Work Guide
Week Beginning
03/20/2017
Ponderence
Freedom is the freedom to serve a purpose infinitely greater than anything I can imagine. Freedom is, at the same time, submission.
To Read
Ch. 22 Freedom - Read p.80 only
To Practice
Each day we are confronted with conditions that do not support the outcome that we expected. When you recognize your identification engaging, pause, relax your face and breathing, and say to yourself, “Not my will but Thy Will be done.” See if you can drop your agenda and begin again.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
03/27/2017
Ponderence
Consciousness is contagious. Consciousness calls consciousness.
To Read
Section 5 Where Our Attention Is - pp.15-16
To Practice
In the course of the day, choose an exchange with another person and give them the whole of your
attention (both listening and speaking). See how your presence acts on their presence.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
04/03/2017
Ponderence
Observing “I” is the embryo of Permanent “I,” but it has no real will. Its will is not opposed to self-will.
To Read
Section 11 Conscious Effort - pp.25-27
To Practice
Set an aim to pick one small habit each day and make the effort to oppose it, through intention and struggle. What happens with your attention in these conditions?
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
04/10/2017
Ponderence
The beginning of a real Work in life is the ability to stay with my confusion.
To Read
p.20, bottom of page, beginning with: “I asked G. what a man had to do ...”
to p.22, bottom of the page, ending with: “And this nobody wants to know.”
To Practice
You find yourself in some life overwhelm. Try to stay with the chaos and confusion, NOT to fix it, but just to experience it. Can I remain conscious of my helplessness in that moment and relax into it?
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
04/17/2017
Ponderence
The demand we need to make is that of attention. We need not only to pay attention but also to pay with attention.
To Read
Ch. 12 Attention - pp.49-51
To Practice
Choose a short effort, when driving, biking, walking, etc., to divide your attention and sense your hands. Try only from one intersection to the next one. Hold the following questions. What happens? What affects the attention? What is required to sustain the effort of attention?
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
04/24/2017
Ponderence
Wish can help, is like prayer when for other. When for self, prayer and wish no good; only work good for self. But when wish with heart for other, can help.
To Read
p.300, mid-page, beginning with: “Cannot prayer help a man to live like a Christian?”
to p.302, top of the page, ending with: “You know yourselves that this can give no result whatever.”
To Practice
Each day, pick someone different, who you find difficult or unpleasant to be around or interact with.
In the morning, wish the person well with their journey. Come back to your wish often during the day. Give your wish away!
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
05/01/2017
Ponderence
Mr. Gurdjieff used to say, “Let angels help you. Let devils help you.” And sometimes he would add, “And between the two, may God keep you.”
To Read
p.32, almost mid-page, beginning with: “Fusion, inner unity, is obtained by means of friction...”
to p.33, mid-page, ending with: “...he is a law unto himself.”
To Practice
Each day, break one rule that you usually keep, and keep one rule that you usually break. Try to inhabit the friction.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
05/08/2017
Ponderence
Mind not important. Can be useful, like policeman. Feeling and sensing nearer to Nature. Man must feel, feeling with sensing. From this begins self-remembering, consciousness of self.
To Read
Section 34 Feeling Allows Relation - pp.70-72
To Practice
Each day, try to have a moment where you stop and appreciate the beauty of Great Nature.
Touch a plant or tree, breathe the air, sense your feet on the ground. Feel and sense your experience.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
05/15/2017
Ponderence
Dances are for the mind. They give nothing to the soul – the soul does not need anything. A dance has a certain meaning, every movement has a certain content.
To Read
Section 129 “I Am” in Movement - pp.271-272
To Practice
When the body is at rest (sitting, standing or lying down), just prior to any movement (getting up, walking, etc.), try to be aware of where the movement comes from within you. This exercise, such as when getting up from a meal, a sitting or resuming a momentum that has been paused, should be done intentionally, not passively.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
05/22/2017
Ponderence
The child wants to have, the adult wants to be.
To Read
p.65, top of page, beginning with: “People understand what knowledge means...”
to p.67, top of page, ending with: “...or being outweighed knowledge.”
To Practice
In the course of your day, try intentionally to let someone have their way, especially if some part of you is identified and opposes it. Try to just be with the process, emotionally and physically, and relax into it.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
05/29/2017
Ponderence
Man has no individuality. He has no single, big I. Man is divided into a multiplicity of small I's.
To Read
p.75, top of page, beginning with: “Man is a plural being.”
to p.76, about mid-page, ending with: “...we cannot even do what we decide to do.”
