Self-Identification Determined Through The Stages Of Consciousness

By The Pathwork Guide

Greetings and blessings are poured forth to all of you in a great and magnificent spiritual force. You can first partake of and then assimilate this force to the degree that you truly open your heart and your mind to it.

In this lecture I will discuss consciousness from a new point of view. Many of my friends involved in this work have become ready to make use of this particular lecture and, in fact, need it very badly in order to consolidate the gains already made on their path. This lecture deals mainly with the problem of self-identification. We have discussed this in the past but, because of your progress since then, we can now go into the subject more deeply.

It may be difficult for human beings to understand that consciousness permeates the entire universe and creation. Consciousness does not simply depend on or exist through personalities, or personifications of entities. It permeates everything that exists. The human mind is conditioned to think that consciousness is exclusively a byproduct of the personality. In other words, that it can exist only within the human form. In this way of thinking the brain is regarded as the exclusive manifestation of consciousness. This is not true. The truth is that consciousness does not require a fixed form. Every particle of matter contains consciousness. But in inanimate matter consciousness is petrified, in the same way that energy is petrified in inanimate objects. Consciousness and energy are not the same, they are interdependent aspects of the manifestation of life.

As evolution progresses, this petrification lessens, and consciousness and energy become increasingly vibrant and moving. Consciousness gains more and more awareness, while energy has increasingly greater power to move, to build, and to give form.

Through processes which are impossible to convey to the human understanding, consciousness has undergone a separation. As a result, aspects of consciousness float around in the universe, if I may use this expression. Each trait familiar to human understanding, each attitude known in creation, each aspect of the personality is one of the many manifestations of consciousness. Every such manifestation that is not yet integrated with all the other manifestations of consciousness needs to be unified, to be synthesized, and to be made part of the harmonious whole. It requires a leap of the imagination in order to comprehend the concept that I am trying to convey to you. Can you imagine for a moment that many familiar traits which you have always associated with a person -- in other words, which you have seen as existing only in a person -- are not part of the person per se, but are free-floating particles of the overall consciousness? These traits might be good, evil, or apparently indifferent (although in reality there are no indifferent traits). For example, consider love, perseverance, sloth, laziness (which is more important than meets the eye and about which I shall give a lecture some time in the future), impatience, kindness, stubbornness, or malice. Whatever the traits may be, they need to be incorporated into a manifesting personality. Only then does the purification, the harmonization, and the enrichment of the manifesting individual consciousness take place. This then brings about the evolutionary process of unifying the separate particles of consciousness.

It is important to note that the disharmonious, destructive aspects of consciousness always remain separate. They cannot be unified and integrated. Acceptance of this fact requires no leap of the imagination. Its truth can be readily verified by each individual who observes his negative traits. The positive traits, the constructive aspects of consciousness, are always a harmonious part of the Whole, thus enriching every other trait and expanding the entire consciousness. I cannot begin to convey the full reality of these ideas because the human language is much too limited. At the same time, I do not intend to give you an abstract lecture of which you can make no use. In a minute I will come to a very personal and practical application of this new way of looking at consciousness.

Each aspect of consciousness has -- according to its nature -- its own characteristics, its own type, its own frequency rate of vibratory movement, its own emanation, its own color, its own scent, its own tone, and many other unique sense impressions which are unknown in the human state. The senses that exist in spiritual reality exceed by far the spectrum of senses perceived by human beings. There are infinitely more colors, more tones, more scents, etc. A human being is a conglomeration of many aspects of consciousness. Some are already purified; others have always been pure and are thus an integral part of the individuality, no longer separate and therefore disharmonious. These pure aspects form an integrated whole. Other aspects are negative and destructive, and therefore are separate. They may be likened to appendages. It is the task of each human being in each incarnation to synthesize, to unify, and then to assimilate these various separated aspects of consciousness. If you try to comprehend what I say here, then you may find that this is a novel way of explaining human existence. Of course, this task of integration does not exist only on the level of the human consciousness. It continues in more highly developed states of consciousness as well. Only in those states the struggle is not so severe or so painful. The increased awareness in the higher states facilitates immeasurably the synthesizing process. The human predicament is the result of the individual's lack of understanding of what is going on. In other words, of his blindness of his struggle to unify himself, and of his deliberate attempt to perpetuate this very blindness.

