The purpose of
these talks is to bring about a psychological change in you, the individual. consciousness.
Ephesians tells
us that, "All things, when admitted, are made manifest by light." The
word "light" recorded here means awareness; consciousness." The
state the individual admits into his consciousness is the cause of one man
being rich and another poor. The poor man admits to being in the state of
poverty by saying, "I am poor," just as the rich man admits wealth by
saying, "I am rich." Anything you, an individual, claim yourself to
be (be it good, bad or indifferent, right or wrong) must be made manifest in
your world, for by claiming the state, you have consented to its life.
There is only one
cause, and that is consciousness. Your consciousness is the center from which
your world mirrors and echoes the state you presently occupy. Now, a state can
be defined as all that you believe and consent to as being true. So, if you
want your world to change, you must determine what you want to accept and
consent to as true before you can change it. To arrive at a certain definition
of self, you must begin by uncritically observing your automatic reaction to an
event, for your reaction defines your state. And you can, without getting out
of your chair, rebuild your world by changing your level (or state) of being.
This is done by observing yourself uncritically as you react to life. If you do... READ MORE
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not like the
circumstances of your life, acknowledge its cause. Be willing to admit that the
circumstances are only objectifying what you are conscious of, then change your
consciousness and your world will change. If you react to that which is being
objectified, you bind yourself to a certain, level of awareness, but if you
refuse to react, the thread is broken. Stop being conscious of something
unlovely, for every unlovely thought causes you to walk in psychological mud.
Rather, identify yourself with beauty, with love (the Christ in you) and you
will ascend the infinite level of your own being and change the circumstances
of your life.
Your state of
awareness, like a magnet, attracts life. Steel, in its demagnetized state is a
whirling
mass of electrons, but when the electrons are faced in one direction,
the steel is magnetized. You do not add to the steel to make it magnetic or
take anything away to demagnetize it. This same principle is true for you. You
can change your world by rearranging your thoughts and having them travel only
in one direction, and that is toward the fulfillment of your desire.
Watch your
reactions to life, for any change in the arrangement of your mind which can be
detected by self-observation, will cause a change in your outer world. It is
important to learn to be passive to that which is unlovely and unacceptable to
you. In that way, you are awakening the dynamic one within. And when you find
your inner being, you will discover that the qualities you condemn in others
are really in yourself. Then you will know the secret of forgiveness, for as
you forgive yourself, the others are forgiven.
All things (not
just a few) are made manifest by the light, and everything manifested is light.
The moment you consent to a thought, it is made manifest. It could not come
into being unless you consented to its expression by being aware of it. The
universe moves with motiveless necessity as it has no motive of its own.
Rather, it moves under the necessity of manifesting the arrangements of the
minds of men. This teaching is to awaken you to your light, and the awakening
begins by self-observation.
If you have a
secret affection for living in the mud of self-pity and condemnation, your
world will mirror those feelings. But if you will rearrange your mind and live
in the heavenly feeling of harmony and
love, your
manifested world will change. If, today, you would spend five minutes in
uncritical observation of yourself, you would be surprised to discover how
deceitful you are. It is a terrible shock, I know, but every shock of this type
will let in the light of awareness, and life is an ever- increasing
illumination. As the light comes in, you become more and more conscious of who
you really are.
There is only one
cause for the phenomena of life. Only by observing your own consciousness can
you discover the cause of what is happening to you. There is no greater tyrant
than the belief in a secondary cause.
Let that tyrant
go by remembering the one and only substance; the only cause which is awareness
and immediately change what you are aware of. Only by observing your reactions
to life can you find yourself. And remember, as long as you react as you do,
the same things must confront you, for all that you admit to is made manifest
by your consciousness, and everything you manifest is your consciousness.
Stop walking
through the world in the mud and living in its basement. Your soul is made up
of all that you consent to. Lose your soul on one level and you will find it on
a higher level, defined differently. Always examine yourself uncritically, for
the moment you become critical, you automatically justify your reactions and
associate yourself with the thing observed. Everything is individual. Collective
security and collective salvation are terms approached individually. Learn to
stand on your own feet and not on the feet of a group. You must free yourself,
and the only way to do that is to awaken the Christ in you who is sound asleep.
Think noble thoughts based on noble concepts and they will pay great dividends,
for you will rise in consciousness and transform your world.
Give yourself your daily bread by
giving yourself the opportunity to remember who you are! Never envy the good
fortune of another, simply appropriate your own. "Be transformed by the
renewing of your mind" by changing the ideas planted there, for you cannot
change your thinking until you change the ideas from which your thoughts flow.
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Your
individual state of consciousness is your level of being and attracts all of
the events you encounter in life. Since your reactions determine what you are,
any change in your outer world must be produced by your inner level of being.
In the 7th
Chapter of the Book of Mark, we are told, "Hear and understand: there is
nothing outside which can defile man; but what comes out of a man's mind is
what defiles him. He who has ears, let him hear." Now, thoughts are
things. When you identify yourself with a thought, it outpictures itself as an
act. If the thought is unlovely, it defiles you. Awaken and select only
thoughts that contribute to the birth of your desire. You must constantly
observe your dwelling place, for where you are psychologically is what you are.
Your mood indicates your state, and you are always externalizing the state upon
which you stand.
The Upanishads,
one of a class of Vedic treatises dealing with broad philosophic problems,
states: "The soul, imagining itself into a state, takes upon itself the
results of that state. Not imagining itself into the state, it is free from its
results." Your soul is what you consent to. As you feel yourself into the
situation of your answered prayer, you have entered a state and your soul has
taken upon itself the results of that state. If you do not enter the state, you
are free of its lovely results. Accept an idea as true. Identify yourself with
it and it will outpicture itself in your world.
But if you do not accept the thought and identify yourself with it
through feeling, you are free from its results. You must become very selective
and learn not to associate yourself with unlovely thoughts.
In the Book of Kings, we are told how those who entered the temple
brought something alive with them such as an ox or bullock. These were used as
burnt offerings. These sacrifice offerings are your body of suffering. They are
the animals you must offer called grievances. No matter what the grievance may
be, you have no right to carry it around with you and you cannot ascend in
consciousness until all of your grievances are tossed on the altar and
sacrificed. Only as you give them up will you find the holy water.
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Now, this holy
water is not the church variety but the symbol of the twelve aspects of the
mind. When your mind is cleared of all of its cobwebs (grievances), the bowl of
holy water is placed on the backs of oxen, and your disciplined mind serves you
rather than you serving it. The bull symbolizes the mind in its wild state and
must be tamed (washed in holy water and clothed in soft raiment). When you
enter the Holy of holies alone and bathe in its waters, your mind is washed of
all mean thoughts and cleansed. Begin now to associate your thoughts only with
the good; then that which proceeds out of your mouth (mind) will never defile
you.
I AM is the
self-definition of the infinite. "Go and tell them that I AM has sent me
unto you. Awareness (I AMness) is the only power of the universe. Its power
makes you alive. If you say, "I am sick," you are! If you say,
"I am secure," you are! Feeling yourself into the situation of a
given state, you must take upon yourself the results of that state of mind. All
things are made alive from a state of mind and without the state nothing can be
made, as you only resurrect the state from which you are identified. Where you
are psychologically is what you are in reality.
Therefore, if
you catch yourself feeling sorry for yourself, stop it and start feeling happy.
If you don't, you will identify yourself with the state of
self-pity
and outpicture it.
"Let the
weak man say, 'I am strong'." Don't wait until you become strong before
saying this. If you feel weak in any sense, affirm "I am strong," and
if you persist in that assumption it will harden into fact. No one should ever
take the name of the Lord in vain, for that name is I AM.
The righteous
man is already conscious of being the person he wants to be. He never sins, but
runs into the name, for sinning is missing his desired state, and righteousness
is hitting it. "I will set him on high because he knows my name."
Assume the consciousness of being the one you want to be and you will be saved
from your present state. Your individual hunger can and will be satisfied when
you run righteously into the state desired. This is done through the act of
feeling. Feel happy and you are conscious of happiness. Feel married and you
have consciously moved into the state of marriage. The thing desired must be
felt before you are conscious of possessing it.
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Learn to say
"no" to unlovely thoughts rather than accepting them with passive
indifference, for a soul must imagine himself into the act to taste the fruit
of the state acted upon. Remember, consciousness alone is the cause of the
fruit you reap and the only explanation for its existence.
There is no one
to blame but self for all of the things that have happened, are happening and
will happen to you, as they could not come into your world unless you consented
to them. Start now to consent only to lovely thoughts of fulfilled desires
prior to their confirmation by your senses, and give up the animal instinct of
suffering and bathing yourself in the feelings of hurt and self-pity.
The
psychological tongue is much like the physical one. If someone annoys you, turn
aside and keep the tongue of your mind away from the sore spots of dislike, for
your little mental conversations are the producers of your future. Sacrifice
your body of suffering by giving it up and tame your mind, for we are told,
"Blessed are the meek (tame), for they shall inherit the earth."
Clothe yourself with joy and good news and you will walk into your holy of
holies clothed in your immortal garment of love.
There is a
rhythm in your world which you cannot hear or see, and your aura is like no one
else's. A bloodhound knows. If two odors were alike, no bloodhound could find
you. But you are unique, one of a kind with your own special aura radiating
your level of being. Don't judge auras for the simple reason that you have to
see the aura of another through your own, and what you are seeing is only your
assumption of the man.
Complacency is a
curse. "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness."
Control your imagination with steady attention and dare to stand and be heard.
Andrew is the disciple who symbolizes this aspect of mind. Pay attention to
your thoughts and discipline them so that they flow from the feeling of your
wish fulfilled, for you are not awake until the outer you becomes placid and the
inner you dynamic.
Don't try to
argue someone out of their misery. We are told to, "Let the filthy be
filthy still; what is that to thee? Follow thou me." Man is given the
power of the "I" to think, and everyone is allowed to think for
himself.
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All things, when
admitted to consciousness, are made manifest, be they good, bad or indifferent.
Dare to stand on your own by this teaching and you will never again feel the
need to justify failure.
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As you are,
so shall God appear to be to you. The priest will see God as the head of all
celestial and terrestrial records. To a judge, he is the great judge forever
meting out punishment. To the Hottentot, God is the kind of chief he, himself,
would like to be. So, you see, men are forever creating God in their own image.
"God is God
from the creation. Truth alone is man's salvation.
But the God that now you worship
Soon shall be your God no more.
For the soul in
its unfolding
Evermore its
thoughts remolding
And it learns
more truly in its progress
Whom to love and
how to adore."
Through this
teaching, you will learn to outgrow your concept of God, for God changes not,
only your ideas of Him change.
Desire is your
mainspring of action, for you cannot move without desire. Ask yourself,
"What wantest thou of me?" and then formulate your desire. Feel its
presence and you have granted yourself the desire's fulfillment. Human life is
nothing more than the appeasement of hunger, and the infinite series of levels
of awareness is the means to satisfy that hunger. Health is a desire, a hunger
which can be appeased when the idea is formulated in the mind that I am
healthy. The same is true for wealth, peace, harmony or fame, for all of these
are states of awareness.
Identify yourself
with the state desired. Persist in this identification and, because you and God
are one consciousness, what you are conscious of, you outpicture.
The cross is the
symbol of suffering. There is no physical cross upon which a man was nailed,
but a body of beliefs which a man wears. "Except you deny yourself and
lift up your cross and follow me, you are unworthy of me." Lift up your
cross by raising your awareness, for your I AMness is the creator of your
world.
As an
individual, you move and live in time, but your true being is in eternity.
Think of the vertical line of the cross as the line of being upon
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which there are
unnumbered levels of awareness. Now, time cannot make you better or wiser. In fact,
time cannot do a thing towards changing your level of being, for change is all
on the vertical line where you move to higher or lower levels of your own
being. Because change is imminent, we speak of it as infinite imminence; as
nearer than near and sooner than now. The man you would like to be is imminent.
He is nearer than near. The ideal you dream of being is sooner than now and is brought into being by a change in your
reactions to life.
In the Book of
Revelations, we are told, "I will give to every being according to his
work." The only work you are called upon to do is work on yourself. Start
this work by observing your reactions to life.
Remember, your
future is not being developed, it already is. The time track is complete as
well as all of the events you can encounter. As you move up or down the level
of your being, changes will occur in your life. You are now resting at a
certain level. "Arise, take up your couch and walk," by breaking the
threads of life that bind you to the state you are now in. Break these threads
by changing your thoughts, for only as you rise within, will you find a
corresponding change without.
Have you ever
wondered what it would be like if you were of too pure eyes to behold iniquity?
If you were all tenderness? All love? All generosity? Aim for those feelings
and then watch your relationship to them. It is here, in the midst of the
storms of life, that you work this law. If you identify yourself with an
unlovely state, you will find yourself sinking into it. But you can lift up
your cross by breaking your automatic, mechanical reactions to life and
sacrificing your present level of being.
