Basic Attitudes And Practices To Open The Centers

By The Pathwork Guide

Greetings my friends. May my words reach your deepest understanding and therefore become a blessing for your road in this life. This lecture is a continuation of the preceding one, in which I started to talk about the significance and importance of the centers whose opening determines the full capacity of living, of feeling, and of experiencing. The closed state of these physically invisible but nevertheless distinct areas in man's system is responsible for unhappiness, negativity, and lack of feelings. The degree of closed-ness determines exactly the degree of living in unreality, and therefore in a state of strife and numbness. Joyful, fruitful, meaningful living must therefore imply a commensurate degree of openness of the various centers.

In many spiritual philosophies these centers are discussed and practices are given for helping the individual so that he becomes aware of their existence and can open them up. Usually this is done more or less by mechanical means, through concentration and breathing exercises. As I indicated before, if more emphasis is put on such exercises than on the underlying attitudes, as they exist right now (not as they would be in a perfect person), at best these exercises bring little results, and if so only momentarily. At worst, they can be harmful in that an opening is effected without the individual being in tune and harmony with spiritual reality. If he is not strong and independent, self-responsible in the deepest sense, the power of the energy flowing into the system is too much to bear. This is why our main emphasis is always on the general development and growth, for in this way you cannot go wrong. Our approach on this pathwork must be predominantly to confront the true state of your feelings, thoughts, and concepts within yourself and, from there on, eliminating false ideas, which create fear and other negative emotions, as well as the fear of emotions itself. This is the absolutely fundamental approach necessary, but once a certain degree of self-confrontation is practiced,without clinging to the old patterns of self-delusion and illusion, and therefore once a certain degree of liberation and self-realization has been attained, additional methods may be used.

In the last lecture I spoke about two aspects -- what determines the functioning of these centers of energy generally, and the specific functioning of each center. In tonight's lecture we shall discuss the third aspect: the approaches, practices, and attitudes that help opening the centers. However, I want to emphasize once more that it may not be possible for many of you quite yet to effect a real opening. This should not discourage you. Whenever you are inwardly ready, you will know, and it will come naturally. In the meantime, even the apparently unsuccessful attempt will have an indirect value and benefit. It will loosen up some hardened psychic substance; it may make a contact with the greater wisdom in you more accessible; it may facilitate your capacity to concentrate and meditate; it will increase general perception and awareness of yourself and others. All of this is a precondition that heralds a more profound loosening up and a new sense of awareness.

So, even if my suggestions cannot be immediately followed or understood, it does not matter. It has happened many times before that topics I discussed were utilized and fully comprehended only much later. But even the fleeting intellectual understanding at the moment may have an indirect helpful result that makes the deeper perception more accessible in a shorter period of time. When you relate in a natural, spontaneous, organic way to the topic under discussion it is because something in you has worked its way toward this state of mind. There are many different things that determine this natural, organic process this path is. The path becomes a self-perpetuating reality after the first hurdles have been overcome, producing its own needs and messages, if you are attuned to it. Thus, when you will be able to apply -- really, truly, livingly -- what I say here I cannot possibly foresee. But you certainly can use some of it in your own way, which you will find by trying and through meditation. Some of my words you will certainly be able to assimilate, no matter where you presently find yourself on your individual path.

As you will see, the practices I suggest are never merely mechanical, but are always brought into direct relationship to your own attitudes and to your perceptions of life, your innermost concept of yourself and life, and the thus arising feelings, thinking processes, and actions. Thus a meaningful and safe procedure will be established.

