Thank you, Oprah, for the Story of Emmanuel

Emmanuel was one of 4000 Lost Boys of the Sudan, and here is his story.

When Emmanuel was 8 years old, civil war broke out in his home country of Sudan. When his village was invaded and soldiers burned his home, Emmanuel escaped into the forest. All alone, Emmanuel hid for 13 days, surviving on wild fruits and stagnant rainwater. Fleeing the rebel soldiers, he joined 26,000 other desperate children—now known as the "lost boys." These children wandered for three months, walking 1,000 miles across the desert in search of safety.

Eventually, Emmanuel found his way to a refugee camp in Kenya, but suffered from nightmares of what he'd seen. "I'd seen friends shot right on the spot, friends being eaten by lions and hyenas," he says.

Then, in 1998, Emmanuel met a girl named Veronica in the Kenyan camp. "I was captivated and all I wanted to do is just stand there and just watch," he says. Emmanuel only spoke with Veronica for a moment before asking a man with a camera, who happened to be nearby, to take their picture. He promised the photographer a blessing if he would get him this picture. To Emmanuel's joy, the photographer actually returned to the camp and gave him the picture for free.

"Something inside of me just kept telling me, you better keep this picture. You better keep it. Keep it well." For the next six years, Emmanuel carried that photograph in his Bible for thousands of miles.

In 2001, Emmanuel came to America with only a shirt, a pair of pants, flip-flops, and what he called his "most important luggage"—his beloved picture of Veronica, which was tucked inside his Bible.

When Emmanuel was in the 1000 mile desert march, he had terrible nightmares about his companions dying and being eaten alive. He could only get rest when he slept with his Bible under his head.

He started school and a new life in North Carolina, eventually enrolling at the University of North Carolina, where he is pre-med student with a double major in biology and psychology.

Emmanuel remained in close contact with his friends, who had been dispersed around the world. "It's the way the immigration works. They were sending people there [to] Canada, the U.S. and also Australia," he says. "The embassy would come and pick you randomly."

One Christmas, he traveled to visit friends in Canada. When he walked into a church, he was shocked by what he saw. "When I opened the door, looking into the aisle, I saw Veronica. I thought I was dreaming," he says. "I was jumping over the benches and I was running towards her because I recognized her face. We just ran into each other."

When Emmanuel produced the photo he'd been carrying with him for so long, Veronica began to cry. "I was holding onto the picture hoping that I would one day see her. … I just knew in my heart that I would see Veronica one day," he says.

Sometimes Neville's teachings come alive. This is a supreme example. Emmanuel was comforting Oprah when she told him before the show that she had tried real hard to get a passport for Veronica to come. Then after the show Oprah quipped "And he thought I couldn't get a passport." Oprah knows the power of intention, doesn't she?

By the way, you know the meaning of the name "Emmanuel" don't you?

I am Job; you are Job

If you understand the meaning of this talk by Neville, your life will be changed forever. Happy reading!

THE BOOK OF JOB
Lecture #207 - Neville 02/01/1963


Tonight we will speak on the Book of Job, possibly the most misquoted book in the world. I dare say all day long you use passages, and you aren't aware you are misquoting this Book of Job. For no one knows who wrote the book. It bears the title of its hero, as do so many books of the Bible: the Book of Joshua, Nehemiah, Ezra, Daniel, Ruth - so many bear the name of the hero of the volume. That is the Book of Job. The word "Job," so claim the famous scholars, by analysis means: "Where is my father?" You and I have heard it as "the persecuted one," but the central point of the narrative is that Job was completely innocent - not guilty of any offense, but simply the victim of the most cruel experiment by God. The very last chapter reveals that it was all by God. Some scholar along the way, or some scribe, inserted some little story in the first chapter which is suspect, because they couldn't believe that God could do that to man. So they claim that a pact was made between Satan and God, and God allowed Satan to do it: Satan the accuser, Satan the doubter. But Satan disappears in the very first chapter and never reappears. He does in the second chapter just for a moment, but he doesn't in the forty-two chapters thereafter, not even in the epilogue. And so we know that the cruel experiment was by God.

Now, you are Job, I am Job, the world is Job - the world of humanity. And to approach it as if it were an object lesson in patience - patience under stress, under trial - is to go astray at the very start. That is not the purpose of the story. I hope I can get it over to you as I see it. If I were to place it in the Bible, I would place it at the very end of the Old Testament, for it seems to lead right into the revelation of the New Testament. But I am not rewriting the Bible or rearranging it - but were I to place it, that is where I would put it. It simply leads right into the unfolding of the vision as we find it in the gospels and the epistles.

First, if you are not familiar with it, let me just tell you a few of the highlights of Job. The scene is laid in Edom and all the characters are Edomites, renowned for their wisdom, semi-nomads. Job, as the story tells us, was an upright and very rich Arab sheikh, owning thousands of sheep, thousands of camels, hundreds of she-asses and oxen, numbers of servants and ten children - seven boys and three perfectly beautiful girls. So we are told in the story. It's a prologue to tell us this much of the great hero who was Job.

Then come the four woes, based upon the pact between Satan and Jehovah. The first one comes in and announces the fact that the Sabeans came suddenly and slaughtered all the servants who were taking care of the sheep and took away all the sheep. While he was yet speaking, the second woe appeared and he said that they took away all the camels and slaughtered all the servants. Then comes the third woe: they took away all the oxen, the she-asses, and slaughtered all the servants. Then comes the fourth woe, that his children -all of them -were dining in the house of the oldest son, and while they were all together there came this mighty wind and crushed the four corners and the house collapsed and they were all killed, and he was the only one who escaped to come and bring the news to Job.

And Job rent his robe, shaved his head, threw himself upon the floor, and then said: "Naked I came into the world, naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return." Then he blamed himself - not for the act, but for having said: "Naked I came into the world and naked I shall return." He saw nothing to condemn in God, and so he did not see anything wrong that God had done.

And then, after the four woes, and everything is taken from him - all the children, all his possessions, everything - then starts the physical destruction of the man called Job, and it started with the boils. And that's when Satan disappears from the scene and all these things followed one after the other - the boils from the sole of his feet to the crown of his head. And then his wife said to him: "Are you still going to be honest about it? Your integrity is unshaken? Curse God and die." And he said to her: "You have spoken like a foolish woman. Shall God who gave us the good not give us the evil?" And so nothing came from his lips that could in any way be condemnation of God.

Then came his comforters. They're spoken of as "Job's comforters." There were three friends. They came to comfort Job. They heard of his plight. He lost everything, being the richest sheikh in all of Edom, and they couldn't recognize him, he was such a horrible-looking creature. When they saw him, they too rent their robes and sat with him for five days and five nights without speaking in mourning for their friend. Job breaks the silence and he breaks it with the claim that the very day should disappear from the calendar year. "Let the day perish wherein I was born and the night which said a male boy is conceived." And then he has this tirade against being brought into this world. He didn't ask to be brought, he was brought. And he finds himself now without any guilt and all these things happening to him. And after he makes the terrific defense of himself, then comes the first comforter, who doesn't comfort at all.