This message
comes, not to bring peace, but a sword. It comes to set a man at variance
against his brother, father, mother and all the members of his household, for I
bring the sword of truth which is the word of God. This word is sharper than
any two-edged sword, for it is capable of piercing the soul and spirit. I am
not suggesting that you turn against your earthly relatives, but that you turn
against the psychological ideas that govern your behavior and the dominant mood
which governs your actions and reactions to life. If, at this moment your
feelings are not noble, turn against them, for they are your psychological
mother. This is done by putting new feeling in their place. You cannot change
your thinking until you change your feeling, and all feelings come from ideas.
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A man's enemies
are those of his own household which is everything he accepts as true.
This sword can
pierce, even to the severing of soul and spirit. Your Father (your I AM) is
Spirit, and when you worship Him, you must do so in spirit and in truth. Be
still and say to yourself, with feeling "I AM He."
All that you
consent to, all that you believe and accept as true (be it wise or foolish)
forms the clothing you wear. But you can be reclothed and ascend to a higher
level of being when you take up your cross and follow your imagination.
Most of us are
aimless. We want more than we presently have. We want the other fellow to
change, but we don't want to do the one thing that will bring the change about, for we don't want to change self.
In Revelations, John tells us, "I will give to everyone according to his
work." The gift is not given according to the work of another, but
according to the work you do on yourself, and that work is to uncritically
observe your reactions to life, as they bind you to a certain level.
Disassociate yourself from your unpleasant thoughts and associate yourself with
your aim, thereby rising to its level, for your ideal is on that vertical line
you stand upon.
Scripture tells
us to "Seek and you shall find: and when you find him, you will be like
him." I tell you, you will never find your fulfilled desire until you are
the desire! Those who go searching for love only make manifest their
lovelessness, for you never have to search for what you are!
I am Mary and you
are Mary too, for we are forever conceiving of ourselves. The whole of human
life is the appeasement of desire, and desire, conceived as fulfilled, will
externalize itself. If you are not hungry enough to transcend your present
level of consciousness, you will not conceive of anything greater. As long as
you are in love with the state you are in, you cannot and will not rise from
it.
Without the
vertical line of states, life would have no meaning. The ancients called this
infinite series, Jacob's ladder. You do not build this ladder, rather you climb
it through self-discovery.
When you think of
another, you are seeing only your opinion of him. If you think he is kind, he
is kind. If you think he is stupid, he is stupid as
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he is playing the
part you have assigned him because of your opinion. Therefore, if your desire
is for him to change, you must change your opinion of yourself, for
"he" is only your opinion pushed out.
Where you are
psychologically is what you are; therefore, only associate with the feeling
that leads you to the fulfillment of your dreams. And may all of your dreams be
noble ones.
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The Bible's purpose is to lift
the individual up to a higher level of being. This begins in the state of Moses
and the discovery of I AM. Then, in the Book of Isaiah, we are told to
"Turn back your foot from the sabbath and take delight in the Lord."
Let us examine this thought to find its deeper meaning. Now, in order to keep
the sabbath, you must cease from having any mental doubt, as the mental foot
you stand upon is your belief.
When your mental
foot touches the earth, its action is automatic and mechanical. Using your
powerful consciousness, begin now to break the mechanical hold it has on your
life by turning your thoughts to your fulfilled desire and observe the sabbath.
The twins spoken
of in scripture symbolize your duality: Abel, the inner you, and Cain, the
outer you. A reversal of order must now occur, for in the New Testament your
true identity is revealed as Christ (the inner you) your hope of glory.
As you walk the
earth, see people as they want to be seen, and you are pouring oil on their
wounds. But if you do not, you are as the scribes and the Pharisees described
in the 23rd Chapter of Matthew, doing their deeds to be seen by men; they
preach but do not practice.
In the 3rd
Chapter of the Book of John, the story is told of Nicodemus, an intellectual
man who believed that if he kept the law of Moses he could enter the kingdom of
heaven, yet he was told, "You must be born again, born of water and
spirit." Here we see the difference between the intellect and wisdom.
Keeping the law of Moses is not enough. You must experience a change in the
level of your being, thereby giving you wisdom in order for you to know
rebirth.
Your inner
talking is the breeding ground of your future, be it lovely or unlovely. This
is told us so vividly in the Book of Deuteronomy: "I set before you this
day blessings and cursings." Every time you tell someone off, even though
it is done in your mind, you curse him. And every time you do unto others what
you would like done unto you, they are blessed in the doing.
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Water is the
symbol of psychological truth. To know the truth is not enough. It must be
acted upon, at which time the psychological water turns into wine.
Start now to
observe all of your unpleasant, negative thoughts and change them, for until
you separate yourself from the state from which these thoughts flow, they will
continue to cause you to have the same experiences in life.
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St. Augustine
once said, "O, my God, let me see thee, and if to die is to see thee, then
let me die that I may behold thy face." Yet, when we fell God told us,
"You cannot see my face and live. But I will cause my glory to pass by and
when I pass by, you shall see my back, but my face you will not see." That
God is your wonderful I AMness, your awareness who is forever claiming, "I
AM that is who I AM." Imagination's power is the only power. It is your
power to kill, to make alive, to wound and to heal. It is your imagination
which forms the light, makes the good, and creates
the evil, and there is no other God. Man is inclined to believe in two powers,
one for good and the other for evil, but I tell you there is only one. The
"I" in man is he who kills and makes alive, who curses and creates.
Your consciousness of being is the only reality. The self- definition of an
absolute state is "I am divine." And this absolute state is God. It
is your I AM which cannot be seen.
Matthew tells us,
"Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." The word
"pure" in the above statement comes from the Greek word
"katharos" which also means, "clean; clear." To be pure,
the mind must be cleared of all obstructions created by traditional wrong thinking.
The heart must be cleared of the belief in a secondary power. Only when this is
done will you be blessed, for you will know the one and only God to be your
true self.
There is no power
outside of you. The same power in you that makes the good, creates the evil.
Start now to free yourself from the belief in two powers, for only then will
you be pure in heart and see God.
The whole vast
universe is nothing more than the response to the consciousness of men. If you
believe that the "I" in another is the cause of your displeasure and
not your own "I," then you have planted a tree in your mind which is
obstructing your view and must be uprooted. We are told, "No man shall
imagine evil in his heart." I am not speaking of a physical organ, but of
the mind, the center or heart of the matter. When your heart is pure, you
become a member of the order of Melchizedek.
Read
the story carefully and you will see that when Abraham slaughtered
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the kings (all
of his negative and unlovely ideas), he returned to find Melchizedek, the
symbol of the I AM, the being you really are.
Learn to
discipline your mind, for only the disciplined mind can maintain the feeling of
the wish fulfilled. If, what you had imagined has not come into being, it is because
you have not severed the ties that bind you to the level where you now stand.
You must break your mechanical reaction to life in order to change your
life-track.
The only reason
for this teaching is to encourage you and push you up the vertical line of the
cross. It is very important for you to learn to be uncritical of yourself, for
if you are not, you will justify your behavior which will cause you to remain
in your present state. But if you will stop being critical, you will stop the
negative thoughts that bind you to your present state and move out of it into
another.
There are three
ways to clear your mind of the trees of traditional wrong thinking and allow
you to see God. They are: uncritical observation; non- identification; and
sacrifice of the state you formerly believed yourself to be. Man tries to see
God by means of little pictures, but God can only be seen through belief in one
power. Through uncritical observation, you will encounter your particular
state. If you don't like the role the state requires you to play as it unfolds,
stop reacting to it. Until you reach the point where you no longer react, you
are not pure enough to see God.
When you see Him, you will know Him, as you will be like Him.
Where
"I" AM is always what "I" AM. Establish one "I"
within yourself, not a number of "I's." The "I" roots out
all secondary causes and clears the mind of the power to enslave. Your belief
in powers external to you is a tree which must be rooted out of your mind.
Begin now to use
this technique and you will realize your every dream. But first you must have a
dream, a desire for something, as desire is your springboard of action. Define
your objective. If it were fulfilled now, where would you be physically? What
would the world look like? Would your wife, husband, mother, father, or friends
see you differently? Feel their presence: see the joy expressed on their faces,
and hear their congratulations. Repeat this act until you have the feeling of
accomplishment. Then, having assumed the feeling of completion, remain faithful
to it, for your assumption contains within itself all of the
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plans and power
necessary for externalization. You need do nothing on the outside, for by your
assumption, your mind is being rearranged, and what it confirms, it
externalizes. Your desire may be for an improvement in your financial position,
your social circle, or a deeper understanding of the mystery. The desire is up
to you, but when put into practice, this technique will never fail you.
The kingdom of
heaven, with its many states (some lovely and some not so lovely) is within
you. The state capable of wounding or healing, killing or making alive, is
within you. They are all psychological states, completely furnished and ready
to externalize themselves in your world. And, if having entered a particular
mansion (state), you do not care to remain there, you may leave it by the same
technique it was entered - through the act of assumption.
It is so easy to
feel sorry for yourself and so very difficult to give up this feeling. But you
cannot enter another state until you do. No one can uproot the weeds of
self-pity or the trees of so-called second causes for you. You must uproot them
yourself. God put Adam in the garden to tend and keep it. As Adam you fell
asleep, but when you awake, you are Christ, the power and the wisdom of God.
Start now to observe your reactions to life and do not allow yourself to become
identified with any unlovely state. Sacrifice your little hurts, your
grievances, and belief in secondary causes. Then you will be blessed, for you
will be pure in heart and see God.
Awake! Test
yourself and you will discover that the fault you see in the other exists in
you. Turn to self, and you will find the Christ in you who is your hope of
glory.
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Blessed are
you when your mental comprehension has been enlarged by the removal of the
trees of traditional wrong thinking, for only then will you know that all is
consciousness and consciousness is all. You will know that any secondary cause
is a tyrant, and if you believe in an outside power, you are fighting a losing
battle.
Emerson once
said, "Man surrounds himself with the true image of himself, as every
spirit builds for itself a house beyond its house, a world beyond its
world." What you are, that only can you see. Therefore, build yourself a
world as you would like it to be -- a world beyond the world now visible to
you. The world you desire exists and will unfold itself in great proportions
when you, all spirit, surround yourself with the true image of yourself as you
would like to be. Think of your world as a canvas with the pictures painted
there by the arrangement of your mind. Your I AMness (consciousness) has
already arranged as many patterns for your canvas as there are people walking
the earth. Turn to yourself and, claiming that your desire exists, feel
yourself move right into its center.
Then paint your
canvas of consciousness. Everything is there at your disposal. Its reality is
up to you and the intensity of your desire. Always look to self, for your
consciousness is the sole cause of the phenomena of your individual life.
Perhaps you have
imagined something which never came to pass and you feel that you failed, but I
tell you there is only one cause for failure and that is absence of the feeling
of naturalness. It takes time for an assumption to become a fact, and a desire
is fulfilled proportionate to the
degree of naturalness of the feeling of possession. If something does not feel
natural to you, it is not your nature. To ask in my name is to ask in my nature
or character; therefore, when you ask, you must feel you already are that which
you are seeking.
"Whatsoever
you desire, when you pray, believe that you have received it, and you
will." It is important to feel yourself right into your wish fulfilled,
for consciousness is the only reality, and everything you see is nothing more
than an outpicturing of a state of consciousness. It is
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stupid to seek a
thing before you establish its cause. An effect depends upon a state of
consciousness, and you cannot find the effect without being its cause. And if
you do not feel the naturalness of the desired state, you cannot externalize
it, for consciousness is very observable.
Ask yourself how
long you have been conscious of being what you want to be. To what extent do
you feel its reality now? Matthew tells us, "0, you faithless and perverse
generation. How long shall I be with you?" Do you have faith in what you
are conscious of? I hope so, for without faith
it is impossible to achieve anything. It is the substance of the thing
hoped for and the cause of all phenomena. The word "perverse" means
"to turn the wrong way; without aim, fixity or one-pointedness of
purpose." When the latest headline or news bulletin can turn you from your
desire, you are perverse and fail. But if success is your goal, its mood must
be worn until the feeling of being successful is so natural you cannot turn
away from it.
On the other
hand, "importunity" means "brazen impudence." If you will
so persist in your assumption, your brazen impudence will not allow you to
accept the evidence of your senses when they deny your assumption, but will
rearrange the substance called life into the pattern of your assumption. This
world moves with the necessity of molding and manifesting the arrangement of
the individual's mind. It is important to persist until fulfillment becomes your
nature. Changes begin to occur at their moment of naturalness. Jacob told the
Lord, "I will not let you go until you bless me." As Jacob, you may
wrestle through the night with an idea (and all ideas come down from heaven to
take flesh). If you will not take no for an answer but persist in the feeling
of your wish fulfilled, you will be blessed with its externalization.
