These quotes from Pathwork Lectures can be used for personal reflection — one quote or reading to be with for a day or a week. I shall be adding to them regularly — as of mid 2011 there were about 100 quotes included. They are a page or two in length. Open them by clicking on the title. Enjoy. Remember, go to the entire lecture to get the full teaching. (Note the downloads are in PDF format) (Note that the numbers refer to ¶-numbers or track-numbers in the copies of the lectures formatted for audio recording)
(Note: All Pathwork writings are copyrighted by the International Pathwork Foundation. Please honor said copyright)
Stages of Intimacy in Couplehood
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 80 Cooperation, Communication, Union, describes the development of intimacy in our primary relationship as we go through various overlapping stages from immature-independence (isolation), through co-dependence (immature-interdependency), true independence, true interdependency, and finally Union. Our life in couplehood flows and dances within these stages. In Union qualities in all preceding stages can be accepted – but Union requires a great deal of personal growth work in both parties. This growing experience of deeper and deeper intimacy is the beauty of couplehood, the dance of the “Path within the Path,” the Spice of Life. (Note a complementary quote from Robert and Diane Masters titled Four Stages of Intimate Relationship.) (Link to Masters Center for Transformation)
A Blessing for a Gray Day
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 65 Question and Answers, offers solace for a gray day. May you be blessed by it.
Finding One’s Role in Moving Toward World Peace — Prayer for Peace with Action (But Inner, Not Outer)
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 65 Question and Answers, speaks to each of our roles in moving the planet toward world peace. Are we to become politically active for peace? The Lecture would say no. Rather, the Lecture suggests that the most effective thing one can do for world peace is to pray for peace AND work with one’s most troublesome relationships. In resolving these most troublesome conflicts on this personal inner level, world peace is affected in powerful ways beyond external political activism.
Living In Balance
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 63 Questions and Answers, encourages a balanced life – balanced among our duties, livelihood and responsibilities AND our spiritual unfoldment AND pleasure and relaxation. As we mature we are not to be workaholics or compulsive spiritual junkies or over-involved churchgoers. We are not to make our spiritual work a set of practices that follow rules and regulations isolated from our daily living.
Facing Doubts; Discernment in Finding the Spiritual and Human Help We Want
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 65 Question and Answers, is in response to a participant asking about seeking spiritual help in contacting a loved one. Part of the answer offers broader guidance for one seeking help, either from spiritual or human sources, and invites us to carefully assess how the help we receive serves us. But the main theme of the quote deals with overcoming doubts and declares that external signs, such as contact with a loved one or a Spirit (and I might add near-death-experiences of self or others), wear off and never suffice as a “final proof” to overcome doubts about the continuation of life after death, etc. We must work doubt from the inside; the Lecture invites us to face and explore why we doubt, that is, to get to the root of our doubt.
True Faith in Jesus Christ — An Experience Arising from Within; A View of Evangelical Christianity
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 63 Questions and Answers, (a Session given on Good Friday in 1960) addresses how real faith, faith in God, and faith in Jesus Christ, as do love and other divine qualities, all grow as experiences from Source within one’s being as obstacles and blockages to truth are worked through on one’s soul journey. The Lecture purports that true Faith is an emerging experience that differs from the view that “faith” is faithful adherence to beliefs accepted as dogma from outside the self that are superimposed upon fears and doubts of the young ego. This latter version of “faith,” the Lecture suggests, are intellectual beliefs and dogma that are clung to by a sheer act of will – the young ego “deciding” to “accept Jesus Christ as his or her personal Savior” and by that “decision for Christ” hoping to secure “heaven” after this earthly life ends in death. This latter “faith” the Lecture calls pseudo-faith vs. the true faith that grows slowly and gradually from within as obstacles to Truth are systematically removed. Having grown up so rooted in my Lutheran Christian foundation, this quote is a blessing and means a lot to me as I attempt to integrate my Lutheran roots with my Pathwork journey along Life’s way.
Feeling the Energy of the Pathwork Lectures
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 156 Questions and Answers, describes how I so often feel as I work with the Pathwork Lectures while preparing for and making my recordings of them. The power in and around me is palpable. This short quote is what I feel. As this quote says, my experience cannot be denied and is the basis of my love affair with the Pathwork Lectures.
Personal and Spiritual Growth in a World of False Teachings
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 61 Questions and Answers, addresses growing up in a world of less-than-perfect teachings, authorities, religions, and self-help programs. How can we, in our immaturity or childhood even, be safe when we seemingly have to depend on external sources, parents and other teachers and authorities for understanding when those external sources are imperfect and might be misleading, very misleading in fact? How do we find true Truth to live by? How do we obtain healthy independence and take self-responsibility for our own values and life when there are so many untruths around us in our world?
Cause and Effect, Always?
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 61 Questions and Answers, addresses cause and effect as a spiritual law. This can be challenging. This lecture leads us through various considerations in our coming to understand this spiritual law. It leads us to consider the meaning of karma and fate and see that God does not predetermine our life.
Grace
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 61 Questions and Answers, provides a simple yet complete description of Grace – integrating grace with self-responsibility, the role of Jesus Christ, and our role in the Plan of Salvation.
Welcoming the Blues
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 61 Questions and Answers, addresses a participant’s question regarding facing the ups and downs of life. The lecture encourages the reader to welcome the down periods in our lives as being our teachers regarding self-facing – seeing our concepts, images, attitudes, conclusions about live – all of which give rise to our blues and seemingly “bad” days. The lecture points out that we are not as likely to see our wrong conclusions and images when days are seen as “good.” Hence our seemingly down days are rich days for personal growth – and as such become beautiful days in the larger non-dual unitive consciousness of life.
