity that directs our False Personality, on Good Friday.

Easter marks the victory of the Work in us, the rising to life of Real I, which every year is able to increase in power and influence as long as we work on ourselves.

After Easter, the orbits of the Earth around the Sun and of the Sun around Sirius take us to areas of the galaxy where we are faced with a different set of influences, those that favour the putting into practice of all we have gained from our inner journey during the season of relative darkness.

This rhythm of the Christian year, which is not confined to those who observe the Christian religion but is best understood within that context, has been recognized for thousands of years, from long before the actual religion of Christianity was born. We may trace its symbols in the festivals of the ancient Egyptians, the Essenes, the Greek Mysteries, the cult of Mithras, and others. All foreshadowed the ultimate experience of the Life of Christ, the God-Man, on Earth.

It is a guide to the emphases of our Work life as they vary from month to month, and by understanding the influences which act on us at different times we can take advantage of them to strengthen our inner work and our Real I.

The importance and inner meanings of these seasons were always taught by Dr Nicoll, Mrs Pogson, and my own Work teacher, Marion Davison. Each year we contemplated them anew and different tasks were given which corresponded to the phase of the year through which we journeyed. I continued the tradition in my own groups, and in my inner life I find that each year I become more sensitive to these influences, and better able to plan my own personal work to accord with them.

I hope this series of posts will help readers to do the same.

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This is an appropriate time for me to take a break from this blog, because we are about to move house.

Since my husband retired we have been involved in the lengthy process of selling our old house and purchasing our next - and final - home. The house to which we're moving is more than 80 years old and had been badly neglected, so we've been busy restoring, renovating and improving it so that it's ready for us to live in.

We're moving in next week, on Candlemass, and we're calling our house "Little Walsingham" in honour of the Holy Family and the National Shrine of Our Lady, where we've spent many retreats and holidays.

For a while I'll be offline, as we get settled in, but am planning to resume writing in mid-February, so I hope to see you then!

What the Work is Not

It's useful to remind ourselves from time to time of what the Work is not.

Newcomers may confuse the Work with other methods of psychological transformation, and we need to remain clear about what the Work is and what it can do, and how it differs from other paths.

So, a brief rundown and comparison of the Work with a few other methods may be useful. I'm sure many readers will be able to add their own definitions here, and I'm offering this post as a starting-point for your own musings.


The Work is not Counselling

Counselling is a psychological process which helps people to overcome their emotional and mental blocks to living a full life. This is just a very rough definition, of course. Perhaps the client is going through a period of depression, or coping with anxiety, or facing a mid-life crisis. Or perhaps the problem is easier to define, such as a fear of open spaces, or an addiction to a harmful substance or behaviour.

For many people, counselling makes it possible to live happy, fulfilled lives in the world. And this is, after all, what counselling aims to do. It does not promise a cure for all life's problems, but gives the client the skills that are needed to cope with a difficult situation or long-standing unhappiness. Freud himself said that the aim of psychotherapy was to change neurosis into ordinary, human unhappiness! In other words, unhappiness is built into life, and impossible to avoid. Gurdjieff said that life on Earth was a pain factory, and no counsellor can remove all suffering.

We are all broken machines, but some are more broken than others. Some machines develop problems as they face different tasks. For someone in the Work, counselling can be a real help to overcoming acute problems in life, perhaps those that have arisen only recently, or perhaps a long-standing psychological block that has come to light after some time in the Work. For some, the ability to continue in the Work depends on overcoming such a difficulty, and counselling can bring more insight that allows the Work student to carry on with his personal tasks.

If counselling is undertaken, the Work student should go easy on their personal work during this time. With the consent of their teacher, they may decide to stop attending meetings for a while, although it's always important to stay in touch with the teacher so that he or she understands what the student is going through. When the goal of the counselling period has been reached, the student may return to Work meetings and personal observations with new vigour.

A Work teacher may be a counsellor or psychotherapist - as my husband and I are - but they don't offer counselling as such to their Work students. Role confusion and blurred boundaries would result, and this would be unhelpful.  The Work helps what we might call "typically broken machines" to repair themselves with the help of the teacher and - ultimately - with Conscious Humanity. But machines with severe problems need more time and space than can normally be given in the context of meetings and personal interviews, and the teacher may suggest that a student suspend their work and attend some counselling to help them over a difficult hump.

