Prosperity Engine — Update — Mastering Time
Physical reality consists of four key dimensions or “elements” (STEM):
Space,Time,Energy, andMass
In this article, we will look at some drills we can do to master the dimension of time.
Time has been defined variously as,
The fourth dimension of dichotomous direction: past-future.Persistence.The opposite of truth.Irresponsibility.Resting.Allowing.Change.
Time allows freedom to change, but it also allows us to shirk responsibility. After all, we don’t need to create the entire universe from moment to moment. Because of time, our instantaneous creation suddenly takes on a life of its own as if it were creating itself.
But notice this: time does not give us the physical ability to change—only the freedom. For the ability to change, we need energy, and that’s coming up tomorrow.
This is pretty cool stuff. And the opposite is also true: Take responsibility back for a creation, and the object or condition no longer is “creating itself,” but is reduced back to its instant of creation—its “instantaneity,” or “state or quality of existence as a timeless creation.” If we remain in the time stream (as our human bodies naturally do), then the next moment, the “instant of creation” is in the past and the thing or condition “appears” to have vanished.
As Christ said, know the truth and the truth will set you free. That truth is responsibility—the total responsibility he tried to teach all of us by dying on the cross—taking 100% responsibility for all the sins of all time.
Interesting how all of the Ancient Wisdom is coming back to us with a new perspective.
The Limits of Time by Scale
[image error]A key measure of distance in the universe-at-large involves the time it takes for light to traverse that extremely large distance. Thus, a “light year” is a unit of interstellar distance. NGC 4526 (or 4560), 55 million light years distance, with supernova, SN1994D, glaring brightly on the lower left. Photo: NASA-ESA (CC BY 3.0).
On one end of the scale, time is measured in nanoseconds. This is the scale used to measure the beat of an atom and the frequency of visible light.
On the other end of the scale, time is measured in giga-years (“giga” being the prefix for billions). This is the scale of galactic movement, collision and other interaction. This is also the scale of the maturation of planets and star systems, making worlds relatively safe for life, after the early millennia of heavy meteor showers.
And on the moderate, middle range of the scale of time, we have the human experience, measured in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades and (across generations) centuries.
Burdens of Time—Various Forms of Overwhelm
We can have too little time or too much time.
Too little time can include the burden of seconds to figure out how to diffuse a bomb.
Too little time can also be the end product of too much procrastination. Suddenly, the project is due and we haven’t started.
Too much time is sometimes boring, and being “bored to tears” can be extremely stressful. A convict with twenty years on his hands will try to make those two decades go a little faster.
The two extremes of time overwhelm can collide when something we need to create will take too much time, but the reason we need it will have passed in too short a period.
Procrastination, Hurry and Late
Procrastination is one of the great evils of time. We know we need to do something, but keep putting it off. Something about the project has us feeling crowded—doubt that we can do it, a lack of passionate interest, a desire to be doing other things, the feeling that doing this will prevent us from doing something else we want to do, and a myriad of other possible reasons.
Procrastination is a time-related illness of bad behavior. But we don’t need to remain trapped by this kind of character trait.
My first big breakthrough on time barriers came in the early 1980s. At the time, I was working at Julie Finger Design, on Melrose Place, in Los Angeles—one block from the ritzy part of La Cienega Boulevard and all its fancy antique shops and high-priced restaurants. This was not far from the even more exclusive city of Beverly Hills.
Several times, I found myself uncomfortably late for work. Thankfully, the employer wasn’t a time Nazi, so the infractions were not counted as “fatal” or “dangerous” to my employment. Still, the owner needed my services and didn’t want to have to wait for them.
One day, I found my subconscious (feeling) mind busy with extra noisy background chatter about being late. I heard the running monologue mention something about needing a reason for being late. Quite often, I chose the difficulty of finding a parking space. This was not always easy in such a popular part of town. Nearby residential streets were not always available because of street cleaning on certain days. Parking fines in this area were uncomfortably expensive, and the design study had only enough parking in back for the core staff and a customer.
[image error]Fantasy art of a surrealistic landscape and a house built on top of a tall rock. Time takes on a different feeling in such a world. Illustration: #4092127_1920 Kellepics (CC0) Pixabay.
