Happiness As A Link vs. Happiness As A Link In The Chain Of Life

By The Pathwork Guide

Greetings in the name of God. I bring you God’s blessings. My dear ones, God’s spirit world would want nothing more than to help you to grow spiritually – into happiness, into harmony, and into light. And God’s spirits try continually to extend their helping hand so as to bring you over those hurdles where you are struggling with the difficulties in your spiritual development on this path toward perfection. However, we can only help, we cannot force. First you have to want it, and thereby open the door through this wanting. Only then will you perceive this help as a palpable reality. And this, in turn, will increase your feelings of security and will deepen your trust in the reality and in the sincerity of God's spirit world. Yet only too often man pays no attention to these heavenly spirits around him. As a result, he will not see, he will not hear, and he will not feel those who offer him their helping hand. Even if he believes in principle in the existence of God and His spirits, he doesn’t think that this has an effect on his personal life with all its problems. Thus he closes the door, and it is likely that he will take the wrong path. Going in the wrong direction often begins with a seemingly trivial choice. But the more he moves away from the central focus, the greater the chances are that he will end up in a dead-end street, from where it will be even more difficult to find his way out. And although he loves God and he wants the good, he often doesn’t see that in himself which is the determining factor in his development and in his fulfillment. This factor might appear as an unimportant detail, yet it could be the mainspring, the root of a complexity of unhealthy currents in his soul. He doesn’t make himself receptive to it, he won’t tune into the inspiration coming from the divine spirits. For it is always more comfortable to stay in the old way. The result is sadness or dissatisfaction with life; he doesn’t know why, but this is often the reason, my friends.

Thus it is my task to give you hints, to awaken you. May each of you find what applies to him personally. But even for this your desire has to be there. Only then can you absorb and assimilte this material coming from the outside.

When a human being sets himself a goal, whether consciously or just emotionally, and this goal is a selfish one, then he will often not be able to reach that which he wants. And even if he reaches it, its effects, and the satisfaction it gives him will be a fleeting one. It will dry out, it will become shallow, and eventually it will dissolve. If you want happiness just for yourself, then you will not become happy. Most likely you will say, "but of course I do not want happiness for myself only. I will be very glad to see my fellow human beings also happy." But it makes a great deal of difference whether this is just a general and rather superficial thought, formed out of a sense of duty, or whether this wish penetrates your whole being. Each one of you can look inside in order to ascertain how deep this wish really is. For here, too, you may deceive yourself: here, too, you may want something with your mind, having already learnt one thing or another, but another part of your personality, which I call the lower self, pulls your emotions into a different direction. And this part doesn't really care for the other person -- not emotionally, though in your mind you may indeed wish him well -- that is, as long as it doesn't cost you personal sacrifice or any great effort. And this is the crux of the matter. Of course, almost anybody, unless he is on a very low level of development, will in theory be glad when good things happen to another. But even a developed person often detects in himself, if he is honest, some envy, or a slightly malicious joy over the misfortune of others.

How far along is any individual in this respect? Is he willing to give something up for the sake of another? Ask yourself: "Do I want happiness because I want to be happy, or is this the second consideration?" Whoever goes to God and says: "Of course, I cannot fool You, just as I cannot fool myself. True, I want to be happy, but when I obtain this happiness, I want to maintain it by becoming a link. What I receive from You I wish to convey to others in some form, even if I have to make a sacrifice -- perhaps to renounce my ego gratification. Please, show me how I can give out to others all that I have received from You." If you immerse yourself again and again into this thought, until it takes root in your soul, until it becomes such a powerful spiritual form that it penetrates your entire being on the deepest level of your feelings, then you will have fulfilled the conditions. Then this particular spiritual law can manifest itself through you, and then you will be truly happy, exactly because your own happiness is no longer the ultimate goal of your endeavors. That is, the "I" will give up its self-importance for the sake of the "Thou." Then you seek happiness not only because you want it. On the contrary, your goal will be to give happiness to others. And your own happiness will merely be a way station, so to speak. In other words, your happiness will be given to you so that you can pass it on. Thus you will become a link in the chain, which is the sole requisite to keep the stream of happiness alive and flowing. In this way it will never dry out. Whatever the person who functions as such a link gives out will be reciprocated a hundredfold. God will always show you how -- in other words, in what form -- your love, or your knowledge, or your happiness can be passed on to others. But first you must have the readiness to do so. Today, tomorrow, next week, and every day you have to make the resolution to be in readiness; you must conquer your resistances, and do this consciously, not by pushing your resistances out of your consciousness. Then you must try to translate this readiness into action. And then God can give you more help in how to proceed, and the spiritual law can begin to fulfill itself.

Let each and every one of you now think about what particular blessings you have. It may be good health, it may be spiritual strength, or it may the happiness and the security of a loving relationship. It is different with each one of you. Everybody has received a special treasure from God. And once you have made the decision, "I no longer want to be the ultimate goal, but rather a link in the chain," then it will be shown to you how you can pass on that which you have received, and you will also be richly rewarded, for that is the law.

At the same time, you will not take your gifts and your treasures for granted. This is always a sign of spiritual desiccation and it causes the gifts that you possess to lose their luster because the law of giving and receiving has been violated. If you are a living link in the chain, then every one of your gifts will regain its value, and the joy and the pleasure that you had lost will be restored to you.

And as with happiness in general, so it is with every one of its components that man may desire: love, strength, health, freedom -- everything, everything. Whatever one wants for one's own sake will wither away and eventually dissolve. But whatever is sought for the sake of the other, as a link in the chain, will blossom and will flourish -- both for yourself and for the other.

For instance, many people are caught up in their struggle to become free. They avoid anything that could bind them. But the same law applies here also. He who desires freedom for selfish reasons will find himself bound on the inner level. On the other hand, he who desires freedom in order to be a link in the chain -- for example, to carry out some special task for God's Plan of Salvation and for his fellow human beings -- for example, he will give his energy to further the upward development of the human consciousness -- will be free, not only on the outer level but also inwardly. As long as man lusts for freedom out of pure egoism, elevating himself above God and claiming freedom from the spiritual laws, then he becomes less and less free; his freedom will turn into bondage; he will find himself in fetters. He who allies himself with God and with His laws will continually increase his freedom and his independence. This is the immutable law, which man cannot overthrow. God's laws were created in wisdom and in love, and he who wants to revolt against them out of defiance and out of ignorance -- either because he cannot as yet understand them or because he doesn't want to comprehend them for unhealthy emotional reasons -- must become increasingly unhappy with the resulting tight inner bondage.

Many people revolt against human injustice. They cannot comprehend that God is just in spite of human errors and that infallible justice reigns in spirit. God's justice makes use of human injustice in order to bring about ultimate justice.

My dear ones, this may appear contradictory to some of you. Nevertheless, this is not so. The equation balances itself out. I will give you an example. Let us suppose that a criminal who has committed several crimes has gotten away with it every time. He laughs into his beard, both at the stupidity of people and at the lack of justice, which seems to be to his advantage. Then, one day he is arrested for a crime he did not commit. You will find that it is exactly this kind of person who will scream the loudest about the injustice in this world. He went scot free all those times and now, when he is innocent, he is forced to pay. The more obstinate such a person is, the less he will recognize the great justice prevailing over the minor injustice. He will not want to see this. But this is how he is being tested. For it would be too easy to recotnize spiritual justice, with all its ramifications, if the connection between crime and punishment were always so evident. The imperfection which each human being has created for himself must now be the remedy, so to speak, through which he can regain the lost perfection.