#124: A Mystical View of Daily Life

A Mystical View of Daily Life

A Lecture in the Voice and Spirit of Neville Goddard

You have been taking the events of your daily life as literal facts, as things that happen to you from some source outside yourself, and in this taking you have remained bound by them. But there is another way of seeing, a mystical way, in which every event, however small or seemingly great, is recognized as a symbol of your own consciousness. The disappointment that meets you in the morning, the delay that holds you in the afternoon, the unexpected word that wounds you in the evening — each is not an independent occurrence but a faithful symbol of some state you have assumed, some feeling you have lived in, some conviction you have accepted as true of yourself.

When you see an event as symbolic you do not deny its appearance. You simply refuse to accept the appearance as the cause. You stand still in the awareness that this thing which seems so solid and so independent of you is but your consciousness speaking to you in the only language it knows — the language of event and symbol. The whole of your world is your awareness of being out-pictured. There is no fiction anywhere. What you see outwardly is the visible form of what you are conscious of being inwardly. To the literal mind a traffic jam is a traffic jam, an unkindness is an unkindness, a lack is a lack. To the mystical mind each of these is a symbol, a sign pointing inward to the precise state of consciousness that produced it.

You cannot change the symbol by wrestling with it. The symbol has no power of its own. It draws all its seeming reality from the consciousness that sustains it. When you turn from the symbol and look instead at the state it represents, you are already beginning to exercise the only true power there is. The event loses its sting the moment you see it as a symbol rather than as a fact. The person who seems to oppose you loses his power over you the moment you recognize him as a personification of some state you have been entertaining. The circumstance that appears to block you reveals itself as the visible sign of an invisible assumption the moment you consent to see it mystically.

This way of seeing is not a denial of life. It is the only way to live life consciously. For the literal mind life is a series of happenings that must be endured or fought. For the mystical mind life is a continuous revelation, a living scripture written in the language of event, forever telling you what you are assuming to be true of yourself. The Bible itself is such a scripture. It was never meant to be read as the history of an ancient people but as the psychological drama of every man. When you read it literally you miss its meaning. When you read it mystically you discover that every character, every incident, every place is a symbol of some state of consciousness. The same principle applies to the scripture of your daily life. Every character you meet, every incident that occurs, every place you enter is a symbol of some aspect of your own awareness of being.

Can you not see that if this be true, then nothing that happens to you can ever be alien to you? The event may appear foreign, the person may seem a stranger, the circumstance may feel like an enemy, yet all are sprung from the same soil — your consciousness. They are your own awareness of being walking about in symbolic form. The one who injures you is yourself pushed out. The condition that frustrates you is yourself pushed out. The joy that surprises you is yourself pushed out. There is no other. When this realization becomes your settled conviction, the whole tone of your life changes. You no longer feel yourself the victim of circumstances. You feel yourself the author of circumstances, writing them into being through the states you assume and sustaining them through the states you continue to occupy.

The literal mind asks, “Why did this happen to me?” The mystical mind asks, “What state of consciousness is this event now symbolizing for me?” The first question keeps you bound to the symbol. The second question returns the power to you. For the moment you identify the state, you can, if you will, assume another. But the first and essential step is the seeing. Without the seeing you remain in the dark, fighting shadows, blaming conditions, resenting persons, all the while sustaining the very states that produce the symbols you deplore.

Consider how this seeing transforms the ordinary day. You rise in the morning and something immediately goes wrong. In the literal view you are irritated, you blame the person or the thing, you carry the irritation with you into the hours that follow. In the mystical view you pause and ask yourself what this irritation is symbolizing. You discover that you began the day assuming some small sense of lack or of pressure or of not being quite equal to the demands before you. The event did not create the assumption; the assumption created the event. Seeing this, you are free to assume the opposite. You do not argue with the symbol. You simply withdraw your attention from it and assume the feeling of the state you desire to express. The symbol, having lost its support, must change. It has no choice. It is only the out-picturing of your consciousness.

Or you meet during the day a person who seems deliberately to oppose you. Literally you defend yourself, you explain, you resent. Mystically you recognize that this person is yourself pushed out, a living symbol of some state of consciousness you have been occupying. Perhaps it is a state of doubt concerning your own worth. Perhaps it is a state of fear that others will not recognize your value. Perhaps it is simply a state of separation in which you have imagined yourself alone and unprotected. Whatever the state, the person is its faithful symbol. When you see this you do not try to change the person. You change the state. You assume the feeling of being recognized, of being valued, of being one with all. And because consciousness is the only reality, the symbol must in time conform to the new state.

This does not mean that you become indifferent to the events of your life. It means that you become rightly related to them. You no longer give them the power to determine your state. You determine their meaning by the state from which you view them. The same event can be a symbol of defeat or a symbol of victory according to the consciousness that meets it. The mystical view does not change the event at first. It changes the one who sees the event. And when the seer changes, the event must ultimately change because it has no life except what the seer gives it.

You will find, as this way of seeing becomes natural to you, that the whole quality of your inner life is altered. Where before you were anxious and defensive, you become quiet and observant. Where before you were quick to react, you become slow to judge. Where before you felt yourself at the mercy of conditions, you feel yourself the master of conditions. Not because you have acquired some new power over others, but because you have recognized the only power there is — the power of your own consciousness to assume a state and to sustain it until the symbols of your world conform to it.

The literal mind lives in a world of many causes. The mystical mind lives in a world of one cause — consciousness. Everything that appears is the effect of this one cause assuming a particular state and sustaining it. When you truly see this, you cease to be impressed by the size or the persistence of any symbol. A small symbol and a large symbol are alike to you. Both are equally the out-picturing of some state of consciousness. Both are equally subject to change the moment the state that supports them is changed. You do not measure the difficulty of a symbol by its outer appearance. You measure it by the degree of your own conviction that consciousness is the only reality.

