No One To Change But Self - Lesson 4 of Five Lessons by Neville Goddard

Neville Goddard 5 Lessons. Lesson 4 no one to change but SELF May I take just a minute to clarify what was said last night? A lady felt from what I said last night that I am anti one nation. I do hope that I am not anti any nation, race or belief. If perchance I used a nation, it was only to illustrate a point. What I tried to tell you was this. We become what we contemplate. For it is the nature of love, as it is the nature of hate. To change us into the likeness of that which we contemplate. Last night I simply read a news item to show you that when we think we can destroy our image by breaking the mirror, we are only fooling ourselves. When through war or revolution, we destroy titles which to us represent arrogance and greed, we become in time the embodiment of that which we thought we had destroyed. So today the people who thought they destroyed the tyrants are themselves that which they thought they had destroyed. That I may not be misunderstood. Let me again lay the foundation of this principle. Consciousness is the one and only reality we are incapable of seeing other than the contents of our own consciousness. And the proof of that is in this diagram. I am all that is God right there. And we are all offshoots of him. Of all that is of I am all we are ever seeing is our self is our own consciousness. Therefore, hate betrays us in the hour of victory and condemns us to be that which we condemn all. Conquest results in an exchange of characteristics so that conquerors become like the conquered foe. We hate others for the evil which is in ourselves. Don't forget the finger pointing concept. Races, nations and religious groups have lived for centuries in intimate hostility. And it is the nature of hatred, as it is the nature of love to change us into the likeness of that which we contemplate. Nations act toward other nations as their own citizens act toward each other. When slavery exists in a state and that nation attacks another, it is with intent to enslave. When there is a fierce economic competition between citizen and citizen, then in war with another nation, the object of the war is to destroy the trade of the enemy. Wars of domination are brought about by the will of those who. Who within a state are dominant over the fortunes of the rest. We radiate the world that surrounds us by the intensity of our imagination and feeling. But in this third dimensional world of ours, time beats slowly. And so we do not always observe the relationship of the visible world to our inner nature. Now that is really what I meant. I thought I had said it, that I may not be misunderstood. That is my principle. You and I can contemplate an ideal and become it by falling in love with it. On the other hand, we can contemplate something we heartily dislike and by condemning it, we will become it. But because of the slowness of time in this three dimensional world, when we do become what we contemplated, we have forgotten that formerly we set out to worship or destroy it. You don't recognize your own harvest. Tonight's lesson is the capstone of the Bible. So do give me your attention. The most important question asked in the Bible will be found in the 16th chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew. As you know, all of the Bible stories are your stories. Its characters live only in the mind of man. They have no reference at all to any person who lived in time and space or to any event that ever occurred upon earth. The drama related in Matthew takes place in this manner. Jesus turns to his disciples and asks them, whom do men say that I, the Son of man am? And they said, some say, thou art John the Baptist, some Elias and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, blessed Alar Simon bar Jona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. Matthew 16:14 18 Jesus turning to his disciples is man turning to his disciplined mind in self contemplation. Good sentence man. Because the disciples are the 12 disciplines of mind. Jesus is the mind, Jesus is the imagination, same as Christ, Lord God. All of that. Jesus turning to his disciples is man turning to his disciplined mind in self contemplation to imagine. Wonderful sentence. You ask yourself the question, whom do men say that I am? In our language, I wonder what men think of me. You answer, some say John, come again. Some say Elias, others say Jeremiah, and still others a prophet of old. Come again. It is very flattering to be told that you are or that you resemble the great men of the past. But enlightened reason is not enslaved by public opinion. It is only concerned with the truth. So it asks itself another question. But whom say ye that I am? In other words, who am I? If I am bold enough to assume that I am Christ Jesus, the answer will come back, thou are Christ Jesus. When I can assume it and feel it and boldly live it, I will say to myself, flesh and blood could not have told me this, but my Father, which is in heaven, revealed it unto me. Then I make this concept of self the rock on which I establish my church, my world. If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. John 8:24 because consciousness is the only reality, I must assume that I am already that which I desire to be. If I do not believe that I am already what I want to be, then I remain as I am and die in this limitation. Man is always looking for some prop on which to lean. He is always looking for some excuse to justify failure. This relation gives man no excuse for failure. This revelation gives man no excuse for failure. His concept of himself is the cause of all the circumstances of his life. His concept of himself is the cause of all the circumstances of his life. This is his self concept. When your self concept you want to be here, then this is the self concept you need to have of yourself. 