For he is trained - as Job was trained, as you and I are trained - to believe in divine justice. So we all believe in divine justice, in retribution. For we look at a person like a Hitler, who lived to the very last moment in his fifteen gloating years; or a Stalin, for his thirty-odd years - how they slaughtered millions. And what happened to Stalin? He died as you, as I will die - a little brain hemorrhage and in no time he was unconscious, after having slaughtered millions. Where is the retribution? Man wants retribution. Where is Stalin's retribution, where is Hitler's retribution, where is any tyrant's? They live just as we live - they live on the fat of the land, murdering unnumbered millions, and they simply die as we die. And so priesthoods will tell us they will have their day. God will punish them beyond the grave - or in some future embodiment, if you believe in reincarnation. How could you live and how long would you have to live to repay the debt of thirteen million, when you burned them alive and you slaughtered them - how long would you live?

And so they bring argument after argument after argument to persuade Job he, in some way had violated this code. Maybe in his youth, maybe in the past - and he can't think of what he has done. Maybe as a child, said he, some little infraction. But this is far beyond the proportion of anything I could have done, this judgment of God. What has he done to me now? This far transcends anything that any just judge would put upon me for anything I might have done in my youth. They still try to persuade him. And so, as the Father said: "Even- handed is the justice of God. Even-handed."

Then come the three comforters - who aren't comforters at all, like all of our friends. May I tell you: may you not have something physically wrong with you after having confessed you believe what I talk about. May you never be financially embarrassed after having once gone out on a limb and confessed to everyone you believe it. They will come like this Uriah Heap, and all will lament. "It shouldn't happen to you," they will say, "certainly not to you. You mean you who know that the states are real and all you need to do is to get into a state and the state blossoms in your world - and you?" These are the comforters of Job. And so they come to comfort Job.

And he said: "Merciful comforters you are, and so were I in your soul rather than in my soul I would not say to you what you said to me." But they persisted. Each had three chances to deflate him and each time that they tried he comes back with a direct answer. But he is so self-righteous. He showed all the things he did: he never turned away any infant, any fatherless child, any widow, any stranger from comfort, from shelter, from food. He was fabulously wealthy, but he never once turned away anyone in need. And he itemizes them all, all the way down. But he never understood what I hope you understand - which comes in the flower called the New Testament of "grace" - that no one in this world can build a way to God. You can't be good enough to earn coming into the presence of God - no man in the world. It comes by "grace," this strange elective love. And he calls us one by one. So he did not know there is no such thing in this world as divine justice. He didn't know it. The fathers didn't teach that. And they still - in all orthodoxy the world over - they teach and preach divine justice, retribution. And it isn't. There is no such thing!

My child - were I the father of one born demented, where not only the child but the mother suffers, I suffer, the brothers suffer, and the whole vast circle suffered - then should I suffer because of it? And that is divine justice? And you try to justify it by telling me that in some past embodiment he did this, that, and the other; that is why he is; and we were related in some strange way in the past and that is why today we all have fallen into the same net?

That was answered for us in the 9th [chapter] of John: "Master, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" The answer given: "Neither this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him." No retribution whatsoever. There is something entirely different: that God as we now see him is the God of grace, the God of mercy. Were I pure I would never know that there was such a thing as a God of mercy. And God has consigned all men to disobedience that he may have mercy on all of them, that not one can crow and boast of his own purity.

So, to the very end Job is still giving arguments of his own self-righteousness - how good he is, how kind he has been, and all these things - that this thing should not have happened to him. And that's Job's arguments, while all these so-called comforters are still giving it back to him. And then at the very end he is demanding that God will appear. He wants to meet God, to confront him. He says: "I know he will slay me, I have no hope, but I will present my case to his face." And then he makes this statement: "This shall be my salvation. For the godless shall not stand before him, and so if I can so persuade him to see me, to present my case, then I stand before him, and only the pure in heart can stand before him. So if I stand before him, that is my salvation."

To the end, he still justified himself. He never heard of the great story of vicarious suffering, never heard of it. Or the author of the book never heard of it, for Job didn't write it. He is simply the hero of the narrative, of the story. So the very end, by demanding that you listen to my case, how righteous I am (he still believes - although it is not stated - he still believes in retribution and is demanding by his own self-righteousness that a verdict be brought in his favor because he is self-righteous) he feels he should be acquitted, that this thing should not go on as it has gone on for so long in his life. So you see: he has not yet abandoned the belief in retribution, though he denies it when the friends argue the point of retribution. The friends try to prove to him that he was wrong at some time in the past, because there is such a thing as divine justice, and therefore he could not possibly have these sores, and lose his kingdom, lose his family, lose everything - were it not that at some time he had earned this judgment.

And so he brings in his righteousness. And then comes the voice of God. For the first time God speaks. God refuses to answer all the arguments of the men. He refuses to answer the arguments and requests of Job. Job is fuming in his own self-righteousness, for in hell the only voice is the voice of self-righteousness. In heaven all is forgiven and the voice of heaven is complete forgiveness - complete forgiveness no matter what a man has ever done. In heaven the voice is complete forgiveness. In hell all is self-righteousness. He was in hell though walking on earth, as we are in hell if we are filled with self-righteousness.

Then God answers him out of the whirlwind. And may I tell you: it is a perfect expression: the "whirlwind." That is how he comes. When he comes, he comes through the medium of a whirlwind. You hear it and you feel it and you think it is the most frightening storm you have ever encountered, that any man could experience. When you hear it and you feel it, you'll know by the wind it's the whirlwind, then God is about to speak. Either you hear the words or you have the scene, and it begins to unfold the most fantastic vision, more real than this room now - when you hear the voice of the whirlwind. So God answered Job out of the whirlwind and he asked all the questions concerning creation. Where were you when I created the universe? He asked one question after the other, all pertaining to creativity, and Job cannot answer. And then God shows himself, he displays himself.

In the 42nd chapter he now repents and covers himself in ash when he sees how audacious he had been in the past demanding that God answer him. Then he said: "I have heard of thee with the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see thee."

His religion, like our religion before the experience, was inherited. The oral traditions of the fathers and churches. And then I heard it, I didn't experience it, I only heard it. Mother told me and took me to church, and the minister or the rabbi told me - and so I heard it from seeming authority and so my religion was inherited. Thus I expected to find a different kind of a God - a God that man made in his own image down here, a God that he called a just God - an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. I couldn't conceive of another kind of a God - of infinite love, where there is grace, that it doesn't matter what a man has ever done in this world - no, not even a Hitler or a Stalin. So everything in the world will be forgiven. "Though your sins be like scarlet they shall be white as snow." "And so I heard of thee with the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee."

Now Job turns to his friends, and Jehovah calls the friends and he tells them to sacrifice, because: "You lied about me. Everything you said of me was false and what Job said about me was true." Job's rebellion was against orthodoxy. His rebellion was against all ecclesiasticism, all rituals that said this is the way to God. He did them all, yet he suffered. He kept every law of the ancient church: he sacrificed, he did everything - and yet in the end he suffered as no man has suffered. And he knew it wasn't true. So he commended Job, for what he said of Jehovah was true, and what the righteous ones said of Jehovah was false. He made them sacrifice and told them to go to Job and ask Job to pray for them. If Job would pray for them, then they would be set free - it would depend upon Job. And Job prayed for his friends and his own captivity was lifted.

Now that is where you come in: to completely forget yourselves in the love of a friend who is in need. Without raising a finger, you lift him mentally out of one state and put him into another. No matter what he has been in the past, forget it and put him in another. He was only expressing in a state, he was never the state that he expressed. We condemned him thinking he was the state, but Job prayed for his friends, lifting them out of that state of self-righteousness and divine justice, and he saw them in the state of grace. It doesn't matter what they have ever done in the past. It is now what he sees them to be - and at that moment Job's captivity was lifted. And so the whole thing hinged upon man's ability to forgive.

