Spiritual And Psychic Laws

By The Pathwork Guide

Excerpts of some basic laws, as they have been given to us by the Guide in the course of the years.

THE LAW OF PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY

This is the main element of these teachings. It is the primary principle which guides the pathwork. At first glance, this is hard to accept. It seems much easier to accept even defeat if only one can blame the circumstances, or bad luck, or the faults of other people. Accepting the law of personal responsibility wipes out self-pity, resignation, passive endurance, smoldering resentments against the injustices of life, and the famous masochistic game of harping one's case against life.

Yet this law, which is apparently so hard, is really the most hopeful, the most encouraging, the most liberating, and the most strengthening truth of all the truths. It enables the individual to resolve whatever problem he may have. It opens up life, with all of its rich possibilities. It forces him to see things in their true light and, uncomfortable as this may seem at first, in the end it leaves him with a lot more self-respect, a lot more integrity, and a lot more hope than the helpless resignation to the circumstances that life is supposed to bring about without one's doing. It makes defeat unnecessary, because it also removes, among other things, the childish illusion of one's omnipotence, which is just as unrealistic as the illusion of being life's passive victim. It enables man to accept his own limitations and the limitations of others, and it increases the power to direct one's life meaningfully.

The law of personal responsibility is the guiding principle of the search for the root of one's obstructions. In other words, of the Pathwork. By contemplating one's life -- especially the fulfillment and the lack of it, the unfulfillment -- one can regard it as an instant blueprint that outlines the areas where there must exist a corresponding inner attitude responsible either for the fulfillment or for the unfulfillment. This approach is diametrically opposed to the usual one. But it is reliable and truthful, and it must always lead to results, provided one goes deeply enough and provided one is truly honest in this endeavor.

When one arrives at a juncture on the Path from which there seems to be no way out, or where one cannot see how to change, or where one cannot see how to resolve the entire problem, then one can be sure that an important tool with which to unlock the door -- a key -- has not yet been found, no matter how profound the previous insights and how real the previous changes may have been. A total insight shows the way out. Thus your recognitions can be differentiated. Are they the kind mentioned here? Or are they merely leading to them? The former always give a sense of joy, of liberation, of hope, of strength, and of light. They infuse new energy into the entire system. The latter may have an effect on the personality that is temporarily debilitating. The former enable the person to recognize the most unflattering facts about the self without diminishing his sense of value, his worth, and his integrity. On the contrary, they increase them. The latter make the insight laden with guilt.

When one has experienced the difference between these two types of recognition, then one can protect oneself from hopelessness, or at least realize that the hopelessness is a sign that the way out has not yet been found. It can then be an incentive to surge on with all one's vigor until the real way is open, rather than being a weakening factor.

When an unfulfilled longing, or a painful conflict of long standing -- together with its concomitant behavior pattern -- is finally seen to be the result of an inner attitude, then one is no longer a helpless tool of fate. If such an attitude is completely seen, observed in action, and then accepted for what it is, then one may still be unwilling to give it up, for whatever reasons and misconceptions. But at least now one sees a vitally important connection between one's inner life and the outer manifestations of it. Then it is possible to embark on a special search for finding the reason why one holds on so stubbornly to a negativity, to a destructive attitude.

Many of the following laws deal more specifically with this same basic principle.

THE SEE-SAW LAW OR LAW OF COMPENSATION

Where a misconception exists, then a balance structure is disturbed and an opposite misconception must also exist. Each attitude has an opposite, which can be either a healthy complement or a distortion. Thus a distortion in one respect also creates a distortion in its opposite respect. When the Pathwork has made the person conscious only of one side of the see-saw, then it is impossible to resolve it, no matter how hard one tries.

EXAMPLES:

1. Let us take the example of a person who has a tendency to assume too much responsibility for others. He may come to understand, clearly and with much detail, that he is doing so, why he does, what the ramifications are, where it comes from, what other attitudes in him contribute to this, what attitudes in him are affected by it, etc. Yet he finds himself unable to place other people's responsibilities at their doorsteps. He is either unable to recognize a situation when it occurs (for this often applies to very subtle matters which are, however, no less important), or else he feels extremely uncomfortable and strongly compelled when he refrains from assuming this false responsibility. Such a forced act would be unnatural, not in tune with organic development. Thus the effects might be worse than giving in to the compulsion.

