Prune The Vine

For the Bible records with truth. If man is not this covetous, it doesn't make any difference. One day he will. And tell that I'm always talking about the Bible and its old stuff that belongs to a different age altogether. Update yourself in coming to this 20th century. For everything that we now discover was always so really. Mary had not yet discovered it. He didn't make the atom. He discovered how to unlock the energy that was always there. So it's not new that the finger was always there. The energy was always there. And the Bible records only that which is eternally true. Now tonight I'll take you with me into one section of it. each part of the Old Testament that is quoted in the New is very very significant any part of it so we'll take Luke the 118th Psalm the stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone the truth cornerstone It is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.

Now this is quoted in the Gospel. Matthew, Mark and Luke quote this after a parable about a certain Jesus. Now in the book of Peter, the first epistle of Peter, he said, Come to him. To that living stone. Now he personifies the stone. It's something alive. Come to him. To that living stone. Now he identifies us with that stone. That he may be like living stone built into a house. A spiritual house. Now, is this literally true? I tell you, it is literally true. Taking one day into silence, just contemplating, but nothing, just simply observing the light. With my eyes shut, I can sleep, but I'm not asleep. I'm very much awake, fully conscious of what I'm doing.

I'm not off in some dreamland. I am here, sitting in my living room. My eyes are shut, But I'm seeing and observing and admiring the golden liquid light that pulses from my head, as though all the dark convolutions of the brain grew luminous and then out of pulse. And then suddenly, before my eyes came a stone, a quartz. Just a normal, normal stone. As I looked at it, it shattered, it fragmented, through the numberless pieces and then quickly it's reassembled but not into a cell but into a man. A man seated in lotus posture in deep, deep meditation. As I look at him I am looking at myself. Here is myself. Only myself raised to the eighth degree of perfection.

Such majesty. this thing. Such faithful character, such beauty of faith. You couldn't describe the beauty of that faith, and yet I know I'm looking at myself. As I contemplated it, it began to blow. It was a living, pulsing, breathing, living being. As it glowed, it increased in intensity, and when it reached the apex of intensity, it exploded. And then I opened my eyes, and here I am seated as I was on my chair in my living room. This was back in 1934. Here is my very self. Now listen to these words. These are the words put into the mouth of Jesus. He tells the story of the brimlet. A man got a brimlet and built a winecloth.

And they loosed it out to tenants. And when the time came for the fruit, he sent servants to collect his portion of the fruit. And they killed one, and they beat the other, and they injured the third, and then he sent more servants. And they didn't kill the next one, but they beat them and chased them away. He said, I say now, my son, for my son is the heir, and they are respectful. him. So he sent his sons, and they said, Here is the heir. We will kill him, and then it will be ours. Then he asked those to whom he told the parable, What do you think will happen when the Lord himself comes to the village?

And they answered, Well, he will take these comicals, and they will be put to a a horrible death. Now he goes into this and he quotes the 118th Psalm. It doesn't seem related, but you'll see how related it is. He quotes 118. The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. It is the Lord's doing, and it is good in our sight. Now he adds this thought to it. The stone is only wrong falls upon that stone, it will break him to pieces. But if that stone falls upon anyone, he will crush him. Now the word falls is very significant in this passage. If anyone falls upon that stone, you may say, well now you're stumbling upon a of stone.

No. The word of Paul simply means to happen upon. By chance. Through a light like a bird in flight, it finally light upon a tree. And so you, in meditation, and you happen upon. And here is the stone. So you light upon it. And as you light upon it, then it fragments. And it breaks into numberless pieces. But it is said it will break him in pieces. Well, it is. It fragments. When it now gathers itself together into the human form in deep meditation you'll see who it is that was fragmented. It's yourself. You now realize who you really are. That you are the stone and the stone is equated with God. You are unmindful of the rock that's begotten you and have forgotten the God who gave you birth.

For man is unmindful of the rock of the stone that begot him and now is completely forgetful of the God who equates the stone with God that gave him birth. Now you realize that you yourself are the sole cause of all the phenomena of life. There is no other. ¶there is no one but yourself who is bringing all things into being and one day you will fall upon the stone by chance seemingly. You'll simply lie upon it and then it will fragment and as it fragments it then reforms itself into your form and you'll see how beautiful you are, how glorious you are. ¶You could not believe that it would take eternity to produce it.