When the centers are open, man is completely -- inwardly and outwardly -- in a relaxed state, a state in which there is no cramp. Let us examine what the words "inwardly and outwardly" really mean. All these words may easily be taken for granted and glossed over. It is extremely important, my friends, that you understand precisely what I am talking about. I have mentioned in other contexts before that every function, organ, and unit in the personality exists in the physical body as well as in the invisible body, which is the model after which the former is fashioned. (I will now skip an elucidation of the fact that several such subtle bodies exist. For our discussion here, the terms "inwardly and outwardly" may be sufficient at this time.) By the same token, there is an inner and an outer consciousness. This is not necessarily as crassly definable as the conscious and the unconscious mind. There is an inner and there is an outer one. There is an inner perception and faculty of sensing, and there is an outer one. Thus, you also have an inner reasoning process and an outer functioning. This can best be explained by the voluntary and the involuntary physical responses. Quite a few of your physical functioning occurs on a voluntary basis. Your directly accessible brain can control and send forth commands that make other areas of your body respond without any difficulty. You decide to move your hand, to get up, to move your legs in this or that direction, to utter a sound with your vocal cords -- or not do any of these things. These functionings are determined by your outer direct will.

Then there is an inner functioning that cannot be influenced at will, in a direct way: the heart beat, the blood stream, the digestive system. But they, as well as all other inner functionings, can be influenced indirectly.

In quite the same way there exists in the body an outer and an inner relaxation. As you become more attuned to yourself -- your mind, your thinking processes, your feelings, your emotional responses, and your body state -- you will be able to distinguish and experience quite distinctly both of these layers of reality. It always begins with the outer, which man is not at all naturally aware of. In fact, his attention must be geared to it for a considerable time until he is capable of ascertaining in a clear-cut, concise way what he consciously thinks, feels, and experiences. Usually this is all so vague and muddled, so habitually glossed over, that if he is asked on the spot what he thinks or feels now, he must usually confess that he does not know. It is the same way with his awareness of his body state, unless he happens to find himself in an unusually strong state of either pain or pleasure. His states of tension have become so much second nature that he is no longer aware of the fact that his outer musculature is tense in one or the other area of his body. This is quite similar to the mental and emotional levels. There, too, he has become so accustomed to thinking in a certain way, to feel specific emotions, that he cannot imagine anything else, and he is unable to even discern what he thinks or feels. A good part of any self-development, therefore, always consists in an increased sense of self -- what the self thinks, feels, and experiences on all levels.

After this awareness has been attained on the outer levels of thinking, feeling, and physical states, the inner awareness begins to grow. The faculties have now been trained in a new direction, of "listening in," as it were. So it is no longer quite so difficult.

When you start with the outer body functioning, as far as relaxing a muscular tension is concerned, it is necessary to first feel, be aware of, the tension in order to subsequently voluntarily relax it. This parallels the mental and emotional levels of functioning: there, too, it is necessary to first know that you feel and think a certain thing in order to change it, in case the thought is untrue and the feeling destructive. To the degree this outer awareness has been attained, and you therefore are in a position to change certain reactions and functionings, the inner areas of functioning become automatically more attainable.

For the purpose of opening the centers a relaxed state is necessary on all levels. Relaxedness does not mean inactivity, inertia, paralysis, being slumped in unmoving unaliveness. Quite the contrary. Only in a relaxed state can live energy surge through the system. It is therefore one of the most important aspects of practices to observe your state of tension on all levels. Once the outer state of relaxation has become the usual, not the unusual state, your awareness of the inner knots and tight cramps will follow quite naturally. You will suddenly detect what you had never felt before: that although your outer body feels well, coordinated, has no pains or tensions, there are inner "lumps." They are not painful, but you feel that they exist. You will know that they have always been there, only you have not noticed them.

Therefore, concentration exercises on your state of tension, in order to then relax tension, are extremely useful. After your outer body has attained the relaxed state, feeling healthy and vital, and you therefore gain awareness of the inner body blocks, you will know how it would be if these blocks were dissolved. You cannot directly will them to do so, for you are now dealing with the involuntary inner functioning, which can no more be directly controlled on the physical level than you can "will" yourself to feel differently in this instant. You can pronounce "into you" that you would like to feel differently because these feelings are based on false ideas and unrealistic premises, and are destructive for you and feel unpleasant. You can search for more understanding to be able to indirectly influence these destructive feelings, until one day you suddenly react in a new way when you least expect it, quite spontaneously. It is the same with the inner body blocks.

