Intensity An Obstacle To Self-Realization

By The Pathwork Guide

Greetings, my dearest friends. The divine blessings streaming in the atmosphere, both around you and within you, are a powerful force that is available to you, provided you are open, and therefore receptive to it.

Self-realization means that man is aware of this universal, cosmic power, which is available at all times. It is man's tragedy to be cut off from this power, to be oblivious of it, or to be ignorant of its existence. For knowing of it is one of the prerequisites to making it available. When man enters into the realm where it is possible to make this power available, then he finds himself in the predicament of not being able to know what he has not experienced. Therefore, to bridge this gap between previous experience and the available power, it is necessary to consider the new possibility. This is always the intelligent action of every new step of branching out, whether this be in science, or in any other realization of truth. However, man is usually not ready to do this, for he falsely believes that he must have definite opinions. He fluctuates at all times between a definite Yes and a definite No. No discovery can ever be made with this attitude. The correct attitude must be: "Is it possible? Could it be? I will honestly look and I will consider the possibility. I will do so with all sincerity and without shirking the effort to go in whatever direction may prove to be necessary."

This may sound like a complex task, my friends. However simple it really is, it is one of the peculiarities of man to find it difficult to adopt this attitude. Therefore, one of the hindrances to making the universal power available is the inability to seriously and openly question and then to make oneself available to a new truth, no matter how revolutionary it may be, and to make oneself available to a new outlook that seems to contradict one's previous convictions and one's previous experience.

This obstacle of denying a fact that is immediately available because the openness to look without preconceived ideas is absent is never entirely a result of just "never having thought of it." When this is the case, then a person will instantly adopt this open attitude, and do so again and again. The rigid refusal to look and to consider a new possibility, and the rigid adherence to opinions -- often opinions not even based on actual and personal experience but merely on hearsay -- are always the result of the fear to look at the self.

Another grave obstacle to self-realization is that man has unconscious attitudes, unconscious opinions, unconscious thoughts, and unconscious feelings which completely contradict his conscious attitudes, his conscious opinions, his conscious thoughts, and his conscious feelings. This discrepancy presents a major block, for the material that is held in the unconscious covers and barricades the cosmic force. The mind believes that it is expedient to block off this material. Hence it cannot relax, it cannot adopt the flexible, unafraid attitude that is essential in order to be attuned to the cosmic force. Therefore the road into man's unconscious is absolutely necessary in order to realize the power which he has within himself. Each false concept, each wrong conclusion, each erroneous opinion, each destructive attitude, and each negative emotion stands directly in the way of the realization of this power.

All this you know, and we work diligently on all of this in our pathwork. However, no matter how much all of you are concerned with this pathwork, it is often easy to lose the outlook of the aim and of the significance of self-realization. Self-realization means to make use of the tremendous power that you have.

The power is twofold. It is a cosmic energy and strength that is so revitalizing, so infinite, so undying, and so self-perpetuating in its dynamics and its aliveness that you cannot even dream of the effect it can have on the individual. The whole of life must change drastically when this energy is made available. But not here or there because of a temporary openness to the power, but permanently, through a changed personality that no longer cultivates attitudes which obstruct the power. The energy works according to in-built law. It is totally impersonal. When conditions prevail that are compatible with it, then its flow will stream without obstruction. When conditions prevail which are incompatible with it, then it is blocked. According to the way the unblocking occurs, it will begin to flow again. This is often different from the way man expects it. It happens according to immutable, impersonal, in-built law.

The second aspect of this power is its autonomous intelligence. When this is comprehended, so that you can integrate with this intelligence and this power because there is no longer any unconscious material in you which you fear and shirk, then you are truly independent. That is, independent of authority and independent of help that comes from outside of you. The dire need of such authority cripples you, for you possess within you everything you could ever need. If you learn to make use of it, then there is nothing to fear in your life any more.

The main topic of this lecture is the discussion of a specific obstacle to making use of this power. I have not spoken about this specific aspect in the past, except in a cursory way. It is a specific soul movement, an emotional climate that I wish to describe. In order to be compatible with the universal power, it is necessary that the personality be in a state of inner and outer relaxation. Such relaxation does not imply immobility, nor lack of energy. It is not the kind of false relaxation that does not breathe, that does not move, that does not respond. On the contrary. When attempting to describe it, then this state may easily be confused with indifference, with passivity, with laxness. It is none of these. But it is entirely free from tension, which is due to fear, to pride, and to selfwill.

