The Final SteptoFreedomby Lester Levenson
Lester Speaking to Graduatesin California, September
12,1969Lester:Being purposeful, as I usually am, I told you about
my busi ness involvement to show you that you don't disappear when
you get your realizations. You don't have to leave the world, and
anything you do in the world can be done far better, with no real
involvement. You don't have to fear losing anything you have, You
don't have to fear losing your body. The only thing you lose is
your unfreedom. The only difference before and after is that
before, you were compelled by your subconscious thoughts: after,
you're free. If you have a thought, you freely choose to put it
into your mind. Before, you had to be unhappy about certain things,
or the way things were going; after, you are never unhappy, because
everything goes the way it should go.I believe there's a
subconscious fear in all of us that, if we go all the way, we go
away. If we go all the way, we're not going to enjoy the things
we're enjoying now. These fears are unfounded. Anything we have
enjoyed before, we can enjoy a thousand time more after. We can
enjoy it a thousand times more because we are free to go all the
way on anything, being unlimited. There's no limit to joy. There is
nothing that we cannot have. There are no heights that we cannot
reach, in happiness, in money, in health or in anything.Last time I
threw out a challengeI presented to you how life could be if you
would go all the way. I presented a way of life when we live by
creating things just by thought. When we do create things by just
thought, everything falls into perfect harmony; nothing goes wrong;
everything becomes, immediately, the way we want it to be.I
presented this to you as a challenge, hoping you would take it and
do just that. As a group we moved relatively high in a relatively
short time. And then we leveled off; the rate of growth dropped off
very much and I thought it was really foolish to stop it. I just
can't under stand even now why you don't go all the way.
Why not take things for the mere thought of it? Why not have
this perfect harmony when everything goes the way you want it to
go? Why not live with all joy and no sorrow? Why don't we take
this? I really would like to know why we don't take it. If I know
why you don't take it, maybe I can help you get it. Because I feel
sure everyone would like to live the way I spoke of living, the way
I was living back in the early sixties, and prior to 1952. I'm sure
everyone would like to live that way; you're in a constant state of
joy that's beyond anything you ever experienced before; when
everything you think just happens.So, why don't we do this? I'm
really asking: Why don't you do it? Harry, you're almost coming up
with something, aren't you?Q:I missed the last meeting.Lester:Well,
I kinda summed it up. There was a time when I lived and anything I
thought would come immediately. Anything. And everything. And I was
telling how beautifully harmonious everything is; everything falls
perfectly into line for you.Q:Well I think I'll speak for my own
self, things pretty well come this way, for me. The only limit
would be myself perhaps not knowing where to put the next
knot.Lester:You can have anything you want now? Just by the
thought?Q:What I mean is,things do connect that way,
yes.Lester:Much better than they used to. But you have to work for
a living, right?Q:It's getting pretty easy.Lester:But you have to
work for a living.Q:O.K.Lester:That's a limitation.0: I was just
reading in the Bhagavad Gita the other day thateven though you're
realized, you never want to give up your activity because it
deludes the ignorant. So where are you then?
Lester:I don't know about what you're saying, but I say you're
not free yet. You have to work for a living: you have to do things,
right? Or could you stop everything and do nothing and have
everything you want? Could you?Q:The trend is going that way quite
fast. I don't know when I could cut the cord and be that
way.Lester:O.K. Keep up the trend; keep up the trend.But the
question I'm asking is: Why don't we go to the point wherewe just
think and have things happen?Q:Well, we're living in ignorance, so
to speak.Lester:We are not. We know the way, right? At least
intellectually we know how to go all the way: we accept that we are
unlimited beings.Q:To come right down to it, in Truth, what is
there to desire? In other words, you have your peace, you know,
what are we talking about?Lester:I'm talking about freedom,I'm
using the word "freedom" Now, because I think it points up the Goal
better as a word than any other word. The top Goal is total
Freedom, Liberation.Q:How do you go about it? Just by
meditating?Lester:No. By seeing what we are. See, that the word
"meditation" is a word that has meanings that I'm not sure means
the same thing to everyone. But, by discovering what we are, we
discover that we have all power, all knowledge, that we are
unlimited.Q: How am I to discover what I am if I don't know what I
am?
