Why Pain? Part 2

The Image

Last year, I wrote an article about relationship and it’s value for stepping out of our story. How it can be one of the most effective for spiritual growth. But if we resist it’s revealing, relationship can also be a large source of pain in our life. Constantly bringing our pain body to light. The article was based on a quote by Eva Pierrakos.

This week, a friend of mine sent me an article by Eva. Through it, I discovered a web site with a series of talks she gave over many years from the late 50’s into the 70’s. What we now would call trance channeling*, although what spoke through her is atypically not assigned a moniker but simply “Pathwork“.

The article in question was on The Image (#38). This is their name for the shadow story or the underlying structure of what Eckhart Tolle calls the pain body. They call it the image because from the spirit or angelic view, our story construct is like a semitransparent image we carry around with us. A space with pictures in it, like we’re in a coloured hologram. I call this the shadow.

“The healthy soul where there is no image shows itself to us as a glowing form, and, like the universe, is continuously in motion. Everything is flexible and flowing. All divine forces that flow through the whole universe and also penetrate the human soul constantly flow in multicolored splendor, in harmony with the qualities, characteristics, and personal trends of the entity. But where an image exists, the forces of the human soul are hardened, constricted and twisted, and they remain rigid. Therefore all these healthy and beautiful strengths and forces of the universe that the soul needs for revival cannot penetrate, cannot enliven it. They have to flow around it and that creates a disharmony.”

The images shift the way the flow moves. When the holding or resistance is constant enough, it becomes inflexible and hard. A crust forms. This is typically in the heart and gut areas, resisting the flow of light and energy. The core has a kind of dark crystalline structure, like a little shrine of person. It tends to draw “dark energy” or the so called negative forces, essentially tamas or inertia.

They go on to mention that few souls are clear of an image. The terminology and approach is a little different but I did find it insightful. I cannot say how much else of Pathwork is useful* but it does seem to cover much of the human dilemma.

Like me, they talk about how the story is rooted in our deeper past, the karma coming forward. They talk about how events in our childhood enliven the underlying stories and how we shift them into our sub-conscious, before we were wise enough to see clearly. And why when our stories become seen, they can be embarrassing – that such a foolish notion can have been held true.

They also observe that clearing comes in layers. We can seem to run into the same issue repeatedly as we step down through the layers of it. But each is more subtle and fundamental.

Talk #52 on the God Image was also interesting. They suggest our image of God is related to our experiences of authority figures in our childhood. Parents, teachers, clergy, etc. If these are unresolved, we will be ambivalent about God, often atheist. If something that significant is unconsidered in our life, it leaves a great clue to part of our story.

Just consider – how can we surrender or even trust if we feel betrayed by authority figures and have not resolved those feelings?

We can’t use mind to find the clues. We have to look at how we feel.

Action

You may have noticed in the earlier description of the story some key factors. That it tends to bring repeating experiences. That it creates unconscious reaction and blind spots. This is the way of karma, the law of action.

We could say the story or image is the construct and action is the mechanism that flows to consequence. Put another way, action flows. When we put something up against the flow of action it circles back until it completes.

Eva observes that physical acts create physical results or karma. Emotions and concepts act on a more subtle level and support and grow the image or story. This will lead to specific actions and their consequences. The avoidance of the consequences can lead to reinforcing the image. Some speak of thoughts and feelings being a form of subtle karma and the mechanics hold.

Eva suggests that images have a karmic origin. I touch on those mechanics in a prior post. It’s more that resistance or holding causes images and karma. They are both the effect. We could say images are a visual version of our karma. Some describe Vedic astrology or jotish as a study of cycles of light, the mechanism of action.

Karma can seem to be a form of determinism, that our journey is preselected. But keep in mind that our karma arises from the actions of our past and our responses to effects, the reaction. In other words, the determinism comes from prior free will. And how we respond to the consequences, current free will, determines if it will complete or cycle again or grow.

Active karma determines the form of our body, mind, family and life but how we respond to that makes a great deal of difference in our life experience and outcomes. Do we build on it, add to the pile? Or do we work it down, make the future easier? For example, perhaps we’re given greater sensitivity. Do we use that for self development? Or does it overshadow us and turn us into an outcast?

It’s worth observing that karma is not causal except to itself. It is simply the mechanism, the way action plays in the field of itself. Our response arises from beneath or outside the field of action. If we can step back a bit and see the process, we begin to be able to choose. We cease being caught up in the drama.

The image could be seen to be causal but again, we can transcend it so it is not truly causal. It is the illusion, playing within itself.
Davidya

Part 1
Part 3

* I am extra careful with anything said to be channeled as this is a much less reliable source. The source is unknown and subject to the person channeling. It also tends to be hard on the well-being of the host.