Part IVh
Where's the Power?

Have you ever received some form of mail that caused your heart to immediately sink to the bottom of very being? Have you ever had a letter arrive which so unnerved you that you had to wait a few days just to get up the courage to open it? Where is the power that causes us to react in that way? Is it in the letter or in your self?

Looking at this situation from a Work point of view, why would our own Eve sink to the floor at the first sign of an envelope, a bill or package? The Work states that lower selves are cognitive, as such, our Eve will ferret octaves of significance from mere handwriting alone. The letter has no power in and of itself, but the power lies in the triggering of our associations/valuations concerning the topic at hand. Because we already care about a person/situation, the person/situation has the ability to causes us pain on a variety of levels. Therefore, the more we identify with the person/situation at hand, the more we will suffer from the loss or effect of it.

No matter how bad the 'outside world' gets, you, as a sincere student of the Work, have the right to respond differently or to take the impressions/situation as another vehicle for future work on your self. We suffer because we 'don't get' what we experience. We suffer because we do not see the situation in the way it needs to be seen in order to help us spiritually develop further.

Any event can be taken as another chance to work on ourselves. Once we see that we suffer from our selves, we can begin to lay the ax to the foot of the truth of our former ignorance. The only power the outside world has over anyone is the power of valuation. Our problem remains that we have projected much of our power outside of our selves onto other people/other situations. Once we realize that we have projected our power outside of ourselves, we become better able to gather ourselves up once more.

How do you want to spend the rest of your life? Do you want to be right all the time? Do you want to look good to yourself as well as looking good to all others? If so, expect to feel offended, undervalued and insecure forever. Wise Work students work on themselves. Wise Work students attempt to lay the ax to the root of the tree of their own self-importance, allowing them- selves to be lead/taught from within.

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