The Cosmic Pull Toward Evolution

By The Pathwork Guide

Greetings, my dearest friends. Be blessed, everyone of you. A great stream of divine strength and blessings is permeating you and is around you as a powerful force. Be aware of it, attune yourself to it, and you will perceive it as a reality. With its help, a deep understanding of this lecture will enable you to make a step forward on your path toward finding yourself.

There is a great pull in the manifest universe in which you live. This pull is a part of the Creative Principle. Since every individual consciousness is also part of the same Creative Principle, and is made of the same substance, as it were, then this pull must exist in every human individual. This pull is directed toward union, as the term is being usually used. What does union really mean? What does union with God, or with the Divine part in the self, really mean? What does union with another individual mean? How does this apply to a human being, living in this world?

First of all, the whole plan of evolution is concerned with uniting, with bringing together, the individual consciousnesses -- for only in this way can separateness be given up. Union with an abstract idea, with an intangible God, or as a cerebral process, is not really union. Only the actual contact of one individual with another establishes those conditions in the entire personality that are the prerequisites for true inner union and unity. Therefore this pull manifests as a tremendous force moving man towards others, making separateness feel painful and empty. Therefore, the life force is permeated not only with pleasure supreme, but also with the pull towards others. Life and pleasure are one. Unpleasure is the distortion of the life force and comes from opposing the Creative Principle. Life, pleasure, contact with others, oneness with others are the goals of the cosmic plan.

This pull aims to bring man out of his seclusion. It moves him toward contact and toward melting. To follow and to go with this Cosmic Pull is blissful; it is an exhilaration and, at the same time, a peacefulness. However, the individual consciousness opposes this pull. It opposes this pull due to the erroneous idea that by giving in to it the individual will be annihilated. Thus man puts himself in the paradoxical position of believing that life comes from opposing life.

Consequently, man lives in a very deep conflict that transcends the psychological reasons and motivations to be found in the course of self-exploration. All these reasons are valid in themselves, as far as they go. They may be the results of negative childhood experiences, of the misinterpretation of certain events and the misinterpretation of their significance in childhood. In other words, of hurts and of fears the person has not properly understood and therefore has not assimilated. All this is true and all this must be explored in order to first meet and then face the deeper universal, metaphysical conflict that I am discussing here. The conflict exists because this pull cannot be eliminated. It is the evolutionary force itself, which is the living reality in all that lives and in all that breathes. Since it permeates every particle of existence, then it must also exist in man's deep psyche, whether he is aware of it or not.

The other side of the conflict is fear of this pull, and therefore the opposition to it. Thus the personality stems against the natural flow. To the degree that the conscious and unconscious mind of man believes the goal and the direction of the pull of the life force to be annihilation, to that degree it will -- apprehensively and forcefully -- stem against life itself.

This is the most profound reason for man's misconceptions, for his false fears, for his guilts, for his negativity, and for his destructiveness. Deep within he knows that he distrusts the greatest of all the spiritual forces, and thus the life process itself. This causess a deep guilt. This guilt often manifests on surface levels in unjustified guilts.

This conflict manifests practically and actually in a fear of his deepest instincts, so that man can never relax and be unguarded about himself. Since he is part of the life that he distrusts, then he must also distrust his own innermost self. This is why man proclaims, why he postulates, and why he insists upon a division between the body and the spirit -- and why the dualistic concept is perpetuated from generation to generation. Man seems to find his salvation in this very division because through it he can justify his rejection of the life principle as it manifests within himself. He thus stamps that which he fears to be dangerous and annihilating as bad and wrong, while he claims that the denial of his very nature is right and good. He justifies this irrational attitude by pointing to the most distorted manifestations of the life principle, of the pleasure current, as though this were proof of its badness. Thus he goes on through the centuries preaching that the body is sinful, while the spirit is supposed to be the opposite of the body and its forces, and is therefore good.

It is erroneous to state that man's difficulties come from these misconceptions, from these tragic errors that he embraces as final truth. It is more correct to state that these misconceptions are the product of this deep spiritual conflict which motivates man to accuse a part of the great spiritual principle of life of being the opposite of what it really is.

The abuse of this powerful force by no means proves an inner acceptance of it and trust in it. Rather, it is a variation of the struggle that ensues when life is opposed in one's own nature. When one side pulls toward others and moves the personality to accept both his instincts and his nature but the other side shrinks back from this movement, then deprivation, emptiness, meaninglessness, and a sense of waste ensue. These may then be overcompensated for by a blind rebellious attitude, by a distorted abuse of these forces. This leads to a pleasureless experience and it seems to justify the sense of wrongness and its danger. Here is truly a conflict and a struggle of life and death. For this is what is seems all about.