We are told in the 13th [chapter] of Luke, when they came to him and said Pilate slaughtered the Galileans and mingled their blood with their sacrifices, he said to them: "Do you think that they were worse sinners than those who escaped? I tell you: no. Unless you repent you shall meet a like fate. Do you think that when the tower fell in Jerusalem and crushed eighteen that they were greater offenders than those it did not crush? I tell you: no. But unless you repent you shall meet a similar fate." So when you hear someone is hurt, don't gloat that God is getting even. God doesn't get even. If you hear of anyone being hurt tonight, don't gloat: "It serves him right." No retribution at all, not in this revelation.

Simply a man unknowingly falls into a state; falling into a state it could be a good state or an evil state, but he reaps the fruit of the state. He is neither good nor evil. So Blake said: "I do not consider either the just or the wicked to be in a Supreme State, but to be every one of them States which the Soul may fall into in its deadly dreams of Good and Evil when it leaves Paradise following the Serpent." Who's that serpent? God himself! For he consigned me, consigned you, every being in the world, to disobedience, and we left through disobedience, for he stated: "You shall not surely die." And who told me that? The serpent, and who is the serpent? Just a symbol of God himself.

So he told me I wouldn't die after first telling me if I ate a certain thing, did a certain thing, I would die. Then he tells me I will not really die, but my eyes will open and I will become as wise as the gods. And so he enticed me into disobeying him and so I left the state of innocence for a world of experience where I fall headlong into different states. After unnumbered experiences falling into states and redeeming myself from these states, he redeems me from it all and lifts me into a world completely subject to my imaginative power, where I completely awake. Here, I am in a state of sleep, so I don't know I am in a state and I think this is my very being.

Blake made the statement: "Do not let yourself be intimidated by the horrors of the world. Everything is ordered and correct and must fulfill its destiny in order to attain perfection. Seek this path and you will attain from your own Soul an even deeper perception of the eternal beauty of creation. You will attain an ever increasing release from that which now seems so sad and terrible." Not a thing to be judged in this world, not a thing to be condemned, only to be redeemed. So you and I play the part of redeeming individuals here, and at that moment of God's own good grace he lifts us out of the whole vast world of states. But until then we can redeem each other. You don't feel well? All right, I will persuade myself you have never felt better. I'll persuade myself you never felt better and to the degree I am persuaded I am pulling you out of one state into another. Don't try to pinpoint why he is not feeling well. It's a state. Don't try to pinpoint it and say it serves him right, I knew he was no good. Forget that! The being that was never any good at a certain time, you pull him out of that state into another, so that though his sins are like scarlet, because of you they become white as snow. And then you keep on redeeming people, one after the other. Regardless of how many times you fail, try it anyway and you pull them out.

Then one day when you least expect it, God will reveal himself to you and you will say: "I have heard of you. I really didn't know you existed. I believed and hoped you did, but I heard of you with the hearing of the ear - that is, the oral tradition. My teacher in school talked about you, and my father, the churches - all the people who believed in you talked about you, but now my eyes see you." It doesn't matter what the whole vast world will say. I see something entirely different. You are not at all what they told me you were. You are not a judge. There is no such thing as righteous judgment with you, no divine justice - only grace. "The law came through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." So, now I see. I don't have to be taught any more who you are. I see you. And then, may I tell you, he is going to embrace you, because when he asks you, he answers in you.

Now, what do I mean by vicarious suffering (mentioned earlier)? It is the most difficult concept in the world for man to grasp. Every time I have used it with someone who at the moment suffered, I invariably got the same reply. Someone said to me recently in San Francisco: "I am suffering. You said God suffers for me? Well, maybe he is suffering somewhere in eternity but I am in pain, I am suffering." I said: "What is his name?" "God" "No, that is not his name. His name is 'I AM.' Who is suffering?" "Well, I am. " "Good, that's God." "No God here, I am suffering."

It's the most impossible thing to get over to man, that man who seems to be alive, is alive only by reason of the fact that God became him - that God became man, that man become God. He sunk himself in man, that man could say: "I am," for that is God's name, and that all things are done by God to God, to individualize you, me, all of us. When in his eyes the work is done, after unnumbered ages of pain - it takes pain like putting gold in the raw state of ore into the furnace and bringing out molten gold, pure gold, nothing but pure gold. It takes heat, it takes fire. These are the furnaces of experience, and we are put into the world of experiences and brought out as pure gold. When we are brought out, in his presence we are just like him. "It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know when he appears, we shall be like him." For we become what we behold. I must behold it to become it.

So, "I have heard of thee with the hearing of the ear but now my eye sees thee." And as you see him you are stamped with the image of eternity. You are one with him, one with God, as God. It is he - doing it in you, in man, and when he has completed the task, we are told: "He who began a good work in me will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." He will bring it to completion. He initiated it and he will complete it. He took eternity and put it into this clay that is man, that is himself, and he works upon it, brings it out, and individualizes you. You become one like the being that created you.

That is the story of Job. It is the most glorious story, but I think if not the most misunderstood, it is not far from it. You and I have quoted it and we have misquoted it. We speak of the patience of Job. There was no patience of Job - he rebelled. We start from the very third chapter and it is a rebellion, and there are only forty-two chapters. The first is only an introduction, the prologue, and it starts in the second part of the second chapter where the prologue comes to an end. By then the four woes have been accomplished. The whole kingdom and his family are gone. Then come the sores on himself. The boils appear suddenly on the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. Now you find rebellion: "Let this day perish wherein I was born and the night that said a man, a male child, is conceived. Let it be so hidden that God cannot even find this day."

Job doesn't stop the rebellion until he hears the voice of Jehovah out of the whirlwind. That comes at the end of the great narrative. Then he repents. He repents and sees Him, for the first time really sees Him - a God of grace, a God of love. He sees why he went through what he did. It was his own voice in hell of self-righteousness.

If I can this night reflect upon any good thing I think was good that I did, that is self-righteousness. It doesn't earn me one little step towards where I am going. Do something because you want to do it, but to feel you are adding up and putting something in the bank for yourself - forget it. And so he was so good, he was so self-righteous, he never once turned anyone away from his place, no widows, no fatherless, no strangers. And he always abided by the law. He made all the sacrifices designated by the law. At the end of this special feast, Job not knowing what might have happened in the home of the individual brothers where the feast met today, each in a different home - he went and he sacrificed generously, that should they in any way have violated even in their inner will that which Jehovah designated, then he by his sacrifice would atone for them. So he atoned for his sins. He did everything that the law demanded. But still he broke out in all the boils and then he learned that you can't be good enough to earn God's gift. Self-righteousness is only the voice in hell. So you were right, Job: there is no such thing as divine justice, no retribution at all, none.

Did he not say: "O the Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in their hands is my indignation"? [Is. 10:5] So I will use him, for I have made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.

And so, just as I have planned it so shall it be, as I have purposed so shall it stand. I will not turn back - "[The anger of] the Lord will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his mind. In the latter days you will understand it clearly." (Jeremiah 23:20) Only in the latter days will he reveal himself. You will see that all the sufferings that you went through, the God of love put you through. Just like the great artists who are putting ore through the heat to extract the gold, he wasn't concerned about the heat, just extracting pure gold for his labor, for his work - any more than the great sculptor is concerned about the clay. And Job said: "You made me of clay, are you going to return me to the dust?" What does the potter think of the clay when he puts it through every form to fulfill his purpose or what he purposes for it? He isn't concerned. So you and I are the clay in the potter's hand and he is bringing us out into his own image.