To the degree that struggle and tension exist in a personification, it means to that degree the various aspects of consciousness are at odds with one another. The difficulties indicate that the entity is unaware of the meaning of the struggle and therefore is trying to identify either with one or with several of these aspects without knowing which or what is the true self. Where is the true self located? What is it? How can it be found in the maze of this discord? Are you your best? Or are you your worst? Or are you some of the many aspects in between? Are you your overly severe conscience that wants to annihilate you for your negative traits? Or are you your destructive demon? Is your rage at the demon in you, or is your total negation of that demon's existence, an expression of your best self? Surely this attitude toward the demon in you seems moral and conscientious, but is it really? Whether you know it or not, this ongoing inner struggle and inner search does exist. The more conscious the struggle, the better. We must now try to find answers to these questions by giving full attention to this problem. Sooner or later, any path of self-development must come to terms with these questions, with the deep problem of self-identity.

For a human being to identify with any of the above mentioned aspects is a distortion of reality. You are not your negative traits. You are not your self-punishing conscience. You are not even your positive traits. Although you have managed to integrate these positive traits into the fullness of your being, this is not the same as equating them with who you are. It is more accurate to say that the being who executed this integration is you, that the one who determined, who decided, who acted, who thought, and who willed is you, and that by achieving this integration absorbed what was previously an appendage that had its own contradictory direction and its own contradictory expressions. As you know from your pathwork, each aspect of the self possesses its own will. As long as your struggle is blind, then you are submerged in -- and therefore you are controlled by -- the wills of the various aspects of yourself. In this state, the self that can decide on a different outcome has not yet found its power. This blind involvement enslaves you, and therefore it inactivates your creative energy. As a result, you lack a sense of self, and this leads to despair.

When you blindly believe that you are your negativity -- your destructive aspects -- the result of this belief is that you become trapped in a special kind of inner battle. When you believe yourself to be only your negative part, then there must be two opposing reactions. On the one hand, you will desire self-annihilation, self-punishment, and you will feel violent self-hate in an attempt to eliminate the negativity in you. On the other hand, you will be afraid to give up your negative traits -- or even to fully face them and investigate them -- because you believe "them" to be your only reality. So you are thrown back and forth between "I am so terrible, I am so bad, I am so despicable that I have no right to exist, and therefore I must punish myself out of existence," and "I must remain as I am, unchanged and unimproved, for this is my only reality and therefore I do not wish to cease to exist."

This conflict is too painful to face when it is believed to be a real issue, so the entire issue is put aside, as it were, and covered up. One then leads a life of pretense, which shifts one's sense of identity into a pretense also. Then one struggles against acknowledging or exposing, let alone giving up, the pretense, because the only alternative to the pretense is the above-mentioned struggle. No wonder human beings have so much resistance. And yet, what a waste of energy, for none of this reasoning is based on reality. There is indeed a real self that equals neither the negative aspects nor the adamant self-annihilation nor the pretense that covers it all up. To find this real self is our concern.

Before the universal self can fully manifest in you, there is already one aspect of it available right now which can be immediately utilized. This aspect is your conscious self at its best, as it is now. This conscious self is a limited manifestation of your spiritual being, but it is truly yourself. It is the "I" you need in order to create order from all your confusion. This already-manifest consciousness exists in many realms of your life. You take it for granted. But you have not yet brought it to bear on the areas of your conflict, in which you continue to be blindly controlled by the consequence of your false self-identity.

For instance, the "I" that is able to make the decision to truly face a conflict -- to observe its various expressions -- is the self with which a person may safely and realistically identify. To the degree the personality awakens and gains consciousness of itself, to that degree it can make such decisions, the choice of its attitudes, and its determinations. By the same token, to the degree that such decisions, such choice of attitudes, and such determinations are made, to that degree the consciousness awakens, and therefore expands. This immediately available consciousness of every living human being is usually not fully put to use to confront his greatest suffering and his inner conflicts. In other words, the full scope of its power is not directed toward resolving the struggle at hand. When the entity begins to do this systematically, then a major change begins to take place. At such a point, a new stage of development is reached.

