Hold in mind what you want.

Find yourself.

Forgetting your Self is the greatest injury; all the calamities flow from it.  Take care of the most important, the lesser will take care of itself.  You do not tidy up a dark room.  You open the windows first.  Letting in the light makes everything easy.  So, let us wait with improving others until we have seen ourselves as we are---and have changed.  There is no need to turn round and round in endless questioning; find yourself and everything will fall into its proper place.

What matters is the persistence with which you keep on returning to your Self.

Q. How can I cease to get upset over daily difficulties? A. You can remove out of the way many useless things which disturb you, for they lie entirely in your opinion towards them. Aurelius

Whatever we are now, is the result of our acts and thoughts in the past; and whatever we shall be in the future, will be the result of what we think and do now...When it comes, the higher powers and possibilities of the soul are quickened, spiritual life is awakened, growth is animated. Vivekananda

"Think of yourself as erasing a mental blackboard. If we try to

write new sentences over the old, it becomes unintelligible. We

must erase first. Then, we write with clear wisdom."

              The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power, p. 54

...Reach the state where imagination is no longer taken for reality.

The quickness of realization is determined by the intensity of the desire for it. How far have we gone in our desire for it? If we've gone very far, the realizations come fast and easily.

Pretending our world.

However, we're pretending it too, but we don't know that we're pretending it. A Master pretends it

and He knows that he's pretending it. We are ignorant of the fact of our pretense.

Seeing the truth of the world.

A Master is very much in the world. A Master has His feet firmly planted on the earth, but He sees the basic substance just behind the apparent world as His very own Self. And when He does that, everything is in harmony, everything is perfect. It is not a matter of separating one from the other, or having one or the other, it's merely seeing the truth of the world. When one does, one is realized. When one doesn't, one is forever shadowboxing with his self-created world of opposition. Both see the world. The Master sees the Truth just behind it and there's nothing but harmony! The unrealized one sees separation and opposition and there’s much disharmony! The unrealized person sees it as a thing running him; the realized person sees it as his own projection and therefore he can run it and it cannot run him. Being a Master over it, He resides ever the same, in peace and tranquility, and lives in complete ease all the time.

Its the way you look at it.

The difference is in our outlook, in the way we see the world. It's the way you look at it, that's all. You may look at it from the ego point of view, or you may look at it from the Self. A realized person sees the world only as an out-projection of himself; therefore, it really is his creation. And as an out-projection, it's like a cinema screen out there with this whole universe projected on it and which, at will, could be changed or withdrawn. To the one who doesn’t see the Truth, this cinema, this moving picture, seems not self-created and as such, one makes himself subject to it and becomes a slave to it.

You see the world's radiant joy and you say "Yes" to it all and you do not say "No" to it all.

Once you have decided you want the present moment to be your friend, it is up to you to make the first move: become friendly toward it, welcome it no matter in what disguise it comes, and soon you will see the results.  Life becomes friendly toward you; people become helpful, circumstances co-operative. One decision changes your entire reality. But that one decision you have to make again and again and again---until if becomes natural to live in such a way.

Are you here?

Are you here?  Are you really here in this room? I don't mean is your body here because that is obviously the case. But are you here? Do you feel that you are here in the room? Are you aware of being present here, and of your actual experience in this moment? Or are you lost in thoughts, fantasies, plans, emotional reactions? Are you here or are you busy liking and disliking? Are you here, or are you busy judging yourself and everything else?

Are you here now, or are you trying to be here, making a token effort because this is what we're talking about? Are you aware of everything and everyone around you? Are you aware of your surroundings, or are you lost in a whirlwind of thoughts? When you hear the question, "Are you here?" it's not important in answering that you try to be good or correct. It's important only to sincerely explore for yourself, are you here or not? Are you in your body or oblivious, or only aware of parts of it? When I say, "Are you in your body?" I mean, are you completely filling your body? I want to know whether you are in your feet, or just have feet? Do you live in them, or are they just things you use when you walk? Are you in your belly, or do you just know vaguely that you have a belly? Or is it just for food?

