Bones Castos https://phoenesse.com/ This collection is like the bones of a body—a framework around which the remaining body of work can arrange itself. Sure, there’s a lot that needs to be filled in to make it all come to life, but with Bones podcasts, now we’ve got the basic building blocks in place. Plus the words go down like a strawberry milkshake—pleasing to the tongue yet with all the calcium we need for optimum health. Wed, 19 Jul 2023 22:22:20 +0000 ©2016 Jill Loree https://episodes.castos.com/phoenesse/images/podcast/covers/c1a-nzz1-25kj550jc627-ll2h2u.jpg Bones https://phoenesse.com/ This collection is like the bones of a body—a framework around which the remaining body of work can arrange itself. Sure, there’s a lot that needs to be filled in to make it all come to life, but with Bones podcasts, now we’ve got the basic building blocks in place. Plus the words go down like a strawberry milkshake—pleasing to the tongue yet with all the calcium we need for optimum health. Phoenesse serial This collection is like the bones of a body—a framework around which the remaining body of work can arrange itself. Sure, there’s a lot that needs to be filled in to make it all come to life, but with Bones podcasts, now we’ve got the basic building blocks in place. Plus the words go down like a strawberry milkshake—pleasing to the tongue yet with all the calcium we need for optimum health. Jill Loree jill.loree@phoenesse.com false https://feeds.castos.com/pg511 no <![CDATA[19 The giant misunderstanding about freedom and self-responsibility]]> Wed, 19 Jul 2023 22:22:20 +0000 Phoenesse https://bones.castos.com/podcasts/35085/episodes/the-giant-misunderstanding-about-freedom-and-self-responsibility-1 https://bones.castos.com/episodes/the-giant-misunderstanding-about-freedom-and-self-responsibility-1 We’ve become so afraid, though, of taking self-responsibility, our fear of it has become a large part of our abyss. We fear that if we assume self-responsibility, we will fall right in and be swallowed up whole… It seems like a huge danger to let go of our demand to always have our way… We literally fear we’ll be miserable if we have to give up our demand for Utopia…

We can never be happy because buried in our unconscious is this mistaken concept that happiness requires utter perfection in all ways. Yet none of this true. It’s all part of a grand illusion… We believe that harm can come to us through the arbitrariness of life… This fear is an illusion—it’s an abyss. And the only reason it exists is because of the way we avoid self-responsibility. For if we don’t want to be responsible for our life, someone else must be…

We are only helpless because we make ourselves so when we shift responsibility away from ourselves. When we look at things this way, we begin to see the heavy price we pay for insisting on Utopia. We pay every day with our fear… As we do this work of self-discovery, we want to find the corresponding note in ourselves that is vibrating due to provocation from another. Then we’ll stop feeling like a victim…

Part of being a grown-up and making independent decisions is that we are bound to make mistakes. The child in us who still clings to Utopia, however, believes we must always be perfect. To make a mistake is to fall into the abyss… Life on planet Earth is not Utopia, and we aren’t perfect. This is not a tragedy.

Listen and learn more.

Read Bones, Chapter 19: The Giant Misunderstanding About Freedom and Self-Responsibility

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #60 The Abyss of Illusion – Freedom & Self-Responsibility

]]> full 19 1 false We’ve become so afraid, though, of taking self-responsibility, our fear of it has become a large part of our abyss. We fear that if we assume self-responsibility, we will fall right in and be swallowed up whole… It seems like a huge danger to let go of our demand to always have our way… We literally fear we’ll be miserable if we have to give up our demand for Utopia…

We can never be happy because buried in our unconscious is this mistaken concept that happiness requires utter perfection in all ways. Yet none of this true. It’s all part of a grand illusion… We believe that harm can come to us through the arbitrariness of life… This fear is an illusion—it’s an abyss. And the only reason it exists is because of the way we avoid self-responsibility. For if we don’t want to be responsible for our life, someone else must be…

We are only helpless because we make ourselves so when we shift responsibility away from ourselves. When we look at things this way, we begin to see the heavy price we pay for insisting on Utopia. We pay every day with our fear… As we do this work of self-discovery, we want to find the corresponding note in ourselves that is vibrating due to provocation from another. Then we’ll stop feeling like a victim…

Part of being a grown-up and making independent decisions is that we are bound to make mistakes. The child in us who still clings to Utopia, however, believes we must always be perfect. To make a mistake is to fall into the abyss… Life on planet Earth is not Utopia, and we aren’t perfect. This is not a tragedy.

Listen and learn more.

Read Bones, Chapter 19: The Giant Misunderstanding About Freedom and Self-Responsibility

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #60 The Abyss of Illusion – Freedom & Self-Responsibility

]]> 00:25:32 <![CDATA[18 How to use meditation to create a better life]]> Tue, 18 Jul 2023 22:20:18 +0000 Phoenesse https://bones.castos.com/podcasts/35085/episodes/how-to-use-meditation-to-create-a-better-life-1 https://bones.castos.com/episodes/how-to-use-meditation-to-create-a-better-life-1 More whole means more happy. Our goal, then, is to unify our whole selves. We do this by folding in the split-off aspects of the Lower Self that remain in separation… Consider the truth that whatever is inside, no matter how painful it might be, cannot be avoided. Rather, it must be expressed and released… And that is what meaningful meditation is all about…  

Whenever a creative act takes place and something new manifests, it has come about through the fusion of two principles: the active and the receptive… Which means that both of these principles must be part of our meditation, if we want to use it create good things… To use meditation in a creative way, it needs to include these four stages or phases: 1) Concept, 2) Impression, 3) Visualization, and 4) Faith…

We’ll start to see that these answers, and the enlightenment that comes with them, are pieces of a puzzle. Little by little, they fit together to form a comprehensive picture. Eventually, we’ll learn to rely on this process over anything else… Real faith is a knowing, an inner experience that’s beyond the shadow of doubt. Reaching it requires we have the courage to take chances, to risk finding out the truth…

One of the most important laws, which can also be found in Scripture, states: According to your belief you shall experience… So if we believe that we cannot change, that we live in a hostile universe, and that our ultimate fate is tragedy, guess what. We will—we must—experience just that… But if we believe in the truth that abundance and joy can be ours—that we can change and grow out of our poverty, our misery and our despair—we can’t help but do so…

There is no question, problem, conflict or darkness that we can’t bring into our meditation. We lose sight of how effective it can be for the biggest as well as the smallest issues of life. In reality, there’s no such thing as big or small. Everything is important. Our whole life matters… Moreover, it won’t work to split off and ignore the undesirable parts of ourselves, hoping we can enjoy the Oneness when we are less than whole inside.

