The Text - Section 46
46. AUTHORITY
Greetings in the name of God and Jesus Christ. I bring you blessings, my dearest friends.
Blessed is this hour.
I heartily welcome a few new friends, and I want to say to them that this path will bring many
solutions for every one of them -- solutions they may have consciously as well as unconsciously
sought for a long time.
Most people with even a little spiritual knowledge know in a general way what this life is all
about, what the reason is for this often painful existence on earth. You all know that life is to be
considered a school. You go from one incarnation to the other as you go from one class to the
next, making the grade or remaining where you are for a while, learning, developing, purifying. This
is the explanation for all life on earth. But to know this is not in itself sufficient to solve your
individual problems, my dear ones. You have to come to the point where you understand your own,
individual existence; where you understand the origin of the difficulties, the sorrows, the longings,
the unfulfillments of your life. And this you can find out if you learn to understand yourself.
This is neither as easy nor as difficult as it may seem. When I say "to understand yourself," I
do not mean your outer deeds, decisions, and reactions. These you can often explain and
rationalize, and therefore you believe that you know yourself. But is there any human being who is
not forced into reactions and decisions by his or her own compulsive and unconscious trends?
The particular path on which I lead you, my dear friends, will make you understand, step by
step, how and where your outer problems are connected to your inner conflicts, where you react
emotionally in a way that will attract certain happenings to you as inevitably as a magnet draws iron
to itself. These forces can be truly understood only when you uncover your emotions and find out
their deeper meaning. And with that knowledge you find the particular reason and purpose of your
life, your own individual existence. When this is discovered, an entity has reached an important
phase in his or her whole cycle of incarnations. That this knowledge can be brought forth is the
result of important efforts, which in turn are a sign that a soul has reached a significant milestone on
the upward road. At that point you step across the borderline between unconsciousness and
consciousness with a higher degree of awareness. The true understanding of one's present existence
marks, indeed, a major stepping stone of a soul's return journey to God.
The subject chosen for tonight is the question of authority and what this concept implies for
human beings. This is a much more important question than you now realize, my dear friends.
Authority is the very first conflict for a growing child when it reaches a certain degree of
consciousness. Elders, parents or parent-substitutes, and later on teachers represent authority for
the child. This authority denies the child many a wish fulfillment. Therefore, authority seems
hostile. No matter how much love, warmth and affection a child is given, no matter how necessary
the prohibition is at times, it represents the first hurdle of life. The child's attitude toward authority
is carried over into adult life. The often unconscious reactions to authority indicate whether this
hurdle has become a stepping stone toward maturity or not. If the grown person can adjust to
authority maturely and freely, another milestone has been reached in the overall development of the
soul. If, on the other hand, reaction toward authority remains childish because unconscious
compulsive attitudes prevail, then this milestone remains to be reached later. As long as this point in
development has not been reached, the imperfect soul would react negatively toward authority, even
if it were administered in a perfect way. But since people are imperfect, authority too is often
administered in a very imperfect way.
Thus a barrier is set up between the child and the authority, the grown-up. It is worse if love
is missing, or is not given in the way the child needs it. But even if love is there, the conflict still
exists. On the one hand, the child longs for the love of the parent, on the other, it resists and rebels
against being restricted by authority. The child feels the authority as a hostile force, an enemy that
locks it behind prison bars where it feels frustrated. There is often but one impatient longing in the
child: to become an adult so that what it erroneously believes to be restricting walls will cease to
exist. But when the child grows up, authority merely changes: instead of parents and teachers,
authority is now represented by society, government, law-enforcing institutions, an employer, or
other powerful people he or she may be dependent upon.
Unconsciously, your old feelings are carried over from childhood, and authority now restricts
you as an adult. The same conflicts re-emerge in different ways: as a child you were torn between
the desire to be loved and accepted, therefore to rebel against authority was impossible -- or so you
believed. As an adult you still suffer from the same basic conflict: on the one hand, openly rebelling
against the restrictions; on the other, fearing the stigma of being ostracized, despised, of not
belonging.
This conflict can only be resolved if the unconscious emotions in this respect are recognized
and translated into clear and concise thoughts and words. It will take time, but it is feasible. The
usual solutions devised by the unconscious are often faulty. I will help you and give some pointers
how to recognize your own particular way of reacting toward authority.
