YOU CAN'T AFFORD THE LUXURY
OF A NEGATIVE THOUGHT

I love me.

Words of Encouragement

Just trust yourself, then you will know how to live.

GOETHE

Go to your sanctuary and invite your Master Teacher in. Together, go to the sacred room. Sit down, close your eyes, and relax. Imagine your Master Teacher kneeling behind your chair and whispering gently into your ear a few words of encouragement, words you will use often on your path from illness to health, from negative thinking to positive focus, from desiring death to affirming life.

They're just a few words: three, four, five. Listen carefully. Your Master Teacher is repeating them, over and over. Listen. What are they? As your Master Teacher repeats them, relax; let them go deep. Hear them repeated, over and over. After a while it's hard to tell if the words are coming from your Master's mouth or from inside your own head.

Thank your Master Teacher for giving you those words. Escort your Master Teacher back to the people mover, and, as you turn, you see your words of encouragement emblazoned on the wall of your main room in golden letters. You realize that these aren't just words of encouragement; they are an accurate statement about you, here and now.

Whenever you enter your sanctuary, while standing under the white light of your entry way, pause for a moment; read your words of encouragement. Let the words touch your heart. Whenever you feel challenged on your path, remember that those are not just words, but a fundamental truth about you.

Forgiveness

Always forgive your enemies-- nothing annoys them so much.

OSCAR WILDE

Yes, I am saving the best for last. The information in any one of these final three chapters, if applied with a genuine desire to heal, is more than enough.

The first of these is forgiveness. Forgiveness may be the greatest healer. As Charles Fillmore said:

Here is a mental treatment guaranteed to cure every ill that flesh is heir to: sit for half an hour every night and mentally forgive everyone against whom you have any ill will or antipathy.

We hold so much against ourselves and against others; then we hold it against ourselves that we hold things against ourselves and others. Judging ourselves and others for not measuring up is painful. (PAINFUL = PAY-IN-FULL.)

The way out? Forgiveness. The process of forgiveness is such a simple one. It's so easy, most people don't realize how effective it can be, so they don't try it and don't find out how well it works.

To forgive yourself, all you have to do is say, "Iforgive myself for __________ (transgression)," or "I forgive _________ (another) for __________ (transgression)," and fill in the blanks.

Notice that the forgiveness is unconditional. Be willing to let go of any hurt, guilt, resentment, or attachment.

That's part one.

Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.

HANNAH ARENDT

Part two is, "I forgive myself for judging myself for ___________ (transgression)," and "I forgive myself for judging ______________ (another) for ___________ (transgression)."

What we or someone else did is of little concern. The real problem for us began when we judged what happened as wrong, bad, improper, hurtful, mean, nasty, etc. It's our judgment we need to forgive. The action was just the action. Our judgment about the action caused our difficulty.

If you're going to judge something, wait until all the evidence is in. Yes, so-and-so walked out on you, but two years later you met such-and-such, and thanks to so-and-so's departure you were free to take up with such-and-such, who is much more fun than so-and-so ever was; therefore, so-and-so's "desertion" was really a blessing in disguise and, had you known then what you know now, you would certainly have thrown so-and-so a bon voyage party.

How long does it take for all the evidence to come in? Give it at least five years--wait that long before judging anything.

"But in five years I won't remember this even took place." Fine. Then forget it now. If it's not worth remembering for five years, it's not worth getting upset about now. How will you know if it's worth remembering for five years? Wait five years and see. Until then, "the jury's out."

What happens if we forget the five-year moratorium on judgments (and, of course, we will)? If you forget, then as soon as you remember, forgive yourself on the spot. Knowing it was the judgment--not the action--that caused the hurt, pain, and separation, forgive yourself for judging.

Just say those forgiveness sentences to yourself. Try it. See what happens. It's one of those techniques that works by rote: you do it, it works. When should you do it? Whenever you're upset. All upset is caused by our judgment. Forgive the judgment, and the upset tends to fade.

You may have to repeat the forgiveness sentences several times, because you may have judged something several times. How many times does it take? You know the answer to that one by now: when the upset goes away, it was enough.

There's another element to forgiveness, and that's forgetting. When it's forgiven, it's forgotten. Let it go. It's not worth holding on to. Some people would rather have the righteousness of their vindictiveness than health. That's their choice.

To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it.

CONFUCIUS

Use the white light, your sacred room, and your Master Teacher in your forgiveness process. Learn to forgive fully and completely. If you want health, wealth, and happiness, you can't afford the luxury of lugging around all those unforgiven, unforgotten past events. Let them go.

Declare regular periods of General Amnesty during the day. Forgive yourself and everyone else for everything that happened (or failed to happen) since the last General Amnesty. Schedule one every few hours. Nothing from the past is worth polluting your present with for any longer than that.

Forgiveness is simply a matter of declaring yourself forgiven. That can surface worthiness issues faster than almost anything I know. Tell yourself you are worthy of being forgiven. You are. And even if you don't feel worthy of forgiveness, forgive yourself anyway. Prove your unworthiness wrong again.

And then forgive it.

The Attitude of Gratitude

Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? --how did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea.

