This is not a Political Issue, this is a Humanity Issue
Pathwork Helper and teacher, Judith Garten, made a video with two other colleagues. They made this offering, though they admit imperfect, with love and compassion for all the families ripped apart at our Southern border. Judith in particular can understand the impact, as she was orphaned in the ending years of the Holocaust.
Their goal is to inform people about the effects, for which she bring in colleagues who specialize in childhood trauma and development impacts.
And it’s a call to action, with some ways to do that, if you are moved. They geared it to a general audience, not Pathworkers alone.
If you are inspired to see it, it’s about 22 minutes long.
When you get right down to it, suffering doesn’t come to us, it comes through us. It originates from the depths of our beings, from our destructiveness. What happens is that we all become busy little bees, trying to figure out how to avoid, reduce or eliminate our suffering. But since we are presently chained to this world of duality, our typical methods don’t work.
For in our minds eye we see two forces that oppose each other. One is good, or constructive, and the other is bad, or destructive. And right there, in the moment we get trapped in this system of dualistic thinking, we lose any possibility of solving our problem. And of course our problem, we think, is whatever is causing us to suffer.
The bigger problems lies in the way we automatically begin to shield ourselves from actually seeing whatever is destructive within us. We deny. We avoid. We repress. We lie to ourselves and others. We do whatever it takes to not see there is a root cause for our suffering, and it’s in us. (Continue Reading…)
“When man is in harmony with life because he is connected with his own causes and effects, his position toward the forces of life can be compared to a swimmer. The swimmer floats on the water. The water carries him. And yet he moves, he is not passive.” from PGL #160: Conciliation of the Inner Split
Saturday, April 13th, 2019 1:00 pm to 4:30 pm St. Luke’s Church, Newtown, PA No need to RSVP! Just come, sign up for the meditation(s) of your choice and help us raise funds for the Philadelphia Region!
The Philadelphia Pathwork Summer Institute offers you the luxury of time and space to explore a topic in depth with master teachers. It is an opportunity to join with others from around the world who share a passion for this Path and the growth and transformation it provides.
This summer, choose from 3 separate programs that will run concurrently
The DIVINE SEXUALITY program with Sage Walker of Pathwork Canada/Toronto will continue (only 1 spot open)
ARE ACTUALLY FAR EASIER TO DESTROY THAN THIS INNER WALL
We all want the good stuff: love, truth, goodness and light. These
desires emanate from the divine spark at the center of each person. But like
sunlight trying to shine through dirty glass, these rays often taken on hazy
shades as they penetrate our layers of imperfection.
So, yeah, our best self wants to be good, and to do good. At the same time,
our efforts are often also colored by selfishness. Our motives are mixed,
making us confused about what to do next.
Our path will become easier if we can accept that some of our motives come from
a pure place and some come from a selfish one. Such clarity won’t be flattering
or comfortable, but it will actually give us peace of mind. Truth, after all,
is soothing once we’ve made up our mind not to fight it. Plus, coming down from
our high horse is healthy and always has a positive effect on us.
So as we start out on a spiritual path, we may want to do good outwardly, while
at the same time we harbor selfish thoughts within. This is normal. Our work at
this point is to face ourselves as we are, and accept that we can’t change this
quite yet. Then one of two things will happen. Either we will go about doing
good deeds while hoping to gain admiration, or else we will explain away our
lack of good deeds by pointing out how others also fall short. The latter is
called hypocrisy and we can see it everywhere.
As we go along doing our spiritual work, things tend to become more tricky as
the hypocrisy becomes more subtle. After a while, our selfishness is no longer
so obvious, even to us, and this is where the bigger trouble sets in.
Because the more we work to hide our selfish motives—rather than to continue to
search for them and to bring them into the light—the more confusion and
disorder sets in. After all, it is only by facing and admitting our wrong
desires that we can change them. And yet the further along we are on our path
of self-knowing, the more tempting it becomes to suppress these unpopular bits.
As such, anywhere that our conscious opinions, ideas and feelings are separated
from what’s in our unconscious, a wall is created in our soul. The walls we
build in our outer material world are actually far easier to destroy than this
inner wall.
