These, then, are my last words to you: Be not afraid of Life. Believe that Life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.
William James, the father of modern psychology. From a speech delivered in May, 1895 entitled "Is Life worth Living?" and which was later published in the International Journal of Ethics, October 1895.
I have been asking many, many people lately these questions, "Do you believe our outer world circumstances are a reflection of what we got going on inside?" and "Do you believe our beliefs determine our lives more than randomness, genetics, or effort does...and that if we change our beliefs we change our lives?"
From most I scored a weak, "Yes...maybe?"
That is what led me back to exploring the teachings of Bruce Lipton, William James, Wayne Dyer and others who strongly purport that our subconscious beliefs determine the qualities of our lives. If we believe life is worth living, it will be.
I have someone in my life who is wobbling on the fence questioning if Life is worth living and too often this person leans towards the "I don't think so" side. They come to me and say, "If Life is worth living, convince me of how?" I feel pressured to answer that question. Of course, nothing I say suffices. Their pain-body resistance to anything positive and life affirming at this point is pretty thick. This is not spiritual ego talking...but their level of awareness and their understanding of consciousness is much, much more immature than mine is. They do not see or understand what I have learned the hard way. Though my heart answers the above question "Yes...it is definitely worth living"...my support points are "weak and limp", I am told. That is true. Because of how I am experiencing Life right now...sandwiched between all this junk coming up from the inside as I purify, and all this challenge hitting this human I call me from the outside...I cannot process that question enough in a way to answer it that would convince anyone other than myself. I have to stop teetering on the fence before I can get anyone else off it.
I can see...from this life experience, this human I call "me" is having ...how deeply ingrained, often hidden, beliefs in my subconscious mind have limited this life and made it much more difficult than it has to be. I look at my circumstances, and I know in my heart that 'my' samskaras are creating this experience. Well...I should say... I am creating these limitations, repeating challenges, physical ailments, experiences of lack and struggle, this nonstop awareness of the suffering of others needing me, and creating a life that is not a good example of someone who believes life is worth living. How am I doing this? By looking through the veil of a trauma long gone, by clinging to the emotional energy and "core beliefs" it has left behind. Sigh! I know that in my heart to be true.
My mission, one of the reasons I physically distanced myself from these suffering others, is to heal from this once and for all...so I can free myself from the tentacles of this story that holds me back. I know that I truly cannot help another soul until I free my soul from this mess that was piled on top of it. I cannot answer that question in a way that will make sense to anyone...and I do have a deep desire to answer it for the world's sake...until I experience fully that Life is worth living. Though I know in my core that it is...I have not yet had the felt experience of its worth. This life I am living does not demonstrate it!
There are many ways to free myself from what is holding this human back. I need to purify from the samskaras that are stuffed within this psyche I created. (Ultimately, I have to free myself from the psyche itself, but for now samskara release is the priority). I have to continue to make my way through the pain this involves. It is really time and energy consuming...I have to accept that, for now, I might not have a lot to give to others. I have to see the core beliefs that were hidden around those samskaras and recognize the impact they have had on this life...then I need to do the work of releasing them and changing the programming. I need to re-evaluate what I think is bad, what I think is good in terms of each life experience...come to see the "neither and both" nature of it, that it is neither good nor bad, helpful nor harmful, should nor shouldn't be...and at the same time both good and bad, helpful and harmful, should and shouldn't be. I need to discover the balance point between the so called "negative" and the so called "positive" opposites of this life experience. ...to neutralize it all so there is less pull towards desire, less pushing away with aversion. I need to explore how every event that has occurred in this life experience and that will occur in it, has both joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain...that this is the natural way of life. This is the middle way. It only becomes one-sided when we prefer and seek the pleasure over the pain. Then, I need to call upon those things from within me that got buried by the samskaras...peace, equanimity, faith, compassion, wisdom that goes beyond intellectual knowing, and love for self/Self ...Oh man, I got some work to do.
We all have work to do, don't we? And it is so important that this work is done, so we create the lives we are here to experience, and so we can be there for the others wobbling on the fence asking the question, "Is Life worth living?" Let's show them that it is definitely worth living by proving that truth to ourselves first. Let's create better lives by changing our beliefs and our attitude about it.
All is well!
The same road and the same world produce different actions upon different individuals. The great modifier is self. It is therefore more than a platitude to say that the world within modifies and shapes the world without. Anyone who desires to change his environment and outer conditions may do so by changing his inner attitude.
William James. The Cincinnatti Enquirer, 1928
Shout of appreciation out to Quote Investigator https://quoteinvestigator.com/2021/05/21/alter/ for this information.
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