Scripture tells
of a man whose child was dead, yet when he went to the man of God and asked
that the child be made alive once more, it was done unto him. Your ideal, be it
for success, health, romance, money or fame, is your child who is dead. But if
you will believe in its life and walk in the assumption that you are
successful, healthy or wealthy (if that is your desire), your child which
sleepeth will rise from the dead state and be made alive in your world.
The parable is
told of a judge who it is said, "feared not God nor regarded man."
Within you there is such a judge who will give you anything you
22
ask for if you
will be just as persistent as the widow in the story. Coming at the midnight
hour, she persisted in her request until the judge granted her wishes saying,
"Because this widow bothers me, I will vindicate her or she will wear me
out by her continual coming." When the light of consciousness is not
shining on your fulfilled desire, it is the midnight hour. But if you will fill
your desire with your light of awareness and persist, then that which you are
aware of, you will become.
You are forever surrounding
yourself with the true image of yourself and what you are, that only can you
see, whether it be good, bad or indifferent. Observe your reactions to life and
you are observing the being you want to separate yourself from. And, as you
begin to identify yourself with your chosen state, the separation takes place.
But your assumption must be a maintained attitude and, if for a moment you lose
the mood, recapture it. And if you lose it again, feel yourself back into the feeling until the mood becomes so
natural your thinking from that mood is normal.
The great failure
of most truth students is that they are perpetually constructing but deferring
their occupancy. When entering your desired state, feel its presence surround
you like an answered prayer. Then become so one with the state that your
thoughts flow from it. Persist in viewing your world from that state, and it
will harden into fact. You and you alone determine the time for the state to
externalize itself. If your mind is so disciplined that it cannot be turned or
diverted, your heart's desire will be outpictured on your screen of space. But,
if you believe in any secondary power, your belief will cause its delay.
Your awareness is
the power of the Word. It is divine, not divisional. There are not two I AM's
but one I AM standing on many levels. Desire, claiming fulfillment now,
wrestles as Jacob. But when the fight is over desire, as Israel, is born. You
may think your name is John Brown or Mary Smith, but your real name is I AM and
your dominant mood is your nature. Divorce a mood and assume a new nature.
Persist in your new relationship and you will bear its children as new
phenomena appear to bear witness to your creative inner I AMness. Only if you
lack "importunity" and constantly return to the mood you are
attempting to divorce yourself from, will failure occur. Desire is hidden
identity. What you want, you already have! If you acknowledge, as fact, that
you are
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already what you
desire to be and will not be diverted but maintain your importunity by walking
in the mood of fulfillment which now dominates you, no power on earth can keep
you from expressing it. But you must feel yourself right into the situation of
the answered prayer, for only by believing that you already have it, will it
appear.
Anyone who prays
successfully is, himself, the springboard of action and the one who grants the
prayer. There is no other being to grant it. The one who receives the answered
prayer is the one who grants it through the act of rearranging the mind. Learn
to rearrange your mind and, if
you find
yourself walking in the field of unanswered prayers, turn around and walk in
the field (mood) of fulfillment. And, remember, "Faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." The only reality and
the only substance is consciousness from which all prayer has its beginning and
its end.
The entire Book
of Hebrews is devoted to faith: "Faith is enduring as seeing him who is
invisible." And "Faith is the substance of things hoped for."
"Unto us was this good news preached, as well as unto them, but it did not
profit them because it was not mixed with faith." Good news is desire
fulfilled. If desire is not mixed with faith, it is of no avail, for faith is
the awareness of the reality of the desire's fulfillment. You see, creation is
finished, and we only become aware of increasing portions of it. The absence of
faith would be to deny the reality of the state assumed. If you limit yourself
to your physical senses which contradict everything you desire, then faith will
be unknown to you. But faith will make real that which is invisible.
The being you
would like to be, though invisible, will unveil itself and become visible for
all to see when you walk in the faith of its reality.
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If you have
an objective and fail to achieve it you have sinned, for you have fallen short
of your desire. But if you have no desire, you are incapable of sinning. The
righteous man, however, being conscious of already having fulfilled his
objective, cannot sin.
In the Book of
Daniel we are told to "Break off your sin by righteousness." This has
nothing to do with any church or ritual, for righteousness is right thinking.
In the Book of Genesis the story is told of Jacob's desire to increase his
wealth. Lifting his eyes in a dream he beheld the spotted lambs, the
ring-striped goats and cattle. Then he said, "I will hold onto my
righteousness and not let it go. So shall my righteousness answer for me in
time to come."
Follow Jacob's
example. Lift up your eyes with a controlled imagination and see what you want
to see. Believe in your vision and your faith will make it solid and real in
your manifested world. While sitting in your chair, you can assume the state of
consciousness you desire to possess even though your reason and outer senses
deny its reality. Then, as Jacob, you can say, "My righteousness shall
answer for me in time to come." Jacob knew that he could not become perverse
and turn from the new state but that if he maintained a consciousness of having
what reason denied (including the law of genetics), he would achieve his goal.
God the Father is
not a man, but the dominant idea that you serve. The enemies of that idea are
those of your own household -- your own thinking. Hold a dominant idea in your
consciousness and, in a way you do not know your righteousness (right thinking)
will cause the desired state to externalize itself in your world.
A Pharisee is one
who conforms to all manmade laws; one who strictly observes the Levitical law
of "outer purification." Now we are told, "Unless your
righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter
the kingdom of heaven. But seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and its
righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."
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True
righteousness is consciousness. We confuse the word and seek righteousness as a
thing, but the consciousness of being is the magnet that draws a thing to it.
Permeate your consciousness with the feeling of being the man (or woman) you
want to be and your righteousness will bring it about.
You cannot
inherit Christianity, rather you adopt it. As you come into its inner
conviction, you become cleaner and more noble. Christ taught righteousness in
his law of identical harvest saying, "As a man sows, so shall he
reap." Taken psychologically, a state of consciousness sown within the
mind, will be harvested without as external events. And, in like manner, as
long as you remain sowing your present state of consciousness, you will
continue to encounter similar events in your life.
Walk, conscious
of the feeling that your wish is fulfilled, and you will never sin by missing
the experience of fulfillment. But you cannot turn away and return to your
former state. We are all the prodigal son who went astray. But we are told that
when he came to his senses he turned around and entered his Father's house, at
which time he was given the fatted calf, the robe, and the ring. When you
observe who you are in consciousness and come to your senses by turning to your
Father (the state desired), it will be given unto you.
Watch your
reactions to life and you will discover where you stand psychologically. If
your reactions are unlovely, you are walking in the mud and mire, feeding the
swine. But when you turn within to the Father of all life and enter the state
you desire by assuming its fulfillment, your actions will be lovely. Persist
and you will move out of the mud and mire and enter the kingdom of the wish
fulfilled.
There is no such
thing as righteous indignation, for the wrath of man cannot work righteousness.
Nothing so unlovely as righteous indignation could be right consciousness! My
goal is to be one who expands in consciousness, for I am a teacher and I must
ever grow as a teacher. This is my aim and I must remember it morning, noon and
night. I must persist in this state as it externalizes itself in my world.
There is a story
told of a little blind girl who had five brothers. The brothers, trusting their
senses went out into the world and lost their way, while the little girl,
unable to trust her senses wove a thread of gold.
26
Attaching one end
to her finger, she tied the other to the sun and never lost her way. You, too,
can learn to trust the light of consciousness by holding onto the thread that
is your aim and not allowing yourself to become enmeshed in the evidence of
your senses.
Remembering your
desire, you will not get lost like the five brothers as you will not be
concerned with what others are doing, but simply walk conscious of being the
one you want to be. No power can keep you from your goal when you are conscious
of already having attained it.
You are told to,
"Seek first the kingdom and its righteousness and all these things will be
added unto you." The kingdom of heaven is within you. Turn within and you
will find the power to produce what nature and your outer senses deny. Test
yourself by controlling your thoughts, by seeing only what you want to see and
hearing only that which contributes to the realization that your world is as
you want it to be.
If you will keep
controlling your world in your imagination until the one sensation crowds out all other ideas, your right
consciousness will answer for you and your dream will become your reality. But,
if you don't feel fulfilled, you
can easily be diverted and miss your mark.
The Bible's
teaching is one of rising higher and higher in consciousness until rebirth
occurs. There is but one purpose in life, and that is to rise higher and higher
on the vertical bar of the cross.
Knowing the
state you desire to express, walk as though you are now expressing it. "No
man, having put his hand to the plow, looks back." In other words, once
you have moved into the new state, do not look back at the old state or you
will become as Lot's wife. She looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt
which is a preservative. The moment you look back at your former state, you
re-enter it, as all states exist, preserved in your imagination and ready for
occupancy.
The kingdom of
heaven is a higher state of awareness; a step above where you now stand, and
each higher level is reached by a change of attitude for the better. There is
not a problem that cannot be resolved by a change of consciousness. And that
which requires a state of awareness to produce its effect can never be effected
without that state. It is the height of folly to expect security while being
conscious of insecurity. On
27
the other hand,
you cannot be insecure if you walk conscious of being secure.
You don't have to
"pull strings" to get what you want, all you need do is walk in the
consciousness of already having it. For an assumption, though false, if
persisted in, will harden into fact. Don't try to be a better man but try to be
better at something. Most metaphysical students have no aim, claiming God knows
best. But, I ask you, how can this be when you and God, your Father, are one?
Human nature wants the thing to come first with belief to follow. But I say,
you must assume the consciousness of already having (or being) your desire
before the sign that you have it can appear. Signs follow; they do not precede.
Seek the conscious feeling of having already reached your goal, and the sign
that you have achieved it will follow. You don't get things and then become
righteous; righteousness is right seeing. Always claim the level above the one
you are now on by dying to your present level, for your Father's house has many
mansions. Let go of your present mansion and reach for the one you seek!
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Understood
psychologically, humanity is an infinite series of levels of awareness, and the
individual is what he is according to where he is in the series. In the Book of
Romans Paul urges us to: "Be not conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is good and
acceptable, the perfect will of God." In other words, do not look at the
external world and call it reality, but break its spell by transforming your
thinking. But you can't change your thinking until you change your ideas, for
it is from ideas that you think.
Remember, your
level of awareness attracts life and is the sole cause of the phenomena you
observe.
To be aware is to
do the will of God whose name is I AM. Always being aware, what you are aware
of is what you are. "I AM (aware of) that (which) I AM." Think of an
infinite scale of values as I AM, with your desired state just above where you
now stand. God speaks to you through the language of desire. When you wish to
ascend, it is because God is speaking, calling upon you to surrender yourself
to the feeling of already being what you want to be. Let go of fear, limitation
and doubt and subject yourself to the will of God. A mere assumption will lift
you up to the level upon which your ideal is identified, and you will begin to
see your world differently. This is where self-observation comes in. You do not
observe the outer world, but your reactions to it.
When another
displeases or offends you, look within to the "I" who heard with displeasure and is expressing
it. It is difficult to believe, I know, but you alone are the cause of your
displeasure. A lady I know thought her employer was a monster and impossible to
please. She had formed an opinion of him and that invisible and inaudible
opinion spoke to her all day long, causing her boss to do what he did and say
the words to cause her displeasure. Being a gracious lady and willing to change
her feeling of "I", she heard her boss praise her and she thanked him
for his praise.
The moment she
found herself returning to the old role of criticizing him, she stopped the
thought and put on the new record of praise, thanks and congratulations. Within
24 hours, the new record externalized itself and, when she resigned a year
later, her boss begged
29
her to stay and
told her that if she ever wanted to return, the door was always open to her.
Your inward
conversations are the breeding ground of all your future action. Morning, noon
and night you are carrying on internal arguments. When you catch yourself,
break the habit by consciously creating new thoughts; thereby making a new
record to externalize itself in your future.
God's will is
I AM. His will is always being done, for it is the power which resurrects and
makes alive. There is no transforming power in time, only transformation of the
moment. If you are having difficulty with another, look into self, for it is
the "I" called you who is speaking to you as a thought. Listen
carefully to what you are saying to yourself and you will discover where the
difficulty lies.
Let me now define
"self" or "soul." It is that which you believe, feel, think
and consent to. You may consent to the belief that you have been mistreated;
that you are dumb, or they, in their cruelty, are causing your displeasure. If
you do, your consent forms your level of being and attracts your life, be it
good, bad or indifferent. Your soul cannot be changed by joining churches,
synagogues or groups. You must turn to self, the inner "I" you know
so well, as it is he who attracts those who mistreat you and determines every
little detail of your outer experience.
