In doing our work it is important that we do not develop some kind of religion or belief system. We want to be free from all conceptual boxes. Ultimately, the point is not to become a Buddhist, a Christian, or a Jew but to be a true human being, to realize the truth, whatever the truth is. When we start on the path, we do not know what we will realize. Our work emphasizes love of the truth, wherever that may lead. I do not say we are trying to find enlightenment, or God, or a true self. These terms are sometimes useful to illustrate certain points, but the love of the truth is what fuels the work. If there is God, you will find out; if there is enlightenment, you will find out; if there is a true self, you will find out. The way to actualize the truth is to love it, which then becomes a process of learning and education. You discover then what you take yourself to be and why. You take yourself to be who you think you are because of the truth that you have forgotten. Your emotions, feelings, beliefs, patterns, and conflicts determine your experience and perception. You need to delve deeply into them and investigate them in order to discover what objectively exists. You can’t see the truth objectively as long as your mind is influenced by these things that have become part of the unconscious of your personality. Your fear, anger, hurt, hatred, vulnerability, and doubt all need to surface. 

We have seen that the ego defines reality according to the physical part of the Universal Mind. That’s basically what the personal mind is all about. You see yourself and your life and what it means from that perspective. So clearly, the Work is a matter of re-educating the personal mind, disposing of the deluded education from your childhood, and bringing in an education that comes from the Universal Mind. Let the Universal Mind start educating you about how things are. However, because the ego uses concepts ultimately to define everything, it will hold on to any concept to maintain its existence. It will even hold on to universal concepts to make itself exist. It can take experiences of Essence, and say, “Oh, I am Essence.” It is conceptualizing and reifying, and saying, “I am Essence, I am Essence.” It is defining itself as Essence instead of experiencing itself as Essence. So you have a memory of an essential experience, and you say, “That’s me.” But it’s a self-image, as opaque as any other self-image. Although the experience comes from the Universal Mind, the personal mind can use it to continue defining itself. This is why we need to go beyond the Universal Mind to the nonconceptual reality where there is nothing for the ego to use to define itself—there is nothing there to define. So in the Work we need to go from a personal mind to the Universal Mind, which means to go from the realm of the personality to the realm of Essence and its dimensions. 

The more we reinforce this passivity by relying on deadened concepts, the more our minds resist re-examining what we know. As we force our experience into rigid molds, our inner world can become smaller and more limited, rather than enriched by our daily experiences. Confined to concepts that limit our expressions of feeling and insight, we can only duplicate the patterns we have learned, like our parents, grandparents, and their parents before them. All the knowledge we gain from our formal education and from our experience may only be an increasingly complex association of concepts that have little meaning to a human life. Such concepts are too frozen, too particularized, too distant from the realm of living things to express our deeper levels of experience. The more fixed and rigid a concept is, the farther away it is from the living experience. Rigid concepts limit our inner experience, make our inner world smaller and smaller. They make our world in general smaller and more restricted. We are controlled by prejudices that we feel we need to uphold and fight for. Until we question, analyze, and reassess the concepts we use to express ourselves, we are restricted to only one set of interpretations for our experiences. Whether they accord with the reality of what is happening or bring us unnecessary pain, we leave ourselves no choice but to live in this limited realm. 

The education most of us get about knowledge is not complete. There are some basic forms of knowledge that we never get or even hear about, so we don’t think about whether they exist or are valuable. If we never question, how are we going to find out what is good for us? Our work can be seen as a kind of education, or a re-examination of our knowledge, or of what we believe to be our knowledge. We usually value knowledge to a certain extent, but we fail to value it in a complete way. We know that we need knowledge, for instance, to be a doctor. But after you are a doctor, what is beyond that? Is there some other kind of knowledge that will make you a more fulfilled doctor? Now we have seen three points. The first point is that we usually attempt to go after what we believe to be good. Second, what we believe to be good depends upon our knowledge of what we think is good. And third, our education doesn’t give us a complete perspective on the value of knowledge: we are taught to restrict it to certain areas and to limit its value. So you see, it is not a luxury to be a philosopher. A philosopher is someone who is interested in knowledge; and to be interested in knowledge is basic to happiness. If you are only an engineer, and not a philosopher as well, you will probably not be happy. You will be unhappy because many of the assumptions you are living by are not true. 

To love the truth is an attitude toward finding out, toward investigation. The heart is involved in the process of learning. The heart loves the learning process. So some of the things you learn are difficult and some of them are enjoyable. But to love the truth means that you don’t care whether what you are going to see is painful or pleasurable, for these are not the truth you love. What you love is the actual process of education, the actual process of inquiry and discovery. When we stay the course of loving the truth for its own sake, we find out at some point that there is an element of truth that manifests each time we discover a particular truth. This element of truth is not the particular event, but a certain state or quality of consciousness that arises as we discover the truth. When we investigate that consciousness, we discover that it is the essential aspect of truth, which is not a particular truth but the fact of truth, now experienced as a presence of true nature. In other words, to love truth is to love our true nature, for our true nature is the element that makes it possible for us to discern truth. To put it differently, the attitude of loving the truth, of finding out the truth, turns out to be loving the essential truth. We do not know that for a long time, not until we discover our essential nature and recognize it as truth that is not an event or a statement. 

