LAW #1
Reality always moves toward truth.
Whenever we depart from it—especially from the truth about ourselves—suffering eventually appears, not as punishment, but as correction.
A common way humans violate spiritual law—and overlook that they do so—is by not living in truth. We often think this simply means we shouldn’t lie. But that’s only the beginning.
When we lie to ourselves, that is far more dangerous and harmful than lying to others. Why? Because when we lie to others, we know we are doing so. This puts us closer to the truth than when we lie to ourselves.
When we lie to ourselves, we don’t realize it. Not because we can’t see it, but because we don’t want to. That’s how far we have turned away from truth. That’s how far we set ourselves from God.
Such untruthfulness surrounds us with a dark wall behind which we remain unhappy. Sooner or later our violation of spiritual principles must lead to outer conflict. The only way forward—to stop feeling lonely and lost—is to tear down this wall and look behind it.
Even if what we find is unpleasant.
The first time we do this will be hard. But after removing the first few bricks, the relief will be tremendous.
In the end, living in truth is not primarily about being honest with others. It’s about ending self-deception.
That’s how it feels to walk on this path. Nothing else in life counts this much.
“To face life’s reality means to face yourself as you are, with all your imperfections. Embrace life whole-heartedly, without fear, without self-pity or being afraid of being hurt.
Say to yourself, ‘In order to become what I would like to be, I must first, without fear of shame or vanity, face what is in me.’”
– Pathwork Guide Lecture #25
Taking the high road
We become truly free when we decide to fulfill the will of God—to align with spiritual law. Doing so requires our greatest and freest effort.
It means we uncover all our hidden motives and inner currents, which is something only a free person can do.
Our motives are always mixed.
Nothing in our soul comes entirely from the Higher Self or the Lower Self. To purify ourself is to separate these trends and rearrange our conscious understanding. For example, our Higher Self might say, “I want to be perfect. I believe this is God’s will for me.”
But in the ignorance of our Lower Self, we think we can gain perfection by turning away from our imperfections—by ignoring them. Our Lower Self wants everything to be comfortable. To have a high position, but not for the same reason as the Higher Self.
The Higher Self seeks growth out of love for God. It seeks enlightenment and awareness, which we must have so we are capable of truly loving others. But our Lower Self wants to be perfect to have more ego satisfaction, be more admired, and aggrandize ourselves.
Both the Higher Self and Lower Self want the same thing—to become more perfect. But the motives are not at all the same. To develop ourselves and become a healthy, harmonious soul, we must separate these motives and recognize these different voices.
Living in truth is not primarily about being honest with others. It’s about ending self-deception.
The same law for everyone
In this dualistic sphere, we have qualities like harmony, beauty and love. We also have their opposing aspects. And, of course, there are many variations in-between.
Each of us stands somewhere on this spectrum, waffling about whether we should follow the line of least resistance, which always matches our lowest nature, or take the high road, the narrow and more difficult path of following our Higher Self.
How is a person judged in the Spirit World when we say we truly want to find the truth, but then opt to take the easy way?
Not all incarnated souls are at the same level of development. Far from it. So the same is not expected of everyone.
Nonetheless, spiritual laws operate the same for us all. They work just as effectively when we align with the good as when we follow the low road. There will be an appropriate corresponding effect for whatever cause we set into motion.
The more we live in truth, the more we align with divine law. By living increasingly from our Higher Self, we become freer. But when we break divine law, the truth is not in us.
We are then aligning with our Lower Self and enslaving ourselves.
The flow of life energy is not personal. It follows immutable laws that are built into life. When the conditions are right, life force flows. When conditions aren’t compatible—because we’re not in truth—the flow is blocked.
Self-realization means we’re making good use of the power we have available to us. Moreover, the only way for us to achieve self-realization is through our freely made decision to adopt spiritual laws—to live in truth.
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