It is said, in our work, that everyone serves someone or something, knowingly or not.
There are extraordinary patterns of behavior arising around us. Governments are exercising growing control over their citizens. Nations are embracing and justifying war. Licentiousness and addiction are rampant. The innocence of children is being sacrificed; they are being publicly sexualized to a degree that would have seemed impossible a few years ago. Religious and family values are waning.
Who do these trends serve? Can they arise with such speed and force without sponsors?
Is there such a thing as objective evil…evil for its own sake?
If you are seriously involved in work on self, these questions are likely to occur to you. I am going to offer you some tentative conclusions after more than 5 decades of observing and contemplating my behavior and the society I am part of.
The Old Testament is a commentary on the battle between good and evil. I am learning to see it as a record of certain knowledge that has been lost. The people of Israel are continually falling away from the laws of Moses to serve other gods who promise them benefits to their liking. Prophets are sent to warn them to forsake these false gods they have chosen to worship
These false gods are not imaginative, metaphorical or conceptual. The graven images that are worshipped are idols said to represent actual gods who demand service. They are non-physical beings about whom the ancients were very knowledgeable. They have names…Baal, he who wishes for power and dominion over others…Ishtar, she the seductress, who fosters wanton licentiousness and addiction…and Moloch, the destroyer who loves blood and death. When humans become incomprehensibly stupid, selfish and barbaric, are they serving them?
It is said, in our work, that everyone serves someone or something, knowingly or not. If you seek power, indulge in pleasure or want the destruction of others, who do you serve?
Those who have undertaken objective work for the world do not dedicate themselves to the ordinary motives of human beings. They become the psychoactive leavening of human society, making it possible for others to function in a more or less sane manner.
There are three unusual qualities of those who truly work.
First, they have a quiet confidence in God. He is for them an intimate Friend. Therefore, they know for whom they labor and it is not for themselves.
Second, they work without the notice of the world. To be celebrated is to be at great risk of dissipation.
Third, they perceive that there are intentional enemies of this work. They knowingly join a battle of good against evil.
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April 28, 2024
Tags: objective evil, objective work, service, work notes
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April 4, 2019
I get the impression that service to the Absolute…what Gurdjieff called world maintenance…is not supposed to be the same thing as service to humanity. I’m uncomfortable with this. I think dedicated service to humanity is the best we can expect from ourselves and is really service to the Absolute.
Let’s begin by asking ‘who do I serve?’ This is not a theoretical question. I cannot serve beyond my understanding. Do I understand what it means to serve humanity? Do I understand what it means to serve the Absolute?
Do I ‘love’ humanity but have very little patience for human beings? Do I really have any connection to humanity unless I know my own humanity…what I share with all others of my species?
These questions point to the absolute importance of first undertaking work on self. I do not know my humanity. I do not know myself. I have all sorts of ideas about humanity and the ideal of serving it, perhaps by working with the poor or the sick. I would like to think I can alleviate their suffering. I would like to think I can change the world.
But I fail to see that I am unreliable, that my motives almost always serve my ego. I fail to see that I must begin at the beginning, by knowing myself impartially, which changes me and my relationships with everything and everyone.
I think it is possible to commit to serving people in our life…not ‘humanity’ but rather actual human beings…and use that commitment as a means for observing self. Take on work for others in order to work on self. Perhaps you think that this is too self-focussed but how can you expect to change the lives of those around you if you do not work to change your own? In this way, service to others supports your work on self.
As for service to the Absolute, this is not for everyone. It is not an aim I can adopt for myself. Do I have a sense of His Existence? Do I feel His Presence calling me to Himself? I think it is not for us to know the meaning and value of our service to the Absolute but, as the Sufis say, He knows best.
As always, the use of traditional pronouns in English does not confer a gender on the Absolute Who is beyond all such distinctions and differences.
Tags: Absolute, humanity, impartial, know myself, observation, relationships, serve humanity, service, work on self
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August 21, 2018
I would like you to consider the underlying assumptions of your life. Where do you turn for meaning, to make sense of your life? Who or what do you rely upon for support?
Do you struggle with these questions? Perhaps you manage to be distracted most of the time by the details of your doings and wantings? But if we are at all alike, I think your life is circling around these questions.
Speaking for myself, I know that I need context. I need my life to relate to a larger context. When I discovered Mr. G and the idea of the work, I thought this would prove to be the context that I needed. This discovery was very important and it has helped me to realize some key insights into myself and the world. However, I found that the work also runs out of meaning if it does not serve. The work itself needs context.
Now, service is a word that is freighted with pre-conceptions. There is service to good causes, service to others, service to humanity. You will need to test them. Can they bear the weight of your life? If not, there is something missing. Can you find out what is missing?
Perhaps you think that it makes no sense to look for something that isn’t there. However, I suggest to you that if you recognize something very important is missing, and allow yourself to feel this, you could enable that precious something to find you, because it is also missing you.
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November 8, 2016
You have said that remembering yourself as a being, rather than as a personality, is the first step towards real service.
Yes, real service must come from who you are, not your conditioning, your ideas or the concepts you have picked up from religion or politics.
Is there a further step?
Yes. A work group is able to invoke special states and qualities which are in some way needed and may not otherwise be available. You could say it is a larger remembering.
Qualities such as love and compassion?
Those are the popular ones. There are others, such as glorification, objective sorrow, loyalty, joy, steadfastness, protectiveness, understanding, truth, retribution. There are also qualities that have no name in English. Each is a manifestation of our origin and a means by which it comes to know itself and its possibilities through us and the world.