Although the disconnection that we sense is not ultimately real, we experience it as real psychologically because reality is such that our beliefs determine our experience. If we believe that we are independent entities, we will experience ourselves as independent entities, and hence, as disconnected. So the return home to our Source is a matter of education; it is a matter of seeing through certain beliefs. But in letting them go, you are letting go of the very fabric of who you believe you are, so the process is very difficult, very subtle, and very radical. We can fight or complain or kick and scream in protest about our predicament, but all of these are simply the expressions of the belief in a separate identity and do nothing to change the situation. Even if we have an experience of grace or blessing, it is temporary and does not dissolve the belief that you are someone who is disconnected, because you are busy defending the belief that you are someone who is separate. Since God is merciful, He lets you believe whatever you want to believe—He’s not going to take away from you something you cherish. So as you can see, it is quite a dilemma. We have to turn ourselves inside out, in a sense, so that we can see reality in a way that is completely different from the way we usually see it. It is not as easy as changing the lens through which you are looking at reality; it’s more like you have to completely strip yourself of everything you are wearing, which means stripping yourself of your very sense of yourself. So how do we do that? 

Clearly, knowledge requires awareness; without awareness you can’t know yourself. You don’t know you are sad unless you are aware of the sensations in your body. Many people are sad and don’t realize it because most of the time they aren’t aware of their bodies. They are thinking, so there’s a whirlwind or storm going through their minds trying to figure out or apply what they know. When there is more awareness in the body, the capacity to know feelings increases. Knowledge requires awareness more than anything else, but it also requires discrimination, strength, patience, courage, kindness, gentleness with oneself, perseverance, and humor. Our technical knowledge here encourages these innate qualities. In a sense you could say that what we do here is to supplement the education that we get elsewhere. We start with exercises, to foster our awareness, and then our awareness leads to knowledge. Our work can be seen as freeing our capacity to know. When we become more open and curious about knowledge, we come upon even more basic knowledge. Our experience of our essential nature becomes a kind of knowledge that is more intimate and precise than we have been used to. This opens us up to realms of knowledge we had not imagined existed. Here, experience and knowledge become inseparable; experience is knowledge. The greater knowledge that becomes available through the experience of Essence can develop and deepen to the extent of recognizing that we are knowledge. Our bodies and minds are knowledge. Even our environment turns out to be knowledge. 

The knowledge of the soul does not mean only experience of the various states and conditions and transformations of the soul, which is the personal consciousness. It also includes the various capacities and functions. To know the capacities and functions of the soul means to know how to operate as human beings should or can operate. The knowledge of the soul includes knowing how to live correctly. The soul evolves through some kind of education. Frequently, while some parts of the soul develop, others remain untouched. Often the development of the soul is not balanced, is askew in various ways. So we tend to go around in circles instead of going straight because of this imbalance in development. But with the development of balance, we learn to move forward, toward greater evolution and expansion. We can develop the capacities of the soul by understanding that the various techniques of religion, spirituality, and science are based on certain functions and capacities that the human consciousness possesses. For instance, the technique of meditation is based on certain human capacities. The technique of prayer is based on certain capacities of the soul. The technique of scientific research is based on certain capacities. Although we usually don’t investigate or discriminate among those capacities, it does not mean that they don’t exist. If we are to realize the various aspects of the Essence realm or the God realm, we need to exercise and develop certain capacities of the soul. It’s not just a matter of being a good person. That’s what I mean when I say this path of inner work is a science. The various realms of knowledge work according to actual laws that we can discern. 

So the work we do here has to do with the activation, development, and evolution of the soul, so that it in turn can actualize the various realms of knowledge. The various spiritual techniques we employ are not oriented only toward the experience of Essence or God. Most spiritual techniques are primarily oriented toward a certain education that corresponds with the development of the organ of evolution. That education is a matter of learning how to approach experience. So the spiritual education, which is a central part of our work, is not a matter only of having experience, but also of learning how to relate to and understand the experience. How we approach our experience is what will bring resolution, what will bring actual fulfillment, what will bring the awakening, what will bring the reduction of suffering. The generation of new experiences, no matter how sublime, will not by itself resolve anything. What matters is the attitude with which we approach our experience. 

Gurdjieff called the real part of us, the part that can experience “I am,” our essence. He defined essence as the part of us we are born with and that is not a product of our upbringing or education. So in the experience of presence, what is present is essence, our true nature, which is independent of conditioning. Presence and essence are the same. We have discussed presence to give a taste of what essence is. As we see, essence is the part of us that is the experience of “I am.” Essence is the direct experience of existence. Of course, essence can be experienced as other things, such as love, truth, peace, and the like. But the sense of existence is its most basic characteristic. It is the clearest, most definitive aspect that sets it apart from other categories of experience. Essence is, and that is what is most basic to its experience. This experience of “I am,” of direct apprehension of existence, is not a mental or emotional experience and cannot be understood from the perspective of the usual categories of experience. The mind can think about existence, but it cannot reach it. We have seen this in discussing presence. The answer to the question: “What is essence?” is “what is in us that can experience ‘I am.’” Essence is the only thing in us that is directly aware of its own existence. Awareness of its existence is an intrinsic quality of essence. 

