Basic Attitudes And Practices To Open The Centers

By The Pathwork Guide

Greetings my friends. May my words reach your deepest understanding and therefore become a blessing for your road in this life. This lecture is a continuation of the preceding one, in which I started to talk about the significance and the importance of the centers whose openness determines the full capacity of living, the full capacity of feeling, and the full capacity of experiencing. The closed state of these physically invisible but nevertheless distinct areas in man's system is responsible for unhappiness, for negativity, and for the lack of feelings. The degree of closedness determines exactly the degree of living in unreality, and therefore of living in a state of strife and numbness. Therefore, living that is joyful, that is fruitful, that is meaningful, and that is productive must imply a commensurate degree of openness of the seven centers.

In many spiritual philosophies these centers are discussed and practices are given for helping the individual so that first he becomes aware of their existence and then he can open them up. Usually this is done by more or less mechanical means, through concentration and breathing exercises. If more emphasis is put on such exercises than on the underlying attitudes as they exist right now (not as they would be in a perfect person), then at best these exercises bring minor results, and if so only momentarily. At worst, they can be harmful in that an opening is affected without the individual being in tune with and in harmony with his spiritual reality. If he is not strong, if he is not independent, and if he is not self-responsible in the deepest sense, then the power of the energy flowing into his system is too much for him to bear. This is why our main emphasis is always on your general development and growth, for in this way you cannot go wrong. Our approach on this pathwork must be predominantly to confront the true state of your feelings, the true state of your thoughts, and the true state of the concepts within yourself. From there to eliminate the false ideas which create fear and other negative emotions, as well as the fear of emotions itself. This is the absolutely fundamental approach necessary. But once a certain degree of self-confrontation has been practiced -- and you no longer cling to the old patterns of self-delusion and illusion -- and therefore once a certain degree of liberation and of self-realization has been attained, then additional methods may be used.

In the last lecture I spoke about two aspects: what determines the functioning of these centers of energy generally and the specific functioning of each center. In this lecture we shall discuss the third aspect: the approaches, the practices, and the attitudes that help to open the centers. However, I want to emphasize once more that it may not be possible for many of you to affect a real opening quite yet. But this should not discourage you. When you are inwardly ready, then you will know, and therefore it will come naturally. In the meantime, even an apparently unsuccessful attempt will have an indirect value and benefit. Such an attempt will loosen up some hardened psychic substance; it may make contact with the greater wisdom in you more accessible; it may facilitate your capacity to concentrate; it may make easier your capacity to meditate; it will increase your general perception; it will increase your awareness of yourself, and therefore of others. All of this is a precondition that heralds a more profound loosening up and a new sense of awareness.

So, even if my suggestions cannot be immediately followed or understood, it does not matter. It has happened many times before that topics which I discussed were fully comprehended -- and therefore utilized -- only much later. But even the fleeting intellectual understanding at the moment may have an indirect helpful result that makes the deeper perception more accessible in a shorter period of time. When you relate to the topic under discussion in a natural, spontaneous, organic way, then it is because something in you has worked its way toward this state of mind. There are many different things that determine this natural, organic process which this path is. The path becomes a self-perpetuating reality after the first hurdles have been overcome. If you are attuned to it, then it produces its own needs and its own messages. Thus, when you will be able to apply -- really, truly, livingly apply -- what I say here I cannot possibly foresee. But you certainly can use some of it in your own way, which you will find by trying and through meditation. Some of my words you will certainly be able to assimilate, no matter where you presently find yourself on your individual path.

As you will see, the practices I suggest are never merely mechanical, but are always brought into a direct relationship to your own attitudes and to your perception of life, to your innermost concept of yourself, to your innermost concept of life, and to the feelings, the thinking processes, and the actions which thus arise. Thus a meaningful and safe procedure will be established.