To Practice
In the morning, pick a small task to perform in the evening. Keep it simple
(e.g. water a plant, take out the trash, sweep a floor, etc.). See if, without reminding yourself, you can remember the task. Try something different each day.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
06/05/2017
Ponderence
Without struggle, no progress and no result. Every breaking of habit produces a change in the machine.
To Read
Section 47 The Struggle For Being - pp.97-99
To Practice
When you have a small block of time in the early morning or before bed, find a quiet place to sit and assume the sitting posture. For five minutes, do not move at all (set an alarm so the eyes can stay shut). No matter what - don't move. Make the struggle your god.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
06/12/2017
Ponderence
There comes a point in the Work when it is clear that “I” do not remember myself. “I AM” remembers.
To Read
Section 76 The Resonance of “I AM” - pp.163-165
To Practice
Try this exercise before getting out of bed in the morning or before falling asleep at night. While lying quietly,
breathe in slowly with your attention on your solar plexus, and your wish to be. Experience the feeling of “I”.
When you slowly exhale, move your attention to your spine, while sensing the weight of the body. Experience the sensation of “AM”. Repeat this for three breaths.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
06/19/2017
Ponderence
My being is what I am.
To Read
Section 83 Can Being Change? - pp.179-181
To Practice
Take a familiar object (such as a pen, plant, watch, dish, keys, coins, etc.) and place it on the table before you.
Look at it. What do you see? Now close your eyes for 10 seconds and reject the previous impression. Open your eyes and look again.
Now what do you see? Repeat this several more times, each time rejecting the previous image. Try to see past your associations.
Perhaps the object may begin to become unfamiliar.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
06/26/2017
Ponderence
Freedom is the freedom for “I” to appear. I cannot deny the existence of a world from which I am made, but I can appear in my relationship to this world.
To Read
pp.210-214 - Freedom from Influences
To Practice
Each day, see if you can change one aspect of the mask that makes up who you are. This might include adjusting a dress or
hairstyle, dropping a frequently used word, exercising more patience, speeding up or slowing down, etc.
Try to remain aware of your effort and not whether or not you succeed at it.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
07/03/2017
Ponderence
To speak the truth one must know what the truth is and what a lie is, and first of all in oneself. And this nobody wants to know.
To Read
Section 26 Not Knowing - pp.56-58
To Practice
You have just made some statement or expressed a particular point of view. Ask yourself the question,
“Does this really represent the whole of who I am, or just some part of my subjectivity?” Try to work on this exercise each day.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
07/10/2017
Ponderence
I ask you to believe nothing that you cannot verify for yourself.
To Read
One-sided Development - pp.82-83
To Practice
Each day, pick some piece of advice or a certainty expressed to another, and ask yourself the question,
“Have I verified this data, or is this just an expression of some hearsay that I have accepted blindly?”
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
07/17/2017
Ponderence
Mr. G. constantly reminded his pupils: “You must feel, you must feel, your mind is a luxury. You must suffer remorse in your feelings.”
To Read
Section 124 Remorse of Conscience - pp.259-260
To Practice
You have failed at something or made a mistake. Try to observe the inner talk attempting to self calm or justify. Instead try to feel your position and limitations. Remember that you are under many mechanical laws and try not to let this deteriorate into guilt.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
07/24/2017
Ponderence
We can remember ourselves only if we have in us the energy for self-remembering.
To Read
p.188, top of page to p.189, bottom of page
To Practice
Self-remembering begins with self-sensing. It must be done through the instinctive-moving center and the emotional center.
Each day, try to come to an awareness of both your body and feelings. When you appear (wake up), try to be aware of yourself engaged in your experience.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
07/31/2017
Ponderence
What is a real question? What do I really want to know and what is just on the surface, a way of starting a conversation, which never penetrates to the place where real changes can take place?
To Read
Ch. 9 Questions - pp.39-41
To Practice
Each day, see if you can be aware of yourself asking a question. What part is asking and why? See if you can find even one question that has issued from the core of your being. If you do, stop the exercise and focus on this question.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
08/07/2017
Ponderence
The devil is a fearsome character, but without him you couldn't work. Mr. Gurdjieff used to say, “Oh, la, la! Fine gentleman. Always eager to please, obliging... doesn't miss a trick. Not a single one! He's on top of everything. Really everything! Nothing, absolutely nothing escapes him.”
