QA233 QUESTION: In the last year, we had a flurry of activities at the Center which resulted in a lot of movement, and then there has been a stoppage and a delay and a procrastination. In this aspect, there is a common pattern in our growth, and I would like to ask you to comment upon the nature of these reactions.
ANSWER: I will answer this question from several viewpoints – that is, concerning several layers or levels of consciousness. Let us perhaps start with the deepest, most meaningful level and then proceed from there on to the more superimposed levels that are results of this condition where the cause is really on a deeper level.
Now, the real inner cause is the fear of change and expansion and growth and movement that you know as a theory. All of you know this, and in some instances you can even observe it within yourself. However, in most instances, you are totally unaware of this fear. You are equally unaware of the fact that you cut, in some manner, the movement and stop it and prevent the further expansion.
This concerns your personal lives just as much as the life of the community and the venture you are all engaged in together as a whole. The movement is frightening as long as you feel undeserving of bliss. Bliss is frightening. Bliss, in which you do not have direct control of the mind and will of the conscious level, seems threatening and frightening.
This is not new to you but, nevertheless, it is very often a condition in you that happens as a conditioned reflex where you cut the flow, you cut the movement, you cut the feeling of bliss. You do this by, in one manner or another – and now we reach the next level of manifestation, an effect of this – producing some negativity.
You either interpret certain events in a certain way so as to feel justified in a stopping, resisting, angry halt, or you deny that the halt exists, or you create a situation in which you believe yourself unduly injured, misunderstood, and so on and so forth. These are the general patterns. They exist within the individual in a one-to-one relationship toward his own personal expansion in his vocation, and they just as much exist in the general development of your community, in all communities, in all levels of life.
Divine, creative flow brings forth the golden light of joyful excitement and peace – an intense pleasure. This is experienced by the soul who is still self-rejecting or feels undeserving, and therefore creates negativity, and also vice versa, because of the negativity feels undeserving; it works both ways. To that degree, there must be instituted some kind of artificial creation that justifies a negative interaction and an obstruction.
Now I say to you, my friend, you are truly ready to recognize this and not persist in a defensive stance. You are truly ready and capable of connecting with this aspect in you, and admitting it to yourself and your peers.
There are generally two rationalizations that are taking place on the still outer level, on the so-called psychological level of behavior, which is a result of the former – namely, what I just said. The one is transference situations, rebelling against authority, feeling the need to say No to an authority. The other is the ego involvement of requiring appreciation and praise, and when this is not forthcoming, feeling very injured about it.
All of these are artificial creations; they are artifacts. They are resorted to for the inner reason that you feel and want to be disconnected from that part that says, “I do not deserve it. And the fullness and abundance and bliss of the experience are, therefore, threatening to me.” If only you could connect with this. You could if you would; you could if you really wanted to. And you are, indeed, ready for that.
I say also to you, two specific pieces of advice. One, when you deal with the issues that come forth where you become sometimes involved in doubt and in fluctuation and in confusion about what to do and how to do it, each alternative can always be rationalized. However, there is another way of dealing with such situations that I very seriously recommend.
My recommendation to deal with this is twofold. Number one is to realize what I just said to you, and to ask yourselves the question first, “Am I threatened by bliss, abundance and movement? Can I connect with that feeling? If I can connect with that feeling, I can stop the justifications, and I truly want to know that this is what I am doing.”
The second suggestion in this respect is to go much more often into your innermost being, into the will of God about this or that specific issue. Whenever you do so, you almost immediately arrive at beautiful solutions and at a unification that eliminates the diversity of feelings, the conflicts, the quarrels, the false injuries, and so on and so forth.
You will very soon see how unnecessarily you produce all that in order to disconnect from the fact that you are frightened and feel undeserving – and that is why you are frightened. But once you acknowledge this, you can immediately go into the next step and stretch beyond that limited stance and say, “The will of God will guide me, and I can deserve, I do deserve. I want to give my most sincere in this particular issue as in all other issues. And therefore, I can trust the movement where I am moved from a force that is greater than myself. I need not fear it. I do not need to control it.” Speaking such words will create the commensurate energy.
Another thing I want to say in connection with the often-occurring and recurring transference situation, which is, however, only a superficial layer compared to this inner reason I talked about. Nevertheless, it has to be recognized for what it is. When you find yourself rebelling against authority, two approaches have to be used. Both of them.
