#182: The State of Non-Dependence

The State of Non-Dependence

A Lecture in the Voice and Spirit of Neville Goddard

You have long looked to the changing circumstances of your world to tell you whether your desire is on its way or has been denied. You have depended upon the evidence of your senses, upon the movement of events, upon the words and actions of others, to confirm or deny the reality of what you have assumed. This dependence is the chain that holds the fulfillment at arm’s length. There is another state, a state in which the outer no longer dictates the measure of your inner peace. This is the state of non-dependence, and it is the quiet, inevitable fruit that ripens when assumption has been truly accepted and felt as natural.

When you rise in consciousness to the point where you feel yourself to be the one who already possesses the desire, something subtle yet profound occurs. The hunger that once drove you begins to be fed from within. You no longer feel that you must have the outer change in order to rest. The assumption itself has become the resting place. You have claimed the end, and in that claim the need for the end to appear outwardly in order for you to feel complete quietly falls away. You are fulfilled in the only place where fulfillment can ever be known—in consciousness. And consciousness, being the only reality, does not wait upon the senses to validate what it has already accepted as true.

This is why it is written that signs follow, they do not precede. The sign, the circumstance, the visible proof, comes after the assumption has been established in feeling. While you wait for the sign you remain dependent. The moment you accept the assumption as the reality, the dependence upon the sign begins to dissolve. You are no longer scanning the horizon of events for confirmation. You are no longer measuring your progress by what the senses report today. You have moved from the attitude of one who hopes to the attitude of one who knows, and knowing does not lean upon the outer for its strength.

Dependence upon circumstances is simply the belief, felt deeply, that you are incomplete without a particular change in the world. It is the silent conviction that “I cannot be at peace until this appears.” When you assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled you are assuming the feeling of completeness. Completeness does not beg. It does not anxiously watch the clock or the calendar. It does not ask the world to hurry. It rests. This rest is not indifference. It is the natural atmosphere of the one who has already received in the depth of his being. From that atmosphere the outer world must eventually conform, yet the one who rests does not make the conformity the condition of his rest.

You may wonder how it is possible to feel complete when the senses still report the old condition. I tell you that this very tension is the proof that the assumption has not yet become natural. When the assumption is truly felt, the old report of the senses loses its power to disturb the inner certainty. You do not deny the senses. You simply cease to depend upon them for your sense of reality. The assumption has become your reality. The senses are now the shadow, and a shadow has no power to alter the substance that casts it. In this shift the state of non-dependence is born.

Consider what dependence feels like in the daily round. You rise in the morning and immediately turn your attention to the outer condition. Has it improved? Has anything changed? The answer of the senses either lifts your mood or casts it down. Your entire day is lived in reaction to that answer. This is dependence. Now consider the opposite. You rise in the morning already feeling the wish fulfilled. The outer condition may be unchanged, yet your mood does not depend upon that fact. You move through the hours from a center that is already complete. The same tasks are performed, yet they are performed from a different feeling. The feeling is one of quiet certainty rather than anxious striving. This is non-dependence made living and practical.

The scriptures speak of this state in many ways. You are told to seek first the kingdom of heaven and all these things shall be added. The kingdom is not a place. It is the state of consciousness in which you are already fulfilled. When you seek that state first, when you assume it and dwell in it, the things are added without your having to make them the object of anxious dependence. You are also told that the just shall live by faith. To live by faith is to live from the assumption rather than from the report of the senses. Faith here is not belief in a distant event. It is the present feeling of the end. Living from that feeling automatically frees you from dependence upon every other source of confirmation.

When you assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled you are declaring in the depth of yourself, “I am he.” You are identifying yourself with the state you desire. Identification is the end of dependence upon anything outside that identification. The one who has identified himself with health no longer depends upon the body to tell him he is well. The one who has identified himself with abundance no longer depends upon the bank account to tell him he is secure. The identification itself is the security. All outer things are now free to conform or to delay; the inner identification remains untouched. This is the freedom that assumption confers.

You will find, as you persist in the assumption, that your attitude toward time changes. Time was once the measure of your dependence. “How long must I wait?” was the unspoken question behind every effort. When the assumption is natural, time loses its power to create anxiety. You are no longer living toward a future fulfillment. You are living from a present fulfillment. The interval between assumption and manifestation is no longer experienced as waiting. It is experienced as the natural unfolding of what is already true in consciousness. In this change of attitude toward time the state of non-dependence deepens.

