The Folly Of Watching For Results While On The Path -- Fulfillment Or Suppression Of The Valid Desire To Be Loved

By The Pathwork Guide

Greetings, my dearest friends. Blessings for each one of you. Blessed is this lecture. Joyfully we resume the work with you, the work on this Path of self-recognition. May the coming year bring you a few steps further. May you each find guidance where you need it most.

First of all, I should like to discuss a subject about which a few of my friends are quite confused: the results that work on this Path are supposed to bring. Many of my friends, either consciously or vaguely, feel or believe that when they have worked a few months, or even a few years, then life's difficulties and problems will no longer come to them. This is completely unrealistic. It is just not so. True, certain outer manifestations of your inner problems might be alleviated to some degree. It is erroneous, however, to measure your progress by whether or not life's ups and downs continue to exist for you.

Let us examine this topic and see if we can shed some light on the confusion. It is important for all of you to understand why this idea is very wrong and can be most harmful.

You are always born with your problems, your basic conflicts. By the time you decide to work on this Path of self-recognition, usually a few decades of present life have elapsed during which these problems have taken deeper root in your soul. So you have been carrying your inner problems with you not only during decades of this life, but for many centuries before. It is quite inconceivable to assume that just because you have come upon a few relatively superficial recognitions your troubles should cease altogether. But even with a few basic recognitions it would hardly suffice to exempt you from life's occasional storms. For, even the basic recognition arrived at in the short time that you are on the Path would still have to be linked up with many tendencies you could not possibly have recognized. You are still ignorant of the connection: the basic picture of the infant in you. Therefore, you are still under the domination of your subconscious, even though you may have made some very good progress. And in no case is time indicative. Some people may search and work with a strong outer will, but the inner will blocks real progress. For them, a few short years of apparently devoted work will bring lesser results than maybe a few months of work or a person who does not resist inwardly.

When the psyche is only half willing to allow you to face yourself, how can you possibly expect a real change in your life? Even those who are most willing often have inner limitations that are unconsciously set up in a deliberate effort to prevent real insight. You allow yourself to go so far and no further. Therefore, how could it possibly be that by a comparatively superficial effort your inner life can be so changed that outer problems will cease? In spite of some insights, the entire significance of the child's world within yourself is still hidden, not to speak of the fact that it could not possibly have changed. Your emotional reactions still function more or less as they did before.

Let us assume that some of you, due to a particularly flexible and willing subconscious, have arrived at facing yourselves as completely as is humanly possible. Do not forget that this very process of facing oneself can only be a gradual procedure. No one can ever face all of himself within a short span of time. But let us assume, however, that a person has arrived at the point where he can gain a comprehensive overall view of the inner world of illusion. Even that recognition does not suffice to bring about an immediate change: a change to the extent that no mishaps can come his way. Because recognition and change are not one and the same, although the former is a prerequisite for the latter. You may finally recognize quite clearly how unreasonably and unrealistically your emotions react -- and this is a great step forward. But through long habit your soul forces are so geared to functioning in one direction that it takes considerable time and constant recognition of these reactions before a new habit pattern is created for them. Yes, to some degree a very gradual change is taking place by virtue of the constant honest recognition of childish emotions. This is such a healthy and liberating process that sometimes outer change may also occur. But the real change is taking place inwardly, and that is what counts.

This inner change is best determined by one's changed reaction to troubles and difficulties. This begins to happen when all the inner barriers to facing yourself have disappeared. There is no fear left in you to face anything. Therefore, you have succeeded, to some degree, in changing some of your emotional reactions. And where they have not changed, you see clearly, and with each observation you gain a deeper understanding of why they react immaturely. You see with ever greater clarity what the wrong assumptions are and also what, in theory, the right reaction should be, or one day will be. Even then life goes on and touches you occasionally with its clouds. But these clouds will no longer have the power to upset you unduly, to make you fearful and worried, to overwhelm you. Little by little, you will cease being afraid of the times of shadow. First, you will approach these times in a spirit of courage and in a constructive attitude toward what you can learn. And each time, when you learn an important lesson about yourself, you will emerge from the shadow into the light a stronger and freer person; a happier and more serene human being. The time will come when what is considered a difficulty will no longer be one for you. That is the only way you learn to master yourself and your life. If problems were to cease, then you could never really lose your fear of them, for the worry and the suspicion may remain within you that one day they might come back. But when you master life's problems, there will be no threat in them.

