Inner Work

“What can I do to awaken to my true Self?”
“Acquire the art of Doing in Not-Doing.
Doing is Inner Work.
Not-Doing is Meditation.”

To walk the path of the soul’s unfolding, initially “conscious efforts” (Gurdjieff) are required “… which signify turning inward, an attention-turn of a hundred and eighty degrees. This turn of attention initiates the Inner Work along a path that is directed inwards, the inner path.” (cf. Intelligence of Awakening, Concsiousness Classics, 2019)

All human beings are seeking, yet few are really seeking in the world we call within. Teachers of wisdom of all times and traditions are united in their pointing towards the inner gate. Only he who walks through the inner gate, past the guardians who probe him, finds bliss: a bliss that masters refer to, not to be mistaken for the volatile happiness of human love or other (momentarily) fulfilled wishes. A bliss of BEING. A bliss that does not come and go, since it is an inherent “taste” of realized human nature. Even during painful experiences, the human being conscious of himself does not lose this latent “taste”. All conscious efforts of the inner path that happen with pure intent will sooner or later reveal this “taste”.

Inner Work as the small self-inquiry (Great Self-Enquiry, see also Eternal Philosophy) is also the entry into the labyrinth: the labyrinth of time, the labyrinth of history. A labyrinth consisting of mental concepts, identifcations that this Ego-Mind has created and interlinked, mental concepts in the form of images of self and the world, agendas, judgements, emotions etc. Whoever enters a labyrinth must know what he is looking for, otherwise he runs the risk of getting lost in it. The biggest trap of Inner Work is probably getting lost in the maze of the mind, landing, re-identifying with this mind, the Not-I. Yet if the explorer of the small self-inquiry remains in the consciousness of inquiry into what he is not; this narrow, mental world can open into the quiet heart of Not-Knowing. This opening, this burning of the Ego-Mind, is referred to by many wisdom traditions as small death.

The only possible attitude to accompany this inner transformational process is that of meditation. Meditation is the inner art of Not-Doing, the still and unintentional witnessing of an event that only knows one reason: Awareness itself. „Don’t touch the story.“ For me, this has been one of the most important teachings by my teacher, Gangaji.

Thus the Doing and the Not-Doing on the inner path have come together and converged into Doing in Not-Doing. In this attitude the Inner Work on the path of Meditation happens. When a student asks me: “What must I do?” I answer “Nothing.” “But you say I must do my work.” “No, you don’t do it. But you don’t put anything in its way, so that it happens.”

from: Guidelines for Inner Practice, OM C. Parkin, Enneallionce – School for Inner Work, 2013