3 days all changes must first come from within himself. And if he does not change on the outside, it is because he has not changed within. But man does not like to feel that he is solely responsible for the conditions of his life. Doesn't like to feel that way. I don't know why? Why? Why are we like that? From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. John 6:66 68 I may not like what I have just heard, that I must turn to my own consciousness as to the only reality, the only foundation on which all phenomena can be explained. It was easier living when I could blame another. Oh, how easy. Let me just say, you did it, or you did it, or you did it. Oh yeah, that's easy. Little do we know. Not so easy. It was much easier living when I could blame society for my ills or point a finger across the sea and blame another nation. It was easier living when I could blame the weather for the way I feel. I'm not even going to touch today's politics with borders, Holy criminy. But to tell me that I am the cause of all that happens to me, that I am forever molding my world in harmony with my inner nature. That is more than man is willing to accept. If this is true, to whom would I go? If these are the words of eternal life, I must return to them, even though they seem so difficult to digest. When man fully understands this. He knows that public opinion does not matter for men only tell him who he is. The behavior of men constantly tell me who I have conceived myself to be. If I accept this challenge and begin to live by it, I finally reach the point that is called the Great Prayer of the Bible. It is related in the 17th chapter of the Gospel of St. John. I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do. John 17:4 and now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, and with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. John 17:5 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Thy name. Those that Thou gavest me I have kept. And none of them is lost but the Son of perdition. John 17:12 it is impossible for anything to be lost in this divine economy. Nothing can be lost. It cannot even pass away. The little flower which has blossomed once blooms forever. It is invisible to you here with your limited focus, but it blooms forever in the larger dimension of your being, and tomorrow you will encounter it. All that Thou gavest me I have kept in Thy name, and none have I lost save the Son of perdition. The Son of perdition means simply the belief. Loss. Sun is a concept, an idea. Per Dido is loss. I have only truly lost the concept of loss, for nothing can be lost. I can descend from the sphere where the thing itself now lives. And as I descend in consciousness to a lower level within myself, it passes from my world. I say, I have lost my health, I have lost my wealth, I have lost my standing in the community. I have lost faith. I have lost a thousand things. But the things in themselves, having once been real in my world, could never cease to be. They never become unreal. With the passage of time, I, by my descent in consciousness to a lower level, cause these things to disappear from my sight. And I say, they have gone. They are finished. As far as my world goes, all I need to do is to ascend to the level where they are eternal, and they once more objectify themselves and appear as realities within my world. Ascend, and they once more objectify themselves and appear as realities within my world. The crux of the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel of St. John is found in the 19th verse. And for their sake I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Heretofore I thought I could change others through effort. Now I know I cannot change another unless I first change myself. Most powerful sentence. To change another within my world, I must first change my concept of that other. And to do it best, I changed my concept of self. For it was the concept I held of self that made me see others as I did. You have a self concept. This self concept must change in order for this other person to change the concept of them that you hold. You hold them in this state here, but you want them to be promoted to this state. You change your concept of yourself and become this self, which also in turn changes their concept of self, which becomes this self. You sacrifice this self, become this self. They sacrifice their self and become this self. To change another within my world, I must first change my concept of that other. And to do it best, I change my concept of self. For it was the concept I held of self that made me see others as I did. As I change and I see that other in its promotion, her promotion, I change and become promoted. Had I a noble, dignified concept of myself, I never could have seen the unlovely in others. Instead of trying to change others through argument and force, let me but ascend in consciousness to a higher level, and I will automatically change others by changing self. There is no one to change but self. That self is simply your awareness, your consciousness. And the world in which it lives is determined by the concept you hold of self. It is to consciousness that we must turn as to the only reality. For there is no clear conception of the origin of phenomena except that consciousness is all, and all is consciousness. You need no helper to bring you what you seek. Do not for one second believe that I am advocating advocating escape from reality. When I ask you to simply assume you are now the man or the lady you want to be. If you and I could feel what it would be like were we now that which we want to be and live in this mental atmosphere as though it were real, then in a way we do not know, our assumption would harden into fact. This is all we need do in order to ascend to the level where our assumption is already an objective, concrete reality. I need change no man. I sanctify myself, and in so doing I sanctify others. To the pure all things are pure. There is nothing unclean of itself. But to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean. To him it is unclean. Romans 14:14. There is nothing in itself unclean but you by your self concept. By your concept of self see things either clean or unclean. I and my father are one. John 10:30. If I do not the works of my Father believe me not, but if I do, though ye believe not, me believe the works that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him. John 10:37 and 38 he made himself one with God, and thought it not strange or robbery to do the works of God. You always bear fruit in harmony with what you are. It is the most natural thing in the world for a pear tree to bear pears, an apple tree to bear apples, and for man to mold the circumstances of his life in harmony with his inner nature. I am the vine, ye are the branches. John 15:5 A branch has no life save it be rooted in the vine. All I need to do is to change the fruit is to change the vine. You have no life in my world save that I am conscious of you. You are rooted in me, and like fruit you bear witness of the vine that I am. There is no reality in the world other than your consciousness. Although you may now seem to be what you do not want to be, all you need do to change it, and to prove the change by circumstances in your world is to quietly assume that you are that which you now want to be, and in a way you do not know you will become it. There is no other way to change this world. I am the way my I am ness, My consciousness is the way by which I change my world. As I change my concept of self, I change my world. When men and women