How To Live Life And Love It
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MASTER: Have you ever given thought to the matter of HOW you came into existence? Are you convinced that there was, and is, a DEFINITE PURPOSE in the Divine Mind to account for your being here on earth? Or do you think that you create the purpose of your life for yourself, independently of all other factors, after you come into this world?

PUPIL: You ask questions that I scarcely know how to answer. These questions have perhaps been of mild and brief interest to me in the past; but I have never given them any real thought. I have let my mind wander as concerns these points. One time I would think that the Creative Parent Mind does have a definite purpose in my being here, and that this being so there is no use in my trying to change things. But it would then occur to me that this conception of things would mean the "pre-destination" of the fundamentalists. So I would change my mind and decide that I must have some hand in determining my mental and spiritual progress. Is this right?

MASTER: Indeed you do have a hand in your self-development. You have a VERY GREAT PART in it! The life that is you as an individual came directly out of the Great Whole of Intelligent Life (God), from out of its very own sacred heart-center. Your very life is the Spirit's GIFT OF ITS OWN SELF TO YOU! Secondly, the Divine DID have a specific purpose in having made you namely: That it might have a NEW FORM, a new center, through which it might operate as THOUGHT and FEELING, and through which it might yet more fully ENJOY ITSELF in a particular way. This also is the Spirit's GIFT OF ITS OWN SELF TO YOU! BUT the manner in which you as an individual use these HOLY GIFTS is left entirely in your hands, without interference from the Spirit. You were given other holy boons; you were given INITIATIVE and SELECTION; you were given absolute FREEDOM OF CHOICE! The distance that you travel towards the goal of spiritual perfection in this earth life depends solely upon YOU, just as the degree of rapidity with which you may mentally grow is entirely up to YOU!

PUPIL: But are we not given certain divine urges, or longings at all stages of our lives which will help us to know the right way to go? Are we not given these certain desires, or impulses, or stimuli?

MASTER: Certainly. And unless one follows these Divine impulses one is never really quite satisfied, one is always restless, always feels that some essential is lacking, that his right place eludes him. Your very individuality is an EXACT COMPLEMENT of the Great Whole, is a specialized action of all of Life. The only difference in the Life, the Love, the Beauty or the Power of the Universal (God) and of the individual (man), as expressed through the Universal and the individual, is a difference in SCALE. THE QUALITY OF THE TWO (which in reality are but ONE) IS EXACTLY The SAME!

The very same Creator who made and directs the whole universe also made and will direct you, if you will let Him do so, because HE HIMSELF LIVES IN YOU as the Life of you. His infinite Creative Power and Intelligent Love are the VERY SAME IN YOU that they are in all other created things. Therefore it is not just sentiment to say and feel and KNOW, as did Jesus: 'THE FATHER (God) AND I ARE ONE! THE FATHER IN ME, HE DOETH THE WORK!" If only we will develop a constant recognition of this most profound Truth, we shall then really HAVE an abiding sense of LIBERTY, of LIBERTY IN UNION, of LIBERTY IN CONSCIOUS UNION WITH ALL OF LIFE! This is not just an idle but beautiful rhapsody; it is a simple, but most powerful and illuminating, STATEMENT OF FACT!

PUPIL: Am I right then in believing that if I could really think myself into an unshakeable conviction that God IS ever-present in me, and that ALL of His Creative Power is MINE to draw from at my own will and pleasure, I could accomplish ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that I might wish, and could BE and HAVE whatsoever I might desire?

MASTER: Yes, you are right. The Creative Power of God in us is UNformed with respect to what we may wish to accomplish until we ourselves give it definite direction with our thought and feeling. It is ALWAYS RESPONSIVE, remember, to any and all of our thoughts and feelings. These things being true, and they ARE true, any person may BE, DO and HAVE whatsoever that one may desire, IF, of course, one ACTIVELY WORKS in a corresponding direction. It is logic, it is purest gospel, that there is no other way than the one that Life's true purpose in us is to be forever seeking to express itself through us as FREEDOM! Remember always, I urge you, that our THOUGHTS and FEELINGS DO BECOME THINGS, and that they determine the shape that the unformed substance of the Spirit takes in its living expression in our individual lives. It is, as Troward says, like water flowing through a pipe; the water always assumes the shape and the size of the pipe through which it is sent. It is like harnessed electricity which always manifests in exact correspondence with the kind of instrument through which it passes as it works. In the light-bulb the electricity ACTUALLY BECOMES light; in the doorbell it rings the bell; in the refrigerator it generates cold; in the stove it becomes heat. It is the same electricity, the same Power, in every case; and the instrument through which it passes determines what the Power is and what it does! Once a person truly grasps the real meaning of the Spirit's Principles, then one realizes fully that we as individuals are actually sent out from the very Heart of God Himself in order that we may BECOME and BE new and perfect centers through which HE can operate in JOY, in ever-increasing JOY.

