Tool 3 Coming To Te Real Me
Principle 3 Coming To The Real Me
There is no labor from which most people shrink as they do from that of sustained and consecutive thought; it is the hardest work in the world. This is especially true when truth is contrary to appearances. Every appearance in the visible would tends to produce a corresponding form in the mind which observes it; and this can only be prevented by holding the thought of the TRUTH. To look upon the appearances of poverty will produce corresponding forms in your own mind, unless you hold to the truth that there is no poverty; there is only abundance.1
Repentance. He Greek word of which this is the translation denotes a change of mind, i.e., a fresh view about God, about oneself, and about the world. The Greek word is Meta Noeo. (Change your mind) (Bible dictionary King James) version pg. 760.
|
Death To The “it.” |
At the end of this session each participant will understand how the “it” lives and dies and how to bring about permanent death and gain access to the Me.
Report on last week’s assignment. How successful have you been to this point in stopping your communication with the “it?”
In a fascinating book entitled Natural Law In The Spiritual World,1 author, scientist and Christian writer, Henry Drummond, gives a scientific definition of both life and death.1 The definition of life is “To be in correspondence with one’s environment.” That is to say that the meaning of life is to be in active vital connection and communication with and influencing one’s environment but most especially being influenced by that environment. If I am in communication with my children I am alive to my children. If I have no communication with them then they are dead to me and I am dead to them. If I am in vital communication with my wife and her with me, we are alive to each other. To cease that communication is to bring death to the relationship. I am alive to my body when my spirit is in communication with that body and we are influencing one another. When my spirit ceases to communicate with my body and no longer influences it, then I am dead to my body. If the meaning of life is to be in communication with, then the meaning of death is to cease communication.
To kill the “it” we must completely stop communication with ”it.” When we stop listening and stop talking to the ‘it” it becomes dead to us and “it” must die. The only place the “it” can live is in our communication with “it” in our own thoughts. “It” has no physical body of its own. Without our communication it ceases to exist. It is gone, done, finished, and kaput.
Access to the ME comes from the language the spoken words and private thoughts we chose to allow to occupy our minds. To Access the Me we must speak with intention.
I am Happy Declaration
The first time I tired thinking intentionally it came from a declaration technique I read about some 25 years ago and produced some amazing results. The technique was introduced to me a fascinating little book I had forgotten about until recently, entitled, Alpha Awareness by Wally Minto.1
Wally suggested taking a 3 X 5 and making a positive declarative statement on in first person present tense. His challenge was to repeat the declaration 20 times per day and whenever making a choice or a decision, repeat the declaration and do the first thing that comes to your mind. He promised was that in doing so you give up making mistakes. Somewhat skeptically the statement I picked as a new declaration was, ”I am happy.” This exercise turned out to be a simple but powerful turning point in my life.
On the first day I got in my 20 repetitions before my wife called me and told that my mother, who was visiting with us from out of town, wanted to take us out to dinner with our children. At this time I had 5 small children ages 11 and under. It dawned on me very quickly that taking my children out to eat in a public place was usually a very unhappy experience. I had my card, however, and decided to give Wally’s promise a try.
The eight of us, my 5 children, my wife, my mother and myself, walked into the Village Inn Pizza in Spokane, Washington, that fateful night. We ordered the pizza and a pitcher of 7-up and 8 glasses. While waiting for the pizza I poured each of my ambulatory children a half a glass of pop in anticipation of a possible crisis. The crisis wasn’t long in coming. Within in a minute, one of my precious little girls spilled her drink on the table. I watched the liquid run over the edge of the table and down on to the floor. My first inclination was to follow the “it’s” advice and pout. Not being a yeller or a screamer, my usual reaction was to roll my eyes, shake my head and quietly affirm my indignation at having to put up with such clumsiness.
Then I remembered the card. I pulled out the card from my shirt pocket and read, “I am happy.” In an instant a thought occurred to me. “Get a rag and wipe this mess up.” I did it and I did it without attitude. Wow. How easy could that be if I did what I needed to do without a negative attitude?