Real growth leads to effortless, organic, spontaneous change that comes so naturally that at first it may even go unnoticed. This ease will come once he sees the whole see-saw. In this case the area where he does not want to assume self-responsibility, and therefore he uses others as a substitute for his own conscience or for his own authority. This may happen in a very different area and it may manifest so subtly that it is almost imperceptible at first. It may be a purely emotional manifestation. For example, the individual may assume the burden of responsibility for others -- in a sense of feeling guilty -- in instances when his own reason tells him that he need not feel guilty.

At the same time, he may sell out his integrity either for the sake of obtaining approval from others or for the sake of obtaining affection from others. Thus he makes them responsible for what he must first give to himself. Blaming life for one's unhappiness is another way of negating self-responsibility, as mentioned here. This always incurs an opposite compensatory attitude of accepting burdens that are not one's own. The interconnection between these two attitudes must be recognized in order to resolve either one.

The healthy version of these opposites is the harmonious balance of proper self-responsibility and a freedom from assuming the burdens of others. (This has nothing to do with a free and loving attitude of wanting to help.)

2. The person who is too self-effacing -- and who is unable to change this without going to an equally destructive opposite extreme (rebellious, hostile defiance) -- will find himself capable of changing effortlessly when he finds that, perhaps in a concealed way, he is too demanding. He may never openly express these silent demands; he may not even be clearly aware of them, nor of his seething resentment when they are not being fulfilled. Healthy self-assertion that can be expressed openly and a flexible giving in constitute a balance. This balance is disturbed by an immature self-centeredness. When this see-saw is deeply experienced, then this balance will be achieved effortlessly.

3. A display of too much ego on the surface is often an indication of an inner weakness of ego. Conversely, a weak ego on the surface always means that under the surface the ego is held on to too rigidly.

4. (See lecture No 169 -- Masculine and Feminine Creative Principle).

THE LEVER LAW

This is, at times, in a way related to the see-saw law. The difference is that the latter deals with opposite attitudes of one and the same basic principle or attitude. The lever law can bring a person to a certain point on his Path where a particular distortion can be relinquished only when a seemingly completely different principle or attitude is found and changed. This is then the lever he needs to open the locked gate. Example: A person suffers from loneliness and from lovelessness. It may have taken considerable effort to uncover these feelings, which might have been denied and covered up by a mask of apparent certainty, of contentment, and of sociability. Therefore, such a revelation can easily appear as a major recognition, for it comes only after battling a great deal of resistance to finally shed the mask. Nevertheless, it is not the major recognition needed. The see-saw law may not be applicable, for a willingness to love may exist -- at least to the extent that this is possible with the existing distortions which tie up vital energy. The handle bar may be found in a different department. For example, a violation of integrity may exist in any number of ways which seem to have little to do with the problem of loneliness. But this violation of integrity gives the person a sense of not deserving happiness and of not deserving love. The vague feeling of not being deserving, that may surface only when confronting the self deeply in this regard, should not be glossed over as irrational. One should search where -- in what respect -- there may actually exist such a violation of integrity; again, not necessarily in overt action, but in emotional attitudes. For instance, in an expectation to get more than one is willing to give. When this is fully recognized and when the person is able to give up the attitude that removes self-respect, then a new sense of self and a new sense of deserving must ultimately also remove the lack of fulfillment.

MISCONCEPTION -- CONFLICT -- SPLIT -- VICIOUS CIRCLE

Every misconception creates duality, it creates inner conflict, it creates apparently insoluble problems, and it creates pain. It also creates a vicious circle. Every inner problem and every inner conflict must reveal this sequence, and this sequence must be worked through and assimilated, both in intellectual understanding and in emotional experience, before the process can be reversed -- truthful concept --> unity --> benign circle -- to create pleasure and happiness.

Example: (This is a specific case, recently worked through) A young man discovers insecurity about his masculinity, which he had not been aware of previously. It required the overcoming of considerable resistance on his part to penetrate the mask of false security that he had assumed. He now finds that in his unconscious mind he had the common misconception that sex is dirty. The thus resulting split was that he either gave in to his masculine sexuality and therefore felt adequate as a man, but for which the price was guilt and a feeling of being sinful and unclean, or he had to be clean and decent according to these unconscious standards, but then he had to forsake being a man. He constantly tried to compromise between these two undesirable alternatives. A tug of war was going on in him. He could not commit himself wholeheartedly either to being a man or to being a good, acceptable, decent human being. This unnecessary division resulted from a simple misconception lodged in the unconscious.