help or hinder us, they only play the part that we by our concept of self wrote for them, and they play it automatically. They must play the parts they are playing because we are what we are. You will change the world only when you become the embodiment of that which you want the world to be. You have but one gift in this world that is truly yours to give and that is yourself. Unless you yourself are that which you want the world to be, you will never see it in this world except ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. John 8:24 do you know that no two in do you know that no two in this room live in the same world? We are going home to different worlds. Tonight we close our doors on entirely different worlds. We rise tomorrow and go to work, where we meet each other and meet others. But we live in different mental worlds, different physical worlds. I can only give what I am. I have no other gifts to give if I want the world to be perfect, and who does not? I have failed only because I did not know that I could never see it perfect until I myself become perfect. If I am not perfect, I cannot see perfection but the day that I become it, I beautify my world because I see it through my own eyes. Unto the pure, all things are pure. Titus 1:15. Excuse me. No two here can tell me that you have heard the same message any one night. The one thing that you must do is hear what I say through that which you are. It must be filtered through your prejudices, your superstitions, and your concept of self. Whatever you are, it must come through that and be colored by what you are. If you are disturbed and you would like me to be something other than what I appear to be, then you must be that which you want me to be. We must become the thing that we want others to be, or we will never see them be it. We must become the thing that we want others to be, or we will never see them be it. Your consciousness. My consciousness is the only true foundation in the world. This is that which is called Peter in the Bible, not a man. This faithfulness that cannot turn to anyone, that cannot be flattered. When you are told by men you are John, come again, that is very flattering to be told you are John the Baptist, come again. Or the great prophet Elias, or Jeremiah. Then I deafened my ears to this very flattering little bit of news men would give me. And I asked myself, but honestly, who am I, if I can deny the limitations of my birth, my environment, and the belief that I am but an extension of my family tree, and feel within myself that I am Christ, and sustain this assumption until it takes a central place and forms the habitual center of my energy. I will do the works attributed to Jesus without thought or effort. I will mold a world in harmony with that perfection which I have assumed and feel springing within me. When I open the eyes of the blind unstopped, the ears of the deaf give joy for mourning and beauty for ashes. Then, and only then, have I truly established this vine deep within. That is what I would automatically do were I truly conscious of being Christ. It is said of this Presence, he proved that he was Christ by his works. Our ordinary alterations of consciousness as we pass from one state to another are not transformations, because each of them is so rapidly succeeded by another in the reverse direction. But whenever our assumption grows so stable as to definitely expel its rivals, then that central habitual concept defines our character and is a true transformation. Jesus, or enlightened reason, saw nothing unclean in the women, in the woman taken in adultery. He said to her, hath no man condemned thee? John 8, 10. She said, no man, Lord. And Jesus said, unto her, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. John 8:11 no matter what is brought before the presence of beauty, it sees only beauty. Jesus was so completely identified with the lovely that he was incapable of seeing the unlovely. It gets that way. You start this unfoldment and you lose division and then you're glad to see it go. You see everyone as your brother and sister and all you see is lovely. It becomes the only thing in your vision. It's all lovely. When you and I really become conscious of being Christ, we too will straighten the arms of the withered and resurrect the dead hopes of men. We will do all the things that we could not do when we felt ourselves limited by our family tree. It is a bold step and should not be taken lightly, because to do it is to die. When. When you self persuade that this person is this person, that this person has their new job, that this person is married, that this person is healthy. When you self persuade, you sacrifice this self here and you become this self here, this person dies, this person lives, that this person may live also. We will do all the things that we could not do when we felt ourselves limited by our family tree. It is a bold step and should not be taken lightly, because to do it is to die. John, the man of three dimensions is beheaded or loses his three dimensional focus that Jesus, the fourth dimensional self, may live. Any enlargement of our concept of self involves a somewhat painful, painful parting with strongly rooted hereditary conceptions. The ligaments are strong that hold us in the womb of conventional limitations. All that you formerly believed, you no longer believe. You know now that there is no power outside of your own consciousness. Therefore you cannot turn to anyone outside of self. You have no ears for the suggestion that something else has power in it. You just don't hear it anymore. You know the only reality is God, and God is your own consciousness. There is no, no other God. Therefore on this rock you build the everlasting church and boldly assume you are this divine being self begotten because you dare to appropriate that which was not given to you in your cradle. A concept of self not formed in your mother's womb. A concept of self conceived outside of the offices of man. The story is beautifully told us in the Bible using the two sons of Abraham. One, the blessed Isaac, born outside of the offices of man, and the other, Ishmael, born in bondage. Sarah was much too old to beget a child, so her husband Abraham went in unto the bondservant Hagar, the Pilgrim. And she conceived of the old man and bore him a son called Ishmael. Ishmael's hand was against every man and every man's hand against him. Every child born of woman is born into bondage, born into all that his environment represents, regardless of whether it be the throne of England, the White House or any great place in the world. Every child born of woman is personified as this Ishmael, the child of Hagar. But asleep in every child is the blessed Isaac, who is born outside the offices of man and is born through faith alone. This second child has no earthly father. He is self begotten. What is the second birth? I find myself man. I cannot go back into my mother's womb. And yet I must be born a second time. Except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. John 3. 