This and this only, is the will of God towards us! Yes, the exalted mission of each of us is that we may be new instruments for DIVINE EXPRESSION. If we will to become that, and will make the necessary mental and physical effort to realize this Truth, then we will KNOW that we ARE filling our right place in life. We shall experience true and lasting happiness then because we SHALL BE DOING the things we MOST ENJOY DOING. There will be an ever present-sense of GROWTH in our lives also. Only a very few individuals have ever reached this empyrean height in consciousness while on the earth-plane; STILL IT IS POSSIBLE TO ALL. Because so few attain this exalted level most people have the merest existence, one that is filled with seemingly continual and perplexing problems of one sort or another.

PUPIL: It seems to me there are many more people who are unhappy here than happy ones. So many of my personal friends feel themselves to be misfits in life, I do not think that I know even one person, including myself, who is perfectly happy. If one has health, as some do, then that one may have financial troubles. If they do not have financial worries, and no real physical woes, then they have family discord. And so on it goes until one wonders if there is such a thing as complete happiness in this phase of existence.

MASTER: You are right; and the real reason for all of this unrest is this: These individuals have not recognized that their THOUGHTS and FEELINGS are the ONLY INSTRUMENTS by which the All-Creative Energy CAN manifest in their lives. It is of no avail to blame Providence, or other people, for your troubles. No matter what form chaotic conditions take in your life YOU ALONE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEM; and YOU ALONE CAN RECTIFY THEM through use of your inseverable contact with God. Once one learns through study and practice, or through experience, TO ALLOW the WILL OF GOD (which is always GOOD) TO HAVE FREE ACTION IN AND THROUGH HIM, then ALL BONDAGE TO CONDITIONS IS OVER!

PUPIL: At the risk of appearing dull may I ask yet again just how this can be done by each of us?

MASTER: I have given you the answer a number of times in this book; but it is worth repeating in a little different form, for it is an ALL-IMPORTANT item. Here is the answer yet again:

(1) Mentally go deep within your inmost self, your own Divine inmost, and ask yourself: "What DOES God really mean to me?" "What must the Divine Nature in me be like?"

(2) Once you have formed a definite and positive conclusion on these points, try to reproduce this same feeling all through your whole being. KEEP TRYING, and you will succeed in doing it. It is worth the effort required, a million times over.

(3) Do NOT let yourself be discouraged with this practice if you do not seem to get immediate results. Remember always that Troward says "it is the intention that counts; it is the intention which registers on the reproductive disk of Creative Life."

(4) Another powerful help, to me personally at least, is to diligently use that affirmation from Troward which begins: "My mind IS a center of Divine operation," etc. (See "Your Invisible Power," or Troward's "Dore Lectures"). The Lord's Prayer is also an excellent aid, as I have repeatedly written herein.

(5) Try, try, try with all of your concentrated purpose to LIVE HOURLY in the FEELING of the affirmation, or the prayer. Do NOT let yourself slip and fall by indulgence in what you may call "justifiable impatience" for there is no such thing. Anger, or jealousy, or fear, and all like things, will cause you to slip also, for these things are unlike your idea of God, or of God's thought.

PUPIL: That is a very tall order!

MASTER: Not when you realize constantly that it is the intention that counts. The more you keep your intention right the less frequently will you slip in your practice of these principles; and soon your whole life shall have been altered until it IS like your own conception of God.

PUPIL: Many people who seem to have a very good idea of Christian Science, Divine Science, Unity, etc., try very hard for more money, better health, higher social position. Yet they do not seem to get far. Why?

MASTER: Whether or not they are conscious of it they are looking to the outside as the source from which these things shall come to them. But the ORIGIN OF ALL GOOD THINGS IS WITHIN! All good is WITHIN your own Life-Stream; and this MUST BE RECOGNIZED! Our recognition of the WITHIN, the Spiritual, as the TRUE SOURCE of all good things WILL GIVE THEM FORM in the OUTER or physical, WORLD in which we live. Once the contact is made WITHIN, and faithfully held, the things will AUTOMATICALLY come to pass in the outer. The whole secret is this: We MUST know exactly WHO we are, WHAT we are and WHY we are! Knowing this, our contact with the SOURCE OF ALL GOOD is never interrupted. It is our task to take care of the INNER things; and if we do, the outer things SHALL TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES. THEN SHALL WE GO FORWARD, AND ONLY FORWARD, HAPPILY, HARMONIOUSLY, SERENELY ACCOMPLISHING ANY AND ALL GOOD THINGS THAT WE MAY WISH!