A Sabbath; Also, What IS Pathwork?
Meditation Time – Thursday, March 29, 2012
Today, March 29, 2012, begins a Sabbath for me, a time of rest and celebration. Yesterday I finished my six-year project of recording my readings of the body of 258 Pathwork Lectures – 204 hours of recorded Pathwork teachings.
I was not aware of how the completion of this task would affect me. The main feeling seems to be one of joy and satisfaction – a looking back at these six years and feeling such pleasure in the felt sense that this project has been so worthwhile and so joy-filling for me. I smile at the creation story – God creating the world in six days, relating to my six years on this project, and then God taking great satisfaction in his creation by “seeing it was very good” and then resting on the seventh day. Let me just take this in, my own “little creation project” for the planet!
But what arose next in my meditation, and quite unexpectedly, was a description of what Pathwork is – a question that I, like many Pathworkers, have been trying to formulate for a decade now. What is the “elevator speech” for Pathwork? Just a week ago I was telling a fellow Pathworker that I thought trying to come up with an elevator speech for Pathwork was futile. I no sooner say the elevator speech is impossible when some seeming clarity of possibilities arise!
So here is what arose spontaneously…
What is Pathwork?
Pathwork is a spiritual path, and, like all true spiritual paths, it is a set of teachings, experiences, and practices – a set of tools if you please – to facilitate one’s journey to profound levels of awareness – self-awareness, other-awareness, Cosmic-awareness, and God-awareness. What emerges along one’s life-long spiritual path toward profound awareness, that is, along one’s journey to one’s “Home in God,” is a felt sense, a deep and flowing intuitive sense and transcendent inner awakening of Truth, Love, Union, Wisdom, Creativity, Power, Joy, and Peace – yielding a deep sense of Purpose, Freedom, and Acceptance, including Self-Acceptance, in this temporary world of inevitable ups and downs and times of joy and suffering. Pathwork, like all true spiritual paths, supports one in one’s task of purification and transformation for the benefit not only of one’s Self but also for the benefit of all beings and the Cosmos.
This description, arising unexpectedly and spontaneously from my depths as it did, too brings me joy and an inner enthusiasm – a sense and experience of God within. More Grace. I’m humbled before the experience. More gratitude.
So ends my meditation time, and may I carry this energy into my day…
Shared with love, Gary
Epilog: I noticed that this description of Pathwork could serve as a description of any true spiritual path. I substituted Pat’s Awakening Into Presence (AIP) spiritual program for Pathwork in this description, and Pat agreed that it described AIP perfectly also.
And it would describe any of a number of 12-Step programs, Buddhist programs, Islamic programs, Christian programs, even the Roman Catholic Church or Lutheran Church. The fact that this description applies to any true spiritual path suggests for me its adequacy for Pathwork.
So then the question becomes, “How do various spiritual paths differ from one another?” In this context, the next question to address in Pathwork would be, “How is Pathwork different from and similar to any one of a number of other spiritual paths?” And, “How does one choose a spiritual path, be that Pathwork or any other, or configure a combination of paths that seem to integrate into one that is uniquely suited to one’s particular individuality?” In this sense, what is your spiritual path? And what has been your path to your path?