Assuming With Confucius: Investigate Your Assumption
I'm not sure Confucius wasn't talking about metaphysics and assumption in the Great Learning. It sure sounds a lot like what Neville taught. Confucius said: "What the Great Learning teaches is to illustrate illustrious virtue; to renovate the people and to rest in the highest excellence." To illustrate illustrious virtue. To renovate the people. To rest in the highest excellence. Pretty noble stuff. A high calling. How do you do it? These are what manifesting God by assumption is all about! I love Confucius' idea of helping things along by investigating things (see third paragraph below):
"The point where to rest being known, the object of pursuit is then determined (know exactly what you want, and select a scene which implies that you HAVE it); and, that being determined, a calm unperturbedness may be attained to. To that calmness there will succeed a tranquil repose (the confidence of faith that it is possible and has already been received). In that repose there may be careful deliberation (in a sleepy, drowsy state approaching sleep, but while you are still in complete control of your faculties, imagine PERFORMING the scene over and over "until it takes on all the tones of reality" and you have fully assumed that you there and experiencing it and are thinking from it, and then let yourself fall asleep in the assumption that you are THERE), and that deliberation will be followed by the attainment of the desired end (as the assumption hardens into fact).
"Things have their root and their branches. Affairs have their end and their beginning. To know what is first and what is last will lead near to what is taught in the Great Learning. (How many have missed this? Read it this way: "Things have their root, affairs HAVE THEIR END, to know what is first will lead near to what the Great Learning teaches. The root that comes first is the END. Assume the end FIRST!)
"The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the kingdom, first ordered well their own states (Perceiving our oneness with God, the ancients pursued their own righteousness for the sake of their community). Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts (change in our out-pictured manifestation comes through change in our own thoughts and character within). Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts (what is desired must be assumed). Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge (exactly what is desired must be thoroughly considered). Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things (construct that world well! What is it like there? The sound, the ambiance, the smells, the time of day, the sense of what day of the week it is, who is there, their attitudes, etc.).
"Things being investigated, knowledge became complete. Their knowledge being complete, their thoughts were sincere. Their thoughts being sincere, their hearts were then rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their persons were cultivated. Their persons being cultivated, their families were regulated. Their families being regulated, their states were rightly governed. Their states being rightly governed, the whole kingdom was made tranquil and happy.
"From the Son of Heaven down to the mass of the people, all must consider the cultivation of the person the root of everything beside (the Son of Heaven was the emperor, the representative of the people. He had to do his part to impress upon everyone to do their part to cultivate the desired end).
"It cannot be, when the root (the key assumption) is neglected, that what should spring from it will be well ordered. It never has been the case that what was of great importance has been slightly cared for, and, at the same time, that what was of slight importance has been greatly cared for (we cannot expect success if we are indifferent to practice. If improving our world is valuable to us, we will dedicate time and effort to the performance of imagining, for we being the Manifestation of the Ineffable in and through our assumption are the operant power)."
The Teacher taught them well. Were to God we all paid heed to his lesson.
"The point where to rest being known, the object of pursuit is then determined (know exactly what you want, and select a scene which implies that you HAVE it); and, that being determined, a calm unperturbedness may be attained to. To that calmness there will succeed a tranquil repose (the confidence of faith that it is possible and has already been received). In that repose there may be careful deliberation (in a sleepy, drowsy state approaching sleep, but while you are still in complete control of your faculties, imagine PERFORMING the scene over and over "until it takes on all the tones of reality" and you have fully assumed that you there and experiencing it and are thinking from it, and then let yourself fall asleep in the assumption that you are THERE), and that deliberation will be followed by the attainment of the desired end (as the assumption hardens into fact).
"Things have their root and their branches. Affairs have their end and their beginning. To know what is first and what is last will lead near to what is taught in the Great Learning. (How many have missed this? Read it this way: "Things have their root, affairs HAVE THEIR END, to know what is first will lead near to what the Great Learning teaches. The root that comes first is the END. Assume the end FIRST!)
"The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the kingdom, first ordered well their own states (Perceiving our oneness with God, the ancients pursued their own righteousness for the sake of their community). Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts (change in our out-pictured manifestation comes through change in our own thoughts and character within). Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts (what is desired must be assumed). Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge (exactly what is desired must be thoroughly considered). Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things (construct that world well! What is it like there? The sound, the ambiance, the smells, the time of day, the sense of what day of the week it is, who is there, their attitudes, etc.).
