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Looking In All The Wrong Places

8/9/2017

3 Comments

 
Here's a widely known metaphor.

Suppose you are in a dark alley and accidentally drop your keys. You immediately begin searching for your keys, albeit two blocks away where a bright lamppost illuminates the street. The keys are clearly never going to be found this way, for you are searching in a false dimension - a possibility that does not exist. It is so utterly false, that we can conclusively say that no amount of effort, focus or diligence in combing the area under the lamppost will hasten the recovery of your keys. Once you realize your mistake, you might feel a bit sheepish for a moment, save face by pretending to admire the cracks in the sidewalk and then head out to purchase a flashlight with which to search the dark alley.
Picture
False dimensions might not actually exist, but until the "falseness" is realized, one can go right along relying on it or believing in it as if it did exist - leading to some very questionable behavior. Examples might be pushing outward with all your might on a door that opens inwards, worrying incessantly about sailing off the edge of the flat earth (it's round last time we checked), or investing your life savings in a firm with an impeccable reputation known as Madoff Investment Securities. Hindsight is always 20-20.

Here's a dimension that we have all come to believe in but actually does not exist. The idea, that emotions and experiences are driven or created by circumstances or the past -  is a false dimension! A causal connection between environment and feeling doesn't exist, and never has. A causal connection between brain chemistry and feeling doesn't exist and never has. A causal connection between genetics and feeling doesn't exist and never has. A causal connection between a past trauma and a feeling right now doesn't exist and never has.

But as long as someone honestly believes the premise that there exists a dimension where circumstances have some sort of creative power to create their experience - well, logically, they will expend a great deal of energy in modifying their environment in order to achieve a desired feeling. Worse yet, when it occurs to someone that their so called “required scenario for happiness" is unattainable, many people resign themselves to a life of mediocrity, or dare I say, give up on life altogether. 

Each time anyone is reawakened to the single creative source of all of life, the generative power behind all temporary feeling in any present moment, they are relieved. Relieved from pursuing the so called "required scenario for happiness", relieved from all the ruminating and planning involved in that false endeavor, and relieved from needing to resign to a lifetime of misery - relieved from wasting valuable effort searching for your keys under the lamppost just because that’s the only area visible to you.

For in truth, finding your keys or discovering happiness are temporarily bestowed via Thought. Any feeling can show up, anytime, anywhere, for anyone regardless of any kind of past or present circumstance. The Power of Thought has that kind of freedom! And we have the permission to serve the universe from any state-of-mind, to securely feel the entire spectrum of human emotion without fear of being defined by its  fleeting, momentary presence.
​

It may be tempting to overlook the creative Power of Thought, to find the cause of our feeling in the visible, graspable world. But in doing so, we innocently step into a dimension that while well-lit, doesn't actually exist.
3 Comments
Gedalyah
9/10/2017 01:13:34 am

You wrote:
"Here's a dimension that we have all come to believe in but actually does not exist. The idea, that emotions and experiences are driven or created by circumstances or the past - is a false dimension!"

Unfortunately I am going through tremendous pain due to childhood bullying I went thru almost 50 years ago. Back then when I was incessantly called 'shorty' I was given the calssic advice by adults: "sticks and stones will break your bones but words will never harm you".

Circa 2017. If I could go back in time to my elementry school I would ask those adults one question. If you really beleive in "sticks and stones..." then you are an idiot, if not then you are a liar. Are you an idiot or a liar.

Your statement above seems to be reinforcing that 1960s-70s advice.

Am I the idiot (and I don't mean that facetiously), or were they? An answer to this question would be very welcome.

Thank you,
Gedalyah

Reply
Tzvi Werther link
9/11/2017 01:46:17 pm

Hi Gedalya,

Thank you for your heartfelt question. I agree with you, the advice you were given 50 years ago, was clearly not what you needed to hear in order to be resilient in the face of a traumatic experience. Why? Underneath their advice was a belittlement of your feeling, as if the pain you were feeling at the time was not real, as if you should just brush it off or ignore the humiliation.

I'm sure those advisers meant well, but in the process of trying to help, they in essence left you with no place to express or accept the genuine pain flowing through you at the time.

They were not idiots and neither were you, not then and not today.

There is no way you could have known that the genuine feelings you were having at that moment were not created by the bullies. There is no way your teachers could have known that your feelings were authentic even though they were not directly attributable to the circumstantial bullies. Nobody can know this until it is revealed to, in the moment, the truth about what is creating all of "felt" reality.

I would hope that I would never find myself so shallow as to suggest that a feeling being had by you or anyone is not real. All felt feelings are real feelings. You have no choice but to feel what you feel!

Our aim is to point repeatedly to the true source of that genuine pain or joy. In doing so, we hope that truth becomes known to you, revealed by the source of all existence - and in the moment that happens for you, you will also plainly see that all feeling is never generated from or created by anything but G-d's power to conjure something out of nothing with his Power of Thought.

I hope this is helpful.

- Tzvi

Reply
Levi Hutton link
12/14/2020 06:49:21 pm

Youur the best

Reply



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