Connection Between The Incarnatory Process And The Life Task

By The Pathwork Guide

Greetings, my beloved friends. You all float in a safe cloud of divine consciousness and you are nurtured by divine love, whether you know it, feel it, and experience it or not. Your total consciousness knows it. Your fragmented consciousness does not. Try to connect with your inner being so that you will know this to be true.

In this lecture I will deal with aspects of the incarnatory process. At this time of your development on your Path this understanding will be exactly what you need in order to tie up certain realizations and insights that you have gained. To begin with, I have to recapitulate certain aspects and facets of creation which I have discussed previously in different contexts. Creation is the attempt on the part of divine reality to fill the void with life and with being. There was a whole lecture (No 20) dedicated to this topic and I recommend that you re-read it in order to fully understand this topic. The fragmented consciousness is a result of the total consciousness spreading and filling every nook and cranny of space. I use the term "space" for lack of a better word.

The human structure itself represents this picture very well. Inwardly, deep inside your nucleus, there is an unending essence. This essence is eternal life, it is eternal reality, it is eternal beauty, it is limitless wisdom and love. But your outer consciousness does not know this. Although it is connected with the essence, your outer consciousness ignores this fact, and therefore it seems to be disconnected from it. In other words, you seem to be an isolated piece of consciousness. This is what makes life appear so frightening. Therefore your outer consciousness is blind, and therefore gropes in the dark. It must seek to find its way back to its connection with the total self. The awareness of this existing connection must be gained in the outer consciousness, because in reality this connection was really never broken. It only seems broken from the vantage point of your limited outer consciousness.

It is the task of every fragmented, apparently disconnected aspect of consciousness to realize its true identity and to become aware of its existing connection with the real self. This happens through an often laborious process of groping, of searching, and of attempts of the mind to expand its narrow limitations. The mind holds this potential for expansion, for even in its disconnected state it contains every aspect of divine reality. It only depends on which way it turns, on which way the will directs it, on which thought it chooses to think in any given instant. This is an important key, and we shall return to it later in this lecture.

These fragmented aspects of consciousness, of the divine light, which seem to have lost their connection, float around in space. These aspects become personalities. These personalities then develop problems because of the apparent disconnection. The word "problem" is in accord with today's vocabulary.

In different periods of history different words were used, like sinfulness, for example. Whatever word you choose, the fragmented aspect of consciousness needs purification on many levels, such as the level of feeling, the level of understanding, the level of knowledge. It needs to spread its awareness to its full capacity. Spreading means to realize that the connection exists, that it has always existed, and that it will always exist.

A total entity, a complete entity, is one who is completely aware of its divine nature, and therefore who is in total possession of divine wisdom and of divine energy. You are all total entities. But your manifest consciousness -- with which you identify -- is an aspect that your total entity, your total being, seeks to reunite with. This can happen only when this fragmented aspect -- which is your manifest consciousness -- makes itself compatible with the nature of the total consciousness.

In its broader sense, life is concerned with the process of spreading out the divine consciousness and of reuniting with the apparently disconnected aspects. That process is often called the divine plan, or the evolutionary plan, or the plan of salvation. There are many different terms to indicate that process. It is an ongoing process. It is a ceaseless flowing movement that seeks to spread out and, at the same time, to reunify itself. Sometimes in this spreading out the connection is apparently lost. So the movement is one of spreading out and of moving back to its source for reunification, advancing forever more in this back-and-forth flow. Each reunification movement back to the source follows a spreading out process, so that meanwhile the unified substance has become enlarged. Just visualize it: spreading out and then coming back to the source; first spreading out and then coming back, each time making the unified substance wider, extending it forever more. That is the great plan.

How does this look in a smaller framework of understanding, more suited to your human state of consciousness? I will explain it so that you can perhaps derive some benefit from understanding your repeated cycles of lives. You have heard many explanations about reincarnation and about the plans that you make before you undertake an embodiment. You make a contract with yourself in order to fulfill a certain task. This planning is conducted in the world of spirit. Now I shall speak about this in a slightly different manner.

