The Law is Impersonal

A series of points regarding daily practice...

1. “I don’t criticize; I don’t judge; I don’t complain.” Follow this, and save energy to be usefully redirected. 

2. Single point of awareness, non-identification, opens a path of escape: you are not “that person”.

3. Apply imagination to reach conscious solution: be self-persuaded as to your nature and identity.

4. You might work better at night.

5. This kind of experimentation is self-motivated learning; it engages the active mind.

6. Now is the accepted time; the eternal present is waiting for you to move into the desired state.

7. In earlier episodes we surmised Neville’s world view; we have a view of life and its conduct.

8. We perceive that the universe responds with certainty; the law of conscious growth is impersonal.

What is Neville On Fire?

Neville Goddard (1905-1972) offered a compelling explanation of the human condition and an intriguing and empowering path of self-discovery. Join your host Ed to explore from the ground up this most essential mystery: the human imagination.

This is episode 29, The Law is Impersonal.

In today's episode, I want to consider a series of points that affect our daily practice and how all of these disparate points make you realize one thing: the law of psychological development, the law that we're aspiring to, appealing to, is impersonal and objective.

Recently, a friend that I had just met explained to me his philosophy of life and he said, “I don't criticize, I don't judge, and I don't complain. And as a result, I have a happy life.” So I took this advice to heart. I applied it, and what I discovered was that, as a way of saving energy, this is really good advice. Now, the title of today's episode is The Law is Impersonal. So the reason I'm bringing this up is because I think you'll notice the results, that you get some new understanding. It's just an automatic operation of the law. The law operates in an inexorable way. If you do "this", then you get "this". There's no personal consideration that enters into it.

Now, the way I got there was by putting into practice this fellow's philosophy. It doesn't mean even necessarily that you change your opinion about something. You simply stop expression of it. And then what you find is, the fact that you save that energy allows you to point your intention in a different direction. And then all of a sudden, you get a result that you hadn't expected. You get some moment of clarity about how the law operates just so inexorably, but with such precision. You have the distinct impression that the result was waiting for you all along if you had just had the presence of mind to claim it.

Now, when it comes to making a shift in yourself at any given moment, here's a way to look at it. Often, we're prevented from, let's say, appropriating the desired state the way we had planned to do. And so you notice that you're in a state that is not entirely desirable. Notice also that the corollary of that state of mind is a physical correlate. In other words, certain tensions, certain posture in the body, maybe a feeling of being down, that sort of thing. And that's when you realize that you've got an intention. In other words, you're self aware. Well, that point of awareness is the starting point. You can just disregard your state of mind, disregard your physical posture, because you've got the awareness in that precise moment of intending what you really desire. Now, the reason you can do this is because the entire body is an emanation. It's consciousness, coalescing in a certain way, giving a certain physical feeling and giving a rise to a certain mood or emotion, conditioned and predetermined by the state that you had fallen into. And yet within the midst of all that, you've got awareness of being. It has to do with nonidentification.

You get so much instruction and admonishment to non-identify especially in the Fourth Way, also in Buddhism: non- identification! But with Neville, you take the whole thing one step further and discover why it's worthwhile to do that. It's worthwhile to do that because it gives you a point of leverage to move to a place that you do want instead of being identified with an emotional state of one of one type or another, and it's correlate in the physical feeling of it. You just realize that that's the nature of the garments that you happen to be wearing at that moment, so to speak, and that gives you the freedom that you need to move to the new place.

So, the two things that I've mentioned so far, namely adopting the idea of not complaining, not judging, not criticizing, and thereby saving an extraordinary amount of energy, and being able to use that and redirect that energy... And the second thing: to notice when you're in a state, in other words, a certain emotional state of mind that has a certain set of tensions or feeling of unease associated with it... the whole thing can be disregarded in the sense that you just realize that it's the nature of the clothing, the garment, the physical body that you're emanating at that moment. But it's not you. It's not the essence of your being. The essence of your being is the fact that you're aware at that moment that you're in a certain state and you wish to go somewhere else.

All right, those two things together bring you to a point of realization: that the law is impersonal. So the more you carry this on, the freer you become within yourself. Because heretofore you were a personality, someone with certain opinions and mental habits. But then with the incorporation of these ideas that I'm talking about, all of a sudden you find that you're not that person. That person is simply part of the “architecture” that you've been given; it's part of the vehicle or the “garment”, as Neville would say, that you're working with in this life.

That's a distinct realization that marks a change. The law of non-identification operates impersonally.

