QA127 QUESTION: What is the difference between contacting God and contacting the divine forces within?
ANSWER: It is exactly the same, of course, because God is within as without. But the individual can contact God only within, and never without. But there is one difference I should like to emphasize.
There are two very fundamental factors of God. They can be termed, or named, as the masculine and the feminine principle – or the creative principle in action, in determination, and the creative principle in being. Or they can be termed God as spirit and God as law.
The life force I discuss again and again is God as law, as creative principle. God as spirit manifests through man. Man consciously can, if he or she so chooses, be inspired by the highest or the lowest – by truth or by distortion of truth.
It rests within the will of the individual whether he gives in to the blind reflexes of his distortion or whether he tries to rise above it and requests inspiration of the highest truth in order to dissolve the blind spots which create blind reflexes.
This is then God in action, manifesting through man’s consciousness, or God in spirit manifesting through man’s spirit. It is man’s spirit which molds the life force, his life force, as it were, his personal life stuff, out of which is created his life, his destiny or his fate, his experiences.
If man is governed by blind reflexes, the experiences must be according to these blind reflexes, which mold the life substance – that aspect of God which is law or force or energy current. We have used all these names alternately in the course of the years, and I purposely change the name so that you do not get too stuck on a certain label. Changing the designation has, as I often indicate, a very beneficial effect.
QUESTION: Would you say then that the thing to do is to ask God to help you contact the infinite, divine force within yourself?
ANSWER: Well, I would say your consciousness, your conscious thinking process, makes the decision in contacting truth – God is truth – so that it manifests for you in giving you recognition, in inspiring you, in guiding you the right way.
This you do with your consciousness, with your deliberate intent, with your formulating the thoughts; and then the truth of God manifests through you.
QUESTION: Could you give us a clearer explanation of the meaning of soul, spirit and psyche?
ANSWER: God, the creative spirit, penetrates and transcends everything that is. And every created being is a particle of this creative spirit. Human beings have more of this creative spirit substance, of this consciousness, than, let us say, an animal. And an animal has more of it than a plant, and so on and so forth.
Human beings, man, as he grows, as he unfolds his faculties, expands more and more and gathers, as it were, more of this creative spirit, the God spirit. The very fact that you can think, that you can make decisions, that you can discriminate and select, that you can examine, that you can choose, that you have a conscience, is proof that you are the same substance – only in smaller measure – as God.
So is the life force, the life substance we discuss constantly. It is that creative force which works by law, and it does not alter its essential nature in the least, whether it happens to work negatively because man’s spirit is too far removed from his outer consciousness to mold the life substance – his soul forces – according to truth.
He reacts in untruth, in blind automatism, and therefore that force is molded in a negative way. But that does not change its potential, its very nature. The psyche is really just another word for soul. Psychic processes are the processes of the soul, the mechanism by which soul forces, soul movements, work.
QA178 QUESTION: I think most of us grew up with God outside us and probably God personified. Through AA [Alcoholics Anonymous], and also when I started to meditate and look within, I began to see God or higher power not as personification. I know in your lectures you are always speaking of “be God,” and also the kingdom within – and it’s also stated in religion. But I think many of us – myself included – are confused on this. When we’re going outside to God, are we going outside to something. Is the answer out there? Is God outside us, or is finding God inside us?
ANSWER: Inside.
QUESTION: Why do we pray outside then?
ANSWER: Well, there is no need to do this. Praying outside is not the right direction. Since God is the universe and in every particle of every living thing, I cannot say that God does not exist outside, of course. For there’s no outside and inside – only an all. But you cannot experience God outside. You can only experience God within yourself. Therefore, if you look for God outside, you will never get to it.
QUESTION: But somehow, when you’re praying to a higher power, I know that God is in everything. Of course, that is the higher power…
ANSWER: Within.
QUESTION: …or suggests a higher power. I feel limitations in myself, certainly.
ANSWER: Within you. Within yourself.
QUESTION: Well, that’s what I’m saying, higher power suggests outside.
ANSWER: No, it does not. Higher is not to be taken geographically.
QUESTION: No, I know, but it suggests all. I am part of all and I think of God as all of all. Therefore, I look outside.
