Changing your life: Letting go of the old ways

Many of us want to change but it is rather too much to ask for if we want it to be easy. There is a typical process that change goes through that is completely natural even though at first glance it may seem to fly in the face of the law of attraction.

I myself went through a long period of life in which I was held steadfast in the clutches of a particular philosophy. Each philosophy has its own thing to offer but when I say I was held steadfast I mean that it was where I put all my energy. I was “a fan” in a way and did what I could to have the world fit in to this way of thinking. Later came a point in which it was time to move on to something else in order to keep evolving and I actually got sick and tired of the old ways. I started to hate it. The old way of thinking bugged me and irritated me to high heaven. I was going through a kind of rejection period in order to put some distance between the old way of thinking and what was to come in its place but now I want to introduce the conflict with the law of attraction: What you resist persists. The reason that what you resist persists, is that you are still pouring your energy into that which you resist and as the saying goes; “Where your attention goes, your energy flows” and I think there is a lot of truth in those words. I will make this more concrete. My old life was characterized by poverty, a belief that the rich were evil money grabbers who pulled food out of the mouths of the poor. That meant of course that the poor were somehow good for being poor. Poverty as a virtue was an unconscious belief that I defended with a vengeance.

As I started to meet more and more people on both sides (evil poor people and good rich people) that contradicted this belief, I felt the foundations of this belief start to crumble, but like the last rat to leave the sinking ship, I refused to accept the inevitable. The belief became impossible to hold onto any longer and I started to embrace a belief that I heard a million times in self help programs and books. The belief was “My creative actions attract great wealth”. As I took on board this new belief, only in a seed-like form at first, I started to find examples of the truth it held. At the same time the old belief was not giving up easily. Seemingly angry at me for its abandonment, it clung to my consciousness in a realm of angry emotions. I distanced myself from my past in a radical way wanting nothing to do with who I called “losers” and “unfortunates”. I looked through my music collection and found many an example of people trying to make their poverty cool, many examples of “us versus them” mentality with “us” meaning the poor repressed class. I took a close look at the places I used to go and found criminals and unfortunates. Now I could have just turned the page and moved on to greater things, but the desire to hate my old life was too great a temptation to resist. I deleted every last song from my i-pod and threw the poverty lovers out of my life, I resisted those places and those people with a passion. The result of this was that the energy of those things was still around me, but I did not despair. Years before I had read Nietzsche and he spoke of this process at the beginning of his “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”. The chapter was “OF the three metamorphosis of the soul” and spoke of a great change. The first stage was the camel, the second was the lion and the third was the child. Let’s look at each within the context of my own transformation. Firstly the camel is a weight bearing creature. This is as you start to become aware that you are carrying a load. The load in my case was one of poverty, and the realization that I was justifying my poverty and so in deed were the people around me. I realized that I was bearing a loser’s mentality like a good camel. The weight of this burden became heavier by the minute. I was ready to break. The one who is needed to break this is the lion: the creature of destruction. The lion is the rebel, the force of destruction and the path clearing force that makes the way for the new way. The lion in itself is not creative but without him, no new way will become clear. After the lion has made a vacuum, there is space for the child. Devoid of anger, the child is nothing but the new birth. All the energy of the child is upon its growth. So my poverty hating was simply the lion doing its thing. After much flapping and struggling, the hate for the old way starts to subside as you realize that it is simply another form of the energy of life. The old ways are simply things that you go through and when it is time to stop going through these things you simply choose to do so. You then become completely free to grow again and your energy is not tempted back anymore. You energy can be purely focused upon what you want o be, how you want to live, the person you have decided to be in every way.
So I let all that hate go. Sometimes it pops up in little ways but when it does I just pay it the due attention and let it go. I know that it is nothing more than an essential part of the growth process.

Angels and Demons

There are certain entities floating around that, to us, have a symbiotic relationship that can help or harm you... severely. These entities have no physical form of their own so in order to taste life, must inhabit a host. The host has what the entity needs: a consciousness, a body, a life and essentially an existence.

We are, of course, the host as we have what they need in order to experience life. The thing is, as conscious creatures, we are the keepers of our own doorways and we are the ones who decide who or what we let in and who remains outside. Just like the legend of the vampire in which the victim must voluntarily invite the vampire into the house. Otherwise it cannot enter. It is clear that you would not invite a demon into your body knowingly so the demon is indirect and uses temptations to distract and seduce.

The name that we most commonly use to describe these entities is “habits” and you can recognize when you have a habit because you find yourself acting spontaneously and pretty much unconsciously. Take a look at a smoker and you will find a person seemingly possessed who will reach for the tobacco without the slightest thought. I remember doing hypnotic therapy to a person who constantly bit their nails until they were bleeding. They would consciously pull their hand away from their mouth only to put it back moments later. The habit robs the individual of their consciousness and offers a kind of short term satisfaction as its reward.

