States Meditating Being

One will say, “I don’t think others understand you.” What they really mean is “I don’t.” This question was asked of me to explain from the platform, “When you use the word ‘states,’ I don’t think that others really understand what you mean by states, so will you explain?” Tonight I will try to. We’re told in scripture that all of us are sons of the Most High, not just a few, all of us. Then we are told, “Nevertheless, you will die like men and fall as any prince.” Now, I mean states into which we fall. When I say we fall, we fall into states. There are an infinite number of states. So let me define states. A state is simply an attitude of mind. It’s a phase of experience, it’s a body of belief, and we live by our beliefs. So we fall into these states; or we can, finding ourselves here, move into these states consciously. If we do not know we’re always expressing a state, then we identify ourselves with the state, and we say “I am poor or I am rich, I am known or I am unknown, I am wanted, I am unwanted” and we go on indefinitely because there are unnumbered states into which we fall.835 ¶1

Now, Blake made the statement, “Eternity exists and all things in Eternity independent of Creation which was an act of mercy,” and he completes this thought by saying, “You will see from this I do not consider either the just or the wicked to be in a supreme state, but to be every one of them states of the sleep which the soul may fall into in its deadly dreams of good and evil.” So you find yourself in a state, or it seems a seeming other in a state identifies itself with the state or the other, and then we condemn self or the other. Now he said that it must be imputed to the state, whatever you judge it is, and not of the soul or the individual who occupies that state.835 ¶2

Now, when we are told we are sons of the Most High then we are brothers. If we’re all sons of the one Most High then we are brothers. As brothers of this highest unity we are also, at the same time, members of the ultimate reality that is God the Father. The states into which we fall do not and cannot in eternity impair or mar or in any way hurt that immortal son who simply fell into these states. For he did not do it willingly…it’s the Father’s will that we, his creative power, descend into these states. As we are told in the 8th chapter of the Book of Romans: “And the creatures were made subject unto futility, not willingly but by reason of the will of him who subjected them in hope.” So that here his creative power is let down—we call it, it falls—into division. There is a unity in God, therefore he’s God the Father; but God the Father is made up of gods the sons. And so the fall into division…as we pass through states they result in resurrection into unity, each bringing back the results of the experience of the passage through states.835 ¶3

Now, while we’re here in states, you can change in a twinkle of an eye, change the state. But the chances are you are not going to remain in that change, for it is also made up of a body of beliefs. So if I actually now operate morning, noon and night from a certain base which is my body of beliefs, the chances are tonight when I go to sleep I’ll sleep in it. I know I can get out of it, but how long will I remain out of it to make that state into which I go a natural one? I can move tonight to a hotel room and then move back tomorrow night to my apartment, or I could decide to move and change my way of living, and after eight years move to another environment, another place altogether. Now when I move to another place then I have actually moved into a different state. In one sense I have…I can move into a different state financially, socially, intellectually, in all the different…because there are infinite states.835 ¶4

The occupant of the state is not better than the occupant of another state; we are brothers. We’re all brothers in this highest unity and one in the body of the Father, only one. But here, by states I simply mean a certain attitude of mind. Well, I mean that state or that attitude of mind to which I must constantly return constitutes my dwelling place. And so I dwell in it. So if night after night I dwell in the feeling of feeling sorry for myself, that’s my state. But the occupant of that state is not less than one who doesn’t feel sorry for himself, who has ambitions to enter the White House or to enter the Vatican as the pope. These ambitions to enter higher places as judged by men, the occupant desiring that is not greater or less than the one who doesn’t know that he’s in a state and subjected to it and remains in these different states morning, noon and night. So you can tell them, “Get out of the state.”835 ¶5

