Neville Goddard 10-28-1968
When
asked: "What is the greatest of all the commandments?" God
answered: "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one."
Accept this commandment! Live by it and you will be free from all
secondary causes. There is only one God. He is the father of us all
who is above all, through all, and in all. He is a universally
diffused individuality whose name forever and ever is I AM. You may
not be aware of who you are, what you are, or where you are; but by
being aware, you are mentally saying I am. Every conscious being says
I am; and if there is only one I am, then I am one individual -
diffused! I am the sole cause of all that is. All things were made
through imagining, and without awareness was not anything made that
was made.
In the 8th chapter of Matthew, one of the
miracles of scripture is recorded as an acted parable. It is said
that when he entered the boat, he fell asleep and a great storm
arose; so they woke him saying: "Lord we perish, save us."
And he said: "Why are you afraid, O men of little faith?"
Then he rose and rebuked the wind and the sea, and there was a great
calm. If there is only one cause, then he who quelled the wind and
the sea is the one who caused the storm. There cannot be another. If
there is confusion in your life, and you resolve it in your
imagination, and the world bears witness to what you have done - you
caused the change. And since there is no other cause, then did you
not cause the confusion also? There is only one God and Father of us
all who is above all, through all, and in all. If He is in every
being who says I am, and there is only one God, no one can accuse
another; for God's name is not he is, but I am. No matter what
appears on the outside, I am its cause. Assume full responsibility
for the things you observe, and if you do not like what you see, know
you have the power to change them. Then exercise that power and you
will observe the change you caused. If you are truly willing to
assume that responsibility, you are set free.
If this
universal diffused individuality is in all, then the incarnation must
be regarded in a different light. We were taught that the incarnation
took place 2000 years ago by a unique individual, who was the
incarnate God. But I tell you: humanity is the incarnation. The
central figure - personified as Jesus Christ - is the perfect
archetypal figure everyone must express. He is called the true
witness, the first-born of the dead. Now incarnate in your body of
flesh and blood, you are dead in the sense that you have forgotten
that you are the creator of all things, and do not see yourself
creating anything you observe. The morning paper tells of what she,
he, and they, are doing, and you cannot relate their actions to
anything you have done; yet there is only one cause, only one God,
who is resident in you as your awareness, your own wonderful human
imagination.
The parable tells us that God entered a
boat and fell asleep. Humanity is that boat, the ark where God the
Father creates as he slumbers. Even though you do not know the people
you read about, if the reading disturbs you, you are the cause of
that conflict. All imagination, I am dreaming, causing the misfortune
and unhappiness of those whose lives I have touched with
feeling. When you awaken and recall your dream, do you always
know the people there? Do you know the children that were yours in
the dream? The people who frightened you? You never saw them before,
so how could they be other than that which you caused? You do not
recognize them, yet you - the dreamer - caused them to do what they
did. The same thing is true here. If the actions of a seeming other
cause a motor response in you, even though you do not know him, your
awareness is the cause of the storm. But when you awake, memory will
return and there will be a wonderful calm.
God, the
universally diffused individuality, is asleep in everyone. His
transcendent revelation is personified as one called Jesus Christ.
Thus personification awakens the memory in you as to who God the
Father really is. God did not break up the I am and give each one of
us a portion of himself. He gave each one, individually, his whole
being. I am cannot be divided, and I am God the Father. If you
haven't yet discovered this, I am still asleep. In order to discover
your fatherhood, you must find God's son, foretold to be yours. While
asleep in the state of Saul, you do not recognize him; and when you
ask: "Whose son are you, young man?" he answers: "I am
the son of Jesse, the I am." When you awake and recognize God's
son, David, are you not Jesse? Are you not God, whose name forever
and ever is I am?
It takes David to reveal you to
yourself; yet you were his father before you fell asleep. Now
dreaming your life into being, you fight against seeming others,
calling them devils and Satan. You endow your shadow world with
causation, thereby becoming a divided being, when God is not divided.
There is no devil. There is no Satan. There is no being outside of
your own wonderful human imagination.
