No Conscious Work is Ever Wasted*
by Virginia Bennett
“I am one with the source insofar as I act as a source by making everything I have received flow again – just like Jesus.”
Ramon Panikkar ‘ (quoted in Cynthia Bourgeault’s ‘The Wisdom Jesus’, p. 72)
I have been considering the idea of ‘reciprocal feeding’ and ‘The Great Exchange’ as described in ‘The Eye of the Heart’. Of how the flow of nutrients like forgiveness, kindness and patience (‘the fruits of the spirit’) up and down the Ray of Creation is what keeps the connections between the realms vibrant and alive, and keeps the realms themselves, vibrant and alive and in dynamic equilibrium.
This photograph of a spider web in my garden is an example for how things can be hidden or revealed by the angle of light. It is nearly invisible until the light hits it in a certain way, or it is covered in dew. Our connection to the Whole can also be invisible until we are made aware of it by some subtle inkling or intuition. That new seeing can shift our understanding of the whole and our responsibility to it in a moment.
A sense of responsibility to the whole seems to be an integral part of the contemplative ethos. Because of the interconnection, our actions on a small, personal scale, effect the larger scale. These actions can be as small and personal as helping your neighbour in their garden, but the effect can be as large as, well, there is no limit to how huge it can be.
‘Reciprocal feeding’ is the mechanism of this responsibility to the larger whole – which, on the macro scale can be the entire cosmos! To paraphrase JFKs famous line ‘Ask not what the cosmos can do for you, but what you can do for the cosmos’.
In order to make this concept real and achievable for me, I need to bring it down to the human level. Each of us has a small or large part to play in our community or family and the import of those parts wax and wane over time. Using family as an example of reciprocal feeding, we know that a healthy, stable family works to ensure the health and safety of all its members. And that health and safety in turn expands out into the neighbourhood and friend/colleague circles. The lack of health and safety in a smaller group also expands into the larger group. The health and stability of the group (large or small) will help to ameliorate occasional friction or downturn in the health of one of the members. Think of friends and neighbours banding together to support a family or individual experiencing a health or social crisis. For me, this reaching out to members in the larger group is expressing kindness, compassion and love, what Cynthia calls ‘nutrients’ from and for the higher realms. This form of reciprocal feeding on the micro scale serves to make the group stronger and more resilient. And, because everything is connected, it also serves a small portion of reciprocal feeding to adjacent groups, and the other realms. That seems to be what Cynthia Bourgeault, G.I. Gurdjieff et al are saying – ‘Reciprocal feeding proceeds in both directions in order to maintain the entire ray of creation in a state of dynamic equilibrium’ (Eye of the Heart, p. 24). Because everything is not only connected, but inter-twined, inter-mingled, changes in one aspect will result in changes in everything else.
There are, of course, different ways to ‘engage’ in these tasks for others. When my mother’s dementia became more pronounced, my daily visits with her could be taken up with calmly trying to help her solve her little aggravations or allay her fears; or I could get swept up in her frustration. The first approach was soothing for her (usually) and made her day a little less fraught, the second just made things worse for both of us. The first approach was both conscious labour and intentional suffering, and contributed to the Great Exchange. I would classify the second as what Gurdjieff called ‘stupid suffering’ and did not contribute. The important thing here is - it was always my choice.
It is so easy to be overwhelmed with the idea that we humans have such a large responsibility. We have some understanding of the physical cosmos, but really have very little (in my case, no) understanding of the metaphysical cosmos. But if I bring it back to my life, my circle, what I can see and effect, I can see how that microcosm is a fractal of the macrocosm and even small actions have an effect on the whole. When I have the capacity, I do larger things, when I don’t, small actions suffice. So, what I do with what is in front of me will affect the whole - picking up litter I see on the street; greeting people, all people, on the street with eye contact and a smile; giving what I can in time and/or funds to the groups I want to support; being fully present with people in the moment. All these small actions have a ripple effect, the ultimate extent of which I cannot know.
* Cynthia Bourgeault quoting her teacher Rafe in Eye of the Heart p 93.
Virginia Bennett
Virginia was a member of the TCS board over year 2025/2026. She is a lifelong wanderer and explorer, both physically and esoterically. She currently spends her time pondering esoteric topics and being a matchmaker for homeless cats - finding them permanent, loving homes.
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