Change From Outer Laws To Inner Laws In The New Age

By The Pathwork Guide

Greetings, my very beloved friends. Blessings for everyone of you. Divine love first reaches out for you, then seeps deep into your heart, and finally embraces you. Let it give you the peace that is the ultimate reality, and that you can and will find within your innermost being if you go all the way with yourself.

My dearest friends, in this lecture I wish to give you another vision about the growth process in which you as individuals, and the planet as a whole, are involved. Every seed contains the plan of its ultimate fulfillment, its potentiality, and its final self-evolution. This plan is always inherent in the seed and it follows its own organic way. You have experienced some of this phenomenon in your pathwork. You have seen that there is an organic process that unfolds completely independently from your mind. In other words, from your conscious expectations and thinking. This plan fulfills itself in certain stages. When new stages are being reached, then new energies are being released.

Let us now look at this phenomenon on the most superficial, material level of manifestation. Let us take the outer growth of a human being. You can see very distinct phases in the growth of a human being. When the infant reaches a certain point of readiness to unfold dormant capacities -- for example, to learn how to speak and to learn how to walk -- then new energies must be made available, otherwise this unfoldment cannot take place. This is the first major phase of change after incarnation on the physical level. The next major phase of expansion is when the child is ready to leave home and go to school. This is not only a physical expansion, but along with it there is an inner expansion. It is a step out into the world. He unfolds his inherent potentiality to cope with others outside the home. These phases of growth and of expansion continue throughout the entire life span.

When full physical growth has been reached, then these phases are not as noticeable as they are during childhood. However, they are just as distinct and just as real. These phases always mean change, growth, reaching out, reaching higher levels of creative self-expression, both in dealing with the world and in the organization within the inner system. On the physical level it is even known by your physicians that every few years, after definitive segments of what you call time, certain changes occur in the cellular system. Actually, the chemical components totally change in the outer structure, although this is not noticeable. Nevertheless it is a process that is very real.

The same stages of growth and change exist even more dynamically on the mental level, on the emotional level, on the spiritual level, on the psychic level. In other words, on the level of the inner being. Each stage is an orderly step toward the fulfillment of the seed plan. The seed plan automatically releases new energies. When an entity is following its plan, then these energies become extremely beneficial. They aid the process of growth, of change, of expansion. That is, of reaching into new dimensions from within, of moving outward and thereby embracing more of reality. That reality is an inner reality whose aim is to transform the outer reality according to its own perfection, to its own limitless beauty, and to its infinite possibilities of expression.

However, when the movement is being stopped -- when the outer consciousness resists the process, when it makes itself insensitive to it and thus ignores its urgings -- then the energies are not being allowed to unfold in their intrinsically harmonious way. It is then that the constructive power of these energies turns destructive -- though destructive only in the light of the limited human vision. Actually, the destruction is always aimed at eliminating the obstructions: the untruth, the infringements on divine unfoldment. The blockages which the consciousness sets in the way of the released energies need to be dissolved. And this manifests in the life of the person as upheaval, as crisis, as painful destruction. The individual needs to learn how to see and how to understand these happenings. For they are not haphazard events.

Where the consciousness is open, where it is in truth, where it is positive, and where it is according to divine law, then the energies in those particular areas are moving organically and harmoniously. But where the consciousness is contrary to truth, contrary to divine reality, contrary to divine law, then in those respects the energies are being inverted, and therefore during this period they turn apparently against the self.

This is a process that embraces all being, all creation. What applies to the individual entity applies just as much to the planet. I often mentioned that the planet earth is an entity. Therefore, the same laws of growth, the same stages, the same phases, and the same periods of unfoldment that apply to the individual must also apply to the planet. Both with the individual entity and with the planetary entity each period of expansion is distinct. The energies that need to be released in order to make possible the expansion that is inherent in the seed plan must be strong. Hence the positive manifestations are extremely noticeable. When these energies are utilized according to plan, then some of the changes that manifest are: the palpable unfoldment of new potentials; a renewed creativity; increased well-being; increased bliss; an increased vision of new alternatives for self-repression. Conversely, when the new energies are not being recognized as an influx of divine forces, and are therefore resisted as if they were a hostile force, then the manifestations are crisis and destruction. All regressive attitudes, all reactionary attitudes, and all radical revolutionary attitudes are nothing but such blockages. The latter is a blockage no less than the former, being merely an outward projection of what is held back within, with the emphasis misdirected.