When the centers are open, then man is completely -- both inwardly and outwardly -- in a relaxed state, a state in which there is no cramp. Let us examine what the words "inwardly and outwardly" really mean. All these words may be easily taken for granted and therefore glossed over. It is extremely important that you understand precisely what I am talking about. I have mentioned before in other contexts that every function, every organ, and every unit in the personality exists in the physical body as well as in the invisible body, which is the model after which the former is fashioned. (I will now skip an elucidation of the fact that several such subtle bodies exist. For our discussion here, the terms "inwardly and outwardly" may be sufficient at this time.) By the same token, there is an inner consciousness and an outer consciousness. This is not necessarily as crassly definable as the conscious mind and the unconscious mind. There is an inner one and there is an outer one. There is an inner perception -- a faculty of sensing -- and there is an outer one. Thus, you also have an inner reasoning process and an outer reasoning process. You have an outer functioning and an inner functioning. This can best be explained by the voluntary physical responses and the involuntary physical responses. Quite a few of your physical functionings occur on a voluntary basis. Your directly accessible brain can control and send forth commands that make other areas of your body respond. You can decide to move your hand, you can decide to get up, you can decide to move your legs in this or that direction, you can decide to utter a sound with your vocal cords -- or you can decide not do any of these things. All these functionings are determined by your outer direct will.

Then there is an inner functioning that cannot be influenced at will in a direct way: your heartbeat, your bloodstream, your digestive system. But they, as well as all other inner functionings, can be influenced indirectly.

In the same way there exists in the body an outer relaxation and an inner relaxation. As you become more attuned to yourself -- to your mind, to your thinking processes, to your feelings, to your emotional responses, to your body state -- then you will be able to first distinquish and then to experience distinctly both of these layers of reality. It always begins with the outer, which man is usually not aware of. In fact, his attention must be geared to it for a considerable time until he is capable of ascertaining in a clear-cut, concise way what he consciously thinks, what he consciously feels, and what he consciously wants. Usually this is all so vague, so muddled, and so habitually glossed over that if he were asked on the spot what he thinks right now or what he feels right now, then he would have to confess that he does not know. It is the same way with the awareness of his body state, unless he happens to find himself in an unusually strong state of either pain or pleasure. His states of tension have become so much second nature that he is no longer aware of the fact that his outer musculature is tense in one or more areas of his body. This is similar to the mental level and to the emotional level. There, too, he has become so accustomed to thinking in a certain way and to feeling certain specific emotions that he cannot imagine anything else. Therefore, he is unable to even discern either what he thinks or what he feels. Therefore, a good part of any self-development always consists of an increased sense of self: of what the self thinks, of what the self feels, and of what the self experiences on all levels.

After this awareness has been attained on the outer levels of thinking, of feeling, and of the physical state, then the inner awareness also begins to grow. The faculties have now been trained in a new direction of listening in, as it were. So it is no longer quite so difficult.

When you start with the outer body functioning, as far as relaxing a muscular tension is concerned, then it is necessary to first feel -- to be aware of -- the tension in order to subsequently relax it voluntarily. This parallels the mental level of functioning and the emotional level of functioning. There, too, it is first necessary to know that you feel a certain feeling or that you think a certain thought in order to change it, in case the thought is untrue or the feeling is destructive. To the degree this outer awareness has been attained, and you therefore are in a position to change certain reactions and certain functionings, to that degree the inner areas of functioning become automatically more attainable.

For the purpose of opening the centers a relaxed state is necessary on all levels. But relaxedness does not mean inactivity, inertia, paralysis, being slumped in unmoving unaliveness. Quite the contrary. Only in a relaxed state can live energy surge through the system. Therefore, it is one of the most important aspects of your pathwork to observe your state of tension on all your levels. Once the outer state of relaxation has become the usual state instead of the unusual state, then your awareness of your inner knots and of your tight cramps will follow naturally. Suddenly you will detect what you had never felt before. You will notice that although your outer body feels well, is coordinated, has no pains and no tensions, nevertheless there are inner lumps. They are not painful, but you feel that they exist. You will know that they have always been there, only you have not noticed them.

Therefore, concentration exercises on your state of tension in order to then be able to relax this tension are extremely useful. After your outer body has attained the relaxed state, feeling healthy and vital -- and therefore you gain awareness of your inner body blocks -- then you will know how it would be if these blocks were dissolved. You cannot will them to do so directly, for now you are dealing with the involuntary inner functioning, which can no more be directly controlled on the physical level than you can will yourself to feel differently in this instant. You can pronounce into you that you would like to feel differently because you know that these feelings are based on false ideas and on unrealistic premises, because they are destructive for you, and because they feel very unpleasant. You can search for more understanding to be able to indirectly influence these destructive feelings, until one day you suddenly react in a new way when you least expect it, quite spontaneously. It is the same with your inner body blocks.