Now, how do I get out of a state? Well, I must first believe in the doctrine. For if I am told that whatever you desire, believe that you’ve received it and you will, do I believe that precept? The precept of Christ must be accepted literally and then it will be fulfilled literally. So do I really believe that precept that whatever you desire, believe that you have received it and you will? If I really believe that, and tonight I discover I don’t like the things that are happening in my world, but I know by this precept that I could change it…because if I could believe and persuade myself that I am the one that I want to be, and actually move this night into that feeling; for as we told you here recently that the truth of any concept is known by that feeling of certainty that it inspires in the one who dares to assume it. So I will dare to assume that this thing is true. I will assume that I am now the man or the woman that I want to be; and assuming it, I will know if I’m really persuaded by the feeling of certainty that it inspires in me. Because if it inspires that in me, I will act upon it, I will act upon that conviction. If I don’t act upon it, well then, I am not persuaded. For God in man is man’s own wonderful human Imagination and God only acts and is in men…all beings, but especially man because God is man. So God is always acting. Well, I am acting, but I’m physically incapacitated and can’t move. I’m imagining, so I’m acting in Imagination and Imagination is God. Your own wonderful human Imagination is God. Even though you cannot move a limb, you’re paralyzed, if you are still functioning here, you are imagining, therefore, you’re acting. Therefore, “God only acts and is in existing beings or men.”835 ¶6

So by states, I simply mean attitudes of mind. The Bible begins, that is, the New Testament, he said, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.” Well, the word “repent” simply means “a radical change of attitude.” That’s what it actually means, a radical change of attitude. The attitude need not be towards another, it’s toward myself. So I say to myself tonight, “What do I have in this world to live for? And if I cannot answer in some enthusiastic manner, well then, change my attitude radically towards that state. It’s a state and I’m condemning myself for the state into which I have fallen either wittingly or unwittingly. You can start feeling sorry for yourself and all of a sudden move right into the state, and make it a habit, and dwell in it, and remain there for the rest of these days on earth. Or you could believe this doctrine and simply, though everything denies it, you move out of the state.835 ¶7

Here is a story to illustrate. He’s here tonight. I will only take two of his stories—he wrote me many—two that will illustrate this point, and many that were fantastic in the form of dreams; and they are all, I would say, revealing. So here is one, he said, “In my new home at the beach I decided with my wife and family to have a certain landscape. We decided what we wanted. When the whole decision was made, we called in…or rather bids…we invited five landscape artists for gardens to simply give their bids. Two wouldn’t even bid because of the soil, we’re at the beach, and they lose money when they take a contract of that nature because quite often two or three times they have to re-plant the entire thing. Things die before they can get something to take root. Well, we considered the best one, took the contract, and we had eighteen trees planted and about four dozen shrubs and vines. Well, as time went on, it was about two months, this was last fall, three of the eighteen trees died. They looked as though they were simply gone. I would drive home and I had to pass these three trees when I drove into the garage. Before I left the garage to enter my home, I simply remained in that garage and mentally I leaned against these trees and felt them to be alive. If there was no wind blowing to blow the leaves, in my mind’s eye I felt the pressure of my body against the trunk of the tree and felt the thing [...] and I [...] in this animated place, because I love a garden, especially trees.”835 ¶8

Now he said, “I could have bought three trees. I could have called the same person up and just asked them to replace the trees because the trees died…knowing the condition of the soil when you’re at the beach. I could have said ‘I’ll pay for the trees, I like your work, come and bring the trees…that’s all right, I’ll pay for them.’ But I didn’t do that. I was putting to the test my Imagination. And one day, this landscape artist who had the job drove by. I was there and he stopped. All I said to him was hello and he said, ‘I’ve driven by several times since I put the garden in to see how it’s coming and I noticed three of these trees are gone. I think the reason why they are gone is that my men used too much nitrogen in the fertilizer and that burned the roots, so I will replace them without any expense to you.’ The following Tuesday he came and replaced the three trees.”835 ¶9