That no time could ever produce the glory and the being that you really are. And that is the being that is in meditating, meditating you. He's actually dreaming your life into being. He's in deep, deep contemplation. And your every imaginal act, he externalizes for you. Do not deceive, God is not mocked. ¶as a man so so shall he be, so your every imaginal act is outfitting itself in your will and he is doing it. He is the dreamer in you. It's the only cause of the phenomena of your life and there is no other cause. That is God as again told us in the 118th Psalm: the Lord is God. For if this is the work of the Lord and the Lord is God, and I saw him, I saw myself.

That I am actually the being producing the phenomena of my life. So now I know who he is. And I know that my own wonderful human imagination is the sole cause of the phenomena of life. There is no other. That is the divine body spoken of in scripture as Jesus Christ. And there is no other Jesus. So, if this is not modern, I tell you it is true. And what is true, it doesn't matter whether it is new or old. And the Bible simply records that which is eternally true. It doesn't really matter if it was written 2, 000 or 3, 000 or 5, 000 years ago. Was it true then? If it was true then, it is true now.

While in the 20th century, I lived upon the rock. I simply stumbled upon it. It's a stumbling block, a stumbling stone to most people in the world. They can't believe that their own wonderful human imagination is God. So you're told, if you light upon it, which means if you fall upon it, it'll break you into pieces. It'll fragment you, and you'll see who you are. But if this falls upon you, it will crush you. So, I tell the story and it crushes those who have not yet lit upon it. It is because they can't believe that they are solely responsible for everything that happens in their world. Now we return to another passage. And Philip found Nathanael.

He found him. Well the word Nathanael means gift of God. He found the gift of God. Now you would think a man is talking to a man. No, he's talking to himself. He finds the gift of God. And now he makes the statement, I have found him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth. Now in the 18th chapter of John, this is the first chapter that they're spoken. In the 18th of John, they come in search of him, and he asks them, whom do you seek? And they answered him, We seek Jesus of Nazareth. And he said, I am He. He confessed he was a Nazarite. Well, a Nazarite is an untuned vine.

When I find it, I can't believe it that my imagination that goes wild is the cause of the phenomenon ? And that's why I've had so many difficulties in my life? Yes. Behold this vine. I found it a wild tree, whose wanton strength had fallen into irregular tree. But I pruned the plant, and then it root-tempered in its useless waste of leaves, and then as you see it knotted into these clean full clusters to repay the hand that wisely wounded it, yes, it grew into lovely clusters of grace, but I found it a wild tree, but I find that my own imagination is the cause of the phenomenon of my life. I am simply beside myself knowing what in the past I have imagined.

And now here is this wild thing upon me, and yet it's the only cause of the phenomenon of life. And I've got to tame it. I've got to actually prune it, so that I am the true vine. And my sorrow is the wine dresser, or the vine dresser. Now I have to actually watch what I'm imagining. And morning, noon, and night seem to get deeper sleep. I must still watch what I am imagining, for my follower is going to produce exactly what I feed him. Every moment of time I am imagining. I can't stop it, for I am the creative being. I saw the darn thing actually try to make before me. And then I saw this thing fall into a man.

And the man is myself, only with majesty and with vigility and with power. Well, now, I unlocked that atom, and the atom was a man, and that was a power unknown to those who are not afraid of what's going to happen tomorrow when we unlock the energy of the five megaton bomb up in Alaska. that stuff. That is nothing. That's a firecracker compared to this energy. For when you are fragmented by seeing that atom it's a rock, it's a quartz, and then the whole thing is fragmented and then it gathers itself together into a man, and the man is the one beholding him. But no, it is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Lord, and his Christ is his son, and here I'm looking at one who can say, "I and my father are one," and I am the being that I am contemplating now what power is in that atom, a power unknown to mortal man, the whole vast world is contained within him, and he can stop it and start it at will, and change the motivation of the whole vast world.

