Questions And Answers

By The Pathwork Guide

Greetings, I bring you blessings, my dearest friends, blessed is this lecture. This day on your earth sphere indicates a very special day. It marks a particular high point when the highest of all the created spirits performed the greatest act of love. Let us think of Him with all our love. We cannot honor Him better than pursuing this work in which we all have the privilege to participate -- you on your side and we on our side. In this way Jesus Christ, Who showed the way, will have truly done this greatest act of love for all of you. For only by the path of purification will you be able to benefit from His love, from His truth, and from His presence. Only in this way will you follow Him and His footsteps. You should not do so because of a must, but the recognition should grow in you that love and truth make one free. Love should always be the keyword. May it penetrate the deepest regions of your soul.

And now, my friends, I am ready to answer your questions to the best of my ability.

QUESTION: 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 he insisted that unless I did, then 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 has become a man sufficient that a mortal could, through mysterious rites, share in His divine life? Is this faith, plus the sacraments, sufficient to redeem man from the bonds of earthly guilt and earthly death and to awaken him to a new life which would mean eternal existence and blessedness?

ANSWER: 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. He who likes to believe that often does so because it would be very comfortable. Is not true, and the words of 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. 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 re-reading it, you will see that it was never implied or stated that the coming of Christ exempted the individual from his personal work and effort. The contrary is true.

It is possible that people reach salvation -- in other words, inner freedom, liberation from their untruth -- even though they do not accept Christ. This does not change the facts, however. The fact is that Jesus Christ is the highest of all the created beings. The fact is that He came to earth. The fact is that His coming was the turning point in the general development of all the fallen spirits. When personal development reaches the optimum point, then one is open for truth in every respect. One is capable of freeing oneself of prejudices and of preconceived ideas. Then nothing will stand in the way of experiencing the 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, the truth will penetrate as the result of an inner experience -- and not by the outward acceptance of a doctrine or a belief. On the other hand, it is equally possible that a person believes and accepts this truth -- or any other -- and still retains in his soul the obstructions that will not let him liberate himself. People hold on to certain prejudices according to their upbringing, to their environment, and to their personal inner misconceptions or images. Inner resistance blocks the way to the truth. One may also have these feelings and, out of these distorted emotions, embrace a truth by coincidence, so to speak. Then this truth will be ineffective because the motives are wrong, because 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 -- is the purification of the emotions. The right intent is what matters, and not what one outwardly accepts and believes. In the final analysis what matters is why one believes, how a belief has come into being, and on what inner motives it is based.

This Path that you are taking is bound to bring to the fore all your 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 that you need to have and to know, rather than accepting it merely with your intellect.

The truth of Jesus Christ will eventually be part of the inner experience of anyone who develops his soul. With some, this truth comes sooner and other truths come later. With other people, it is other way around. But to say, "You have to accept Jesus Christ" is just as wrong as saying that "You have to believe in God." It only creates harmful reactions, such as compulsion, guilt, resistance or rebellion. All the musts create situations which set up resistance to the truth. This truth is abused by making it a tool for the rulership principle in man. The other person senses it and then projects his resistance onto the Divine, instead of to the person. So the resistance is often just as wrong as that against which one resists. Both alternatives are wrong.

Faith in God, faith in Christ, faith as such is a major key. But faith cannot be commanded. Faith comes naturally when the obstructions are removed. All human beings possess an inner storehouse of faith, of love, of truth, and of wisdom. But these are locked away by the obstructions and the deviations. All these divine attributes are automatically released in the measure that the inner deviations straighten themselves out by the work on the Path. This comes always as an effect. It is a natural growth that can never be forced directly. When your religious teachers drum into you that you must have faith, then they do not accomplish anything. It will be a superimposed faith at best. And the stronger the superimposition, the stronger the inner, unconscious rebellion against one's superimposed faith -- which one adopts merely because it is expected and demanded. In other words, because one has to. It is the same with love. You cannot command yourself to love. In this depth work you eventually learn to understand why you have no faith, or why you have no no love, and what the inner wrong conclusions are that make you close the door to your inner well of faith and of love. In most cases these false conclusions are unconscious. But before you get to this point, you often have to become aware of the fact that you have no faith and that you have no love under the superimposed levels of false faith and of false love. Only after fully understanding the inner causes -- the misconceptions and the deviations, with all of 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.

Faith is a key, just as love is a key, and just as truth is a key. In its undiluted essence each one of them contains all of the other attributes. One is all and all is one. The question is not whether or not you should have it. About this there can be no doubt. The question is how you can get it, why you lack it, and what in you blocks the way to it. Then the Divine in you will be able to unfold. Then it is a key. It is the key to life, the key to the universe.

QUESTION: There still is the 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 trough one's own efforts.

ANSWER: I answered that. I said it cannot be. Everyone has to do the work himself.

QUESTION: You said that when the onstructions are removed, faith follows. But I know people who have faith and still have a lot of obstructions.

