THE SCHOOL OF TRUTH LECTURE THERE IS NO FAILURE

Do you know that it is impossible for you to fail? There is no such thing as failure,

but only delayed success, hindered in the minds and hearts of humanity.

You ask why there are so many who are poverty stricken, why there is so much

emotional misery and physical suffering - and the answer is very simple. I can sit

in a dark room forever, and I will not have light until I switch it on. I will never be

fulfilled until I switch on the Power that is always ready within me.

In my mind and in your mind is the sum-total of God, the universal Presence of

health, of joy and of abundance - but seeing is in the eye of the beholder. Right

now you are "seeing through a glass darkly," and that which you are seeing

you are. Your spoken word declares what you regard as real. That which you see

and think and feel, you become. There is no failure in God. In this whole universe

there is no failure. Everything is governed by law and order, and everything

flourishes. It is man who pollutes his own nature, his life.

It was a tremendous awakening for me more than forty years ago when I

discovered that the whole universe, including me, was permeated with the presence

of God - that it was what I saw in my mind, what I felt in my heart, and how I

acted with my body that determined whether or not I was attuned to this Presence.

In God is no choice. The Law Which constitutes us obeys Its own terms. We live

and move and exist in the Presence of God.

"But..." you say. There are no buts - there is only one Presence, one Power in the

universe, and It is God the good, Omnipresence, the sum-total of power,

Omniscience, all the knowledge in the universe, past present and to be. You and I

can walk along the road and I see beauty, love and good while you see the

opposite. You say to me "There is no good in this life, only misery." I say "Your

eyes are closed. You are looking inside yourself, into your own consciousness."

I believe that seeing is in the eye of the beholder. If God constitutes me, if my

mind is His mind, then I let God see through me, think through me, speak through

me, and act through me. I have a beautiful colour etching of Elijah sitting

peacefully while the ravens swoop down with food for him in their beaks. Looking

at this etching a friend said to me "This reminds me of you. Everything seems to

work out for you" and it is indeed true that God's hand has ever been open to me,

giving to me in overflowing measure.

Every single desire in man is evidence that that which he longs is already in

being. The oxygen that I need is not going to "come" to me - I must breathe it in

and out. Love in not going to "come" to me - I must open myself to it, giving and

receiving of it freely. But the difficulty with most people is that they do not realise

that their neighbours are the very hand of God into which and from which all good

flows. I have learned, during my years, to cope with criticism. It hurt me in the

beginning - everything I did met with criticism. On faith I bought a farm and sent

out vegetables to thirty-two institutions. I was criticised for it. I am criticised for

what I do and again if I do not do it. It hurt and bewildered me until I heeded the

words "What is that to thee. Follow thou Me."

I want to help you. I am not talking about charity - I want to help you uplift

yourselves, to become fearless, to know that no matter what the appearances every

single need is already fulfilled in you and as you. I want to convince you simply to

turn the switch in your minds and hearts that lets it happen. Why is it so difficult?

Is God not God? Do you not live and move and have your being in Him? Can God

remove Himself from you, or deprive you of anything? No, not any more than light

can give you darkness.

I am asking you simply to believe. I am not talking about faith, which is born out

of many experiences and which culminates in knowing. The Master asked simply

"Do you believe? Can you take my word for it? Can you accept it? If you can then

so is it done unto you." The switch is on, and you do not have to keep it on.

No other religious practices can substitute for belief. Even ardent followers

constantly look over their shoulders, are anxious and fearful that someone might

interpose between them and their good. But, since God is Allness, every place that

we put our feet is holy ground. What we see in the other person is a reflection of

our own consciousness. We are looking into a mirror, a "glass", and seeing our

own ignorance, our ignorance of Truth. The Master laments "O Jerusalem,

Jerusalem! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen

gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not." He speaks as the Christ,

the very presence of God in mankind. He has this wonderful message of freedom,

but people do not receive it. Instead they want ritual and dogma. "The written code

kills, but the Spirit gives life."

It is the attitude with which we act, the feeling, that releases God's demonstration.

If you had been brought up to accept in toto that all you could need or truly desire

is already yours within you, you would never want of anything. But you have

conflicting attitudes. People cannot accept the reality of God in man. Their prayer

actually looks up into their own consciousness instead of into Mind, into Harmony,

and Love, and Security. When your minds are full your pockets are full, when your

minds are empty your pockets are empty.

Let me remind you, as I have done so often before, that there is no such thing as

fear. What we call "fear" is really inverted faith, faith in the opposite of goodness.

