Above all else the work is practical in its nature. It provides practical solutions to the problems of man's existence and potentials. However, as with all work language, even this term "practical" must be redefined. In ordinary life, we are geared toward results; in reality we would do nothing if we could get away with it, but we will go to our job so we can have food to eat and pay our rent. So in ordinary life we make no efforts without a promise of reward. As the mullah would say, we need a carrot on our stick.

Practical work exercises do provide results, very powerful and always unexpected results. And it is the unexpected elements that make them different from ordinary results. For this a new approach is necessary. The problem is further complicated by some work literature, which gives wrong and vague information about results. For example, O speaks of a two-headed arrow on page 119 in Search when he is "defining" self-remembering. So naturally people try to create this two-headed arrow in order to self-remember. Actually what O is defining is a result of self-remembering, not self-remembering itself. Trying to create the result without making a work effort (that is, without making an effort unattached to a result) will never create self-remembering but will merely create thinking about self-remembering. So already in defining "practical," we must redefine "effort" according to ordinary efforts (man #1-#4) and conscious efforts (man #5-#7). Doing work-related exercises with ordinary effort gives no real results. Unfortunately many people "in the work" never realize this and predictably never get anywhere.

Let us imagine a master craftsman. He is to build something. A great part of his skill is not to anticipate the result but to enjoy the act of creating, to engage emotionally in the effort of applying his craft. When he does this, something special happens; his tools fulfill their potential and people take note of his results. Often they will wonder how he did it. Did he have special tools? How could he have made this marvel with an ordinary screwdriver? It is his love of the craft that does it, his connection with conscience. (Hence #15: I love him who loves work.) We must love the efforts necessary for preparatory work; we must jump at the chance to work like a child on an outing. If we foster this attitude, work efforts will come of themselves.

Yet it is confusing to the student when his teacher asks for results. From the teacher's perspective the results offer verification of the student's efforts. The student must not work for these results, however; that is, he must not be identified with results (as we are in ordinary life), with his teacher, or with anything else, but he must work only to learn about "man and the universe" (which usually means himself), or his love of knowledge. The results will always be evident immediately if one knows to look for them, but ordinarily are not evident to us, because we are identified with a presupposed and even quite surely expected result. This is another aspect of the work that the student must learn from the teacher. G speaks plainly about this in the Tales, p1166-1169, in his discourse about reason and the way that data are organized in the bodymind. We must not only verify the teaching but also organize our results. By doing this, we alter the flow of associations, which G mentions on p171 in Views.

Practical exercises are practical in that they are effective tools for self-study. If our motivation is self-study and not "feeling better" (or self-calming), they will be practical for us. We will need to work to establish boundaries between the exercise (or effort) and the result. If we add the state, or level of being, to this equation, we begin to see our confusion. Everything must be placed according to scale. The long-term effect of practical work is the organization of our associations, or the data stored in the machine.

Keep your efforts tied to the exercise; when the exercise is over, look for (unexpected) results. You will be surprised. You will learn what "practical #5" means.

#25. Remember that here work is not for work's sake but is only a means.