“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Tonight Jane said she thought she’d “done a damn good job” of keeping her mind off her condition, especially while painting and writing—all the time except when “something hurt quite a bit.” I saw her remarks as correlating with my primary question for this evening, since Seth has told us that her feelings of distress at such times result from her mental attitudes as much, or more than, physical circumstances.

Now: you are, of course, taught that any meaningful endeavor takes a great amount of effort of a certain kind—the exertion of the will, the utilization of the time in an organized fashion—and this can promote a tooth-gritting determination in some people.

Parts of original Christianity did indeed speak of this “letting go of effort.” In a curious fashion, such letting go of effort might well result in an increased abundance of creativity, for example, but the mental and psychological set allows an individual to become more aware of the basic motivations of the personality, that show themselves quite clearly through the impulses, and through desires—particularly when they are not overlain by layers of “I must,” “I should,” or “I must do this or that.” Such thoughts cut down on both impulses and action, by setting up invisible barriers.

The letting-go of effort should be also a mental and psychological stance applied not only to Ruburt’s physical dilemma, but to his—and your—relationships with the subjective and objective worlds. Again, such letting go will indeed always promote action, and get you off dead center, so to speak. This is not a statement of passivity in conventional terms, but a creative releasing of the basic personality from the restraints of hampering beliefs.

It is true he has not been walking much. And it would take a saint to ignore that fact. The body is making necessary changes, however: the chair activity keeping the knees limber enough while undue strain is not placed upon the body at this time. The change in chairs is excellent, and shows that the hips are changing also. Whether you have noticed or not, he has begun to gain weight again, and there are multitudinous small new motions, particularly in the bathroom, that he is scarcely aware of as yet.

The body utilizes both energy and chemicals differently at night. When you are awake for periods of time during those hours, very refreshing conditions exist mentally and physically. You might, in parentheses, put that this is connected with the waking-sleeping patterns prevalent on earth, to which you referred some time ago.

So now we come to imagination and desire. When these are utilized properly you do not need effort, for effort becomes effortless. It is and it is not. When Ruburt feels he understands this, without taking any special time, let him think of using desire and imagination together, purposefully disconnecting them for this exercise from willpower or effort, and seeing himself shopping with you in a store, or walking a beach in Florida, or anything else that automatically comes to mind.