The God Image

By The Pathwork Guide

Greetings. I bring you blessings in the Name of God. Blessed is this lecture, my dearest friends.

In the Bible it is said that you should not create an image of God. Most people believe this statement means that you should not draw a picture of God or make a statue of God. But this is not the entire meaning of this statement. If you think about it a little more deeply, then you will have to come to the conclusion that this could not be all that is implied in this commandment. You must perceive that it refers to the inner image. You are still so involved in your wrong conclusions and in your irrational impressions that you are bound to have an inner image about God, as well as about all the other subjects that are most important in your life.

The child experiences his first conflict with authority at an early age. I have talked at length about this. The child also learns that God is the highest authority. Therefore, it is not surprising that the child projects his subjective experiences with authority onto his imagination about God. Hence an image is formed. Whatever the child's -- and later the adult's -- relationship to authority is, his attitude towards God will be colored by it, and thus influenced by it.

A child experiences all kinds of authority. When the child is prohibited from doing what he enjoys most, then he feels all authority as being hostile. When parental authority grants favors to the child and allows him to indulge in his desires, then all authority is felt as benign. When there is a predominance of one kind of authority in childhood, then the unconscious attitude towards God will follow along the same lines. However, in most instances a child experiences a mixture, a combination of different kinds of authority. This combination will then give form to his image about God. In the measure that a child experiences fear and frustration, in that measure fear and frustration will unconsciously be felt towards God. God is felt to be a punishing force, a severe force, an unfair force, and unjust force that one has to contend with. I know that you do not think so consciously. But in this work you are used to finding emotional reactions -- on whatever subject -- that do not correspond to your conscious concepts. The less the unconscious concept coincides with the conscious one, the greater is the shock when you realize this discrepancy.

Practically everything that the child enjoys most is forbidden. Whatever gives the child the most pleasure is forbidden, usually for his own welfare. But the child cannot understand this. It also happens that parents prohibit out of their ignorance and their fear. But the child has learned that everything that is most pleasurable in the world is subject to punishment from God, who is the highest and the sternest authority.

In addition, you are bound to encounter human injustice in the course of your life, in childhood as well as in adulthood. Particularly if these injustices are perpetrated by people who stand for authority -- and therefore are unconsciously associated with God -- your unconscious belief in God's severe injustice is strengthened. Hence your fear of God is strengthened.

All this forms an image which, if properly analyzed, makes a monster out of God. This God, living in your unconscious mind, is really more of a Satan.

In this work, you yourself have to find out what kind of a God image holds true for you personally. Is your soul impregnated with similar wrong concepts? When the realization of such an impression becomes conscious with a growing human being, then it is often not understood that this concept of God is false. In other words, God is not identical to the way in which He is experienced in the psyche. This is why the person turns away from Him altogether and wants no part of the monster he has discovered hovering in his mind. In most cases this is the true reason for atheism. But it is ignored that this alternative is just as false. Denying God is just as erroneous as the opposite extreme, that of fearing a god who is severe, unjust, pious, self-righteous, and cruel. He who unconsciously maintains the distorted God image rightly fears him and has to cajole him for favors. Once again, you have a good example of the two wrong opposite extremes, both of which lack truth to an equal extent.

Now let us examine the case wherein a child experiences benign authority to a greater extent than he experiences fear and frustration. Let us assume the child is spoiled and pampered. Doting parents fulfill every wish of the child, indulge his every whim. They do not instill a sense of responsibility in the child, so that, in consequence, he feels that he can get away with practically everything. The God image resulting from such a condition is, at first sight and superficially viewed, closer to a true concept of God. He is forgiving, good, loving, indulgent. This causes the personality to unconsciously think that he can get away with anything in the eyes of his God. He thinks that he can cheat life and that he can avoid self-responsibility. In the beginning he will know much less fear. But since life -- just as one's life plan -- cannot be cheated, his wrong attitude will result in conflicts. The outcome of a chain reaction of wrong thinking, of wrong feeling and of wrong action will be fear. Since life as it is in reality does not correspond to the unconscious God image and concept, an inner confusion arises.

