The Text - Section 105
105. HUMANITY'S RELATIONSHIP TO GOD IN VARIOUS STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
Greetings, my dearest friends. God bless all of you. Blessed is this hour. Blessed are your
efforts. Blessed is your work.
Before I turn to tonight's lecture, I wish to extend our thanks, from the world of spirit, to all
of my friends who have worked on this Path of self-recognition. For this is, indeed, something to
be thankful for. Nothing helps so much in the entire world, as every little step towards the further
self-awareness of each individual. Nothing can help eliminate suffering and confusion so much as
your own efforts in this direction. The sincere desire to face the truth in yourself, the reality that is
in you right now, is the only way, not only for helping yourself, but to help better conditions all
over. Nothing else will eliminate strife. All of you have made progress in this respect in the past
year. Each one of you has gained a little more insight into himself. All of you, some more, some
less, are a little better able to face yourselves as you really are. Perhaps not entirely yet -- that is true
-- but surely better than a year ago. So it has been a fruitful year, more than you can possible realize.
We believe that, after this short interruption of activities, the year to come will bring still further
progress in this direction -- the ability to face yourself as you are now. When I say progress, I mean
the removal of barriers to see that which is, rather than striving away from it in the false belief that it
is spiritual progress to try to be what you cannot as yet be.
In your daily life many possibilities are offered to you to see yourself as you are; to verify what
you really feel, rather than what you try to feel. All you have to do is to remind yourself constantly
to be alert to this reality in you; to cultivate the awareness. After this very fruitful year, it is to be
expected that most of my friends, after perhaps overcoming a defense here and a resistance there,
will penetrate deeper into emotional levels, so as to become aware of their existence, and then of
their significance. This further understanding will liberate you more and more, after the initial fear
of it has proven unreasonable; if only you continue and do not let this fear stop you, but face it,
examine it, grasp it, instead of repressing it, and then come to terms with it.
And now, my friends, let us turn to tonight's subject. I wish to discuss man's relationship to
God in the cycle of development, in the various stages of this cycle that man goes through. In the
last lecture I discussed the state of being without awareness, as the first stage in the great cycle.
Primitive man, during his first few incarnations, is still near to this state of being without awareness.
He lives unto the day, tending to his immediate needs. As yet the mind is not developed and
therefore not equipped to ask questions, to doubt, to think, to discriminate. He lives in the now, but
without awareness. In order to live in the now in awareness, various stages have to be gone
through.
As man continues to develop his mind, he will first use it for his immediate needs that become
more pressing in a growing civilization. In other words, he first uses the mind concretely. But later,
he begins to use it abstractly. He begins to ask the important questions that have preoccupied
mankind ever since the beginning of time. These questions are: "Where do I come from? Where
do I go? What is the meaning of life? What is the significance of this universe?" Man begins to
perceive nature, her laws. He observes the magnificence of nature's laws. And he begins to wonder.
This first wonderment represents the first conscious steps towards relating to the Creator. "Who
created these laws? Who made all this? Is any superior mind responsible for this creation?" With
such questions, the first ideas about God come into existence. Thus, when he then concludes that
there must be someone of such infinite superiority, wisdom, intelligence, he feels he must relate to
this supreme Being.
But simultaneously, man's spiritual and emotional immaturity producing fear and many other
problematic emotions, colors this concept of a superior Creator. On the one hand he wants an
authority who thinks for him, who decides for him and is thus responsible for him. He clings to this
authority in the hope of being relieved of self-responsibility. On the other hand, his fears of life and
his inadequacy to cope with it, project onto this God. He senses the power of this immensely wise
and resourceful Creator of all the natural laws that he can see. Since he cannot yet separate power
from cruelty, he begins to fear this God of his own projection. Thus he begins to appease, to cajole,
to submit to, and become subdued by, this imaginary God-image.
To recapitulate: the first state of awakening causes man to wonder. In this spontaneous
experience of wonder and perception, he often has a genuine God-experience and relationship. But
then, as he grows more conflicted and fearful, after his desires become more urgent, all these
emotions and attitudes color this first God-experience and he relates no longer according to a
genuine, spontaneous, creative experience, but to a projection of himself.