Smoking is the name of a well known demon. It hides within the individual whispering its temptations and provoking them to hand over their consciousness. The demon wins more times than not and as anyone who has given up smoking will know, it will fight to the last to maintain its sovereignty. You might like to use the word “addiction” as it also describes demon infestation. People can be addicted to being right, and this can cost you your relationships or your job. You could be addicted to having the last word or your pride which never allows you to admit that you are wrong or that you acted badly or made a poor decision. These are all demonic energies and symptomatic of a demon living out your consciousness.

All the time while you are performing the actions of these demons, you can hear the voice of your consciousness calling out from the background. It is like it has been shut in a quiet room and told that the door is locked. The door is not locked. Christian mythology refers to the devil as the “Prince of Lies” so you can be sure that lying is a real speciality and a demonic energy. We all know that when we actually apply our will, we can overcome any habit.

Angels also inhabit the same plane and they too offer us habits. There is rather a different sensation when one allows an angel to inhabit us. Again it must be invited by the host but something radically changes as a result. Rather than filling us with shame, giving us momentary satisfaction and causing long term detriment as in the case of the demons, the angels fill us with god force, enthusiasm, long term benefit and provoke no negative consequences. Take for example something like yoga, exercise, meditation, painting or playing a musical instrument, hard work within a job in which you express your deepest nature. All of these things can become a habit which fulfills the criteria of angelic energy. We share the earth plane with these entities and habits are a reality so by knowing their nature and understanding that we are constantly opening the door to one or another in every moment, we can exercise the other angelic force, that of decision making, with greater clarity.

The demons like nothing better than to cloud the decision making process. As a result of this they like nothing better that to form habits around substances and practices that do just that: alcohol is a prime example of this as is hashish and other recreational drugs. They form social groups around these drugs and thus exploit the human tendency towards loyalty. The person thus will defend his habits and social group loyally even if it is killing them and robbing them of life every day.

So be aware of the energy vampires that reside within your own body. Be aware and remember to choose. Remember that the door is not locked and you can reclaim your power, your choice, your vital life energy and your consciousness.

Brendan C Clarke

Spiritual paradox

Let go and let God or set goals and go get them? That is the question. The world of self help literature is full of both sets of advice and a seeming paradox has formed. Both sets of advice seem solid so either something is wrong or simply fitting them together takes a little working out. let's talk about this a little.

The Law of Entropy

The universe has certain tendencies. One of them is neatly expressed by the laws of entropy which states that everything is moving... falling, in fact, towards a state of chaos. Things disintegrate! If you don't intervene and apply your will, the world will collapse around you. I refer directly to your immediate world - your house, your finances, your health, your relationships and daily decisions. If you dont take care of, for example, your house, it will be dusty and in need of repair within a couple of weeks. Leave it for longer and the thing will fall down. This is entropy. We are fortunate indeed, in that there is an opposing force to entropy. That force is consciousness. You simply must intervene in your surrounding universe in order to apply the solution to entropy:. Apply consciousness to your surroundings and you can effect them and save them from chaos and from entropy.

Letting go of outcomes

This is highly problematic for many people as it has been interpreted as just rolling over and being passive. No wise philosophical system would avocate simple pasivity as the law of entropy clearly shows us the results of doing so. This means that we need another understanding of what it means to let go.

Picture, if you will, a bowling alley. You have practised long and hard and you know what you want - a strike. You have seen yourself in your minds eye on many an occasion, blasting those pins and felt the elation flood you. You know that the time has come and you pop your fingers into the holes provided in that heavy ball. You walk up and stride forward and cast the ball forward. Up until now you have been one hundred percent into what you are doing. You have been living in the now and totally absorbed in the correct application of what you are doing. So now you have two options: Perhaps you choose to let go, not only of the ball but of your needs and desires. You have done your part and now you have to trust in the universe, in your abilities, in your training, in the correct weight distribution in the ball and the surface of the alley. You can trust that God is running the show. The ball follows its course and either you get your strike or you don't. That's one option. The other option is that when you release the ball, to enter into a deep state of stress. You are hoping to get the strike, you are cought up in the strike, your stomach becomes a knot and you scream "come on" at the top of your lungs. I have seen bowling balls veer to the left and the bolwler scream "Noooooo to the riiiiight".

When you have done your part, let go and let God take care of it. The ego is obsessed with the illusion of being in control. The ego has a very limited control even though this is a fact that the ego cant stand. Make your effort and then let go.

When you let go and stop screaming at the ball, you can go into a relaxed state that permits you to notice the next moment when you can in fact apply your influence once again. At that time, rather than leaving it to entropy (which leads to ruin) you would go into action again until you can act no more and there, once again, you have to let go and trust.

Metaphysically, when you refuse to let go of something, you are creating a strange energy indeed. It is the spiritual equivalent to planting tomato seeds and constantly digging them up to see how they are doing.

Plant and water your seeds, but don't dig them up.