Mind Activity And Mind Receptivity

By The Pathwork Guide

Greetings, all my friends, my beloved friends. The love of the Universe embraces every manifestation and individualization of the Divine Being, especially when the outer, separated self strives so ardently to find the truth of being, the truth of self -- and thus the truth of life.

All the pain and frustration the average human being goes through in the course of a lifetime is exclusively the result of not knowing your true identity. And the constant struggle of living is that you unconsciously know that there is something to recapture, there is some secret key that could open life. You know, deep within yourself, that life cannot possibly be merely what you experience from day to day, it cannot merely be what it is at the moment. And because of that you strive away from the moment. And because of that you lose the moment. And because of that you lose the meaning of life -- for every single fragment of a moment contains all of life.

The struggle to discover the true self and the acceptance of the Now are not two mutually exclusive opposites. They are indeed interdependent. Tonight's lecture specifically deals with the inner attitude of the mind to find these two apparently opposite ways of experiencing and finding the meaning of life and your true identity.

The mind's activity, or lack of activity, is the key here: a subtle process, and yet, at the same, so distinct, so definite, so important. This is almost impossible to put into words. Yet we have to try to do out best: as far as I am concerned, I have to do my best in explaining, in finding the right expression so as to meet and reach you, to communicate to you what I mean. And as far as you are concerned, you can do your best by opening yourself inwardly, with your heart as much as with your mind, so that you will not only understand with your intellect, but intuitively as well. The latter is, as you know, the much more important understanding.

There are two important forces, or attitudes in the Universe, therefore in each human personality. One is striving, moving, acting, initiating, activating, doing. This aspect includes self-responsibility, independence, autonomy, free choice, and the power of the self. The other is being receptive to and waiting for whatever is to happen. This aspect includes awareness of being a part of a whole; interdependence; trust in the greater life processes; patience; humility. The former means direct action, the latter waiting for growth and indirect manifestation. This takes place in its own way, and according to its own laws.

When man believes -- consciously or unconsciously -- one of these two attitudes to be either "right" or "wrong," so that he cultivates only one or the other, distortion and imbalance are inevitable. Since it is impossible to "use" only one, the opposite of what the person has adopted as his way of functioning still exists, though in a less overt way. But both function in an inappropriate, ineffective, and even destructive way. I shall go into this in greater detail a little later. It is important for every growing individual to discover the fine interplay, in the proper balance, of these two major universal forces. Since there exists no rule on exactly when and how to change over, the way to do so must be found within each person's own rhythm and inner reality. He must become attuned to his inner life and his soul movements, so as to recognize when and how each is expressed: when one is predominant and when the other; what the different phases of growth require at any given moment. This becomes more and more spontaneous and automatic as the self unfolds and integrates with the ego.

These two universal tendencies, or forces, or attitudes might also be referred to as the active and passive forces. I spoke about this topic many years ago, but on a much more superficial and general level. The way it can be treated now is, of course, very different: on a much deeper level and much more specifically, to be used by each person as he follows the path. For you know very well that the truth of life cannot be found by a philosophy, by understanding something in your brain. The only way you can experience and feel the truth is by applying it to your own self, to your individual problems, thus transcending the problems. Then, and then only, can you experience every force of the Universe within yourself.

Still another way of putting it would be to talk about the creative masculine and the creative feminine principles. This I also discussed in the past in a different context, and more generally. The masculine and feminine principles exist in the psychic life of all life manifestations. They are at work wherever life exists. The creative power of their harmonious interplay creates new, and forever new, manifestations and individualizations of the Divine Being. This does not merely refer to the fleshly creations, it applies to everything. Growth within the personality is also a "creation" and must be determined by the same life-giving forces of harmonious interaction of the male and female principles. Growth cannot come unless the right interaction of initiative, will, and determination on the one hand, and passivity, receptivity, surrender, waiting, and unfolding on the other exists. The coming together of these two principles, or forces, creates renewal, new forms, expansion; it bubbles forth more and greater life; it creates intense bliss and supreme pleasure. Disharmonious interaction -- over or under-emphasis of one force -- thwarts life and results in unpleasure, frustration, and restriction. When men and women have not established both masculine and feminine principles within their own soul life and mind activity, they cannot fully be men or women.

