Being the Words Takes Effort

Being the Words Takes Effort

Knowing something and being able to do that something is often two things. In the Work, a very curious observation comes very quickly to many: knowing one’s mechanical tendencies and weaknesses, but lacking the ability, or being, to change them. Our level of knowledge and being is thus often out of sync, and not in harmony or not balanced.

You may have noticed that we posted an exercise this week with a very simple request. Yet you might have taken the simple request as if it were something you could do without even trying it. That’s how I, in my head, often react to a “simple” request.

Intentionally opening and walking through the door with Presence. “Hmm, I can do that.”

Intentionally opening and closing cupboards or drawers with Presence. “Hmm, I can do that.”

In a very short time, one will see that it is not so easy to do the simplest exercise, being intentional and present. How many countless doors did you go through without being present? It’s a mismatch with being, but don’t be discouraged.

Take another task in the Work. The non-expression of negative emotions – something in your head might say, “I can do that, too. I can control my temper when I want to.” When one tries to avoid the non-expression of negative emotions, one will likely find that only after you’ve expressed negativity do you realize it happened. Too late. Start again.

The explanation for this is knowing how one’s machine works and behaves doesn’t mean one has the being to control it. We acquire being through practice, self-study, and hard work. Perseverance in self-work is as important as wanting to do it in the first place. This is how we bridge our knowledge and are being. This is how we create being, and our Teacher, tells us, that to really increase being one has to work beyond one’s level of being. In popular vernacular, you might call it a stretch goal. Doing the Work is the biggest of stretch goals.

Knowledge is relatively easy to acquire. We then need to apply what we know—what we’ve studied and what we’ve observed—and attempt to be more than we are. There are no shortcuts, however, when it comes to developing being. One can only develop being through one’s effort. You cannot read being in a book, you cannot borrow being from someone else, and you cannot make it out of thin air.

From the start of the Work, you are pressed to remember yourself always and everywhere and to not express negative emotions. A sincere effort to do these challenging things creates new being. This is the start of a long fruitful journey of matching one’s knowledge with one’s being. With enough valuation and restarts, you can become the words. You can be.

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Moses tells the giant how to curb an appetite, Islamic Miniature, Morgan Library