Cause And Effect On Various Levels Of Consciousness

By The Pathwork Guide

My beloved friends. Divine blessings are given to all of you, as this lecture is flowing through the human instrumentality. This blessing lasts. It stays, and it slowly awaits your readiness. It will come to its full flowering in you as you prepare the ground.

The topic of cause and effect is not an easy one to discuss on the three-dimensional level. Let me begin by saying that on the lowest level of the scale of the development of consciousness there is no cause and effect, or there does not seem to be. As consciousness is raised, then new horizons appear. Effects are then seen to be connected to causes that previously had been considered non-existent. On the crest of development, where consciousness has become totally God-infused, cause and effect no longer exist.

As in so many other aspects of cosmic reality, here too the lowest and the highest forms of consciousness have certain common features. But they differ enormously in content, in attitude, and in their underlying thoughts and feelings. It might be easy for you to understand that primitive consciousness sees the world as a series of unconnected events, unrelated to cause and effect. It is probably much more difficult for you to understand that in the highest realm of being cause and effect no longer exist. It is extremely difficult to describe this state in human language.

In the sphere of your present reality every act has its own consequences. But it is much more difficult to see the same relationship between your thoughts or your subtle inner attitudes and your overall life circumstances. The more developed a person is, the more he is able to perceive cause and effect on the less obvious levels. On this path the development of this perception is strongly emphasized and it gradually becomes more acute.

If you commit an overt act -- say, you kill someone -- then the consequences will be obvious. But if you malign another human being by questionable accusations, by ill will, by blindness, by stubbornness; if you refuse to give him the benefit of the doubt, if you do not attempt to be open and create a different reality through honest communication with this person, then your thoughts are killing him. This secret killing has consequences which are just as severe as those of a physical killing. At first the effects of such actions may not be easy to perceive. But as you progress in your development, and therefore your raise your consciousness, then you will see that there is a definite connection between the cause and the effect even when the cause is not an overt act but is a hidden thought that you had previously ignored.

In your three-dimensional world, and in your present state of consciousness, you find yourself to be halfway in many areas. In other words, your world is neither all good nor all bad. Your personality is neither all good nor all bad. You live neither in a heaven nor in a hell. You represent a combination of both extremes. Many of you doubt that there are other worlds, other realms, and therefore other states of consciousness. But your being halfway should be a clear indication of the fact that your sphere cannot possibly be the only reality in the universe. If some good exists in you and in your world, then greater degrees of goodness must exist. Therefore there must also exist a plane of all pervading goodness. The same applies to the bad. If there is a little bad in you and in your world, then there must also exist spheres of consciousness in which there is more bad, and finally where all is bad.

You are also halfway in regard to your perception of cause and effect. For it is not the object of your perception that changes; it is your vision that changes as you grow.

An act is irreversible. Its momentary consequences are irreversible. You may later modify this act, you may try to correct it if you see that it was a mistake. You may see the inner current that led you to this act, and you may use this act as material to raise your consciousness and to widen your vision and your perception. In this way you may, in time, neutralize the effects of a negative act. But at the moment the act is irreversible: the consequences cannot be annulled. If consequences exist at the moment as a result of the act but can be eliminated after the elapse of some time, then you can gradually begin to see that cause and effect is very much connected with time. Your state of development creates a corresponding reality. This reality contains three dimensions: it consists of time, of space, and of movement. It also contains the particular degree of cause and effect that you are able to experience.

If you cannot see that your actions have specific consequences, then it is impossible to use them as indispensable tools for the development of your soul. For example, if you do not believe that a negative thought has specific and actually quite tangible results, then you could not possibly be motivated to correct this thought. In time your perception will alter, and you can then undertake the correction of these thoughts, so that, again in time, the effects will be eliminated. In the same way, your life-affirming, positive, and truthful thoughts, attitudes, and actions have corresponding desirable effects. If you are unaware of the relationship between the cause and the effect in all the areas of your life -- and you therefore believe the effects to be coincidental and haphazard -- then you will not be encouraged to improve the causes that you create. Therefore you will not perceive that love and goodness are the supreme power. As a result, you will not be supported and strengthened by this truth.

