The secrets of the universe lie hidden in the shadows of your experience. Look for them! – Pete
Pure energy, like money, its material equivalent, is shaped into matter and experience by thought. It can be used to lift up or smash down, to build character or destroy character, to express love or express hate, to beautify or make ugly. (From: We Create Our Own Reality)
Money is to society as blood is to the body. As the circulation of blood nourishes and empowers the body, the circulation of money nourishes and empowers society. The invention of money as a means of distributing energy and power throughout society is a brilliant idea! However, when we view money itself as the greatest good, it loses meaning and value. Just as the free movement of blood throughout the body keeps it healthy, active and happy, the free movement of money throughout society keeps it healthy, active and happy. When the flow of blood or money stops, bodies and societies decay and die. This same analogy must include the planet as well, for without a healthy planet rich in resources, there is no future for humanity here.
Everything you do must be worthy of your ideals or they become something else, something less than ideal. – Seth
When we know we’re not bad, that it’s our limited understanding of who we are and what reality is that creates problems, we give ourselves room to breathe, room to change. Close your eyes and imagine you have lots of room to breathe and room to change free of judgment, demand and expectation. How do you feel? Can you feel relief, power and renewal in these ideas? I hope so.
How would you describe the way the world is now and how it can be in the future? What follows is a description of how I see the world now and how it can be in the future.
The Value Judgment World Versus the Value Fulfillment World:
The Value Judgment World
While all thoughts and feelings are available to us, we tend to focus on the few associated with our material experience, forgetting or ignoring the thoughts and feelings we have in dreams and imagined landscapes. Core beliefs like scarcity, separation and competition – predatory concepts we see dramatized in life, work and art every day – serve as the foundation for the Value Judgment World. In this world, the model for behavior is the Law of the Jungle (survival of the fittest, eat or be eaten, kill or be killed). Money, power and privilege measure success.
Many of us assume we’re basically bad and we can’t trust ourselves. (See: What I Learned in Catholic School) When we buy into these beliefs and question our integrity, we become dependent on external values and authority for guidance and control. From birth, we learn to compare ourselves to each other and outside standards of being and performance in every aspect of our lives. In the process of policing ourselves, and one another, to ensure we conform to established patterns of being and behavior, we become Master Fault Finders.
Ever vigilant, we look for discrepancies between cultural ideals and personal behavior. We attack and criticize ourselves, and one another, for the things we do and don’t do, for who we are, or are not, and for differences in size, shape, weight, race, religion, age, sex, beauty, and intelligence. When we actively participate in this process, we not only live in the Value Judgment World, we maintain and perpetuate it.
Whether out of fear or self-doubt – in a world that defines us as “winners” or “losers”, “haves” or “have-nots” – there is a tendency to sleepwalk through life, to keep our heads down and abide by an “official” set of rules or pre-programmed recipe for living. This system of beliefs supports fear, anger, contempt, greed, intolerance, mindless obedience, limitation, violence and suffering. As the failure of the Value Judgment World deepens, many of us seek the means to move beyond it. We know that our own and humanity’s survival depends on our ability and willingness to grow and change!
The Value Fulfillment World
Unlike the Value Judgment World, which is a product of fear and prepackaged beliefs, the Value Fulfillment World is a product of common sense, creativity, love and ideals. It is not about right and wrong, good and bad, guilt and punishment. It is about paying attention to our own unique experience and learning from it. It is about seeing what works for us, and what doesn’t, what makes us happy, and what doesn’t. It is about accepting our own unique being and authority. God, or All That Is, is not outside us; we are unique, individualized expressions of God! We are both one AND separate, and we are not only the product of creation; we are creation itself!
The Law of the Body, which depends on values like oneness, individuality, collaboration and sharing, is the unconscious yet dominant model for behavior in a Value Fulfillment World. Love, Truth and Joy serve as its measures of success. In a Value Fulfillment World, we value our interdependence as much as our independence. We value You, Me, Us (our loving relationship) and All That Is equally. We know life is about survival AND evolution. We know we are good, not bad. We know that freedom comes from trusting ourselves and learning how to manage our energy, not be afraid of it. We know that by changing ourselves for the better, we change the world for the better. We know we are responsible for our own actions and revel in freely exercising control over our own lives from the inside out. In this reality, we live by value fulfillment and practice idealism. We consciously determine the qualities of life and being we value most, our ideals, and actualize them to the best of our ability, not only for our own benefit but for the benefit of everyone!
