This is not the only book you will need to sort yourself out.

The intention here is to point you in the right direction, if you want to do the deep work of self-discovery. You'll need to reference other sources, such as the Real.Clear. seven-book series of spiritual teachings, to fill in all the blanks about the topics we touch on.

We have already gone through a few cold, dark nights, and now we want to find a better way.

This isn't a simple task, healing ourselves spiritually. And trying to make the instructions too step-by-step may give the wrong impression.

Doing the work of self-knowing isn't easy. So the goal of this guide isn't to make short work of reaching nirvana.

There are no shortcuts.

Instead, think of this book as providing a compass for your journey. Because when we're lost, we all need some help to find the right direction. We have already gone through a few cold, dark nights, and now we want to find a better way.

Truth be told, no one gets out of here alive. But we can come out ahead by learning to make the best use of our time here.

And that starts the day we begin doing the work.

So let's get at it.

—Jill Loree

When Jesus said to pay attention to the log in our own eye, instead of the splinter in someone's else's, he was pointing out the doorway to freedom.

After a couple decades crawling around in my psyche's basement with a flashlight, I've come to understand many patterns at work that have driven parts of my life in destructive circles. Most were completely unknown to me previously; I just didn't see them.

It was hard work getting to know and heal these patterns. And of course there is always more to uncover. This is the real work of being human.

As I walk through my day-to-day life, now with more peace and awareness, I see many people struggling with some life issue or another. These are decent, well-meaning people—friends and acquaintances—who are struggling with the same things over and over, without really changing underlying inner dynamics that could be changed.

I have the sense that many people don't know what it looks like to do their work.

What "doing your work" means to me is noticing the disharmonies that arise in each of us as we walk in the outer world. And then searching for and clearing the causes in our inner world.

Because the real causes are always the stuck places in our emotional, mental, and energetic bodies.

Our inner world creates our outer world.

This isn't a new idea.

This isn't a new idea. It's what Jesus was talking about when he said to pay attention to the log in our own eye, instead of the splinter in someone else's.

He was pointing out the doorway to freedom.

Yet until we step through the doorway and enter this spiritual journey, it is hard to know what it looks like. Our intention here is to give a sense of what life looks like when we're "doing the work."

—Scott Wisler

 

Next Chapter
Return to Doing the Work Contents