The more the mind grows in one direction only, without being used to resolve its problems
and conflicts which remain hidden away from awareness, the more does his relationship to God
become false. False, because it is based on personal needs, on wishful thinking, and on fear. The
more this proceeds, the falser the concept of God becomes -- consciously or unconsciously. In the
end, it will become a superstition, with less truth and more dogma.
When this goes on and on, man comes to a point, after his original genuine experience and
perception turns to a superstition, that makes a farce out of God; when he can no longer continue in
this trend, his intelligence, which has grown in the meantime, will prevent him from going on in this
way indefinitely. The intelligence will then say "it cannot possibly be that there is a Father who leads
life for us. It is up to us. It is our responsibility. We have free will." And a counter-reaction sets in.
And then, man often turns to the other extreme and becomes an atheist.
The state of atheism exists in two ways: 1) an absolute lack of awareness and perception of
life and nature, her laws and the significance of creation. 2) a reaction to the superstitious God-
Image and self-projection of man, denying self-responsibility. This latter state of atheism, erroneous
in itself as it is, is still indicative of a further state of development other than a belief in God. This
comes predominantly from fear, evasion, escapism, wishful-thinking, denial of self-responsibility.
The latter is often a necessary transitory period on the way to a more realistic and genuine
experience of and relationship to God. During this stage, faculties are cultivated in man that are of
utmost importance for his individual growth. This does not mean that I advocate atheism. This is
no more the case than that I advocate a childish, clinging, belief in God. Both are stages. In each
stage there is something important that the soul learns. Something is imprinted in the soul that is
productive and lasting, long after the superficial layers of the mind have dispensed with the falsity of
both extremes.
In this second stage of atheism, man learns to assume self-responsibility. He lets go of the
wished-for hand that leads life for him, absolves him from the consequences of his own mistakes. It
makes him give up the expectation of being rewarded for being obedient to rules. Simultaneously, it
frees him from fear of being punished. In some ways, it brings him back to himself.
But when a certain point is passed in this stage, it is no longer possible to maintain the
concept of atheism. The more any thought, concept, scientific fact, or philosophy is carried to its
logical end and conclusion, the less is it possible to maintain an untruth or half-truth; or even a
temporary state that had its healthy function at a certain period. When man passes through these
various stages briefly discussed here, he is bound to arrive at the point when he uses his mind to
question his own motives; to look at and into himself. Thus he cultivates awareness by facing the
reality within. As he proceeds to do this, forever deeper levels of his psyche become liberated. In
this liberation, genuine God-experience is the inevitable outcome. This genuine God-experience is
very different from the childish belief in a self-projected God which the mind has created out of
fear, weakness, and wishful-thinking. He no longer acts because he feels God demands or expects it
of him. He lives in the now. He does not fear his imperfection and does not fear God's punishing
him for it. He can see it without becoming frantic. Yet understanding its harm, but not fearing it,
he will then see that not the imperfection itself is so harmful, but the lack of awareness of it; the fear
of being punished for it; the pride of wanting to be above it. Being not frantic to get over it, he will
have the calm to observe it, thereby understanding its background and its reason for existence. In
this process, he grows out of it. As man cultivates this attitude, he makes a genuine experience of
God possible. On the other hand, it is the occasional glimpse and sense of it that facilitates the
proper attitude toward one-self.
This genuine God-experience is being. God is not perceived as acting -- punishment or
reward, or guidance along certain ways in order to take away the effort of man. He realizes that God
is. This is very difficult to explain in words, my friends. But it is the only way I can say it. You
cannot come to this feeling that God is, if you do not first face what is in you right now, imperfect,
faulty, childish as it may be.
