#62: The Discipline of Self-Observation

The Discipline of Self-Observation

A Lecture in the Voice and Spirit of Neville Goddard

You who feel the weight of circumstances pressing upon you, listen closely. The world you inhabit is forever the outpicturing of your inner movements. Most decidedly it is so. Yet how rarely does man turn his attention inward to see what those movements truly are. He blames the outer scene, he struggles against conditions, he prays for change while remaining unaware of the very consciousness that is creating it all. The great secret, the one discipline that will set you free, is the discipline of self-observation. Watch your inner movements without condemnation.

Every thought that rises in you, every feeling that stirs, every silent assumption you accept as true about yourself and your world, these are the inner movements. They are the living decrees of your being. You do not decree with loud words or frantic affirmations. You decree by being conscious of being this or that. The man who is conscious of being limited remains limited. The one who is conscious of being unworthy walks in the shadow of lack. This you may deny, but try as you will you cannot disprove it, for this principle is changeless. Therefore the first and most essential act is to watch these inner movements without condemnation.

See them clearly. Do not turn away in shame or anger when you catch yourself feeling small, or burdened, or trapped in the same old pattern. Do not fight the feeling. Do not scold yourself for having entered that state. Simply watch. In the quiet act of watching without condemnation something majestic begins to happen. You discover that you are not the movement itself. You are the awareness in which the movement appears. You are the I AM that beholds all things. Be still and know that I AM God. In that stillness the observation itself becomes the door through which transformation enters.

You are forever outpicturing that which you are conscious of being. Watch your inner movements without condemnation and you will see with new eyes how faithfully your world mirrors the state you have accepted as true. The frustration you feel in daily life, the sense of being stuck, the repeated disappointments, these are not punishments from without. They are the perfect embodiment of the inner movements you have been entertaining, often unconsciously. Yet the moment you begin to observe them impartially, you cease to be their helpless victim. You become the detached witness, the pure awareness that can choose anew.

There is no need to force a change at once. The discipline is gentler and more powerful than that. Watch. Notice the subtle feeling of “I am not enough” when a bill arrives. Notice the quiet assumption “this situation will never improve” that colors your thoughts about a relationship or a body or a career. Do not condemn these movements. Do not label them as bad or wrong. To condemn them is simply to create another movement that binds you more tightly to the old state. Instead, rest in the watching itself. Feel yourself as the awareness of being, faceless, formless, free. In that watching the old movement loses its grip because it is no longer being fed by your identification.

You are the conceiver of every state. The state you are conscious of being is the son bearing witness of the father. The father is your awareness of being. When you watch your inner movements without condemnation you are returning to the father, to the pure I AM before any particular conception is formed. From that place of pure awareness you can allow a new conception to be born naturally. But the birth cannot occur while you are fighting the old conception. Only in the clear, calm light of observation without judgment does the new state have space to take root.

Consider how faithfully life has always responded to your inner movements. You did not need to shout commands at the outer world. You simply moved within yourself in feeling and assumption and the world rearranged itself to match. The same power operates now. The discipline of self-observation does not ask you to deny what is. It asks you to see what is with the eyes of the I AM. When you see a feeling of limitation arise, watch it. Let it be there. Do not push it away. In that very watching you are already loosening its claim upon you. You are remembering that you are the awareness in which it appears, not the appearance itself.

This discipline is the true prayer. It is the going within and shutting the door. You shut the door not by ignoring the outer scene but by withdrawing your identification from the inner movements that created it. You watch them without condemnation and in that watching you are lifted up in consciousness. You are lifted above the state you formerly accepted as true. And when you are lifted up you draw all things unto the new level. The outer world must follow because it has no reality apart from your consciousness.

Many imagine that they must first clean up their thoughts before they can be worthy of the new state. This is the old error. You do not earn the new state by perfect thinking. You enter it by ceasing to identify with the old movements. Watch them without condemnation and they lose their power to define you. You remain the virgin awareness, untouched, ready to conceive the new. Mary knew not a man, yet she conceived. So it is with you. The awareness of being remains virgin no matter how many imperfect states it has given birth to. Watch your inner movements without condemnation and you return to that virgin state, able once more to assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled.

In the daily round of life this discipline becomes your constant companion. As you walk down the street, observe the inner movements that arise in response to what you see. As you sit at your table, notice the assumptions that color your meal. As you lie down to sleep, watch the last feelings that drift through you before the deep. Do not condemn any of them. Simply watch. In the watching you are exercising the one power that can truly change everything, the power of detached awareness. Consciousness is the only reality. By watching your inner movements without condemnation you are purifying consciousness itself, not through effort but through simple recognition of its true nature.