To the extent that the conscious self uses its already-existing power to execute its good will, uses its already-existing capacity to be positive, uses its already-existing capacity to be committed, uses its already-existing capacity to be truthful, uses its already-existing capacity to be courageous, uses its already-existing capacity to be persevering in the struggle at hand, and uses its already-existing ability to choose its attitude toward a problem, to exactly that degree the consciousness expands, and thus becomes increasingly permeated with the spiritual consciousness. The spiritual consciousness cannot manifest as long as the already existing consciousness is not being fully put to use in the conduct of one's life. When the present consciousness is being fully put to use, then new inspiration, new realms of vision, new understanding, profound new wisdom, and new experience will well up from the depth of the person. But as long as the line of least resistance is followed and the personality gives in to blind involvement; as long as one gives up on finding a true self-identity and settles blindly for a would be existence; as long as one follows the rut -- stuck in the old groove of habitual reactions and defensive explanations; as long as one indulges in compulsive thinking -- in negative, hopeless, circular thinking -- then it means that the consciousness of the self as it exists now is not being fully put to use. As a result, the consciousness cannot possibly expand. It can neither transform and synthesize the negative aspects -- with which it falsely identifies -- nor can it realize the deeper aspects of the spiritual self. As long as the existing powers are not being fully put to use, then additional powers cannot possibly be realized. This is a law of life that applies to all levels of being. It is very important to understand this, my friends.

When you identify with one or even a cluster of aspects, and therefore you believe that these aspects are you, then you become submerged in them. At the very beginning, when I started giving lectures, I used the terms higher self, lower self, and mask self. These are abbreviated terms which include many variations and many subdivisions. As a convenient frame of reference, however, we may classify certain aspects as belonging to one or the other of these three basic categories.

Needless to say, the genuine will for good is an expression of the higher self. But there is another will for good which is different from the higher self will, but which can be easily confused with it. This will is the will to be good for the sake of appearances, for the sake of denying the lower aspects of the self. The demonical, destructive aspects are obviously an expression of the lower self. But although it may easily pose for the higher self, the motivating force behind the desire to punish these destructive aspects with total annihilation is a giant guilt that is not an expression of the higher self. In fact, this guilt is more destructive than the destructiveness itself. It arises entirely out of the false self-identification mentioned above. If you believe that you are your demon, then you seem to have no other choice than to annihilate yourself. Yet because you dread annihilation, then you hold on to that demon. On the other hand, if you observe your demon, then you can begin to identify with that which observes. Then the struggle can be taken up by the conscious, determining, choosing self.

You must never forget that none of you is involved in this struggle with your entire being. If you were, then there would not even be the possibility of your coming out of it. There are many aspects of your being in which you are using the power of your creative thinking processes, where you are expanding your mind, and thus are building productively. But we are now focusing on those areas where you are not expanding, and therefore are not productive.

As long as the human entity is unwilling to recognize his destructive aspects, then he must be lost in them. As a result of this negation, he is involved in an annihilating struggle in which it is impossible for him to identify with his true self. As I said before, the failure to recognize, to name, and to observe the destructive elements indicates that the self believes that it is the destructiveness. Although the desire to hide the destructive aspects is more destructive than whatever it is you hide, this desire also indicates that you wish to be free from your destructiveness. Thus the desire to hide your destructiveness is a misplaced, misunderstood, and misread message from your higher self. It comes from incorrectly interpreting, and therefore incorrectly applying, the longing of the spiritual self.

Now let us discuss how you can better activate and utilize the conscious self so that you can expand it, and therefore make room for the spiritual consciousness to permeate it. Every one of my friends on this path who has worked diligently and conscientiously to shed his mask, to give up the defenses, and to overcome the resistance to exposing apparently shameful faults has experienced that the acknowledgment of the negative traits creates a new freedom. Why is this so? The obvious answer is that having the courage and the honesty to make such an acknowledgment is in itself a relieving and liberating experience. But the freedom comes from more than the courage and the honesty, my friends. The reason for the liberation is this: through the act of acknowledging your negative traits, a subtle but distinct shift in identification occurs. Before such acknowledgment, you were blind to either some or all of your destructive aspects. The blindness indicates that you believed these aspects to be you. Therefore, because you identified with traits which are unacceptable to you, you could not afford to acknowledge them. But when you acknowledge the hitherto unacceptable, then you cease to identify yourself with the unacceptable in you. Instead, you begin to identify with that in you which is capable of the acknowledgment and which then makes the decision to acknowledge.