Now he said, “I did it. I could have bought the trees, but I was simply putting this to the extreme test.” Now he said, “On my way down to work the other morning I passed a building and saw this place. I know no one in it, I know what they do but I know no one in it, not one person. I’ve had no contact with it. But just to carry on this wonderful law I said to myself, what would the feeling be like if I were the boss? And then I named…it would have to be a tremendous jump in what I’m doing and undoubtedly doing remarkably well. It would have to be a unique job in the first place. So I thought of their insignia, then I thought of my name on it and what title I would have. After putting all the titles on it, I said no title, just the insignia and just my name. I went on enjoying this feeling of this job. I went to my office. Now, I’ve never known one person there, I do not know them, no contact. At 10:00 the phone rang and an agency, not in this city, but an agency engaged by them to handle all of their jobs called me and asked me if I would take a job in this place. I was thrilled that the law works so quickly. I’m on my way to work and by 10:00 that morning here it is. This thing broke through in the form of a telephone call. I didn’t take the job; I was just simply testing this principle.”835 ¶10

You don’t have to remain in a state if you make a mistake, and you don’t have to remain in a state even if you didn’t make a mistake. You can change morning, noon and night. But that state to which you most constantly return constitutes your dwelling place, and you’re going to live in it and perpetuate it. For as Blake brought out, “The oak is cut down by the axe and the lamb is slain by the knife, but its eternal form remains forever and reproduces the external form by the seed of contemplative thought.” So what is the result, what caused this? The being that I really am that descended to the weaknesses of all produced this, that is meditating this. Rub it out and I give you no time flat for the being in me who brought this into being to restore it, and make it any age he wants, with no loss of any part of its body. Because it brought this into being and it will bring it into being until its purpose is complete. That purpose is to follow a certain pattern back into the unity of being.835 ¶11

So, we all agreed in the beginning, though reluctantly, for we were not volunteers, we were drafted; and we were “made subject unto futility not willingly but by the will of him who subjected us.” But when we go back we are the very being who subjected us. That was the promise: We were sons to return as the Father.835 ¶12

Now let me share with you a word that I use night after night. The word is David. The word means “to love, the lover, beloved,” but specifically the word means “Father’s brother.” That’s what the word means in the most definite, specific manner, Father’s brother. Now, here we are all brothers. He calls me Father after the resurrection when I’ve returned to unity. Well then, who is he?—he’s Father’s brother. The day will come when I’ll call him Father too, for he’s Father’s brother.835 ¶13

As brothers of the highest unity, we’re all brothers. One by one we return through resurrection into that unity, for the unity was broken in our fall into division. So David’s actual name, in the most specific meaning of David is “Father’s brother”…uncle. You want to write uncle in Hebrew, it’s David, and here David, the Father’s brother. And everyone is my brother, but having been resurrected into the unity, he calls me Father, not uncle. Everyone when he comes in he’s Father, for if he’s the son of everyone, then we’ll return into the real unity. For the unity was broken for a purpose; it was wonderful purpose. God created might, descending through all these states to awaken beyond what it was prior to the descent into division. So it falls into division and is resurrected into unity. In the end we are all one.835 ¶14

Here, a state to me simply means “a state of consciousness,” a certain attitude of mind, a certain, well, body of beliefs. So I say, “Do you believe in Christ?” You say yes. Well, maybe when you say yes it’s not what I will mean when I say I believe in Christ. But you said yes. You form a certain belief. I know my sister and my brothers at home don’t believe in the same Christ that I do, and they’re all born in the same family, raised in the same environment. But if you asked any of my brothers concerning their belief in Christ, they’d all say yes. They call themselves Christians. But if you asked them to define what they actually believe, they could not give the definition that I would give if you asked me to define it.835 ¶15

For I would tell you that Christ to me is the power of God, the wisdom of God, the creative power of God and that is the power that comes down into all of these states. And passing through all of these states it resurrects and returns to the being who sent it down. But this time when it comes back, if it’s done its work, it is the being himself. So here, I tell you, the day will come you will understand all these precepts to be literally true. Here is one you will find in the 1st John, the 3rd chapter, the 2nd verse: “Beloved, we are now the children of God. It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him. We shall know him for we shall see him as he is.”835 ¶16