Perhaps the best way to express how you first experience your inner body blocks is to say that it feels as if there were a static, congested area in certain parts of your body. This awareness is always of the greatest importance, no matter in what respect. Once the blocks give way, then you will feel a pleasurable energy, an aliveness, and a delight flowing through your entire being. You will first sense and then know that this state exists underneath (if I may use this inadequate designation) the tensed-up areas, even before you actually experience it. Your inner knowing will tell you this.

This knowing of the two states -- the one you find yourself in now and the one that is potentially yours, notwithstanding the present temporary blockage -- brings you considerably nearer to your potential way of being and to your potential way of experiencing. The same holds true both on the mental level and on the emotional level. When you become very quiet and you listen into yourself, then you will find an emotional activity of tension and cramp; you will see how your mind is over-agitated, which is a form of tension; or how sluggish it is, which is another manifestation of underlying tension that has become too unpleasant to bear. Only after you are aware of whatever it is, is it possible to deal with it in a constructive way -- not before. Therefore the same principle of self-awareness must be cultivated in every respect. This quiet focusing not only will give you the awareness of your abnormal state (let us be clear that the overwhelming majority lives in an abnormal state, in the sense that their state is not a realization of man's natural potential) but also of the natural, normal state that exists in you already -- behind the unnatural state. The open, free, and natural state that does justice to you and to your capacity to experience life is not something that you must laboriously attain because you are not in possession of it now. It already exists in you. The problem is that you can no more feel it than you could at first feel the cramps, the blocks, and the tensions.

This is a very distinct focusing on yourself that is not in the least selfish or self-centered. In fact, it must increase your perception of others and your understanding of others. Therefore, it will give you a greater relatedness with others. Your relatedness with others can only exist in exact proportion to your relatedness with yourself. This includes first the awareness, second the understanding, and third the experience of your own reactions, of your own responses, and of your own states on all levels of your being.

In order to make this approach a meaningful one, I must discuss certain aspects of consciousness which I have not yet mentioned in exactly this way. As you begin to experience the presence of a greater reality and of a greater intelligence within you -- as a result of your development and after having set out to consciously and deliberately activate it -- this contact becomes forever more real. Its guidance is the most reliable and the wisest imaginable. Its voice becomes forever more distinct and discernible. A few of you have begun to experience this contact, at least occasionally. You have learned certain approaches in meditation that facilitate this contact and that make it accessible whenever you use it. The difficulty is not that it is not always imminent and available. The difficulty is that you either forget to use it, or that you resist to do so. But however that may be, those of you who know of it as more than a mere theory have come to the point of thinking of its presence somewhere in the region of your solar plexus. This is so because the center in the solar plexus region is the channel of communication with the inner wisdom of cosmic truth. But this does not mean that the latter is located precisely at this spot.

One more word about the contact and your resistance to use it. What causes you to resist this contact is the down-to-earth reality of the answers that you receive when you use it. It is the workable, realistic solutions. It is the inspiration which never denies your basic dignity as a human being, but which never sentimentally coddles you, which never allows you to get away with the specialness which your immature desires want to arrogate to yourself. This divine wisdom makes you completely self-responsible. And yet you erroneously consider this to be a disadvantage. You overlook the fact that only then can you truly live, only then can you truly move, and only then can you truly vibrate in joy and in delight. Only then will you be secure, for your dependency on others is what creates so much fear in you. It is this fear that creates your tensions and it is this fear -- which is based on utterly wrong assumptions -- which induces you to forego this contact, claiming that you cannot utilize it rather than admitting that you do not want to utilize it. This hurdle must be overcome if you want to open up your life centers and if you want the living force to surge through your entire being. This question must be confronted again and again. Every issue of disturbance offers the best opportunity. If you value the truth of the moment -- the truth of the problem -- more than anything else and if you state it so, letting go of all other considerations, then this truth will make itself known to you. Then you will know that you are both human in your present fallibility and divine in your underlying potential. In order to understand the layers of your consciousness and how your outer consciousness is separated from this infinite Universal Consciousness of which you are an expression, it is necessary to conceive of the inner brain and of the outer brain as being one and the same organ. Your problem is that your outer brain has forgotten its true nature and therefore has lost contact with your inner brain. Your conscious willing intelligence must re-establish this connectedness, without which there can be no fruitful living, no joyful living, and no productive living.

