posted July 10, 2004 09:32 PM
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 and covered up. And seek Heaven, seek God within the soul of your neighbor, even the one 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 fathom His laws and 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, 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, that it will descend to your earth, and that all you will 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 emphasize again how difficult it is for most people to apply these words on the personal level. You claim that you do not know what God's will is and that you would follow it if only you knew what it was. I have said to you that whoever strives to make contact with God's world to find out what God's will is, and then to fulfill it unconditionally, even while you are still doubtful, will receive the answer. And rather than trying to rack your brains about how to fulfill God's will when you feel unsure, turn to those areas where you do not require an answer, for the answer will be obvious once you begin to think.
Everybody can be quite sure that it must be God's will to follow the 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 what creates uneasiness, or blaming others and circumstances to avoid the necessity to seek the wrong within you.
Contemplate what causes your inner resistance, and you can be sure that when you feel disharmonious you have violated a divine law. No wrongdoing or error of another human being can give you 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.
For one person, feelings of disharmony might take the form of general religious doubts which ultimately are connected to personal problems, for another the causes might be more directly of a personal nature. But whenever there is a feeling of heaviness, 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 happiness, even though the transition is a struggle. Then ask yourself: "Am I truly willing to do God's will even if I do not like it at first?" I have given you a whole lecture about this subject and you can use it in this connection.
ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN. What does this mean? What is Heaven? What is Earth? Is it not a bit foolish of you human beings to say a prayer that God's will be done in Heaven, which in some people's minds is somewhere outside? If Heaven were outside, would it need your prayers that God's will be done there? Could you exercise such influences there? Certainly not. Of course you can, to a certain degree, do it on Earth, in that you, through being on the path of perfection, by the influence and light you spread, work for God's kingdom in your fellow human beings.
Heaven is within you. It is your spirit in its perfection, which waits for the walls of the lower self to be broken through. The God in you shall manifest in every detail in your spiritual as well as in 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, your thoughts, and your feelings? Try for instance to imagine this: If you were told to relinquish something to which you cling believing it to be God's will -- it could just be 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 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? If your conviction is right, don't you believe that God will confirm it? But first there must be a willingness to let go. Whenever you feel a tightening rigidity, even if your opinion is right, you prevent the heavenly kingdom from manifesting within you. On the other hand, where you are in error, the truth cannot penetrate. When the thought forms are false, God's kingdom cannot come to you.
GIVE US TODAY OUR DAILY BREAD. This, too, is often mechanically repeated, without attaching any meaning to it. People assume even if they do not clearly formulate the thought, that earning one's 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 had some spiritual schooling can discern very accurately, when he or she thinks back on his or her life, what had God's blessing and what did not. "How does the difference feel? Where do I repeatedly fail? In what areas do I always have trouble? What is the true reason for it? What did I do wrong? In what respect do I have a wrong attitude?" Think about it and 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 need to make the effort to receive spiritual nourishment: desire 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 the 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 honestly 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 love, but also those for whom you still may harbor negative feelings. Often you are not even clear about your own guilt. Humans tend to produce false, unhealthy, exaggerated guilt feelings which are not justified.
The inner process works in the following way: You shy away from admitting your guilt where it is justified and where you could feel a healthy, constructive repentance which would never drag you down or discourage you. When you ask God for forgiveness with this healthy repentance and really want to change, you will feel that you are forgiven and liberated and will know that a burden has been lifted from your shoulders. This happens when the will to change and to carry the good intention through is sincere and persevering.
But often you will not face the real guilt, partly because in your conceit you want to see yourself better than you are, and partly because it takes too great an effort to bring about inner change. Deep inside you know that this cannot happen from one day to the other; neither can it happen without effort. The spiritual core gives out signals, spurring you on to recognize your guilt, but your lower self interferes with its pride and laziness, so you often assume guilt that is not genuine. It is as if you said, "See, I repent, I admit, but actually, I am 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 the spiritual path has always been that those who recognize their real guilt lose automatically not only all false guilt complexes which pull them down, but feel instantly relieved and at peace, because truth always brings about liberation. To open oneself wide and be willing to overcome the resistance is a struggle. So people will be afraid to admit the real guilt and therefore will rather produce in their unconscious all kinds of unreal guilt feelings, which either do not at all apply, or which cover up faults which they do not want to see because they are not yet ready to accept themselves as they are, in their momentary imperfection. Guilt complexes are unreal and therefore never lead to liberation. They create vicious circles, they lead to heaviness, sadness, whereas truth always liberates, no matter how unpleasant it may feel at first.
Examine your own self in this respect. Only those who penetrate all the layers of appearance and of delusion will reach the real guilt. They will find in what way they have violated one or more spiritual laws, in action or in emotional reaction. Only then is it possible to ask God for forgiveness, which includes the request to be helped and shown how to change. Only one 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 do not have the slightest intention to truly forgive. Here, too, there is often self-deception. While no hate may be left, resentment is still present; if you have not liberated yourself from that, you cannot be free enough to have spiritual experiences. It is so difficult for you to achieve 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 do not wallow in your resentments, as you so often do, then all this will be given to you.
You human beings do not want to understand that you cannot do it by yourselves. You need help. This is why this sentence is part of the prayer. For if it were possible to do it with your will alone, you would not need to pray for it. You do not 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 in order 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. So pray for it.
This, too, has to be confronted: "Do I truly forgive all people from the bottom of my heart?" When you clearly see that you cannot yet quite do this alone, you can ask for help. And understand that not forgiving burdens you, makes you unhappy, blocks the light and freedom that you desire. Not forgiving harms you much more than it harms those whom you cannot forgive.
LEAD US IN OUR TEMPTATIONS. I repeat for those friends who joined our circle recently: What is usually said, is "Lead us not into temptation." These words give rise to misconceptions and can do harm. For God does not lead you into temptation. Rather, the meaning is for you to pray that God may lead you when temptation comes to you; to pray that God may guide you so that you can resist it, that you have the strength and the vision to be victorious. If this is what you visualize, then you can also say, "Lead us not into temptation." The words do not matter so much unless they confuse the concepts.
Now, 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 something in you were not 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 they may be. Therefore it is important to 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 the faults on your own. Only in that notion lies temptation.
No devil, no Satan could get at you if you did not have something in you that responded. When you pray that God keep Satan away from you, you are therefore in error. For in you, in your lower self, in the crust that envelops 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. If the germ of evil lay dormant, if it had no opportunity to manifest, you would not come one step nearer to perfection, to true bliss.
BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL. Here, too, the same truth applies. The evil is in you. If it existed only outside, it could not touch you. 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 his help. Do not try to do it alone; you are not strong enough. You need the willpower, you need unceasing effort, but your power alone is just as insufficient as God's, Christ's, or any spirit's help would be without your will to free yourself. You need both your willpower and the help of God. You must approach the problem from both sides: Do your own work and you must ask for spiritual help, again and again.
FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM. The Kingdom of God is within you. It shall belong to God and to no one else.
THE POWER. Only God's power cleanses, delivers, and illuminates the truth. It makes you capable of love, 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.
Lindaland
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posted July 10, 2004 03:39 PM
posted July 10, 2004 06:26 PM
posted July 10, 2004 09:32 PM
posted July 14, 2004 07:35 PM
