The Text - Section 178
178. THE UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLE OF GROWTH DYNAMICS
Greetings and blessings for every individual who searches and struggles for inner unity.
Everyone here is motivated by this inner urge, which is a pull of the life force.
The life force contains the urge that motivates people to go in certain directions. They may be
unaware of the deep meaning of this inner urge, or even that it exists. Many people experience a
vague inner drive but do not know its meaning. Everyone can consciously experience this urgency
at one time or another. Those who find their way toward a committed path such as this, in which
they try to resolve their deepest problems and realize their dormant potentials, have made the urge
quite conscious. Others are still grappling with the vagueness of the urge without really knowing
what their inner unrest signifies. Those who steadily disregard the clamoring of their inner voice
may confront deep crises in their lives. Many crises can be properly understood only when this deep
urge is recognized.
Tonight's lecture is a sequel to all the lectures I gave this year and can be fully understood only
in that context. It will deal with the topic of dynamic growth, the spontaneous unification inherent
in the process of growth. All life is to some degree a growth process, either quite deliberate and
committed or haphazard and unconscious, obstructed by blind opposing forces that pull toward a
state of stagnation.
First let us clarify the real meaning of growth. Usually people do not think profoundly
enough when they speak of growth, life, death, love and pleasure. Growth is not merely an
organism becoming bigger. It is an expansion, but in a particular sense. It implies mastering
something that one was unable to master before. You convert obstruction -- whether inside the self
or in your surroundings -- into a part of the realm of the self.
When you do not master an obstruction, a disunity is present, either within the self or between
the self and the outside world. Growth unifies that disunity. Growth always implies bridging a
chasm, resolving a real or apparent contradiction. This applies to all levels of being. When an infant
learns to walk, it experiences a disunity between its physical powers, the laws of gravity, and the
world around it. Once the child learns to walk the disunity disappears. What was a disparity
becomes an extended field of operation. Its realm has been increased; it now possesses a piece of
the world it has not possessed before. Growth brings expansion, increased capabilities, more power
and unity where there was limitation and disunity. Not learning to walk creates unhappiness,
weakness, pain and limitation, which are all overcome when the ability to walk is acquired.
Each phase of a human being's life signifies venturing into a territory that has not been
mastered before. The same applies to an entity's overall evolution from one incarnation to another
and later on to further stages of being and creating. At first the inability is taken for granted and not
even recognized as a problem. Then it is recognized as an obstacle that could be overcome. Finally
the entity confronts the block and makes an effort to overcome it. This is the only way to master
new faculties.
Psychological conflicts follow the same pattern. Before a particular difficulty has been
recognized you experience an unconscious helplessness and a sense of limitation. Then you become
aware of the problem. When you decide to do something about it you begin a path of struggle, of
searching, of testing your faculties. Eventually you attain a new unity that expands your power over
life. You convert territory that was alien and inaccessible into familiar ground on which you feel at
ease with yourself and life. You gain a new security and peace. This is growth.
All growth must combine the voluntary and involuntary functions. Growth cannot proceed
harmoniously if the emphasis is not balanced. The result appears effortlessly, a manifestation of
involuntary faculties responding to voluntary ones. The voluntary faculties require effort. You must
persist, groping and searching for new approaches. This calls for self-testing, for removing defenses
and vanity, for courage and truthfulness with the self.
You cannot discover a new dimension of life without birth pains, for each new unification is a
spiritual rebirth. Being reborn is always a rediscovery of the self in a new form, with more faculties
revealed and activated.
The actual unification happens involuntarily, as if it had nothing to do with the previous
efforts. This can be so deceptive that people believe it would have happened anyway, without all the
effort. Conversely, when the result is expected as a direct manifestation of your work, the
expectation becomes frustrating and discouraging. It is important, my friends, to be aware of these
two sides of the growth process. The balance of conscious effort and relaxation applies to the
smallest details as well as to the most significant aspects of your spiritual development. It applies to
meditation, which must combine the two sides, as well as to the acquisition of any new skill. You
need to create a right attitude toward the voluntary and involuntary functions, balancing poised
effort and discipline with relaxation. Each step of growth, each victory over conflict, confusion,
ignorance and helplessness, represent a new skill and mastery over life, a new unification -- first of
all within the person, and consequently between the person and life.
I have spoken frequently about the dualistic state of your consciousness, as opposed to the
oneness of ultimate reality. All of life is a progression to attain further unity. Each step toward
unity creates a new safety zone, a new home base, so to speak. As growth continues, you discover
further disunities within you. Again you venture forth into new territory, struggling to unify the
discovered disunity. And so it goes on until total unity is found.