SYDNEY SMITH
1771-1845

As you learn to focus on the positive things in your current environment, take it one step further: be grateful for everything in your life.

Start with the outstanding things, then the good things, then the mundane things, then the not-so-good things, then the very not-so-good things, then the terrible things.

Why should you be grateful for the terrible things? First, meet terrible things with feelings of gratitude, because gratitude feels so good. Second, the terrible things are part of your life--there must be some reason why they're there. You might not know the reason yet, but, sooner or later, if you're open to it, the reason will appear. So, be grateful until it does, and when it does, be grateful.

Negative thinking simply cannot coexist with gratitude. If a nasty thought tries to take hold, the attitude of gratitude says, "Thank you for that thought!" Such appreciation diffuses negative thinking almost at once.

Remember to be grateful for what we often take for granted--our awareness, our senses, our bodies, our lives. Sure, we have things we could complain about, but we also have so much to be grateful for.

Whom or what should you be grateful to? It doesn't matter. Take your choice. You can be grateful to the power company for the electricity, or Edison for inventing the light bulb, or the designer of the lamp, or for the money to pay the power bill, or to God for the energy behind it all, or any combination. And that's for just a lamp.

But if a man happens to find himself he has a mansion which he can inhabit with dignity all the days of his life.

JAMES MICHENER

Who gets the gratitude is not as important as your feeling the gratitude. Gratitude is such a free, abundant, happy attitude. That's why I'm suggesting you find things to be grateful about--not so the electric company gets thank-you notes, but so you'll feel the joy of being grateful.

In his cassette tape Meditation of Gratitude: A Key to Receptivity ($12 postpaid from The Cosmos Tree, 301 E. 78th NY, NY 10021), Roger Lane asks you to imagine yourself as a sweater, a simple wool sweater. He then goes through everything even a simple sweater has to be grateful for: the sheep, the spinners, the knitters, the people who grow the food to feed the knitters, etc.

And how much more we have to be grateful for than a sweater! If we were truly grateful for everything in our lives, we wouldn't have time for a single negative thought.

Throw an inner gratitude party. Invite the people from your past and present into your sanctuary and thank them for all they've contributed to your life: teachers, lovers, friends, brothers, sisters, spouse(s), children, and, of course, parents. See them come in, one by one, through the white light of the people mover. Express your gratitude. Then point them to the bar and buffet and welcome your next guest. (Your Master Teacher knows a great Master Caterer.)

Gratitude opens the place in you to receive. Whom do you prefer giving to: people who truly appreciate your gifts, or those who find fault with every little detail? The universe probably thinks as you do: let's give to the grateful.

And it does.

Loving

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

I CORINTHIANS 13

There are three magic words in healing--I Love You. When we say them, to others or to ourselves, all are healed.

I prefer the word loving to love. Loving includes the action necessary to bring about the qualities of love. Love is nice, of course, but love-in-action gets a lot more done.

Loving feels wonderful, but it's more than just a feeling; loving is a choice. We choose to be loving toward ourselves and others. This moment we choose. The next moment, we choose again. We always have a choice.

We can be lost in the gravity of our bad habits and negative thinking, but with each moment comes a new opportunity to choose loving. Now and now and now again.

It's usually not a grand choice preceded by golden trumpets and a chamberlain heralding, "Do you choose the joy of loving, or do you choose the quagmire of negative thinking?" Usually it's small choices: How do I respond to this information? Should I focus on the positive or the negative? Would eating this be taking care of myself? Would doing my exercises be loving myself?

There may not be a "loving feeling" behind the choice to take a loving action, but we take the action anyway; that's part of the decision to be loving. The loving action often produces the loving feeling. When we act in a loving way--either toward ourselves or others--we usually start to feel loving. If we wait for the loving feeling before we take a loving action, we might take only two or three loving actions a week.

Who is there to love? Ultimately, you. As the song declares, "Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all." You're the only person you'll be with constantly for the rest of your life. Why not make it a loving time?

If you call him your Master will hear you. Seven bars on the door will not hold him Seven fires burning bright only bring him delight. You can live the life you dream.

JUDY COLLINS

Choose to love yourself. Do loving things for yourself. Act toward yourself in a loving way. Forgive yourself for everything. Be easy on yourself. Love yourself unconditionally. When you learn to love yourself--warts, bumps, bald spots, love handles, habits, negative thinking, illness, and all--you can love anyone or anything. Then you'll always be "in loving."

Did I say love the illness? Yep. Love it so much that it wouldn't even dream of harming you. Love it so much that if you told it, "I love you, but I could love you better if you were over there," it would go over there. Love it so much that that you won't have any hate left in you about anything.

As Dale Evans pointed out, "I'm so busy loving everybody, I just don't have time to hate anybody."

What's the answer? Loving. What's the question? It doesn't matter; the answer is still loving.

It's the last word I want to leave you with, the first word in healing, the antidote to stress, the ease that dissolves dis-ease, the Magic Bullet of Joy, the vaccine against hatred, the positive action we can take when negative thinking flares, what we can always be grateful for, proof positive that the blessings already are, and the heart of forgiveness--

Loving.