The Lord's Prayer

By The Pathwork Guide

Some time ago I promised to give you an interpretation of the Lord's Prayer.

I talked about the meaning of this prayer once before, but then I spoke in general terms. Now I want to shed a different light on it. I want to show you how to find in this prayer anything you need at any time, for everything is contained in it. All your personal problems can be dealt with through a deep and prolonged meditation on this prayer.

OUR FATHER: When you think of the meaning of these words, then you presumably picture God as the father of all beings. But as you say these words very intimately to yourself, try to meditate specifically on how God's fatherhood also applies to those people you do not like, or to those people whom you do not care for, or to those people towards whom you feel a certain resistance, or to those people with whom you happen to be in discord. It does not have to be always a feeling of hatred. It is enough to be irritated with somebody. Go into your stillness and ponder that all these people are also the children of God. Calling yourself a child of God is justified only when you allow that the people who bring out those unpleasant feelings in you are also God's children, just as you are. When you succeed in doing this, then your attitude, and therefore your feelings, will undergo a subtle change. Therefore, you will become more relaxed and more free. At first this may be difficult and it may cause resistance because your feelings are not always willing to change. When there are strong negative feelings of any kind, then it means that somewhere in you there has to be a tight inner knot. Take such a resistance as a signal that tells you how important it is to dissolve this inner knot. If you harbor such negative feelings, then it means that there must be something unresolved in you, no matter how wrong the other person may be. After this insight comes the will to straighten out whatever is wrong within you and the readiness to allow for new recognitions. These will be given to you either through inspiration or through guidance. You also need practical means to free yourself from this unresolved negative state. They will also be given to you. Pray and put your will into it. As you meditate on the deep meaning of these words and how to apply them in your life, a heavy pressure will suddenly be lifted from your chest. In other words, you will feel as if you had been freed of a great burden.

Try it also another way. Bypass everything that bothers you in this person and try to visualize him in his perfection. In other words, try to recognize where and how the divine spark manifests through him or her. Always remember: whoever seeks, will find. You will discover qualities that will clearly indicate that every person has a higher self. Therefore, every person is entitled to be regarded as a child of God.

It is important to draw a line separating the higher self and the lower self. In other words, to pinpoint what belongs to each one. The higher self is eternal, it is immortal, and it is of God. The lower self is ephemeral, it is temporal, and it is not of the true Reality. But do not do this just with others, start with yourself. For when you can distinguish the two in you, then it will not be difficult to love your neighbor. Therefore, you will find it easier to recognize someone whom you do not like as being your brother or your sister. Then you will allow your higher self to unite with the higher self of your neighbor. All this is contained in the first two words of the prayer. Our Father. Meditate on them.

WHO ART IN HEAVEN: Heaven is within you, it is not outside. Therefore, seek it in yourself. Find your own perfection, which exists already, though it may be either veiled or covered up. And seek heaven, seek God, within the soul of your neighbor or even in someone you reject. For only in this way can you find the eternal, living God.

HALLOWED BE THY NAME: You hallow the Name of the Father by trying to understand His Laws and to fulfill them. For in every modality of life there exists a spiritual law. When you are confused by problems in your life, then it means that you have not found the appropriate spiritual law. When you say, "Hallowed be Thy Name," then ask yourself this question: "Where are my difficulties? What are my problems? I must be violating a spiritual law, even if only unconsciously. But now I no longer want to do so." Ask God to help you to understand what specific law you are violating. Ask Him for an answer, and thus you will learn to establish a personal connection with Him through which you will truly hallow His name. For when you look at your problems in truth, with honesty in your heart, then you will receive the answer. It might not come at the same moment, but if you are alert and open, then life will bring you the answer.