That is the reality, my friends. But to imagine that merely because you have done a minor amount of the work that has to be done, because you have recognized a minor part of what needs to be recognized problems, illness, worries, and frictions will simply cease in one sweep is, to put it mildly, unrealistic and childish. The only way you can measure your progress is by the way you react to the problems that life inevitably brings; and by what you gain each time: how much you grow after each mishap. Whether it be a big and powerful issue or a rather insignificant one that nevertheless once had the power to upset you disproportionately, your only yardstick for progress is how you react and not whether or not times of upheaval continue to exist in your life.

Therefore, it is exceedingly difficult for other people, no matter how well they know you, to determine your progress. Sometimes it may be noticeable that one reacts towards life's downs in a more serene and constructive way than before. But even that can be deceptive. For, people are often quite shrewd in deceiving even themselves in that direction. Often the real reaction is suppressed, while on the surface there exists a pseudo calm. Only what you really feel can ever be the yardstick. No outer confirmation can be the determining factor.

If the cosmic laws were made in the way you want to imagine, namely that trouble would cease coming your way, then how could you tell that you are above trouble, that you have mastered it? Trouble can only cease coming your way after a long time of gradually diminishing force if you first learn from it; understand its reason; and realize how you have brought it about, no matter how remote this may seem at first. As this understanding grows, each mishap loses more of its darkness and its terror, and thus you master your mishaps, you master yourself, and you master your life. Only after a comparatively long time of growth, of work, and of progress in this way will these outer difficulties gradually diminish, with perhaps an occasional big crisis in your life still coming up. Needless to say that neither such a crisis nor the lessening of the little upheavals are given because you are or are not on the Path. They are the result of your wrong reactions, maybe from the past but only manifesting at a later period. Cause and effect do not always operate instantly, as you all know by now. Often there is a delayed reaction. Generally speaking, however, cause and effect work faster when one is on the Path. It may sometimes be that one encounters a delayed reaction from the past in full force at the time that one starts the work of self-finding, or shortly thereafter, or even much later. By what laws the time element in the laws of cause and effect works is a different and complicated subject we shall not go into at present. I only want to say that this does not work by static general rules, but by individual soul laws.

So when you say to yourself, "I have worked so hard on this Path and look, this and that still happens to me," then remember that this is a total misconception which needs a drastic revision. I am certain that when you think about my words as objectively as you know how, then you will come to see that what I tell you must be the truth. It cannot be otherwise and still make sense.

These words need not discourage you, my friends. It is understandable that you often start on the Path of self-recognition because you are tired of life's problems and you hope, in this way, to free yourself of them. However, are you quite honest with yourself when you expect major changes in your happiness from without simply because you have made some small efforts? And, in order to accomplish this, your efforts must be related to the change you wish. In order to determine the relationship of effort to desired change, you have to use maximum honesty with yourself. It is easy to deceive the self by shifting the emphasis of effort into another direction. For instance, some people use a great deal of effort into some work thay may do for others. While this is good and commendable and is bound to bear fruit, too, it has nothing to do with the effort toward facing the self. It is also possible that someone may use a great deal of outer effort in order to camouflage his inner resistance. The inner will to face yourself and the inner will to change oneself is the only determination. In order to realize what your inner will strives for, or does not strive for, you have to go into deep meditation.

The idea that just because you started to work on the Path your difficulties will cease is just as wrong as the idea that just because you are on the Path added difficulties will come your way. Both these errors are represented by schools of thought made on your earth plane. Life is a school. The curriculum of this school is made up of the outward-manifesting conditions of your inner life. This includes the positive conditions and the negative conditions. Sometimes it is more difficult to assimilate and to constructively absorb the positive results of your inner life. The existence of the negative and erroneous side in you may prevent you from taking life fully at its best, as well as at its worst. Thus, the rhythmic change from positive to negative outer manifestation, and back again, alternating in cycles, applies to all human beings alike, whether or not they are on any kind of path, spiritual, psychological, or otherwise. As I said before, the only difference between these two types of people is that he who searches in the right direction will learn to have a different approach to both kinds of manifestations, the positive and the negative. Only in this way will he gradually master, and therefore be able to control, both himself and his life. He will have a deeper and more meaningful experience of life. The constant change betwen good and bad, as well as other happenings, will reveal meanings that will be missed by the person who lives ignorantly in this respect. Thus the searcher and the worker on the Path will experience the essence of life in a fuller dimension, and in the measure that he has progressed.

