Spirituality and Self Help

Change Your Model - Change The World

We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are. — Anais Nin

Each of us operates out of a model of the world, a map if you like. We often forget that the map is not the territory and sometimes the map isn’t even accurate.

We have global beliefs like the belief that after periods of economic prosperity there must be a period of economic depression. Our “experts” predict that the situation won’t last. Such thoughts stem from the belief that everything which is good is too good to be true; They stem from beliefs in lack, struggle and poverty.

The opposite is also true. Once the situation is bad and the unemployment is at it’s peak, some say that it can’t get any worse and it’s bound to be better.

In both situations the forecasts are realized not because they are true but because that’s what the masses believe. We shape our reality with our beliefs and then we forget we did it. It’s important to concentrate on the things we want rather then the things we don’t because every thought creates our reality.

Good and bad

Furthermore the concept of good and evil can be explained with the same principles.
First of all no one is inherently evil. There are two basic emotions that contain all the other, love and fear. Fear creates separation and it can cause the personality to split into a situation where it seems that it is separated from god. However the fear is an illusion. Everything exists inside god even things we consider as bad, and therefore there can’t be a struggle between good and bad.

There is a reason for every act we do. Ask yourself what kind of feelings and beliefs does an “evil” person has? Bad people are people with a distorted point of view, a wrong map. They usually believe that they are helpless and that they aren’t loved. Once we believe in something our mind blocks any information that can contradict it. The truth is they are in pain even if they don’t show it. This is why these people are the ones needing the most love and affection. Of course that doesn’t mean that they don’t need to assume responsibility for their actions.

Judging

This is one of the reasons why you shouldn’t judge other people. However the major reason isn’t because it’s the spiritual thing to do, it’s because you deny your power to create with every judgment you make.

When you judge you declare that there is right and wrong; and when you declare it you declare that you don’t have freedom of choice because if something is wrong then you can’t choose it. when you state that you don’t have freedom of choice you are actually saying that you aren’t the creator of your reality and that someone else must be the creator. When you declare it you deny your power.

When you judge others it means that you believe that they can influence your reality somehow, it means that you need to invest energy and resist the things that you believe can hurt you or influence you. Everything you aren’t allowing in others you are not allowing yourself, and it’s related to a belief that limits you in some way. every judgment is related to your lack of love towards yourself, and it’s not related at all to the person or event your judging.

There is an exercise the demonstrates it and it can help you stop judging. Write on piece of paper things you don’t like about others or generally, like for instance greed, dishonesty, violence etc. Be completely honest with yourself.

Choose the reservations that seem the most important, and ask yourself why you don’t like it. After your answer keep asking why until you reach the source of your judgment. The source will be limiting believes like: I’m not loved, I’m helpless, I’m not allowed, there isn’t enough, I’m not good enough, I don’t deserve it, etc.

Once you know your limiting beliefs you can change them, simply understand they are not the truth, they are an incorrect part of your map.

Here is another great way to change limiting beliefs.

Do What’s Right - Do What’s Hard

Some of the books I read talk about doing what’s easy in life. They say that if faced with an obstacle you should always seek an easier path, because there are a lot more ways to choose from than we can see.

From my experience sometimes when you are doing what’s hard you are making the biggest progress, because the experience molds you just like a bodybuilder pushing weights to mold his body. His muscles grow by pain, not excessive pain but just in the right amount.

So what’s the right amount? Like many things in life it’s something that requires balance. For instance if you come from work and you watch TV for 4 hours and then go to sleep instead of doing something that you really want like reading something beneficial or even dating if you’re single, than clearly you’re not doing enough of what’s hard.

What’s hard and what’s easy are really only definitions that we make. Objectively there are no easy or hard, what’s easy for me may be hard for you and vice versa. It all depends on how you link pain and pleasure.

Each time you do something that’s hard, you increase your options thus making yourself more flexible and therefore more powerful. The more options you have in any given situation the more powerful you become.

