Questions And Answers

By The Pathwork Guide

Greetings. I bring you blessings. Blessed is this lecture, my dearest friends.

All kinds of questions are welcome. But I should particularly welcome questions dealing with the subjects I have discussed lately. You all need further understanding about these topics. The fact that you have questions indicates that your mind is active and therefore that it is searching.

QUESTION: Where is the borderline between compulsion and a very strong desire?

ANSWER: The differentiation cannot be made generally. You can find it clearly within yourself only by the work you are doing on this path. But it can be said that when you simply have a strong desire, without compulsion, then you can take it or leave it. In other words, no matter how strongly you may desire something, you are free to let go, if need be. A compulsion means that you have to do it; you cannot help doing it, even at a disadvantageous price that you are required to pay. This price may be emotional in character. And if others or if circumstances still prevent you from doing or from getting what you compulsively need, then this loss will seem to be out of all proportion. Intellectually you may know perfectly well that your desire is unreasonable in its force and subjective in its importance, yet you cannot help it. The only way to correct such an unfortunate and often very damaging situation is to find out what motivates the unconscious mind in the particular compulsion. Do you have anything particular in mind?

QUESTION: I am reminded of someone who as a young girl wanted very strongly to leave home. It is very difficult for me to find the difference between desire and compulsion in this case.

ANSWER: The desire may be the result of a compulsion. But the compulsion is not necessarily the fact of the desire to leave home. This desire in itself may be quite healthy, at least in some circumstances. This wish may be due to unhappiness -- that is, to predicaments that one feels hopeless about solving. This creates the desire, which may be partly healthy and partly a means to escape the solution of one's inner conflicts. But those conflicts are never created entirely by others. They are always due to one's own inner disturbances in conjunction with the conflicts of the others. If this is understood, then one may or may not leave home in this instance, depending on the circumstances. But one will try to find the inner root of the problem and thus eliminate the cause. Compulsion enters into it only when the cause is not understood. This does not apply merely to the desire to leave home. A compulsion can never be created by outer conditions alone. The outer conditions merely bring the inner problems to the fore. The inner wrong condition always sees to it that a wrong outer condition is created. It would be too confusing and too difficult to cope with the inner situation as long as one does not realize the basic facts of the soul, as you learn them here. The outer conditions are a convenient hitching post, so to speak. The more unjust and crass they are, the more they can be used as rationalizations. That does not mean that one should never change the outer conditions as well. As a matter of fact, it may be that only after finding one's own unsolved conflicts does one have the strength and the fortitude to execute such an outer change. The more one desires something but is unable to follow it through, the more likely it is that the original healthy wish turns compulsive. This is one form of compulsion. There are other forms, but they are not connected with your question, so we will not go into them now.

QUESTION: We know that often when we are asleep the spirit world teaches or tells us things. Is there any way of remembering them? Is there a way of training oneself to be more open to receive them consciously?

ANSWER: I would not say that there is a particular way, other than the one you are following. This path makes you gradually more aware of yourself and more aware of spiritual truth. This increased awareness will bring out all the knowledge that is within yourself; and this includes knowledge that is given to you during sleep. Only by understanding yourself can the knowledge given to you be fruitful. Otherwise, it will have no effect at best. At worst, it might even harm you. By a systematic method of increased self-awareness there is created a condition in which you are open to knowledge that comes from within yourself. Instruction from the spirit world during your sleep is one form -- there are others. But you may not necessarily remember the instructions immediately or directly in the form they were given to you. You may not recollect "I was at a certain place and received certain information or advice or teaching." In fact, it rarely happens that way. The way you will remember it -- without being aware of how this new knowledge came to you -- will be that after this experience you will come to certain new insights which you had not encountered before. These insights are due to such an experience in the spirit world -- but not necessarily all the time. This experience in the spirit world is due to your past good efforts. It is a positive chain reaction.

If your entire attitude and your direction in life are geared to self-development, then knowledge will come out of you at certain periods of your life. But it has to come out of your own psyche, whether due to spirit instruction during sleep, or whether your higher self can penetrate into and manifest in your consciousness. In a way, they are both interacting; and both amount to the same.

