I recall, it was common for Dr. Welch to open meetings with the question, "Why don't we work?" Or, conversely, "Why
do we work?"
What is the point of inner work, anyway? We say we seek the Self; but this cannot be a selfish work.
Why bother to have an attention? Why bother to seek what Gurdjieff called "real I?"
The work is really designed to express what is in the heart. This is the point of all esoteric work; we have a spark of divine presence within us, and it is in the heart. It is at the center of our Being. This center of Being, if it develops fully and opens, is at the center of our body, the exact center, inside the spine. There is a flower here that can open and bridge the divide between the higher and the lower, between the levels.
But the whole point of life is to express the qualities of Divinity; to express Truth, and to express Wisdom, not our own truth and our own wisdom, but that Truth and Wisdom which is unmediated and flows eternally from its origins within Divine Love. Each human being is supposed to take on their responsibility to open themselves and express one small portion of this eternal Truth and Wisdom; but we forget. If we want to remember ourselves, the only reason we should do so is to express this quality which flows from God into life. Why else should we remember ourselves? It cannot be selfish. It is done for the Lord.
The ordinary self, which receives such short shrift in our evaluation of life — after all, we see it as inferior, something to be discarded or abandoned in the search for the higher — is actually essential to this process. For how else can the Divine be expressed if the ordinary self does not exist as a servant for it? This is the whole point of understanding life and understanding service. Life exists so that we can express these qualities of Love. That's what the ordinary self is for. We can judge the quality of our work by how often this expression of love takes place, and how organic it is in us.
Do you perhaps see how mechanical and unintelligent our relationship to Love is? Think about this carefully and sense it. Love is not a thought or an ordinary emotion; it is an organic sensation that involves all three centers, when the body, the mind, and the feelings open to the inflow of a Divine presence. When this takes place, the first quality that is expressed within the ordinary self is humility; automatically arising from it, naturally, as though it were the next note in the octave (and it is) is compassion. If conscious labor is present, then, it acquires the power of expression in right action towards others. And perhaps, if humility, compassion, and right action combine, a kernel of Being is born.
So the ordinary self is an absolutely essential part of us, the part that is meant to do the outer portion of the inner work that God has given us. This is a work of Love, not the disastrous interactions we have constructed between one another as individuals and in societies. All of the hope of mankind lies within this action... yet it doesn't take place.
We cannot afford to begin to think of our inner work as anything other than this kind of work; a work of the heart, and a work that is both immediately and ultimately aimed at Love within relationship during ordinary life.
If you have an interest in the stop exercise, forget about stopping this or that in the middle of walking around, or what have you. Stop within life, in each moment, and try to see yourself and ask yourself if the action that you are taking conforms to your responsibility to express Love actively as a servant of the higher.
That is why we work.
May your soul be filled with light.