Many subdivisions of these two main God image categories exist in one soul, as well as many combinations of them. Depending upon the predominant kind of authority experienced in childhood, the image is likely to be stronger in one direction, although even this cannot be generalized. It also depends on the characteristics that the entity has brought with him into this life and on its development in this particular respect in former incarnations. The more development has advanced in this area, the less is the environment able to influence the psyche.

But other factors play a role as well. It may be, for example, that hostile authority is the predominant factor. Let us say that one parent is domineering. Therefore, the atmosphere in the child's home is filled with fear of this parent. The other parent may fall under the second category. Although this influence is outwardly weaker, it may have a much stronger inner impression on the soul and will therefore create a stronger image in that direction. The same holds true in the opposite case. Although severity, injustice, and fear may have been the weaker elements in manifestation during childhood, the impression on the individual soul may be much stronger and may therefore have created a stronger image. But in most cases both currents can be found. How, in what way, and why the image was created, what the attitude to the individual parent or parent-substitute was and is, all that has to be found out and investigated in the image-work. Do keep in mind, my friends, that both alternatives are to be looked into, even if one appears stronger to begin with. The pampering and indulgent God image does not become an additional factor to the monster image, but it is often the reaction to it and a compensation for it. The personality may unconsciously grapple between these two false concepts and can never come out clear in the battle because both concepts are false, while he unconsciously tries to find out which is right. In every child's life both kinds of authority are experienced, no matter in what intensity each one manifests. You may have one indulgent parent and one hard parent. Or you may even have two indulgent parents but a severe teacher who instills fear in you and who has a greater influence on your inner growth than you realize. Or it may be another relative or a sibling. So you never have to deal with only one kind of authority.

It is very important to find out what your God image is, since it is basic. Therefore, it determines all other attitudes, all other images, and all other patterns throughout your life. All of you should examine this attitude, that may be deeply hidden within you. Do not be deceived by your conscious convictions. Rather, try to examine and analyze your emotional reaction to authority, your emotional reaction to your parents, your emotional reaction to your fears, and your emotional reaction to your expectations. You will gradually discover what you feel about God rather than what you think. The scale between these two opposite poles is reflected in your God image: from hopelessness and despair, in the emotional conviction of an unjust universe, to self-indulgence, the rejection of self-responsibility, and your expectation of a God who is supposed to pamper you.

Now, how do you dissolve such an image? Well, how do you dissolve any image? First, you have to become conscious of your wrong conclusion to the full extent. That is not as easily nor as quickly accomplished as it would seem. For you may be aware of it to some degree, but you may not recognize all its implications, all of its effects, and all of its influences on your personality. You may not have recognized its significance on all levels of your being. This must always be the first step. Often you may be be aware of having an image -- which is always false, otherwise it would not be an image -- but you may not be aware that it is false. In your intellectual perception you are partly convinced that the conclusion of the image is correct. As long as this is so, then you cannot free yourself of the enslaving chains of falsity. So the second step is to set your intellectual ideas straight. The proper intellectual concept should never be superimposed over the still lingering false emotional concept. This would only cause suppression. But, on the other hand, you should not allow the wrong conclusions and images -- which rise to the surface due to the work you have done so far -- to make you believe that they are true. In a subtle way, this is what happens sometimes. Realize that the heretofore suppressed concepts and ideas have to clearly evolve into consciousness. Nurse your awareness of them in your surface consciousenss, but see that they are false. In some instances the right concept is easy to formulate. Then these two should be compared. You should constantly check how much you still deviate emotionally from the right intellectual concept. Check this discrepancy quietly, without inner haste or anger at yourself if your emotions do not follow suit as quickly as your thinking does. Give them time to grow. This is best accomplished by the constant observation and comparison of the wrong concept with the right one. Realize that your emotions need time to adjust, but do everything in your power to give them the opportunity to grow. It will happen by the process just stated. Observe your emotions despite the resistance and the pretexts they can muster. For there is always that part in you which resists change and growth. This part in the human personality is very shrewd. Be wise to its ruses.

