This path is hard. The danger is that we will try to dodge the difficulties. We are hoping there’s a miracle formula that will make our earthly troubles go away. Unfortunately, healing doesn’t work that way. Yet it’s equally incorrect to overestimate how hard it is to do this work. Doing so can make us hesitant to move forward. And our unjustified fears will give our Lower Self just the excuse it was looking for to carry on. Keeping both these things in mind, let’s take a closer look at our faults.
Giving it our best
We can start by questioning why this path is so difficult. And to be clear, God is not the one making it so hard. For in truth, God is wise and just. And God doesn’t give us more than would be good for us to handle. Of course, what exactly that amounts to varies from one person to the next. Plus, the further along we are in our development, the more we can handle. So then more will be expected.
But if we’re still new to walking a spiritual path, we’re not that strong yet. Then even a small effort may amount to enough. In the end, whatever our situation, none of us can truly be happy in life if we’re not doing our best. It’s the destiny of each incarnated soul to make some kind of headway, spiritually speaking.
That’s really what this path and these teachings are all about. They help us make progress in purifying ourselves. If we happen to be fearful about this path, thinking “maybe this is too much for me,” we need to put ourselves into God’s hands and ask about it. Let God decide what’s right for us.
Typically, though, that’s the last thing we think to do when doubt arises. Too often, we quickly jump to the conclusion that this is all too much for us. It doesn’t cross our mind to ask about God’s will for us. Or to ask for God’s help.
Here’s something else we do: We neglect our spiritual work out of fear that doing it will cause us to shortchange other areas of our lives. Like earning a living. The Lower Self serves up all kinds of excuses like this, that motivate the wrong decisions. This usually happens without our awareness of why we have these thoughts.
We fear that if we focus on our self-development, our finances might suffer. Or we think there won’t be any time left over for enjoying life. But we’re misguided in thinking this path is an added activity that will drain away our appetite for other pleasures and responsibilities. Actually, it’s just the opposite.
The rewards are real
In truth, this path of purification can become the foundation of our whole life. Symbolically, it can become the veritable ground we walk upon. When we decide to go this way, we shift the tracks of our life into a whole new channel. Then even if, from one day to the next, our main life challenges don’t disappear, we will feel a new spark of life awakening inside us. And this will furnish us with a vitality and clarity we never had before.
We’ll perform better in our profession. And we’ll feel more rejuvenated from our times of leisure. We’ll also get more pleasure out of everything we do, as opposed to the flat existence we have known up till now. These are the promises of doing the work, the way we are being shown.
They won’t come overnight. But after a few inner victories, we’ll realize them, more and more. Then we’ll see that this path is the one that is worth following. This is so, even while our selfishness still prevails and our problems persist.
Because along the way, we are bound to discover how we have—in our thoughts and deeper feelings, as well as in our deeds—broken many spiritual laws. Seeing this will allow us to slowly shift our emotional reactions. And doing that will free up stores of strength that were previously blocked out or locked up.
There’s no miracle formula here that will come as a reward from heaven. But what we can see, plainly and logically, is that this path is based on the simple law of cause and effect. And this law is quite natural and impersonal. If we apply these teachings to our lives, they will work for us. There is nothing we must believe.
The gifts must come
Making a decision to follow this path does not mean we join something or sign up for some additional activity. This path won’t rob us of our time. Nor will it take away effort we could be giving to some more important endeavor. Rather, think of this path as a new foundation on which we can plant ourselves. We do this so we can become more well-integrated—more whole.
For only by solving our inner errors, as we learn to do on this path, can we solve our outer problems. We’ve already wasted many lifetimes filled with wrong thinking, bad habits and unpleasant feelings. By now, these have implanted themselves deeply into our psyches. The knots have gotten tighter; our web of illusions has become more entangled.
It takes time to loosen these knots and dissolve our distortions. To do so, we must come to understand the inner workings of our own souls. This is how we transform our relationship to spiritual laws and to the truth. But once we have accomplished this, at least to some degree, the gifts must come. Our outer problems must cease. We will no longer dread living.
Investing in ourselves
None of this can happen by merely concentrating on our outer problems. We must look deeper and find the corresponding inner problems. For always, these are the cause of our outer problems. This is the way to make our souls healthy again. This is the route to finding happiness and joy—to getting the most pleasure possible out of life.
Most of us are as afraid of happiness as we are of unhappiness. We want to be happy. And the more out of reach it seems, the more desirable it seems. But then once in a great while, there seems to be a chance to capture that gold ring. And oddly enough, we shrink away from it. If we examine our feelings closely in these rare moments, we will see that this is so.