Broadly speaking, you react to authority in one of two ways -- all human beings do. There are
two basic categories, with many subdivisions -- and often the two groups intermingle and are
represented in one and the same human being. At one time one reaction may be predominant, at
another, the opposite extreme, or a variation of it, may predominate. It is then important to find out
when one reaction is stronger and when the other, and why. You can and should retrace all this to
childhood feelings and reactions to your early environment. Only then can you find the pattern-like
later repetition of your early behavior and reactions, and only in that light will you be able to
understand your present reactions.
Let us examine these two basic categories separately for the moment. It will be easier this
way, but please realize that only in rare cases will you find such a strong predominance of one trend
in a person. There is always a mixture.
First, let us look at those who rebel and revolt outwardly against authority. They feel authority
as an enemy because many desires that were neither bad nor in any way harmful -- in childhood as
well as later -- were forbidden by some authority. They know, or think, that there is nothing wrong
with what they want. Yet, authority hinders them, and they often feel that the authority is not only
unjust, but generally harmful, narrow-minded and unconstructive.
Now, if the person happens to have an extroverted outgoing nature, combined with a certain
courage, the rebellion will take a form in which he or she openly fights and resists. This can take
place from its mildest form of personal and private attitudes, spanning the whole scale, up to overt
social rebellion, through affiliation with minority parties, anarchist groups, or committing crime.
The strongest form of this attitude will be found in the person who commits antisocial acts. The
mildest form may not even be noticeable to others. Nevertheless, the same rebellious feelings do
exist there, too, in subtle ways, in the subconscious. These produce in the person's life just as
tangible outer results as the openly rebellious reactions.
In the other category are those who at one time have turned around, unconsciously thinking,
"If I become one with the authority, much as I may dislike that authority, I am safe." The belief in
this apparent safety leads the extreme type in this category to become a strict law-upholder -- not
necessarily always overtly, but perhaps in more subtle ways. The law upholders, in order to
safeguard their own position and to hide their own rebellion -- which deep down is quite similar to
the law-breakers' -- will become extremely opposed to the law-breaker. The more afraid they are of
their own tendencies of hidden rebellion against law and authority, the more will they find it
necessary to become very severe with the law-breaker in whom they see a part of themselves which
they do not want to expose. Exposing their true feelings was exactly what had seemed so risky and
dangerous that they decided to join the "enemy camp." The fear of their own exposure makes such
people doubly "good." Now, do not interpret the word "good" in its real sense. Put quotation
marks around it. Yet I do not mean that such a law-upholder cannot be also a really good person --
just as truly good as one with a tendency to hidden rebellion. Both react immaturely and ignorantly.
The inner motivations of the law-upholder described here are rooted in weakness and fear. And an
act or an attitude that comes from weakness and fear can never produce positive results. The fact
that this attitude was adopted unconsciously and in ignorance does not alter the results. To achieve
a positive outcome, a free, strong and independent choice has to be made.
As I often say, a person's unconscious affects the unconscious of another person infinitely
more strongly than a consciously recognized attitude, act or motive. In other words, if you are
driven into certain attitudes by your unrecognized fears, the effect will be infinitely stronger on other
people than when you do the same act, have the same motives and attitudes, but recognize your own
inner tendencies and currents. Thus, the law-upholder, motivated by the wrong protective measures
he or she has chosen, has a particularly bad effect on the law-breaker. The latter feels quite
differently and much less rebellious when he encounters a law-upholder who is governed by healthy,
conscious and mature motivations based on strength, not weakness. Please, my friends, do not take
the words "law-upholder" and "law-breaker" only in the crude and outer sense, referring to your
social laws. Think about them also in the psychological sense, the sense in which I speak.
The more hidden forces and reactions in the attitude of the law-upholder -- even though he or
she may consciously be in good faith -- the more adverse will be the effect on the law-breaker. The
true law, the divine law, is different from the weak and often doubly intolerant attitude of the law-
upholder who has chosen that position out of fear and in order to become free of the disadvantages
their own rebellion may have caused them.
