Golden Gate Course 13

Some of you who have followed me so far in this Course may be thinking, “There is so much in the lessons about improving one’s job or changing one’s district, but I can do none of these things. I am firmly tied just where I am.” This lesson is especially for you.

First of all, make sure that you really are tied. Do not hide behind it because you want security or because you fear changes. Or because you have not the initiative to set off on your own. I know of people who, at home with aged parents, have sighed for years, “If only I had the freedom to do so-and-so”, but when the old people have died the freed person has then quickly tied himself or herself up with somebody else! Then started to sigh for freedom all over again! This is no isolated instance. I can think of half-a-dozen people right now who have done just that. Some of them are still doing it.

So make sure that you are really tied, that either through definite arrangements or definite promises, or a feeling of duty or obligation you must remain for the present. If you are sure it is so, then proceed in this way.

You want good fortune – but how? Do you want to work at something you feel you have a gift to do well? Do you want to travel in search of your real work and adventure, and will not draw back when the way opens? Do you want to meet more people and perhaps find your dreams in some specific work? Whatever it is, you will have recorded it all in your notebook by now. Read it over again and see if you still feel just the same about it. If you do, then it is quite likely that it is your way, for an enduring desire is usually a good guide.

However much a “prisoner” you may feel in your present circumstances, be assured that you are by no means a prisoner in your thoughts! You can travel all over the world in your mind. You can circle the globe, soar up to the planets, sink into the very centre of the earth, rise to planes of consciousness which no mere land traveller can know.

You can, too, have a wide love for humanity. Your thoughts can sweep out in sympathy to the very ends of the earth and link up with people of all races, colours and creeds. Someone may be a great traveller, yet have an unfriendly, cramped, suspicious attitude towards others. This person gains nothing worth having from their travels, for they only see things, while the friendly, tolerant person sees hearts.

There is infinite variety, humour, wisdom and interest in the human heart. Those who are loving, tolerant, interested and friendly in their mental attitude towards other people have a vastly wider and wiser life even if they rarely see another human being, than the indrawn, cold-hearted person.

Get the idea of wide spaces, of freedom. The world today, with its television, radio, books, films and almost universal education was never more conducive to freedom. Not one of us is so great a “prisoner” that he or she cannot enjoy a full, free life, teaming with interest and growth.

Do you want a scope for your talents? Then spend this waiting time in developing them still more. Look at all the specialised training that one can secure in correspondence courses. The books of an educational nature one can borrow, free of charge, from public libraries. The talks on a variety of subjects on the radio. The lessons in foreign languages, history, geography – even physical training lessons that are sometimes televised end broadcast! Are you interested in world affairs? Look at your radio programmes and see all the experts to whom you can listen in the privacy of your own home. Then there are evening schools and lots of periodicals on every available subject which can be secured for a small outlay. {Of course, there is now a vast amount of information and learning available via the Internet which was not available in Bernard’s time – William M.}

Yes, the world, even in the confines of your own home, is calling you, and it is willing to come right into that home, offering you breadth of outlook, knowledge and the fruit of its experience. There is no need for any one of you to think that you can do nothing towards your good fortune now. You can use the time in reaching out and drawing all that you need in. In entirely changing every thought of despondency into hope, of doubt into assurance, of timidity into courage, of fear into faith, of boredom into a treasure-house of vital interests.

Give yourself auto-suggestions, declaring that you will be all that you want and desire to be. Say to yourself, “I will be courageous today”, or “I will be friendly today”, or whatever it is that you wish to develop in yourself. Say it, mean it and do it.

If you live in a most inharmonious atmosphere among people who are unsympathetic to you and oppose you, this need make no difference. All the “making over” can be done silently and you will grow to such a degree of inward strength that no one will dare to try to dominate you again. Your present position is the result of your past thoughts up to this date. Think back and see! Remember how often you have felt timid and have given in to somebody against your “better judgement”, when your own inner self warned you to “stand firm”. Remember how often you have wished for something better for yourself, have thought that you were worthy of something better and had gifts to use in a more interesting, freer life. But what have you done about it?

You have made a few feeble, spasmodic efforts and then have found you “couldn’t be bothered to make the effort”. You “prisoners” and “tied” ones are like birds in cages who look wistfully through the bars at the outside world, yet if the cage door was suddenly opened you would draw back. You wish for a better life but won’t make any effort to go to meet it. Or else you sit in your cages and dream of the kind of outside life you want. You insist that you must have the best, immediately. Your freedom must be much better than that which you see others enjoying, and until you get it you will just stay in your cage.

It is as though a caged bird saw a sparrow fluttering happily in a garden. “Come and join me”, the sparrow invited. “I will open the door.” “What, and just live like you do in that tiny garden?” queries the caged bird scornfully. “No thank you. I want to soar up to the mountain top and join my life to that of the eagles.” Poor caged bird! He does not know that his cramped wings would not even carry him as far as the sparrow. But if he was content with a little freedom first and used that, he would soon be able to follow his inclination and fly beyond the garden walls.

Beware then, of remaining in your cage and and making your desire for the very best that you can conceive, into an alibi. You will become a mere dreamer that way, and get nowhere. Prepare yourself now, widen and broaden your outlook, open your heart in friendly tolerance to all.

Develop your talents, transform your thinking. Then when the cage door opens, accept the freedom eagerly, however humble it may seem to you at first. Regard it as a “jumping off place” to better things!

This lesson may seem to be only for those who are “tied” just now, but this is not really so. There is an abundance of material for all who are alert, whatever their circumstances. Particularly is this so regarding friendliness.

Some people think that, by not wishing anyone else harm, and by practising thought building with power and concentration, they can win success without really feeling friendliness. But this is not so. Friendliness is absolutely essential if you want true success. You need a friendliness of the heart to succeed.

Six days each week of this lesson, send out friendly thoughts to five people whom you know. Mention each by name and add, “May God bless you abundantly and bring to you happiness and peace”. Then for the seventh day (or at least, on one of the seven) go out with the deliberate intention of having a friendly conversation with a stranger. There are countless ways you can do this – on a bus, in a queue, in a shop, in the street when an opportunity occurs, and so on. One day in each of the next few weeks start a friendly conversation with a stranger.

Returning to our theme of abundant supply, let me tell you about a thought building method that I use sometimes. It is a form of exaggeration. All the time you will know that you are exaggerating of course, but the method impresses your subconscious mind. Let us take an example. You may have sent away some work that you completed (artistic work perhaps, that you have done as a freelance). You know that it will be accepted, but what you wish to do is to increase your orders for it, to ten a week.

So you start to thought build for a hundred orders a week! You picture yourself working at incredible speed (just like a speeded-up film). You parcel up your product at about twenty times your usual pace. You “see” the postman racing to the postbox, collecting the mail, whipping it over his shoulder racing off with it like a lightning streak. You see the work delivered at the same crazy pace, unwrapped, examined and orders pouring back to you like jet planes! Everything is exaggerated and speeded up – you’ll probably smile as I do, while thought building like this.

It’s based on the principle, “Aim at the sky and you hit the ceiling” and it really does help you to reach that ceiling. Adapt this for whatever supply you desire – it may become quite a favourite thought building method of yours

REMEMBER:- Change your thoughts and you change your circumstances. You have 6 more weeks to practise prosperity thinking. By then it should be a habit.

Bernard

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