Love Is Not A Commandment, But A Spontaneous Soul Movement Of The Inner Self

By The Pathwork Guide

Greetings, my dearest friends. Blessings for all of you who read these words.

In all the years that these lectures have been given it has become apparent, through this work of self-realization, that unreality breeds disharmony. And where there is disharmony, there is no love. The circle closes. Where there is no love, then there can be no fulfillment.

All religions, all philosophies, and all psychology agree that love is the key to everything: to fulfillment, to security, to creative growth. And yet love cannot be commanded, nor can it be a commandment. It is a free, spontaneous soul movement. The more it is striven for due to conscience and obedience, the less does it succeed.

Where there is love, there must be fulfillment. Where there is lack of fulfillment in a life then it is a sure sign that somewhere the soul has not yet learned to love. This simple equation is often overlooked, although the words may be understood in a general sense.

Let us look deeper into this topic now in order to come a step closer toward attaining that greatest of all keys -- not through a forced, artificial, superimposed command by your intellect, but through a spontaneous inner activity of the heart.

Where there is love there must be physical health, which is one of the great desirable factors in human life. Love is a purifying force. To the degree that love is lacking -- and this trouble goes unrecognized for a long time -- to that degree all sorts of negative emotions will cause ill health.

Where there is love, there must be successful human relationships, because there is no fear, no distrust, no illusion. For love can flower only on the substantial soil of reality and fearlessness. Where one perceives the truth, one does not trust or distrust in the wrong place. One accepts the other as he is and therefore adjusts one's own feelings to this reality. There is no necessity for groping in the dark, fearfully half-trusting and half-distrusting, being thrown between one's needs and one's fears.

Love and self-confidence are interdependent. Where love is lacking, the psyche must be confused. It works in both ways: it is equally true to state that where confusion exists, love must be lacking.

When love exists, then all the conflicts must be eliminated. The personality finds the fine borderline between apparent extremes or between the healthy version and the distorted version of an attitude. For example, the expression of healthy aggressiveness without deviating into unhealthy aggressiveness or hostility. There is no confusion between the alternatives of either submissiveness or a dominating selfwill. You will know when to assert your rights -- but without hostility and false aggression -- against unjustified demands, the fulfillment of which is destructive for all concerned. Nor will you be driven to stubborn rebelliousness because conceding always appears like submissive, humiliating giving in. It is only through love that these precarious balances are achieved. These fine balances come automatically through the heart's ability to love. But they remain elusive when intellectual understanding tries to find the golden mean, no matter how arduously.

And yet this universal key is so difficult for mankind to use. There is nothing that man is more afraid of -- and therefore shies away from -- than of allowing himself to love. Loving seems such a risk, it seems so dangerous, it seems so threatening, it seems so irrevocable. Nothing could be further from the truth. But man builds elaborate defenses and then he flees. He not only flees from involvement, from contact with others, and from facing his faults and the destructive attitudes in himself, but primarily from allowing himself to love. This prohibition causes all the other ills.

The prohibition against loving is the result of two basic misunderstandings. The first is the misinterpretation of reality, or illusion. Where illusion exists, confusion results and therefore a host of negative emotions, such as fear, hostility, separateness, ambivalence, and vindictiveness. Hence, love becomes impossible. If man were in reality within his innermost concepts, within his perceptions, and within his value system, then it would be unthinkable that he could be afraid of loving. The second is the underestimation of the self, or inferiority feelings. Off hand, this may sound almost paradoxical. Superficially viewed, it seems possible not to think much of oneself without the impairment of one's ability to love. And yet, my friends, this is not so. For when you underestimate yourself, then you cannot perceive the other person as real. Because of your feelings of helpless weakness and of inadequacy others assume the role of giants against whom you defend yourself by rejecting them, by resenting them, or by despising them. When you think so little of yourself, then it not occur to you to sense the other's vulnerability, his human needs. Both his strengths and his weaknesses become distorted and discolored. Both represent hostile elements -- hostile to you personally. Therefore, your inferiority feeling forces you into a hostile role, no matter how this is camouflaged by you outer submissiveness -- which in itself may appear as lovingness. Because you think so little of yourself, you do not evaluate the importance of your actions and of your reactions.