In the mean time another one of my precious little girls escaped into the din of the restaurant and, finding herself alone, started to scream at the top of her lungs. I reached for my card and read it again. Another thought came quickly, “Go tell her you love her.” What a radical thought that was, but the previous one worked, why not try it again. I walked over, picked up my wailing child, sat down with her on my lap and said, “Rebecca, I love you. Do you hear me” I love you.” She looked stunned. Then she smiled, relaxed, slide down off my lap, returned to our table and sat quietly sat down for about 40 seconds which was a long time for this little girl to remain silent.
“Hey,” I thought. “Wally may be on to something.”
My 11 year daughter started to study me out of the corner of her eye. I could see the wheels turning in her head. “He is doing something different. Now may be a good time to pop my question. Hey dad,” she asked, “Can we go ride on the horse?”
The restaurant sported an electric horse for children which produced movement by pulling back on the reins. No money was required for the adventure. I checked it out with my card and the thought said, “Let them go.”
I gave my permission and my children happily scampered off. At this time I could see the obvious irritation begin to arise in my wife’s face. Ever practical and not being one to hold back, she voiced her concerns openly.
“You can’t let these children go free like that. They will break that machine and we will be held liable. And beside they are embarrassing me.”
I reached for my card and read it. The thought brought a smile to my mind and face. I help the card up and showed it to her.
“You see this card?” I said. With this card I believe I could control the whole word.”
She shook her head and ceased her objection. The children returned happy and relaxed. We sat thought the rest of the meal without antagonism and frustration. After downing the pizza, my 11 year old the oldest screwed up her courage and popped the next question. “Hey dad, can we make our own ice cream cones?”
Along with an electric horse, the Village Inn Pizza supported a soft ice cream machine which allowed patrons to make their own ice cream cones by inserting a nickel in a bottle.
The card said, “Let them go.” So I let them go and they happily complied.
But again my wife was not in compliance. Her natural motherly and social instincts kicked in and she expressed her point of view.
Steven, she said, “What is wrong with you? You know these children cannot be without our supervision for a minute. They will break that machine. They will boot us out of here and you will be liable. Use your head.”
I reached for the support of my card which came to my rescue. When I read, “I am happy, the thought came back, “Tell her you have become drifting smoke.” The thought made me laugh but saying it didn’t make her laugh.
Her response, “YOU ARE INSANE.”
“Yes,” I said as directed by the card, But insanity is a state of mind that would give us all pleasure if would try it from time to time.”
When I walked out of the Village Inn Pizza that night I was happy and so were my children. My wife on the other hand——–? Let me tell you the rest of the story.
My happiness lasted for three day. It was like a cloud in my mind lifted. I began to see and think more clearly. Solutions rather than problems began to occur to me.
There is no activity we will ever perform in our lives more productive, yet more challenging than that of maintaining consistent sustained thought.6 As Napoleon Hill states¸”The dominant thoughts of our minds will eventually reproduce themselves into outward physical action and gradually transform themselves into physical reality.7
On the second day of my new adventure I traveled with a group of my counseling co-workers to Richland Washington a city about 150 miles from Spokane where I was living. On that trip I sat in the back seat of the car getting in my 20 “I am happy” statements. As I focused my thinking on “being happy” the fog lifted. Answers to questions and solutions to problems began to occur to me. The Me stated to speak. I started to share my ideas with my traveling companions. As I did so I began to sense a surprising irritation arising in the expression and attitudes of my fellow travelers. The driver of the vehicle looked up at me through the rear view mirror. His negative expression loudly exclaimed, “I’m depressed and your happiness is messing with that depression.” I suddenly realized that my Me had come up against his “it” and his “it” wanted to shut Me down. I found this resistance humorous and continued my “I am Happies” in private.”