Often an inventor or an artist wakes up with a new idea or with a new conclusion. The idea is just there. He does not recollect how he came by it. He simply has that new knowledge because -- at least in this one direction -- his soul is sufficiently open be able to tap the vast universal or cosmic knowledge at the disposal of everyone, provided the necessary inner conditions have been met. It comes out of the depth of his being. For in the depth of your being is the whole universe. The adoption of a method to recollect instructions would either limit or even cast aside what should be accomplished inwardly. It would not be healthy.

Concentrate on your endeavors to develop yourself. In your prayers concentrate on finding the truth about yourself and concentrate on the realization of what you need to know at any given stage of your path. Everything else takes care of itself. In some ways the help will be given by strengthening the power of recollection of your spiritual experiences during sleep, although rarely as one incident. Or help may be given by making the work a little easier for you at times -- when this should be. Or something that another person says may lead you to a crucial new insight. There are many ways in which increased self-awareness can come.

The idea of approaching contact with the spirit world -- whether outwardly or in the form mentioned now -- so that that the spirit world will hand out knowledge that should be gained from within is a great misunderstanding. Such knowledge given to you must always lead you to your own contact with Divine Truth. If help, instruction, and teaching do not have this clearly as the aim, then it is unhealthy. It should be understood clearly by all who seek such contact in any way.

Often contact with the spirit world is sought in order to avoid certain human difficulties that other people -- less privileged -- do not avoid. This approach is also wrong. It must not be. However, the privilege that you can gain, provided the contact is a divine one, is a more vigorous and constructive help showing you the way out of your prison. You will earn this privilege by your own efforts in this direction. And this is not easy. But contact with the spirit world must not be a shortcut to save you from the labor and from the pain of your self-development.

QUESTION: Bearing in mind that Adam and Eve in Genesis stem from the masculine and feminine, that is, the active and passive aspects of the Spirit, why is it that it is the feminine and passive aspect that is shown taking the first step toward the Fall of the Spirit?

ANSWER: There is a deep symbolism in that, my friends. In a forthcoming general lecture I shall deal with man and woman -- and you will surely find this question answered then. But I may now say a few words on the subject, at least enough to give you some clarification in response to your question. There is a great error in human thinking concerning the supposed difference between man and woman. For human beings the difference is so great that it is like a different world. You often feel discouraged because to bridge the gap between the sexes seems impossible. For a man the way of thinking and the way of feeling of a woman are en enigma, and vice versa. They both battle along in their separate worlds. The only way they can occasionally unify is by their need for each other. In actual truth, the difference is not half as much as it is thought. The woman is a reversal of the man, and the man is a reversal of the woman, if I may put it that way. The man manifests an active current, whereas the woman is more passive. Where the man is more passive, the woman is more active. In both cases, it is the other side of the coin, so to speak. The outer active side is passive inwardly, and vice versa. This applies not only to activity and to passivity, but also to other trends that may be thought of as typically male or as typically female.

There exists a false notion that the male is more intellectual and the female is more intuitive. Even that is a misconception, at least originally. If it often works out that way, then it is because mankind has lived for so long in this mass image that only one side was developed and encouraged in each sex. But I will go into more detail in the lecture on that subject. By nature, both qualities are present in each sex. Therefore, they should be equally developed in both.

Even physically and anatomically the male is the obverse of the female, and the female is the reverse of the male. If you understand the anatomy of the body, then you will have a deeper understanding of the emotional side of this question too. For the body is always a symbol for the spirit and the psyche.

To come back to your question, the symbolism shown in Eve taking the active part, thereby being responsible for the Fall, brings several factors to our attention. Activity as such is not wrong for a woman. No more than passivity as such is wrong for a man. But if a healthy active current is suppressed, then it will go into a wrong channel and therefore will become destructive. The same with a repressed active current, where an unhealthy, compulsive activity is superimposed. Both sexes have been afflicted by the long-existing mass images in this respect, to which they adhered out of their own disturbed souls. If both sexes are not allowed to develop freely according to their own nature -- considering the person rather than the sex -- then it will have very harmful effects.

