The Text - Section 239
239. CHRISTMAS LECTURE 1975
Greetings, my beloved ones. The blessings flow richly from your innermost being into the
outer world and from the outer world around you back into your innermost being. The birth of
Christ celebrates and symbolizes birth -- not only birth of an entity, of a human being, but birth of
new expressions, of new ways of expressing God in life, birth of new levels of consciousness. The
celebration of birth always follows the celebration of what you experience as death. It is an endless
chain, a continuum of consciousness, but each birth always gives rise to new joy. And death is
nothing else but another form of birth. It simply is the reverse side, symbolized in your religious
history by Easter, where resurrection follows death.
At one time in your history, birth had to be celebrated and symbolized by the appearance of a
human being. At that time in history human consciousness was still very much on an outer level.
Everything had to be outward. Now, there was a man of such purity that the Christ could manifest
in a totality seldom, if ever, experienced to that degree on the plane of matter.
It is a misunderstanding, however, to assume that the new coming of the Christ will take form
in the same manner. The Christ lives within everyone and within everything that breathes and has
consciousness. The Christ has been given birth by your work, my beloved friends. At each step of
your path where you find a misconception, a negativity, a block, a destructiveness, a problem, an
ignorance, you find a direct obstruction to the Christ within.
In the New Age the energy, the impetus, the power of the Christ has newly risen. It is not a
sentimental, meek force by any means. It has tremendous power. Its strength sweeps your earth
sphere, and those of you who are ready and have the courage, the inner courage, to make room for
joy, for pleasure, to make room for ecstasy, can experience the Christ within. You can give birth to
the Christ in you. At the same time this joy, this ecstasy, this total peace cannot be experienced
unless you purify your soul, for otherwise you become anxious and contracted in a negative way and
you reject the experience of joy and ecstasy. You cannot bear it. You create circumstances around
you that seem to justify misery and darkness, but you must have been courting that misery and
darkness. To the degree you refuse purification, you lack the courage to change into better ways,
into new ways, into the ways within you that come with a powerful sweep. They show you that life
is good.
You can afford generosity. You can afford to let others be their best. You can afford to give
up the little self-interests. You can afford to be in a state of love. You can afford to have the
courage and risk truth. You can afford humility, and the best will flow to you because you can
receive it.
Your offerings, symbolized in the ornaments on your tree, are very real. These offerings must
often be repeated, perhaps in your daily meditation, in your work sessions, in your group
experiences, in your interaction with one another. They can be renewed when one points out to
another what he or she observes, and when you listen more with an ear to what is the truth, rather
than with the attitude of being rejected, hurt and misjudged. When you listen for the truth you will
find the Christ within. You will experience so much more the greater life, the real life that you are a
part of, your greater being, your eternal reality. You will know there is nothing to fear and nothing
to mourn.
You, my friends, who are carriers and instruments in this important historical time at this
point of evolution, actually live simultaneously in two worlds. You start off believing only in this
material world that is very real to you. And it is indeed important, for it is your task to infuse the
world of matter with the greater spiritual reality in which you are much more firmly planted than you
realize. Only the separated consciousness manages not to know this, but as you progress on your
path, slowly but surely your mind enlarges, your mind makes a leap, and suddenly you find another
consciousness that is so much more real.
Perhaps you discover it first by creating a channel, as you call it. More and more of you begin
to create a channel and thus find out who you really are. What greater gift could you give to yourself
than making an effort to create a channel to that in you which is the Christ? The Christ in you is
your true identity, which knows all and fears nothing and lives forever. It is that you that is always
bathed in light, that is a light body, an energy body, truly indestructible.
Your consciousness has its feet planted in both these worlds, and that is your task -- to bring
the world that is the reality into the outer realms and so to infuse the light of the newly-born Christ
into matter. Christ is born every minute, every second, in time. Every new realization, every spurt
of new consciousness, every breath of love, every change of attitude gives birth to the Christ, until
all these many little lights that you light up in your own souls, spreading into others' souls, converge
and emerge into one huge sea of light, into a sea of love, into a sea of intense joyous awareness.