Richland was the home of the Westinghouse Atomic Energy plant. I don’t know really what they do there but the personnel manning the facility were people with PhDs in physics. The chairman of our board in the area was one of those. I had never before spoken in a meeting with the chairman because I never considered myself intelligent enough to speak to such a learned being. Except that day I had my card and I had things to say. During our board meeting I raised my hand with several suggestions. He looked at me if as I were a bug who had crawled out from under a rock.
“I don’t understand what you are talking about,” he said. “It may make sense in Spokane, but in our area quite frankly I fail to see the application.”
I reached for my card and held it under my suit coat. I read it quietly and then responded with an idea that popped into my mind. I don’t remember the idea now but whatever it was I voiced it and the countenance of the chairman changed. He smile and said, “You know that is one of the most creative ideas I have heard in a long time. Let’s do it!”
The joy I felt from that experience and from the rest of the day carried me in the face of the opposition I felt from my traveling companions until I got back home to Spokane that evening. Upon returning home I jumped out of the car, ran up the front steps of my house and threw open the door. Standing there in the breeze way was my precious wife with our colicky baby who had been up all day and all night.
“Do you notice anything about me,” I asked?
“Yes, she said. “You are obviously happy. You have been with adults for two days and have not had to be up with this crying baby. You don’t know which end is up. Your happiness makes me sick.
I reached for the card but I allowed the screaming “it” to interfere.
“It” taunted, “If happiness makes your wife sick it is not worth the effort.” Maintaining the effort of the “I am Happy” declaration was strenuous work. Listening to the “it” comes by default, like riding a bicycle downhill. You can just coast, but getting to the Me requires intension. It takes conscious effort, like going uphill. You have to peddle. Declarations are acts of language. They take thought and effort. I did give the thought up and the magic of my new awareness disappeared in an instant only to return on the occasion of my starting the declarative process again but I generally failed to leave out the consecutive and sustained part. Intermittent, distracted and occasional thinking doesn’t get the job done. Letting virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly, that is the ticket.
Six Principles to Keep The Miracle Alive
Principle number 1 is recognizing the source of this great creative energy. I have read about the power of these concepts in many sources, some of which are referenced in this document. I don’t claim any of these Principle s to be original with me or with any of the authors or references I have quoted. We need to be careful in giving credit where credit is due to avoid climbing a ladder of success and in the end finding our ladder leaning against the wrong wall. These concepts are spiritual in nature and come from a spiritual source.
2 Tim 3 1-5 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good. Traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
(John 15 1, 5. I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
We need to be very careful about accepting any credit for the power of the Principle s we are using. These are divine principles and were giving to use by God. We need to continually give Him credit and express our gratitude to Him for giving us these laws and principles. .
Principle 2 mental and spiritual integrity or a continuous conversation of possibility in the face of any circumstance. When our thoughts are totally free from the “it” and we are having a pure conversation of possibility we have power. The best description I have found of how to make this power work for us is found in Doctrine & Covenants 121: 45-46. Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven. The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever.
For three days I continued using the “I am Happy” label even in the face of the opposition offered by my co-workers and the board chairman. The lights came on and life started to work and stayed working until I allowed the opposition of my wife’s “it” to stop the flow of the positive energy. That flow of energy came from a source greater than myself. I merely tapped into it for three days. I make the choice to stop. I got lazy and gave up because intentional thinking takes effort. I gave up the integrity and the magic stopped working. Thinking virtuous (righteous, honorable or moral) thoughts unceasingly is the ticket. Thinking these thoughts on an intermittent basis brings only intermittent results. How consistent are you and I in meeting that standard of consistency?
In his book The Science Of Getting Rich¸6 Wallace Wattles makes the following observation. “There is no labor from which most people shrink as they do from that of sustained and consecutive thought; it is the hardest work in the world. This is especially true when truth is contrary to appearances. Every appearance in the visible world tends to produce a corresponding form in the mind which observes it; and this can only be prevented by holding the thought of the TRUTH. To look upon the appearance of disease will produce the form of disease in your own mind, and ultimately in your body, unless you hold the thought of the truth, which is that there is no disease; it is only an appearance and the reality is health.”