Both principles or forces have certain common denominators. One of them is the alternation of tension and relaxation, of firmness and softness. The fertile soil of life, growth, peace, and pleasure is the resiliency that springs from the pulsation and rhythmic movement of tension and relaxation. Only you must not imagine that this kind of tension can be compared with the painful tension the person experiences when these forces are in disharmony within his inner life. It must be visualized as the kind of pleasant tension that is a springboard from which action flows forth, naturally and organically. The same applies to relaxation: it must not be confused with the inertia of lifelessness and lack of energy. In its healthy version, it is full of life, of inner movement. It is poised in the confident state that natural action follows suit in its own time -- if this word can be used in lack of a better one.

The proper interaction of tension and relaxation is the pulsation of the Universe, the breathing of it. If I say of the Universe, it means also of every aspect or particle thereof. For everything alive is the Universe, is an aspect of it, and must therefore be part of the same principles and laws. The pulsating beat of tension and relaxation is an expression of the proper assimilation of these two forces: the male and the female, the active and the passive, the initiating and the receptive forces. Every life manifestation is an expression of this beat, manifests this principle. The more harmonious the life manifestation, the more properly assimilated is the constant fluctuation of initiating and receptivity -- opening and closing, opening and closing.

The more the organism is removed from its source, the less the consciousness is aware of its real divine identity, and the more painful must be the alternating rhythm and pulsation of life. For where life is, this rhythmic movement must exist. Conversely, the higher the development, that is, the more the individual is aware of his true identity and therefore connected with it, the more pleasurable and blissful both movements -- opening and closing, tension and relaxation -- must inevitably be. At a certain stage between these two extreme poles is the phase in which the opening, relaxed state is felt as desirable and pleasurable, while the retracting, closing, tense state is felt as painful and undesirable. This causes the entity to strive away from one and toward the other state of pulse movement. Yet the more he strives, the more he hinders the natural rhythm. For striving creates more tension -- even when one strives for the open, relaxed state. Hence, there is really no other way but to endure the momentary painful state, so as to allow the natural rhythm to play -- until the entire personality is freed of the shackles that cause a painful, cramped state. This does not mean the cessation of the tense, closing movement -- for this would mean no life. It merely means that gradually, as the pain is transcended, it ceases to be pain. We might say that many human beings find themselves in this "middle state," where one universal pulse beat is felt as painful and the other as pleasurable.

Right interaction of these two principles or universal forces from the point of view of your mind activity, specifically in regard to your path work, may best be described as follows: The outer, deliberate, conscious ego, with its will power, must be poised in a firm but relaxed way. The resistant and destructive unconscious must not be given in to, nor must it be anxiously pressured, impatiently pushed, and coerced. The ego faculties, with their directly accessible will power and immediate effect, must be alert in recognizing the signs of the unconscious -- where it is, what it expresses indirectly, and, finally, how it holds back so as to prevent happiness and unfoldment. In order to thus recognize, the mind must be calm, observant, and accepting of what happens to be now, and encouraging the unconscious to express itself. Once this happens and it surfaces with all its unreasonableness, it can then be quite naturally altered in its direction. Obstruction will vanish.

You can see that this requires a fine balance between the active, initiative, masculine principle of the mind, in the firmness of purpose not to follow the line of least resistance toward the unconscious obstructions, and the receptive, passive, feminine principle, in the waiting, receiving spirit in which the expressions of the destructive unconscious are accepted. The identical procedure exists, of course, in regard to the unfoldment of the universal intelligence. However, the more obstructions fester underground, the less will this be possible -- as you all know well. The ideal approach is to use alternately both: instruct firmly, calmly, and determinedly the destructive part of the hidden self to express itself. Observe with interest, attention, and "non-interference" what comes forth. In order to make this possible, request the Divine Being you are deep inside to guide and help in this process. Again, the determination and instruction is the active mind. Again, the waiting for the manifestation is the passive, receiving principle.