Man's habitual state is one of more or less taut intensity. This is foreign to, and therefore incompatible with, this univeral power. This intensity may cause, as a final effect, an outer immobility, a paralysis, an over-passivity. But these extremes are always the result of an intensity of soul movement. This intensity must be dissolved.

There exists a great deal of misunderstanding in this respect, typical of the dualistic approach to life. Without perhaps putting it in so many words, the idea exists that the more intense the person is, the more he is serious, responsible, and concentrated; conversely, that the less intense he is, then the more he is irresponsible, frivolous, and distraught. This is not true. In fact, it is just the opposite. The truth is that only when the psyche is in flux and is not taut can the personality give its total attention to what it is doing, to what it is thinking, to what it is feeling, and to what it is experiencing. This means wholeness, integrity, undivided motives, and undivided attention. This state can be achieved only when there are no opposite forces dividing the inner person, hence no hidden fears. The more lightly psychic material flows, the more energy is available to invest into life, and the less exhaustion will follow when this energy is expended. The unnatural tautness and the intensity of man's state of mind and emotions has become so much second nature that it has been accepted not only as natural, but as the desirable state, connoting all the spiritual qualities I described and which are, in truth, only realizable when the psyche is unintense, when it is relaxed.

Every neurotic attitude is a result of intensity. It also results in an artificial intensity which is half-consciously deliberately cultivated and nursed. This cuts you off from the life stream. The reason for cultivating this destructive attitude is partly the dualistic misconception mentioned before. Partly, the motive for it is childish self-importance. That is, to set one off from the rest, or to draw attention to the self by making everything seem so important. It is what I often referred to as self-dramatization. This may happen even within oneself, and therefore it may never be displayed to others. In the deepest sense, all mental illness, all emotional imbalance, is a result of a deliberate intensification of a person's soul movements.

This is a very subtle process that becomes observable only when you focus your attention on it. Man is so used to a state of inner tension that only repeated focusing of one's finely attuned perception will produce verification of this intensity. This will then be felt as something foreign and unnatural. This is the first step toward being able to let go of it. It will feel as though you were shedding a tightly constricting straightjacket in which you have been living. You will step out of it into a new freedom that at first may feel fraught with danger. In other words, you will feel exposed without it, only to learn that all you really expose yourself to is the revitalizing life stream of the cosmos. Then you will realize how hindering this tautness in you is. The artificiality of it creates an incompatibility between your inner personality and the universal power. It causes a deep indentation in the soul substance. In order to be in a healthy state, the soul substance must be unindented. You will eventually come to feel this indentation. It is connected with too tightly held convictions, with too intense and exaggerated emotions, with over reactions, as well as with muscular tightness. All this prohibits the flow of the life force. The univeral power must enter into all the levels of the personality in order for it to function well. If the mental realm is too intense in its tightly held views, then the fresh flow of the life force is prohibited from entering it. If the emotional realm is too intense through unreal emotional intensity, then the life force cannot enter it. If the physical realm is muscularly tense and taut, then the life force cannot enter into the physical system. Thus illness, decay, and physical death gradually come about.

A few years ago I gave a lecture on the expanding, the restricting, and the static principle. These are the movements of the cosmos, the rhythmic breathing of everything that is alive. This cosmic breathing can exist only when there is no unreal and artificial intensity in the system. The indentation of the soul substance through intensity causes paralysis on all levels. Resiliency must exist on all levels in order to be open to the universal power. And resiliency cannot exist when the flowing movements are made taut through too intensely held opinions, through negative emotions, through physical or muscular blocks, and through inner blocks. It does not matter from where you start to look at and become aware of your own intensity. If you follow through, then you will dissolve the cramp that such intensity causes on all levels.