Sustained consecutive thought then is the key to allowing the power of God into our lives.
When my son Sam was 13 years old and in the 8th grade he was on the school wrestling team. He and I experimented at the time with some of these ideas to help him with the sport. At that time a picture of Mary Lou Retten appeared on the cover of various magazines showing the emotion of perfection on her face at having accomplished the seeming impossible task of winning the Olympic gymnastic all around competition with a perfect score of 10 in each event. Sam cut that picture out, put it in a frame and hung it on the wall in his bedroom. Every day for two weeks he looked at that picture, thought about the emotion of accomplishment she must be feeling and tried to emulate that emotion. He refused to allow any emotion but that which was portrayed on Mary Lou’s face enter his mind. He thought with intention. Then he entered the Spokane Valley junior high school wresting tournament. I watched as if by magic Sam won all ten matches with a perfect score sweeping the tournament. Sustained and consecutive thought is the key to power in our lives.
My “it” tells me that meeting that standard is not possible and then continues to remind me in every area where I fall short. How do I achieve ultimate integrity and become in essence perfect?
Principle number 3 is practice, practice, practice. . It just takes practice and more practice just like Mr. Maagi teaches Daniel Laruso, the Karate Kid “Wax On, Wax Off” exercise. In the movie the old Karate master agrees to teach young Daniel the art of self defense. He gives him a bucket and a sponge and a can of car wax with the assignment to wash and wax about six cars sitting in the yard. The teacher gives his student some specific instruction on the circular movement of his hands while he is performing this task. He says, “Wax on with the right hand circling clockwise. Wax off with the left hand circling counter clockwise. Breath in thought the noise and out though the mouth.” Daniel takes on the task or the exercise and after several hours these movements and the breathing have become automatic. He now makes the movement without thought. He has now become automatic in his ability to fend off the blows of his opponents with his circular hand movements.
I am asking you to practice thinking or getting to the Me thoughts using one sheet per day to work thought any small or large problem you may be having.
When we no longer communicate with the “it” and “it” becomes dead to us we can bring the Me to life and increase its influence in our life by increasing our communication with that entity. We do that by practice and then more practice in the face of any circumstance in our lives which provides us with ultimate integrity.
Ultimate integrity got Victor Frankl through the holocaust. In his book Man’s Search For Meaning,7 Dr. Frankl, a Jew, describes himself standing in a parade ground in a Nazi prison camp in Auschwitz, Poland. He is naked because his clothes have been taken. He is bald because his head has been shaved. Some of the gold has been removed from the fillings in his teeth. Several members of his family have been killed and his scientific papers have been confiscated.
He describes himself thinking that life has no purpose or meaning and he is contemplating what it would take for him to die at that moment. He then describes an insight. He has one thing left in life and that is his ability to think. He concludes that he will not give that up. He refuses to allow the Nazis to make him hate them. He chooses a purpose, a meaning. He is now thinking with intension. Victor Frankl discovers what he came to call “The last of the human liberties, the ability to choose ones attitude in the face of any circumstance. Dr. Frankl states that those Jews who could find meaning and purpose in their experience survived. Those who could find none simply died.
Principle 4 is to be willing to accept things we don’t deserve. Matt 6:28 Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, Shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. So much of what we have and enjoy is the result of efforts other than our own,
Sitting here writing at this computer is a great miracle. It is the result of discoveries and innovations that I don’t even comprehend. The people in the generations before me created the present I am living in and they did it without me ever deserving a minute of it. As a matter of fact the earth upon which we are riding is here purely by the grace of a power outside ourselves. This is a book about the power of the word and the word both good and evil is powerful. God is the grantor of all great gifts. We are saved by grace after all we can do. Things work when we use the Principle s He has given us. Our work is to continually give up anxious thought. If we want work it is find there–In being still. We earn nothing, we manufacture nothing. Every thing we need is here for us. We are soldiers in God’s army and a soldier’s time is not spent in earning the money to buy his armor, or in seeking shelter. These things come from his king. Our work is to preserve the right attitude all our work is to merely take advantage of the energies that are already here. Abide in Me and I will give you rest.
