Establish Your Self: Be

Establish Your Self: Be

Work words or Work ‘I’s are succinct, one-syllable instructions to prompt my Self to live in the moment. They serve to remind me to accept whatever “falls into my bowl” with fuller consciousness of the most mundane experience to the most exciting and everything in between that happens in my life.

The thirty great work ‘I’s are different ways to close down the lower self and open up the Higher Self. — The Teacher

My teacher has given us a list of Work ‘I’s, thirty of them to be exact, to help invoke awareness and presence. The first two in the sequence of Work ‘I’s are Be and Hold. These two words remind me of two phrases from the Nag Hammadi texts: “Establish your Self [Be Present]. Abide in Endurance [Hold – Prolong presence].”

If you ask what the Word of the Presence is, we will reply, the word “Be.” — Ibn Arabi

Until the Teacher pointed out the word “Behold,” I had not looked at those two words as separate instructions or a kind of meditation or intonement. In some spiritual traditions, the word behold expresses a holy meaning, a kind of divine seeing. If I were to use this word in my everyday life and say to someone, “Behold, the flowering lotus,” it would sound strange and antiquated. But to be in the moment and to hold a higher state with longer duration derives from that ethereal word.

Just say “Be” and behold, it is. — Muhammad

I tried the exercise that was posted on Sunday morning to use the Work ‘I’ taste, a prompt to help me eat and drink with presence. This morning, sitting outside with my coffee, what I noticed was that my moving center was so quick to take the coffee cup and drink that I missed being present to the taste. What I had to do was to first have a Work ‘I’ that made me aware of my moving center reaching for the cup so that I had a chance to bring presence to the taste of the coffee. Numerous times I caught myself setting the cup down without any memory of truly tasting it.

Keep the prayer while you eat your food. — Philokalia

It appears that I needed the first two Work ‘I’s: Be and Hold to engage my awareness prior to the effort to taste. I needed more preparation, a gathering of more intentionality and awareness first to the movement of my hand reaching for the cup, and secondly to the act of tasting.

“To be the words” means for the work ‘I’s to act and engage the state they are pointing to. — The Teacher

Soon thereafter, I noticed how quickly a successful, brief moment of taste occurred, but then the lower self would quickly fall into imagination again. Another Work ‘I’ helped me to follow the initial effort to taste. It is simply the word “back,“ which exposes the lower self and can push the obstacles of imagination and identification away. So, I added on the Work ‘I’ Back.

Mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence. — The Book of Psalms

Continuing the exercise, now when I reached for the cup of coffee, I started with Be, followed by Hold, Taste, and then when imagination entered, I invoked the Work ‘I’ Back. Once I re-established Taste, I came back to BE. This is how our Teacher has taught us to use the tool of Work ‘I’s.

Enchanted one: how shall the harmony of two perfect words attain that rhyme which ripples through you like a spell? —Rainer Maria Rilke

I look at this process of returning to the present through Work ‘I’s as creating my own light. Reaching from below to a higher influence above me. I have also experienced magical gifts of light - higher states - that come inexplicably from above down to me. The Teacher refers to these moments of higher states as uncreated light. It is a light that needed no preparation, no effort or agency on my part to receive.

There is a time to try to avoid all ‘I’s, even Work ‘I’s. In proper order, words teach one to be silent. — The Teacher

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Buddha holding a bowl