There are many shades and variations in both these opposite types. The law-breaking
tendency must be combined with a current of courage. Otherwise, if certain other character traits
and outer circumstances combine, their rebellion will be dimmed to a dull defiance. As far as the
law-upholders are concerned, who lack the courage to give vent to their true feelings, their
predominant qualities and faults are different. For instance, there may be a combination of a strong
liking for order and organization and a wish for peace rather than for fighting, along with many
other tendencies, which will then determine a person's final attitude in this respect.
I hope none of you will misunderstand me and conclude that the law-breaking stance is the
desirable one, simply because the other wrong extreme is also imperfect. Such misunderstandings
occur so often in your world and become responsible for many wrong views, philosophies and
teachings. Whenever humanity finds out that an attitude or an opinion is wrong, it swings over to
the opposite extreme, which is equally wrong.
These two opposite extremes set a vicious circle in motion: the greater the rebellion on the
part of the law-breaker, the more severe and intolerant the law-upholder becomes, in order to
protect him- or herself from their own fear and rebellion. As a result, the rebellion and resistance in
the law-breaker must become all the stronger. The law-breaker is unaware of the fact that his or her
resistance is not turned against the law as such any longer, or against authority in its good and true
sense, but actually against the false note in the equally unaware law-upholder.
This is a very difficult subject because it is so very subtle in nature. Each one of you can find
out quite easily to which of these two basic categories you predominantly belong, in what aspect of
your life one or the other tendency may express itself more strongly. If you examine your life and
your inner reactions in this respect, it will not be difficult to find out which. Once you can give
yourself the answer, you can go a step further and think about the remedy. Also, consider the effect
your attitude has had on your life, your conflicts, as well as on your surroundings, including some of
your dear ones.
If you find yourself to be more of the kind who revolts and rebels against authority, then you
should meditate to gain the right concept. Strive for an awareness of the difference between real
authority in the divine sense and the imperfect human authority you have often encountered in your
life -- since humankind is imperfect. See that unconsciously you are under the impression that
authority means only the wrong kind. Once you can differentiate and recognize the two kinds --
even though you may have seldom, or never, encountered the true one -- your resistance against
authority will automatically diminish. And after such recognition, you will not mind half as much
the existence of the distorted and weak brother of the true authority and law that is your protection
as much as anyone else's. You will no longer feel that authority, as such, is an enemy force.
The knowledge of all this will help you build the proper concept in yourself -- and this will
enable you to sense the wrong kind without minding it, because you will now understand the
motivations and be able to sympathize. You will recognize that currents similar to your own prevail
in the "enemy" -- they just manifest differently. This process means raising one's consciousness.
You will then also recognize the necessity for law and order, and therefore for authority whose task
it is to uphold it. The fact that the manifestation of the ideal principle cannot exist on earth yet will
not confuse you any longer. The ideal, wise, good and understanding authority will remain a goal to
be attained. You will understand that even the imperfect form of authority, as it manifests on earth,
is necessary. In short, your rebellion will diminish to the extent you gain insight and understanding,
to the extent you understand why you have reacted so adversely to certain subtle manifestations of
the wrong kind of authority in the past.
Furthermore, you will become increasingly aware of the meaning of divine authority that
manifests also in some human beings who have reached a certain degree of development in this
respect. You will then learn not to react automatically against anyone or anything just because you
may feel that it represents authority. Unless you focus your attention on this whole problem, even if
the right kind should happen to come your way, you would not be in a position to feel and perceive
the difference, because your intuition is dulled by blind and rigid reaction and revolt. But when you
think about it in this way, you may find that perhaps a few times in your life you have met someone
who is very good and very wise and very kind, without being perfect in all ways, and who is,
therefore, an authority -- not necessarily on any particular subject, this is not what I mean at all --
but a person of authority, as such. If you observe, in retrospect, the emanation coming from such a
person, you will sense that the attitude of that person was different from the attitude of the law-
upholder who is motivated by weakness and fear.
As I said before, the vicious circle, when it goes on and on with a person who is not
developed spiritually, may lead to criminal acts -- and these have to be stopped, of course. How
many criminals commit crimes not for the sake of the crime nor for the "advantages" the crime may
bring. The deep, underlying root is rather the opposition to either the real or the imagined "goody-
goodyness" of the law-upholder. When people are that far in this vicious circle, they can no longer
recognize the true and right kind of authority, even if they should come across it. They will blindly
react without inner discrimination, because they have no concept that a difference exists. That is
why it is so important to gain the right concept by thinking this through.