Now you read that and you wonder, well, one day will he come into the world and will I really be like him? All the teachers will tell you you’ll be like him in character; you’ll be like him in his attitude towards life, you’ll be kind and considerate. When we get all these qualities, well then, we are like him. Forget it! It’s literally true, you are like him. He is in the depths of your soul meditating you. I speak from experience. The year was 1936. He is called the Rock: “Of the Rock that begot you, you are unmindful and you’ve forgotten the God who gave you birth.” So he equates the word Rock with God. Sitting in the Silence, suddenly before my vision comes a rock, a huge quartz, and this quartz now fragments itself, divides itself. As I’m looking at it, it reassembles itself into a man, and that man is seated in the lotus posture, in deep, deep meditation. I look closely and more closely, and as I look I’m looking at myself. Here, I’m looking at myself in deep meditation and he is meditating me.835 ¶17

When he awakes I don’t vanish, I am he! He is putting himself through…for here [pointing to self] is his emanation…until this thing called Neville, which stands before you, and he who brought it into being, literally without effort simply restores it. Cut off his head a thousand times, he restores it. Chop down the oak a million times and by the seed of contemplative thought that eternal form he restores it. Nothing ceases to be because all things exist in eternity and these are simply brought in by the meditative being within you. So I tell you, he looks just like you. When you see him he is just like you only raised to the nth degree of majesty. You’ve never seen your face looking so beautiful, such majestic power, such strength of character. No one in this world could be that arrogant to believe that he could ever attain that when he sees him…and yet he’s looking at himself. He knows it’s not another, it’s himself. As he looks at it, it glows. The thing glows and glows and glows like the sun. It is you, the real you, meditating this that is in this world of mortality. And you will have that experience, I tell you, and you will see this being just like you.835 ¶18

So go after no one who tells you he is Christ or she is Christ or they are Christ. “If anyone comes saying, ‘Look, there is the Christ!’ or ‘Look, there he is!’ believe him not.” Do not go any farther, because when you do see him he will be like you. Well, have you ever seen anyone in this world who is actually like you? Oh, a father and his son…and you say that our daughter resembles us. But she certainly took pictures of both of us and put them up and wouldn’t say they are the same person’s photographs. Even twins, they don’t have the same thumbprint, the same odor, or a bloodhound could not find the one you wanted of the twins if both were alike. If they are identical, they would have the same thumbprint, the same odor, the same sound of their voice, everything would be perfect, the same…superimpose one upon the other and you couldn’t tell it. But that’s not true. So, when I meet him I’ll know him. Why?—because I’m like him.835 ¶19

So, when you see him in the depth of your soul, you are seeing yourself in meditation. And this is the being that descended into these states, and then meditates himself, and you are his emanation, his projection. You are playing all these parts. In the end, when he awakens from his descent and begins to ascend, you are he. And that is life. Everyone in this world is going to experience it. There’s only God…there’s nothing but God in this world. We go through it one by one by one. Everyone will awaken. In the depth of our soul is this being. And no two are identical because we are brothers. Having been subjected, when we return we are God the Father.835 ¶20

So when you take that wonderful word David and you see that it really means specifically “the father’s brother.” I call him Father…and who is the other one? He is my Father’s brother. Eventually I’m going to call him Father, too, but as yet he is my loving uncle. I’ll call him Father the day that he actually rises and returns to the unity of being…and that is David. That’s the play, the mystery of it all.835 ¶21

So here, to come back to the beginning, these are states. You can be any man, any woman that you want to be in this world if you understand the mystery of states. A state is simply an attitude of mind, a body of beliefs, a phase of experience. Now, do not be like the moon which has, oh yes, changes every moment of time. We have the quarter, then we have the half, then we have the three-quarter, then the full, and then it repeats itself again. And that’s life. The world has all these phases and goes back over and over and over. There are people who at certain seasons of the year always find themselves in the same predicament, whether it be a birthday, or right now called “money to be sent to Uncle Sam.” Year after year, they come up to a certain point, which is this point of the year to find where’s the money, it’s gone, and then they tear their hair out because it happens all through their lives.835 ¶22

