Work

The concept of work as a virtue as opposed to idleness as a vice is intricately tied in with enslavement of the mind. Indigenous, stone age cultures that have escaped `civilized progress’ up to the present day tend to find a rhythm in their existence in which work (the activity associated with basic survival and comfort) takes up around 3 hours of an individual’s day. The rest of the time, they utilize for other activity or they don’t utilize at all – and one gets the sense that there is no judgement associated with a tribal member’s lack of activity.

As members of a civilized society (by which I do not mean to imply any improved quality of consciousness, only a society which operates under certain civil institutions, themselves mainly originating from a need to organize too many people living unsustainably in an unnaturally reduced geographic area) we tend to view work and our compulsive commitment to it, as a result of living in a progressive, self-aware society. In other words, it would appear that only societies in which people are devoted to some kind of materially oriented work, for a high percentage of their wakeful day, can boast the achievement of being self-aware, progressive and onward moving. Yet, if one begins to measure our society against some of the stone age cultures that still exist, we appear far less self-aware, our progression seems irrelevant if not detrimental to our happiness, and our onward movement appears to be bringing us closer and closer to our own destruction.

There is the possibility (and indeed our ultimate hope) that this self-destruct process is our spirit path, and is drawing us to a place where we experience separation in its most extreme. That perhaps we need to come to this place before we can truly appreciate the joy of union. However, that is no reason to idealise the place humanity has arrived at.

The belief that we `should’ be engaged in work does not originate from any deep understanding that work heightens our self-knowledge, or brings greater quality of life, or serves the community; it stems from those early moments in human history when certain stratas of society began to gain ascendance over others. An aristocracy began to emerge and for their lifestyle choices (which demanded less and less that they live off the sweat of their own backs) to be made manifest, someone else had to work to keep them alive in the fashion they were accustomed to. Thus a society began to form in which it was essential for the preservation of the structure, that had been created, that there was instilled within the bulk of the population a belief that they existed mainly (if not only) to work; that if they refused to conform or didn’t meet expectations, they were anti-social aberrations of enlightened society and hardly worth the effort it took to terminate their existence.

This belief grew into a great river of human consciousness until it resulted in the enslavement of millions and the unprecedented luxurious living of the few. Though, of course, competition for this luxurious life-style was intense both from within and without a society and so those enjoying the lavish riches of elite living had to work just as hard as their slaves in order to keep the position that they had won or inherited. Thus all were enslaved!

This has all come at great cost to the human experience. Not just the cost of being enslaved by culture, religion, work and prejudice, but the loss of beauty in the experience of the human life. Of all aspects of life attended upon by mystics and poets alike, none is so bemoaned as this loss.

Society today has little awareness of this loss; naturally, since our freedoms have been gradually eroding over millennia and also because we’re working too compulsively and too consistently to notice what we’re missing. It is easy to underestimate the drive to be successful, yet it is relentless in its demands that we sacrifice our pure enjoyment of life in its attainment.

D.H. Lawrence wrote so passionately about this loss as he witnessed the mutilation of humanity into dull machines during the industrial revolution of the early 20^th century. Indeed, when truly `seen’ this mutilation is quite horrific and runs through all levels of society, it is the anathema of life and joy and robs the human of their deep and magical connection to spirit.

We enter now a time of radical change and it is hard to see how these sacrifices will be dropped from our lives since our political/economic system, which keeps us bodily alive if not mindfully so, is totally reliant upon the belief among the greater part of the population that they must adhere to this sacrificial life and keep their lives focused on the preservation of themselves (within the system) and thus the system itself.

Most people want change though they don’t want the responsibility of initiating it or paying for it. Yet there is nothing to pay for and as far as initiating goes, nothing to do. We simply need to be the change; action may or may not come from that state of being and is purely secondary to the being itself.

Let us become mystics and poets, it is what we truly are – lovers of beauty and enjoyers of life; then beautiful people, the world will be changed.