It may appear safer to remain in the old disunity than to venture forth into a new unity
because of the effort that is necessary. If the effort is perceived as something that you should not
have to make, it seems malignant and undesirable. If you perceive it as a movement that is part of
life, you will find it challenging and pleasurable. Within this attitude you will find the right
distribution of effort and effortlessness, the right balance of voluntary and involuntary faculties.
When the involuntary faculties finally manifest, the new skill becomes an effortless, natural
part of you. On the physical level you experience the voluntary hard labor giving way to naturalness
when the skill suddenly becomes second nature.
On the mental level, when you first deal with a specific negativity, you cannot change it simply
by wanting to. Instead you must use your will to grope for a deeper understanding of the problem,
seeing its origin and its effects, facing the results and really wanting to change. All this is volitional.
Then suddenly you become aware of a new constructive, positive way of reaction. This is
spontaneous unification. When it occurs you no longer need to put laborious effort into the new
way.
While you are torn by the apparent futility of equally undesirable alternatives which make life
itself futile, you are in a state of utter disunity, of duality. Your assumption that there is no way out
is a denial of the growth process that life always is. Your willingness to find a solution is a
commitment to find a new mastery over present helplessness and constriction, a commitment to life
itself. The first step is always the most difficult. You do not even know what your specific disunity
is. Actually, there are many. It is crucial to consolidate your voluntary faculties to identify and
confront the specific disunity of the moment. The inner commitment toward overcoming that
disunity is then the task of the volitional faculties. Only after this step does an alternative process
develop. The involuntary yields recognitions, inspiration, guidance and revelation until the puzzle
fits together. In this alternation every new insight requires new commitment to search until the next
organic step reveals itself. So it goes on. This is a description of the path of dynamic growth.
Use your voluntary faculties to make room in your mind for a particular unity where there is
now disunity. Affirm that the unity which still eludes you can be attained, and that you will attain it.
What you invest will determine the outcome. Humans often desire a change but avoid taking some
of the more difficult steps out of a reluctance to face apparent unpleasantness. The self does not
wish to expose its vanity, its cherished prejudices and illusions. Yet your total personality must
cooperate and invest in stirring up your areas of stagnation if spontaneous unification is to occur.
Where emotional, psychological and spiritual growth is concerned, the investment of the mind and
will, of the emotions and attitudes corresponds to sustained practice in building new physical or
mental skills.
The first appearance of effortless, spontaneous unification will be incomplete. It will
disappear because the unification is not yet total. More voluntary effort must follow suit, new
material must be unearthed, until the second, third or fourth manifestation of this specific
unification spontaneously reappears. Very gradually you incorporate the new skill into your
personality. The acquisition of a new mastery always means overcoming an imaginary rift that you
experience as a painful chasm. You must always bridge an illusory duality to reach your natural and
real state. Disunity is always painful. Pleasure always depends on unity. Expansion into life is a
constant forward movement that turns an alien and apparently hostile world into your home. It is
exceedingly important to understand all this, my friends.
To recapitulate, effortless and spontaneous unification is the result of effort and struggle. It
requires a poised and relaxed forward movement into life. The effort must be disciplined and
relaxed rather than tense and rigid. When you feel that relaxed effort is impossible, search for
unconscious reluctance to move forward. Relaxed movement is pleasurable in itself, while rigid,
reluctant movement is painful. Rather than denying the hidden reluctance, focus on it. Relaxed and
determined movement into life is pleasurable in itself, however difficult and challenging. Each
completed unification brings further pleasure. Further pleasure leads to more unification. This
benign circle is the stream of life. Unification brings pleasure when it is no longer considered
something that should already be over with. Ultimately you and the whole cosmos will be one.
Constriction and stagnation connote that you are content with a very limited state. Therefore,
dynamic growth is also mastery over misconceptions. Misconceptions always lead to more disunity.
They stem from an erroneous attempt to find unity. Neurosis is in itself an erroneous attempt to
find health and well-being. It makes, in its own blind way, peace with something traumatic and
painful. On your path you have found misconceptions that equate love with pain and danger,
pleasure with humiliation and shame, self-assertion with unacceptable aggression. These are typical
examples of false unifications that must first be disunited in order to find harmony, fullness and real
unification. As a result of such misconceptions, all forward movement appears dangerous. The
stagnating, restricting, limiting life in which one dares not venture forth seems to give safety.