How does this apply to the present new influx of the unfolding Christ Consciousness in this New Age -- which is one of those stages of expansion I have just discussed? If an individual is ready to reach adulthood but blocks it, then the adult energies being released in the psychic system, in the emotional system, and in the physical system will create a crisis. This phenomenon is vastly ignored not only among your scientists and your educators, but also among your psychologists. The same is true about the planetary entity. Your planet is now ready for adulthood, and therefore it strives toward unfolding it. Yet the planet also harbors resistant elements that want to ignore the process, that fear it, and which therefore resist it. So you can recognize factions of people who are totally oblivious of the inner processes. You can also see the factions, the groups of people who sense some of these processes. And then there are those who are keenly aware of the inner reality and who therefore see the outer reality for exactly what it is: merely a reflexion, a manifestation.

The lower organization of consciousness, which is focused only on the outer manifestation, is in a state of separateness. As a result, it is unable to perceive the oneness of all being. Therefore, it proceeds in ways that split off the self from the others. Selfishness, greed, ruthlessness, unconcern, and cruelty are manifestations of this turn of mind. Since the precepts behind these attitudes are based on illusion, then they must ultimately prove painful and unworkable. Therefore, they are being destroyed by every new influx of divine energy. This is not always understood in its true significance. It often requires a great deal of what you call time and of development before the inner meaning of such crises can become clear. The blindness that is unable to perceive the oneness of all being is distinctive: it is based on the apparent diversity of interests between the self and others. The personality thus involved can see no further than the immediate point and it refuses to see beyond this point. Therefore, it remains unaware of the connecting links.

The lesson to be learned in the age that mankind has just left behind, which we might call the early adolescent stage of the planetary consciousness, was to make a very crude kind of distinction between good and evil. In other words, between social behavior and anti-social behavior, between constructive acts and destructive acts. This was a totally dualistic state, though inevitable since the consciousness of the planet was not able to perceive beyond dualism. It was also a necessary preparation for the next state, the one into which you have entered now. You have to acquire the strength of character to withstand temptation before you can realize that nothing is being sacrificed by growing up, because your real interests cannot ever be different from the real interests of others.

In previous ages this distinction could not be made. Mankind was incapable of distinguishing between good and evil. In other words, between what is furthering and building up and what is destructive for others, even if it seems advantageous to the self. At those earlier periods, man was governed merely by impulse and by desire. What was immediately gratifying seemed good, and no consideration could be given to anything beyond it. The consciousness was then in its infant stage. Only in the age that now has come to an end could the struggle be taken up to choose between what seemed divergent interests. The pain created by the blindness of the undeveloped state becomes its own medicine and its own lesson. I have often mentioned this divine law, which is so hard for humanity to recognize. If a man gives up what seems to be his interest because he recognizes that in not doing so he would bring harm to others, then he prepares for the following stage of development, when he can see the fuller vision. This also applies to the planet as a rule.

The dualistic way of seeing reality is still deeply imbedded in the human consciousness. When the focus of a consciousness is deeply imbedded in this perception, then everything that is experienced seems to be a question of either the self or the other. Therefore, the conflicts of conscience that result from this vision are often quite severe. Needless to say that not all human beings can always make that apparent sacrifice in order either to preserve or to establish decency, fairness, kindness, and constructive behavior, because such action is experienced as being against the self. Therefore, when man is sacrificing from a dualistic consciousness, then he often does so to his own detriment. Such sacrifice is an illusion; it is not divine love, it is not kindness, it is not fairness, it is not decency, it is not honesty. But if these attributes seem to extract a severe sacrifice, then sacrifice must be experienced. For you shall experience as you believe. You have all experienced in your purification process how resentful and how deprived you feel when you refrain from destructive behavior. And also how guilty and self-rejecting you feel when you give in to the temptation of following the call to gratify the immediate desire of your lower self.