Lester:Well, how? By turning all your attention on you, with the
question "What am I?" and quieting the mind enough so that the real
you is obvious. When your mind is quiet enough, your real Being is
obvious to you, and when it is, you know and you know, you know,
and that's it. So, the way is to keep that question going: What am
I? And as disturbing thoughts come up to look at them and drop
them, and if we keep that going, we reach a point where they don't
come up any more and then the mind is quiet: then we can see what
we are: then we can undo the balance of the mind. Finally we can
wipe out the entire mind in one stroke. Then we're totally free.Q:
That's what I've been doing.Lester:What stops you from going all
the way?Q:I don't know. Maybe I'm trying too hard. I want it so
very much, but I don't know what's stopping me.Lester:When you do
it, do you get disturbed with your thoughts? Q: No.Lester:What
happens when you get quiet?Q:When I get quiet I get the scents of
food and flowers and I get lost in that. What does it
mean?Lester:It means you're caught up in the sheath of happiness,
which is the last one you have to break through. See, the coverings
over the infinite Being that we are are first; the physical body,
then the mind, then the last one is the happiness; we get into a
state where we get too content and we stop there, and we just
really rest on our laurels and we enjoy the state that we're in,
instead of going on further past that happiness state.Q:I still
keep asking and all these smells around me of flowers and food, and
different unknown scents.Lester:All right, when they come; the
thing to do is to disregard them; look at them and let go of them
and keep looking at what you are. Have you seen yourself as all
power, all knowledge? See, then you have more to go. So the only
thing I can say is keep doing it; try to break through that
pleasant state and go higher. See, the top state is not enjoying;
it's a very deep peace, a total well- beingness, a feeling of
eternality.Q:I get suspended; I'm up here; I can't go further; I
don't want to come back; I want to find out really what I am, and
so there I am.
Lester:We should reach a state where the real "I" that we are
takes over and takes us in all the way. But, I think, Lil, you
might be afraid of disappearing.Q:No.Lester:No?Q:No, that never
enters my mind.Lester:What do you think might help you go
further?Q:I really don't know. If I knew I would utilize
it.Lester:See, the first incentive lies in having difficulties in
life pain, mental and physical. But later on, the incentive should
be the goodness of it, that should be the incentive to have us keep
going, going, going.Well, then the only thing I can say, Lil, is
keep it up. Some day, when you get tired of enjoying, you'll drop
the enjoying and go on further.Q:I keep saying to myself, "There's
more than this."Lester:Good. There's not enough drive to drive you
all the way.Q:I might have to do it and push me up there: I don't
know. As I say, maybe I'm trying too hard.Lester:I don't think so.
You can't try too hard. Although the further you go, the less
effort is required. You reach a place where you can't use effort
any more. The real You takes over and just lifts you all the way to
the top. Until that time, you seemingly have to use effort. So, the
only thing I can say is just keep going with a little more determi
nation, if you can, to get the answer.Q: I'll tell you what
happens, when my eyes are closed, all this gets light.Lester:Good!
See, you're moving into the astral realm which is a higher realm
than the physical. It's a realm that's more in tune.
Q: That's when I really ask "Who am I?" "Why am I here?" "What's
my relationship to this world?" "Who am I?" Then I wait. The longer
I wait, the brighter things get!Lester:Well, that's a sign that
you're moving up. You're moving into the astral realm. See, this is
the physical. We also have an astral body and we have a causal
body. But you're up in the astral when you're seeing everything as
light without your eyes being open. So, again I say just keep
going, keep going.Q:I will do that. This is what I want, more than
anything else.Lester:Anyone else have anything they can add to why
we don't go all the way, or what more do we need? What I'm saying
is can I be of any help to you?Q:If I call on you, will you help
me?Lester:Can you answer that? Have I helped you?Q:Yes, you
have.Lester:When we started, some years ago, I told you I will
never leave you so long as you want help. Now the real me sees you
as the real you, and it's the real me that's helping you when I'm
not here in physical body with you. And anytime you call on that
real me, you'll discover the real me is there. And what happens is
you get a lift a bit higher so you can get the answer yourself;
you've got to get it.Q:In answer to your question, as for myself,
Art, well, all of us, we're involved in a family life which is a
limiting factor.Lester:It's a difficult thing; it's an
obstacle.Q:Specially if you have growing children.Lester:Yes.
Business and family are obstacles, but they can be tran scended if
the time you have not at business is used digging in to discovering
you. After all, how long does it take an infinite Being to know
that he is? He can do it in an instant. When man so wills, he's
immediately set free! So If you take the time you have not at busi
ness and use it to dig to discover you, you can get the full
answer.
Especially now that life is easier and things are coming more
your way by your doing, and just dare to quadruple what you're
doing, mentally, without any more effort, though. Then you might
have four times more time to dwell on the subject.Q:By dwelling on
the subject are you referring always to this passive mediation
orLester:"What am I?" I'm referring to "What am I?" I'm keeping you
at the ultimate question that has to be answered, and when answered
fully, is the ultimate state of Freedom, which is known by your
feeling and by the way your life is. Life is the way you make
it.When you get there, you can get all the money you want without
working for it.Q: Course, that's rather misleading.Lester:It
is?Q:Yeah, it's kinda like a sales presentation, a snow-job: Come
on boy, you go my way and you think this way and you'll have all
the money you want. But, actually, when you get into the program,
with that pot of gold, it evaporates becauseLester:Wait a minute,
it evaporates?Q:Because it's not important any more. Like you say,
if we truly feel that we get the real message that you're speaking
of, then the things that we thought we were going to gain material
wealth when we came into this program, then we find out, "Gee whiz,
that's not anything.Lester:That's not true.Q:That's a limitation.
