At our very core, we are all made of star-dust - molecules of the universe - spinning around on a planet in the middle of the solar system, in a universe that is so vast it is beyond our comprehension. Our very life is a wonder along with our capacity to feel deep emotions - emotions that can keep us transfixed with ecstasy or cowering in fear.
In The Kybalion the 3 Initiates describe the first Universal Law as 'all is mind' - the Principle of Mentalism. In all of my experiences of the seen and the unseen world, there have been two over-riding themes (notwithstanding the truth of the other six Principles):
the power of the mind; and
the power of the breath.
One of my clients had a powerful insight this week - an insight that unlocks many others and set in place a chain reaction of understanding, growth and forward movement. All is mind indeed.
The insight that my client had may not sound significant to the reader, but it changed his relationship to the work we do together and sometimes that's all it takes. In a single moment he realised that only he can make the changes we've been talking about - only he has the free will to make this happen. While he always knew this, it wasn't yet a belief.
In the search for answers, we often believe that they are outside of us. We can feel so trapped by what is happening in our lives, that in our desire to soothe the pain or make the changes we want, we forget how powerful we truly are and we diminish ourselves by giving our power to others through a lack of belief.
Here's the rub, I am guilty of this too. In fact it was a major lesson for me that has helped me to see the other side of it.
I spent a decade roaming the world in search of answers, and if I'm truly honest, I believed that someone else held the key to my healing, could give me the answers that would make me feel whole again. This belief - the belief that someone else had the power to heal me - lead me on an odyssey around the world; a journey I would not change for anything.
In the course of my travels, I've been to truly incredible places and learned a hell of a lot about this thing we call healing. In fact my journey could be summed up in this brief section of Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender. The embarrassing truth is that I could tick off a pretty solid chunk of this list.
The mind just kept chattering along: “Does anybody have the secret?”
Don’t worry—everybody’s desperate. Some seem cool about it. “I can’t see what all the fuss is about,” they say. “Life seems simple to me.” They are so scared they can’t even look at it!
How about the experts?
“Well,” you say, “there have to be some experts who have the answers.” When upset, you go to a doctor or psychiatrist, an analyst, a social worker, or an astrologer. You take up religion, get philosophy, take the Erhard Seminars Training (est), tap yourself with EFT. You get your chakras balanced, try some reflexology, go for ear acupuncture, do iridology, get healed with lights and crystals.
You meditate, chant a mantra, drink green tea, try the Pentecostals, breathe in fire, and speak in tongues. You get centered, learn NLP, try actualizations, work on visualizations, study psychology, join a Jungian group. You get Rolfed, try psychedelics, get a psychic reading, jog, jazzercise, have colonics, get into nutrition and aerobics, hang upside down, wear psychic jewelry. Get more insight, bio-feedback, Gestalt therapy.
You see your homeopath, chiropractor, naturopath. You try kinesiology, discover your Enneagram type, get your meridians balanced, join a consciousness-raising group, take tranquilizers. You get some hormone shots, try cell salts, have your minerals balanced, pray, implore, and beseech. You learn astral projection. Become a vegetarian. Eat only cabbage. Try macrobiotics, go organic, eat no GMO. Meet up with Native American medicine men, do a sweat lodge. Try Chinese herbs, moxicombustion, shiatsu, acupressure, feng shui. You go to India. Find a new guru. Take off your clothes. Swim in the Ganges. Stare at the sun. Shave your head. Eat with your fingers, get really messy, shower in cold water.
Sing tribal chants. Relive past lives. Try hypnotic regression. Scream a primal scream. Punch pillows. Get Feldenkraised. Join a marriage encounter group. Go to Unity. Write affirmations. Make a vision board. Get re-birthed. Cast the I Ching. Do the Tarot cards. Study Zen. Take more courses and workshops. Read lots of books. Do transactional analysis. Get yoga lessons. Get into the occult.
Study magic. Work with a kahuna. Take a shamanic journey. Sit under a pyramid. Read Nostradamus. Prepare for the worst.
Go on a retreat. Try fasting. Take amino acids. Get a negative ion generator. Join a mystery school. Learn a secret handshake. Try toning. Try color therapy. Try subliminal tapes. Take brain enzymes, antidepressants, flower remedies. Go to health spas. Cook with exotic ingredients. Look into strange fermented oddities from faraway places. Go to Tibet. Hunt up holy men. Hold hands in a circle and get high. Renounce sex and going to the movies. Wear some yellow robes. Join a cult.
Try the endless varieties of psychotherapy. Take wonder drugs. Subscribe to lots of journals. Try the Pritikin diet. Eat just grapefruit. Get your palm read. Think New Age thought. Improve the ecology. Save the planet. Get an aura reading. Carry a crystal. Get a Hindu sidereal astrological interpretation. Visit a transmedium. Go for sex therapy. Try Tantric sex. Get blessed by Baba Somebody. Join an anonymous group. Travel to Lourdes. Soak in the hot springs. Join Arica. Wear therapeutic sandals. Get grounded.
Get more prana and breathe out that stale black negativity. Try golden needle acupuncture. Check out snake gallbladders. Try chakra breathing. Get your aura cleaned. Meditate in Cheops, the great pyramid in Egypt.
You and your friends have tried all of the above, you say? Oh, the human! You wonderful creature! Tragic, comic and yet so noble! Such courage to keep on searching! What drives us to keep looking for an answer?
Suffering? Oh, yes. Hope? Certainly. But there is something more than that.
Intuitively, we know that somewhere there is an ultimate answer. We stumble down dark byways into cul-de-sacs and blind alleys; we get exploited and taken, disillusioned, fed up, and we keep on trying.
Where is our blind spot? Why can’t we find the answer? We don’t understand the problem; that’s why we can’t find the answer. Maybe it’s ultra simple, and that’s why we can’t see it.
Maybe the solution is not “out there,” and that’s why we can’t find it. Maybe we have so many belief systems that we are blinded to the obvious."
And the answer is that obvious.
It's inside of you - you, the one who came from stardust and who shall return to stardust.
You who is so powerful that you can put your intention into water and see those intentions as patterns (Dr Emoto's work). Your thoughts have power beyond your comprehension and yet you overlook their power to heal or harm you (check these experiments).
At times we all need guidance from someone to help us see the things we can't; but until we can truly take responsibility for our pain, our suffering, our emotions and our situation no change is really possible. As I've matured in my own practice, I see myself as a guide. I can't take away your pain and I can't wave a magic wand. The real healing is done by you. My job is to support you through it.
In my client's case, this insight has helped him to dig a little deeper and unlock a treasure chest of answers hidden in plain sight. In my case, a miracle happened over many years as I started to get sensations back on the left side of my head and gradually my hearing returns.
You can try to change everything about the world, or you can just change you. You have the power and you can do so much more than you realise.
Which will it be?
That’s so true. I had to experience this hard with the Guru in personal form with whom I spent 10 years. He could only show me but I have to decide what I really want . He showed me that you can get want if you strive for it but this can have severe consecuenses. But if you realize who you really are and that is the divine essence of what is all created then all is manifested in a perfect way as you surrender to ONE mind.