Letting Go

   Perhaps one of the most difficult things to the growing student is the ability to let go. He makes — a reality of the very things which he wishes to over­come and in doing so hugs them to him with all his strength, when it is only necessary many times to let go and the thing which has been hurting or hindering his progress will disappear.

   In the Bible the struggle of Jacob with the unnamed thing is a good illustration of how we hold things to us and suffer from them. When Jacob loosed it and let it go it disappeared and was no more.Now what this condition was we are not told, but if it was one of sickness or poverty or hatred it was one and the same thing, the process of being able to let go is one of the^: most freeing things possible.

    In the first place when a man loosens his hold on a thing he can them move away from it, if the thing does not want to move from him.Some men are carrying around loads so large and out of proportion to their size that they, can hardly accomplish the meanest tasks because they are handicapped and because all their energy is used or sapped in holding onto the condition which they want to be rid of.

    In Africa one of the ways of capturing a monkey is by making a small hole in a coconut and filling the coconut with some most edible grain. Presently the monkey puts his hand in the opening and closes it on the handful of grain thereby increasing the size of his fist to such an extent that he cannot again withdraw his hand ‘from the hole and at this point the hunter appears and the frightened monkey who might scamper off into the jungle to his freedom tries to drag the coconut after him and is caught. His condition is exactly like the man who has a problem which he is not able to let go of. He does not realize that by relaxing his hold the thing would slip from him and that he would be free and able to go where he would.

    This is the doctrine of “Resist not.” When a man resists a thing it is a pretty sure sign that he fears it. Resisting also produces friction which wears a man out and makes him worthless. “Resist not” does not in any way mean that a person should let go of their very being and let the wind of chance handle them as it sees fit, but it does mean letting go of the claims which are objectionable to us, and also a refusal to acknowledge them as such realities that they need to be fought or resisted. That which we resist is real and a thing that is real cannot be put from us. If you feel that your present condition is an absolute reality and that it cannot be changed rest assured that no amount of thinking will change it, for your thought is holding it in place and until you change your thought, stop resisting the thing, make of it a thing that can be overcome, you will never gain the goal of your dreams.

     If you realize that you were given domin­ion over everything then why waste your time resisting a thing; why not come out with your authority and command the situa­tion. But it would not be fair to either you or the thing which you were resisting if you did not give it the same chance to get away as you take to get away from it. Loose it therefore and let it go.

   “Judge not from appearances but judge righteous judgment”—refuse to accept the testimony of the material sense which is reporting in harmony to you—but ‘pass the powerful thought along to the uttermost part of your kingdom “I am well “and I know it—because the Great God of whom I am an expression’ (pressed out idea) has made me well and strong and I am in rapport —with HIM.” Meditate upon this—-realize that it is as impossible for you to express an inharmonious condition as it is for God to express one. If you admit for a minute that the Great All-powerful Mind of God can express in harmony of any sort then you have destroyed your premise that God is —all good and your possible escape from the ills of the’ flesh is small.

    When we come to the “resist not” state and understanding that we are henceforth not going to fight a thing with all our might and main and at the same time say it is “nothing but a thought and a wrong one” —we will come to the place that Jesus came when he began his demonstrations with a perfect acknowledgement of the completed work, “I thank thee Father that thou has heard me.” He was so clear in regard to the working of the All-powerful mind that he was able to give thanks for its enactment before he saw the results. He was so sure that there was a power which could operate in the behalf of mankind healing and curing all the ills of the flesh that he never once used long and difficult argument. He knew the power was with HIM and he knew that the power is with any man who is clean enough mentally to; receive it.

     Instantaneous demonstration is only a miracle in the sense that it is something which sets aside a material law-but a miracle is in reality the natural and perfect enactment of the Divine or Infinite Law, and when we learn more how to use’ this law we will be able to do the things that Jesus did with the same ease. “The things that I do ye shall do also and even greater.”

We are not only to do the things he did, but even greater. What did he do:

  Raised the dead

  Opened the blind eyes

  Unstopped the deaf ears

  Healed the lame

  Made well the sick

  Turned water into wine

  Produced gold from the fish’es mouth

      Made plentiful increase in the place where lack was.

  “The things that I do ye shall do also and even greater.” It is thundering down the ages with a new meaning. Awake thou that sleepeth to the glorious possibilities of your one-ness with this illimitable power, Good. This is your divine heritage—-this is your birthright and it can only be reclaimed by right thinking.

   Every condition is in reality a state of consciousness. This may be difficult, for you to see at first, but as you go into the work­ings of the Law of Right Thinking you will realize that the very place you are now in, is the place your thought has put you. “But the glorious thing that comes to all people who are alive and thinking that no matter what place they are in—-they can by proper thinking, change that place to one more to be desired, or else they can change the place where they now are to one which will be amply satisfactory for their every need and happiness.