Your community grows in depth, in beauty, in truth, in love and in abundance, and so more
and more you make room for the Christ to guide you, to infuse you, to protect you, and to love you.
And you discover a new oneness with each other, although you had started off as strangers, with
walls around you. But these walls begin to crumble, and what was illusory separation turns out to be
what it always was and really is, a oneness of consciousness, a love between various aspects of God.
Each one of you is a beautiful aspect and individualization of God. As you learn to discover this,
you learn not to diminish your personality, but rather to make a bridge, a beautiful golden bridge
from one to the other. This message, my beloved ones, will bring you into your inner being and
perhaps create a greater awareness of it than you have ever had. You can translate these words into
your own new awareness of your true identity and discover your eternal reality, your eternal love and
beauty and safety, for you need not fear or guard against anyone or anything.
QUESTION: A group of us who work with children on the path as helpers have started what
we call a children's seminar where we discuss the problems of working with children. One of the
subjects of discussion for our next meeting is sexuality in children. I wondered if you could address
the children tonight on this subject and help us who work with the children.
ANSWER: It is of course a wonderful thing that the old taboos are removed. The old
restrictions that make sexuality a dirty, guilty secret no longer exist. It is important that a growing
human being knows and learns to accept this beautiful force, this divine force. At the same time it is
of equal importance to realize that the greater a force -- whether it be the force of sexuality or any
other spiritual force -- the more it requires a tremendous amount of maturity -- and young people
can be mature -- which means a sense of responsibility and self-discipline. Self-discipline here is not
meant in the sense of denial of pleasure, but in the sense of the constant process of self-purification,
of honesty, of truthfulness, of commitment to growing. If this deep sincere commitment to self-
discipline is lacking, the sexual force cannot be borne and will turn into destructiveness. It is
important to understand this. It is also important to realize that without a loving heart sexuality
becomes shallow, unfulfilling, empty, and it will always be guilt-producing, no matter what the
mores of your outer society may be. The guilt is then an inner guilt for wanting to grab a pleasure in
a selfish way without lovingness. Only when that attitude of lovingness is cultivated can
guiltlessness exist and therefore the full capacity to enjoy all the pleasures, including sexual pleasure.
QUESTION (Child): I want to know why I hurry through life.
ANSWER: You hurry through life because you want to shut out your anxieties and fears, my
son. And you need not do so. You have people around you who will help you to feel and explore
your anxieties. The anxiety you produce by denying your anxiety is much greater than the original
anxiety. So my suggestion is: when you wish to rush, hold still and allow yourself to feel your fears,
your worries, your negative thoughts, and express them to your helper. Discuss them in your
sessions and with your path friends who have more experience to guide you. This will free you of
the anxieties so that you can be calm. It is wonderful that you have asked this question.
QUESTION: My daughter is of very low energy level especially in the morning. It is very
difficult for her to move in the morning. I know there is a characterological reason for this, but I
would like to know if there is anything I can do about it and what is the deeper meaning of this
problem?
ANSWER: The meaning is that she uses a great deal of energy in an artificially stirred up way.
There is a lot of sexual energy there that she does not know how to handle and that creates an
overagitation that is then pushed into an overactivity that is not quite organic or harmonious, so that
then an imbalance is created and at certain times energy is lacking. Now, you may not be able to
immediately do something about this. At the same time your understanding, simply your awareness
of this, may already have an effect on another level of reality.
QUESTION: I find that I am filled with distrust and suspicion and fear and it manifests in
paralyzing my creativity and ability to work and to pull things together economically in my personal
life. I wonder if you could help me?