There are others who have another path. They’ll criticize the one who has this pattern, but they themselves have other patterns…like every time he eats strawberries he breaks out…it’s a pattern. No reason in this world why eating strawberries he should break out into a rash, but if you tell him that he says “I’m allergic.” But then, if you tell him I’m allergic to the 15th of April, he can’t quite see that. He’s allergic to strawberries and you’re allergic to the 15th of April. But that doesn’t impress him at all, because he doesn’t understand the world of states.835 ¶23

We are only dealing in the world of states. There are infinite states and combinations of states, and God, your own wonderful human Imagination, falls into division and passes through these states. Fortunately, there is a limit and then infinite mercy who is within you steps beyond and redeems you…awakens himself. As he awakens himself, the one he put through the torment—for it was torment—then he has enhanced his power by the descent into states, and he returns bringing his gifts. His gift is the result of the experience through states and he can show what he did with his talent.835 ¶24

Now I’ll tell you the greatest talent. The talent is to conquer by forgiveness…that’s your greatest talent. Well, forgiveness means “to test my ability to enter into and partake of the nature of the opposite.” I see someone who is despairing. Can I actually represent him to myself and see him as he would like to be seen by me and persuade myself that that is real? To the degree that I become self-persuaded that he is the man that I want him to be, he’ll become that man and so I have conquered by forgiveness. I simply pull him out of one state and put him into another.835 ¶25

And so every little act of kindness of this sort is a little death in the divine image, because I sacrifice myself. I was alive to what I saw; I will die to what I saw and now live to what I want to see. So, every kindness to another is a little death in the divine image. By representing others to myself as I would like them to be, I persuade myself that they are and to the degree that I am self-persuaded they become it. As they become it, I die to what I formerly lived to; for I lived to what I thought them to be, and then I die to it deliberately. So “I lay it down myself. No one took my life from me, I lay it down myself. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again.” So I lay it down to what I saw and I will lift it up to what I am about to see. And so, I resurrect them, put them into other states.835 ¶26

But before we go back, said he, “How often must I do it?—seventy times seven.” Does it mean multiply seventy by seven?—no, as long as it takes. Because we are brothers; and in the end we are not only brothers we are the same Father. That is the goal. So we are all brothers as we start out and all return as the one Father. And so, the greatest thing is to conquer in this world by forgiveness. For, forgiveness does not mean that I say to you, “Now look here, don’t do it any more. I forgive you this time.” When I leave you, if you’re still in my mind’s eye what you were when you came to me, I haven’t forgiven. To forgive is to completely forget the state. If you came to me and said you did the most horrible thing and I really forgave you, I don’t even remember what you told me…because I’m only now going to see what you want me to see. So if I persuade myself that you are what I want you to be, I forget what you were. That’s forgiveness. Well, when someone tells you that you are forgiven and every time they see you on the street they know exactly what you confessed and they walk by with a little smile because they know what you confessed, now what sort of forgiveness is that? That’s not forgiveness; forgiveness is completely forgetting.835 ¶27

As Blake tells us, “The art of living is forgetting and forgiving.” So, if I don’t completely forgive I can’t forget, because to forgive is to change my attitude towards another. Well, if I change it towards another, it doesn’t really matter what they did; for I’m not going to confuse them with the state that compelled them to do what they did. They were only in a state when they played the part of the harlot and who is anyone in this world to condemn that state? Don’t condemn the individual who entered the state. They play the part of the thief, who hasn’t? In his infinite mercy, it’s hidden from us the parts we have played. If man could now suddenly before he resurrects and sees who he is and knows he is the being who willed it all, if he could only remember before that moment in time, he’d die of shock. It would be eternal death to see the horrors that he committed in this world, for he has passed through all these states; because until he knows what he is doing he falls into states.835 ¶28

