Update 22 July 2014: Also see blog post #24—Shame, Guilt and Judgement and #19—What Influences You? for more on thoughts and beliefs, and their effects on our lives.
Our lives are ruled by the rules of our lives… What does that mean? What are the rules of our lives anyway? Are you thinking, “I don’t have any rules. I’m a free spirit and I make up my own rules!” or something like that? Perhaps you’re not as “free” as you think/believe you are. Note, first of all, that “think” and “believe” are activities of the mind—not qualities of the higher self. Secondly, rules are postulates that the mind develops to make itself a little (or a lot) safer, or to make its life a little easier. For example, when it encounters a situation for the first time, it makes a decision about how to handle that situation. The next time it encounters a similar situation, it doesn’t have to decide how to handle the situation; instead, it can just refer to the prior rule.
Here are some othe examples: You always take the same route to work each morning because you “know” that’s the fastest route, or the easiest, or the one with the least traffic, or … whatever rationalization the mind has developed for you to keep doing the same thing each morning. Or the way you hold your knife and fork when you’re eating, or how you feel about people who are excessively overweight, or your discomfort around small children or animals, or your comfort around certain kinds of people. In fact, your rules determine virtually all your reactions and responses to life—except under circumstances discussed below.
These examples are rules you are, or can become, aware of because you see them in your outward behavior. But, there are many, many more that you have no idea they exist and influence your beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. These can come from your religion, your national origin, your ethnic makeup, past lives, karma (whether or not you “believe” in these last two), and many other sources. Many of them influence how you view fear, security, safety, risk avoidance, money, wealth, abundance, scarcity, etc.
What all these rules have created is an energetic matrix, or crystaline network, in which your mind functions. Perhaps something that looks like this:
where each node is a rule or decision or belief that you carry with you. As you add more and more rules/decisions/beliefs, the network gets more and more dense and cluttered.
If you can imagine yourself contained within such a network and then moving around within it, you can feel how your ability to move would be constrained by the density of the network. The more rules and decisions, the more constrained your life is!
This is the effect that the “rules of our lives” have on us: they determine how we will respond or react in virtually every situation! Our ability to be fully present and to react/respond fully in the moment is seriously constrained or perhaps even not possible at all because of all the rules, beliefs, decisions we—i.e., the mind—have created.
How do we “escape” or leave behind all these constraints on our lives? There are a number of methods which can get directly at these; e.g., two popular ones are The Sedona Method and The Release Technique, both of which are similar in that they draw upon the principles discovered by Lester Levenson. My experience with these is that these techniques work very well to enable you to discharge the charges you carry, which are similar to the rules or decisions discussed above. The challenge I see, however, in any such technique is that the things to be released appear to be virtually infinite, so while releasing can be very effective, it can also be a life-long endeavor.
Another approach is to recognize that the network of rules is a creation of the mind. If one separates him/herself from the mind, then the network no longer has influence on his/her life. How to do this? Awaken!
Awakening or—more popularly, enlightenment—is a permanent change to the brain structure that releases its dependence on/attachment to the mind. There have been many spiritual teachers over the eons who achieved enlightenment and have been able to pass that on to a handful of their devotees.
At this time, there is a school in India that is regularly producing awakening in those who attend its processes. It is the first time in the entire history of man that large numbers of people are achieving awakening within a very short period of time—literally a few weeks. For more information, visit the website of Oneness University.
From the Oneness University website:
Over a hundred million people across the planet are experiencing this Divine Phenomenon known as Deeksha which starts a profound process of spiritual awakening in a person.
Oneness University is the birthplace of this Divine Phenomenon that is helping millions of people move into higher states of consciousness.
Oneness offers courses and programs throughout the world to help people from all paths, faiths, and walks of life to grow into the natural state a human being is built to be in, a state that is one with all that is. Oneness exists to set humanity totally and unconditionally free… click here to read more.
If you choose to spend sufficient time in a deep meditative state contemplating the “rules of our lives,” you will inwardly see the ways in which your life is constrained by all the rules created by the mind. If you truly, deeply contemplate this, you will know that it is true. You will then have the option to decide whether or not you wish to continue to live your life with all these rules—most of which are not even in your awareness—or to decide that you no longer wish to be subject to these influences and their—mostly insidious—effects.
For more on awakening and the effects that awakening have had on some who have attended Oneness University courses, visit the Awakened Leaders website.
