Naturally, students of conscious creating are interested in what’s traditionally been called “manifestation,” which refers to the occurrence of factual events that fulfill whatever condition was set into motion by some deliberate shift in consciousness. I say this is natural because, even though Field training puts us on notice that setting out to change factual conditions through any consciousness method immediately implicates us in contradiction and so, creates some form of suffering, it also recognizes that, just as we don’t live “by bread alone,” so we don’t live only inwardly. This is why Field theory discusses the Law of Correspondence, through which the conditions of our reality, inner and outer, must come into agreement with whatever identity we’ve claimed in alignment.
“Alignment” refers to a state of friendly agreement between desire and belief, contrariness or contradiction being the unfriendly relation between them. So, Field training tells us importantly, and in a way that sets it apart from the many New Age approaches based on visualizing, using affirmations, etc., that “the aim of practice is alignment, not manifestation”—even while it acknowledges that the Law of Correspondence operates, and that factual conditions must in their own time and manner express whatever identity we have claimed with resolve.
This presents the student of Field training with a practical issue, viz., what to do between the time he or she deliberately intends and the time that the intention manifests—not inwardly (for this is immediate, provided that the student is willing to receive within what he or she wants), but outwardly. If the student begins to “watch the pot,” contradiction returns, for while the student is looking for the desired thing to manifest, he or she likely is believing that it has not manifested yet, and this belief runs contrary to both the desire and its fulfillment.
Pretending not to watch the pot obviously won’t work. There is no pretending in practice. The diligent student may be able to muster a certain amount of detachment from the factual expression that has been set into motion by deliberate intending, but the longer the fact takes to come into expression, the more challenging this has become. What, then, can he or she do?
It helps to consider that, having completed the specific steps of deliberate intending provided in Week Two of the Course, the student has essentially agreed to accept the Field’s schedule. To be on the schedule of the Field means that all matters concerning further fulfillment (beyond the inner experience) have been delegated. At that point, it becomes a matter of sincerity, or what Field training calls “wholeheartedness.” Some students think they’ve accepted this idea of being on the Field’s schedule, but after a little while, they notice that they’ve “taken back” the matter of timing.
Such a report amounts to a confession that they never delegated the matter to the Field to begin with, for what we give away is no longer ours to take back. So, they were holding out all along, which keeps the timing along with other features of further fulfillment within the circle of Particle will, and Particle will, as Field training tells us, is almost entirely limited. In contrast with the Field’s unlimited efficiency, it is virtually powerless, which is why we often work so hard to “make something happen.”
Being on the Field’s schedule means that we have let the matter of further fulfillment go. We still have our desire, but it no longer has us. Our desire can no longer take us hostage, because we have placed all responsibility for its fulfillment into hands that cannot fail. Does this mean that we have no responsibility in the matter? Not at all. Our job is to remain aligned and released, period. Everything else is left to the Field.
The effect is an immediate sense of relief, liberation, poise, and optimism. Longer term, we see nonlocal efficiency rushing to do for us what all our labors had proved unable to accomplish. Practicing this alignment and release, the student of Field training finds that every question is answered, every need is met, every desire is fulfilled—often in a surprising way.
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