The Pearl of Great Price
Jesus tells a parable that Neville returned to more than almost any other.
I am the pearl.
On waking, sit briefly with the question: what is the one thing I would never trade, even for the answered prayer? Notice the answer.
The closing days are not for big revelations. They are for becoming gentle with what you have learned.
- Week 1 Foundation
- Week 2 Activation
- Week 3 Embodiment
Jesus tells a parable that Neville returned to more than almost any other. A merchant, searching for fine pearls, finds one of great value. He goes and sells everything he has, and he buys it. Neville treated this parable as a precise description of what happens to the student of the Law when the deeper teaching begins to break through.
The merchant is not foolish. He has been a careful trader for years. He knows the value of money, of inventory, of patience. He understands proportion. He does not part with his accumulated wealth lightly. But the pearl is different. The pearl is worth more than all his other holdings combined. So he sells everything without hesitation, and walks away with one thing in his hand, and he is richer than he has ever been.
Neville said the pearl is the awareness of who you are. The recognition that the I AM that has been doing all this imagining is itself the source from which everything appears. Once you have seen this, even briefly, you understand the merchant. You would trade every wished-for thing for the unshakable awareness behind the wishing. The things you have been working for become small in comparison with the recognition of the one who has been working for them.
This is not a teaching to grasp intellectually. It is one to be visited by. It may come during a meditation. It may come walking through a park. It may come at the kitchen sink. But when it comes, the whole program changes shape. The things you have been working for become the natural overflow of who you have realized yourself to be. You stop being a person trying to get things and become awareness expressing itself through a person, with no anxiety about the outcome.
Neville reported being visited by this recognition several times in his life, each visit altering his teaching afterward. The merchant in the parable did not work harder to acquire the pearl. He simply traded what he had for what he saw. The pearl was visible to him. The previous wealth, once he saw the pearl, was no longer attractive enough to keep.
Today, sit briefly with this question, and do not answer too quickly: what is the one thing in this life that, if I truly possessed it, I would never have to want for anything again? The answer is not a thing. The answer is what is asking. The pearl is the recognition that you are the asker, and the asker is whole, and the asker is enough.
Sit upright. Three slow breaths. Soft eyes.
Let go of “reasons” and claim your inner power.
You must be willing to lose all other beliefs.
Neville Goddard
Speak each line slowly, with a breath between. Where the lines break into a new group, pause longer. Let the words land in the body, not the head.
Sit with one closed fist in your lap. Slowly open it.
Jesus tells of a merchant who found one pearl of great value,
and went and sold everything he had, and bought it.
For a long time I thought the merchant was foolish.
Everything he owned, traded for one small thing?
Today I understand.
The pearl is not a possession. The pearl is a recognition.
The pearl is the awareness behind every wish I have ever made.
For weeks I have asked the world for many things.
And today the asking begins to quiet, because I have seen the one thing
that, possessed, makes all the other asking small.
I am that awareness.
I am the seer behind every seen.
I am the one who has been searching, and I am the one who has been sought.
I would trade every visible treasure for the unshakable recognition of the One I am.
The pearl is found. The pearl is held. The pearl is mine.
The pearl was always mine. I only had to see it.
And now I see.
Before sleep, rest in the awareness that has been doing all the practicing. That awareness is the pearl. Sleep in it.
What belief are you ready to give up? What external cause or belief am I finally willing to surrender, in exchange for total self-responsibility?
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You have done the work of one day. The work itself is the gift.
With Love,
Dr. Athena
What if I miss a day?
You will. Most people do. The program is not a punishment and a missed day is not a failure. Pick up where you left off, or repeat the day you missed if it called to you. The order matters less than the return.
What if I didn't feel anything during the practice?
That is normal, especially early. The feeling is a muscle, and the muscle is new. Shorten the practice. Soften the image. Borrow a remembered feeling if you have to. The feeling builds. It does not always arrive on the day you scheduled it.
What if doubt was loud today?
You do not have to argue with the doubt. You only have to perform one small physical act as the one who has already received. Pay something with calm. Sit upright. Take a deep breath. The body teaches the mind. The doubt loses its grip without ever being defeated.
What if I have not had any mystical recognition?
Most do not, on a deadline. The pearl is not earned by effort. It is recognized when the conditions are right, which is not under your direct control. Keep practicing. Make room. Do not chase. Recognition tends to arrive precisely when the chasing has stopped.
Why You Will Sell Everything for This
There comes a moment in the work when you understand why the merchant in the parable sold all he had to buy the single pearl. Today, perhaps, is that moment.
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