Here's a greater Truth. In other words to have this, I have to give
up this.Lester:That's not true. You haven't done that. Have
you?
Q:I haven't come in with that idea in mind, you mean?Lester:You
haven't created everything and then let go of all your wealth, have
you?Q:No.Lester:Let me tell you why it isn't true: you've got a
false idea.Q:Maybe it's semantics we're talking about
here.Lester:No, it's not semantics. It's a wrong idea. And I'll
tell you how; I'll talk about me again. When I wanted to prove to
me that I could be a millionaire, I went into the real estate
business, started buying apartment houses on a no-cash investment
in each building. In six-month's time I accumulated 23 apartment
houses, 20 to 40 units each, and I was worth a million dollars. I
had that much equity accumulated,I guess it was in 2 years' time.
Everything went up in value and I had it.All right now, I let it go
because I saw that my security was in my ability to produce at will
Now, I know from experience already I can produce a million
dollars. I already know I can produce at will. And therefore, I
have everything that I want. I decided a year ago, I'm going to
make money. It's pouring in on meright now. It's pyra miding, very
rapidly.Q:You're achieving the same thing as you were coming into,
or the world to the center and back out again. You are your Self
but your intention is with the world.Lester:The actual materiality
is coming in. You can still have more and more and more of
materiality: there's no trick in there where you have it and then
you don't have it. No, there's no such trick. If you want it, you
can have it more and more. It's loaded; it's not a snow- job. Now,
some people may choose toQ:Some people take it that way is what I
was referring to, that this is the golden road and so on and
actually when they get into it and begin to see the Truth, there's
this thing, what you are, and you've got to give up this almost to
enjoy this over here.
Lester:You don't have to give up anything, Harry. You take on
more and more and more. You don't give up anything.I've heard you
say the very same thing, that finally you get to the place where
you give up the greater pleasure for the lesser pleasure. I've
heard you say that.Lester:You give up a lesser pleasure for a
greater pleasure; you got it upside down. You're taking on more all
the time, not the reverse. You're carrying through some of your old
concepts and applying it to what I'm saying which isn't true; you
take on more and more all the time. You're reaching for an infinity
and you never stop until you've got an infinity.That's right.
Here's your infinity and then you reach back here for something
that's not infinite.Lester:Ah, no, wait a minute, the infinity
includes all; there's nothing excluded. Your concept of infinity as
being partial needs to be checked.Well, relevant to Truth, Truth is
what doesn't change and the world changes so it's illusionary, it's
a momentary truth.Lester:Do you really think you're going to have
less as you go on getting more and more of Truth?No.Lester:Well
then, why do you call it a snow-job? Do you really think it is? Do
you still think it is?Well, I was saying if you came into this,if
the attraction for this type of thought was that you,similar to the
Charles Simmons approach, you make a million dollars,I was saying
that your value structure at the time the million dollars was the
mountain, and that was what you wanted to do, but when you learned
more and more of Truth, of who you really are and what this is all
about, this becomes the secondary thing, not the primary thing at
all, which it was before. This is the primary thing, your very
Being, your knowledge of Self.
Lester:That's the Simmons' teachings that you're applying to our
teachings and it doesn't fit. You got separations going on, this
and that and one versus the other: and this is the main point I'm
trying to get across: you don't lose anything; you don't lose your
body; you don't lose your wealth, but you can take more of both;
you can take more health and more wealth and be non-attached to
both of them and be free with them.Q:Yeah, I believe
that.Lester:And basically I've been asking, so why don't we go all
the way and get totally free so we have no more troubles, no more
miseries, where we can have anything for the mere thought of it.
Some day we're going to do this, everyone of us; why not now?Q:Is
desire limitation?Lester:Yes.Q:Then, with Harry's thought in mind,
if you went all the way, why would you desire anything, such as the
million dollars?Q:Which is back to your early teaching to us,I
think we were all sold on it,about this thing of desirelessness,
limitlessness, freedom; there seems to be a little
conflict.Lester:Here's the conflict: you don't believe it. Now, if
you had everything, what could you desire? Nothing, right? But do
you have everything?Q:Sure I do.Lester:I want to answer Art's
question. There's no contradiction. Right now we want things; we
want freedom; we want total freedom; we want all happiness and no
sorrow. We should have that. We should have all the wealth we want,
even if it's a billion dollars. And we go on and on until we have
everything we want. I'm not against getting the things we want; I'm
for it. When you have everything you want, you're there!