It would be misleading to assume that each of these stages I described here roughly, follow
neatly one after the other. They overlap. They do not always follow in this order, because the
human personality is not made up of one level. It is, as you know, conflicting. Different layers of
the personality express different attitudes at any given time, even in this particular respect. Hence, it
is possible that at one period of a person's life, he may be consciously in one stage, unconsciously in
another. Only after he proceeds on such a Path of self-knowledge, does this hidden unconscious
stage come to the fore. In this way, it often happens that at a later period something comes out that
seems to belong into a former stage. This is also due to the fact that a certain necessary stage was
not fully lived through but repressed due to outer influences and pressures. So my description is
only a vague general outline. Beware of judging yourself or another according to what you see. But
generally speaking, this is the cycle that humanity goes through.
Self-awareness must eventually lead to the state of being in awareness. Simultaneously, a new
relationship to God comes into existence. God is experienced as being. I repeat, you cannot come
to it if you do not first experience, in a negative way, that which is, now. Nor can you come to it by
concepts you learn; philosophies and practices you observe; doctrines you follow. If you are
unwilling to live through, and be in your present confusions, errors, and pains, facing and
understanding them, you cannot ever be in God. Or to put it in other words: you cannot be in a
state of happiness, peace, creativity without strife, if you do not face the temporary, often unpleasant
reality. Only then can the great Reality be experienced. The latter will first come occasionally and in
vague glimpses. But this will give you a new approach and relationship to God. It will not only
transform your attitudes and concepts of God, but concepts also of yourself, or your place in life.
Needless to say that in man's relationship to God, his prayer -- meaning his speaking to God -
- also goes through these phases. The prayers are the expression of the various phases. It is often
the case, as it is with all things on earth, that man is actually inwardly already in a new stage, while he
outwardly still clings to old habit patterns; patterns he adopted in a former stage. This may not only
apply to the way man prays, but also to certain concepts he clings to, in his conscious mind, while
inwardly he is already beyond it. The mind is habit-forming. Habit is an intrinsic quality of the
mind. Experience out of being never forms habits. It is only the mind that does it. The memory,
combined with the tendency to form habits, is the danger of the mind in regard to true spiritual
experience. The more flexible you are, the less will you fall into the trap of set habit patterns; of
clinging to old concepts and ideas that once gave you an experience and which you wish to recreate
by holding onto it.
If you increasingly train yourself to face what is in you now, you free yourself of habit patterns
that hold you back from productive living; from true experience, whether this is God, life, yourself --
it is all the same, it is being. Is it not habit that made such deep grooves into your mind of a certain
experience so that this experience turned into a rigid image? Isn't it habit that causes you to stick to
misconceptions, wrong conclusions, generalizations that are always half-truths, at best? This applies
to many things, my friends.
Again, I wish to emphasize that whenever you discover such erroneous ways in yourself,
beware of feeling guilty, of being frantic, of feeling "I should not." This attitude is the greatest
barrier, the very greatest of all!
And now, my friends, let us turn to your questions.
QUESTION: I tried to explain what you explained to us about the spirit and the free will to
two people -- one very religious, and the other a scientist. They then asked if God is omniscient and
loving, then He also knows the future. If He knows the future, while He gave us free will, He must
know what we will do with it. And this I cannot answer.
ANSWER: In the first place, the future is a product of time. And time is a product of the
mind. Therefore, in reality, future does not exist. Just as past does not exist. I realize that this is
impossible for most people to understand. Outside the mind, there is being -- that is, no past,
present nor future, only now. This can, at best, be vaguely sensed, by feeling, rather than intellect.
Furthermore, this question arises from the same complete misconception I outlined in this
very lecture in that it shows the concept of God who acts, does. Creation is, in the true sense, not
an action, and certainly not a time-bound action. When God created spirit, it is out of time, out of
mind, in the state of being. Each spirit is, in this sense, God-like and creates his own life. God does
not take away or add on.