Perhaps the best way to express how you first experience the inner body blocks is to say that it feels as if there were a static, congested area in certain parts of your body. This awareness is always, no matter in what respect, of the greatest importance. Once the blocks give way, you will feel a pleasurable energy, aliveness, and delight flowing through your entire being. You will first sense and then know that this state exists "underneath" (if I may use this inadequate designation) the tensed up areas, even before you actually experience it. Your inner knowing will tell you this.

This knowing of the two states -- the one you find yourself in now and the one that is potentially yours, notwithstanding the present temporary blockage -- brings you considerably nearer to your potential of being and experiencing. Once again, the same holds true on mental and emotional levels. When you become very quiet and listen into yourself, you will find an emotional activity of tension and cramp; you will see how the mind is over-agitated, which is a form of tension; or how sluggish it is, which is another manifestation of underlying tension that has become too unpleasant to bear. Only after you are aware of whatever it is, is it possible to deal with it in a constructive way -- not before. Therefore the same principles of self-awareness must be cultivated in every respect. This quiet focusing will not only give you the awareness of the abnormal states (let us be clear that the overwhelming majority lives in an abnormal state, in the sense that their state is not a realization of man's natural potential) but so also of the natural, normal state that really already exists in you, "behind" the unnatural state. The open, free, and natural state that does justice to you and your capacity to experience life is not something you must laboriously attain because you are not in possession of it now. It already exists in you, only you can no more feel it than you could at first feel the cramps, the blocks, and the tensions.

This is a very distinct focusing on yourself that is not in the least selfish or self-centered. In fact, it must increase your perception and understanding of others and will give you a greater relatedness with others. Your relatedness with others can exist only in exact proportion to your relatedness with yourself. This includes understanding, awareness, experience of your own reactions, responses, and states of all levels of your being.

In order to make this approach a meaningful one, I must discuss certain aspects of consciousness I have not mentioned yet in exactly this way. As you have begun to experience the presence of a greater reality and intelligence within you, as a result of your development and growth and after having set out to deliberately activate it, this contact becomes forever more real. Its guidance is the most reliable and wisest imaginable. Its voice becomes forever more distinct and discernible. A few of you have begun to, at least occasionally, experience this contact. You have learned certain approaches in meditation that facilitate this contact and make it accessible whenever you use it. The difficulty is not that it is not always imminent and available. The difficulty is that you forget to use it, or resist to do so.. But however that may be, those of you who know of it as more of a theory have perhaps come to the point of thinking of its presence somewhere in the region of your solar plexus. This is so because, as outlined last time, the center in the solar plexus region is the channel of communication with the inner wisdom of cosmic truth. But this does not mean that the latter is precisely located at this spot.

One more word about the contact and the resistance to use it. It is the down to earth reality of the answers you receive when you use it, the workable, realistic solutions and inspiration which never deny your basic dignity as a human being, but which never sentimentally coddle you, which never allow you to get away with the specialness which your immature desires want to arrogate to yourself, which cause you to resist. For this divine wisdom makes you completely self-responsible and you erroneously consider this as a disadvantage, overlooking the fact that only then can you truly live and move and vibrate in joy and delight. Only then will you be secure, for your dependency on others is what creates so much fear in you. It is this fear that creates the tensions and it is this fear that is based on utterly wrong assumptions which induce you to forego this contact, claiming that you "cannot," rather than admitting that you "will not" utilize it. This hurdle must be overcome under all circumstances if you want at all to open up your life centers and let the living force surge through your entire being. This question must, again and again, be confronted. Every issue of disturbance offers the best opportunity, for if you value the truth of the moment, the truth of the problem, more than anything else, and state it so, letting go of all other considerations, it will make itself known to you and you will know that you are indeed both human in your present fallibility and divine in your underlying potential. In order to understand the layers of consciousness, and how the outer is separated from this infinite, universal consciousness, of which you are an expression, it is necessary to conceive of this inner and other "brain" as one and the same organ. It is only that the outer has "forgotten" its true nature and has "lost" the contact. Your conscious willing intelligence must re-establish this connectedness, without which there can be no fruitful, joyful living.

