commentary by maurice nicoll...
Amwell, 28.5.49
THE WORK-CONCEPTION OF MAN
AS A SELF-DEVELOPING ORGANISM
The Work teaches that Man is an unfinished house. The Work also teaches that Man is a self-developing organism. If a man develops himself aright, he completes the unfinished house of himself. Let us continue with the imagery of the house in the Work. First of all, the Work compares Man with a house of many rooms and three storeys. About this the Work says that Man lives in the basement of his house as a rule. This is comparable with a similar idea in the Work that Man lives in sex, movement, eating and drinking. Let us again find a similitude concerning the symbol "House". The Work says that a man has his house in disorder. It compares Man with a house in which there is no Master and only one telephone which all the servants use in the name of the Master. In this connection it says that Observing I must establish itself and collect round it all those 'I's that wish to work. This stage is called Deputy-Steward. At the same time, the Work teaches a great deal about practical work on oneself in regard to separating from negative emotion, and to non-identifying and Self- Remembering.
The whole conception of Esotericism, its whole meaning, is concerning this development of a New Man in oneself. This experiment has been going on as far back as known history. You must remember that known history goes back only a few thousand years and is incommensurable with unknown history. Yet in known history we meet with traces of Esotericism which is always speaking about one thing, the creation of a New Man. If we go back beyond known history, we find the existence of complete mythologies, rituals, ceremonies, which all contain the same idea.
Now I want to ask you all: what do you think this development that Esotericism is always talking about means ? I will answer you. It means overcoming the violent man, the man of violence in you. One might call this, in terms of another modern teaching, overcoming the prehistoric man who is covered in an animal skin. As you must all know by now, negative emotions can easily lead to violence, so you will understand that this creation of another person in himself, which
is possible from the definition of Man as a self-developing organism, has a great deal to do with separating oneself from all the infinite forms of negative emotion which will eventually always lead down to violence. If we could really overcome violence in all its manifestations, which means at the same time overcoming all forms of negative emotion, out
of this violent man covered with skins and bearing a club there will arise a different person who can ascend towards the Conscious Circle of Humanity. But if anyone says: "What are we working for? What is the idea of the Work?" we can say that the supreme idea of the Work and of all esoteric teaching in the past has been this new Being that can arise out of our old being, our former being. To me it seems interesting to feel that one is connected with this supreme idea of the evolution of Man by conscious development. It gives an entirely new meaning to one's existence, yet at the same time I have said nothing new to you, because the teaching about Man being an incomplete house and yet at the same time being a self-developing organism gives
you this idea that I am making a little more plain to your consciousness. None of you need be lost in life None of you need be overshadowed by life if you hold this central idea in your mind, remember it and continue to work on yourself.
Now on one occasion I said to Mr. Ouspensky: "Why were we not created perfect—just like that?" He said to me earnestly that that was not the idea, the plan, of the Universe. To be created perfect would mean that we had no work to do on ourselves at all. To be created as a self-developing organism is a quite different matter. When we understand the Universe as an experiment in self-development, the conception of the Universe changes into something adventurous. He said to me: "If you were given full consciousness, then you would know everything. But we have to struggle for it. There is no mechanical evolution: there is only conscious evolution," and he indicated that you could not increase consciousness by any mechanical means. "You have", he said, "to become more conscious of yourself, to develop an increasing consciousness of yourself. Mechanical evolution no doubt exists, over long periods of time, but this does not concern us. But a man can evolve through certain kinds of efforts and if he makes these efforts sincerely through his own understanding, his level of being will change."
Now this vision of life has great force behind it. People, as you know, all tend to complain about their lives. They all think that external circumstances should be much better, and so on. But the Work does not teach this. It says that the circumstances in which you were born are the best for you to work upon. The particular form of Second Force—i.e. force of resistance—to your wishes, is appropriate to you, and if you will work on it, once you have received some understanding of the Work, it will give you some results. It is no good your saying: "If only I had been born in better circumstances, with more money." Everyone, whether rich or poor, is placed where he or she should be able to begin to develop themselves. So many people say: "If I had only met this Work earlier." They are quite wrong. If you receive this Work into your hands and especially into your hearts, then you will find that the circumstances in which you were born are the very things that give you force if you work upon them and against them. As you know, the Work says we have to work against life. Perhaps some of you have seen what this means and others perhaps still identify with life and life-circumstances, and therefore do not see what is meant here. So many people say: "If only." But what is the use of saying: "If only", once you begin to understand that you were born a self-developing organism and that you cannot develop except by conscious efforts against your life-circumstances?
And let me remind you again what is the whole idea. The whole idea of the Work and the whole idea of esoteric teaching as far back as
known history goes, is about your being a self-developing organism and consciously working against the circumstances of your life so that
nothing can drag you into negative emotions.
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