This is a symptom of a soul that has strayed from one or more spiritual laws. Now, if we want to become capable of experiencing genuine happiness, we must learn how to correct our course. We must bring ourselves back into alignment with spiritual laws. Then we can embrace life fearlessly, without self-pity or being afraid of being hurt.
If we do what God wants us to do—following a path that leads to self-knowing—then everything we do in life will have more sparkle, more meaning, more aliveness. With a little determination and a healthy dose of willpower, we can do this. We can organize our everyday lives to spend 30 minutes a day on spiritual development.
We already spend time taking care of our bodies—feeding them, resting them, cleansing them. And we don’t think of that as taking us away from other chores or pleasures. We just take it for granted that this is necessary. Yet, when we consider doing the same for our soul, which would require less time than is needed for our bodies, fears and doubts and questions bar the door.
Purification takes work
Take the trouble to think this through. We too often think unreasonably, but don’t evaluate our doubts to determine their proper merit. This is the Lower Self at work. As long as we don’t recognize how our Lower Self operates, it will continue to rule us. It will hide behind excuses and camouflage its devious ways.
In the end, if we don’t become aware of our Lower Self, we will never master it. This is true, regardless of how sincere we may be in our desire to live a godly life. To be sure, expressing our love for God in our beautiful prayers and profound meditations is a wonderful thing. But we must also do the work. And what is “the work?” Just this: to master the Lower Self. That’s what Jesus was mainly talking about.
So, it’s great when we do good deeds for others. No doubt, that’s part of it. But can we really “do good unto others” as long as there are impure currents running through our beings? When these currents force us into thinking thoughts that are so far from the truth? The short answer is no.
We might perform a nice act and do some good deeds. But if our actions aren’t supported by good, clean feelings, this doesn’t count for much. Our primary goal on this path is to purify our feelings. And for that, we’ll need to invest a bit of time every day.
Facing the Lower Self
There is a faction of people who have already made a wholehearted decision to do this work. But maybe we, ourselves, are not there yet. Either way, it’s important that we understand how to go about dealing with the Lower Self. We need to learn to grapple with the unconscious mind, which is where the Lower Self operates.
It is famous for sending random thoughts to the surface. The Lower Self uses this ploy to keep us in the dark about what it’s really doing. Even for those of us sincerely committed to walking this path of purification, we’re going to have a fight on our hands. It can help to at least stop arguing with ourselves over whether to get on or stay on the path.
But even then, we’ll still need to tackle the errant currents in our own Lower Self that clearly wants no part of this path. Underneath all our doubts and fears lies the wily Lower Self that wants to lead us away from this work. If it can’t trip us up completely, it will at least try to slow us down. It does this by making it harder to gain the self-understanding we are seeking and needing.
So be aware, we must learn to see through our doubts. When we’re occasionally stubborn and hesitant, we need to look for the real meaning. Why don’t we want to understand something? The more we get to know our own personality, seeing what and who we really are, the easier it will be to overcome our Lower Self. For it is constantly maneuvering to draw us away from doing our inner work.
How we harm others
Often, we have an inner voice that says, “Isn’t it enough that I’m a decent person? If God loves everyone, and if I’m trying to be good and act right, that should be enough. Why must I go through all of this?” And indeed, for some, that might be enough.
But those guided to these words are the ones for whom there is a greater obligation to do more, to be more. This obligation means that more is expected of us than just to be a decent person. The upside of this is that fulfilling our obligation works out in our favor. Because by conquering our Lower Self, we set ourselves free from our own chains.
Even so, let’s stay for a moment with this idea that it should suffice to be good and not harm others. What all does that entail, “not harming others?” It not only means we don’t steal from them or say unkind things behind their backs. It’s certainly more than just not killing them.
In fact, we can harm others by not having enough love to give. And there’s no amount of niceness that can make up for this lack. There’s nothing we can “do” that will make up for the fact that love is missing in our soul.
Further, we can harm others with our blindness—with our inability to understand them. And if we’re blind to our own selves, surely we’ll be blind to our surroundings. Every fault we harbor stands in the way of unfolding pure loving feelings or insight or understanding. It’s in this way that we do indeed do harm to others.
And yet, it’s not as simple as only that. Imagine the way the love of God shines in the heart of every living soul, like a marvelous light. Now realize how our Lower Self is what stands in the way of this light. It keeps it from penetrating out into the world, bestowing a beneficial effect on everything it reaches.