"Things being investigated, knowledge became complete. Their knowledge being complete, their thoughts were sincere. Their thoughts being sincere, their hearts were then rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their persons were cultivated. Their persons being cultivated, their families were regulated. Their families being regulated, their states were rightly governed. Their states being rightly governed, the whole kingdom was made tranquil and happy.
"From the Son of Heaven down to the mass of the people, all must consider the cultivation of the person the root of everything beside (the Son of Heaven was the emperor, the representative of the people. He had to do his part to impress upon everyone to do their part to cultivate the desired end).
"It cannot be, when the root (the key assumption) is neglected, that what should spring from it will be well ordered. It never has been the case that what was of great importance has been slightly cared for, and, at the same time, that what was of slight importance has been greatly cared for (we cannot expect success if we are indifferent to practice. If improving our world is valuable to us, we will dedicate time and effort to the performance of imagining, for we being the Manifestation of the Ineffable in and through our assumption are the operant power)."
The Teacher taught them well. Were to God we all paid heed to his lesson.
posted by Daniel C. Branham-Steele at
3:08 PM
1 Comments:
When Neville walked the streets of NYC imagining them to be the tree lined streets of Barbados, he had a whole storehouse of actual experience growing up there to draw from. It was more of a sense memory he was engaging in. Not to diminish the self discipline of turning snow into sunshine, but he did have plenty of experience with sunshine, so he didn't have to conjure it from a blank canvas.
It also seems like Neville teaches two distinctly different things, or practices. On the one hand he stresses the brief scene, implying the wish fulfilled, which he directs one to repeat over and over in imagination. A really, really simple short scene such as a handshake, and that's it. He says, "I do not shake it, then light a cigarette and do a thousand other things." This principle is echoed by the words of Joseph Murphy and Louise Hay. That is, that the subconscious mind is impressed by repetition. And, keep it simple.
Then there's the FEELING part. In some instances Neville explains feeling as emotions. "What would it feel like if..." he asks. In other instances, like the answer to Sami's question, he defines it specifically as BELIEF. I take that to mean the belief that what you are doing is selecting from the possibilities held within Creation, which is already finished. Belief that the thing you are imagining does indeed exist fourth dimensionally. Yet, I can have that belief with no added emotions, good, bad, gooey or otherwise.
Here's the thing. I can imagine a simple action repetitively and feel absolutely nothing. In fact doing that makes it like a drill, or playing scales. I'm walking the plank, I'm walking the plank, oops my mind just wandered off to 100 things, I'm walking the plank, I'm walking the plank. I'm climbing the ladder, I'm climbing the ladder, I'm climbing the ladder... or I'm hearing my friend say congratulations on the promotion! congratulations on the promotion! congratulations on the promotion! congratulations on the promotion! like a skipping record. How many times do I need to hear it on repeat to make it stick? Is five minutes long enough? That's where Neville talks about "concentrated thought." Seems like hocus pocus in a way.
On the other hand I can feel the joy of something just by contemplating the IDEA of it ("what if I were....") sans any imaginary "scene work" at all. Just by contemplating, I AM_________. That's Feeling = Emotions. But if there's no scene work then there is no concrete "event" to "believe exists" fourth dimensionally (Feeling = Belief). Yeah?
Does getting excited matter? How can you get excited repeating a handshake 100 times? Just sayin!
Also, I've experimented by visualizing objects of no consequence (with no emotions involved) and then seen them turn up in my reality, either the actual object or virtually. Thus proving to myself that at least in some instances "feelings" are irrelevant.
Perhaps the repetitive scene work (handshake handshake handshake), used to drive home the point to the subconscious mind is done in a brief session, like Neville did his at 3pm. And the FEELING feeeelings (I am, I have) is what is done at night before sleep ensues. Keep them separate?
Maybe it gets so complicated when we pray for ourselves. Maybe we're only supposed to be imagining on behalf of others? Neville though gave plenty of examples of people imagining for themselves and succeeding with it.
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Lennox, at 11:06 AM
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