Principle 5 is keeping alive the picture of a positive future you are living into. Who we are in the present moment is not dictated to us by our past. Our attitude or our word of who we say we are in the present moment is dictated by the past that we see ourselves into.
Picture the following scenario. You come into your office on a holiday. You are not required to be there but you are. As you walk past the boss’s office you hear him talking on the phone. You can tell he is upset by the tone of his voice. As you stop to listen you hear him say, “You mean we are going to have to shut the whole operation down.”
You have just heard something you were not supposed to hear. But because it impacts your future that news will definitely impact the way you feel and act right now.
Play the scene out the other way. You come into the office on a Holiday. You hear your boss on the phone saying, ”You meaning we have done well enough this year that we can give every employee a 15% raise?” You were not supposed to hear that news either but because it impacts your future it would certainly cheer you up in the present moment.
Sometimes it looks like the past is what is creating who we are in the present because we keep having an imagined expectation that what has happened in the past will happen again in the future. Just because I failed at something once doesn’t mean that it is going to be that way again. There really are no such things as mistakes only learning experiences. Just because the last relationship didn’t work out doesn’t mean the next one will turn out the same way. We need to get the past out of our future and focus on a new possibility. An uneducated imagination is a cruel task master.
A story is told by Richard Bach in his book Illusions: The Adventures Of A Reluctant Messiah.6 In this book Richard invents a 20th century Jesus named Donald. Donald is capable of using all of the principles and Principle s that God has given him. As a result Donald lives a miraculous life and is attempting to teach Richard to do likewise. Richard Bach literary heroes are pilots and so it is with Donald. Donald accompanies Richard into a hardware store to buy parts for Richard’s airplane. Donald never needs parts because his airplane doesn’t break or wear out and he never kills bugs on his windshield.
“The whole economy would collapse,” thinks Richard, “if everyone were like Donald. He fixes things by just thinking about them.” As Richard is paying his .90 cents for a nut, bolt and lock washer he hears some beautiful music playing over what he thinks is a hidden sound system. As he looks around he sees Donald playing Green Sleeves on a guitar he picked up of the sales shelf in the hard ware store.
“I didn’t know you could play the guitar,” says Richard.
“Richard,” came the reply as Donald replaced the guitar on the shelf. ”Do you think someone could walk up to Jesus and hand Him a guitar and He couldn’t play, or if he wanted to skin a D-10 cat that he couldn’t do it or if someone spoke to Him in Russian or Persian that He would don’t understand what they were saying?”
“You really do know everything don’t you?” queries Richard.
“You do too,” says Donald. “The only difference between you and I is that I know that I know everything.”
“You mean,” asks Richard,”That I could play the guitar like that”?
“Of course,” says Donald. “All you have to do it give up all your inhibitions and beliefs that you can’t do it and let your real fingers take over the instrument and play.”
“I t would be very difficult to give up my inhibitions and belief that I can’t play the guitar,” says Richard.
“Then it will take years of practice before your self conscious mind tells you have suffered enough to have earned the right to play it well,’ cme Donald’s final verdict.
What kind of possibilities can you image in your future? Whatever you imagine will show up in you present moment. Try imagining God in your future and watch what happen in your present life.
Phil 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
Principle 6 is consider that anything is possible. None of us can predict the future. We may go out of here with great place and get run over on the way home. Our goal may never be achieved, but picturing those goals and aspirations make what we are doing right now fun and exciting. The future only lives as a possibility and as I look into the future what do I see as possible? Anything I choose to see as possible becomes possible in my imagination. The possibility I am creating for myself and my life right now is the possibility of securing a grant for $100,000 to share this information with 600 people each year. Living into that future gets me up and out of bed ever morning.