On this side of the wall lies everything we know about and are willing to face.
On the other side of the wall is where we store all the stuff we don’t want to
face. This is a collection of unpleasant faults and weaknesses, along with
whatever frightens us and confuses us. We seal all this shut using an
unconscious wrong conclusion, like, if I see this about myself it will confirm
that I’m bad. With that, we lock the gate and throw away the key.
WHAT
THIS WALL IS MADE OF
So what is this wall made of? In the case of a material wall made
from brick, wood and the like, we choose a material based on our taste and
various needs. Such a wall has nothing to do with us. Our inner spiritual wall,
on the other hand, is formed directly from our thoughts, beliefs and feelings.
We can’t use something we haven’t got, and all we have is whatever we are.
Therefore, our wall will be made up, in part, from our goodwill that is
ineffective due to our wrong conclusions and ignorance. Case in point, one of
the reasons we create an inner wall is to hide certain unpleasant aspects, and
our motive for doing this is the misuse of our goodwill.
In addition, we will find fragments of cowardice in our wall, along with
impatience, pride and self-will. We can see evidence of our impatience in the
mere fact that we’ve built this inner wall, hoping to reach perfection by
piling our less-than-perfect parts behind it. Because heck, it sure is easier
to put up a wall than take the time and effort needed to eliminate our
misunderstandings and disharmonies.
And let’s face it, that kind of self-honesty doesn’t happen without a lot of
inner work. So let’s go ahead and add laziness to our list of wall ingredients.
Indeed, all these trends are the building materials we’re using to make our
inner wall.
GRADUALLY
DISMANTLING THE WHOLE WALL
As we do our work, we are taking certain attitudes and trends, one
by one, out from behind our wall, and transposing them back into conscious
awareness. Bit by bit, the wall goes down. The more work we do, the fewer
trends that remain locked back there. This is good use of our will, and this
work needs to continue until the whole heap has been cleared.
In fact, if we want to become whole and truly happy, the entire wall must come
tumbling down. As long as there is any wall remaining, no matter how much of it
we have dismantled, we are not yet whole and we can’t function the way we’re
meant to.
Our goal, then, is not to just pick at the wall; we have to get serious about
destroying the wall altogether. Most often, this can’t be done all at once.
Moreover, if we are hasty in our efforts, we can end up causing ourselves a
breakdown. So typically, it is better to gradually lift out what’s behind the
wall. This not only reduces the wall, but if done right, it weakens the
substance the wall is made of.
THE
DANGER OF HALF-MEASURES
The concern is that we might succeed in taking out certain things,
only to push the wall a little further into the background. When we do this,
the wall remains in full force, and maybe even gets a little stronger. This is
a real danger that we need to guard against.
It’s goes something like this. We get off to a good start discovering some
unpleasant trends, but then only give our work half-measures. How does this
happen? We take a true thought or teaching and use it as a camouflage to hide
behind. There is no truth that is free from this possible fate of being twisted
just enough to be used as a reinforcement for our wall. When this is done in a
crass way, it’s easy to spot. Like when a fanatic or someone who clings to
religious dogma commits all sorts of wrongs or has all sorts of wrong
reactions, while expounding the “religious truth” of their choosing.
But in principle, this same thing is going on in some way in almost every
single one of us. We are, of course, just more subtle about it. Spiritual,
ethical and psychological truths are all just as susceptible to being usurped.
Theories, terms and expressions can also be abused, making them dead, rigid or
meaningless.
We need to stay watchful, always looking for where this tendency hides in
ourselves. Even these teachings from the Guide can be used. We don’t do this on
purpose, perhaps, but we may unknowingly sidestep our work in this way.
What might that look like? Let’s say we’ve found a particular fault, or we’ve
unearthed a wrong conclusion about life. Now we might hold this up as the outer
façade of our wall, as though we are saying, “That’s it. That’s as far as I
will go. I am willing to admit this one thing, but nothing more. This should
pacify everyone that I have reached the center of my being. Now no one can say
I am not doing my work. But the things that really bother me, that’s all
staying put. This is great. I have found a wonderful way to go on hiding.”