Experiencing Spiritual Bliss On Earth — In Union
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 156 Questions and Answers, describes how we humans are capable of experiencing bliss in our incarnation on earth. The lecture says the true experience of bliss combines spirit, mind, emotions, and the body – and is possible on earth only when one is capable of love and union in a sexual relationship.
Resistance to and Meditation for Pleasure
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 156 Questions and Answers, describes how we humans resist pleasure. It then provides a prayer for opening up to experiencing the pleasure that is possible for us on earth.
Unrequited Love
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 147 The Nature of Life and Human Nature, gives a framework for self-search when one is in a relationship where one feels his or her love for the other is not reciprocated, especially where sexual attraction is involved. It could also be a useful framework for examining being in a relationship where one does not feel as much love for the other as the other does for him or her.
Purpose of Life on Earth — Not Heaven, Not Hopelessness
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 151 Intensity: An Obstacle to Self-Realization, leads us to the purpose for our life on earth: Facing and accepting ourselves as we are and choosing to live our lives from our Higher Selves. It is not about believing dogmas or doing practices so that we “go to heaven when we die, rather than hell.” It is not about reward/punishment by a God “out there.” It is not about living in hopelessness of a meaningless life. Rather it is about taking self-responsibility for how we live our lives and realizing that we – in our beliefs, attitudes, conclusions about life, etc. – have created the life we are living. And we can make different choices, and have a better life, by the grace of God. If we so choose.
Visualization via Feelings
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 194 Meditation: Its Laws and Various Approaches – A Summary (Meditation as Positive Life Creation), is one of my favorites. The entire lecture deals with four stages of creation via meditation. The third stage is visualization – but visualization does not mean envisioning specific situations or creating expectations – which would be limiting – but rather feeling the feelings one longs to have in a given situation. Feel the feelings, but let go of any specific expectations supposed to give rise to said feelings.
Educating Children
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 104 Intellect and Will as Tools or Hindrances of Self-Realization, gives a beautiful summary concerning educating children.
Inner Divine Self Engaging Fully in Spiritual Experiences, Sexual Ecstasy in Union, and Death
This amazing quote from this amazing Pathwork Lecture – Lecture 142: The Longing for and the Fear of Happiness – Also, the Fear of Releasing the Little Ego – speaks to how we can live, and die, fully alive as we live from our inner Divine self. Takes my breath away. I suggest one read the entire lecture, meditate on it, and live it.
Trust, Living by Faith
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 142: The Longing for and the Fear of Happiness – Also, the Fear of Releasing the Little Ego – speaks to how we can live by faith, trusting the Divine within the human soul. That place where we are one with God and the Cosmos. A true avenue to Peace beyond understanding. But again, as always, this quote is better understood in the context of the entire lecture.
Doing Pathwork Example 1: Write It Down
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 142: The Longing for and the Fear of Happiness – Also, the Fear of Releasing the Little Ego – gives a practical application of “doing Pathwork.” In a “daily review” fashion it speaks of facing every anxiety, finding the common denominators behind these anxieties by writing down words that come up in these anxieties, seeing patterns, and making statements of intention to do this work using one’s healthy ego. With this consciousness we can begin working our way out of our patterns by calling upon and accessing our inner wisdom. Sometimes deep discussions with a helper can be used to assist in this process and to reinforce our commitment to finding the truth behind our problems.
Doing Pathwork Example 2: Role of Healthy Ego
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 142: The Longing for and the Fear of Happiness – Also, the Fear of Releasing the Little Ego – gives a practical application of “doing Pathwork.” The quote establishes the proper role of the healthy ego as making clear intentions, finding negative pleasure as the basis for negative behavior, and using this understanding to declare one’s intention to find even more pleasure in positive situations.
Doing Pathwork Example 3: In Relationship
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 142: The Longing for and the Fear of Happiness – Also, the Fear of Releasing the Little Ego – gives a practical application of “doing Pathwork” in a relationship with another. It is very practical, emphasizing being in truth at all times and being open to whatever outcome arises out of this truth. Growth and mutuality are key.
Communications
How do we communicate as individuals or groups, especially when there appears to be so much hate and separation between us sometimes? This quote from Pathwork Lecture 257 Aspects of the New Divine Influx: Communication, Group Consciousness, Exposure points to the ways we can deepen our communications as our spiritual growth evolves. I find this a powerful foundation for building unity among us all.
Spiral Nature of Personal and Spiritual Growth
How do we grow both personally and spiritually? This quote from Pathwork Lecture 115 Perception, Determination, Love As Aspects of Consciousness points to the spiral nature of our growth: sometimes sensing no growth when we are growing and other times thinking we are growing when in fact we are stagnating or going around in circles rather than deepening.
Growing In Love
How does our love capacity grow, through what stages, and where does love for God fit in? This three-page quote from Pathwork Lecture 115 Perception, Determination, Love As Aspects of Consciousness provides a helpful framework for understanding the evolution of our love-capacity as we grow in consciousness.
Experiencing the Emergence of the Real Self
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 102 The Seven Cardinal Sins, describes the mysterious feelings within oneself when the real self begins emerging. As the real self emerges it is as if a new birth is happening from within.
Marital Love
This two-part quote from Pathwork Lecture 102 The Seven Cardinal Sins, describes mature marital love. The first part distinguishes between general human love and erotic or marital love, the latter requiring mutuality between partners. The second part speaks to the possibility of erotic love growing in a marriage when it was not there in the beginning in one or both of the partners.
Self-Centeredness, Other-Centeredness — Healthy and Unhealthy
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 127 Evolution’s Four Stages: Automatic Reflexes, Awareness, Understanding, Knowing, speaks to healthy and unhealthy Self-Centeredness and Other-Centeredness. The lecture explains that Self-Centeredness is not egocentric or selfish but a manifestation of the Self – a manifestation of Love and other Divine qualities that bring happiness and joy to the self and others.