I heard someone gloat in NYC when these lovely little children, in their early twenties and teens, on the eightieth-odd floor of the Empire State Building, and this plane came too low. He was simply showing off because they were warned time and again not to fly over NYC low, and here was this 102-story building plus this enormous antenna that goes way beyond that, and the chap coming through with one aboard, and two passengers that were not supposed to be there, showing what he could do, and he couldn't maneuver the plane. He went right into that building and he snuffed out the lives of something like thirty-four or forty young girls in a Catholic charity. And if someone, like this one who spoke to me, is anti-Catholic, he would then say that is what God did. Well you have to be silent, because they express complete stupidity. What can you do? If my daughter were among them and he said it, chances are he would be in the hospital. He could judge that God did that because he was against this charity work of some Catholic. These sweet little children, all Catholic, work in the organization (or maybe they were not all Catholic). And he dared to say that. They could have been a Jewish organization and some anti-Jew would have said the same thing, etc.

Here, this is the story of Job. There is no such thing as divine justice. We are all coming out, and when we all come to the end we will all see it and then we will understand. But don't tell me the six million Jews who were walked right into the furnaces of Germany, that that was divine justice. Job didn't see it, or the author of the book didn't see it. They did not understand the mystery of vicarious suffering, because the Father said it and then the three friends who came, they echoed it, and then he said, "Nonsense, it's a lie." That's what Job said.

But still in the last confession in the end when he rehearsed all of his good qualities, all of his virtues, expecting to be exonerated by this rehearsal of virtues, that surely an acquittal must be brought in that must be the only verdict that could be brought in. That was his last soliloquy. And then comes the voice and then he realizes that all the so-called good things that he did don't mean a thing in the eyes of God. God started it and God is going to complete it and God is working us into the image of himself. He has to put us through these experiences, but he has laid the foundation of infinite states. So when you see someone who is unlovely in the world by his actions, he is only expressing a state into which he has fallen, and chances are unwittingly. Not deliberately, but unknowingly and he has to occupy it while he is in it and then because he is alive he simply radiates it, it grows and bears the fruit of itself. So know that you can forgive every being by simply pulling him out. This is the supreme test of one's ability to forgive. To identify the one you would forgive with the ideal that so far he has failed to express. To the degree that you can become self-persuaded that he is that ideal, to that degree he will express it, and then you deliver him, you save him - you forgive him by putting him into another state altogether.

Job didn't see that. Job thought if he gave things and was kind and generous - but he did nothing to change them. The orphan remains an orphan, the widow remains the widow and they all remained as they were. They were fed from this generous table, but all remained what they were before they were fed. Don't let anyone remain what he was after you see his need. You see him differently - pull him out of his state and put him in another. Poor man, it is so easy to put your hand in your pocket and say: "Here's a dollar." It's so easy, but to see him gainfully employed and to persuade yourself that he is, that he really doesn't need that dollar, is difficult. If you give him the dollar, like Job you will recount your virtues: the day you once gave a man a dollar - he didn't earn it, you gave it. So He said: I the Lord, who gave from his hand the good, also gave the evil. Who gave it? And so I say: you can forgive forever.

It's fun giving, but it's far better if you still give to him by transforming him in your mind's eye and see him not in need. If men were not in need, what a balloon would be broken, starting with our government. Just imagine if they were not in need, for then their own claims to us, across the face of our country, and on radio and TV, how generous they are because they are giving balloons away. So, suppose we were not in need of balloons, what deflation of balloon personalities! If you meet someone on the street that really is in need of your dollar, switch it around that they are not in need of any of your dollars. And now you have the power, greater than the dollar, to take them from where they are and put them where they would like to be, in your mind's eye.

And now, in closing, when you read the book in the future, see the whole drama taking place in the mind of Job. It didn't take place between three friends and the fourth one who was brought in and Jehovah and all the others. The whole thing takes place in Job. This argument portrays Job himself as the accuser and the accused. So as you read it in the future, see only one being playing all the parts, and it is Job - you - and he is in conflict with himself, and at the very end he is integrated. He is torn apart between the one accusing him and the one defending his rights, but suddenly he becomes an integrated soul. At that moment of complete integration where there is no one but himself, he finds God. For God becomes him that he may become God, who is sunk in us. The confusion goes on until finally there is no other to whom we can turn.

The whole thing was contained within us, and at that moment of perfection he appears seemingly coming from without. He doesn't come from without at all, for when you look at him he looks just like you, and so you see, he really isn't coming from without. He appears to, but really he is coming from within and gives the appearance of coming from without that you may see what you look like. "I have heard of thee with the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes have seen Thee."


Q. What would have happened to Job if he had not prayed for his friends?

A. Then he would not have known concerning the state. He would not have known he was only in a state at any moment of time when he was complaining. He could deliver those from their state, but it wasn't Jehovah who did the praying. Jehovah said to them: "Ask Job to pray for you." So who is Jehovah? As Blake said: "When Jesus Christ arose from the dead he became Jehovah."

See the Bible through the eyes of Blake. In Blake's engravings, when the left foot is forward, he uses the devil. And in the state of love it becomes a man, but the foot becomes a cloven hoof. When God is speaking in the most marvelous way, the right foot is forward; the other place, the left foot is forward. The left foot is the state which is doubt. So the symbolism is perfect with Blake in his illustration. But for sheer beauty of English, read the book. What English! Carlyle said it is the greatest piece of literature of all time. Tennyson said of it: "It is the greatest poem ever written." Luther - who gave us a great religion when he broke away at the beginning of the reformation - claims it is the most magnificent book of all scripture. So, he makes extravagant claims for the Book of Job. But for sheer beauty of English read the book. You are Job. I am Job, and when you ask these things: "Why did it happen to me?" - not only physical things but the loss of a friend, loss of a child. What is more heart-breaking than a father who has raised a child and loved that child, and hopes he will transcend him in time, and will leave an estate for him - to go to the graveside and bury him? And he buries him, the same way Job lost his estate, lost everything, and his ten children all snuffed out. But the play is taking place in him. In the very last chapter, not only they all came in the very end after he was redeemed - his brothers and sisters, all of his friends of old came to sympathize and to comfort him for the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. His seven sons and his three daughters were there, yet in the first chapter they were dead. In the last chapter they were there.

Messages from Water

Messages to You from Masaru Emoto

2005-09-04 Urgent Message from Masaru Emoto

A message for all the ‘water friends’ in the world

My thoughts in regards to the Hurricane ‘Katrina’:
We must learn more about water.

As I write this message on this day, September 4, 2005 (Japan Time), the aftermath of Hurricane ‘Katrina’ has worsened and is now predicted that ‘Katrina’ may have taken about 10,000 lives - my thoughts and prayers go out to all of those affected. In addition, for those of you who are, on a daily basis fighting death looming about, I would like to send my encouragement, “Please be patient, you will all be saved - you are all Americans.”

The tsunami that attacked the coast along the Indian Ocean late last year following the major earthquake that hit Indonesia was an unpredictable catastrophe. For the people in the developed world, the news about this crisis was a sad occurrence in a far away developing country.

However, Hurricane Katrina was something that was predicted and still ended up as a huge catastrophe - in the 21st century, where all technological advancement seemed to have reached its peak, and in a developed country such as the United States.

