The Text - Section 137
137. BALANCE OF INNER AND OUTER CONTROL
Greetings, my dearest friends. There is a great, warm current of strength and love gathered
here. This blessing is the result of your efforts, your growth, your struggle in the right direction.
Every one of you here has contributed to it -- as also have some of my friends who are not present
tonight.
With this lecture I shall try to help you a step further toward the goal. Now, what is the goal?
Spiritual literature and religious teachings, in all cultures and in all places, in one form or another,
century after century, always speak about "the Fall of the Angels," or "the fall from grace." What
does this mean? Humankind usually interprets "the Fall" in a literal way, as an event in time and
space, as something that happened once upon a time in a certain place. Through their actions, some
individuals were displaced from one spot to another -- or sent down to another geographical sphere.
This, of course, is a gross misunderstanding, for what is meant by the story, and what seems so hard
for people to understand, is nothing more and nothing less than a change in one's state of mind. To
be separated from God is a state of mind, or a state of consciousness. And to return to God, to
one's Creator, is again a state of consciousness.
After you have reached a certain stage on your path of development, you discover within
yourself a power and intelligence other than your usual conscious mind, which feels as though it
were a separate being. A different, vaster kind of being seems to be dwelling within. It is as though
two brains existed -- the second, recently discovered, being much wiser in its guidance than the old
one. It makes you experience yourself in a much more satisfying way.
Of course, this is an illusion, because there are not two separate entities, but at this point you
have taken the first step toward your reunification with the Divine. You are no longer completely
separated from it. You are able to be activated and moved by it. It is all one consciousness, though
still separated or divided. This separation constitutes what in religion is referred to as the "Fall of
the Angels." In psychology, a different terminology is used to describe the identical process.
Integration means nothing other than reunification with the Divine. Psychology also acknowledges
that the integrated, healthy person functions from the center of his or her being.
The separation from the center is the wall of not knowing that this inner center of wisdom,
love and power exists. You therefore do not seek contact with it, hence more confusion, error and
ignorance arise. The less aware you are of this inner center, the greater your separation from it will
be.
When, due to increased self-awareness, parts of the wall begin to crumble while other parts
still persist, occasional contact with the inner center gives the appearance that two minds, two
beings, are present. When parts of the inner self come forth, carrying infinite possibilities for bliss,
for good, for limitless expansion, they seem to be totally unconnected with the familiar personality.
This inner center is the divine consciousness. It permeates the entire universe, it comprises
all. Hence, the inner center of each human being is one with the inner center of every other human
being. All are filled with the living unity that knows no conflict and no limitation. The creative
power at work in any life process is all one and the same. The separation of matter and
consciousness is illusion. This illusion is the real meaning of what religion refers to as separation
from God, or the "Fall of the Angels." The state of bliss that results from working oneself back to
integration and contact with the inner center is the goal not only of this path but, on an unconscious
level, of every living being.
The power contained in the nucleus of your being is so vast that you cannot conceive of it, my
friends. Only gradually can you test it and see it at work -- and marvel at it. You will see it, first in
smaller ways, which nevertheless appear almost miraculous. As you perceive more and extend your
concepts and your vision, you will see it work in many wonderful ways. If you choose to call this
power into being, you will find it to be so vast that you cannot conceive of having it, or being it or
being activated by it. It is as simple as that.
At the moment, most of you are still separated from this power for you do not really believe
that you have all you need to expand, to be in harmony, in the dynamic, creative life process in
which you give and receive all that you can possibly dream of.
Not being aware of the life-center is directly connected with not being aware of the negative
causes that you set in motion. The pathwork must primarily be concerned with uncovering the
images, the wrong concepts, the destructive emotions and behavior patterns. To the extent that
these are changed, awareness of the Divine in you will follow.
The negative part of the personality can also appear as a separate, foreign consciousness
dwelling within. In the first attempts to bring hitherto unconscious destructive material to the
surface, the individual often feels as though an indwelling destructive entity, over which there is no
control, were at work. You first ascribe negative events to fate, and you fear the world and life.
