Vernon Howard wrote so many brilliant one-liners on the subject of awakening and how the False Self interferes with it. The problem is that we forget what is important and focus on what is unimportant. The ego is always off the mark!

Instead of studying, we object to what we are being offered. Vernon taught The Fourth Way originated by Gurdjieff. This does not appeal to anyone but desperate people. Gurdjieff likened people to cars that were not working. On the subject, Vernon Howard said this: “How can a Cadillac love a Ford?” So his students were in his machine shop and he did his best to show us how asleep we were.

Vernon said that you can identify your false goals in a simple way. If they make you uneasy, that is a false goal.

I have false goals all day long and so do you. You want to avoid hurting someone’s feelings, so you tell little white lies to appease them. Don’t try to stop having false goals. That is a false goal in itself! Just try and catch false goals as they arise. That act gives you spiritual energy.

Although Vernon made things very simple, his subject was quite serious and complicated. He put the truth out there and it was up to us to receive it.

I am realizing why Vernon pushed insincere students away. He didn’t want “believers;” he wanted realizers. And what we have to realize is how false our worldly goals are.

Jesus died for our sins, so the Bible tells us. In like manner, we have to die to our False Selves in order to rise to a higher level.

I have been doing this work for a long time and it is, indeed, manna from heaven. Only the serious student will keep on keeping on. Most drop out. Never mind them. We must stay the course of seeing the difference between the true and the false. Once you see the false as false, truth arises and your energy field is renewed. “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds.”

Vicki Woodyard