ANSWER: In the first place, as far as any divine attribute is concerned, it is always a question of degree with humanity. It cannot be said of any human being that he or she has complete faith or complete love. Often the lack is hidden in the unconscious. The greater part may be healthy and exist on the conscious level, 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 more healthy faith, but other divine attributes are afflicted, and they affect the personality. One can never oversimplify in this manner. Sometimes it is complicated because of the possibility that the faith a person has -- being either compulsive or escapist -- is not real faith but false faith. It may be a mixture of healthy faith, of an unconscious lack of faith, and of false faith. All that has to be found out, investigated, and honestly understood. Only then can you put order in your soul.

QUESTION: I would like to ask a question about self-responsibility. Would not self-responsibillity lead to irresponsibility toward others? If I am responsible just for myself, how then am I my brother's keeper? Woulnd't it lead to selfishness, being responsible only for my own life and well-being? I would look for that which is best and most suitable for me first, and only then consider the otehr fellow.

ANSWER: My dear, your question is based on so many wrong premises that it is hard to even begin to answer your question. Self-responsibility is not only completely incompatible with irresponsibility, but it is the opposite of the lack of responsibility. By asking this question, it is evident that for you there are only two alternatives: "Either I am responsible for myself or I am responsible for the other person." This is not true. When you are -- or should be responsible -- for another person, then you can fulfill this responsibility only if you have grasped the real meaning of self-sesponsibility. Otherwise, your responsibility for others will always fall short. It will be a farce and a self-deception.

Often people feel themselves to be overly responsible for others, thus deceiving themselves about their lack of self-responsibility. Now we come to the part about selfishness. This is an important subject to which I will devote part of a lecture in the near future. It touches upon a mass image which says: "Selfishness is pleasant. But one must not have it because it is considered wrong. But actually one would be happier if only one were able to be selfish. On the other hand, unselfishness is considered virtuous. But it is really a burden and does not make one happy." This is a very common mass image. To some degree it is part of almost every human being. It is extremely important to become aware of this part, no matter how small it may be. The existence of this mass image is bound to cause compulsion and rebellion -- and then guilt because of the rebellion. It causes all sorts of inner deviations and errors. It leads people into confusion. It is not selfish that you have the right to be what you are. This does not mean giving in to your lower nature. The real you will not desire to commit harmful acts. This work will bring out the real person, hidden behind the layers of pseudo-protection which are always wrong solutions to life. Once the real person is out, it will understand that unconstructive deeds, thoughts, or tendencies are unconstructive as such. If you harm someone else through your selfishness, then you are bound to harm yourself too. This is the truth. The real self is capable of understanding the truth, this or any other. With this insight, unselfishness will no longer be a compulsive burden that one unconsciously struggles against, sacrificing one's happiness in the belief that this constitutes unselfishness. If you are happy, then you will make others happy. In fact, only then can you really bring happiness, help, or any other constructive contribution to your fellow creatures. If you are either good or unselfish because of the compulsion -- based on this misconception -- then you can never contribute constructively to others, at least not in the long run. Self-responsibility has nothing to do with selfishness. If you find the real you and you are true to it, then you will unfold all that in you which is constructive. This is based on healthy motives, rather than on unhealthy ones. Other people are bound to benefit from that. You yourself benefit by becoming a happier person and you enjoy the right to be yourself without standing in the way of your surroundings. On the other hand, if you become a martyr and you sacrifice your rightful desires (not the crude, undeveloped and destructive desires) and you subordinate them because of such a misconception, then you are acting from erroneous and unhealthy motives from which no one can truly benefit. With many people it would be valuable to explore his good and unselfish acts in this light. On the surface these acts certainly appear to be unselfish. Yet they bring nothing but dissatisfaction. This is a telling sign that erroneous motives underlie such acts, possibly based on this common misconception that causes one to respond compulsively, rather than out of a free choice.

If you are true to yourself, then you cannot be selfish. But you will be unselfish in the healthy and free sense, reserving unto yourself the consideration that you have rights, too.

COMMENT: And self-responsibility means only that we are responsible for our own choice and also for the consequences. It has nothing to do with selfishness or unselfishness.

ANSWER: I know, but I also know what our friend meant. She meant it in a different way. But you are right of course. Self-responsibility does not mean that you just go ahead without considering anyone else. Self-responsibility means, foremost, finding out how you causes certain effects in your life and taking the responsibility for them upon yourself.

QUESTION: I would like to ask about a discrepancy. In the last Question and Answer Session the question was: "Is the total number of spirits incarnated and discarnated finite, and if so, does the number remain constant or are there additions and subtractions?" The answer was: "There certainly does not exist a destruction of any created spirits, therefore there can be no substraction. But the creation of new spirits is going on." Question: "Constantly?" Answer: "Indeed." Now, I would like to read from the lecture of february 1958, in which one of the questions was: "Are there any new spirit beings created?" And the answer was: "New spirits are not being created for the time being, not so long as the plan of salvation has not found its conclusion.

ANSWER: There is no contradiction, although I can easily see that it appears that way.