5.
Understanding where to find answers
NOTE:
This is an excerpt from the book The
Least You Should Know About Life.
The main problem hindering the progress of humankind is that people
become mentally and emotionally attached to their current world view
and refuse to question it or replace it with a higher understanding.
Not too long ago, most people believed the Earth was flat and they refused
to question this paradigm. This can cause individuals and institutions
to become rigid and refuse to reach for the truth that will make them
free. Most people have certain pet beliefs, certain mental holy cows,
that they refuse to question, often because they believe they represent
the absolute truth.
This inevitably causes you to go into a frame of mind that prevents
you from finding the answers that will expand your life experience.
The equation is simple. Will you spend your life defending a particular
belief system, and in so doing abort the process of increasing your
understanding of life? Or will you spend your life honestly and sincerely
seeking understanding—even if it requires you to look beyond a
certain outer framework? You cannot do both. You either confine your
mind or you allow it to flow freely. However, freedom does not mean
chaos.
It is a law of life that growth is unending. You live in a universe
of infinite possibilities, a universe with no absolute boundaries. Thus,
if you allow yourself to fall into the age-old trap of thinking that
a certain idea is an absolute and infallible truth, that idea will form
a wall around your mind. Look at history, and you will see that no idea
(be it religious, political or scientific in nature) has stood the test
of time. The reason is that humankind is – grudgingly –
engaged in a quest for higher understanding. As a higher understanding
is reached, better questions can be formulated, and this inevitably
leads to better answers. Thus, over time, any idea will be replaced
by a new idea with greater explanatory power and more practical applications.
If you cling to an idea that has been overrun by time, you will set
yourself outside the flow of life itself. You will be imprisoned by
the ideas that you refuse to question and they will form the boundaries
for your life experience. When people feel paralyzed, feel as if they
have no options in life, it is ALWAYS because they are not willing to
question a particular “infallible” belief system.
The consciousness of spiritual death is rigid because it is based on
a refusal to question your world view, your paradigms. This leads to
mental rigor mortis. Many people, even many institutions, are dedicated
to defending a particular limited belief system rather than reaching
for the truth that will set them free from their self-created or inherited
limitations.
The first choice you face is, “Do I really want to change my life?”
If the answer is “Yes,” then you need to accept the fact
that, in order to change your life, you must reach for a higher understanding
of life. And to find that understanding, you must be willing to look
outside your current mental box. You must be willing to question your
unquestionable beliefs and paradigms.
The equation is simple. If your current belief system and world view
could have given you the understanding you needed in order to change
your life, you would already have had that understanding and your life
would have changed. The very fact that you have a desire to change your
life demonstrates that you have not found the understanding you need
in order to produce change and fill your desire for change. Thus, the
only logical conclusion is that in order to find something you do not
have, you must look outside your current mental box. You must expand
that box by reaching for a higher understanding that will set you free
from your current limitations.
It is an eternal law that when the student is ready, the teacher appears.
If you will ask for a higher understanding, you will ALWAYS receive
such an understanding. The question is whether you can recognize the
teacher, recognize the new understanding. The answer depends on whether
your mind is rigid or flexible, whether you are attached to your mental
box or willing to look beyond it. Only you can decide whether you want
to continue making unconscious choices or whether you will open your
mind and start making conscious choices. Blessed are the meek. Blessed
are those with flexible minds – those who do not believe they
know everything – for they shall inherit the Earth and attain
mastery over life in this world.
You have two options. Your life can be an upward spiral or a downward
spiral. If you make unconscious choices, your life becomes a downward
spiral that leads from crisis to crisis. What will it take to bring
you to the point where your desire for change has become so strong that
you are willing to open your mind to a higher understanding in order
to bring about change? For many people, it takes a crisis so severe
that they finally reach a breaking point. They suddenly realize, “I
can’t keep doing this, something’s gotta change!”
Yet letting your life slide into a crisis is not the only way to turn
it around. You can – at any time – make a conscious decision
that you will seek a higher understanding of life, that you will learn
how to make better choices, how to make conscious choices. Theoretically,
you can make that choice right now. Yet in reality you might not be
ready to make that choice.
What determines whether you are ready? It is the balance between your
desire for change and your desire to hold on to your present beliefs
and approach to life. In order to change, your desire for change must
be greater than your fear of letting go of your present beliefs. In
order to get to that point, it helps to understand where happiness resides.
6.
Understanding where to find happiness
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Copyright
© 2007 by Kim Michaels |
