It is of the greatest importance for your path that you work deeply with this attitude and that you realize the folly of it, the damage and the hopelessness that it incurs. You need to make every effort to transform this distortion into truth. When you know the truth, then you will want to give your best to life, to others, and to God. This will enable you to give to yourself and to believe in your value. This will also totally abolish your fears.
QUESTION: (Ernest Berry) I have been doing the meditation you suggested that stops the thinking process. Recently I have gotten much more energy from this meditation. The energy that surges can be very strong. I would like any suggestions you might have on how to handle and not misuse this energy. Also, do you mean to just try to stop the thinking for five minutes twice a day, or to actually spend more time in getting the thinking stopped for five minutes?
ANSWER: You do not need to do this exercise more than about five minutes per day. Consider this merely as an exercise for the purpose of opening your channel. The energy released from this exercise should be intended for the purpose of service to God's plan, of surrender to God's will, for purification and for transformation of the self. It would be advisable to make a commitment to this effect every time you are about to do this exercise. State your intent to be in total truth, your intent to remove all obstacles to truth, your intent to give up all your false ideas, your intent to give up all your fixations. There are some in you still now. They are so firmly entrenched that you do not even consider them, and therefore your progress goes around them, as the water circumvents the rocks in a stream. But the time comes when this blockage must catch up with you, unless you freely choose to direct your gaze consciously and deliberately to all areas of your life, even those that you have kept inviolate until now. The more you free your soul from its encumbrances in this way -- the false ideas and the fixations -- the more this energy will nourish every particle of your soul and of your entire being. Then it will enable you to become whole and to fulfill the utmost of your potentials in this incarnation. The released energy stream needs to be directed purposefully and wisely where it is most needed, where you possibly can still not see this need. But God knows and He will guide you once you open your mind to this possibility.
QUESTION: (Margaret) I have a few questions related to the realm of spiritual reality that I would like to ask you. The first question I have been wondering about for a long time: with regard to the Fall, I understand that over a period of time entities chose to be out of truth. What I don't entirely understand is: what goes on in the spirit world? In a way, I am saying, what is there to be out of truth about there? As I understand it, thought is reality there. If one can create what one believes, why would one be angry, jealous, resentful, etc.? Why would one choose to be away from truth? I realize that the same question could be asked about the incarnate reality. Here at least I see what one could be jealous or resentful about on the material level. For example, some people have more than me, say in money, and I resent that. Is
it the same on the spiritual plane or is it different? The next question has
to do with Salvation. At first, when I understood that Salvation was impossible before the coming of Jesus Christ, I felt very rebellious about this. I felt that it was "unfair" that no one could attain Salvation before He came. Now I feel that I can accept this. What I would like to know is this: In the 2000 years since His time on earth, have other fallen beings gone totally back to God and the light of truth? Finally, I would like to know: Can one totally purify one's separate lower self aspects in this lifetime but still have aspects that one did not bring with oneself in this lifetime, that one will need to purify in future lifetimes? I thank you deeply for whatever light you can shed on these areas.
ANSWER: This type of question is always difficult to answer because the dynamics of your world and those of the higher realms of spiritual reality are so different that words become almost misleading. The explanation is put in three-dimensional terms, which distort reality somewhat. It becomes anthropomorphic and it makes spiritual entities appear in earthly terms, as if they were under the same disconnected spell or illusion. Or else the explanation becomes so abstract that it does not seem to answer the question. So you have to bear with me as I attempt to form the answer from
a point of view that is best suited to your need at the present. Answers can be given from many points of view, from many angles, and from many levels and, as far as their reality can be conveyed, they could all be correct.
In the course of these years, since I began the lectures that I am privileged to help you with, I have discussed this topic from different points of view. For instance, I discussed the Fall in almost human terms, though I have warned you to make allowances for the misleading aspect of this. I have also discussed evolution in terms of spreading life or conscioussness into the void, and I have described the process of this undertaking. These two approaches seem if not to contradict one another, at least not to jibe in
an important way. The way the Fall was described depicted personal choice
and the responsibility of each entity in the creation of evil and of suffering. This is where your question comes in. But in the lectures on the divine substance (of which you are an integral part) penetrating the void and temporarily getting lost in it I said that the creation of evil is an inevitable byproduct of this process. Thus the entities that are part of the ever forward-moving flow of divine life are fulfilling a task. Then how can you conciliate these two postulates? From the human point of view, then this seems difficult indeed, but it is nevertheless true. The personal choice comes in at the moment in time when the consciousness separates from the Whole and is still in possession of divine qualities, although in diminished strength and scope. With these faculties the separating mass of consciousness still has choices and still has self-determination.
