How to Enter Happy Land

by Vernon Howard

www.anewlife.org

Remember the part in the story where the people who covered the obstacle course dishonestly got so delighted when they were told those who qualify now may enter the happy land? And of course, all of them in their self-deception said, “Of course I qualify.” Therefore, a false statement brought a false thrill.

Happily and joyfully, they marched over for their reward. That is, to enter the Kingdom and be happy for evermore. They came up to the invisible wall and they tried to get in, and they smashed their hands and their feet against it, put their palms up. That is a very necessary, horrible, grinding, atrocious, beautiful experience you must go through.

You do go through it! You went through it today. Your whole life consists of you saying, “Ah, I have done my part. Now it’s time for the payoff. And now, my rewards of being happy will surely arrive.” They never arrive!

Now here’s the point. Fury must not only arrive, it is there. Fury must be made conscious. The minute you pound on that invisible wall and demand and say, “I have a right to get in,” in all your fearful rage (and remember, you’re scared, you’re terrified) you say, “You’ve got to let me in!” But they won’t let you in! This goes on a hundred times a day. “You must be nice to me.” “You must not raise the price of corn on me in the supermarket.” And you pound, and you pound, and you pound!

You have one hope on God’s earth, and no other! You must collapse! You must collapse until you disappear. As long as you have strength – ego strength, conceit strength, self-strength, to get up and pound on that invisible wall with even your little finger, trying to force it open on your terms, it will never open.

Now, there’s an alternative! You haven’t arrived there yet. You’re still pounding on that wall demanding to get in, and you’re not going to get in that way.

I’ll save you a lot of work if you’ll listen to me. The next time you collapse because you’re so bitter, so hateful, you don’t have an ounce of your self-strength left, remember what you were told here. That will be the beginning of understanding.

You must sooner or later see that that invisible wall was the unconscious self. The only wall that keeps you out of Heaven, out of that Happy Land, is the wall of your unconscious conceit – yourself. “I deserve to get in.”

There’s no one deserving to get in. Boy, this is tough stuff! Don’t you dare miss this if you want to reach that other land! But I even tell you how nice Truth is. It says, “Look, when we see through your deceit, we see through it, and we try to tell you through your pain that there is no way you can kid us. And when you pound on that wall, and collapse in utter hatred and bitterness, I know what murderers you are in your hearts.”

Aren’t you grateful that I can see what you can’t see which is keeping you out of the Kingdom? You can’t see it. Be grateful that someone will tell you that! After your next defeat, remember what you’ve heard here. And remember that if you give up trying to enter that Kingdom, if you really do it – you’ll get up, and you’ll walk right through it.

The nature of the unhappy land – that nature cannot enter the Happy Land. Would it be happy if you brought yourself into it? If the way you are right now were transported up to Heaven, would it be Heaven for you? You have to live with yourself! It would be hell! And all your nice relatives up there too, would that be Heaven?

The Ever Helpful and Wonderfully Humble – Vernon Howard

”This World Is Illusory The world has nothing of real value to give you because it does not exist. Because it does not exist as a reality. Because it is illusory, it has only illusory and worthless rewards for you. While employment and geography and people exist for your physical self and your social self, and are good for them, they cannot give benefits to your real spiritual nature, which is complete in itself. It always has been complete and always will be, for it lives not in time but in eternity. In reality there is no individual who can win a thrill or a sense of worthiness from the everyday world. In a lost person, rewards or punishments from the world fall on the self-glorified self and cause it to vibrate. This vibration serves as a shaky idol, which we eagerly worship for as long as the thrill lasts. But since the worshiper and his idol are the same thing – the same set of vibrations – the ending of the thrill of worshiping the idol causes self-panic. We feel as if we are fading away, that we will not be ourselves anymore. The fear of the extinction of the invented self prevents us from seeing that the false self must fade away in order to experience true spiritual birth. Your work in all this is to notice the deceptive nature of your fear of not existing. And one way to do this is to notice how friends, news stories, rumors of doom, how they all try to plant fearful thoughts and feelings into your system. Here is what these people are doing: In order to give themselves a false sense of aliveness by making gloomy remarks, they have no conscience in making others feel the same false sense of doom. They are like mad musicians who demand that you dance to their insane music.”

Everything in this paragraph connects with the opening sentence, which is:

The world has nothing of real value to give you because it does not exist.