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 18: How to Use Meditation to Create a Better Life

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #194 Meditation: Its Laws and Various Approaches – A Summary (Meditation as Positive Life Creation)

]]> full 18 1 false More whole means more happy. Our goal, then, is to unify our whole selves. We do this by folding in the split-off aspects of the Lower Self that remain in separation… Consider the truth that whatever is inside, no matter how painful it might be, cannot be avoided. Rather, it must be expressed and released… And that is what meaningful meditation is all about…  

Whenever a creative act takes place and something new manifests, it has come about through the fusion of two principles: the active and the receptive… Which means that both of these principles must be part of our meditation, if we want to use it create good things… To use meditation in a creative way, it needs to include these four stages or phases: 1) Concept, 2) Impression, 3) Visualization, and 4) Faith…

We’ll start to see that these answers, and the enlightenment that comes with them, are pieces of a puzzle. Little by little, they fit together to form a comprehensive picture. Eventually, we’ll learn to rely on this process over anything else… Real faith is a knowing, an inner experience that’s beyond the shadow of doubt. Reaching it requires we have the courage to take chances, to risk finding out the truth…

One of the most important laws, which can also be found in Scripture, states: According to your belief you shall experience… So if we believe that we cannot change, that we live in a hostile universe, and that our ultimate fate is tragedy, guess what. We will—we must—experience just that… But if we believe in the truth that abundance and joy can be ours—that we can change and grow out of our poverty, our misery and our despair—we can’t help but do so…

There is no question, problem, conflict or darkness that we can’t bring into our meditation. We lose sight of how effective it can be for the biggest as well as the smallest issues of life. In reality, there’s no such thing as big or small. Everything is important. Our whole life matters… Moreover, it won’t work to split off and ignore the undesirable parts of ourselves, hoping we can enjoy the Oneness when we are less than whole inside.

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 18: How to Use Meditation to Create a Better Life

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #194 Meditation: Its Laws and Various Approaches – A Summary (Meditation as Positive Life Creation)

]]> 00:37:11 <![CDATA[17 Overcoming our negative intention by identifying with our spiritual self]]> Mon, 17 Jul 2023 22:17:50 +0000 Phoenesse https://bones.castos.com/podcasts/35085/episodes/overcoming-our-negative-intention-by-identifying-with-our-spiritual-self-1 https://bones.castos.com/episodes/overcoming-our-negative-intention-by-identifying-with-our-spiritual-self-1 As we gradually make progress on our path, we become more alive and more honest in our feelings and ability to relate. We “sacrifice” old reactive patterns and discover that nothing good has been given up and plenty has been gained. It’s hard to remain skeptical… At some point in our journey, we are going to run into a wall. It’s made up of our previously concealed but now quite conscious negative intentionality…

In our unhealed psyches, we unconsciously want whatever it is we fear. Further, whatever we experience, we also unconsciously want. All these teachings are built upon these immutable facts. We need to recall this when we come face-to-face with our basic attitude toward life that says no…

So much of the resistance we encounter—in ourselves and our companions—is due precisely to our not wanting to see that a senseless, destructive streak of negative intention is in us… We’d rather hold onto our spite and go on blaming some fate that has befallen “poor innocent me,” than to move from our position… When we do finally see this, it is not a tragedy—it’s a huge blessing…

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 17: Overcoming our Negative Intention by Identifying with our Spiritual Self

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #195 Identification and Intentionality: Identification with the Spiritual Self to Overcome Negative Intentionality

]]> full 17 1 false As we gradually make progress on our path, we become more alive and more honest in our feelings and ability to relate. We “sacrifice” old reactive patterns and discover that nothing good has been given up and plenty has been gained. It’s hard to remain skeptical… At some point in our journey, we are going to run into a wall. It’s made up of our previously concealed but now quite conscious negative intentionality…

In our unhealed psyches, we unconsciously want whatever it is we fear. Further, whatever we experience, we also unconsciously want. All these teachings are built upon these immutable facts. We need to recall this when we come face-to-face with our basic attitude toward life that says no…

So much of the resistance we encounter—in ourselves and our companions—is due precisely to our not wanting to see that a senseless, destructive streak of negative intention is in us… We’d rather hold onto our spite and go on blaming some fate that has befallen “poor innocent me,” than to move from our position… When we do finally see this, it is not a tragedy—it’s a huge blessing…

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 17: Overcoming our Negative Intention by Identifying with our Spiritual Self

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #195 Identification and Intentionality: Identification with the Spiritual Self to Overcome Negative Intentionality

]]> 00:23:03 <![CDATA[16 How pleasure gets twisted into self-perpetuating cycles of pain]]> Sun, 16 Jul 2023 22:15:46 +0000 Phoenesse https://bones.castos.com/podcasts/35085/episodes/how-pleasure-gets-twisted-into-self-perpetuating-cycles-of-pain-1 https://bones.castos.com/episodes/how-pleasure-gets-twisted-into-self-perpetuating-cycles-of-pain-1 Pain is what results from the conflict created when two creative forces go in opposing directions inside us… Naturally, everyone’s favorite direction is toward the light… But in reality, this is a world in which there are forces that oppose the light…

Take, for instance, the physical level. The entire physical being is striving for health and wholeness. When there’s a disturbance that pulls the other way, we feel pain… If we were aware that in addition to our desire for health, we have a hidden desire for non-health, the struggle would go away. For we wouldn’t be likely to hold onto a desire to be unhealthy if we were consciously aware of it…

What’s really obstructing us is the material in our unconscious. This is what creates the seeming gap between cause and effect… The cause, then, is the hidden negative wish. The effect is that there’s a disturbance in our system. The end result? Pain…

There is another plane of existence, the spiritual plane… Since the spiritual plane is where the positive direction originates, this plane doesn’t contain a negative direction. It simply cannot. This is the plane of unity… When we are free from conflict and pain, we are in unity…

The thing to remember is that under every distortion, what’s real—what’s infinitely positive—still exists… So then any time we have something negative in our make-up, it’s never all of us… The part that sides with life is going in the direction of love. The anti-life side, on the other hand, is focused on hating and isolating and staying in fear…

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 16: How Pleasure Gets Twisted into Self-Perpetuating Cycles of Pain

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #140 Conflict of Positive versus Negative Oriented Pleasure as the Origin of Pain

]]> full 16 1 false Pain is what results from the conflict created when two creative forces go in opposing directions inside us… Naturally, everyone’s favorite direction is toward the light… But in reality, this is a world in which there are forces that oppose the light…

Take, for instance, the physical level. The entire physical being is striving for health and wholeness. When there’s a disturbance that pulls the other way, we feel pain… If we were aware that in addition to our desire for health, we have a hidden desire for non-health, the struggle would go away. For we wouldn’t be likely to hold onto a desire to be unhealthy if we were consciously aware of it…

What’s really obstructing us is the material in our unconscious. This is what creates the seeming gap between cause and effect… The cause, then, is the hidden negative wish. The effect is that there’s a disturbance in our system. The end result? Pain…

There is another plane of existence, the spiritual plane… Since the spiritual plane is where the positive direction originates, this plane doesn’t contain a negative direction. It simply cannot. This is the plane of unity… When we are free from conflict and pain, we are in unity…