ANSWER: This first early stage on your path is the most difficult struggle. The further you
go the easier it becomes. But in this first phase you find it difficult to remove your mask self and
look at your lower self without losing sight that you also have a higher self. Yet this higher self must
not be confused with the mask self you have identified with for a long time. You confuse this mask
self with your higher self. To remove the mask self is complicated, for if you only focus on the
lower self you despair. At the same time, if you revert to your mask self, you are right back where
you started from. Your despair is that you cannot differentiate between the mask self and the real
higher self, and that you believe that if the mask self is taken from you, you are going to disintegrate
into an evil person. Now, the lower self is there; it is never beautiful; it cannot be; it is a distortion
of the beauty. However, you need to pray for the courage and the strength and the faith to go
through it so that you will find the real higher self, not the false version of it. In this initial struggle,
my suggestion is to make yourself available to all the help here for you; give yourself to every aspect
the pathwork offers you and you will come through. You need also the meditational practice to
make full commitment to the courage and the trust to give birth to the Christ in you as you go
through your lower self and do not evade it by wishful thinking. Your distrust is an outpicturing of
your inner lack of trust that there is a real higher self in you. Your distrust is that you know deep
down that your mask self is not genuine and you project that lack of genuineness on the world
outside. For it is a human being's weakness to always believe of others what they feel about
themselves. One cannot suppose that others are different. You can go over these hurdles, and if
you really want to, you can make it.
QUESTION: I feel also that I strongly mistrust my higher self and even to ask for help from
you is very difficult for me, because there is a part in me that persists in wanting to doubt and not
only to mistrust but really prove the unreality of beauty. And I want very much to take the step and
ask for your help.
ANSWER: Open your heart and the blessing that is here will flow into it. Speak the words,
"I want to give up my negation. I want to see the truth of the God within." Say these words. So it
will be, it must be, for that is your destiny, that is your true nature. The other is but a temporary bad
dream, but a dream with a deep purpose and meaning, a dream that is a task. Your earthly lives are
dreams that are tasks.
QUESTION: I would like to ask your guidance on our crisis intervention program. We have
tried to follow your suggestions as closely as possible. But as far as I am concerned there are two
kinds of attitudes: one that is overcautious and examines everything and kills spontaneity, and the
other, which gives in with a carelessness rather than a trust in the spontaneous growth. I find that
when we discuss individual cases we get caught in this type of dilemma.
ANSWER: I would make the following comments and suggestions: When the person who is
in crisis asks for the help, then the difficulties will be relatively small. When the person refuses to
acknowledge his state of crisis, it should not be forced upon him. At the same time it would be
important to tell the person, "We think you are in crisis. We are willing to give you help, if you wish
it. If you do not wish it, it is your responsibility," and let it go at that. As to the people who are
open for it and request it, you have so far always seen that it was very helpful and very effective.
The only thing I might suggest is that when you get entangled in these contradictory currents, you
immediately let go and flow together in your focusing into your inner channels, to the guidance of
the will of God, and it will come. You will find the right balance between giving, reaching out and
moving, between spontaneity and cautiousness. At times discuss the problems with the person who
is in need of help, without necessarily making it a helper session. And at other times simply be there
with love and prayer and companionship. No rules exist. Only the intuitive connection will be valid
and reliable. And that will come through prayer.
QUESTION: I find myself in a state of being very aware of how my judgments hurt me and
poison my life. Yet I can't seem to stop these judgments from coming up all the time. I'm
wondering if perhaps you could help me.
ANSWER: When you observe yourself in this state, just hold still and question yourself,
"What would happen if I gave up the judging?" Experiment with it. You will discover various
states. For example, a black hole of nothingness to begin with, which you fear, something you
cannot name or label or pin on anything. That is the creative emptiness you have to go into, out of
which the true feelings will emerge. Your negative feelings, fear on a more superficial level, are a
coverup of that empty black hole, or what seems to be such. You need to have the courage to go
there and learn to trust it, let yourself be with it, in order to get to know the real you.
My dearest friends, this is what I have to give you tonight. There will be many more
opportunities where you can all come and ask your questions and receive my help and guidance.
Let us close with a deep focusing all together on the One, the one power that motivates, the
one life that you are an expression of, the one love that colors everything into radiant beauty, the
one peace that surpasses all understanding, the one joy that vibrates and resonates through the pores
of the universe that you are a part of. Continue your tasks of self-purification, thus spreading this
great light and being carriers of the Christ. The love that envelops the universe, that permeates the
universe, can be borne by your purified souls. You become acclimatized to do so. Let this love
surge through you, and be one with it. Be your God. Be the Christ.