The game of life, like every game, is played within the
framework of certain rules, and any violation of those rules carries a penalty.
You and I are playing this game from morning to night, and should therefore
learn its rules in order to play it well.
Ecclesiastes gives us this rule: 'Even in your thought do
not curse the king, or in your bed chamber curse the rich, for a bird will
carry your voice or some winged creature tell the matter." And Mark gives
us another, as: "Whatever you desire, believe that you have received it
and you will" If you must believe you have received your desire in order
to attain it, then you must start your game by believing it is finished. You
must feel yourself into and partaking of your goal. And you must
persist in that feeling in order to achieve it.
Now, another rule is said in this manner: "Cast your
bread upon the water and you will find it after many days." In other
words, do not be concerned as to how it is going to happen - just do it. This
statement hasn’t a thing to do with doing good as the world defines the word.
Jesus was a carpenter. The word means one who produces from seed - as a flower,
a tree, the earth.
The prophecy of the Old Testament is the seed which a
carpenter called Jesus brings to birth. He comes not to abolish the law and the
prophets but to fulfill them The word, “bread” in the statement: "Cast
your bread upon the waters," means to devour; to consume. Water is a
euphemism for semen, that living water which carries the sperm of man. The creative act is psychological, not
physical; yet the intentions are the same. You must cast your bread upon
the waters with passion! You must be consumed with the desire and literally on
fire with love for its possession, for an
intense imaginal act will
always draw unto itself its own affinity.
Winston Churchill departed this world a very successful man;
however, during his life he had many failures. Then one day he made this
discovery, which changed his life. These are his words: "The mood decides
the fortunes of people, rather than the fortunes decide the mood." Let me
put it this way: The game of life is won
by those who compare their thoughts and feelings within to what appears on the
outside. And the game is lost by those who do not recognize this law. Being
consumed by anger, they see no change in their world. But if they would change
their mood, their circumstances would change. Then they would recognize the law
behind their world.
There are those who are depressed all day long and remain
that way all of their life. I remember back in New York City
But if you apply this law you can predict your future. Feel
a new mood rise within you. Sustain it and soon you will meet people who embody
this new state. Even inanimate objects are under the sway of these affinities.
In a certain mood I have gone to my library and removed a book I have not
touched in years. And when I casually open it, I find confirmation of my mood.
A table, though remaining the same, will be seen differently based upon your
momentary mood, for everything reflects it. It is your mood which decides your fortune, not your fortune that
decides your mood. People feeling poor attract poverty, not knowing that if
they felt rich they would attract wealth.
In the Book of Proverbs, it is said: "The spirit of man
is the lamp of the Lord." Now, the lamp of the Lord is the light of the
world. We contain that light; and nature
- the genie - is our slave, fashioning the world as our mood dictates. By
nature I mean all of humanity - the animal, plant, and mineral world. In fact,
everything that appears on the outside is a slave of this lamp. Fashioned from
within, this slave will fashion your world to reflect your thoughts; and no
power can stop their fulfillment. Become
aware of what you are thinking, and you will recognize a law between your mood
and your surrounding circumstances. Then you will predict with certainty,
because you know certain events - being in harmony with your mood - must
appear. Everything - whether a living being or an inanimate object such as a
book - must appear to bear witness to your mood.
Now, in order to play
the game of life, you must know what you want to replace what you have. When
you know what it is, you must assume the feeling that you have it. Although
your reason and senses will deny its existence, persistence will cause your
assumption to harden into fact and objectify itself upon your screen of space.
Play the game this way. You may think it doesn’t work, but that’s because you
have not tried it. You may believe the idea is stupid, but I tell you: the mood decides your fortune. Believe
me, for I have proved this principle over and over again in my life.
It was Winston Churchill who galvanized the Western world by
putting his words into practice. In spite of the horrors and bombing in London
Mr. Churchill’s wonderful statement, recorded in the 'New
York Times," has proved itself to me. By simply catching the mood I have
changed the circumstances of my life. Now I teach others how to do it. I invite you to ask yourself how you would
feel if your desire was now fulfilled. Toy with the thought. Play with it a
while and the mood will come upon you. Keep that mood by playing with the
senses it evokes, and watch your world change to match your new mood.
Let me tell you of a lady I know who, in her middle sixties,
had nothing when she put this principle into practice. Every morning as she
soaked in the tub prior to going to her $75 a week job, she would say to
herself: "Something wonderful is happening to me now." She kept
playing upon the mood, toying with the feeling that something wonderful was
happening. That very week she received her first breakthrough.
The law has its
positive as well as its negative side. I am not here to judge how you use
the law, but leave you to practice it as you will. If you are in the habit of thinking negatively, you are not going to
sustain the thought that you are all you want to be. You may hold it for a
few seconds, and if it does not prove itself instantly you may deny it. But in
order to play the game of life you must know the rules and apply them. And
remember: as in every game, there are rules whose violation causes failure. You cannot deceive yourself, for God is
not mocked; as you sow, so shall you
reap.
In the world you may get away with a violation that the
referee did not see; but you cannot get
away from the observer in you, for he and you are one. If you know what you
did, then he knows, for your awareness and the father of your world are one.
