#38: The Effortless Way

The Effortless Way

A Lecture in the Voice & Spirit of Neville Goddard

You have labored long under the illusion that creation demands struggle, that to possess your desire you must fight against unseen forces, wrestle with circumstances, or strain every nerve to bend the world to your will. But I tell you this night that there is no struggle in creation. When the state is truly assumed, it feels natural, and what is natural must express itself without force.

The secret lies not in outward effort but in the quiet assumption of the consciousness of the thing desired. Man has always been taught to strive, to push, to compel. Yet the law of your being declares otherwise. Consciousness is the sole reality, and when you enter into a state of consciousness and dwell there until it becomes natural to you, that state clothes itself in form without the slightest strain. You do not coerce it. You do not fight for it. You simply are it, and being it, it appears.

Consider how effortlessly the sun rises each morning. It does not struggle against the night. It simply is light, and light it must be. So it is with you. When you assume the feeling of your wish fulfilled and remain in that feeling until the wish feels natural, the fulfillment is as inevitable as the dawn. There is no opposition in the universe to your natural being. The only opposition you have ever known was born of your own unnatural assumption that you must struggle to become what you already are in consciousness.

You are now, at this very moment, living in the state you most persistently feel yourself to be. If your world seems hard and resistant, it is because you have not yet made the new state natural. But once that state is natural to you, once the feeling of it is as familiar as your own name, then the outer world must rearrange itself in harmony with your assumption. No power on earth can prevent it. The world is not the cause; it is the effect. You are the cause, and when you change the cause by changing your natural feeling, the effect changes of its own accord.

Many of you have tasted this truth in small ways. You have desired something lightly, assumed its fulfillment for a fleeting moment, and watched it appear almost at once. Yet when the desire seemed great, you introduced effort, and the very effort betrayed your doubt. Effort is the shadow cast by incomplete assumption. When the assumption is complete, when the state feels so natural that you would be surprised if it were not so, then effort vanishes. You rest in the certainty of being, and rest is the true creative act.

The Bible reveals this effortless way again and again, though men have read it without understanding. “Be still and know that I am God.” Stillness is not idleness; it is the naturalness of the assumed state. When you are still in the consciousness of your desire fulfilled, you know yourself to be the God you have claimed to be. There is no struggle in that knowing. There is only the quiet majesty of being.

You need not force the outer world to conform. The outer world is plastic to your natural consciousness. It molds itself to the feeling you most naturally entertain. If you would have health, assume the state of health until health feels natural. Do not fight disease. Do not wrestle with symptoms. Simply be the healthy one in consciousness, and let the naturalness of that assumption do its perfect work. The body will follow because it has no reality apart from your consciousness. What you are conscious of being, you express without effort.

The same is true of wealth, of harmonious relationships, of any desired condition. Assume the consciousness of the wealthy man until wealth feels as natural to you as breathing. Then wealth must appear, not through struggle or scheming, but through the effortless out-picturing of your natural state. Men who strive for riches through endless labor often remain poor in consciousness, and their outer struggle only confirms their inner poverty. But the one who has assumed the natural feeling of riches walks in a world that opens its treasures to him without demand.

This is the effortless way. It requires no long vigils, no strenuous affirmations, no battles with the senses. It requires only the gentle persistence of dwelling in the feeling of the wish fulfilled until that feeling becomes your natural state of being. You do not force the feeling. You do not coax it. You simply return to it again and again, lovingly, confidently, until it feels right, until it feels like home.

Tonight, as you sit here, select one desire that has seemed difficult. Do not look at the seeming obstacles. Close your eyes to the evidence of the senses and assume the consciousness of that desire already fulfilled. Feel yourself to be the one who has it. Dwell in that feeling. Let it become so natural that you no longer question it. In this quiet assumption the work is done. The state is assumed, and what is assumed in consciousness must externalize itself without the slightest struggle.