Q: If you had the realization, why would you desire the
million?Lester:Get it, and then look see. If you had the
realization, why would you have it? See, this is hypotheticalQ:No,
I said why would you desire the million, because a desire is a
limitation.Lester:Do you have everything?Q:No.Lester:Therefore, you
cannot get the answer to it. So I'm saying get everything first,
and then you'll see the answer. See, you're looking at up there
from down here; you're wanting things here; you're saying, "Well,
if I get everything then I won't want anything." I say you'll never
know until you go there. But I'm trying to coax you to take
everything. Fulfill every desire. That's the way to get to the
desireless state.Q:It used to be we went from the top down, now
we're going from the bottom up, aren't we?Lester:Yes. I'm trying to
get the group to move to the place where they just think and get
whatever they want.Q:In other words, you don't want to assume
knowledge, you want Knowledge?Lester:This is knowledge; this is
know-how, is it not, to think and get what you want. That's
knowledge. That's the real knowledge.Q: It's still assumed
knowledge until it's demonstrated.Lester:Yes, but when you do it,
you really know how.Q:This is what you're saying, isn't
it?Lester:Yes. Are we practicing that, even in business today? Are
we thinking and having things happen?Q:Don't have any trouble with
parking places any more. (Laughter.)Lester:No trouble in what?
Q: Parking places.Lester:Well! That's great! You know why? You
can apply that to anything! Just dare! Raise your sights from
parking places to bigger and bigger and bigger. It's the exact same
principle, Harry, that works for parking places or places to park
gold, your gold. If you can apply that same feeling, that same
principle, to other things, you'll have them also. And what I'm
suggesting is that you do this now. Think and have things happen
the way you think yourself into a parking place. Think yourself
into everything you want.Q:I think we're all doing this. Working in
that direction. It's the point where you've got to be pretty
careful what you think. I'm very happy and very glad that we were
exposed to Jewell who taught us, or a least I'm speaking for myself
nowhow to build a house.Lester:Ken isn't here now; you can say
"we."Q:Our building, our house, they're just our words unless we're
conscious of what we're building, what we're saying.Lester:Are you
troubled with too many things? Now? Already?Q:I've got a few in my
garage I want to get rid of. (Laughter.)Lester:You're troubled with
too much money?Q:It's not a problem to me.Lester:Are you troubled
with too much of it?Q:I'm not in that state. The feeling I have now
about money is: so what? I have all I need.Lester:In other words,
you're content.Q:So to speak, perhaps.Lester:And I'm trying to get
you beyond that contented state. I'm trying to get you to go
further so that you just think and things happen, immediately. What
you don't see is that now you think that
you must think now and later on the thing happens. And I want to
get you where you think now and it happens now.Q:Isn't that
hallucination?Lester:Oh no!Q:How else would you get it? One method
of getting is by being, seeing and feeling in the state that you
want to be and this thing follows. My biggest problem is getting
other people in this.Lester:Speak for yourself, Bob, get it for
yourself. After you've got it for yourself, then you can help
others; you can show them how they can get it for themselves.Q:I
still want to influence other people's lives. It's still the same
old question I asked you when I first met you, I still haven't got
satisfied within myself.Lester:The satisfaction for all your
questions will come only when you discover the full answers. I have
never answered any question for you, Bob. I have tried to help you
to get the answers for you.But I really believe that you're not
convinced that you can have anything for the mere thought of it.
You don't even believe it, leave alone being convinced. If you were
convinced it would be so for you. So, maybe it just boils down to
the fact that we don't want anymore; we're satisfied. Are we?Q:What
bothered me a great deal when you used to talk, occasionally you'd
bring this up, you'd say you can suffer and yet be beyond it. This
to me doesn't make sense; how can you suffer when you can't suffer?
Your true Being can't suffer, yet you'd say, "Well, I can be
hurting and yet I can think otherwise," this doesn't make sense at
all. You can't hurt and know what you truly are. You can't be
limited and know what you really are.Lester:The body can hurtQ:I
don't believe it!Lester:And I, if I am not the body, will not
hurt.
Q: Then your body doesn't hurt! Because there's nothing
there.Lester:O.K., you're right. Now, to really understand these
things, as everything else, you must experience them. You see, I
give out different levels of Beingness in trying to get you to move
up. There are different concepts of the body. The concept"I am the
body" means I have to suffer every limitation this body has. If I
take on the concept"I can control this body," then I can make it be
the way I want it to be. I can make it healthy and I don't feel it.
I can move up further and say, "I am not the body," and even though
the body hurts, I, being not the body, it doesn't bother me. And
then the body is out there and I am here, and the body out there I
know has pain in it, but it doesn't bother me. And then I can move
up from there, too, see? These are all different levels. When I see
that I am not the body, totally, the body can never ever limit me
in any way. So, it's a matter of what level you're looking at it
from. So I started from the bottom: I am the body; if it hurts, I'm
in trouble; I'm in agony and I yell. I move up; it gets better and
better. Go all the way to the top, you're not the body, you're just
Beingness being all Beingness.Q: And since I'm the limitation, the
body being a limitation, if I refuse limitation then there's no
body to be messed with? Frankly, sometimes I'm afraid of going
insane. (Laughter.)Lester:You couldn't even if you tried. You know
too much. Insanity comes from deep, deep apathy. No one here is in
apathy: no one is near apathy. So, fortunately, we can't go insane,
so that's nothing to worry about.If you want to go out of your
mind, that's possible. You can go beyond your mind; you don't have
to think if you don't want to. You can move into the realm of
knowingness and then you operate on the spur of the moment, like a
hunch, a hunch or an intuitive feeling, or it just comes to you;
you know without thinking. If you're doing that, you're operating
beyond mind. You're operating in the realm of knowingness, where
you don't have to think. But that's not insanity. That's the other
end of the scale.
