THE SPIRITUAL MEANING OF CRISIS

Key Extracts from Lecture 183

© The Pathwork® Foundation 1999

The ‘dark night’ of the mystics is such a time of breakdown of old structures. Most human beings are still plunged into the darkness of not understanding the meaning of crisis. They continually look in the wrong direction. If nothing would be broken down, the negativity would continue.

Growth is indeed possible without intense painful ‘dark nights,’ if honesty with the self becomes the predominant factor in the personality. True inner looking and deep concern with the inner being, and the giving up of pet attitudes and ideas must be cultivated instead of obstructed. Then the painful, disruptive crisis can be avoided because no inflamed boil whose pus must come out would form.

…every negative experience, every pain, is a result of a wrong idea!

Your own potentials, my dearest friends, are indeed infinite in the possibility to experience beauty, joy, pleasure, love, wisdom, and creative expression of your innermost being. Again, the words have been said, heard, registered. But how deeply do you know that this is a reality? How deeply do you believe in your innermost potential to be self-creating, to be in bliss, to live the infinite life? How much do you believe in your resources to solve all your problems? How much do you trust in the possibilities that are not yet manifest? How much do you believe it is real that new vistas of yourself can be discovered? How much do you truly believe that you can unfold qualities of peace coupled with excitement; of serenity coupled with adventure through which life becomes a string of beauty – even though initial difficulties are still to be overcome? How much do you really believe in all this, my friends? Ask yourself this question. To the extent you only pay lip service to this belief but not actually and actively express it into yourself, you will still be heavy, hopeless, depressed, in fear or anxiety, entangled in apparently insoluble conflicts with yourself and others. This is a gauge which tells you that you do not truly believe that you are an infinitely expanding potentiality.

Every smallest shadow is a crisis, for it need not be there. It is only there because of your turning away from the issue that creates crisis. So take those smallest shadows of your everyday life, and ask yourself what is the meaning of them. What do you not wish to see and not wish to change? If you face this and truly, truly wish to face the real issue and change where it is necessary, the crisis will have fulfilled its meaning.