But look at this: My subconscious “wanted” an excuse for being late. It was actively looking for one or more excuses. When I realized that this self-sabotage, alone, could have contributed to me being late so I could continue to use the excuses prepared by the subconscious, I felt the elation of freedom. Now, I was taking responsibility for that confused, background creation. And suddenly, I started finding parking spaces within seconds of walking distance. Sweet!
And then, I discovered a nearby apartment which was not nearly as expensive as most of the others in the neighborhood. Soon, I had guaranteed parking nearby, but didn’t have to drive, because it only took two minutes to walk to work.
Years later, when I started doing work online, I found myself wishing for a blackout so I’d have an excuse for taking longer on a project than my original estimate. When I realized this “repeat mistake,” I switched from depending on an excuse to making more realistic estimates that allowed me time for the unpredictable.
We are each powerful children of God and we are constantly creating. The key problem is that we frequently don’t know what we’re creating. That’s because we have not yet developed the ability to hear the background chatter. We don’t yet have enough skill shining the light of conscious awareness into the subconscious. And we have not yet developed the skill to convert negative attitudes/feelings/decisions/beliefs in the subconscious into positive, empowering beliefs.
Part of mastering time involves becoming more critically aware of our own past and current creation with time.
Missed Withhold, Friend of Bad Karma
In Scientology spiritual technology, one gem of wisdom involves something called the “missed withhold.”
Now, if you’ve heard only bad things about this modern religion, you’re cheating yourself of some powerful, spiritual insights. If you’ve taken Scientology courses or counseling and now dismiss everything about it because of the bad press Scientology has gotten, then you are throwing out the baby with the bathwater—the good with the bad. Don’t cheat yourself. Be smart.
The “missed withhold” is a phenomenon of human behavior that likely has many other names in the literature of psychology and psychiatry. The object of this phenomenon can be called a “crime,” a “sin,” a “mistake” or some other type of infraction for which the individual feels embarrassed and tends to want to hide or withhold the details about it from others.
When someone else says or does something that makes the individual think their secret may no longer be hidden, their subconscious attention focuses on the event that remains withheld. This generates within the subconscious a feeling of worry or another variation of fear, and this triggers in them a tendency to lash out in anger, or to criticize the other person for some perceived error or infraction. The criticism may well be valid, but the fact that criticism (negative comment) is happening indicates a missed withhold. This seems to be a form of emotional or identity projection, but it’s also an inner defense mechanism.
Scientology counselors know that, when their client becomes critical, a withhold (crime, sin, infraction) has been missed. And there are simple procedures that must be run to clear up the missed withhold before the main body of counseling can continue. The missed withhold creates an impenetrable barrier that prevents progress, because all of the person’s subconscious attention is stuck on the “overt” (“bad”) act.
Not taking responsibility is how things or conditions persist. And if we have a barrier, like a missed withhold sticking our attention, we need to take full responsibility for it before we can move forward. And this is good advice in any form of spiritual progress—whether it be Scientology, meditation, prayer or otherwise.
In fact, part of my morning routine always consists of the Lord’s Prayer, which I don’t start until my “ruds are in.” The term “ruds” is short for “rudiments” or “rudimentary conditions.” This includes handling all missed withholds (MW/H). I don’t feel connected to my true spiritual self until this is handled, and my prayer would feel shallow and powerless unless I’m truly connected.
A similar effect is what I call the “Karma Trigger.”
As physical, egoistic beings, we remain action-reaction (Newtonian) creatures. A crime or sin in the past will come haunt us in the present, especially if something in our current environment is similar enough (visual, auditory or conceptual) to that past event. When we do something selfishly, we tend to stick our subconscious attention on that act. Remember the missed withhold? Triggering karma is like the withhold that is missed or triggered, creating an avalanche of action to protect egoistic self. But it also tends to speed up and intensify the bad karma we are resisting. (And remember Christ’s wisdom not to “resist” evil?)
Gratitude can dissolve bad karma. But let’s stop calling it “bad” karma. All karma is good, because it is part of the interactive learning system called the “Physical Universe.” The karma is merely a wake-up call for us to take responsibility for our past actions. Awareness tends to do that; gratitude makes it a “done” deal.