Any one else have any questions on Why don't we go all the way?
Why don't we just think and have things happen?Q:You never have
explained what you really mean by going all the way.Lester:I did,
right at the beginning. Go to the unlimited state; be totally free;
have no more compulsions; have no more subconscious thoughts
operating; every thought you have is a choice of the moment.Q:In
other words what you're saying you want us to work out in our own
system, in our own way, the thoughts that we have harbored within
us, and this to you is our growth.Lester:Let go of all the
subconscious thoughts.Q: Well then, where's this money complex
coming into this thing?Lester:I'm just baiting you; that's where it
comes in. We all want money, so I'm putting it up as an incentive,
to make you go further and get a million dollars. You can always
drop it if you don't want it.Q:To each his own. Maybe that isn't my
type of demonstration.Lester:O.K., but get to the place where you
can demonstrate anything you want immediately, is what I'm
suggesting. And I'm asking Why don't you want to live this nice,
beautiful, easy way?Q:I do.Lester:I say you don't, Harry.Q:A few
pains, here and there.Lester:Oh. A few here and a few there. You
don't have everything you want, Harry. If you want to see me later,
I can tell you a lot of things that you want that you don't
have.Q:Got that mouse in your pocket again? (Laughter.)Lester:Well,
are there any other things that you would like to ask? Is there
anything that I can help you with on anything?
Q:Can we help each other? I mean, like Art and
I.Lester:Yes.Q:Or, if we see that the other one needs help is it
just us that needs it?Lester:You can help the other one to help
himself. If you do things for the other one, you cripple the other
one. But we can help others to help themselves.Q:Mainly by our
change of attitude?Lester:That's part of it; just changing your
attitude toward the other one helps the other one. The more we see
the perfection of the other one, the more we're supporting the
other one toward that perfection. You change your attitude and the
other one will change; watch it.Q:To change my attitude, do you
mean my basic understanding that he's part of my consciousness and
there's nothing but perfect consciousness and not think of him as
an individual limited?Lester:Yes. That's an excellent way to do it.
It works, doesn't it?Q:It works perfectly, yes. It works
instantly.Lester:People will actually fit our consciousness of
them.Q:Then, if Lillian tells me she wants a bigger house, I've got
to clear my own consciousness to let her fulfill my desires.
Because it's only in my thoughts that I have her considered, isn't
that right? I don't have to consider Lillian; it's only me that I
have to consider, my own happiness, then she is happy. That is, my
own happiness would be to go to the ultimate happinessLester:But
you gotta separation: Lil and me.Q:I always had this problem, you
know, since I've known you.Lester:You didn't have it at times; you
would say, "Who is Lillian but my consciousness?"Q:Yes. I say that.
I just said it a few minutes ago: I've only got to deal with my own
consciousness.Lester:O.K. That includes Lillian, right?
Q:Yes, that's right.Q:That includes a bigger house, too.
(Laughter.)Q:I'll have to get rid of a limitation within my own
consciousness. That's all I'm dealing with anyway: I'm not dealing
with Lillian or houses or land, I'm dealing with my own
consciousness. The blocks are within myself or the unlimitedness is
within myself. And, as you said: If I'm an infinite Being now, I
can do it now! I won't have to wait until I get
home.Lester:Right.Q:We're going to the moving quick!Q:By the time
you get home, Lil, you're going to be happy with your house, as
is.Lester:If you accepted it, that same house could be twice the
size, when you went home. It would be so natural you wouldn't even
notice it. You'd just move into a home twice the size that you
left.Q:Yeah?Lester:I once took an entire island for myself, Bob. I
took an entire island off the China coast. I'm going back now. I
owned an entire island all myself. And grew the most delicious
fruit trees. Exported the idea to the Mainland. This was in a past
life. I was trying to discover why I've always liked fruit so much.
When I was a child I always preferred fruit to any other food, and
I still do. And it threw me back into a life off the China coast. I
had a whole island and I spent most of my time in developing bigger
and better fruit trees and then exported the trees to the
Mainland.But I had an entire island. I was king of my domain. You
can have as big a home as you want. Take all you want, but take the
best, is what I'm saying. Take all you want and take the best.Well,
if we don't have any more questions, I'll call the Session off. Any
more questions?