One, is it true that this authority is depriving you, is against you, is the authority you experienced when you were a child? Is it true that such authority figures are unfairly in their position and impose upon you? Ask yourselves such questions with an open mind. Recognize these feelings that would make such questions very appropriate.
The second approach to such feeling or thought or both is that every one of you is in exactly the position where they belong. If you have an authority position in such kind of a venture as this, it is precisely because you give and you take responsibility, and not because of some unfair fate that sets you above others.
It is also precisely because more sincerity and willingness to give up the ego-oriented interests for the sake of greater interests prevail. To the degree the ego interests still persist in you – the smaller self that wants to be praised, that wants to prove something – to that degree you will experience those who perhaps have gained more authority – through their commitment, through their giving, through their responsibility, through their openness of channel – as enemies, and resent them.
In the same way, you will be experienced as an enemy that is resented by those who give less than you, who are less honestly committed to the truth and the will of God. Remember this, my friends, and begin to eliminate the blockage you unnecessarily put in the way. It is no longer necessary, even though you still have your imperfections and will not be perfect for a while.
Nevertheless, you can move and flow with the beautiful force you create and set in motion through your commitment, your goodwill, your love, your truth, your earnestness of serving a greater cause, and your willingness to recognize where and when the little ego gets involved and presents the hindrances that you have actually already outgrown.
Use your ability to connect with your higher self! Use your presence of mind to let go of the little self-will, the little pride, and the little fear! And go into the flow and deliberately choose to trust it. Trust the will of God and the bliss that arises from it. Seek together the answers in the spirit of God, and you will less and less have to deal with disagreements, frictions, injuries, etcetera, etcetera.
They are all illusions, my friends, illusions that are deliberately designed to stop your own expansion. You may feel injured and use this intent to be so, as a means to deprive yourself of the bliss of God and the bliss of the Earth life that is yours. Or you may choose to be negative, rejecting, judging toward others, which is really one and the same thing for the same reasons. It does not matter what it is. Either way, it is unnecessary; it is an artifact, bar none.
I ask you to not just forget about this answer, but to study it deeply, and to take it each individually who are involved in this beautiful, noble venture, to go into it by yourself and all together. And I promise you, my beloved friends, in the first place, wherever there was disagreement, it will melt like the snow in the sun.
Wherever there was injury produced in such a foolish manner, it will be recognized for the game it always was, but that you lose sight of. Wherever there was self-righteous indignation, self-justification and blame, that too will melt like ice in the fire – in the fire of truth, in the fire of unity of purpose, in the fire of God’s love in which you’re all one together, concerned for one higher purpose.
QA233 QUESTION: As we expand, we go from one new venture to the other one, and we can’t finish the old, like the barn; we have to stop unfinished. Then we try to take Hill House. We always have to take people away from the work because we expand. I’m bothered that we are unable to keep up with the work; I’m frustrated somehow.
ANSWER: What is very important here to recognize is that the manifestation you talk about is a result of what the first question was: the fear of expansion and an unrecognized intent to halt the movement. Then such manifestations will come about. You have to see it, not as a cause but as an effect.
Also in connection with this question, I would say, the movement that you describe here is a very important movement. The best way for me, perhaps, to describe it is you – and I mean all of you, of course – have to train yourself to be aware and attuned to this movement and to willingly follow it.
There must be a constant interchange between your active principle to give with the outer self – with your will, with your mind, with your activity, with your actions, with your deeds – to do the necessary in order to be able to flow with the movement. I indicated this before: that man has very often a dichotomy in concept in this respect.
It is felt that you are either active or you are passively being carried by the movement. Both are true. But you can be carried only if you catch up with it in a state of alert attention and attunement to this movement. You must truly feel it. If you do not feel it and you have unconsciously a stake, for the reasons I said before, in blocking the movement, you cannot catch up with it. The movement is there, but you limp behind it. And it becomes a strain and an effort.
Movement flows harmoniously, and only if you add to it by fully giving your active forces to it will there be an organic interchange. Then your movement will not be so effortful, because the flow that carries you will constantly energize you. Your own energy will create the further movement that will then carry you into the further stages.