Moreover, I have this to add: it is man's complete illusion to believe that pain and suffering
are terrible in themselves. Please, try to understand what I am saying. Man's inordinate fear of
suffering is utterly unrealistic, and again a product of the mind, in error. Man fears pain and
suffering mainly because he believes he has nothing to do with it; that it can come without his being
responsible for it. In other words, it is either unjust, or chaotic coincidence. But once he realizes
that every pain he experiences is due to his own evasion of truth and reality; once he not only
understands this as a principle, but actually connects the links, he will no longer fear it. He will see
the key, long before he can even begin to use it. He will no longer guard against the supposed
arbitrariness of life against which he feels helpless. Thus, his suffering will take on an entirely new
aspect and become productive.
This then, will make man see that the actual suffering is not half as frightening as his fear of,
and attitude towards it. To a slight degree, many of you have experienced this. You have
experienced that when you fear something before it happens, it is so much worse than when you
actually go through it. And you have also experienced how your pains take on a new face once you
thoroughly understand how you have created them. If you observe this chain of events within,
abstaining from perfectionism, moralizing, and justifying, the pain instantly recedes, although the
outer situation may remain the same. When you truly come to terms with your reality, you can also
accept the imperfection of life as such. Without rebellion against imperfection, many patterns
transform and you cause less suffering for yourself. But your conscious or unconscious expectation
that life should be perfect, causes you to rebel, to resist, to erect barriers which cause more
imperfection and suffering than life would otherwise contain. So it is your attitude to suffering, to
life, to your position in life and towards yourself, that determines how you experience suffering. If
man's attitude toward suffering were not as distorted as it usually is, he would find that the problems
he has to solve in conquering mind and matter are beautiful. They are the most beautiful things in
your earth life. Only by conquering your own resistance and blindness, your lack of awareness of
yourself, will you experience the beauty of life, whether at one time you go through difficult periods,
and at others, you experience happiness and fulfillment.
When man comes closer to this understanding, a question such as this could never be asked.
It is so confused, contains so much blindness and lack of awareness of reality, it shows such spiritual
immaturity, that it cannot even be answered in any way that will make sense to the questioner. You
cannot understand with the mind what is beyond the realm of the mind. For that, another faculty is
necessary, but so long as the existence of such a faculty is denied, how can you even make the
person lead to an eventual understanding?
The question also contains an eternal conflict in mankind, conflict in religious concepts. On
the one hand, man postulates that God is an omnipotent Father who acts at will; who rewards you if
you obey His laws; who guides you without your active participation in your own inner life, provided
you humbly ask for it. On the other hand, it is postulated that man has free will; that he molds his
own fate; that he is responsible for his life. While religion teaches the latter, it simultaneously
cripples free decision and self-responsibility by forcing man to obey certain prescribed rules.
Between these two, apparently mutually exclusive concepts, man is confused. The question you
asked is a typical example of such confusion.
An omnipotent Creator and man's self-responsibility are only mutually exclusive when viewed
in time, and from the mind. When this omnipotent creator is perceived as acting like man, in time,
from the mind. You do not yet have to be in the state of being in awareness before you can sense
that, in reality, in the state of being, there is no conflict between the two. All you have to do is face
yourself without resistance, without the pretense of being more than you are, without striving to be
more perfect than, at this moment, you happen to be. Each individual aspect that you view in
yourself in such freedom, puts you, at that moment, into a state of being and you inwardly perceive
the truth of God as Being without contradictions of the sort you asked in your question. Then you
will know, profoundly, that complete self-responsibility is not exclusive of a supreme Being. A
person who is inwardly not ready, cannot possibly understand what I am saying here.
