Do You Need Outside Help?

According to my Teacher, “The principal reason man does not awaken is that he does not realize he needs outside help. P.D. Ouspensky, one of the Teachers who is responsible for bringing the Fourth Way tradition into modern times, once said, “Schools are for people who know they need them.” Schools are not for everybody and are often hard to find.

I have found that the guidance and encouragement of a conscious Teacher was paramount to my inner development. I could not do this Work alone. The Teacher is the vital force, the conduit of conscious influence. Most influences in our lives revolve around career, money, family, and other external factors, and from the standpoint of awakening, are superficial or at least tangential to higher aims. In contrast to these external forces, a Teacher in a School serves to wake up its participants to new insights and deeper understandings—higher levels of consciousness or Presence.

We have outside help, and when we are present, we have inside help. – The Teacher

The assistance of others who are on the Way is also vital to personal growth. Without others who share my goals and are reorienting their lives toward awakening, I would be unable to progress. This is because I cannot be around the Teacher all the time. I benefit from fellow students in the Work who have made the same mistakes, explored self-remembering, and shared personal observations along the Way. These are my various tangible outside sources of help; there are also Higher Forces at work in my life, too, but those take more time and experience to verify for many people.

If you should arrive at the Mystic Truth, it will be a result of divine assistance. – Ibn Abbad of Ronda

Influences that focus on inner work and the pursuit of true wisdom are the purview of Schools. A conscious School provides practical access to esoteric knowledge that has been passed down from one generation to the next under the direction of a Master.

A little bell may be ringing in you as you read this, because something in you may recognize, without even knowing it, that Schools are special places and offer unique opportunities. You may also be skeptical, which is understandable because it is a fantastic idea. From one perspective, the history of Man is the history of conscious schools, for the evidence suggests that they date back through ancient times and even into prehistoric times and have been major forces directly or indirectly in human undertakings. On the scale of a human, Schools are a vehicle for personal self-discovery and deep learning. On the scale of humankind, Schools play many significant roles throughout history, as reflected in the development of religions, art, culture, and wisdom.

We are touched by these influences whether we realize it or not. Passing the threshold of joining a School brings a new or greater clarity of Schools and outside help. It is like moving from the theoretical to the practical. It is fine to be a skeptic, but use your critical thinking skills to think, to feel what your inner needs really are. When I made the decision to join the school, it was after two years of mulling over my Life. I knew I needed outside help; it just took a few years to settle the many ‘I’s enough to reorient my priorities. I have no regrets many years later.

Stranger, if you passing meet me and desire to speak to me, why should you not speak to me?

And why should I not speak to you? – Walt Whitman

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Whitman with Butterfly, Phillips & Taylor, Philadelphia (1881)