The incident of Adam and Eve is not to be taken as historical fact but as a symbol. Eve symbolizes the idea that activity becomes destructive if it is not allowed to function openly and healthily. By the same token, Adam too was just as much at fault by being too passive in a wrong and destructive way. He was passive where he should have been active, while Eve was active where she should have been passive. This symbolism does not show that men should be entirely active and women entirely passive. This is a not only a misunderstanding, it is also illogical. For, Adam and Eve symbolize original human entities, the first ones with all the basic qualities present before the Fall. If before the Fall activity was present in the woman and passivity was present in the man, then it was meant to be that way, and it is only a question of how these forces work and manifest. If mankind had properly understood this deep symbolism, then it would not have suppressed a valid part of the personality in each sex. It merely regarded Eve's activity as wrong and then it concluded that activity as such is damaging for womanhood. The symbolic incident with Adam and Eve shows that both active and passive currents are present in the two sexes to begin with, but that they are harmful when misdirected.

Do you understand? Does that make sense to you?

QUESTION: Yes, it does, if I think of Adam as the symbol of man and of Eve as the symbol of woman. But I thought that the actual symbolism represented was not a symbolic man and woman, but the symbol of the active and passive elements as such.

ANSWER: No. Adam and Eve represent much more than merely the active and the passive elements. They actually symbolize manhood and womanhood, with all of their various aspects. The explanation I just gave is one of many possible interpretations. It referred exclusively to activity and to passivity. But many other interpretations of this symbolism can be given on other levels, dealing with other aspects of the two sexes. So Adam and Eve represent much more than merely activity and passivity.

QUESTION: Now, may I put it this way? To me Eve seems to be one step closer to the Fall. Why is that?

ANSWER: This is not due to activity, but is due to other trends. Woman has always emphasized her intuitive forces and has always neglected her intellectual capacities. Inquisitiveness, intellectual curiosity, is considered a male element; for instance, manifesting constructively in the activities of a scientist, while woman is more spiritually inclined. This has been built up by society. The truth is that both elements exist in both sexes. When Eve was found to be more responsible for the Fall, then it was shown that intellectual curiosity exists in woman too. Only when this is suppressed, and thereby mischanneled, can it be harmful. If curiosity can express itself legitimately and can combine with the intellectual faculties in both sexes, then something creative and constructive can evolve. I know that it is not shown clearly that activity and intellectual curiosity were suppressed in Eve. But it is shown that they were inherently present. And when something is present by nature, then it must be valid, provided it is properly channeled.

Then there is something else. Just because woman is more intuitively inclined, she is more open to the spiritual forces. Therefore she can attain greater heights; but, just because of that, she can also reach greater depths.

QUESTION: Communism, particularly as taught and practiced by the Russians and Chinese, seems such a terrifying threat, also for spiritual development. Would you discuss the place of such Communism in the Plan of salvation? And also, how should we feel towards the threatening Russians and Chinese?

ANSWER: The most important preliminary is the understanding of cause and effect. If you view any phenomenon in your world as an isolated happening -- in other words, separated from the other events that have led up to it by reaction and counter-reaction, through cause and effect, one extreme calling forth an opposite extreme -- then you will never gain true insight. This applies to general world conditions or to mass events, as well as to man's personal life. In order to eliminate an evil, one first has to see what wrong brought on this evil. For it cannot be otherwise. Evil can only be created out of evil. It cannot be created out of good. One wrong condition breeds another, unless it is corrected. The same can be observed in a great many other aspects of life.

All you can do about it is to gain a true outlook and an understanding. This will help more than you think. If you wish to correct the evils of this world, then you can do a great deal by first changing yourself. Only then will success come upon certain outer actions which an individual may undertake in order to contribute to the good of mankind as a whole. Otherwise, they will not be successful -- that is, lastingly and profoundly successful. If the heart of man does not change, then nothing will ever be accomplished for mankind as a whole, no matter what mass measures are taken. This applies particularly to those who are instrumental in bettering the world, to those whose task it is to lead nations. The greatest evil of earth life is always the individual's over-emphasis on outer actions, while ignoring and neglecting the inner motivations and the inner reactions, thereby being a prey to his own immature and selfish nature.