If you have a
secret affection for your conflicts, you cannot be helped. But, when you
consent to be otherwise, then you can change. Subject yourself to the will of
God by first knowing your ideal, then yielding to it by doing in your
imagination what you would do physically if your desire were realized. Once
this is clearly defined, repeat the act over and over again until you feel
affected by it and its fulfillment possesses your mind. When the idea is so
firmly entrenched and your thoughts flow freely from it watch, for you will
have a change in your external world.
Become pure in
heart by purging your mind from the belief in powers outside of yourself. Then,
believing that consciousness is the only reality, weave yourself into a new
state of awareness. For your world is your house, your state of consciousness
externalized. Clean house by observing your thoughts. When you first begin to
do this, you will discover most of your thoughts are unlovely. But, as you
learn to
30
passively think
of people you dislike, your thoughts will lose their unloveliness and, with a
mind filled with joy and thanksgiving you will ascend Jacob's ladder of self
into the kingdom of love.
When you have
carefully defined your desire, completely and utterly yield to it. Then try to
remain faithful to the new idea you have entered. In the beginning you may not
succeed, but don't condemn yourself.
Simply return as
many times as necessary until the feeling becomes so strong, your thoughts
habitually flow from the new state.
This teaching is
not for the weak. It is not for those who seek escape from life or want to point their finger of blame at another. To find the Christ in you who is your hope of glory, you must be willing to test
yourself. I tell you, he is your "I" who calls all men and
manifestations to you. Life is easier when you can blame another but I urge you
to pray, not for an easy life but to become a stronger man. The one who is
bearing witness to your thoughts is the cause of your misfortune, not the other
fellow. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind and you will prove the good
and acceptable word of God.
Would it be
acceptable to you to be lifted on high? That is the will of God which will not
turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of your mind. You
are doing God's will when you identify yourself with your desire. And, if you
believe your claim, you are righteous and your world will outpicture your
righteousness. But if you do not believe you will miss your mark and die in
your sins.
The only escape
from the life you now lead is by a radical psychological transformation of
self. This is done by defining your "I" with your desire, then
changing your thoughts until their effect possesses your mind and your
"I" resides comfortably in the new state. Remember, your level of
being attracts life, and unless the level changes your history remains the
same. Let your present level die by subjecting your entire being to a level
beyond it. Try it. It really is not difficult to do.
Remove the hold
that past wrong emotional reactions have upon you by reviewing the experiences
and changing them. This is done by rewriting the experience in your mind and
saying what you should have said and doing what you should have done at the
time. Let this corrected picture slip back into the subconscious as you resolve
not to make the same
31
mistake again. By
repetition of this technique, you will rid yourself of all feelings of hate,
resentment and other emotional disturbances which cling to your memory. And, to
the degree that you release yourself from these destructive feelings, you will
free yourself from their power to attract ill health and wrong results for you.
Relaxation of the
body plus passivity of the mind and fixation of attention on the objective
desire, equals fulfillment of the objective. Anxiety has no creative power. In
this school of educative darkness, consciousness (whose origin is in eternity)
provides the power for your experiences in time. So test yourself, for in this teaching
there is no room for failure.
32
In the Book of
Hebrews Paul tells us to "Rest in the Lord." Why? Because the man who
rests in the Lord is transformed into the image in which he rests. If my aim is
to be a good teacher and I rest in that feeling, I will be transformed into
that image.
Unfortunately,
most of the states in which men rest are negative. Feeling insecure, you will
rest in the conviction that the world owes you a living. Feeling hurt, it is
easy to rest in that grievance until your mood becomes natural. You may condemn
the state and believe others to be its cause but, through your feelings of
being hurt, you will be transformed into the very image of the state you condemn.
And if someone seems to cause you displeasure, remember, there is no other. The
state in which you rest is causing you to listen to silent and invisible
conversations. Although the words are heard by you and you alone, they act as
magnets and draw to you the circumstances of your life.
"Be ye doers
of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." Every meeting I
share with you the knowledge I have gained through personal experience, but I
cannot make you put this knowledge into practice. As a teacher, I demand
results. As a student, I urge you to test this truth, for if it is true it will
prove itself in the testing.
In the 25th
Chapter of the Book of Matthew the parable is told of the servants who were
given talents by their master. One was given five talents which he increased to
ten. Another, two talents were given which were increased to four. And when the
third received his one talent he buried it, thereby never allowing it to
increase. When the master returned, he rejoiced at the increase he was shown by
the first two. But he took from the one who had placed his talent in hiding and
gave it to the one who had ten, saying, "To everyone who has, more will be
given and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even that which he
has will be taken away."
This teaching is
like the talents. Practiced daily, your power of awareness will grow. If you
are a hearer only, your knowledge, not used, will soon wither away and atrophy.
Test yourself every day. Leave the other fellow
33
alone and turn to
self, for the promise is, "According to your work will it be done unto
"
The man who
overcomes himself, rises to a higher level of being. Uncritically observe your
reactions to life, then work on yourself by practicing this psychologically.
Only by working on self can you rise to a higher level. But you cannot do it
with a negative emotion; it must be a positive one. We are told to "Lift
up your eyes unto the hills from whence cometh your help." Negative
thoughts cause downward emotions, while positive thoughts elevate. If you
listen to your thoughts, stop their negative flow and change them so that you
are hearing what you want to hear, you will feel a positive emotion of relief
which is followed by a stillness that brings with it the knowledge that your
prayer has been answered.
Now, as the title
of this lesson implies, we are urged to be doers of the word and not hearers
only, deceiving ourselves. In the Book of James, a hearer is defined as like a
man who observes his natural face in the mirror, then turns and forgets what he
looks like; whereas the doer is one who looks into the perfect law of liberty,
perseveres, and is blessed in all that he does.
How do you go
about looking into the mirror of the mind and being pleased with what you see?
By looking into the face of your wife, husband, parent or friend. Close your
eyes, relax and think of a friend who would rejoice in your good fortune. Tell
him your good news and watch the expression of joy appear on his imagined face.
His expression will liberate you, as his knowing has set you free to express
your desire. Having looked into the perfect law of liberty, persevere and you
will be blessed in the doing.
In the Book of
Matthew the law is stated thus: "Whatever you wish that men would do to
you, do so to them, for this is the law of the prophets." Here we discover
that the Bible is speaking of a man's psychology and not his physical form. The
Bible records what you do within yourself, telling you that the conversations
carried on internally are the breeding grounds of your future actions. Forever
carrying on mental conversations
with imaginary beings, become aware of your thoughts. Be selective and make
your inner conversations positive, for the mechanical
34
imagination is
asleep and negative, while the awakened imagination is positive and noble.
Tonight, single
out someone you love and rearrange your opinion of him. Carry on mental
conversations with him based upon this new premise and you are a doer of the
word. If you don't, you are a hearer only, deceiving yourself.
This teaching is
to awaken you to the active, dynamic being that you really are. Asleep, your
thoughts are negative and passive and cannot change until you uncritically
observe your reactions to life If you are honest with yourself, you will find
an internal being you are not proud of, a monster that needs taming. Tame that
monster by filling your mind with positive thoughts of joy and fulfillment, and
you will turn that monster into a being of love.
Get into the
habit of observing your reactions to life. Give yourself your daily bread by
giving yourself the ability to no longer react negatively. Become a doer by
recognizing a negative thought, then breaking it and going immediately to a
positive one. All of your grievances, your hurts, self-pity and belief that
others are the cause of your sorrow are animals which need to be sacrificed on
the altar of consciousness. Letting all negative feelings go, select the
mansion (state) you desire to enter and go in.
The law which
brings poverty into being also brings wealth. Let the weak man say, "I am
strong," and the poor man say, "I am rich," for only that which
you affirm within yourself can be outpictured. Feel yourself into the state of
poverty, and poverty is outpictured. Feel yourself into the state of security
by saying, "I am secure," and security will result. But if you do not
feel yourself into the state desired, you will be forever free of its results,
as that which requires a state of consciousness to produce its effect will
never be effected without such change in consciousness. You must feel yourself
right into the situation of your answered prayer, then live and act in that
conviction. If you don't, you will never know the results of that state.
Your fortune or
misfortune was brought into being by your state of consciousness. There is no
other cause. Have the courage to accept this and then become a doer and, in so
doing be blessed in your every deed.
35
Start now to
become conscious of what you hear yourself say to yourself and stop receiving
those impressions mechanically and unconsciously. What you hear must be
filtered through what you are. And what you are is what you hear. Kind thoughts
stem from kind ideas created by a kind person; therefore, be kind to one
another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other.
Now, an
assumption is called the crown of the mysteries and every assumption is made by
you alone. The world you see depends, not so much on what is there, as on the
assumption you make when you look at it. The talent entrusted to you is your
power of conscious assumption.
Don't bury it!
Asleep to this knowledge, your reactions to the day are mechanical, negating
everything you see and hear. Awake! Become conscious of what you are doing and
saying to yourself, and rise in consciousness by controlling your thoughts and
making them positive, kind, loving and fulfilling ones!
36
When you possess
the mind of Christ, you are in possession of the p an of great price! That
pearl is imminent. It is nearer than near and sooner than now, for the pearl of
great price is your own wonderful human imagination. You have always possessed
this mind but, like every possession, unless you know it is yours and are willing
to use it, it is non- existent to you. Believe me, everything in your world was
first conceived in your imagination. The house you live in, the car you drive,
the clothes you wear, as well as your friends, your loved ones, your enemies
and the strangers on the street were imagined before externalized. Now it is
time to control your human imagination and govern it by love. I urge you to
awaken to the discovery that everything you seek in time is contained within
you.
There is only
one mind with unnumbered levels of awareness. Your level determines where you
are and what you are, for what you think, you are. This mind is not something
detached from you but your own lovely imagination, the body of the Father and
the only redemptive power in the universe. It can save you from your present
state or bind you to it.
Christ is
defined in scripture as the power of God and the wisdom of n you as your hope
of glory. All things are made by this power without it is not anything made
that is made, for Christ, who is your own wonderful human imagination, is
yourself! Looking with the human eye, you see a world outside and seemingly
independent of your perception. But when you view the world through the
"I" of imagination, you understand its meaning. Turn within and test yourself
and you will discover that you are your own savior. Then you will begin to
assert the supremacy of your human imagination. You will cease to bow before
the dictates of the world without and start to put your dreams into effect.
A tamed man is
one who is self-disciplined. Tame yourself by observing yourself. Are you
wasting your strength in negative emotions? If so, then discipline yourself out
of the muck and mire you have been living in and rise, with your disciples,
into a state of joy and the body of love. Do this, and you will have found the
pearl of great price.
37
In this world,
you appear to be a man (or woman) of flesh and blood. Your father, mother,
sisters and brothers are known. But I tell you, you are far greater than the
greatest man on earth, for you are Jesus Christ.
Imaginative love
is sleeping in your body of flesh. Awaken the love that you are by claiming
that your mind is Christ. Claim your pearl of great price, for it is the key
that will unlock the treasure house of heaven. With your mind as Christ, you
will discover that you are no longer capable of thinking unlovely, negative
thoughts and will have no desire to retaliate.
The Bible is your
biography, for you are Jesus, the great Jehovah of the Old Testament who finds
fulfillment in the New. Using the mind of man, you are asleep. It is time to
awaken, to cast off the mind of man who says, "I can," "I
was," or "I will be," and assert your divine inheritance which
is the mind of God who says, "I AM." Nothing is impossible to God,
and nothing is impossible to you when you claim to be the mind of God.
This world is
like a machine where its actions and reactions are automatic. Separate yourself
from this machine-like mind and use your wonderful human imagination to rise to
higher and higher levels of your own being.
If you do not
like the events of your life, change them by controlling your imagination. When
you know what you want, ask yourself where you would sleep if you had it. What
would your world look like? Would a friend be happy for you?
With the
answers to your questions filling your mind, fall asleep in your desired place.
View the world
from that vantage point and hear your friend rejoice now that your desire is a
physical fact. Then believe in Christ -- the power to put all things under your
subjection- and it will be done unto you.
Remember,
there is no such thing as a powerful fate to which you must bow, nor do you
have to accept life on the basis of the world without.
Turn
to self. Claim your pearl of great price and remember:
"What seems
to be, is to those to whom It seems to be, and is productive of the most
dreadful Consequences to those to whom it seems to be;
38
Even of Torments, Despair and Eternal Death." for William Blake, in
his poem Jerusalem, makes this promise: "…but Divine Mercy Steps beyond
and redeems Man in the Body of Jesus."
39
Do you have a
goal in life? An aim for yourself? If you do, start now to lift yourself to its
level by the act of self-remembering. Do not try to be a better man or woman,
but transcend your present level of being by being better AT something. Your
goal should be so important that you cannot forget it and your hunger for its
externalization so intense that you cannot and will not let the thought go
until it is embodied in flesh.