The two factors, underestimation of the self and the misinterpretation of reality -- which are interrelated -- create the barrier to and the apparent danger of loving. It is these factors that make the human heart so timid and so reticent. The over-caution of love creates withdrawal and isolation. Many people are half-willing to love. But this half-willingness denies love rather than affirms it. It makes all sorts of conditions and provisions. There are always so many ifs and buts.

The lack of love -- which is the result of illusion, of confusion, of distorted perception, and of the lack of a proper self-evaluation -- is followed by disturbed interaction with others and therefore by disharmony. These disturbed emotions and distorted perceptions form a nucleus, almost like a foreign body.

The original being, as it was created, knows nothing of these disturbances. Its nature is love, a fearless state of abundance, of positiveness, of productivity, of expansion, and of meaningful growing -- in the universe and with the universe. Its natural state is the wisdom that comes from being in reality and from perceiving reality. The nucleus, this foreign body, prohibits the soul from being in its natural state -- the state it is born with and born into.

Man struggles and fights against this foreign body in a wrong way. He senses its existence and wants to rid himself of it. But tragically the way in which this is attempted is often the opposite of what leads to the successful elimination of it. He struggles by denial, by flight, by forcing away, and by superimposing.

Although you may have heard these words from me many times and you know of the process, still this has not opened the door. Many of my friends on the path still fail to see that their struggle is still against acknowledging this foreign body. They often find themselves in an interim state between giving up the shackles that have covered this foreign body so far and not yet being able to muster the courage to acknowledge all the aspects of this foreign body and its full significance.

Looking away from, and therefore denying, this foreign body causes more misery than admitting it. Man feels that he has to deny it because of the teachings of truth and love which he misunderstands, and therefore misapplies. Instead of ridding himself of the foreign body -- for which purpose it is necessary to look closely at it so as to understand its nature and the reason for which it has come into existence -- he acts as though it does not exist and he superimposes still another matter onto his soul substance.

Why is it so difficult to acknowledge this foreign body? Not only because of the fear that others will find fault with him and reject him, but also because of the more basic fear that the foreign body may be the ultimate of himself. His level of consciousness at this stage tells him that only on this level -- a superimposed veneer that covers the foreign body -- does he have love, generosity, unselfishness, kindness. He feels that only there he is as good as he wants to be. It is only with this outer level that he gains the confidence -- precarious as this confidence is -- to be a decent person. However, the awareness of his goodness does not give him a sense of reality because he has not yet discovered that in him which is genuinely good and genuinely loving. Man does not dare to acknowledge the opposite of this seeming goodness. He struggles against admitting that which is actually foreign to his real nature, but he does not know this. He thinks, he fears, he suspects that the foreign substance is his ultimate self. And therefore struggle ensues.

Man cannot command that vital part of himself, that inner being, which responds not out of a mask, but to a natural, unquestioned "I want to." When you communicate with it, then the response is so free and contains such utter rightness, without any conflict, that it is hard to conceive of it before this vital life center within is experienced. The foreign substance covers up this experience of the real self -- the vital life center -- with its spontaneous, loving intelligence, its unconflicting and unconflicted fulfillment.

Man fears this vital step -- which is necessary in order to liberate himself from the substance that is not compatible with his real nature -- because he anticipates that it is the final answer to himself. In other words, he fears that his lower self is he.