The person who faces himself begins to understand life differently. But he who does not will also learn by the experience that life offers. However, awareness of the significance of this experience may not come until later. It may come cumulatively, so to speak. For both types the ups and the downs are equally necessary. They are part of the law of cause and effect that applies to all beings alike. Hence, any theories which proclaim that a little effort of spiritual and psychological work will either exempt you from life's downs or bring you more difficulties than you would otherwise have are totally wrong.

With clarity on this subject, you will no longer feel it an injustice to see undeveloped, selfish people seeming to have an easy life. You will understand that they are merely going through a period (which may happen to be an extended one this time) of favorable outer manifestation. Nor will you feel it an injustice that you or others who are on the Path have to go through difficulties, or that the Path does not work because one has tried so hard.

No, my friends, you neither have more difficulties nor fewer difficulties because you are on the Path now. The difficulties you now encounter are the fruits of what you sowed some time ago: sowed with tendencies that are still alive within yourself, whether you are fully conscious of their far-reaching significance or not. But to the degree that you are conscious of its significance, to that degree the difficulty will be 1) easier to tackle, 2) more constructive, and 3) strengthening instead of weakening.

I want to repeat that it is necessary that you revise your views, either conscious or unconscious, on this subject. Revise them according to truth and not according to wishful thinking. You unconsciously claim a maximum of favorable change in return for a minimum of effort in facing yourself; and in the willingness to change and give up obsolete damaging tendencies and inner reactions. When you become aware of this unfair demand that you extend to God and you change it, then you will notice that the help God gives you in finding yourself always exceeds your efforts, once you really and unconditionally decide for it. But your efforts must be wholehearted and transcendent.

If in some cases the difficulties in your life come to a climax shortly after you started on this Path, then it is not because you just started. It would have happened anyway. It is often the case that your psyche, which is more knowing and more far-seeing than your conscious mind, knew that this culminating point is bound to occur soon. This knowledge in your psyche led you to be on such a Path at such a time so as to be better equipped to deal with the culmination of your deviations by finally manifesting them openly. It is often the case that you have chosen and expressed your will to search because the inner need pulls you in the direction and it tries to convey to you: "Search now. Be on the Path so that you will know what all this means. Hence, when the time comes, then you can use it constructively, instead of being pulled deeper into despair."

One learns not only to deal with the difficulties, but also to deal with the happy times. He who is still in darkness and ignorance about the facts of existence and the significance of life can handle the good happenings no better than the adverse ones. Both need wisdom, maturity, and the spiritual knowledge that gives the true incentive for self-knowledge, in order to be dealt with most constructively.

Are there any questions concerning this subject?

QUESTION: In successful analysis, which amounts to almost the same as this work, it often comes to the point that a person loses an ulcer or other physical illness. Also, other emotional problems may clear up. A bad marriage may turn into a good one, etc. So, if one has really worked, these things do happen.

ANSWER: Oh yes. I did not say that this does not happen. In fact, some changes should happen. I did say quite clearly that if you succeed in bringing about an inner change, then an outer change is bound to occur. What I wish to convey is that there is a mistaken idea in many metaphysically inclined circles that the measure of progress is based on whether or not mishaps occur in your life. Certainly you can solve problems along the way, but that does not mean that no more problems will come. I am trying to make you understand that neither the value of the work nor the value of your efforts can be determined by the fact that troubles, illness, or other difficulties still come your way. That is not the criterion. The criterion is how you react to the problems.

QUESTION: May I add something? I think there may be old problems which hang on. If they do, it is certainly a sign that no great change has taken place. On the other hand, you may solve some old problems and then new problems may come. This does not mean that no progress was made.

ANSWER: That is true, certainly. The new problems may have an indirect connection with the old problems that were recognized and changed to some degree, but their effects -- which are of an infinite variety -- may not have been discovered yet.

QUESTION: Is there any connection between sickness and the degree to which you let go of your selfwill?

ANSWER: Of course, there is a connection between health and the letting go of the inner tension that selfwill produces. Any deviation produces an inner tension, whether it be selfwill or any other wrong conclusion or erroneous tendency. But sometimes the deviations and tensions are so deep-rooted that they cannot be lifted into awareness to their full extent, at least not entirely, in this incarnation. It may be too deeply ingrained and may need continuous work after this life-span. Whatever can be accomplished remains as your asset. It is better to advance by degrees than to give up in despair saying, "I cannot do it all in this life," nor is it right to say, "I have time later, so I need not trouble about it now." The deeper the damaging tendency goes, the harder it becomes. It is also conceivable that one relieves an inner tension to the maximum, but the outer manifestation has already progressed too far to relieve the entire sickness. In such a case, a sickness may remain, but the suffering, both physical and mental, will decrease in the measure that one has progressed inwardly. That is what I tried to convey to you in my words on this subject.