In this connection, I would like to say that it may occur to some of you why it is that some
great spirits, either in the body or without body through human mediums, have passed on great
wisdom, yet their teachings actually seem to encourage one of those temporary stages I mentioned
as a phase in the great cycle. Their teachings were adapted to this still immature stage, rather than to
drawing people out of it. You may rightly wonder why this is so. The answer is that each stage has
to be gone through thoroughly. One cannot be forced to skip a stage, otherwise something
unassimilated will remain in the soul and manifest in a later period. Let us suppose we had a group
of people here who have not gone through the development you have gone through in the last few
years. What I would say now, for instance, about the relationship to God, would make absolutely no
sense. A person who has not, at least to some degree, experienced the peace of true self-awareness,
without self-condemnation or self-justification, as rarely as this may happen to you, cannot possibly
sense the meaning of the state of being. If a group is, perhaps, just between the second and third
stages in this great cycle, a spirit will have to talk in such a way that he can be understood. Yet, he
does not lie. But for such a group, it is humanly impossible to understand more. Only by gradually
bringing a group out of this stage in to self-facing, can the souls of these people begin to absorb
more truth, even if the mind cannot follow it. This is why it may often occur that spiritual helpers,
from this or the other world, seem to encourage a phase from which you have already emerged.
COMMENT: I know that if I would have listened to this lecture a year ago, I would not have
felt it as I do now.
ANSWER: Of course not. Now at least, there is a chance of understanding, of grasping, of
sensing, be it only in rare moments.
In a smaller way, man repeats these cycles over and over under various levels. It is not just
once that he goes through each of these stages. You may even observe that the lectures I have given
you in all these years, in a way, go through these stages. Each of the phases we passed, prepared you
for that which is the key: self-awareness. The ability, willingness, courage, incentive, and reason to
do so, has to be cultivated and does not come easily. This is why these phases exist. But they do
not exist as ready-made laws. They exist because of man's inherent rhythm of growth that cannot be
hurried. Yet it needs encouragement and preparation. It needs help to direct attention to his
resistances.
QUESTION: Will you please elaborate on the meaning of prayer in the different stages?
ANSWER: I believe it is rather evident from the lecture itself. Prayer will be adapted to the
conscious attitude and concept of any given phase. In the very first stage, when man is still almost
in the stage of being without awareness, there is no prayer, because there is no God-concept. In the
next stage, when man begins to ask questions and wonder, and in this spontaneous experience of
wondering and allowing new considerations to fill him, this, in itself, is prayer or meditation. The
next stage may be the realization of a Supreme Intelligence. In this stage, prayer takes the form of
admiration of the marvel of the universe and nature. It is worship. In the next stage, when the
confusion of the mind, the immaturity and inadequacy cause fear, clinging, helplessness,
dependence; when wishful-thinking and greed, unacceptance of reality causes supplication, prayer
will be expressed accordingly. When prayers seem to be answered in this state, it is not because God
acts, but because, in some way, man is sincere in spite of all his self-deceptions and evasions and has
thus opened a channel within through which laws of being can penetrate to him. This is an
important distinction that will only be perceived at a later stage. When man realizes his own
participation in whether or not a prayer is answered, he will lose the sense of helplessness and of the
arbitrariness of a willful God he has to appease by man-made and superimposed rules. But I might
also add that what often appears like an answered prayer is the strength of an unconflicted mind in
the particular area where the prayer is answered, at least at that time.
When man comes into the state of independence, when he lets go of this imaginary God who
punishes, rewards, and leads life for him, when he finds himself in the state of atheism, of denial of
any higher being, he does not pray, of course. At least not in the conventional sense. He may
meditate on himself, he may look at himself in sincerity, and this, as you all know by now, is the best
prayer in the true sense. But it may also be that man, in the atheistic state, is completely
irresponsible, and fails to think and look at himself. He may escape from himself the same way as
the person who uses God as an escape from himself.
