THE PLAY

The Play

As Shakespeare said, “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances… and each man in his time plays many parts.” This world, which seems so real, is as much a dream as the dreams we encounter while asleep. Our waking dream seems so real because it has continuity while our dreams at night appear to be random sequences, taking place in unfamiliar surroundings and situations.

God is the dreamer, dreaming the play into existence, and God plays all the parts. Everyone who appears in your world is God playing that part for you, the author.
“No man comes unto me, save I call him.” Each of us is writing his or her own script. If you are dissatisfied with the play, it is up to you to rewrite the script to make it conform to your idea of what the play should be. You cannot demand that the actors in your play change the character they are portraying. All changes must take place in the mind of the author.

If there is someone in your world who is the source of annoyance or irritation to you, that person has no choice but to play the part called for in your script. There is nothing you can do on the outside to bring about changes in another. You can use the art of revision to change a line of dialogue, to replace a certain character with another, and to write happy endings to the sub-plots of the play. When you begin to view this waking dream objectively, you will be able to verify that you have been the author of both the pleasant and unhappy acts in your play. You can radically change the play by using your imagination creatively, by assuming your wish fulfilled. You can change the script on a daily basis by revising the scene that did not please you. The character who disturbed you today will not do so tomorrow if you write the dialogue you wish to hear and alter that role in your imagination. When you awaken to know that you are God, the Father and author of this magnificent play, you will understand that: “each man in his time plays many parts.”