Let us say that you are compelled by inner forces to commit an impulsive destructive act. The pain and the remorse that this act will cause may be instantaneous. You long for a state of being in which you can undo this act, as if it never happened. Yet you know that in the world you live in this is impossible. Then how can it be that in higher realms there is no cause and effect? Perhaps at certain times you can sense that underneath this level of cause and effect there exists a level in which you can be completely untouched either by the cause that you have set in motion or by the effect that you have brought about. It is your higher self who is unaffected, the divine part of you that does not participate in any negative thoughts, and which therefore is not part of your destructive attitudes or of your destructive actions. But those layers of your personality that are still involved in false perceptions -- and therefore in untruthful attitudes, and therefore in unloving, destructive acts -- must work themselves out of this morass. This will happen in time. Therefore, cause and effect and time are intrinsically connected as different manifestations of the same reality.

Perhaps you can begin to perceive that the three-dimensional world -- with its limitation of time, of space, and of movement; with its duality; with its cause and effect -- is directly related to and connected with impurity, with distortion, with the limitation of vision, and with the limitation of perception. At the same time the three dimensions -- time, space, and movement -- the struggle in regard to duality, and cause and effect become the tools which the soul needs in order to transcend this entire realm of consciousness. Perception is the cause of certain actions. These create certain effects. These effects can be the medicine needed in order to overcome the distorted perceptions which then create the causes which in turn create these effects. I have spoken to you before about cause and effect and the medicine.

In the highest state of consciousness only the highest, the best, the most creative, and the most beautiful causes are set in motion. In this enlightened state of consciousness cause and effect are immediately discernible, and are almost simultaneous -- that is, there is no lapse of time between the cause and the effect. The cause IS the effect. The thought IS the act. The most subtle and the most secret attitude creates immediate results, and therefore immediate consequences. There is no space to travel in between the cause and its effect. They become truly one, as all becomes one on this level of being. This is why at certain times of grace you can sense that somewhere deep within you there exists a realm of being in which no matter what happens you remain unalterably pure, divine, and good in your essence. For your essence is the essence of All. Your essence is God.

Conversely, in the most primitive state of consciousness even the most obvious and overt act appears isolated. In other words, without connections or consequences, without either cause or effect. The primitive person who commits murder may believe that his act truly has no further consequences, either for himself or for his victim. As a result of this false belief, it will not occur to him to search within himself for the causes that create his desire to commit this act. Therefore, the act is never given the chance to become the medicine that in time would cure the disease of evil.

My beloved friends, it will be of great help for your enlightenment to consider all this very deeply, to meditate about it, to profoundly take in these words, and then to ask God in you to guide you and to help you to absorb them.

Now I would like to discuss total surrender to God. You all battle with this central question. The resistance to follow this call of your soul is what causes all your discomfort, all your pain, all your suffering, all your anxiety, and all your discontent. Surrender to God is an innate movement of the soul. It is your ultimate fate. Therefore, without it you can neither fulfill yourself nor can you fulfill your task. I wish to discuss this topic in connection with cause and effect. Surrender to God -- or the lack of it -- affects every conceivable aspect of your inner life and of your outer life. It is particularly enlightening to examine this in the framework of this lecture.

Let us consider some natural effects of your total surrender to God. Since it is the natural movement of your soul, then surrendering to God means fulfilling your destiny. It brings about balance and harmony in your entire organism. Your mental organism will be ruled by truthful perception, by clarity of vision, and by realistic understanding. You will gain great harmony and peace of mind. Conflicting perceptions, confusion, and therefore frustration, will disappear. Enlightenment and insight into all the apparent conflicts will make all the pieces of the great puzzle of life fall into place.

On the emotional level this mental clarification of the opposites creates an entirely new mode of being, an entirely new mode of reacting, and an entirely new mode of feeling. For example, loving no longer appears to be weakening -- and therefore humiliating. On the contrary, it creates a healthy pride. In other words, dignity. By surrendering to God man avoids one of the greatest pitfalls of humankind, namely the temptation to surrender to superior negative power structures. The moment man resists -- and therefore obstructs -- his natural soul movement, his innate destiny, which is surrender to God, then he must succumb to a substitute. This is a false surrender. It is very important to understand this.