"I, even I am
he. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal and none can deliver
out of my hand." (Deut. 52) "I am the Lord and there is no
other God. I form the light and I create darkness. I make the weal
and I create woe. I am the Lord and there is no other; besides me
there is no God." (Isaiah 45) He who creates the evil, creates
the good, the weal and the woe, the light and the darkness. He who
kills is he who makes alive, and he who wounds is he who heals and
there is no other God. If you really believe you are the one spoken
of here - that it is you who create the evil, the good, the weal and
the woe; that none can deliver out of your hand - then you are set
free. You will never again believe in another, but know that your
life is self-created. That you create the storms, as well as the
peace and the calm. No longer will you believe he, she, or they, did
it, for you will recognize them as reflections mirroring either the
storm or the peace and calm within you.
Having entered
the boat (called the ark) God fell asleep and there he remains until
the dove brings him word that the flood of illusion is over.
Dramatized as an acted parable, it is said that Noah put forth his
hand and brought the dove into the ark with him. This is beautiful
imagery and true. In my vision the dove descended through what
appeared to be crystal clear water. He seemed to float, using his
wings like a swan. Lighting upon my extended finger he smothered me
with kisses as the vision came to its end.
Because
everyone is the whole God, everyone will personify the perfect
archetypal specimen called Jesus Christ. Lost in confusion, not
knowing that humanity is the incarnation, men think of this
archetypal specimen as the incarnate God. Yet the one grand
commandment is: "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is
one." The word Israel means: the man who rules - not like a god,
but as God, because he knows he is God. And the word translated
“Lord” is I AM. Now let me translate it for you: Hear, O
man who rules as God, the I AM, our I am is one I AM. We are not a
bunch of little I am's. Our I am is the one I AM who is God the
Father. If this is true, then God cannot be divided; and the whole of
him is wherever you are, wherever I am. There is no he, she, or they,
in I am!
If you will completely accept this, you will
set yourself free. You may not immediately see the effect of what you
have done in your imagination; but it must come, because there is no
other creator to stop it. All things are made through awareness, and
without it is not anything made that is made. It is imagination who
claims: "I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal. I form the
light and create darkness. I form the evil and I make the good, the
weal and the woe, and there is no other."
When the
Jesuits speak of Satan, devils, and demons, it is because they do not
know the greatest commandment. All of the Ten Commandments are based
upon the negative thou shall not, except one, which is: "Love
thy father and mother." The commandment found in the 6th chapter
of Deuteronomy, with ten words, contains all Ten Commandments in an
entirely different presentation as: "Hear O Israel, the Lord our
God, the Lord is one."
Maybe you cannot accept my
words now. Perhaps you feel the need to blame another - to have a
scapegoat and believe the cause to be something you ate or drank -
but why did you do it? What caused you to do exactly what you did? A
disturbance in you! The storm in you caused the gland to be out of
kilter. The gland cannot be the cause of your distress, but your
dream can. The world, not knowing the single cause, will try to find
something on the outside; but there is no secondary cause!
I
received a letter this week from a lady who shared this
self-revealing dream, saying: "I am in a place totally devoid of
comfort. There are no curtains at the windows or rugs on the floor.
My sons - in clean overalls - are sitting in straight back chairs
against one wall, while my daughters - in starched, long cotton
dresses - it opposite them. Looking much like the Quaker children
here, my children appear to be without emotion, without feeling, or
creative abilities. We are waiting for father! A young boy enters
with a message stating that the work which had to be done in the
children is finished, and therefore the father is not returning.
"Then the scene changes and we are in a farm house. I look out
the window to see fields of golden grain ripe for harvest. My eldest
son, now radiantly happy, comes running into the house exclaiming
that, for the first time, he has created for himself. His entrance
was like magic, transforming the room, as all of my children began to
use their talents - creating, laughing, animated, and alive. Before,
like automatons, they had only obeyed the father by executing his
will; but now that his work is finished, he has withdrawn himself,
and they have become creators in themselves.
What a
beautiful experience. She saw the world in miniature form. The
father's withdrawal is recorded as his death. He tells us: "Unless
I die thou canst not live, but if I die I shall arise again and thou
with me. A little while and you will see me no more; again a little
while and you will see me as yourself." Having withdrawn to
dwell within, it is from there that you move, and not from without.
All that I - the father - am, you will know yourself to be. If God is
the father of all life, then you are the father. If he is a creator,
you are a creator. Whatever God is, you will know yourself to
be.