You may ask, “How do I know when the state is truly natural?” You will know by the deep inner peace that accompanies it. When the state feels natural, anxiety disappears. Doubt vanishes. You move through your day with the quiet certainty that the thing is already so. That certainty is the sign that the assumption has taken root in your subconscious and is now growing into visible form. No force is needed to bring it forth. Nature does not struggle to express its laws. Neither does your consciousness struggle to express its assumptions when they have become natural.

The world you see is but the out-picturing of your natural assumptions. Change those assumptions by making a new state natural, and the world changes. It has no choice. It is not a stubborn opponent to be conquered. It is a faithful servant that mirrors your natural being. When you truly understand this, struggle ends forever. You cease to fight circumstances and begin to create them from the effortless assumption of the desired state.

This truth liberates you from the tyranny of effort. You have been taught that nothing worthwhile comes without hard work. Yet the greatest things in your life—the air you breathe, the beating of your heart, the rising of the sun—come without effort. So it is with the fulfillment of your desires. They come without effort when the state is natural. The only work required is the work of assumption, the gentle, persistent dwelling in the feeling of the wish fulfilled until that feeling is natural.

Let me repeat this eternal truth in another way so that it may sink deep into your being. There is no struggle in creation because creation is finished. The universe is complete in every possible state of consciousness. Your task is not to create what does not exist but to enter into the state that already exists and make it natural to you. When you enter the state of health and remain there until health feels natural, health is expressed. When you enter the state of love and remain there until love feels natural, love is expressed. The expression is effortless because the state is natural.

You are the operant power. You are the one who decides which state shall be natural to you. No one else can do this for you. No external force can compel you to assume a new state. But once you have assumed it and made it natural, no external force can prevent its expression. This is your freedom. This is your power. This is the effortless way.

Many come to this teaching and say, “I have tried to assume the state, but nothing happens.” I tell you the reason is simple. The assumption was not complete. The state was not made natural. You visited the state for a moment but did not dwell there until it felt like your home. You must live in the state, think from the state, feel from the state, until the state feels more natural than your former limitation. Then, and only then, will the effortless expression take place.

Tonight, before you sleep, enter the state desired. Feel it as natural. Sleep in that naturalness. Let the subconscious accept it as your true being. In the morning, continue to feel it natural. Move through your day as one who is already the fulfillment of the desire. Do not look for signs. Do not check the outer world for evidence. The evidence will come in its own time and in its own way, but your part is to remain in the naturalness of the assumed state.

This is not a theory. This is law. Consciousness is the only reality, and your natural consciousness is the only cause. When that natural consciousness is the fulfillment of your desire, fulfillment must appear. There is no other possibility. The universe is constructed upon this principle. It cannot fail.

You who feel stuck in any area of life, hear this clearly. The feeling of being stuck is itself a natural state you have assumed. Change that naturalness. Assume instead the state of freedom, of fulfillment, of harmony, and make that new state natural. The old state will dissolve as surely as darkness dissolves before light. No struggle is required. Only the assumption of the new naturalness.

Let this truth take possession of you. Let it become the very foundation of your being. You are not a victim of circumstances. You are the creator of your natural states of consciousness. Choose the state that represents your heart’s desire. Assume it. Dwell in it. Make it natural. Then rest in the certainty that what is natural must express itself without force.

The effortless way is open to you this night. It has always been open. Men have overlooked it because they believed creation demanded struggle. But now you know. Now you see. Now you can enter the state and let it be natural, and in that naturalness find the fulfillment you have sought in vain through effort.

There is no struggle in creation. When the state is truly assumed, it feels natural, and what is natural must express itself without force. This is the great secret. This is the effortless way. Live in it. Be it. And watch your world transform itself in perfect harmony with your natural being.

You are the God of your own universe. In the quiet naturalness of your assumed state, all things are possible. Rest there tonight. Rest in the feeling that it is done. Rest in the naturalness of being the one you desire to be. And as you rest, creation itself will move to fulfill your every wish without the slightest effort on your part. This is the truth. This is the law. This is the effortless way.