If someone is psychologically damaged to a severe extent, then he or she should not attempt to work on themselves. Such a person would probably not have Magnetic Centre, but it's possible that they may have acquired one, yet be unable to enter the Fourth Way because of their mental problems. Here, a teacher may work together with a therapist to assess the student's mental state and his or her suitability for the Work. It's possible that, after therapy, such a student could go on to study the Work, but it's also possible that the Work could do more harm than good. This is why a new teacher should always consult his or her own Work teacher before admitting newcomers - a psychologically unstable student would harm themselves and the group, and should be refused, painful though this may be.


The Work is not self-help

There are plenty of books on the market that promote self-esteem, self-worth, and so on. Many of them are admirable, but they have little to do with the Work.

The Work teaches us that we can help ourselves only to a very limited extent. That we don't possess the necessary abilities or insights to advance spiritually on our own. That the input of a teacher and a group are important if the student is ever going to be able to "do".

Self-help, on the other hand, says that we all have the ability to transform ourselves and we don't need someone else to show us the way.

In the Work, we see that this is a fallacy. Someone trying to work on their own will reach only the first few notes of the octave and continually fall back. To progress higher we need energy and shocks from outside ourselves; we can't provide these from our own resources.

To make any progress in the Work, our self-esteem will frequently have to take a beating - not in a cruel, judgmental way, but simply through honestly seeing ourselves as we are, and admitting that we are often mistaken and at fault.

If we cannot accept these painful insights, we have no business being in the Work. Self-help works by fostering "good feelings", often in the False Personality, and on calming feelings of uneasiness when we suspect we may not be in the right. In the Work, we must at all costs face ourselves honestly and open ourselves up to the painful, but healing, remorse of conscience that will result.


The Work is not a religion

The inner teachings of many religions may be found in the Work, but the Work is not itself a religion. The religion which is closest to the Work and which contains most correspondences to it is traditional Christianity, either Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox. This was Gurdjieff's own background, and there are many, many similarities with it in the Work. But you don't have to be a practicing Christian to study the Work; many Work students follow other paths, or none.

Nevertheless, the Catholic and Orthodox branches of Christianity are the religions to which the vast majority of Work teachers belong, and Gurdjieff himself never renounced his own faith. We can also find many exercises from Buddhism, Sufism and Essene traditions in the Work; Gurdjieff drew from many sources to create the system he gave us in the Fourth Way. And he never demanded that his followers attend any organized religion whatsoever - they were free to do so, or not, as they wished.

The Work has in common with all religions that it recognizes a Higher Power than ourselves; it does not take Man as the highest evolved form of life, unlike humanism and materialistic philosophies. If you cannot entertain the idea of a Higher Power - if you refuse to believe you need help from a source higher than yourself - then you will not get far in the Work.

In talking of religions, Gurdjieff remarked that for most people it was best to follow the religion in which they were raised as children. In it, he said, the individual's own conscience would be most easily found. And the teachings of the conscience - the Natural Law - are the same for all.


The Work is not a branch of the occult

We've all known people who've come into the Work mistakenly believing it to be an occult training school. They are soon disabused, or else they are made to leave.

Why? Because the occult - although that term has occasionally been wrongly applied to the Work - is a way of thinking which seeks to acquire magical powers for the sake of the student's own gain. It is a "dirty" path, which builds on the seeker's False Personality, and it is very dangerous.

 It's no secret, however, that many saints and pilgrims from different religious traditions have developed the powers of clairvoyance, remote viewing, bilocation, and even miracle working. And it's also true that none of these powers have been sought for their own sake, but are a byproduct of spiritual progress in their tradition.

Christians, Buddhists, Sufis and Jews all warn the seeker against striving for occult powers. If they do emerge - and for most people, they do not - it is because particular "miraculous" abilities were needed for an individual situation, and the person concerned has worked on themselves by purifying their emotional centre. Such a student is free from False Personality, and uses Personality only in the service of Essence. He or she has absolutely no desire to gain any unusual powers, but may discover they can use them in service to others and as representatives of a Higher Power.