But when that is stopped, consciously or unconsciously, then the movement that has been accelerated from past efforts is still in its own momentum, flows forth, and the consciousness aspect in you that does not add to it, does not trust it, does not want to go with it, does not want to activate the creative movement in yourself to stay in tune with it, will then produce some kind of manifestation that stops and becomes a discrepancy.
The unfinished nature of things is one such typical manifestation and it should be viewed as such. If you take such a problem, whether it is this problem or any other, and come together in a deep meditation, asking for solutions so that you can finish – and at the same time also handle the new emergencies that may come up – you will find solutions that both can be handled, if you see what I’m saying here, and counteract it by the advice and the suggestions I gave.
Then, in such a common meditation, you can truly activate your own active principle, and at the same time, the receptive principle. They become one: the active principle, to do whatever is necessary in order to stay with the movement, and the receptive principle, by being carried by them.
239 QUESTION: I would like to ask your guidance on our crisis intervention program. We have tried to follow your suggestions as closely as possible. But as far as I am concerned there are two kinds of attitudes: one that is overcautious and examines everything and kills spontaneity, and the other, which gives in with a carelessness rather than a trust in the spontaneous growth. I find that when we discuss individual cases we get caught in this type of dilemma.
ANSWER: I would make the following comments and suggestions. When the person who is in crisis asks for the help, then the difficulties will be relatively small. When the person refuses to acknowledge his state of crisis, it should not be forced upon him. At the same time it would be important to tell the person, “We think you are in crisis. We are willing to give you help, if you wish it. If you do not wish it, it is your responsibility,” and let it go at that.
As to the people who are open for it and request it, you have, so far, always seen that it was very helpful and very effective. The only thing I might suggest is that when you get entangled in these contradictory currents, you immediately let go and flow together in your focusing into your inner channels, to the guidance of the will of God, and it will come.
You will find the right balance between giving, reaching out and moving, between spontaneity and cautiousness. At times discuss the problems with the person who is in need of help, without necessarily making it a Helper session. And at other times simply be there with love and prayer and companionship. No rules exist. Only the intuitive connection will be valid and reliable. And that will come through prayer.
QA242 QUESTION: Several questions have been asked in the past about the water problems at the Center and the answers concern our general inability to flow. Many fruitful steps have been taken, but all problems with the power and the drinking water – swimming pool, even the septic system – still fester. We have many ideas on how to fix each one and we’re proceeding. However, this week, as we drained the pond and tried to fix the leak in it, we discovered that a beaver was building a home on the far side of the pond, and he was also cutting down trees voraciously. The implications of this conflict in me really ungrounded me. I feel an incredible relationship with this beaver and though I’ve never asked a question before, I really need your help to help me to know how to flow in this situation.
ANSWER: I will speak, first of all, about the flow, which, of course, is symbolized by the water in terms of the consciousness toward the community and all my friends on the Path, and then I will speak personally to you. There is on the one hand so much growth, so much development, so much expansion that the still existing negative insistences – that is all I can call it – that on the other hand prevail, create a flowing crisis, which manifest, of course, in the water.
Now, if you look but carefully into yourselves – all of you or most of you – you will see to what incredible and beautiful degree you have grown and expanded and recognized clearly your lower self. You can take responsibility for it and increasingly you can make a decision to think and pray and commit yourself, and want and truly act upon the higher-self principle. And this has brought new energy and incredibly beautiful manifestations.
You can also see how certain old attitudes fester and you do not wish to go near them. You still wish to hide them and explain them and conceal them and justify them and continue to act them out. There are still such attitudes and they’re all the more damaging and powerful in their energetic content because they no longer have room in you.
Would you be still really there, they would not have these manifestations. But you’re not there. You’re already beyond the jealousies and envy and competitiveness that still pollutes your consciousness. You are no longer there, nor are you still in the position where you need to enviously resent authority figures and spite them and say No under false excuses, so as not to be in your mask self and not to obey in a childish fearful sense – where you resist truly activating what is already there – your higher self, in full-flowering.
It’s that full-flowering higher self that is already manifest, that is already available to be acted upon. And since that acting upon is being refused, then the negative manifestation – notwithstanding all the positive ones – must still occur.
