photo credit: Just Add Light
I understand the dilemma created when we believe in an unkind and unjust world. I too once saw the world through a similar lens and experienced the repercussions of believing such scary thoughts.
There IS a shift in perception that is necessary and does happen (gradually for some, more quickly for others) as we seriously commit to the work of taking responsibility for our thoughts. This necessary shift moves us from a place of distrust and its accompanying anxiety and need to control to a place of accepting that the Universe is innately good and kind.
To help us facilitate that shift, it is important to remember that blindly believing scary, painful thoughts is the primary cause of all of our suffering, NOT our life circumstances. We are not at the mercy of the world! To think so is ultimate victimhood!
The world is perfectly designed to be a mirror reflecting to us our beliefs. We think a painful or scary thought (“I am not safe.”) and then project it out onto the world. Now we see evidence for what we believe everywhere, having no idea that we are unconsciously looking for evidence to support only what we believe and ignoring anything that might prove otherwise. Believing what we think causes us to behave as if its true and before you know it we have managed to gather all the evidence we need to prove it.
9 Responses
I got a chance to hear how my words can be taken to an extreme. The author, of the website, “Hard Core Spirituality” in a post entitled, “Torture, Karma, and Compassion,”
appears to include me with those he (she?) calls, “spiritual cowboys,” pseudo spiritual individuals who stand by while others suffer because they believe that those suffering are getting their “just reward” for the choices they made.
I appreciate the opportunity to clarify my own thoughts:
I DO think our lives are a reflection of our own thoughts and beliefs. I DO look out and see the world as a mirror, and I have come to understand that when we adjust our thinking, the external world, as we experience it, also shifts to reflect that internal change.
So this author is right to conclude that I see each of us as responsible for the quality of our own lives. Does holding these beliefs mean we stand idly by while those around us suffer? I think the opposite is true.
There’s another part of this equation that teaches us that “God/Source is Love.” As we grow in our understanding that we are extensions of the essential love qualities of Source we become very proactive.
Why? Because Love would never stand by and do nothing while loved ones suffer! Alignment with Reality and Source means we become conduits for the Love of Source and therefore will naturally reach a hand to those in need. The hard part, for each of us, is to recognize when we are truly being helpful versus acting in ways that interfere or rescue (which is NOT love-based).
When we believe in a harsh, uncaring, even evil, world, we act accordingly. We feel afraid for ourselves and others. When we believe that the world is a bad place that we must fight against and/or change, then we live lives in resistance. We feel compelled to control, intervene, rescue or punish those we think we are (and others) at the mercy of.
Our challenge is to question the beliefs that have us acting in such negative ways. How do we react, towards others and ourselves, when we believe the world is a chaotic, unkind, and unfair place? What kind of “helpers” are we when we react from such a low vibrational frequency?
On the other hand, when we believe there IS a higher purpose, that we are more than these flesh & blood bodies, that each and every one of us are here having the life we are having for a reason, then we can begin to make peace with what we see.
Those who have questioned their thoughts choose to take this approach because we find it to be the kindest way to treat ourselves and others. It is an approach that brings us into a world of acceptance, kindness and love. In essence, it is our opportunity to experience “the kingdom of heaven on earth.”
Thank you Rahul for sharing a bit of your growth process! It greatly warms my heart to hear that my posts are serving the purpose for which they are intended. My aspirations for this blog from the beginning have been to share universal truths and principles in bite-size chunks so that anyone who wants to can apply them to their lives and benefit. I am glad to hear from someone who is doing just that! It inspires me to continue. Thank you again 🙂
Many blessings, Lynne
Hi Lynne,
I will try to put my answer in context. I spent a complete year of life rescuing a friend when she was ill cause i though and believed she isn’t where she is supposed to be, she does not deserve the death of her normal life. This rescuing act led to three thing:
1) She got much better and got back to her active social life.
2) Later on, after she got back her active life back, by treating me like i never existed, she helped me realize that my involvement in her life was never about her. It was my notion that “i am not where i am supported to be”
3) Now, I own my ship now.
PS: you played the active role in getting me back on track.
With gratitude and Love
Rahul
Rahul, like what? What do her words prompt in you that seems more than meets the eye? I’d love to hear.
Jon, thanks for sharing your thoughts here.
There is a saying in this work that goes, “shadow/light, no difference.” It refers to the idea that polar opposites are simply opposite ends of the same thing … again, like flip sides of a coin … Rather than thinking of one extreme as “good” & the other as “bad”, we come to understand that they are just opposite aspects of the same one thing (like what I was saying about death/birth).
It is so helpful to remember such things as it helps us let go of the need to judge one aspect over another and moves us steadily towards an attitude of concord and acceptance of reality.
Blessings, Lynne
Year ago, I read an officer’s account of his service during Vietnam. One thing he related stuck in my mind:
When describing operating at night, he told of how it was perceived by some as friendly towards the enemy, and by others as friendly to the allies. His view was that the night was neutral. There was no special advantage, or hidden evil to fear by anyone.
As time has gone on, I’ve expanded on this thought, and incorporated it into my view of life in general. There is no special advantage in any aspect, but their is an advantage in pushing the negative thoughts away and striving to find good when there seems none to be found. The freedom from the burden of anxiety and pessimism, in my opinion, has a goodness that shoud be pursued.
Hi Lynne
My eyes got stuck at “she isn’t where she is supposed to be” while reading Elizabeth’s comment. i felt there is something more to those words than what meets the eye…
Yours,
Rahul
Elizabeth, Reality shows that every time we lose something or someone, we are simultaneously spared something/somehow. It helps to remind ourselves of how death works for us. It is not the enemy to be prevented at any cost. We can’t prevent death, therefore it must be a natural part of life.
I have come to see that there is no death without birth and no birth that does not also contain some form of dying. The two are entwined and firmly established as one and the same, like flip sides of the same coin.
Our pets and departed loved ones live on in our minds. Knowing this reminds us that they are not “lost” to us at all, we have simply moved our relationship with them to the inner plain.
It is our painful thoughts about the loss that creates our grief and sadness. Not that grieving should be “fixed”, simply recognized for where it comes from. There are some thoughts that generate unbearable suffering when we believe them. I recommend we question such thoughts as, “This shouldn’t have happened.”
Do you know that absolutely? How do you feel, react when you believe that thought?
Turn it around, “this should have happened” and look for what’s true about that statement. I promise there is something precious, even sacred, that your beloved pet gifted you through her departure. Can you find it and focus there?
Blessings, Lynne
Having just lost a dear pet, I am wondering if you can share how I can reframe loss as something good. I can sort of feel it in my body, how her absence creates a sense of expansiveness in my mind and body, and with it a sort of peace, but I still have thoughts of wanting her back, that this can’t have happened, that she isn’t where she is supposed to be… I can see how I am resisting reality, but it still feels so close that I can’t really get in between myself and my sadness.