Meaning, we cause others harm with our actual bad thoughts and bad deeds. We also hurt them by withholding love and understanding. To let that love through—and thereby live up to our potential in this very lifetime—we’re going to have to do our work of personal self-development.
Facing into fear
We are hindered by those traits we have that we commonly refer to as our faults. Through our faults, we directly and indirectly do harm to others. Another equally impactful hindrance is our fears, which we generally don’t put in the same category as faults. What we fail to realize is the harm our fears do, both in our own lives and in the lives of others.
Our fears work to tarnish our inner light of love and understanding. After all, when we are in fear, we are not in truth. So on this path of purification, we will not only come face to face with our faults—our character weaknesses—we will need to face all our fears. For as long as we are living in fear, we will harm other people. We will emit certain rays that will have an unsavory effect for those on the receiving end.
For a spirit in the Spirit World, our fears have a very unpleasant smell. Unconsciously, when faced with another’s fears, we pick up on that odor and are affected by it. Then we react accordingly. How can we guard ourselves against emanations of fear from other people, and from our own consequent negative reaction? It’s simple. We must subdue our own fears. But that may not be so easy.
Once we do though, we will naturally understand the fears of others. And then they won’t harm us any longer. Our instinctive awareness of others’ fears will become part of our conscious, intuitive nature. But as long as our fears remain buried in our unconscious, we will react unknowingly.
We will continue to be buffeted about by the grave effects caused by the fears of others. We, in turn, then produce bad effects that ripple out onto others still. Such a vicious circle can only be broken by gaining adequate self-awareness. We also need a clear understanding about how all this works.
In short, fear of other people’s fear creates a love-blocking wall between us and our brothers and sisters. But armed with these facts, we will no longer live in fear that the fear from others will reach us. After all, nothing is more contagious than the inner currents that flow back and forth between people, whether they are positive or negative.
Getting to know our faults
We are each evaluated by God according to our own merits. As such, we must each embark on our spiritual journey by doing the work we specifically need to address. We must follow our own plan. Here are some general guidelines that may be helpful for getting going in the right direction. But keep in mind, the method and timing we each follow is likely to vary.
Our primary goal is self-knowledge. But just how do we go about this? The first step is to get as objective a picture of ourselves as possible. This involves getting to know both our good qualities and our faults. It helps to start by making a list. Writing things down in black and white, as it were, helps us organize and condense what we have discovered so far. And this keeps us from losing track of hard-won awareness.
Seeing our thoughts on paper can shed new light on our understanding. At the same time, it can lend a tiny sliver of detachment. This can help us assess ourselves with a truer perspective. As we proceed, this first round of reflections can be combined with certain insights we uncover later. Assuming, that is, we try to express our thoughts clearly and concisely.
Once we make these initial steps, it’s time to sit down with someone who knows us well. Let them tell us what they honestly think about us. This will indeed require a certain amount of courage. Look at this as a great opportunity to lower our pride a notch. In this alone, we gain some small victory over our Lower Self. We free up one of those little inner chains.
The law of brotherhood and sisterhood
It also helps to embark on a spiritual journey with other intrepid souls. Then it won’t be so difficult to find someone willing to share and exchange in such an authentic way. For others of us who are working alone on our spiritual quest, we can pray for guidance in finding just the right person to help us.
Why not try this? Just see what happens. For whoever needs help and knocks—is willing to ask for help—the door will always be opened. This is a promise made to anyone whose wish is sincere. We are always given guidance when we ask for it.
Whenever possible, it is important not to do this work completely alone. First off, working with others aligns us with the law of brotherhood and sisterhood. This spiritual law states that opening our heart to another person ushers in spiritual help we could not receive by ourselves.
But when we seal ourselves off from others, we get locked in a vacuum that prevents us from completely evaluating ourselves. This is the case, regardless of how hard we may work or how intelligently we may read or study, and notwithstanding how much self-honesty we attempt to call forth. But when we open ourselves up to another soul, the deeper understanding we desire can flow in.
Further, it takes a certain amount of humility to move past our isolation. And in the beginning, such humility may not come easily. Over time, this becomes second nature. For we will experience the fruitfulness that can only come from cooperation and interaction with someone else. We will soon find it effortless to talk openly about our struggles and our weaknesses. We will also be able to listen to feedback, including criticism.
In reaching out, we will come to realize the benefits of loosening up our soul by discussing with someone else a problem we had kept under lock and key. Even without hearing a bit of advice, our problem will suddenly lose its exaggerated proportion. And some of its fearful aspects will retreat.