There is a great deal of variety as to what extent and in what way this conflict manifests in individuals. But one thing can be said with certainty: the greater the conflict and the stronger the opposite pulls -- giving in to the cosmic force and opposing it -- the greater the pain and the more problems exist in man.

If man cannot allow himself to flow freely with the cosmic stream on the deepest level of his being, then he must distort that same cosmic stream in him. Since he does not trust this cosmic force, and therefore he opposes it -- and since this same cosmic force manifests within his own deep self -- then he does not trust himself. For if he is to trust both himself and his own innermost nature, then he must first trust this pull, which he can easily recognize. Therefore when man separates nature from the Divine Principle in his ideas, or his own innermost nature from spiritual trust, then he is engaged in the greatest error possible, leading to the greatest of confusions. For how could nature, including the depths of man's own nature, be opposed to the divine evolutionary plan? It is only because of the counter-pull in this struggle that layers come into existence which are untrustworthy and which seem to justify man's distrust of his instinctual self. Only the courage to first explore and then experience within himself these layers will yield the truth of an underlying core that is wholly trustworthy. But this can be experienced only when the deep pull of nature, of evolution, of the Creative Principle is deeply understood. The intellectual understanding is less important than the intuitive understanding, which alone, though often with the initial help of intellectual concepts, will allow the individual to dissolve this conflict.

It is due to this conflict that the creative force cannot flow freely, but instead congests. In this congestion it blocks the individual from partaking of the forces of nature as they are compatible with his total being and his own destiny. While man blocks and opposes this pull, he nevertheles cannot avoid it. It always leads toward contact with others. The fear of such contact leads some individuals -- with whom this fear is very strong -- into temporary withdrawal. As with everything else, withdrawal can exist in many degrees. It can manifest in man's outer life and behavior, but it also manifests in a much more subtle, and therefore not so easily detectable form. That is, outwardly he may engage in contacts, but inwardly he remains uninvolved, isolated, separate. Whatever the degree, it cannot be maintained in the long run, for the isolation must become unbearable, since nothing that opposes the Life Principle can be maintained. After all, the Life Principle represents ultimate reality, while the fear of it is based on illusion. Illusion cannot be maintained indefinitely. The anxiety arising out of illusion, and the illusory means to protect an illusory danger, can be eliminatd only when this deep conflict is being understood and honored, and only when the personality finally allows himself to be in harmony with the Creative Principle.

As I said, even when the opposition is great, the pull toward contact and melting with another must remain, for it is a fundamental fact of creation. But the counter-pull -- with its fear, with its distrust, and with its other destructive feelings that come into existence -- must then create negative contact. With all human beings there is always some counter-pull, even in relatively integrated and healthy individuals. If this were not so, then they would not manifest as human beings, in this particular form and dimension of consciousnss. But let us take the individual whose counter-pull is relatively weak and whose personality predominantly affirms life and affirms his own deepest instincts. His experience of others and his contact with others will be proportionately unconflicted and unproblematic. In terms of the last lecture, the pleasure principle will manifest in a most favorable way, which makes mutuality, genuine love, and pleasure supreme a living reality. To the degree that the opposition to the cosmic pull creates bocks and congestions, and therefore the cosmic stream is thrown out of its natural mold, to that degree negative and painful contact must ensue. In terms of the last lecture, the pleasure principle will be attached to a negative situation born out of childhood experiences. This makes fulfillment an impossibility because the experience of pleasure is always threatened by the negativity that is attached to it. The individual thus becomes a helpless straw between the two pulls, being driven into painful contact, thus combining the two factors embodied in the two directions: 1) the pull toward contact and 2) the fear of it and hence the pull away from it. The latter engenders two fundamental defensive reactions: either the desire to hurt or the sense of being hurt, as an inevitable byproduct of contact. Since the pleasure principle remains always present in the life stream, it attaches itself to the distorted form in which contact takes place.

The greatest force in human nature cannot be eliminated, but where it is distorted the pleasure is negative. Since contact appears to hurt, then pleasure manifests either in hurting or in being hurt -- in one form or another, to a greater or lesser degree. This cannot help but wind up in one of those vicious circles. The more painfully the pleasure principle in the cosmic pull manifests, the greater the fear, the apprehension, the guilt, the shame, the anxiety, and the tension, so that the opposition grows, the conflict increases, and the vicious circle continues.

