When you have a “knowing” about something, you are clear that it is true, or that it will
happen. You are certain, in every sense of the word, and you continue to be certain even if
something to the contrary appears in your reality.
You judge not by appearances, because you know what is so.
So I can learn to trust You by knowing that I don’t have to trust You!
That is correct. You have come to a knowingness that the perfect thing is going to occur.
Not that a particular thing is going to occur, but that the perfect thing is going to occur. Not
that what you prefer is going to occur, but that which is perfect is going to occur. And, as you
move toward mastery, these two become one. Something occurs, and you prefer no
occurrence other than what is occurring. It is your very preferring of whatever is occurring
that renders that occurrence perfect. This is called “letting go and letting God.”
A Master always prefers what occurs. You, too, will have reached mastery when you are
always preferring what is occurring.
But... but... that is the same as having no preferences at all! I thought that You’ve always said,
“Your life proceeds out of your intentions for it.” If you have no preferences, how can this be
true?
Have intentions, but don’t have expectations, and certainly don’t have requirements. Do not
become addicted to a particular result. Do not even prefer one. Elevate your Addictions to
Preferences, and your Preferences to Acceptances.
That is the way to peace. That is the way to mastery.
A wonderful teacher and writer, Ken Keyes, Jr., talked about just this idea in an exceptional
book called A Handbook to Higher Consciousness.
Indeed. His formulations in that book were very important, and for many people, ground-
breaking.
He spoke of changing addictions to preferences. He had to learn how to do that in his own
life, because for most of it he was in a wheelchair, immobile from the chest down. Had he
been “addicted” to greater mobility, he could never have found a way to be happy. But he
came to realize that it was not outer circumstances that were the source of happiness, but
rather our inner decisions about how we choose to experience them.
This formed the core of his writing, though most of his books didn’t mention his physical
challenges. So when he was asked to give lectures, people were often shocked to see him
virtually immobile, in his wheelchair. He wrote with such joy of love and life that they
imagined him to have everything he ever wanted.