So it's important to take notice of what you can do within yourself, whether you're following these specific points of advice, or coming up with something similar but getting to the same place. In other words, making progress in becoming mobile within yourself. This is important to do. This is the exploration that is done on an individual basis that constitutes the application of the imagination to arrive at an individual solution. That's what this is all about. The point of this sort of activity in your mind is to be more and more persuaded as to your own true nature and identity.

So here's another example of how this mental shift, through some careful vigilance, can help. I noticed that at nighttime you [are best to] try to engage in an internal conversation that is beneficial, and along with that, appropriate the state of the wish fulfilled. The more you hold that idea in mind and even just feel it physically, then the more you're likely to make this internal shift and be more and more self persuaded. This all goes back to the idea that you can't acquire consciousness except consciously, and put into effect a reversal of the mind where, instead of being the passive recipient of life, you have engaged the active mind.

So there again, through experimentation, you discover that things work better when it's dark outside, when the world is plunged into the darkness of the unconscious. At this point you've realized it as an impersonal and objective advantage. And the advantage of working at night was always there waiting for you.

So there's no question that this kind of learning has to be undertaken on the basis of an individual sincere effort. It's completely opposite to the kind of learning that we're normally used to, in a passive state. No, you have to supply the motivation, the spirit of invention and exploration. But at each step of the way, as you discover something that is helpful, then you find that there's a response.

Now, here's another way to approach this experimentation. We hear the phrase “now is the accepted time”. The revelation is: the present moment is all that there is. There is really no time. It's never a case of trying to get a hold of a present action in order to effect a future result. The idea is always to move within. The present moment is simply waiting for you, in a very impersonal manner, to move this way or that way. And then, that movement into the desired state... that is the reality. That's more real than the external result. The external result is merely a reflection. So there's yet another way to create some room within oneself, to get fluidity within, by using this idea that “now is the accepted time.”

Now, you remember all the work we were doing in earlier episodes to try to build up a worldview of Neville, that is, our speculation about his concept of the world and to establish a foundation. At first you take it sort of literally, an explanation of the external world, and then you realize that it's actually psychological in nature, so that we might better entertain and assimilate his ideas. This comes to fruition because, as I'm suggesting in this episode today, all of these nuances of your inner exploration, together with the foundation that we had built earlier on, lead you to a place that says: no matter what happens, at least I've understood what this life is about.

And that is a great blessing, because instead of milling about in the darkness of human confusion, you've got an explanation, an understanding and a practice that comprehends the whole.

It doesn't mean that you're necessarily equal to it in your conscious state. But there's no more angst and confusion about what the purpose of life is. And since the law is impersonal, it doesn't matter whether you have opinions about this or that. It doesn't matter whether you're concerned about this political situation or that social situation. It doesn't matter if you have this emotion or that emotion... because these are all just part of the furniture, the vehicle, the mental constructs that you're using. The revelation is that none of that stuff is actually you.

It is a blessing and a relief to reach a point where you feel that you're reconciled to human life -- and all of that because we took the trouble to take Neville Goddard at his word. So all along Neville keeps saying, the law is no respecter of persons. It operates in a very “clockwork”, inexorable way.

I can think of sources where what you find is an attempt to paint a backdrop -- a gigantic backdrop of the absolute -- with levels and grades of energy, that start out at the highest levels of conception and resolve themselves down. The whole general effect of a philosophical absolute is to give you a backdrop... a god that is ineffable and truly great. The whole point of the law being impersonal, that the law is no respecter of persons, is to make the whole thing much greater in its magnitude and in its import than we could even conceive.

So this kind of speculation is, of course difficult to articulate, but there are certain practical points that I've covered today. I want to summarize those points.

1. Don't criticize, don't judge, don't complain. You create space within yourself. You save energy and you redirect that energy to something that's useful.
2. Realize the benefit of non identification. The benefit of non identification is that even your physical body and your feeling tone (your state of mind, in conjunction with whatever tensions, posture and, perhaps, feeling of lethargy that you might be experiencing) -- those are nothing but garments, the vehicle. And if you have the spark of self-realization at any given moment, then that is your point of departure, to leave everything else behind and change your state.
3. Notice that after nightfall it seems to be distinctly easier to do this, and more effective, and that's something that you would only arrive at through experimentation.
4. Use the point of the now -- now is the accepted time -- to free oneself.
5. Finally, put all of those points of exploration together with our consideration of a grander picture. Be self-persuaded about our nature and identity.

The common thread that ties together all of these points of self-exploration and self-discovery is that the response from the universe is guaranteed. In other words, it's no respecter of persons. The law is impersonal.