A genuine work group is a repository for the possibilities that exist in human beings and humans are an expression of the possibilities that exist in the universe.
I use the word repository intentionally, to indicate that these qualities can find a place in us, probably a temporary one, but they do not come from us and they are not developed by us. Just as we have being, the universe has being. From a certain point of view, there is only one being.
This is not work that can be done by us individually?
Not in my experience, although individual practice also has value. Each of us is too limited. We need more than one. We need to acknowledge otherness to create a large enough space for higher qualities to descend. Matthew 18:20 says: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” The participants cannot be of the same type. There must be a proper place for them to perform their service, a place which has been prepared in advance. Names are also important.
The prophets were invocants and they used their work circles to call down something that was needed. They unfolded our possibilities as beings. In a small way, their work can be continued. They left instructions on how to repeat what they did. They tell us to call upon higher powers in order to establish a communication. It says in the Koran: “Remember Me and I will remember you.”
Religions have work ideas embedded in them but these ideas must be separated from the many foolish notions added by meddling humans.
Tags: being, invocation, qualities, remember, repository, service, states, work group
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November 1, 2016
You have said that the fourth way is not just another system of self-development, that it is a way of preparing for real service. What service? And service to what or whom?
This is an important question but not an easy one to answer. One difficulty is that service cannot be defined as a particular type of action, much as we would like it to be. It would be so much easier if we just had a bunch of rules to follow. Real service is known by its quality.
The usual idea of service is to ‘help other people’. Some might say they want to serve the work, or their religion, or perhaps their favourite deity. To me, these aims are likely to prove very premature. Do you have the integrity to take them on? Do you have the relationship which is implied? It can’t be just an idea, a concept you have adopted for yourself. To be a servant implies intimacy and an understanding of what is required of you. Good servants are not self-appointed, they are chosen on the basis of merit.
Service is not a way to compensate for your own emptiness. Service is to offer what you have.
In my view, the first step taken in real service is that you remember. Remember what? The call is to remember yourself, who you really are, your being and not your personality. Can you learn to be who you were before time began, as the Sufis say?
Your being is a gift; the Universe has granted to you a measure of its qualities. They have become hidden under a basket. Your experience of life, its impact on you, has disguised your inheritance and it must be found again. The first step in service is to uncover and honour your gifts. You must learn to serve your true nature.
The parable of the talents in Matthew 25 makes this point. The one who hides the wealth he has been given and does not use it is exiled. The faithful servant is the one who has recognized and used the talents he has been granted. Rumi says that on Resurrection day, you will be asked: “Be plain and clear. I have given you such gifts. What did you do with them?”
Your service is to be, and to give thanks for who you are. This, to me, is what the universe is asking of you. Having accepted who you are, you have something to give and you have the capacity to serve.
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December 13, 2015
Where does work on self take us? If it’s not about self-development, as you suggest, then what is it for?
This is a most important question. If I can rephrase it a little, I would say that we need to ask: what is our motive to work?
The great majority of humans only make efforts for their own interests, however they define them. They look out for number one, or perhaps their family, maybe their community. Even when they think they serve the interests of others, there is a definite something in it for them. These people are generally not attracted to the fourth way or any other genuine school unless it is presented as a path of self-development, in which case it is not genuine at all.
Those who are attracted to this work have no lack of motivation in the beginning. This work has a kind of romantic appeal; it is challenging, the ideas are unusual, and there is a sense of being involved in something special, quite unlike ordinary life. Many of us initially respond to the work idea that the world has order and meaning and that life on earth may have a purpose. However, these motivations are superficial and unreliable and they usually do not last for more than a year or two.
The romance dies when it becomes clear that this work is about struggle with self. Another motivation may then arise which we might call right action. Doing things in sleep gradually becomes distasteful while the gestures of conscious behaviour provide satisfaction. This does not mean engaging in continuous self-judgment. Rather, it is a quality of discernment that arises after the little voice in the head has stopped pretending to run the show. Discernment is to perceive precisely the quality of things as they are, what Buddhists call prajnaparamitra. It means relinquishing that which is false and loving that which has integrity, for its own sake.
Work on self is a process, not an end. One possible result is that you may prefer being present when presence is called for, and that you have remorse when you miss the mark. This is a hard path to follow and there are many disappointments but the motivation is to respond to life with being.
Being present opens you to influences from outside ordinary life. This is where you may begin to feel an attraction to the Work. What does this mean? To be in contact with the Work is to wish to be counted among those who work for the redemption of the earth, as the ancient Zoroastrians said. A focus on self is inevitably corrupting and it falls far short of the task given uniquely to our species on this planet, to care consciously for the gifts we have been given. This message is clear in many ancient texts including the Old Testament.
This does not mean some sort of super environmentalism that calls for collectivist action or a political response. It is primarily an inner response. If you work for redemption, you will probably not be moved to take sides in the conflicts that arise between humans.
Those who are able to wake up when faced with the needs of the redemptive Work must first see the reality of their sleep, their identifications, their automaticity and their lack of will. As the habits of sleep are seen and relinquished, it becomes possible to act in quite a different way. It becomes possible to serve. This is the aim of work on self.
Real service is not a matter of right intentions. It requires ableness to be. It requires being able to hold to a connection with the heavens while standing against the demands and enticements of the ordinary world. Self-importance is the enemy. Reliability is the aim. If you are reliable, you will be given a post. Can you hold the post you are given, no matter the cost?
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Tags: discernment, motive, prajnaparamitra, reliability, service, work