People usually come to the Work feeling that they have a lot of gaps and holes it will help them fill. While the Work will not fill these gaps, it can show you that you’re trying to work on something that is not you and thinking it is, that if you see rightly, you will see that you don’t have gaps, you don’t have holes. It’s not necessarily an easy process. The mind and personality have accumulated many inaccurate beliefs, preconceptions and presuppositions. You could say that the Work is a process of education or re-education, though not in the traditional sense, since it is a shedding, rather than an accumulation. You are learning to be simple, and that simplicity is the completeness. A person who is not self-realized is a complex person. The person who knows him or herself truly is very simple; there’s nothing there to understand and no complications. It’s not as if they’re so simple that it’s easy to understand. They’re so simple that there’s nothing to understand. You just are, and that’s it. 

So the various essential aspects are not there simply to amuse and nourish us, but to teach us how to relate to them so that they will have an impact on us. If in our meditation we experience wonderful love and melting, but then go about being aggressive or attacking other people, then what’s the point of having the experience at all? As long as our experience does not actually impact us, does not actually change how we live our life, we are still at the lollipop level of spiritual practice. We want the lollipop; when we get the lollipop, we’re happy for a while and we stop fussing. But eventually we start wanting another lollipop and forget the one we just had. Some spiritual traditions call this the honeymoon stage. But if we want our experience to impact our life, it will have to become something more than a lollipop. Experience will have to be approached as nourishment that will lead to actual growth, actual development, actual evolution. What we need is an education about how to be a human being. We might not have any idea what it means to be a human being. Being human does not simply mean being human in isolation from Essence, in isolation from God or Truth. Being human also means knowing how we are related to other realms. So we need the knowledge of the soul, of Essence, and of objective reality to learn how to be a human being. But what is needed more than anything else is an education that will transform our approach to experience in general. Whether we’re experiencing other people, or daily life, whether we’re experiencing emotions, essential states, or realizations, we need to approach our experiences in a mature way. 

We need refinement, education, and development in our capacity to approach experience. How do we relate to any experience, any dimension, any realm with more balance and maturity? To approach any experience openly, whether it is a difficult emotional state or an essential or divine state, we need to approach it with more and more purity. What does that mean? It means that whatever the experience is, our attitude has to be pure. A pure attitude includes the virtues of serenity, humility, truthfulness, equanimity, detachment, courage, sobriety, innocence, and real action. If we approach our experience with the passions of anger or pride, with deception or envy, with avarice or fear, with gluttony or lust or laziness, the experience will do more harm than good, regardless of how essential or boundless the experience may be. Whether we are experiencing hatred, love, the Absolute, pure awareness, emptiness, or God, we need to approach the experience with a more and more pure attitude. We need to approach the experience with the virtues instead of with the passions. The more the passions determine your attitude toward the experience, the less useful the experience will be for you, for the community, for the truth. The knowledge of essence is needed to bring about the purification of the soul. How will the soul know it is lying if it doesn’t know truth? How will it know what courage is if it doesn’t know strength? So, in some sense, essence teaches the soul by providing experiences of how to be a real human being. The knowledge of essence exposes the impurities and teaches us the way out, or the way of purification. These experiences are teaching elements, not just lollipops. We need to absorb essential experiences so that we will grow from them and not use them to temporarily fill our stomach. The growth of the soul has to do with its refinement and purification.

The soul can develop before enlightenment, by actualizing many of her potentials, as we see in the actualization of creative and intellectual potentials. Spiritual realization is not the only development, and does not imply or guarantee other kinds of development. Realized individuals, as a result, can be developed in various ways and on many levels in relation to the various human potentials. However, the soul’s freedom and the fulfillment of her deepest longings depend on the realization of her essential potential. Only with the actualization of essence can the soul be free, completely authentic and totally serene. Essence is her true nature, without which she is estranged, lost, inauthentic, empty, and twisted. Regardless how much of her potential she actualizes, regardless how much a genius she becomes, artistically or scientifically, if she does not realize her essential nature her experience continues to be characterized by emptiness and strife, on the same level as most human beings. This is why the wisdom traditions think of their work as the most significant for humanity, as transcending any artistic, scientific, cultural, or intellectual kind of education and development. The essence of the soul stands apart from the rest of all of her potential, for it is the only possibility she has for finding true liberation and fulfillment. This is independent of history, culture, civilization, progress, and so on. Humanity can advance technologically, intellectually, artistically, and in many other ways. Such advancement can contribute a great deal to improve the lot of humanity in general, but the need for and value of the spiritual journey will perennially remain.