As I told you in this specific lecture, when the divine consciousness meets the void, then distorted consciousness -- evil -- comes into existence. This does not always have to be so. But it often happens that the individualized entity -- the separated, diminished consciousness -- chooses according to what seems most tempting at the moment. Separation always creates illusion
and diminished vision. In that state of separation a great deal of
self-discipline is required. It becomes necessary to summon inner knowledge that might be temporarily overshadowed by faulty or incomplete vision.
In a previous lecture I mentioned that the divine aspect of curiosity plays a substantial role in evolution. It is the motor force that motivates entities to surge forth, to undertake new ventures and adventures. Without this aspect, then stagnation would be almost inevitable. Just as all the divine aspects can be distorted, and therefore misused, so can this one. The healthy curiosity that makes a separated entity surge forward into as yet unexplored substance -- or, rather, non-substance -- and fill it
up with life, with creativity, with divine substance, and with divine being or life can switch and use its creative powers in destructive ways. It is perhaps best described by saying that the consciousness unit desires to explore every possible alternative at its disposal. This is how the Fall occurs in the process of filling the void, in the creative process of evolution, until no void exists any longer. This will be in eons to come, too vast for you to comprehend in human numbers, but in cosmic measurements it is different.
Since creation and evolution is an ongoing process beyond time, it is perfectly true that the outward-flowing divine consciousness continues to temporarily separate from the Whole and chooses destructive ways and it tries them out, until the truth leads this entity to reunite with Divine Reality again. In that sense entities continue to fall and continue to be saved all the time. Time is, of course, a false description. Therefore, it is misleading for you. But there is no other way of putting it in your language.
Anger, jealousy, and resentment are a result of trying out different laws, different modalities that might be contrary to God's will. They are not the cause. They do not exist before separation and, consequently, evil has been chosen.
You see, my child, you mention that you resent that others have more money. This is a good example of demonstrating what I am trying to convey here. In this resentment you live in an illusion -- an illusion that comes about as a result of diminished vision, which in turn is a result of the separation from your total consciousness. The particular illusion is the belief that you live in an unfair world in which arbitrary riches are bestowed and in which some can be left out without any reason. However, this illusion itself can be challenged, and therefore it can be dissolved. Holding on to this illusion is a choice that serves a certain purpose in the distorted part of your consciousness. By expanding your consciousness through challenging this assumption, you eventually see that every particle of being has exactly what it has earned, what it has made room for.
You say that you have now accepted that salvation was not possible before Christ. However, I would like to point out to you, so as to be sure you no longer harbor any illusions about this, that there is an inexorable justice, truth, and beauty in the lawfulness of the divine process. In the individual development light can only be earned according to effort -- to growth processes -- and therefore to the ability of an entity to see the light of truth and love. If truth and love were given without this readiness, then it would be impossible to assimilate them. In fact, the light of Christ, which
is the light of truth and love, creates terror and severe contraction in those who remain unwilling to venture forth into a new state of consciousness. This individual process can be observed in your environment, if you focus your attention on this incontrovertible fact. It is no different with a collective entity -- say the entity of a nation, of a group of people, or of humanity as
a whole.
As long as you think of a state of consciousness in terms of an authority either giving to you or depriving you, then you will always be in illusion,
and therefore in pain. The consciousness needs to be widened, deepened, and heightened with the tools already at the disposal of every existing creature. This is where choice comes in.
Your question regarding whether beings have totally reunited with the light of truth -- with God -- since Jesus Christ was on earth is answered in the affirmative. Of course. It is a constant process of reunification and renewed surging forth of the Great Stream: of re-separation and re-unification, again and again, until there is no longer any void. Only life.