Many of you have already advanced in certain areas and have succeeded, at least to some degree, in stripping yourselves of the superimpositions: the false goodness and the false love. But you have not yet succeeded in seeing that these pretenses are in fact pretenses, because you fear that underneath the pretense there is nothing but the opposite of love. In other words, that there is no further reality. So you cannot experience the truth of your genuine lovingness and of your genuinely generous nature unless you take the apparent risk of exploring yourself so as to find whether the foreign substance -- which is causing you so much misery -- is the ultimate you or whether you find the promised land underneath. Only by diligently taking stock of your non-love can you spontaneously feel your love. Only by diligently taking stock of your selfishness can you truly convince yourself of your potential unselfishness.

This requires courage. This courage comes into being when you reach out for it and when you love truth more than anything else -- the truth of encountering yourself as you are. Take your daily reactions of disharmony and meditate in the following way: "If I am in disharmony, then it means that somewhere in me there must be a misinterpretation. I wish to see the truth. If I resist, then I declare that my will to be in truth is stronger than my resistance."

Such a meditation must give you the results you wish. Then you will come to a point in the process where you clearly feel the foreign body as just that. Many victories over your fearful resistance are experiences of what it feels like to function out of this vital life center -- which now is more unobstructed than ever before. As a result, out of your solar plexus region will flow a new wisdom, a new strength, a new serenity, a dynamic vitality, a fearless lovingness for all of creation, a new security, a new understanding of the self, a better understanding of others, a oneness with all of creation, a fearlessness of letting your soul movements flow forward in the beautiful rhythm of the cosmos. When you have experienced this -- at first only occasionally and weakly, only to lose it again and then doubt the reality of the few moments of bliss, only to re-encounter it later more often and more lastingly, in proportion to the victories over your resistance -- then you will come to realize that the disturbed nucleus is foreign matter. At the beginning of such a path this nucleus seems to be all there is to you, to be your natural state, as it were. You are so deeply involved in it that you cannot conceive of anything else. But after you have experienced the real self more often, there comes a time when the still existing nucleus of your disturbance is clearly defined as a malignant growth, rather than as a diffuse, overall climate permeating you completely. This stage is significant and it indicates good progress.

The struggle away from facing this disturbing nucleus -- with its distortions, its negative emotions, its pains, its hurts, and its hostilities -- takes many forms, even while actually being on such a path as you are. To counteract the danger of continuous evasion -- and therefore of continuous misery -- the assertion of the following statement must help you greatly: "I am afraid that what I find may be the ultimate of me. Is this fear justified or is it an illusion? I will take the chance of finding out whether what I find is all of me, for I know that only such clarity will bring me peace. I want to consider the possibility that there may be more in me than either my pretense or that which is so hard for me to look at and which I try to shift away from myself in so many ways."

This means acknowledging your present state, instead of running away from it. Through this approach to yourself, you will come closer to the next phase -- and therefore to your liberation -- than by trying to force your present state away by denial, by superimposition, and by trying to force away feelings that can never be forced.

The next stage will gradually change. You will feel the circumference of this foreign body, even while still being immersed in it occasionally. Now you know that it is not you, the ultimate reality of you. You know the truth because you have experienced the reality of your real inner being sufficiently often. Hence it will be easier to recapture this experience. Therefore, you will have more strength and more stamina to transcend the momentary immersion into your distortions, which are making you so involved and your view so blurred. This strength is first gained and then is increased only through your repeated victories over your temptation to run from the foreign substance. In other words, to shift it, to displace it, to rationalize it away, and to concentrate on that which is not vital for your victory, whether it be true or false in itself.

What is still either not sufficiently undertstood or is still overlooked by the majority of my friends is this acknowledgement of the immediate now. When you do so, then you will be in peace, regardless of how much disturbance and how much unreality is still in you, as a condition to be eliminated gradually. Fully acknowledging this condition must give you peace. So, please understand -- and do not forget -- that it is not the problem itself, or the conflict itself, or even the misconception itself that creates turmoil in your soul. It is your running away from yourself, your not being in the immediate now, your fighting and struggling against it in an unconstructive way. In other words, your non-acknowledgment of your immediate now. It is only that which causes so much hardship for the soul.