Showing our real face fully with one other person, without our masks and defenses, to whatever extent we can, is like a healthy dose of much-needed medicine. At the same time, it’s an act of love to let another see our human weaknesses, rather than always trying to appear superior. We can offer the other a valuable gift by doing this. Just notice how fortunate we feel when we find someone who will give the same to us.
We can ask for help
Asking another to tell us how they see us, especially our faults, is delicate. Perhaps the person who is the most obvious choice doesn’t actually know us that well. But our friends and family may not share our interest in doing this work of self-exploration. Still, they’re the ones who know us best and can likely give us more valuable information than a new-found friend.
The best approach is to go with the one who knows us best. No matter what they believe, most people will respect us for our sincere intentions to improve ourselves. For wanting to learn about our faults, as well as for our willingness to listen to them. We can explain to them that four eyes can usually see more than two. And let them know we won’t be hurt or angry with them, even if they say something we think is unjust. In saying this much, we are saying a lot.
Then here’s where we put these teachings to a practical test. When they tell us what they think, we need to sit calmly and just try to take it in. At first, we may notice an inner reaction—a rejection of their words. We might feel hurt if we don’t think they are saying the truth. Then again, we might be more hurt if a difficult truth is shared. Whatever is said, we want to try to listen for the grain of truth.
The other person may see us differently than we see ourselves. Or they may only see us on a superficial level. They may not have a full understanding of what lies deeper in our souls. In other words, they may not realize why we act as we do, due to all the complicated workings of our psyche. Perhaps they don’t choose the right words. Still, that little grain of truth could be the lever that opens an entirely new area of understanding for us.
Or it may not be entirely new, but rather a known fault viewed from another vantage point. In this way, we may come to see the various effects of our fault on our surroundings. This can illuminate our daily prayers and meditation, if we allow ourselves to concentrate in this direction.
We can ask God to help us see ourselves in truth, dropping the distorted filter we generally reserve for ourselves. Also, we can ask God to inspire us to react in the right way to enlightening revelations about ourselves. We can ask for guidance in receiving unpleasant truths from others so that their input can be used in a productive way.
Then, if we sit with our faults in daily meditation, and if our wish to overcome them is sincere, we will have made the very best beginning one could imagine.
Observe the Lower Self
As stated earlier, the Lower Self will not let up in trying to hinder our progress. Now will be a great time to watch it in action. We can watch the Lower Self the way we would observe a third person, trying for a little detachment—to be slightly less involved in it. “Oh, I see how you are showing up today to make me look away from my faults.”
We can put some distance between our observer-self and our own Lower Self reaction. For example, notice how our ego, our hurt, our vanity all become so serious and so involved when we deal with something unpleasant in ourselves.
Maybe we can humor ourselves a bit and not take ourselves so seriously, for once. That alone immediately moves us up one rung on the ladder. We won’t land there straight away, certainly. But after some time of regular work each day—let’s say half an hour—we will start to make real progress.
We’ll sense the gap between our Real Self and our hurt little ego, which perhaps we can tease a bit to avoid being so overly mired in it. After exposing a small weak spot, it won’t be so hard to open the door the rest of the way to further self-understanding.
Long before actual results can manifest in our lives, we will begin to feel a deep contentment and sense of peace. These are feelings that only come to those who work on themselves in accordance with the will of God. On a day when we are feeling strong and alive, full of enthusiasm to greet the day, we will find it so much easier to connect with God and find his truth inside ourselves. These are the days when we can gather our strength for meeting the more difficult times that may follow.
How to deal with doubt
More important, though, are the days when we feel low. When we become discouraged and covered over in doubt. On those days, it’s imperative we fight hard against giving in to black moods. Choose these days as the time to re-read these words. Consider them again and take everything to God.
It is so incredibly hard for us to formulate the right thoughts at the right moment. We must practice doing this, which is a training in itself. Thinking proper thoughts at the proper time is a good habit we must work to develop. We can always be asking God for proper light and understanding, in any given moment.
We can ask to know the truth. And we can ask Christ to help us be open to receiving it. Whenever we’re in doubt, this is what we need to do. It’s all we need to do. This is the way to overcome the resistance of the Lower Self. This is the way to gain a major victory.
We must never lose sight of this truth: Everything we suffer from in life results directly or indirectly from our shortcomings and our fears. If we had no shortcomings, we would have no fear. And our fear and insecurities are what make us so miserable. They spoil everything.
If we wish to have the power to heal ourselves, we will receive it. Drop by drop, we will be given the strength we need to tackle our faults and fears. We only need to choose this path and place our trust in God. All we need to know is right here in our hands.
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