You must also recognize the reasons
why your lower self turns you away from facing yourself. One reason is that to
recognize yourself as imperfect is unpleasant. The other is that the lower self
is lazy and never wants to work. Yet it requires work to face what is in you,
especially when it comes to facing the unpleasant things. So the first step, my
friends, in your decision to walk the path of self-development and purification
is to become clear about this. It is the greatest decision a human being can
ever make.
It is the noblest of all fights humanity can ever engage in. But you
must do so with open eyes; therefore realize what you ought to expect and what
you have to search for. Do not start to search for perfection immediately. This
again would be unrealistic because you cannot attain perfection quickly without
having spent much time and effort. This search is the first and most important
half of the truth of the path. If you proceed well on this part of the path,
you have won half the battle already, and even more, my friends! If you
realize this, you will not be discouraged when you are busy on this first half
of the work that is necessary. You can reach perfection only by going through
your imperfections, not by going around them. You should meditate on this daily
until such knowledge becomes part of you and until you are imbued with this
truth.
Furthermore, prepare yourself that
going on this path does not mean a constant and smooth improvement of yourself
and your life conditions. This again is completely unrealistic. It is necessary
for you to face the fact that the path is long and that repercussions and times
of testing will not cease as quickly as you would like to believe. I might say
at this point that a great deal of harm is being done when people are led to
understand that by following certain rules of metaphysical teachings their
problems will altogether cease, or that if they appear to cease for a time,
that will prove a sign of success.
There are many people who appear to have no
outer problems whatsoever. Such people are certainly not on this path. They may
be entities of lower development of whom less is expected in this incarnation
and who have been given a chance to prove what they can do with an easy life.
If they do not do their best now, they will have more difficult times in a
future incarnation, perhaps so they can prove themselves. But to imagine that
going on this path of purification will immediately lessen your troubles or
problems is very immature and childish. Certainly your outer and inner problems
will lessen and finally cease, but only after a long time, after you have first
thoroughly understood your inner makeup and rearranged your inner currents. In
this way you will dissolve inner images that are directly responsible for your
conflicts. Once you have attained some victories over yourself you will fully
realize this truth, but it will take a long time and years of work. Then very
gradually the times of trial will lessen in impact and frequency, as harmony
grows in your soul and as you take charge of yourself and become aware of who
you are. When I say “aware of yourself,” I mean knowing your lower self utterly
and completely, which does not have to mean that you have overcome it
completely.
When you start on this path, my
friends, you ought to meditate every day before you do anything further. Meditate
on the fact that you can expect to find aspects of yourself you may be shocked
about. Expect this and meet it halfway instead of hiding and escaping from it.
Expect that just as you have had tests before you even started on this direct
path, tests will still come your way for quite a time.
The only difference is
that a person who is on the path will, after some successful work, understand
that each testing and each time of woe means something very specific. A
particular message that there is something quite special to learn about the
self is conveyed by each difficult period and every hardship. Only after a
considerable time will your mind be trained in this direction so that you will
find out faster and faster what the lesson is. The moment you will understand
the significance of these periods, this particular testing will cease. As long
as you have not understood it, the testing will be there. It may recede after a
while, but it will come back in the same or similar form until you have learned
the lesson.
Those who have experienced what it means to understand the message
of a particular hardship, to really understand it to its core, will realize
what a blessing it is! Then what I am saying here will not merely be
words, but a deep experience.
Excerpt Courtesy of The Pathwork
pathwork.org
pathwork.org
Sovrnty Society