Every one of my friends who is already involved in this pathwork has gone through and
confronted such hidden and irrational feelings. If you really question them with an open mind and
in a very simple fashion you will find that resistance to growth is fear. Your insistence on remaining
as you are sacrifices happiness, pleasure, wholeness, love and expansion, yet it appears to make you
safe. Seeking a tiny point of security within a narrow circumference is an abdication of your
universal destiny. It denies pleasure, wasting the most valuable spiritual power you possess. Once
you choose this power freely, growth becomes adventure and joy.
Many people increase their physical and mental skills. This is also a valuable movement
toward life that represents mastery over disunity. The steps leading to this new mastery are
essentially the same as the ones you use to discover and enlarge the inner universe. One deals with
outer and often mechanical aspects of living while the other represents one's innermost self. When
the outer serves as a mere substitute for the inner enlargement of life, it is still preferable to total
stagnation. Human beings go through several stages in their overall evolution. When they are more
primitive, they must deal with the outer levels. Later their task lies in the unification of the inner
world.
Real spiritual growth and mastery on the inner level, spontaneous unification of emotional,
psychological, and therefore spiritual rifts, hold the inner balance and harmony out of which grow
intuitive guidance and knowledge toward true outer unifications. Physical and mental skills have
their value, but they miss the mark as a substitute for inner growth. When inner growth is the center
of one's being, everything else falls into place without the pendulum swinging from one extreme to
the other. Inessential goals fall away.
Ignoring cosmic truth always creates disunity. It is every single entity's destiny to bridge
ignorance by struggling toward these unifications. The most difficult challenges are on the most
hidden emotional levels, since emotions cannot be directly willed and are never quite conscious.
You must identify the disunity before the work of unification can begin.
Trust in the involuntary functions can be gained only slowly, but it is essential. Give yourself
the opportunity to experience it. All your effort will be wasted if you do not allow the involuntary
functions to manifest. Make room for them in your consciousness and pay attention to them in a
relaxed and trusting way. This is a vital part of the growth process.
Once you realize that the result of your efforts will be unexpected and spontaneous rather
than direct, then harmony between the voluntary and involuntary faculties will establish itself. By
harmony I do not mean that the effort is equal in measure. Months of groping with the voluntary
processes of mind and will may spontaneously bring forth an inner feeling that springs up in the
fraction of a moment when you least expect it. It does not last long but its depth and intensity and
significance are so profound that you cannot measure them in terms of your volitional efforts.
Harmony between the voluntary and involuntary faculties exists primarily in making room for both
in your attitude. Wait with an inner readiness. It requires your intuitive groping to combine and
alternate these two functions.
The final step in giving up negativity, as I have suggested, is to want to have the positive
attitude as opposed to the negative one, to give up your fear of and resistance to pleasure, and give
up the roles and pretenses that stand in the way. The wanting must be affirmed in calm trust and
firm conviction. The voluntary must make room for the involuntary until the spontaneous
unification occurs. You will let it happen, wanting it in a relaxed and determined way. This is the
marriage of the voluntary and the involuntary, the active and the passive principles.
If you see growth in this light you will eliminate a lot of fear and hopelessness and wasteful
effort. You will become more patient with the time it takes.
The sequence of the lectures I have given this year began with the creative process itself, with
every human's creation of positive or negative life circumstances through beliefs, thoughts, feelings
and will. I have shown that living inevitably means creating. The person who ventures forth into
life in the spirit of overcoming disunity creates an altogether different life than one who is content
within narrow confines. I also discussed how negativity creates misery and yet how fascination with
the creative process makes it seem difficult to abandon negativity. Yet the creation of negativity and
a narrowly confined life leads to disunity rather than unity, pain rather than pleasure.
Unification depends on your inner commitment to create an expanded, unified life of bliss
and pleasure rather than one of narrowness, disunity and pain. Pleasure is possible only in a unified,
expanded, ever-enlarging state. The voluntary and involuntary functions seem separate only when
you split them in your consciousness. In your present state of awareness in your limited human
frame, you seem to be dealing with two entirely different faculties and two entirely different
"brains": the inner and the outer, the conscious and the unconscious, the directly available and the
indirectly available. By taking down your self-imposed fences you make more and more of the
universe your own, thereby fulfilling your destiny.
You can create spontaneous unification out of disunity. Out of a highly differentiated
disunity, you can work toward an undifferentiated unity. It is a sin against life to not grow. You are
an expression of the divine. You are God. It is your birthright and your destiny to fulfill yourself by
making more and greater unifications, to expand your spiritual skills so that you can do away with
disunity and create bliss by spreading unity.
As your life expands, you become the master where you are now weak and dependent. You
become blissful where you are now in pain, in truth where you are now in error. Commit yourself to
pleasure, growth, unification and expansion, to that which is truth, to that which is love. May you
make your choice over and over again. Be the Gods you truly are.