The Undefended Self: Living the Pathwork

Satan’s opposite is Christ. As Christ personifies the eternal light of the divine, so does Satan personify the darkness of evil. All the dualities of our human reality result from this original division between Satan and Christ, darkness and light, evil and good. God is the unifying principle, the Father of it all. And within every human being all

Daily review prevents self-deception, pretense, and repression—all the ingredients of mental disturbance and confusion.

The negative intent of self-will is to get what it wants when it wants it, without regard for others. When we are lost in the lower self, we forget that no real happiness can result from pride (being “better” than others) or from self-will (getting our ego’s way). Because the lower self is not in connection with others, the heart is not available t

As we journey within, we discover many different inner selves. We need maps to sort out the many kinds of consciousness that make up our totality.

"How different your attitude to yourself must be when you realize that it is the task of human entities to carry negative aspects with them for the purpose of integrating and synthesizing them! This affords truthfulness without hopelessness. What a dignity it lends to you when you consider that you undertake an important task for the sake of e

This state of relaxed openness to the cosmic flow of life is rare, as our usual condition is a contracted ego state of fear and refusal to surrender our pride and self-will. So we all live in various stages of numbness, unavailable to the full pulsation of our Life Force. And yet, since human beings cannot live without pleasure, we find our pleasur

A major reason for our reactive defenses is that many of us still unconsciously identify ourselves as children and those around us as grown-ups—parent figures—who could devastate us with their rejection and whose protection is necessary for survival.

Very often this pseudo-solution is chosen because the child was unable to make either of the “love” or “power” masks work for him. Unable to gain the needed love through submission, or the needed self-assertion through aggression, he withdrew altogether from the problems inside and outside himself. Underneath the withdrawal, he is still torn and in

"The more you accept imperfection, the more joy you will give and receive. Your capacity for joy and happiness depends on your capacity to accept imperfection, not just intellectually, but as an emotional experience.