The thing to remember is that under every distortion, what’s real—what’s infinitely positive—still exists… So then any time we have something negative in our make-up, it’s never all of us… The part that sides with life is going in the direction of love. The anti-life side, on the other hand, is focused on hating and isolating and staying in fear…

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 16: How Pleasure Gets Twisted into Self-Perpetuating Cycles of Pain

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #140 Conflict of Positive versus Negative Oriented Pleasure as the Origin of Pain

]]> 00:20:05 <![CDATA[15 Learning to speak the language of the unconscious mind]]> Sat, 15 Jul 2023 22:09:26 +0000 Phoenesse https://bones.castos.com/podcasts/35085/episodes/learning-to-speak-the-language-of-the-unconscious-mind-1 https://bones.castos.com/episodes/learning-to-speak-the-language-of-the-unconscious-mind-1 The universe is made up of two main currents: a yes-current and a no-current. The yes-current contains all the good stuff. It aligns with truth and it breeds love and unity. The no-current deviates from truth and is destructive. It breeds hate and disunity… Of the two currents, we tend to spot the yes-current more readily because it is mostly conscious. But then we stumble across some disturbing life event. Or we bump up once again against a persistent unfulfillment. When that happens, we can be sure there are both a yes-current and a no-current at work, effectively cancelling each other out…

The more we squelch the no-current, thinking this will drive it out of existence, the more we simply drive it further underground where no logic can oppose it. This is how it becomes more powerful than the conscious yes-current. This also causes the yes-current to become more urgent and frantic… The way to defuse all this is by surfacing the no-current, listening to its faulty premise, and gradually letting go of the mistaken belief that it needs to continue…

Simply becoming aware of the perpetual drip of our no-current—even before we understand what it’s all about—will deliver much-needed relief from the water torture of our hopelessness… We’ll pinpoint where our hostility is smoldering, artfully camouflaged or explained away by the easy-to-blame provocations from others. These are the mechanisms we need to learn about, because they are the language of the unconscious. To successfully spot them is to successfully decipher the code of this ancient dialect… This is how we crack the no-current…

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 15: Learning to Speak the Language of the Unconscious

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #124 The Language of the Unconscious

]]> full 15 1 false The universe is made up of two main currents: a yes-current and a no-current. The yes-current contains all the good stuff. It aligns with truth and it breeds love and unity. The no-current deviates from truth and is destructive. It breeds hate and disunity… Of the two currents, we tend to spot the yes-current more readily because it is mostly conscious. But then we stumble across some disturbing life event. Or we bump up once again against a persistent unfulfillment. When that happens, we can be sure there are both a yes-current and a no-current at work, effectively cancelling each other out…

The more we squelch the no-current, thinking this will drive it out of existence, the more we simply drive it further underground where no logic can oppose it. This is how it becomes more powerful than the conscious yes-current. This also causes the yes-current to become more urgent and frantic… The way to defuse all this is by surfacing the no-current, listening to its faulty premise, and gradually letting go of the mistaken belief that it needs to continue…

Simply becoming aware of the perpetual drip of our no-current—even before we understand what it’s all about—will deliver much-needed relief from the water torture of our hopelessness… We’ll pinpoint where our hostility is smoldering, artfully camouflaged or explained away by the easy-to-blame provocations from others. These are the mechanisms we need to learn about, because they are the language of the unconscious. To successfully spot them is to successfully decipher the code of this ancient dialect… This is how we crack the no-current…

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 15: Learning to Speak the Language of the Unconscious

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #124 The Language of the Unconscious

]]> 00:28:41 <![CDATA[14 Exposing the mistaken image we have about God]]> Fri, 14 Jul 2023 22:07:36 +0000 Phoenesse https://bones.castos.com/podcasts/35085/episodes/exposing-the-mistaken-image-we-have-about-god-1 https://bones.castos.com/episodes/exposing-the-mistaken-image-we-have-about-god-1 As children, we learned that the highest authority—even higher than our parents—is God. So it’s not a surprise that we bundle up all our painful subjective experiences with the people who say no to us, and put them on God. This is how our God-image gets created…

As children, authority figures were cropping up everywhere. And when they stopped us from doing whatever it was we enjoyed most, we viewed them as hostile… To whatever degree we experienced fear and frustration, to that same degree we’ll fear and be frustrated by God… For many people, God is punishing and severe. We might also believe that God is unfair and unjust—a contrary force we must grapple with...

Before we know it, we will have grown an inner image of God that makes God out to be a monster… Believing this to be true, we turn away from God altogether, wanting nothing to do with that monster in our minds… This is often the real reason someone turns to atheism…

Clearly, talking about God is not easy. And yet, we must try. One major stumbling block for all of us is that we think about God as a person… For God is; he (she, it, they) just is… Among other things, God is life. And God is also the force that enlivens life… Through us and all around us flows this powerful “electric current;” it’s up to us how we want to use it…

The way spiritual laws work, the more we deviate from them, the more we live in misery. At some point, this misery causes us to turn around and realize that we ourselves are the source of our misery. Not God and God’s laws… To love the laws is to love God… Nestled in these loving laws is God’s willingness to let us deviate from divine laws, if we wish… No one is forcing us to live in light and bliss.

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 14: Exposing the Mistaken Image we have About God

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #52 The God-Image

]]> full 14 1 false As children, we learned that the highest authority—even higher than our parents—is God. So it’s not a surprise that we bundle up all our painful subjective experiences with the people who say no to us, and put them on God. This is how our God-image gets created…

As children, authority figures were cropping up everywhere. And when they stopped us from doing whatever it was we enjoyed most, we viewed them as hostile… To whatever degree we experienced fear and frustration, to that same degree we’ll fear and be frustrated by God… For many people, God is punishing and severe. We might also believe that God is unfair and unjust—a contrary force we must grapple with...

Before we know it, we will have grown an inner image of God that makes God out to be a monster… Believing this to be true, we turn away from God altogether, wanting nothing to do with that monster in our minds… This is often the real reason someone turns to atheism…

Clearly, talking about God is not easy. And yet, we must try. One major stumbling block for all of us is that we think about God as a person… For God is; he (she, it, they) just is… Among other things, God is life. And God is also the force that enlivens life… Through us and all around us flows this powerful “electric current;” it’s up to us how we want to use it…

The way spiritual laws work, the more we deviate from them, the more we live in misery. At some point, this misery causes us to turn around and realize that we ourselves are the source of our misery. Not God and God’s laws… To love the laws is to love God… Nestled in these loving laws is God’s willingness to let us deviate from divine laws, if we wish… No one is forcing us to live in light and bliss.

