I have been on the path most of my life and the deepest influence has been The Work, as taught by Gurdjieff and others of that persuasion. The Work is, essentially, the Tao. That is, we have no free will, but we think we do. Thus we spend our lives in a fruitless search for wholeness and ease. That search only ends in us continuing to let the opposites rule our lives.

The Tao is not just an eastern teaching; it is what Jesus taught his disciples. The Bible is not just a Christian thing; it teaches the destiny of mankind if it does not rise above the opposites of good and evil.

Adam and Eve were tossed out of the Garden and then they began their human lives outside of it. On earth, we think in opposites, not conscious enough to rise above them.

I look at my life and see how conflicted I have been. I try to do good but I do bad. “The good that I would, I do not,” as one of the disciples said. So the Work is about waking up to the fact that we must see ourselves clearly so that we can transcend our personalities.

Today the world is at the edge of extinction, which is totally caused by mankind and its disregard for life. It is not enough to believe in a religion that can save us; that is exoteric thinking. No, we must see the turmoil in which we live and spend our lives wanting to transcend the opposites.

And so I see myself as honestly as I can. My life turns on the opposites, as does yours. It is like a merry-go-round of them and it is only the rare man or woman that can rise above the opposites. Then they can see clearly the “peril of the situation,” as Gurdjieff put it. We are not angels or devils; we are the Self in all beings.

Let us cherish this seed of being that was implanted in us at our birth. We may not succeed in total transcendence, but it is a holy way to live. In rare moments we see the Way and allow it to happen, rather than force ourselves to choose one opposite or the other. This allows grace to flow, if even for a moment.

Vicki Woodyard