Scripture tells
us, "Many are called, but few are chosen." The word
"chosen" means to separate; to choose; to decide." Every day,
you are offered the opportunity to choose a new idea; to enter a new state from
which to think and feel. Unnumbered emotions and thoughts are yours to call
forth but, because of the aim with which you desire to be identified, only a
few emotions and thoughts are chosen. Begin to rise within yourself by letting
go of your former beliefs and restrictions.
Choose the
thoughts and emotions you desire to express and enter your desire through the
act of feeling.
In the 11th
Chapter of Mark, two disciples were told to "Go into the village where you
will find a colt tied at the crossroad upon which no one has sat. Loose him and
bring him to me. If anyone says, 'Why are you doing this?' say, 'The Lord has
need of him.' Then he mounted the unbridled ass and rode into the city of
Jerusalem."
Now, the animal
found at every crossroad is not a colt or ass but the individual's permanent,
predominant emotion. Desiring to express a new emotion, you may find it
difficult to ride. But you will always find your emotions tied at the
crossroads of life. If you have never felt secure before, you may not be able
to ride the animal emotion of security for more than a few seconds at a time.
But the important thing is to try, for controlled imagination can ride any
emotion into the city of Peace; the embodiment of the ideal state.
An emotion is
right or wrong relative to a desire. If you feel uneasy as you commit yourself
to your desire, you are walking in the wrong direction and will never reach it.
But if the feeling is natural (right), and you persist in your assumption, it
will become a fact. At times, even
40
when your aim
feels natural, you may allow doubts to creep in and move away from your goal.
When this happens, don't condemn yourself, simply get back on that emotion and
ride it again, for the beast is unbridled and must be ridden until you and it
become one. Acknowledge the feeling of importance, of security, or of being
dignified, within yourself, for your consciousness is reality. What you are conscious
of being right now, you are. If you desire to be other than what you are
remember, the state desired is just as real as the one you are conscious of now. Enter the new state by becoming
conscious of being it. Persist! Find the feeling of the new state and ride it
into Jerusalem.
Scripture calls
upon man to remember himself by associating himself with his aim and walking in
its direction. Only as you discipline yourself can you embody your aim. In his
11th Chapter Mark makes this statement, "Whatever you desire, believe that
you have received it and you will. And whenever you stand praying,
forgive." How do you fulfill a desire and forgive another? By finding the
quality you thought to be in another and removing it from yourself. Then place
the feeling you desire to express in its place. When this has been done, you
have risen right into the state of your answered prayer.
Now, prayer is
conditioned upon the belief that it is already answered. Desire is your
springboard. Standing upon your desired state, you may discover that the board
wobbles or the ground sways beneath your feet. But if you persist in being
conscious of having attained your desire, even though your reason and outer
senses deny it, what you are conscious of will become your reality.
Tonight, form a
lovely aim for yourself and feel its fulfillment. Associate yourself with that
feeling by becoming conscious of it. Do that and you will bless and be blessed
by God who is your very self. Say to yourself, "I and my Father are
one." Your inner being is he who men call God. He is never so far off as
even to be near, for He is your own wonderful human consciousness.
All things,
when admitted into your consciousness, are made manifest by its light, but
something must be admitted first. If you are conscious of being beaten, the
thought will manifest itself and you will be. Do you feel insecure? If you do,
and persist in that mood you will sink into its slums, for everything
manifested, is consciousness externalized.
41
What thought
dominates your mind right now? Regardless of what it is, you have consented to
it, but you need not perpetuate it. The thought which enters the mind does not
defile you. You may consent to any thought, be it one that defiles or blesses
you when it goes forth. But every thought will be made manifest. The state
where you presently reside was only a thought before you entered it, just as is
the state you now desire, and it can just as easily be realized. Take the
challenge. Formulate your aim and rise, in consciousness to its fulfillment.
Think it is real and it is, for everything is possible to a thought.
Self-remembering
is remembering your aim so, in the course of a day you should ask yourself
where you are psychologically. Your reality lives in a psychological country
where you can walk in the mire, the valley, or the mountain tops. Choose this
day the state you desire to enter. Feel its mood and acknowledge its
fulfillment. Walk faithful to that assumption and, although your reason and
your senses deny it, your persistence will cause it to become a fact.
You, all
imagination, are the sum total of your reactions to life. This is the only
cause and explanation of the events you encounter. If you do not like your world, change your
reaction to it. Life will become easier when you are brutally frank with
yourself and acknowledge your reactions to that which was created by you and is
being reflected to you. Resolve to react only in a positive manner. Positive
thoughts produce positive effects. As you see your world differently, your
consciousness changes, thereby changing future
events.
Your desire is
always ready for incarnation. But as a desire alone it is incapable of birth.
It must have human parentage. You are the human imagination scripture calls
"Mary," as you are capable of conceiving an idea and giving it birth
without the aid of any man. "Man" is called "the mold of
God." Your I AMness is God the Father, and you, as Mary, conceive a desire
of God. Locking your secret within yourself, walk faithful to your concept and
you will bring forth its fruit.
Everyone is the
Mary of the Bible. Her names means "water; the psychological truths of the
mysteries."
Washing all
literal concepts of the Bible from your mind, you are baptized and are born of
water. Then, as you live faithful to your desire,
42
you are the
blessed Virgin, bearing that which is conceived by the Holy Ghost the holy
desire.
43
Love is the
only true power, and your power is in proportion to your love. When scripture
speaks of the violent taking the kingdom by storm, it is not referring to
violent characters, but the power of love which gives the force necessary to
rise to a higher level of awareness.
There is no
ultimate destiny for, understood psychologically, life is everlasting. It is
the appeasement of a hunger whose main force is desire. Man rises on the
springs of his desire, with every level of the vertical line of the cross
within him so organized that it will lift him, through desire, to higher and
higher levels of himself.
I, like all true
teachers, teach the art of overcoming the violence that characterizes mankind's
present level of being. In many ways, we have advanced beyond our forefathers,
but we have remained just as violent as they. It is my wish for you that you
break your violent, negative nature. For if you will, you will rise in
consciousness and find your destiny waiting for you. Every moment in time you
are offered the chance to prove your ability to overcome violence. How? By
assuming that consciousness is the only reality and that nothing has reality
save the consciousness you have of it. In that assumption, you will find the
sole cause of the phenomena of life.
Your reactions
to life define you, and as long as they remain as they are, your life will stay
the same. Your world is but a projection of your state of awareness.
Consciousness is the only substance and the only cause of the phenomena of
life; therefore, it is impossible for change to occur until there is a change
in consciousness.
All that you
consent to, be it good, bad or indifferent, is projected into your world
through your "I" of awareness. If security is your aim, you must
establish an awareness of security so strong that you can feel it and say
within yourself, "I am secure." You are free to consent to violence
and grievances or security and peace of mind. Whatever you consent to by
becoming aware of will be yours. Your aim is always just above the state where
you now stand. Throughout the day, ask yourself if you are conscious of your
aim, and you will discover how near or how far you are
44
from it. If you
are not conscious of being secure at the moment, claim that you are. Persist,
and maybe tomorrow as you observe your day, you will find the awareness growing
stronger and stronger.
Learn to stand
alone by claiming, "I am what I am because I am conscious of being
it." Stop looking at others and start observing your reactions to their
behavior. Turn within and change your violent nature to one of love. Do that
and you will ascend the ladder of life and reach your destiny. It is impossible
to embody a new level of thought through the efforts of another. The rock upon
which you must stand is consciousness. All other ground is sinking sand.
It is the height
of folly to expect the incarnation of a new concept to come out of the
evolutionary process. The thing you are seeking must be incarnated before it
can be made visible. There is a wide difference between knowing something
mentally and knowing it spiritually. I can teach you the law of identical
harvest. You can read how to apply the law through my books and mentally know
the steps necessary to have wealth, but you will never know wealth,
spiritually, until you consciously say within yourself, "I am
wealthy." A man is sick because he is conscious of being so. Let the sick
man say, "I am well," the hungry man say, "I am full" and
the troubled man say, "I am at peace," and their right consciousness
will produce that which they are conscious of being. If you want to know what
love is, you must become loving, for you cannot know a thing until you are it.
I am teaching the
art of Being; the art of spiritually knowing a state. In the Book of Joel, we
are told, "Let the weak man say, 'I am strong."' This applies, not
only to the physical body but to every facet of your being.
Seek to know your
desire spiritually, for only when the spirit feels the naturalness of the
desire will it project itself in your outer world. Always remember, you will
never experience what you refuse to affirm as true of yourself!
Awake! Become
ever more aware of what is taking place within you. Lift up your cross and,
without turning to the left or the right to ask another, turn within and
consciously claim your aim, then watch it harden into fact.
45
If you do not
apply my words, you remain right where you are, for you must be a doer in order
to be blessed with your deeds. Desire is hidden identity, as you already are
what you want to be. "Never would you have sought me had you not already
found me." The level of being you seek can be found by changing your reactions
to life to conform to the level you wish to express. It is not necessary to use
pressure, pull strings or ask anyone to aid you.
All you need do
is change your attitude. After clearly defining your aim, sincerely observe
your inner conversations and your reactions with regard to it. When your
thoughts and reactions are disciplined, your "I" will lift you to
your higher level and fulfill your aim.
Your fellow man
is not to be condemned, but awakened. This is done by awakening yourself. As
you rise in consciousness, you take all men with you. Think of your wonderful
human imagination as the vertical line of the cross, limitless, with time as
the cross-section. You are free to ascend (or lift up) the cross, but you
cannot rise until you deny your limitations. Christianity is a way of life.
With your mental eyes wide open, adopt Christianity by becoming aware of what
it is.
If you do not
like what you are encountering in life, rearrange your thoughts by changing
your consciousness. Form the state you desire and occupy it in your mind. This
is how you transform self. As you yield to the state desired, watch your world.
It will transform itself into the ideal held in consciousness.
Where you
stand, the ground is holy, for you are the temple of the living God. Clear your
mind of the trees of traditional thinking. Become pure in heart and you will
see that consciousness is all and all is consciousness.
You will
discover that the state you are conscious of being is the state made manifest.
No matter how reasoning justifies acts of violence, don't accept them. If you
do, you contribute to the state and it is a state you do not want to
experience.
The story is told
of Jesus entering the temple and ridding it of the money lenders saying,
"My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of
thieves." This is not a material temple. You are the temple of the living
God and the Bible is your biography. Thieves have taken over your house of
prayer by placing false values there. Rid your
46
mind of all
beliefs of outside causes and reinstate the only true value of consciousness,
the only true power of love.
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The Bible,
the most wonderful book in the world and the most misunderstood, is your
personal autobiography. It is not the recording of historical events as your
teachers teach, and its writings were never intended to be interpreted as such.
The persons recorded there never existed, and the events never happened on
earth. The Bible is speaking of the heaven within and the earth without.
Its story begins:
"In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was
without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. Then the
Spirit of God said, 'Let there be light' and there was light." The light
spoken of here comes from heaven which is within you. The light which shines
upon your earth is the light of your consciousness and shines from within you.
The outer man (called the earth) is dark while the inner man (called heaven) is
the being who was in the beginning with God and was God but is sound asleep. As
your autobiography, the Bible tells how you are lifted up from your present
level of being into a higher one.
In the Old
Testament, we find the Pentateuch (the first five Books, as the law of Moses).
These books were written in 500 B.C., while the earliest date known for the New
Testament is 170 A.D. The first known New Testament did not include the
Epistles to the Hebrews or the Books of Peter and James. (It is James who
speaks of the double-minded man, declaring that he can receive nothing from the
Lord.) Then we had the Apocrypha which consisted of early Christian writings
that were excluded from the Jewish and Protestant Old Testament. These writings
give four biographical sketches of a principle, rather than a man. It took nine
hundred years for the Bible to come into its present form. So when you read it,
always bear in mind that it is speaking of the kingdom of heaven within you. It
is telling of a revelation of an eternal principle called Christ, who is your
hope of glory. All of the characters recorded in scripture are aspects of your
mind which you will discover as you fulfill your destiny, which is to fulfill
scripture within yourself.
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No man named
Moses ever wrote any commandments on stones, rather the word "stone"
means "literal truth." The literal minded man comes first and is
given certain laws to live by, thus blocking psychological truth. As long as
you see things on the outside as facts, your mind is blocked and you are unable
to grasp their psychological meanings. But when you become thirsty for the
truth and begin to apply the law, the spirit of God will move upon this
psychological sea of understanding and your life will take that truth (water)
and turn it into wine. In the state of Moses, God's true name is revealed to
you. Take his name (your I AM) as your rod of understanding and hit the stone
of literal truth with it, and psychological water will come forth. Drink it by
putting my words into practice and you will convert the psychological water of
truth I have given you into the wine of the spirit.