As I have said, some concepts are easy to formulate. They are obvious. They merely require a little thinking through. The resisting emotions do not care whether the proper concept is obvious or not. In either case they will find ways and means to avoid a change of inner attitude. But as far as your intellectual understanding is concerned, you must differentiate between two kinds of concepts: those that are obvious and those requiring development from inside, inner enlightenment -- that has to be earned first in your intellect -- in order to formulate the proper concept. Prayer for this recognition is an important part. In times of prayer observe how sincerily you desire the answer. This is important. You may dutifully pray for the recognition, but inside there is a resisting block that can be felt if you set out to look for it. Then, at least, you will know that it is not God but you yourself who obstructs light and freedom. Then you can begin to argue with that part in yourself that persists in being childish and unreasonable.

As far as the proper concept of God is concerned, it is one of the most difficult awarenesses to reach, because it is the most precious! Whatever your God image is at this moment, this is where you have to begin. If you are convinced of injustice, so that you cannot see that this conviction is wrong, then you must find how you yourself have caused events in your life that seem entirely unjust. This is the remedy. The better you understand the magnetic force of images and the powerful strength of all psychological and unconscious currents, the better you will understand and experience the truth of these teachings. And the more you will be convinced of the truth. The truth is that there is no injustice. Find the cause and effect of your inner deeds and of your outer deeds. Often man concentrates unduly on the apparent injustice that has happened to him. He thinks over and over again of how wrong the others are. This can and should be recognized. But try to find how you yourself have helped to bring it about. If you use half the energy that you usually spend in focusing on the faults of others on focusing on your own faults, then you will find the connection of your law of cause and effect. This alone will set you free. It will show you that there is no injustice. You will see that it is not God, or the fates, or the unjust world, or the shortcomings of other people that makes you suffer. You will see that it is your own ignorance, your own fear, your own pride and your own egotism that -- either directly or indirectly -- causes what seems to come your way without your having attracted it.

Find that hidden link and you will come to see the truth. You will realize that you are not a prey either to circumstances or to the imperfections of other people, but really the master of your fate. You will deeply understand, not only in theory but in practice, that everything that happens to you is either a direct result or an indirect result of your attitudes, of your deeds, of your thoughts, and of your emotions. Your emotions are the most powerful of all. And this is constantly overlooked, even by my friends who have learned -- and at times experienced -- this truth. Your own unconscious affects the unconscious of the other person. This truth is most relevant to the discovery of how you form all the occurrences in your life -- both good and bad, favorable and unfavorable.

Once you experience this, then you can dissolve your God image, whether you fear God because you believe in injustice, and therefore are afraid of being the prey of circumstances over which you have no control; or whether you reject self-responsibility and expect an indulgent, pampering God to lead your life for you, to make your decisions for you, to take your self-inflicted hardships away from you. The realization of how you yourself cause the effects of your life will dissolve either God image. This is a major breaking point.

One of your major handicaps is your wrong attitude towards guilt. In order to understand this, it might be advisable to re-read my lecture on the subject of justified and unjustified guilt feelings and the proper attitude toward your shortcomings. If your faults depress you so deeply that you are afraid to face them, then you must first work on this wrong attitude because it hinders your coming out of your vicious circle. The more guilty you feel about possible wrongs that you may have to face, the more do you escape reality and thereby inflict harm on your soul. The proper and constructive attitude towards your shortcomings is the key to the dissolution of this and all other vicious circles you may be caught in. Please try to understand that none of your faults are committed out of malice, or because you wish something evil on other people. Every fault -- every kind of selfishness -- is nothing but a misunderstanding and a wrong conclusion in itself. Your fear often makes you so paralyzed that your faculties cannot function properly. Thus you neither see clearly nor react properly. This brings effects into your life that you no longer connect with the origin of your fear which blinds you, thus bringing errors in judgment, errors in action, and erors in reaction on your part. As long as you shy away from facing your erroneous reactions because of a faulty attitude towards your shortcomings, then you cannot find the breaking point.