THY KINGDOM COME: When you hallow God's name by following all the spiritual laws, then you also bring His kingdom close to you. For it is within you. You always think, if you give it a thought at all, that God's kingdom is somewhere outside and that it will descend to earth and that all you have to do is to go where God's kingdom has manifested and enter it. These are the usual vague ideas about the kingdom of God. They are false thought forms that you erect in your imagination. God's kingdom must be created within you. This can happen only when you go through this schooling successfully. In other words, by learning first to know and then to apply the spiritual laws.

THY WILL BE DONE: I do not need to say much about this, since I have done so many times before. But I want to re-emphasize how difficult it is for most people to apply this saying on the personal level. You claim that you do not know what God's will is and that you would do it if only you knew what it was. I have said to you that whoever strives to make contact with God's world in order to first find out what God's will is and then sets out to fulfill it unconditionally, even while he is still doubtful, will receive the answer. And rather than trying to rack your brain about issues in which you feel unsure, turn to those where you don't require an answer, for the answer will be obvious once you begin to think about it. Everybody can be sure that it must be God's will to follow this path of perfection, in whatever way it offers itself to you. You can be sure that it must be God's will that you face yourself in honesty, instead of choosing the more comfortable way of either pushing away everything that creates uneasiness, or always blaming others and circumstances. Such blaming makes it impossible to seek the wrong within you. Contemplate what causes your inner resistance, and you can be sure that when you feel disharmonious, then it means that you have violated a divine law. Because no wrongdoing and no error of another human being can give you such disharmonious feelings if there is not something amiss in you as well. Your answer must be that you have failed to fulfill God's will in some way. In one case, your future might be connected with general questions of a religious nature coupled with a few personal connotations. In another case, it might be a strictly personal matter. But when there is a feeling of anger, of resistance, of fear, or any disharmony, then you have a clue that something in you is not in order. For otherwise there could not be so much darkness in some of your life situations. If you strive for the answer wholeheartedly, even if it takes a long time to find out, then you will get it sooner or later. When you pray for the answer in order to fulfill God's will, then it must come. Do not be afraid of it, for God's will is always wise. God's will is always loving. God's will always leads to bliss, even though you temporarily have to struggle for it. Therefore ask yourself: "Am I truly willing to do God's will even if I don't like it at first?" I have given you a whole lecture about this and you can use it in this connection.

ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN: Heaven is within you. It is your spirit in its perfection, which waits for the walls of the lower self to be broken through. Then God in you will manifest in your spiritual life, as He will in every detail of your earthly life. To what extent is this already a reality in your life? In what respect does God not yet penetrate your being, not yet penetrate your actions, not yet penetrate your feelings? For instance, try to imagine this. If you were told to relinquish something to which you stubbornly cling, believing it to be God's will -- it could be just an opinion -- would you be willing to let it go and consider that it may not be so? Or would you convince yourself of the contrary, just because you want it that way? Try to pinpoint in which areas of your life you have this kind of attitude. Then face yourself in honesty. What is more important for you, the truth or a conviction that you have clung to for one reason or another? Do you believe that God will show you what is right? But first there must be a willingness to let go. When you feel a tight rigidity, even if your opinion is right, then you prevent the Heavenly Kingdom within you from manifesting. But in the area in which you are in error, the truth cannot penetrate you in that respect because the thought forms which are there are false. Therefore, in that area God's Kingdom cannot come to you.

GIVE US TODAY OUR DAILY BREAD: This, too, is often repeated mechanically, without visualizing anything. Even if he does not clearly formulate the thought, man falsely assumes that earning his daily bread has nothing to do with God. But truly I say to you, my dear ones, that you cannot do anything good that is not blessed by God. Without God, then nothing will succeed, no matter how hard you try. When he thinks back on his life, a person who has some spiritual schooling can discern quite accurately what had God's blessing and what did not. How does the difference feel? Ask yourself: "In what areas do I always have the same trouble? What is the true reason for it? What did I do wrong? In what respect do I have a wrong attitude?" Think about this and then surrender yourself to God entirely. Be ready to let yourself be guided to obtain both your earthly bread and your spiritual bread. The spiritual bread is so neglected. You falsely believe that it is less important than your material bread. No, my dear ones, your spiritual bread is much more important. You should make the effort to receive your spiritual nourishment. Insist on it! That is the gateway through which all your earthly problems will be solved. And not the other way around. Whoever yearns for his spiritual bread has already reached a certain level on this path.

FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES: The prayer says forgive "us," not me alone. This includes all human beings, even those who have hurt you and whom you may not be able to forgive completely. If you really wish that God may forgive them, then you are liberated from a dark spiritual form in you, which attracts harmful energies and dark influences. Think what these words contain: God should not forgive only you and only those whom you like, but also those for whom you may still harbor negative feelings. Often you are not clear about your own guilt. For man tends to produce false, unhealthy, exaggerated guilt feelings which are not justified. This inner process works in the following way: man shies away from admitting his guilt where it is justified and where he could feel a healthy, constructive repentance, which would never drag him down or discourage him. When he asks God for forgiveness with this healthy repentance and he really wants to change, then he will feel that he is forgiven and liberated. Therefore, he will know that a burden has been lifted from his shoulders. This happens when the will to change and to carry this good intention through is persevering and sincere.

But often man will not face his real guilt, partly because in his conceit he wants to see himself better than he is, and partly because it takes too great an effort to bring about inner change. Deep inside he knows that this cannot happen from one day to the other without effort. Thus, his spiritual core gives out signals, spurring him on to recognize his real guilt. But at the same time his lower self, with its pride and its laziness, interferes. Then man often assumes a false guilt about something that he obviously cannot influence. It is as if he said: "See, I am guilty, I admit it, but what can I do? Actually, I'm not really guilty here." Naturally, these are unconscious processes, and they have to be brought out into the daylight. This is the difference between false guilt and real repentance.

The experience of the people who walk such a spiritual path has always been that whoever recognizes his real guilt automatically loses not only all his false guilt complexes which pull him down, but he feels instantly relieved and at peace, because truth always brings about such feelings. To open oneself wide and to be willing to overcome the resistance is a struggle. At first, man will be afraid to admit his real guilt. Therefore, he will produce all kinds of unreal guilt feelings in his unconscious. These either do not really apply or they cover up faults which he does not want to see because he is not yet ready to accept his momentary imperfection. Guilt complexes are unreal. Therefore, they never lead to liberation. They create a vicious circle and they lead to heaviness and to sadness, whereas the truth always liberates, no matter how unpleasant it may feel at first. Examine your own self in this respect. Only he who penetrates all the layers of appearance and all the layers of delusion will reach his real guilt. He will find in what way he has violated either one or more spiritual laws, either in action or in thought. Only then is it possible to ask God for forgiveness. This must include the request to help you and to show you how to change. Only he who is thus liberated within can forgive others totally. Therefore, you cannot expect forgiveness if you are not completely ready to forgive others. Whoever has experienced and felt God's forgiveness should also be able to forgive himself. And this leads to the next line.

AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US: Many people say this prayer, yet they don't have the slightest intention to truly forgive. Here, too, there is often self-deception. While there may not be any hate left in you, there may still be resentment. If you haven't liberated yourself from that, then you cannot be free enough to have deeply illuminating spiritual experiences. It is difficult for you to achieve this complete forgiveness because you lack the understanding of the other person. Therefore, ask for this understanding. In other words, ask for the insight that you lack in this respect. If you really want it and if you do not wallow in your resentments, as you often do, then all this will be given to you. You human beings do not want to understand that you cannot do it by yourselves. You need God's help. So pray for this help. This is why this sentence is part of the prayer. For if it were possible to do it with your will alone, then you would not need to pray for it. You don't pray that you should be able to move from one spot to another. If you have healthy limbs, then you can do it at will. But you do need God's help in order to be able to really forgive. You do need God's help in order to face yourself in total honesty. You do need God's help in order to know yourself without your mask. You do need God's help in order to meet your resistances. And you do need God's help in order to accomplish your inner change.