It is absolutely possible that you progress as well as can be expected, that your inner will functions most constructively so that you face yourself fully and then change. And yet illness, or other trouble, may one day come your way, just as it befalls other people. This may be the product of a problem so deeply rooted that you did not yet have a chance to examine it. But you will have a chance to do so when the manifestation occurs.

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Now we shall turn to something quite different. Thus, I shall have covered two subjects. This may not allow time for questions, but we can deal with them the next time. The subject I just covered is a necessary basis of understanding for some of my friends. Some others have a healthy idea, even if not articulate, but some are confused, and it will be very important for your work to clarify and revise your ideas.

The subject I wish to discuss now is in connection with the creative and legitimate desires which are often suppressed; this brings on problems. In the last lecture, before we receded for the summer, I presented the general idea of this topic. Now I want to give some specific instances which are universal and apply, at least to some degree, to everyone.

In every human soul is the desire to be loved. This desire is not only legitimate and healthy, but it is also, in its own way, creative, or it leads to being creative. For, the lack of love is conducive to a paralysis of the soul's creative forces.

In order to fulfill the soul's longing to be loved, man chooses a wrong way. This is so partly because this longing is unconscious. As long as it cannot be dealt with in the light of reason and reality, it functions abortively, and therefore creates frustrations and other problems. Now, why is this desire so often unconscious? Let us examine the reason.

The child's desire for love is limitless. The child is made to feel that this desire for exclusive and limitless love is wrong, therefore it feels guilty about it. It is true that exclusive and limitless love is unrealistic and the desire for it is immature. The wrong conclusion of this lies in thinking that the desire for love per se is wrong. The right conclusion would be to feel: "The type of love I wanted so far is wrong because it cannot be. But I have a right to long for being loved. This can happen, provided that I, on my part, learn to love in the right and mature way."

So the first misunderstanding in this respect is that the longing to be loved is something to be ashamed of. Thus, this longing is buried. Because it is buried, many unfortunate results and consequenecs come into being.

You may think "with me this longing is not buried at all. I am completely aware of it." Let me tell you, you may be aware of this longing to some extent -- at least some of you. Some may not be aware of it at all. But even if you are aware of it to some degree, you are only partly conscious of this inner sadness, of this unfulfilled longing, of the inner fight you are putting up a) to cover up this sadness and b) to fight for a substitution of love. This fight wears you out and it causes reactions that are most unfavorable toward the very end you wish to achieve. You do not realize that all this creates problems for you, nor do you see the nature of these problems. This I should like to discuss now, so that each one of you, in your own way, can see how this work applies to you, and where you can link up your own conflicts with this universal one.

In spite of your shame for your yearning for love and your subsequent suppression of it, you cannot silence this clamoring voice completely. The voice is there, but it can only express itself in a devious way. This devious way (we will go into that in a moment) is responsible for your not getting the love that you yearn for. But you do not know that. You believe, deep down: "It is wrong for me to seek to be loved. I have no right to be loved, I am not worthy of it. That is whay I do not get it." But the voice that can never be stilled goes on fighting in its own erroneous way, and in the very way that is bound to make you less lovable. If you were to give up this wrong way of searching, then you would realize that the real you can be loved and will be loved. The vicious circle would be broken.

Now, what is the wrong way? The substitution for your desire to be loved is a desire to be approved of, to shine, to be better than others, to impress people, to be important. Somehow this seems less shameful. You are going through life constantly proving yourself, so as to receive respect, admiration, approval. This substitution can assume various other forms: people have to agree with you; to follow in your footsteps; or you have to prove to them that you agree with them; that you conform with public opinion or the opinion of certain people; or what you think their opinion is -- and that is not always the same. These are mere substitutes for your longing to be loved.

The frequent tendency to conform, to be the obedient child is part of this conflict. The entire topic of "own opinions" which we have previosuly covered, is part of this conflict. Many people may have a little of each, some tendencies manifesting within certain environments, other tendencies coming to the fore with other types of people. There are many more substitute trends for the longing to be loved, but I cannot possibly enumerate all of them now.

