07/26/2025
What is the distinction between “the Work” and The Great Work? The Great Work is defined in Bennett’s DU4 as “The operation whereby the deviations and distortions in humanity’s progress towards fulfilling the aim of Existence are rectified and the evolution of mankind sustained. (p. 295)” Do we buy that, boys and girls? As a concept, it has the merit of timelessness. It can also be a yardstick; a standard according to which the validity or otherwise of lesser “work” projects can be assessed. In his intro to The Sevenfold Work, Tony Blake wrote: “THE GREAT WORK of conscious human evolution is probably 40,000 years old,” and so according to this assessment, it predates Homo Sapiens, to a time before hominids acquired the ability to form complex speech sounds, and before non-utilitarian practices such as burying their dead. Such a statement is either based upon speculation, or it presupposes the ability to time-travel into pre-history – in other words, it is tantamount to science fiction. Interpretation of images such as rock-paintings is guesswork at best, but the earliest known use of words, recorded by repetition until writing was possible, suggest that early humans were aware of their role in the world, and moreover that their actions had real-world consequences. I imagine that is as close a generalization as can be made concerning early understanding of the GREAT WORK. I think it is safe to say that human understanding adapts throughout the span of earthly evolution and will continue to do so.
A close friend who is my own age and who has been involved “in the Work” for all of his adult life, has an absolute abhorrence for any kind of social media, condemning it collectively as negative, reactive, harmful. Did such phenomena exist at all even twenty years ago? Now already the grand-daddy of social media platforms – Facebook – is considered to be suitable only for senior citizens like me. Analytics of my own page indicate that the great majority of those who visit it are American men over 65. The 21st century “Work” as a socio-cultural phenomenon which is hopefully a manifestation of THE GREAT WORK is struggling to maintain its identity in the face of accelerated change, especially if it depends upon elderly European-Americans. How’s this for a task: spend a few minutes contemplating what it is that you consider makes you unique. Now expand this to others, starting with those closest to you and moving to those with whom you have only indirect connections, or an awareness only, and finally all those of whom you can never know either by the reports of others or by statistics. Spend time considering what you have in common with those people, in what ways you are different, and finally the characteristic of uniqueness of each of those people. By definition, you cannot know their uniqueness, and being unique there is nothing to compare it with. Now consider how we can acknowledge the uniqueness of each individual sharing this planet with us.
(Ben Bennett - originally posted in Ben's Work Notes)
