Nestled within the Lord's Prayer is everything we ever need. It contains it all.

Hier also die Lehren des Pfadleitfadens darüber, wie wir ihn auf persönliche Weise anwenden können, um jedes Problem zu lösen.

Unser Vater

This short phrase may conjure up a picture of God as a literal father to humankind. So, as we say these words softly inside ourselves, we can meditate on how this must apply to everyone, even those we don't happen to like.

We can let the slideshow run of all those people we have some disharmony with. This includes those we hate and those we just feel some minor resistance to or irritation with. Dropping into stillness, we can pause and consider that these people too are children of God.

In fact, we can only call ourselves children of God if we're willing to open the gates to all the difficult people in our world. Either no one's in this flock or everyone is, even those who bring up unpleasant feelings in us.

Opening our arms this wide has the subtle effect of shifting our attitude and therefore our feelings, even if ever so slightly. We will become freer and more relaxed.

Our first reaction to opening to inclusion may be resistance. For our feelings aren't always so willing to change. In fact, holding onto strong negative feelings creates tight inner knots inside us.

And they aren't so quick to let go.

Consider any resistance to be a red flag telling us there's a knot here waiting to be dissolved.

Whenever we have angst about another, there is something in us that needs attention—egal wie falsch die andere Person sein magDiese Erkenntnis öffnet uns den Zugang zu allem, was wir in uns selbst klären müssen, und macht uns bereit für neue Einsichten, Lehren oder Inspirationen. Dann können sich uns konkrete, praktische Mittel eröffnen, die uns helfen, uns aus unserer gegenwärtigen Sackgasse zu befreien.

Ask for it. Want it.

Then all of a sudden, as we sit in meditation and deeply ponder these words and how we can apply them, a pressure will lift up off our chests. The lock will release and we will feel ourselves freed from a heavy burden.

Here's another way to work with this. We can skip over everything that bothers us about someone, and visualize how they are perfect. Where is that divine spark in them? How does it show itself?

Never forget that all who seek will find. We can actively search for the qualities in them that stream from their Higher Self—the ones that qualify them to also be called children of God.

We have to learn to draw a line between Higher Self qualities and those coming from the Lower Self domain. We can pinpoint which comes from where. The Higher Self is eternal and immortal—it's of God. The Lower Self is temporary and based on illusion. Let's start by looking within before we start judging others.

Sobald wir beides in uns selbst unterscheiden können, wird es uns leichter fallen, unseren Nächsten zu lieben. Es wird viel einfacher werden, jemanden, den wir nicht mögen, als unseren Bruder oder unsere Schwester zu erkennen. Dann kann unser Höheres Selbst hervortreten und sich mit dem Höheren Selbst im anderen verbinden.

Das ist es, was in den ersten beiden Worten des Vaterunsers enthalten ist: unser Vater.

Der du bist im Himmel

Heaven is inside us, not outside.

So we must look for what we're seeking—to find our own perfection—within, where it already exists. It may however be covered over and difficult to find.

We must also seek heaven, which is the same as seeking God, inside the soul of our brothers and sisters—even of the ones we reject. That's where we can find the eternal, living God.

Geheiligt werde dein Name

The way to hallow the name of God, the father, is to try to fathom his laws and follow them. And there are many spiritual laws—one for every aspect of life.

Whenever we find ourselves stumped by any life situation, it means we haven't found the specific law we're violating.

Wenn wir sagen, wir wollen deinen Namen heiligen, fragen wir eigentlich: „Wo habe ich Schwierigkeiten? Was sind meine Probleme? Irgendwo verstoße ich gegen ein geistliches Gesetz, selbst wenn ich mir dessen nicht bewusst bin – und ich will das nicht mehr. Zeig es mir.“

By asking God to help us understand what spiritual law we are breaking, we learn to establish a personal connection with God.

In that way, we truly hallow his name.

For any time we are willing to be in truth about our problems, asking for help with an honest heart, we will get an answer. It may not come at exactly the same moment of our asking. But if we open our eyes and look, life will bring us answers.

Euer Königreich komme

Wenn wir geistliche Gesetze befolgen und Gottes Namen heiligen, bringen wir uns auch seinem Reich näher. Weil es darin liegt.

Aber wenn wir darüber nachdenken müssten, wo Gottes Reich ist, würden die meisten von uns es wohl „irgendwo da draußen“ verorten. Wir glauben, es wird zur Erde herabsteigen, und wir müssten nur dorthin gehen, wo Gottes Reich ist, und hineingehen. Viele von uns haben diese vage, ausgedachte Vorstellung in ihrer Fantasie.

