THE LIVING WORK

(Essay 13 in the Perennial Psychology Series)

‘The consciousness of the ‘work’ resides within the whole community…a community of people who act as a sort of electrical battery which accumulates and discharges a certain sort of energy essential for human progress. This progress, however, is evolutionary: it leads towards the growth of a higher form of man. All other human enterprises are less important; sometimes these other enterprises (some of which we prize so much, as nations, cultural groupings and so on) have to be attenuated because they are producing a force hostile to real human growth.’

O.M. Burke

‘A number of people working, thinking, feeling and offering themselves together

with each one consciously involving his or her essential being,

are capable of producing a thing of amazing beauty.’

Omar Ali-Shah

The perennial psychology is a living tradition. It lives through people and flows like a thread of energy. It is a living vibration and is connected at all times with Source. What it seeks is to manifest through the lives of people – and for this living energy to be transmitted into the world. People can choose to do a thousand things in their lives, yet if they are not true to their essential self, they will have achieved little. This is what Rumi was speaking about in the opening quote from Essay One in this series. We are all connected with one another and with the world around us; and this is our responsibility. The true inner path also leads through life. The seeker is both the walker and the path. There is no separation, no division or polarity. It is us – the human being - who creates the separation and creates the splintered mind. As within, so without – as without, so within.

            Humanity is shifting into a planetary civilization as modern technologies reach out across the globe. And yet humanity remains fractured as a species. The human being has access to a collective consciousness and yet it is only known of as the collective unconscious.[1] This is not good enough – we can do better. We must do better. Internally, the human being is more connected than any technology could ever achieve. Technology may be a social mark of the epoch and stage of material development, yet the true mark will come from the state of humanity. Each person has their lives, obligations, struggles and setbacks. Yet everything that a person does, matters. Nothing is lost, even though it may seemingly go unnoticed. Everything matters.    

            Every person is here to learn; each in their own ways. To understand this requires humility. It also requires patience. It is not a question of passivity. It is a question of correct participation. As Buckminster Fuller eloquently put it - ‘We’re like bees you see, bees that go out looking for honey without realizing that we’re also performing cross-pollination.’ As people go out about their business, our business is that of cross-pollination. It occurs even if the individual is not aware of it. How much more satisfying to know that a person could be a conscious part of it?

            For the living energy to flow, humankind needs to allow and facilitate this flow. At times, this means getting out the way so as not to become the blockage. Knowing when to step into and when to step aside is also a part of the perennial psychology. It is important to get back to the essentials. If there ever was a time for returning to the essential, that time is definitely now. As a species, humanity has lost touch with the vibrational harmony of its home planet, Earth. There are those who continue to go about their daily lives within the old structures of division, polarity, and separation. These are thought patterns of conflict and conquest. Some people may think that they have conquered the world, but it is not so. A small minority continue to believe that they can win through conquering – but they cannot. It is a dying pattern, and its time has come.

            The living work is an energy and presence of harmony. The perennial path is to be ‘in the world yet not of the world’ and this means harmony and unity. The opposite of this means separation and division. Where there is division there is no connection with the essential. Humanity has entered a period now where it is essential for reconnection. We each have a responsibility to represent a living tradition of conscious beings. It is not time to be fake. The social world has a lot of fakery, and each person must be aware of this and tread carefully.

Things are going to have to change because this is the necessary path of evolution. Evolution for the planet, for human civilization, for communities, and for individuals. Human existence is like that of the famous matryoshka Russian doll, with layers upon layers. Each layer is a physical form in existence, and yet connecting all these various forms together is the energy of consciousness. This is the energy that binds, and which at its fundamental state is pure unity. Everything – life and non-life – is unified. What we call death is not an end point, an abrupt termination. Death is built into the system – it is not a glitch or anomaly. It is a way of transition and continuation. It also teaches that what is more important is how to live. At the middle of the paradox lies a straight line. The living perennial work operates concisely and completely within the midst of life. To live within the midst of life is where the exercise of the perennial path takes place. The Path expects the individual to live everything life brings as though it were an exercise, being fully present.

There is a tale of two seekers-of-truth who meet after many years. The first one had evolved and the other one hadn’t. The latter asks the evolved one what he had done and if he had found a Teacher to help him. The other answered: ‘I lived life as if it was an exercise.’

Great opportunities can be missed because of the smallest of inattentiveness. The exercises to be found amidst life may be missed because a person is sleeping. This is how the majority of life is now. When a person is not aware of presence and the inner state, then they can easily be drawn into conflict and into the mass collective psychosis that generally governs everyday events. The living work of the perennial path is about maintaining the positive at all times. This is because a negative thought interrupts the process of development. Even in adverse situations, the positive aspects must be sought out. The price of individual freedom is constant watchfulness. Being alive is to be alert. This alertness is not time-based - it is presence-based.

A seeker once asked a Sage: ‘How long will it take me to arrive at the point of true understanding?’

The Sage answered: ‘As soon as you get to the stage where you do not ask how long it will take.’

People are interested in many other things – time, attainment, enlightenment, miracles, and the rest - when they would do better to be interested in Truth.

Other people in life will often come and go, as each have their own paths – but the you will always stay. It makes all the difference that you don’t abandon yourself. The living work lives through the human being; just as the varied threads woven together make the complete texture of the carpet. Each individual thread has its own integrity and quality; when placed together in a harmonious relation that integrity is magnified and multiplied. The thread does not lose its own character or personality. On the contrary, it willingly offers itself towards the production of a thing of utility and beauty. Likewise, each individual person too has within them the potential for a quality of being and a noble integrity. When people act together in harmony and cohesion they create an extra factor – an extra form of energy. It is the free choice of each person whether they choose to take on the responsibility of a conscious being working upon a developmental path for the benefit of both themselves and for the wider evolutionary process. This choice should be taken with joy, humility, and responsibility. The path of the Perennial Tradition can be walked with the confidence, quiet enthusiasm, and assurance that the essential being is awakening to a finer perception of higher knowledge, leading to Truth. The opening up of finer perceptions will call down the energy of inspiration as a guide. Within the distortion of the external world, such inspiration can be the sweetest fruit:

A person found themselves hanging off the side of a cliff. They had slipped yet managed to grab hold of a tiny shrub growing on the cliffside. There was no way for them to climb back up the sheer rock cliff face. Below them was a drop of a hundred meters onto the ragged rocks below. It was then they noticed a small bunch of berries growing not far from them. With their one free hand they managed to reach out and take a few berries. The roots of the shrub began to come loose from the rockface. With careful precision they placed these few berries into their mouth. How sweet was their taste!

This series of essays have been written with the intention of revealing some of the aspects of the Perennial Tradition. The perennial path is a long tradition, and it is never ended. It has many forms. Some of them are not known as a developmental path at all, so many people do not recognize it as such. Yet it has always been around. For as long as there are people in the world, so the path will continue to operate, in whatever form. It is a story that has always been recited within the hearts of humanity, and so it will always continue to be told.

Will you - the reader - find the story of the Path within your own hearts, and help the living work?

~ END OF SERIES ~

Taken from ‘THE MODERN SEEKER: A Perennial Psychology for Contemporary Times’ (Beautiful Traitor Books, 2020). Available online as print & ebook.

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[1] As put forth in the research and writings of Carl Gustav Jung.