3. I quietly appropriate that which no man can give me, no woman can give me. I dare to assume that I am God. This must be of faith. This must be of promise. Then I become the blessed. I become Isaac. As I begin to do the things that only this presence could do, I know that I am born out of the out of the limitations of Ishmael. And I have become heir to the kingdom. Ishmael could not inherit anything. Although his father was Abraham or God, Ishmael did not have both parents of the godly. His mother was Hagar, the bond woman. And so he could not partake of his father's estate. You are Abraham and Sarah. And contained within your own consciousness there is one waiting for recognition. In the Old Testament it is called Isaac, and in the New Testament it is called Jesus. And it is born without the aid of man. No man can tell you that you are Christ Jesus. No man can tell you and convince you that you are God. You must toy with the idea and wonder what it would be like to be God. It's that simple. No clear conception of the origin of phenomena is possible except that consciousness is all and all is consciousness. Nothing can be evolved from man that was not potentially involved in his nature. The ideal we serve and hope to attain could never be evolved from us were it not potentially involved in our nature. Let me now retell and emphasize an experience of mine printed by me two years ago under the title the Search. This is. This book is 1948. That would be 1946 when it came out. It's on the channel. I think it will help you to understand this law of consciousness and show you that you have no one to change but self. For you are incapable of seeing other than the contents of your own consciousness. Once, in an idle interval at sea, I meditated on the perfect state and wondered what I would be were I of two pure eyes to behold iniquity, if to me all things were pure, and were I without condemnation. Let's close our eyes. I'll repeat this. You can close your eyes now. If you're not driving, close your eyes. Just for this little sentence I meditate on the perfect state and wonder what I would be were I too, were I of two pure eyes to behold iniquity, if to me all things were pure, and were I without condemnation. As I became lost in this fiery brooding, I found myself lifted above the dark environment of the senses, so intense was feeling I felt myself a being of fire dwelling in a body of air. Voices as from a heavenly chorus, with the exaltation of those who had been conquerors in a conflict with death, were singing, he is risen. He is risen. And intuitively I knew they meant me. Then I seemed to be walking in the night. I soon came upon a scene that might have been the ancient pool of Bethesda. For in this place lay a great multitude of impotent folk, blind halt, withered, waiting not for the moving of water as of the waiting not for the moving of the water as of tradition, but waiting for me as I came near without thought or effort on my part they were one after the other, molded as by the magician of the beautiful eyes, hands, feet, all missing members were drawn from some invisible reservoir and molded in harmony with that perfection which I felt springing within me when all were made perfect. The chorus exalted. It is finished. This is what it is. When you look out of these things and you see a homeless lady with her two children in the parking lot and you imagine lovingly. Now, to extend that story of a few videos ago, I had seen her, I think, the day before and didn't think anything of it in my. I think I was on the phone with my wife at the time. Believe it or not, today I went to the store and did not see her there. I will keep you updated, but everything you see when you practice this, you will start to see it in its as another example which can't leave my brain right now. It's obviously the New Year's. We're in February, we're in the middle of February, beginning of January. I see a lot of people who are out jogging and I'm at the traffic light and I see them jog by and they obviously have extra weight to lose What I do when I see that, and it looks like it's painful because jogging doesn't look fun. Jogging doesn't look fun. But then I see the motivation behind it because it's obvious in the physical size of the person. So what I do myself, I see them as that slim person, as that beautiful self conceived person. I see that person that their self concept is whether or not they see it in that moment, I see it in that moment. I draw out, I take the moment and that's all I do. As they pass by my car, I see the beautiful art within. Like the sculptor, I know this vision was the result of my intense meditation upon the idea of perfection. For my meditations invariably bring about union with with the state contemplated. I had been so completely absorbed within the idea that for a while I had become what I contemplated. And the high purpose with which I had for that moment identified myself, drew the companionship of high things and fashioned the vision in harmony with my inner nature. Now, at each traffic light, if you're imagining the art in that person who's exercising and you see the person that they are, that they're trying to get to, but you see them and you behold that in that person presently. How many times are you changing your self concept? If you're imagining lovingly for others and you're persuading yourself of that success story right in front of you jogging by, then you have given up this self and became this self. And then when you see the person jogging by again, you give up this self to become this self. How many times do you have the opportunity to change? How many times do you have the opportunity to lift? Believe me, it is countless. Back to this part. In this place lay a great multitude of impotent folk, blind halt, withered, waiting not for the moving of water as of tradition, but waiting for me as I came near without thought or effort on my part they were one after the other, molded as by the magician of the beautiful Eyes, hands, feet, all missing members were drawn from some invisible reservoir and molded in harmony with that perfection which I felt springing within me. When all were made perfect, the chorus exalted. It is finished. It doesn't take much effort what we're talking about here. I know I'm embellishing here because it needs to be embellished. It doesn't take much effort, it is completely free. It's no tax on