Now, what today frightens man, he can change the motivation, and the man who changes, or the men, or the army, will think they originated the change of thought. Yet it all happened in them quite spontaneously. They had a change of heart, not knowing who changed them. That's the kind of power of which I speak when you actually fall upon that rock. And so anyone who falls upon that rock will be broken into pieces. Read it in the 20th chapter of the Book of Luke, or the 21st of Matthew. It follows the story of the Zingan, and then a break in thought, and then he introduces the thought from the 118th Psalm, that the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.

It is the Lord's building. And it was marvelous in our eyes. But now we find out who the Lord is. He's right in that stone. And when you see him, it's yourself. He did it. He actually took upon himself the limit of contraction. And we think of a rock as the very limit of contraction, the very embodiment of death, and he is buried in a stone. And then when it fragments and regroups itself, it's a man, and the man is the one contemplating it. And then you discover who he is, in your own wonderful human imagination, and that is God. And there never was another God. This is the one spoken of in the 32nd chapter of the book of Deuteronomy.

I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal, I none can deliver out of my hand. I raise my hand to heaven and cry, I live forever. That is the one spoken of, for in that 32nd chapter it is said, "You are unmindful of the rock that begot you, and you have forgotten the God who gave you birth." He is dreaming me into being. And when he awakes from his dream, I am he. He is dreaming you into being, as revealed to me many years ago.

I laid myself down with him to sleep, said he to me. As I slept, I dreamed the dream. I dreamed. And then I exactly what he was dreaming. He is dreaming that he dies. And I knew that when When he awoke from the dream, I am he. I am the Lord spoken of in Scripture as Jehovah, who is Jesus. And his son, who is the anointed, is David. That is the story. And every one is going to experience it. I tell you this tonight because a friend of mine who is now back in, having had wonderful experiences in Atlanta, Georgia, and other places, French, New York, Pittsburgh. They didn't receive her as, I would say, as openly as they do in Atlanta.

And she was quite disappointed. And she said, you always speak of Neville and he's always talking of an old book called the Bible. Why don't you update it and come up to the present century and speak of what is taking place now? So she wrote me a nice long detailed letter of her strange reception. Well, I know she was tightly disappointed. And I can't write her now because she'll soon be bad. I can only tell her mentally it doesn't really matter. If they reject you, let them reject you. If you want to find comfort in what some scientists today who are theorizing and not talking the truth, but only theorizing, they change their theories every day.

One day the moon is a billion years old, the next day another one comes up, three billion years old, and they jump around with these figures reading nothing. And that's not the Bible. The Bible is only concerned with God and that's all taking place within you. And I'm telling you, one day you will too fall upon the stone. You will alight upon it just as a bird alights upon the tree. And the minute you alight upon it and the stone appears before you, you watch it, it's going to break. It's going to fragment itself. And before you even think, it's going to gather itself together again and form itself into the human form seated in the lotus posture.

And it's just like you. It's you and you know it's you. And yet you are observing it. And the face is so beautiful. And the face is so strong. And there's such majesty in that face. There's nothing a human says comparable to what you're going to observe. And you're going to know it's you. and it's going to blow like a stun and then when it reaches the effects of intensity it's going to explode and then you open your eyes and say you are the same being no break in continuity you are the same being who sat down to simply contemplate only now you know who you are now you know there is no other cause and you can't turn to the left or the right either to praise or to condemn anything that is happening to you you planted it you've forgotten when you planted it what you planted it all the things that are happening to you at one moment in time you actually planted it how did you plant it by entertaining the source you reacted in some way either in a pleasant way and a lovely thing would come or the unpleasant way and they come so do not be deceived you cannot prove yourself because you are the one dreaming it and he will wait upon you and wait upon you just as quickly and as indifferently if the will in you is good or if it is evil doesn't make any difference to him he'll dream any dream that you suggest to him there are many others who think they do not dream I had a secretary his name was Butler Jack Butler and he swore he had never had a dream in his life I would see him and hear him talk in his sleep I had a theater room to the hotel and Jack lived in one of my rooms.