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 14: Exposing the Mistaken Image we have About God

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #52 The God-Image

]]> 00:23:46 <![CDATA[13 The ubiquitous faults of self-will, pride and fear]]> Thu, 13 Jul 2023 22:05:11 +0000 Phoenesse https://bones.castos.com/podcasts/35085/episodes/the-ubiquitous-faults-of-self-will-pride-and-fear-1 https://bones.castos.com/episodes/the-ubiquitous-faults-of-self-will-pride-and-fear-1 There is one fundamental quality that is the core element of who we are… This means that each one of us have kept a kernel of perfection—our original nature—basically intact in our core essence. Although it’s now covered by the Lower Self and layer upon layer of imperfections…

So we have two missions. One is to sense what our basic light is. The other is to realize how these three faults of self-will, pride and fear collude to cover it up… They are the fundamental blockers of our essential light… We must see the role that each of them plays and not buy, for one minute, the notion that this trio applies to “everyone but me”…

Self-will wants what it wants, when it wants it. It will strive to have its way, regardless of who or what it has to step on to get it. It doesn’t even care if it brings hardship and imprisonment upon the self in the process… Self-will, then, is both blind and immature, and it works in opposition to spiritual law as much as in violation of human laws. And it really doesn’t care…

How then does our self-will connect with fear? If we’re sheltering a mountain of self-will—often extra-powerful because it is lurking in our unconscious—we’re going to live in perpetual fear that we won’t get our way… The problem isn’t that this is true. The problem is our warped perspective that this is necessary…

We’re snagged on pride when our ego thinks we’re more important than other people, so we want advantages for ourselves… If we feel another’s humiliation counts for less than our own, we have too much pride…

For as long as we’re ensnared in self-will, pride and fear, we can never be happy. It’s not possible… In knowing this, we hold a treasure. For now we hold the key to fixing all our problems.

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 13: The Ubiquitous Faults of Self-Will, Pride and Fear

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #30 Self-Will, Pride and Fear

]]> full 13 1 false There is one fundamental quality that is the core element of who we are… This means that each one of us have kept a kernel of perfection—our original nature—basically intact in our core essence. Although it’s now covered by the Lower Self and layer upon layer of imperfections…

So we have two missions. One is to sense what our basic light is. The other is to realize how these three faults of self-will, pride and fear collude to cover it up… They are the fundamental blockers of our essential light… We must see the role that each of them plays and not buy, for one minute, the notion that this trio applies to “everyone but me”…

Self-will wants what it wants, when it wants it. It will strive to have its way, regardless of who or what it has to step on to get it. It doesn’t even care if it brings hardship and imprisonment upon the self in the process… Self-will, then, is both blind and immature, and it works in opposition to spiritual law as much as in violation of human laws. And it really doesn’t care…

How then does our self-will connect with fear? If we’re sheltering a mountain of self-will—often extra-powerful because it is lurking in our unconscious—we’re going to live in perpetual fear that we won’t get our way… The problem isn’t that this is true. The problem is our warped perspective that this is necessary…

We’re snagged on pride when our ego thinks we’re more important than other people, so we want advantages for ourselves… If we feel another’s humiliation counts for less than our own, we have too much pride…

For as long as we’re ensnared in self-will, pride and fear, we can never be happy. It’s not possible… In knowing this, we hold a treasure. For now we hold the key to fixing all our problems.

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 13: The Ubiquitous Faults of Self-Will, Pride and Fear

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #30 Self-Will, Pride and Fear

]]> 00:16:51 <![CDATA[12 Finding out the truth about ourselves, including our faults]]> Wed, 12 Jul 2023 22:02:11 +0000 Phoenesse https://bones.castos.com/podcasts/35085/episodes/finding-out-the-truth-about-ourselves-including-our-faults-1 https://bones.castos.com/episodes/finding-out-the-truth-about-ourselves-including-our-faults-1 This path is based on the simple law of cause and effect… If we apply these teachings to our lives, they will work for us. There is nothing we must believe… If we want to become capable of experiencing genuine happiness, we must learn how to course-correct back into alignment with spiritual laws…  None of this can happen by merely concentrating on our outer problems. We must look deeper and find the corresponding inner problems, which are always the cause of the outer ones…

Every fault we harbor stands in the way of unfolding pure loving feelings or insight or understanding. It’s in this way that we do indeed do harm to others… Another equally impactful hindrance is our fears, which we generally don’t put in the same category as faults… Our fears work to tarnish our inner light of love and understanding. After all, when we are in fear, we are not in truth. So on this path of purification, we will not only come face to face with our faults—our character weaknesses—we will need to face all our fears…

For certain, this path is a difficult one. But God is not the one making it so hard… We must never lose sight of this truth: Everything we suffer from in life results directly or indirectly from our shortcomings and our fears. If we had no shortcomings, we would have no fear. And our fear and insecurities are what make us so miserable. They spoil everything.

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 12: Finding Out the Truth about Ourselves, Including Our Faults

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #26 Finding One's Faults

]]> full 12 1 false This path is based on the simple law of cause and effect… If we apply these teachings to our lives, they will work for us. There is nothing we must believe… If we want to become capable of experiencing genuine happiness, we must learn how to course-correct back into alignment with spiritual laws…  None of this can happen by merely concentrating on our outer problems. We must look deeper and find the corresponding inner problems, which are always the cause of the outer ones…

Every fault we harbor stands in the way of unfolding pure loving feelings or insight or understanding. It’s in this way that we do indeed do harm to others… Another equally impactful hindrance is our fears, which we generally don’t put in the same category as faults… Our fears work to tarnish our inner light of love and understanding. After all, when we are in fear, we are not in truth. So on this path of purification, we will not only come face to face with our faults—our character weaknesses—we will need to face all our fears…

For certain, this path is a difficult one. But God is not the one making it so hard… We must never lose sight of this truth: Everything we suffer from in life results directly or indirectly from our shortcomings and our fears. If we had no shortcomings, we would have no fear. And our fear and insecurities are what make us so miserable. They spoil everything.

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 12: Finding Out the Truth about Ourselves, Including Our Faults

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #26 Finding One's Faults

]]> 00:26:41 <![CDATA[11 Our habit of transferring our splits onto everyone]]> Tue, 11 Jul 2023 21:59:37 +0000 Phoenesse https://bones.castos.com/podcasts/35085/episodes/our-habit-of-transferring-our-splits-onto-everyone-1 https://bones.castos.com/episodes/our-habit-of-transferring-our-splits-onto-everyone-1 We’re here because this planet is a perfect match for the negativity remaining in us. It offers conditions compatible with our inner landscape… We’re confused about reality, and our mind is full of incorrect concepts…

And wherever confusion prevails, there’s always conflict. Conflicts are split concepts that divide the psyche. They arise when some aspect, inside us, is not in truth. … So Earth is nothing more, and nothing less, than a classroom for people with inner splits…

If we look at everything we’ve managed to surface so far, including our main image and defenses, our conflicts and faults, they will reveal the basic inner attitude that is governing our life. And this attitude is always split down the middle. Meaning, we fluctuate back and forth between two essentially opposite ways of reacting… When this realization starts to take shape, we’ll see that our two fundamental attitudes are represented by our parents… .

