Blackie:   Mr Adie, firstly, I have to say that my efforts have been unclear and weak. I did have an observation on Monday, which I thought perhaps in a formatory way, might assist, even if I just brought it.

Mr Adie:   Well, do you want to know?

Blackie:   The circumstance was that I’d been asked to go down to the city to start some work early to assist somebody. So, I went down a little later, as I often do. And my aim was not to complain about having to go down.

Mr Adie:   You want to say that very slowly. Write it down ,and look at it. This is how you formulated your aim. Now ponder it. Who wants to complain? What are you giving up by not complaining? What are you gaining? Try and understand. On what basis would any expected argument going to eventuate? Judge.

I think it is a big problem. Do I complain, or do I not complain? It’s important, really. It’s an example of my being-problem.  Perhaps more significant even than the issue of going early or someone needing help. Everything is important, but the question is how it’s put. How can I find the right approach? I mean, when I plan my work, I’m already identified with it. This is the point. Have you yourself any doubt about it?

Everybody take that in. I can use the expected meeting as a point in time. I anticipate, probably quite reasonably, that a certain manifestation may take place. If I make a plan in relation to that, then I want to remember. Otherwise, on what basis am I planning and choosing?

If it’s got to be a genuine effort, why would I make that? Let me try and understand: is it important? What importance? Let me find out why it’s important.  Because I shan’t do it unless I feel it is important. I’ve got to find a point of view and an understanding that’s different from my ordinary ones, otherwise, my efforts are not going to be genuine. They might not be not more than a game, but  they can come dangerously close to that at times.

When I am making a plan, one of my I’s perhaps joins in, and I don’t separate. Of course, they do join in very much. This is a big danger.

We must see the different types of danger and why the Work is difficult. The difficulties aren’t where we think they are. The difficulties are quite other. We think the difficulty is to keep awake for five or ten minutes. That doesn’t really arise. The difficulty is to come to the genuine requirement which could be dealt with in a second, and the rest of the time be influenced by that reality.

Writers, authors of various kinds and styles, have many, many observations. They see different types and they’re accustomed  to observation of all sorts of different things in order to put it down in words. But that doesn’t help in the work at all. For us, it is nothing unless it’s connected with my aim. And with that, a sense of the importance of the plan may appear. Without a feeling of its importance, what weight does it have? Am I setting myself up to fail again?

If I am somebody that is trying to develop, then my ability is going to be almost as much a of hindrance as a help, because I have developed a very strong series of I’s and personality about it, about my ability or inability. These will come in when I make a plan, because I either succeed or I don’t; and then all sorts of inner considerings and imaginations commence.

In other words, try and come to moments of reality in yourself. Moments of sincerity with yourself.

I think we’ll stop there.

We’ll try now and go on in a more simple and balanced way. The work can easily proceed all wrong, and it hasn’t got to be. It has to be understood in a certain quality. Is anybody alarmed by that, and doesn’t understand it? Everybody thinks they do. Alright. That’s a relief then.