Unsere Aufgabe ist es jedoch, Gottes Reich in uns selbst zu erschaffen. Und das kann nur geschehen, wenn wir erfolgreich die Schule des Lebens durchlaufen, die geistlichen Gesetze erlernen und sie richtig anwenden.

Dein Wille geschehe

This one is simple but not easy. And we're the ones making it so hard.

We go around claiming we don't know what God's will is. But surely, if we knew it, we would follow it. We forget that our prayers for assistance are never answered with a stone.

If we try to make contact with Spirit World of God, asking to know his will and desiring to fulfill it, we're going to get an answer.

Even while we still have doubt.

We don't need to spend time wondering what God would have us do. If we're unsure, we only need to turn to the areas where we don't yet need an answer. The answers will then become obvious, once we start to think.

Kurz gesagt, Gottes Wille ist, dass jeder von uns einen Weg beschreitet – wie auch immer er sich uns zeigen mag – hin zur Läuterung unserer Seele. Denn es ist Gottes Wille, dass wir uns ehrlich mit uns selbst auseinandersetzen, anstatt wie gewöhnlich alles zu verdrängen, was uns Unbehagen bereitet. Dann geben wir Umständen oder anderen Menschen die Schuld, in der Hoffnung, einen Sündenbock zu finden, damit wir nicht in uns selbst nach der Ursache suchen müssen.

Take any inner resistance, contemplate its cause for a moment, and we can be sure to find that we have violated a divine law. No one else's wrongdoing or error of any kind has the power to make us feel disharmonious inside unless there's something amiss inside us as well.

In the end, any of our inner feelings of disharmony—heaviness, anger, resistance, fear—signal that we have, in some way, failed to fulfill the will of God.

Something in us, then, doesn't sit right with the world. Otherwise, there wouldn't be so much darkness in some of our life situations.

Again, if we wholeheartedly want to know what it's about and how to fulfill God's will, we only need to ask. The answer may take a while, but sooner or later it must come.

Don't be afraid. God's will is not something to fear.

It's always wise and loving and leads us to happiness, although we may need to struggle through a tricky transition. We can ask ourselves, "Am I ready to sign up for doing God's will, even if it's hard at first?"

On earth as it is in heaven

Does it make sense that we are praying that God's will be done in heaven—that mysterious "somewhere" located somewhere "out there"? Or that, if such a place existed, it would need our prayers that God's will be done there?

Do we think that we would have some say in this? Certainly not.

Tatsächlich haben wir hier auf Erden bis zu einem gewissen Grad Einfluss. Vorausgesetzt, wir beschreiten einen spirituellen Weg der Selbstentwicklung, um mehr Licht in die Welt zu tragen. Wir können hier auf Erden für Gottes Reich wirken.   

Doch vergiss nicht: Der Himmel ist in uns. Dort wohnt unser Geist in seiner ganzen ursprünglichen Vollkommenheit. Und er wartet darauf, dass wir die Mauern unseres niederen Selbst durchbrechen, um ihn zu finden. Inwieweit manifestiert sich dieses Göttliche in uns – unser wahres Wesen – bereits in unserer irdischen Realität?

Where does God not yet shine through into our actions, our thoughts and our feelings? Also, where do we hold some tight conviction or opinion that we cling to, believing it is God's will?

Would we be willing to loosen our grip and let it go, considering the possibility that maybe it's not quite so? Or would we rather hang on, convincing ourselves it must be this way?

Überlege, ob du einen Bereich in deinem Leben findest, an dem du festhältst. Sei ehrlich: Ist es wichtiger, die Wahrheit zu kennen oder an einer festen Überzeugung festzuhalten? Und wenn wir im Recht sind, vertrauen wir darauf, dass wir loslassen können und Gott es bestätigen wird?

Immer wenn wir eine zunehmende Starrheit verspüren – unabhängig davon, ob unsere Meinung tatsächlich richtig ist –, verhindern wir, dass sich das himmlische Reich in uns offenbart. Wenn wir uns irren, verschließen wir uns natürlich bereits der Wahrheit, und Gottes Reich bleibt uns verschlossen.

Unser tägliches Brot gib uns heute

We tend to repeat this part like a mantra, without giving it too much thought. We assume—although often without clearly formulating the thought—that earning our keep doesn't have much to do with God.

But truly, we can't do anything good if it's not blessed by God. Without God's help and guidance, we can go nowhere, no matter how hard we try, again and again.