You cannot deceive yourself. You cannot mock yourself. God is going to record
your every violation and mold your world in harmony with your feelings.
It does not matter whether the body be that of a woman or a
man, or what the pigment of the skin may be; within each one of us is the Son of God, who - radiating his glory
and bearing the express image of his person - is the great lamp of the Lord.
And one day this majestic being will rise out of your garment of death, and you
will enter the land of life.
After you have assembled your mental state and allowed it to
occur within you, you do not have to repeat the act. You cast your bread upon
the water the moment you felt relief.
Although you do not have a physical expression in a sexual manner, relief is
possible; and of all the pleasures of
the world, relief is the most keenly felt. When someone you dearly love is
late, you anxiously await that key in the door. And when you hear their voice,
your relief is keenly felt. That is the
same kind of relief you will have when you have imagined correctly.
If you find it necessary to recreate the act every day, you
are not casting your bread upon the water. You may imagine over and over again,
but you are only going to impregnate once; and if you reach the point of relief, your bread has been cast upon the
water to return, perhaps in the matter of an hour - . I have had the phone
ring - minutes after I have imagined it - to hear confirmation that it has
happened. Sometimes it has taken days, weeks, or months; but I do not repeat the action once I have done
it and felt the feeling of relief, for I know there is nothing more I need to
do.
Learn to consciously
play this game of life, for you are unconsciously playing it every day. I
am sure the millions who are on relief feel the government owes them a living;
but there is no government, only we who pay taxes. The government has no money
and can only give what it takes from our pockets. Those on relief are
complaining, claiming they are not getting enough out of our pockets, and that
mood persists throughout their day.
Their mood never varies,
so they see no change and recognize no law between the mood they are sustaining
and the outer world they dislike. If they were told that their mood was
causing the phenomena of their life, they would deny it. No one wants to feel that he is solely responsible for the conditions
of his life, yet there is no other cause. God is the only cause and he is
man’s own wonderful human imagination.
When I speak of imagination I am referring to God in you, of
which there are two sides: imagining and contacting. Contacts are what
imagining is all about. When you imagine, you contact a feeling, and the
feeling you imagine, you create. You are
the same God who created the world and all within it, but while you are clothed
in a garment of flesh and blood your power is keyed low.
I do hope you
understand the rules to the game of life; and - because there is a positive as
well as a negative rule - I urge you not to curse anyone. Ecclesiastes used
the words “king” and “rich” because they are the ones most often envied. A
person need not be a millionaire, however, to be envied. He could simply be a
little bit better off than another. Someone could live in a better neighbourhood,
pay more rent, maybe even go to a better restaurant, or buy better clothes, to
be envied. So we are warned not to curse
the king or the rich in our thoughts, for they cannot be concealed, as all
thoughts are completely one; and by a law divine they mingle in one another’s
being.
Awareness seems to be
scattered, as everyone on the outside is aware. But no one needs ask
another to aid in the change of his world if he changes it on the inside. If
another is necessary to bring about the change, he will - with or without his
consent. You do not have to single out the individual to play the part in bringing
about the change you have imagined. He will play his part if necessary because
we all intermingle. All you have to do
is stand at the end, from within.
In your desire to go
anywhere you must first go there in your imagination, and even those who
may deny your request will aid you when the time is right. I got out of the
army that way. Knowing I wanted to be honourably discharged and in my apartment
in New York City
Don’t make it a lamp, but that lamp; not a table, but that
table. Sit in that chair until you feel the chair around you. View the room
from that chair and you are there, for you are all imagination and must be
wherever you are in your imagination. Now, cast
your bread upon the water by feeling the relief of being there, and let
your genie - who is your slave - build a bridge of incident over which you will
cross to sit in that chair, hold that lamp, and touch that table.
In Genesis, the story is told of Isaac - who was unable to
see, but capable of feeling - calling to his son, Jacob, saying: "Come
close my son that I may feel you. Your voice sounds like my son Jacob, but you
feel like Esau." At that moment Jacob - the imaginary, purely subjective
state - possessed the qualities of Esau, the objective world. So Isaac gave the
imaginary state the right to be born.
As Isaac, you can sit quietly and with your imaginary hands
you can feel the difference between a tennis ball, a baseball, a football, and
a golf ball If they are nothing (because they are subjective and not
objectively real to you at the moment) then you could not discri min ate
between them. But, if you can feel the difference between these so-called
unrealities, then they must be real, although not yet made objective to your
senses. The moment you give them reality
in your mind’s eye, they will become real in your world.
Try it just for fun. Take an object and thank the being within
you for the gift. Then thank the one on the outside, for within and without are
vicarious, as is life; for by observing an odour, a look, or a feeling within, you will discover you are life itself.
Yes, life is a game. Paul calls it a race, saying: '1 have
finished the race, I have fought the good fight and I have kept the
faith." I call it a game. Both are competitive; but the opposition is with
self and not with another, for there is no other. Do not try to get even with
another. Grant him the right to use the same law to achieve his goal, even
though it may be similar to yours. The knowledge you share will never rob you. Simply determine your goal Feel you have
achieved it and cast your bread upon the water. Then drop it and let the game
of life be fulfilled in your world.
Neville Goddard,
Edited Lecture from
1969
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