Read it in the papers. And the purpose of all the propaganda tonight in this little campaign is to get you to believe what they want you to believe. Put you into a state…no matter how they get you into a state…“Don’t trust him any more, trust me. I’ll take you over tomorrow, but in the meanwhile trust me. So then it comes to the point where now I’ll take you over too. I’ve had my hands in the pork barrel; and I go on and you remain.” Why did I vote for him?835 ¶29

Tonight, there are millions asking that question concerning their intensity a few years ago. They were carried away…friends of mine who never voted other than one side of the ticket, all Republican, then came a suggestion on TV, “Would you trust a man who would put his hand on that button? Would you trust him in the White House?” Of course, millions of mothers with their sons ready—they wouldn’t trust him unless they were one hundred percent Republican—not only went out and voted elsewhere, but they campaigned and gave their time and their money. Now today when I go to their homes back in New York, I can’t bring up the word, because they’re so filled with animosity toward what they voted for I can’t touch it. And I’m not given that way to say I told you so, because they’ve suffered enough. But they were carried away with what?—a state. They got them into a state. If I put you into any state, you’ll act with that state, you can’t help it. Put you into any state and you’re carried by the state and you will justify that state, and all that the state contains you will grow like a lovely wonderful fruit tree.835 ¶30

So, I’m not telling you which state is right or which state is wrong. I’m asking you to simply judge by love. If you’re ever in doubt, always do the loving thing, and then you’re doing the right thing. When you’re ever in doubt, do the loving thing. Someone comes to you, “I want a job”…don’t ask them “How did you get fired?” He could have been fired because he stole…and then you start a new lecture. It’s not your position. He wants a job. Do the loving thing. Let the one find out, let others find out, but don’t you say what normally would be your impulse to give him a lecture. Maybe he did steal, I don’t know. Maybe he wasn’t qualified for the job and maybe he was.835 ¶31

Tonight we relieved the head of our Army in Vietnam. Well, we’ve had him there for years. If we can relieve him today, was he qualified when he first went there? Well then, don’t condemn him. He’s been there the longest while. We’ve just released our secretary of war, called today our secretary of defense. If you released him now under pressure, was he qualified when we first put him there? But don’t condemn him…this is all states, infinite states, and men fall into states.835 ¶32

I tell you, Christ is your own wonderful creative power and it’s your wonderful human Imagination. So you fall into states, but now, from now on, move into states deliberately. Let them play any part that they want, but you move deliberately into states. If you want to live graciously in your world with your family, well then, you move deliberately into a state, and make that state natural by occupying it long enough to make it natural. Haven’t you had a suit of clothes? I know when I had only one suit and then I could afford a second suit, I bought the suit and put it on and walked down 5th Avenue. I thought that everyone that I passed knew I had a new suit and no one knew. I might just as well of been a dead person, a ghost passing by as far as they were concerned. They didn’t know me. But I was so conscious of my new suit, so conscious of the new hat that I had, as I thought everyone knew I had a new suit, and no one knew. That’s exactly what happens to us when we move into a new state. You move into the state of being affluent and you think that everyone knows that you formerly were not affluent. No one knows whether you were or are. So walk until it becomes natural. The moment it becomes natural you’ll sleep in it.835 ¶33

When you buy a new suit…in those days I bought a thirty-dollar suit…take it off and everything was just so. Now today, although I still take care of my clothes, if I had occasion to simply stretch out because I was tired with a $200-odd suit on my back, I don’t care, I’ll sleep in it. Not that I do, but I mean if the occasion arose I would. It makes no difference to me, because I don’t give that importance to the thing. But then, with only one suit in my wardrobe, the new suit was a very important thing. And you wore it until finally it became natural…that no one knew you had a new suit, it was natural.835 ¶34

Well, the same thing is true of a state. So you put on a state of being wanted, the state of being affluent, the state of being anything and you wear it long enough to make it a new suit, and then automatically, when you get up in the morning you walk in that state of consciousness. It’s part of your body of beliefs.835 ¶35