Now, where is this inner, universal consciousness? The more primitive man is, the more alienated he feels from it. Thus, in primitive religion he ascribes this universal consciousness to reside, as a distinct personality, above, "in heaven," far away from him, outside him. A much more advanced state is the realization that God is within. Yet in this concept the universal consciousness is still personalized and localized. It is not supposed to "reside" in a special area within the solar plexus. This is no more true than that your ignorant, destructive unconscious "resides" in a special area within you, although it may often be experienced as though the "messages" come out through this center in the solar plexus, which is perhaps no more than a mouth that conveys. You would not say that the mouth that speaks the words IS the person, would you? Well, it is the same here. So, consciousness -- separated and individual, as well as cosmic and universal -- resides neither in the brain nor in the solar plexus. Now, where does it reside then? At this juncture the answer is quite important for you to glimpse. And it can be no more at first.

Consciousness resides in every atom of living matter, in every cell, in every molecule, in every tiniest fraction of living matter. Every one of these infinitesimal units of consciousness functions in exactly the same immutable lawfulness as the human personality does. Every cell-consciousness stands in the same relationship to man as man stands in relationship to mankind -- and so on and so forth.

To the degree that the overall personality is in a state of what we call self-realization, or of universal truth, to that extent the individual particles of consciousness accept truth and abandon misconceptions and error. Every sick part of your body is a misconception. The body itself, which consists of "dieable" matter, is a result of long-term error of perception. Conversely, to the extent the whole organism knows truth, to that extent the "little units" will eventually adopt it and will know of its origin and connect with the underlying universal wisdom and life that is inherent in every particle of existence, no matter how separated at the moment. Hence, more and more life must replace death, health must replace sickness, joy must replace suffering, security must replace fear. Thus, consciousness exists all over. The ultimate truth of divine law and wisdom always exists potentially "underneath," or "behind," the erring individual, the erring cells and molecules, the erring atoms, as well as underneath every particle of mind matter.

As you can perceive, in your growing self-awareness, that your inner blocks of tension and cramp only "cover" another state in which you are free and flowing and joyful, so do you begin to see that behind every sick particle of yours exists its healthy original state. The sickness is a product of the error of your cells, atoms, molecules, or other smallest particles. But these errors do not happen arbitrarily, without the total unit of your personality being connected with them. The errors come into being due to your wrong ideas, your false fears and unnecessary defenses, which create the tension and the error in the smaller life matter. Every emotional state of strife, again, consists of subtle, invisible life matter being in error. This error was created by the individual and must be eradicated by the individual.

To the degree you are capable of the kind of self-observation that experiences the sick state, as opposed to the healthy and joyful one that is already imminent, that exists "underneath," to that degree you move from one sphere of consciousness and existence into another. The pathwork must bring you to this. Much of what we have done in the past was precisely concerned with paying attention to all the errors that create negative feelings and destructive actions. You know already from so much that you have worked out that every state of fear creates tension and is a result of error. Every state of hostility is a result of error and creates other negative feelings, thus again tension. When you are tense, for whatever reason, you must be in error because you must be in fear. And every slightest tension closes the centers.

Every exercise -- physical or otherwise -- every meditation, every self-examination, and every self-confrontation should always keep this in mind: the elimination of false concepts and ideas, of illusion and consequently unworkable pseudo-solutions and behavior patterns. Ever since we started together on this path, again and again, I say to you: what are your misconceptions that make you close up against life, that make you adopt unproductive, and often even destructive, attitudes? Tension must always be related to error. In all your approaches and practices, whatever they are, observe this error-state and keep it in mind. Look at yourself from this point of view. Wherever you feel a congestion -- be it a painful state in your emotions or body, or be it merely a neutral state in which you know that there is something hardened that prevents you from fully living to its potential and to your potential -- realize and set out to find the underlying error. The error may have gone into your physical functioning so that it tenses up as a conditioned reflex. The error may now sit in the tiniest particles of consciousness, but this is always a result of an overall idea that can be traced and unearthed by you. You may simply try to connect the physical responses to your inner erroneous state. This will prove an extremely enlightening and liberating new level of raised awareness. This is one necessary condition for the opening up of the life and energy centers.