Again the “Giving Up The “it” To gain The Me” sheet is a vital Principle . By practicing conscious and sustained thinking and changing the voice you listen to, you can virtually figure out a solution or an adaptation to literally any problem that could ever come up in your life. That is a majestic promise, but just checks it out for yourself. I think back to the biggest challenge of my life time and take it through the sheet as an illustration. Here are several blank “Change Your” Mind” sheets in the appendix.
Giving Up The “it” To Gain The Me
With every circumstance in your life you have a choice as to which voice you listen to.
- Event: _One night while I was asleep my wife packed my bags and put them out on the front porch, then told me to get out.
- Emotions: Fear, frustration anger, shame, guilt, etc.
- What does the “it” say about the situation? (This is a most important part; it requires the most work and attention. Consciously notice the thoughts flowing through your mind. Ex: “Life is hard”.) You are never going to make it. The economy is a disaster. There is no way to turn this around. You are going to end up in a bad place. Everything that ever meant anything to you is gone. You have no meaning, no purpose in life.
- Resulting Behavior: (What behavior do you see coming out of these thoughts and emotions generated by the “it’? Withdrawal, worry, chaotic thinking, unclear decision making, worry, fret anxiety, loss of focus, forgetfulness, thoughts of ending it all.
- What are the thoughts coming from the Me: (This is now the most important part of this exercise.) This may look like the end to you but it is just the beginning. It took this tragedy in your life to get you to grow up and discover Me. You have been listening to the wrong voice all your life and now that you have given that up, your life will become magnificent. Together we are capable and we will survive. You are now a new creature.
- Which thoughts are true? Whichever ones I choose to declare as a real possibility.
- Which thoughts take me where I want to go, the “it” or the Me? The Me.
Remember— Possibilities do not exist in time and space like a physical object. Possibilities exist in language, in the nature of the conversations we have with ourselves and other people. They become real in time and space as we continue to express them and refuse to allow their opposites to enter our minds.
Declaration = an act of language requiring no evidence that leads to an outcome. Remember the Declaration of Independence was made in the face no evidence that was ever possible.
- Declare a “Me” thought as a declaration. “The possibility I declare for myself and my life is the possibility of being passionately happy and connected to the Me forever.”
- Application—Affirm this declaration 20 times a day and whenever you have a choice or a decision to make repeat the declaration and do the first thing which comes to your mind. Let’s picture it in your mind right now.
10. What behavior do you now see as a possibility? I see a solution to my problems and an access to power in my life.
11. Now how does that feel? I feel touched moved and inspired, and I am every day.
Now let’s try a few and see how we do.
As you have more experience with this another Henry Drummond concept comes into play. What we begin to realize is that the Me provides an adaptation or a solution to any problem that will and can ever come up in our lives. That is, we are now able to adapt to anything forever.
“Perfect correspondence would be perfect life. Where there no changes in the environment but such as the organism had the ability to adapt to meet, and were it never to fail in the efficiency with which it met them, there would be eternal existence, eternal knowledge and therefore eternal life.”2
The startling question here is, “What is the Me and what is it capable of providing me?” What would it be like to have a Principle or a voice that will help you adjust perfectly to any circumstance that you now face or will ever face in your life? With the Me you now have such a Principle . From this point forward all you have to do is to practice using every day forever. You will find the “Giving Up The ‘it’ To Gain The Me” worksheet to help you solve any problem you can face in your life
1 Wattles, William. The Science Of Getting Rich. Barnes and Noble, Inc. Originally published in 1910.
2Drummond, Henry, Natural Law In The Spiritual World, New York: Clarke, Given & Hooper Publishers.
3Ibid. pg. 203
4Wattles, op. Cite pg. 18
5Hill, Napoleon. Think And Grow Rich. Random House Books, 1987.
6Bach, Richard. Illusions: The Adventures Of A Reluctant Messiah. Random House 1977.
7 Frankl, V. E. Man’s Search For Meaning. New York: Pocket Books, 1963.
