Читать книгу Your Faith is Your Fortune - Neville Goddard - Страница 8
ОглавлениеWhom Seek Ye?
I have told you that I AM; if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way, — John 18:8.
As soon then as he had said unto them, I AM they went backward and fell to the ground. — John 18:6
Today there is so much said about Masters, Elder Brothers, Adepts and initiates that numberless truth seekers are being constantly misled by seeking these false lights. For a price, most of these pseudo-teachers offer their students initiation into the mysteries, promising them guidance and direction, Man’s weakness for leaders, as well as his worship of idols, makes him an easy prey of these schools and teachers. Good will come to most of these enrolled students; they will discover after years of awaiting and sacrificing that they were following a mirage. They will then become disillusioned in their schools and teachers, and this disappointment will be worth the effort and price they have paid for their fruitless search. They will then turn from their worship of man and in so doing discover that which they are seeking is not to be found in another, for the Kingdom of Heaven is within. This realization will be their first real initiation. The lesson learned will be this: There is only one Master and this Master is God, the I AM within themselves.
“I AM the Lord thy God who led thee out of the land of darkness; out of the house of bondage.” I AM, your awareness, is Lord and Master and besides your awareness there is neither Lord nor Master. You are Master of all that you will ever be aware of being.
You know that you are, do you not? Knowing that you are is the Lord and Master of that which you know that you are. You could be completely isolated by man from that which you are conscious of being; yet you would, in spite of all human barriers, effortlessly draw to yourself all that you were conscious of being. The man who is conscious of being poor does not need the assistance of anyone to express his poverty. The man who is conscious of being sick, though isolated in the most hermetically sealed germ-proof area in the world, would express sickness.
There is no barrier to God, for God is your awareness of being. Regardless of what you are aware of being, you can and do express it without effort. Stop looking for the Master to come; he is with you always. “I AM with you always even unto the end of the world.”
You will from time to time know yourself to be many things, but you need not be anything to know that you are. You can, if you so desire, disentangle yourself from the body you wear; in so doing you realize that you are a faceless, formless awareness and not dependent on the form you are in your expression. You will know that you are; you will also discover that this knowing that you are is God, the Father, which preceded all that you ever knew yourself to be. Before the world was you were aware of being and so you were saying “I AM,” and I AM will be, after all that you know yourself to be shall cease to be,
There are no Ascended Masters. Banish this superstition. You will forever rise from one level of consciousness (master) to another; in so doing you manifest the ascended level, expressing this newly acquired consciousness.
Consciousness being Lord and Master, you are the Master Magician conjuring that which you are now conscious of being. “For God (consciousness) calleth those things which be not as though they were”: Things that are not now seen will be seen the moment you become conscious of being that which is not now seen.
This rising from one level of consciousness to another is the only ascension that you will ever experience. No man can lift you to the level you desire. The power to ascend is within yourself; it is your consciousness. You appropriate the consciousness of the level you desire to express by claiming that you are now expressing such a level. This is the ascension. It is limitless, for you will never exhaust your capacity to ascend. Turn from the human superstition of ascension with its belief in masters, and find the only and everlasting master within yourself.
“Far greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.” Believe this. Do not continue in blindness, following after the mirage of masters. I assure you your search can end only in disappointment,
“If you deny me (your awareness of being) I shall deny you also.” “Thou shalt have no other God beside ME.” “Be still and know that I AM God.” “Come prove me and see if I will not open you the windows of Heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”
Do you believe that the I AM is able to do this? Then claim ME to be that which you want to see poured out. Claim yourself to be that which you want to be and that you shall be. Not because of masters will I give it unto you, but, because you have recognized ME (yourself) to be that, I will give it unto you for I AM all things to all.
Jesus would not permit Himself to be called Good Master. He knew that there is but one good and one master. He knew this one to be His Father in Heaven, the awareness of being. “The Kingdom of God” (Good) and the Kingdom of Heaven are within you.