Q:You want to say anything about healing? Maybe that's one of
the things you thought of in regard to me.Lester:Well, that's part
of what I've been saying: just for the mere thought we can have
anything we want, whether it's health or wealth. And we should have
it instantaneously. Anything in the way of health or wealth.Q:Teddi
demonstrated that, didn't she?Lester:With her father. Yes.What
happened? Her father had a stroke last week and was getting totally
paralyzed and when she got to the hospital, he was mostly paralyzed
and he looked as though he was finished. She went in and put a
question to him, "Do you want to leave, Daddy?" And it shook him up
and he looked at her. And she began to cry and he grabbed her,he
had one hand that wasn't para lyzed yet,and he grabbed her by the
hand and he started to cry. And then she called in all the power
that she is and she said the whole room, everyone in the room,
there were others in the room, everyone got quite: everyone got
peaceful. It was like everyone was meditating and all of a sudden
he started to get better and better. And he undid most of his
paralysis. He didn't leave the hospital because they wanted to keep
him there for checking. But she used it for her father. But she got
him to go with her by her turning on the power. He responded to
it.Q:He's all right now?Lester:I was so totally accepting of the
fact that he is perfect that when he came to life and sat up and
spoke to me I wasn't even aware of the fact that it had happened.
This is how much accepting of it you are,until the Doctor came back
into the room, looked at him and then yelled for the oxygen tank
and plopped it over his head, which scared him again. But he didn't
leave; he stayed. When we turn on the power full, it's there.Q:Is
there a meeting here tonight? (Ken and Vivian came in.)Lester:Ken
Nign has just entered the room, at the tail end. Where you coming
from?
Q:From selling the airplane. This group seems too peaceful. Did
you just chew them out or something?Lester:I think so. Not "out"
but "up," and upwardQ:You gave them something to think about, I can
tell, everyone of them.Lester:How much can you count? (Talk and
laughter.)Q:Well, she's just taking it from the top, I guess.Q:No,
it was from the tape. (Laughter.)Lester:There's really no order to
them. She's just taking one she happened to hit.Q: Seemed like a
pretty good group there. I almost felt, "Gee, that's a better group
than we got out here."Lester:It's probably different, isn't it?
You'll recognize yours when it comes, because we're leaving in
first names, now. They'll only be once a month now, because people
were complaining that there's too much in there; please don't send
so much. So they'll probably average around 12 pages each, once a
month. And that way you can better absorb it, I guess.But you can
see the advantage of having it in black and white rather than
listening to a tape, because when you hit something that strikes
you, you stay with it; whereas if I'm talking I can go on to
something else when you're trying to or beginning to, get a
realization of some thing. By my talking about something else I
pull you off it. And the next time you go to it, it is more
difficult to get the realization. Momentum is very important in
getting realizations. You stay with something, it becomes clearer
and clearer as you stay with it. But if it starts getting clear and
you move off, when you come back on to it, it's more difficult to
get into it again.And so, I am anti talks, tapes, because of that.
I can see it doing harm in that it doesn't let you stay with
something, because the conversa tion goes on and on and you move
off one thing onto anotherto
another without getting a realization of any one of them. I
believe you got much more good out of reading the book The Ultimate
Truth than you did out of listening to me. Listening to me you get
an impetuous to move, but when you get with the book, you get the
real ization. You can stay with those statements and make them,make
that knowledge, your knowledge, and that's when it's usable to you,
when you make it your knowledge. (Of course you can listen to the
tapes over and over again-that will help you, too.) So, I'm not in
favor of talking because of that; it doesn't allow you to stay with
anything. And if you are getting a realization, the conversa tion
that goes on after that pulls you away from it and makes it more
difficult to approach it next time. So, I thinkI know the best
thing is to use The Ultimate Truth, use the Sessions. Are you
getting things out of the Sessions, Harry? Realizations that you
didn't have before?Q:I'm getting things for my brother all the
time.Q:I was surprised when I read that the Truth that came in
thoseSessions, you were teaching that clear back in 1961 or
whatever the date was. I thought,it sounded like you in the current
era. (Laughter.) It was the same Truth then as it is now.Lester:And
ever will be. It should never change. What I say should never be
different, should it?Q:Well, I was hoping it would get
easier.Lester:It's very easy, actually, unless you make it
difficult.Q:I think I mentioned before my brother is a Jehovah's
Witness and you know, they're real keen on this Jehovah-God. I
asked him one time, "Why do we have to name our God? Would He be
mad if we said, 'Bill?'" (Laughter.) But then you brought out the
fact that the root of this, and I haven't seen any verification of
this and I'd like to know a little more about it if you can tell me
that Jehovah-God means the "I Am" God.Lester:Jehovah means I
am.
Q:Where do you get this from? I'd like to know cause I would
like to pass it on.Lester:It was told to me by a student of the
Bible who knew Hebrew.Q:They're very keen on Hebrew. They're
rewriting the whole Bible. Now why haven't they come up with this?
