Have a Mind That Is Open to Everything and Attached to Nothing
Having a mind that is open to everything and attached to nothing sounds easy until you think about how much conditioning has taken place in your life, and how many of your current thoughts were influenced by geography, the religious beliefs of your ancestors, the color of your skin, the shape of your eyes, the political orientation of your parents, your size, your gender, the schools that were selected for you, and the vocation of your great-grandparents, to list only some possibilities. You showed up here as a tiny infant capable of an infinite number of potentialities. Many of your choices remain unexplored because of a hopefully well-intentioned conditioning program designed to make you fit the culture of your caretakers. You probably had next to no opportunity to disagree with the cultural and societal arrangements made for your life.
Don’t Die with Your Music Still in You
The world you live in is an intelligent system in which every moving part is coordinated by every other moving part. There’s a universal life force that supports and orchestrates everything. It all works together in perfect harmony. You are one of those moving parts. You showed up here in the body you inhabit, precisely on time. Your body will leave here with the same precision. You’re an essential piece of this complex system. Here you are in this intelligent system that has no beginning and no end, in which all of the galaxies move in harmony with each other. You must have shown up here for a reason!
You Can’t Give Away What You Don’t Have
Think of the people you know who give love in response to negative energy that’s directed their way. There aren’t very many people who respond lovingly in that situation. The ones who do are able to because they have love to give away. They know that it’s impossible to give away what they don’t have, and they’ve gone that extra mile to acquire what it is that they want to both attract and give away. If love and joy are what you want to give and receive, then remember that you can’t give away what you don’t have, but you can change your life by changing what’s inside if you’re willing to go that extra mile.
Embrace Silence
You live in a noisy world, constantly bombarded with loud music, sirens, construction equipment, jet airplanes, rumbling trucks, leaf blowers, lawn mowers, and tree cutters. These human-made, unnatural sounds invade your senses and keep silence at bay. In fact, you’ve been raised in a culture that not only eschews silence but is terrified of it. The car radio must always be on, and any pause in conversation is a moment of embarrassment that most people quickly fill with chatter. For many, being alone is a nightmare, and being alone in silence is pure torture. The famous scientist Blaise Pascal observed, “All man’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone.”
Give Up Your Personal History
When a speedboat zooms across the surface of the water, there’s a white foamy froth behind it that’s called the wake of the boat. The wake is nothing more than the trail that’s left behind. The answer to, “What is driving the boat?” is that the boat moves because of present-moment energy generated by the engine. This is what makes the boat move forward across the water. Do you think it’s possible for the wake to drive the boat? Can the trail that’s left behind make a boat go forward? These are rhetorical questions with obvious answers. I’m sure you agree that the wake is only the trail left behind, and that it’s not what drives the boat forward.
The wake of your life is nothing more than a trail that’s left behind you. Thought of in this way, it’s absolutely impossible for that wake to drive you forward. The wake is not in any logical way responsible for what you’re experiencing or failing to experience today. The wake is just what it is, and nothing more—a trail that you’ve left behind. But have you?
You Can’t Solve a Problem with the Same Mind That Created It
The world is just the way it is. The economy is just as it should be. The people who are behaving “badly” in the world are doing what they’re supposed to be doing. You can process it in any way that you choose. If you’re filled with anger about all of those “problems,” you are one more person who contributes to the pollution of anger.
Your new agreement with reality in which you’ve blended your physical self and your personality with your spiritual God-connected self will begin to radiate a higher energy of love and light. Wherever you go, others will experience the glow of your God consciousness, and disharmony and disorder and all manner of problems simply will not flourish in your presence. Become “an instrument of thy peace,” as St. Francis desires in the first line of his famous prayer. Move up the ladder of human awareness from the lowest to the highest. Become a mystical being by simply changing your mind from one that created and experienced problems, to one that resolves them.
There Are No Justified Resentments
You hear people say this all the time: “I have a right to be upset because of the way I’ve been treated. I have a right to be angry, hurt, depressed, sad, and resentful.” Learning to avoid this kind of thinking is one of my top ten secrets for living a life of inner peace, success, and happiness. Anytime you’re filled with resentment, you’re turning the controls of your emotional life over to others to manipulate.
Regardless of what anyone would say to another group member, no matter how confrontational or ugly the accusations, each person was reminded that there are no justified resentments. You may need to consider whom you resent before you can make your own choice about whether this is useful for you. Resentments give you an excuse to return to your old ways. This is what got you there in the first place!
Treat Yourself As If You Already Are What You’d Like to Be
Whatever it is that you envision for yourself—no matter how lofty or impossible it may seem to you right now— begin acting as if what you would like to become is already your reality. This is a wonderful way to set into motion the forces that will collaborate with you to make your dreams come true. To activate the creative forces that lie dormant in your life, you must go to the unseen world, the world beyond your form. Here is where what doesn’t exist for you in your world of form will be created. You might think of it in this way: In form, you receive in-formation. When you move to spirit, you receive inspiration. It is this world of inspiration that will guide you to access anything that you would like to have in your life.
Place your thoughts on what it is you’d like to become—an artist, a musician, a computer programmer, a dentist, or whatever. In your thoughts, begin to picture yourself having the skills to do these things. No doubts. Only a knowing. Then begin acting as if these things were already your reality. As an artist, your vision allows you to draw, to visit art museums, to talk with famous artists, and to immerse yourself in the art world. In other words, you begin to act as an artist in all aspects of your life. In this way, you’re getting out in front of yourself and taking charge of your own destiny at the same time that you’re cultivating inspiration.
Treasure Your Divinity
You are a divine creation of God. You can never be separate from that which created you. If you can think of God as the ocean and yourself as a container, you may find it helpful in moments of doubt, or when you feel lost or alone, to remember that you are a container of God. When you dip your glass into the ocean, what you have is a glass of God. It’s not as big or as strong, but it’s still God. As long as you refuse to believe otherwise, you won’t feel separate from God.
Think of a drop of water from the ocean of abundance that’s separated from it’s source.
Separated from it’s source, that droplet of water will ultimately evaporate and return to it’s source. The point is that while it’s in liquid form, disconnected from it’s source, it loses the power of it’s source. This is the essence of the secret of always treasuring your divinity.
While you’re separated in your mind from your source, you lose your divine power, the power of your source. Just like the drop of water, you too will change form and ultimately return to your source. As long as you feel disconnected from God, you lose the power of your source, which is the unlimited power to create, to be miraculous, and to experience the joy of being alive. The drop of water, disconnected from it’s divine source, symbolizes your ego.
Wisdom Is Avoiding All Thoughts That Weaken You
Your heart is a muscle that’s weakened by thoughts that disempower you. Your kidneys, liver, lungs, and intestines are all surrounded by muscles that are affected by your thoughts.
The thought that makes most people the weakest is shame, which produces humiliation.
The importance of forgiving yourself cannot be stated strongly enough. If you carry around thoughts of shame about what you’ve done in the past, you’re weakening yourself both physically and emotionally. Similarly, if you use a technique of shame and humiliation on anyone to get them to reform, you’re going to create a weakened person who will never become empowered until those shameful and humiliating thoughts are removed. Removing your own thoughts of shame involves a willingness to let go, to see your past behaviors as lessons you had to learn, and to reconnect to your source through prayer and meditation.