A School Requires Special Efforts

It is not necessary to awaken to satisfy all the demands of life on the planet earth. Consequently, awakening requires that one make efforts beyond those one would make in life. This is the idea of “super-effort.” Ouspensky describes, in In Search of the Miraculous (page 347), when a man, after walking 25 miles in the rain to get home, walks another two miles. However, this also illustrates how the lower self likes to think of “extra effort” as something huge and unpleasant. But actually it is no such thing.

One of the main functions, then, of a school is to teach one what  efforts to make, and when and how to make them.

The Nature of Super-Efforts

As Ouspensky describes it, a “super-effort” is “an effort beyond the effort that is necessary to achieve a given purpose.” Put simply, this is the effort to be present to one’s life—to whatever is happening in the moment—in addition to whatever one is doing. It is an effort of consciousness rather than of functions. Yet, until one has achieved the ability to maintain consciousness separately from functions, it occurs alongside activity in the four lower centers.

In a school, one joins in practical activities that involve many different lower centers. Simultaneously one learns to use those activities to promote presence.

Using the Tool of Alchemy

As an example, my teacher introduced me to the tool of alchemy.  Hearing the word, most people think of medieval alchemists attempting to turn lead into gold. But, as a tool for awakening, “alchemy” is a way of making extra effort in the moment. It involves doing whatever one is doing in that moment in a more refined way, and thereby bringing extra attention to it. “Refined” in this sense requires intentional use of emotion. That is, of the intellectual part of the emotional center.

Everything one does—arranging one’s clothes on in a drawer, dining rather than merely eating, greeting a friend in the street—can be done in a more refined—more beautiful—way. Extra effort in the moment, with the aim of being more aware of that moment, creates extra presence.

A Variety of Techniques for Awakening

These are examples of practical techniques by which a real school enables one to bring extra effort to all aspects of life. And there are many other means. There is the direct influence of the Teacher, who designs various activities which help to promote presence. And there are other students. These, in addition to helping and guiding one, remind one of one’s aim merely by their presence.

There are also reminders—shocks, both small and large—to interrupt the momentums of sleep. In short, one’s life can become a moment-to-moment effort to achieve presence. Eventually, these efforts merge and become constant, the “Prayer of the Heart.” One awakens.