The misconception that sex is dirty led to the above-mentioned conflict. The conflict led to the following vicious circle: the more he tries to be masculine with the guilty feeling of being wrong, the fewer love feelings can he have in sexuality. Therefore, the sexuality produces partially real guilt -- as any loveless action must do -- and partially false guilt for being dirty. The cut-off sexuality becomes therefore more and more permeated with hostility, with anger, and with rage. When a personality is subtly confused with such emotions and therefore cannot face them, then all the feelings are affected by them. The frustration that results from such conflicts, and their hopelessness, increases hostility, which then compounds the justified guilt feelings. Loveless, hostile sex makes the taboo against it seem justified. And this is the worst part of the problem, because it makes the person go around in circles. The more he is caught in this apparently insoluble conflict, the more he must hold back his natural, spontaneous feelings. The more he holds back, the less can he love. The less he loves, the less real masculinity he has and, consequently, the less adequate he feels, and therefore the more insecure and and the more inferior he feels. This, in turn, must be hidden both from the world and from himself, which then increases repression and pretenses. And on and on it goes...

FALSE GUILT PRODUCES REAL GUILT AND VICE VERSA

The case history demonstrating the law that a misconception results in a split -- which then results in a vicious circle -- is also a case in point regarding false guilt and real guilt being interdependent. A childish misunderstanding often produces a false guilt. This must, in turn, produce attitudes, emotions, defenses, and pretenses that lead to justified guilt because a spiritual law has been violated -- by these very attitudes, emotions, defenses, and pretenses. Since misconception is unreality, and since unreality cannot help but produce negative emotions -- such as anger, guilt, hate, hopelessness, and distrust -- then it can be easily seen how it follows that false guilt produces real guilt. Moreover, misconceptions must lead to unfulfillment, therefore to frustration and to disappointment. These, in turn, produce resentment, bitterness, and anger. Misconceptions, or illusions, are linked with unhappiness. They are also linked with helplessness and with unhealthy passivity. All of these prevent the individual from doing what needs to be done in order to attain what he needs and what he wants. This passivity comes from the sense of futility that is inherent in all the conflicts arising out of misconceptions. The helplessness and the feeling of being victimized by the meaninglessness that produces such situations are in themselves also misconceptions. The false blame launched against the world makes the world responsible for the unhappy state.

Thus the real self sends this message into the consciousness: "You are wrong to be so resentful." The consciousness of the person is usually unable to interpret such messages correctly. It only senses -- vaguely -- that something is wrong about his self-pity, about his accusations, about his bitterness, and about his anger.

When false guilt appears on the horizon in the course of self-confrontation, then one must never just let it go at that. A real guilt is concealed somewhere behind it. It is as though the personality -- unwilling to face up to the real guilt but pressed by his conscience -- produces an unjustified guilt. This, too, may be hidden at first. But when it is discovered, then he can say to himself: "See, I have discovered it. I don't have to go on looking for what makes me feel really bad about myself. See how honest and how conscientious I am that I feel so guilty, even about unreal issues."

When a discovery does not lead to lasting relief, to change, and to greater inner freedom and outer freedom, then it can be safely assumed that some guilts have not been faced.

CHILDHOOD TRAUMA NOT DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR NEUROSIS

The childhood trauma indirectly produces deprivation, unhappiness, unfulfillment, negativity, destructive feelings, and destructive patterns of behavior. In short, neurosis. It is not, in itself, responsible for all that. The healthy soul experiences early unhappiness also with pain and with anguish, but will throw off the effects without forming deep imprints which are imbued with negative patterns. These negative patterns are directly responsible for the unhappy experience in the present. And this is what must be clearly understood and worked through in order to overcome that which holds the person back from life. In the light of this truth, then one's parents are not responsible for one's misconceptions. Therefore, resentment against them violates the law of self-responsibility. Similarly, one is not responsible for the neurotic patterns of one's child. Excessive guilt for this is based on a misconception. However, one is responsible for one's own distortions, which might then affect the child.

Any example of one's personal history, or the personal histories of others whose inner life one knows well, is a vivid example of this truth. This is why dwelling on the childhood experience alone can give only a partial understanding at best. It cannot produce vital and significant changes. Changes are possible only when the personality profoundly understands his destructive patterns and then challenges them. This confirms the truth about personal responsibility.