You do not have to genuflect or shout at the top of your voice to make contact with

God. You must become. You must be like an actor who becomes the part he is

acting. He does not rattle off his words - he understands his role mentally and then

puts his whole heart and soul into feeling that which he is trying to portray. So too

with Truth - there must be not merely an intellectual understanding but an

emotional acceptance. Once these two, the intellect and the heart, have merged,

God Himself cannot prevent the good from manifesting in your lives.

I say again that there are no buts. No-one can prevent your good from expressing.

There is no such thing as an immovable problem, an irreversible condition, an

obstructing person. The Light of God dissipates the darkness instantly: "Though I

was blind, now I see."

Many people worry about their retirement and old age: "What am I going to do

when I get old? Which way will I turn? Who will take care of me?" I am not

concerned about the future. I know the "future" is determined by what I do today. I

asked myself this question over fifty years ago: "What is the 'future'?" I am the

eternal now. Today is the accepted time. Today is the day that God has made for

me and I will rejoice because of it. Every day is today, a God day, but if we are

worried about the future we are having faith in lack. Our own beloved country is in

turmoil at the moment because of a lack of faith in God. There are millions who go

to their places of worship, who walk around with their holy book, yet they do not

trust God, or understand God, or hold God to be real.

Most people are looking through the wrong end of the telescope and are seeing

everything as very far away. They say "My good is in the future." But Truth taps

them on the shoulder and says "You are looking through the wrong end. If you turn

it round that which was there becomes here." God - your fullness, your love and

harmony, your health and security - is where you are right now.

Let me tell you once more that when you see, you think. And the way

you feel about what you see and think becomes your reality. And then the idea is

literally born - becomes concrete, is fulfilled. People walk around saying to

themselves "Tomorrow I will be rich. Tomorrow I will be happy. Tomorrow I will

be healthy. Tomorrow someone will help me to do this (that or the other)." There is

no tomorrow. There is only the nowness of God. Make Him the reality in your

lives and do not depend on anyone for your love, your happiness, your health, or

your prosperity. It is all contained within yourselves, in what the Master calls the

kingdom of heaven.

Oh, what mental and emotional freedom, my good people - to know that there is no

need for anxiety and concern, to know that God is not only the Provider, but is the

provision itself, to know that before you call God has answered, while you are yet

speaking - saying thank you - He has heard you.

Look into your minds and see whether you have faith positive or faith negative -

faith in the fulfilment of the good, or the inverted faith, faith in the absence of

good. The whole world limits itself. That is why there is fighting and killing.

People have faith in the ability of others to destroy them. God cannot remove

Himself from us any more than we can remove ourselves from Him. I look up into

the sky and see or imagine the planets that are millions of light years away, and I

realise that if through thought I could reach them I would only just have started a

journey that would take me billions of light years away, that would take me

towards infinity. This is the almighty Power in Whom we believe and Who lives

and moves and exists in us, as us, as we live and move and have our being in Him.

When I look at religion generally, nowhere do I hear "God is in His heaven and all

is right with our world." I hear a clamour of voices, a babble, and feel very sad.

The promise is "If you dwell in the shadow of the Almighty, a thousand may fall at

your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you." I

hear the voice of the Master and see him shaking his head: "O man of little faith,

why did you doubt? Fear not, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the

kingdom." He wept because of man's obtuseness and unbelief, his non-acceptance

of the goodness of God, them going to their temples but not believing.

When I was doing my meditation in my study early this morning and looking at

this lovely etching of Elijah being fed by the ravens, I thought how true it is that no

matter where you are God finds you. You cannot hide from God. You cannot hide

from your good, but you can switch off. I can switch off this recorder and this

amplifier in front of me, yet they are still there. Everything is already fulfilled but,

I repeat, we must be switched on.

Think to yourself "Is it not wonderful that God is walking through me this day,

God is my eyes - my vision, God is my mind - my understanding, God is my heart

- my love, God is my hands - my giving." There are no other hands or bodies in the

universe but the Presence of God extant. Begin to believe and to act it. Do not tell

people that you are followers of Truth. Let them observe by your actions that you

have got something which they would like to have, which they would like you to

share with them.

The Master says "Go in peace. Your faith has made you whole, now, this moment."

That is how God works, like a flash of light, a flash of realisation, of acceptance.

The whole world decries it. Let them decry it. You go on expressing the presence

of God-the-Good mentally, emotionally, physically and materially.

What more do you need? Say "The prince of this world - the liar, the appearance -

comes but finds nothing - no acceptance - in me. God, All-good, All-knowledge,

All-power within me has set me free."