To Read
Section 8 The Watchman - pp.20-21
To Practice
During the week, try to be aware of, and listen to, the voices within, as they justify behaviors that do not serve your work aim. Can I see what is it in me that is open to and willingly embraces this seduction?
Does it produce a struggle when I become aware of it?
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
08/14/2017
Ponderence
The only difference between sleep, with its various degrees, and the ordinary waking state is that the mental apparatus, that is, the mechanical part of the intellectual function, which reacts and associates automatically, is reconnected.
To Read
p.143, mid-page, beginning with: “Both states of consciousness...”
to p.145, mid-page, ending at the break space with: “...man number one, two and three.”
To Practice
The best time to observe the transition from sleep to the waking state is when you first get up in the morning. Watch as your inner talk
reassembles your picture of yourself and structures your day. Even if you can catch a glimpse of this process, it may help you to “wake up” from your waking state.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
08/21/2017
Ponderence
What is effort? If the sense of the ordinary “I” disappears, that is effort.
To Read
p.59, at the break, beginning with: “Very often, almost at every talk...”
to p.60, about two thirds down the page, ending with: “...promissory notes of small accidental I's.”
To Practice
Try to make an effort at impartial witnessing of your parts. Remember to separate self from self first, so that the effort comes from something deeper. What happens to the “I” that is being witnessed?
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
08/28/2017
Ponderence
To avoid becoming theoretical, try always to have some connection with your body, with the source of your energy. We are called to make efforts with all of us, with all three forces.
To Read
Section 30 Obeying the Attraction of the Earth - pp.64-65
To Practice
When engaged in some physical activity (walking, driving your car, working at home, etc.), try to be aware of the sensation of the body.
If you lose the thread of attention, stop, come back to the awareness of the sensation of your hands and try again.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
09/04/2017
Ponderence
Gurdjieff never failed to make it clear that the possession of one's own will is the mark of a real man.
To Read
pp.254 to 255, top of the page, ending with: “...cannot be bought in a shop.”
To Practice
Remember that the body of “will” appears when all three centers are aligned. Try to make the effort, when faced with an important decision, to pause and try to cognize, feel and sense what your choice means. Then act intentionally.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
09/11/2017
Ponderence
Time is breath – try to understand this. The sleep and waking of living beings and plants, that is, twenty-four hours or a day and night, constitute the “breath of organic life.”
To Read
Section 70 I Live in My Breathing - pp.148-149
To Practice
Each day, take a few minutes to sit quietly and gently place attention on your breath. Without interfering, try to be aware of how the lungs invite the air in naturally,
air rich in cosmic substances. As the body releases the air, try to sense these cosmic substances continuing to penetrate within you, while remembering why you work.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
09/18/2017
Ponderence
Consciousness of movement requires total attention. The quality of this attention calls us to experience a whole presence. This perfect attention is a possibility given by Nature.
To Read
Section 57 A Double Aim - pp.120-122
To Practice
Keep this exercise short and simple. Pick a small task each day (e.g. washing a dish, putting on a shoe, brushing your teeth,
walking across a room, etc.) and try to relax and open your attention to the process from all three centers. Just try to be aware. This is not a thinking or doing exercise.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
09/25/2017
Ponderence
In order to approach the Fourth Way seriously, we must be disillusioned, first with ourselves – that is, with our abilities – and secondly with all the old ways.
To Read
p.242, mid-page, beginning with: “How can we recognize people...”
to p.244, three quarters down the page at the break, ending with: “...necessary for the question to be an aching one.”
To Practice
This week, come back each day to the question, “Why do I work?”. Write down your reasons as they come up and include how they have changed over the time you have been involved in the Work.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
10/02/2017
Ponderence
The courage is about being able to see, having an empty mind, having a relaxed body and still manifesting as if you were, so to speak, in business.
To Read
Ch. 3 Work on Yourself - pp.15-17
To Practice
During your day on the job, prepare for any short exchange (i.e. a talk with a client or boss, lunch with a co-worker, a necessary dialogue with a difficult person, etc.) and intentionally choose a role to play with this person.
While in character, keep your body relaxed and your inner attitude neutral. Keep it short and if you lose your attention, try again.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
10/09/2017
Ponderence
So in the meantime, exist as you exist. Only do not forget one thing, namely, at your age it is indispensably necessary that every day, at sunrise, while watching the reflection of its splendor, you bring about a contact between your consciousness and the various unconscious parts of your general presence. Try to make this state last and to convince the unconscious parts – as if they were conscious, that if they hinder your general functioning, they, in the period of your responsible age, not only cannot fulfill the good that befits them, but your general presence of which they are part, will not be able to be a good servant of our COMMON ENDLESS CREATOR and by that will not even be worthy to pay for your arising and existence.