So I would say that all of you should really see: Where do you act still upon the lower self principles without even really wanting to look at it, where you still justify it, where you still hide it, and where you no longer need to do this? That is the manifestation.
Now, to you particularly, I want to say that in your case, the water will affect you no more and no less than what I say to everyone else. But there is a specific significance for you with the beaver. [Much laughter] It is an underground force in you that wants to eat away at your tree of life. And that underground force is not something in itself bad; it is not something vicious or evil, as the beaver is not such an animal.
It is just an element in you that is denied and therefore it is given the wrong nourishment. If you see its significance, then that element that is represented or symbolized by the beaver will become conscious. It need not be feared and denied, and it can be given different nourishment and it will no longer eat you up inside, for you must feel that force, do you not?
QUESTION: Yes, very much.
ANSWER: So prepare yourself for wanting to find that part in you, that element in you. Do not fear it, because in itself, it is lovable and divine and beautiful. It is just misguided, misplaced and misused. And if only you make the full commitment to all of you and to seeing everything and to taking in everything about you, you will not have to fear anything. You will have a wonderfully relieving experience and enlightenment, where that part in you will take on a new force. It will enliven you.
It will just be shifted into another way of expressing itself. Instead of undermining you and eating you up and eating up the best of your efforts by infiltrating false thinking into your mind, you will shift it in another way. What is now destructive will then really be constructive. It is not, in itself, something evil. Do you understand?
QUESTION: Not fully, but I intend to.
ANSWER: You will. You will. It will all become very clear to you.
QA245 QUESTION: First, I feel that we need to learn something from the fact that we are anticipating an unexpectedly high deficit at the Center. What is the message? Second, I am personally concerned about our need to develop greater consciousness with regards to labor, organization and efficiency at the Center. Are we violating a spiritual law here? Is there ignorance and/or negative intentionality here? And third, I feel that we can create more abundance by utilizing our powers of thought and visualization, and perhaps through this, we can also accelerate the process of materialization. I suspect that the law of efficiency is connected to this creative process. Could you comment please?
ANSWER: I will indeed answer these questions in one, for there is truly one underlying cause and answer to all these questions. It has not remained unobserved by some of you that there is a tremendous new influx of a new energy coming forth, trying to penetrate the consciousness of each individual that is actively involved in the creation of this community.
Such new energy surges come sporadically in the development of all organisms. I have discussed this in the past. I repeat it here now. When an infant grows into a child, when a child grows into an adolescent, when an adolescent grows into an adult, a surge of energy penetrates the organism to make room for the expansion that is to come. The same principle exists in many less drastic changes, on all levels.
Whenever any aspect of the organism holds back and resists this new influx, all sorts of undesirable consequences ensue. The organism can become ill or thwarted in other ways. It is always painful. On this Path, you have experienced before, some resistance to new energies for which the collective entity that you are is ready. This created crises in different forms. When all went smoothly and you experienced bliss in being part of this great venture, it meant that most of you followed the movement and rhythm.
At this particular time, most of you are ready for the new influx of energy and consciousness. But that does not mean it is not resisted by some. Some of you are truly ready and also follow outwardly the inner call. You give in to what penetrates your being. You turn more intensely to the truth of God and Christ.
You thus find new courage to claim your new state of consciousness. Others wish to stagnate in the old state and obstruct the movement. If new followers on the Path resist, there is no damage, there are no undesirable results. They can be led gradually into this new stage by the leaders and the Helpers.
But when leaders and Helpers obstruct movement, serious results must ensue. It all depends on the degree of obstruction and the degree of flowing with the new influx, and allowing awareness of this new influx. You now experience tremendous expansion that manifests inwardly in indescribable new energy, strength and joy. And it manifests outwardly by so much that is happening on your path.
But you also experience some conflicts and friction that arise from those who could indeed follow the rhythm and the flow, but who fight against it. This can create all sorts of commensurate manifestations. Material mismanagement is one such manifestation. If and when all of you who are leaders and Helpers follow the great influx fully and joyously, all the difficulties you mention will disappear.
You will find new modalities, new measures that will be utterly right and harmonious. New approaches and abilities to manage, to visualize, to organize, to be efficient in a holy way, will emerge. Efficiency, as the world knows it, is usually a separated and God-estranged attitude. It is also thought of as something that has little to do with spirituality. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Expertise in every field – efficiency in economic and financial matters – can and must be Christ-infused. This will bring the harmony and smooth running that will leave your minds free to concentrate on inner matters. It will also give you abundance and beauty that are the true outward manifestations of God’s Creation.