The human mind is constantly groping -- consciously or unconsciously -- to find the right balance of these all-important attitudes. It is one of the great difficulties that man encounters on his personal path to find the balance and harmonious interaction. As I said, it cannot be learned by rules. It needs a very finely tuned listening into your own soul movements to discover when to use one and then stop, and when to use the other of these two complementing forces. You have to see yourself using the wrong way before you can gradually adopt the right one. How often is man lax, lazy, inattentive to his innermost expressions, in the misunderstood passive principle. He claims, rightly as it were, that things must ripen by themselves, that healthy growth cannot be forced, that it is a spontaneous process. Right as he is, he uses it wrongly and neglects to go into himself in order to face what needs to be faced, to be recognized, and make changes, to do and to act with his outer and inner mind. By the same token, how often is man over-active, tense in his coercive, impatient currents -- toward himself as well as others -- in the misunderstood active principle.

Whenever there is one such distorted predominance, it must be precisely because the other also exists -- perhaps less noticeably. The outer impatience with oneself connotes an inner resistance. The outer laziness and letting things be (in the wrong way) connotes an inner non-acceptance of the self and a fierce struggle against the self and its effects. This fierce struggle must be brought out, for it is always present where there are unresolved problems, where there is imbalance, distortion, unfulfillment. The struggle between the self and the self is, for the longest time, projected outwardly, so that it is assumed that the struggle exists between the self and life, or between the self and others. But since there is no difference between you and life (therefore also others), the struggle is basically between you and yourself. Once this is quite conscious, the imbalance talked about here will become comprehensible and, consequently, a re-orientation can begin.

True change is always this spontaneous process that happens quite by itself. Or so it seems. Actually, it is the result of the outer efforts of the individual -- unstrained, natural, poised efforts. But when the results are expected immediately, as direct and visible manifestations of the efforts, the process is misunderstood. The person will become disappointed, discouraged, will use less effort, fall back into destructive patterns of mind, thought, and emotions, as well as of actions, and, at the same time, become more and more tense and pushy toward his own process. On the other hand, if a person waits for results without going to the trouble of investing his very best into life, himself, and his growth process -- in the knowledge that growth manifests effortlessly and as if by itself -- he, too, must be disappointed, and the inner struggle against himself (life) will become stronger.

The more unconscious man's pains and frustrations are, the more he will strain and grasp for a solution. His mind becomes over-stretched. Consciously he may not be aware of this and may explain away the feeling of discomfort with all sorts of other "reasons." He may even be driven to destructive actions, to seeking troublesome life situations, in order to have a satisfactory explanation for his discomfort. For not knowing the reason is a pain worse than whatever conscious pain. In some personality types the result is inertia.

Misapplied good will and determined action take the form of over-stretched tension. Where the mind should be receptive, not only to what comes from outside, but just as much and even more to what comes out from inside, it often closes into a tight knot formed of pressure against the self. Deliberate receptivity toward the inner processes to receive into consciousness what wants to work its way out is an essential part of the path. You cannot ever get to know what is within you unless this inner attitude is cultivated.

When people are over-eager, too much in a hurry, too impatient, the path work is stopped. It is always an expression of misunderstanding the processes. It means that the false idea exists that inner blocks can be removed by direct application of ego-will. The ego-will has its necessary function, but it is indirectly responsible for the undercurrents and the will of the unconscious. Therefore the outer consciousness must treat the unconscious -- even the destructive, childish, distorted part of it -- with respect. It is the respect you grant a being who must not be coerced, but who must find its way. So your own unconscious must find its way. If it is coerced, it cannot unfold itself. It cannot respond, it cannot reveal itself. If the outer mind "stands there," all tense and anxious and pushing and forcing the unconscious, it is impossible to establish the kind of relationship between the conscious and the unconscious that is necessary so that first the revelation of the latter and then the unification of both can take place.