Therefore, the evolutionary problem for every existing and manifesting consciousness is to deeply comprehend and to experience this fact of life, of creation, and not to misjudge the negative manifestation of contact and the pleasure principle. Man must go beyond it in an open attitude of search for his deepest nature, giving it a chance, as it were, and not take the negative emotions that he encounters first as the last and ultimate reality of his instinctual life. The layer in which the destructiveness, the blind selfishness, the dishonesty, as well as the shameful attachment of the pleasure principle to negative situations exist is NOT man's deepest nature. It is merely a demonstration, or a result, of this specific conflict. I cannot emphasize this strongly enough, for when he distrusts his innermost nature, then man must distrust the whole spiritual universe. For the one cannot exist without the other. There comes a point comes on the path toward liberation when the problem must be tackled from both ends. Only when man has the courage and the honesty to face up to what he does not like in himself can he discover that the energy and the substance of these attitudes and traits is essentially constructive and essentially trustworthy, and that it can be converted by this realization and by the deep desire to do so. Consequently, life's processes will become trustworthy, and therefore need no longer be opposed. Conversely, when man considers the possibility that the entire creative process may be trustworthy per se, then he will develop the courage and the honesty to transcend the blocks that deform the creative energy and the divine substance and reconvert them into creativity.

It is impossible to trust God, to trust life, to trust creation, and to trust nature if one distrusts one's own deepest, innermost instincts. For where do these instincts come from? These instincts cannot be crushed, they cannot be denied, they cannot be uprooted, they cannot be forcefully superimposed with elements that are foreign to them and that seem -- unreasonably -- more palatable to the fearful soul. The only way out is to understand that these innermost instincts are good as such if they are not interfered with. They are part of the most divine power and are not in the least opposed to or hostile to spiritual growth. This is one of the most tragic errors of mankind. It is tragic because nothing delays the evolutionary plan as much as this misconception, held by otherwise quite enlightened individuals who are well-meaning but who do not see their own fears and their own errors. These instincts will prove themselves to be bearers of light when they are no longer misjudged, fought against, denied, and split off from their divine origin in an artificial duality that presupposes the evilness of these instincts and regards them as the opposite of divine life, of spiritual life.

Man can come into his own only when he understands this and, consequently, ceases to fear and fight against himself: his instincts, his body, his nature -- and thus against nature as such. This is the great struggle of mankind. Once this is generally understod by all spiritual leaders, then the individual struggle will be helped considerably. Not knowing this, and hence continuing in the blind involvement of this struggle, makes the self incapable of relinquishing his separateness. Thus man bars himself from the completion of his spiritual destiny. In addition, he prevents himself from making peace with his innermost, most available, most immediate instincts, as they exist in the physical realm and in the emotional realm. This peace between body and soul is an inevitable outcome of and a product of self-realization. It is erroneous to believe that your body can simply be left aside in the great venture of integration. When your body is shed without this integration having taken place, then it is a task that still remains to be accomplished.

The depth and the universality of this conflict are evident when it is observed that often the most enlightened, evolved, and otherwise unprejudiced individuals become uneasy when they are to meet this conflict in themselves. Even if they do not conform to small-minded and life-denying views, this deep inner anxiety, stemming from this conflict, induces them to make themselves blind to what goes on within. When man is not courageous in facing this conflict, as it manifests nakedly deep down in the recesses of the self, then he remains isolated, he remains involved in painful negativity, and he remains split within himself, until his further evolution brings him to the point when he no longer fears the great stream of which he is a part and which is part of himself -- and which leads him toward others and which dissolves the wall of separateness and the defensive wall. Then he will find that not only does he not lose his individuality -- as he falsely believes -- but he actually expands it and thus becomes more himself.

Now I would like to discuss one of the many aspects of the human personality which seems relatively insignificant in comparison to the topic of this lecture. It seems no more than a mere "psychological" facet, relatively superficial. Yet it has a deep meaning and connection, which I will point out later. This aspect is frustration. As all human attitudes, frustration can be easily distorted into two opposites, both equally undesirable and equally destructive. The inability to stand frustration constitutes a severe disturbance of the personality and it impairs the character of the individual. When frustration cannot be handled, then this inability inflicts pain both on the self and on others. In other words, when the traits that make such handling impossible are prevalent. These are greed, self-centeredness, blindness, and fear. In order to avoid these pitfalls, the falsely enlightened person postulates resignation, martyrdom, and abstinence in order to learn the important attitude of inner relaxation.