The misconception that intensity is favorable -- and therefore that it is desirable -- also applies to pleasure. It is believed, half consciously and half unconsciously, that the more tautly intense the personality is, then the greater the pleasure. In other words, intensity is not only supposed to connote seriousness and concentration, but also pleasure. This is not true at all. The lighter and the easier the flow of the personality is, then the greater the influx of the cosmic force and, hence, the more heightened is the pleasure. Intensity is an attitude of the ego, and therefore it prohibits the necessary letting go of the ego. Thus pleasure cannot be experienced to the extent to which the ego holds on, and therefore obstructs the involuntary processes. A person who takes both himself and life too seriously is unable to partake of the cosmic flow. This is why self-realization is often deceptive when one tries to convey it in human language. Its properties may be easily confused with truly undesirable and faulty attitudes. The lightness and the lack of seriousness are not what they sound like in words.

So let us recapitulate. A relaxed, lighthearted, natural, undramatized, unintense personality is essential in order to look at the self in truth; it is essential in order to give its undivided attention to whatever it does; it is essential in order to renew itself with energy so that more can be invested; it is essential in order to be whole in motive and in experience. This must not be confused with the numbness that is the result of a hidden layer of fear and of resignation. The latter is dead, the former is vibrantly alive. Intensity and the over-indentation of soul substance are also confused with being alive, while letting oneself be in the natural state first appears as not sufficient life.

This applies to very subtle levels, my friends. Therefore, it may not be easy for you to know what I am talking about. My words may seem obscure. It is therefore necessary that you listen with more than your intellectual self and with your outer ear. It is also necessary that you become observant of yourself until the intensity of your emotions, the intensity of your thoughts, and the intensity of your physical being become conscious and you then begin to sense the unnaturalness of this intensity. In other words, to feel that this intensity is foreign to your innermost nature.

Total self-realization brings laughter, humor, a lack of seriousness, and a lack of heaviness. But this does not connote an impairment of integrity, nor a half-heartedness, nor a division, nor a conflict in one's approach to life. On the contrary. The intensity I am discussing is always connected with the impairment of integrity, with dishonesty, with the division of motives, with the division of attention, as well as with the refusal to give of oneself wholeheartedly. All of these create the need to be intense. This is important to understand, my friends.

The properties which set up the conditions which are compatible with the universal power are integrity, honesty, and the lack of self-deception in the way you give of your total self in whatever you do, combined with the lightheartedness I mentioned. Then it can manifest in both its major aspects. It can flow and stream through your entire being, revitalizing all your inner organs, all your outer organs, and all facets of your person. And the autonomous intelligence can manifest from deep within you, guiding you, inspiring you, and instructing you until your separated ego integrates with it, so that you become undivided and whole. Then the Divine lives in you and you live in the Divine.

The opposite state, on the dualistic plane, is that on the one hand man is overly serious, heavy, and intense, while on the other hand he is unconcentrated, divided in desires, split in motivations, and self-deceiving. This imbalance must give way to the opposite on both sides. Where a division of direction exists, the directions must unity; where conflicting desires exists, the stream of the desires must unify; where the impairment of integrity exists -- perhaps merely on the deepest hidden levels -- this impairment must be corrected; where dishonesty exists, honesty must be totally established; where an unwillingness to give of oneself to life exists, the willingness to invest of oneself must be established. Simultaneous with this re-orientation of the character and of the personality will be the possibility to let go of the intensity and to become light where heaviness had prevailed until now. One does not have to take life and the self so seriously -- in a negative, despairing, heavy way -- when one takes life and the self seriously through the honesty one accords to both and through the sincerity of wanting to give as much as one wishes to receive. Nothing will be so final, nothing has to be fought either for or against. And this lack of intensity, in the right way, makes the universal power available, while the intensity I discussed is a cramping up that blocks off the universal power. Then it is often confused with seriousness, with concentration, with wholeness of purpose, and with wholeness of being, as well as with passionate pleasure. In reality it is merely used as a substitute for the missing honesty with oneself and with life, and with the missing undivided attention that one needs to give to every aspect of living. These afford the unintense state of being which is so pleasurable and so constantly self-renewing.