Finding Purpose and Meaning in Life Through Service
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 98 Wishful Daydreams, begins with a beautiful summary of the purpose and meaning of life. The lecture also invites us to question ourselves about the purpose of everything we do and everything we want – that is, to make our intentions conscious and then examine them. The lecture invites us to look at our intent to serve others through our life and thereby find deeper meaning and joy in life.
Forms of Communications from the Spirit World
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 54 Questions and Answers, describes various ways the Spirit World communicates with Humankind. The lecture states that the higher and deeper transmissions are subtler – and more useful for spiritual growth – than are the more dramatic phenomena such as speaking in tongues, materializations, and other outer “proofs” that come from lower spiritual sources that are closer to human levels of consciousness. An interesting way of looking at altered states of consciousness brought about in various ways.
Personal and Community Growth Via Frictions and Irritations
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 54 Questions and Answers, suggests that Spirit sometimes holds back so that, left on our own for a while, we can grow through facing our own problems. Life becomes our school – a school in which we can grow and mature. In this school we can observe our behavior and let our attitude toward disagreements and upheavals show us our progress and level of maturity, both as individuals and as a group.
The Importance of Feeling Pain on the Path of Growth
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 86 The Instincts of Self-Preservation and Procreation in Conflict, points out that doing our spiritual and psychological growth work is sometimes painful. Yet feeling the pain, going through it, is central to maturing and growing, central to feeling joy that is the Essence of Life, and central to eliminating our pain once and for all. Finally the reflection question is asked, “What is our attitude toward this growth work along the Path?”
Feeling Half Alive
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 86 The Instincts of Self-Preservation and Procreation in Conflict, asserts that many of us experience, really experience, but a fraction of our feelings, and that we are unconscious of this fact. We may be very calm and serene on the outside and think ourselves to be relatively happy, but in fact we are but half alive. How can we wake up to full aliveness?
The Complexity and Formative Power of Early Life
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 87 The Next Phase on the Path; Questions and Answers, lays out how early life experiences so powerfully form our images (our main image, our idealized self-image, our God-image), patterns, pseudo-solutions – all of which govern our thinking and behavior from our unconscious. The purpose of life is to bring these matters to our consciousness where we can break down and dissolve these walls that we wrongly think will defend us from pain. In truth, these walls separate us from our real power, our Divine Essence – the God within and without that lives in and through us and to Whom we pray for help.
Joy Without Harmony — When Pleasant Times Trouble Us
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 87 The Next Phase on the Path; Questions and Answers, explores why pleasant times of joy are accompanied by levels of anxiety, restlessness, and impatience – having joy without a ground of harmony beneath it.
Setting Spiritual Goals — One Step At A Time
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 85 Distortions of the Instincts of Self-Preservation and Procreation, talks about the dangers of setting long range and lofty spiritual goals. Rather, the spiritual journey is taken one day at a time, one moment at a time. And each moment has its goal. This lecture quote suggests one focuses on this goal, this next step in life, this moment in life, rather than the ultimate goal of life.
Dealing with Defeats, Large and Small
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 85 Distortions of the Instincts of Self-Preservation and Procreation, offers a practical way of facing and growing through inevitable defeats in life. It states the importance of identifying areas of defeat in one’s life, especially the small day-to-day defeats, which are often missed, and then the importance of facing these daily defeats with maturity. Steady growth is the result.
Flexible Truth — Self-Responsibility — Security
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 72 The Fear of Loving speaks to the inherent flexibility of Truth – Truth, like the Cosmos, is alive and hence changing all the time. The lecture reminds us that leaning on rigid rules or static dogma makes the rules or dogma responsible for our lives and our security. This was appropriate and necessary for us as children. Mature self-responsibility in us as adults, however, gives us a felt sense of security in the dynamic and flexible world that is the Truth of our reality.
Master of My Fate — A Warning
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 72 The Fear of Loving reminds us of the inner power we really have – yes, we are the masters of our fate and have the inner power to create whatever we desire. But if we are not mature enough to use this inner power wisely it can be destructive for us and for others. First we have to grow up and mature. Then we can come to know and experience our powers and use them for playing our respective roles in the Plan of Salvation rather than using them to serve the whims of the immature egocentric child within.
Purpose of Our Work on the Path — Finding Our Real Selves
Pathwork Lecture 94 Sin and Neurosis – Unifying the Inner Split begins with clearly stating the purpose of our work on the path, namely: finding our real selves. The lecture notes that my real self is closer than I think, but I oftentimes miss it and confuse it with operating from the layers upon layers of the mask self that surrounds and covers my deep real self, my Essence.
Facing Character Defects
Because people tend to moralize and “awfulize” their own faults and shortcomings, and thus invite out the harsh inner critic, the Pathwork Lectures do not often speak of sin and evil. Yet our shortcomings and faults do indeed need to be faced and healed. Pathwork Lecture 94 Sin and Neurosis – Unifying the Inner Split points to the importance of courageously and honestly looking at ourselves to see how our faults and shortcomings – OK, our “sins” – do not serve us but rather harm us and others and need to be faced in a spirit of genuine repentance. These character defects are not part of our Divine Essence but nevertheless part of what we have brought with us to heal.
Inner Climate — Emerging Defenses
What is our “inner climate,” a term introduced in Pathwork Lecture 93 – The Link Between the Main Image, Repressed Needs, and Desires? This lecture uses “inner climate” to describe the arising of our defenses against pain and hurt, especially in the presence of another or a group. A questioner pursues this “inner climate” in Pathwork Lecture 94 – Sin and Neurosis – Unifying the Inner Split. I find this a very practical awareness to develop in order to watch how my defenses come up – seeing an “inner stiffening” arise, especially when working with other people.