There was no way for us to work this out before we got here. So our parents, who bring our unresolved split out into the open, couldn’t possibly be responsible for our problems… This basic conflict is so deep, it’s existence is the reason we have the human experience. But it’s not inaccessible…

We go through life, then, reacting to the person in front of us, not as them but as if they were our parents… Whenever we are negatively involved with someone, we can be sure our split is a factor in the fireworks… We firmly believe in something that isn’t true. But then our belief gets reinforced, so our split cracks open even wider…

Lack of awareness is truly a prison that makes life not worth living. Because we feel caught between two equally unappealing alternatives. We adopted a certain way of reacting to our parents, and now we keep responding that way And so we keep getting the same poor results… The way out is through awareness that we are living in a trance… Once we break this mold, though, new experiences can materialize.

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 11: Our Habit of Transferring our Split onto Everyone

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #118 Duality Through Illusion – Transference

]]> full 11 1 false We’re here because this planet is a perfect match for the negativity remaining in us. It offers conditions compatible with our inner landscape… We’re confused about reality, and our mind is full of incorrect concepts…

And wherever confusion prevails, there’s always conflict. Conflicts are split concepts that divide the psyche. They arise when some aspect, inside us, is not in truth. … So Earth is nothing more, and nothing less, than a classroom for people with inner splits…

If we look at everything we’ve managed to surface so far, including our main image and defenses, our conflicts and faults, they will reveal the basic inner attitude that is governing our life. And this attitude is always split down the middle. Meaning, we fluctuate back and forth between two essentially opposite ways of reacting… When this realization starts to take shape, we’ll see that our two fundamental attitudes are represented by our parents… .

There was no way for us to work this out before we got here. So our parents, who bring our unresolved split out into the open, couldn’t possibly be responsible for our problems… This basic conflict is so deep, it’s existence is the reason we have the human experience. But it’s not inaccessible…

We go through life, then, reacting to the person in front of us, not as them but as if they were our parents… Whenever we are negatively involved with someone, we can be sure our split is a factor in the fireworks… We firmly believe in something that isn’t true. But then our belief gets reinforced, so our split cracks open even wider…

Lack of awareness is truly a prison that makes life not worth living. Because we feel caught between two equally unappealing alternatives. We adopted a certain way of reacting to our parents, and now we keep responding that way And so we keep getting the same poor results… The way out is through awareness that we are living in a trance… Once we break this mold, though, new experiences can materialize.

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 11: Our Habit of Transferring our Split onto Everyone

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #118 Duality Through Illusion – Transference

]]> 00:14:19 <![CDATA[10 Unpacking the pain of our old destructive patterns]]> Mon, 10 Jul 2023 21:56:54 +0000 Phoenesse https://bones.castos.com/podcasts/35085/episodes/unpacking-the-pain-of-our-old-destructive-patterns-1 https://bones.castos.com/episodes/unpacking-the-pain-of-our-old-destructive-patterns-1 Let’s talk about pain. And more importantly, let’s discuss how to dissolve pain… The climate we grew up in affected us—it was like perpetually receiving a minor shock… We suffered and believed our suffering was unchangeable. And this conditioned us to create defenses—highly destructive defenses…

We repressed the original frustration and pain we couldn’t deal with, and we put it out of our awareness. There, it smolders in the unconscious mind… Our defense mechanisms of aggression, submission and/or withdrawal fully developed… Our images are also a form of defense, designed to fight against painful experiences by erecting a rigid wall constructed entirely from wrong conclusions…

In every case, we hurt others while also inflaming our own wounds. Because thanks to the law of cause and effect, hurting others has ramifications for us. There will be consequences. So, not only have we done nothing to calm the original pain, we’ve invited more of it… Rather than abandoning our limping pseudo-solutions, we wrap them into our idealized self-image. Here, the agenda is to make us feel better than everyone else…

Since the nature of the idealized self is falseness and pretense—we act perfect since we can’t be perfect—we feel alienated from ourselves, from others and from life… We’ll come to realize that pain feels far better than being alienated from ourselves and feeling numb…

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 10: Unpacking the Pain of our Old Destructive Patterns

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #100 Meeting the Pain of Destructive Patterns

]]> full 10 1 false Let’s talk about pain. And more importantly, let’s discuss how to dissolve pain… The climate we grew up in affected us—it was like perpetually receiving a minor shock… We suffered and believed our suffering was unchangeable. And this conditioned us to create defenses—highly destructive defenses…

We repressed the original frustration and pain we couldn’t deal with, and we put it out of our awareness. There, it smolders in the unconscious mind… Our defense mechanisms of aggression, submission and/or withdrawal fully developed… Our images are also a form of defense, designed to fight against painful experiences by erecting a rigid wall constructed entirely from wrong conclusions…

In every case, we hurt others while also inflaming our own wounds. Because thanks to the law of cause and effect, hurting others has ramifications for us. There will be consequences. So, not only have we done nothing to calm the original pain, we’ve invited more of it… Rather than abandoning our limping pseudo-solutions, we wrap them into our idealized self-image. Here, the agenda is to make us feel better than everyone else…

Since the nature of the idealized self is falseness and pretense—we act perfect since we can’t be perfect—we feel alienated from ourselves, from others and from life… We’ll come to realize that pain feels far better than being alienated from ourselves and feeling numb…

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 10: Unpacking the Pain of our Old Destructive Patterns

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #100 Meeting the Pain of Destructive Patterns

]]> 00:17:57 <![CDATA[9 Images and the deep, deep damage they do]]> Sun, 09 Jul 2023 21:53:01 +0000 Phoenesse https://bones.castos.com/podcasts/35085/episodes/images-and-the-deep-deep-damage-they-do-1 https://bones.castos.com/episodes/images-and-the-deep-deep-damage-they-do-1 about this thing we call life… Something unfortunate happens—one of the many unavoidable hardships of life—and we make a generalization based on it. Roll things forward a while, and now we have a rock-solid, preconceived idea about the way things are. The only problem is, most of the time our conclusions are wrong…

They are really just our emotional reactions to life’s events. They are based on a certain limited child logic, but they are nonetheless in error. As we grow up, these wrong conclusions, along with the attitudes they sprout, sink out of our awareness. There, in our unconscious, they settle in and start molding how our life will look… The word the Guide uses to refer to these wrong conclusions is “images”…

The list of damages caused by images is practically endless… Here’s another way to know an image is at work. There’s a repetition of incidents we didn’t ask for and don’t want. Images always form patterns… We draw people and events to us like bees to honey on account of our images…

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 9: Images and the Deep, Deep Damage They Do

]]> full 9 1 false about this thing we call life… Something unfortunate happens—one of the many unavoidable hardships of life—and we make a generalization based on it. Roll things forward a while, and now we have a rock-solid, preconceived idea about the way things are. The only problem is, most of the time our conclusions are wrong…

They are really just our emotional reactions to life’s events. They are based on a certain limited child logic, but they are nonetheless in error. As we grow up, these wrong conclusions, along with the attitudes they sprout, sink out of our awareness. There, in our unconscious, they settle in and start molding how our life will look… The word the Guide uses to refer to these wrong conclusions is “images”…