Where is this inner Universal Consciousness? The more primitive man is, the more alienated he feels from it. Thus, in primitive religion he claims that this Universal Consciousness resides above -- in heaven -- as a distinct personality. In other words, outside of him, and therefore far away from him. A much more advanced state is the realization that God is within. Yet in this concept the Universal Consciousness is still personalized and localized. Now it is supposed to reside in a special area within the solar plexus. This is no more true to say than it is true to say than that your ignorant, destructive unconscious resides in a special area within you, although it may often be experienced as though the messages come out through this center in the solar plexus, which is perhaps no more than a mouth that conveys. You would not say that the mouth that speaks the words IS the person, would you? Well, it is the same here. So, consciousness -- separated and individual, as well as cosmic and universal -- resides neither in the brain nor in the solar plexus. Then where does it reside? At this juncture the answer is important for you to glimpse. And it can be no more at first.

Consciousness resides in every atom of living matter, in every cell of living matter, in every molecule of living matter, in every tiniest fraction of living matter. Every one of these infinitesimal units of consciousness functions in exactly the same immutable lawfulness as the human personality does. Every cell-consciousness stands in the same relationship to man as man stands in relationship to mankind -- and so on and so forth.

To the degree that the overall personality is in a state of what we call self-realization, or of universal truth, to that extent the individual particles of the consciousness accept the truth and abandon the misconceptions and the errors. Every sick part of your body is a misconception. The body itself -- which consists of dieable matter -- is a result of long-term errors of perception. Conversely, to the extent the whole organism knows the truth, to that extent the little units will eventually adopt it. Then they will know of their origin, and they will be able to connect with the underlying universal wisdom and with the life that is inherent in every particle of existence, no matter how separated at the moment. Hence, more and more life must replace death, health must replace sickness, joy must replace suffering, security must replace fear. Thus, consciousness exists all over. The ultimate truth of divine law and of divine wisdom always exists potentially either underneath or behind the erring individual, the erring cells, the erring molecules, the erring atoms, as well as underneath every particle of mind matter.

In your growing self-awareness you will perceive that your inner blocks of tension and cramp only cover another state in which you are free, flowing, and joyful. You will also begin to perceive that behind or underneath every sick particle of yours there exists its original healthy state. The sickness is a product of the error of your cells, of the error of your atoms, of the error of your molecules, of the error of other smallest particles. But these errors do not happen arbitrarily -- in other words, without the total unit of your personality being connected with them. The errors come into being due to your wrong ideas, to your false fears, and to your unnecessary defenses, which then create the tension and the error in the smaller life matter. Every emotional state of strife consists of subtle, invisible life matter that is in error. This error was created by the individual, and therefore must be eradicated by the individual.

To the degree that you are capable of the kind of self-observation that experiences the sick state -- as opposed to the healthy and joyful state that is already imminent and that exists underneath -- to that degree you move from one sphere of consciousness and existence into another. The pathwork must bring you to this. Much of what we have done in the past was precisely concerned with paying attention to all the errors that create the negative feelings and the destructive actions. Every state of fear is a result of error and creates tension. Every state of hostility is a result of error and creates other negative feelings, thus again tension. When you are tense, for whatever reason, then it means that you must be in error because you must be in fear. And every slightest tension closes the centers.

Every exercise -- physical or otherwise -- every meditation, every self-examination, every self-confrontation should always keep this in mind: the elimination of false concepts and of untruthful ideas -- of illusion -- and consequently of your unworkable pseudo-solutions and behavior patterns. Ever since we started together on this path I say to you again and again: What are the misconceptions that make you close up against life, that make you adopt unproductive patterns and often even destructive attitudes? Tension must be always related to error. In all your approaches and practices, whatever they are, observe this state of error and keep it in mind. Look at yourself from this point of view. Where you feel a congestion -- be it a painful state in your emotions or in your body, or be it merely a neutral state in which you know that there is something hardened that prevents you from living fully to its potential and from living up to your potential -- realize that there must be an underlying error and then set out to find it. The error may have gone into your physical functioning so that it tenses up as a conditioned reflex. The error may now sit in the tiniest particles of your consciousness. But this is always the result of an overall idea that first must be traced by you and then unearthed. You should try to connect the physical responses to your inner erroneous state. This will prove an extremely enlightening and liberating new level of raised awareness. This is one condition that is necessary for the opening up of the life and energy centers.