Make the Jump from the Value Judgment World to the Value Fulfillment World
Humanity has faced serious challenges to its existence before. It is clear we are facing one now. More than ever, it will help for us to “be still and know”, instead of melting down in fear and becoming reactionary. Experience tells us mindless reaction only makes matters worse. More than ever we must open our hearts and minds to new ideas, new understanding. We must develop new ways to see ourselves, and the world around us. We must think with new clarity and boldness. We must explore, discuss, collaborate and share. We must grow beyond our current level of thought and understanding.
The Value Judgment World and the Value Fulfillment World are produced by two separate core value systems. Each one has two components. One component serves as a model for behavior, while the other serves as a measure of success. Life, as we know it, plays out from within the living matrix of these ideas. Whichever set of core beliefs we buy into determines how we think and act in life.
Models for Behavior
1. Law of the Jungle – The Law of the Jungle is fear-based and tells us that life is about separation, scarcity, competition and survival of the fittest. Many interpret this to mean: “Every man is an island and it’s eat or be eaten, kill or be killed.”
2. Law of the Body – The Law of the Body is love-based and tells us that life is about oneness AND separation, interdependence, collaboration, sharing, creativity and cooperation. We know intuitively, if not consciously, the lessons our bodies teach us. Otherwise, life would be short and brutal indeed.
Measures of Success
1. Money, Power and Privilege – money, power and privilege are objective, material measures of success. Providing food, shelter and safety for our families and ourselves is essential while we exist in material form. For many of us this is by far the dominant measure of success in our lives.
2. Love, Truth and Joy – love, truth and joy are subjective, emotional measures of success. Feelings of love, truth and joy are less tangible than money, power and privilege, but just as important, if not more so.
Whichever set of core beliefs we identify with most has the greatest influence over our surface thoughts, feelings and behavior. If we find the Law of the Jungle and the idea of money, power and privilege more appealing, we become more predatory, fearful and materially oriented. If we find the Law of the Body and love, truth and joy more appealing, we become more peaceful, loving and spiritually oriented. Evidence suggests the majority of us are closer to the material end of the spectrum than the spiritual end – if this is not so in numbers of people, it is so in the impact of materialism on our lives.
Two Primal Motives – the Will to Be and the Will to Survive
While both Primal Motives are present in consciousness, as human beings, the Will to Survive (the fear of suffering and death) often dominates the more subtle and joyful Will to Be (the love of being and creation). The more you work with these ideas the more familiar they will seem because even though we seldom speak about them directly, we consult them constantly in evaluating new ideas and experiences to determine if, or where, they fit into our particular philosophy of life. These two sentiments, the Will to Be and the Will to Survive, serve as touchstones for creation. Each one places a different emphasis on the reality we create.
Many of us think life, as we know it, is failing or unsustainable because, as a culture, we make profit more important than service, fear and control more important than love and acceptance. The challenge is to figure out what balance of ideas will work best for us, as individuals and a world. When we make money the greatest good, its value as a source of nourishment and strength for everyone disappears. The more fear corrupts the meaning and value of money, the more corruption and violence we see in the world. It is important for us to see the connection between the reality we create and how we associate with the Primal Motives that drive our behavior.
Change Begins Within
The “reality” we perceive through our physical senses is a projection of our Primal Motives. As individuals each one of us strikes a different balance between the Will to Be and the Will to Survive. As societies and cultures it’s the same; we strike a collective balance between the two, with one usually dominating the other. This suggests that to change what we see in the world, and ourselves, we must first change our position with respect to both Primal Motives. It’s far less complicated to explore and make sense of two Primal Motives than trying to make sense of everything that’s going on in the world. We could spend lifetimes doing that.
What do you think? What’s nice about changinge from within? Besides being simpler and more effective, it doesn’t cost a dime!
Remember:
Thoughts are “things” with a reality of their own and you, an artist. With thoughts in the forms of belief, attitude, value and expectation, you paint the landscape of your life. Create the change you want to see in yourself, and the world! (From: We Create Our Own Reality)
Pete – http://realtalkworld.com
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.
If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.
If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?
How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth
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