Fear of frustration is a tremendously important example and aspect in this entire matter. What human being is not, to begin with, afraid of frustration? This fear must be overcome. For it is an error in itself. There is always some other connotation connected with it that makes you unnecessarily fight against the frustration. Hence you remain in a state of "I must not have this in order to avoid that,"or "I must have that in order to avoid this bad thing." These "musts" are fear-tension currents. To the degree you are fixated on this either/or duality level, you are in error and tension. Since life cannot flow into you in this state, you must rid yourself of the error. That is, of course, you must crystallize it out of your vague thinking and feeling processes. Frustration is not dangerous or disastrous. Although I said this many times, it is not sufficiently heeded and recognized by my friends. They pay more lip service to it, without observing their own reaction to frustration. How do you react to anything undesirable that comes your way? There are many people who fluctuate toward metaphysical and spiritual teachings for precisely the wrong reasons. That is, they hear that true self-fulfillment means the end of frustration. Now, although this is true, you cannot ever get to this point by fearing it and thus cramping up against it. You have to learn first to accept it without exaggerating its impact on you, without feeling threatened by it. As long as you want to attain the ultimate result of the unitive state because you want to skip the stages that lead there, you have not understood the basic principles of unity versus duality. You can transcend duality only when none of the two alternatives intensifies unduly your functioning. To be specific, frustration will cease to exist exactly to the extent that it no longer upsets you. You will find a new realm of reality in which there is only fulfillment when you accept, in a realistic and conservative way, the present realm of reality as one of which frustration is an integral part. The childish desire for omnipotence, which says that frustration is not permitted, cannot actualize man's divine powers in which he ultimately finds true omnipotence. Man's omnipotence comes not out of need, desperation, greed, pride, and selfwill, but because man has met and successfully overcome the illusion behind all these aspects. If we can draw a rough chart designating an individual's development from the point of view of his attitude to frustration, we can say:

1) The most childish and therefore troubled state is the one in which frustration appears to be a disaster. Hence fear and tension, hence closed life centers. Hence unhappiness and unproductivity in every respect.

2) Emotional maturity that accepts not having what one wants, while using one's best faculties to eventually overcome or diminish the frustration. It takes this level of reality for what it is, knowing that limitations are the present reality, therefore frustration must exist too. This attitude holds true for the self, as well as for others.

3) Once this mature attitude has learned to encounter and deal with frustration, the ultimate state comes, where every contingency, every possibility in life contains an equal amount of possibility for unfoldment, therefore pleasure. It does not have to be merely this one way. The serenity and joy that is the result of the constantly open centers through which the energy of the universe flows freely has the power to create and re-create circumstances: to fashion them. This is not done by magic, by exerting power and control over others so that they do one's will. It happens as a result of this person's enhanced faculties and resources with which forever greater possibilities for happiness become apparent.

Thus, a very important facet of self-observation is to focus on your real attitude toward any kind of frustration. It will give you a good gauge about the state of fear-tension in you. If you can subsequently verbalize the fear involved, you will have made an important inroad. You will then also see that by tensing up against frustration, you cause much more frustration for yourself, for the very tension is a denial of life as it now comes to you. Never, never could any condition outside you create anywhere near as much frustration as you inflict upon yourself by this attitude. The flow of your feelings, your life force, is the ultimate source of all fulfillment, without which no outer occurrence can truly be meaningful. Only then can fulfillment with others also come in a truly deep and profound way, without rendering your helplessness on anyone else. Thus a great deal of fear and possible hostility is avoided. When man turns off his life centers because of his defensive fearfulness in regard to frustration, he perpetually frustrates himself. A great deal of the frequent hopelessness is based on this fact.