When man reaches the stage of active pursuit of self-awareness, of facing himself as he really
is, he may, at the beginning, still be accustomed to the old prayer of begging for help, asking God to
do for him what he used to shy away from doing himself. Yet, in spite of this habit in prayer, he
begins to face himself. Only after reaching deeper levels of such self-facing, will he gradually avoid
the kind of prayer he was used to. He may even go through a stage of not actively praying at all, in
the usual sense. But he meditates -- and that is often the best prayer! He meditates by looking at his
real motivations; by allowing his actual feelings to come to the surface; by questioning them as to
their reason for being. In this kind of activity, prayer in the old sense becomes more and more
meaningless, contradictory. His prayer is the action of self-awareness and of looking at himself in
truth. His prayer is his sincere intent to face what may be most unpleasant. It is prayer because it
contains the attitude that truth for the sake of truth is the threshold to love. Without truth and
without love, there can be no God-experience. Love cannot grow out of trying to pretend a truth
that is not felt. But love can grow out of facing a truth, no matter how imperfect it is. This attitude
IS prayer. Candor with oneself IS prayer; alertness to one's resistance is prayer; owning up to
something that one has hidden from in shame is prayer. When this proceeds, the state of being
gradually comes into existence, little by little, with interruptions. Then, in the state of being, prayer
is no longer an action of uttered words or thoughts. It is a feeling of being in the eternal now; of
flowing in a current of love with all beings; of understanding and perception; of being alive. It is
impossible to convey that these few aspects I mentioned here, in addition to many more
indescribable feelings, comprise prayer in the highest sense. It is awareness of God in His Reality.
But this kind of prayer cannot be imitated or learned through any teachings, prescribed practices, or
disciplines. It is the natural outcome of the courage and humility to face oneself completely and
without reservation. Before you have reached this highest state of relating to God, of being, where
prayer and being are one, all you can do, the best prayer in the world, is the renewed constant intent
to face yourself without any reservation; to remove all pretenses between your conscious mind and
that which is in you; and then, to remove the pretense between what is in you, and others. This is
the pathway, my friends.
QUESTION: I have recently learned of a young cousin who has a malignancy. And I would
like to ask that I have the prayer of this group for his recovery and I would like to know if there is
anything I can do, or that can be done to help him?
ANSWER: My dearest, this question is so very contradictory to everything I said tonight, and
previously. It is certainly understandable that you feel that way. Of course you, and the whole
group, can pray. The validity of such prayer is the sincere good will that you wish the best to
another person; that you do not want him to suffer; that you would do what you could to help
alleviate such suffering. If you are so intended, open yourself for inspiration. If there is any way to
give strength and consolation, it may come with such openness. But from our point of view, we
view these things so differently. Temporary suffering, parting, and death is, in reality, not what it
means to you. I know this is painful, at the moment, in time. There is no doubt that pure thoughts
and feelings, pure intent, must have an effect. Not necessarily in the exact manner you wish, but
nevertheless, it has a very good effect.
QUESTION: It is not his death that is so painful, but the leaving of small children, and so
many things undone, brilliance and talent.
ANSWER: Actually, what you think is inevitably lost because not concluded in this life, is not
so. No one goes from this earth sphere if it is not right and good, unless he takes his own life.
Nothing happens in the entire universe, that is meaningless, that cannot be productive. There is no
waste. The waste exists only temporarily when you do not make the best of your life while you have
it. But leaving earth life, as such, is never wasteful, regardless of how young a person is who leaves
his body. If you truly think and meditate about these words, they will be of greater help, and
therefore more consoling than if I were to tell you that any means exist that can interrupt the laws of
cause and effect, that God can protect you from certain stages that man has to go through, and
which can be so fruitful for all concerned. Now, I am not indicating here that he cannot be helped.
This is not within my realm. The outcome may not necessarily be as you fear it. But whether or not
it is, no waste exists. There is meaningfulness even for those who stay behind.
QUESTION: Would you comment, please, on the progress of our group work and show us a
way to make it an even more dynamic experience for us, that is truly group work?