Or maybe they've come up with this and suppressed it, I don't
know.Lester:You don't have the right one in me when you're talking
about the Bible. I'm not a student of the Bible. Does anyone else
know that, or has anyone heard that Jehovah means I am.Q:Yes. I
have.Lester:Harry?Q: Any way, that's our common ground. Any time he
says "Jehovah" I say "Ahem!" (Laughter.)Lester:There is one
sentence in the entire Bible that is capitalized. Do you know what
it is?Q: I AM.Lester:"I AM THAT I AM." There's one other sentence
that gives the way: "Be still and know that I am God." Those two
sentences are the essenceQ: "He that hath seen me hath seen the
Father," which is another truth, too.Lester:Yes, or better: "I and
the Father are one." "Know ye not thatye are gods?"Q:How do you see
all these discourses of this type? Of course, I guess you base it
on what your motive is for discoursing.Lester:Everyone is seeking
the exact, same, thing in his every act. Every being is seeking
exactly that which we are seeking in every thing he is doing. Can
you see it now?
Q: Oh yes.Lester:I think we all ought to see that: that we're
all seeking the exact same thing. The world calls it the ultimate
happiness. We call it the "I that I am." But we say that the "I
that I am" is the ultimate happiness. Discover your Self and you
discover the greatest happi ness and you get the greatest
contentment. It's a satiation that is all satisfying.Lester:We
still hold onto the beliefs that we have extreme limita tions. This
is the problem. And we don't have enough incentive to let go of
them. As I said, there's no reason why anyone here shouldn't have
everything he or she wants for the mere thought of it, instanta-
neously,that some day you're going to do this. Why not now? And the
reason is, I say, that you don't believe it. You hold onto the oppo
site: that you can't do it, and that's the only reason why you
can't.Q:Well maybe it's because things are going easier, things
don't matter and then we don't go ahead.Lester:Yes, the incentive,
the drive, is far less now than it was when we were unhappy.Q:If
it's much less then we should be more peaceful.Lester:Well, aren't
we?Q: Yes.Lester:But what I'm trying to do is to get you to the
total peace. Until you get there, there will always be annoyances
in life. Even though it's much better now, it should be best.Q:Got
one more step to go.Lester:What do we need to go it? This is the
big thing: What do we need to go it?Q:We need to believe that we
can.Lester:I think we need to recognize that we don't believe that
we can, first. We're still holding onto tremendous non-acceptance
of the idea that we are unlimited. When you see first that you
really don't accept it,if you confront that, you can let go of that
better.
Q:If we rushed into that as fast as we rush into things that
cause us problems, we wouldn't have any.Q:This evening when you
spoke of Teddi asking you to be with her when we went to see her
father,what kind of thoughts do you think when you think of her
father?Lester:I know he is infinite, all-perfect, and to the degree
I know that, to that degree I support him in his perception of his
perfection.Q:In theory we are supposed to do this with everybody we
see, isn't this true?Lester:Yes.Q:Cause we're only talking about
ourself.Lester:Yes.Q:But if it is a theory, a theory is something
that is abstract and is out here by itself. It doesn't necessarily
mean a belief.Lester:A theory is not a law; it is supposition.
After it is proven, a theory becomes a law.Q: This gives us our
freedom then, to know that whoever we meet is the same
person.Lester:There's nothing out there but our consciousness.Q:
Why did you use the word "our"?Lester:Your, is that better?Q:That
makes me feel good. (Laughter.)Lester:Because we are one, that's
why I used the word "our." There's only once consciousness and we
are it.0: What I was trying to get away from is the idea of having
to overcome another consciousness. I don't have anything to
overcome.Lester:You're right; you don't overcome. You see what
is.
Q: That's right. There's nothing else.Lester:Right. There's
nothing else but what is. And what is is whole, perfect, grand, and
glorious, and delightful, and exotic and ecstatic and everything
good you can think of.Q:He's getting to be quite a sale man, isn't
he? All those adjectives?Lester:I don't know. Am I? You see, if you
people would do these things: just think and have things happen,
then I could do it to. We could all do it together. If you could
accept itQ:Don't wait for us, Lester.Lester:I didn't, but I came
back to you, and this time I want you to come with me.Q:Talking
about demonstration, isn't it very helpful many times for the Guru
to point out things or perhaps, doing some act.Lester:You want an
act of magic? If I performed acts of magic it would help you none.
I don't think any,Art, have you seen any acts of magic?Q:That isn't
what I said; those are your words.Lester:Demonstration, all right?
I'll come down to the word demonstration. I think Art has seen some
demonstration. Ken, you've seen a demonstration. I don't know
whether you still accept it. He saw it, and then he said it wasn't,
see, this is what usually happens. How do you feel about it now?Q:
I've seen a year and a half of demonstration, friends.Lester:But
remember the machine, the duplicator that wasn't working? At
Caltex.Q:Oh, yeah.Lester:Did it happen, or didn't it happen? Now as
far as you're concerned?