you. It doesn't take more of your time. You're already sitting in a red light. It would go to show you what your thoughts Are actually upon in. If you have extra ones to put in this effort, it would show what your focus is on. The ideal with which we are united. Work which we are united works by association of ideas. Excuse me, Let me repeat the sentence. It sounds odd. The ideal with which we are united works by association of ideas. To awaken a thousand moods. To create a drama in keeping with the central idea. My mystical experiences have convinced me that there is no way to bring about the perfection we seek Other than by the transformation of ourselves. Each time I do that, when I see somebody, Whether the homeless situation or the person jogging, and I am helping the upgrade, I am convincing myself, persuading myself. I can see the effort. So I know what their goal appears to be. So I only assist in that. As soon as we succeed in the transforming ourselves. The world will melt magically before our eyes. And reshape itself in harmony with that which our transformation affirms. We fashion the world that surrounds us by the intensity of our imagination and feeling. And we illuminate or darken our lives by the concepts we hold of ourselves. Nothing is more important to us than our conception of ourselves. And especially is true of our concept of the deep dimensionally greater one within us. Those that help or hinder us, whether they know it or not, Are the servants of that law which shapes outward circumstances in harmony with our inner nature. It is our conception of ourself. Because life molds the outer world to reflect the inner arrangement of our minds. There is no way of bringing about the outer perfection we seek. Other than by the transformation of ourselves. No help cometh from without. The hills to which we lift our eyes are those of an inner range. It is thus to our own consciousness that we must turn as to the only reality, the only foundation on which all phenomena can be explained. We can rely absolutely on the justice of this law to give us only that which is of the nature of ourselves. To attempt to change the world before we change our concept of ourselves. Is to struggle against the nature of things. There can be no outer change until there is first an inner change. The only way you're going to see this person change that's in your world. Is to change your concept of yourself. By changing what you persuade yourself to think and believe about that person. You believe they're successful. You believe they're married. You believe that they are healthy. You believe that they're full of wisdom. You persuade yourself and you become this new self. With that persuasion, then this person picks up on that subconscious influence. And accepts it as their divine Right to become. They also become this new self. This old one dies. This old one dies. You're here, and they're now here. Success for everybody as within. So without. I am not advocating philosophical indifference when I suggest that we should imagine ourselves as a. As. As that which we want to be. Living in a mental atmosphere of greatness rather than using physical means and arguments to bring about the desired changes. Everything we do unaccompanied by a change of consciousness is but futile. Readjustment surfaces. However we toil or struggle, we can receive no more than our concepts of self capital, self affirm. However we toil or struggle, we can receive no more than our concepts of self affirm. To protest against anything which happens to us is to protest against the law of our being and our rulership over our own destiny. The circumstances of my life are too closely related to my conception of myself. Not to have been formed by my own spirit from some dimensionally larger storehouse of my being. If there is pain to me in these happenings, I should look within for myself for the cause. If there is pain to me in these happenings, I should look within myself for the cause. For I am moved here and there and made to live in a world in harmony with my concept of myself. If we would become as emotionally aroused over our ideas as we. As we. As we become over our dislikes, we would ascend to the plane of our ideal as easily as we now descend to the level of our hates. How much imagining lovingly can you do for anybody around you who is heavily steeped in politics? I had a friend come over and they expressed their political opinions. And as fast as I could deflect like Wonder Woman's bracelets or like. Like the lightsaber on Star Wars. I mean, the bullets were coming at me, man, and it was. It was intense. This paragraph sums it up. If we would become as emotionally aroused over our ideas as we become over our dislikes, we would ascend to the plane of our ideal as easily as we now descend to the level of our hates. Love and hate have a magical transforming power. And we grow through their exercise into the likeness of what we contemplate. By intensity of hatred, we create in ourselves the character we imagine in our enemies. Qualities die for want of attention. So the unlovely states might best be rubbed out by imagining beauty for ashes and joy for mourning. Rather than by direct attacks on the state from which we would be free. Whatsoever things are lovely and of good report, Think on these things. For we become that with which we are in rapport there is nothing to change but our concept of self. As soon as we succeed in transforming self, our world will dissolve and reshape itself in harmony with that which our change affirms. And incidentally, in that conversation, with all those bullets flying and fragments of opinion flying there and here, and whether ever else I applied some bonding and rapport. I noticed when I. What I did was I immediately folded my arms and then his arms were folded and then what I did and I was, I was. I was maybe half conscious of this. And then I put. And then I put my hands in my pockets. Then his hands went to his pockets. I didn't even realize I was doing this until I was doing it. And then later, now telling you I realized I did it. And then, and then I changed the conversation from that, from that political one to one where we're going to go to the Sierras, Sierra Nevadas on the next trip this past the end of the summer. He goes every year he goes. I was supposed to go this last year, but I didn't go and I haven't gone in many, many years. But he goes every year, annually. We started this tradition in the summer of 84 after the bulk of us graduated high school. And we talked about that first trip and second trip I changed the conversation first. I bonded and rapport. I got the bonding and rapport going by the movements of my body. His body became in unison and I knew