And I played him one night, and here he is, mumbling to himself and he swore to me he had never had a dream in his life. Well, I knew he was dreaming, but he could never bring it back to the surface. So I said, Jack, and he answered, yes. I said, look, look what that cat is doing to you. He said, what, what, what, what? I said, look, the cat is on your head. me. The cat is messing on your head. And he started to scream with his hands and started pulling his hair out. And he was throwing the cat off of his head. And when he woke up from this, which he said was no dream, I said, well, Jack, were you having a nightmare?

He said, no, no, no, no. I said, did you have a dream? He said, no, no, no dream. And here is a man going through every suggestion that I made. I told him the cat was on his head. The cat was messing on his head and all these things he actually licked and pulled the cat off the head and when he came back to the surface he could not bring back an inkling of what he actually was experiencing below the surface mine. So if you don't bring it back don't think you're not dreaming. ¶And the beach of man is dreaming and that man is perfect. It is God. That is the tone spoken of in Scripture.

And man has rejected it. Man refuses to admit that he himself is the cause of the phenomenon of life. He turns around and he is caused by a bug. It's caused by that. It's caused by something other than myself. And so the papers are full of it all day. TV, the exposure to TV. The whole thing is all based upon something on the outside of man that is causing man's misfortune. And it isn't so at all. If I have a cold, it isn't because there's a cold going around. If I have any pain, it's not because pains are going around. Whatever I suffer, I am suffering because I, and I alone, did not prune the vine.

I was not a good man who was watching the strange, irregular twigs and pruned them. And I entertained them beyond the limit that I stood. I should have pruned it in its bud so the vine would always bear good, clean, full, lovely clusters to repay the hand that wisely wounded it. So I wound a tree when I prune it. Certainly I wound it. But it will repay me with lovely clusters if I wisely wound it. And then I will not have to go through all the horrors that everyone in this world goes through. So everything that happens to us, we are bringing upon ourselves. For we are the vine spoken of in Scripture as Jesus.

He says, I am the true vine. My Father is the vine -blower. ¶And I found that Jesus. And he's just like the one who observes him when the stone is broken. He's buried in the stone. When the stone reforms itself, is you who contemplated first of all the stone then the fragmented stone and then it returned to man. And from then on you cannot blame anyone in the world. I don't care what they will tell you or what anyone else will suggest you can't blame anyone. It's all you. You are the eternal rye. You are the stone that you yourself have rejected. rejected. ¶The whole vast world has rejected this stone as the cause of the predominant life.

¶But I tell you, if you accept this, it will make life easier, much, much easier to take full responsibility for everything that happens to you. ¶And know that you're bearing the fruit, and everything in your world is nothing more than the fruit of the divine that you are. ¶And you are the Lord Jesus who is Jehovah. ¶And one day you will find that you are born the one who you claim to be that son. ¶And the son's name is David. ¶You are Jesus and he is the father of David. ¶So he is made the fruit of God as my rock. ¶And he shall say unto me, Thou art my Father. Thou art my God. Thou art my rock.

¶Read it in the 89th Psalm. Thou art my rock. ¶That's what David called his father. ¶And it was the rock that fragmented, formed itself into the perfect form of man, which is just like you. ¶And then you know your Father, you know your God, and you know the rock. and it's all new. ¶It's not another. ¶And then in the end you awake from it all. ¶But in the meanwhile you tell it. ¶You may get the same reception my friend got back in. ¶In one city they all received it. In another city no one wanted to hear a thing about it because it was based upon an old, old book. ¶So let me repeat. ¶It does does not matter in the slightest if a thing is new or old, so long as it is true.

¶So is it true? ¶And I tell you, the Bible is the Word of God, and it is true from beginning to end. ¶Especially those parts of the Old Testament that are quoted in the New. ¶They have tremendous significance, as this one did that I quoted tonight. for I was speaking from experience it happened to me in 1934 and I could hardly believe when I actually experienced it that this was scripture and yet I would read the book and hear a confirmation of it in the first epistle the second chapter of Peter come to him to that living stone ¶He is a living stone, and then you, yourselves, like living stones, be built into a spiritual house.