The laws and the mores of civilization in the age just past are hinged on this basic duality, thus on the expression of a very limited vision of reality. At the same time this limitated vision was a much needed testing ground. All the manifestations of strife and upheaval, natural as well as man-made, were an expression of this conflict between the seemingly divergent interests of the self and of others. Now this age has come to an end. Those who have sacrificed for the good of all, for the sake of a divine principle, will find that this is no longer necessary, that a deeper level of truth can be reached. For now you can see that what harms the self also harms others, and that what harms others also harms the self. Those who have acted primarily on the selfish and destructive level must come to a change of heart if the powerful energies that are being released on the inner plane of the planet are to be creative and furthersome for them. Otherwise they will create unbearable tensions that must culminate in crisis.

The planet earth has come to a stage of development in which the old structure can no longer be maintained. It cannot bear the tensions and the restrictions of the old limited consciousness. A new vision must be gained where all is one. In other words, where the self and others are perceived as one. You have to look for this new vision beneath the limited vision to which the immediate consciousness is so accustomed. This new vision brings enormous peace, security, joy, and self-expression. It is not an illusory image of wishful thinking that I present here. It is a stark reality.

The distinction between people who are still steeped in the old consciousness and those who are in the new perception is not always simple. For man is not cut of one piece. There are many human beings who are on the brink, and who therefore need help and guidance to pull them over into the new. Even those who by and large are ready to let the new consciousness express itself through them -- in other words, those whose personality is already in the new Christ Consciousness -- find areas within where the old outlook, the selfish way of life, and the narrow vision are still being maintained. Those are the areas that you call your problems. Perhaps we can now see this in a different light, in a more comprehensive light. It is too simple to say that these are problems. They express a rhythm of growth and of expansion.

There are those who are already prepared for this new age of consciousness, and in this sense this consciousness already exists. They are the pioneers. They create a new civilization. The beginnings have already been made in various places all over the earth. There also exist a considerable number of human beings who are not quite in the new consciousness, but who are capable of reaching that state. This requires very intense work with guidance. The way to do this work is being presented to you through this channel. More of this work of preparation is needed all over the world. And it will come. Your task is very important, for you are not concerned merely with those human beings who have attained the new consciousness -- and who are pioneers in creating a new civilization. You are also called upon to undergo your own purification work and your own growth process, so that your inner vision will be enlarged and the present state of your manifest consciousness will alter according to the potentiality inherent in your seed plan. Then you can help others -- in many different ways -- to accomplish the same. There need not be this strict differentiation betwen those who are in the old and those who are in the new. There are a number of human beings of whom it can truly be said that at this stage of their development they are not ready to make the step and to undergo the necessary discipline of the work. But there are more than you realize of those who might be able to do it, but who unfortunately do not do so. There are also many human beings who can and who are willing to undertake the necessary steps to widen and to deepen their consciousness according to their potential plan.

This work is not sufficiently spread on the earth plane, and therefore it needs more emphasis. This will happen. Your own nucleus here can and will play an important role in this task, in exchange with other New Age centers which are willing to accept the process of becoming and do not just let everyone be where he is. Work needs to be done. This work of preparing more and more individuals in their inner consciousness for the inner reality to unfold really means just one thing: it means liberating God within you and liberating God within the general consciousness of mankind.

The God consciousness that existed in previous ages was always projected outward. Then, as a necessary preparation, the pendulum had to swing into emphasis on the self. The individual had to give up God outside so as to fully assume responsibility for the self. But before finding God inside -- to make the transition from God outside to God inside, to bridge that gap in time and space as you know it -- a period of atheism or agnosticism had to come as a transitory state that prepared the individual for full autonomy and for selfhood. At first this had to happen only on the outer levels, for full autonomy and selfhood on all levels can exist only when God is liberated within and only when your oneness with God has been found. That is reality.