we were in rapport. I've known him since I'm a kid, since grade school, maybe junior high school. So we have a history. So it's easy to get that rapport together. We've backpacked and camped and done all kinds of lived life together. I took the conversation from the political edge to this open, expansive, contemplative, wide open. Talking about the Milky Way and the height of the. Where we would park the car. We used to park at 8 or 9,000ft. Then we would go camping and backpacking up. We drive. We would drive from midnight, arrive at 6am Then put the backpacks on, no sleep at all. Get straight up at 8,000ft, then hike up at least 2 or 3,000 more feet without sleeping, straight up, then hit the campsite, which was about 11,000ft. Then we'd stay there for a week, probably nine days, seven or nine days. Stoves and food and dehydrated food and cans and all this stuff. We'd stay up there for a week in the Sierra, Sierra Nevadas. Fun, fun times out of Bishop County. I took the conversation there and we bonded in rapport of what was lovely, it was crass in the beginning, and it ended on a most expansive, enjoyable, infinite availability, conversation limited in the beginning of the conversation, in the end of it. And I don't even know what I did until I'm telling you this now, because now in hindsight, I only recognize this in hindsight right now telling you so. It was one place I changed here. I saw him reflecting. Then I expressed this other trip and the trip I want to go with him on. And it changed the whole thing. I changed then it changed him. Him is outside of me. You can only change the world if you change here. Whatsoever things are of our lovely and of good report, think on these things. For we become that which we are in rapport. There is nothing to change but our concept of self. As soon as we succeed in transforming self, our world will dissolve and reshape itself in harmony with that which our change affirms. I, by descent in consciousness, have brought about the imperfection that I see in the divine economy. Nothing is lost. We cannot lose anything, save by descent in consciousness from the sphere where the thing has its natural life. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. John 17:5. As I ascend in consciousness, the power and the glory that was mine return to me, and I too will say, I have finished the work that Thou gavest me. To do the work is to return from my descent in consciousness, from the level wherein I believed that I was a son of man, to the sphere where I know that I am one with my Father, and my Father is God. Your descent into man, your return into him, one with him again. I know beyond all doubt that there is nothing for man to do but to change his own concept of himself, to assume greatness and sustain this assumption. If we walk as though we were already the ideal we serve, we will rise to the level of our assumption and find a world in harmony with our assumption. We will not have to lift a finger to make it so, for it is already so. It was always so. You and I have descended in consciousness to the level where we now find ourselves. And we see imperfection because we have descended when we begin to ascend. While here in this three dimensional world, we find that we move in an entirely different environment. We have entirely different circle of friends in an entirely different world. While still living here, we know the great mystery of the statement, I am in the world, but not of it. That's the second Thing I heard my teacher say thousands of times, the first one was, seek the truth and it'll set you free. Or the truth will set you free. Or you know. That second one was this. I am be in the world, but not of it. We know the great mystery of the statement, I am in the world, but not of it. Instead of changing things, I would suggest to all to identify themselves with the ideal they contemplate. What would the feeling be like were you of two pure eyes to behold iniquity? If to you all things were pure and you were without condemnation? Contemplate the ideal state and identify yourself with it. And you will ascend to the sphere where you as Christ, have your natural life. You are still in that state where you were before the world was. The only thing that has fallen is your concept of self. You see the broken parts which really are not broken. You are seeing them through distorted eyes as though you were in one of those peculiar amusement galleries where a man walks before a mirror and he is elongated, or he is, yet he is the same man, or he looks into another mirror and he is all big and fat. These things are seen today because man is what he is. Toy with the idea of perfection. Ask no man to help you, but let the prayer of the 17th chapter of the Gospel of St. John Be your prayer appropriate. The state that was yours before the world was. Know the truth of the statement, none have I lost, save the Son of perdition. Nothing is lost in all my holy mountain. The only thing that you lose is the belief in loss or the Son of perdition. And for their sake I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth. John 7 Seeing anything that is unlovely. When you establish within your own mind's eye the fact that. That you are, you will find it interesting, and you will find that it works. No one here can tell me that they cannot do it. It is so very simple. All can do it. We are what we imagine we are. This technique is not difficult to follow, but you must want to do it. You cannot approach it without the attitude of mind. Oh, well, I'll try it. You must want to do it because the mainspring of action is desire. Desire is the mainspring of all action. Now, what to do? Now what do I want? I must define my objective. For example, suppose I wanted now to be elsewhere. This very moment I really desire to be elsewhere. I need not go through the door. I need not sit down. I need do nothing but stand just where I am and with My eyes closed, assume that I am actually standing where I desire to be. Then I remain in this state until it has the feeling of reality. Were I now elsewhere, I could not see the world as I now see it from here. The world changes in its relationship to me as I change my position in space. So I stand right here, close my eyes and imagine I am seeing what I would see were I there. I remain in it long enough to feel it to be real. I cannot touch the walls of this room from here. But when you close your eyes and become still, you can imagine and feel that you touch it. You can stand where you are and imagine you are putting your hand on that wall to prove you really are. Put it there and slide it up and feel the wood. You can imagine you are doing it without getting off your seat. You can do it, and you will actually