You have been taught that all things are possible to God. God is your awareness of being. When you watch without condemnation you are giving God the freedom to be what He will be. You are no longer binding Him to the old conceptions. You are allowing the I AM to move freely. And because the I AM is one with its conception, the moment you cease to condemn the old and simply watch, a new conception begins to form naturally, almost without your conscious interference. The new feeling rises of its own accord, gentle, inevitable, alive with the certainty of fulfillment.

This is not a discipline of the intellect alone. It is a discipline of the whole being. It touches the deepest feeling. When you watch your inner movements without condemnation you begin to feel a quiet majesty within yourself. You feel the peace that passes understanding, the peace of the I AM that knows Itself to be the source of all. In that peace the outer world loses its tyrannical hold. The problems that once seemed so solid begin to appear as mere shadows cast by forgotten inner movements. As you continue the watching, even the shadows dissolve because the light of awareness is shining upon them without judgment.

You may ask, but what of the strong negative emotions that surge through me? Watch them without condemnation. Let them move. Do not identify with their story. You are not the anger. You are not the fear. You are the awareness in which anger and fear appear. In that awareness they have no power to remain. They pass through like clouds across the sky, leaving the sky unchanged. The sky of your being remains forever pure. Watch your inner movements without condemnation and you will discover this truth in your own direct experience. No longer will you be tossed about by every wave of feeling. You will stand as the rock upon which the waves break, yet the rock itself is unmoved.

Every night as you prepare for sleep, practice this discipline with special care. Review the day not with regret or self-criticism but with the clear eye of observation. Notice the inner movements that dominated your hours. See them plainly. Do not condemn them. Simply see. Then, in the quiet of the night, let the awareness of being rest in the new state you would claim. But the preparation for that new state is the impartial watching of the old. Without the watching, the new assumption has no firm foundation. With the watching, the new assumption takes root in fertile soil.

You are told to seek first the kingdom. The kingdom is within you. It is the kingdom of your own consciousness. The discipline of self-observation is the way into that kingdom. By watching your inner movements without condemnation you are entering the secret place of the Most High. You are abiding in the awareness of being, and from that awareness all things are added. The outer world rearranges itself in perfect correspondence to the new inner movements you allow to form. It cannot do otherwise, for there is no other cause.

See how simple and how profound this is. There is nothing to learn except to watch. There is nothing to achieve except to refrain from condemnation. In that single attitude the whole mystery is revealed. You are the operant power. You have always been. The only thing that ever veiled that power was your identification with the passing movements of consciousness. Release the identification through impartial observation and the power flows freely once more.

As you move through your days with this discipline you will notice a subtle yet unmistakable change. The things that once disturbed you lose their sting. The situations that once held you captive begin to loosen. Not because you fought them, but because you saw them clearly and refused to condemn the inner movements that produced them. In that seeing, freedom is born. The new state you desire is no longer a distant hope. It becomes a natural feeling within you, inevitable, alive, already accepted in the silent depths.

This is the true meaning of faith. Faith is not believing against evidence. Faith is the quiet certainty that comes when you have watched your inner movements without condemnation and have seen the I AM stand revealed as the only reality. In that certainty you rest. You do not struggle. You do not beg. You simply know that what you are conscious of being you shall express. And because you are now watching with the eyes of the I AM, you become conscious of being the very thing you desire.

My friend, tonight you can begin. Right now, in this moment, turn your attention inward. Watch the inner movements that are present even as these words reach you. Notice any feeling of doubt or hope or weariness. Do not condemn it. Watch it. Feel yourself as the awareness that beholds it. In that watching you are already exercising the discipline that will transform your entire world. Continue this simple practice and you will discover that the stuck places in your life are not stuck at all. They were only waiting for you to see them clearly in the light of impartial awareness.

The promise is absolute. What you are conscious of being you shall become in expression. Watch your inner movements without condemnation and you will find yourself becoming conscious of being everything you once sought outside yourself. Health, wealth, harmony, love, freedom, all these are states of consciousness. By the discipline of self-observation you enter them naturally, gracefully, inevitably.

You are the I AM. You have always been. The only discipline required is to watch the inner movements without condemnation until that truth lives in you as your own direct experience. When it does, the world you see will be a world transformed because the one who sees it has been transformed. The outer will match the inner because there is no other law.

Rest in this tonight. Watch. Do not condemn. Simply watch. And in the watching you will know that you are the lord of your world, the operant power, the awareness of being in whom all things live and move and have their being. This is the discipline. This is the secret. This is the way. And it is open to you now.