Then, when you uncover your unconscious destructiveness, you begin to fear your own
unconscious, over which you seem to have no control. Here, too, you feel as though two separate
entities were involved: your familiar conscious self, with its aims and thoughts, and the newly
discovered unconscious, with its entirely opposite negative aims and thoughts. As you proceed in
the work you gradually eliminate the separating factors. You begin to own up to and feel
responsible for this indwelling "entity." You connect with it and can identify with it. Hence you can
take responsibility for it and become one with it. Its workings are no longer separated from your
conscious will. Thus your ego integrates with a part of yourself that has led you into blind alleys.
But now the wiser ego can determine the way. The struggle between the educated ego and the
indwelling destructive element ceases as soon as the outer ego is able to recognize its oneness with
the destructive element.
The process is identical when you meet the divine center. You are at first as unaware of it as
you are of the destructive processes. As the mind questions its previous perception and begins to
visualize new possibilities, what was buried comes to the fore. This process applies to the
destructive as well as to the most constructive and creative elements in you. The manifestations of
both at first seem disconnected from the self. Only when you accept that they, too, are part of the
self can the self own up to them and integrate them. In this process the negative dissolves, and the
Divine activates and moves the conscious ego more and more, until the ego becomes one with it.
Consider any momentary undesirable mood or situation you seem unable to change.
Somewhere in you there must be a point where you have deliberately produced the undesirable
element, otherwise you would not be in this situation. As long as you ignore the connection
between your wanting the result you now suffer from and experiencing this result, you must be
frantic and frightened. You do your best not to admit that this is a self-induced process, however;
you prefer to attribute it to unkind fate. You struggle against seeing your own involvement. But
once you want to see the connection, you will see it. Then you will be free, even while you are still
imperfect. Where you have made this recognition you will no longer feel helpless and controlled by
powers you cannot understand. If you ignore your part in creating your present predicament and
deny that you continue to activate it, you truly defeat yourself. You must recognize this fact and
thus eliminate your ignorance.
The moment you consider that whatever you experience is a result of some cause you have set
in motion, the moment you say "I must somehow have produced it, I want to see where and how"
and then let go and let your positive inner powers produce the answers, you must inevitably come
into possession of this knowledge. In that moment, you will experience the first inkling of peace
and of a state of fearlessness, because you are, within yourself, contemplating your own cause and
effect. I have discussed this in different contexts before. I repeat it because a number of my friends
need it badly. The truth is easily forgotten when it has not become second nature in the process of
growing. It is also necessary to outline again the parallel between the negative and positive inner
processes. The more aware you are of both possibilities within, the more you can integrate and
identify with both, so that the negative dissolves and the positive takes over.
You cannot gain awareness of either unless you contemplate the cause and effect and cultivate
it with your conscious ego. As you own up to the negative aspects in you, you will be capable of
claiming for yourself the greatest power there is. As you take ownership and responsibility for the
destructive in you, it no longer rules you, and you become capable of taking responsibility for the
best in creation -- the divine in you. When you are no longer ruled by the destructive because you
accept it as part of you and thus establish self-determination, the vastest universal force will
empower and activate you to accomplish hitherto undreamed-of results. As you see how the
destructive elements in you work and what motivates them, they will cease to frighten you, for you
will be able to determine their course. At the same time you will no longer be frightened by the
greatest positive power dwelling within you. You will be able to use it by building molds for it with
your conscious mind. As long as you fear the destructive in you, you must also fear the divine in
you. You will cease to fear the destructive only if and when you are willing to face it squarely.
Becoming integrated with your divine center does not happen all at once. As you know, these
processes are gradual. In some areas you may already be quite free and may have established a direct
contact with the center of the inner self, which brings the most favorable consequences in inner and
outer life experience. Other areas may still be walled in by lack of awareness. In those areas you
may still not see where and how you activate the negative processes, and therefore you cannot
deliberately activate the positive ones. Your will is blocked and paralyzed. You may be perfectly
able to communicate with your inner nucleus and be guided and moved by it in wonderful ways in
all areas where you have gained freedom through awareness, but in areas of unawareness you are
incapacitated from doing so. Hence, in these areas you are separated from knowing what
destructive elements are at work as well as from the power that can help you grow out of this
disconnection. For such situations this lecture will be helpful.
