Fresh Efforts

Fresh Efforts

If you asked me to choose the most important effort in the Work, I would have to say it is self-remembering. The effort to remember myself is always a priority, and under most circumstances, I need to initiate it. It requires effort, a fresh effort to start it.

Resolve to be always beginning—to be a beginner! ─ Rainer Maria Rilke

The idea of beginning, making a new beginning, making things afresh, connects to self-remembering because such efforts are recurring. We go to sleep so often, I must value being a beginner. When I remember myself, I am re-membering myself. I am remaking myself. I rebuild, and therefore I am. To remake myself, I must make efforts. It is not automatic.

In a way, self-remembering is returning to my original state, my Ur-state. P.D. Ouspensky implies in his teachings that my rightful place or state is the third state of consciousness, which is the same thing as self-remembering. We can summon up presence if we make the effort to do so. It is where I belong. My true home. Just wishing for it is not enough, however. The Work is about disciplined efforts.

All philosophy lies in two words: sustain and abstain. ─ Epictetus

In addition to efforts to remember myself, there are also areas of work in which I must control my lower self, and there are other areas of work in which I evoke or elicit the higher parts of my being. My Work is composed of these back-and-forth or teeter-totter efforts, one set reducing mechanicality and another enhancing consciousness, like self-remembering. From this oscillation, you can see the value in starting anew, starting afresh, beginning again. I am remaking myself all the time. The Third State really is an elixir, the magic potion from fairytales.

One good thing about self-remembering is that you can always start fresh right away. ─ The Teacher

When distracted, I lose myself and succumb to the many ‘I’s, illusions, internal lies, or ego, and it is my personal alarm clocks or “shocks” that help bring me back. When I return to the moment, then I am thrust into another opportunity to do the Work, to make a new set of efforts. The effort to awaken is a rigorous effort of renewal. I am in the self-renewal business. What do I do for a living? I return to where I have gotten off track. The path to awakening is always available if I can return to it. And once back on track, the trick becomes making efforts to sustain it.

Whenever you return to self-remembering, you see that the ‘I’s you were listening to are worthless. ─ The Teacher

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Flora, Fresco Villa of Ariadne, Stabiae near Pompei (c. 15-45 AD)