I told this man the first thing he should do was to begin work upon himself so that his “know how” would better accord with his higher ideals more of the time. He should also quit “trying to regain the friendship, love and confidence” of the other person and regain his own “friendship, love and confidence” and that until he had done this he could not expect to have it from any one else. He should not even be sorry nor regret what he had done, because energy expressed as sorrow or regret was energy used destructively, and it was the destructive use of energy through the thoughts and emotions we allowed to persist which made us destructive instruments in the hands of the Universal Law and so made it possible, in his case, to _seem_ to betray the confidence of his friend. It would have been impossible, however, for his friend’s confidence to have been betrayed had not such friend himself created the cause through his own inharmonious and destructive use of energy by his thoughts sometime prior to the act. That he was in no way responsible for his friend’s creation and that had he never lived his friend’s confidence would have been betrayed by some one else; his friend would not have escaped the betrayal. He was only responsible for the fact that he was such a destructive instrument that he could be used in this particular case. His work was to make his life so harmonious and constructive from now on that it would be impossible for the Universal Law to ever use him again as a destructive instrument. This was the only way in which he could ever “forgive” himself and when this was accomplished he would not need to be “forgiven” by any one else for he would only attract to himself harmonious expressions from those with whom he contacted. DEVELOPING A CONSCIOUSNESS Many times I am asked as to what is meant by “developing a consciousness.” To “develop a consciousness” of anything is to have knowledge of it; to understand it; to KNOW it, and to KNOW that one KNOWS it; to make union with it; to recognize our _oneness_ with it; to know that we and the thing desired are a part of each other. Take for instance some one who has never been taught to sew. He has no knowledge of it and is therefore very clumsy and awkward in the handling of a needle and thread. By persistent training and application the intelligence in the cells of the fingers are taught what to do and when the “consciousness” of how to sew has been developed in them the fingers lose their clumsiness and become nimble and dexterous at the work. The same is true in learning to play on the piano or other musical instrument; in using a typewriter, sewing machine, etc. In fact when we attempt to do anything for the first time we are always at a disadvantage simply because we have not “developed a consciousness” along that line and so do not recognize our oneness with it.