Work I’s Work for You

Work I’s Work for You

I am grateful to have Work ‘I’s – the army of internal ‘I’s that bring consciousness to my day, to my minute-by-minute struggle with the mechanicalities of sleep. Yes, I feel very fortunate to have the help of my very own Work ‘I’s. Due to the positive influences of my friends in the School, my Teacher, Higher Influences, and my personal efforts, I’ve been able to assemble an ever-growing set of tools – emotional antidotes and solvents, intellectual attitudes, intelligent perspectives, among others to address the myriad of sources of my sleep and the psychological weaknesses of my machine. These Work ‘I’s are the raw materials for developing a True Personality. A personality collecting impressions and food that feeds the Work.

To make my Work ‘I’s explanation more specific, I am working with a recurring pattern of identification and unnecessary suffering. In my current job as an instructor, I find before almost every term, the same mechanical ‘I’s plague me and rob me of energy and consciousness. Fortunately, my Work ‘I’s also arrive to mitigate these elixirs of sleep. Part savior, part liberator, the Work ‘I’s are readily available with a little effort and focus to help me be more than a machine.

Back to the example. As I prepare and set up the course plans each term, my machine feels and believes in the stress of anticipation and feelings of incompetence—another way of saying I become identified. Various types of inner-considering, or being identified with people, predictably emerge and proliferate like the many new buds of Spring, but alas more like weeds that need plucking. My machine becomes identified with notions of utter thoroughness, with how I will appear to others, that I know what I’m talking about.

Were it not for the Work ‘I’s that help me find a better, more objective perspective to see the bigger picture, my identifications would mount and multiply. Is it not curious how I suffer from imaginary fears about others who are most likely just as identified as I am with their own machines? Such curiosities don’t solve the problem at hand, however. The ‘I’s producing sleep come from various sources within me, not from the outside, and they revolve around certain identifications, certain forms of the imaginary picture of myself: I am a good person, I am reliable, and I am knowledgeable. These imaginary reflections of self-importance hound me like a dog on a hunt.

Work ‘I’s, on the other hand, offer instantaneous solutions to many of these sleepy ‘I’s and raise me above the internal fray or veil of identification and imagination. It’s hard to reconcile, but my machine often wants to be identified and wants to express negative emotions, including self-deprecation or self-denigration. When I catch the downward spiral, I summon the Work ‘I’s and then overcome the procession of sleep ‘I’s. One powerful Work I goes like this – “Focus on overcoming the weakness of the moment.” Another goes – “There is nothing inherently wrong with the present moment.” And yet another says – “There is no future, only Now.” They might be as simple as, “Take a walk.”

These Work ‘I’s – when followed – free me from the future, from the past, and from my imaginary pressures and unnecessary suffering. They allow me to remember myself -- to be present to my life. The salves of relativity and scale, for instance, raise me above my petty, simple fears. The remembrance of being Present takes away the future.

Another very powerful Work I for starting afresh is to, “Externally consider someone else.” This means to forget myself and to help others. By taking “me” out of the picture, I can refocus on the needs of others around me. External consideration ironically brings me to Presence by trying to help another person. I go outside of myself, help that person, and thereby remove my obsession with self.

My Teacher also tells us to always choose self-remembering over self-deprecation. Instead of just denigrating and putting myself down, the higher right is to be present wherever I am. It’s like a reset button. Start again in the here and now.

What really matters? What is really important? Make the right choice; choose Work ‘I’s when the battle ensues with the many ‘I’s. As my old friend, Stanley, used to often say:

“The Work works.”

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Procession of the Youngest King, Benozzo Gozzoli