The answer to your last question is also affirmative. It is often true that an entity purifies completely according to the present plan, thus fulfilling his or her destiny in the best way possible. But other aspects might not have been incorporated into the soul substance before a certain degree of development has been accomplished. It is a question of realistic timing and of rhythm.
I hope that these answers will move your own inner thinking and feeling process so that you can experience the truth on an inner level. These answers are food to eventually make this possible for you.
QUESTION: (Eva) The community is at present concerned with the time problem. We are all trying to find new solutions and alternatives. Can you add anything that might help us?
ANSWER: It is good that awareness of this problem is growing, for without awareness of a problem, then the solution cannot come. You -- I mean the community as a whole -- have stated the problem in various ways, many of which are quite accurate. You have also received beautiful and truthful answers from some channels that you need to absorb and deal with within your individual selves. Different channels express different angles of the same problems. They are all important, perhaps different emphases should be put with different individuals. You have to choose and decide what applies to whom most. To some all of the various answers, explanations, and directions will be helpful.
I will answer from yet another vantage point, which is necessary to be taken into consideration by all of you. When more individuals on this Path come forward and make the commitment which they are intrinsically ready for, then the total balance will shift. Take notice that I say: "Those who are ready." When an entity is ready for more than he or she allows for, then imbalance accrues. There are many among you who are truly ready to give more, to be in a state of giving, to a greater cause with a flowing, loving heart and with faith in the Creator. The holding back of those who are ready
is more responsible for the imbalance than the assumption of more responsibility on the part of others who cannot handle it comfortably. Those who have too much on their shoulders may have a problem that needs to be understood and resolved. There may be lower self motives in their own imbalance. But there may also be an inner voice coming from the higher self that exerts pressure on them. And regardless of existing negative conditions
in their soul it is necessary for the greater good of the community as well
as for their own task that they put all this energy into activities connected with this Path. It is important to understand this by all concerned.
Every individual should ask himself if he is truly giving all he is capable of giving to a cause that goes beyond personal ego interests. Often these ego interests remain unfulfilled precisely because of the contracted selfishness and ungivingness that no longer needs to exist. If you want to give more, then you will take on more responsibility. This, in turn, will automatically give more freedom to those authority figures that you now resent, criticize, and rebel against. Observe yourself so as to see to what degree you are doing this. You resent the time and effort they spend on demanding issues rather than sharing themselves with you. You resent the money they earn because a childish, demanding part of you still wants to give nothing and receive all. It is important to become aware of this attitude in you: your understanding will release some blocks against establishing a better balance, a better modality. Do not continue to shift the responsibility for this imbalance on those whom you blame for undertaking too much responsibility. Your community is an entity in itself. So all of you have established this imbalance. What I say to those of you who fall into the category of holding back your heart, your loving givingness, your sense of serving a greater cause and -- as a defense against the pain of this guilt -- your making more contradictory demands on the leaders, is one of the major reasons for this imbalance. Your leaders should be magicians who should do what can no longer be handled without the help of those of you who are ready to help. At the same time, they should be free to be with you on a human level; they should charge their fees to suit the demanding child in you
-- which is your greatest problem. If you look at your irrational demands that hide behind your criticisms, then you will let go of a level that blocks the flow of the total entity, the entire community. Then it will become easier for you
to step forward and to be who you already are on the unmanifest level of reality. If you bring these levels into manifestation on the material plane, then you will contribute greatly to a new, healthy, beautiful balance
in which time, money, energy, work, and leisure are beautifully balanced. Every one of you should ask himself how he may be contributing to this now existing imbalance and what he can do to set it straight.