The above two major natural disasters occurred in a developed and developing country: at the different ends of the spectrum, and under predicted and unpredicted circumstances. However, the reason for all the death that occurred in these two instances was the same: water. What can be said I believe, is that whether it’s a developed or developing country or whether it was predictable or not, we, as a whole, are terribly ill equipped to handle this type of an emergency situation. I have researched as to why this has happened, and how we can prevent the reoccurrence of such tragedies and would like to share those thoughts with you here.

In the Japanese newspaper, ‘Yomiuri Shinbun’ (a daily newspaper which has a circulation of over 10 million and is the biggest in the world), the following article was reported on the 30th of December 2004.

Copyright (c) DigitalGlobe/HitachiSoft
http://hitachisoft.jp/fukkyushien/kalutara.html (in Japanese)

To my surprise, in the aerial picture of the tsunami that attacked the coast of Sri Lanka that accompanied this article, when looked closely, a figure that clearly resembles a dragon can be seen amongst the waves.

The title of the article: ‘The Rampage of the Dragon God”. In Japan, dragons have long been worshipped as the god for water. In other words, this article is expressing that the irony of the tragedy that hit the coast of Indonesia on the 26th of December, was a result of the God of water, the dragon, expressing its anger.

However, as a researcher of water, I felt that this expression was completely justified. What I mean by this is that water is essential for the sustenance of life; however, for how long have us humans been ignorant about water? Answer: Forever, and do not know anything about water. I don't think that it is an exaggeration when I say that people are really, ‘ignorant’ when it comes to water.

For instance, some of the questions are such things as: why can’t we survive even for a single day if we were denied of water; why do ice float in water (with other substances, the solid weight is heavier than its liquid form so will always sink to the bottom); why are there things such as surface tension (theory) and capillary phenomenon; why is water its heaviest when the temperature is at 39.2 degrees Fahrenheit; how can water dissolve anything; how can water change its state interchangeably from its solid, liquid and gas form? Although these questions can be answered scientifically, the root of the mystery has not been uncovered in an adequate fashion.

Speaking of humans, we are all composed of mostly water. When we are just a tiny fertilized egg, the water content is at 96 percent. A newborn has about 80 percent, and at the adult stage, we are composed of about 70 percent water. Therefore, it can be said that physically speaking, we are mostly water.

Despite these facts, we still do not know anything about water; thus meaning that we really do not understand who we really are. Although we no longer protest the fact that, ‘water is the source for all things’ (which was taught by the Greek philosopher, Thales, about 4000 years ago), and understand the importance of water, we really do not understand the essence of it.

The dragon, the God of water, probably wants to say, “You humans! When are you going to try to start understanding the essence of water, your birth mother? Contrary to this, all you do is not only ignore water but worse, pollute it! I am angry now….!”

As I have mentioned previously, although it seemed that technologically speaking, we have reached our peak (in development), if we do not understand the essence of water, can we really say that? The answer is a clear ‘NO’.

Then why are we so behind in the scientific knowledge surrounding water? That is because under the traditional measuring methods, water could not be measured. Why is this, I hear? Firstly, what I can say is that this is because water is actually not from this planet. NASA and the University of Hawaii reported this information in the month of May and August 1997. Simultaneously, both NASA and the crew from the University of Hawaii reported that all the water on Earth actually came from outer space in the form of ice comets.

The issue here is that although we were able to obtain such important information, no one really deduces from that point and take it seriously. This information was reported over 8 years ago; however, to my knowledge, I have not heard a single meeting of any sort to further understand the importance of this finding. How could this be? This is because if this finding was accepted, then all the theories that have been ‘discovered’ in modern science in the past will be nullified. This is particularly because if this theory is accepted as a fact, then it means that us humans really came from outer space. Furthermore, this forces our thinking to leave the parameter of science and then enter the realms of ‘God’ or other spiritual reasonings, which, is one of most despised thought process (or theory) by scientists.

I believe that the attitude towards this news was to ignore it for the time being and is better untouched. Therefore, the research in regards to water is taking the back seat, and the knowledge and skills needed to combat these natural disasters occurring around the globe is not adequately developed.

There was another pertinent information in the newspaper article that announced this finding by NASA. That is: “The ice comets are about 100 tons and about 10 million of them hit the earth every year. It can be predicted that this will continue for a long time as it has in the past since the birth of the planet Earth.”

If this is true, it is a major finding. In the distant future, this planet will be full of water and no land will remain. In that instance, many more water related disasters will occur around the globe. At the same time that this hurricane attacked the U.S., flooding started to occur in some of the European countries that were close to the Danube River. What’s more, due to the steady increase in global warming, the ice glaciers are melting on both ‘poles’, and is swallowing not only the uninhabited small islands but are starting to consume some of the islands where people already reside. What I can theorize is that this Earth is now acting like a ‘full’ sponge and can no longer absorb enough water to prevent flooding and other water related disasters from occurring. Furthermore, I am seriously worried that a part of this Earth will really be consumed by water and disappear, just like in the case of the continents, Mu and Atlantis.

There is a saying in Japanese: “Water is a reflection of your heart and soul.” In the past 11 years, I have been taking countless photographs –and the technique that is utilized to take these photographs was developed in a small family owned business without all the most up-to-date equipments. Therefore, in the beginning, it was truly a challenge to create a space that was conducive to taking crystal photos. However, it lead to the researchers understanding the importance of the photographer’s emotional state and the surrounding environment when the crystal pictures are taken. This means that the saying I have introduced to you in the beginning of this paragraph is true.

For example, the beauty of these crystals is vastly different when they are taken by either a photographer that is at peace or by someone that was aggravated. Yes, when the feeling of Love and Thanks’ was sent to the water, the crystal formation was at its best. On the other hand, ugly crystals formed when the feelings of, ‘You Make Me Sick. I Will Kill You.’ was sent towards the water.


Water crytal of water that was exposed
to a label 'Love & Thanks' Water crytal of water that was exposed
to a label 'You Make Me Sick. I Will Kill You'

I am confident that through my long years of research, I understand now that harmonious and positive energy creates beautiful hexagonal shaped crystals and not for all other negative energies.

‘Water is the reflection of your heart and soul.” Based on this information, it feels like the human population is currently being questioned about their way of living so far. Are modern day people living a life on a daily basis that is full of ‘Love and Thanks’ energy? The answer is obvious: no. On the contrary, we are all immersed in fear and resentment and living a life that is full of gluttony, over consumption and worries.

If so, then the water will reflect that as well. If we do not come together and lead a life full of ‘Love and Thanks’ energy, the water will retaliate furthermore and create water related havoc on this planet and may attack your city next.

To avoid such horrible atrocity to happen to you, and to offer aide in rescuing all the people who are currently being ‘bullied’, there are several things we can do. These are: to send ‘Love and Thanks’ to your nearby water; to think about what water means to you; realize that you are water; to feel that water is not only your parents but your siblings; and approach water with much more respect.

So let’s send our energies towards our nearby or local water and for all the water in the world. If we can all come together and send this positive energy into the universe, the fury of the dragon may cool down for a little while. This is because I believe that the ‘m’ in the energy equation of the late Einstein, ‘E = mc2’ is the number of people and the ‘c’, equals consciousness.

“Water, We Love You.”
“Water, We Thank You.”
“Water, We Respect You.”