Now, God comes out of the desert with signs and
wonders. The most outstanding sign is that of the fiery serpent, for
everyone who sees it, lives. As your journey out of Egypt begins, the
fiery serpent is released when the curtain is torn from top to bottom
and all of the rocks are split. You are destined to fulfill scripture
and, like me, know from personal experience that you are God the
Father. I have shared my visions with you, telling you how true and
wonderful the story of scripture really is and that there is only one
way of salvation. Although unnumbered volumes have been written
giving you many ways of redemption, there is only one. I am the way,
and there is no other way.
Matthew tells the story of
his awakening in dramatic form. Claiming "they" awoke,
saying: "Lord, we perish, save us." It is the unearthly
wind which awakens you, and you are its cause. Awakening within your
boat (your ark) you leave it behind as you enter an entirely
different world as God the Father. Having purposely imposed the
restriction of death upon yourself, knowing that you had the power
and the wisdom to overcome it, you laid yourself down and fell asleep
in the ark. And when the time is fulfilled, you awaken within that
ark, come out, and witness the symbolism of your birth from above. A
few months later you fulfill the 89th Psalm as you find David and
your memory returns.
In the Book of Samuel, Saul (the
demented king) made a promise to anyone who would bring down the
giant opposition to Israel that he would set his father free. (This
is done by discovering the father of the son.) So Saul asks David to
identify his father, and David says: "I am the son of Jesse, the
I AM." So the father is set free when David brings down the
giant, who - in your sleep of death - opposes you, and your memory
returns as to who you really are.
Although I answer to
an earthly name and sign my checks with it, I know who I am! I can
tell you who I am in the hope that you will believe me; but in truth,
I am only addressing myself, for I am in you and you are in me, and
we are one. Everyone will have the same experience and in the end we
will all return to the one body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one God
and Father. We will all return from the victorious march through
death as the same God, but expanded beyond our wildest dreams because
of this excursion of the mind into a world of death which seemed so
final. I cannot promise that, if you accept this one hundred per cent
you will not have a headache tomorrow, or that the boss will not fire
you. But if you accept this, you will know that your boss had no
choice in the matter. You will know that you caused the firing. Maybe
your dreams transcended your present limited position in that
business, and only by being fired could they be realized.
One
day I was fired from J. C. Penney Co. Working for a year and a half,
running their elevator and being their errand boy, making $22. a week
and paying $5. room rent, I could not understand it when they let me
go. But my dreams, my desires, transcended my position there, so they
had to do what they did in order for my desires to be realized.
Believe me, you are the cause of the phenomena of your life - be it
good, bad or indifferent. If, to you the news is distasteful, you are
the dreamer of that distasteful storm. But the day will come when you
will awake to discover that the storm is over. That there is only one
cause, and that is awareness! I know it is easier to give advice and
show the other person where he is wrong, than it is to acknowledge
that he is only reflecting the wrong in you. It is difficult to
accept the concept that the world is bearing witness to your
thoughts, but it is true. If you do not like something or someone, do
not look at it or them; look within to the one who is causing the
image.
There is only one God, one cause of all life. He
is not only above all and through all; he is in all. The universally
diffused individuality is in each one of us in his fullness. Dwelling
in each individual bodily, the father sleeps until the storm is over.
Then he awakens and rebukes the storm that he created during his
sleep, and there is a great calm. If you will accept this as your
philosophy of life, and not turn to the left or the right, but claim
you are solely responsible for the phenomena of your life, you will
find it much easier to live. But if, at times, life seems too hard to
bear, and you find a secondary cause, you have created a devil.
Devils and satans are formed from man's unwillingness to assume the
responsibility of his life. To see another other than self, is to
build a golden image. Asking a priest for forgiveness. Calling him
father in spite of being told to call no man on earth father. Seeing
him as an authority, man goes whoring after a man-made false
image.
So what is freedom worth to you? If you stop
short of the ultimate, you do not really want freedom. If you were
enslaved, what do you have that you would not willingly give - in its
entirety - to be set free? Do you really believe there is only one
God, who is in you in his entirety, and his name is I am? You do,
although you have forgotten who you are, where you are, or that you
have a son; one day the wind will awaken you during a storm, and as
you come out of the ark the storm will abate. Then memory will
return, as he who has always been your son stands before you and
calls you father, as scripture unfolds within; and then you will know
that the eternal story was always there. It was a sealed book until
it unfolded from within.
Let the world remain in the
storm if they want to, but if you accept my words you will be set
free from any secondary cause, and you who have been causing your
storm will find peace and be truly set free.
Now let us
go into the silence.