The Aide-de-Camp Against Sleep

The Aide-de-Camp Against Sleep

In contrast to many random things in life, the development of the Steward—that part of us guiding and promoting consciousness—is not accidental. We don’t choose our name, parents, place of birth, where we are educated as children, and many other things. We can, however, choose a path to consciousness over other distractions and life pursuits. If a student of the Fourth Way finds a Teacher, places self-work first in their life and maintains sincere and disciplined efforts to remember themselves “always and everywhere,” in time they develop a new part of their inner world. This new part makes it possible to more consistently break identifications and resist the expression of negative emotions, as well as to replace imagination with Presence.

The Steward serves as a guide or guidepost for all sustained and subsequent work on oneself. Many traditions, religious and esoteric, speak about this inner guiding force that leads us to make efforts and align our lives in a way that is compatible with awakening. Marcus Aurelius, the stoic Roman Emperor, referred to it as the ruling faculty. Others call it an angel on your shoulder or the little voice. Although unclear in its usage, the Soul in some traditions can refer to the Steward or the Higher Self; alas, the name or tagline is far less important than the outcome.

Call it what you will, the Steward is a collection of Work attitudes, personal verifications, and practical tools for overcoming the natural mechanics and shortfalls of human psychology and sleep. It is indispensable. There are very few things we can change in life and very few things that can directly change us in a deep, spiritual way. The creation or development of the Steward is one such thing because its purpose and mass reinforce its purpose and mass. It is in our control and not nearly as vulnerable to the vagaries of life and random pulls we all deal with, like endlessly staring at our cell phones and other bad habits.

The Steward for people working on themselves is the aide-de-camp and trusted servant of Divine Presence. The Teacher cautions us, however, that it has a limited role for a definite time and place and that it is not the end state. Put another way, the Steward is not a self-help, feel-good instrument because our aim is higher than our biological needs. In the Fourth Way, the aim is not to become better. The aim is to become. The Steward helps bring us to Higher Centers and is not the objective, any more than a degree is to a medical doctor who wants to heal people. The doctor delivers healing medicine, not their degree, and the Steward sets the stage for Higher Centers but is not higher consciousness. The Steward is vital but not Presence itself.

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Ming Warrior, Chinese ceramic figure (1626 AD) [Note the inverted head of a beast, the lower self, on the belly of the praying warrior.]