You will learn to understand how these laws work and how you can use the powers of your
mind and will. As you understand their potency you will no longer feel a separation between your
conscious intelligence and will, which form the active outer mind and personality, and that inner,
vast divine self, the center of your inner being, which is at the same time the center of the universe.
As long as you are separated from the center you must be weak and lost. Your separated
brain and personality cannot do what can be accomplished solely in cooperation with the inner
center. The outer personality levels serve one purpose: to reach the inner being, to know the power
of the inner being, to conceive of the beauty and the possibilities of the inner being, to establish a
deliberate contact with the inner center. The outer self has to allow itself to be guided, moved and
filled with what comes forth from the inner self. When the outer personality deliberately makes
room for it, the inner self will spontaneously manifest. In this process the outer personality will
eventually integrate with the inner nucleus.
When your outer self tries to accomplish that which the inner being alone is capable of doing,
you cannot succeed. You must run into confusion and difficulties, fear and pain. You inevitably
struggle in a most frustrating way. In its oblivion to the inner core, the outer self will try as hard as it
can to control what it cannot control. This struggle causes more tension, anxiety, sense of failure
and fear of defeat. But the exhaustion of this futile struggle, with all its senseless outer pressure, also
induces the personality to give up in areas where it is most necessary to persevere. For purposeful
activity the exact reverse is needed: Where the personality forces and pushes, letting go and giving
in to the superior force within the self is necessary. Where the personality gives up in a hopeless,
resigned way, without formulating thoughts that can activate the inner nucleus, you need to apply
effort and will. Unfortunately, too often the line of least resistance prevails in those thought
processes that indulge in negativity, while the outer will fights, struggles and presses for a desired
result that cannot come as long as the inner faculties are left out of commission. This tense and
anxious pushing occurs in a very subtle, yet very real way. It is directed toward others who, one
insists, have to behave in a certain way to enable the self to accomplish its goal. The pushing is also
directed toward the resisting self which cannot be forced to feel differently as long as the personality
ignores that definite "reasons" exist for its resistance.
As you progress on your path, you will observe this imbalance of control within your
personality. Then you can correct it. You will become acutely conscious of how you give in to the
most destructive thought patterns and emotions. You will see how in this respect you choose the
line of least resistance. Now that your thoughts are no longer hazy, you can evaluate their effect,
halt them, and choose a constructive pattern of thinking, feeling and willing. In the areas of your
momentary problem you will formulate the one constructive wish to reach inside and deliberately
activate the vaster divine self that dwells deep within you.
This is not difficult to do. It is, in fact, a much easier course than your present struggle. If
only you would say, "I, with my outer being, cannot solve this problem. But I know that I must be
in confusion and untruth because I am driven to think, feel and act in a way that produces
hopelessness, fear, frustration, feelings of doubt. I will now deliberately contact and activate the
most constructive center of my innermost being and let it move me into the thoughts and
realizations I need to have right now, into actions and feelings that are good and productive in this
moment." And then, let go and let be -- and let it move you! Let it think through you! Let it feel
through you! This is all you have to do. In this way, you activate that most potent live center. It
will guide you step by step.
The process I have just described is obviously not one-time and final, though at the beginning
you may feel that way. You may pull yourself together and follow this advice and, indeed,
experience the most favorable result. But then you may assume that this is it and no further steps
are needed. Of course this does not suffice, because you are still at the beginning of the process of
integration, which cannot exist without conscious effort. You must work for integration by the
same process of conceiving, formulating and activating the proper thoughts and will, of calling forth
the inner center. And you must repeat the process.
Each juncture presents different roadblocks to recognize and eliminate. Each time difficulties
and negative moods appear, you must halt the negativity that seems so easy to give in to and fight to
contact the inner being. This is not so hard. It really is rather easy. Each time you do it, you
remove another brick from that separating wall. More understanding, more life must result, so that
eventually you will feel this greater power moving you as your power. You will feel a oneness
between your outer self and the center you call into manifestation by a deliberate thought process.
It will no longer seem as though a second consciousness existed in you, or as though the
manifestations in your outer life had nothing to do with you. You will be connected both with the
negative causes you had not seen before and the positive powers you never dreamed possible. As a
result you will be filled with productive thoughts of truth, expansion and a wider vision. Each
situation will offer many possibilities for desirable solutions and for creative growth. You cannot
emerge from any difficulty if you trust the outer mind exclusively. Let the outer mind be filled with
the inner being. Only then can you find the way out of each specific problem.