If you remember these words, then you will be able to take up the struggle in an ever-increasingly constructive, successful, and effective way. Therefore, you will be nearer to loving, because reality and loving are much more interconnected than self-righteous trying and loving are.

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Now, are there any questions, first in connection with this topic?

QUESTION: I am experiencing something new lately, which is evidently a result of this Pathwork. I am no longer so afraid and frightened, but still something is bothering me. Deep inside I know that I am not afraid, and yet on a more superficial level I seem to think that I am. Is that what you were talking about?

ANSWER: Yes indeed, exactly. It is part of it. You see, you seem to function on two levels simultaneously, as it were. This is a typical experience that a person goes through when transcending the foreign body and beginning to experience and sense this other reaction, coming from his real self.

The fact that you so often and so consistently acknowledged your fear made you eventually lose it. When you did so -- first without even understanding why and later going from one level to another level and realizing the true nature of this fear -- then it lessened. This is what you experience now.

QUESTION: How can I completely get rid of the fear? Because sometimes I seem to shift the fear to something else,

ANSWER: The moment you shift it onto something else, then you you get away from the reality of the immediate now once again. Therefore, new attempts have to be made by you to get back to the reality of your feelings.

What is often the case with you is that you substitute fear for another emotion, so that when you are in fear, then you do not face your real emotion. With others it may be the opposite.

QUESTION: Is it my hostility?

ANSWER: Yes. It is hostility, it is hurt, it is vindictiveness at times, in a way that is turned around -- punishing others by your own state of unhappiness. If you can acknowledge all that, then your fear will vanish. Gradually these emotional attitudes themselves will disappear because they are faced in the now. When you get to the nucleus of your now, then there are no more problems.

Man moves constantly away from this nucleus. When he turns around and he begins to go toward this nucleus of his innermost self, then he gradually finds peace and liberation. But this is the last thing he wishes to do. He uses and abuses -- sometimes unconsciously -- every truth teaching and every spiritual philosophy in order to go away from where he needs to go: into himself. He tries to find salvation and solace by adopting rules, theories, teachings, knowledge. He has it all up in his head, where it does not really do him any good, unless he uses the intellectual maturity that he has gained for moving inward from one level to the next.

All the fulfillment of the universe does not exist away from you, my friends. It does not exist in the distant future. It does not exist in a state beyond your physical life. It does not exist in having to attain something through arduous means. It lies only in the acknowledgment of what you really feel and what you really think at this moment. It is this great simplicity that seems so hard to comprehend. Man goes through such an unnecessary pathetic struggle in order to turn into the wrong direction. He hopes against hope to be able to find salvation without meeting himself in the now.

Even on a path whose aim is to attain selfhood there are many snares tempting man away from himself. He makes a successful attempt toward his inner being, but he suspects something that fills him with dread and anxiety and he is instantly ready to turn away, to use the old means all over again, this time in a new guise. He ascribes his emotional discomfort to factors outside himself. This is the same flight that he used before going on such a path. But as long as he does not give up, then he can always be helped to change direction, so as to find that area in himself that flows naturally: his soul movement of love and truth leading to all the fulfillment he may possibly desire.

QUESTION: My sister has a great compulsion to physically run away. And when she gets there, then she wants to turn around and run back. There is something of which she has a great fear. Can you find out and pinpoint that?

ANSWER: Yes, it is an outer symbol of the inner fear mentiond in this lecture. There is in her a readiness and a willingness to love, the potential for it is great. But in spite of this fundamental potential, there is the afflicted area where the soul does not dare to face what otherwise comes naturally to her. The misconceptions and the confusions that exist in her stop the flow of love. Just because love is such an inborn need for this person, the afflicted area causes even greater self-rejection, and therefore a fear of finding this area, and therefore a flight from the self. Then this is symbolized on the material level by running.

QUESTION: In other words, she has to turn inward?