September 4, 2005
Masaru Emoto

July Fourth Afterthoughts

My Declaration of Spiritual Interdependence:
God is My Infinite Good

God is my provider, there is no lack
God is my companion; I am never alone
God is my power; weakness is imaginary
God is my health; no ill can befall me
God is my freedom, nothing can bind me
God is my presence; I do not live in the past or future
God is my peace; no anger can control me
God is my certainty; insecurity is only a belief
God is my success; I cannot fail
God is my truth; appearances do not deceive me
God is my light; shadows do not frighten me
God is my ecstasy; pains and pleasures come and go
God is love; fear is not real
God is my infinite partner; I cannot be a victim
God is my employer; I am never out of work
God is my intelligence; I learn from every “mistake”
God is my contentment; complaining is gone
God is my prosperity; nothing is missing
God is my vision; I have spiritual eyes
God is my patience; everything is on time
God is my home; I am never homeless
God is my forgiveness; blame and criticism are useless
God is my comfort; pain is dissolving
God is my great mystery; I don’t have to know it all
God is my lover; rejection is a myth
God is my awareness; my brainwashing is evaporating
God is our source; I am free from judging or being judged
God is my life; death is a fantasy
God is all I could desire; I am not in want
God is my unlimited potentiality; nothing is impossible unto me
God is my imagination; I create all of my experiences
God is my reality; nothing else exists
God is our oneness, we can all have what we want
God is my infinite good; all the rest is just a story of good and evil

Power Struggles

Power Struggles

Superficially speaking, we can characterize most human communications as pleasant, indifferent, or stressful. Most of the problematic communications we have can be characterized as power struggles. Most power struggles can be broken down into fight-or-flight, or attack-and-defense thinking.
What this means is that we need to go one step deeper for any kind of resolution because none of these types of communication are satisfying, and typically they get us what we don’t want. Even if you “win”, you lose.

Going a step deeper we find that all communications are fear-based or love-based. Even more accurately we can say that most human thoughts and words are anxiously loving or lovingly anxious.

Once you recognize this meaning behind the power struggle, you can relax because both parties are on the same page. We are anxious whether we attack or defend. Recognizing mutual anxiety allows one to relax, be non-judgmental and allow love to enter the picture.

While an attack-and-defense kind of thinking may appear to be necessary or advantageous, it only adds more stress and dissatisfaction in the long run. You have a choice. You can realize that this type of fight-or-flight thinking which occurs in your mind is not necessary or helpful. You can choose rather to think of this conversation as lovingly anxious. Then you are in charge. You are no longer a victim of someone else’s speech. Both the bully and the coward are in need of being able to express love, but both may be afraid to love.

A third hidden factor in all power struggles is pain. Attach and defense both arise from pain. Face your own pain and realize how you have kept it alive. That will make all of your future conversations more relaxed and loving, because you understand the depths of things. Attack-and-defense are superficial reactions, and do not come from our spirituality. When you realize that people get trapped in their own pain perceptions and do not know how to get out, you can check to be sure you know how to forgive and transcend your own pain. This step then enables you to respond rather than react to others defensive behavior. You don’t need then to judge, avoid or change the other. You can be present with understanding. Then they will see themselves in a clear mirror and be able to see what they need and want to change. You then allow the process to continue without feeling you have to fix it right now. Its okay to leave things up in the air if you have done your homework on your half of it.

We are all anxious lovers, learning through many difficult experiences to be more loving than anxious. Anyone who presents us with that challenge is the “enemy” we need to be able to love, because that enemy lives within us.

Three Agreements

Dear Ones: I received the following article from Lisa Nichols and I wanted to share it as a communication technique. Dr. Joe

To live fully the life you were given -- to celebrate the divine in you -- it is so important to step up and show the world your innermost soul.

But how?

How do you bare your innermost thoughts and expressions? How do you throw aside the security blanket that's tightly wrapped around and protecting you?

How do you share you with me?

You create what I call a "safe space" with a family member, friend, or coworker. With this person you make the following "three agreements," and then you have a conversation.

Agreement 1: No Judgment

We walk around judging each other, judging ourselves, and receiving judgment all the time. Agree that in this space with each other, there will be no judgment of the other.

And reserve all judgment of yourself, which means you will not beat yourself up for anything you've said or anything you've done. You'll just love yourself through the conversation.

Agreement 2: No Repercussions

What is said in this safe space stays there.
Never use anything said against the other later. If you do bring something up later, you bring it up only -- only -- to lift the other up.

Agreement 3: Unconditional Love

The key word here is "unconditional." While we may love each other and never stop loving each other, so often we stop "showing" each other love.

In this safe space you must agree that no matter what comes up, no matter what comes out, you continue to show the other unconditional love. That means you will not play "love take away."

Love take away is when we stop speaking to each other when we're in the same house...
Love take away is when we go behind closed doors, because the other person says something we disagree with... Love take away is when we make ourselves unavailable, because the other person is being unlovely and unlovable.

Unconditional love says love me when I'm "lovely" and love me when I'm "unlovely."
You may not like who I'm being in the
moment. And you may need to hold me
responsible... but don't stop loving me.

No judgment. No repercussions. Unconditional love.

Use these three agreements to take your relationships to the next level -- and to express your innermost soul! Let your divine light shine!


I love you,

Lisa Nichols

Three Propositions

Neville Goddard, 1954

THREE PROPOSITIONS

Well, my first proposition is this one. The individual state of consciousness determines the conditions and the circumstances of his life. The second proposition is that man can select the state of consciousness with which he desires to be identified; and the third follows naturally--therefore, man can be what he wants to be.

If the first proposition is true that the individual's state of consciousness is the sole cause of the phenomena of his life, then the normal, natural question that is asked "Why doesn't he change it to a more desirable state if he could change it?"Well, that is not as easy as it appears.

Today we hope to give you a technique to make it easier but man finds it very hard to leave the things to which he has grown accustomed. We are all grown stuck in the habitual. It may seem strange but a very sordid cartoon appeared years ago, that is during the last war; you might have seen it, it came out in the
"New Yorker" and it was one by George Price. In it is one single little room, a sink piled high with unwashed dishes, plaster falling from the walls, and these two middle-aged people, she sitting on a chair reading a letter,
disheveled, matted hair, and he with torn clothes and feet stuck upon the table and socks exposing holes, and the caption of the picture is this. She is reading a letter fromher soldier son abroad: "He says he's homesick."
Now you should see the interior of this house--one room, completely disheveled-but the lad was homesick!

Now man finds it difficult to detach himself from the habitual; so this morning we have brought you these three propositions, and I hope I canmake it clear that you can with this knowledge apply it so that you can realize your every objective. It is the height of folly to expect changes to come about by the mere passage of time,
for that which requires a state of consciousness to produce its effect could not be effective without such a state of consciousness. So if I must be in the consciousness of the thing that I amseeking before I find it, then
the only thing to do is to acquire that state of consciousness. Most of us do not even know what we mean by state of consciousness. To those who are here for the first time it is simply meant by state of consciousness the sumtotal of all that a man believes and accepts and consents to as true.

Now it need not be true; it may be, but it need not be true, it could be false, it could be a half truth, it could be a lie, it could be a superstition, it could be a prejudice, but the sum total of all that a man believes constitutes his state of consciousness. It is the house in which he abides, and as long as he remains in that
house similar problems will confront him, the circumstances of life will remain the same. He may move physically across the ends of the earth but he will encounter similar conditions; he can't get away from the house in which he abides. The Bible speaks of these houses as mansions of the Lord, it speaks of them as
cities, it speaks of themas rooms, as upper rooms, all kinds ofwords are used to describe individual states of awareness. And the appeal in the Bible is always to move out and occupy the upper story, meaning to move up to a higher levelwithin one's self.