Prayer and/Vs. Meditation
The Pathwork Lectures often speak of prayer and meditation as being the same thing. In this Pathwork Lecture #9 – Prayer and Meditation – The Lord’s Prayer – a distinction between prayer (concentrated thinking) and meditation (engaging feelings and felt sense within the Soul) is made that I find useful. The lecture also deepens one’s understanding of prayer and meditation.
Relationship with Mom
I include this quote from Pathwork Lecture 93 The Link Between the Main Image, Repressed Needs, and Defenses because it so vividly and directly applies to me. My main image is that I have to be competent to be approved of and that being approved of is the same as being loved. So much of my life has been governed by this main image, especially with certain authority figures in my life. Working with this image has been my life’s work. It has been and is so powerful for me the “get” this lesson and opportunity to grow.
Spiritual or Psychological Growth? – Part 2
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 92 – Repressed Needs – Relinquishing Blind Needs – Primary and Secondary Reactions – addresses the question often asked: Is Pathwork mostly psychological work aimed at healing childhood wounds and purification or is it mostly a spiritual path to God? Some, including the questioner in this lecture, suggest we need more emphasis on the spiritual work in Pathwork. The Guide puts all of this in perspective.
Spiritual or Psychological Growth?
Should we emphasize spiritual or psychological growth in our Pathwork? In this quote from Lecture 87 The Next Phase on the Path; Questions and Answers we are told that we cannot ultimately experience spiritual maturity in our feeling being without doing the psychological work necessary to experience our feelings at a deep level. The lecture says that the distinction between psychological and spiritual growth is arbitrary and even unnecessary. Exploring our unconscious is the key, and our path is a spiral that allows deeper and deeper feelings to be experienced and worked with as our unconscious become conscious.
Being a Lawyer for the Opposite Point of View
There are two quotes here, the first from Pathwork Lecture 48 – The Life Force in the Universe and second from Pathwork Lecture 54 – Questions and Answers. These quotes suggest an interesting way of dealing with conflict in community. The idea is for you to become the lawyer of the view that is opposite your own view and for you to be evaluated by the community on the effectiveness of your arguments as a lawyer for the other side. Are you really being a great lawyer for the opposite view, or are you holding back? The second quote simply follows up the first, pointing out that despite all the opportunities in the community to use this powerful technique, only a few had tried it. “Why?” The Lecture invites the reader to inquire.
Love, Eros, and Sex, Take 2
Pathwork Lecture 44, The Forces of Love, Eros, and Sex, is often the starting point for Pathworkers diving into this important topic. I consider Lecture 44 “Take 1” on the subject. The following quote from Pathwork Lecture 54 Questions and Answers, builds on Lecture 44, a “Take 2” if you please, a “take” that may be of further help for work on sexuality issues in one’s life. It gives a clear summary of this topic, and expands on the developmental nature of our sexuality from its initial stages in us as selfish infants to the mature stages in us as healthy adults in love relationships of mutuality and Union. Sexuality, as a healthy and natural component of the Life Force, with maturity, integrates with Eros and Love. Without this integration and maturity the sexual force remains an immature, instinctual, and often unmanageable force within us.
Love, Eros, and Sex, Take 3
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 62 Man and Woman, builds further on Pathwork Lectures 44 – Love, Eros, and Sex and Lecture 54 Questions and Answers. How does committed couple-hood go beyond other kinds of relationships and become a unique basis of spiritual and personal growth for both partners – the “path within the path” so to speak? Why is this so? This short quote gives some ideas on these topics.
Community Conflict As Teacher
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 54 Questions and Answers, gives a healthy framework for conflicts in community, pointing out their power to teach and for us to learn and grow through them.
Homework Between Sessions
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 96 Questions and Answers and Additional Comments on Laziness as Symptom of Self-Alienation, gives a helpful and practical suggestion for homework on the Path.
Connecting with God’s World
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 2 Decisions and Tests, gives a framework for communication with God’s world. We are invited and encouraged to connect not only to be informed, but also to be inspired and encouraged. This is not an intellectual connection alone, but also a heart connection.
Ego and Individuality
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 6 The Human Role in the Spiritual and Material Universes, explains the differences between the concept of the ego and that of individuality. I find it clarifying and rich – leading to celebrating our own true lives as individuals forever unfolding within a Oneness of All.
Religion
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 5 Happiness for Yourself or Happiness as a Link in the Chain of Life, puts religion into a context that I find helpful – and defines religion broadly as “re-connection with God.” It helps me see that, “Yes, I am religious!”
Ego, Individuality, and Oneness with the All
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 6 The Human Role in the Spiritual and Material Universes answers the question of a participant about the nature of individuality after death. I find this three-page quote a clear framework for the distinctions among ego, individuality, and the state of Oneness.
A Fulfilled Life In Every Way
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 244 Be in the World But Not of the World – The Evil of Inertia points the way to a fulfilled life in every way via the path of surrender to the Plan of Salvation. Also included are some reflection questions for working with this quote. My blog entry for February 16, 2011, includes my own wrestling with this life issue and use of this quote to guide me.
Dealing with Conflict
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 203 Interpenetration of the Divine Light Spark into the Outer Regions – Mind Exercises, offers a practical way of standing with dignity and humility in conflictual situations. See also a brief presentation of these points.
Finding One’s Role in a Spiritual Community
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 212 Claiming the Total Capacity for Greatness, speaks to our need to serve a cause greater than ourselves in order to be fully satisfied and fulfilled in life, to fully feel the pleasure of life. Here the Lecture speaks specifically to leaders serving within a Pathwork spiritual community.
Thinking, Feeling, Knowing God
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 126 Contact with the Life Force, answers the question of a participant, “How should we think about God?” I find this a clear framework for how one’s spiritual journey unfolds in general, and specifically how God fits into one’s life. See also Pathwork Lecture 105, Humanity’s Relationship to God in Various Stages of Development, which develops this topic in more detail.