If we've done even a little self-development work, we have enough awareness to reflect on our lives. We can now see which parts had God's blessing and which did not. Can you feel the difference?

We can look at areas where we repeatedly fail—our trouble spots. What's the real reason for this? Where did we go wrong? Where is our attitude off-base? These questions are good food for thought.

Can we surrender ourselves entirely to God?

Unser spirituelles Brot wird meist sträflich vernachlässigt, weil wir es für viel weniger wichtig halten als unser materielles. In Wirklichkeit ist es genau umgekehrt. Unser spirituelles Brot nährt unsere Seele und ist weitaus wichtiger.

We need to want it—to desire to be spiritually nourished. This is the gateway through which all our earthly problems get resolved, and not vice versa.

Once we start yearning for spiritual bread, we are making good progress in moving along our spiritual path.

Vergib uns unsere Sünden

Das entscheidende Wort hier ist „wir“. Wir bitten Gott darum, vergib uns, not me alone. That means everyone, including those who have hurt us and who we may still be struggling to forgive.

If we can honestly wish that God forgives them, we free ourselves from a dark spiritual form inside us that attracts harmful energies and other dark influences.

Im Grunde bitten wir Gott, nicht nur uns und unseren Lieben zu vergeben, sondern auch denen, gegen die wir noch Groll hegen. Denn das ist unsere wahre Schuld, und dafür können wir um Vergebung bitten.

Let's talk about this guilt for a minute, because often we are not clear about our own actual guilt. Instead, we produce exaggerated feelings of guilt that are not justified.

They are false and unhealthy.

Here's how the inner process works: We don't want to admit to the areas where our guilt is justified. This is where a genuine, constructive repentance would go a long way, without dragging us down or discouraging us.

Wir können Gott um Vergebung bitten. Und wenn wir uns wirklich ändern wollen, werden wir uns durch die empfangene Vergebung befreit fühlen. Eine Last wird von unseren Schultern genommen, wenn wir unsere aufrichtigen, guten Vorsätze in die Tat umsetzen.

Doch allzu oft verdrängen wir unsere wahren Schuldgefühle. Aus Stolz wollen wir uns besser sehen, als wir sind. Hinzu kommt, dass wir wissen, dass innere Veränderung nicht leicht ist. Sie geschieht nicht über Nacht und erfordert Anstrengung.

From the core of our being, signals arise that spur us to recognize our guilt. Where are we in the wrong? But our Lower Self, with its pride and laziness, gets into the mix. So we adopt a guilt that isn't genuine. It's like we're saying, "I'm really sorry about everything, but I'm not the one who's really guilty here."

This hidden notion needs to be brought into the light of day. Seeing it will help move us from suffering false guilt to gaining real forgiveness.

It may help to realize that once we recognize our real guilt, we automatically lose all false guilt complexes that pull us down.

Then we will know peace.

The struggle is in opening ourselves up so we can overcome our own resistance. We're afraid to admit to our real guilt—where we have in some way hurt someone else—preferring instead to cover up our faults.

In that moment, we want to be better than we are. We can't accept that, right now, we're not very perfect.

Facing our real guilt for this truth will lead to liberation; sitting with false guilt complexes will not. The truth might be a bitter pill to swallow. But that's our medicine that will help us heal. False guilt only leads to more of the same, with heaviness and sadness added on top.

We need to examine ourselves closely to see all this.

It is only by penetrating all our layers of delusion that we find how we are responsible for causing pain. In our actions or emotions, we have violated some spiritual laws and we can ask God to forgive us. We can also ask to be shown the error of our ways and how to change.

Only after we free ourselves in this way can we totally forgive another. Expecting forgiveness for ourselves, then, goes hand-and-hand with being ready to forgive. And then once we've experienced the balm of God's forgiveness, we will be able to forgive ourselves.

This leads us to the next line in the prayer.

As we forgive those who trespass against us

How many times have we said the Lord's Prayer knowing full well that we have no intention of forgiving someone? That's called self-deception, or kidding ourselves.

While we may be past the point of hate, resentment still smolders. And until we're clear from that, we're not free enough to have spiritual experiences.

Uns fehlt die Fähigkeit zur vollständigen Vergebung, weil wir den anderen nicht verstehen. Doch darum können wir im Gebet bitten – um die uns fehlende Einsicht zu erlangen. Solange wir es wirklich wollen und bereit sind, nicht länger in unserem Groll zu schwelgen – was wir ja so gern tun –, viel- dann wird uns das alles gegeben.