ANSWER: Well, you should look inside, inside. When you ask the truth about yourself, about a confusion, when you ask very simple questions seeking the truth – your own innermost truth – wherever you are at this moment, you will – if you open yourself – get answers from within; you will get the highest wisdom from within.
QUESTION: This feeling of being at one with the higher power that is outside and inside and everywhere, has to be, let’s say, triggered by something. In this Pathwork, I find that meditation is the only way.
ANSWER: Yes.
QUESTION: But something like watching children who formed an activity, as I did this afternoon, can put one in touch with something that must be true and real. And the feeling of devotion to this higher and greater, and certainly much more loving, power than one can experience within oneself, I think it’s necessary and it’s a beautiful thing. It is lacking very much in today’s attitude to most religion which we all share. And I just wonder how one can recapture this in a way that is contemporary.
ANSWER: Yes, it is very hard to find again a balance, because history has again here, in this respect, gone from one extreme to another. There were the times when everything was this outer inspiration, the outer form, the ritual, the symbolism. And then it became meaningless and flat and nothing but an outer gesture, without an inner life, so that then humanity turned from it and went the other way. The pendulum went into the other direction.
Now, we here try to combine the total human personality. The meditation brings you in contact with that power that can generate so much in you, so that your search with the mind and the feelings and the body becomes more energized and less frightening – for the illusion of something to be feared is ever present.
So this is the total combination that the new religions will bring eventually – not for a while yet, but it is beginning. It is beginning. When you say that you see the higher power in many manifestations of life, it is really a result rather than a cause. Because you cannot see this unless something is already open and moving within you.
You can have two people see exactly the same landscape, and one will feel nothing and perceive nothing and take it all for granted. The other will see in every particle, every blade of grass, the miracle of Creation. It is not that beautiful flower, that landscape, that gives you this. It can do that if you’re already perceptive for that, but it does not have to do it.
QA218 QUESTION: I have a roommate for the next few months who is very critical. My living condition now is very upsetting to me, because I feel I’m not myself with her. I get angry and I see the way she treats men. I know this must be an out-picturing and have some meaning for me. I would like some guidance about dealing with this, and what I have to focus on in myself.
ANSWER: I would say two things to you about this. The first is that this is an exaggerated, symbolic out-picturing of a part in you that is not anywhere near as strong. It is almost like a caricature. In that sense, it is a reminder. However, as a second suggestion, I would say to you, go very deeply into yourself and ask yourself, is it necessary for you to put this obstruction in your life? Do you need this constant reminder? Can you not be reminded without all this challenge coming up in you?
It is also possible that by accepting yourself and your problem that you could have a certain inner strength in which you can, perhaps, be a counter-influence. However, if you feel that you are not capable of that, you have to ask your inner being if you are not better served not to expose yourself to so much anger that is unnecessary for you. Only your inner being can answer this.
My suggestion is that you send that question deep into yourself and ask for the guidance from your higher self: What is the right thing to do? Ask specifically for the guidance; make yourself empty and listen, and give yourself over to the will of God also in this.
There is no smallest detail of everyday living where this procedure would not prove to be an extremely blessed one, that solves uncertainty. Unfortunately human beings forget that it can and must be used specifically for specific problems, problems that may often appear much too mundane to use such an approach. And yet, nothing is too mundane, nothing is too insignificant. Every decision has a deeper impact and reaches into deeper regions of the being.
QA229 QUESTION: How can we tell if we’re being psychically guided in a direction as opposed to making an impulsive decision?
ANSWER: It is, at the beginning of awareness of these deeper layers of self, not always immediately discernable what the self-will personality directs and what is guidance. The commitment to the will of God is an absolute security, which does not mean that that will make you immediately aware. That awareness will grow, and until it grows, the commitment and surrender to the will of God – to be guided according to the will of God – must be completed day in and day out, and really meant. Then the guidance will become very clear.
Until such time, you may have to take risks. It is all right. You can test it out. You can say, “I do not know. This may be partially one aspect of personality or perhaps it may be a spiritual guidance. I am not sure. I have to test this.” You have to also come in with your common sense in order to decide whether or not you want to take the risk of possibly making a mistake, or not. That is the groping that leads to growth. Making a mistake in an aware way is not at all a tragedy. And it may not be a mistake, whatever you may refer to.