The fear of frustration is a tremendously important aspect of this entire matter. What human being is not afraid of frustration? This fear must be overcome. For it is an error in itself. There is always some other connotation connected with it that makes you unnecessarily fight against the frustration. Hence you remain in a state of: "I must not have this in order to avoid that," or "I must have that in order to avoid this bad thing." These musts are fear-tension currents. To the degree that you are fixated on this either/or level of duality, to that degree you are in a state of error, and therefore in a state of tension. Since life cannot flow into you as long as you are in this state, then you must rid yourself of your error. That is, you must crystallize it out of your vague thinking and feeling processes. The truth is that frustration is neither dangerous nor disastrous. Although have I said this many times, this truth is not sufficiently heeded and recognized by my friends. They pay lip service to it, without observing their reaction to frustration. How do you react to anything undesirable that comes your way? There are many people who fluctuate toward metaphysical and spiritual teachings for precisely the wrong reasons -- perhaps because they have heard that true self-fulfillment means the end of frustration. Although this is true, you can never get to this point by fearing it, and thus cramping up against it. First you have to learn to accept it without exaggerating its impact on you, without feeling threatened by it. If you want to attain the ultimate result of the unitive state because you want to skip the stages that lead you there, then you have not understood the basic principle of unity versus duality. You can transcend duality only when neither of the two alternatives unduly intensifies your functioning. To be specific, frustration will cease to exist exactly to the extent that it no longer upsets you. You will find a new realm of reality in which there is only fulfillment only when you accept -- in a realistic and conservative way -- your present realm of reality as being one of which frustration is an integral part. The childish desire for omnipotence -- which says that frustration is not permitted -- cannot actualize man's divine powers in which he ultimately finds true omnipotence. Man's omnipotence comes out of need, out of desperation, out of greed, out of pride, and out of selfwill. They exist because man has not yet first met and then successfully overcome the illusion behind all of these aspects. Let us draw a rough chart designating an individual's development from the point of view of his attitude to frustration:

1) The most childish state, and therefore the most troubled one, is the state in which frustration appears to be a disaster. Hence fear and tension, hence the closed life centers. Hence unhappiness and unproductivity in every respect.

2) The emotional maturity that accepts not having what one wants, while using one's best faculties to eventually either overcome or at least diminish the frustration. It takes this level of reality for what it is, knowing that limitations are the present reality. Therefore, frustration must exist too. This attitude holds true both for the self and for others.

3) Once this mature attitude with which first to encounter and then to deal with frustration has been learned, then comes the ultimate state, where every contingency, every possibility in life contains an equal amount of the possibility for unfoldment, and therefore for pleasure. In other words, it does not have to be merely this one way. Serenity and joy are then the results of the constantly open centers through which the energy of the universe flows freely and has the power to create and to re-create circumstances. In other words, to fashion them. This is done neither by magic nor by exerting power and control over others so that they do one's will, so that they obey you. It happens as a result of this person's enhanced faculties and inner resources with which forever greater possibilities for happiness become apparent.

Thus, an important facet of your self-observation is to focus on your attitude toward any kind of frustration. It will give you a reliable gauge about the state of fear-tension in you. If you can subsequently verbalize the fear involved, then you will have made an important inroad. You will also see that by tensing up against frustration, you actually cause much more frustration for yourself. For this tension is a denial of life as it comes to you now. No condition outside of you can ever create as much frustration as you inflict upon yourself by this attitude. The flow of your feelings -- of your life force -- is the ultimate source of all your fulfillment, without which no outer occurrence can truly be meaningful. Only then can fulfillment with others also come in a truly deep and profound way. In other words, without rendering your helplessness on anyone else. Thus a great deal of fear and hostility is avoided. When man turns off his life centers because of his defensive fearfulness in regard to frustration, then he perpetually frustrates himself. A great deal of man's hopelessness is based on this fact.