RESISTANCE
IS PART OF OUR WALL
Don’t lose sight of this fact: resistance to doing our work is a
big part of what our wall is made up of. So as we have gotten started in doing
our work, we have passed the stage when we resisted facing ourselves, using
excuses and rationalizations for even embarking on a spiritual path. So then
likely we have made certain recognitions and pushed the wall back a bit. We
have seen some of our destructiveness filtering through from the other side.
At this point, we are well launched. But that doesn’t mean our resistance has
been overcome for good. Because as long as the wall remains intact, resistance
is inevitable. The form that the resistance takes, however, will change.
Before, we had doubts and excuses. Now we have reservations that cause us to
take the findings we’ve made so far and blow them out of proportion.
By letting them grow to disproportionate significance, we prevent ourselves
from going any deeper. Often, we start to use the same words again and again,
until all the life has been wrung out of them. If our words have become
automatic, it’s time to take a close look and find our wall again. Then we can
once again wage a healthy war against our resistance and our ignorance.
We are the only ones who will be able to sort out how we’re hiding and what
truth we are misusing. If we’ve come this far, having a few spiritual wins
under our belt, chances are good we’re going to keep going. We’ve conquered
some of our resistance, but now we need to locate the other resistance lying in
wait. For while we might not leave our spiritual path, we may easily get stuck,
spinning around in circles without ever going any deeper.
THE
GOAL IS TO EMPTY OURSELVES
Our unconscious does not give itself up readily, for it thinks
that coming out into the light creates a grave danger. So it’s going to come up
with some good ruses to keep us from working in this direction and causing this
wall to crumble. We need to get wise to it. Good intentions are one thing, but
they won’t go far enough.
If we want to gain victory over our own souls, we must avoid stagnation and
continue to question every inner disharmony. Our goal is to become empty. We
want to be able to stand naked in front of ourselves and in front of our maker.
For we must become that naked and empty for divine substances to take root in
us and fill us up.
As long as our wall remains in place, no matter how weakened it might be,
divine substances will be ineffective in us. In other words, the stronger our
wall, the weaker will be our light.
It’s always easier to notice someone else’s wall, even as we kid ourselves that
surely we don’t have one. We may hide behind a different truth or awareness,
but often, we are hiding just as much as the next guy. We need to ask for the
courage to see our own wall, and the humility to break it down. If we observe
our own reactions, we’ll know where our wall stands, and we’ll find the way to
eliminate it altogether.
“Every human being senses an inner longing that goes deeper than the longings for emotional and creative fulfillment. This longing comes from sensing that another, more fulfilling state of consciousness and a larger capacity to experience life must exist.”
The lectures given by Eva Pierrakos from 1957 until her death in 1979 are the heart of the Pathwork. They are an astonishing roadmap to self-responsibility, self-knowledge, and true self-acceptance. They point the way to genuine love of self, others, and the Divine.
The lectures cover the wide spectrum of our human journey, from our struggles with self-doubt, self-hatred and fear of inadequacy to the barriers we put up to relating with others, and ultimately with what we each know as God. The lectures teach that vital life energy, feelings and insight are often buried under misconceptions about the nature of reality. We are all familiar with some of these wrong conclusions. For example, “It’s weak to need and accept help; I don’t deserve love and kindness; responsibility means a loss of freedom.”
When such misconceptions are carried into adult life, particularly when they are unconscious, we surrender our physical, spiritual and emotional freedom to forces beyond our awareness. The effect of this loss of freedom are devastating-deep-seated unhappiness and a profound poverty of spirit.
The Pathwork lectures offer specific, practical tools for dissolving misconceptions, for making the unconscious conscious, and for activating the greater consciousness dwelling within every human soul.
Every human being senses an inner longing that goes deeper than the longings for emotional and creative fulfillment. This longing comes from sensing that another, more fulfilling state of consciousness and a larger capacity to experience life must exist.