All and Everything – G.I. Gurdjieff
To Read
Ch. 23 The Sitting - pp.84-90
To Practice
Each day do a sitting of at least 10 minutes and up to 40 minutes. Try to apply Gurdjieff’ admonition in the above ponderance.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
10/16/2017
Ponderence
“...not one of you has noticed that you do not remember yourselves. You do not feel yourselves; you are not conscious of yourselves. With you, “it observes” just as “it speaks,” “it thinks,” “it laughs.” You do not feel: I observe, I notice, I see. Everything still “is noticed,” “is seen.” In order really to observe oneself one must first of all remember oneself.
To Read
p.231, mid-page, beginning with: “For primary exercises in self-remembering...”
to p.235, end of essay: “Now I am sitting here...”
To Practice
In the above reading, Gurdjieff gives a series of practical exercises for self-remembering. Each day, try to apply and practice some or all of the indications that he has given concerning the exercise “I wish to remember myself.”
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
10/23/2017
Ponderence
Conscious faith is freedom. Emotional faith is slavery. Mechanical faith is foolishness.
To Read
Section 123 Faith - pp.257-259
To Practice
Pick one belief that exists within you. Hold it in question. Is this a belief I’ve accepted as it has been suggested to me? Have I held to this belief because others do?
Do I see the big picture of the belief and have I verified its quality? Come back to these questions throughout your week.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
10/30/2017
Ponderence
In the sphere of the emotions it is very useful to try to struggle with the habit of giving immediate expression to all one’s unpleasant emotions.
To Read
Ch. 18 Negativity - pp.66-69
To Practice
We all have habitual forms of expressing specific negative emotions. It may be some reaction of illwill, impatience, anger, depression, self-pity, intolerance, etc. For one week try to struggle with your “chief”
form of negativity, while applying your practice of self-observation and self-study. As much as possible try not to express the negativity.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
11/06/2017
Ponderence
There are two lines along which man’s development proceeds, the line of knowledge and the line of being. In right evolution the line of knowledge and the line of being develop simultaneously, parallel to, and helping one another.
To Read
Section 139 Living Two Lives - pp.289-290
To Practice
Let this be a week for “otherwises.” Try each day to do something differently. Work with small things, such as brushing your teeth with the opposite hand, trying a different sitting posture, not interrupting others who are speaking,
driving in the slow lane, etc. Try to maintain a relationship between the outer effort and the inner intention.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
11/13/2017
Ponderence
One of the chief factors consuming energy is our unnecessary movements in everyday life.
To Read
Ch. 2 Energy - pp.10-14
To Practice
Slow down! By reducing your pace even just a little bit, you’ll begin to be more aware of your movements.
This can help eliminate unnecessary movements and tension. Remember that it is necessary to conserve energy in our experiences to prolong life.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
11/20/2017
Ponderence
Man lives in life under the law of accident and under two kinds of influences again governed by accident. The first are influences created in life or by life itself. The second are influences created outside this life, influences of the inner circle or esoteric influences – created under different laws, although also on the earth.
To Read
The Two Rivers - pp.236-242
To Practice
During the course of your day, at various times, an attention appears that recognizes the identification of the part at that moment. Instead of having this attention swept into
some “doing” to fix the identification, try to remain conscious of your mechanicality and “be” with it.
Sustain this effort of attention for as long as you can, and try to Self Remember that the part is not your real “I”.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
11/27/2017
Ponderence
... during these therapeutic activities of mine, ordinary three-brained beings there belonging to all castes... began to manifest toward me their most sincere, almost genuine being-impulse of “Oskolnikoo,” or as they themselves say “thankfulness” and “gratitude.””
To Read
Section 125 The Extraordinary Impression of Existing - pp.261-262
To Practice
What am I grateful for? Do I value my experiences, my relationships, even my existence?
During the week, try to remember something or someone from your past that you are thankful for. Try to feel a good wish for that memory.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
12/04/2017
Ponderence
If you help others, you will be helped, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps in 100 years, but you will be helped. Nature must pay off the debt... it is a mathematical law and all life is mathematics.
To Read
Ch. 5 Help, Wish and Prayer - pp.22-27
To Practice
This week, try to occasionally put your own agendas aside and help serve the needs of another. Try to draw on the good will of the season as you interact with others.