Where the planet earth resists the powerful energies and does not follow its seed plan, its development has to proceed in a different way from those aspects of the planetary consciousness that are ready to embrace the New Age. This division is necessary, organic, and inevitable. Those individuals who are blind to the meaning of the crisis that arose as a result of obstructing the movement will experience it as if they were victims and as if everything were hopeless. But those in the know are aware of the real meaning of the crisis and therefore do not fear it. They know that it is a change that at the moment may present some difficulties in the process of adjusting to new modalities, but they also know that this means a welcome liberation and greater joy.

It is exactly the same within the individual. Here on the Path you find out incontrovertibily -- without a shadow of doubt, if you are truly willing to look -- that each crisis that you experience means a negation of truth and a violation of your divinity. And that is why you are in pain, why you are in a crisis, or why you are in difficulties. In other words, that is how you are suffering -- as a result of blocking an immensely powerful stream of energy and a growing force. But as you gain this awareness, then you also gain a wonderful weapon, a wonderful key. It is indeed a key. With that key you can open, you can see, you can recognize, and you can truly change those areas of your consciousness where you have blocked -- and thus inverted -- powerful creative energies, so that they have turned against you. On this Path you learn to harmonize the whole process by surrendering all of you to the Christ that is awakening within you, on your inner plane of reality. Exactly the same process applies to the planet.

You who have created your Center, and who experience so much life, so much growth, so much joy, and true peace through this process, sometimes fall into the error of believing that the life that you lead at these short periods that you spend here is too beautiful and too meaningful to be real. When you come into your ordinary surroundings outside, as it were, then you designate that as the real life. Nothing could be further from the truth. What you call the real life is the most illusory life, where almost everything is seen upside down and in reverse. There, only the outer, the most superficial manifestations are recognized, perceived, and dealt with. Thus life is being fragmented into an unrecognizable pattern. In the new civilization that you are beginning to found you learn to make the connection between cause and effect. In other words, the connection between apparently fragmented pieces of experience and your consciousness. You learn to discover the deeper and much more real life within that creates the outer circumstances. Thus you approach reality and, at times, you gain reality in a much more comprehensive manner. Once you are in possession of and connected with this reality -- the "real" reality if I may say so -- then the superficial, illusory outer reality will become much easier for you to deal with, provided you do not see it as the only reality, while you consider what you pursue within yourself on your Path as the unreal one. In doing so, you distort the truth.

I want to say to you, my friends, that the new reality which you discover also makes you create an outer manifestation in your Center. You already begin to see it happening. You will be the new civilization and the new culture that is slowly growing. The forces that are building this new reality are, at the same time, destroying that which obstructs this movement. For there cannot be growth and creation without there also being destruction. The destruction of destructiveness I have called it in a lecture I gave way back. Or the destruction of that which is already obsolete and therefore needs to go. But the manifest consciousness clings to it and opposes the movement. What is obsolete now may have had its function in the past in a less developed state of consciousness, but to pursue it now makes no sense. You all know that from your individual work. You find within your soul substance attitudes and reactions that were understandable and even appropriate when you were infants and small children. But you either still pursue them or you hold on to them as if these attitudes still had reality value. To the degree you are doing this, to that degree you create obstructions, unhappiness, strife, frustration, crisis, and finally destruction, so that the old structure can crumble and then you can begin to rebuild the new one.

If there exists a willingness to give up the old, obsolete attitude and then to adopt a new, more appropriate one, then both a painful crisis and destruction are unnecessary. Then the change occurs organically, harmoniously, and beautifully. Where you hold back deliberately, where you deny, and where you then choose to delude yourself that it is all right, that it does not matter, or that you cannot do it because it is too difficult, then you invite both an inevitable crisis and pain. Exactly the same applies to all of mankind as one entity. Each individual is what an aspect or an attitude is in relation to your total personality. Just as you find yourself in inner strife because part of you wants to grow and part of you wants to hold back, so it is with the planet. Parts of it want to grow, while other parts want to hold back. Then they deny the fact that there even exists such a conflict. In other words, there are those who want to change and there are those who resist change.

The understanding of this lecture should help you to commit yourself to change on the deeper levels of your being. For change is one of the byproducts of the New Age. Now I will try to explain this in a very specific area. Of course the same applies to many areas, but now I will choose a specific one.