As long as you do not acknowledge the aspects in yourself that you hate, you are blind to them. Therefore, you are helplessly controlled by them. But when you acknowledge them, then something else in you takes over that can do something about them, even if all it can do initially is merely to observe them and to grope for a clearer understanding of the underlying dynamics. You create a totally different situation when you identify the ugly traits as opposed to being identified with them. The moment you identify them, then you cease being identified with them. This is why it is so liberating to acknowledge the worst in the personality after having battled the ever-present resistance to do so. The acknowledgment becomes easier as you make the clear distinction between the aspects in yourself which you dislike and your being -- believeving that you are -- those aspects.

The moment you identify the destructive aspects -- the moment you name them, you state them, you articulate them, you observe them -- then a self exists which identifies, which names, which states, which articulates, and which observes. This self is capable of choosing among many options and among many possibilities, the most basic being this stating, observing, naming, etc. When you make the choice to do this, then you no longer need to persecute yourself mercilessly with your self-hate. But as long as you have missed out on this all-important process of identifying with that in you that is capable of recognizing, of observing, of facing, of dealing with, and of adjusting, then there seems to be no alternative but to hate yourself, and therefore to make devastating self-judgments. It is possible to make negative judgments in a truthful spirit, but there is all the difference in the world between believing that you are only what you judge and knowing that your ultimate reality is more like that part which acknowledges the presence of your destructiveness, and which therefore has many options other than destroying.

How different your attitude toward yourself must be when you realize that it is the task of all human entities to carry negative aspects with them for the purpose of integrating them and synthesizing them! This realization permits truthfulness without hopelessness. What dignity you assume when you consider that you undertake an important task for the sake of evolution. When you come into this life, you bring with you certain negative aspects to be integrated. There exist certain meaningful laws which determine what aspects you bring with you, but we cannot go into that now. Every human being fulfills an immense task in the universal scale of evolution. An entity who does not offer to fulfill such a task may be quite free, purified, evolved, and harmonious, but it is not contributing to evolution, as each of you is doing. This task that you have chosen gives you great dignity. This dignity is much more important than the momentary suffering that results from not knowing who you are. You are not your ugly traits. Do not ever forget that. But there is a big difference between the total negation of these traits and the acknowledgment of these traits. It is one of those apparent contradictions that arise so frequently when dealing with the realms that lie beyond duality, realms that are much more similar to ultimate reality. It is necessary to acknowledge the ugly aspects as being part of you and to take responsibility for having them before you can truly understand that you are not these aspects. It is possible to be responsible for them without believing that they are your only reality. Only when you can do this can you come to the wonderful realization that you only carry something with you which you have taken on for a certain purpose. Only then can you come the next step: integration. To recapitulate, we have the following steps, stages, or states:

(1) The half-asleep climate of not knowing who you are, and therefore blindly battling against that in yourself which you hate -- consciously, semi-consciously, or unconsciously.

(2) The first state of awakening, when you acknowledge, you name, you articulate, and you observe that in you which you do not like, when you know that this is merely an aspect of you, rather than the secret, ultimate truth about you.

(3) The awareness that the "I" is that which observes, which confronts, etc. This same "I" can make new dispositions, new decisions, and new choices. It can look for new -- hitherto undreamed of -- options and for new possibilities to be realized. But not realized by magic, but by trying out attitudes that before were either totally negated or ignored. For example, this "I" can make the decision to pursue self-acceptance and, at the same time, to maintain a sense of proportion. This "I" can make the decision to grope for new ways. This "I" can make the decision to learn from its mistakes. This "I" can make the decision to learn from its failures. This "I" can make the decision not to give up when success fails to arrive immediately. This "I" can choose to put its faith into unknown potentialities, which can then manifest as new attitudes that are adopted by the consciousness; this "I" can then choose to adopt those new attitudes for which the consciousness is ready.

Then these decisions lead to:

(4) The eventual connection with and the understanding of the previously hated -- and therefore negated -- aspects of the personality. The deep understanding of these aspects brings about first their dissolution and then their integration. This occurs simultaneously with the ever expanding consciousness incorporating more of the spiritual reality, which can then unfold to ever-greater degrees. This is the purification process.

