Here we are taught that salvation comes through work, through self-search, through effort and through the finding of images to be cast off. Today, a man who calls himself a “twice-born Christian” asked me whether I accepted Jesus as my personal savior, and that unless I did, I would not find salvation.
My question is: how are we to reconcile this Church-proclaimed doctrine of faith in salvation through another, with our work on the Path? And further, is this faith in a heavenly being who had become man sufficient for a mortal to share, through mysterious rites, in his divine life? Is this faith plus the sacraments sufficient to redeem us from the bonds of earthly guilt and earthly death and to awaken us to a new life which would mean eternal existence and blessedness?
The Guide: First of all, let me emphasize that it is a complete misunderstanding on the part of many human beings to think that any act, even the greatest act of love, could be sufficient for them to be liberated from their inner bonds. Those who like to believe that often do so because it would be very comfortable, indeed. Of course it is not so and Jesus’ words were never meant that way.
I explained at length in what way the act of Jesus Christ constituted salvation for all the fallen beings, what his contribution was and how it opened the door and showed the way [Pathwork Guide lectures #19-22]. I do not have to repeat that now, for it is all on record and it is useless to take the available time for repetition. By rereading it, you will see that it was never implied or stated that the coming of Christ exempted the individual from personal work and effort. Quite the contrary is true.
It is very possible that people reach salvation, inner freedom, liberation from untruth, even though they do not accept Christ. This does not change the facts, however. The facts are that Jesus Christ is the highest of all created beings, that he came to Earth, and that his coming was the turning point in the general development of the fallen spirits.
When personal development reaches the optimum point, one is open for the truth in every respect, one is capable of freeing oneself of prejudices and preconceived ideas, and nothing will stand in the way of experiencing truth on all levels.
In other words, a person can start on the path of self-development and still harbor certain ideas which are not in accord with truth, whether it concerns this subject or any other. At one time, however, truth will penetrate as the result of an inner experience, and not by any outward acceptance of a doctrine or a belief. And it is equally possible that people believe and accept this truth – or any other – and still retain in their souls the very obstructions that will not let them liberate themselves.
People hold on to certain prejudices according to their upbringing, environment, and their personal inner misconceptions or images. Inner resistance blocks the way to truth. Also, one may have very distorted emotions and embrace a truth by coincidence, so to speak. This truth, then, will be ineffective because the motives are wrong, the underlying feelings are unhealthy.
One may even resist an untruth out of inner blocks and subjectivity rather than out of freedom and objectivity. In short, you can resist an untruth out of unhealthy emotions, as well as accept a truth out of unhealthy emotions. The requirement always and foremost should be the purification of the emotions. The right intent is what matters, and not what one outwardly accepts and believes. Why and how a belief has come about, on what inner motives it is based – that is what matters in the final analysis.
This Path you are taking is bound to bring to the fore all distorted motives, no matter how deeply hidden and unconscious. Thereby, your soul will become healthy and free. This, in turn, will enable you to experience the truth you need to have and to know, rather than accepting it with your intellect only.
The truth of Jesus Christ will eventually be part of the inner experience for all people who develop their souls. With some, this truth comes sooner and other truths come later. With other people it is the other way round. But to say, “You have to accept Jesus Christ,” is just as wrong as saying, “You have to believe in God.” It only creates harmful reactions, such as compulsion, guilt, resistance or rebellion.
All “musts” create situations which set up resistance to truth. Truth is abused by making it a tool for the rulership principle in man. The other person senses it and then projects his or her resistance on the divine instead of the person. Often the resistance is as wrong as that against which one resists. Both alternatives are wrong.
Faith in God, faith in Christ, faith as such is, of course, a major key. But it cannot be commanded. Faith comes naturally when obstructions are removed. All human beings possess an inner storehouse of faith, love, truth, wisdom – but these are locked away by the obstructions and deviations. All these divine attributes are automatically released in the measure that the inner deviations straighten themselves out through the work on the Path.
This comes always as an effect. It is a natural growth that can never be forced directly. When your earthly religious teachers drum into you that you must have faith, they do not accomplish anything. At best, it will be a superimposed faith. And the stronger the superimposition, the stronger the inner, unconscious rebellion against one’s own superimposed faith – adopted merely because it was expected and demanded.
It is the same with love. You cannot command yourself to love, but in this in-depth work, you eventually learn and understand why you have no faith or no love, and what the inner wrong conclusions are that make you close the door to your inner wells of faith and love – unconsciously in most cases. However, before you get to this point, you often have to become aware of the fact that you have no faith and no love under superimposed levels of pseudo-faith and pseudo-love.
Only after fully understanding the inner causes, misconceptions and deviations with all their ramifications and chain reactions, will real faith, real love, real truth, real wisdom, and whatever all the other divine attributes are, become part of your being.
Of course, faith is a key, just as love is a key, as truth is a key. Each of them, in its undiluted essence, contains all the other attributes. One is all, and all is one. The question is not whether or not you should have it. There can be no doubt about this. The question is how you can get it, why you lack it, what in you blocks the way. Then the divine in you will be able to unfold. Then it is a key – the key to life, the key to the universe.
There still is the one portion of my question which is unanswered, which has to do with whether or not a person can be saved through the medium of a Savior or through a person’s own efforts?
The Guide: I answered that. I said it cannot be. You have to do the work yourself.
You said that when the obstructions are removed, faith follows. But I know people who have faith and still have a lot of obstructions.
The Guide: In the first place, as far as any divine attributes are concerned, it is always a question of degree for any human being. It cannot be said of any human being that he or she has complete faith or complete love. The lack is often hidden in the unconscious.
On the conscious level, the greater part of the personality may indeed be healthy, while the missing portion remains in the unconscious. On this Path, the hidden lacks as well as the wrong conclusions are always brought to the fore.
One person may have a quite healthy faith, but other divine attributes are afflicted and affect the personality predominantly. One can never oversimplify. Sometimes it is complicated because of the possibility that someone’s faith is compulsive or escapist, and then it is not real faith, but pseudo-faith. It may be a mixture of partly healthy faith, partly unconscious lack of faith, and pseudo-faith. All that has to be found out, investigated and honestly understood. Only then can you put order into your soul.
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