QUESTION: (Denise Trager) Since I have given birth to Daniel, I've experienced a major change in myself and/or perhaps gained a clearer view of some parts I was unwilling to see before. My energies feel dispersed, not flowing as well through my body, and my mind is often unfocused and forgetful. I see myself lately as often angry, bitter, and rebellious toward God and life, self-centered and wanting to be left alone, and at the same time more and more deeply yearning to give over and connect with God and Jesus Christ and to connect with my core and allow a state of beingness to manifest inside with a strong and loving authority. (1) I would like you to please give me some guidance on what is actually happening to me on my path right now -- in regards to the energy dispersement, mental unfocus, and general negative state. (2) What was the meaning of the caesarean birth for Daniel and for me? (3) I would appreciate help in understanding the meaning (for Daniel and for me) of the almost continuous physical discomforts and pains Daniel has had (i.e. mild colic or gas pains for two months, then sinus problems, colds, and ear infections.) I feel very grateful to have received Daniel into my life. I commit myself to the will of God and I pray to be an instrument for His will as a woman, wife, and mother. Thank you for your help.
ANSWER: The problem is not the caesarean itself, it is your attitude toward it. In fact, this attitude created the necessity for it in the first place, as well as being the cause of your dwelling on this now. Let us see exactly what this attitude is. You feel a great deal of pride in
an ideal of motherhood: of giving birth, of taking care of your child. This pride contains an element of showing off, of appearance value rather than being value. Appearance value here means, "I am the best mother. Everyone else should do as I do. I shall set the right example.
No one does it as well as I." Being value here would mean a total lack of concern with any of the above and giving the best you have to give for the sake of the child, even if it is not perfect. In other words, making the best of what the situation is now, including your imperfect, incomplete state.
Spiritual law works its inexorable ways. The attitude I just described creates an inner tension and a contraction. It does not permit the free flow of energy, it prohibits inner and outer relaxation. Thus, it becomes the block that manifested physically in the necessity of the caesarean. After the caesarean, you unwittingly continued with the same attitude that created it to begin with. It could have been that the experience might have loosened you up in this respect. It is conceivable that the appearance of this new entity that you ushered into physical manifestation would have taken precedence in your consciousness. You could have let go of the whole self-image imbedded in this problem. You could have stopped dwelling on why and how, and joyfully turned to your life, including all that you have to enjoy, that you can give love to and receive love from, even if all is not perfect both in you and your surroundings. Instead, you chose to perpetuate this attitude. The further result was that you lost touch with having this attitude. You no longer could articulate it and define it. This inability then causes confusion, disconnection, alienation from your core.
All the symptoms you cite -- the resentment, the unfocus, the inability to concentrate and to enjoy your life, general negativity --
are further links in the chain reaction. These feelings are energy irritants that directly affect the energy body of your child. This irritation is then quickly somatized by the little entity. Your baby came to you because
it fit exactly into the existing conditions of your psyche and of your mate's psyche. This includes the positive as well as the negative ones: the problems as well as the psychic substance that is already liberated. If your son experiences some pain and discomfort now, then this is what he needs for
the development of his soul. So you should not indulge in a debilitating guilt and self-rejection that assumes total responsibility for all his pain. At
the same time, you should not become callous in a half-truth that says, "it does not matter what I do, he has his own karma."
I suggest that you work on the problem as I outlined it here with more awareness and with more direct focus. Become more conscious of it and articulate it clearly in your mind. Visualize yourself in a state of being values in this regard and give up the prideful perfectionism that spoils all that you could experience now. God gives you blessings and help for it. Christ is with you in your endeavor.
QUESTION: (INA) Lately members of INA have tried to analyze and understand the common elements in cases where people act out and create certain crises that appear to come on very suddenly. These cases are usually referred to as "psychopathic" in therapy. Could you give us guidance to understand this type of crisis? What are the dynamics of emotions in such cases? Why is the crisis so intense and difficult to handle? How can helpers reach them and what is the helper's block that prevents reaching them?
ANSWER: To give a comprehensive answer to all these questions I need to repeat some aspects that you already know. But the complete picture will give you more clarity so as to better help personality types who fall more or less into this category.
In the first place it is essential to understand that this problem expresses a particular illusion and distortion of reality with exceptional intensity. To a lesser degree many human beings may suffer from a similar illusion. So my explanation and my advice on how to approach the problem will be helpful for many workers or patients. The particular personality referred to as psychopathic is convinced that only by being on top of every situation can he have safety. In other words, such a person must always win, he must always have it his way, and everything has to be according to his will. When this does not happen, then a sense of terror arises in him. This terror is based on the false belief that he will
be annihilated if his will is not fulfilled and on the false belief that he is being humiliated and made worthless. His value lies in always being on top, on always being right, on always having his way.