This breaking point alone will bring you the recognition that you are not a prey, that you have the power over your life, that you are free, and that these laws of God are infinitely good, wise, loving, and safe. They do not make a puppet out of you but make you free and independent.

In order to help you find the proper concept about God, I will try to speak about Him. But remember that all words can at best be only a small point to start with in cultivating your inner recognition. Words are always insufficient. But they are much more so when it concerns God Who is unexplainable, Who is all, and Who cannot be limited to words. Your human perception and your capacity to understand cannot suffice to sense the greatness of the Creator. Every smallest inner deviation and every obstruction is a hindrance to understanding the Creator. We have to be concerned with the elimination of these hindrances, step by step and stone by stone, for only then will you glimpse the light and sense the infinite bliss.

One hindrance is that despite the teachings you have received from various sources, you still unconsciously think about God as a person who acts, who chooses, who decides, and who disposes arbitrarily and at will. On top of this you superimpose the idea that all this must be just. But even though you include the justice, this idea is false. For God IS. His laws are made once and for all. Therefore, they work automatically, so to speak. Emotionally you are bound to this wrong concept, and it stands in your way. As long as the false God image is present, then the true concept of God cannot fill your being.

Among many other things, God is life and life force. Think of this life force as you think of an electric current, endowed with supreme intelligence. This electric current is there, it is inside you, it is around you, it is outside of yourself. It is up to you how to use it. You can use electricity either for constructive purposes, even for healing, or you can use it to kill. That does not make the electric current good or bad. You make it good or bad. This power current is one important aspect of God where it touches you most. This may raise the question that hence God must be entirely impersonal, and therefore to be feared even more. It may contradict the idea of His infinite love. Neither is true. Since God is all, then He is personal if He chooses to be. But His personal Aspect has no bearing on the question we are discussing now, which is one of the most important aspects of your personal life. His love is not only personal in God manifest, but also in His laws, in the "being" of the laws. The apparently impersonal love of the laws "that are" (understand what is implied in the words "that are") made in such a way that they ultimately lead you into light and into bliss, no matter how much you deviate from them. The more you deviate from them, the more you approach them by the misery that this deviation inflicts on you. This misery will cause you to turn about at one point or another. Some sooner, some later, but all must finally come to the point where they realize that they themselves determine both their misery and their bliss. This is the love of the law. And also the fact that deviation from it is the medicine to avoid deviation, and therefore it brings you closer to the aim. The love of the law -- and therefore of God -- is also contained in the fact that God lets you deviate if you so wish. For you are made in His likeness. This means that you are completely free to choose as you wish. You are not forced to live in bliss and in the light. You can if you wish. This is the love of God. It is not easy to understand, but those of you who have difficulty in understanding one day will see the truth of these words.

When you have difficulty in understanding the justice of the universe and the reality of self-responsibility in your life, then do not think of God as "He" (although, of course, God can manifest as a person, too, since He can do anything and is He is everything). Rather, think of God as the great Creative Power at your disposal. Therefore, it is not God who is unjust, as your subconscious may believe, but it is your wrong use of the powerful current at your disposal. If you go on from this premise and you meditate on it and from there you search for where you have ignorantly abused the power current in you, then God will answer you. This I can promise you. If you sincerely search for this answer and if you have the courage to face it without the wrong kind of guilt feelings, then you will come to understand cause and effect in your life. You will then understand what led you to believe -- until now unconsciously, hence all the more powerfully -- that God's world is a world of cruelty, a world of injustice, a world in which you have no chance, a world in which you have to be afraid and hopeless, a universe where God's Grace comes to a few chosen ones, but that you are excluded. Only self-responsibility can free you of this fallacy that distorts your soul and your life.