To the extent that an individual life is led in this way, to that degree consciousness as a whole -- as it permeates all -- is less split off into its own particles and therefore is more unified. When you assimilate what I have said here, then you will understand several all-important facts. First of all, you will see the tremendous importance of recognizing the distorted, demonic traits. You will take full responsibility for them and, paradoxical as it may seem, you will liberate yourself from your false identification with those aspects. You will know fully who you are and you will know that these aspects are but appendages or attachments which you can draw into yourself as you dissolve them. This means that their basic energy and their undistorted nature can become part of the consciousness that you manifest. This is the first step of true self-identification. That which observes is you. That which is being observed is not you. Thus, no matter how undesirable any aspect of you may be, it is now possible for you to deal with it, to accept it, to explore it, to work with it, and therefore to no longer be frightened by it. The capacity to observe, to judge, to note, and to evaluate -- and then to choose the best attitude possible concerning what is being observed -- constitutes the true power of your real self, as it already exists. The knowledge of self, the finding of self, freedom, and liberation are the first steps toward realizing the greater consciousness, the universal, consciousness, the divine consciousness in you. As long as these steps are not taken, then your innermost spiritual consciousness remains a principle, a theory, and a potentiality to be realized only in the future. You may give intellectual credence to spiritual consciousness, but you cannot truly realize it within you until you use the consciousness that is already available to you -- but which is currently not being used -- on your so-called problems. Only as you work your way through the four stages outlined above can your conscious mind expand sufficiently to let in the as yet unmanifest painful opposites that will enrich you and move your life toward more joy and more pleasure.

The moment a proper self-identification takes place, then a deep and apparently bottomless terror disappears from the human soul. Often this terror is not consciously experienced. Only when you are on the threshold of the states I described here -- in other words, only during the change from being lost, blind, and therefore not knowing what you are and who you are, to the first inklings of true self-identification -- do you become aware of this terror. This is a transitional period which may last either a few weeks or many incarnations. You may either hide the terror from yourself or you may decide to face it. The more you face it, the sooner you will come out of it. When you hide it, then you gain nothing, for the terror will leave its indelible marks on your life, and these are not one iota less painful or less limiting than the actual experience of the terror. In fact, the contrary is true.

That terror exists only because you do not know that there is a real you beyond that which you hate. Because of this terror, you constantly hesitate to even identify what you hate. As long as you lack the courage to explore the reasons for your fear, then you cannot find out that it is not justified, and that you are much more than what you fear you are. The human personality is often on the brink of taking this step. But because this brink feels like a precipice, the personality hesitates and thus prolongs its own pseudo existence. When this point is not being dealt with, then the terror remains in the soul. Then the terror is denied and repressed, and this repressed terror has additional adverse effects on the personality, which then becomes more and more alienated from its true nucleus.

When you finally decide to and actually make the full commitment to bridge this gap, then the terror disappears. You will realize that you can find out who you are and that life is full, that life is rich, that life is open, that life is infinite. The moment you experience that you are that which observes and not that which is being observed, then there is no longer any need either to annihilate yourself or to settle for existing only as a fraudulent mask, as a hateful demon, or as a petty, selfish egotist. So, self-identification removes the terror of annihilation -- not just of death, but of annihilation. There is a difference between the two.

Now we shall return once more to the conscious mind, as it already exists in you at this moment. Your mind is now in the state of being able first to observe and then to acknowledge aspects of the self. That which observes has many choices. Your attitude toward your demonic, undeveloped, undesirable traits is the key to expanding your consciousness. You hear so much today about the concept of consciousness expansion. This is often believed to be a magical process that occurs suddenly. That is not true. To attain true spiritual consciousness it is first necessary to pay attention to the material within you that you have not yet fully used and that you are not fully using right now. Every minute of depression or anxiety, every hopeless or otherwise negative attitude towards a situation contains various other options. But an act of the inner will on your part is required in order to awaken the forces in you that are now dormant and thus to make them available. When the already available potential is being used, then a much greater power of spiritual consciousness will unfold, gradually and organically.

People often engage in various spiritual practices and then wait for a miraculous manifestation of the Greater Consciousness, while their immediate mind and thought power is trapped in grooves of negative attitudes, negative feelings, negative thinking, and negative outlook. These people must either be disappointed or experience delusions. No such exercises or efforts, no hopes for grace as an intervention from outside can bring you the genuine awareness of your Godself and the genuine manifestations of your spiritual Self.