The illusion is twofold. First, that the world could ever accomodate this belief, that life could ever be that way at all times. Two, that by not living up to this delusion the person would be damaged, humiliated, made valueless, annihilated. The first thing that the helper has to do is to make the person conscious that he has this world picture. Vaguely experienced feeling reactions in this regard need to be clearly articulated
and clarified, so that this attitude and philosophy of life can be given consideration and can be compared with a more realistic vision of life that the helper needs to bring into focus. Once the worker or the patient becomes aware of having such an image about life and his role in it, he can begin to evaluate it with the assistance and the guidance of the helper. True education and instruction must be directed to these deeper levels. The person needs to consider a totally different way of reacting. He needs to experiment with new reactions. He needs to try out the possibility that accepting the reality of life -- in which he cannot always have his way -- does not devastate him, as he falsely believe, but makes him stronger, more adequate, and wiser. He can learn to take such experiences as means to test his as yet unmanifest potentiality for new strength, for new resiliency, for a new capacity for finding solutions and for finding a new way of coping. He needs to learn that the old way is not only unrealizable -- and therefore that he wastes his most valuable energies -- but that it also defines him emotionally as an infant. He needs to give his already adult capacities
a push of the inner will so as to help the infantile aspects in him to grow up.
Both the helper and the worker need to understand that this illusion is totally self-defeating. When the worker imagines himself defeated
by life or by others if he does not constantly get his way -- in other words, if he does not always win -- then he defeats himself in an insidious process. In order to force reality to conform to his illusion, he needs to use means that gravely impair his integrity. In short, he employs lower self means in order to always have his way. In his inability to accept a loss -- a loss of any kind -- he creates real and justified guilt. In this work it needs to be clearly established in what way the worker -- whose aim is my way -- creates real guilt. The clear recognition of these guilts must lead to seeing how terror, fear, feelings of threat, a sense of worthlessness (at this point temporarily justified) grow into a monstrous phantom which can be held
at bay -- so the illusion goes -- only by strengthening the destructive means. The phantom increases the illusion, the illusion increases the destructive means to attain the illusion, and thus terror, fear of self, and guilt grow. It is an ongoing process that leads increasingly -- at times over several incarnations -- into insanity. Sanity can be established only by reality, by growing up, by re-educating the self, by forming new reactions to
a more realistic vision of life, by giving up the guilt patterns and by restituting or atoning for guilt already committed, thereby establishing genuine self-respect that is deserved.
What are the helper's blocks here? Mainly not understanding this process himself and therefore not knowing how to approach it.
QUESTION: (Bert) The law has always been our friend. Traditionally, it has helped us face the truth on many levels. For example, years ago the law encouraged contributions from each of us and discouraged relying on heavy donors inside or outside the Path. In the process, many of us found a new sense of responsibility and, at the same time, a deeper connection with our growing group consciousness. Today, the law is encouraging the Center to take a more active role in determining what services, what kind of giving is most needed from our growing faculty members. And what price or salary should be paid for that work. Many of us welcome this confrontation as another step toward deeper surrender and service, and perhaps also another specific focus on our individual and collective tasks. Others of us worry about possible abuse and fear so-called centralization, which implies a loss of individuality and the individual incentive which has played such a large role in our building and expansion. Could you please comment on these changes we are about to undertake?
ANSWER: The entire development within your community manifests in the rhythm and in the growth of the group entity. There is an intrinsic correlation between the individual and the group entity. I outlined this in a lecture (No 120). It manifests in many issues concerning your community, creating necessary changes where this is organic; or remaining
with the same process for the time being where this is organic.
In order to answer your question comprehensively, I need to apparently digress for a moment. In the individual's maturing process, he goes through certain major stages in a specific area. The first major stage comes when he gives up his dependency and he grows into self-responsibility, into independence, into self-assertion, and into accountability. In all changes within the growth process, the personality is always ambivalent. One part requires this new stage, and therefore strives
for it. The personality longs for the freedom that comes from self-responsibility and from independence, in all its manifestations. He resents
any attempt on the part of those who had carried the responsibility before -- the parents -- to not let go and willingly cut the bondage.