Now, if you do not know the state in which you abide, it's a very simple technique you may employ to discover that state: for the man dwelling in a state, and we all dwell in states, could easily discover the state by listening within himself and observing his own internal mental conversations, for the state is singing its own
song and it reveals itself in man's inner speech. If you will listen attentively and uncritically to what inwardly you are saying, you will discover the state. And it will not surprise you that things are as they are for you will hear within yourself the cause of the phenomena of life. So that what you are inwardly saying and doing is far nore important than what you outwardly know or seemingly outwardly express; so when a man knows what inwardly he is doing then he can change it. If you have never uncritically observed your reactions to life; if you are totally unaware of your subjective behavior, then you are unaware of the cause of the things in your
world. But if you become aware of the state, then you simply go about changing it.
Now here is a technique I have found most helpful and I find that it works like a miracle; anyone can do it. I know that some of you here possibly come from extreme orthodox walks of life and it may seem strange to you even to be here, but I assure you you are not alone, many of your leaders in the orthodox field seek an
audience with the speaker; many a rabbi has been in my home, many a priest, and many a Protestant leader.

Many of them. They come to my home for interpretations of the book that publicly they wouldn't dare give any interpretation other than the most extreme literal interpretation. So don't be surprised if you hear things here that might startle you; your leaders are startled; but this is a technique I have found most helpful.
First of all, man stands forever in the presence of an infinite and eternal energy, from which energy all things proceed but it follows definite patterns: it just doesn't move out of man and crystallize in things in some strange haphazard manner. It follows a definite track and the track it follows is laid down by the man himself
in his own internal conversations. So though man is called upon to change his thinking that he may change his world, for we are told "Be ye transformed by the renewal of your mind", man can't change his thinking unless
he changes his ideas for he thinks from his ideas. So if I would change and become transformed, I must lay new tracks and the tracks I lay are always laid down in my own internal conversation. So what am I saying
now when seemingly I am alone? I can sit in that chair, or stand here, or walk the streets and I can't stop talking. Man does not realize that he is talking, because he is never still enough to listen to the voice speaking within himself, but inwardly he is whispering what outwardly is taking place as conditions and circumstances.

Most of the things he whispers are negative in justifying his behavior. There is no need to justify. He is excusing delay or excusing failure, or he is arguing, or he is judging harshly or he is condemning. Many of us have secret affection for hurts: we don't want to be liked by certain people; we just wouldn't like it if they
liked us. We just don't want certain things to take place in our world even though they may bring a greater comfort and a greater satisfaction. Man has a peculiar, strange feeling, a little affection for the feeling of being unwanted or the feeling of being hurt, and he likes to talk about it. Well, try to pull that man out of that
habitual state: it would be just as difficult as to keep that soldier boy away from that sordid room; he goes back into the sordid rooms within himself. You don't see dishes unwashed within your self, but if you could only see the internal psychological state in which most of us abide, we would see a room far dirtier than the one that George Price illustrated in the "New Yorker" magazine. They are all unwashed plates within us: on the outside we wash thembut we are told in the Bible, we leave the inside unwashed and we become whited sepulchers.

Now, if I sincerely desire to change my world there is no one inmy world I need change but myself, so that I don't need to change you as an individual but I do need to change my attitude towards you. If you dislike me or if I think you dislike me, or if your behavior offends me, the cause of my offense is not in you and your
behavior but I must look for that cause within myself. Now if I seriously and I am honest about my search, I will find it and I will find that inwardly when I think of you it is never a pleasant conversation that I carry on with you. So let me sit down now and bring you before my mind's eye, and as I bring you before the mind's
eye let me imagine a conversation which would imply a radical change in my world; let me bring you up and change my attitude toward you by laying new tracks relative to you.

These tracks will then become the tracks across which this eternal energy will pour, an energy which is only thinking; moving across the tracks laid down inmy own inner conversations will result in changes in my outer world. Now, if I repeat the conversations and do it more often, then it becomes a habit and I will find that
when I am about my Father's business in the outer world I am inwardly through habit carrying on these changed and lovelier conversations. Now, a transformation of consciousness will definitely result in a change of environment and conditions. But I mean transformation of consciousness, I do not mean a slight alteration
of consciousness like a change ofmood.

It is nice to change a mood from some unlovely to a lovely, but I want a transformation and by transformation I mean that when one state into which I have moved and move so often that it becomes a habit and that state grows stable, so that it expels from my consciousness all of its rivals, then that central habitual state defines my character and really constitutes my new world. It spells out a transformation, but if I only do it a little bit and return to my former state, then I might have had a temporary lift but I will not notice radical changes in
my outer world. I will notice these changes in my outer world if inwardly I have truly changed. Then without effort onmy part I will find the outer world changing to correspond to the changes that took place withinme.

So you bear it in mind, I can't stress it too often, I can't give it too great importance, this wonderful thing called man's ability to talk within himself and without the aid of anyone in the world, sitting alone at home you can construct a sentence which would imply the fulfillment of the ideal; you can construct a sentence which would imply that a friend I blessed that she has realized her objective, that the thing you know she wants she has. So what would she say to you had she realized it? Well, you listen attentively as though you heard and
you will really hear if you are still enough you will hear as coming fromwithout what really you are whispering fromwithin yourself.

Man is this wonderful temple in which all the work takes place and the outer world is only a projection of the work done within himself. This, called present man, unfortunately is asleep. It is told us so beautifully in the Bible that Adam slept, in the second chapter ofGenesis. He was placed into a profound sleep from which he
has not been awakened. There is no reference in the Bible where Adam was ever awakened from his sleep but there is a reference where he awoke but not as Adam; he awoke as a second man called Christ Jesus. So in Christ they awake: in Adam all sleep, but a man who is totally unaware of the mental activity that goes on
within him is the one who sleeps as Adam: he doesn't know it. He walks with his eyes wide open, he may be a very important person in the world, he may be wealthy, he may be famous, he may have all the things that you admire, but if he is totally unaware of that mental activity which is the cause of the phenomena of his life,
that man is sound asleep and he is personified as Adam. And he will read his Bible and think it is a literal story; he will read where Adam was put to sleep and from
Adama rib was taken and a woman was formed called Eve, but when a man begins to awake he realizes that this symbolical Eve of the Bible is only his own emanation now called by the name of nature. And nature is his slave, and must fashion life about him as he fashions it within himself. But if he is asleep, he fashions it in
confusion, but he fashions it anyway, for he uses the very technique that his Father used to build a world. He uses speech, he uses inner talking, and that's how this whole vast world was brought into being; so he uses the same technique, he has speech and he has mind, but in the state of sleep he brings about strange
conditions, and he doesn't know he's the cause of the strange things round about him. As he begins to awake, then he awakes only as one being, he awakes as Christ Jesus and the being called Christ Jesus personified in our Gospels is simply the awakened, loving imagination.

Imaginative love where only love guides it is incapable of hearing anything but the lovely. When that being begins to awake he doesn't see things in pure objectivity, he sees everything subjectively related to himself. He is incapable of meeting a stranger; he may meet one for the first time but he knows it is not really a
stranger, that the man had no power to come into his world save he from within himself drew him. "No man comes unto me save I call him;" "No man takes away my life, I lay it downmyself": "You didn't choose me, I have chosen you". Though you seemingly come now for the first moment inmy life, you still didn't choose me,
I have chosen you. I see then every being subjectively related to myself. So in that state you become incapable of hurt, you've overcome all the violence that formerly you've expressed in the world when you were asleep. There is no condemnation to the sleeping man, he is dreaming confusion because he doesn't know who he is: but he begins to awake by such techniques as given you this morning.