Let us return for a moment to the concept of good and evil. In other words, that which is constructive and in accordance with and in harmony with divine truth and law, and that which is opposed to it. The rigid law that had to exist for the primitive consciousness had to decree rules of "do's" and "dont's," commands and prohibitions. The totally childish and self-indulgent consciousness needs such rules imposed from the outside. Without it there would have been chaos and the most destructive impulses would have been acted out to a much greater degree than they were. But this also brought a certain rigidity and superficiality. Obeying rules blindly tempted man not to think for himself and not to struggle with the often more complex issues of inner morality. Blind obedience to rules enhances laziness of thinking, the easy way of not taking responsibility, and it avoids the often necessary groping and searching that must precede true answers and real enlightenment. This is why I often stress in the guidance I give that your customary approach of one action being the right one while the other action is the wrong one is, most of the time, a faulty way of seeing things. I have painstakingly shown you throughout the years that most of the time either alternative could be governed by the most sincere motives or by the most dishonest motives. Only when you sort out the dishonest ones on both sides can you open the channel to your inner God and perceive the guidance you require. This means labor, courage, and search. Obeying the outer rule prevents this. So what I showed you in how to approach such questions is truly an expression of the New Age consciousness that will spread much more over the planet as mankind evolves.

I have also shown throughout the years in the lectures I have given how the dualistic approach creates confusion and the distortion of truth in yet another way. There are those who claim that a specific attitude to life is desirable, while its opposite is supposed to be undesirable. Others completely reverse this. Each uses the distortion, the exaggeration, and the fanaticism of the other as proof that his own side is the correct one. Let me give you an example. There are those who say that introspection is the only way of life, while claiming that outgoingness and extroversion are erroneous, and therefore harmful. There are equally those who claim the exact opposite. Or, there are those who believe only in active expression and who therefore reject all receptive, passive attitudes, and vice versa of course. Many other life attitudes are thus divided. Whole philosophies are based on such divisions. Painstaking treatises are written in which a lot of half-truth is being used to present one side of the matter. There are many such topics that undergo the same fate of a rigid division, to some of which I have given particular attention throughout the years. I have shown how the dualistic either/or is both a rigidity and a shortsightedness that is no longer applicable. In other words, it was obsolete. But it was an inevitable byproduct of the rule system. It was obsolete because it came from the superimposed rules which the primitive consciousness required in order not to destroy willfully, blindly, selfishly, in a state of alienation from others -- where the other person and his pain are not experienced as real.

I am not saying that now mankind has progressed sufficiently that outer rules are no longer necessary. Obviously this is not yet true. There are always those who would still harm others willfully, selfishly, cruelly, and irresponsibly. And who sometimes do so in spite of the rules and the laws from outside. But this applies only to the darkest, the most undeveloped aspects of the lower self of the entity -- individual as well as planetary. To an increasing degree the rules begin to make way for an inner sense of morality and an inner conscience in a way that has never happened before. The Christ Consciousness that evolves within the inner plane brings man into a state in which sooner or later, and little by little, the outer rules and the outer laws will become superfluous. For the inner God will know what is truth, what is love, and what is divine. Then the personality will act from that innermost center.

This can be seen already to a small degree. On your psychological inner path, in your emotional life, no rules are applicable -- at least no rules from the outside. But on your inner path, you find the beauty of divine law that works in utter perfection, as well as benign love and justice. The child in you -- your lower self -- may blindly rebel against the laws. But once you want to awaken, then you must be overwhelmed by the grandeur of this divine scheme in which all is well and in which there is nothing to fear -- that is, if you choose to see it and if you go with it. You know your inner truth, no one else can tell it to you. On that level no one act is either right or wrong per se. Yet it is also true at certain times that your inner plan -- your divine self -- wishes you to go into a certain direction and not in another. But this cannot be superimposed from the outside. Only when you go deeply into yourself and you transcend the rules, only when you transcend public opinion, only when you transcend the facades, only when you transcend the self-interest that comes from the lower self, only when you transcend the need to please, only when you transcend the need to rebel, and only when you transcend the need to spite will you find the ultimate guidance from your higher self. All the outer help that is given can only show you how to go deeply and how to recognize your personal investment in a false vision of reality. Those outside of you can often see the maze that you cannot see, and therefore can help you. But the ultimate realization is of your inner law, as you find your inner God.