Once you fully realize that there are two different kinds of authority -- the self-righteous kind
and the higher kind that is with you -- you will be able to divorce yourself from the generalization
that one automatically has to react against any authority. This healthy reasoning process will, among
other things, strengthen your power to discriminate in a very subtle way -- not intellectually, but
intuitively.
Now, as far as the other category is concerned, if you find out that you tend to be more on the
side of the law-upholder, my advice is this, my friends: think back to your childhood and find the
times when you revolted. When you search with this aim, you will sooner or later discover and
actually remember -- perhaps only as a vague feeling, but nevertheless remember -- just when you
decided to turn around and become one with what appeared to you the stronger force, the authority
as you perceived it. True, good motives are surely also contained in these inner decisions, but also
weak ones. And it is your task to find the latter too, and become aware of them. When you come
to this point, you will have made great progress on the road to self-understanding, on the way to
becoming yourself.
Then, when you seek further, you will also understand the reaction others have toward you.
The self-righteous severity that sometimes takes hold of you -- quite unconsciously and hidden --
toward a brother or sister who strictly belongs to the other kind, will lessen. Your reaction will
change in the measure you recognize the weak and fearful motives of your own law-upholding
tendency. Thus you will make an act of strength out of an act of weakness. You will remain on the
side of the law, of course, as you should -- the outer, as well as the inner law -- but with a different
attitude, with a different flavor, with a different motive. That is the important thing.
You will realize that just because you are on the side of authority, on the side of the law, you
are doubly responsible in your obligation not to reject the side opposed to the law, but to pull the
person out of his or her brand of error with your understanding. You can do this only if you
understand yourself first and by sympathizing with the law-breaker -- which does not mean to be in
favor of the rebellion and of actions resulting from the rebellion.
Why do you think that the man Jesus brought so much censure upon himself? Human
authority censured him because he associated with the lowly, with common criminals and
prostitutes. And all those lowly people felt this quality of understanding within him. Against Jesus
they did not rebel, because they felt not only his true goodness, but also his understanding of the
reasons why they were what they were. They felt he did not judge, they felt he went with them, in
spite of the fact that he was, of course, opposed to their acts and wrong attitudes. He could even
laugh with them, and also laugh at the wrong and pompous kind of authority that is so proud of its
law and its letter. His is the kind of authority you should strive for, my friends. Go with the other
person who revolts in some subtle way you may only sense -- while you also, subtly and
unknowingly reacted in the wrong way. This the other also sensed vaguely. Understand his attitude
by understanding your own, laugh with him, build common ground with him. Do not set yourself
up as a judge, although you may do so quite unconsciously. This balance is very, very subtle, my
friends, and it has to be found and solved in your innermost soul.
By no means does that imply that the law-breaker should go unpunished. That is not the
point. When he becomes dangerous to the welfare of others, he has to learn a lesson. But if that
happens, it is partly because the wrong kind of authority has prevailed too long, and has driven the
law-breaker deeper into ignorance and darkness, instead of lifting him out of it. You see, my dear
ones, all the miseries on this earth, the real problems such as criminality, war, injustices of any kind,
disease, and other serious problems, are the result of faults of long standing. When we spirits are
asked what is the remedy for this or that situation -- be it general or personal -- the answer cannot be
given so easily. For a whole chain reaction has to be followed through, and often in an unpleasant
way, until you get to the roots of the problem. All severe problems are due to some raging, vicious
circle that has to be crystallized out and understood in order to find these roots. The final and last
link of the whole chain reaction -- the one that manifests outwardly, while the previous links are
hidden from sight -- has to be helped, certainly. But this treatment will always be a painful one,
particularly if the inner root is not sought while the outer remedy is applied of necessity. So, for
instance, war is certainly tragic, but it is in certain instances a last resort, that is even necessary,
because humanity has neglected to look for the inner roots of the problems.