It is not true that the only alternatives are either intense insistence, rigid, unbending demands or the renunciation of all happiness, of fulfillment, and of gratification. Both extremes are in equal error, leading to similar results and stemming from the identical underlying problem.

The wrong attitude about frustration is harmful. It impairs relationships, self-respect, and inner peace. Apart from these reasons, I shall now discuss it from the point of view of the pleasure principle. The infant, striving for its pleasure, is -- in its blindness -- incapable of standing frustration because it ignores the possibility of the future. When maturity is not gained, then the same attitude continues within the psyche. A peculiar apparent contradiction ensues. The less frustration can be endured, the lesser the pleasure that can exist. The rigidly-insisting person loses the pleasure he strives for either because the nature of his striving makes the attainment impossible; or, even when he succeeds, because the nature of his inner state makes the experiencing of pleasure impossible. Thus he cannot win. In order to experience pleasure, a relaxed inner state must exist; a flexible inner climate must prevail; a life-affirming, positive, inclusive attitude is necessary. The person who, either inwardly or outwardly, rebels against the absence of immediate gratification is angry, exclusive, negative, tense, and stubborn. These are all traits that defeat the life principle and the pleasure stream. It is man's error to assume that what he wants is more important and pleasure-producing than his state of mind.

When the importance of being able to stand frustration is misunderstood, then martyrdom, abstinence, and resignation, no matter under what spiritual guise, make the attainment of plesaure impossible. Hopelessness and waste set in. Since pleasure is a byproduct of the cosmic stream, it cannot be said that it is unimportant. But the insistence and the rigidity, revealing a sense of "do or die," are equally erroneous.

The inner climate necessary to allow the cosmic flow to stream forth is established only when an individual learns the relaxed soul movement of letting go. In other words, only when he allows the self not to have to have its way right now -- but without abandoning fulfillment altogether. In other words, every individual has to reach for the inner experience in which he can feel himself letting go and relaxing in this letting go. In other words, not relinquishing forever, but relaxing into pleasure by the power of the gentle letting go. These words will be obscure or even contradictory if this feeling has never been experienced. But those of you who have occasionally had an inkling of it will know of the power and the reality of what I am saying and will harken to it in a conscious and deliberate way.

When I speak of this attitude about pleasure, of this soul movement, it applies to anything, on all levels of existence. It may apply to any little wish or to any big wish. In other words, to any fulfillment you desire. If you feel inwardly tense, and are unwilling to relax it through an attitude of wise, positive, constructive outlook, reasonableness, fairness, and humility, while yet knowing and reaching for complete fulfillment, then you separate yourself further from feeling good. But often the temptation to remain in this tense state is great, for the anger and the self-pity seem a substitite gratification. It requires the ego's most constructive inner effort to let go of this. It is often one tiny point that one moves away from, one "tiny point of effort." Then it follows by itself and the ego is carried by the inner forces that must be activated in order to follow through. Once the tension is abandoned, then pleasure ensues through the attitude described here. The flexibility of relaxing into what is, even if what is at the moment is not exactly what you want, must ultimately bring you what you want. First of all by giving you a good feeling about yourself and then by being in harmony with the cosmic soul movement within your psyche. Later the thing that you want will come also, it must come -- as a matter of course -- following the law of cause and effect.

This is the climate which is essential in order to establish the inner knowledge that all fulfillment is potentially yours, and can actually be yours through your knowing this. But only when you know this in an atmosphere of letting go, of unintensity, can it become true. When you are in a state of "I must have it," then it cannot come true. For the tension itself is hostile to the vibration necessary to bring you into harmony with all fulfillment, as it already exists as a potential to be realized.

These ideas are not easy to grasp when you first read them. They will require study, not only study in thinking about them, but, what is even more essential, seeing in what way you yourself are inwardly tense about not getting your way. Or perhaps you have embraced the opposite extreme of resignation. This is only the reverse side of the same coin. When you see either one of these attitudes -- or both of them -- fluctuating, then you can proceed to claim inwardly, to reach for the experience that I described: letting go, relaxing into the pleasure of the movement of letting go. Little by little, you will remove the blocks that tighten you up.

The topic of frustration is directly linked with what I said first. When man blocks the stream of the creative principle which brings him into the pleasure supreme of giving up his separateness, then he frustrates himself on the most important level of his life. If this were not so, then he would never have to fear frustration, to fear unfulfillment, to fear emptiness. In other words, to fear being short-changed by life. Since man fears the fulfillment of the cosmic stream and blocks it, there must inevitably exist, at the same time, the fear of non-fulfillment. The inability to stand frustration is a result of fearing non-fulfillment. Fearing non-fulfillment exists precisely to the degree to which the inner person stems against fulfillment. The importance of these connections is immeasurable.