¶Come to him, but I am told I must first light upon him. ¶If it falls upon me, if I fall upon him, he will try to mend me. ¶If it falls upon me, it's going to crush me. ¶How will it crush me? well I can't tell anyone how crushed you are when you discover that Jesus is yourself it was so easy in the past to go to church and simply spend an hour in church and tell them I've done my duty drop a dollar bill in the collection basket maybe send them a check at the end of the month and I've done my duty and you realize that isn't so at all if I gave a billion it would make no difference to this Lord.

¶Because I've got to find who he is. ¶And he's not in the church. ¶And he's not on the outside. ¶He's in me. ¶And everything I imagine, I give to him. ¶And he actually projected in between the space for me. ¶And I must encounter all the things that I am entertaining in my imagination. ¶And that crushes me. ¶I know when I discovered it, I can't tell anyone how little I felt.

How altogether I was not good enough for this responsibility, and yet I had to live with her. He took my God from me; He crushed me, and so someone came, and I assumed Him. From whom? I assumed Him of whom Moses and the Lord and the prophet wrote. But who is He? He's a Nazarite; but who is a Nazarite? An untuned vine. But who is divine? Listen to the words: I am the true divine. I am the door; there is no other door. I am the way. I am the light. I am the truth. I am the true bread that came down from heaven. I am the light of the world. Can you imagine these so bold assertions of one who makes the discovery that he is the light of the world? There is no other light, and he is in every being in the world, and everyone must make the discovery. And then you must give up the outside God, and it's an enormous blow to any man who is terrified to simply turn to some external God and pray to it.

It's so easy to pray to an external God and then forget it. You did your duty. But when you can't do that, though there is no external God, it is Christ in you who is the hope of glory. And He is your own wonderful human imagination, and there is no other Jesus Christ. And when you do that, for a moment you're crushed. But after a while, you walk nobly and boldly. No thing in this world could move you, because you know if you entertain what you want to be in this world, He will project it; for as He tells us: if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask of Him, we know we have already obtained the request made of Him.

It's the first thing: if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask of Him, we know we have obtained the request made of Him. For now I could stand here and wonder: if an external God could really hear what I would like in this world? I may entertain the thought that three and a half billion of us couldn't hear all of us at the same time. I might question whether He heard this. And so I'll try it again. But I can't deny that I know what I imagine; but if I believe that this One who knows what I imagine heard me, then I will know I have already obtained the request made of Him.

Read it in John's first letter, the fifth chapter, the fifteenth verse of the first epistle of John: 'If we know that He hears us in whatever we ask of Him, we know we have obtained the request made of Him.' Can you conceive of anything more wonderful? So you sit here and instead of praying to another God, no other God, there is no other God, you simply imagine that you are the man that you want to be. But do you know that you've imagined it? Yes. But can you doubt that you've heard it? No, because I imagined it. Well, now, would you believe that you have already obtained it? Now, where is it? Oh, wait. The vision has its own appointed hour.

It ripens, it will flower. If it be long, wait. It is sure, and it will not be late. So I drop a letter in the mail. I dropped a letter last Tuesday in the mail with several checks addressed to my bank. Now, this is final. There was no response from the bank as of this day. I dropped in about four or five hundred dollars in checks. Some dividend checks and other checks I dropped in the mail. Today is Friday. The bank is only a matter of, well, not more than two miles from where I live. It's in Beverly Hills and I'm on the board of Beverly Hills. yet there was no response from the bank and they always send back a receipt for that deposit and enclose another envelope so I can use it for the next deposit but here it didn't come back am I concerned?

I'm not concerned I dropped it in the box at the corner of our street on Tuesday around 2 maybe 12 I would say and here it is now try it. And it didn't come back. But I am not concerned. It has its own appointed hour. And it ripens and it will flower. And to me it seems long. Wait. For it is sure and it will not really be late. So it will come either tomorrow or it will come on Monday. But it will come. So the same thing is true with us. If I imagine a state for then let me completely assume that it's done. and then wait. Three months ago, a lady who comes here occasionally, not very often, maybe it's about five months ago, before I went to San Francisco, she wrote me a letter and she said, I have some property, and I want $650 ,000 for it.