So it is with everything else. Common criminals have to be prevented from continuing their
deeds by law-enforcing institutions that are, perforce, themselves imperfect. Again, the solution has
to be found earlier so that this final and drastic result of the chain reaction can be avoided. In all
these vicious circles all are involved, not only the law-breaker, not only the apparent wrongdoer. In
order to build a world in which vicious circles are prevented or broken before they come to the last
and unfortunate outer manifestation, you can furnish the cornerstones by examining your own
reactions and understanding in what way you have contributed or are contributing by your own
unconscious emotional reactions to set an avalanche rolling. In this way, you and many others can
help prevent the entire chain reaction.
What I said to you here is of more significance and importance than you may realize offhand.
I know that it is not only extremely difficult to squeeze these very subtle concepts into human
language, but also that it will take quite a bit of effort and searching on your part to begin to
understand the inner and deeper meaning, and to see the wider effect of this whole question.
Are there any questions in connection with this subject?
QUESTION: Isn't the only person who is a real authority, in the final analysis, the one to
whom God speaks?
ANSWER: Of course! That goes without saying. God is the only authority. But that is not
the point of this lecture. No one of you is so far developed that God can manifest through you at
all times. It happens with all of you occasionally, but only where you are unblocked and flexible.
Otherwise the voice of God cannot penetrate through the maze. There are too many layers of
imperfection, of fear, of insecurity, of self-will to have God manifest in all instances. Besides, in
tonight's lecture I did not deal with the question of accepting God's authority versus human
authority. The question is to find out your attitude toward authority as such. Your childhood
reactions still color your present reactions without your being aware of it, no matter how much you
may strive to find out God's will. It may even have colored your attitude toward God without your
being aware of this at all. This message did not deal with the question of asking the advice or the
opinion of other people. That also is a subject, and indirectly it is related to the problem I have
discussed tonight. But this is merely a detail of the basic question and attitude. The first step is to
consider the attitude of a person to the concept of human authority as such, in whatever form it may
present itself. Do you understand what I mean? [Yes]
QUESTION: May I ask, is it necessarily so with everybody that one of the two trends is
predominant?
ANSWER: No. I said that in some cases there may be a fifty-fifty mixture, more or less. In
most cases one is a little more dominant. In some cases one is really predominant. But in many
cases there is a mixture. In these cases it will be very useful and interesting to find out when, at what
opportunities, in what instances and situations, or with what types of people one trend is
predominant and when the other. That will also furnish clues of utmost importance in your self-
search. There will be patterns of behavior to recognize.
QUESTION: Is there a special way to go about rectifying or balancing the extreme?
ANSWER: Well, I already gave some indications of that. The first step is to find out which
type an individual is and, if both, at what opportunities one facet predominates and why. It will take
some time to learn to observe and recognize your daily reactions, as well as going back to your
childhood, but once this practice is established, you can take the next step, which is to clarify your
thoughts. It is always the same procedure: you start by recognizing every instance where you react
emotionally in an erroneous way. All the image-conclusions, for instance, are such recognitions. In
your daily self-observation, realize that you cannot change an emotional reaction merely by having
recently recognized its faulty premise. Emotions cannot be controlled that way. I have said that
often. But you can change them by constant observation, by comparing the wrong reactions with
the right concept that has to be formed mentally, by meditating on it in the way I taught you in this
lecture. You can expand your meditation and pray in your own words, asking God to help you to
become aware of the right concept, even if only intellectually at first. If you then compare your
wrong reactions with the right concept without deceiving yourself "that you have already integrated
the right concept at the feeling level" -- seeing how your emotions still deviate from the right
concept, then this process will gradually change your emotions. In this way you will slowly rectify
the wrong emotions. You lead them from the wrong channel into the right one by this process of
development and purification. [Thank you.]
QUESTION: Isn't self-will the main hidden current in the case of the law-breaker and fear in
the case of the law-upholder?
ANSWER: Yes, this is certainly true. These would be the predominant factors in each case.
And pride also plays a role, in both instances, only used in different ways.
Now I will retire into my world again, but I will leave you, my dear ones, with a very strong
blessing, with a heavenly light that shines upon each one of you. Do not despair when you are sad
and discouraged, there is no reason. For life is eternal, and you are building your eternal abode in
this your life, on the path you are so courageously taking. In that house you will be able to live in
eternal happiness, without any woe, without any sorrow, without any parting, ever! So go in peace,
my dear ones, be blessed in body, soul and spirit. Be in God!