This seeing is not something you do once and then forget. It is a continuous attitude, a way of being awake in the midst of the day. As you move through your hours you carry with you the quiet knowledge that whatever meets you is a symbol. You do not have to name the state behind every symbol. You simply refuse to accept the symbol as final. You stand in the awareness that behind the symbol is your own consciousness, and that consciousness can assume any state it chooses. This attitude, maintained, gradually lifts you above the battle of appearances. You are no longer down among the symbols fighting them. You are above them, seeing them for what they are — faithful servants of your assumptions.

The Bible speaks of those who have eyes and see not, ears and hear not. It is speaking of the literal mind. The literal mind has eyes but sees only the symbol. It has ears but hears only the sound of the event. The mystical mind has the same eyes and ears yet sees and hears the meaning behind the symbol and the event. It sees the state that is being expressed. It hears the voice of consciousness speaking through the circumstance. This is the difference between the man who is asleep in the dream of life and the man who is awake within the dream.

When you awaken to the mystical view you do not leave the world. You simply see the world differently. The same streets, the same people, the same duties are there, but they are no longer opaque. They have become transparent. You see through them to the consciousness that is producing them. And because you see through them, you are no longer compelled to react to them as though they were independent powers. You react instead to the consciousness behind them. You assume the state you desire to express, and you allow the symbols to rearrange themselves around the new assumption.

This rearrangement does not always happen instantly. The symbol may persist for a time after you have changed the state. This is not a contradiction of the law. It is simply the evidence that the old state had a certain momentum. But if you persist in the new state the old symbol must in time disappear, for it can no longer receive support from a consciousness that has abandoned it. The bridge of incidents that leads from the old symbol to the new may seem strange to the literal mind. To the mystical mind it is perfectly natural. The incidents are simply the means consciousness uses to clothe the new assumption in symbolic form.

You will discover, as you live this way of seeing, that your whole relationship to time changes. The literal mind is always waiting for something to happen in time. The mystical mind knows that the only thing that ever happens is a change of state, and that a change of state is instantaneous in consciousness though it may take time to appear as a new symbol. Therefore you do not wait in anxiety. You assume the desired state now and live in the feeling of it now. The symbol will appear when the time is ripe, but the reality of the state is already yours the moment you assume it.

This way of seeing also transforms your relationship to other people. The literal mind sees others as separate beings who can help or hurt, advance or hinder. The mystical mind sees others as symbols of states, personifications of assumptions. When someone appears to help you, you do not attribute the help to the person. You recognize it as the symbol of a state of consciousness you have been assuming — a state of being helped, of being provided for, of being recognized. When someone appears to hinder you, you do not blame the person. You recognize the hindrance as the symbol of a state of consciousness you have been assuming — a state of being hindered, of being opposed, of being limited. In either case you do not give your power to the symbol. You keep it in consciousness where it belongs.

The practical result of this seeing is a profound sense of responsibility without the burden of guilt. You are responsible for your world because you are its author. You are not guilty because you did not know what you were doing when you assumed the states that produced the unwanted symbols. Now that you see, you can assume new states consciously. The past is not a chain. It is simply a record of previous assumptions. The moment you change the assumption the record loses its power to reproduce itself in new symbols.

Tonight, as you lie down to sleep, review the day not literally but mystically. Do not relive the events as things that happened to you. See them as symbols that appeared because of what you were conscious of being. See the irritation as the symbol of some small assumption of lack. See the kindness as the symbol of some assumption of being cared for. See the delay as the symbol of some assumption of not being ready. See the success as the symbol of some assumption of being equal to the task. Do not judge the symbols. Simply recognize them as faithful messengers from your own consciousness. Then, in the quiet of your bed, assume the state you desire to make permanent. Feel the feeling of it. Live in it as though it were already the fact. Fall asleep in the consciousness of being the one you want to be. And in that sleep you will be sowing the seeds of new symbols, new events, a new world.

For consciousness is the only reality, and your world in its every detail is your consciousness out-pictured. There is no other cause. There is no other power. When you see this clearly, daily life ceases to be a burden and becomes a revelation. Every event becomes a teacher. Every person becomes a messenger. Every circumstance becomes a symbol in the great scripture of your own being. And you, who were once the reader of the symbols, become the writer of them. You move through your days no longer as one who is acted upon but as one who is consciously assuming the states that determine what shall appear.

This is the mystical view of daily life. It is not a technique added to life. It is life itself seen truly. It is the recognition that the visible world is the language of the invisible consciousness, and that to learn this language is to become the master of the symbols rather than their servant. You do not have to wait for some future time to begin. You can begin tonight. You can begin with the very next event that meets you. See it as a symbol. Trace it back to the state that produced it. Then assume a nobler state and let the symbols follow. In this simple seeing and assuming the whole of your life will be transformed, not by effort but by understanding. For understanding is the light in which the symbols lose their power to bind and become instead the willing servants of your awakened consciousness.

You are not the victim of your world. You are its author. The events that seem to happen to you are the visible words of the invisible book you are writing moment by moment with your assumptions. When you see this you will no longer ask why things happen. You will know that things happen because you have assumed the states that must produce them. And knowing this, you will assume only those states that are worthy of the one you truly are — the awareness of being that is God in you, forever creating, forever expressing, forever revealing itself in the symbolic language of event and circumstance. This is the mystical view. This is the truth that sets you free. This is the seeing in which daily life becomes the living scripture of your own divine consciousness.