That's multiple units. So as I got the letter, I simply sat in my chair, I saw in my mind's eye, and I congratulated her on her good fortune having unloaded the property. She said, I've had it long enough. My husband left it to me when he died and I'm now tired of taking care of it. Taking care of all the units. So I would like to sell it and get the money and I'm asking $650 ,000. So I simply did exactly what I would do for anyone. I assumed it to get sold. I haven't heard one word from her. and she was here opening night. But yesterday came a lovely letter from her. Telling me for teaching her this principle, and for exercising it on her behalf.

But she did not state in her letter that she sold it. But she said, everything has worked. I take it for granted now that she sold it. But she did not actually state that in her letter. But she said, everything that I asked of you has happened. Well, she asked that of me. and then he also added and many more too so I tell you go to the source I have found him and he is my own wonderful human imagination that's God and if the Bible speaks of him as a rock I have found that too and if the rock falls upon me and then it fragments itself it fragments in me because I am the rock because within that rock when it gathers itself together it forms itself into my being I saw myself so the statement is true if anyone falls upon that stone he will be broken into pieces for if it falls upon anyone he will be crushed and so if the story comes to you before you have experienced you are crushed because it is trying to take from you the God that comforts you a God that is on the outside a God to whom you can pray and feel comforted contribute to the church until you've done your duty or attend service until you've done your duty after this happens you can go to any church until you've done your duty your duty is a 24 hour duty every moment of time you're observing what you're imagining and you can't let down for one moment because the tree is going to go wild and bear irregular twigs and you want it to bear clean full clusters that truly pay their hand that wisely wounded it.

And you wound it whenever you stop yourself from imagining what formerly gave you joy. You're delighted to hear something unlovely about a friend or about someone else. And people are all eager for gossip and how you revel in it but you can't revel anymore because it's not the other. You're doing it to yourself. And so any unlovely thing said about another you sell it out completely. You don't want to hear it. Because you're going to bear it. And that's a 24 -hour job. It's not every Sunday morning that you do it in church. But every moment of time you do it. That's how it works. So here I tell you whether it be new or old is unimportant.

The question is, is it true? And I tell you, every word of that book is true. But the passages quoted in the new all taken from the old it doesn't show any portion of any book in the world outside of the Old Testament as Israelis said, Benjamin the Israeli the New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old he said Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaism that's Benjamin the Israeli who was prime minister of England, one of its greatest Lord Beaconfield And there was a Jew, he never denied it, his very name tells you who he is, Deidreli. He is Benjamin of Israel, for Deidreli is Deidreli. He is Benjamin of Israel. And he never denied he was a Jew.

And he said in his marvelous manner that Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaism. with them. He saw what others did not see. He saw the whole thing unfolding. And when they quoted the old, he knew these are important passages. Develop on them. If it has yet come to you in spirit, it will. Everyone's going to have that experience of having that stone appear before them, and then, instead of falling upon you, as it were, as it's said in the Bible, know you are light upon it. By chance, the thing happens. For that's what the word means. The fall in the concordance is to light a sun. To the idea of a lighting, like a bird in flight, lighting upon a tree.

So, by chance, you come upon it. And then, as you contemplate it, it fragments. And then, goes back together, but not as a cell. It goes back together as a dream. A living, pulsing, breathing dream in deep, deep meditation. And it's you. and that is God, and just like you, and he's dreaming that he is you, and you're actually feeling him with all of your imaginal acts, and he projects them on the screen of space for you. You take it to heart, and I tell you the world can be what you want it to be. Your world. That's all that concerns you anyway. Your world.

Now next week is going to be on the law. Imagination plus Faith will be my Monday night talk, and then Friday will be the Coin of Heavens, both based purely on the Law and its application. If I said weeding something about the promise, it will only be a small little portion. I have no plans as to how I will present it, but the title of the first is Imagination plus faith at Monday and Friday will be the coin of heaven and how man by the use the proper use of his own imagination which is God can produce the conditions he wants in this world now let us go into the silence And how man, by the use, the proper use of his own imagination, which is God, can produce the condition he wants in this world. Thank you.