    It is quite true that the Kingdom of heaven is right at hand—it is only a matter of how a man looks at it. With the eyes of the right thinking man he sees God. Life mani­fested everywhere and he becomes one with the great plan of nature and hence is in perfect harmony with the whole scheme. This brings the peace which passeth all understanding – and brings contentment—–that most cherished gift of all.

    It is not necessary then to begin worrying about the material condition. about you——first look to the mental state-get that right and as you turn to the Father or the Christ Consciousness you will find that the Father or Christ Consciousness is turning to you and you are welcome back into the land of plenty and happiness.

     Suddenly in the very place which has been the desert existence to you the rose shall bloom. Infinite possibilities will open unto you; friends will flock to you, for remember you are now working with the One and Only Law that is worthy of consideration—-and this law operates “in the twinkling of an eye.” Suddenly as this change comes you will find yourself ready for it for the change has been going on within for a long time and the secret thing has at last been declared from “the housetop.

      The difficulty experienced by most people in getting results is that they start with the effect instead of the cause. This is because in most instances they recognize the effect as the cause.

If a man is in debt he constantly medi­tates upon that debt-he looks^, at it as a cause instead of an effect. He constantly contemplates it with fear and nine chances out of ten he puts into action the law “The thing I feared has come upon me.” That is done by “the Law of Attraction”-re­member that “Like attracts Like” and if you want certain conditions to manifest in your life you can never attain them as long as you keep your mind full of the opposite views of life.

     All about you, you can see instances where the law of attraction has been working. The average man who is down and out in the world is always talking hard times, failure. He is fault finding and pessimistic—-he be­lieves in the will-o-the-wisp chance-and he attracts all these conditions to him, perm­anently because—-“Like attracts like.” Look at the lives of BIG MEN—-some of them have failed many times-but “they never say die” one failure teaches them the lesson they needed and they go at it again with the feeling “well I made it once I can do it again.” That is what prompts them on and they usually arrive.

    Like physical exercise the repeated sys­tematic exercise will surely result in enlarged muscles, increased strength and’ vitality, and so with mental gymnastics—-if you are faithful to your period of silent communion with the All Power and realize your oneness with it you will begin to see increased mental powers and finally when you take a check on life you will find you have made tre­mendous strides towards your goal. “I have done that once —I can do it again” is the encouragement which you pass along to your success, little though it may be. And when a thing is well repeated the person is ready to go higher.

     The old threadbare axiom, “Practice makes perfect,” we all recognize. I remember pass­ing a certain residence the very day the young daughter had her first lesson on the piano. The thought came to me what a far reach it is to a place where she will be able to interpret Chopin correctly—and yet when I passed that way daily I could begin to detect improvement almost from the start—–and one day she was playing the pre­ludes of the master with great “ease. I could well remember when she did not know one note from the other and to have placed a prelude in front of her then and say “play that” would have been utterly foolish on^–the face of it-yet you realized at that time that the child has the ability to do it if she were only willing and ‘ready to set out on the faithful path of a little con­sistent study each day.

     Perhaps you stand today where the little girl at the piano was that first day-are you willing to take up a little, sincere and careful thinking for a few moments a’ day in order to come into the possession of your dreams?

     We soon learn that if we would have con­trol of the outer man we must first get control of the inner. We must begin to realize that the outer is only a manifestation of the inner and that in proportion as we wish to change a thing we must first seek the cause of that condition or thing within.

     Once you have decided to eliminate a certain condition from your life from that moment on, never give voice to the lie again—-when it presents itself to you dismiss it with the abiding conviction that it is a lie and has no place in, your mind or body.Make your strong affirmations and cling to them. Once you have learned that the Inner source is capable of anything, you will hold before it only such patterns as you wish reproduced, but if you have already repro­duced something that is objectionable” you can yet return to the “Secret Place” and there destroy the thought which created it in the first place. Remember to look only to the cause; the effect will take care of itself.

     Having decided that you will rid yourself of some claim, you must learn to meditate upon the state or condition which you wish to replace it with. Idealize it, praise it and know that you have dropped the seed into fertile ground and that it is springing into birth.

     Keep silent about your shortcomings, your faults, your fears and sickness—-the more you repeat them the more real they become to both yourself and others, and voicing these errors only accentuates their reality. Eliminate weak words from your mind and your vocabulary—-see how often you can substitute a powerful word for one of limi­tation and weakness. How often do we hear the expressions “I was scared nearly to death—-tickled to death—-I nearly died laughing, etc.” all of which have their effect on the body and mind of man. They are weak wasteful words which could and should be replaced with words of beauty and life.

    After a little while of this watchfulness you will find it becoming a habit—the habit of speaking only goodong words and of thinking this kind of thoughts—-you will then enter into a perpetual state of happiness for you will be free from the limitations that your false words have fixed upon you.

 

Walter C. Lanyon