The Lord's Prayer

By The Pathwork Guide

Some time ago I promised to give you an interpretation of the Lord's Prayer.

I talked about the meaning of this prayer once before, but then I spoke in general terms. Tonight I want to shed a different light on it and show you how to find, in this prayer, anything you need at any time; for everything is contained in it. All your personal problems can be dealt with through deep and prolonged meditation on this prayer.

OUR FATHER: When you think of the meaning of these words, you presumably picture God as the father of all beings. But as you say these words very intimately to yourself, try to meditate very specifically on how God's fatherhood also applies to those people you do not like, or do not care for, towards whom you feel a certain resistance, or with whom you just happen to be in discord. It does not have to be always a feeling of hatred; it is enough to be irritated with somebody. Go into your stillness and ponder that these people are the children of God. Calling yourself a child of God is justified only when you allow that the people who bring out those unpleasant feelings in you are also God's children, just as you are. When you succeed in doing this, your attitude, and therefore your feelings also, will undergo a subtle change and you will become more relaxed and more free. This may at first be difficult and cause resistance, because your feelings are not always willing to change. Whenever there are strong negative feelings of any kind, there has to be a tight inner knot somewhere. Take such a resistance as a signal that tells you how important it is to dissolve this inner knot. If you harbor such negative feelings, there must be something unresolved in you, no matter how wrong the other person may be. After this insight comes the will to straighten out whatever is wrong within you and the readiness to allow for new recognitions, given through inspiration or guidance. You also need practical means to free yourself from this unresolved and negative state. They will also be given to you. Pray and put your will to it. Suddenly, as you meditate on the deep meaning of these words and how to apply them in your life, a heavy pressure will be lifted from your chest; you will feel as if you had been freed of a great burden.

Try it also another way: bypass everything that bothers you in this person and visualize him in his perfection. Try to recognize how and where the divine spark manifests through him or her. Always remember: whoever seeks, will find. You will discover qualities which will clearly indicate that every person has a higher self, that every person is entitled to be regarded as a child of God.

It is so important to draw a line separating the higher and the lower self, to pinpoint what belongs to each one. The higher self is eternal, immortal, and is of God. The lower self is ephemeral, temporal, and not of the true Reality. Do not do this just with others. Start with yourself. For when you can distinguish the two in you, it will no longer be difficult to love your neighbor, and you will find it much easier to recognize someone you don't like as your brother or sister. You will then allow your higher self to unite with the higher self of your neighbor. All this is contained in the first two words of the prayer, Our Father. Meditate on it.

WHO ART IN HEAVEN: Heaven is within you, not outside. Seek it therefore in yourself; find your own perfection, which already exists, though it may be veiled or covered up. And seek heaven, seek God within the soul of your neighbor or even in someone you reject. For only thus can you find the eternal, living God.

HALLOWED BE THY NAME: You hallow the name of the Father by trying to understand His Laws and to fulfill them. Because for every modality of life there exists a spiritual law. When you are confused by problems in your life, it means that you have not found the appropriate spiritual law. When you say, "Hallowed be Thy Name," ask the question within: "Where are my difficulties, what are my problems? I must be violating a spiritual law, even if only unconsciously, but I no longer want to do so." Ask God to help you understand what law you are violating. Ask Him for an answer and you will learn to establish a personal connection through which you will truly hallow His name. For when you look at your problems in truth, with honesty in your heart, then you will also receive the answer. It might not come at the same moment, but if you are alert and open, life will bring you the answer.

THY KINGDOM COME: When you hallow God's name by following all spiritual laws, you also bring His kingdom close to you. For it is within you. You always think, if you give it a thought at all, that God's kingdom is somewhere outside, and that it will descend to your earth, and that all you have to do is to go where God's kingdom has manifested and enter. These are the usual vague ideas about the kingdom of God, false thought forms that you erect in your imagination. God's kingdom must be created within you, and this can happen only when you go through this schooling successfully, by learning to know and to apply the spiritual laws.

THY WILL BE DONE: I do not need to say much about this, since I have done so many times before. But I want to re-emphasize how difficult it is for most people to apply this saying on the personal level. You claim that you do not know what God's will is and that you would do it if only you knew what it was. I have said to you that whoever strives to make contact with God's world in order to find out what God's will is and then to fulfill it unconditionally, even while he is still doubtful, will receive the answer. And rather than trying to rack your brains about issues in which you feel unsure, turn to those where you don't require an answer, for the answer will be obvious once you begin to think about it. Everybody can be quite sure that it must be God's will to follow this path of perfection, in whatever way it offers itself to you. You can be quite sure that it must be God's will that you face yourself in honesty, instead of choosing the more comfortable way of pushing away everything that creates uneasiness, or always blaming others and circumstances. Such blaming makes it impossible to seek the wrong within you. Contemplate what causes your inner resistance, and you can be sure that when you feel disharmonious you have somewhere violated a divine law. Because no wrongdoing or error of another human being can give you such disharmonious feelings if there is not something amiss in you as well. Your answer must be that you have in some way failed to fulfill God's will. In one case your future might be connected with general questions of a religious nature coupled with a few personal connotations. In another it might be a strictly personal matter. But whenever there is a feeling of anger, of resistance, of fear, of any disharmony, you have a clue that something in you is not quite in order. For otherwise there could not be so much darkness in some of your life situations. If you strive for the answer wholeheartedly, even if it takes long to find out, you will get it sooner or later. When you pray for the answer in order to fulfill God's will, it must come. Do not be afraid of it, for God's will is always wise and loving and leads to bliss, even though you have to struggle for it temporarily. Then ask yourself: "Am I truly willing to do God's will even if I don't like it at first?" I have given you a whole lecture about this and you can use it in this connection.

ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN: Heaven is within you. It is your spirit in its perfection, which waits for the walls of the lower self to be broken through. God in you shall manifest in your spiritual life as in every detail of your earthly life. To what extent is this already a reality in your life? In what respect does God not yet penetrate your being, your actions, and your feelings? Try, for instance, to imagine: if you were told to relinquish something to which you cling believing it to be God's will -- it could be just an opinion -- would you be willing to let it go and consider that it may not be so? Or would you rather convince yourself of the contrary, just because you want it that way? Try to pinpoint in which area of your life you have this kind of attitude. Then face yourself in honesty. What is more important for you, the truth, or a conviction you have clung to for one reason or another? Do you believe that God will show you what is right? But first there must be a willingness to let go. Whenever you feel a tight rigidity, even if your opinion is right, your prevent the Heavenly Kingdom to manifest within you. But in the area in which you are in error, the truth cannot penetrate you in that respect, because the thought forms are false. Then, again, God's Kingdom cannot come to you.

GIVE US TODAY OUR DAILY BREAD: This, too, is often mechanically repeated, without visualizing anything. Man assumes, even if he does not clearly formulate the thought, that earning his daily bread has nothing to do with God. But truly I say to you, my dear ones, you cannot do anything good that is not blessed by God. Without God nothing will succeed, no matter how hard you try again and again. A person who has some spiritual schooling can discern very accurately, when he thinks back on his life, what had God's blessing and what did not. How does the difference feel? "In what areas do I always have the same trouble? What is the true reason for it? What did I do wrong? In what respect do I have a wrong attitude?" Think about this and then surrender yourself to God, entirely. Be ready to let yourself be guided to obtain both your earthly and your spiritual bread. The spiritual bread is so neglected. You believe it is less important than the material bread. No, my dear ones, the spiritual bread is more important, much more important. First, you should make the effort to receive spiritual nourishment; insist on it. That is the gateway through which all earthly problems will be solved. And not the other way around. Whoever yearns for the spiritual bread has already reached a certain level on this path.

FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES: The prayer says forgive "us," not "me" alone. This includes all human beings, even those who have hurt you and whom you may not be able to forgive completely. If you really wish that God may forgive them, then you are liberated from a dark spiritual form in you, which attracts harmful energies and dark influences. Think what these words contain: God should not forgive only you and those whom you like, but also those for whom you still may harbor negative feelings. Often you are not even clear about your own guilt. For man tends to produce false, unhealthy, exaggerated guilt feelings which are not justified. This inner process works in the following way: man shies away from admitting his guilt where it is justified and where he could feel a healthy, constructive repentance, which would never drag him down or discourage him. When he asks God for forgiveness with this healthy repentance and really wants to change, he will feel that he is forgiven and liberated and will know that a burden has been lifted from his shoulders. This happens when the will to change and to carry the good intention through is persevering and sincere.

But often man will not face the real guilt, partly because in his conceit he wants to see himself better than he is, and partly because it takes too great an effort to bring about inner change. Deep inside he knows that this cannot happen from one day to the other, without effort. Thus, the spiritual core gives out signals, spurring him on to recognize his guilt, but at the same time this lower self with its pride and laziness interferes, and man often assumes a false guilt about something he obviously can't influence. It is as if he said, "See, I am guilty, I admit it, but what can I do. Actually, I'm not really guilty here." Naturally, these are unconscious processes; and they have to be brought out into the daylight. This is the difference between false guilt and real repentance.

The experience of all people who walk such a spiritual path has always been that whoever recognizes his real guilt loses automatically not only all false guilt complexes which pull him down, but feels instantly relieved and at peace because truth always brings about such feelings. To open oneself wide and be willing to overcome the resistance is a struggle. As a first reaction, man will be afraid to admit his real guilt and therefore he will rather produce, in his unconscious, all kinds of unreal guilt feelings, which either don't really apply, or which cover up faults which he does not want to see because he is not yet ready to accept his momentary imperfection as it actually is. Guilt complexes are unreal and therefore never lead to liberation. They create a vicious circle; they lead to heaviness and sadness, whereas truth always liberates, no matter how unpleasant it may feel at first. Examine your own self in this respect. Only he who penetrates all the layers of appearance, of delusion, will reach the real guilt. He will find in what way he has violated one or more spiritual laws, in action or in thought. Only then is it possible to ask God for forgiveness, which includes the request to help you and show you how to change. Only he who is thus liberated within can forgive others totally. You cannot expect forgiveness if you are not completely ready to forgive others. And whoever has experienced, comprehended, and felt God's forgiveness should also be able to forgive himself. And this leads to the next line:

AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US: How many people say this prayer, yet they don't have the slightest intention to truly forgive. Here, too, there is often self-deception. While there may be no hate left, there is still resentment; if you haven't liberated yourself from that, you cannot be free enough to have deeply illuminating spiritual experiences. It is so difficult for you to achieve this complete forgiveness, because you lack the understanding of the other person. Therefore ask for this understanding, ask for the insight you lack in this respect. If you really want it and don't wallow in your resentments, as you so often do, then all this will be given to you. You human beings don't want to understand that you cannot do it by yourselves. You need help. So pray for this help. This is why this sentence is part of the prayer. For if it were possible to do it with your will alone, you wouldn't need to pray for it. You don't pray that you should be able to move from one spot to another; if you have healthy limbs, you can do it at will. But you need help in order to be able to really forgive. And you do need help to face yourself in total honesty and to know yourself without your mask. And you need help to meet your resistances and to accomplish the inner change.

Ask yourself the question: "Do I truly forgive all human beings from the bottom of my heart?" When you clearly see that you cannot yet quite do this alone, you can ask for help. You must understand that not forgiving burdens you, makes you unhappy, blocks the light and freedom that you so ardently desire. Not forgiving harms you much more than those whom you cannot forgive.

LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION: This has implications which can cause confusion and can do harm, because God does not lead man into temptation. The real meaning of these words is that you pray that God may lead you when you are in temptation; lead you that you can resist it; that you have the strength and the vision to be victorious, in spite of the temptation.

What is temptation? Temptation is within you. It does not come from the outside. And even if it came from the outside, you would not yield to it if there were not something in you that is receptive to it. For instance, could you be tempted to commit murder? Certainly not. But you can be tempted to give in to your faults, whatever these may be. Therefore it is important that you realize that you can be tempted and in what way. You have to know your faults. List all your faults, so that you remember them. And then ask again for the strength and the help, for you cannot overcome these faults on your own. Therein lies temptation. No devil, no Satan could get at you if you did not have something in you that responds. And when you pray that God keep Satan away from you, you are in such illusion. For in you, in your lower self, in the crust that envelopes your perfect self, lies the germ through which you can be led into temptation. The dark forces serve as instruments to draw it out, to bring it into your awareness, so that you can fight it. Otherwise this germ of evil would lie dormant, and it would have no opportunity to manifest, and thus you would not come one step nearer to perfection, to true bliss.

BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL: Here, too, the same thing applies. The evil is in you. If it existed outside, it couldn't touch you. You need to put this thought into your prayer. Ask Christ to help you overcome temptation, so that you can deliver yourself from evil. Only you yourself can do it, with the help of God, and with the help of Christ, which He has promised you. Try it with Him. Don't try to do it alone, you are not strong enough. You need the will power, you need unceasing effort, but your own power alone is just as insufficient as the help of God, Christ, or any other spirit would be without your will to free yourself. You need both your will power and the help of God. You must approach this problem from both sides: You must do your own work and you must ask for spiritual help, again and again, through prayer and meditation.

FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM: The kingdom of God is within you. It should belong to God and to no one else. So you should yield to His will.

THE POWER: Only God's power cleanses, delivers, and illuminates the truth. It makes you capable of love, and of understanding. It leads you to happiness, and raises you up from all the darkness and imperfection that has burdened you through so many lifetimes, and brings you to:

THE GLORY which you can attain only by following God's will.

* * * *

I could say many more things about this most beautiful of all prayers, which contains everything you need for your life. But there is not enough time in this hour. I have given you a few clues. And it would be good if everyone of you who hears or reads these words would think about them in his quiet hour. Perhaps you will then receive further thoughts and feelings about how to apply them very personally in your own life. This then is living prayer, when the meaning of each word expands as the interpretation becomes clearer to you, and you see how you already apply the essence of this prayer in certain areas of your life and not in others.

If you try to live in this way, you must become happy, my dear ones, and eventually all problems will disappear. True, they are there at first, but they are the necessary medicine. You will increasingly gain mastery over yourself and consequently mastery over life, instead of being mastered by life. I say to you: ask the question, "How happy am I?" You may be certain that to the degree you are happy you can also make one or several human beings happy. And also know that to the degree that you lack happiness, you cannot yet make others as happy as one day you will, if you continue to follow this upward path. Self-examination about your own happiness is a simple little yardstick or barometer, on which you can measure how much happiness you are able to give. And if you are filled with the desire to make others happy, then God will provide the opportunity, and this is the way in which you will be blessed with true happiness.

The Guide
by Eva Pierrakos
July 15, 1957

Copyright 1957, the Center for the Living Force, Inc.

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