Now, the clothing
spoken of in scripture is that of the mind and not of the body. John the
Baptist is described in the 3rd Chapter of Matthew as one called Elijah in 2nd
Kings. It is said he wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather girdle around
his waist. Hair and skin are the most external things a man possesses;
therefore, John the Baptist represents the outer man who has not yet clothed
himself internally. Jesus is the inner man. He wears the seamless g8rment woven
from above, and those who wear his
garment are always found in the king's house.
The New Testament
teaches a complete and radical transformation of self and calls it rebirth, but
John the Baptist calls it repentance and urges us to change our thinking of the
kingdom of heaven. It is said that he lived in the wilderness with the wild
animals. Well, you are John, living in the wilderness when you have no
direction of your own and allow your animal emotions to run wild. But when you
begin to tame your animal instincts and call them into discipleship, strength
will come to you from within and you will be baptized in the water of truth.
Speaking in a
parable, Matthew likens the kingdom of heaven to a sower who sows his seeds on
different types of soil. The sower spoken of here is not a being external to
yourself, for you are the sower and the seed. Your own wonderful human
imagination is God, the sower who said, "Let us make man in our
image," then fell asleep and annexed the brain of the outer man as the
seed for his redemption. As Adam (or the red earth), man is the psychological
earth upon which the kingdom of heaven is
49
planted. In the
parable, we are told that when one hears the word but does not understand it,
the evil one comes and snatches away that which is sown in his heart. But he
who hears with understanding, bears fruit and yields a hundredfold.
Another parable
is told comparing the kingdom of heaven to a man who, having sowed good seeds
in his field, fell asleep and his enemy came and sowed weeds there. These weeds
are false teachings, planted in the mind, false beliefs and concepts that can
be bound and burned when you turn within to discover the truth and the kingdom
of heaven to be yourself.
In the 11th
Chapter of Genesis, the story is told of how the tower of Babel is built with
stone (literal truth) and bricks (manmade concepts). Before the building was
erected, there was only one language and few words, but during the building,
confusion reigned, and soon no one understood the language of the other. This
tower exits today as the little mystical, occult groups of the world. You have
no enemies save those of your own household. Making truth of false teachings,
you believe that your security depends upon the money you have in the bank; or
your health depends upon the pills you take; or your happiness depends upon
another. In so doing, you build your own tower of Babel. But I say to you, your
consciousness of being is the only reality of the state you are in, and all of
the enemies of that state are within you. In his Beatitudes, Matthew tells you
that your attitude of being is blessed when it is clothed in soft raiment, for
when you wear the seamless garment of imagination, you are free to rise higher
and higher into the garden of Eden within you. You are the gardener of your
mind where you plant the seeds of your own selection. As the Man of Imagination,
become conscious of being that which you have planted, and your harvest will be
an hundredfold, for you always become
what you behold.
In his 16th
Chapter, Matthew tells the story of the Pharisees and Sadducees who,
unbelieving, ask for a sign from the heaven. Then we are told to take heed and
beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Now, these are not men,
but attitudes of mind. If you believe that you must live in the
"right" neighborhood; that you must know the "right" people
that your skin must be the "right" color; or that you must be in the
"right" place at the "right" time, your attitude is one
scripture
50
calls a
Pharisee. Beware of that kind of thinking, for the road to a higher level of
self is always internal and never external.
Mark tells us
that the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant of fine pearls who finds a pearl
of great price, sells all that he has, and buys it. As long as you hold onto
one thought of something external to your own mind, you do not have enough
money to buy the pearl of great price. You must be willing to sell all belief
in anything outside of self. The road to the kingdom leads upwards and is
always in an internal direction. You cannot travel this road wearing clothes
made of skin and hair. You must be clothed in your wedding garment which is
always woven from within.
Again, we are
told that the kingdom of heaven is like a net which is cast into the sea and
gathers fish of every kind, be they good or bad. When it is brought ashore, the
good are placed into vessels and the bad thrown away. Become discriminating.
Select your thoughts carefully and throw away any unlovely and negative ones.
Allow only that which is of good report to fill your mind and you will be the
good fisherman. In this same 13th Chapter of Matthew, the question is asked,
"Have you understood this?" It is my prayer that everyone of you will
answer, as they did to him, and say, "Yes." Now it is said, "Do
not put new wine into old wineskins, for the skins will burst and the wine be
spilled, and the skins destroyed; but put new wine into fresh wineskins so both
are preserved." Old thoughts, the traditions of men, the belief in power
outside of self are the old wineskins which must be burst and allow the beliefs
to be spilled and destroyed. New wine, gained by the fulfillment of God's
promise within, must be put into your consciousness (fresh wineskins) so that
both are preserved.
Man does not
evolve on the outside. There is only one presence; only one essence in man, called
Christ and defined as God's power and your hope of glory. This power can be
awakened if you, God's word, are not tarnished by the belief in a power outside
of self. Awake! Give up all false beliefs and clothe yourself in the soft
raiment of an internal attitude which implies the fulfillment of your dream.
The Bible, from beginning to end, is the psychological story of your soul and
tells you that the first thing you must do is change your thinking. I bring to
you a new idea relative to the cause of the phenomena of life, telling you that
you are not
51
what you believe
yourself to be, but possess possibilities of infinite inner growth.
Your destination
is always reached by an internal direction, which is the Be-attitudes. Be your
attitude good, bad or indifferent, when you clothe yourself in an attitude, its
fulfillment is not dependent upon anything external to you. But when you depend
upon external laws to determine your attitude, you are on the level of Elijah
and John the Baptist. Their teaching was wonderful, but it was stone, and the
state was a violent one. John the Baptist cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
You must overcome his state by consciously turning within and disciplining your
internal attitudes. This is your destiny. You are destined to awaken within
yourself as you climb Jacob's ladder of states to higher and higher levels of
your own being. The state of awareness you desire to express must be bought by
selling all of your beliefs in any external power to help you. Once free from
their encumbrance, you will move in faith into your desired state.
In the Book of
John, Jesus, as a teacher, makes this statement: "Let not your heart be
troubled; you believe in God; believe also in me." Then he adds this
thought: "It is expedient that I go, lest the comforter will not
come." Here we see a teaching that is seemingly taught from without, but it is necessary for your belief in
any external teacher to disappear for only then can the comforter within you be
found. As your belief in yourself grows, your heart will find peace.
There is only one
cause, only one I AM. I, the trinity, in unthinkable origin, AM God the Father,
and in creative expression AM the son, for imagination is born of
consciousness. I, in universal interpretation; in infinite imminence; in
eternal procession AM God, the Holy Spirit. The real definition of imminence is
"sooner than now and nearer than here." I AM, therefore, the
comforter. What could comfort you more than the knowledge that you don't have
to wait for your dreams to come true?
They are nearer
than here and sooner than now. Let this knowledge be your comforter. If there
was a limit to that which is contained in an infinite state, it would not be
infinite. In the 23rd Chapter of
Exodus, this statement is made:
"You shall not steep a kid in its mother's milk." I tell you, you are
doing this very thing when you keep your mind on a negative state. Turn your
attention from want and lack (all negative
52
states) and place
it on fulfillment and abundance (positive states) and you will no longer simmer
your desire in its mother's milk.
53
The Bible tells
of the human spirit's never-ending struggle to assert its supremacy over the
natural mind. Believing in the reality of the world outside, the natural mind
rules sleeping man, while the human spirit is God in man, struggling to awaken
and assert its supremacy over all. The poet Faust knew this when he said,
"Two souls are housed within my breast. One to heaven doth aspire and the
other to earth doth cling." In the 25th Chapter of Genesis this struggle
is told as the story of Isaac's two sons, Esau and Jacob. Coming first as outer
skin and hair, Esau is recognized as your personality, while the smooth-skinned
Jacob is your human spirit. We are told that when their mother Rebekah became
aware of the struggle within her, she questioned the Lord who told her,
"Two nations are in your womb and two people born of you shall be divided.
One shall be stronger than the other and the elder shall serve the younger.
Your external
world is known by reason of your critical faculties; therefore, you can always
discover the psychological state in which you reside by observing your thoughts
of the day. Now, every state has its limitations and restrictions from which
there appears to be no escape. If you believe you are the state in which you
now reside, you will never be able to leave it. But the story of Esau and Jacob
tells you there is a way of escape and how to accomplish it.
Esau exists in
your mind as the outer world of fact and Jacob as the inner world of
imagination. As their father, you have the power to give either son the right
of birth. Always seeing from where you have placed your attention, you are
called upon to blind yourself to the outside world by drawing your attention
from it, then deceiving yourself by imagining the world as you want it to be. This
is done by closing your eyes to the so- called "facts" of life and
turning your thoughts inward. Now, clothe your thoughts in the feeling of
reality until they are just as solid and factual as those known to you by
reason of your outer senses. When this is done you, Isaac, have given your son
Jacob the right of birth.
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Your objective
world is always reflecting your inner, subjective state. Therefore, it is
impossible to change your outer world until you have changed your inner,
subjective state. Knowing the state you want to occupy, completely absorb
yourself in it as though it were a sponge and you the water capable of entering
and being absorbed by it. So lose yourself in the feeling of satisfaction and
fulfillment that when you open your eyes and Esau (the world without) returns,
you know you have given his birthright away. Although you have been
self-deceived by imagining the state to be real, you have given it the power to
be born.
How it is going to come about I do not know. Only your Father in heaven
knows, for he has ways to make your desired state alive and His ways are past
finding out.
Now, there is an
essence in you that is sound asleep and must be awakened. When you give Jacob
the power you have given Esau, watch. You will discover that Esau will no
longer react violently but will become passive. Then you will know that you
have brought about a reversal of order. As you are aware of being Jacob, you
will persist in seeing what you want to see and experiencing what you want to
express, thereby awakening your true essence to the truth that the world is
yours and all within it.
You are the
Rebekah the Bible tells about and you are constantly bringing forth your Esau
and your Jacob who are forever at war with one another. The elder is the world
you know by reason of your critical faculties, while the younger is the one you
know subjectively. The person you want to be is struggling for birth. As long
as you look at and accept the outer world as the only reality, you will never
give birth to your fulfilled desire. You must turn your attention inward and
subjectively appropriate your objective reality.
When you read the
25th and 27th Chapters of Genesis, remember, all the characters recorded there
are in your mind. Although unmarried, you are always giving birth to twins. The
world in which you live is the outpicturing of your state of awareness. That state
is your first son which must be supplanted by your second son, or desired
state. Throughout the Bible, you will find there is always a second son which
replaces the first: Jacob supplants Esau; Jesus supplants John the Baptist; and
the human spirit supplants human matter.
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When you know
what you want, define it as vividly as you can. Then blind yourself to your
externalized state by sending it hunting. You cannot touch your second son
(your cherished idea) until you do. This is accomplished by turning your
attention away from all thoughts of denial and clothing your desire with the
skins of reality. In his "Ode to a Nightingale," Keats said:
"My heart
aches, and a drowsy numbness pains my sense as Though of hemlock I have drunk."
Having felt the
reality of his experience so vividly, when he opened his eyes, Keats asked:
"Was it a
vision, or a waking dream? Fled is that music: do I wake or sleep?"
It is with this
kind of intensity that I would ask you to clothe yourself as you feel yourself
already the person you want to be. Now, stretch out your imaginary hands and
touch the objects there. Listen with your imaginary ears. See with your
imaginary eyes. Walk in your imaginary world as you taste and smell the objects
there. Your creative power can be used for anything, be it a fur coat or a new
hat. It is my hope that you will use it for some noble state such as greatness
in your chosen profession, whatever that may be. Now, let us look at the 38th
Chapter of Genesis where the story of Judah and Tamar is told.
"Judah" means "praise" and "Tamar" means "a
desired state; a palm tree oasis. As Tamar, you thirst for your desire. Give it
to yourself by going into your desired state and making it real by becoming one
with it. Feel the sense of satisfaction that your prayer has been answered and
you are the woman called Tamar and the man named Judah.
You will find
another account of twins in the 48th Chapter of Genesis. This is the story of
Manasseh (which means to forgive) and his brother Ephraim (which means to
affirm). One is negation and the other affirmation. When you take your
attention away from your problem by affirming its solution, the problem is
momentarily forgotten. Persist in your affirmation, not in repetitious form,
but in feeling. As you feel the solution, the problem dies from lack of
attention.
This teaching
is not for the complacent but for the human spirit who hungers and thirsts
after right thinking. As we are told in the 5th Chapter
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of Matthew,
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they
shall be satisfied." Awaken the Jacob in you by observing your thoughts
uncritically. Think of yourself as two beings, one who sees with the organs of
sense and the other who sees through the mind of imagination. The sense man is
a creature of habit. He is dynamic and active; yet, through the daily practice
of self-observation, he can be brought into a passive state and his power
transferred to the man of imagination. There are always two decided outlooks on
the same world, i.e., the one you see with your outer organs and the one you
know only mentally. Your desire is mental, without shape or form. It is your
second son who will supplant your present world when your power of awareness is
turned within.