ANSWER: Of course, that is absolutely necessary, always and in all phases.

QUESTION: Do I run because I don't love or because I am afraid of being rejected?

ANSWER: It is intermingled. The immediate feeling is the fear of rejection. This started very early in life. My friends may have noticed that for the longest time I have shied away from anything that might appear as pointing an accusing finger at you. The implication should be avoided here of "you do not love." This would be grossly misleading and it would only hinder insight. But when the fear of rejection is analyzed -- in any shape, manner, or form -- then there is always that childish fear where love is precluded in this particular respect, regardless of how much love may otherwise exist in you. But please do not take this in a self-moralizing way. This would make it more difficult. Simply acknowledge the level where in this moment you happen to be in fear. Before coming to the level of not loving, other factors have to be recognized. In the final analysis, it amounts to this. But this is not an overall condition, it applies merely to the trouble spots in your psyche. The extent of the area of trouble varies. There are people who may have many areas in which they function healthily, happily, and constructively in life. This corresponds to soul areas that are entirely free from misconceptions, from underestimation of the self, from illusion, from fear, and from other destructive conditions. Hence, in these areas both love and trust exist. There are only isolated areas where the foreign body blurs the inner being, the real being. In other areas almost the entire love capacity may be hindered by such grave impairment and distortion that the overall life is disturbed, disharmonious, unfulfilled, and unhappy.

The more this is the case, then the greater is the temptation to run; and the more man runs from himself, the more does this foreign body grow.

QUESTION: As I see it, this love you speak of is an expression, in some form or another, at all times, not just in relationships between mates and sweethearts. It is the love for work, and so forth. What could be some of the very highest aspirations for the realization of love in pure flow? Would they usually be a creative force, creative realization? Would this actually be expanding from a point where one has known one's environment, one's experience, to a point that has been unknown before? Would this be true?

ANSWER: Yes, most decidedly yes. Because it is hard for human beings to imagine and to comprehend the nature of the life force. In other words, to conceive of this free-flowing current that is the love force, or to conceive of its versatility, of its scope, of its creativeness, and of the variety of its expressions. But let us suppose that there existed a human being who was entirely free. The inner being of this person would manifest constantly, it would function constantly, and it would express itself constantly. The tremendous power of the life force would flow into all directions. Since there is freedom, then there is no fear of the unknown, and therefore there is no blockage to the free-flowing energy current, and thus to expansion and to the vast possibilities of creation.

Man is used to holding his forces together because he is afraid of this expansion. He fears that it will pull him apart. Not only does it not pull him apart, but it unifies him. The great spiritual laws always seem contradictory. Letting go of the self into the harmonious flow unifies the psyche, while strenuously and fearfully holding the self together splits and disintegrates the psyche. The more the universal forces flow into the many directions and possibilities, the more do they become one in the end.

This great possibility is frightening for the soul that is used to constantly holding itself together. This holding together of oneself happens by force of will, by force of mind, and by superimposing goodness. The natural letting go is not a self-indulgent lack of self-discipline. It is a state of fearing nothing in the self and therefore of dispensing with all guards. Hence, no opposition is made to the cosmic movement of the soul forces. Love can blossom only in this natural state of fearlessness, of allowing all the inner movements to perform according to their own spontaneous rhythm, even if at the beginning of the process of growing out of their affliction -- of the healing process -- these movements point to undesirable aspects of the self. To follow the natural flow brings the soul into great unity.

QUESTION: Do I understand you correctly that aggression is sometimes a good thing?

ANSWER: Yes, there is a healthy aggression. There also exists a healthy anger. This is a byproduct of the interim stage of human nature. Healthy anger must occasionally exist in a well-integrated life. Healthy anger does not dissipate or weaken the personality. Healthy anger does not create inner disharmony. It is a misunderstanding to either ignore or to deny this fact, which comes from the artificial holding together of one's inner forces and from superimposing false goodness, forced goodness. Fear and obedience lead to the impression that occasional anger should never exist in a person who is spiritually evolved.