The same change occurs in your attitude toward other people. Dependence upon circumstances often includes dependence upon the cooperation or approval of others. You wait for someone to do something, to say something, to change something, before you can feel at peace. When you assume the end you cease to make any person the condition of your fulfillment. You do not ignore others. You simply no longer depend upon their words or actions to confirm what you have already assumed. This releases both you and them. You are free to meet them from a state of completion rather than from a state of need. They, in turn, are free to reflect the new state you have assumed. But whether they do so immediately or not, your peace is not disturbed. This is non-dependence lived in relationship.

The assumption that produces this state is not a strained effort. It is a simple, quiet claim felt in the body. You feel what it would feel like if the desire were already realized. You feel the relief, the gratitude, the naturalness of being that person. You do not argue with the senses. You do not try to force the feeling. You simply assume it and rest in it. The rest itself is the evidence that the assumption has been accepted. Where there is true rest there is no dependence upon the outer to make you feel secure. The security is already present in the feeling of rest.

Many have tried to reach this state by changing the outer first. They have rearranged circumstances, left situations, sought new opportunities, all in the hope that the new arrangement would free them from dependence. Yet they discover that the feeling of dependence travels with them. The dependence was never in the circumstance. It was in the consciousness that viewed the circumstance as necessary for peace. Only a change of consciousness can produce a lasting change in the feeling of dependence. Assumption is that change. It does not require you to leave anything. It requires you to assume a new state of being while remaining where you are. From that new state the outer world begins to rearrange itself without your anxious effort.

The state of non-dependence is not a denial of desire. It is the fulfillment of desire in consciousness before the desire has expressed itself in form. Because the desire has been fulfilled inwardly, the pressure to make it happen outwardly is removed. You still desire the outer expression, yet you do not depend upon it for your sense of well-being. This subtle distinction changes everything. The desire that once felt like a burden now feels like a quiet joy. You move toward its expression not from need but from the natural overflow of an already fulfilled consciousness. This is the creative way of living.

You may notice, as this state deepens, that old reactions lose their force. A piece of news that once would have thrown you into anxiety now finds you anchored. A delay that once would have produced despair now finds you unmoved. The anchoring is not the result of willpower. It is the result of the assumption that has become natural. The assumption has redefined you. You are no longer the one who needs the outer to be a certain way. You are the one who has assumed the end and therefore rests. Rest is the opposite of dependence. Dependence is always restless. Non-dependence is always at rest.

To live this tonight, prepare for sleep by assuming the feeling of your wish fulfilled. Do not think of it as something you will have one day. Feel it as something you have now. Let the feeling be as complete as you can make it. Feel the weight lifted. Feel the gratitude rise. Feel the quiet certainty that all is well because the thing is already done in the only reality there is. Then release the thought and fall asleep in that feeling. In the morning you will wake still carrying the afterglow of the assumption. Throughout the day, whenever the old habit of dependence tries to reassert itself, gently return to the feeling. You do not need to argue or struggle. You simply remember that you have assumed and that the assumption is the reality. Each return strengthens the state of non-dependence.

As this practice continues, you will discover that the assumption begins to live itself. You will not have to remind yourself so often. The feeling of fulfillment will arise of its own accord in quiet moments. The old scanning of circumstances for proof will grow faint. You will find yourself living more and more from the inner center and less and less from the outer report. This is the transformation that true assumption works. It not only brings the desire to pass; it frees you from the need for the desire to pass in order for you to be at peace. The freedom is the greater gift.

This freedom is the freedom of the fulfilled consciousness. It does not depend upon any person, any condition, any timing, or any evidence. It depends only upon the assumption that has been accepted and felt as natural. When you stand in this freedom you stand where the prophets and the mystics stood. You stand in the awareness that “I and my Father are one,” and your Father is your own consciousness of being. From this oneness flows every good without your having to make any good the condition of your peace. You are at peace because you have assumed the state of the one who is already at peace. This is the state of non-dependence.

Carry this realization with you. Assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled. Let that assumption become natural. Watch as the dependence upon circumstances quietly falls away. You will find yourself living from a deeper center, a center that does not rise and fall with the outer world. You will find yourself at rest even while the world continues its restless movement. This rest is not something you will achieve in the future. It is something you enter the moment you truly assume. Enter it tonight. Assume. Feel. Rest. And know that in this rest you have already found the freedom that no circumstance can ever take from you.