The relationship between the conscious mind and the destructive part of the unconscious can be established by accepting, for the time being, the fact that perceptions, attitudes, and feelings exist that are often diametrically opposed to each other. Once the destructive, obstructive, and damaging unconscious aspects are allowed to reveal themselves, the more truthful and constructive attitudes and convictions of the conscious mind can influence and gradually eliminate the stumbling blocks within the soul. By the same token a relationship between the ego faculties and the highest wisdom, truth, and deep love feelings of the Divine Self can be established when the ego self is prepared to receive the latter. This means a waiting, receptive, quiet attitude and, once the Divine unfolds through new ideas, new feelings, and new depths of experience, the ego self will be instructed, influenced, and suffused by the manifestation of the Divine. Thus, the two aspects of growth and integration suppose the identical dynamics of active and passive, of doing and waiting, of initiating and receiving. In one instance the conscious ego is the wiser and more constructive part than the buried unconscious. In the other instance, the buried unconscious is by far the wiser and is more constructive than the conscious mind.

The treating with respect of the unconscious -- regardless of which aspect of it -- the giving honor to it, is extremely necessary. This honor is not being paid to the destructiveness itself, but rather to the processes of growth and unfoldment, to the wondrous laws of the inner reality. In this frame of mind, the lawfulness will eventually become accessible to the mind. Thereby universal laws of creation, which are identical, will also be understood. This is what I mean when I keep saying that life, creation, the universe, the cosmos can only be understood to the degree that man understands his own unconscious processes, their lawfulness and their dynamics.

Even the most destructive attitudes are the result of sheer misunderstanding and not of evil. When one fully understands this, it becomes clear that even the most destructive processes are awesomely impressive, for their principle and their mechanics is based on lawfulness identical with the working of Creation at its best. Since evil is a result of misunderstanding, and since the processes are equally wonderful in and by themselves, evil can truly be eliminated only when you learn to be respectful of your own unconscious. Let it unfold in its own way and in its own rhythm. Be receptive and open to what it reveals to you. This attitude is, again and again, violated by a punitive and harried and anxious and pressing mind force -- a forcing current unto your own unconscious. This results, sometimes alternatively and often simultaneously, in over-stretched tension and anxiety, and/or in inertia, laziness, neglect of active growth.

Since you treat the outer world in exactly the same way that you treat your own unconscious, you emanate the same climate onto those whom you are involved with. Often people retract from this onslaught of forcing, of saying, as it were, "you must," just as much as your own unconscious does. When you do not wish to pay close attention to your own unconscious and retract from it, when you only superficially do so as a gesture, then you cannot help meeting others in a similar vein. Needless to say that this is resented by them -- again, often unconsciously, for most people are unaware of the interaction of their unconscious.

Every good, beautiful and creative experience, in which you feel at one with life, with yourself, and with the creative processes, is a result of the proper relationship between the active and passive principles. When you think back to those opportunities, you will see that there existed a combination of poised alertness, of active involvement and participation and, at the same time, of receptive, waiting, and very relaxed, yet pulsating, passivity. When you let these flow out of you, life can flow into you. Nothing can come to you from life (apparently outside of you) that you have not made possible.

Let me briefly recapitulate the distortion of this twofold principle -- the active and the passive. The initiative, active, masculine principle becomes tight tension, the tension of impatience, of anxiety, of the pride of the ego which thinks it alone is capable of doing it all by sheer outer will. This implies also the negation not only of the universal powers, but therefore also of the powers of man's own unconscious ability to grow and function according to higher laws. It implies the distrust in all universal and personal movements within, as though they had no existence, lawfulness, rhythm of their own -- and also a mistrust in their reasoning. This attitude further implies the conviction of just being an isolated ego, without deeper connections. In this extremely painful illusion, the actually existing connections are lost, or rather, they remain unused, so that truly the ego is unable to function according to its best possibility and its "destiny." The less those inner forces and movements are made available to participate in the business of living, the less adequately the ego can fend for itself, therefore the more harassed it becomes. This isolated ego-existence is a result of ignorance, of pride in the ego as the highest and best and only reality, able to affect life; and it leads to more separation, frustration, and unhappiness, and, consequently, to a tension due to unconscious strivings, to trying too hard in an ineffectual way. It is a lonely existence, beset by fears.