So I hope I have answered my friend who asked me to speak on this level concerning states. For this has been on this tonight, interwoven with a bit of the other concerning David. Now let us go into the Silence.835 ¶36

* * * [...] “Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and all things will be added unto you.” Well, I said it time and time again that when I take the platform and what appears to those who are present to be profoundly spiritual, it is to me at the same time most directly practical. So the night that I actually go all out on a mystical, spiritual level, people may not know it and they will think “Well now, he’s all out tonight. I wish he’d come down and give me something I can put my teeth into and get things.” Well, if they’d only listen when I go all out on the spiritual, things would flow into their world. So seek ye first the kingdom of God and the kingdom of God is the pattern man and Jesus Christ is the pattern. So when I take that pattern at night and I begin to explain the pattern that must unfold in man…and it will unfold if you listen carefully and really believe in it. Believe this pattern is in you and it will unfold. I don’t care if you go without bread. Keep this divine vision in time of trouble. No matter what happens, hold on to this vision and then things will happen, and all things will be given unto you. Because eventually by this pattern when it unfolds within you, what is yours?—the kingdom of God, and you can truly say “All thine are mine and mine are thine.” Where on this earth if you own two billion or ten billion personally, so what is that? Even tonight they’re taking all that a man makes, if you make enough plus [...]. The most profoundly spiritual method that I could ever give is in reality the most directly practical. When we get lost in listening to God’s promise, then all things come. They do come. You forget yourself in listening to what he’s promised, and you’re so carried away with that it doesn’t really matter. I’m speaking from experience. I can take any audience in this world from here to the coast and there’s no one in the audience that can face me and tell me I haven’t had privation, that I do not know what it is to be dispossessed for lack of rent, what it is to pull in my belt and not eat for two days. I know that, but it never occurred to me to steal anything because I couldn’t eat. It never occurred to me to walk out on the rent and deny that I owed it…but to turn around and paint the place for her; and paid much more in my labor and paint than I actually owed her, and [...]. It never occurred to me not to offer my services in any way they could be used to liquidate the debt. I’d go hungry. But at the end, he awoke within me, so what does it matter about the few days of hunger and the few moments in my life of embarrassment where you couldn’t pay rent and you had to get going, and your clothes were not [...] shabby. So you didn’t like it at the time, but you had a certain vision and you never wavered in the support of that vision. You had a certain ethical code and you didn’t violate it. Shoot me if that’s what you want for the price of a little rent. There was a time in this world you could imprison a man for debt. Today we’re not living in that section of time. There was a time that you could take a man’s arm off for taking a piece of bread that wasn’t his. But I say, seek first the kingdom of heaven if anyone knows it. Of course, millions are talking about it and they haven’t the slightest concept of what it’s all about. They have a glorified earth and that isn’t the kingdom at all. The kingdom of heaven is not a place; it’s a state of awareness, a creative state where everything is yours for the taking, because you can imagine it. And you don’t need bread and you don’t need homes and you don’t need [...]. You’re a creative power. And you can’t use any symbol here to even vaguely describe that world of which I speak. So the night I go all out on the spiritual, may I tell you, that’s the night which is the most practical, for you’re lost in what you’re hearing, and when you’re lost long enough out of your state of feeling sorry for yourself to be carried away, then things rush in. I recall the night on Columbus Circle in New York City back in the deep, deep days of the Depression. Well, I didn’t have a dime, I had nothing, no bread, and they’re all talking against God. And I asked for the little platform. I had no permission to talk, but the one who had permission gave it to me. And so I took the platform in defense of the Bible. And they were all crowded around and they were carrying on because if there was a God, should we have only coffee and donuts. Well, they were getting coffee and donuts anyway, but [...]. And this was the old Columbus Circle, which is now gone and they have huge buildings there. When I got off the platform and stepped down, at my foot was a ten dollar bill. I picked it up and they all saw me with a ten dollar bill, and they said, “That’s not yours.” So I said, “Give me the serial number and it’s yours.” Good night.835 ¶37