When I met the Work, or rather, when this Teaching found me, my longing was to contribute to a higher purpose and to lead a life in tune with that purpose. This goal was noble but, with direct experience, it proved difficult to achieve, and in many respects, it proved inapplicable to practical things.
There are preconditions before an ideal can be proposed, spread, understood and actualized. In every age, and in every field, idealists are always great innovators, but being by their very nature timeless precursors they are inconvenient, misunderstood and often persecuted or interned.
Could we be lucky and receive a higher and already tested purpose from someone else? Or could we find it ourselves, and if so, how would we be able to recognize that this purpose is a genuine intuition suggested to us by our Essence?
Essence delights itself in helping you discover your talents, since these awakened faculties naturally tend to serve a higher cause. However, the prospect of serving a noble cause, or believing that you do, can easily strengthen the surface personality, and even more titanize the spiritual ego that will make you believe that you are a chosen one more capable and more worthy than others. The consequences of this misunderstanding become evident as one continues to always seek new stimuli, seek new techniques, to gain more knowledge, or in any case, to never find what one is ultimately seeking.
The world promises fulfillment somewhere in time. Many people say to themselves: “here, I have arrived, I have evolved, I have enlightened” and then realize that in fact, no, they have not arrived, and the effort and search continues. This is expressed precisely in an obstacle course, where the maxim of the hallucinated primate is: “seek but not find”. People count on finding salvation in the future, but the future never arrives.
And ultimately, by not finding, further suffering is generated.
This experience, if grasped in its essence, is the beginning of an Awakening for many, and I am infinitely grateful for having been caught by the world and lost in the world.
On the other hand, the wisdom of the Work invites us to break down our purpose into small, actionable steps, which can be subtly introduced among our many other as yet untransformed and unsublimated impulses.
Before we can consxiously join and work towards a higher purpose, it is necessary to learn to observe ourselves impartially so as to distinguish the tastes and smells of Essence, Physical Body and Personality, as they manifest in our experience and as they really are in the reality of their true nature.
In other words, in the journey towards an inner Purpose, the first step is the development of self-observation. This challenge will determine whether we remain Spiritual Seekers or become Practitioners in the Service of Life.
A person who seeks self-knowledge is called a Seeker.
A Seeker who puts self-knowledge into practice is called a Practitioner.
Most seekers are reluctant to adopt a definite and grounded approach to their search, which means they continue to seek without ever finding.
The few practitioners are called upon in every experience to discern between being Bold and appearing Foolish.
Therefore, while few people never become seekers, even fewer become true practitioners.
The maxim of this brief reflection can be translated as follows:
The Mercury of Excellence, Bold Magician of Folly, is the Spirit of the Grid of Joy… Whoever has an eardrum, let him resound.