This applies to everything in man's life. Of course, it primarily and fundamentally applies to the great issue of cosmic union with another person, of trusting and following one's own instinctual nature and, consequently, experiencing the highest state of bliss available to man. It also applies to mental issues, to the levels of accomplishment, of mundane, everyday life. The often experienced fear of failure is a result of fearing success. Success somehow seems just as dissolving and just as dangerous as does any fulfillment or happiness. Fear of the smaller happiness is a minor manifestation of the fear of the major happiness that ensues when man no longer fears his instinctual forces. If the individual fears fulfillment, then he blocks it and thus makes it impossible, so that he justifiedly fears non-fulfillment. Consequently, he cannot endure the emptiness, and therefore he struggles against any frustration. The adamant insistence not to be frustrated says: "I want to be happy and feel good without having to give myself in trust and willingness to the universe as it manifests in me." This is an utter impossibility.

Frustration could not be an issue if the cosmic flow were understood and accepted and if one's innermost nature were not a feared force that one resists and fights. Try to feel these things in your personal life, and then work with them.

Now, are there any questions regarding this topic?

QUESTION: What is this inner pull you are talking about? I don't quite understand.

ANSWER: It is a pull toward another individual. It is a pull toward an expression of the instinctual forces. It is a pull toward the integration of these instinctual forces with one's conscious mind, with one's concepts, with one's acceptance of life, with one's acceptance of the self, and with one's acceptance of others.

QUESTION: You discussed the cosmic pull that becomes negative in the individual at a certain period of his development. Could you explain this more?

ANSWER: When a person opposes his cosmic pull, and therefore struggles against it, then a conflict exists. The original pull always remains, while the struggle against it is a superimposed, secondary, and weaker force, so that man is still pulled towards contact. But the contrary force in him denies and negates the primary force, so that the negation combines with the original movement and force. Thus negative contact ensues. The actual contact taking place is an expression of the pull toward others; the pain arising is an expression of the counter-pull. To the degree the fear of the cosmic pull and its destiny exists, to that degree love -- which can only grow in a climate of fearlessness -- must be absent from the contact. The fear produces defenses, hurts, and anger. All of these enter into the contact and combine with the pleasure principle, as I just discussed.

This manifests on any level of the personality. Negative contact -- that manifests in the desire to hurt -- expresses itself in everyday life in quarrelsomeness, in hostility, and in aggression. On the sexual level such an individual is sadistic. Negative contact that manifests in being hurt in every day life expresses itself in a tendency to be taken advantage of. Such a person will always manage either to put himself at a disadvantage or he will be driven into behavior patterns that are damaging for him. On the sexual level such an individual is masochistic. It must be understood that it is never one versus the other. There are always both elements represented in a personality, but only one of them may be predominant and therefore be on the surface. For example, just because a person fears his cruelty, his need to derive pleasure from hurting others, he may reverse it and direct it against himself. The same applies to the other extreme. Since all this takes place on an unconscious level, the person does not know what he is doing, he does not know how he is driven. Therefore, he is unable to stop the destructive process.

This lecture is destined to make you understand that the psychological aspects have a much deeper origin than what is usually assumed in mundane psychology. This deeper origin is this profound metaphysical conflict existing in all human beings. When this is perceived and experienced, then it becomes much easier to eliminate the psychological distortions that appear to have originated in this life. On the other hand, it must also be realized that this cannot be experienced, that this cosmic struggle cannot become even vaguely conscious unless a person has made considerable insight into himself and therefore has an awareness of his unconscious.

I have given you a topic with which you can, if you choose to do so, make a deep inroad into your innermost self. Use it to explore your unconscious. Do not fear your innermost self. If man runs away from his innermost self, then it is all the more tragic because he inflicts upon himself so much unnecessary terror and so much unnecessary pain. Nothing can ever create as much pain as running away from the self. You have nothing whatever to fear. Therefore, look deep into yourself all the time. But do so without defensiveness, without apprehension, and without anxiety. The more you look into yourself, the better equipped you will be to establish contact with others. The more you run away from yourself, the more superficial, the more troublesome, and therefore the more unsatisfactory such contact must be. Be in peace, my friends, be blessed, be in God.

January 13, 1967