When you can come to this, when you can pay attention to it, and when you then begin to be aware of it, then this is a very decisive step in your growth. Even before you are actually capable of totally letting go of this unhealthy intensity, the mere awareness of it and the understanding of its significance will indicate great progress. The moment such an awareness is established, then some of the constriction will loosen up, and therefore the life force will infuse you with a new life energy.

The constriction of the over-intensity makes you withdrawn, taut, and immovable, no matter how frantic the artificial movements may be that are the result of the over-tension of soul substance. The movement is an outer truggle, but the inner powers of the life force are literally prohibited from moving you because of the intensity of the outer tautness, regardless of whether it manifests in jerky movements or in paralysis.

Self-realization and unification with the power current of the cosmic stream means to go out, to move toward life, to move toward others. But it is precisely this outgoing movement which man is so afraid of. He holds back, he shrinks within himself. Then he believes that he is secure. He is often unaware of this, too, for he may have assumed certain mannerisms that give him the illusion of being unafraid of entrusting himself to this power that moves him and that unites him with life and with others. Superficial devices may make him oblivious of the fact that he does not really want to show himself as he is to others, but only with his masks and with his covers on. My friends, this is not honest contact with another person. This separateness causes you misery. It is the same separateness between the self outwardly and the self inwardly; the same separateness between the self and others; the same separateness between the self and truthful, real attitudes to life; the same separateness between the self and the life processes.

The universal power is utterly trustworthy. Therefore, to distrust it is sheer folly, my friends. All you have reason to distrust is your fear of yourself, which exists only because there may still be an area or two which you still wish to deceive yourself about. To the extent that you determine to no longer do this, to that extent this fear can be overcome. Your salvation will be found in the realization of your own cosmic powers.

Another obstruction is false goodness, which we might also term sentimentality. This is also easily overlooked. It is due to a combination of two trends. One is man's innate -- and therefore genuine -- desire to be outgoing, to love, to be truly sincere to the depths of his being, and to trust the universal powers. The other is his fear, with its subsequent dishonesties, so that he witholds himself in a tight grip on his ego. The innate urge to let go of the outer self and to entrust oneself to the cosmic inner processes must always exist. It truly means to love. When fear, pride, and selfwill block off this direction, then loving is impossible. Therefore, the outgoingness inverts. The tendency to go out, trustingly and lovingly, can never be squelched, because it is an integral part of the nature of creation. It is life itself. Since you are a part of life, then you must tend in the same direction. The conflict between the tendency to follow life and the fear to do so creates false goodness, or sentimentality. False goodness results when the real feelings are blocked. They are dutiful. The personality feels guilty for hindering his natural feelings, for having numbed them. The vibrancy of real feelings makes over-intensity unnecessary; it also knows no obligatory feelings (false goodness or sentimentality). It is free and spontaneous, since love has nothing whatever to do with duty. If the vague emotions were sincerely interpreted into words, then this is what they would say: "This is the way I ought to feel. Unfortunately, I cannot genuinely feel that way."

False goodness stands more in the way of the realization of the cosmic power than the admission of the fact that one is feelingless as yet where one wishes to feel; the admission of the fact that one is loveless as yet where one might wish to love. Once these admissions are made, then it is possible to utter the desire for being able to feel and the desire for being able to love. While in sentimentality one lives under the illusion that one has already attained this state. When that admission is made, then it is possible to come to that part in you where you say: "But I do not want to feel. But I do not want to love." As long as you are not connected with that part of yourself, then you cannot be connected with the life processes, you cannot be connected with reality, you cannot be connected with the universal power. For your resistance to feel is your present reality and your resistance to love is your present reality. Denying this present reality makes it impossible to experience a greater reality.