If your emotional centre is purified then you are safe to use any such powers that may come to you in a particular situation, especially as a result of prayer. If that centre is not purified, then you may have acquired power by some demonic means. This is a very real danger in the occult. Demons do exist - ask any exorcist! Every Catholic diocese must have at least one exorcist available to deal with such phenomena, because they are quite real and extremely harmful.

 Any path which boasts of training people in such abilities, such as those affiliated with the Golden Dawn, are illegitimate and dangerous. They appeal to people who want short cuts to power, but there is no such thing, and the end result is madness, or chronic ill-health, or extreme distress resulting from obsessing spirits. Demonic possession may also occur, although this is more rare.


The Work is not "mindfulness"

Finally, in this brief survey, the Work is to be distinguished from the popular "mindfulness" movement which so many are following today.

The morning exercise does indeed start with very similar observations and techniques. In its initial stages it has much in common with mindfulness meditation, but it goes much further and deeper. The Work teaches us how to become and remain more conscious in our daily lives. It shows us how to observe ourselves in all our centres, so that our observations are truly useful. And then it shows us how to acquire more energy, and more attention, through receiving shocks.

Some of these shocks may be applied ourselves, but others are best given in groups or by the teacher. We will not, by ourselves, give ourselves exactly the shocks we need! We cannot - we are unaware of what they are, and if we do suspect that difficult shocks may be needed, we shy away from doing so because they are unpleasant, at least to begin with.

Mindfulness training does produce positive neurological changes in the brain, as do many meditation techniques. The whole idea of positive brain changes from deep relaxation and observation began to be popularized in the early 1970s, with Transcendental Meditation, and then with the lay-person's version, the "Relaxation Response" of Herbert Benson. These changes are good for us, it's true, and they are produced even more strongly by the morning exercise we learn in the Work.

But, of course, the Work doesn't stop there. It shows us how we may become more and more conscious, and how that consciousness may be extended for longer periods; how to become balanced; ultimately, how to evolve to a higher level of existence. Mindfulness does not claim to do that. Most people would not wish to do so, nor even suspect the possibility exists.


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 I'm sure you will be able to think of even more examples of what the Work is not, but most importantly, we need to remember that the Work is a truly unique system for psychological transformation.  It is a tremendous gift to all of us who study it, and it is the shortest way to completing this stage of our evolution so that we may be free to live at a higher level. The Way of the Good Householder will one day lead us all there, if that is the way we choose - but the Work is quicker.  And, under the guidance of an authorized teacher, it is also safe. May we all remember the uniqueness of the Work, and value it even more.

Outfoxing Your Inner Herod: A Cautionary Post

We've followed the birth of the holy child and have seen how, immediately afterwards, the notorious Hasnamuss King Herod moved to slaughter the newborn king. To achieve his aim he butchered every young male in Bethlehem. Warned in a dream, Joseph took Mary and their tiny baby, Jesus, to Egypt, where they were sheltered by friends.

Those who took the family in were most likely members of the Essenes or Therapeuts, esoteric groups which traced their descent from a combination of Jewish mystical thought and the ancient religion of Egypt. That religion had many features in common with Christianity,  as Gurdjieff recognized. It existed before the birth of Christ and must have been linked even further back with the Sarmoung Brotherhood, perhaps through descendants of the "Society of Learned Chaldeans" who had made their way from Babylon to On-Heliopolis in Egypt.

We've seen how the story of the nativity may be lived out by each one of us, if we work on ourselves. We also noted, in previous posts, that the period from the end of October (Halloween, Samhain, All Saints and All Souls days), right through until Ascension, is a time when the Earth is exposed to certain energies which emanate from way beyond our Solar system, from much higher in the Ray of Creation, energies which boost and vivify our own personal work on ourselves.

Those energies are at their most concentrated form in the period from Advent to Candlemass.

But with each new birth there comes the danger of persecution by "Herod".

Herod - or Amalek, or the Hasnamuss throughout history - hates Essence. It hates all higher energies, all spiritual progress. Its aim is to drag the student down and destroy her spiritual life. From this hatred comes the ancient story of "selling one's soul to the devil" - and it really does happen.