If you see that you can help serve a situation, then be proactive and quietly just attend to the need.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
12/11/2017
Ponderence
Identifying is the chief obstacle to self-remembering. In order to learn not to identify man must first of all not be identified with himself, must not call himself “I” always and on all occasions. He must remember that there are two in him, that there is himself, that is “I” in him, and another with whom he must struggle and whom he must conquer.
To Read
Ch. 8 Self-remembering - pp.34-38
To Practice
Gurdjieff gave an exercise in one of the Paris meetings, which consisted of five minutes of work in the morning and five minutes in the evening.
Try to do this when there are not a lot of external influences pulling on you. The exercise consists of expanding your self-awareness out of the localization of the head and dropping it down into the chest and lower body.
Try to connect with the whole of yourself, i.e. this is myself, in this moment, “I.” Try not to think this exercise, but to sense and feel your own presence.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
12/18/2017
Ponderence
Conscious Love wishes that the loved object should arrive at its own native perfection, regardless of the consequences to the lover. The paradox: it always evokes the same love in the beloved.
To Read
Section 36 Love of Being - pp.74-75
To Practice
This exercise can be worked with plants, animals or people, but will probably be more manageable with a plant or animal. Contemplate its needs.
Hold a good wish. Speak to it. Try to express good will towards it. Remember that all forms of life are expressions of the One Source.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
12/25/2017
Ponderence
The fundamental striving of every man should be to create for himself an inner freedom towards life and to prepare for himself a happy old age.
To Read
pp.206-209 - The First Liberation
To Practice
This is a contemplation exercise. Pick some identification (small) that your parts take personally. Hold the question, “Is this really important?” Over the week, come back to the question again and again. Try to be impartial and watch to see if something within can let go and accept the condition.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
01/01/2018
Ponderence
The starting points of [this] self-observation are:
| 1) We are not one. |
| 2) We do not control our own mechanism. |
| 3) We do not remember ourselves. |
Only when I am conscious that “I” am reading them that is self-remembering.
To Read
Section 10 Self-Observation - pp.23-25
To Practice
Try to replace the constant use of the word “I” with “some part of myself” or “part of me.” When you are caught up in some identification and the “fixing feature” engages, can you relax and accept the slavery of that moment. Try to sense and feel that it is “yourself” that experiences the limitations of the parts’ identification.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
01/08/2018
Ponderence
Being continually aware of our nothingness and our helplessness will eventually give us the courage to “die,” not only mentally but in fact, by renouncing forever those aspects of ourselves that are either obstacles or unnecessary for our inner growth.
To Practice
Almost always, the personality, when confronted with the need to struggle with letting something go, will refer to its list of habits that it considers necessary to fix. Instead, pick some small identification that you are somewhat indifferent to (e.g. a brand name of a product, a figure of speech, a trivial but often repeated white lie, a snack food; something that will have a number of options to replace it with), and drop it. See if you can make it clear to your inner world that this is permanent. Remember, we are identified with virtually all external influences, so keep it small!
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
01/15/2018
Ponderence
Now we are speaking about love for life. Wherever there is life (plants, animals) there is love. Each life is a representation of God. Whoever can see the representative will see Him who is represented. Every life is sensitive to love... Whoever does not love life does not love God.
To Read
Section 35 I Feel “I AM” - pp.72-73
To Practice
At the end of the above reading, Gurdjieff gives the exercise “I AM” to work on the feelings. Take the time at least once a day to try this
exercise and see if you can make contact with your being functions (feeling/sensing). See if you can find an
appreciation and gratitude for your own life.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
01/22/2018
Ponderence
Every ceremony, if it continues to be practiced without change, has value. Ritual is like ancient dances which were guide books where truth was written down. But to understand one must have a key. A ceremony is a book in which much is written. Anyone who understands can read it. In one ceremony more is contained than a hundred books. Usually everything changes, but customs and ceremonies can remain unchanged.
To Read
p.302, top of page, beginning with: “Generally speaking we know very little...”
to p.303, about one third down the page, ending at the break with: “...meaning has been forgotten long ago.”
To Practice
Lord Pentland used to ask John Fuchs, “Do you have any rituals in your life?” John shared this in several work
groups over the years and put the question to the group in the same way.
