Decision The parameters of The D.K. Foundation's teaching are set by an awareness of the purpose of the lifetime on one side, and the habit of intelligent decision- making on the other. A person working within these parameters will use his lifetime productively. He will develop his essence and transform energy. Those of us living in the West have the opportunity to work in this way. We have the freedom to make decisions in all areas which are crucial to working within personality: concerning the use of our mental, emotional and physical bodies; and the use of our creative and material resources. That freedom may not be total; it may indeed be reducing as technology increases the possibility of mental and emotional manipulation, and pollution becomes more wide scale and more hazardous to health, but, as the twentieth century closes, the freedom that we have is adequate for us to have responsibility in all the areas given above. We have, therefore, the external conditions to develop essence. During the second half of this century, in the West, we have developed sufficient self-awareness and self-definition to find and fulfil the purpose contained within our personality forms. We have, therefore, the inner conditions to develop essence. To take up the challenge of working within personality gives individuality something to go to work on, thereby reducing the danger of it expressing itself negatively. Individuality which is divorced from a sense of purpose is destructive to itself and to others. It leads to isolation and, spiritually and esoterically, isolation is death. Regardless of whether we want the responsibility - and many people do not - our decisions and defaults shape our lives. Characteristically, Gurdjieff highlighted the urgency of this when he said that a man could spend his life a slave to a promise he made in an unguarded moment. We need, all of us, to consider this. Gurdjieff was not describing a remote possibility but a common and omnipresent danger. It is our emotional impulses and our emotional reactions over which we all have to exercise the most vigilance. People working with the Foundation's teaching express surprise that progressive decisions (see Article for definition) should prove so hard to make and to adhere to in the circumstances of every day life. We are, by and large, unprepared for the conflict between the mental and emotional levels, the 'head and heart', and when it manifests we are confused and inclined to give the benefit of the doubt to the emotional reaction. We do not understand the origin of this conflict. We do not understand that it is potentially positive, or how to use it. If we want to be free from the past and free ourselves from the emotional plane where most of us, currently, are trapped and suffering then we must be prepared to sacrifice ease, familiarity and emotional gratification: not always, not in every situation but in those situations where a progressive decision requires it. This way we will move forward rather than round in circles. In order to know what is a progressive decision in any situation we need to be able to assess what that decision will secure and the value of this to the overall direction of our lives. We need first to understand our purpose. By and large, our decisions are not informed by a sense of purpose and there is no underlying coherence. On the whole, they are fitful, short-sighted and opportunistic responses designed to appease an emotional reaction; and when they are not emotionally led, they are so often in the service of securing non- authentic goals. All of us have the residue of such decisions in our lives; to a greater or lesser extent our lives are mortgaged to such decisions but we will blame life's injustice before ever we accept responsibility for our unfulfilment. We do not appreciate the power that our decision making capacity, if well used, could give us. Intelligent, purposeful decision making has power over fate. If we were to discover our purpose, create authentic goals and make intelligent, informed, appropriate decisions we would usher in a new era for our planet. We would be preparing ourselves to handle spiritual will. If we were to harness the potency contained within the pattern of our personalities then the immediate effect of this would be a significant increase in humanity's output of refined energy; it would light up our planet. Our personalities, which collectively form what Theosophical tradition terms the Third Creative Hierarchy have not, as yet in our history, been used in any spiritually purposeful way. Teaching up until now has encouraged us to overlay personal qualities with a spiritual model. The opportunity to work within personality in a spiritually productive way is now available to us, and this is the message contained in this final phase of Djwhal Khul's teaching. Keep your intention always before you, and God bless. ©1999 - The D.K. Foundation. This article, including this copyright statement, may be freely distributed but not altered, expanded or abridged in any way. We thank you for respecting this request.