feel it. And if, and if you become still enough and intense enough, I stand where I am and I allow the world that I want to see and to enter physically to come before me as though I were there now. In other words, I bring elsewhere here by assuming that I am there. Is that clear? I let it come up. I do not make it come up. I simply imagine I am there and let it happen. If I want a physical presence, I imagine he is standing here and I touch him. All through the Bible I find these suggestions. He placed his hands upon them, he touched them. If you want to comfort someone, what is the automatic feeling to put your hand on them? You cannot resist it. You meet a friend and the hand goes out automatically. You either shake hands or put your hand on his shoulder. Suppose you were now to meet a friend you have not seen for a year and he is a friend of whom you are very fond, what would you do? You would embrace him, wouldn't you? Or you would put your hand upon him in your imagination. Bring him close enough to put your hand upon him and feel him to be solidly real. Restrict the action to do. Restrict the action to just that. You will be amazed at what happens. From then on, things begin to move. Your dimensionally greater self will inspire in all the ideas and actions necessary to bring you into physical contact. It works that way every day. I put myself into the drowsy state. It is a very easy thing to do. But habit is a strange thing in man's world. It is not law. But habit acts as though it were the most compelling law in the world. We are creatures of habit. If you create an interval every day into which you put yourself into the drowsy. State, say 3 o' clock in the afternoon. You do not know. Excuse me. If you create an interval every day into which you put yourself into the. Into the drowsy state, say at 3 o' clock in the afternoon, do you know at that moment every day you will feel drowsy? You try it for one week and see if I am not right. I, for one, am a person who takes naps and I believe it's time for my nap. I've already passed it, but I'm good. It is true. I just start to feel tired. I'm like, man, it's time for a nap. I just gotta go take a nap. You sit down for the purpose of creating a state akin to sleep, as though you were sleepy. But do not push the drowsiness too far, just far enough to relax and leave you in control of the direction of your thoughts. You try it for one week. And every day at that hour, no matter what you are doing, you will hardly be able to keep your eyes open. If you know the hour when you will be free, you can create it. I would not suggest that you do it lightly. Another warning. Don't take this lightly because you will feel very, very sleepy and you may not want to. I have another way of praying. In this case. I always sit down and I find the most comfortable armchair imaginable, or I lie flat on my back and relax completely. Make yourself comfortable. You must not be in any position where the body is distressed. Always put yourself into a position where you have the greatest ease. That is the first stage. To know what you want is the start of prayer. To know what you want is the start of prayer. To know what you want is the start of prayer. Secondly, you construct in your mind's eye one single little event which implies that you have realized your desire. I always let my mind roam on many things that could follow the answered prayer. And I single out one that is most likely to follow the fulfillment of my desire. One simple little thing, like the shaking of a hand embracing a person, the receiving of a letter, the writing of a check, or whatever would imply the fulfilling of your desire. The fulfillment of your desire. After you have decided on the action which implies your desire has been realized, then sit in your nice comfortable chair or lie flat on your back, close your eyes for the simple reason it helps to induce this state that borders on sleep. The minute you feel this lovely drowsy state or the feeling of gathered togetherness wherein you feel, I could move if I wanted to, but I do not want to, I Could open my eyes if I wanted to, but I do not want to. When you get that feeling, you can be quite sure that you are in the perfect state to pray successfully. In this feeling, it is easy to touch anything in this world. You take the simple little restricted action which implies fulfillment of your prayer, and you feel it or you enact it, whatever it is. You enter into the action as though you were an actor in the part. You do not sit back and visualize yourself doing it. You do it with the body immobilized. You imagine that the greater you inside the physical body and is coming out of it, and that you are actually performing the proposed action. If you're going to walk, you imagine that you are walking. Do not see yourself walk. Feel, capital letters, feel that you are walking. If you're going to climb stairs, feel, capital letters that you are climbing the stairs. Do not visualize yourself doing it. Feel yourself doing it. If you're going to shake a man's hand, do not visualize yourself shaking his hand. Imagine your friend is standing before you and shake his hand. But leave your physical hands immobilized. And imagine that your greater hand, which is your imaginary hand, is actually shaking his hand. All you need to do is imagine that you are doing it. You are stretched out in time, and what you are doing, which seems to be a control daydream, is an actual act in the greater dimension of your being. You are actually encountering an event fourth dimensionally before you encounter it here in the three dimensions of space. And you do not have to raise a finger to bring that state to pass. My third way of praying get a bonus is simply to feel thankful. If I want something, either for myself or another, I immobilize the physical body. Then I produce the state akin to sleep. And in that state just feel happy. Feel thankful, which thankfulness implies realization of that what I want. I assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled. And with my mind dominated by the single sensation, I go to sleep. Very, very key point right there. Little kind of a key point. With my mind dominated by the feeling of the wish fulfilled, and with my. Excuse me, I'm repeating this part, this line. With my mind dominated by this single sensation, I go to sleep. I need do nothing to make it so, because it is so. My feeling of the wish fulfilled implies it is done. That was a nice little bonus one right there. That actually is. I'm going to use that this evening. A single sensation dominates the mind. If you pray successfully, what would I feel like now? Where I would I want to be. When I know what the feeling would be like, I