In the human realm anger is a necessity, as I have just said. Without it, there would be no justice and no progress. Without anger, then the destructive forces would take over. Allowing this to happen amounts to weakness, not to love; it amounts to fear, not to goodness; it amounts to appeasement and to further abuse, not to constructive living. It destroys harmony, rather than furthering it. It destroys healthy growth.

Healthy anger can be just as necessary an occasional reaction as love is. It forms part of love. It, too, comes spontaneously. It, too, cannot be forced. Trying to either force or to deny any emotion leads to self-deception. In this case self-deception may take the form of pretending that the truly unhealthy anger is the healthy version of anger.

It is not the cause that determines whether the emotion elicited is either healthy or unhealthy anger. The cause may entirely justify real, genuine, healthy anger, which in this case would be constructive. Yet the anger that is experienced may be the unhealthy kind because of the personality's unresolved problems, of his insecurity, of his guilts, of his doubts, of his uncertainties, and of his contradictions. In other words, the issue itself may warrant justified anger, but the individual may not be able to express it.

To the extent that an individual is capable of experiencing, and therefore of expressing, real love, to that degree he is capable of manifesting constructive, healthy anger. Both come from the inner self. Any real feeling -- whether love, anger, or all of the many other feelings in existence -- is healthy, constructive, and conducive to the growth of the self and to the growth of others. Such feelings cannot be forced, they cannot be commanded, they cannot be superimposed. They are a spontaneous expression. They happen as an organic, natural result of self-confrontation.

QUESTION: In that case you would permit physical violence?

ANSWER: No, healthy anger does not necessarily manifest in physical violence. The expression of negative emotions -- even when they are not healthy -- need not lead to destructive acts, whether they be physical or otherwise.

This is one of the most hindering misconceptions on the path. Therefore, it needs much reiteration. This is why I have mentioned it again and again ever since the beginning, because no matter how many times I have said it, it is still forgotten.

The inner psyche fears that the acknowledgment of negative emotions must necessarily lead to acting them out. This is not true. On the contrary, you are free to choose your action. You are free to choose whether or not to act. You are free to choose how to act and when to act. You are free to choose to express any emotion only when you are fully aware. When you are not aware of what you really feel and why, then you are constantly driven. Therefore, you suffer from all sorts of compulsions that you cannot understand. A compulsion is the direct result of unacknowledged, unconscious feelings and conditions. The more you know yourself, the more you are in control of yourself. What you fear is not true. This is what you inner fear says: "I cannot look at myself in candor because then I have no choice but to let out these undesirable impulses. If I do, then I will do harm to others and ultimately to myself." This vague reaction has to be brought to the surface in order first to be rendered ineffective and then to be dispelled.

Please reiterate this in your daily meditation: "The awareness of what I feel, no matter how undesirable it may be, will make me free. I will have the choice of my action only to the degree of my awareness. If I choose to verbally express these feelings when there is a good purpose, such as with my helper, then I will do so. If I feel that such an expression may impair a relationship, then I will not do so. But I will withold what is in me knowingly, without self-deception." Such a meditation will first strengthen your knowledge of the truth and then it will gradually penetrate into the more hidden and resistant layers of your being.

It is a mistake to assume that the awareness of anger -- or the verbal expression of it -- results in physical violence or any other form of destruction, whether the anger be healthy or unhealthy.

Since it comes from the real self, healthy anger knows just what to do for the necessary requirements of the moment, as well as when to do it.

QUESTION: What about people who are violently persecuted? What should their attitude be?

ANSWER: The instinct of self-preservation will make them fight and defend against such an occurrence, whether by counter-attack or by flight. The healthier the whole personality is, then the more does this instinct function so as to choose the right defense at the right time. This is not an intellectual consideration, but a spontaneous manifestation of the real self. If necessary, then such counter-attack and defense will also be physical.

