Now let me speak about the next level of Being awaiting you. What for you is the Kingdom of Heaven? What for you is the Conscious Circle of Humanity? It is no good thinking about matters very remote from you. The whole thing is very close to you—in fact, "closer than your neck-vein". Your Kingdom of Heaven, your Conscious Circle of Humanity, is your next level of Being, which lies very close to but very distinct from your present level of Being.

Now we identify through the unobserved petty feelings of ourselves which cause us to make endless internal accounts and build up endless negative systems in us. These negative systems, once formed, are very difficult to deal with. On this level we do everything in a pseudo way, from our self-love, our self-liking, to advance ourselves in some way, to merit praise, and so we are very easily hurt and dejected. Remove this stimulus and we scarcely exist, and may seem to have no objective. This is being a machine. All this basis of self-feeling does not lead far in the Work eventually.

To be taught in this Work about negative emotions is one thing, but as mere knowledge it is useless. It remains theoretical only—in the memory. You have to apply the knowledge to yourself and this is only possible through observing yourself. Unless you connect the knowledge of this Work with Self-Observation, nothing can happen to you. The Work will remain purely theoretical and not practical. The function of Self-Observation, therefore, is something that can be understood quite logically. Its object is clear.

As the Work is received with the understanding, it moves inwards in centers so that its truths are seen internally as truths. So does your attitude to the Work enlarge itself and you receive more force from your attitude. A small and narrow attitude to the Work can give only a superficial relation to it. The strength behind the Work from its foundations cannot communicate itself through small and exacting 'I's. Your own state of Being holds you up. Negative 'I's stand in the way.

When we are introduced to the Work and after many years begin to feel there may be something in it, we are close to the possibility of acting from the Work-ideas instead of those ideas that have been laid down in us automatically, and a person awakening to the Work and evaluating it will begin to think in a new way—that is, to undergo metanoia.

Now things exist and have power over us because we are not properly conscious of them. The more unconscious a thing, the more power it exerts on us and the more mechanical our behaviour. To bring a thing up into the light of Consciousness is to rob it of its power. For this, long self-observation is needed and much patience with oneself. We observe—but not fully. Full self-observation takes time—years—one life-time perhaps.

If a person is not conscious of the fact that he or she speaks or acts in a certain way, can that person change it? No—it is quite clear that it is impossible. Now suppose you point out to the person that he or she speaks or behaves in this particular way— what will happen? Most likely you will be accused of unfairness. Why? Because the person concerned has no idea that it is true. The matter is not conscious to the person's mind. It is unconscious.

Notice that to really want is to be independent of local, temporary, outside criticism. False Personality depends on what others think of you—that is, an audience. Real aim needs no audience. It is deeper, more genuine, essential. If you make an aim in the Work—as, for instance, not to feel always this background of tears, discontent, of being not appreciated— which is one form of inner accounting—then, if you really want not to have it, after some time it will be given you not to have it—usually in short flashes.

Remember that the Work is not by addition to what you are, but by transformation of what you are. The Work is to change you, not to add something to you as you are, but to change completely what you are now. You cannot do this Work and remain the same. You cannot add the new wine to the old bottle of yourself. Ask yourselves, some of you, have you really changed at all, and do you really wish to change yourself? Or are you full of self-merit? And if you wish to change, what is it you have to change, from what you understand of the teaching of the Work?

Now in this Work, as it was once taught, we learn that before we can have something we must earn the cash to pay for it. In this Work we pay beforehand. How? By working on the Three Lines of Work—work on yourself, work in connection with others, and work for the Work itself. What is work on yourself? It is, in my case, work to make Dr. Nicoll passive. What is work with others ? It is exactly the magic power of external considering. What is work for the Work itself? It is to see, to understand, what we are trying to do, what direction is being given, what will help the Work itself.

Taking photographs of oneself is different from merely observing oneself at any particular moment. If your quality of self-observation is sincere and if it is not merely done out of a sense of being told to do it, these observations become linked, collect together, and form gradually a photograph of yourself over a considerable period of time.

If you take things as you have always taken them, nothing new can form itself, but if you take life from what the Work teaches and take yourself in a new way, you will make a new pattern, new associations in the frontal lobes if you like, and these will connect with Higher Centers. If your aim is right this will happen gradually, but if your aim is a life-aim, a purely ambitious aim, you will not form any new patterns, but just ordinary commonplace ones.

The Work is to get the psychological world rightly adjusted so that it transmits Higher Centers. We may in life conceal our psychological thoughts and feelings but the Work is another force not of life, and from that we can conceal nothing that is psychological.

Consider for a moment what the Work says—that you have no Real I and you are nothing but a mass of mechanical reactions to life. I say, think about this, and think about it deeply, and you will begin to see what the Work is about, but of course if your ordinary associative paths of thought are never challenged by yourselves you cannot progress

Suppose you attempt to work from memory of what you know of the Work and without any understanding of it. It is quite possible that you could say to me after a time: "I observe myself three times a day after meals for one minute. I remember myself before breakfast and after dinner for two minutes, if I remember to. I read the Commentaries—two pages a day—before going to bed. But I do not seem to get any result. I have not had any higher emotional experiences."

No one can do this Work without understanding something about it. What is the good of doing anything without understanding ? If you try to work without any understanding of the Work you can get no result. Only when the Work becomes emotional can you begin to understand it.

Now if your knowledge of the Work, such as it is, remains only laid up in your memory like the unused talent, you will never understand it. Indeed, you will never really know what on earth it is all about. You will hear again and again phrases such as Self-Remembering, internal considering, identifying, self-observation, and be really quite bewildered by the whole thing. It will become so much jargon to you.

Let us say that a person makes a small aim to cook an excellent dinner. There are so many ways in which that excellent dinner can be cooked —I mean, psychological ways, not ordinary ways. Now suppose you have made a big and real aim that you are going to try to remember to act in life without identifying and that you are going to try to practice this great Work-exercise at least several times a day.

The Work has three lines of work in it, work on yourself, work in connection with other people in the Work, and work in connection with the Work itself. Unless these three lines are satisfied, at least provisionally, your aim will lead nowhere. There are three aspects to all Work aims.

Most people are satisfied with themselves, although not with their circumstances. So when they are told they must work on their Being, they either do not understand what it means or do not see why they should. Now if a person in the Work is capable of observing themselves sincerely, they cannot remain satisfied with themselves for long in the light of the Work.