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There are many hurdles to be avoided in making Work aims. For most, their first hurdle is their last. You would be surprised at how many people simply do not have a start button. Just the effort to go against oneself, by not doing what we have always done, weeds out 99.99% of all Work candidates who are working only in imagination.
©Sojourner Pass Press 2002
Most students enter The Work indicated as perversion. Perversion is a state of mechanical existence consisting of little more than total self-indulgence coupled with a compulsive capacity towards rationalizing one's behavior, a "life as license" attitude. The next hurdle, to ‘cull out the weak’, remains a hurdle of qualities of return for efforts. As the fledgling students begin to go against themselves, they inevitably reach the famous pair of opposites, known as the sea of sensation, often reduced down into the opposites of pleasure/pain. Only the most ardent student of The Work manages to rise above the obsession to feel good; only to next enter into the ‘desert of activity’ of the path. Actually, every sincere student of The Work will encounter a period of time in which none of their Work efforts brings any positive results. You end up experiencing a period of time when your sense of self is of a student applying efforts upon more efforts with no hope for receiving any form of reward. Only a student, who can continue to work with no hope for reward, can ever make it to the door of Pure Aim at the core of oneself. · Work efforts are efforts to go against oneself. Work efforts are about not doing what you have always done. Work efforts are based upon the Laws of Sacrifice. "Sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice until you get what you want." Work efforts are the Sly Man’s pill Right effort · At the· Right time ·
For the· George Gurdjieff In an ideal world, Work efforts deflate one’s ego, while building up essence. Work efforts led from self will into Real Will through the agency of intentional efforts. As John Bennett summarized: "We transform unconscious suffering into conscious suffering through [various forms] of intentional suffering" Before initiating any Work efforts, the wise newcomer to the Fourth Way needs to read, as well as to digest, the contents of these following Fourth Way books, some of which may be out of print. By The Way Books, located at PO Box 19338, Sacramento, CA 95819-3\0338 USA (website is www.bythewaybooks.com) should be able to assist/direct you. As A Man Thinketh by James Allen Psychological Commentaries on Teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky by Maurice Nicoll; Vol. I-V The Master Game by Robert de Rope
In Search of The Miraculous by Peter Ouspensky |