At this phase of your pathwork, ask yourself: "Where am I still involved in an obligatory goodness because I do not want to face my refusal to have real feelings?" Then you can question your innermost self as to why you refuse to do so. What is the fear and the resulting reluctance? And you can also begin to observe your tautness and the intensity that surpasses a relaxed and natural attention, concentration, and a fullness of experience. It is a tautness that does not feel pleasant at all. It is problematic and it only leads to still greater problems both within yourself and with your environment. Deep, full feelings do not have to be intense in this negative sense. Become aware of the difference. Focus your attention on these subtle variations, where thoughts, feelings, and body are strained; where reactions exist that may not really be as strong as you now make yourself feel. Are your feelings really that intense? Consider the possibility that if they were left alone in their natural way, then you might not feel that unpleasantly strong about this or that at all. Is this or that conviction really that strong? Do you have cause to be that convinced? Let the intensity of the conviction go and then consider the possible opposite. Next, become aware of the many little areas of tension in your body, of the intensity of muscle tissue, and of the intensity of your whole physical being. When you focus your attention on these areas, then you may detect a reluctance to let go. What is this reluctance? In order to be un-intense, you need to have a certain amount of trust in what goes on with you and with life, a trust which now you do not have. This trust can come only when your self-trust becomes wholly justified. But even before this is the case, it is of great value to you to merely observe your reluctance to untense yourself and your reluctance to realize that tension and intensity are the immediate blocks to your self-realization. Then you can also know that your reluctance is directly connected with a reluctance to see something in yourself. This, in turn, is directly responsible for your self-distrust, hence for your distrust of the creative powers.

If these areas are observed, then you have approached the threshold to self-realization. Then self-realization will become a gradual process where you feel yourself flowing with the universe, in harmony with it; where you contact this deep intelligence in you, without which nothing can really be successful. When this deep intelligence is left out, then whatever you decide or whatever you do cannot possibly yield satisfactory answers or satisfactory results.

When this intelligence is contacted and begins to manifest, then you begin to see its utter wisdom, its total rightness, its indivisible, unitive principle that has no dualistic conflicts of good versus bad. It is as if you had contacted a foreign power within yourself. But as you do this more and more often -- each time overcoming the ever lessening misgivings to commit yourself to something that you cannot quite trust yet -- the integration between your conscious volitional self and the unvolitional processes of this vast power becomes more firmly rooted. Each step of the way, and each new overcoming proves to you how justified your trust in it is. With each such step you become more aware of the reality of this power, and of the fact that this power is yours. How can man live in fear with this treasure? With it there are no longer any insoluble problems. And since this power exists all through the universe, then it is in you, just as it is in everyone else. When this realization first penetrates you and then finally permeates your whole being -- and therefore your total understanding -- then brotherhood in the real sense is inevitable. Dislike is only a superficial factor. Then you will know that all of you are united by this power. Now the conflict between the self and others ceases. You become highly unique and yet like all others, in the best possible sense.

This is the way, my friends. Each time I have the privilege to talk to you, each time I help you to shed light on this path from a different angle, with a different consideration, I give you material which you have the choice to use as much as you desire.

Are there any questions in connection with this lecture?

QUESTION: Somehow, for the first time, your lecture upset me very much. I ask myself if this is so because I am near this point you are talking about and resist it?

ANSWER: Can you pinpoint what upset you in the lecture?

QUESTION: It has to do with the hope a human being could have ...

ANSWER: It upsets you because you are not yet quite ready to trust it. It is upsetting in a sense that one knows that these possibilities exist, and yet one does not trust oneself to go that way. This is why a large faction of humanity violently subscribes to hopelessness, to negativity, to the view that the world is chaotic and senseless. This is just as much wishful thinking as the childish hope that a deity will do your salvation for you, and that you could be helped by observing other people's advice and authority, and that heavenly bliss will descend upon you in a life beyond. The adherence to an outer faith and the allegiance to it, no matter in what orthodox or unorthodox shape it takes place, is no more wishful thinking than is the hopelessness. The latter says: "There is no need for me to do anything, or to face anything unpleasant, or to change my personality, or to give up a destructive attitude I do not wish to shed, for it makes no difference anyway."

If life makes no sense, if there is no rhyme or reason, if there is no evolution, if there is no continuum of all that lives, then the overcoming of character defects is unnecessary. By subscribing to such a nihilistic philosophy of life one can comfortably shirk the unpleasant aspects of self-facing. This is why hopelessness is wishful thinking escapism, just as the hope of being taken care of by another intelligence than one's own is wishful thinking. In both instances it is possible to avoid facing the unflattering facets that destroy the ideals that one holds about oneself. Both are two sides of the same coin: the rosy-colored future in a life hereafter by adherence to an outer faith and by obedience to laws and to rules that come from outside. The former is fundamentally no different from the hopelessness of nihilism, for both avoid that which seems so difficult, namely an honest facing of the self.