Q:I'm sure that it did. It couldn't, but it did. And not only I
wasconvinced, but the lady and the repairman that they called out
to fix the cotton-picking machine was convinced.Lester:I went to
Caltex with Ken and I wanted to get copies from one of the books in
their library. The duplicating machine was out of order; there was
a piece of tape over the money part so you couldn't put money in;
there was a big sign: OUT OF ORDER, and when I asked the girl for
change, for dimes, to put into it to try it, she didn't want to
give it to me; she resisted. She said "It's been out of order and
they tried to fix it." And I said,I had to coax her into giving me
change,and I said, "It's only a dime," that's all they charge per
copy. I went over to the machine and I took the tape off the money
thing and I got, I think it was two or three copies of pages I
wanted and I said to Ken, "It would be interesting to see what
happens now I don't need it any more." And I put another dime in
and it came out black and just then the head of the library came
over and said, "Oh, it's been that way for some time. We've been
waiting for the repair man to come in and fix it." So it went right
back to the way it was. But when I wanted the copies made, the
machine worked.Q:That's magic.Lester:That's magic. And yet it's
just a mere effortless thought that does these things. But it
didn't help Ken any, did it?Q:I said, "Coincidence."Lester:Yes,
coincidence. Then I gave him a demonstration of harmony on a trip
we took. I just said, "It is," I let go and I let it be. We got the
nicest plane out, what was it,United Air Lines, much nicer than the
commuter's plane. We went up to San Francisco. I went into a
telephone booth and in no time flat I had appointments with
everyone at different times of the day; we didn't rush; we made
every appointment just on time. When we wanted to eat, we had time
to eat.
Q:And the restaurant was just right at the corner.Lester:Yes,
just where we wanted it. And one of the prime purposes was to see
their methods of doing it and I wanted the best one for last and at
the last visit I forgot to ask if we could see their facilities and
we got up to leave and the man said to us, "Would you like to see
our facilities?" Remember that?Q:Yes.Lester:And we accomplished an
awful lot of work and we were finished about three or three-thirty
in the afternoon. Everything fell perfectly into line. We were back
in Los Angeles, about five-thirty or so, and we were in a
restaurant downtown in L.A. But it was a harmonious day; everything
fell right into line perfectly. And this is the way life should be
all the time. But it was a demonstration. I knew it was a
demonstration. It just came to me to let it be, for Ken's sake at
the machine and...Q:We hit transformer winding divisions of, like
Western Electric, well, there's one key man probably in the whole
plant that we could talk with and his schedule was so that it fit
just exactly in our schedule and he was the only one in probably
the whole plant who could answer all the questions and told us what
we needed to know. And this went not only for Westinghouse but
three or four other different plants and we got the key man, the
only man who was really qualified to answer all the questions we
had and yet give us a quotation on it and even to extent of getting
a new car on loan then getting it back and stepping out of the car
and walking up to the ticket booth and picking up the
ticket.Lester:Everything was just perfect, right?Q:Yeah.Lester:All
right now, the point I'm trying to make is I don't think it helped
Ken in his realizations one bit.Q:That's just the way it ought to
be, see? There's no question about the right or wrong of it; it was
just beautiful.
Lester:But that's the way life should be all the time, every
day. Everything should fall perfectly into line.Q:Yeah, but when
you get there you reach your plateau and you don't want to go on.
Is that the place we're going to be?Lester:You don't want to go
on?Q:When you get to the top, you're up there.Q:When you're having
all these things fall into line...Lester:It's delightful! It's
perfect! It's marvelous!Q:You've arrived, then.Lester:Oh yeah. When
you're consciously letting everything be perfect, you're
there.Lester:I knew some men who used to live on Central Park South
in New York; they were Christian Scientists, who just sat back, let
men come to them, let men make millions of dollars for them and
they hardly ever worked; they only put in a few hours a week
talking to these men.Q:What kind of work did they do?Lester:No
work.Q:Enjoyable type.Lester:But that doesn't make
millions.Q:That's what I meant; you're giving up something greater
for lesser.Lester:Giving up something greater for lesser? That's
the second time you've said that, Harry.Q:You've said
that.Lester:No! Give up lesser for the greater. You've got it
backwards. You don't give up the greater for the lesser.Q: Sure you
do.
Q:Only if you're stupid.Q:Weren't these men bored to
death.Lester:No. No.Q: Not when they had an apartment next to his.
(Much laughter.)Lester:That was 40 West 59th Street was the
address.Q:Write that address down, Bob, in case you get to go to
New York. (More laughter.)Q:All the accomplishment goes on, all the
work goes on, but it's our change in attitude, isn't it? We can
still help people; we can still help orphanages, or we can still
help the person next door, or...Q:Or yourself.Lester:Sure. As I
said, I'm trying in the real estate business; I'm in a big research
and development project; and it might be, could be, the greatest
project in the world. I'm not up on cloud nine, am I? And as they
say, I'm not scratching for money.Q:We'll take up an offering
whenever you reach that state.Q:There's one thing about higher
Truth; it's free. It's worth more than any other truth you can get
but the Masters can't charge for it.Lester:But, they can give you a
charge.