The situation within yourself looks like this: you are unaware of the original longing. You are, at first, even unaware of the substitute desire -- the fight for proving yourself. In the course of this work, sooner or later, you are bound to become aware of this constant tendency to fight for approval. But as yet you are unaware of what it covers. Those of my friends who have reached this particular awareness, or are about to reach it soon, will find it very useful to realize what is behind it. The compulsion to prove something exists in everyone; only the degree varies. As long as you do not understand the nature of this compulsion (after you have verified its existence in you), you cannot see any solution and you will be unable to give up the compulsive fight. But with these words, you will search in the right direction so that you not only know in your intellect the sadness of your unfulfillment, but you will feel it -- and that is good. Then you will realize that your fight for approval, or to prove something or other, makes you self-centered, proud, arrogant, superior; or unhealthily submissive, which is bound to make you resentful. All of this contributes to the creation of the adverse result: of people not loving you.

Without this entire layer of substitution, you could be loved. If you allow yourself to feel the original longing without being afraid of the supposed humiliation and weakness which this desire implies, nor being afraid of feeling simple sadness that will never have an unhealthy effect on your soul, then you will contribute greatly toward your fulfillment. You will realize that you are not unworthy of being loved, but that the substitute layer that you concocted is. You will not indulge in the damaging self-pity that you cannot be loved, but you will grow enough to shed those tendencies, with all their ramifications, that prevent you from receiving what you should receinv and what you can can receive, but only if you allow it to happen.

Moreover, you will realize that your fight is completely useless. Nothing that is ungenuine can ever bring success. And a superimposed layer covering an original one is never genuine. Even if you succeed temporarily in getting what you fight for -- admiration, approval, whatever it may be -- it will leave you unsatisfied and with a bitter taste. You are bound to be disappointed, for you cannot ever get it to the degree you want it; it cannot be permanent and from as many fellow human beings as you wish. But, above all, because it is not what you really desire. Your frustration and your unhappiness always have this conflict at the roots.

You fight as though your life is at stake -- inwardly you do. You need to recognize this conflict before you can find the original desire to be loved and the sadness that you are not loved as you could be. Think how frequently it happens that your emotions react disproportionately when someone disagrees with you. But if you are deeply convinced that someone loves you with all his heart and kindness, manifesting it with warmth and tenderness, then the disagreement does not matter. Each one of you will be able to recall such instances. That would serve as proof that my words also apply to you.

After you feel these emotions within yourself, you will realize that you are fighting for something you do not really want and that you can never really get as completely as you are fighting for it. Moreover, you will have to find specifically how this fight -- either to prove something or to prove yourself in one way or another -- brings out the worst in you. Find out exactly what it is that is brought out. This recognition will be less painful and much more liberating than you think. For then you will understand the reason why you were not loved as much as you wished for, and that is not because you are as you are and cannot help it. This will encourage and strengthen you, rather than the opposite. You will see that the previous failures in your battle for complete approval do not mean that you are inadequate for being loved. For this is what you believe deep down. And this is what you are so afraid of facing and why you set up a tight resistance against going deeper into your soul. It seems the ultimate of shame to you: 1) that you want love in the first place, and 2) that you cannot get it -- as you believe. It is much easier to face your shortcomings than to face the unconscious conviction that you desire love but are not loved in the manner and in the measure that you wish. Your psyche knows how to distinguish between healthy, mature love and unhealthy, immature, dependent and weak love, which is not real love in the way the soul yearns for it. The psyche discounts the value of the latter, but does not realize that by the remedy and the substitution you resort to, you make the mature love you yearn for impossible.

This shame is so great that it is often the real abyss that you shy away from. It is responsible for many of your conflicts, for many of your resistances, as well as for your various faults. To step into this abyss after you overcome your initial fear and shame will soon prove liberating, refreshing, and exhilarating.

You see, the desire to be loved is in itself entirely creative, if it is stripped of the childish exclusiveness and one-sidedness. In other words, it is only the way you go about trying to make this desire come true is unrealistic, unhealthy, and damaging, not the desire itself.

Are there any questions at this point?

QUESTION: Would you now -- or perhaps it is a longer subject and it needs an entire lecture in the future -- describe the right way of going about it?

