Both in life and in the inner work, we come across many different oppositions. In regular life we will have people who will oppose us in one way or the other; sometimes we meet or deal with people who are like-minded, and at other times we face people who have a different viewpoint than us. Oppositions in life can also be related to what we do, what our interests are, and there are even oppositions that oppose us because of who we are. We create oppositions to one another because we do not always agree with each other; we have disagreements from the largest aspects of life, down to the very smallest ones. In the school of life that this Earth life is, it is common to face many oppositions throughout one’s lifetime.

In the inner work, and particularly when we enter the stream of the path of regeneration, the oppositions that we are normally familiar with take on a different note, becoming more intricate (and yet simple at the same time), happening more often, becoming more prominent internally, and carrying with them a flavor of learning which we haven’t experienced before.

To those who are not doing the spiritual work, life happens mechanically; it throws events at them based on universal laws, and within this the people try to do the best they can so not to drown in the various situations that roll-out seemingly without a pause. However, they go through those events asleep, often learning very little about themselves because in the sleep, the ego is at the front and instead of learning, the person ends up judging everything and everyone, and ultimately becoming miserable. Within such a life, oppositions are seen as something that needs to be inevitably overcome, even when some of those oppositions are healthy and good for the person. But in sleep we seldom recognize this because, in many cases, the ego always tries to convince us that we are right and that others are wrong. However, if we do the spiritual work (properly) we see the oppositions of our life in a new way. This new form of seeing is not part of a conclusion based on something that we have read, but is a reality based on what we are experiencing internally.

The external oppositions that take place in the life of those who are on the Path are often related to the Path itself; they trigger the exact type of egos that need to be triggered at that time so that we seem them manifesting within ourselves, in order to have opportunity to learn about them and to gradually become free of them. As we become free of them, as we disintegrate them, we become more awake and conscious, more capable to deal with other oppositions that will inevitably come up in our life. However, not every external opposition is the result of the Path. It can also be related to the Karmic learning process. Even when we reach the point on the Path where we have cleared up entire Karma, we can still make new mistakes and put in motion a superior form of Karma which acts promptly. In that case, the new Karmic learning process may or may not unfold in the form of oppositions, but if it does, it still targets the elimination of the corresponding egos which we can then, by being at that point of the work, see and disintegrate with more ease.

The internal opposition, on the other hand, is not necessarily sparked by external events. On the Path, it is normal to expect that the egos will react to us doing the work, because they do not want us to eliminate them, they do not want to die. They will organize themselves in such a way that, as the spiritual work of disintegration is processed throughout the years, they will resist and oppose our efforts to eliminate them in many different ways. For many aspirants and initiates, it is this internal opposition that is the most challenging part of the Path, because through it, we come to understand deeply that the Great War is indeed the war against oneself, against the energies of the egos that have our consciousness conditioned and trapped, making it asleep and unable to act on its own accord, unable to act free of that subconscious conditioning. The aspirants for the Path and initiates alike, must be grounded and decisive to succeed, if they wish to overcome these internal oppositions. They need to have steadiness in their inner work, they need to die to the egos that create the oppositions, eliminating them from moment to moment, observing them, learning about them, meditating on them. In this way the continuity of purpose is strengthened and the work truly becomes the life that we live, and then we will see that every obstacle, every internal and external opposition can be learned from and ultimately disintegrated.

The more we advance on the Path, the more we will face oppositions of different kind, and from different sides. External oppositions will come from our family, friends, work colleagues, from people who are doing the work or who have interest in spirituality, and from many other sides, all of it to stir up the necessary egos within ourselves, the subtle chains that keep us enslaved and asleep, the type of egos that we did not even know we had.

When we look at the opposition in our spiritual work in such a way, we see that there is a purpose to it. The experience of doing the inner work shows us that it is through hardships of oppositions that the inner stone is chiseled, purified, and refined. Through this we understand about the necessity of opposition, and how it is intimately related to the rungs of the ladder that gradually, based on our efforts, allow us to climb closer and closer to our inner Being.

HDP, April 2021.