What Is Inner Work?

Inner work arises from the conviction that there is more to human consciousness, and more to being human, than is conventionally understood. Inner work is the deep dive of uncovering that potential. Some of us are born seekers, compelled to inner work as seeds are compelled to grow. Others live a conventional, externally oriented, life, but are at some point thrown towards inner work by an unexpected experience or life event that shakes their familiar world and sense of self.

A butterfly has emerged from the chrysalis

We can become butterflies but we can’t do that without going through a process of digestion, elimination, and metabolization [of structures and experience].

Morton Letofsky
Ridhwan teacher

A caterpillar would continue to be a caterpillar were it not for an imperative of nature that drives its transmutation into a butterfly. Humanity does not know its potential transmutation, yet we too are being moved by an optimizing drive. Our early development creates an egoic self, which thinks it knows what a human being is. It fights transformation, because it opposes what it cannot see, sense, or understand. Inner work requires that we enter the human chrysalis, the 'alchemical' crucible where transmutation can occur. Inner work is called 'work' for a reason: it is hard, and it is best to have support and a map. A teacher functions as a guide, and a work school has known and tested methods that support the process of unfoldment.

There have been inner work schools throughout the millennia, some connected to religious traditions (eg., the Kabbalists and Sufis), others Fourth Way schools such as Gurdjieff's work. Reality brings forth new forms appropriate to the unique needs of each era. The Diamond Approach® is the method of the Ridhwan School, a school of inner work that arose in our times and is uniquely suited to our times.