Work I’s Carved from Stone
- smcculley
- Jan 26, 2024
- 3 min read
Work I’s Carved from Stone
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been.”
─ The Book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon
From observing myself over several years, there has gathered a useful, coherent group of I’s that reliably can move and direct my internal focus toward remembering myself while participating in the ordinary events that constitute the fabric of my life. This group of Work I’s did not develop out of a desire to change – although, initially I may have thought change as my objective – but these “worker bees” emerged from a yearning to BE and to discover a higher purpose in my life. I am confident that my life is filled with the same joys and tribulations that King Solomon listed 3000 years ago in Ecclesiastes, “and there is no new thing under the sun.” Nevertheless, there must be something important to fulfil in the expanse of a lifetime since the universe deems it necessary for all of us to repeat this process just as the sun rises and sets, the seasons come and go, and we are born and die. No doubt the same sentiment is expressed in the title of P.D. Ouspensky’s book, “In Search of the Miraculous.”
The miraculous search is to reach toward an internal higher consciousness and to be able to live from this place – to put our identity in higher centers, while we work, plant, heal, play, build, die, cook, write, etc. Work I’s are above the things under the sun and – like the stone statues at Easter Island – I envision my Work I’s standing erect and strong, more permanent figures carved out from the deep realization of sleep and that the only real time I have to live and be present is in the eternal now. The Steward keeps watch over the “island,” ready to invoke a Work I appropriate for the time, season and circumstances that happen on a moment-to-moment basis.
With awareness and self-remembering, I can recognize a time to be silent when negativity swells up in conflicts, a time to speak encouragement to myself and others when feeling discouraged, a time to summon confidence when doubt enters my awareness, and a time to unburden myself of material things when I witness identification with external belongings. To assess with presence each moment instructs me into “right action” by weighing it against what will transcend my habitual response into something more conscious. Like the Moai, these moments become imbued with supernatural powers keeping watch over the island.
“Establish yourself … Abide and remain in endurance.”─ The Nag Hammadi Texts
Please enjoy these four short minutes of a fugue played by Midori from J.S. Bach’s Violin Sonata No.1 in G Minor. Listening to a fugue, which contains many different melody lines or voices, is a similar experience to hearing which voice to listen to and act upon in our internal world. Work I’s are strong voices that can establish ourselves in presence and connect to self-remembering.
Easter Island Moai, restored by Claudio Cristino in the 1990s
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