ANSWER: Yes, my friend. I believe most of you can begin to sense and experience that this
group work is of immeasurable importance. How else can you safely allow your negative emotions
to come to the fore? To allow them an outlet that will not only be destructive for an environment
that does not understand, but will even be fruitful for everyone else's further insight? How else can
you rid yourself of the pressure of repressions? How else can you learn to understand yourself in
the mirror of the other? How else can you, best and fastest, learn to communicate on a deeper level
of your being, rather than on superficial ones? All this has begun and can be furthered in the years
to come if you keep this in mind. Provided you continue to grow in the future, as you have this last
year, the group work will prove more and more fruitful, an addition to the private work that is one
of the greatest assets you will not want to miss under any circumstances. The progress of the
various groups depends primarily on the individual's participation and willingness to penetrate the
surface defenses; on his willingness to let go of resistance; on his willingness to see the truth within;
on his willingness to dispense with justification, moralizing, rationalizing, intellectualizing. All that
you know. You have made tentative beginnings in this respect, in some instances very good
progress in this particular area. But as yet, there are many guards and much pride that prevents the
true opening of the channels that will yield the results it ultimately will. Too often you do not see
yourself. You do not want to expose yourself. This will undoubtedly improve, as your sincere will
does not falter; as you face these emotions within, in the candor I so much advocate. So I wish to
remind you, once again, also as far as the group work is concerned, learn more and more to bring
out your feelings. Learn to observe your own reactions. Observe your tendency of always
explaining your reactions away. Observe your subjectivity. And gradually you will come to the
point when you will be capable of expressing unreasonable, childish, imperfect emotions without
explanations. Then, and then only, can you begin to examine and understand them in their true
light. As long as you are ready with an explanation before you express them clearly, you cannot gain
the self-awareness you wish and which is so essential for your liberation. As you become aware of
your own defenses, you will learn not to strive away from it, but rather that of experiencing yourself,
in awareness, in your defensiveness. This then, is the right approach. This is more progress. In the
real sense, it is more enlightenment, it is more constructive, than trying to force yourself away from
something you cannot feel. I know, my friends, that I am being very repetitious. But it cannot be
emphasized enough. It is always forgotten, and needs constant reminding. This emotional
experience, being in what you feel, seeing it for what it means, this is the way of the group work,
also. This will then make a more fruitful interrelationship. It will contribute more to your individual
progress than anything you are capable of imagining at this time.
You have made a very good beginning in this direction. The first year of this particular group
work has gone better than expected. But that does not mean that you cannot do so much more. In
the following year, so much more benefit will derive for each of you who is sincere in this endeavor.
More interaction will be established from one soul to another, not from one intellect to another.
QUESTION: Could I ask you a question about man's development, as you talked about it
last time, and this time, too? It seems to me that our Western culture suffers from holding onto the
intellect and to the will, instead of approaching the special state of being. And, if that is so, what can
we do to counteract this tendency, in education, say, or in cultural life?
ANSWER: It is quite true that this is a general tendency, of course, as you all know. What
you can do? There is only one answer. At the risk of being again repetitious, I have to say once
more, there is no other way than cultivating self-awareness in the way you are doing. The more you
mature emotionally, the more awareness do you gain, the more this will emanate from you and, in
some way it will find expression, spontaneously, creatively, in your activities, whatever they are.
Whether you are a doctor, a teacher, or a shoemaker, makes no difference. You will influence your
surroundings, not so much by what you say or preach, but by your mere being, by your emanations.
Each individual going through such a path of self-finding, is bound to contribute to this great
change. The world cannot be changed unless a sufficient number of people are doing just what you
are doing. But every single human being helps toward that end. No one's efforts at self-honesty are
beneficial only for himself. Incidentally, this change has begun to take place already, here and there.
A group like yours contributes more than vast masses of people who preach doctrines, who force
away the emotions, who feel they must be good, while their true state of being is removed from such
goodness. A group of only five people, who face reality as it happens to be now, contributes more
to the entire world, not only to your earth sphere, but to all spheres, than the best intended
teachings and ideals that reach merely the surface intellect.
QUESTION: When we are angered or disturbed by the perversity, selfishness or cynicism of
others, or disturbed by corruption in high places, is this a fault? Does the light on the path make us
blind to the wrongs in the social organism of which we are all members? What should be our
attitude towards social problems?