The list of damages caused by images is practically endless… Here’s another way to know an image is at work. There’s a repetition of incidents we didn’t ask for and don’t want. Images always form patterns… We draw people and events to us like bees to honey on account of our images…

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 9: Images and the Deep, Deep Damage They Do

]]> 00:14:14 <![CDATA[8 How and why we recreate childhood hurts]]> Sat, 08 Jul 2023 21:50:16 +0000 Phoenesse https://bones.castos.com/podcasts/35085/episodes/how-and-why-we-recreate-childhood-hurts-1 https://bones.castos.com/episodes/how-and-why-we-recreate-childhood-hurts-1 without any limits. In other words, every child’s desire for love is unrealistic… Since they seldom receive an adequate amount of warmth and mature love, children remain hungry for it throughout their whole life… Essentially everyone—even the most diligent spiritual seekers—overlooks just how strong the link is between the unfulfillment of our childhood longings and our present-day problems. This isn’t just a nice a theory…

They may not have been as perfect as we thought and hoped they’d be back then, but there’s no reason to now reject them because they had their own immaturities and inner conflicts… Once we’re free of this repetitive cycle, we can stop being upset about not getting love the way we wanted it… By releasing the pain we feel now, which is inextricably bound to the hurt of then, we’ll see how we thought we had to choose this situation or admit defeat…

We can turn our painful feelings into healthy growing pains whenever we become ready to rid ourselves of the bitterness and tension we’ve been hiding… Forgetting and forgiving will become a genuine thing that we won’t even have to think about doing. They will naturally occur.

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 8: How and Why we Recreate Childhood Hurts

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #73 Compulsion to Recreate and Overcome Childhood Hurts

]]> full 8 1 false without any limits. In other words, every child’s desire for love is unrealistic… Since they seldom receive an adequate amount of warmth and mature love, children remain hungry for it throughout their whole life… Essentially everyone—even the most diligent spiritual seekers—overlooks just how strong the link is between the unfulfillment of our childhood longings and our present-day problems. This isn’t just a nice a theory…

They may not have been as perfect as we thought and hoped they’d be back then, but there’s no reason to now reject them because they had their own immaturities and inner conflicts… Once we’re free of this repetitive cycle, we can stop being upset about not getting love the way we wanted it… By releasing the pain we feel now, which is inextricably bound to the hurt of then, we’ll see how we thought we had to choose this situation or admit defeat…

We can turn our painful feelings into healthy growing pains whenever we become ready to rid ourselves of the bitterness and tension we’ve been hiding… Forgetting and forgiving will become a genuine thing that we won’t even have to think about doing. They will naturally occur.

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 8: How and Why we Recreate Childhood Hurts

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #73 Compulsion to Recreate and Overcome Childhood Hurts

]]> 00:17:11 <![CDATA[7 Love, power and serenity in divinity or in distortion]]> Fri, 07 Jul 2023 21:47:38 +0000 Phoenesse https://bones.castos.com/podcasts/35085/episodes/love-power-and-serenity-in-divinity-or-in-distortion-1 https://bones.castos.com/episodes/love-power-and-serenity-in-divinity-or-in-distortion-1 There are three major divine attributes—love, power and serenity—that in the healthy person work as a team. They maintain flexibility amongst themselves so one never drowns another out… But when they are in distortion, they step all over each other. Then love, power and serenity get distorted into their malevolent counterparts: submission, aggression and withdrawal…

In our efforts to master our difficulties, largely created in childhood and then perpetuated into adulthood through our wrong solution choices, we find ourselves increasingly bound up by the tight constrictions of a vicious circle… It never occurs to us that our real problem is the solution we have chosen…

For a child, it is valid to need to receive protective love. But if such a need is carried over into adulthood, it’s no longer valid… When we’re so dependent on others for love, we become helpless.  We won’t stand on our own two feet… These attitudes become so ingrained in us, it’s like they’re part of our nature. But they are not…

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 7: Love, Power and Serenity in Divinity or in Distortion

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #84 Love, Power, Serenity as Divine Attributes and as Distortions

]]> full 7 1 false There are three major divine attributes—love, power and serenity—that in the healthy person work as a team. They maintain flexibility amongst themselves so one never drowns another out… But when they are in distortion, they step all over each other. Then love, power and serenity get distorted into their malevolent counterparts: submission, aggression and withdrawal…

In our efforts to master our difficulties, largely created in childhood and then perpetuated into adulthood through our wrong solution choices, we find ourselves increasingly bound up by the tight constrictions of a vicious circle… It never occurs to us that our real problem is the solution we have chosen…

For a child, it is valid to need to receive protective love. But if such a need is carried over into adulthood, it’s no longer valid… When we’re so dependent on others for love, we become helpless.  We won’t stand on our own two feet… These attitudes become so ingrained in us, it’s like they’re part of our nature. But they are not…

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 7: Love, Power and Serenity in Divinity or in Distortion

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #84 Love, Power, Serenity as Divine Attributes and as Distortions

]]> 00:27:10 <![CDATA[6 The origin and outcome of the Idealized Self-Image]]> Thu, 06 Jul 2023 21:44:37 +0000 Phoenesse https://bones.castos.com/podcasts/35085/episodes/the-origin-and-outcome-of-the-idealized-self-image-1 https://bones.castos.com/episodes/the-origin-and-outcome-of-the-idealized-self-image-1 There’s just no escaping our knowledge that unpleasantness is possible. It really happens. Our fear of this is ever-present, and that creates a problem for us… So we devise a countermeasure that we falsely believe will circumvent unhappiness, unpleasantness and death: we create an idealized self-image. In short, this is a pseudo-protection that doesn’t work…

There’s a direct correlation between being unhappy and not believing in ourselves. Our loss of self-confidence is proportional to how badly we feel. Our idealized self-image is supposed to avoid all that by supplying the missing self-confidence. This, we think, by way of our unconscious reasoning, will lead us straight to pleasure supreme…

We simply can’t be more than we really are in any given life situation… What we can do is have a genuine desire to better ourselves, which leads to accepting ourselves as we are right now… Once we’ve done a significant amount of personal work, we’ll start to see the difference between these two things. One involves feeling a genuine desire for gradual improvement. The other is the pretense of the idealized self that just wants to look better now…

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 6: The Origin and Outcome of the Idealized Self-Image

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #83 The Idealized Self-Image

]]> full 6 1 false There’s just no escaping our knowledge that unpleasantness is possible. It really happens. Our fear of this is ever-present, and that creates a problem for us… So we devise a countermeasure that we falsely believe will circumvent unhappiness, unpleasantness and death: we create an idealized self-image. In short, this is a pseudo-protection that doesn’t work…

There’s a direct correlation between being unhappy and not believing in ourselves. Our loss of self-confidence is proportional to how badly we feel. Our idealized self-image is supposed to avoid all that by supplying the missing self-confidence. This, we think, by way of our unconscious reasoning, will lead us straight to pleasure supreme…