When you are not embodied -- in other words, when you are aware of your total being -- then you are also aware of those aspects in you that have remained untended, and which therefore need healing and purification. It can also be said that a process of re-education is needed in which new -- in actuality very old -- knowledge is to be gained. This goes together with the process of purifying the feelings into the pure love of the essence. In order to follow through the process of spreading out on the one hand and of reunification on the other, the aspect to be purified is, for lack of a better word, sent out, as it were, into the realm of consciousness that is commensurate with its own state. And that is the material level of life as you know it in your conscious being. This realm of existence is the expression of the limited state of consciousness of the disconnected aspect, In other words, of the personality. In this more ignorant and less aware state all the vibratory functions of life are grossly slowed down. The flow of energy rigidifies and it makes both things and people fixed. The flow becomes invisible. The same with the entity itself. It is invisible, and only the grossly condensed form of its essence appears as the sole reality.

In this state of existence the process that I described can continue. As more personalities refine their vibratory functions, as they increase the power of their perception, and as they raise their awareness, then the gross matter becomes more and more refined. Thus an incarnation is chosen in order to fulfill specific tasks in a vast overall plan. The fragmented aspects have certain basic states in common. When the divine perfection has undergone the distortion that temporarily alters its manifestation into a lesser expression, then distortion, misconceptions, suffering, darkness, and disconnection seem to be the common lot of all those apparently isolated personalities. The combinations vary and the degree of development varies, but there are basic components applicable both to the divine substance -- with its myriad manifestations -- and to its distorted version. In other words, one purified being may be totally different from another purified being, each representing a different aspect of Divinity. Yet there are unalterable basic common denominators, such as love, wisdom, and beauty. The same principle holds true in regard to the unpurified personality. Thus, each entity makes different dispositions. It deals differently with the fragmented aspect that needs to be refined. The incarnations are being figured out by the total entity in conjunction with specialized, highly developed beings. The plans are drawn very carefully.

What happens in the body has one common denominator for all, namely to find the reunification with the essence. No matter how different the tasks may be according to necessity, this goal remains the same for all. Reunification with the essence can occur where the entity is already purified, but that is not where the task is. The task lies always where the personality is still separated from the essence. Then it is up to the conscious mind to decide whether or not it will use the already purified aspects to help the unpurified part in the task fulfillment. This decision must be made by the conscious ego. The higher self will not and cannot force it upon the conscious mind. This would be against spiritual law. The task is not being fulfilled if all the emphasis is being put on the already-existing functioning part and on the already-existing connection with the divine self without focusing on the problem aspects. In other words, on the blind spots. I have spoken about this in several ways before. However, in this lecture I want to point to the process of connection in regard to birth and to death from the human standpoint.

Let us take the process of death first in this sequence. Birth will be better understood as a sequence of death, rather than the way you choose to look at it. Man sees birth as the beginning and death as the end. Hence, from this disconnected view, starting with death may seem senseless. But you will see that birth can be properly understood only if it is seen as a sequence to death -- or, rather, to the manner in which death occurred. I do not mean the superficial circumstances. I mean the fulfillment of the task of the foregoing life, which is reflected in the manner of death.

The dying process can take many different forms which vary and which are dependent on the task fulfillment of the personality. When the inner being permeates the outer personality, then the task has been fulfilled. In this case the human personality not only will have lived a full life, but the fluids and the energy streamings of the divine entity withdraw very gradually. The energy recedes, the life forces pull inward into the real world, into the eternal world, into the infinite world. In other words, into the infinite space of creation. This causes a slow, late, and organic deterioration of the body. When the total fulfillment has been accomplished, then the process is so organic, so natural that there is no fear and no pain involved. The personality has developed a very strong sense of the continuum of all life, thus there is no contraction or fear that can cause suffering and pain. For the soul which fulfills the task of the planned contract life is an organic and meaningful process. Dying and death of the physical matter is equally meaningful. It is another step of liberation and of unfoldment. That is why it is not traumatic. When death comes it is not feared, nor is it wished as the final escape from the difficulties of life -- difficulties that are not meaningful and not resolved as a consequence of the personality's stubbornness against opening up and setting the mind into a different direction. In the truly fulfilled life, the difficulties are increasingly treated as stepping stones, as doors to new liberations, and therefore they finally cease to be experienced as difficulties. So when neither fear nor the wishful desire to escape occupies the personality's energy system, then a unity between the inner being and the outer being strives toward further completions of the great plan in which every aspect of consciousness plays an important role. As the physical and the biological life forces recede from the body only a fuller life emerges. But this occurs only when the personality learns to tune into the inner being, follows its guidance, and is in harmony with it as a result of concentrating on the aspect of the soul that needs to be purified. Only then are the inner being and the outer being in full concordance about everything -- also about the time and the manner of severing the tie with the physical vehicle. In such cases, as the life forces recede from the body then only more life -- a fuller life -- takes place and the entity can then spread out again in all its glory and its freedom, unimpeded by the shackles of three-dimensional reality. This awareness exists in the manifest personality, which is but one aspect of the full being that you are. I repeat, this applies to the ideal instances of total task fulfillment. I hope that all of you who are on your path toward this total task fulfillment will follow through sufficiently to reach that state of awareness and of connection long before your inner being has decided that the time is completed because you have accomplished what you have set out to do.

