25 QUESTION: Can you tell me if there is any spiritual significance or reason for the different races?
ANSWER: Oh yes, indeed. There is no such thing as coincidence. I should like to state briefly that human beings have to go through karmas. For instance, if a person is born into a certain race in which there is much collective suffering, it is, of course, due to this particular soul’s karma. The more unified humanity becomes through spiritual development, the more will different races cease to exist.
You can begin to see, even at this time, the slow but sure development in the direction of eliminating racial differences. In a few thousand years from now, perhaps in about fifteen hundred years, the effect of this development will be very noticeable; nations, religions and races will have few of their differences left. This will be a sign of unification and spiritual improvement. However, until such time, there will be and must be differences, for only by encountering obstacles can you grow. This holds true for the individual’s life, and it certainly applies also to the development of groups.
You may wonder why certain races do not suffer from being different from others. Then you might ask, “What can they learn from that?” Indeed, they too have something to learn. Perhaps they need to learn the responsibility that arises from being spared sufferings that other peoples may have. Besides, this angle is not the only one to be considered. A spirit can be born into a race or nation because spiritually, emotionally, character-wise and psychologically it belongs to this group, and therefore has the best opportunity to unfold there.
Differences will exist as long as disunity exists on Earth and humanity has not learned to overcome it. As any difficulty or apparent disadvantage can be a cure, which it must be if the person is on the right path, advantage can be a cure, too. Through differences of race, religion, nationality, or various other categories, humanity can become stronger and advance faster in spiritual development precisely because frictions exist. Without friction, development can never proceed. It is only a question of how the difficulty is met, always; how is it met individually and collectively.
QUESTION: But is not the variety of different races and their trends part of the beauty of life?
ANSWER: Yes, the variety is fine, but variety on your Earth means friction and hostility. In spirit, there is infinite variety in everything, but it is unlike that on your Earth where you have what you call “better races” and “inferior races.” That, of course, is karmic for both groups, and not only for the groups which are sometimes persecuted. That is also a thought upon which you can now meditate.
QA174 QUESTION: I’m concerned in a very general sense about the role or the mission of black people in this country today. Before, this was a very turbulent role, and I think that there can be some answers to learn.
ANSWER: From an overall development and spiritual point of view, the separatism that exists among mankind – not only among black and white people but in many, many other areas as well – is, of course, a result of a deep-rooted human error. And evolution must, under all circumstances, unite these separatenesses in the many areas that exist.
This is also part of what I said before about the Aquarian Age of group activity, so that mankind realizes that human beings are all divine creatures, that human beings can find a common denominator, rather than harping on their separateness. Human beings must eventually find this unity.
Until such time, the great danger in human development is always that the pendulum swings too strongly from one direction toward the other, that one wrong breeds another wrong, that one exaggeration and ignorance breeds an opposite, which then heightens the conflict.
It is exactly the same as when nations sit together and each says, “You are wrong” and then “You are wrong,” and each can really find such a wrong. If that is understood, this unity will come with much less upheaval. If the reason and love is found among all, it will be sooner than if the violence that has existed breeds new violence.
This is what I have to say, and I say that not only about black and white, I say that about the political dissensions and all other dissensions that exist. The violence must not be met with violence. This does not mean that one has to endure or one should sacrifice oneself – absolutely not! This Aquarian Age brings forth more and more human rights. It does away, more and more, with the falsities that have existed.
QA192 QUESTION: I’m going on vacation to a different continent completely and a different way. I’m going to Africa. Can you help me to observe and understand a whole new group of people, not just culturally but from the Pathwork point of view, so that my horizon can be more expanded?
ANSWER: Well, I would say to you really, my dear, that all such words would be really quite meaningless, because your true understanding lies exclusively, as the basic and real key, in understanding yourself. Unless you do so, you cannot understand any other being – human or animal or plant or any creature in existence. Only then will you find that basically everyone is the same.
Any other word that I would give you in this respect would be meaningless. If you go with a self-understanding and with a search and a true vision of what you’re doing and why, what your irrational feelings mean, and where are they irrational and where are they not, in that moment your vision and your perception will expand and you see people for what they really are. You will perceive the best and the worst in them; you will perceive the meaning of life and of individuals.
QA222 QUESTION: It seems that the majority of the people on the Path come from middle Europe ancestry with Jewish backgrounds, and I was wondering if there is a reason for that.
ANSWER: That is not true, what you said. It is your view that makes it so, but it is not true.
QA254 QUESTION: As the only two committed black people on this Path, we would like to know: Why is this Path our Path at this time?
ANSWER: Obviously because you are ready for it. You are willing to work on your inner problems. I have said this before: the reason that few black people seek such a path at this time is that their concern now lies with other aspects of life. They need to give their energies to outer changes, and this is often as it should be for them. The time will come when the emphasis will change.
Why there are exceptions, such as in your cases, cannot be answered with a simple explanation. It would be simplistic to try to do so. But you should not fret about this. It is right for you to be here. In that way you can fulfill your incarnations and give your best on all sides, in all ways, also to the cause of your people. This may be done indirectly, but nonetheless effectively.
The mere understanding that you gain on this Path, that deep inside the soul all are the same – whatever race, whatever age, whatever background – is very important. You all are a divine expression and a higher self. You all have collected distortions in the course of your incarnatory journeys, so that you have created covers, such as the lower self and the mask.
These, of course, vary from individual to individual, but basically you are all in the same boat. This understanding will give you eventually a new strength that will also be effective in the cause of the black people’s rights for equality.