I know that you do not believe all that as yet. But many of you feel it deeply hidden in your subconscious. Try to find that part in you where you do feel self-reliable. Then -- regardless of your also-existing love for God -- find out whether you do not fear God more than you love Him. If you do, then you can be sure that this image of God exists in you. Therefore, you are living IN a distortion and IN an illusion, since all images are just that. Enumerate the injustices of your own life -- do not go into the lives of others or general conditions, for there you cannot find the answer -- and then try to find where you have abused the power current and connect these instances with your injustices. If you cannot do so, then I will help you and your further work will show it to you clearly, provided you truly desire to find the answers. You have no idea what this discovery will mean to you. The greater the resistance to do it, the greater the victory. You have no idea how it will make you free, safe, and secure. Then you will understand the marvel of the creation of these laws that let you, with the power current of life, do as you please regarding your own life. This will give you confidence and the absolute knowledge that you have nothing to fear.

There is a type of personality that is so negative in this respect that he is convinced of the futility of his life. This conviction may exist in his subconscious only. He is convinced that the available life force can work only in a negative way. This may sound like a paradox, my friends, but it is not. The life force is energy. And the energy that you have at your disposal in a personality problem of this type is used only negatively. That means, for instance, that the person becomes alive mostly in negative situations: in situations of fight, of unrest, of quarrel, and of disharmony of any kind. Then something in him vibrates inwardly. But when everything goes smoothly, although a part of the personality may enjoy it (usually the more conscious side), another part feels deflated and lifeless. This comes from the fact that such a distortion about God has progressed to a considerable degree. To a smaller degree most people have it, at least occasionally. Examine your reactions with regard to feeling more alive in a negative situation and more dead in a quiet one. Therein you will find the connection with your God image.

Are there any questions regarding this subject?

QUESTION: Could you give us some examples of abuse of the life force?

ANSWER: The abuse of the power current of your life force is all the actions, all the deeds, all the thoughts, all the attitudes, and all the emotions which deviate from divine truth. In other words, that are self-directed, that are motivated by a spirit of separateness.

QUESTION: What does that mean?

ANSWER: I have discussed separateness frequently in the past. The separateness of the soul means that a person withdraws inwardly. He puts an invisible wall around his soul in the mistaken idea that it is safe. For instance, people who are afraid of life, people who are afraid of love, people who are afraid of reality, and people who are afraid of self-responsibility. All that leads to separateness. All this means that the person considers himself different from the other person. Thus the bridge of brotherhood is eliminated. This may happen in all sorts of reactions that are not always obvious. Each human fault contributes to separateness. Separateness is a wrong conclusion, therefore it is a falsity, an illusion. Therefore, it is away from the truth. If you analyze each fault, then you will find that it exists because it is thought to be protective and advantageous. In truth it is not. For nothing can be to your advantage that is to the disadvantage of another person. This is separateness. And separateness is the illusion of the world of manifestation. Does that answer your question? (Yes, thank you.)

QUESTION: In connection with our work, the word "detachment" has come up. Would I be correct in stating that detachment is just another way of expressing separateness?

ANSWER: Not necessarily. With words it is often a subtle and confusing matter. As you know by your work, a word can mean one thing to one person and another thing to another. A word designates an idea. You all know that each idea of truth can be distorted into an untruth by taking it to the extreme. That is wrong. This distortion usually happens deliberately, although unconsciously. Where the conflict exists in the soul, there one seeks to find a justification for it in the extreme of a right idea. This has been the trouble with all great religious teachings throughout the ages. Detachment undergoes a similar fate. People who are afraid of life and afraid of love often escape into the distorted idea of detachment. But this should not make you forget the real meaning, the right sense of it. The true meaning of detachment is to be detached from one's ego-centeredness.Thereby the person obtains a certain objectivity. This objectivity is detachment. It means that you can consider your hurt vanities, your advantages, and your goals not any differently from those of other people. You know how difficult this is to attain, even to a small degree. It cannot be attained by escaping life and its hurts, as some people want to believe. In other words, by misinterpreting spiritual ideas in this sense. On the contrary, only by facing life's hurts in the right spirit will you come to the point of healthy detachment and of objectivity -- by not being so involved with your own self that you see nothing else. Being human, it is understandable that you feel that way. You cannot force it away. You can reach it only by degrees. So it all depends on the sense in which you think of this word.

