When we run, we are buying the illusion that we can avoid anything we think is unpleasant.

Essay 33 | Part Three

The way out of misery

If we truly want the unlimited dimensions of reality to be revealed to us—if we want to attain the blissful “now point”—there is only one safe and secure way to do it. Simply put, we must fulfill the task we have come here for. And it is by walking an authentic spiritual path—such as the one laid out for us by the Pathwork Guide—that we can do so.

We have to learn to travel through our pain. This includes the pain of our guilt, of our illusions, and of our side that is still undeveloped. Ultimately, that’s what it really all comes down to.

Living outside the “now point”

If we’re not currently living in bliss, this means we have lost our connection with the “now point.” In other words, we feel cut off from spiritual reality. So we think that the temporary reality we’ve created for ourselves here on Earth is the only reality. But this land of duality is an illusory reality, if we may use such a seemingly paradoxical phrase.

Now here’s the most important part of this teaching to understand: Being in the “now point” means we are intensely aware of what this “now point” means. Anytime we try to run away from the “now point,” we lose our awareness of what it means. Then we create a false reality that we superimpose over our life.

We do this in several ways. First, we live in either the past or in the future, not in the present. Sure, we might be present to some degree, but we’re not truly aware of the “now point.” In each minute, our mind is already running ahead—perhaps into the next minute, the next hour, the next day. We might even be in some faraway future, in a wishful daydream of how it could be one day, or should be, or might be if we only had some magic.

As a result, we bypass the “now point” that could give us the key to actually reaching that future point we cherish so much. Either that, or we hang onto something from the past that has a hold on us, possibly without our even realizing it.

When we begin to work deeply with the teachings from the Pathwork Guide, we start to come into contact with both of these. Most notably, after much hard work, we begin to see how our past is still influencing us. This influence makes us react to something happening now as if we were still living in the past.

Because we are caught with distorted vision, we actually believe that what’s happening now is the same as what happened in the past. Not that we are aware of this belief. If we were aware of it, we would be a lot closer to that “now point.” The fact that we think the way we’re reacting now is appropriate is a good ruler for measuring how alienated we are from the “now point.”

How to stop “time projection”

In short, we lose touch with the “now point” by being lost into the past as well as the future. And we are doing this kind of “time projection” all the time. We often believe we are acting freely, based on what’s currently going on. But our behaviors are not actually freely chosen at all.

They are reactions determined by events in the past. And our reactions may or may not have been appropriate back then. Regardless, they are not appropriate now. And they lead us to distort reality, meaning we blot out our connection with the real reality happening now.

To put it frankly, it’s our lack of awareness about what’s really taking place in the moment that creates the illusion we call time. To put it another way, our lack of awareness and the false reality that accompanies it causes fragmentation. And this fragmentation is the reason we’re disconnected from living in the present moment.

The way forward, however, is not something we can determine by using our mind through an act of will. The use of our will comes into play by using our mind to develop more self-awareness regarding those parts of ourselves we don’t want to face and deal with. For that’s the only way to bring ourselves back into alignment with the truth. We can only make life better by establishing a better sense of reality.

Once we do this, a new sense of timelessness will come about on its own. It will happen almost effortlessly, when we least expect it. Because it comes as a byproduct of our searching to be in truth.

Over time, after we go through some of our self-exploration, the past will stop bleeding into the present. When that happens, we will be able to trust that the future will be fine, since it can only be an extension of the now. Once we no longer feel the need to escape the present, we will stop toying with the future with our wish-making mind. Then the now turns into our new reality, forever.

Three common ways we escape the “now point”

There are three fairly well-known ways that we lose the “now point.” They are:

1) Displacement
2) Projection
3) Denial

Displacement

First let’s look at displacement. Say we love someone dearly, but they do something to hurt us or make us mad. We don’t want to offend this person, and we know that if we let them see how we feel, they might push us away. And we need them and depend on them! So we want to avoid such a pain.

Still, they did something that causes us pain and anger. We fear that if we acknowledge our pain, we might destroy our little bubble of illusion, which we don’t want to give up. Our illusion might be that our beloved person really should be perfect. They should never do anything that would hurt us. The reason we have this illusion is so we can avoid anything unpleasant ever happening. In this case, confrontation would be very unpleasant. And we sure don’t want to risk losing their love.

Our goal is to avoid all discomforts, risks and pains. To do this, we must build an illusion. And then we must invest quite a lot of energy into maintaining this fictional version of reality. Nonetheless, the energy of the pain and anger we’re feeling is real, so we need to get rid of it.