Much of the rebellion that all of you experience on your Path is due to this striving: the need of the personality to reach a more adult stage in which full self-responsibility can be assumed.
But there is another part in the personality that resists this change, sometimes as much as the longing for -- and the striving for -- selfhood and for adulthood. In this part of the soul the next organic step is feared. It is confused with being abandoned, with being unloved, with having no care, and with having no help. It is dreaded as if this next step meant utter loneliness and aloneness. In this misunderstanding --
and the resulting confusion -- a deep struggle of the soul goes on between two contradictory needs and directions. Every transition in the growth process is earmarked by similar conflicts that need to be sorted out and understood, so that the inner blocks can be removed and the new direction can be unified.
There are also outer obstructions. For example, there may be such as a strong pull on the part of parents who -- due to their own unresolved misconceptions and problems -- fear letting go. They also suffer from the false idea that letting go and allowing the child to grow up into self-responsibility means the cutting of all love ties, the end of deep and true communication, and the end of healthy interdependence. Neither the child nor the parent can as yet visualize that true independence leads to true interdependence. In other words, that only when one has attained autonomy on all levels, with all that this implies, can nurturing love exist, can giving and receiving help exist, can a fulfilling relationship exist. To the degree that this is understood by both the parents and the child, to that degree the struggle will be eliminated and a oneness of direction will become possible.
Often the parent who holds on connects with and activates that part of the growing entity that resists the process of self-actualization. The unconscious part of the parent says: "You need me. You cannot fend for yourself. I cannot live without your being dependent on me. I am dependent on your dependency. If you leave me, then you are guilty." The growing person's resistant self will pick up this inner voice. It will become like a sticky fly paper that prohibits the struggle from being resolved organically. But whether or not this problematic message on the part of the parents exists and is being delivered into the soul of the growing entity, the latter has to make his own way and let go of his dependence. If the parents are themselves free and therefore can let go, then the resisting part of the entity -- that part that wishes to remain an infant -- will interpret the encouragement of the parents as indifference. Therefore, it will resent such apparent lovelessness. But when the healthy striving for selfhood wins out, then the obstructing aspect of parental holding on will be easily overcome and will be guiltlessly refuted. On the other hand, the stronger the resistance on the part of the growing entity -- which often is quite delayed in life -- then the stronger is the rebellion toward the parents, or transferred authority figures. One would think that the opposite were true: that the resistance would welcome an authority figure who takes over. This would be true if there were no ambivalence. But since
there is ambivalence, then the part that resists growing up and assuming self-responsibility renders the authority responsible for its lack of autonomy.
This is the struggle of the first phase of a universal growth process that we on this Path have been dealing with constantly during all these years. If you look back on the work that you have been doing -- with yourself and also with your friends who have either gone through or who are going through similar conflicts -- then you will see that this is a common denominator that has significantly colored and permeated all your other problems. You can gauge your growth exactly in this way. To what extent have you given up your infantile dependency and assumed self-responsibility? Financially this manifests in becoming productive and self-sustaining. Those who previously could not find their sustenance through their own output now -- either suddenly or gradually -- find themselves in a situation in which they can adequately, and for the most part joyfully, provide for themselves. Emotionally and psychologically, blame for one's unhappiness and for one's problems is no longer shifted onto past or present authority figures. To the degree that authentic self-responsibility evolves, to that degree rebellion
-- the inner cry for freedom -- and the blame for its lack are eliminated.