Conversely, he who trusts in God in a way which equals giving up self-responsibility, who leaves everything to God to justify his own inactivity, must also fail to fulfill himself. He seems to humbly and trustingly let God "do it," forever waiting, but he is just as disconnected regarding the interaction and interrelationship between his active, initiative powers and the spontaneous, indirect manifestations of growth. If and when the latter appear, perhaps as a result of some initiative he has taken in the past and without quite knowing it, he ascribes them to a power outside himself, or at any rate not connected with his own actions and attitudes.

You can see how both these extremes and distortions are quite similar and get you, ultimately, to the same impasse. When man is passive and lets things go, instead of accepting his self-responsibility, his task of finding the way, and perhaps doing what is at the moment most painful, he trusts in a false God -- a God outside himself. For he, his whole being, is God, and only by using his faculties can he realize this. When man is active with the separated ego alone, instead of living in the rhythmic interplay of doing and waiting, of acting and listening, he believes that this separated little self is all there is to him -- and again he must be disappointed. Man must commit himself to the key to his life -- finding the truth of himself, no matter how painful or unflattering it may be. At the same time, he must respect and honor inner processes and allow them to take their course.

This balance must be found. It is a constantly changing rhythm, or cycle, on each individual's path. Each step harbors both these fundamental movements or attitudes. Their proper interaction IS the creative power that brings something new into life. Both the initiating and the receptive principles require the integrity of selfhood on the one hand, and knowing that one is part of a whole on the other. The latter means respect for the movements that cannot always immediately obey the commands of the mind. It is necessary to constantly initiate your own creative forces and find when and how they are ready to make themselves known.

Even the simple act of meditation must be the combination of these two approaches. On the one hand, you formulate actively your thoughts, your intent, and your attitude, as well as your goal. Your attitude being that you want to invest the best of yourself, the goal being that you wish to remove obstruction and wish to grow and unfold the best that is in you, your intent being that you are ready to face whatever the truth may be. On the other hand, you become still and waiting, calm and receptive. If answers do not come forth at once, the proper way to go about it is to let it be until the answers will be there, possibly when you least expect it, for it is just then that your mind is relaxed and thus makes receiving possible. When you are ready to receive both the best and the worst in you, and are relaxed about both -- not too over-eager and not too frightened -- then manifestations can appear. If you are equally receptive to both the best and the worst in you, and are willing to understand both, then harmonious, rhythmic, organic growth processes will establish themselves more and more.

This alternating rhythm of initiating and receiving, or becoming and being, is the pulse beat of your path, my friends. The balanced manifestations of pulsation can follow only after you have observed and temporarily accepted, so as to understand the nature of it, the unbalanced manifestations of your own pulsation of soul forces. As I said before, this brings you into the state in which tension is no longer pain, so that you do not alternate between pain and pleasure. Then these opposites will be reconciled and the pulsating movements of tension and relaxation will be two different aspects of bliss.

Perhaps you can best find your own, personal inner rhythm in this respect when you think of the active pulse beat, or your doing your best in overcoming the fear to face something unpleasant; wanting to give the best you have got in you so as to find your true identity; your desire to contribute to the processes of evolution by your serious and total involvement with your growing process. On the other hand, all such inner acts and actions must be followed by periods of waiting. Waiting for when it is ready to come.

