Manifestation Basics: All Roads Lead To Rome

Part Three

In part two, we concluded our discussion with a potentially terrifying realization: some desires only arise from a sense of lack and will disappear when we shift to a more positive state. Let's investigate why this is the case, and why it's not a bad thing.

First we need to be clear on what I mean when I say some desires by nature can only arise from lack. Think of it this way -- if I have a cut, I might desire a band-aid. This desire is valid and it's genuine, but is only a consequence of my having a cut. It arises from my being wounded, and were my cut to heal, the desire would disappear. Nobody desires band-aids alone.

Not everything is so binary though. Most desires can arise from either a place of lack or a place of celebration. Take a cool drink for instance. I might desire water because I've been hiking through the desert for 5 hours and fear I won't make it any further unless I'm able to hydrate. This desire for water has the shine of desperation and lack to it. On the flip side, I might desire a nice glass of lemonade on a warm summer day. This desire doesn't arise as a result of my being so thirsty I think I might die; it arises from my feeling positive and at peace and wanting to accentuate that state with a pleasant experience.

There's a good chance whatever it is you're trying to manifest can arise from a state of lack, or a state of "celebration." If you're having trouble getting it though, that's an almost certain indication that you're in a state of lack.

You might be saying, "well, obviously. Isn't the entire point of Neville's teaching that we need to learn to transmute our state of lack into a state of having our desired object/experience?" The answer to that is yes, but also no.

Let's go back to the band-aid example. No matter how hard to you try, you'll never be able to "shift" the state out of which your desire for the band-aid arises. By it's nature, your desire for the band-aid must be a response to your having a cut. It just can't be any other way.

"Lacking" desires are always a response to some pain or discomfort. "Celebratory" desires are not a response to anything; they arise organically for the sole purpose of your enjoyment.

For a long time, I'd read about the necessity of "letting go" of our desires and feel a real aversion to the idea. It felt like somebody was trying to trick me -- like they were convincing me to not want my desired object/experience anymore, so when I inevitably didn't get it, I just wouldn't care. But this was a misunderstanding on my part; one you might also be falling victim to. So let's clarify a few things.

All desires, no matter what form they may take, are desires for happiness. All roads lead to Rome. If you want something, you only want it because you think having it will make you happy, or at the minimum, stave off unhappiness.

This understanding is crucial. It doesn't matter what it is you literally want; a new car, a new job, a new relationship. It also doesn't matter what feelings underly those desires; wanting abundance, wanting security, wanting love and connection. At the root of every desire is simply a desire to be happy. I want a big house because I want to feel secure and abundant -- I want to feel secure and abundant because I think when I feel that way, I will finally be happy. If you're trying to manifest a relationship, and I told you I can wave a magic wand and make your relationship happen, but it's guaranteed you'll be hopeless and miserable with your new partner, would you still want that new relationship? Of course not. We want things because we think they'll make us happy.

We end up in states of lack for this reason. Because we've vested our happiness in objects or experiences outside of ourselves. We say, I am unhappy and I don't have "x,y,z." Therefore, happiness must be in "x,y,x" and my ability to be happy must be dependent on my acquiring these objects/experiences.

But this perspective is a false one. And the entire point of Neville's teachings is to show this to you. When you do SATS or some other visualization exercise, you feel the happiness you'd feel were you to acquire the object/experience of your desires. Even though you're not literally experiencing the thing in physical reality, you are literally experiencing the happiness of having it. This is meant to be evidence of the fact that happiness exists in you, and not in the thing you desire. The experience of the thing you desire must then be an expression of happiness, and not something in which happiness inherently resides. And that brings us full circle to celebration vs lack, and letting go.

Celebratory desires are expressions of happiness -- they aren't attempts to siphon happiness from some object or experience. Lacking desires are the exact opposite. They're expressions of unhappiness, and our resulting attempt to blunt our current discomfort with the happiness that exists outside of ourselves in objects/experiences.

And this explains why almost everyone is averse to the idea of "letting their desires go." Because on some level, deep down inside, you are convinced that happiness exists in your desired object/experience. You might make a good faith attempt to let go, but it'll likely end up being a false one -- a saying "oh, if I just let go of this desire it (and the inherent happiness that exists within it) will be mine? Okay, I'll let it go *wink wink*."

So here's what we can do about this whole issue:

Make a list of all the things you want to manifest. Then, go through each item one by one and ask yourself, "does the prospect of never getting this object/experience bother me."

The chances are, your answer will be yes to almost everything. That's okay. I don't want you judging yourself, or feeling badly about being in a state of lack -- almost everyone on the planet is in a state of lack. And you might feel like it's bad juju or counter to Neville's teachings to admit or focus on your state of lack instead of just changing it, but I think clear seeing is always the first step to improvement. This exercise should clarify for you why it might be that you've been doing SATS for a year and still haven't manifested your desired experience yet. If you're deeply averse to the idea of letting it go, then that's a sign you must be in the state of lack despite all your hard work. And again, that's okay -- don't get down on yourself.

If you analyze your desires and see that they all arise from states of lack, and that makes you feel bad, it's only because you still believe happiness exists in your desired object/experience. Read back through parts 1 and 2 of this series as a reminder that this isn't really the case. It's okay if your newfound understanding doesn't penetrate all the way down to your core yet, that doesn't mean you aren't making progress.

In the next installment of this series, we'll dive deeper into the idea of living in a state of celebration. Until then, keep doing your SATS or your visualizations, but just make an extra effort to see your desired manifestation as a celebration of the happiness in you, as opposed to your ticket to feeling happy at all.

Until next time.