ANSWER: If you consider your question, you will discover the emotional dependency and
moralizing character underlying it. Moralizing with yourself (what should be our attitude? Is it a
fault?), and moralizing with others. As I often say, you cannot find any true answer as long as the
underlying attitude is thus colored. No, you certainly need not be blind because you are on a path of
self-finding. You cannot be. Condoning and blindness to what exists is not the answer. The
answer is not a lazy acceptance of evil. But neither is the answer a rebellion against evil. You
cannot transform it when you rebel. You can, at best, make certain superficial reforms that have no
solid ground and are therefore bound to end in an equally wrong opposite -- and so become evil all
over again.
The productive approach would be, after discovering and removing the self-moralizing
attitude, to ask yourself, "is my anger truly an objective one? Or am I involved?" You will then
perceive the difference between objective and subjective anger. The former does not have an
urgency, it is detached, it does not make you restless and frustrated. Whenever you feel frustrated
and the anger personally hurts, it always hides something that you have not faced in yourself. This
lack of peace, this disturbance, is always a sign of subjective anger, which is a sign of not being aware
of what is really going on in you.
I have said it so very often, and have to repeat it again, no collective means can ever, ever
really, change the world, unless it is sustained by inner growth and transformation which is the
product of self-awareness. As long as man does not face his own injustice, greed, selfishness, one-
sidedness, pride, fears, all on a deeply hidden psychological level, these same attitudes are bound to
continue in the world, regardless of what social reforms are instituted. Social reforms are the
product of man, they are maintained by man. If man, generally, hides within, what outwardly he
wants to disappear, it is a discrepancy that can have no hope of finding realization. But this does
not mean one should not do what one can in order to eliminate wrong or evil. Only, you should
understand what is really necessary in order to change the world. As long as you are at war with
yourself, outer war is a result. As long as you are inwardly greedy and selfish and do not even know
it, outer greed and selfishness cannot be successfully eliminated. If you truly want to contribute to
the good of general conditions, apart from whatever you may be able to do in deeds, try to find
these similar conditions within yourself that you so strenuously object to outwardly. They may exist
in a much more subtle or modified form, but essentially they must be there. When you become
aware of them, know that you, and millions of others like you, are responsible for the ills of the
world. No guilt, no self-flagellation, only the recognition of a fact. Outer reforms, regardless how
efficient, will work lastingly only when more people do what I advise you, my friends, to do. When
you look at history, you will see that this is so. Reforms and general improvements exist in a
genuine and lasting way exactly to the degree that man has become more self-responsible, more
aware of himself, more mature. But wherever social reforms were way ahead of man's inner growth,
they may have a temporary effect, only to evaporate, or to end up in an equally evil extreme on the
other side of the scale. The world, in general, is nothing more than the outcropping of the
individuals, of their inner state, their present inner truth. I said this already years ago. Perhaps, now,
you will be better able to verify it. Such an imbalance of going from one extreme to the other, in the
attempt to eliminate an evil, is exactly what happens in the individual soul. When man attempts to
change superficially, he swings from one extreme to another. When he adopts one rule, good as it
may be, in exchange for another he does not like in himself, he is not profound. He has not
attempted to investigate what he really feels. This, as you encounter so often in this work, is what
you experience in the world at large.
My dearest friends, I leave you for but a short time. That does not mean that the continued
process of inner growth need be halted. It depends on you how you approach yourself, your daily
experiences, reactions, feelings. Keep up this self-observation, no matter what. Do not stop it, do
not run away from yourself. Bring peace into your own heart by looking at yourself as you are now.
There is no other real way of gaining peace, but there are many false, illusory ways. Most of you
have experienced this, at least occasionally. Your lack of peace is always due to somewhere not
wanting to face yourself. Remember this, and as you do, and more and more dissolve your pride,
pretense and resistance, you will perceive what it means to be in reality, to be in the state of being in
awareness. Even the unpleasant reality of the moment, the product of your conflicts and
confusions, if you truly face and live it, instead of running from it, even that reality is peaceful -- it is
God. Only that can be the door to an eventually greater Reality.
With this, I bless each and every one of you, each and every one of your dear ones. Try to
feel the love, the warmth and the truth that comes from the world of being; that can be yours for the
asking. You have a key now. Use it! Be in peace, be in God!