Do you have a
longing? A consuming desire that you want fulfilled now? Allow that desire to
clothe your mind. Knowing that its fulfillment is based upon feeling, ask
yourself what the feeling would be like if your desire were now realized.
Whatever your problem is, its solution is within you. Turn your attention to
your desire's fulfillment and clothe it in the skins of objective reality. This
is the technique of reversal and should never be taken lightly because the
moment you feel yourself into a state, you instantly take upon yourself the
fruit of that state.
I hope you now
know how to clothe your subjective longing. Think of your desire as Jacob; then
clothe it in the skins and hair of Esau. The time it takes for your longing to materialize
is proportionate to your feeling of its naturalness.
The kingdom of
heaven is within you. Humanity cannot enter this kingdom, but your imagination
can when you detach yourself from that to which you are now attached. There
must be a separation, for only the human spirit is called, and only the human
spirit can pass, singly, through this "I."
Now, that which
requires a state of consciousness to produce its effect cannot be effected
without such a state. Once you have entered a state, don't be concerned as to
how it will be externalized, for everything comes into being through
consciousness. You never create a state. All states were created before the
world was. Rather, you enter a state and it simply displays itself. Enter the
state of poverty by saying, "I am poor" and you will see its evidence
displayed on your screen of space. You do
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not generate
health, wealth or happiness. The states are already there, completely furnished
and ready for your immediate occupancy.
My words are
true, but truth by itself can do nothing. It must be applied. Unapplied truth
is like a lamp without oil, but applied truth is a lamp whose oil never runs
low. Remember, there are no accidents, no cause other than an imaginal one. If
an accident is fatal, it is an involuntary suicide. Are we not told, "No
one takes my life, I lay it down myself. I have the power to lay it down and
the power to take it up again." An accident is not a force external to the
individual's consciousness. "No one knows a man but the spirit of the man
who dwells in him," and man is simply the sum total of his reactions to
life. No one comes into your world save you call him. You have the power to
call anything into being, for you are the author of the drama called life.
The Bible refers
to God as the Father; as I AMness, or light, but the word means
consciousness" which, like an atom, has no age. consciousness is living
substance which has no beginning and no end but simply displays arrangements of
itself. External man consents to age, but the substance of consciousness does
not. It never changes. Before the world was, I AM, and when it ceases to be,
there will still be I AM. External man can say "I was" or "I
will be," but the internal human spirit says only "I AM." Knowing
your desire, persist in the thought that you already have it until your
thoughts become habitual. If you do not, you will find yourself returning to
your old way of thinking and perpetuate it, thereby never seeing your desire
externalize itself.
I will leave you
with this thought. While man is violent, animals must exist. The animal is only
externalized evidence of man's violence. The dinosaurs were lumbering beasts
with small brains and bore witness to the lumbering state of man at that time.
The dinosaurs were not killed off but became extinct naturally. Let man become
tame and all the animals will become sterile.
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Your journey
into this world of decay and death began with your feeling of "I" and
where you place that feeling, there you live. You can place your feeling of
"I" in the mud of negation or on the lovely ground of positive
assumption. Your feeling of "I" is always with you. It is your slave
and your savior, for wherever you go, there "I" am also.
The 9th Chapter
of Numbers begins with Moses being given instructions by the Lord as to how to
erect a tabernacle, or tent of testimony and move it across the desert. He was
told: "During the day a cloud will cover the tabernacle, and at night it
will have the appearance of a pillar of fire. Whenever the cloud rises, the
children of Israel must journey to the place
where the cloud settles down, there the people must remain. It may rise once a
week, once a month, or longer, but when it ascends, the children of Israel must journey."
Now, a tabernacle
is an elongated place of worship which is movable and covered with skin. You
are that temple (tabernacle), and the spirit of God dwells within you as your
"I." A cloud is a garment of water (or psychological truth) which
covers the "I" and that to which it testifies.
The cloud does
not move in time but is lifted up by the "I" it covers. According to
my senses, "I" am now in the Palace Hotel. Let me lift the cloud from
my testament by withdrawing the feeling of "I" from the evidence of
my senses and move by placing my "I" in a predetermined state, and my
whole world moves with me. Clothing myself in feeling, the cloud covers me as I
testify to the state I have just entered. At this moment, you may have placed
your feeling of "I" in an unlovely state and, unless you lift that
cloud which covers you, you are anchored there and are incapable of changing
the circumstances of your life. Now, this lifting of the cloud and placing your
feeling of "I" in a more desirable state involves a death, for when
the cloud rises, it breaks (or kills) the cycle of recurrence you have been on.
Motion can be
detected only as a change of position with respect to another body, and all
motion spoken of in scripture is psychological. Every state exists in this
psychological land from which your "I"
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journeys. All you
need do is extract your "I" from where it is now and place it in your
predetermined state. But how will you know you have moved? By using a frame of
reference. While sitting quietly in your chair, you can lift your cloud by
placing the feeling of "IF" in an entirely different psychological
state. No one can see this motion, for yours is a spiritual journey. While in
the state, look for confirmation of your move on the faces of people there. Are
they surprised to see you? Are they happy for you? A little jealous? Look,
until you see the expressions on their faces. If there is a change in your
feeling of "I," you will find an automatic alteration in your usual
expression of life.
During the day,
you wear your garment of truth (the cloud); but the moment you begin to
meditate, the brain grows luminous. This is the pillar of fire by night.
Remember, "I AM the truth," and wherever you place your feeling of
"I," there you must abide.
In the 34th
Chapter of Deuteronomy we are told that Moses went up from the plains of Moab
to Nebo, and there to Pisgah which is opposite Jericho, where he was shown all
the land that was his. The word "Moses" means "to draw
out." He is not a man but your creative power which can draw out of you
any state you have placed your "I," struck the rock, and produced the
water.
The word
"Moab" means "mother/father" which is your "I
AMness." In your present state, your Moab may be saying, "I am
beaten," "I am sick," "I am impoverished." But
"Nebo" means "to prophesy your longing by the feeling of
I." "Pisgah" means "to contemplate." When you enter
your desired state, observe your Jericho, for it will have a fragrant odor as
that is what the word "Jericho" means. Having risen in consciousness, remain in your chosen state until you
have a reaction that satisfies you. A violent reaction produces a horrible odor,
while a lovely reaction indicates Jericho and a lovely odor. You see, Jericho
is not a place in the Near East, but a state which produces the thrill of
accomplishment within you.
In the 14th
Chapter of the Book of John, Jesus speaks to Peter saying, "Let not your
heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house
are many rooms; if it were not so would I have told you that I go to prepare a
place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and
take you to myself that where I am, you may be also." This is not a man
speaking to another, but self
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speaking to self.
You are Jesus (Imagination) telling yourself that there are unnumbered states
of awareness for you to enter, and
you are inviting self to choose the state you wish to inhabit. After selecting
the state, imagination will go and prepare it for you so that you may come
again (as you must), for wherever you abide in imagination, there you shall
reside also in the flesh. If you believe what I have told you, determine to
change your feeling of "I." There is no power that can keep you from
realizing your dream, but you! And no man can compel you to enter any state.
You have the power to select your state and enter it, thereby making it alive
or, leave a state, thereby killing it. The decision (and its consequences) is
yours and yours alone. The day you can become an observing "I,"
watching your reactions and seeing the observer and the thing observed as two distinct
beings, you will know you can enter any state and it will outpicture itself.
You will know that all the mansions
of your Father's house are yours.
I AM
(consciousness) contains the whole of creation, and out of I AMness comes
imagination. Where there is no consciousness, there is no imagination. When you enter a state, your I AM is having a
psychological experience. When you think about a state, you have a subject and
its object; but when you experience a state, you have unification.
Tonight, mentally
look at your day. Can you remember those you saw this morning? If your reaction
to them is the same as it was earlier, then you have not changed your feeling
of "I." Your friends and relations are your frame of reference. Use
them in your journey. The command in the 1st Chapter of Joshua is: "When
you start, turn not from it to the right hand or to the left that you may
prosper wherever you go, for I, the Lord your God, am with you." Therefore
abide in the state you desire until your whole being is permeated with its
reaction that you may reap its reward. "I," your consciousness, am
with you, and I AM the Lord, your God.
The teaching of
truth deals with the feeling of "I," for only through feeling can
change come about. If you continue to have the same reactions, you have not
changed your feelings. Your world forever conforms to your inner assumption.
Remember your aim a thousand times in the course of a day. Notice your thoughts
in regard to it, and
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break all
unlovely ones. If you are not successful, it is because you not practicing this
truth and applying this law.
"You are
the temple of the living God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you. What has a
believer in common with a non-believer? Come out from them and separate
yourself from them, and I will welcome you." Come, let us live on the
mountaintop!
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The human
imagination and Divine Imagination are one and the same. They are not two. Your
human imagination has the power to turn your water of life into the wine of
eternity. This you will do when you release your imagination from its bonds of
limitation, for when imagination is truly free, it can accomplish miracles.
The Bible calls
imagination man's savior and identifies this wonderful benefactor as Christ.
When Christ is awakened and born in you, your human imagination becomes divine
vision. Called Christ, your individual imagination is the mediator between the
father of all life and the external world called Man. Having imagined wealth,
it is the human imagination who walks on the water of life and denies the
evidence of his senses by claiming, "I am wealthy." His persistence
mediates God to Man.
Every character
in scripture lives in the mind. When you read the Bible, turn to self and ask,
"What state would I be in if I were doing this?" When reading the
story of Moses, claim you are he. Assume the state of faith when you read of
Abraham. You are Joseph, the dreamer, and Thomas, the doubter; and you are
destined to be Jesus Christ, the awakened, Risen Imagination.
Skin is the most
external thing a man can wear. When you read of one who wears camel's hair or
leather, you are reading of one whose mind is tied to the outside. His
philosophy of life is external and dependent entirely on others. In the 5th
Chapter of Mark, the story is told of an innocent man who, being unclothed,
lived among the dead and cut himself on the stones. When Awakened Imagination
passed by, the innocent one cried out, "Do not cast me out," and when
asked his name, he answered, "My name is Legion, for we are many." A
being not yet individualized in a spiritual sense is innocent for he knows not
what he is doing. He is Legion because he has innumerable "I's" in
him, i.e., "I am ill," "I am poor," "I am tired,"
"I am weak," and "I am mistreated," to name but a few.
Living among the dead and sleeping the sleep of death, his literal
understanding of life and its cause are stones which cut and bruise. But the
spiritual man has a personal self-determined history, a
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predetermined
self. In the realm of the spirit, he becomes what he wills. When consciousness
turns within, the spirit awakens to his true identity. Then, casting out all
belief in any external cause, he is clothed in his right mind and sits at the
foot of the one who cast them out.
A miracle is only
the name given by those who have no faith in the works of faith. The story is
told of a man named Jairus whose daughter was believed to be dead. But Awakened
Imagination ignored the thought and said, "Do not fear, only
believe." Arriving at the house, he questioned, "Why do you weep? The
child is not dead, but sleeping." Then he touched the child and said,
"I say to you, ~rise." Immediately, she got up and walked. Then Jesus
turned to the parents and said, "Give her something to eat." Every
state, every desire, every idea is your child.
Looking at the desire, it appears
to be dead to you, the natural man. But your spiritua1 "I" knows the
desire is not dead but sleeping, waiting to be touched for its resurrection.
With your desire, (child) made alive within you through the power of touch, it
must be fed in order to bring about its birth. This is done by turning your
attention to it.
Now let us turn
to the 5th Chapter of the Book of John where he speaks of the pool of Bethesda
and its five porches. The story is told of a sick man who waits for the moving
of the water by an angel, believing that whoever steps into the pool first,
after the movement, will be healed.
After asking him
if he wanted to be healed, Awakened Imagination said, "Rise, take up your
pallet and walk," and at once the man was healed and, taking up his
pallet, he walked away.
The word
"Bethesda" means "house of mercy." And the pool spoken of
here is consciousness which must be stirred by an angel (a messenger of God).
Any idea you entertain is that angel, disturbing your consciousness. The pool
is entered by a mere assumption, and stirred as you bathe in it. "I
am" is always first person, present tense. No one can put you in the pool
by affirmation. Although seemingly impotent, you rest on the five porches, or
senses when you accept their evidence and refuse to change your consciousness.
No one need help you. Who could be first in the pool other than self which is
your "I." Knowing what you want, rise in the assumption that your
desire is already satisfied (healed) and it will be.
