The Roscoe Lecture

By The Pathwork Guide

Blessings and greetings for everyone of you. I should like to talk to you about the significance of what you are doing from a personal point of view as well as from a collective point of view. Let us see where mankind as a whole is in regard to the awareness of negative feelings, of illusions, of misconceptions, of pain, of negative intentionality, and of destructive attitudes. For the most part, the aforementioned aspects are unconscious. In man's distorted view of man he believes that what is unconscious does not disturb him, while he believes that only what is conscious is an obstruction in his life or may have negative consequences for him. The exact opposite is true. The more you look at this reality and you learn to see with the eyes of reality, the more you cannot help observing that this is the truth.

Human evolution travels a curve of development from acting out the negativity to the next step, which is holding it back. This leads to repression. The next step after the repression is making it conscious but not acting it out. Being conscious of its negative connotations does not necessarily have to lead to acting it out. Only subsequent to this is it possible to change the energies, the feelings, and the creative power that are involved in these negative attitudes to positive attitudes.

On this scale, that I broadly outline here, you can see where the rest of mankind is, as a rule, compared with people like you, who are the minority. The fact that you who are in this work come, at least to a degree, in possession of knowledge about your negative feelings, your negative intentions, your holding back, your not wanting to give anything and wanting to get everything you can, and, consequently, the distrust and the greed that are revealed, is a tremendous step for you. But it is only one step. Therefore, subsequent steps must follow. These subsequent steps have been outlined in various ways in the lectures I have given throughout the years.

Let us put it in a new way and different way for the purpose of where you are now. Most of you are beginning to allow yourselves awareness of your most negative feelings of hate, of greed, of destructiveness, and of truly negative intentionality. The more you have the courage and the honesty to do so, the freer you become. But this liberation requires that the following steps must be undertaken. These steps are sometimes taken sequentially, sometimes taken alternately, and sometimes taken in a way that they overlap one another. As these negativities come to the surface, you still blind yourself to reality. That is, as opposed to the distorted reality that you see within the framework of these existing negativities. You may know at this point that they are negative, but you still have to battle with yourself in order to fully perceive to what extent and why this occurs. You have to overcome a great deal of resistance to let yourself comprehend to what degree you harm yourself and others and to what degree this is irrational, and therefore not a product of reality. For you still tend to explain it away by whatever means you can find at your disposal. If you cannot blame it on the present circumstances, then you may use the past circumstances. But whatever means of rationalization you use, it is still a tremendous battle for you to assume responsibility for your negativity and to let yourself know the consequences of this negativity: that is, of the hurt that you inflict both on yourself and on others. You also do this with your thoughts and with your intentions -- in other words, even when they are not carried through into action. I spoke about this at greater length in past lectures. Now I want to say that the next step in the work -- as your negative intentionality and your feelings of hate and rage and your attitudes of greed and distrust come out -- is that you try with the more advanced and developed part of your intelligence to understand why this is not good, not desirable. As you seek the truth in good faith, then you will first perceive and then understand the false reality that you have created. That is, as opposed to reality as it could be if only you chose to avail yourself of the many existing alternatives to this destructive pattern that you use in order to explain away your negative feelings and your negative intentions.

As you gain a perception of these two realities -- of these two ways of seeing life -- you come into the possibility of making the transition to the next step. That is deciding within yourself whether or not you want to open up to life and give of yourself. When you gain the understanding of the false reality that you have created -- as opposed to reality as it truly is -- then you will also understand that no matter what outside thing seems to be the cause of your unhappiness and of your dissatisfaction, it is really your own negative feelings and your own negative intentions that have put you into this state. As you observe the antics that come out of you in the process of this pathwork, you will realize that you wish to hate, that you wish to give nothing, that you wish to distrust, that you wish to withold of yourself and then blame the world for your misery. This is where most of you are now, more or less.