Rooting Out Life’s Most Persistent Problems
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 148 Positivity and Negativity: One Energy Current, invites us to pause and identify the most persistent problems in our life. The lecture describes how our inner blocks, triggered initially by outer circumstances early in life, become the very points at which the positive life force turns into a destructive non-life force. These stubborn inner blocks, triggered again and again throughout life, are the roots of our persistent problems. Our spiritual path is to find the original events in this life that triggered our inner blocks, identify and accept these blocks, and reconvert the negative expression that ensued from the life force hitting these blocks into the life force’s original positive expression. In this way we do the work of finding, accepting, and rooting out the causes of our most persistent problems, reconverting the expression of our life force to a positive form, and in this way, over time, experience more and more fulfillment and joy in life.
Fear of Pleasure, of Play, of Spontaneity
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 148 Positivity and Negativity: One Energy Current, describes how we fear pleasure, fear spontaneity, fear play – and in the end fear Life itself, the Life that arises spontaneously from within and wants to manifest and fulfill our purpose, our reason for being incarnated on this planet.
Finding Our Higher Selves — A Brief History of Religion, Psychology, and Spirituality
This quote is from Pathwork Lecture 234 Perfection, Immortality, Omnipotence. It follows the history, limitations, and distortions of early religion and psychology with regard to perfection, immortality, and omnipotence, in short, with regard to our perceptions of the Divine within. And the lecture then points the way to an emerging true Divine state from our core. The lecture also points to our experience of life on earth with both its positive and negative sides. In facing the “good” and the “bad,” we grow from either/or dualistic consciousness (seeing life events as ALL bad or ALL good) to both/and nondual consciousness (seeing, experiencing, and accepting this both/and nature of our human existence). Nondual consciousness sets the foundation for self-acceptance, realistic growth and deep inner peace along the journey of life. These words from this lecture form a basis of the version of Pathwork called 50/50. In this system we grow in consciousness as we move from 100/100 (dualistic consciousness), to 50/50 (nondual consciousness), and eventually to 100 (unitive consciousness – where all is seen and experienced as good and of God).
Doing our Growth Work, Especially After Experiencing Enlightenment
This quote is from Pathwork Lecture 234 Perfection, Immortality, Omnipotence. It points out the importance of continuing to do our growth work after we experience our inner channels opening up, that is, after experiencing a certain modicum of enlightenment. This involves even deeper work with our helper and with our peer groups – working with people who can help us see and work with our deepest and most problematic blind spots. The lecture points to our temptation to stop doing the work after our channel opens somewhat or in a certain area, and how dangerous not continuing to do the work can be. (Note that this quote follows that about Finding Our Higher Selves – the preceding quote in this list.)
Life Is Movement on All Fronts
Pathwork Lecture 203 Interpenetration of the Divine Light Spark into the Outer Regions – Mind Exercises speaks to the importance of movement and change as core aspects of the Life Force operating from within. When we resist change and movement on all fronts, our Life Force is distorted.
Personal Growth and Organized Religion
Pathwork Lecture 68 Suppression of Positive and Creative Tendencies – Thought Processes notes that our creativity includes our personal and spiritual growth and manifestation into the world. This spiritual unfoldment, like all of our creative aspects, is a personal affair, unique for each individual. This Pathwork lecture suggests that an organized church that standardizes and unifies around a particular set of dogma can become an obstacle to our beautiful, unique, spiritual unfoldment. When we come to realize this and begin to individuate from the religion of our youth we can find ourselves in an attitude of defiance and rebellion against our rigid religious heritage. This need not be, since such growth is organic and natural. The individuation can be welcomed and celebrated. In such a moment we are not “confirmed” into a set of dogma but rather released into our own spiritual divine spark that grows and unfolds from within. It is a moment of initiation into spiritual adulthood and self-responsibility. Eventually the rebellion wears off as we see the blessing our religious foundation has been. Had it been less dogmatic, less rigid, perhaps we would not have individuated. Perhaps the strict dogma was the shell that needed to be cracked open from the inside as our true self was birthed into the world. This is my current interpretation of my own church experience. And I feel blessed by my religious roots, even though I remained in the shell of my religion for nearly six decades before my divine seed broke open the shell and I began experiencing my own spiritual unfoldment as an emissary of Christ consciousness and energy into the world.
Manifesting our Inner Magnificence
In this beautiful Christmas Lecture 1975, Lecture 239, given 3 years before Eva’s Death, we are challenged to manifest the Christ within, that is, to manifest our true Higher Self, our Divine Spark, our Inner Magnificence rather than manifest our distorted masky Idealized Self Image that, in fear, tries to appear divine but with an insistence of being separated from Source. The latter, to the theme of “I’ll do it my way,” takes enormous work, exhausting effortful work. It brings no joy, no peace, no satisfaction and in the end satisfies only our pride and vanity, and that only for a brief moment before we return to our vicious circle of getting back on the treadmill of our isolated and exhausting life. The former takes lots of work as well, but it is an effort toward purification so that our Higher Self can manifest unobstructed by all the distortions we carry in our personality. Because we are being energized from within, however, the work of purification and subsequent manifestation of the Christ within is effortless effort.
Excerpts from 1975 Pathwork Christmas Lecture
These excerpts culled from Pathwork Lecture 239 Christmas Lecture 1975 by Tom Hubbard, gives an amazing description of how to celebrate Christmas in its full meaning.
Happiness, A Natural Byproduct of Spiritual Development
Pathwork Lecture 13 Positive Thinking: The Right And The Wrong Way emphasizes that happiness is God’s will for us, but true happiness necessitates the hard work of spiritual development. No quick roads to true happiness.