We can see this in the outside world, which is only too full of destructive, ill-willed, murderous groups of Hasnamusses. At present we see them most clearly in the Middle East; the Amaleks, the Hasnamusses, who hate Jews, Christians and moderate Muslims, and are doing their best to wipe them out. They particularly hate Israel, where all of the region's Jews and many Christians now live, having found refuge there; and also because Israel contains a large and well-functioning Work group linked to the Paris Foundation. Of course, the forces of destruction don't know about the Work, but the spiritual energy of such a group produces a very fine vibration which the Hasnamusses may sense. We must pray for the light of that region to overcome its darkness.

Most of all, we need to remember that we, too, harbour Hasnamuss I's.

These I's cluster around Chief Feature and Imaginary I. Both entities seek the destruction of our Essence, because ultimately, if we succeed in moving to a higher level of Being, both will be eliminated. So they cling on for dear life.

And then there are those pesky little I's in Emotional or Intellectual Centres which sap our energy and deplete our work by causing worry, anxiety, depression, fear or anger. They never really disappear in this lifetime, but can bide their time and lurk until we're less conscious and unable to fight them - and then they can pounce and destroy months of work in an instant.

What should we look out for, then, in this inner struggle? How may we best protect our newly-born inner child from our inner Herod, or from the ill-willed I's in other people?

First, I would suggest, watch your internal and external talking. How do you talk to yourself about the Work? Do you let doubts and anxieties overwhelm you, or do you simply observe them and disidentify from them? Any Work problems should, of course, be discussed fully and honestly with your teacher. We have all gone through periods of testing and even inner persecution from I's which reject the Work, for the reasons I've outlined above. There's no need to suffer alone.

Unfortunately, some students, wanting to avoid exposing their problems to the teacher, discuss them instead only with other students or with people outside the Work. By doing so, they risk losing everything they've worked for.

If you think I'm exaggerating, I'm not. I could tell you many stories from my own experience as a student and a teacher of the Work for the past 45 years. I've seen capable, sincere students talk badly about the Work with their fellow students and with people who aren't in the Work at all, and end up outside the Work and with no guiding light at all.

Sadly, many of those in our lives have nothing in common with us spiritually. And even when they do, even when they too are seekers after truth, they sometimes have their own agenda for disparaging the Work and the teacher. They may envy us our progress; they may wish to dominate us; they may sow seeds of distrust and discord in our relationship with the teacher and the Work.

That's one of the reasons we in the Work must be very careful about whom we choose as close friends, and whom we live with or marry. Jesus warns us about this: he says it may sometimes be necessary to "hate" those close to us, if they threaten our spiritual life. He didn't mean to literally hate, of course, but that we must put firm boundaries in place between ourselves and those who don't share our values. If we don't do this, we risk losing our contact with the Work and with Conscious Humanity.

 Sometimes we find that so-called "friends" are really highly controlling people who want to be the main influence in our lives - and our Work prevents them from achieving that goal. So they attack the Work, or at least, that particular group, that teacher. And they can lead the naive student right away from the Work, for ever. Such people are Hasnamusses, even though they may appear well-meaning.

I saw this process take place with a young Work student in an English group, who'd made a good beginning and was starting to purify his Emotional Centre. I'll call him Jim. Jim reached some real points of understanding in the Work, so much so that his own Work teacher thought Jim might one day go on to become a teacher himself. But Jim was friendly with someone more intellectually trained than he was and who was jealous of the teacher's influence.  This man could quote various scientists and other "experts" to "prove" that Jim's group was on the wrong track, and Jim began to doubt his teacher and his own inner work.

As Jim fell more and more under the influence of his intellectual "friend" he lost the real gains he had made in the Work. He allowed the false friend to come between himself and his teacher, and to prevent him from working on himself.  Jim's "friend" persuaded him that the two of them should start their own group, calling themselves a Work group but spreading non-Work ideas and teachings, even though Jim's teacher, realizing that something was very wrong, had forbidden Jim to teach. Jim went along with his friend's suggestion, deceiving his own teacher and pretending to obey his instructions while secretly defying him.

A colossal psychological and spiritual black hole resulted, a state of entropy in which much valuable work, energy and insight was lost. Such an act is a spiritual crime, a form of corruption that is taken very seriously at the highest level. Jim had stolen precious energy and time from his teacher, and had behaved like a Hasnamuss. Indeed that is what he had become. The result was that Jim had to be expelled from the Work, much to his teacher's sorrow.