However sometimes what you want is way above your competence at the moment thus making it virtually impossible for you. If that’s the case then you should consider how much do you want it? In some cases there are easier alternatives that can satisfy your needs in other ways, for example if you want to be rich because you think it will give a peace of mind than what you really want is peace of mind and that can be achieved with less effort.

If however you decide that you want to achieve something and you try for a long time without results you should consider requesting help. It’s not easy to admit that we need help. For some reason we assume that we should be able to know everything and always act according to our needs.

Deep down inside you know what you should do, it is the things that frighten you the most that you should do first. I know it’s hard but there are really no alternatives. If you won’t do what’s necessary sooner or later your body will start sending signals and you will probably feel physical pain. Remember what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

Religion- Fear, Deception and Rock and Roll

Out of all the dictionary definitions to the word Religion my favorite is “a particular system of faith and worship.” That is what religion really is it’s a system of rules and “ways” to reach god or some higher force.

Whenever someone is saying something to me I always try to think why is he saying that. Does he really believe what he said? or does he have a secret agenda? or maybe both. So when people are saying to me that god only works a certain way, or he will only listen if I’ll do what they are saying I’m wondering why do they say that?

The answer I believe is power and money. They achieve it with Fear. Muhammad tried to spread the Islam with force by killing people or as he called it Jihad. Christians tried to spread their beliefs with missionaries, they often came to uncivilized places helped the people there and converted them along the way. Often using peoples pain to convince them. In both religions the people understood that their power is in the number of followers.

Religion can only exist if people believe in their rules. Knowing that all religions invented stories. They invented the devil, demons and all kind of evil spirits. The purpose was to fear people into believing whatever they wanted.

The second thing they did was to give the followers pride in belonging to their religion. They invented the sinners. Those are the people they couldn’t convince. They created a separation.

In addition they claimed to have direct contact with god, that they are his messengers and that god talks only to them.
Some religions even have ranks like the Buddhism. That is another tool to boost the followers ego and it’s profitable because often ranks can be bought with money.

In Judaism they did something interesting. It’s not easy to become Jewish it takes time. you have to study the bible and prove to them that you really want to become Jewish. That way they once again create the illusion of elite, just like if you are standing at the entrance of a club and you see a lot of people trying to get in and somehow through connections with people you manage to enter. Because it’s hard you appreciate it more.

Christianity was formed by the disciples of Jesus. He never intended to form a religion the same is true for Buddhism. The Buddha and Jesus were enlightened, however their teachings were distorted.

The bible was edited according to the wishes of a minority. We know this because of the writing, some of the writing is older, it belongs to earlier times and some is newer yet in the bible they are mixed together. The bible was written by different people at different times.

Many wars took place in the name of religion and god. Religions created god in their image. A jealous god that needs people to worship him and fulfill all the commandments, there are 613 commandments in Judaism. Revengeful god the punishes people. Most importantly they invented hell, a place where you are forever punished if you are making the “wrong” choices. Thus eliminating the free choice because it’s not really free if you have to pay for it.

From what I’ve learned true spirituality doesn’t require just one way, every way is legitimate even religion. God loves everyone even the killers, think about it, is it possible that something will occur without the consent of the almighty god? God has given us the power to control our lives and we do it every day whether we know it or not. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be consequences to our actions because in our world every thought or action has a consequence.

Contrary to religion some people completely negate the concept of god,they ask questions like if good exists how come he didn’t stop the Holocaust? These questions are not relevant, because once good gave us the power to create our reality he doesn’t interfere, if he did he would interfere with free choice. The truth is every soul decides when to perish. It’s not god that says time’s up.

So go ahead believe in what makes you happy and remember everyone are doing what they are doing because they think they are benefiting themselves or others. They are not evil.

here is a great video by the hilarious comedian George Carlin and though I don’t agree with his opinions about god he is very accurate about religion.