We simply can’t be more than we really are in any given life situation… What we can do is have a genuine desire to better ourselves, which leads to accepting ourselves as we are right now… Once we’ve done a significant amount of personal work, we’ll start to see the difference between these two things. One involves feeling a genuine desire for gradual improvement. The other is the pretense of the idealized self that just wants to look better now…

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 6: The Origin and Outcome of the Idealized Self-Image

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #83 The Idealized Self-Image

]]> 00:18:50 <![CDATA[5 Intellect and will as tools or hindrances to self-realization]]> Wed, 05 Jul 2023 21:41:53 +0000 Phoenesse https://bones.castos.com/podcasts/35085/episodes/intellect-and-will-as-tools-or-hindrances-to-self-realization-1 https://bones.castos.com/episodes/intellect-and-will-as-tools-or-hindrances-to-self-realization-1 An important difference between our superficial intellect and our Real Self is that we can direct, manipulate and govern the intellect using our will. We can’t do this with the Real Self. Of the two, the Real Self is the more intelligent one… We are so conditioned to focus on the use of our thinking ability and willpower that we believe we can become ourselves through an act of sheer will. We think we can use our minds to develop spiritually… It’s our Real Self that connects with the living spirit of a word, whereas unfeeling repetition comes from our intellect…

If we boil it down, what obstructs the Real Self are our layers of confusion and error. On top of these sits our lack of awareness about our confusion and errors… What intellect and will can be used for is cleaning up the errors and confusion that they themselves have created… When we know we are confused, we are closer to our Real Self than when we are blind to our inner confusion. This is true, even if we don’t have any solutions to our problems…

Trying to reach a higher state of being by using intellect and willpower causes us to construct images. These are essentially wrong conclusions about life. They are based on how we think we should be and how life should be, according to our limited past experiences… We can’t force ourselves to love. We might think we can, but in reality we can’t. Which doesn’t mean we don’t love…

So we can’t just make up our minds that we’re going to be good people who love and have compassion and humility. We can, however, make up our minds to figure out what’s causing us to not be like that… What we don’t realize is that if we were to see ourselves as we really are, we would see that there’s nothing to fear. We need to realize that hanging on for dear life won’t bring us to the doorstep of the Real Self. We simply cannot find ourselves that way…

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 5: Intellect and Will as Tools or Hindrances to Self-Realization

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #104 Intellect and Will as Tools or Hindrances to Self-Realization

]]> full 5 1 false An important difference between our superficial intellect and our Real Self is that we can direct, manipulate and govern the intellect using our will. We can’t do this with the Real Self. Of the two, the Real Self is the more intelligent one… We are so conditioned to focus on the use of our thinking ability and willpower that we believe we can become ourselves through an act of sheer will. We think we can use our minds to develop spiritually… It’s our Real Self that connects with the living spirit of a word, whereas unfeeling repetition comes from our intellect…

If we boil it down, what obstructs the Real Self are our layers of confusion and error. On top of these sits our lack of awareness about our confusion and errors… What intellect and will can be used for is cleaning up the errors and confusion that they themselves have created… When we know we are confused, we are closer to our Real Self than when we are blind to our inner confusion. This is true, even if we don’t have any solutions to our problems…

Trying to reach a higher state of being by using intellect and willpower causes us to construct images. These are essentially wrong conclusions about life. They are based on how we think we should be and how life should be, according to our limited past experiences… We can’t force ourselves to love. We might think we can, but in reality we can’t. Which doesn’t mean we don’t love…

So we can’t just make up our minds that we’re going to be good people who love and have compassion and humility. We can, however, make up our minds to figure out what’s causing us to not be like that… What we don’t realize is that if we were to see ourselves as we really are, we would see that there’s nothing to fear. We need to realize that hanging on for dear life won’t bring us to the doorstep of the Real Self. We simply cannot find ourselves that way…

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 5: Intellect and Will as Tools or Hindrances to Self-Realization

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #104 Intellect and Will as Tools or Hindrances to Self-Realization

]]> 00:13:51 <![CDATA[4 Three basic personality types: Reason, will and emotion]]> Tue, 04 Jul 2023 21:39:44 +0000 Phoenesse https://bones.castos.com/podcasts/35085/episodes/three-basic-personality-types-reason-will-and-emotion-1 https://bones.castos.com/episodes/three-basic-personality-types-reason-will-and-emotion-1 If we are the Reason Type, we govern our lives primarily using the reasoning process, making us prone to neglecting our emotions. Frankly, we’re afraid of our feelings so we thwart them. In doing so, though, we cripple one of our most important faculties: intuition…

The Emotion Type is equally one-sided. We pride ourselves in being capable of truly feeling. So while we may find it easier to connect with inner divinity, we easily become carried away by our emotions… As Emotion Types, we secretly look down on Reason Types. We may derogatorily labeling them “intellectuals” and lose sight of the fact that reason is as God-given as emotions… If we’re an extreme Emotion Type, we will impact our surroundings with our uncontrolled emotions…

But the Will Type makes a master out of the servant, which pulls us out of focus in a dangerous way… If we’re a Will Type, we will tend to disregard caution, losing sight of the many essential considerations needed to discover the truth in any situation…

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 4: Three Basic Personality Types: Reason, Will and Emotion

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #43 Three Basic Personality Types: Reason, Will, Emotion

]]> full 4 1 false If we are the Reason Type, we govern our lives primarily using the reasoning process, making us prone to neglecting our emotions. Frankly, we’re afraid of our feelings so we thwart them. In doing so, though, we cripple one of our most important faculties: intuition…

The Emotion Type is equally one-sided. We pride ourselves in being capable of truly feeling. So while we may find it easier to connect with inner divinity, we easily become carried away by our emotions… As Emotion Types, we secretly look down on Reason Types. We may derogatorily labeling them “intellectuals” and lose sight of the fact that reason is as God-given as emotions… If we’re an extreme Emotion Type, we will impact our surroundings with our uncontrolled emotions…

But the Will Type makes a master out of the servant, which pulls us out of focus in a dangerous way… If we’re a Will Type, we will tend to disregard caution, losing sight of the many essential considerations needed to discover the truth in any situation…

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 4: Three Basic Personality Types: Reason, Will and Emotion

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #43 Three Basic Personality Types: Reason, Will, Emotion

]]> 00:13:23 <![CDATA[3 The Higher Self, the Lower Self, and the Mask Self]]> Mon, 03 Jul 2023 21:33:21 +0000 Phoenesse https://bones.castos.com/podcasts/35085/episodes/the-higher-self-the-lower-self-and-the-mask-self-1 https://bones.castos.com/episodes/the-higher-self-the-lower-self-and-the-mask-self-1 One of the subtle bodies that every living being has is called the Higher Self, or divine spark… The higher one’s spiritual development, the faster these vibrations will be… Ever since the Fall of the Angels, our Higher Self has gradually wrapped itself in various invisible layers of more dense matter, Their frequency is somewhere in between the density of the physical body and the Higher Self. This is the Lower Self…

The Lower Self, which also varies from soul to soul, is made up of our faults and weakness. It’s also characterized by laziness and ignorance. The last thing it wants to do is change and rise above itself. It always wants to have its own way, without having to pay any price for this…