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In his 17th
Chapter, John rejoices saying, "I have finished the work thou gayest me to
do. Father, glorify thou me in thine own self with the glory which I had with
thee before that the world was. I have kept them in thy name which thou hast
given me and none is lost but the son of perdition. For their sake, I
consecrate myself that they also may be consecrated in the truth, for I dwell
in them and they dwell in me and we are one." The work you gave yourself
to do is to awaken from this dream of life.
Having assumed the limitations of the flesh, you will awaken to your
true identity and become your own glory when the outer you is made passive and
the inner you, dynamic. Now, the son of perdition is the belief in loss.
Knowing that all things exist in the human imagination, nothing can be lost.
When you realize this truth, you will no longer believe in loss, thereby
fulfilling scripture.
The most
difficult thing to grasp is that there is no one outside of self. Believing
others needed to change, I worked on them, thinking that the world would be so
much better if they would be different. Then I awoke and sanctified myself, and
in so doing, they were sanctified, for I dwell in them and they dwell in me and
we are one. There is no one to change but self. As you control your thoughts and
allow only those which conform to your ideal to flow from you, your world will
reshape itself in harmony with them. Remember, you cannot be aware of a fault
or greatness in another were that fault or greatness not present in you. Remove
the fault from your own "I". Place the greatness there and watch your
world change as it reflects your change in consciousness.
In the 16th
Chapter of Matthew, the disciples were questioned, "Who do men say the son
of man is?" They said, "Some say John the l3aptist, others Elijah,
and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets." Then he asked, "But who
do you say that
I AM?"
Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
At the present
time, you may be concerned as to what others think of you, but when you have
awakened to your true divinity, it will not matter to you what others think.
You will know from experience that you are
the Christ, the Son of the living God. Flesh and blood will not reveal
this to you, but your Father who is in heaven reveals it. Through this
knowledge, you will have been given the keys to the kingdom, and
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whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you
loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Having found the answer to the
everlasting question, "Who am I," no man can ever take this knowledge
from you. This wisdom comes from within.
Completely abandon
yourself to a psychological experience. If you become one with a state in your
imagination, you will rise to e compass it in the flesh. This being true, yours
is a journey from innocence to imagination to experience.
You are already
the person you want to be. Claim it and tomorrow y u will display it by being
it. By your fruits you shall be known.
If today your
life is not what you want it to be, stop blaming anyone; just keep working on
changing your feeling of "I" and abide in your desired state. Persist..
.persist. . .persist, for at the moment of non-reaction, circumstances change.
We rise by an energy others call effort, for it takes energy to act and react.
All through the day, remember your aim by constantly identifying yourself with
it. Let your reactions flow into your aim. Ask for deeper and deeper
understanding of that which you think you now understand. I trust everyone has
an aim to be greater. Do not limit yourself to any textbook. Stop believing
that any one man can write a book that is final regarding truth. Start to dig.
No one can grow without outgrowing. A different attitude is the solution to
every problem. By your new direction (attitude) you escape that which has been
wrapped around you. There is no one to change but self, so start changing
yourself today!
Luke was speaking
of you when he made this statement, "When their eyes were opened, they
recognized him and he vanished from their sight."
When your
"I" is awakened, you will find that which you have been searching
for, and the belief in a power outside of self will disappear. In Francis
Thompson's poem, The Hound Of Heaven, he tells of how: "I fled Him, down
the nights and down the days; I fled Him, down the arches of the years; I fled
Him, down the labyrinthine ways Of my own mind..."
only to discover at the end that
"He was my very self."
Man's eyes are
blind, though hounded constantly by the Hound of Heaven. He cannot believe in
the non-historicity of the Bible but
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continues to hold
onto his little beliefs even though he does not know what to do with them.
People do not seek truth; they seek only supports for their opinions of it. But
I say to you, "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I
have not come to bring peace, but a sword. I have come to set a man against his
father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her
mother-in-law, for a man's foes are those of his own household." When
truth comes, it sets a man at war with himself, for he will discover that he can
no longer consent to what he formerly believed in.
Start now and
quietly listen to the words you want to hear. By a new direction, internally,
you can change the course of your life and free yourself from the prisons of
your mind. You can see yourself best by looking into the face of another, but
you cannot judge one who has not awakened from the dream of life. Living in his
physical, animal world, he reacts mechanically and automatically just like a
machine.
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In the Book
of Ephesians we are told to "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead,
and Christ shall give you light." This awakening and rising comes about
through an inner development, for the Bible is your autobiography. It was you
who inspired the prophets to record their visions. And it is you who will
fulfill their prophecies in a first person, present tense experience. As you
read the Bible, get your mental teeth into it. Study its message, and your
understanding will go deeper and deeper as you travel through life.
The Bible
teaches self-help. Do not look to any leader on the outside, only look to self
by turning within. If anyone offers to do for you what you can do for yourself,
reject their offer and turn to Christ, God's creative power in you, who is your
life, your light of the world. By changing your thinking, Christ will change
your world.
The
"earth," spoken of in scripture, is the "mind of man." It
is in this psychological earth that the idea of the kingdom of heaven was implanted.
While in the state of sleep, false doctrines have crept in. Called tares, they
grow with the wheat and will be harvested; therefore, you must become selective
and clear the weeds by killing every belief in a power outside the mind.
The man who is
rich is complacent. Satisfied with his social and financial positions, he is
not hungry to grow. If you are complacent, your life will not change, for you
will not be hungry or thirst for a higher level of awareness. You and you alone
know whether the hunger has come upon you or not; but you have not begun the
work you gave yourself to do until you begin to uncritically observe your
thoughts. And when you do, you will discover that you are not as truthful,
honest, or courageous as you thought you were.
Tonight, select a
future upon which you want to work and tomorrow, be watchful. Question yourself
by saying, "Am I keeping the tense? Do I want this? Is that the way my
friend wants me to see him? Am I limiting myself?" Then act in your
imagination, for imagination is passive while asleep and allows that which is
false to take the throne. Watch your
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thoughts. Reclaim
your throne and consciously allow your human imagination to rule your world!
Your human imagination, once activated, will awaken as a little babe. Born in
violence, in a manger where the wild beasts eat, it will grow in wisdom and
power as the outer you will, become passive and powerless. But, you must be
watchful and vigilant of your thoughts in order to bring the outer you into
passivity.
Only then will
you know what it is like to be in the world but not of it. The purpose of this
teaching is to awaken the Christ who is asleep in man, dreaming different
states into being, and bring him to the conscious circle of humanity where man
is self-aware. Once you are aware of your true self, you will no longer condemn
sleeping man. You will know they are machines, automatons who do not know what
they are doing.
Your desires are
not subjective, intangible things, but solidly real. Begin to awaken the Christ
in you by clothing your subjective desires in objective reality. I promise you,
the day you do this, they will become facts in your world. Have an aim that you
will not lie to yourself anymore. Work on this feature within yourself. Become
extremely observant and honest with yourself and watch the energy that formerly
moved into negative states, flow into your greater aim. Perhaps your aim is to
become a great teacher, not because you want to impose your will upon others,
but because you want to awaken in others what you have awakened in yourself.
The awakening begins when you feel a separation; a division of the natural and
the spiritual imaginative you to which all things are possible. It is this
spiritual you that clothes your subjective state in reality.
By changing the
feeling of "I," you can direct your life internally and escape the
prison of your present state regardless of what it may be. By thinking from the
point of view that the problem is solved, you move from the problem to its
solution. This change of attitude is called the Be- attitudes. In other words,
you are
"being"
what you want to be by assuming that you already are it. When you know what you
want, consciously clothe yourself in a new concept of self by extracting your
"I" from the evidence of the senses and placing it in the place you
want to be. By this assumption (or be-attitude), you have
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journeyed from
one state to another. "And I, if I be lifted up, I draw all men to
me."
Once you have
lifted yourself up into the new states abide there! Do not come back to the
testimonies of your, senses, but remain in your desire until a different world
is established. Every change in the feeling of "I" automatically
produces changes in the external world; therefore, you must learn to die daily
to your old beliefs. The statement, "Those who lose their life for my sake
will find it," means letting go of all that you now consent to. If you
lose it, you will find your "I" reclothing itself on a higher level
of beings; thereby causing a new expression in your world.
When you go in a
new direction, the journey is made in the mind. A physical journey may follow,
but the journey must be made on the inside first. Where you are, is what you psychologically
are at that moment. An enlightened being lives on the mountain top and the
human imagination, when completely controlled, is personified as a being called
Jesus Christ.
As long as you
are violent, you are asleep. Awaken the spiritual you by watching your actions
and reactions to life, and you will lose your impulse to retaliate. What
happens to you here is not important, but how you react to what happens, is.
Your reactions define you. They tell you where you are, for you attract life in
its most minute detail.
The Bible does
not teach reincarnation. Its central teaching is the rebirth of consciousness
into ever higher and higher levels. You must be born by water and spirit, not
water only. Except a man be born of the Spirit, he cannot enter the higher
level of being called the kingdom of heaven. In this series of lectures, you
have received psychological instruction as to how to go about working on
yourself. Your mind has been washed of certain errors, baptized and born of
water. But, unless this truth is applied, you will not be born of the spirit.
The word
"Mary" means "water." Christ, the "I" in you, is
born of water and of the Holy Spirit. The outer you cannot receive
instructions. He is literal and takes things literally, thereby receiving
nothing but stone. The righteous man, however, is conscious of being the man he
wants to be, while the foolish man steals from himself by not claiming his
desire.
Every time
you see a man less than what he wants to be, you have robbed him of The state
necessary to externalize it.
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Be not as the
heathen who, by vain repetition hopes he can get the ear of God. Rather, when
you pray, go within and close the door, and your Father who hears in secret
will reward you openly. You have but to change the feeling of "I."
Close the door to the outer world and feel yourself into the state your friend
desires. With a planned program, see him and talk to him from the premise that
he is that person already.
Keep the door of reason and logic
closed and walk in faith that what you have heard and seen, in secret, will be
rewarded openly, and it will.
The Bible was
written by the conscious circle of humanity. (This circle you enter at the
moment of wakefulness.) Not composed by men, the Bible is divine instruction
with limitless interpretations. It is a test in the development of your
understanding and, as you grow, its understanding deepens and deepens.
Although man
wraps himself in conditions (states), the being he really is, is I AM. Anything man will consent
to, he will manifest in his world. Can you accept as fact what your reason and
senses deny? Or must you always bow to reason's dictates? The same
consciousness that produces health, produces sickness, wealth or poverty.
Whatever you agree to be conscious of, whatever you affirm as true, you will manifest.
When you know the
spiritual being within you, you will assert the supremacy of imagination and
put all things subjective to it. All knees must bow to imagination.
"Behold! We are transformed into the same image." Can you behold a
given situation and make it so natural that you are transformed into its image?
You can when you, all imagination, feel the naturalness of the image you
behold.
Divinity is not
divided; therefore, everyone is but a projection of the one. You are told to
love your neighbors as yourself, for there is no other.
Sanctify self,
not another. Working on others will not change them; only by changing yourself
will the others change. Seek confirmation of your ideas and you are not
growing. All textbooks are manmade and uninspired from on high. Stick to them
and you will remain on their level. Believe in self! Trust your human
imagination and you will grow in wisdom and in stature and, as you grow, you
outgrow your former beliefs.
71
My ideas
regarding the historicity of the Bible are not original. The Encyclopedia
Biblica was published in 1888. Sponsored by Oxford University, it took twelve
years for one hundred and twenty-seven brilliant minds from all faiths to
complete it. These men, who knew the ancient tongues, after intense research
came to the conclusion that the Bible, from cover to cover, was mythological
allegory. Another wonderful book is Smith's Dictionary of the Bible. Published
in 1860, it is made up of four volumes. They discovered that the writers of the
Bible used a phallic frame to which they attached their psychological truths.
"And when their eyes were opened, they knew him." To know, is to have
union with and become what is beheld; therefore, he vanished from their sight
when they knew him.
In the 3rd
Chapter of 1st John, he tells us, "See what love the Father has given us
that we should be called children of God, and so we are. The world does not
know us because it does not know him. As God's children, it does not yet appear
what we shall be, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for
we shall see him as he is. Everyone who hopes in him, purifies himself, as he
is pure."
We are God's
children, destined to be God himself, and God creates everything he,
individualized as you, consents to. Therefore, resolve only to hear what is
good concerning yourself and another. If you adopt this attitude, everything
that enters your mind will contribute to a noble life and you will discover the
joy of feasting on higher states.
When a man dies,
it is an expansion into a dimensionally larger life. If you have not awakened
here, you must start awakening in the fourth dimension. Climbing a
multitudinous dimensional time block, you ascend by reason of your ability to
function in a dimensionally larger world. And each dimensional world is
contained in a dimensionally larger world; in turn that world is contained in a
still dimensionally larger world without end. But, remembering the love the Father
has given you, test him, knowing that everyone who hopes in him, purifies
himself as he is pure.
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