The reestablishment of the correct balance of control can best be demonstrated with the
following example. Each human being needs and wants love. When a proper balance of control
exists in this respect, you give of yourself freely and fearlessly. At the same time, you free the loved
one. You do not force, you do not need to possess, you do not need to own, and you do not need
to exert a tight control and pressure. You therefore cannot be owned or controlled either. Hence,
you need not fear to love and to be loved. You must realize, in this frame of mind, that love is the
greatest freedom, that it must come to you, if you let it, and you do not have to fight or push for it.
You can let others be free because you know you receive what is yours. And love is yours because
you do not block it, fear or resist it. Love is a floating continuum that can never be taken away from
you, as long as you do not take it away from yourself. There is no end to it, as long as you do not
end it. It is utterly safe, there is no danger and no conflict attached to it. To give of yourself, to love
and to contribute, does not therefore imply a loss of control. You are in the true sense of the world
"self-determining." Control, in the best sense, is yours, without tightness or fear.
In distortion, in false control, you are again in an either/or situation. You are not loving and
you do not let go. You envisage either the false version of love or the false version of letting free.
To love in a distorted way is martyrdom, self-effacing submission, self-destruction for the sake of
the "loved one." To be loved, in the distorted version, is to possess and control the "loved one"
completely. Hence the fear that to love means possession, submission and martyrdom. You yearn
for love, yet you are afraid of it and you resist it. You rightfully doubt your power to own and
control another person to the extent you believe it necessary. Fear of being controlled -- to love --
and fear of not being able to control -- being loved -- lead to the false version of letting go, which is
withdrawal, indifference, non-involvement, non-commitment, numbness of feelings, separateness
and refusal to love.
When you are involved in this distortion, you cannot see that love and freedom are one. You
associate love with lack of freedom. Even if you know better intellectually, emotionally you cannot
experience the mutual freedom of true love.
The outer mind, intellect or will cannot resolve such a struggle. Activate the inner center by
expressing that you want to give of yourself freely, without fear of being controlled. Express your
desire to feel and experience the oneness of love and freedom. Request guidance to get you to this
stage by establishing the necessary sense of integrity and self-acceptance. You will discover that the
more you love, the more freedom and selfhood you have. If you express this possibility as a
formulated thought, and then activate the inner powers to help you experience it, you must emerge
from out of whatever problem you may find yourself in at the moment.
Your loneliness, your fears and conflicts come down to this: You do not do the only
purposeful thing, to activate the divine nucleus within yourself. It is the only real, relaxed and
productive control. For this inner center can indeed solve all problems, if only you let it. And you
let it only when you call upon it. It is the inner being, right in you, that knows and understands the
process of love without danger, of giving love and freedom and therefore of receiving love and
remaining free. Your outer self does not understand this. You cannot produce a state of mind that
you do not truly comprehend. Your inner self can help you. Call upon it.
Your inner nucleus, with its powers, can solve all your problems. Whatever your
misconceptions are, this in-dwelling consciousness can change them into truthful states of mind. It
is always ready to respond, but it must be specifically contacted. It will fill you with new,
stimulating, challenging thoughts, outlooks and ideas. It will lead you into feelings of truth and
beauty. Its guidance is invaluable. If you call upon it, it must respond, for this is the law. This is no
magic, it is not an inconceivably difficult feat that you have to master. You can do it right now, if
you so choose.
All real and constructive actions and experiences in life come forth from this inner center,
from your innermost self, your nucleus, the divine substance that is with you and in you at all times.
It cannot respond unless your outer mind, which is separated from the nucleus, deliberately
establishes contact with it.
The comprehension of this process and its follow-through is the greatest need for all my
friends today. No matter how much we have talked about it, you still forget it, overlook it, neglect
it, fail to act upon it. You give in to the negative, the destructive so easily! You entrust yourself so
readily to the outer mechanics where the negative processes sweep you into a vortex. You have to
rediscover again and again that you started the negative chain reaction deliberately at one point.