Faith, An Inside Job, Not By External Signs
Pathwork Lecture 13 Positive Thinking: The Right And The Wrong Way begins with a beautiful 3-page description of what faith is and what it is not. This lecture says that faith is not a blind leap, nor is true faith induced by external miracles. Rather faith grows as a by-product as we slowly develop along our spiritual journey. On a subsequent page the lecture answers a participant’s question on this topic.
Getting the Love We Long For
Pathwork Lecture 69 The Folly of Watching for Results While on the Path; Fulfillment or Suppression of the Valid Desire to be Loved offers a beautiful 5-page overview about our unconscious and rightful longing for being loved and shows how we go astray as we substitute other desires for our longing to be loved. These never satisfy. It also speaks to the need to let others not love us, if that is where they are with us. Well worth the read.
Being Drawn To a Spiritual Path
Pathwork Lecture 69 The Folly of Watching for Results While on the Path; Fulfillment or Suppression of the Valid Desire to be Loved speaks to what in our psyche draws us to a spiritual path. Our psyche anticipates an escalation of life’s issues and wants us to be ready to grow from and master the problems rather than drop into despair when the problems come.
Life is a School, We Determine the Curriculum
Pathwork Lecture 69 The Folly of Watching for Results While on the Path; Fulfillment or Suppression of the Valid Desire to be Loved states that Life is a School, and that we create our own curriculum out of what experiences we manifest – “good” or “bad.” Our growth is in our mastery over our life experiences, again mastery over the “good” and “bad” experiences in our life.
Mastery over Life’s Problems vs. Their Removal
Pathwork Lecture 69 The Folly of Watching for Results While on the Path; Fulfillment or Suppression of the Valid Desire to be Loved points out that our progress in our spiritual life is measured not by the reduction of problems in our lives but rather our reaction to them. And even here we can catch ourselves trying to fake calmness in the face of troubles.
Groups
Pathwork Lecture 47 The Wall Within encourages group work, deep group work
Getting Stuck on the Path
Pathwork Lecture 47 The Wall Within notes that we can start on our path, such as Pathwork, have certain victories and spurts of growth, and still get stuck. The answer, as always, is self-examination.
Freedom and Duty
Pathwork Lecture 47 The Wall Within clearly lays out the difference between Freedom in Duty and Compulsion to “Musts.” Does freedom mean one can always do exactly as one pleases? The Lecture would say, “No,” and yet we are free.
Each Life Unique — No Reward/Punishment
Pathwork Lecture 47 The Wall Within beautifully lays out how each life is unique, how each life has a life plan, and what our role is in living out our life plan. There is no room for comparison of lives. The Lecture explains how there is no concept of reward/punishment by God in the evolution of the Cosmos. Nature naturally corrects.
Facing War and Other Disasters
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 12 deals with how we can play a responsible role in facing wars and other disasters in our world.
The Life Energy Centers
This 3-page quote from Pathwork Lecture 172 The Life Energy Centers identifies six energy centers in the body (similar to yet different from the 7-chakra system). This material was the basis of a Sevenoaks Pathwork Workshop developed by Alison Greene-Barton and Brian O’Donnell and first given April 14-18, 2010. It was titled: Opening the Gates of Heaven – Embodying God. I attended and had a deep opening as described in my April 26 blog post entitled Focusing on my Incarnation.
Meditation Practices
Pathwork Lecture 68 Suppression of Positive and Creative Tendencies – Thought Processes introduces how to begin a meditation practice. Pathwork Lecture 182 The Process of Meditation (Meditation for Three Voices: Ego, Lower Self, Higher Self) gives a practice for working with the immature child self or lower self – a meditation practice perhaps unique to Pathwork.
Facing Fear
This quote on working with fear is from Pathwork Lecture 75 The Great Transition in Human Development from Isolation to Union.
Daily Review
This short quote from Pathwork Lecture 17 The Call – Daily Review introduces a key Pathwork tool: The Daily Review.
Prayer and Commitment
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 129 Winner Versus Loser: Interplay Between the Self and Creative Forces describes prayer balanced with commitment.
The Spiritual Gardener
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 129 Winner Versus Loser: Interplay Between the Self and Creative Forces compares the life of a spiritually oriented person to that of a gardener.
Taking Responsibility for Improving Our Life
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 40 More on Image Finding: A Summary invites us to see where our life is even a little disappointing and then take responsibility for changing it rather than expecting God to fix things for us.
Guardian Angels
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 45 The Conflict Between Conscious and Unconscious Desires speaks to the role and availability of Guardian Angels in our lives…
Translating Feelings into Concise Thoughts
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 40 More on Image Finding: A Summary describes how we are to translate negative feelings into concise thoughts so we can understand their origin and correct their causes.
Right Passive Acceptance of Effect, Right Active Correcting of Cause
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 40 More on Image Finding: A Summary describes how we are not only to accept the painful effects brought on by previous causes within us but also actively work to correct the causes within us to avoid future painful effects. This is about self-responsibility.
Purification Defined
What is Purification? This short quote from Pathwork Lecture #40 More on Image Finding: A Summary gives a meaning for purification. Purification works on the level of feelings and emotion, not only action.
Disharmonies As Answer to Prayer
This quote from the introductory paragraphs of Pathwork Lecture #43 Three Basic Personality Types: Reason, Will, Emotion, notes that we may miss answers to prayer because we think problems should be relieved, not heightened, when our prayers are answered.
Reconciliation
A plea for reconciliation from Pathwork Lecture #37: Acceptance, Right and Wrong Way – Dignity in Humility.
You Have What You Long For
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 172 The Life Energy Centers reminds us that we already have what we long for. It is part of our essence waiting to manifest.
The Central Purpose of Pathwork
This beautiful quote from Pathwork Lecture 167 Frozen Life Center Becomes Alive succinctly states the central purpose of Pathwork. Enjoy.