The creative energy inherent in thoughts and in thought processes is totally underestimated by most human beings. As a result, the many possibilities both for creating life and for recreating life are neglected. Learning how to make use of this creative power is a challenging and fascinating undertaking. As of this moment, you can explore the recesses of your conscious mind to search for new, better, more creative ways of meeting your difficulties, and for more realistic, more constructive ways of reacting. You do not have to react the way you do. You have at your disposal many alternatives: many possibilities of thinking, many possibilities of directing your thoughts, many possibilities of directing your thought processes, and many possible attitude patterns that can be directed toward a new goal. To whatever degree proper self-identification has not taken place -- in other words, to whatever degree, in one area or another in yourself, you are still secretly identified with that in you which you hate most in yourself, and therefore resist observing in yourself -- to that degree your consciousness is unable to make use of all its options and of all its possibilities.

Pose this question to yourself: "What attitude do I choose toward what I now observe in myself and do not like?" When you answer such a question, then you will have made one of the most significant discoveries in the present phase of your evolution. This step does not require a breakthrough to the deeper spiritual self. It simply requires using what you have already made available in the course of the centuries and millennia of your evolution.

For instance, what might be some options in the face of your observing destructive attitudes and dire intentions in yourself? You can choose to be totally dismayed and feel hopeless about it. This is the option that you have chosen until now, only you have not been aware of it. Or you can choose to think that it is impossible to ever be different and therefore that this is all there is to you. Or you can choose to think that you have the power to make an immediate and drastic change. This last attitude is no more positive than the previous ones because it is based on unreality. Because of its unreal basis, the attitude must lead to inevitable disappointment, and then to an apparently even more justified negativity. Unrealistic hopelessness and unrealistic, magical hope are the two extremes of the pendulum swing, part of a vicious circle.

But do you not have available other options? With your mind as it is now, is it not possible to choose other modalities? For example, is it possible for you to say: "It is predictable, and indeed likely, that I will forget. Therefore, I will become involved in my old blindness once again, and hence in my conditioned reflexes. But this backsliding need not deter me. I will simply have to struggle and grope for my key all over again. I can do this and I will do this. Thereby I will gradually build a new strength and I will find new resources and new energies in me. I will not be deterred by the fact that the building of a beautiful edifice requires patience. I will not be childish and expect this to be done at once. I want to change and I will use all my powers to bring it about. But I will be patient and realistic. I would like the spiritual powers in me to guide me. But if I cannot perceive their guidance because my energies are still too dense and my consciousness is still too dulled, then I will trust, I will wait, and I will persevere. I want to give my best to the venture of living. I want to invest the best that is in me into life. I know that this must include patience for building slowly and the gradual cultivation of awareness and of observation. I will try again and again to face, to observe, to name, and to identify what I do not like in me, but without being identified with it. I will grope for a new way of first facing and then of understanding my negativity so that I will eventually grow out of it."

Such an attitude is at your disposal. It is not magic. It is a choice that is immediately available to you. Affirm that you want to develop the attitude that makes it possible for you first to observe and then to name -- rather than to continue to be submerged in -- what hitherto you did not wish to observe and to identify. The option to choose either this or other attitudes exists in every possible dilemma and in every possible difficulty.

My dear friends, there exists in you knowledge which you can bring to bear upon what you observe. If you use this available knowledge and if you adopt the attitudes I have suggested, then you will expand that knowledge and you will extend the range of the possible attitudes and the possible feelings. The more you do this, the more you can be sure that the infinitely greater, unlimited consciousness of the as yet submerged spiritual self will integrate itself into your conscious mind, so that you will be your spiritual self. As I said previously (in lecture No 182), this integration happens best via a threefold dialogue: the dialogue between the conscious mind and the demonic aspects; the dialogue between the conscious mind and the divine self; and the dialogue between the divine self and the demonic self. In all three dialogues, each side alternately speaks and listens, as in any meaningful conversation. But this threefold dialogue is useful only at a later stage of your development. In the meantime, the more you can perceive and observe yourself as I have described here, the easier it will become to make the next leap: the realization of your true spiritual entity. Then you will truly know that this incredibly beautiful and limitless consciousness is the real you, in whom all the power lies and who has nothing to fear.

Once again, this lecture requires diligent working through. Because it is difficult, much of the material cannot be taken in at once. It requires not only concentration and good will, but also the use of meditation to contact the realms of the spiritual reality and the power that will help you first to absorb what I have said and then to put it to use.

February 12, 1971