The New Age goes in this direction. The outer law is often parallel to the inner law. Many outer laws are manifestations of divine law, but many have lost the dynamic connectedness with their divine origin, and are therefore disconnected structures. When it comes to destructive acts of killing, of stealing, or of robbing others of their rights, then there can be no question that the outer law is parallel to the inner law. But then we also get to more complex situations where the inner law is not that simple. This is what I am discussing now and where an approach such as you are learning can bring forth the truth and the reality of the divine law on an inner level.

At times you will find that the outer law may be completely opposed to the inner law of God. On the crassest outer level of manifestation the following is a simple and obvious example. If you happen to live in a land whose government is corrupt and which requires of the individual to commit acts against humanity -- that is, against God -- then to follow the outer law would be going against divine law. It requires a great deal of courage on the part of an individual to stand up for the inner truth and to deny the outer law. But man can lose himself in the maze and he can take refuge in the outer law, for that may be the easier way. By the same token, man could misuse the words I am saying, he could misuse these truths in order to justify a lower self trend to defy an outer law. The only true answer is a close inspection of the real motives and of the real attitudes. There are no rules regarding when to follow rules and when to break rules, or how to follow them.

The Christ Consciousness is not rebellion and revolution, it is not in itself the destruction of the old. It is reformulation and change. It is a new organization of eternal values that have already existed in the old consciousness, but which must be expressed in a new way in the New Age. The Christ Consciousness brings a new morality that gradually wipes out the outer commandments, the outer regulations, and the outer written and unwritten laws. However, laws are still necessary for quite a time in your terms, but the trend is in this direction. Where you are involved in your lower self, and therefore you act it out, then in those areas you need those laws to protect others. But where you have outgrown the lower self, then in those respects you do not need to be told not to bring harm onto others. You know it and therefore you have no desire to do so.

In the more complex matter of the personal relationship to the self and of the personal relationship to others the laws are already dissolving. For the new consciousness makes them superfluous. To the degree that you allow God in you to awaken, to that degree you liberate your inner God, and then the outer laws will disappear. The laws of morality will be completely flexible and they will be what they actually are. Each case is different. But for that you need the labor of self-knowledge, the courage and the honesty of self-honesty, so that you cannot be corrupted by the motives of the lower self. You also need to make the effort to take each individual issue as a separate new issue and to deal with it in a completely new way. That is the action of the adult, mature entity -- and mankind is moving toward that goal. But it cannot be done when change is either opposed or resisted. For this flexible attitude requires a constantly changing world. Freedom and change are inseparable. Enslavement and rigidity are equally inseparable. If you want it all so simple that you do not have to search, to labor, to grope, and to put your energy and your attention into whatever the issue may be -- in other words, if you want it all handed to you -- then you do need the inflexible rules that confine you and that enslave you. Only he who has overcome his rebellion against authority -- because now he is his own inner authority, because he has that honesty -- can be free. That means embracing change. Each issue requires a new approach, one that is different, moving, and flexible. What may appear as a similar situation, which therefore required a certain approach, may in fact be quite different and therefore may require an entirely new approach. So freedom is completely dependent on your ability to change.

My friends, I have given you material to ponder over. Go deeply into yourself. Most of you are ready to use this material productively, not only on the intellectual level, but a lot of what I have said to you will take root inside and can be observed on an inner level. You can begin to institute true freedom by your willingness to change -- to change your mind, to change your beliefs, to change your attitudes, to change your assumptions. In other words, by your willingness to give up that which is obsolete, and which therefore confines you, you liberate your inner God and you establish true self-responsibility. Then you no longer need the confinement and the rigid rules of the outer law.

Find that part within that can now create an echo to the words I have given you. Let these words nourish you and strengthen you where you need it most. Make room for that emerging new consciousness as it spreads on the inner plane, and then fully embrace the movement and go with it. Trust that this can only enhance both you and your life. You are all being blessed in truth and in love. Be your God.

January 15, 1975