Studying Neville: Three Aspects in His Every Lesson
16–06–2022
Neville Goddard is my teacher that I am fully committed to for quite sometime now, and I believe that you are reading this because you have made him your teacher. Over time that I have been studying Neville, I have noticed that there are three significant aspects of his every lecture and book. I would like to point the three to you, and commit you to your faithfulness to act upon them. Assuredly, your act would be a planting that in due season would bring you such bountiful harvest.
1. PRINCIPLE:
Neville teaches Principle time and again, and the ONLY Principle Neville taught is this: IMAGINING CREATES REALITY. Well, he puts it in various forms. Some popular ones are:
* Consciousness is the one and only reality.
* An assumption, though false, if persisted in will harden into fact.
* Imagination creates reality.
* If you can believe, all things are possible to you who believed.
* Your human Imagination is God.
You will find it in various forms. In his books, these usually form the first few paragraphs, the first chapter or the first two chapters. In his lectures however, these are forcefully repeated time and again. Significantly, Neville taught the same One Principle for all his 34 years as a teacher of metaphysics. I believe that to use Neville’s teachings successfully for a rich and fulfilling life, this principle must be the centre of feeling and thought. You would find it everywhere. For instance, in the 1969 lecture, All Things Are Possible, he said, ‘The choice and its limitations are entirely up to you, for all things exist in the human imagination and it is from your imagination that your belief stems.’ This is PRINCIPLE.
Principle means it is forever active and operational, but it does not mean it is directed nor operated. Thus, he always emphasizes that this Principle being true, you are the Operant Power of IT. When studying anything Neville, look out for the Principle, the First Principle by application of it. This basis must be firmly fixed in consciousness.
2. PRACTICE:
Neville taught the Practice, which is one or more steps of application in all of his lectures and books. In Practice, Neville describes a specific set of mental activity to do, which goes from physical relaxation to mental assumption of a specific state. There are numerous methods which are simpler one than another depending on the student’s attitude to the nature of desire, the mental scene of choice that implies fulfilment. So, what works for you depends on you, and how well it does depends also on you. But there are several practices. Practice involves both technique and direction, a distinction which is important to know for serious students.
A technique is a specific physical and mental act that facilitates the assumption of the wish fulfilled. In the lecture that I already quoted above, All Things Are Possible, here is an example of a technique.
“‘I remember when this was just as empty lot,’ then he would describe the building he wanted to be there as though it were already solid and real. While standing in a barren state you can say: “I remember when this was barren.” If it was barren, you are implying it is no longer so. Then you can — by exercising your inner sense of sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch — occupy the state and allow it to externalize itself for you.”
Direction is whether you are revising a past event or self-concept (recreation) or causing a new desire to happen (creation). Both directions yield manifestations, however they have very specific and different advantages for the one practicing them. The technique above is clearly revising a past event to manifest the desired future.
Always watch out for the practice so you can do what? You guessed it right, So you can PRACTICE. I have cultivated the daily habit of reading Neville, highlighting the Practice as I go. At the end of the lecture or chapter, I would go back to the practice and take any one of my desires or the desires I have for others, then practice with it. With my timers set for specific hours of the day, I repeat the same technique and before sleep, I do it again. Remember that he is my teacher and following our daily classes are these assignments which I must thoroughly do First.
Does it pay off? I now feel as if I have lived the experience of five years in one month, and I haven’t explored all these rich practices. You find what is workable and effortless for you.
3. ATTITUDE:
The last thing I want to mention in this writing is Attitude. Neville specifically recommends the attitude of mind that should be ours throughout the practice and even after. In this, he suggests how best we could persist in the feeling of the wish fulfilled. Whether you are at ease until it happens or you are at discomfort and frustration, you see that is all attitude. You could manifest it by hard work or by ease, but that is all attitude. Having done the practice properly, the ladder exercise reveals to us that it would happen anyway. ‘It would happen anyway.’ But how it comes to happen, or the frame of mind in which you receive it, that is your attitude. Whether it would happen and you would have been in so much joy or it would happen and you have been in distress is up to your attitude.
In the lecture that I have been quoting, All Things Are Possible (1969), here is a comment he made on Attitude:
‘Many men can and will come to aid you, even without knowing they are doing it, if you believe. You do not have to persuade others to help you; all you need do is believe you are what you want to be and then let the world (which is nothing more than yourself pushed out) go to work to make your assumption possible.’
Clearly, he is suggesting that we keep calm, remain relaxed and do not become a slave of anyone because of the desire. Do not bow your spirit to anyone nor try to beg for it. It would happen in its own way with or without your direct involvement because the imagination would recruit all necessary resources (if you are one, you’d be recruited). What is going to be your attitude of mind knowing that? For me, it would be indifference to the current limitation knowing that it would inevitably fall away ‘in its perfect time’. Therefore, peace and ease to my life in general. That is attitude.
Abdullah taught Neville these three. First, he taught Neville that his Imagination was Jesus of the Bible who would go to prepare a mansion for Neville’s earthly form and receive Neville to that state/mansion. That is Principle.
Then he taught Neville to view the world from Barbados, sleeping in his father’s house every night and walking the street every day. That is Practice.
Finally and the very popular quote from Abdullah, ‘You are in Barbados.’ He taught Neville persistent assumption that way. That is Attitude.
This is how Neville has endeavoured to teach. I hope that you, being a serious student, appreciate the dedication, intensity and passion of our teacher who did not leave anything out that is necessary for you to be all you wish.