For it’s also an illusion to think that just by ignoring our pain and anger, it will go away. How do we “solve” such a problem? Often, our solution is so automatic, we don’t even realize we’re doing it. We dump our feelings onto someone else, possibly for an entirely different issue.

After all, this other person may not mean nearly as much to us. If we make this other person mad, their retaliation or rejection might not matter so much. The outcome is less “dangerous.” Or maybe we’re so secure in this other person’s love and tolerance for us that we can safely unload on them and get away with it. In this way, we solve our problem by finding an outlet for this tight ball of energy, and we don’t put our relationship with the all-important person at risk. That’s displacement.

Not only does this shrewd device cause us to feel guilty for our dishonesty, it creates a false version of reality. So now we are living in a world that’s really not based on reality. And there’s no way for us to be aware of the “now point” with this going on. Whatever meaning or message might come to us about ourselves in this situation, we won’t be able to hear it until we set everything straight.

Here’s something else that’s helpful to realize. After we get underway in doing our personal development work, we will discover that by fully facing into even the most undesirable, dishonest pieces of untruth in ourselves, we arrive into a feeling of bliss. We reach it even before we’ve had a chance to change that part of ourselves. Bliss arises from simply dealing honestly with an issue.

Why does this happen? Because we’re now in the specific “now point” of our untruthfulness. We’re in the “now point” of our negativity and our deceitfulness. Displacement, on the other hand, turns everything into chaos and disorder. It takes what is really happening and turns it into total confusion. It completely disconnects us from our inner divine self, and that always creates fear and fragmentation.

We do this displacement thing much more than we think. We shift something off one person and put it on someone else. Or we take things from one situation and move it to another. Sometimes we’re just too lazy to deal with the real situation. Or maybe we have a habit of being resistant. But if we don’t stop doing this, we can never shift into the ongoing “now point.”

To get started, we must make up our mind that we want to see what we are doing. And we want to see the full extent to which we are doing this. For our lack of awareness makes every problem bigger. The minute we realize that we have a problem with automatic displacement, our problems already come down a notch.

Projection

We are likely a little more familiar with projection, which is about seeing in others what we aren’t willing to see in ourselves. Nonetheless, we are still often blind to how we’re reacting to others when there’s something in ourselves we don’t wish to see. At times, the other person might actually have the undesirable trait we don’t want to see. Other times, they may not. But whether or not they do or don’t really doesn’t matter.

What matters is that when we’re projecting, we’re abusing the energy that should go toward facing ourselves. We need to be turning our attention toward confronting and dealing with something unpleasant in us. Instead, we become angry and annoyed by the other person. In this case, we want to maintain an illusion about ourselves—namely, that we don’t have the trait in question.

Denial

Last is denial, which doesn’t need much explanation. We don’t displace and we don’t project. We simply attempt to deny a problem exists at all.

In all these cases—whether we’re running from the past, pretending about the future, or displacing, projecting or denying—we are trying to get away from the “now point.” We’re buying the illusion that we can avoid anything we think is unpleasant.

When we do this, the new reality we are creating—using the force of our will—is not based on truth. And that, friends, is an abuse of the creative process. All we actually accomplish is to create more fragmentation, and we become further and further alienated from the center of our own being. We lose our connection with our “now point,” with all its amazing meaning and relationship to the whole. To the greater One.

Approaching more joy

The Pathwork Guide points out that these two lectures on Psychic Nuclear Points and the process of being in the now were especially joyful to give. In fact, he said, the Spirit World had been preparing them for a “very long time”—with time, of course, being a very human way of understanding their considerable effort.

For one thing, those who would hear these lectures needed to be ready to receive them. Also, it took some work to massage the terminology so that humans could even understand them. This was not easy to do. Because human language does not make much room for talking about such ideas.

Yet if we can understand this material, simplified as it may be, it can help us to raise our level of consciousness. It can help us to intuitively understand how the creative process works, and that can make it easier to deal with ourselves.

Accelerating our spiritual progress is tremendously joyful for everyone. Not only is this the way to create more joy, it leads to more peace, more excitement and more fulfillment in our lives. Until one day we realize that it’s totally safe to live in a highly charged state of being, as long as the charge is a positive one.

We can all start today by actively working with the creative process to make life better. For all of us.

–The Pathwork Guide’s wisdom in Jill Loree’s words

Blessing from the Pathwork Guide

“Be blessed in the world of love that surrounds and permeates you. This is the only unalterable reality that ever exists. Be blessed.”

– Pathwork Guide Lecture #215: Psychic Nuclear Points Continued—Process in the Now

Adapted from Pathwork Guide Lecture #215: Psychic Nuclear Points Continued—Process in the Now

Essay 31: Part One | Part Two | Part Three