Are you really in your hands, or do you move them from a distance? Are you present in your cells inhabiting and filling your body? If you aren't in your body, what significance is there in your experience of this moment? Are you preparing, so that you can be here in the future? Are you setting up conditions by saying to yourself, "When such and such happens I'll have time, I'll be here?"  If you are not here, what are you saving yourself for?

Regardless of the stories you tell yourself, at this moment, this very moment, there is only this moment, here, now.  Nothing else exists. For your direct experience, only the here and now is relevant. Only now is real. And it is always like that. At each moment, only that moment exists. So we need to ask why we put ourselves on hold, waiting for the right time, waiting for the right circumstances to arise in the future...The future is not your life; it never arrives. What is actually here and now is always only this moment.

A constant state of gratitude will do it for you.

"I might as well tell you right at the start of this talk that
you're not living your own life and I want you to listen to the
talk tonight so that you can get a start on living from who you
really are. You're living from who you are not now, whether you're
aware of it or not. You don't have any true strength inside of you,
anyone can do anything to you, and that is no way to live. And doesn't
this make sense what I'm going to say next? Regardless of the
endless anxiety and the deep wounds and the scars, regardless of
how many you've collected, isn't it about time you stopped? Isn't
it about time that you see through the enemy called suffering?"

                   from a talk given 2/10/1988
      Vernon Howard's Higher World - MP3 CD Volume 18, talk 433

"You have no idea how hard Truth is working to get through to you."

                    

The Fulfillment of Life

Fulfillment of life lies in gaining the status of divine life and living the life of eternal freedom in the fullness of all the values of human existence.
Fulfillment of human consciousness lies in the attainment of God-consciousness, which brings together the absolute and relative values of life.
The bliss-consciousness of absolute Being and the relative joys in the variety of creation should be lived simultaneously...

Who am I?

What does it matter how many thoughts rise? At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly inquires, "Who am I?" the mind will turn back to its source (the Self) and the thought which had arisen will subside.  By repeatedly practicing thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases.

Seeing without the Observer

How few see the mountains or a cloud. They look, make some remarks, move on. Words, gestures, emotions, prevent seeing. A tree, a flower is given a name, put into a category and that's that. You see a landscape through and archway or from a window, and if you happen to be an artist or are familiar with art, you say almost immediately, it is like those medieval paintings or mention some name of some recent painter. Or if you are a writer, you look in order to describe; if you are a musician, probably you have never seen the curve of a hill, or the flowers at your feet; you are caught up in your daily practice, or ambition has you by the throat. If you are a professional of some kind, probably you never see. But to see there must be humility whose essence is innocency. There's that mountain with the evening sun on it; to see it for the first time, to see it, as though it had never been seen before, to see it with innocency, to see it with eyes that have been bathed in emptiness, that have not been hurt with knowledge---to see then is an extraordinary experience.

Non Resistance to the Dream

Non resistance is the key to the greatest power in the universe. Through it, consciousness is freed from imprisonment in form. Inner resistance to form---whatever is or happens---is a denial of the absolute reality of form. Resistance makes the world and the things of the world appear more real, more solid, and more lasting than they are, including your own form identity, the ego. It (resistance) endows the world and the ego with a heaviness and absolute importance that makes you take yourself and the world very seriously. The play of form is then misperceived as a struggle for survival, and when that is your perception, it becomes your reality.

We are actually fully realized all the time. We are fully realized Beings saying that we are not. So all we do is let go of “we are not” and what's left over is the fully realized Being that we are.

We are not our thoughts.

(Excerpted)

"Do you wish to sincerely know the Secret?

…The Secret is this: There is something enormously wrong with how we think, how you think, how I think, how everyone thinks…

…look at those trees. Do they fight amongst themselves, resent each other and say to each other,  'I should be a pine tree instead of a magnolia?'

Do they fret about the heat today, or worry about what tomorrow will bring, or moan about what happened to them yesterday? No. Well then why aren't you and I as happy, as carefree, and as successful as those trees?