The surge is strong; it is like a wind that sweeps you into a new land of beauty. If you resist it, the wind will break you. All of you must go deeply into yourselves and question yourselves where you are in this respect. It has been said by some of you who truly feel the inner truth, that you can no longer afford to resist this movement.
It can mean unbelievable, wondrous fulfillment and realization you never dreamed of. It can mean unnecessary and painful crisis. Be clear that your attitude determines which way you go. Go with the influx, my beloved friends. It is so very important that you do so. It means many changes and new ways in running the organization. They are all there waiting for you.
Ideas will pour in from many channels, and they will combine one wondrous wholeness, for they all stem from the same source. New modalities have already been picked up about helping to eliminate false thinking in the individuals of this community, that must go beyond sessions and groups.
Spiritual leadership will be extended in many new ways and will help a great deal. It will spread truth and eliminate untruth. Not one little misunderstanding or false idea is unimportant. Pain should be taken to straighten it out. This will cleanse the soul matter of many people, and make the organism Pathwork much more receptive to God’s intent for all of you.
QUESTION: I have had the following inspiration about the future of work at the Center; I see it becoming an important area of Helpership. I see people coming to learn how to work. I see us developing detailed approaches that enable people to do everything they do from their core, with their whole body and soul, whether it is using a pick or screwing in a fixture. I see each department undertaking this task. Therefore I believe that work here should be approached as following, at the present: that we fully incorporate the Pathwork process into it, including in each department daily review, meditation and visualization. This will teach us in precise detail what obstacles we erect and how to remove them. Could you please comment and give us guidelines.
ANSWER: Yes, indeed, you have been inspired. This is the way. The new culture that is being created will learn new approaches to all sorts of work in this new way, which connects with the meaning of whatever the work task may be. The activity will no longer be a separated act, mechanically executed. This alienation in the activity from its inner meaning creates boredom and therefore resistance to work.
When you work with this new approach, the task will become interesting, stimulating and energizing. But this can only be done when what I said in the last answer is followed through, when the individual no longer resists the new movement. My specific advice at this time is for every participant to ask himself or herself in the meditation preceding the work, with what attitude to approach the work project to be undertaken.
Is there an awareness cultivated that your Center needs this particular work, and what exactly is the need for? Do you wish to contribute to the fulfillment of this need? How much love and goodwill do you invest in this?
When this is clarified and combined with the physical movements to be carried out according to the principles you learn, you will create miracles that will gradually be given over to others in the world. Here too, you must consider yourselves pioneers and privileged as such, rather than resentfully obeying an authority you wish to see as negative.
QA253 QUESTION: For some time, there has been discussion about a new name for the political committee at the Center. People have been concerned about the partisan implications that the word “political” carries, especially in relation to our legal status. It has also become clear recently that even the meaning of the word “politics” in its purest form, having to do with the politea, or city state, as a political entity, is outmoded.
What is needed is a name that expresses the innate striving and movement toward oneness in humankind, as well as the relationship between our individual inner truths and larger entities of which we are all a part. A number of us have thought, meditated and brainstormed about this new name, but without success. Our efforts have not been as serious as they need to be, and I do sense a resistance in us to discover our real name.
Could you please comment on the obstructions that bar us from finding our name, and perhaps suggest steps we might take to uncover it? Could you also comment on the particular spiritual laws and principles that people need to connect with, and that should be expressed in our name?
ANSWER: What should be expressed in the name is the word “government,” perhaps somehow in connection with New Age governmental approaches. However, this is not a direct suggestion about the actual name to use. It is merely a hint about what is the essence. Because this is, after all, what your committee strives for: new governmental approaches, unitive governmental approaches that vastly differ from the dualistic ones of me versus you, right versus wrong. With this hint you may come up with an appropriate designation.
The reason for your being blocked is the same old authority problem. The word “government” elicits associations of being governed, of an authority structure or a hierarchy that you still resist. At the same time, your current name, Political Science Group, is fine and completely acceptable. A change should not be forced; it must always be an organic process.