In this connection I would like to interject that there are people who have a deep misconception and distortion in them which prevents them from a full commitment to their task fulfillment. It is the idea that if they really resolve their problems and eliminate their darkness, and thus become happy and fulfilled, then they must die. The way they visualize dying is not at all in this harmonious, productive, and meaningful process that I described -- which must be the natural byproduct of purification, of fulfillment, and of connection. Dying is feared as a disconnected, disharmonious process. It is utterly false to assume that the moment your problems are solved then your life is finished. Quite the contrary is true. In fact, only when your problems are resolved can a new aspect of the task fulfillment begin. For no personality can go through life without letting others benefit from what it has learned. The need, the urge, the longing to give out are an integral part of the soul and come from the inner entity. Thus the full life that unfolds after the bulk of clouds in the soul has been dissolved is part of the task fulfillment. So, please, do not hold back your progress because you consider suffering and unfulfillment of the soul to be the only agents that keep you connected with your body. Such thoughts may not be quite conscious and articulate, but they nevertheless exist in a vague way.

YFirst yur awareness of and then your connection with your inner self, with your real self, will make your life glorious. Therefore, your death will also be experienced as glorious. That state of consciousness will make your life fearless, because there is nothing to fear in dying. Such fearlessness is the ultimate development of each human soul. In other words, that is the goal you are trying to reach.

Let us now look at various other possibilities in regard to the process of dying. Those who do not totally fulfill their task in life must feel a vague longing throughout their entire life, a tugging, a discontent that cannot be placed. This should be always heeded as a sign that something is amiss and the conscious mind should start searching consciously and deliberately. Incidentally, at times this also happens to those who are basically committed to such a path. There are new phases coming out of the soul which the conscious mind at first has trouble first to recognize and then to understand. The vague discontent and the anxiety are definite signs that something is being missed. Only when the sign has been heeded and its full meaning has been understood will the personality find itself once again in a state of deep contentment, of inner peace, of joy, and of security. But those who stubbornly refuse to seek in the real direction must -- and therefore will -- feel the tugging and the whispering of their inner being into their outer consciousness. The personality usually attempts to squelch this voice, to escape from it, to produce a lot of superficial noise and a lot of movement

I want to draw your attention to another important point that often leads to misunderstandings. The total fulfillment of the life task is not necessarily contingent on higher states of development; it does not always follow. It is possible that a fragmented personality aspect embodied in a physical vehicle is not highly developed at all. Nevertheless this personality fulfills its task completely. Of course, the task is less taxing, but it is commensurate with the possibility of such a human individual. At the same time, the fact that it is "easier" only holds true relatively, for this task is just as difficult for this particular individual as a much more taxing task is for a higher developed person. The gauge with which to measure the completion of the task are: inner peace, fearlessness, organic living, and organic dying. On the other hand, we may have someone who is much more highly developed, but who limps behind his potentiality to develop and to fulfill both himself and his task. Therefore, he will not be in peace, but he will be in fear. Therefore, his death will not be the organic process I described. So be sure to understand that task fulfillment, organic living, organic dying, connectedness, and inner peace are not necessarily the results of higher development. The higher developed person often has more difficulty in bringing together the divergent aspects of his soul. Therefore, sometimes his struggle may be a much fiercer one. Also, the less developed person will not have the conscious awareness of the connection with the inner voice. With him it will be more an instinctive phenomenon.

Anyone who is on a path such as this will and must make the connection that will then bring him all the inner and all the outer fulfillment he wants. He must make a total commitment to truth; a total commitment to facing himself; a total commitment to his self-purification; a total commitment to giving up all his defenses; and a total commitment to giving up all his subterfuges in order to face that which seems most difficult and what is momentarily most painful; he must choose to forego the temptation to concentrate either on the real or the apparent wrongs of others so as to avoid the self. In other words, he must be committed to his own growth above and beyond all other considerations in his life.

Now let us make several distinctions about the process of dying. In addition to the ideal case described above, there are other possibilities which occur when the connection betwen the inner self and the outer self is not yet a working bridge.