…I'm about to divulge to you something that very, very few people ever learn. And that's the operative word, 'learn.'  You must now seek to learn and understand what I'm about to tell you. There is nothing in life more important than to seek the understanding of this, nothing… 'Those thoughts that run through your mind, my mind…are not ours…Not knowing--- or even suspecting this we take them to be our own, individual, self made thoughts. We believe we are those thoughts.

…we carry these horrendous thoughts---the beast---around all the time believing we are it.

There is only one thing on this earth to understand…this fact that we are not our thoughts…

'So what do I do about these thoughts you speak of? I have to think!'

Yes… you do…but you must begin to think in a new way…You must begin to watch your thoughts.

'But I know what I'm thinking…'

Do you know that you have the most worried look on your face now…? And do you know that your right leg is beating faster than a hummingbird's wings?

…This is what (is called) being lost in thought. And that type of hypnosis is how most people live their entire lives.  That hypnosis, and abiding by what the beast in our head constantly tells us, is how the poor world operates.  Wars, fights, lawsuits, neighbor against neighbor, crime, fear and anxiety are the result of listening to those beastly thoughts and believing we are them.

Shakespeare said, 'Sleep no more…'  This hypnosis that we're under keeps us forever running in circles, like the donkey chasing the carrot.

Watch, rather than be, your thoughts."

Things are not what they seem.

Always seek the "Impossible," 

which is never more than a step away.

Health and Money Supply

It is the same principle that heals a sick body or a sick pocketbook.
Sickness and poverty are both lack. And lack is the acceptance of concepts that are limited. 
The concept of lack is only in our consciousness. One must let go of it and in its place have concepts of abundance, affluence, and well being.
Our supply and health are determined by our consciousness of supply and health.
A mental picturing of that which we want, with the complete acceptance and the conviction that it is ours now, will bring it quickly. See it in its "is-ness."
Never think of things as coming in the future, as the mind will keep it in the future. See it, feel it, taste it, possess it as yours now. Do not see it in its "will-be-ness."
Picture things in the fullness of detail.
Think only what you want, never the money to obtain it.  Conditioning it with money is putting a  limitation in the way.
Work in secrecy. Telling one what you want weakens the drive.  After obtaining it, you may tell.
Repetition is not desirable in that it means we did not accept fully the time before. However, if necessary, repeat the visualization.
A full conviction that we have everything as we need it will do just that. 
Supply is infinite. Never compete.
No matter how sick the body it may be made perfect. 
If we desire something it is an admission of lack.
When we realize the God-being that we are, we feel that everything is ours. When this realization is obtained, the thought of something brings it to us.
When we know we have everything and therefore need nothing, then everything comes to us for the mere effortless thought of it.  
Never connect your supply with your vocation. Let God be your supplier. Then it matters not what you do as your supply is guaranteed.
Effectiveness power depends on what you know of the principle.
To effect anything, complete passivity is the quickest way. Let go and let God.  It's a doingness on the mental plane, a knowingness on the spiritual plane that everything is ours.
The key to prosperity is the spirit of giving. When we know that freely it is given, then freely we give, and the more we do we receive.
If one can heal oneself spiritually then one should do it because it is instantaneous. If one cannot do it spiritually, then one should do it it mentally as mental healing is from rapid to instantaneous. If one cannot do it mentally, then one should do it physically and go to a doctor.
Spiritual healing is knowing that the body is perfect. Mental healing is effecting a perfect body by visualizing the body as perfect. 
Rather than receive a healing of body or pocketbook it is better to receive the understanding of healing.
Then one may be always free from all lack.
The fastest and surest way to health and prosperity is by understanding Truth.

Hold In Mind Only What You Want

When someone learns, by actually experiencing it, that mind is only creative, they then hold in mind only the things they want and never takes thought for the things they do not want.