QUESTION: Regarding the expression of anger, I find it unbearable... [the rest of the question is inaudible].

ANSWER: Sometimes it is inadvisable, sometimes it is advisable. This is what I mean. You have the choice. When you are not aware, then you do not have a choice. The more aware you are of the possibility of this execution of choice, the more freedom you gain, and the less you will feel that your restraint is due to outer demands, to outer authority. Hence the rebellion against the restraint becomes superfluous. There is a great difference between exerting restraint because of the outer demands by the world and exerting restraint because you choose to out of your own free will. Paradoxical as this may seem, the more you willingly choose restraint according to alert reasoning and to a constructive motivation, then the freer you become. It is not -- as is falsely believed -- true that the less self-restraint, the freer the person is.

The more direct you are in the awareness of what you really feel -- and therefore you can express it if you so choose -- the more do you avoid detours and evasion. I might say that this directness of reaching the core of one's feelings or reactions -- thereby understanding their true significance -- is the art and the aim of this Pathwork. If your aim is finished perfection, then you still find yourself in perfectionism, thus hindering your progress. But if your aim becomes, "What is it that I really feel at this moment?" then you have a realistic aim, leading to instant release, to truth, to harmony, and to dynamic progress.

Once again, here is a seeming contradiction. The more man goes to the spot of what happens to be true now, the more he grows into real perfection. The more he strains away from what he feels now, from what he thinks now, and from who he is now -- in an attempt to be more than he happens to be in this instant -- the less he grows toward this desired goal.

The words I have just expressed should also be used in your daily meditation. They are a key for all of you.

QUESTION: What about the reverse of what you were just saying: What about the person who is too afraid, or too insecure to show righteous anger? What happens to love in this situation?

ANSWER: This is a very good question. Where there is present a fear of expressing a justified anger, then there must also be a fear of loving. Behind both of them are confusion, misconception, and illusion. It is these misinterpreted hurts and pains that cause the nucleus that I was talking about. This nucleus hinders and obstructs the real self, out of which flows genuine love -- as opposed to superimposed love -- and the capacity to express healthy anger, as opposed to the twisted, tortured anger. When there is this insecurity -- which makes a person too anxious to express his justified anger -- then he is incapable of feeling healthy anger. The justified issue induces conflicting feelings. Healthy anger makes a person stronger, whereas twisted anger makes him weaker. Healthy love is all-embracing and it enriches the person the more he gives out of himself. Sickly, distorted, false love impoverishes the self and it breeds a conflict between one's own self-interest and that of others. It comes from duality and it increases duality: it is always the good versus the bad. Ungenuine love is always connected with self-pity, with resentment, with hostility, with conflict. There is always the feeling of: "I ought to love, therefore I think I love. But I do not want to love because if I do, if I allow myself to, then I will be taken advantage of. Since I ought to love but I do not want to, then I have to feel guilty. I am bad." Hence no healthy anger can exist. It is dissipated at the source, for the person doubts his right to feel anger since he does not dare to love.

Although a lot of what I have said seems, and partly is, repetitious, it is not really so because these are immediate keys for every one of you, if only you choose to use them. If you continue to keep up your struggle -- and if you are fighting the right struggle -- then you must experience the beauty of the universe and the truth of being, which knows no conflict, which combines love, loving, and receiving one's full share of happiness, rather than mutually excluding these two factors as seems inevitable when love is attempted by outer goodwill. But if you use your outer goodwill in order to recognize the fact that behind your trying to love -- trying to love with your ego -- lies a non-love, and that your non-love is a result of fear, of hurt, and of illusion -- and then you find what these illusions are -- then you must finally come to the real love, to the real self, to the genuine expression of all that you feel and of all that you are -- which will be good and right.

My dearest friends, be blessed, all of you. Find the way, step by step, into the realization of these words. Be in peace, be in God.

April 30, 1965