What happens when death comes and there is still a division between the outer self and the inner self, between the higher self and the outer ego personality, between the will of the divine self and the will of the conscious mind? Here, too, several possibilities exist. For example, if the personality stubbornly refuses the influx of the inner, divine consciousness, refuses its guidance, refuses to heed the signs, takes it upon itself to follow the line of least resistance and rationalizes it, then in such instances the outer personality goes more and more away from the possibility of fulfilling the task for which it has come. A series of choices in the wrong direction has set the grooves so deeply that to retrace the steps becomes almost impossible after a certain point has been reached. Negative creative processes have set in motion a spiral configuration that consists of repeated psychic nuclear points, each unleashing its energy force. When the momentum has advanced beyond a certain point, then the effort and the investment required to dissolve these negative creations while still in the body exceed by far the energy and the investment necessary when the vehicle is changed. In other words, when different stage settings have been chosen. Now, mind you, my friends, this is by no means always true. There are many instances when it is possible to change a groove which has been deeply engraved for considerable time even in advanced human age. No human mind can possibly evaluate when this point of no return has been reached and when it has not. Only the deeper mind, the divine mind can do so. Only one thing is sure: the further away you go, the harder it becomes to turn around. To avoid all possible misunderstandings, any individual who has reached this point of no return would not even venture anywhere near a path such as this. So let no one believe that he may be one of those, simply because at the moment he finds himself in a deep struggle or in a momentary feeling of hopelessness. These manifestations merely bring out what has been there anyway and what needs to reach the surface so as to be dissolved. That is part of the task fulfillment. Anyone who is within the circumference of such a path has the possibility to change the configuration of a negative psychic nuclear spiral.

In cases where the person has veered away so much from the plan which the entity had intended for the personality that a new direction -- a new spiral form -- is impossible to establish, then the inner being may make a decision for death. The higher self knows that to continue in the established direction is waste, that the suffering is pointless, and that the fragmented personality aspect is better served by starting all over again. In such instances death is not organic in its manifestation, but it is meaningful under the particular circumstances, and thus is organic in its larger context. When I say that it is not organic in its manifestation, I mean that death may occur in sudden accidents, in painful slow illnesses and, above all, with the conscious mind completely disconnected from the inner will. The conscious mind may battle against the inner decision because it does not understand it. Therefore, it may contract against its own inner disposition, thus splitting itself further apart, and thereby widening the disconnection. Then fear and selfwill take over and make inner listening impossible. Premature death, violent death, young people dying in wars fall into this category, although not always. Nothing can be generalized. But when death occurs in a state of fear -- and therefore of contraction -- then it is an inorganic manifestation, even though it is organic in its disposition from the higher self. In these instances of dying, the outer personality is totally unaware of the decision of the inner self, and that makes the process of dying all the more difficult and all the more painful because it seems senseless and arbitrary. Then the outer consciousness will struggle against death because it does not know that its own total consciousness has chosen -- as a better alternative than staying -- something that is best under the particular prevailing circumstances.

When the outer personality fights against what the inner being has decided, then a tremendous struggle ensues. That struggle may be carried even into old age, because the outer personality uses its energies and its life forces to battle against the inner decision. At times the decision of the inner entity may outweigh the will of the outer person. Its powers are infinitely greater than the powers available to the outer consciousness. But under other circumstances the struggle may go on and the inner self may go into the direction of discontinuing the old setting in order to establish a new one, without however over-exerting its powers, and allowing the outer self, at least to some extent, to keep the battle going for a certain amount of time. The reason for that is that in the agony of such a struggle the soul may learn some important lessons which can then be utilized in the next scene. In these cases a life-or-death struggle is literally taking place inside. On one level the struggle is against dying and on another level the struggle is for task fulfillment. In other words, for going into the inner direction of first seeking and then finding where attention, emphasis, and labor in self-work are needed most in the personality so that the outer person can focus totally on certain areas that have been ignored and negated -- areas which have brought up the agonizing struggle in the first place. Another frequent way of ignoring what most needs to be looked at is by seeking spiritual paths that do not put emphasis on this aspect of self-work. This is a convenient way to delude oneself and to deceive the self, because spiritual development can become an escape, even though spiritual knowledge may be gained, beautiful meditations may be achieved, and even genuine spiritual experiences about cosmic reality may be attained momentarily. All this can happen without dealing with the areas that give the person the most pain, the most discomfort, and the most guilt, whether this is consciously experienced or not.

