I think it's possible to tell when Inspiration comes from the real self. You know, when you feel and see and understand the terror if the situation, and nothing in the world seems more important to you than to contribute to the greatest efforts to wake people up and wake yourself up. At that point you may find yourself doing what you *know* truly matters, because at that moment you understand it is the only thing that matters. But this is usually a passing state, because after all, we are all machines. So probably most of the time we will find ourselves inspired for distractions and mindless entertainment and things that we KNOW are a waste of our time.
So it seems the problem is, we wait for the "higher inspiration" to turn on before we do what is of vital imprortance. So it seems we have some options:
A) Just do what you're currently inspired to do, even if that means wasting time because one of many i's is in the lead at the moment making you do what it feels like doing.
B) Force yourself to do what you know is important, even if you're totally uninspired to do it at this moment. So that would mean you've already experienced, if only for a moment, that "higher inspiration" and understood what is important, and so you simply ignore all other inspirations and simply DO what you know is important, even if you're totally uninspired and don't "feel like" doing it at the moment when some little "i" is in control. This would take willpower since you're consciously going against what your "inspiration" is telling you to do.
C) Try to find a way to bring back this "higher inspiration", and if you manage to consciously bring it back, then you'll simply again start doing what you know needs to be done, and love every moment of it because you're inspired. How to do that? I'm not sure.
D) Balance between doing all 3 of the above. I think the bottom line is, when we do the Work on self, the "higher inspiration" driven by our higher emotinal center and complemented by our intellectual center will show up more and more often. Ultimately, the goal of the Work is that the real "I" is in control at all times - so you'd always be inspired to do the most important work.
But until that time we're machines, and will be inspired for nonsense much of the time. So how to balance A, B, and C, without harming ourselves or going astray? Well one thing I could think of is - when it comes to "A", we do have to throw a piece of meat to the predator every now and then. When it comes to "B", that too probably should be done with care because the C's said not to force it, but simply to do what feels natural, or else we risk going astray. However, the problem is, what feels "natural" very often is precisely that which leads us astray, because our mechanical state is natural to us, distractions and mindless entertainment often feels very "natural".
We can't do all "A" because we'd not accomplish anything important if we're just flying where the wind blows. We can't do all "B" because we'd have extreme difficulty sticking to the game plan and completely ignoring the predator / many i's. So it seems a little bit of "A" and "B" is necessary, but also "C" and doing the Work as much as we can.
So often we'd have to simply ignore our mechanical urges and DO what we know (even if we don't feel it at the moment) to be the right thing to do. Occasionally we'd succumb to the urges and take a break. And meanwhile we network and develop our emotional center so that the "higher inspiration" naturally comes more and more often, stick around longer, and is more and more objective when it does come. And the more we develop the less we have to do of "A" and "B" because what is "natural" will start to merge with what is "important".
But this does take willpower, it does mean we have to simply DO what needs to be done even when it's "against ourselves" at the moment, and if it's really just too much then we can "recharge". At least this is what makes sense to me right now, and what I'm trying to do. I find myself falling into "A" (feeding the predator/mechanical urges) much too often though, and that's a problem. It's not so easy to simply WILL yourself to do something when your mind is "against it". And that's why the Work is a constant battle against yourself - your real "I" trying to develop and take control while everything else is kicking and screaming. And as G said, consciousness cannot develop unconsciously. It won't just happen if we just do "A" all the time, that's what everybody does by default. We have to consciously will ourselves to Work, there seems to be no other way, and it IS difficult, it was never meant to be easy and always fun, and we can't always wait till we "feel like it" or when it seems fun before we do it, that may never happen.
But as we develop, it becomes easier and more fun - because our "I" becomes more active and is easier to access, inspiration for real Work comes easier and more often. But initially it won't, and maybe for a long time it won't, but fire is not easy to start when you're spinning a stick on the ground, you gotta put in some serious effort to spin it before you get some smoke, a spark, and eventually/ultimately perpetual "inner fire" (perpetual only when consciously maintained tho, cuz all fire burns out if not maintained).
