Rule of Life 2

It becomes clear that the Faith and the Work come together in the development of a powerful, non-mechanical Rule of Life.

From a generic website:

"A rule of life is simply a structure in which spiritual formation is facilitated."

In the Work of course there are deep rules such as that you are born with. Recognizing them and then consciously not running from them (not denying them by living in illusion, for instance) is a real practice. Having said that the rules of a Rule of Life will comprise practices such as self-remembering and Bible reading and so on.

To have a rule to read the Bible complete seven times is a brilliantly powerful and foundational rule. Then once completed, God willing, you can formulate a different rule, based on it.

To make a Rule of Life that isn't mechanical (and a mechanical Rule of Life seems to be the most obvious pit to fall into) it would have to be just beyond what is comfortable in terms of effort and attention, and always just outside our current interests. Self-remembering is always like that.

It would also have to provoke the Old Man in you.

Obviously the answer to all this is the basic Work practices.

To formulate a simple and powerful Rule of Life based on the Bible and the Work is the thing, though. I can see I've been doing a 'rule of life' in a non-conscious way. Just doing the Work, and things like having the goal to read the Bible complete seven times.

The new stage is to forumulate it into a powerful, non-mechanical Rule of Day, or Rule of Life...