QUESTION: I think this question was asked in connection with a discussion we had. Can you tell me whether I see it right? It seems that we involve ourselves in all kinds of emotions in a negative way. So I do not want to be involved any more before I learn detachment. Once I have learned that, then I would like to be involved because then I can do so in a constructive way.

ANSWER: Unfortunately, it does not always work out this way. It would be extremely comfortable and pleasant. Many people try to avoid the disappointments of life in that way, but they cannot succeed. As I have often said in the past: you cannot get around it, you have to go through it. As long as you fear the hurts, you do not become detached from them, because the fear is worse than that which you fear. That always holds true. Therefore, one has to try to find the middle way between these two wrong extremes. One extreme is the person who plunges head-on into every negative situation. Various psychological factors may be responsible for it: be it self-punishment, be it a form of aggressiveness towards others, punishing them by one's unhappiness, and many other factors. These are the people who always become involved in a negative and destructive way. The other extreme is separateness. It is the attitude that makes one believe that one can go through life avoiding all its negative aspects. If you are so afraid of hurts that you force measures on yourself to avoid them, then you can never rise above them. Therefore, you can never attain the right kind of detachment. In order to rise above anything, you have to go through it so that you lose your fear of it. This has to be done in the right spirit: neither in a masochistic, self-destroying attitude, nor in an attittude of fear and unhealthy self-love. The right way -- the middle way -- has to be found in this respect, as well as in all others. This is always the difficulty. This middle way is that life brings all sorts of experiences; that it can only bring you experiences that your soul calls forth; that you may avoid positive involvement because you are afraid of unhappiness; that you may avoid positive involvement because you are afraid of negative involvement. All your negative experiences should make you stronger. If they weaken you, then it means that it is not the negative experience that is the cause of your weakness, but rather your attitude to the experience.

This should not exclude a certain caution. It does not mean that you should rush into things without thinking things through: without using your intuition; without trying to see, to really and truly see, the situation, the other person, and everything that is part of the issue. Many times seeing is avoided because one wishes to have the other person fit to one's own need. The middle way demands a certain objectivity. But you can only become objective to the world and to the situation around you in the measure that you succeed in being objective with yourself. (I am not afraid of being hurt, but I would like to learn to stand back a little.) That is all right. You see, my answer is not given to you personally only. It is of general interest for many. Its easy to misunderstand and to nurture the sick state in the personality. As far as you are concerned, you have to find the middle way by testing yourself constantly. Whatever your extreme was so far, it might be wise to temporarily lean a little into the other direction, while you should be aware that this is also an extreme, but that it will have to be that way for a while until you can reach the right balance. In this discussion you have the right idea but you have to find the proper balance in yourself individually by realizing which way you are inclined to lean to. In other words, towards which one of these two extremes.

QUESTION: What would be the connection, the similarities, and the differences between the anti-life force and the abuse of the life force?

ANSWER: The abuse of the life force is the anti-life force. It brings anti-life force in its wake. It is merely a distortion. They are not two separate forces. It is one current (Thank you.)

QUESTION: I would like to bring up the subject of lying. From a spiritual point of view, the problem of "white lies," lies in order to protect a higher cause, lies to prevent hurts, the problem of mental reservation from a spiritual point of view.