The next step in the transition is that that you allow yourself to see how you make the world responsible for your misery, instead of connecting your misery with this or that particular negative attitude in yourself. For you are now at the point where you can admit your intent to give nothing of yourself and yet expect everything to be given to you. But you still fail to make the connection between the misery that you experience, the dissatisfactions that you experience, the frustrations that you experience, the feeling that life goes by without really fulfilling you, and the negative attitudes which you now know exist in you. This is the step that must be undertaken now. If this step is undertaken too early, then you may miss out on the full awareness, the full extent, the full intensity of your negative self, the most destructive part of you. So the timing for this next step has to vary. You have to feel sensitively into yourself. On the other hand, you should also be aware that you may misuse this truth. You may simply stay in your negativities under another acceptable pretext: that the timing has to be watched and therefore that nothing must be precipitated. These are subtleties for which there are no rules. You have to pay attention to the finely calibrated listening mechanism that needs to be put into use in order to discern your hidden motivations for whatever you do. Your good will and your sincerity are the determining factors. If you use these attributes, then you will see yourself as you are and not as you want to appear.

The next step -- and again this may overlap and you may already take these various steps alternately right now -- is your intent to give in trust because now you know that giving is receiving. Only as you receive can you give and only as you give can you receive. How can you ever get out of the vicious circle and the bind that you are caught in between your unfulfilled needs and your spiteful witholding? By more blame? By more demands? Certainly not. Only when you decide that the universe is worth risking your giving for will you find that you and the universe are one. As you give to it, so do you give to yourself. And if you withold yourself, then it is impossible that you receive from life. For life can only reveal itself to you to the extent that you give to it.

These are the steps that must be followed through. It is easy to get lost in the good intention to give, in the good intention to love, in the good intention to be generous, in the good intention to be open. When by voicing this good intent you overlook your negative side -- where all the storms of destructiveness and meanness still rage -- then you split off your consciousness from this part. This is just as easy as it is easy to get lost when you have opened up this immensely energetic powerhouse within you and then stay in it -- thus indulging in it -- because now you have found a new energy that you had lost when you denied the existence of your evil. When you first re-discover this evil, then you also re-discover energy which you never knew you possessed. You have to allow yourself to express this energy in a harmless way. As you do, you also have to be careful not to get lost in that step -- and therefore over-indulge in it -- thereby forgetting the subsequent steps. These are: seeing the unreality that is always connected with the evil and then expressing your positive intent. Your positive intent -- namely your true desire to accept this benign force and set it into motion -- requires that you summon some faith in the universe and some faith in your innermost being. Now you distrust yourself as you are because you have never made it possible for the Divine Consciousness to manifest through you. You have to learn that the Divine Power not only can manifest through you, but that it must manifest through you if you wish to be in harmony with the universe. But this divine power and this harmony cannot manifest to you -- and therefore cannot give to you -- as long as you do not let the opening in you happen so that it can come through. This is, broadly speaking, the path viewed in another sequential system. So much so for you as individuals.

Now for you collectively I would like to say this. A group such as this is a very important group, with much more significance to the whole evolution of this age in time and space than any of you is capable of realizing. As I have said, it is a nucleus. For most of you these are merely words. Creation unfolds from the tiniest, the most miniscule nucleus or center and spreads. Then it creates a larger center, larger and larger, like one cell growing out of the next. Growth is always something that happens from an inner center to an outer center. It is never, as the distorted personality, the immature personality expects it, that it be given from the outside and added on. It cannot be added on from without. It can only unfold from within. For within you exists everything which the universe contains. Every possibility exists within you already. If you can hold this thought, then you can begin to believe in the possibility of your own change. Otherwise, you can never believe in your power to change. The smallest inner center, which is now only an obscurity, will become something that you can experience as a reality. Then wisdom will guide you, manifesting in your conscious mind. Energy, feelings of love, light, and hope will be your reality. This reality is contained in your innermost center.

As a sufficient number of individuals come together in the common purpose of making this inner center of divine reality become a visible manifestation in their lives, an outer Center is being created. Although in terms of numbers this may be exceedingly small in comparison to the number of individuals inhabiting this earth, it is certainly not insignificant in terms of consciousness and energy. A center of consciousness and energy is thus being created by a common purpose of sincerity, of honesty, of purification, and by the intent to bring out the divine center within more and more individuals.

For a number of souls life on earth is a task which they have deliberately undertaken. This task always comprises personal purification. For unless the purification proceeds, then no valuable task in the scheme of things can ever be completed. This does not mean that you must be perfect. It means that you proceed with devotion and with a full commitment into your inner land until you find your nucleus. As more people do so, they create a larger nucleus that is an intrinsic power from the point of view of spiritual energy.