There is still another possibility that I would like to discuss. This is the opposite of the former -- when the inner being decides for death but the outer personality does not know it and therefore resists it. The outer personality may be going mostly in a favorable direction in which every possibility for the task fulfillment exists. In other words, for the fulfillment of the contract which the entity has made before entering this realm of material manifestation. However, there may be aspects of that outer personality that cause so much trouble, so much struggle, and so much resistance -- in your terms -- that in spite of the propitious circumstances, the outer personality does not want to live. The outer person may ignore, and therefore not feel, the favorable direction because it is so deeply enmeshed in aspects of the problem that its whole view is blurred. For example, if the outer person refuses to give up its stubbornness, then the isolated areas to be worked on remain obscure, and therefore are frightening to the self. Therefore, the general mood becomes hopeless -- although there is no real cause for that. Part of the dishonest game may be to aggrandize the suffering so as not to give in and to look for a new approach or way of the mind with which to view both the self and life. The self-perpetuating principle increases the psychic nuclear point to such acceleration that the personality finally believes in the truth of the hopelessness. Thus the outer person finds himself unwilling to move, although it could move, although it has every possibility to move. The inner self, the real self, the divine self knows of the favorable circumstances and therefore is totally in favor of a continued life. But the outer self willfully destroys this life by using its most destructive aspects to act out its worst impulses, in spite of the favorable manifestations of his life.

When this is the case, then the personality fragments itself so much that extremely destructive manifestations will take place. In extreme cases, this may lead to suicide. In less extreme cases it leads to all sorts of other negative and destructive manifestations.

When life is terminated in any of these ways, then the total entity determines the following life, the following circumstances. These circumstances are figured out in a most exacting way that you cannot even imagine. Every smallest detail is part of an exacting and intricate equation in which both every possible aspect and every possibillity is taken into consideration. Everything is figured out and is in a completely logical connection with the total picture. The task to be accomplished as far as purification is concerned; the task to spread helpful influence onto others in a way that is best suited to the particular entity; the specific assets of the total entity to be brought out in the life manifestation; the greatest dangers; the greatest pitfalls; how much risk to take; how many favorable and how many unfavorable outer influences should exist in the life -- and favorable and unfavorable does not necessarily coincide with pleasant and unpleasant. It requires exacting research to first consider and then to find the fitting environment, the right parents, the appropriate siblings, the right friends, the necessary later contacts in life, the necessary influence and the right guidance of one person to the other -- and many more variables that you cannot possibly envisage. You must also imagine that all the other people who will make contact with the personality must be equally figured out and that all the possibilities must be taken into consideration. Each contact leaves many possibilities open. Will the individuals involved interact from their higher selves? Will their problem areas and their lower selves affect one another? How much should the higher self infuse with its guidance, with its inspiration, with its energies, and with its forces? If too much, then it becomes pointless and the personality aspect may just as well not have embodied itself in a vehicle in the first place. The most intricate and sophisticated computer of your present day science could never figure out all these details. Nothing is left to chance, nothing is haphazard. There is a total plan, a total picture, and an expertise that surpasses human understanding. I said in an early lecture (Lecture No. 12) that an entire sphere, an entire world, deals with exactly this task. Highly developed spirit beings are experts in this field and a hierarchy of beings has as its task to figure out these life plans.

The fluid system of the energy body carries this plan within itself. It is always visible, it is always available, it is always recognizable. In other words, there are no secrets about it. It has great energetic power and great magnetic power. It is the most powerful magnetic field an individual is born with, and he carries it throughout his life. A future embodiment or incarnation is not -- and cannot be -- chosen arbitrarily. The stage is set as a result of the life plan of the last incarnation. How much was fulfilled and what remains to be done? What contributed to the failures and what contributed to the proper execution? Where may more challenges be needed and where fewer? The stage is set through the life and death process, which is determined exactly by the life plan. The plan for the future embodiment is determined by the life and death process, as outlined in this lecture. The time, the place, the circumstances -- in other words, the exact setting of the stage -- must be planned painstakingly in order to fit in the total plan. The plan is both the result of the former life and death process and at the same time also sets the stage for the birth process.