ANSWER: Yes. The first step is that you become aware that this desire exists and to what extent it exists. You must become completely aware to what degree you are dissatisfied in this respect. You also have to become utterly aware of the substitution. You have to experience the emotions which constantly fight for approval. You have to become aware of the compulsion to prove whatever it is that you want to prove at any given instance. When you are conditioned to this awareness, not just a few times but how it constantly operates in you, you can begin to deal with this entire complex of feelings. But the everyday reactions, the many subtle little ways in which your emotions express themselves, have to be fully experienced first. In your daily review and in your self-observation this proving has to be concentrated on. It must be examined, analyzed, and it must come into your awareness more and more. You will be surprised to find how unexpectedly great is the extent of this conflict: this battle for proving yourself. Each time you observe these reactions within yourself, you will understand a little better what is behind them. Then you will ask yourself why it is so important for you to prove yourself in this or that way. Why should it matter so much that pepople admire your intelligence, or your success, or whatever it is that you set out to prove? You will also detect that subtle little tendency which strives for conformity with others; you will discover the weakness embodied in this trend and you will begin to understand its reason. All that has to be explored and experienced in your emotions. You will inevitably feel that behind this entire facade is the desire to be loved. It may not necessarily be that you strongly desire the love of the people you want to be approved of. You may not have a specific object in your life. But the desire to be maturely and rightly loved as such persists in you and is submerged by your fight for approval, for proving yourself, for impressing the world. Then you will understand what you really fight for. And that, broadly speaking, is the first important phase in this area of development and growth. I cannot emphasize enough that the intellectual knowledge of this means nothing. You have to experience your emotions in this direction step by step.

During this process, you will learn to let go of this fighting current to prove yourself. Your emotions will learn to give up this useless and exhausting inner fight. You indulge in a pastime that brings you nothing but trouble. In the measure that you let go and give up this fight, in that measure you will experience a new liberation and a new strength. You will feel that you have shed a cumbersome burden that you no longer need to carry.

As your fight for proving yourself diminishes, you prepare the way for real, mature love. Your maturing mind will make you understand that the only kind of love that is truly love is the kind that is given to you freely. First, you will allow that other people need not love you if they do not choose to. That will make you sad, but it will never make you tense or compulsive or intense. This sadness will be free of self-pity and it will not be a real hardship for you. Therefore, it will not make you unpleasant. Inwardly, you constantly want to force others to love you. The outer cover is the approval, but in the last analysis you want to force people to love you. And forced love is no love. The child in you does not see that. But as you recognize these currents, you will detect the current within yourself that says quite clearly, "you must love me." Weaker persons with unhealthy motives of their own may appear to give in temporarily and obey your command. But such a response can only leave you empty and disappointed since it is not what you are really striving for. And that cannot be had as long as the forcing current has not been dissolved. For the strong and mature soul cannot be coerced into submission. It functions only in freedom. (Even otherwise immature and undeveloped souls may not submit to this force, for their problems may be of a different kind. Only a certain type of person actually falls into such a pattern.) Moreover, you will never really respect the person who obeys this commmand. You will respect only the person who loves you freely. However, you can have the chance of experiencing this free gift only if you don't force it. You can never experience the free gift of love as long as the forcing current constantly operates undetected by your consciousness. Thus, first you have to let people free by permitting them to not love you if they so choose. That does not mean that you have to be happy about it, but you can face the sadness and it will not harm you. If someone then offers you his love freely, then the reward will be tremendous. Then you will understand that you have been denying yourself the chance of receiving the only true and valuable love that exists.

Please, my friends, do not misunderstand that. When I say that you "force" others to love you, it does not refer to any conscious action on your part. It is in your emotions that you translate the meaning of their reactions. If you translate your emotional reactions, then you will see that it amounts to just that.

You will learn to make the generous inner act of giving freedom to others, not only to be wrong, or to disagree with you, or to have their weaknesses which you may not approve of, but also to not love you. If you are conscious first of your original desire, second of your frustration, third of what you do in your frustration, and fourth of the forcing current in you, then you will clearly see that only by this process do you forfeit the free gift of real love -- and not because you are not good enough. Then you are on the road upwards.

May these words be the beginning of a new phase on a deeper level for each one of you. Pray for a deeper understanding of the words I gave you here. Be blessed in the name of the Most Holy. Go in peace and in joy on your Path of liberation. Move towards maturity and towards reality in a joyful and patient spirit. Many will be the fruits of this year's work for all of those who do not let up. Be blessed, be in peace, be in God.

September 16, 1960