Being Happy for the Purpose of Making Happy
These words from Pathwork Lecture 39 Image-Finding and 166 Perceiving, Reacting, Expressing, we see that happiness is not our goal in life but rather a byproduct and a means by which we contribute to and enable the happiness and fulfillment of others.
Necessity of Pain and Disharmonies for our Awakening
This quote from Pathwork Lecture #84 Love, Power, Serenity as Divine Attributes and as Distortions helps us understand, accept, and even to welcome the pain and disharmonies we experience in our lives. We come to realize that pains and disharmonies are lessons key and necessary for our growth, enabling us first to see life more truthfully and then motivating us to give up our old strategies of escape. Growth and awakening happen as we organically grow through the pain, seeing our role in creating it through our old pseudo-solutions to life’s pains.
Getting to Know Our Real Values
This quote from Pathwork Lecture #84 Love, Power, Serenity as Divine Attributes and as Distortions helps us discover our real values underneath the layers of our idealized Self Image defenses and their concomitant false values. This quote also speaks to the slow process of our growth.
Self Mastery
This quote from Pathwork Lecture #84 Love, Power, Serenity as Divine Attributes and as Distortions speaks to self mastery.
Facing Real Needs
The popular Non-Violent Communications program developed by Marshall Rosenberg is based upon understanding how one’s needs affect emotions. When needs are met, life is good, emotions positive. When needs are not met, life is bad, emotions negative. This quote from Lecture 100 Meeting the Pain of Destructive Patterns distinguishes mature needs from immature needs and is a complementary teaching that looks more deeply at our needs as human beings. It invites us to inquiry concerning our needs.
The Path of Pathwork
Pathwork Lecture 204 What Is The Path is the standard lecture used to explain Pathwork. However I found this passage from Pathwork Lecture 100 Meeting the Pain of Destructive Patterns to be very helpful for laying out some of the realities of the path of Pathwork. It speaks to the time and pain of crossing the threshold into emotional adulthood. For me it is the Grail myth version of Pathwork, speaking to Parsifal’s life experiences in his quest for the Holy Grail.
Soul vs. Spirit
In this quote from Pathwork Lecture 50 The Vicious Circle, a clear and concise definition of the Soul is given. It is described as a subtle body, our feeling body, our true inner personality, as distinguished from Spirit (our Divine Spark or Essence) or our physical body. It also describes our Soul leaving our body during sleep.
Desirelessness, Healthy and Unhealthy
Desirelessness can be very tricky, sometimes healthy and at other times life-and-love-denying, and hence unhealthy. This quote from Pathwork Lecture #39 Image Finding provides some helpful perspectives on this topic.
Happiness, Selfishness, and Prayer
This beautiful quote distinguishes happiness from selfishness and suggests the way to healthy unselfish prayer that inevitably leads to happiness, but happiness as a byproduct rather than as a direct answer to a prayer for happiness. It is from Pathwork Lecture #39 Image-Finding.
Ups and Downs in the Spiritual Journey
This helpful quote from Pathwork Lecture #39 Image-Finding gives us perspective for facing the vicissitudes of our spiritual life, times when we feel close to God and our Essence and times when we do not.
Pain of Unfulfillment
Quote from Pathwork Lecture 100 Meeting the Pain of Destructive Patterns. When we see areas in our lives where we are unfulfilled, this lecture invites us to feel this pain and trace it back to where the defenses against feeling this pain got set in our young lives. By releasing these defenses – patterns, images, wrong conclusions, etc. – slowly, over time, more fulfillment can emerge.
Christmas
The Pathwork Lectures began with Number 1 on March 11, 1957. The first Christmas lecture was Lecture #19 given on December 20, 1957 and for the first time introduces Jesus Christ into the Pathwork. The second Christmas lecture was given on December 19, 1958 and was titled Christmas Blessings – Objectivity and Subjectivity. Lecture #19 and sections from #42 make for an interesting Christmas reading.
Seeing Grave Faults in Others
A beautiful and practical quote from Pathwork Lecture 42 Christmas Blessings – Objectivity and Subjectivity. This applies to situations when I see a grave fault in another. This quote also gives a useful practice for working with such energy within oneself.
Listening to our Higher Selves
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 11 Self-Knowledge – the Great Plan – The Spirit World speaks to listening to our Higher Selves or to our Spirit Guides, the difference and purpose for each channel to God
Personal Spirit Guides
An interesting quote from Pathwork Lecture 11 Self-Knowledge – The Great Plan – The Spirit World on one’s personal Spirit Guides
Living in the Jungle of Life
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 36 – Prayer gives an interesting overview of Life
The Practice of Prayer and Meditation
This excellent 7-page overview of the practice of prayer and meditation is from Pathwork Lecture 36 – Prayer
Facing Painful Situations
A helpful and balanced quote from Pathwork Lecture 58 – The Desire for Happiness and the Desire for Unhappiness. Yes, as we mature Pain and Pleasure increasingly become one, but do not strive for this state. Rather focus on lessons that are there for us in each painful situation. This is the world we are in just now, and the purpose of pain.
Spiritual Tests and Warfare
Quote from Pathwork Lecture 33 Occupation with Self — Right and Wrong Faith
A Challenge in Early Stages of Enlightenment
Quote from Pathwork Lecture 33 Occupation with Self — Right and Wrong Faith
Facing Doubts, Faith by Grace And Work
Quote from Pathwork Lecture 33 Occupation with Self — Right and Wrong Faith
Modeling Change to Effect Change in Others
Quote from Pathwork Lecture 33 Occupation with Self – Right and Wrong Faith for using self-change as a model to help others change.