Ask yourself this question: "Do I truly want to forgive all human beings from the bottom of my heart?" When you see that you cannot do this alone, then you can ask for help. You must understand that not forgiving burdens you, that not forgiving makes you unhappy, that not forgiving blocks the light and the freedom that you ardently desire. In other words, not forgiving harms you much more than it harms those whom you cannot forgive.

LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION: This has implications which can cause confusion and can do harm, because God does not lead man into temptation. The real meaning of these words is that you pray that God may lead you when you are in the midst of a temptation. In other words, pray that He may lead you so that you can resist it, that He may lead you so that you have the strength and the vision to be victorious, in spite of the temptation.

What is a temptation? The temptation is within you. It does not come from the outside. And even if it came from the outside, then you would not yield to it if there were not something in you that is receptive to it. For instance, could you be tempted to commit murder? Certainly not. But you can be tempted to give in to your faults, whatever these may be. Therefore it is important that you realize first that you can be tempted and then in what way you can be tempted. You have to know your faults. List all your faults, so that you remember them. And then ask God for the strength and for the help that you need, for you cannot overcome your faults on your own. Therein lies the temptation. No devil, no Satan could ever get at you if you did not have something in you that responds. And when you pray that God keep Satan away from you, then you are in illusion. For right in you, in your lower self, in the crust that envelopes your perfect self, lies the germ through which you can be led into temptation. The dark forces serve as instruments to draw out the evil that is in you, to bring it into your awareness, so that you can fight it. Otherwise this germ of evil would lie dormant, and hence it would have no opportunity to manifest. As a result, you would not come nearer to perfection and to true bliss.

BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL: Here, too, the same thing applies. The evil is in you. If it existed outside, then it couldn't touch you. You need to put this thought into your prayer. Ask Christ to help you to overcome temptation so that you can deliver yourself from evil. Only you yourself can do it, with the help of God and with the help of Christ, which He has promised you. Try it with Him. Don't try to do it alone, for you are not strong enough. You need your will power and you need unceasing effort. But your own will power alone is just as insufficient as the help of God, the help of Christ, or the help of any other spirit would be insufficient without your desire to free yourself. In other words, you need both your will power and the help of God. You must approach this problem from both sides. You must do your own work and you must ask for spiritual help, again and again, through prayer and meditation.

FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM: The kingdom of God is within you. It should belong to God and to no one else. So you should yield to His will.

THE POWER: Only God's power cleanses, delivers, and illuminates the truth. It makes you capable of love and capable of understanding. It leads you to happiness and it raises you up from all the darkness and the imperfection that have burdened you through many lifetimes, and it brings you to:

THE GLORY: Which you can attain only by following God's will.

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I could say many more things about this most beautiful of all prayers, which contains everything you need for your life. But now there is not enough time. I have given you a few clues. And it would be good if every one of you who reads these words would think about them in his quiet hour. Perhaps then you will receive further thoughts and feelings about how to apply them personally in your own life. This is living prayer, where the meaning of each word expands as the interpretation becomes clearer to you. Then you can see how you already apply the essence of this prayer in certain areas of your life and not in others.

If you try to live in this way, then you must become happy, my dear ones, and eventually all your problems will disappear. True, they are there at first, but they are the necessary medicine. You will increasingly gain mastery over yourself, and consequently mastery over life, instead of being mastered by life. Ask yourself this question: "How happy am I?" You may be certain that to the degree you are happy, to that degree you can also make one or more human beings happy. You also know that to the degree you lack happiness, to that degree you cannot make others as happy as one day you will, provided you continue to follow this upward path. Self-examination about your own happiness is a simple yardstick or barometer by which you can measure how much happiness you are able to give. If you are filled with the desire to make others happy, then God will provide you the opportunity, and this is the way in which you will be blessed with true happiness.

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July 15, 1957