STEPPING STONE OR STUMBLING BLOCK

Personal freedom is, at one and the same time, relative, limited, and total. Since we must experience the products of our past attitudes and of our past actions, then we cannot help experiencing hardship as a result of our past attitudes and of our past actions which were based on illusion, and which therefore were destructive. This binds us as long as we are oblivious of them. But we do possess the total freedom to choose our attitude to the self-produced fate that comes as a result of the past. We can either dwell in self-pity, in resentments, in helplessness, and thus increase the weakness, the paralysis, the dependence, and the destructiveness, or we can decide to make the best of this experience, to learn the utmost from it, and to grow through it both in awareness and in self-perception. Through such an attitude the apparent stumbling block assumes a new meaning whose effect on the personality can be vital, strengthening, and liberating. Then we come to see that the stumbling block on our road was a direct result of our own distortions. Thus we prevent similar experiences -- perhaps even worse ones -- from taking place in the future because we turned the result of the past into a stepping stone.

OUTER SITUATION REVEALS INNER REALITY

No matter what we believe we want in our conscious brain, our life situation reveals an unconscious contradictory desire. Life cannot be cheated. Whether we like it or not, it produces exactly what the sum total of the conscious personality and the unconscious personality produces. No matter how undesirable this result may be, it is nevertheless an expression of what we -- childishly, blindly, or fearfully -- express into life. Not knowing this, or not wanting to know this, will produce bitterness and a sense of being unjustly victimized. Choosing this attitude can only increase blindness and make us retain the destructive attitude that produced it in the first place. Or we can choose another attitude, which at first is more difficult. Even though one does not see how the undesirable life situation is self-produced -- in fact, this may even seem preposterous -- one can nevertheless probe in this direction in a spirit of openness, of humility, of honesty, and with the wisdom to know that the human soul is complicated and many faceted. This latter course will bring amazing new vistas and new freedom.

It is therefore a tremendous shortcut if the outer life situation is used as a gauge to determine what may be amiss inside the personality. If the manifest unhappiness, the problems, and the difficulties are used as indicators by which to seek hidden fears, hidden errors, and hidden negative desires, then it may be discovered that there actually are fewer hidden negative attitudes than there are overt healthy attitudes. But by virtue of their being unconscious, they have a much greater power than the conscious positive attitudes, which may perhaps be stronger.

It is therefore imperative to make the unconscious conscious. Vague emotional reactions and passing thoughts that one usually does not pay any attention to may reveal more about the unconscious state than seems possible at first. The conscious focusing of attention must be educated toward this direction. Then the contradictory wishes, the hidden fears, and the negative desires will surface. When they are recognized, then they can be reconciled with the conscious goals according to realistic values and aims.

RECREATING SOUL SUBSTANCE FROM NEGATIVE IMPRINTS TO POSITIVE IMPRINTS

After one is thoroughly conscious of the misconceptions, after one actively experiences the negative emotions -- it is not sufficient to know about them in theory, they must be fully accepted as a result of allowing the inner experience, but without being driven into acting out the negativity -- then the recreating can begin. The courage and the honesty that were necessary in order to pass through this first stage -- and which will have increased in strength as a result of the new self-acceptance -- must now be used for the purpose of instituting change.

The desire to change -- the intention to change -- must be formulated in a clear and concise thought form. The vision of how the healthy, productive personality functions, as opposed to the past destructive patterns, must be produced. Although the outer ego personality, with its will and its intelligence, is required to initiate these steps, the very same ego must also recognize its limited power and it must require the universal self to guide it, to inspire it, and to help it at every step of the way. Thus the function of the conscious personality is a double one: 1) it must initiate the process, it must strengthen its own will, it must formulate thoughts, it must impress the soul substance with the truth, it must impregnate the soul with the picture of the benign circle as compared with the vicious ones; and then 2) it must actively -- consciously and deliberately -- call upon the greater inner power and become more passive, more receptive, and more listening. It must step out of the way for a while, so as to let the inner power reveal itself -- which often happens when it is least expected -- for a relaxed attitude is necessary. (Again, see Lecture No 169.)