To the degree the life and death process was favorable from the point of view of the total entity, from the point of view of the fulfillment of the contract, then to that degree the future life (future, again, in your terms) will create a greater connectedness with the eternal being that you are. The life forces, the divine fluids, and the various energy currents of the total entity that you are will infuse your manifesting personality accordingly -- to the degree the execution and the fulfillment of the plan have taken place. Conversely, to the degree that you turn away from the task fulfillment and from where the inner connection is most needed -- and where it always seems most difficult at first -- then to that degree you weaken the bridge through which you can be infused with the energies, with the consciousness, and with the currents of eternal life. Then your future incarnation will be more difficult because your outer personality must make all the effort by itself. It has to gather its own forces in its disconnected state so as to establish the bridge from its own separated place. For that is the inexorable law. The separated consciousness must find its own potentialities so as to change its direction, to transcend its limited mind, its narrow confines.

You can apply all this to the lectures I have given about the psychic nuclear points. The beginning has to be set in motion by you, until the creation takes on its own momentum. When the outer personality has finished a series of embodiments in which it has consistently weakened the connection by willfully going into the opposite direction from where it should go, then the connection is so weak that the personality cannot feel its intrinsic connectedness at all. As a result, it believes itself to be a totally separated being. This is a familiar picture for you. You know many people who do, and even you on the Path still experience yourself in this way at times. Then the effort needed to re-establish the connection, to move towards the right direction, to seek where it seems most difficult -- namely within the black spots -- is much greater. The direction can be changed only with this greater effort and with all your good will. But gradually it becomes easier and easier, because in the struggle to change the direction a positive force builds up, a new spiral movement and psychic nuclear point starts exploding and it begins to create more and more positive manifestations, more and more positive energies, and therefore a positive momentum. Thus the influx of divine truth, of wisdom, of power, and of love becomes forever greater.

This infusion of energies by the inner being interpenetrating the outer person is directly connected with your willingness to go through with what seems most difficult. This is a simple gauge for you. In this gauge you will find all the answers. Then it is possible for you to use the already manifest connection with the eternal consciousness so as to open your mind where it is still closed to more possibilities. Let us see this in a more specific way. You all know from past experience how easy it is to believe that there is no way out when you are in a tight, difficult spot within yourself. The moment you blindly assume -- either consciously or unconsciously, either directly, through your thinking processes, or indirectly, by the way you act and you react in your situation -- that there is no other solution possible other than the negative one that now gives you hopelessness and pain, then it means that you have closed both your inner mind and your outer mind to the many other alternatives and possibilities that always exist. First the disconnected conscious mind must make a conscious and deliberate effort. Then it must be ready for the other possibilities. The conscious mind -- as it is now available to you -- contains the possibility to widen its scope so as to see more; it contains the possibility to think in different ways; it contains the possibility to expand its present limited circumference. This is its task. Without doing this, then your goal cannot be accomplished. That is the only way the connection with your greater consciousness can be formed, so that then you can be increasingly infused with the consciousness and with the energy system of your total being. This is very important for you to understand.

Another aspect that is equally important in order to change the tide is the question of identification. When you totally identify with the gloom and the doom in you, then you perpetuate the negative creation and you strengthen the imaginary separation from all that has meaning and from all that is good. The negative creation -- the negative psychic nuclear point -- makes it more difficult for you to find that you are not only that which thinks and which feels this hopelessness. So when you are hopeless, then it is important to know that now you are identifying with your hopelessness. When you feel totally self-rejecting, guilty, and bad, then it is important to know that now you are identifying totally with that aspect in you that is unpurified, and therefore that hates itself. The moment you know that, then it already makes a great deal of difference. For then you can go to the next step and ask yourself this question: "Isn't there another possibility? Is this really all there is to me? Am I not also something else?" What I mean is not something that as yet appears to be remote. You still cannot experience the reality of your divine self. But even in your conscious mind, are you not also something else? In other words, you do have the possibility to see this situation in a different way -- perhaps merely by opening your mind to another train of thought that you have not yet tried, but which you certainly have the capacity to try out. That means opening the door of your mind. Opening the door of the mind is an exceedingly important process in changing the tide. This is so because the fragmented aspect of consciousness must find its way back through its own means since it is not aware of its essential connection. Only through its own means -- the means of the disconnected mind -- can the bridge be established. As the bridge is being established more and more, you allow your fragmented consciousness to be infused with the powerful energies of your eternal being.

Great blessings are given to every one of you. Extend love to each other, give love to each other, give sustenance to each other, even when you seem to be rejected. Love is needed, perhaps not always in an overt way, but certainly always in feelings. A wonderful blessing goes deeper and deeper into you, thus hallowing your life. Be in peace.

December 12, 1973