This was a particularly sad case.  I knew all the people involved; Jim was a likable young man with many good qualities, who had shown great potential. It is a huge shame that he has lost the Work, at least in this lifetime. If he is to make any progress at all now it will have to be as a Good Householder, and even then only after much repentance and making amends. This way is much, much slower than the Work. And, like the Work, it requires moral clarity and the courage to be honest and obey one's conscience. Since Jim had lost these attributes it would be very difficult, perhaps impossible, to regain them and begin again. He will never be accepted in any authorized Work group.

 If necessary, we must break with false friends who oppose the Work. Though seemingly well intentioned, out of jealousy they will play the role of Herod in our spiritual life and destroy our work.

All of us in the Work should pray to have the strength and wisdom to guard our understanding as a precious child within us, and to protect it from the harmful wishes of Hasnamuss I's. What's more, we should also pray for those like Jim, who've been deceived in this way by Hasnumuss I's in themselves and in others, that they may think again, or repent, as the Gospels put it, before it is too late.

The Gospels warn that anyone who leads astray a little child - in this case, our newly-birthed understanding in Essence - deserves to have a millstone hung around the neck and to be drowned. .

If we expose that inner child to ill-willed people, to those who don't understand the Work and who may be actually antagonistic towards it, then we are in danger of losing it.

Therefore, our particular task at this point in the year is to watch for the inner Hasnamuss I's, the inner Herod, which seek to destroy what we have so recently gained - and which is still so fragile. And we must remain on our guard against outside influences that are hostile to the Work, the Hasnamuss I's in other people which seek to corrupt and suborn us in order to attack that child.

If necessary, take flight into Egypt.  Don't discuss the Work with anyone except those whom you know to support it, and who share your aims. Your teacher is one, of course, and so are those long- time fellow students whose attitudes and efforts are proof of their own good will towards the Work.

Don't run the risk of losing all that you have so painstakingly worked for now.  Nourish your inner holy child with your understanding so that it may grow into maturity, and your Essence may eventually direct your entire life.

It is for this purpose that you were born.

Making Aim for the New Year

Most people make New Year resolutions.

 In the Work, however, making Aim is our particular task for this time of year. Although the New Year is basically a secular holiday centered on a change in the calendar, it's still a significant moment in which to pause to evaluate ourselves, to look at what we'd like to change and what we wish to encourage in our personal work.

The New Year celebration is actually a part of the Christmas season, which extends from the beginning of Advent until February 2nd (Candlemas). Only habit and commercial pressure, which hurries us on from one spending splurge to another, stop us from fully experiencing the richness of this season.

What has this to do with making Aim?

Everything!

For a start, looking at the season in a new way, and appreciating how it extends in time from Advent through to the beginning of February, is a form of metanoia. Dr. Nicoll was clear about the need for metanoia in every area of our life. Society has forgotten the real Christmas season, but in the Work we wish to understand and enhance its unique potential for our personal growth.

With this attitude we can begin to see the entire annual cosmic and spiritual calendar in a different way. We can look back and appreciate how, at the start of Advent, we began to prepare ourselves for the new birth in Essence which would take place on Christmas Night.

Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the following few days are an especially concentrated time for us in our personal work. There's much joy and celebration, but also the danger that the new energies coming to us at this time may prove too much for our limited understanding, and may turn to negativity.

So, to maintain the inflow and to make the greatest use of this potential, we make the effort to stay positive amidst all the various events around Christmas - the present-giving, the family reunions, the parties, the extra food and drink most of us will consume - and to resist the commercial interests that try to push us to burn up all this fine energy in an orgy of shopping.

The new birth must be watched over, safeguarded.

Immediately the Wise Men told King Herod that they had learned of the birth of a new king, Herod plotted to destroy him. To make sure that he would dispose of the tiny rival, he ordered all the young boys in Bethlehem to be slaughtered.

For us, Herod is a symbol of all the Hasnamuss forces, both within and without, that seek the destruction of Essence, of that sacred place within each of us where the new birth takes place.