If you take this technique and you try it consciously, for here I am appealing not to the passive mind that passively surrenders to appearances, I am appealing to the Christ in you which is the active conscious use of your lovely imagination. So when you sit down and you predetermine what you want to hear and you listen until you hear it, and you refuse to hear anything other than that, then you are using the one power in the world that awakens a man and you are using your lovely imagination, which is "Christ in you, the hope of glory."

Here is a lady this past week; she has heard the story of revision; her husband calls her and it's a big deal, it runs into a fortune, he had sent off 600 feet of film to Acme and they've returned the film, only the first 300 were good. The second three were duds, as they call it, not a thing was on it, a complete blank. Yet they
were up against time, that 600 feet of filmhad to be on a plane headed for Chicago in the immediate present, less than twelve hours away, it had to be there, that was the contract, and 300 feet of film taken, no sound appeared, with the whole thing a blank. She sat down when her husband called her, desperately called her: she sat on the bed just where she had received the call, put the receiver up, and sat in the silence until she heard within herself that phone ringing and across that wire the same voice, but now not an anxious voice but a tender loving voice, which was her
husband, explaining that the whole thing had been resolved, they had found what seemingly they had lost forever. She sat in the silence for one hour and ten minutes, and there she listened and she listened until her whole body became still in hearing only what she wanted to hear. And an hour and ten minutes later while still in the silence the phone rang; it's her husband calling to say that Acme just called himto explain and excuse themselves, it was their mistake, they had found the missing 300 feet of film. And there was not a dud, it wasn't a blank, the whole thing was perfect.

Now the average person, not ,knowing this law of revision or even those knowing it, would have accepted as final the evidence of sense and receiving news that seemed so factual they would have gone into a stew, bawled out Acme and pulled all kinds of wires to correct it. But she heard and she acted upon it, and that's what I mean when I tell you that a little knowledge if you carry it out in action will be far more profitable than much knowledge which you neglect to carry out in action.

Others heard the art of revision: have you acted upon it? Did you last night allow the sun to descend upon your wrath? Did you sleep last night with any trouble, any vexation unresolved? Or did you last night truly go to bed having resolved every vexation and trouble of the day? All the little problems, each one must be
resolved, you rewrite the play. If you didn't rewrite yesterday's events and make them conform to the ideal you wish you had experienced, then you heard but you aren't a doer. And so you are told in the Bible, "Would that ye be doers of the word and not mere hearers only." For if you are a hearer and not a doer, then
you are like a man who sees his face in the glass and turns and straightway forgets what manner ofman he is. But if you are a doer and not a forgetful hearer, then you shall be blessed with the deed, for you will look into the law of liberty and you will liberate yourself and liberating yourself you shall be blessed with the deed.
For those of you who are Bible students and want to check it, read the Book of James. You will find that story in the first chapter of the Epistle of James, where he looks in and liberates himself--well she liberated herself by listening until she heard exactly what she wanted to hear, and she heard it one hour and tenminutes
later. Now the majority of people I say they would not have acted upon it: through habit they would have gone into a stew; they would have fumed and fretted, and that very day had he brought home the negative news that undoubtedly he would have, they both would have slept allowing the sun to descend upon their
wrath.

But now you know that there's not a thing on the outside to change, that first proposition is true, that the man's state of consciousness, which simply means all that he accepts, all that he believes, all that he consents to, that and that alone is the cause of the phenomena of his life. Man can change his state of consciousness
and therefore man can determine the conditions of his life. But the passage of time will not in itself do anything; time is only a facility for changes in experience but it cannot produce the change. It is simply that which allows changes to take place, but it can't produce them. Space gives us the facility for experience and
time for changes in experience, but of themselves they do nothing. We must operate the power, and so the individual if he doesn't become the operator then he willwait in vain.

So no one here this morning, in fact no one coming here through the year should ever allow himself to blame another, ever allow himself to justify failure, for he is only betraying his own lack of the use of this law. Anyone that you listen to who is complaining of a third party, he has no idea how he is betraying himself, he is
telling you of his own unwashed dishes within himself, but he doesn't know it. He thinks it is in the one that he is now judging, but as he talks to you listen attentively and see what must be washed within him and you aid
him.

In your own mind's eye rewrite that script that you heard and when you leave him just imagine you heard a more lovely conversation than the one you did hear. Just rewrite it for himand in some strange way lift him up within you, for that's your task; it's my task. We aren't here to condemn, we are here to redeem; having awakened we have found Christ in us as our own imagination and so our duty, as it is said Christ's duty is to do the will of him that sent me and the will of him
that sent me is that "Of all that he has givenme I should lose nothing", but I shall raise it up again and I raise it up by encountering someone and then finding him down I raise him up 'within myself '. I simply hear what I want to hear from him. Now my voice you are hearing this morning, you could take the tone, listen attentively and you will hear this tone within you; when you hear the tone within you, then put upon that tone the word that you want to hear and having put it upon it, listen and do not move until you hear this tone conveying these
words. But make them noble; don't take that tone and put upon it any word outside of the word which would imply a dignified, noble state, because you are not hurting anyone but self. If you take someone and you put words upon that tone or that voice, and the words do not imply a noble spirit, then you are only allowing that
being to be down within you, you are not really performing your duty.

So here this morning, believe these propositions and then having believed them, do something about it. Go out and take what we have told you concerning inner speech: it is truly the greatest of the arts. You listen and only hear what you want to hear. You take your imaginary hand and put it into the hand of a friend, the
imaginary hand of a friend, and there you congratulate him on his good fortune. If you want one to congratulate you, you allow yourself to be congratulated. You don't bend the head, you hold it high and accept the congratulation, and when you congratulate himimagine that he is fully conscious of the good that is
already his and he accepts that congratulation and make the contact real.

That is truly entering the kingdom of heaven, for you enter the kingdom and the kingdom is within you, it's not without, and you always enter the kingdom by a loving, knowing communion. You can enter the kingdom at every moment of time, ride the street car, ride the busses, and with all the talking and gossiping, you can enter the kingdom and bless a friend by just imagining the friend is with you and you are putting your hand into his and congratulating him on the good news you've heard concerning him, and listen as though he answered in kind, and in that moment you have actually blessed him. He may be a thousand miles away but from that
moment on things begin to stir within his world for you have brought about a change within the structure of his mind and every modification of the structure of a man's mind must result in corresponding outer changes.

So you bring about these lovely changes within you. Look at the testimonial--one you heard this morning; here is a pile of letters and this is really a tight, tight pile. It is one of the biggest piles I think that you have received here and this week's mail I can't begin to tell you what a thrill it is to receive, one after the other not begging for help anymore but giving praise and thanks for the principle that brought the help into their world. I can't tell you how many in the last two weeks have received an increase in income, increase of position, a better state of health; things happened because they did something about it. They were not just warming a seat here on Sunday morning and waiting for things to happen by association: they produced the thing by producing it first within themselves.
So here this appeals to men who are big enough to stand on their own feet: men who want spiritual meat and who have outgrown the milk given to sleeping man. So if you want the literal concept, you are still asleep and this really would not be the place to get it, for from this platform you are going to be given meat, spiritual
meat, for you must go out and do something about it.

If you have the greatest knowledge in the world concerning foods and you didn't eat, you would die of starvation, and so it's not the knowledge of it, it's the
application of it that counts.