There is one fundamental quality that is the core element of who we are… This means that each one of us have kept a kernel of perfection—our original nature—basically intact in our core essence. Although it’s now covered by the Lower Self and layer upon layer of imperfections…
So we have two missions. One is to sense what our basic light is. The other is to realize how these three faults of self-will, pride and fear collude to cover it up… They are the fundamental blockers of our essential light… We must see the role that each of them plays and not buy, for one minute, the notion that this trio applies to “everyone but me”…
Self-will wants what it wants, when it wants it. It will strive to have its way, regardless of who or what it has to step on to get it. It doesn’t even care if it brings hardship and imprisonment upon the self in the process… Self-will, then, is both blind and immature, and it works in opposition to spiritual law as much as in violation of human laws. And it really doesn’t care…
How then does our self-will connect with fear? If we’re sheltering a mountain of self-will—often extra-powerful because it is lurking in our unconscious—we’re going to live in perpetual fear that we won’t get our way… The problem isn’t that this is true. The problem is our warped perspective that this is necessary…
We’re snagged on pride when our ego thinks we’re more important than other people, so we want advantages for ourselves… If we feel another’s humiliation counts for less than our own, we have too much pride… If we’re honest, we can admit that humiliation feels far more painful when it happens to us than it does when we see it happen to someone else…We need to not take ourselves so seriously. Our pride doesn’t matter half as much as our overly self-important little ego would have us believe… Only when we’re ready to stand on equal footing with others will we be free of fear…
It’s not hard to see then how self-will and fear go hand-in-hand. It’s equally simple to see how pride and self-will are a set… We’re quick to blame the faults and imperfections of others, making them responsible for our own inner disharmony. But maybe one day, we’ll realize there isn’t anyone else to blame…
For as long as we’re ensnared in self-will, pride and fear, we can never be happy. It’s not possible… In knowing this, we hold a treasure. For now we hold the key to fixing all our problems.
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Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #30 Self-Will, Pride and Fear