ANSWER: My answer cannot and must not be given on an outer level. Many teachers and teachings remain on the outer level, on the level of conduct. On this level the answer could never be conclusive. In fact, it could be dangerous. On the outer level, rules are made -- which then become rigid and therefore dead. And you cannot make one rule. There are many possibilities and each possibility is different. So my answer will seem unclear at first, and perhaps even a little ambiguous. It will not be as satisfactory as it would be if I could pronounce one rule of conduct for all alternatives. The true answer lies in the inner level. Here my answer is this: you will always know what to do and what the right course is -- whether it concerns this subject or any other -- if you have learned honesty with yourself to the maximum degree you are capable of. That is a long procedure. For only in yourself can you find the truth that will then govern your proper outer conduct. If you are honest with yourself, then you will have the evaluation. You will be able to judge whether your dilemma is based entirely on selfless motives -- such as another person's hurt, a higher cause, or whatever -- or whether these valid motives may also hide a selfish one. First the knowledge of and then the eventual discovery of the possible hidden selfish motive will show you what course to take. No generalization can be made about this. The discovery of the selfish motive will show you that the outer selfless ones are no longer valid. In other instances, you will consider the outer selfless motive in spite of the fact that you have discovered selfish motives. You will see that although there is an advantage for yourself in considering others, this is still to the good all around. Only then will you cease to deceive yourself. Even the good course would be harmful to you if you were unaware of your own truth. Again and again I have to say: the right conduct that we are all searching for does not lie in the action itself, it lies in the self-awareness and in the honesty. That is the key to all conflicts, be it lying or anything else. (Does that mean in essence and vernacular that it is the change from "thou must not" to "thou canst not?") That would be included in it. All right conduct is always done freely. But it is exactly what I said here. What I discussed is the importance of realizing the possible hidden motive which may be selfish, while the outer conscious motive may be unselfish.

QUESTION: The question was asked by someone who is absent about the connection of the interplay on the human plane of action and reaction in connection with God's will, the higher self will, free will, and selfwill.

ANSWER: The will of the higher self will is God's will. There is no difference. Free will may be God's will or it may be the selfwill. That depends. It can be either, since it is free. Even the selfwill may correspond to God's will, only the motive varies. In other words, the goal may be right, only God's will is relaxed, it is patient, it is not concerned with one's ego. God's will is flexible. The selfwill may want to attain the same results, but it is rigid, impatient, self-concerned.

The interaction -- action and reaction -- from one person to the other goes into a much more complicated problem. I can suspect that the question was asked in the perhaps not entirely conscious idea of: "Am I dependent on another person's fault that he is creating with his free will?" In other words: "If my neighboor chooses, with his free will, to commit a wrong deed and therefore I am affected by it, then how do I come by it? How did I deserve it? Am I then not a prey to an arbitrary choice of the free will or the selfwill of my fellow creatures?" This is is a very important problem of humanity that colors one's attitude to life. It is the deeply hidden fear of this dependence on other people's choice in action and in motive. I realize that it is difficult for you to grasp and to understand the fact that you are never dependent on another person, even if it seems that way. That is the illusion of the world of manifestation. The teachings and the Path that I show you must prove to you once and for all that it is you yourself who inflict difficulties on yourself, who inflict conflicts on yourself, and who inflict hurts on yourself, no matter how much the other person may also be at fault. If you are free of images -- free of illusions, free of wrong conclusions, free of false concepts -- then the wrong deeds of others can never affect you. Then you will learn to adjust to the world and to both the happy incidents and the unhappy incidents in your life. Both the favorable events and the unfavorable happenings will have exactly the same effect on you. Of course, you are not that far yet. But by slow degrees you will approach it. And some of my friends, be it only for a short instant, have already experienced this great truth, although afterwards it may evaporate again. But once experienced, then you will find it easier to recapture this knowledge and to build up on it.

If what I just said is not entirely clear, then you can ask in the next session again. In the meantime, think about it.

And so, my dearest friends, may the words I gave you bring light into your soul, into your life. Let them fill your heart. Let them be an instrument to liberate you from your illusions. I bless each one of you, individually and as a whole. God's world is a wonderful world and there is only reason to rejoice on whatever plane you live, whatever illusions or hardships you temporarily endure. Let them be a medicine for you and grow strong and happy with whatever comes your way. Be blessed. Be in peace. Be in God.

June 5, 1959