At the end of this lecture let me give you two specific meditation or practice exercises for the opening of your centers. The one I discussed in a recent answer to a question. But I shall briefly repeat it here:

Sit down in a very relaxed way, in a similar fashion as this instrument sits. Do not slump down, yet without tension, completely contained within yourself, without stiffness. The spine should be straight, not needing to lean against the back rest of the chair, held up by its own balance. Close your eyes and feel every part of your outer body. Relax it deliberately. Then try and see what happens when you do not think. Do not force yourself not to think, for this would only make you tense. Rather attempt it in the spirit of "I would like not to think, but I know that I am not capable of doing without some involuntary thinking processes almost all the time. Therefore I shall calmly observe my thinking processes: to what extent will they penetrate my mind without my being able to control them." In that fashion -- again, unpushing, unresisting observation -- you will eventually succeed, for perhaps a fraction of a minute, not to think. You will, in this moment, be so still, so untense, yet so poised, and "there" with your attention and awareness, that the agitated mind processes will be calmed down. It does not mean at all an unaware rambling and drowsing. This state is extremely alert and awake, it is a sharp concentration without the least bit of tension. You will then find yourself seeing the thinking process as it wants to rush in on you. You will feel like standing on the threshold of an apparent nothingness, or a void. Do this in a very unintense way. Give it a minute or two -- perhaps before or after your meditation which you use for the purpose of self-discovery or reorientation of your negativity. Also, while you are doing it, breathe very calmly but distinctly through your abdomen. Feel your lower stomach rhythmically lift up and down, in as calm, regular, and harmonious a fashion as you can. Every inhalation and exhalation should express a mind attitude of the most positive nature, until gradually the volitional mind ceases to work and merely observes the involuntary mind.

This exercise will help you to calm the busy, agitated mind. Therefore the center at the solar plexus will open. Through this exercise a channel to this center will begin to loosen up and finally open. Thus an inner connection to your higher wisdom will be established. You will not get a direct, immediately noticeable, result, but by doing this as unintensely and calmly as possible, you will suddenly find yourself poised on the brink of this apparent void. This is the beginning of a new opening, whose results you will experience only retroactively and indirectly, as though it happened quite independently from these practices.

The other practice I suggest is very much related to the topic of this lecture -- the observation of outer and inner body blocks. Again sit down in the same way. In this exercise you may also, should you prefer it, lie down flat. Again relax and tune in to your body. Let every part of the outer functioning deliberately relax. Then you will find tense areas of which you had not been so particularly aware before. See to what extent you can deliberately loosen them, and where this is not possible for you. This will show you whether the area belongs to the outer or inner system. Once you clearly distinguish the area and feel the block, or the lump, or the congestion, question the meaning of it. Bring it together with the mind and feelings that create this. What is the fear that creates this tension? What, ask into yourself, is the direct relationship between the specific body tension and fear? Send the thought into these cells, with their own consciousness: "What is the misconception behind the tension?" Answers will come to you. You will probably first be aware of the outer blocks only. But the more you progress, the greater the awareness of the inner reality becomes. You will then use the same approach on that level -- only it will be easier then.

By connecting more and more with your own system and becoming aware of states you had never paid attention to, you will not only recognize body tension, but will do the same in the area of mind and feelings. There, too, a fluid, loose state gives pleasure, aliveness, constantly flowing pleasure, and energy, as opposed to the block that hardens and prohibits this flow. This block can also be distinctly felt after paying attention to it.

This oneness of the feeling with the mind and the body will become more closely knitted and firmly established. The mind carries the misconception, the feeling responds to it by negative, destructive emotions, and the body expresses all this with contraction, tension, stiffness, rigidity -- which is also behind flaccidity or apparent relaxedness in an unhealthy way. Once you can bring these three levels of functioning together where the disturbance exists, you will come to the next stage of dissolving it.

I leave you with the blessings for every single one of you here. Do not believe that this is an empty word. It carries a strength that can become an incentive and a door opener for you, should you so desire. Be in peace, be what you are, loving yourself as you are, no matter how fallible at the moment. For then you will truly be God.

The Guide
by Eva Pierrakos
May 5, 1969

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