GROPING FOR A BALANCE BETWEEN EGO FUNCTIONS AND THE INVOLUNTARY MANIFESTATIONS OF UNIVERSAL GUIDANCE AND DIVINE HELP

It is not always easy to find the constantly fluctuating balance between inner action and the conscious ego mind. It must be sensed when it is necessary to be active in thought by formuling new imprints and when it is necessary to step aside and keep the self calm, open, and receptive. The feeling for this increases as one experiences the reality of the Universal Self more frequently. One of its remarkable attributes is that it can even be activated for the purpose of allowing you to sense more accurately how to perceive it; for the purpose of more effective meditation: for a depth of feeling and for the proper inspiration so as to meditate in a meaningful way. Each particular phase may require another kind of meditation. Therefore, it may necessitate activating different aspects of the Universal Power. All of this can come from within when it is asked for. The mind's limitations decrease as these limitations are recognized and as the Vaster Brain in the solar plexus is consulted. The ego must learn to alternate between being active and being passive, betwen initiating and being receptive. Gradually a harmonious self-regulating integration will occur.

YOU MUST LOSE WHAT YOU WANT TO GAIN

This statement was made by the Guide in one of the earliest lectures. It has the same meaning as Jesus' statement of the need to have the willingness to lose one's life in order to gain it eternally. Psychologically, it means that without the willingness to let go then there is so much tension and so much fear that everything is taut inside and, therefore, the good life cannot come or be received. Only when one can lose without terror is winning possible. Conversely, he who is terrified of losing is never truly open to winning. These principles are adequately explained in lecture No 168.

THE UNITIVE LAW

It is never true that one opposite is good and the other is bad. The truth is that each can be either good or bad. In each, a healthy -- and therefore productive -- alternative may exist, as well as an unhealthy -- and therefore destructive -- alternative. To illustrate, the following example will help.

One must be both active and passive in a harmonious interaction in order to live fruitfully. When one of these is assumed to be right and the other is assumed> to be wrong (See lectures No's 163 and 169), then distortion and imbalance come about. One end of the spectrum of the active/passive principle will be exaggerated and this, inevitably, also affects the other side.

Introspection can be either productive and growth-producing or it can be self-centered and separating. Its opposite, concern for others, can be either an expression of genuine love and interest or it can be a means of evasion from the self. If introspection is healthy, then concern for others in its healthy version will exist automatically. Conversely, if one of the two exists in the distorted way, then its opposite must be distorted as well.

Self-assertion can be either the expression of a healthy autonomy or it can be the manifestation of rebellion, and therefore reveal a spirit of hostile opposition. In the same way, flexible adaptability can be either the manifestation of a healthy psyche or it can be submission and a disguise for masochistic self-denial. if the former is healthy, then the latter will be too, and vice versa.How often do people say, "it is right to be self-assertive," for example, when in reality they merely cover up the unhealthy distortion of it. By the same token, how often does a person claim that he is good-natured and loving in his constant giving, when he is merely afraid of asserting himself because he refuses to stand on his own two feet, and therefore wishes to cling to another person, who then must be bought by being submitted to? Such a person enslaves himself, with the secret aim to finally enslave the other person.

If outgoingness is genune, then it is spontaneous and it is the expression of a warm, loving personality who is capable of relating to others and who wants to connect with others. Its negative, distorted version is a pushiness, which is a manifestation of the inability to be by oneself. Conversely, being self-contained is the other side of the coin. In a healthy personality it reveals the basic reliance on the person's own inner resources.

This makes him capable to be by himself. In fact, he will need to spend time with himself. Only then is a genuine relating with others and to others possible. In distortion, these two aspects become mutually exclusive alternatives, where one is accepted as good and the other as bad, depending on the particular distortions and on the particular errors of the people involved. The unhealthy distortion of the self-sufficient person is the recluse who cannot cope with people, and who thus escapes into solitude. This may then be rationalized by pretending that it is the healthy version. Often in such cases all outgoingness is accused of being shallow and therefore lacking in depth, whether or not it is the healthy version or the distorted one.

These and many other examples illustrate the illusory concept of partiality: of judging one side or one aspect of a wholeness as being right and the other side or aspect as being wrong. If the distortion is very strong, then it is relatively easy to recognize. But often it can be concealed by posing as the apparently healthy version. It is therefore noticeable that the deeper one is on this Path, the less one is inclined to take one opposite and put it up against the other. One begins to see more and more that both form an integral whole. This demonstrates how duality must lead into the unitive principle in the course of this Pathwork.

Many years ago, in a private session, the following statement was made by the Guide, which can be helpful:

If you do not want to be more than you are,

then you will never fear to be less than you are.

February 1969