Then it got out of hand until it seemed that you could no longer control it. But you can -- by the
simple formulation of the right thought and desire. This is the only constant effort you need to go
through life, my friends. When you remain separated from the inner nucleus, you are needlessly
exhausted. You do not make that one effort to deliberately contact the inner power, to activate you
and to fill you with what you need most. When you do not make the effort, you use a hundred
times more energy than is necessary to make this specific choice. The wasted energy produces
failure and disappointment when you give in to the line of least resistance exactly in the area where
you need to persevere. You make a tremendous effort to escape the negativity you have produced
and chosen to submit to in the first place.
When you reverse this process and use your energy to halt destructive processes, when you
deliberately contact the powers within, your inner wisdom will activate you. This is a spontaneous
process that comes quite effortlessly. But first you must pull your thoughts together. You must
want to entrust the self to the divine power within. You must make that effort. You must clearly
formulate the desire to emerge from any negative inner or outer situation. As you do this, reach for
the inner power to lead the way, step by step.
Do not doubt the existence of your inner core, my friends. Even if some of you have not
sufficiently experienced it yet, even if you still doubt, follow this process anyway. You can always
express a clearly formulated desire for a constructive result. Even while you doubt the existence of
the immediately accessible greater wisdom and power within yourself, honestly test it by allowing it
to manifest "if it exists." If you merely argue against it, you are not honest in your doubt. You have
nothing to lose, for you have amply experienced that relying solely on your outer faculties was how
you got into the undesirable situation you find yourself in. Outer pressure -- tension and forcing
currents -- have not accomplished anything. So try it this way now. Entrust yourself to the inner
powers, which you do not have to pressure or direct, after you formulate the thoughts of
constructive will. You will see it work.
My friends, I have given you a key that could get you across a major threshold, if you only use
it. Use control the way I describe, instead of the way you did before. You may find areas where you
already do that. You will see that in those areas your life is most successful. Things go smoothly
and effortlessly. In fact, you no longer have to make an effort with your outer mind to formulate
constructive desire and to contact the inner being, for you have already established unity. You have
already come home. In those areas your consciousness is completely constructive in all of its
expressions, the inner and the outer facets of consciousness are united. There is no division. You
are in harmony, and there is no trace of destructive motivation in the remotest recesses of your
personality. What religion refers to as "salvation" -- and what psychology refers to as integration,
mental health and emotional maturity -- has taken place in these areas.
At the same time, other areas of your personality are still in the dark regions of conflict, error,
separation, doubt, ignorance and destructiveness. There, if you use the key I give you, you can
accelerate the process of development.
False control strengthens the wall of separation. Eliminate this wall by contacting deeper and
vaster faculties to activate you, even while the wall is still present. Make this your main concern, my
friends. Use this key wherever you see fit and wherever you feel you have the greatest need at any
given moment. The more resourceful you become in formulating your needs where you wish for
the inner center to guide and inspire you, to activate and fill you with truth, with constructive
outlooks and energies, the more perfect the manifestations of the center will become. It will
manifest in so many different ways that it will truly fill you with security and trust. Trust in yourself
and in the life process.
Ask this constructive power, this nucleus of perfection and beauty, of health and wisdom, to
give you the right ideas for removing the separating wall. Request it to inspire you with the most
effective meditation at any given moment, so that even your outer mind, which must take the first
step to establish the contact with the inner center, will be filled with the power and wisdom of your
core. Thus the interaction will work both ways. The more you cultivate this process, the safer you
will feel, and the more you will realize that no problem is without a solution. Salvation, my friends,
lies exclusively in reuniting outer mind with inner nucleus. Salvation is so near, with all its truth and
light and relief and happiness, but it just never occurs to you that it is within reach. Go into the
deep center of yourself and the answers will come forth. Enlightenment will follow and crises will
inevitably disappear.
An even greater force of love and power is now activated. Many of you here have not only
understood, but have gained an insight, or a glimpse, a hope and a light. This light shows that you
are not dependent on any outer power that has to be coerced, submitted to or cajoled. You have an
immediately available power inside you. It is so secure and wonderful. Some of you here have
perceived it and are on the verge of using it where you need it most. In doing so, you will soon be
out of your crisis or your painful confusion.
Be blessed, all of you. Be in peace. Be in God!