QUESTION: What is the reason, and who bears the responsibility, for the majority of humanity not being able to perceive the cosmic force? Is the situation that most people are unaware of the cosmic force due to lack of development?

ANSWER: Yes, it is a lack of development, it is a lack of awareness. Now, who bears the responsibility? Each individual himself. The truth -- so difficult to face for so many people -- is that no one is ever responsible for anyone else. This may seem incomprehensible in view of certain historical happenings, or in view of superficial considerations when judging according to appearances and in possession only of fragmentary truths. But in the last analysis each individual entity is responsible for himself. Whatever happens in the course of a life offers the opportunity for unfoldment and for the expansion of awareness. Of course, it is also true that a child in the lowest grade of school cannot understand what an adult understands. So it is not a question of sin when a person is unable to perceive. It is different when someone has the capacity, but is too unwilling to do so. In other words, when he could unfold and he could expand, but he deliberately hinders it by his destructiveness and by his obstinacy.

Today mankind as a whole is exactly where it must be, where it cannot help being. Mankind is the sum total of all the individuals -- both past and present -- who inhabit and have inhabited this earth. Each individual has the opportunity to make every second of living an occasion for your expansion and for your growth. Anyone who seriously pursues this path can corroborate this. Whatever happens to you, you can make it either the greatest stepping stone -- the best material for your further growth -- or you can allow it to influence you adversely. This does not apply merely to unhappy incidents, but every bit as much to the favorable events. They can often hold back growth just as much as the traumas of your life. This may encourage laziness, stagnation, and illusion. So it depends entirely on what man makes of anything that happens -- whether it will be helpful or hindering in the expansion of his perception. Man has the tendency to adjudge and to determine the outer conditions as the decisive factor in his life, instead of realizing that it is his attitude. It is always his inner attitude that determines what is of real importance and what is not.

The cosmic forces can become available to you only through overcoming your outer difficulties. These are the direct reflections of your inner obstructions. Once an individual sees this and knows that he is responsible, then he is on the road toward the realization of his real self. Or to put the same thing differently, the realization of the universal powers.

QUESTION: As a physician, I ask if there is any way that the cosmic force can be applied in some way directly to human beings by physical means, by physical devices. Not necessarily to solve the whole problem, but to help to alleviate suffering and to help give a direction. For instance, Wilhelm Reich's accumulator and certain other devices as explained by Cayce and other people who work with this, are they really attempts in that direction?

ANSWER: Yes, they are. These and many others, in many corners of this earth, which are not publicly known, are ways to channel the life force so as to flow in man where it should -- and where it could if an imbalance had not taken place in the entire system. It is possible to make the life force more available to the physical system through outer devices, and thus open the possibility for an inner penetration by the cosmic powers into the mental realm and into the emotional realm. However, it must be understood that no matter how much of it can be made available through physical devices, the essence of the life force is a mental power, a spiritual power. Therefore, its availability depends on mental attitudes or spiritual attitudes. The effect of physical devices must wear off after a while if the mentality does not become compatible with the nature of this cosmic power. It can be used physically -- and temporarily -- up to a certain degree, but there is a limit to that direction. The best way to use it is always to help the personality to re-orient himself. The physical approach may give to many the necessary stamina they otherwise lack. A change of personality does not make man lose his uniqueness, as he falsely believes. On the contrary, the truth is that it makes him more uniquely himself by eliminating distortions, imbalance, and destructiveness. The personality must become compatible with this power in order to no longer rely on devices from the outside, but to have constant access to the inexhaustible source of this power deep within his own being. As long as people working from the outside understand this, then all is well, because then they will not be disappointed when the effect does not last, when it wears off.

May all of you make full use of what I have given you here, so that the wonder of this universe -- and the glory of this life right here and now -- can unfold itself for you. But not through shortcuts, through illusions, through wishful thinking, and through panaceas, but through the actual decency of honesty with yourself and with your life. Be blessed, all of you. Be in peace, be in God.

April 7, 1967