Today, these forces include not only the commercialization I've already mentioned, but also the many threats to peace that invade our inner and outer worlds. Externally, we've seen so many atrocities this year - including right in the midst of Christmas celebrations - that we almost become resigned to them; we can become wearied of trying to fight what seems to be the inevitable destruction of so many Western values, of our whole way of life.

It is really a cosmic battle of good versus evil that is taking place.

 It is not simply a clash of cultures, of civilizations, or even of religions, as the media present it. It is a basic struggle between the forces of good, led by Conscious Humanity, and the forces of evil, of mechanicalness, of the destruction of all real values. The Will of the Absolute cannot reach so far down the Ray of Creation, and it is our urgent task to fight this battle on the side of Consciousness. If evil - mechanicalness - prevails, only darkness and chaos will result. And in this tremendous battle, God needs our help.

The opposing forces today are exactly the same as those during World War II. Only their names have changed. Their aim is the same; to eliminate everything good, everything holy, all that comes from God.

We know we cannot avoid this struggle, which will become ever more intense at crucial times of the year, when the cosmic energies are available to all, for good or ill. We must do everything we can to combat external evil, by speaking out against terror, by writing to power-possessing beings, by emphasizing peace and goodwill in our own personal circle.

Faced with the huge scale of evil that exists today, the most powerful weapon we have are our prayers, our own personal work on ourselves, and our refusal to imitate our enemies in hating others and wishing to destroy them.

If we all redouble our efforts now to become more conscious, we will increase our own supply of higher hydrogens, and we will produce a surplus to offer to Cosmic Humanity as they guide the future of our planet and of humankind. They need our efforts. The whole Catholic and Orthodox Christian faiths recognize this fact, and urge us to offer up our suffering, to make extra efforts, to increase our prayers and devotions at this time so that good may overcome evil.

The new birth within our Essence, so precious and sacred, must be kept safe from all the external forces that would injure and destroy it.

We must be clever as well as wholehearted in this struggle.

Saint Joseph, in the Gospels, plays the part of the Sly Man. When he learns of the evil intentions of Herod in a premonitory dream, he takes the Divine Child and His Mother, Mary, and escapes with them to Egypt. The location is significant, because many elements of the Christian faith were found in the Essenes and the Therapeuts in Egypt, and in the monotheistic religion of Akhnaten. There were many ready to help the Holy Family in Egypt, and the tiny child was blessed and protected.

As Saint Joseph protected Jesus, so must we protect our own understanding and insights in the Work.

But threats come not only from outside, but from within us, from our Chief Feature, which wishes to destroy all that's good and true in us, in order to reign supreme in its own hellish world.

So, all our negative thoughts, negative emotions, anxieties, worries, deceptions, vanity, and so on will be exacerbated now unless we stay attentive.

Watch and pray; that is what all the Gospels tell us, and it applies especially to critical nodes in the year, of which Christmas is among the most important.

Protect your new birth; carry it into the New Year; and formulate an Aim which will give your Essence the best chance of growth, and of your whole understanding to be increased during the year to come.

The Eternal Truths of the Nativity Scene

Picture the Nativity Scene. You probably don't even have to use your imagination - chances are you have a model crib set up in your house, or Christmas cards with a picture of this timeless tableau. And you know what it looks like by now, after years of celebrating Christmas.

In most churches you will find a model crib, although usually the baby Jesus is not placed in the manger until the night of Christmas Eve. When he is put there, generally by a child from the congregation, the significance of the moment is marked with carols and prayers.

This is the moment which symbolizes the new birth in Essence, which we may all experience.

What do you see?

Inside a stable, we have the central image of the mother and child. The baby, the Holy Infant, lies in a crib lined with straw, and his mother, Mary, bends over him with a loving gaze. In some versions, Mary holds the baby in her arms, so that all may see him and join with her in loving him.

Behind the mother and child stands Joseph, the stepfather of this child who is of divine origin. Joseph is his father on earth, the one who will protect, support and guide him to maturity; he is ever watchful, looking out for danger, permanently on guard.

In front we have the shepherds, humble peasants in their workaday clothes, perhaps carrying a lamb or two as a gift. Their flocks of sheep are sometimes shown in the background, quietly grazing.