On the path toward this inner evolvement, at times the pendulum must swing into a temporarily one-sided position. As long as this is not so extreme that real damage accrues, and as long as it is clearly understood that this is a temporary manifestation that leads eventually into a new state, then it is all right and, as I said, even necessary. Hence a temporary selfishness may exist as a means to overcome the past symbiosis, a selfishness that grew from need and therefore from dependency. A false -- and therefore exaggerated -- show of independence may be a tool or a means for the soul to test out a new state of selfhood. When this new state is already basically attained and the soul is ready for a further state of growth but the personality has become accustomed to this exaggerated state of independence, it is then that the higher self chafes and sends messages to the consciousness of the personality. It is similar between the first stage and the second state. When the personality obstructs the direction toward autonomy and toward self-responsibility, then the higher self sends a message to the consciousness. Such messages always convey to the outer self that the total person is now ready for a new -- as yet untried -- way of being in the world. To the degree this message is heeded, to that degree harmony will exist in the movement toward evolution. To the degree the message is denied through stubborn blindness, to that degree conflict, crises, pain, and difficulties will arise. The illusion, the misunderstanding often exists that leaving behind this almost militant self-assertive state means going backwards into a dependent symbiotic state. But this is not true. The contrary is true, as I will explain. Yet even without such explanations the entity will experience the truth within by opening himself trustfully to a new way of being that includes self-responsibility, self-dependency, self-assertion, and growing into something more. What is this more?
Many of you have grown sufficiently to make room for this something more. Some of you are still within the struggle of moving from the first stage into the second. But a considerable number of you are truly ready for the third stage -- even some of you who unfortunately still resist this
new stage and do not allow the organic movement to guide you into it. This manifests in an inner conflict, in an outer conflict, and in a crisis. I say
to those of you who find themselves in this category: question yourself about your fear to give up your individuality and your rights when you move to a further stage of your organic development. By articulating this false belief -- namely, that you will lose your individuality and therefore all your rights when you grow up -- you will have a chance to challenge it and to make room for the truth. It is inconceivable that whatever this further stage is, it should demand of you to give up what you have so laboriously learned. In other words, this further stage can only add something on, it cannot take something that is valid away from you.
Now let us see what this next stage really means. From total dependency on being nurtured and sustained you have moved into self-nurturing and self-sustaining. In the process of this transition you have severed the bondange of dependency. Now the next step is to move from self-nurturing to nurturing others. On an individual scale this manifests in parenthood. But there is a much larger scale involved with those who
are spiritually ready and mature enough, and therefore equipped to undertake
a planetary task. Their emancipation from selfishness must manifest in creating new models for world government and new methods of handling society. In other words, the living together of human beings who need to share
the material wealth and the spiritual riches that are always available for mankind.
When the soul is ready to emancipate from symbiotic dependency on another organism into self-dependency but resists the movement, then the outcome is a distortion, an absurdity, a sickness. This is at total variance with the infant that is not yet organically ready for another state. The same principle exists for the next state. He who is organically ready for the newly gained state of looking out for himself rather than expecting others to do this for him is in harmony with his inner universe when he is doing just that. But when he becomes organically ready for the next state but resists it, then his attitudes become ugly distortions and sick manifestations that are often quite absurd. So, my dearest friends, you must learn to evaluate according to the total picture and not apply one and the same measurement to all beings. We are now discussing those among you who are organically ready for the next stage but who resist it. And this brings us back to the question I have been asked here.
You may recall that in my lecture about the individual and the group entity I touched upon this important issue. The development of the individuals who make up the group determines the development of the group entity. So, what was right for the group entity Path at one time becomes obsolete and is therefore destructive at a later period. To be more specific. For quite a while most of you had to taste this newly acquired self-dependency on many levels. On the material level this was reflected in a situation in which every helper determined his own income and was truly just out for himself, even while also being filled with the desire to serve, to give, and to help. As long as this state was organic because this is where most individuals were on their Path, then it was reflected in the group entity's rules, laws, and dispositions. It was harmonious with the rest of the environment -- that is, the outer law. Now a new state is approaching in which the movement of the developmental curve needs to be followed and trusted, rather than obstructed and resisted. If this is not being done, then unnecessary problems must arise.
Now I will be more specific regarding how this next stage of nurturing and giving will manifest, particularly in response to your question. The entity Path has nurtured the individuals a great deal. It has nurtured them when they
first came as infants with encouragement, with support, and with the glad tidings of God's total goodness and eternal presence within. It has nurtured them with all the help that was necessary. This help takes a different form at the beginning than it takes later, when the individual moves into the second state of self-dependency. The entity Path at first helped them by encouraging
a positive selfishness and a healthy self-assertion. To those who have chosen to become helpers themselves, the entity Path has given all the help needed in order for them to be able to help others. It has not only supplied training and given them marvelous tools, but it has given the individual helpers the workers without whom they could neither execute their skill nor make a living. It is true that many helpers have begun to give to the community, to the entity Path. But on the whole there is as still a lack of consciousness in respect to being part of a larger scheme. Those who resist the movement that you speak about still consider their lives as belonging only to themselves. With this attitude they not only forget what they are receiving from the spiritual realms coming through this particular Path, but they also consider all that exists around them as being merely tools for them to be self-serving.
