LAW #4
Everything of lasting value comes with an inner price.
We cannot receive what we want if we are not willing to invest in it, because we can’t cheat life.
Everything has a price. Spiritual growth has an inner price. What is that price? No self-pity, no self-delusion, and no coddling of the little ego.
The good stuff takes time, effort, patience and perseverance—and courage.
The easiest way is usually not the best way.
Personal growth, then, always asks something of us.
We must locate the inner obstructions and remove them. This is the price we must pay if we want something better.
What it takes to change
We live and breathe in a malleable substance that is molded by our beliefs. We can create whatever realistic state we can conceive of, from heaven to hell—and all the stops in between.
Every act of creation begins with a vision.
By conceiving of something, impressing our soul substance with the vision of it, and having faith that it can be our reality, we can create it, according to our beliefs.
If, however, we believe the whole world is hostile and stacked against us, that is exactly what we will experience. For everything we do, say, think and feel will go in that unfulfilling direction.
Conversely, if we believe we can change and grow out of our negativity and destructiveness, our hopelessness, misery and poverty, we can do just that.
But such a positive belief must include our willingness to climb our way out of our self-dug holes. We must locate the inner obstructions and remove them.
This is the price we must pay if we want something better.
“Only the Higher Self knows that there is a price to be paid for happiness… The Lower Self wants to attain happiness by outer means and without the price of conquering itself.”
– Pathwork Guide Lecture #25
Feelings are the hardest
Spiritual laws operate on three levels: doing, thinking, and feeling. Of these, the hardest work must be done on the feeling level.
The reason that feelings are the most difficult is because so many of our emotions are unconscious. Consider that unlike actions and thoughts, we don’t have nearly the same ability to immediately and directly control our feelings.
This means we must work harder—using both willpower and patience—to bring our feelings into consciousness. We can also pray and ask for help. But if we want to receive help from the spirit world of God, we are going to need to make the first step. This is a universal law.
The higher our development, the more deeply into our feelings we’ll be able to go.
We can’t cheat life
If, unconsciously, we want to cheat life, hoping to gain more than we are willing to give, we are in violation of divine law. Then no matter how much we try to believe in the abundance of life, it won’t work.
Our soul substance will refuse this impression. Until, that is, we do the work of removing the obstruction that is in clear violation of the laws of life.
For life can’t be cheated.
This is also why we can’t skip steps. If we want some result and we have a misunderstanding buried in us, we have to deal with this obstacle first. To find it, we can meditate on what needs to be altered inside us.
If we’re not willing to correct what’s in error, within us, the good results will never come. It can’t be otherwise.
It is for the best that life works this way.
We must build a bridge
It may seem odd that God came up with these perfectly crafted laws that give us the freedom to break them. But if we couldn’t violate the laws, we wouldn’t be like God in having free will. This means we wouldn’t ultimately be compatible with God.
So we could never return to living in God’s house.
In the long run, it’s up to us to apply our already purified aspects to the task of addressing the unpurified parts. Our own Higher Self is not going to force us to make the better choice. That would go against all spiritual law.
Therefore, our ego must make the effort. We have to marshal our forces as best we can in our current disconnected state and start to build a bridge. This is the way we all must go.
It’s the only way to return to our true home.
Making better choices
Life on Earth is neither all bad nor all good. There’s always a downside to everything and every time we make a choice, there are multiple factors to consider.
First, there’s the reality that we probably can’t have exactly what we want, exactly how we want it, exactly when we want it. There are lots of moving parts on this planet and everyone has free will.
People don’t always do what’s best and that creates an effect.
Sometimes we’re just not wholly willing to pay the price to have what we want. Or maybe we aren’t up for accepting the inherent disadvantages to the option we prefer.
No matter what the situation is, here is one unchanging truth: we can’t cheat life. It’s simply not possible to receive more than we are willing to give. Yet we all hope to gain the greatest advantages without paying the full price.
That is a violation of spiritual law.
We can’t avoid the cost of growth. But neither do we have to fear it. Every price spiritual law asks us to pay returns something greater than what we surrender.
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