The three kings, or wise men, the Magi, are often depicted in this scene, despite the fact that they arrived last of all. It's important that they are present, as we shall see. They, too, bear gifts; the traditional gold, frankincense and myrrh, symbolizing kingship, priesthood and divinity, and the bitterness of suffering and death.

Angels are usually present, too, sometimes shown on the thatched roof of a stable, sometimes in the background, silently offering their homage to the God-Man who comes in the form of a baby.

And many nativity tableaux show the obeisance of the animals, with the ox, ass, sheep and other farmyard creatures sometimes standing, sometimes kneeling, as the traditional story narrates. It's not in the Bible itself, but we all know of the legend of the animals kneeling at midnight to honour the
newborn king.

This scene, then, is the time-hallowed depiction of the timeless story that is so rich in symbolism that it delights our eyes and our heart, whether we are three years old, thirty, or ninety! The more we contemplate it, the more meaning we can find in it. No wonder that it is universally popular and easily recognized even by those who are not Christians.

In the Work, of course, it possesses an even more significant meaning.

First of all, of course, we realize that the baby, who is both God and man, represents for us our deepest self, our Essence, in which we may one day encounter Real I. That I is already present in us, just as the tiny baby is already God and King of the Universe, but we have to mature and grow in the spiritual life in order to be able to find it.

 In the same way, that baby in the manger will have to grow up, to gradually become aware of his mission, and ultimately to experience the greatest possible suffering in order to reign as that divine king which he innately is.

The angels are sometimes called the thoughts of God. Their name literally means "messengers", as you probably know, and their function in the nativity scene is to represent divine inspiration in that part of us which we call the Higher Intellectual Centre. This centre constantly tries to communicate with us, to inspire and guide us, but it is only when we are purified and educated in the spiritual life that we are able to listen to it.

Mary, as I wrote in the previous post, represents here the Higher Emotional Centre. Her role in the scene is to contemplate the majesty and mystery of this holy birth which her assent has made possible, and to portray the positive emotions which we, too, may experience when our emotional centre is purged of negativity.

Joseph begins his role in the gospels as the type of the Good Householder, whose role is to guide and protect the child and to ensure his family are safe. He teaches his divine son a trade, so that he may make a living in this world, but he does not seek a reward in life; he lives from his conscience, and always does the right thing. Gradually, he will come to represent the role of the Deputy Steward, and then, as he grows in understanding, the Steward, who guards the precious Work I's within us.

In the outer circle are the shepherds, representing the ordinary life I's, who do their job diligently. They, too, are Good Householders, because although they fulfil their roles in life they are also aware of higher possibilities. This awareness allows them to respond to the angels' message, so that they find their way to the stable and the child within.

The Three Kings, of course, represent the intellectual centre in us. They have reached the highest level possible for that centre in its life role, but they also have the possibility of receiving communications from the Higher Intellectual Centre. When they do, they understand that their own reasoning, based on human studies, has reached its limits. In worshipping the divine infant they also acquire the possibilities of the Higher Intellectual Centre, so that this role is shared between them and the angels, the evangeloi.

In the background we see the sheep, the I's in emotional centre which must be led and disciplined; and finally, the other animals present represent the instinctive/moving centre I's in us. They, too, have an important role to play, for without them we would not be able to respond to the higher levels. The instinctive centre usually needs no education, unless it has become pathological, and then it may need healing - the divine infant has also come to heal.

 The moving centre, however, must be educated so that it serves the needs of the entire human being, including - if we work on ourselves - our higher centres. They may be disciplined in many ways, of course, but in the Work the most important effort here is that which we make in the morning exercise, when the lesser I's must be still so that we may become conscious.

The Nativity Scene, then, in all its elements, pictures the order in which we, as spiritual pilgrims, ought to live our lives. Everything is directed towards appreciating and nurturing the Real I, through the new birth in Essence which we may all experience at Christmas if we have worked for it.

That I deserves our obeisance and our adoration, because it is the opening to the divine.

Only through Essence, which is that part of us that everything in life encourages us to neglect and overlook, may Real I be reached.

All the other I's within us must serve it; we must undergo a long training so that this right ordering becomes possible.

That is the Work. That is the Nativity Scene.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a new birth in Essence!