Pathwork Community Commitment Ceremony Reflection
Teacher Training Class 2025-2026
May 9, 2026
Remarks from Barbara Jean Nagrant, Board President
I’m excited and honored to witness you make your Stage I and Stage II Commitments today. Billy and Judy asked me to spend some time with you, sharing why our region supports having the Pathwork Commitments – what it means to step into them together as a community.
The commitments are an invitation.
An invitation to relate to ourselves – and to each other – in a more honest, more open, more conscious way.
The commitments are not something you have to perform or achieve perfectly. It is not about how we want to be seen. It’s not about measuring up or becoming a certain kind of “Pathwork person.” Those are all the ways we pretend to be different than we are. Ways that our egos mask our real selves.
The commitments inspire us to be our real selves trusting the divine within us and within each other. They are an intention alive in our hearts. As we declare our intention publicly, we call ourselves and each other to a deeper level of accountability for our spiritual growth.
Our region honors the commitments as an important tradition within Pathwork. The Guide gave Eva Pierrakos the commitments for the Pathwork community at a time of transition, in 1978, a year before Eva’s death. We believe that the Guide was preparing the group for a time when the leader would no longer be around. It was a time they each began to internalize and get ready to commit to the work in a way that enabled it to carry on without the channel – through their own inner authority. That is why they are intended to be taken only after thoughtful self-reflection to ensure we know what we are committing to.
In many ways, they continue to serve as a kind of anchor. Not as rules, but as touchstones for the community to develop our inner authority. They help us remember our responsibility for our spiritual growth – individually & as a community – especially when things get challenging, which they sometimes will.
Being on the path – really living it – is not always easy and requires our conscious choice.
You may have heard phrase in the lectures about “being on the train.” The Guide describes our soul’s evolutionary journey through the train metaphor. Lecture #218 says, “The process goes on as the train continues to ride but the ego consciousness has a choice. It can choose to go with it or stay behind.” Taking the commitments is a conscious choice to step on the train. Once you step on, life begins to show you what is true in you, and what is not yet aligned. That can feel vulnerable. It can feel uncomfortable. At times, it can feel exposing.
This is where community becomes important.
When we agree to these commitments together, we are saying: I am willing to show up. Not perfectly – but honestly. I am willing to look at myself, and I am willing to stay in relationship, even when it is easier to withdraw, defend, or protect my image.
We begin to move away from trying to manage how we appear. . . . and toward being real with what is actually happening inside us.
Something powerful grows from being real.
Trust begins to form – not because we are flawless, but because we are genuine. Connection deepens – not because everything is smooth, but because we are willing to stay present with what is.
When we speak about the Stage I Commitments – the intention to see the truth in ourselves – we are speaking about a kind of inner courage. A willingness to turn toward ourselves, again and again, with honesty and compassion. We recognize that what we experience in our lives is not random, but connected to something within us that wants to be known, and gradually transformed.
When we speak about the Stage II Commitments – the intention to be open and transparent with each other – we are stepping into relationship as a spiritual practice. We begin to take responsibility not only for what we feel inside, but for the quality of what we create together.
That doesn’t mean oversharing, or forcing anything. It means allowing ourselves to be seen, appropriately and truthfully, and being willing to meet each other in that same spirit.
Over time, these two commitments become the foundation for everything else on the path.
They help us recognize our immature ego – not as something to get rid of, but as a part of us that needs our understanding and help. As we understand and help our ego, what is deeper in us – what we call our divine nature – has more space to emerge.
The Stage III & Stage IV Commitments, which you may take later on this path, build on this foundation and extend it into leadership and service. But everything begins with the foundation of the commitments within the first two stages.
The simple, and not always easy, willingness to be honest with ourselves . . . . and real with each other.
When you make these commitments, you are not making a promise to be perfect. You are making a conscious statement of intention. That intention is witnessed by this community and by the spiritual realm.
You are not doing this alone.
Over time, you may begin to feel that these commitments are not something you have to hold . . . but something that begins to hold you.
They help orient us back when we lose our way. They help us stay connected when we might otherwise pull away. They help us get back on the train. They help make this path something lived, not just understood.
So on behalf of the Pittsburgh Pathwork Board and community, I want to thank you – for your willingness to step on the train with us. We celebrate your conscious choice to live the path within our community. We promise to open heartedly show up on the train with you. We believe that the health and vitality of our region depends on our willingness to relate to ourselves – and to each other – in a more honest, more open, and more conscious way.