Right Use of Time
This quote on the right use of time is from Pathwork Lecture 112 Humanity’s Relationship to Time. Exercise: During events of the day keep a journal of moments of frustration, anxiety, anger, depression, disharmony, and the like. Then do your personal work of getting to the roots of these negative moods and emotions in your life. This, the lecture says, is the right use of time.
Patience Required in Transforming Lower Self
Quote from Pathwork Lecture 31 – Shame. It shows the long time, patience and humility required for true transformation of entrenched and stubborn Lower Self faults that block the emanations from our Higher Self.
Key to Happiness
An interesting quote on the key ingredient in one’s pursuit of happiness from Pathwork Lecture 31
Ambition and Productivity
As an Enneagram THREE-type (Achiever), I take in these words (in both their positive and negative sense) from Pathwork Lecture 32 Decision-Making
Multiple Deep Relationships
This is a quote from Lecture 106 Sadness Versus Depression — Relationship
When I See a Shortcoming in Another
This is a quote from Pathwork Lecture 32 Decision-Making.
Opening to Change and Movement
This set of quotes from Pathwork Lecture 203 was part of the basis of a Sevenoaks Helper Retreat on October 18, 2009. It builds on the opening line: Movement is one of the essential byproducts of aliveness, of the unitive state.
Facing What We Cannot Change
This set of quotes from Pathwork Lecture 51 is the complementary set to the quotes from Pathwork Lecture 203 above and was also used in the Sevenoaks Helper Retreat on October 18, 2009. It deals with facing what we cannot change.
Relating and Relationship
Quote from Pathwork Lecture 106 Sadness Versus Depression — Relationship. Establishes that Living is Relating. Even negative relating is more alive than not relating and being in isolation.
Decision-Making
A helpful quote on making decisions from Pathwork Lecture 32 Decision-Making
Personal Relationship with Jesus Christ
A beautiful quote from Pathwork Lecture 258.
Healing Physical Illnesses
A Quote from Pathwork Lecture 14 on healing physical illnesses — showing this temporal goal of being healed to be of secondary importance to the process of growth and the true purpose of personal and spiritual development in its own right.
What is a Human Being?
A quote from Pathwork Lecture 101 on the complexity and intricacies of each of us as human beings.
Eastern and Western Spirituality and Philosophy
Quote from Pathwork Lecture 14 regarding the differences and importance of both Eastern and Western modes of spirituality
Role of Making Affirmations
Quote from Pathwork Lecture 56 describing the possible usefulness of affirmations as well as their limitations when it comes to deeper issues. (My take on this)
War and Capital Punishment
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 29 speaks to the role and present inevitability of war when humankind, in its current state of duality, is so filled with lower self aspects. The solution to war is not to not go to war but to heal those aspects of the souls of humankind that lead to war in the first place. We do this by raising the consciousness of the planet over time.
Following Truth, Not Charisma
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 30 speaks to personal freedom when following truth rather than charismatic leaders or organizations. It relates to my Pathworker’s Blog for October 20.
Attitude for Being In Service
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 27 gives some pointers to those of us who feel a calling to be in service to God and the planet.
Dealing with Disagreeable Circumstances and People
This quote from Pathwork Lecture 51 offers guidance for dealing with people and circumstances that are challenging for us, people who seem to always hurt us in some way or circumstances that are simply not fair in our book.
Facing Fear
This quote is from Pathwork Lecture 168 and deals with facing fear.
Death
This quote if from Pathwork Lecture 168 and deals with attitudes toward Death
Competition
These quotes are from Pathwork Lectures 148 and 219 and deal with competition among members of a Pathwork community
Living Spontaneously from our Core
Quote from Pathwork Lecture 155, fearlessly living from our core, experiencing our pleasure, our love, AND our anger
Preparing for Conflicts and Battle
Pathwork Lecture 203 gives us excellent counsel when we are facing challenging situations, conflicts, or people. I have applied this and found it both practical and helpful. Just go into a potentially bothersome situation asking, “So how, specifically, will my PRIDE, SELF-WILL, and FEAR show up here?” Consciousness and anticipation of one’s own defense structure is very helpful in preventing unconscious reacting. One can then have alternatives in mind and use them, as this quote suggests.
Prayer
This quote from Lecture 105 is a beautiful summary of the evolution of our prayer life as we pass through our own development, including our possible stages of conscious or unconscious atheism. (This material is also illustrated in a presentation in the Presentation section of this website — under “Personal Support”)
Daily Review
The daily review (sometimes called inquiry or daily log) is a powerful and necessary practice by which we come to know our true selves. These quotes from Pathwork Lectures 27 and 29 beautifully describe this process and its purpose.
Where to Begin Our Pathwork
This quote from Lecture 27 suggests that the place to begin our Pathwork is with our problems and areas in our life where we are not fulfilled or satisfied. We then come to see how our attitudes and behavior have contributed to our problems and take responsibility for them.
Accepting What Is, Without Resignation
How do we accept what is without resignation? This quote from Pathwork Lecture 29 speaks to this.
So It’s All God’s Fault, Right?
Oh how we like to blame God for problems in our life and the lives of others and on the planet!This quote from Pathwork Lecture 29 puts this in perspective.
Making Decisions in Life
This quote from Lecture 29 helps us make decisions in life by sorting out our pure motivations from our many false motivations.
Importance of Forming Independent Opinions
This is a long quote from Pathwork Lecture 51 by that same title.I include it all because it has been important to me. It speaks to all that clouds our opinions, the stakes we have in them and how our emotions sometimes play an important role.
Living Life Between Dropping Fake Love and realizing Authentic Love – Learning True Love
This quote from Lecture 51 (¶44-46) gives us very practical advice on how to live our lives between our early growth stage of recognizing and dropping our Love Mask (unsustained by inner authentic love feelings) and then, much later, free from much of our Lower Selves, living our True and Authentic Love from our Higher Selves. The lecture shows that this is how we learn to love from our hearts!