There is another layer that is quite significant but often overlooked. We could call it the Mask Self. We create this false covering because we realize we’ll likely run into trouble with our surroundings if and when we give in to our Lower Self… Our mask is not our Higher Self, although we’re hoping others will believe that it is. And it’s not our Lower Self, although we’re hoping it will work to cover up our shadow side. It’s inauthentic. It’s not real… The Mask Self is sickeningly sweet. For an artist, it would be the difference between a good, genuine color and artificial coloring. It’s like the word we use to describe bad art: kitsch…

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 3: The Higher Self, the Lower Self, and the Mask Self

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #14 The Higher Self, the Lower Self, and the Mask

]]> full 3 1 false One of the subtle bodies that every living being has is called the Higher Self, or divine spark… The higher one’s spiritual development, the faster these vibrations will be… Ever since the Fall of the Angels, our Higher Self has gradually wrapped itself in various invisible layers of more dense matter, Their frequency is somewhere in between the density of the physical body and the Higher Self. This is the Lower Self…

The Lower Self, which also varies from soul to soul, is made up of our faults and weakness. It’s also characterized by laziness and ignorance. The last thing it wants to do is change and rise above itself. It always wants to have its own way, without having to pay any price for this…

There is another layer that is quite significant but often overlooked. We could call it the Mask Self. We create this false covering because we realize we’ll likely run into trouble with our surroundings if and when we give in to our Lower Self… Our mask is not our Higher Self, although we’re hoping others will believe that it is. And it’s not our Lower Self, although we’re hoping it will work to cover up our shadow side. It’s inauthentic. It’s not real… The Mask Self is sickeningly sweet. For an artist, it would be the difference between a good, genuine color and artificial coloring. It’s like the word we use to describe bad art: kitsch…

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 3: The Higher Self, the Lower Self, and the Mask Self

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #14 The Higher Self, the Lower Self, and the Mask

]]> 00:10:30 <![CDATA[2 The importance of feeling all our feelings, including fear]]> Sun, 02 Jul 2023 15:47:29 +0000 Phoenesse https://bones.castos.com/podcasts/35085/episodes/the-importance-of-feeling-all-our-feelings-including-fear-1 https://bones.castos.com/episodes/the-importance-of-feeling-all-our-feelings-including-fear-1 Our defenses work by blocking access to our emotions, so they choke off our ability to get to our feelings. We’re going to need to lower our weapons… Every tear not shed is a block. Every protest not spoken sits like a lump in our throat, causing us to lash out inappropriately. These feelings feel like bottomless pits…

Feelings, which are moving energy currents, will change and transform as long as the energy is flowing. But freezing our feelings stops the movement and therefore stops life, making us feel lazy… When we stagnate, becoming lazy, passive and inert, we desire to do nothing. Often, we confuse this state with the natural, spiritual state of just being. But there’s a big difference… We have to feel the fear that’s underneath our laziness…

No matter how undesirable a feeling is, we compound our pain when we won’t feel it. And that secondary pain becomes twisted and unbearable… We must commit to going in and through, and not around. Humans, generally speaking, have a strong preference for going around…

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 2: The Importance of Feeling All Our Feelings, Including Fear

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #190 Importance of Experiencing All Feelings, Including Fear – The Dynamic State of Laziness

]]> full 2 1 false Our defenses work by blocking access to our emotions, so they choke off our ability to get to our feelings. We’re going to need to lower our weapons… Every tear not shed is a block. Every protest not spoken sits like a lump in our throat, causing us to lash out inappropriately. These feelings feel like bottomless pits…

Feelings, which are moving energy currents, will change and transform as long as the energy is flowing. But freezing our feelings stops the movement and therefore stops life, making us feel lazy… When we stagnate, becoming lazy, passive and inert, we desire to do nothing. Often, we confuse this state with the natural, spiritual state of just being. But there’s a big difference… We have to feel the fear that’s underneath our laziness…

No matter how undesirable a feeling is, we compound our pain when we won’t feel it. And that secondary pain becomes twisted and unbearable… We must commit to going in and through, and not around. Humans, generally speaking, have a strong preference for going around…

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 2: The Importance of Feeling All Our Feelings, Including Fear

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #190 Importance of Experiencing All Feelings, Including Fear – The Dynamic State of Laziness

]]> 00:31:19 <![CDATA[1 Emotional growth and its function]]> Sat, 01 Jul 2023 08:17:20 +0000 Phoenesse https://bones.castos.com/podcasts/35085/episodes/emotional-growth-and-its-function-1 https://bones.castos.com/episodes/emotional-growth-and-its-function-1 In every child’s life, there will be circumstances that are unhappy. Disappointment and pain are the human common denominator… We each draw a similar conclusion: “If I don’t feel, I won’t be unhappy”… This is one of the most basic wrong conclusions that people draw about life…

We bury our feelings deeper in our awareness where they stay stuck, destructive and inadequate, even though we have long-ago forgotten we even hid them… But if we don’t let these experiences be felt and moved along, they will stagnate and create a dull climate of vague unhappiness that we will struggle to pinpoint… We shut down our feelings and along went our intuition and creativity. From there, we limped along on a fraction of our potential. Often, we still don’t realize the high price we pay for doing this…

We grabbed a wrong solution like it was scissors—hoping to cut out what hurt—and we ran… This blocking action doesn’t prevent us from feeling the painful feelings forever—it just defers them… So as we grow up, the unhappiness we seemed to have avoided will come to us in a different, indirect way that is much more painful. We will suffer the bitter hurt of isolation and loneliness… We fail to see how we willingly choose our current painful isolation when we chose to defend ourselves this way…

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 1: Emotional Growth and Its Function

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #89 Emotional Growth and Its Function

]]> full 1 1 false In every child’s life, there will be circumstances that are unhappy. Disappointment and pain are the human common denominator… We each draw a similar conclusion: “If I don’t feel, I won’t be unhappy”… This is one of the most basic wrong conclusions that people draw about life…

We bury our feelings deeper in our awareness where they stay stuck, destructive and inadequate, even though we have long-ago forgotten we even hid them… But if we don’t let these experiences be felt and moved along, they will stagnate and create a dull climate of vague unhappiness that we will struggle to pinpoint… We shut down our feelings and along went our intuition and creativity. From there, we limped along on a fraction of our potential. Often, we still don’t realize the high price we pay for doing this…

We grabbed a wrong solution like it was scissors—hoping to cut out what hurt—and we ran… This blocking action doesn’t prevent us from feeling the painful feelings forever—it just defers them… So as we grow up, the unhappiness we seemed to have avoided will come to us in a different, indirect way that is much more painful. We will suffer the bitter hurt of isolation and loneliness… We fail to see how we willingly choose our current painful isolation when we chose to defend ourselves this way…

Listen and learn more.

Bones, Chapter 1: Emotional Growth and Its Function

Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #89 Emotional Growth and Its Function

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