Your belief in masters is a confession of your slavery. Only slaves have masters. Change your conception of yourself and you will, without the aid of masters or anyone else, automatically transform your world to conform to your changed conception of yourself.
You are told in the Book of Numbers that there was a time when men were in their own eyes as grasshoppers and because of this conception of themselves they saw giants in the land. This is as true of man today as it was the day it was recorded. Man’s conception of himself is so grasshopper-like that he automatically makes the conditions round about him appear gigantic; in his blindness he cries out for masters to help him fight his giant problems.
Jesus tried to show man that salvation was within himself and warned him not to look for his savior in places or people. If anyone should come saying look here or look there, believe him not, for the Kingdom of Heaven is within you.
Jesus not only refused to permit Himself to be called Good Master, He warned his followers, “Salute no man along the highway.” He made it clear that they should not recognize any authority or superior other than God, the Father.
Jesus established the identity of the Father as man’s awareness of being. “I and my Father are one but my Father is greater than I.” I AM one with all that I am conscious of being. I AM greater than that which I am aware of being. The creator is ever greater than his creation.
“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” The serpent symbolizes man’s present conception of himself as a worm of the dust, living in the wilderness of human confusion. Just as Moses lifted himself from his worm-of-the-dust conception of himself to discover God to be his awareness of being, “I AM hath sent me,” so must you be lifted up. The day you claim, as did Moses, “I AM that I AM,” that day your claim will blossom in the wilderness.
Your awareness is the master magician who conjures all things by being that which he would conjure. This Lord and Master that you are can and does make all that you are conscious of being appear in your world.
“No man (manifestation) cometh unto me save my Father draw him and I and my Father are one.” You are constantly drawing to yourself that which you are conscious of being. Change your conception of yourself from that of the slave to that of Christ. Don’t be embarrassed to make this claim; only as you claim, “I AM Christ,” will you do the works of Christ.
“The works I do ye shall do also, and greater works than these shall ye do, for I go unto my Father.” “He made himself equal with God and found it not robbery to do the works of God.” Jesus knew that anyone who dared to claim himself to be Christ would automatically assume the capacities to express the works of his conception of Christ. Jesus also knew that the exclusive use of this principle of expression was not given to Him alone. He constantly referred to His Father in Heaven. He stated that His works would not only be equaled but that they would be surpassed by that man who dared to conceive himself to be greater than He (Jesus) had conceived Himself to be.
Jesus, in stating that He and His Father were one but that His Father was greater than He, revealed His awareness (Father) to be one with that which He was aware of being. He found Himself as Father or awareness to be greater than that which He as Jesus was aware of being. You and your conception of yourself are one. You are and always will be greater than any conception you will ever have of yourself.
Man fails to do the works of Jesus Christ because he attempts to accomplish them from his present level of consciousness. You will never transcend your present accomplishments through sacrifice and struggle. Your present level of consciousness will only be transcended as you drop the present state and rise to a higher level.
You rise to a higher level of consciousness by taking your attention away from your present limitations and placing it upon that which you desire to be. Do not attempt this in day-dreaming or wishful thinking but in a positive manner. Claim yourself to be the thing desired. I AM that; no sacrifice, no diet, no human tricks. All that is asked of you is to accept your desire. If you dare claim it, you will express it.
Meditate on these. “I rejoice not in the sacrifices of men. Not by might nor by power but by my spirit. Ask and you shall receive. Come eat and drink without price.”
The works are finished. All that is required of you to let these qualities into expression is the claim — I AM that. Claim yourself to be that which you desire to be and that you shall be. Expressions follow the impressions, they do not precede them. Proof that you are will follow the claim that you are, it will not precede it.
“Leave all and follow me” is a double invitation to you. First, it invites you to turn completely away from all problems and, then, it calls upon you to continue walking in the claim that you are that which you desire to be. Do not be a Lot’s wife who looks back and becomes salted or preserved in the dead past. Be a Lot who does not look back but who keeps his vision focused upon the promised land, the thing desired.
Do this and you will know that you have found the master, the Master Magician, making the unseen the seen through the command, “I AM THAT.”