If you fear a human authority -- and it hardly matters whether this authority really abuses his power or whether you only imagine that he does -- then it is because you depend on this authority in some tangible or intangible way. You may then respond to your dependence, and therefore to your fear, either by submitting to the authority -- in other words, by selling out and then hating yourself for it -- or you may respond by blind rebellion against this authority in order to avoid this self-hatred and thus preserve your so-called dignity. But this is not true dignity. It is merely a blind reaction that is based on emotional reflexes and on turbulent feelings that you are mostly unaware of. In both instances you are not clear about the issue; you lack the true insight. As a result, you cannot distinguish whether this authority is truly abusive or whether you react like a child.

If your total surrender to God is genuine and all-encompassing, then you will perceive with utter clarity the unworthiness of an authority who tries to subdue you, to abuse you, to exploit you, to trample upon your human dignity. It does not matter whether this person is a boss on whom you are financially dependent, or a mate whose love you need and therefore crave. If your surrender to God is your primary position in life, your main emphasis and your primary attitude, then you will trust God. Therefore, you will know that this trust is completely justified. You can then find the courage to risk losing the object of your need. If you set God above all, then you will clearly see that a human authority may be abusive. When you see this, then you can choose to pay the price. In other words, you may choose to give up what this authority holds out for you because your dignity and your inner freedom are more important to you. Thus, your autonomy can grow only from your total surrender to God.

The further consequences of giving over to God will be that you might realize that you need to change your situation in order to fulfill your real needs without the enslavement of your soul. This might be a new position, a new boss, a new relationship, or a new mate. However, these new authorities in your life will be -- like you -- autonomous people whose inner soul movement follows the call to set God ahead of all else. They will not need to abuse their power, a power invested in them by virtue of other people's needs. Or you may even find that the same people -- either a boss or a mate -- will react differently to your changed attitude. They may also battle between their higher self attitude and their lower self attitude. They may then set you inwardly free and respect your dignity. As a result, the relationship between you and them will become a mutual giving and receiving.

If your perception is distorted -- and therefore you falsely assume that any authority is out to humiliate you and to abuse you -- then your total surrender to God will show you your misconception. As a result, your perception will adjust to reality. Thus you will no longer rebel against a rightful authority who merely expects your rightful part in the mutual venture. The blind rebellion against any authority often masks your own hidden desire to have power over others and then to abuse this power. You may never have thought of it in this way. But when your selfwill governs your life -- and therefore when you have strong feelings of humiliation and powerlessness whenever your selfwill is not fulfilled -- then you will believe that you must either become the greatest power in your universe, God, or that you must be annihilated. In order to avoid your total annihilation you may tend to bow to substitute powers -- rather than to God's will. You may choose to submit to another stronger or seemingly stronger person: to a mate, to a boss, even to a dictator. By serving him, you hope to gain this superior position yourself. Or you may seek the power of money or the power of a position, which then become substitutes for God. Or you may feel powerful by staying aloof from others, never fully opening your heart, but making yourself desirable due to other people's misconceptions and neurotic needs.

Submission to a substitute authority and to a substitute power, as well as indiscriminate rebellion against all authority, are both results -- effects -- of the cause that is set in motion when your natural soul movement of surrendering to God is denied, and is therefore obstructed. But when God is recognized as the highest authority, then all falls into place. Otherwise you must be confused about the authority that you need and serve. In other words, you must not know when it is appropriate to follow the lead and when self-assertion is called for. When surrender to God is your primary position, then you are aware of what is what. As a result, you can then follow suit in your action without inner conflict. You will admit that you do have needs, that in certain areas of your life an authority or a leader is necessary. But you will know that you also have a role to play in this relationship. You will know that in accepting it you only heighten your selfhood and your true dignity. By following this leader you can never lose your soul, because your soul belongs to God. And God always returns your soul to you stronger, cleaner, and with greater autonomy than ever.

