Dear Friends,

I went to a funeral on Tuesday. It was the funeral of a good friend, a man who abounded with enthusiasm and fellow feeling. He was a man who left school at 14 but managed to get himself through Cambridge and ended up heading a prestigious research institute. This more than indicates that he was not only a man of intellect but also of energy. He maintained both to the very end, and even though his body was evidently deteriorating he never gave up on a commitment to life. A few days before he died he was moving furniture in his house so that the decorators who were due in could get at the walls. What kind of man is it who can think of redecorating the house when they know that they have only a few days to live? Somebody who cares for his wife and wants to ensure that everything is left in good order. Also a man who, judging from the bank statement I have just received, sent in a contribution to Wisdom Works. Why would he be thinking of doing that? I’ll leave you to answer that question. One thing is for sure. He was a man even in the face of death who had a conscious commitment to life.

Everything does have the tendency to deteriorate, but as this week’s email suggests, there is a lot we might do in order to sustain a conscious input right to the very end.

I have just ended a course of practical philosophy. I asked the students what they had gained from the course. There were a number of really wonderful answers which I might return to later, but here is one story that is entirely relevant to this week’s reflection. One young woman simply said: ‘Inspiration.’ When I asked her what she meant she said that she was a graphic artist, but that because she hadn’t had any work for eleven months she had stopped doing what she loved to do. She was a graphic artist in name only. What she was forever thinking was not her art about was how to find the money to pay the rent and to feed herself. ‘But because of the course I have become re-inspired and have started to draw again, just for the love of it, and remarkably enough now that I’ve done that the work has come in.’ I asked if she would do something for us. She said she’d love to. This conscious input. Watch this space.

What you might also like to do is to find out more about the course I was talking about.

Wisdom Works is designed to promote philosophical endeavour of all kinds not just one kind, but this is the one of things that I am particularly involved in, and as I am writing out of my own experience it is something I will inevitably mention on occasion. Have a look.

With my best regards, William.

CONSCIOUS EFFORT

The Law of Entropy states that everything in this material world by nature runs down. Buy a car and experience first hand how the law works. Your car requires regular service which you neglect at your peril. We, like cars, are also subject to entropy. But we, unlike cars, are not merely mechanical; or rather we need not be merely mechanical. The truth is, however, that without regular service that is exactly what we become. Service as far as we are concerned. apart from regular exercise, involves us in constantly remembering our true nature, which is anything but mechanical. This kind of service requires us to return to that which makes us conscious beings, the consciousness itself.

We sleep at night, and that in its way renews us. It refuels the body and restores the mind, makes it fit for another day, but adopting reflective practices allows for renewal of another kind. It allows us to reassess the direction of our lives, reconsider our own particular contribution, serve the need with generosity of spirit, be aware, creative and of immediate benefit.

The following story is by a young teacher. She has a degree in philosophy, but she had forgotten certain principles which would allow the philosophy she had learnt to be of real benefit to the pupils she taught.

I entered on a teaching career. I started enthusiastically enough but after a couple of years the work became less and less fulfilling, It seemed that the energy I had for my subject, for my pupils, for the job began to fade. As this continued I felt myself becoming more and more separate from my pupils. They irritated me, and the more irritated I became the more difficult they were to handle. This made the situation worse, and I used to go home exhausted and depressed.

It was then that I rediscovered something, a positive way to live that I'd known earlier in life. Possibly because of the situation I faced, I returned to it with a new determination. It changed everything. Through it I discovered myself and an energy I didn't know I possessed. What I also discovered was how to use this energy effectively, certainly not to fuel my negative emotions, but for something far more creative.

By turning from these layers of frustration and discontentment, I discovered something quite different about myself. I also discovered something remarkable about the children I taught. I began to look below the surface impression they showed the world. I discovered that they had their own particular qualities which were quite different from those they projected, and although I had to continue dealing with the usual problems I worked from an entirely different centre within myself. By so doing all kinds of possibilities suggested themselves in what I taught and the way I taught it. My whole approach was renewed. I rediscovered my enthusiasm.

The story beautifully illustrates everything this particular reflection is drawing our attention to: the need for conscious renewal and the effect that this has both on ourselves and all those around us. It demonstrates that by making connection with the essential energy not only do we become revitalised but, by transference, the energy is passed on for the benefit of others.

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