then close my eyes and lose myself in that single sensation. And my dimensionally greater self builds a bridge of incident to lead me from this present moment to the fulfillment of my mood. That is all you need do. But people have a habit of sliding the importance of simple things. We are creatures of habit and we are slowly learning to relinquish are previous concepts. But the things we formerly lived by still in some way influence our behavior. Here is a story from the Bible that illustrates my point. It is recorded that Jesus told his disciples to go to the crossroads. And there they would find a colt, a young colt not yet ridden by a man to bring the cult to him. And if any man ask, why do you take this colt? Say, the Lord has need of it. They went to the crossroads and found the colt and did exactly as they were told. They brought the unbridled ass to Jesus and he rode it triumphantly into Jerusalem. The story has nothing to do with a man riding on a little colt. You are Jesus of the story. The colt is the mood. You are going to assume that is the living animal not yet ridden by you. What would the feeling be like were you to realize your desire? A new feeling like a young colt is a very difficult thing to ride unless you ride him with a disciplined mind. If I do not remain faithful to the mood, the young colt throws me off. Every time you become conscious that you are not faithful to this mood, you have been thrown from the culture. Discipline your mind that you may remain faithful to a high mood and ride it triumphantly into Jerusalem, which is fulfillment or the City of Peace. Now we know why Blake named it Jerusalem. Right? This story precedes the feast of the Passover. If we would pass from our present state into that of our ideal, we must assume that we are already that which we desire to be and remain faithful to our assumption. For we must keep a high mood. If we would walk with the highest. A fixed attitude of mind. A feeling that is done will make it so. If I walk as though it were. But every once in a while I look to see if it really is. Then I fall off my mood or cult. If I would suspend judgment like Peter, I could walk on the water. Peter starts walking on the water and then he begins to look into his own understanding. And he begins to go down. The voice said, look up, Peter. Peter looks up and he rises again and continues walking on the water. Instead of looking down to see if this thing is really going to harden into fact. You Simply know that it is already so. Sustain that mood and you will ride the unbridled colt into the city of Jerusalem. All of us must learn to ride the animal straight into Jerusalem, unassisted by a man. You do not need another to help you. The strange thing is that as we keep the high mood and do not fall, others cushion the blows. You keep the high mood. Everybody's always at your. At your. They're always right there helping you. The strange thing is, as we keep the high mood and do not fall, others cushion the blows. They spread the palm leaves before me to cushion my journey. I do not have to be concerned. This is so true, man. So, so true. The shocks will be softened as I moved into the fulfillment of my desire. My high mood awakens in others the ideas and actions which tend towards the embodiment of my mood. If you walk faithful to a high mood, there will be no opposition and no competition. The test of a teacher or a teaching is to be found in the faithfulness of the taught. I am leaving here on Sunday night. Do remain faithful to this instruction. If you look for causes outside the consciousness of man, then I have not convinced you of the reality of consciousness. If you look for excuses for failure, you will always find them. For you find what you seek. If you seek an excuse for failure, you will find it in the stars, in the numbers, in the teacup, or most any place. The excuse will not be there, but you will find it to justify your failure. Successful business and professional men and women know this law works. You will not find it in gossip groups, but you will find it in courageous hearts. Man's eternal journey is for one purpose. To reveal the father. He comes to make visible his father. And his father is made visible in all the lovely things of this world. All the things that are lovely, that are of good report, ride these things and have no time for the unlovely. In this world, regardless of what it is. Big, big key point right there. Let me say it again. All the things that are lovely, that are of good rapport, ride these things and have no time for the unlovely. In this world, regardless of what it is, remain faithful to the knowledge that your consciousness, your I amness, your awareness of being aware of the only reality. It is the rock on which all phenomena can be explained. There is no explanation outside of that. I know of no clear conception of the origin of phenomena save that consciousness is all and all is consciousness. That which you seek is already housed within you. Were it not now within you, eternity could not evolve it no time stretch would be long enough to evolve what is not potentially involved in you. You simply let it into being. By assuming that it is already visible into your world, in your world, and remaining faithful to your assumption, it will harden into fact. Your father has unnumbered ways of revealing your assumption. Fix this in your mind. And always remember, an assumption, though false, is, if sustained, will harden into fact. You and your father are one, and your father is. Everything that was, is, and will be. Therefore, that which you seek, you already are. It can never be so far off as even to be near, for nearness implies separation. The great Paschal said, you never would have sought me had you not already found me. What you now desire, you already have, and you seek it only because you have already found it. You found it in the form of desire. It is just as real in the form of desire as it is going to be in your bodily organs. Excuse me? It is just as real in the form of desire as it is going to be to your bodily organs. You are already that which you seek, and you have no one to change but self in order to express it. You are already that which you seek. You are already that which you seek, and you have no one to change but self in order to express it. This is the expression you impress, and then you express. What a wonderful, wonderful lesson. Oh, my goodness. How many amazing things were in that one lesson. Lesson four. No one to change but self. Whoa. Take a breather. After that, let's just take a deep breath and just. And just chill for a minute. That was a good one. Oh, my gosh. Profound. Let me know what you thought and we'll see you in the next lesson.