The thing we are most stubborn about understanding is that there are things we can't do by ourselves. Like forgive.

We all need help on this one.

That's why this phrase is included in the Lord's Prayer. If we could forgive all on our own, using the power of our will alone, we wouldn't need to pray for help.

For example, we don't need to ask for help moving from Point A to Point B because we have legs we can move at will. But forgiveness, we need to ask for help with that. That, and the ability to face ourselves in total honesty—to come to know ourselves without our masks. And to tackle our resistance and make real inner change.

All this, we must pray for.

Remember, not forgiving is a light-blocking burden that makes us unhappy. It harms us way more than it harms the one we won't forgive.

We need to be willing to confront ourselves: "Do I really and truly forgive so-and-so from the bottom of my heart?" When we are able to clearly see that we can't yet quite get there alone, we can always ask for help.

Lead us in our temptations

Notice the nuance of the wording here. What we usually say is "Lead us not into temptation," which can easily create a harmful misconception.

For God doesn't lead us into temptation.

Rather, what this phrase means is that we should pray that God will lead us when we are feeling tempted. We pray that God guides us so we can resist temptation and helps us have the fortitude to be victorious.

Regardless which words we choose to say, it is important that we have a correct understanding about the concept.

What exactly is temptation?

To begin with, it's within us. It doesn't come to us from the outside. But if it did, we wouldn't yield to it if it didn't have a matching part inside us.

We have to learn that we can be tempted, and in just what way. For instance, can we be tempted to commit murder? Of course not.

Aber wir können in Versuchung geraten, unseren eigenen Fehlern nachzugeben, was auch immer sie sein mögen. Wir müssen also unsere eigenen Fehler kennenlernen. We should list them out so we remember them and then pray for help in overcoming them.

As with forgiveness, we can't tackle our faults all on our own. Yet notice how tempting it is to think we can—that we don't need any help.

Call it what we may—the devil, evil, Satan or bad luck—nothing bad can get at us unless we have something in us that responds. It's an error then to think that we can pray and ask God to keep bad things away.

For the germ of whatever tempts us lives in our own Lower Self. This is the crust that envelops our perfect inner self. The dark forces merely serve as instruments to draw it out.

They bring our negativities right into our awareness where, if we want to, we can fight them. If that germ of evil remained dormant, with no chance of manifesting, we wouldn't come a single step closer to perfection and genuine bliss.

Herein lies the genius of how spiritual laws work to guide us home.

Sondern erlöse uns von dem Bösen

This is the same idea, that the evil is in us. If it were only outside us, it couldn't touch us.

We can drop this thought into our prayers, asking Christ to help us overcome temptations so that we can deliver ourselves from evil. We're the only ones who can do this—with the help of God and Christ, just as promised.

Try asking for help, but don't try going it alone. We aren't strong enough for that.

Even with all our willpower and unceasing effort, we're as powerless as God—or Christ or any spirit helper—would be without our will to free ourselves. Both are needed: our willpower and the help of God. We need to come at things from both angles, doing our own work and also asking for spiritual help, over and over.

For thine is the kingdom

Gottes Reich ist in uns. Es gehört Gott und niemand anderem.

Die Macht

God's power makes us capable of love and understanding. It lifts the lid on the darkness and imperfection we have carried with us for so many lifetimes.

It cleanses us and illuminates the truth, bringing us to the ultimate conclusion.

Und der Ruhm

Dies können wir nur erreichen, indem wir Gottes Willen befolgen.

Das Vaterunser ist das schönste aller Gebete, weil es alles – ja, wirklich alles – enthält, was wir für ein erfülltes Leben brauchen. Man könnte noch viel mehr dazu sagen, aber wir können auch selbst tiefere Bedeutungsebenen erschließen, indem wir es zu einem lebendigen Gebet machen.

Sit with each phrase and let the meaning of the words expand as further interpretations become more and more clear. Notice how the prayer already lives in some areas of your life but lies dormant in others.

Bring it all to life.

If we live our lives this way, we must ultimately become happy and our problems will disappear.

For now, our problems are our necessary medicine. Later, when we begin to master our lives, instead of the other way around, we will embody a happiness that can be shared with others.

But if we're unhappy, we can't make others happy.

This simple yardstick of "how happy am I?" lets us measure how much happiness we are able to give. If we truly desire to make others happy, God will guide us in receiving the medicine that will allow us to heal, so it can be so.

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Lesen Sie Original Pathwork^® Vortrag Nr. 9: Gebet und Meditation – Das Vaterunser