SOME EXERCISES IN USE OF IMAGINATION, BY NEVILLE
SOURCE http://www.nirvikalpa.com/content.php?page=neville
Exercise
The Truth That Sets You Free
Since your life is determined by your assumptions, you are forced to recognize the fact
that you are either a slave to your assumptions or their master. To become the master of
your assumptions is the key to undreamed-of freedom and happiness. You can attain this
mastery by deliberate conscious control of your imagination. You determine your
assumptions in this way: Form a mental image, a picture of the state desired, of the
person you want to be. Concentrate your attention upon the feeling that you are already
that person. First, visualize the picture in your consciousness. Then feel yourself to be in
that state as though it actually formed your surrounding world. By your imagination that
which was a mere mental image is changed into a seemingly solid reality.
The great secret is a controlled imagination and a well-sustained attention firmly and
repeatedly focused on the object to be accomplished. It cannot be emphasized too much
that, by creating an ideal within your mental sphere, by assuming that you are already
that ideal, you identify yourself with it and thereby transform yourself into its image,
[thinking from the ideal instead of thinking of the ideal. Every state is already there as
"mere possibilities" as long as we thinkof them, but as overpoweringly real when we
think from them]. This was called by the ancient teachers "Subjection to the will of God"
or "Resting in the Lord," and the only true test of "Resting in the Lord" is that all who do
rest are inevitably transformed into the image of that in which they rest [thinking from
the wish fulfilled]. You become according to your resigned will, and your resigned will is
your concept of yourself and all that you consent to and accept as true. You, assuming the
feeling of your wish fulfilled and continuing therein, take upon yourself the results of that
state; not assuming the feeling of your wish fulfilled, you are ever free of the results.
When you understand the redemptive function of imagination, you hold in your hands the
key to the solution of all your problems. Every phase of your life is made by the exercise
of your imagination. Determined imagination alone is the means of your progress, of the
fulfilling of your dreams. It is the beginning and end of all creating. The great secret is a
controlled imagination and a well sustained attention firmly and repeatedly focused on
the feeling of the wish fulfilled until it fills the mind and crowds all other ideas out of
consciousness. What greater gifts could be given you than to be told the Truth that will
set you free? The Truth that sets you free is that you can experience in imagination what
you desire to experience in reality, and by maintaining this experience in imagination,
your desire will become an actuality.
You are limited only by your uncontrolled imagination and lack of attention to the feeling
of your wish fulfilled. When the imagination is not controlled and the attention not
steadied on the feeling of the wish fulfilled, then no amount of prayer or piety or
invocation will produce the desired effect. When you can call up at will whatsoever
image you please, when the forms of your imagination are as vivid to you as the forms of
nature, you are master of your fate. [You must stop spending your thoughts, your tmie
and your money. Everything in life must be an investment.]
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Exercise
Rewind The Day Before Bed
To aid in mastering the control of your attention, practice this exercise: Night after night,
Just before you drift off to sleep, strive to hold your attention on the activities of the day
in reverse order. Focus your attention on the last thing you did, that is, getting in to bed,
and then move it backward in time over the events until you reach the first event of the
day, getting out of bed. This
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Exercise
Move Attention From the Objective To The Subjective
There is an enormous difference between attention directed objectively and attention
directed subjectively, and the capacity to change your future depends on the latter. When
you are able to control the movements of your attention in the subjective world, you can
modify or alter your life as you please. But this control cannot be achieved if you allow