I rarely make predictions, but if I do, then they have a purpose. When I have done this in the past they have always come true. I say to you who are involved in this work that what is at stake is very important in the spiritual planes. If you work and build in a community that lives in this honesty, in this truthfulness, in this intimacy of self-revealing as you really are -- not as you want to appear -- then it must create greater spiritual power centers. It is such a rarity in this world that it will draw power in the spiritual sense, not in the wordly sense. This power will have its effect. One day all the difficulties and the frictions which at the beginning are inevitable in such a venture, will have taught you the necessary lessons. By handling the obstructions in a truly honest, open, and self-revealing way -- according to the principles of this path, as you have learned and then have tried to put into practice -- you will set an example for world government. It will come, perhaps in years. But most of you will live to see it right here on this earth. Little by little, politicians and people of influence will be drawn into this circle, perhaps by seeking work on themselves at first, and thus bring into the world a new approach. It is a task that will set examples. You will have to go about it slowly and overcome the negativities within your individual selves, and thus in the small nucleus. Not even really overcome, but recognize them for what they are. Thereby you produce a cleanliness that can never exist in a group of people who hide their evil and pretend that it does not exist. That will be setting an example. For that reason the growth must be slow and sometimes arduous. It is up to you to overcome the obstacles. It is also up to you to realize that each obstacle that you encounter represents an aspect within yourself that becomes your lesson. Everyone of you can recognize it as a reflection of something within yourself.

I ask you to recognize your negativities. But do not make this an occasion to overlook your potentiality that is always waiting to unfold. Your potentiality for truth, your potentiality for beauty, your potentiality for love, your potentiality for generosity, your potentiality for giving, your potentiality for trust, your potentiality for the spirit of divine creation which is within all of you. Seek it and you will find it. Even if you think that you are empty now -- and many of you believe that you are empty -- you will find your fullness as a result of your good will and as a result of your attempt to be open. As you do this, you may still find other levels where you say: "No! I want to hold on. I do not want to give anything." But as you let these two levels meet and confront one another, a still deeper level will manifest where a very beautiful, full giving will come. It is one in which there is not even the slightest trace of anxiety or doubt. As you express your hate, also express your love, for that exists also. As you express your witholding, also express your giving, for that exists too. As you express your lie, you are already truthful in doing so. Know that as you express your hate, you already love to some extent because you do this. Especially when you do not explain it away and justify it but, instead name it for what it is. At the same time you can also directly express your love and directly express your giving, for that waits to be liberated in you. This is my message for you.

And I will now suggest a meditation in which you can all join in, which you can use for yourselves.

Be still and know that deep within you is the nucleus of God that wants to speak to you. You will help it if you say words such as these: "I want to let go. I want to let go of my mind. I want to let go of its preconceived ideas. I want to let go of the negativity that is ingrained in me. I want to let go of my bad habits and I want to let God. I want to let in new attitudes, I want to let let in new feelings." I do not mean new per se, but new for your conscious mind. If you ask for them, then you will receive them from within.

Your higher self says: "Be still and know that I Am God. Know that I Am in every one of you." Then you should say: "I have the power to let God in me manifest. I want to surrender to this will of truth and beauty. I want the love and the truth of God to instruct me. I want to give the best of my conscious life to the truth, to the love, and to the beauty of my innermost being that is unfolding. I will not shy away from destroying my self-image, from destroying my vanity, from destroying my pride. For I know that the truth, the beauty, and the love of the Supreme Spirit within me are more important than my little vanity and than my little self-righteousness. I want to dedicate my life to the Spirit of the universe."

If you listen to the indwelling universal Spirit, then you will find that every answer exists within you. If you trust this indwelling Spirit, then the solution to every problem will unfold from within you. Seek it and you will know your truth. Seek it honestly and then the love of the universe will unfold forever more. As you are together in this truth of your path, a wonderful strength and a glorious beauty will unite you in a common venture and it will wipe out the little ugliness, the little witholding, and all those things that are shadows that hide the sun from you. You are blessed. The love of God is given to all of you. Let your heart feel it. Be blessed.

July 3, 1972