Now let me say a few words about the new state of being part of a larger scheme. In other words, part of the new consciousness that
can nurture others, that can give to others in the Christ Spirit of serving a universal task. Before doing so, and in order to clarify the three stages that mankind traverses in this respect, let us put it as simply and as concisely as possible. 1) Being nurtured and sustained; 2) being self-nurturing and self-sustaining; and 3) giving nurturing and sustenance to others. In regard to a certain degree of spiritual maturation, this last stage means something very specific. It means the realization that giving out is a further self-enrichment that transcends by far the self-enrichment that stems from the second state of self-nurturing. This is in total opposition
to the inner fear that giving out will impoverish the self. Christ demonstrated this principle in symbolic terms through His life and death. By sacrificing even His life, He was resurrected in eternity.
In the smallest measure every individual must experience this inexorable truth. By going through the illusory death of giving oneself out, a new enrichment must follow. Try to apply this principle to the issue of rearranging the structure of helpership -- fees and salary -- and thereby nurturing the larger cause and giving service. By becoming part of this larger body, you will experience a new enrichment by this giving out and becoming part of a larger organism that could never have come to you in the second state. In other words, only the autonomous person -- the person who has found self-nurturing and self-sustenance in the course of his evolution -- can become an integral part of
a larger organism. But this is not possible for the person who seeks this state in the misunderstanding that by such a merging he will then further the first state of being nurtured. In other words, that he does not have to give out of himself, that he can continue to remain dependent. It often happens that being part of a larger organism does indeed destroy individuality and self-responsibility. But this is the distorted version. As you know, the forces of darkness can distort anything divine.
I have often said that your community will be a model for the new society that combines heretofore irreconcilable dualities: the individual vs. the group entity; self-nurturing vs. service and giving out. Thus political systems that in their present state of earth consciousness are opposites will also find their oneness. For example, socialism vs. capitalism. The new model of society must combine a full individuality that is part of the group entity. There is no levelling off and no false equality in this new model. He who works better -- because he has put in more training and has gained more experience and has given more to his own development -- will not
be put on the same level as the one who is just starting out or who has unduly resisted his own process. It is right for now that a new modality needs first to be found and then built perhaps -- as is so often the case -- through trial and error. I will not tell you how to handle the practical details. Now you will find the right answers for yourself. Later, new answers will come. But
you need to be open for a new modality and you need to meet your fears and misconceptions squarely, rather than explaining them away with rationalizations, thereby denying them. Then you will encounter a new mathematics in which your sharing of yourself and your sharing of the fruits
of your remunerations will create infinitely more enrichment -- also wordly, material ones -- than your present system gives you now. By the same token, when you joyfully embrace becoming part of a larger organism, then your individuality will be enhanced and your autonomy will be not only more securely anchored in reality, but also more authentic. This is the only way your personal development, and therefore the development of all mankind, must proceed. This is yet another aspect of salvation. For human society -- that is, people getting along with one another and sharing all of God's gifts -- can survive only when this third state
is being realized. It is not something new. It already exists in the spiritual realms. Therefore, it is a potential to be realized by humankind. It is waiting to be unfolded as the logical organic next step in the evolution of
the consciousness. So, my friends, what is at stake is much more than simply instituting a new system, whatever the practical reasons may be. It is
a deeper issue that could only be answered meaningfully in this way.
Now it may be helpful if you discuss together your vision of this new modality and share it with your friends and thus help those who are still
in darkness in this particular area. The world of God blesses you deeply. The Christ Spirit envelopes you in every fiber of your being.
April 5, 1978
Copyright 1978, 1979 by Center for the Living Force, Inc.