At the end of this lecture let me give you two specific meditations or practice exercises for the opening of your centers. This one I discussed in a recent answer to a question. But I shall briefly repeat it here.

Sit down in a very relaxed way. Do not slump down, yet without tension, completely contained within yourself, without stiffness. The spine should be straight, not needing to lean against the backrest of the chair. It should be held up by its own balance. Close your eyes and feel every part of your outer body. Relax it deliberately. Then try to see what happens when you do not think. Do not force yourself not to think, for this would only make you tense. Rather attempt it in the spirit of: "I would like not to think, but I know that I am not capable of doing without some involuntary thinking processes almost all the time. Therefore I shall calmly observe my thinking processes. To what extent do they penetrate my mind without my being able to control them?" In that fashion -- in this unpushing, unresisting observation -- you will eventually succeed not to think for perhaps a fraction of a minute. In this moment you will be so still, so untense, and yet so poised and all there with your attention and your awareness that the agitated processes of your mind will calm down. This does not mean an unaware rambling and drowsing. This state is extremely alert and awake. It is a sharp concentration without the least bit of tension. Then you will find yourself seeing your thinking process as it wants to rush in on you. You will feel like standing on the threshold of an apparent nothingness, or a void. Do this in a very unintense way. Give it a minute or two, perhaps before or after a meditation -- which you should use either for the purpose of self-discovery or for the re-orientation of your negativity. Also, while you are doing it, breathe very calmly but distinctly through your abdomen. Feel your lower stomach lift rhythmically up and down, in as calm, as regular, and as harmonious a fashion as you can. Every inhalation and every exhalation should express a mental attitude of the most positive nature. As you continue to do this, your volitional mind gradually ceases to work and it merely observes your involuntary mind.

This exercise will help you to calm down your busy mind, your agitated mind. Therefore the center at the solar plexus will open up. Through this exercise a channel to this center at first will begin to loosen up and then will finally open. Thus an inner connection to your higher wisdom will be established. You will not get a direct, immediately noticeable result. But by doing this as unintensely and as calmly as possible, you will suddenly find yourself poised on the brink of this apparent void. This is the beginning of a new opening whose results you will experience only retroactively and indirectly, as though it happened independently from these practices.

The other practice I suggest is related to the topic of this lecture -- the observation of your outer body blocks and of your inner body blocks. Sit down in the same way. In this exercise you may also, should you prefer it, lie down flat. Relax and tune into your body. Let every part of your outer functioning relax deliberately. Then you will find tense areas which you had not been particularly aware of before. See where and to what extent you can consciously and deliberately loosen them and where this is not possible for you. This will show you whether the area belongs to the outer system or to the inner system. Once you clearly distinguish the area and you feel the block -- or the lump, or the congestion -- then question the meaning of it. Bring it together with the mind and with the feelings that create this. What is the specific fear that creates this specific tension? Ask this question into yourself: "What is the direct relationship between this specific body tension and this specific fear?" Then send this thought into these cells -- which have their own consciousness: "What is the misconception behind this tension?" Then answers will come to you. At first you will probably be aware only of the outer blocks. But the more you progress, the greater your awareness of your inner reality becomes. Then you will use the same approach on that level -- only it will be easier.

By connecting more and more with your own system -- and thus becoming aware of states that you had never paid attention to -- not only will you recognize your body's tension, but you will do the same in the area of your mind and in the area of your feelings. There, too, a fluid, loose state gives you aliveness, constantly flowing pleasure, and energy -- as opposed to the block that hardens and therefore prohibits this flow. After paying attention to it, this block can also be distinctly felt.

As you continue to practice this, this oneness of the feeling self with the mind and with the body will become more closely knitted and more firmly established. The mind carries the misconception, the feeling responds to it by negative, destructive emotions, and the body expresses all of this with contraction, with tension, with stiffness, and with rigidity -- which is also behind flaccidity or apparent relaxedness in an unhealthy way. Once you can bring these three levels of functioning together where the disturbance exists, then you will come to the next stage, that of dissolving it.

I leave you with blessings for every single one of you. Do not believe that this is an empty word. It carries a strength that can become an incentive and a door opener for you, should you so desire. Be in peace, be what you are, loving yourself as you are, no matter how fallible you may be at the moment. For then you will truly be God.

May 5, 1969