The more you find your own balanced rhythm in this respect, the more a new vision will grow. This vision, or realization, will be that you live 95% of your conscious life not responding spontaneously and directly and independently to what is, but according to conditioned reflexes. This will first be quite shocking, as it will be liberating at the same time. For you will, in this instant of recognition, know that life and the world only begin to open up. I do not merely refer to opinions and views that you unknowingly echo because you are afraid of the responsibility of being true to your own opinions and views, because you need the approval of others more than you believe you need your own approval. I now go beyond this more superficial level which we have discussed sufficiently in the past. I now refer to something deeper and more subtle. What I mean is that every life experience is not approached freshly. You are conditioned to think how you should feel about it. Let us assume you see the color red. Most often you do not see it at all according to your very own perception and experience. You see it because you are indoctrinated how you should see red, you have a preconceived idea. Or, when you see, say, a tulip. The word, the concept, "tulip" is already a reflex, so that you do not experience the tulip as though you were confronted with it the first time. You can multiply this and compound this multiplication infinitely. Every aspect, every second of life, without exaggeration 95 of your experiences -- not only conceptual, but also sensuous experiences -- are not free and spontaneously your own true reactions, but preconceived reflexes. These are not only the result of what you picked up in this life, but also in many, many previous existences. Your psyche is filled with a collection of predigested experience.

Most significant of all, and relevant to our topic here, is the experience of pain and frustration. You are indoctrinated for centuries -- nay, millennia -- with the conviction that any frustration is pain. This is why it is so difficult to make the transition from the pleasure/pain pulse beat (tension/relaxation) to the liberated state, in which both tension and relaxation are different aspects or versions of pleasure. Unless frustration can be divested of its threat so that the personality does not cramp up and shrink into itself, the free-flowing beat of the universe cannot be detected.

Your conviction that frustration is pain and threat, perhaps even danger, makes you react to it in a certain way that actually produces a painful and dangerous state. My suggestion is that as you begin to observe, yourself and you thus learn to be receptive to what comes out of you, experiment with any frustration that comes along the next time. Ask yourself, "now, here is pain. I let myself feel this pain. Is it really as painful as I pretend?" I mean "pretend" in a deeper sense. As you convince yourself of the pain, you produce waves of pain by your very reactions as if it were so painful. Thus the tension becomes more painful than the pain itself. Once you watch your reaction from this point of view, very strange experiences will come to you. You will learn to let the pain, the frustration be. You will let the movement of it be, by itself. Little by little, you will experience how the pain turns into a pleasurable movement of pulsation. Only when you let yourself be calm and observant and receptive to what is within you, and accept what is within you, will you be capable of experiencing this. Usually the mind makes such frantic, struggling movements against the pain and frustration that it is impossible to come to this experience. Usually you are too busy following your habit-bound, conditioned reflexes, in which you go on and on, responding to what you believe is good one way and bad in another way -- and never really experiencing life independently, never experiencing the real you, this individualization of the Divine. You never experience things as they really are, without any preconceived and predigested ideas, as well as preconceived and predigested sense reflexes. These are the illusions, and they can only be penetrated when you become active, initiative, and receptive to your own innermost being. Then you will alternate between knowing new material about yourself and the world, and feeling yourself and the world in new ways. You will come to know your own true divine identity more and more. It will reveal itself, first as an apparently other self, manifesting from somewhere in you; then by enlivening you more and more, you will know it is you and you are it.

May this lecture be the next guiding light for you to find the way into your own hidden unconscious and learn to accept it as it manifests, so that the proper relationship of tension and relaxation takes place in your whole approach to yourself. This may make such a difference in your attitude to yourself; and, teaching you to accept yourself as you are, and, because of this basic acceptance, gathering new momentum and strength for further surging forward. Your inner soul movements have to live this. It is never sufficient to know these principles, although knowing them is often necessary and helpful to lead you into the climate in which living them becomes possible. Calmly let yourself be and let yourself unfold. Be blessed, my dear friends, in all your further undertakings for growth. Each step forward brings you nearer to the realization of who you really are and what life really is -- a continuum that need not ever know the fear of death, a continuum of living and rejoicing. Be in peace, be God!

The Guide
by Eva Pierrakos
May 10, 1968

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