“Do I have any rituals in my life?” Ponder this carefully (e.g., prayer, sitting, movements, making the bed in the morning, etc.),
and if you have no rituals, can you begin one? Keep it simple and consistent.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
01/29/2018
Ponderence
When the personality is made to suffer, it produces a “ferment”; one must not avoid this suffering, because this “ferment,” this “spark,” this “fire” feeds essence. What is not good for personality is good for essence.
To Read
Essence and Personality - pp.143-147
To Practice
Remember that effort influenced by necessity or desire is no effort. To remember oneself is effort,
because no external shock can force us. Effort is for the sake of consciousness. To struggle with our habits gives only a taste of effort.
Self-remembering helps to balance centers, changes chemical processes and improves nutrition. Personality wants and essence wishes.
See if you can try to connect with your essence wish to remember yourself.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
02/05/2018
Ponderence
Sacrifice is necessary. If nothing is sacrificed nothing is obtained. And it is necessary to sacrifice something precious at the moment, to sacrifice for a long time and to sacrifice a great deal. But still, not forever... when crystallization is achieved, renunciations, privations, and sacrifices are no longer necessary. Then a man may have everything he wants.
To Read
Ch. 4 Payment and Sacrifice - pp.19-21
To Practice
On February 14, Ash Wednesday, the Christian fast of Lent begins. Gurdjieff advised in Tales, not consuming meat, fish or
dairy during this period to help prevent respiratory infections. Although this is a demanding sacrifice (vegan for 47 days),
and not for everyone, still it can be useful during a time when so many people around the world are sacrificing, to renounce something.
Pick a sacrifice for yourself (keep it manageable) and try to hold to it until Easter. Also, keep it to yourself, between you and the Higher, until after the fast is over.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
02/12/2018
Ponderence
The simplest, most accessible sensation, for the beginning can be got through uncomfortable postures... I have for the present undertaken the task to bear it... These sensations which my body is now experiencing, and every similar sensation, I wish them to remind me.
To Read
Section 101 A Conscious Posture - pp.213-215
To Practice
During your sitting try to keep the body immobile. Regardless of the little aches, itches, pains, etc.,
make it your aim to keep the body still. This can be a very difficult effort and also a very powerful reminder.
Self-remembering begins with self-sensing.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
02/19/2018
Ponderence
There are two methods of self-observation: analysis, or attempts at analysis, that is, attempts to find the answers to the questions: upon what does a certain thing depend, and why does it happen; and the second method is registering, simply “recording” in one’s mind what is observed at the moment.
To Read
p.105, almost top of the page, beginning with: “The principle “know thyself” embraces...”
to p.106, about one third down the page, ending with: “...is entirely useless and leads nowhere.”
To Practice
Do we know how to distinguish a thought, feeling, and sensation from one another? Each day try to register only what is clearly a thought,
emotion or sensation (for additional clarification on the differences, continue the above reading to the end of p.108). If you are not clear about the function,
disregard it, and try again. Keep only the impressions that register thought, feeling or sensation clearly.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
02/26/2018
Ponderence
Day dreaming is absolutely the opposite of “useful” mental activity. “Useful” in this case means activity directed towards a definite aim and undertaken for the sake of obtaining a definite result. Daydreaming does not pursue any aim, does not strive after any result. The motive for daydreaming always lies in the emotional or in the moving center.
To Read
Ch. 20 Thoughts are Not Thinking - pp.74-76
To Practice
In the above reading, John provides an exercise to help concentrate the thinking attention. It is indicated in the
footnote on page 74. In addition to this exercise, you can also do a counting in two directions exercise.
Start with the numbers 1 and 100, then 2 and 99, then 3 and 98, and so on, until completing the sequence.
If you catch your mind daydreaming, try either of these two exercises.
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
03/05/2018
Ponderence
Sex is the principle motive force of all mechanicalness. All sleep, all hypnosis, depends upon it.
To Read
p.257, close to top of the page, beginning with: “Speaking in general, there are only two correct...” to end of p.259
To Practice
Observe how you watch and interact with other people. Can you recognize where the wrong work of the sex center expresses itself through the other centers?
|
Work Guide
Week Beginning
03/12/2018
Ponderence
A man who wants to awake must look for other people who also want to awake and work together with them... other members of the group serve him as mirrors in which he sees himself... the exchange of observation is one of the purposes.
To Read
Section 53 A Special Condition for Exchange - pp.113-114
To Practice
Remember that your questions and observations are the heart of your work. Try to be prepared for group or
individual exchange. Make the effort to be more active, especially if your tendency is to be passive and just listen to others.
You never know what help you may give to another by speaking up.
|