Our concepts are the sum total of our thinking and most of them are now subconscious. We must, with effort, hold the right concepts until they become more powerful than the subconscious wrong concepts. Then they become the habit and take the place of the wrong concepts. When the subconscious mind is so conditioned, life becomes beautiful and happy.


People's behavior today is about 90% determined by their subconscious thinking. They act automatically and are determined by their past, and now subconscious, ideas and concepts. That is why they find it so difficult to make correct thinking effective. It is necessary to persevere with correct thinking until is becomes the habit by overriding the subconscious habit.

I am neither the mind or its ideas.

Q. I am the mirror and the world is my image?
M. You can see both the mirror and the image. You are neither. Who are you? Don't go by formulas. The answer is not in words. The nearest you can say in words is: I am what makes perception possible, the life beyond the experiencer and his/her experience.
Now can you separate yourself from both the mirror and the image and stand completely alone, all by yourself?
Q. No I can't.
M. How do you know that you cannot? There are so many things you are doing without knowing how to do it.  You digest, you circulate blood and lymph, you move your muscles---all without knowing how. In the same way, you perceive, you feel, you think without knowing the why and how of it. Similarly, you are yourself without knowing it. There is nothing wrong with you as the Self. It is what is to perfection. It is the mirror that is not clear and true and, therefore, gives you false images.  You need not correct yourself---only set right your idea of yourself. Learn to separate yourself from the image and the mirror, keep on remembering.  I am neither the mind nor its ideas; do it patiently and with conviction and you will surely come to the direct vision of yourself as the source of being---knowing---loving, eternal, all embracing, all pervading. You are the infinite focussed in a body. Now you see the body only. Try earnestly and you will come to see the infinite only.

You must realize you have seen it.

I hope you are not going to transform my words into concepts, new concepts that can be stored inside of you. I don't want to give you anything. I only want to dance for you, like the bee. If you see something, you must realize that you yourself have seen it. It is in you, not in my dance. Please go and sit next to a sleeping child. Look at the child. Or go into your yard and sit at the foot of an apple tree. Or go into the kitchen and make yourself a cup of tea. Whatever you do, do it in full attention, in full awareness. Do not lose yourself in forgetfulness. Please don't think at all about becoming one with the child, the tree, the tea. There is no need to think at all. Taste yourself with the child, taste yourself with the tree, taste yourself with the tea while a smile blossoms on your lips.

It is letting go...

Too many people abdicate responsibility for themselves. Too many people in spirituality want someone to tell them what to do....If we get caught in this habit, we can stay in sort of spiritual infancy.  At a certain point we need to grow up, we need to look inside ourselves for our spiritual guidance. There are things most human beings know; they just don't want to know them. They know deep down that certain things in their lives are working or aren't working, that certain parts of their lives are functional and others are dysfunctional.  But sometimes, as human beings, we don't want to know what's not convenient. So we pretend not to know. What is most important is to come out of pretending.  There is a time and place for everything.  There's a time to make effort and be disciplined.  There is a time to let go and realize you cannot do it alone, that it is up to grace, that efforting and struggling and striving play no part.

But understand one thing; the trajectory of our spiritual lives---no matter what our path...the trajectory of our spiritual lives and of all spiritual awakening is toward total surrender.  Ultimately that's the name of the spiritual game. Everything we do spiritually is leading us to a spontaneous state of surrender---to letting go. That is where it all leads, no matter what the path is, no matter what the practice is. Once you know that, you notice that each step along the way is the next opportunity to surrender...ultimately the whole of spirituality boils down to letting go of the illusion of the separate self, letting go of the way we think the world is and the way we think it should be.

We need willingness to lose our world. That willingness is the surrender; that willingness is the letting go.  And each of us has to find what that letting go means for us, what we need to let go of. Whether it's difficult or easy doesn't matter in the slightest. It is the letting go that is ultimately important.

There's nothing our there but our consciousness.  If you ever want to know what your consciousness is, just take a check on what is around you and what you see, and what you go through every day in life. That's your consciousness.

"If clawed by human tigers it is simply because we

 unnecessarily inhabit the psychic jungle."