The resistance to follow your destiny to surrender all of yourself to God and to His will for you must create a real guilt, a permeating guilt. So much of your weakness, of your hesitation, of your self-doubt, and so many of your self-punishing patterns are a direct result of this. No matter how many psychological explanations you may find -- and they may all be true on their level -- this self-defeating pattern can never be reversed and transformed unless you heal yourself spiritually by giving over all of yourself to the Creator in all areas and in all respects.

When this happens -- and, of course, this is not a one-time endeavor, but one that needs to be repeated daily and in all the issues of your life -- then you will experience a new strength and a sense of self that you never knew before. This will appear almost paradoxical. Deep down you always feared that by giving over to God you would lose yourself. But now you find, as a palpable reality, that the words of Jesus are true: You must lose yourself in God in order to find yourself.

This new strength will suddenly become a spontaneous movement. The wisdom to choose when to use positive aggression and when to give in gracefully will exist in you as an almost instantaneous knowing, out of which the appropriate act will flow. The positive energetic aggressive movement will replace childish -- and therefore destructive -- rebellion and denial. Graceful giving in, yielding, following, accepting -- even when your selfwill may not like it -- will replace humiliation, self-denial, and submission that is based on fear and on the distrust of life. In both instances you may choose in new ways. Where formerly you would have submitted weakly, now you may yield and follow with your dignity intact. Or you may find that positive aggression is in place. Where formerly you would have blindly -- and therefore destructively -- rebelled, now you may stand up. But this time in a new spirit, out of different motives, with a clearer vision and with new knowledge. Thus it will have an entirely different effect both on others and on yourself. In other words, the tenor of your aggression will be different. Or you may come to see that the situation requires not fighting but giving in. For then you will see that this is fair, right, necessary, justified, and good for all concerned. In other words, you will see that there is neither injustice nor abuse that would require your positive aggression.

Positive aggression is necessary not merely in order to rebuke injustice and abuse. In other words, it is not only a responsive action. It must also be an initial action. This kind of positive aggression is necessary in order to move out, to expand, to improve, to create -- whether within yourself or in your environment. No negative inner material can be transformed without this energetic movement surging forth. When this movement surges in a healthy, organic way, then it is neither depleting nor effortful. It is a release and a liberation that energizes the entire organism. But this is the case only when it is the appropriate, organic aggression that is in accordance with God's will. The new positive reality that you all strive to create can come to pass only when you are free from the confusions that inevitably arise as a result of denying your soul movement, your inner call to give over to God. You will no longer have to ask when you should stand up and assert yourself and when you should give in and follow. You will no longer doubt the nature of a human authority or of a person whom you depend on and therefore need, and his or her motives. In other words, you will not have to grapple with your intellect only, which could never give you this insight anyway. Now you will know spontaneously. The knowledge will be there, in front of you, clear and strong, without a doubt. It will flow out of the center of your being where God reigns, where Christ is King, and where all is right with you: your actions, your perceptions, your knowledge, your reactions, your feelings. The peace and the one-pointedness that you long for lie in this key, my beloved friends. Use this key.

We hope that this lecture will bringt you a step nearer to making your surrender to God your primary goal. Your entire life will change in the sense that I discussed, and also in many other ways that I could not possibly go into in this lecture, but which I will touch upon in the future. Thus you set a new cause in motion that will then bring you new affects. Many of the life circumstances that you no longer like are the result -- the effect -- of holding back from trusting God and from giving over to Him. You may have done so in some areas of your life. There the effects are desirable and joyous. The cause creates commensurate effects. But your soul is divided. Therefore, there are many areas in which this may not have happened as yet. It is precisely there that you need to change your fundamental relationship to your Creator. Where you have fear, insecurity, anxiety, self-doubt, conflict with others, altercations with your environment, or any kind of unfulfillment or frustration, then there the underlying cause must be the fact that you deny the call of your soul. Use this clear and simple gauge.

My beloved friends, the blessings extended to all of you are specifically directed at this time toward helping you to realize this giving over to Him Who holds you, to Him Who contains you, to Him Who makes you safe, to Him Who makes you secure, to Him Who infuses His truth and His love into all of your being, so that you become an instrumentality for Him. Be blessed.

November 16, 1977