Does that answer your question?

QUESTION: There was one other thought in my mind. The great materialism of this tremendous power might be a block to the spiritual development. It might hinder the Plan of Salvation.

ANSWER: Nothing can ever stop the Plan of Salvation from coming to its fulfillment. It is only a question of time -- and from our view the difference of time, called forth by the free will of man, is rather unsubstantial. It is calculated into the overall Plan of Salvation that man is bound to create negative circumstances by his limited view. But the results of this limited view -- the negative circumstances -- are instrumental in waking man up to the truth. Sometimes he cannot wake up -- and therefore wish for the truth -- unless he has gone through the hardship that he himself has created either by his ignorance or by his distortion of the truth. In order to be happy, you first have to be in truth. But you cannot be in truth unless you know that you are not in reality, and then you desire to search for it. The knowledge that you are not in truth, and the consequent desire to search for it, cannot come to man unless he is left free to taste the results of his own ignorance. The same applies to the individual. All this is taken into consideration in the Plan of Salvation.

The fear that damage can come to you by the wrongdoing of others is a basic misunderstanding of life. Yes, passing disadvantages can come to you. That is true, but even these must have a corresponding element within yourself. Otherwise, you could not even be affected superficially. As far as your spiritual nature is concerned (and this includes the overall Plan of Salvation), nothing can ever happen to you. The personal knowledge and the experience of this truth is bound to come to you as you enter upon this path. We shall deal with this question more conclusively in the near future.

QUESTION: I have a question from a friend who wanted to know about the newly discovered Gospel According to St. Thomas. Are you willing to answer that question? He wants to know whether it is genuine, whethere it is a real Logos Jesus, or whether it is any kind of apocryphal copy.

ANSWER: I would say that from our vantage point this does not make any difference. This would be interesting only from an historical point of view. And we are not concerned with that. Our aim is to further light and to further life. Your determination and your judgment should be governed by its truth and its value, regardless of whom it was said by. There are many who have had access to divine wisdom. Instead, you should question whether the sayings are in the spirit of Jesus Christ. It is not necessary that it be actually said by Him. This would be important only historically, and possibly for the scholar, but spiritually it has no importance. From the point of view of growth and of personal independence it should be encouraged that you learn to evaluate something as to what is said, rather than as to who said it.

QUESTION: There is one point to it, however, which has merit. And that is, there are a few statements allegedly spoken by Jesus which are very cryptic and which do not correspond to the other Gospel statements.

ANSWER: I will be very happy to discuss such statements.

COMMENT: All right, I shall bring three or four along. There are a dozen or so which almost sound paradoxical. This raises the question of authority as to whether or not one should go into it.

ANSWER: That can never do any harm. Since, as I understand, you will arrange sessions for questions and answers exclusively, such questions may be very good material. Let us discuss it together.

QUESTION: In accordance with the teaching we receive, I wonder how it is possible that the world is now in fear of excessive growth of population, of population explosion?

ANSWER: If mankind would manage better with the planet at its disposal, then there would be plenty of room for all who want to come. Perhaps the fact that more and more people are coming is a measure to teach mankind to fully utilize all it has. If man would learn to live in peace with his neighbor, then he could exploit boundless resources that now he uses for unnecessary and destructive purposes. Moreover, then he would discover many resources and many possibilities that are still closed to him and which would give many more people the possibility to live on earth. That is the lesson you have to learn. If it is learned properly, then it will bring benefit to all. If it is not learned, then man will have to go through added hardships before he can find the solution that lies right in front of him if only he turns in the right direction. Let me assure you that the planet earth could nourish and accommodate many more people than you have now. All could live in a much happier state than prevails now.

Let me extend divine blessings to all of you. Receive the light and the strength that we want to give each to one of you for the fullness of your life and to help you to overcome your inner obstacles. Be in peace. Be in God.

February 19, 1960