And one thing has become crystal clear to me: We no longer have to fear the pain and suffering of karma’s reactive return of “dying by the sword” by which we had lived. Remember in the Lord’s Prayer the bit about God forgiving us just as we forgive others? If our attention is on resentment, then we will receive more reasons to feel resentment—including other people and God not forgiving us. And what does God not forgiving us look like? It looks like triggered karma! Action-reaction! For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is Newtonian physics and it is a core behavior of physical reality that ties in powerfully with human behavior and growth. Live by the sword; die by the sword. Reap what we sow. If we plant a lifetime with selfishness, then we will experience another lifetime at the effect end of selfishness. And this is a very good reason why the “effortless life” or “charmed life” is so rare. Everyone is busy keeping the karmic cycle going, because so few people interrupt the repetition with responsibility and gratitude.
Remember: Things persist so long as we don’t take responsibility for them. And even a light touch of conscious awareness is equivalent to a healthy dose of responsibility.
Exercising Our Control Over Time
[image error]Time seems to stand still when we have awe inspiring beauty before us. Photo: #3338589 Mohamed_Hassan (CC0) Pixabay.
Remember the old saying? “Time flies when we’re having fun!” This does not affect clocks or scientific instruments for measuring the passage of time. It does, however, greatly affect our individual perception of time. And while some people entirely dismiss the “subjective” perception of anything, such perception is a very valuable distinction to consider in our learning and our spiritual growth.
Just beyond the source of “subjective” perception (egoistic effect) resides the source of “objective” creation (spiritual cause). There is a point in our internal work where perception turns into creation—where we are no longer receiving what physical reality has to offer, but are now telling physical reality what to do.
This is the difference between the Effect Model of life and the Cause Model of life.
The Effect Model is part victim and part perpetrator. The Cause Model is neither victim nor perpetrator, but instead stands above both as creator.
If we ever find something in our life that we don’t like, take 100% responsibility for it. Don’t complain. Don’t mope around being resentful. Remember the missed withhold? By taking responsibility, we suck the time right out of that thing or condition.
Another exercise to manipulate time involves the wisdom of being at cause rather than at effect. Again, the Cause Model comes to the rescue.
Let us say we are doing some very boring activity which requires a lot of waiting. Instead of sitting there, being at the effect of time’s “slowness,” start to create the effects and environment. If we’re waiting for a film processor to pull a long stretch of exposed film through the chemical baths and into the drier, don’t wait for it to finish. In our mind’s eye, we can ride the film through each bath like a cowboy riding a bronco at the rodeo.
And another exercise involves adding time. When we have a deadline, including a life-or-death deadline—a line beyond with people die if we don’t finish our work.
The natural tendency when faced with a scarcity is to grasp more tightly and to remain more completely attached. This is the Effect Model of approach. Instead, we need the Cause Model which is more faithful, relaxed and peaceful.
By allowing time to have control, we gain control over time. By letting time go, we get time to come back to us. By making time unimportant, but by simultaneously remaining grateful for the time that we do have, we get more of it.
This is similar to the effect with space which accompanied my Miracle on Wilshire Boulevard. Ahead of me were three lanes packed with bumper-to-bumper traffic, right in the middle of rush hour. With a potent prayer, suddenly the three lanes of traffic became two, cars from the center lane impossibly squeezed into the outer lanes, left and right. There was no room for them, yet room was made.
Here, we can add time where there is none. We can accomplish things that would otherwise require more time than we have. This is the effect of living from the viewpoint of spirit rather than the viewpoint of the physical cog in the machine of reality.
Addition to Space Exercises
Yesterday, we talked about gaining greater control over space. Today’s discussion inspired me to think of another connection on space that we can play with: Loving something in order to move it closer.
In Scientology, the wisdom of the A-R-C triangle comes in handy. This insight tells us that Affinity, Reality and Communication, within an individual tend to track together on any topic. This also allows us to control one to improve the other two. Combined, they operate as a whole which we call “Understanding.” So, A + R + C = U.
Here’s an example.
Let’s say our significant other hates us because they think we cheated on them. We can’t force them to believe us (reality). We can’t force them to love us (affinity). We can’t even force them to talk to us (communication).
But let’s say we’re innocent (this lifetime), but merely pulled in a karma trigger of past, very real betrayal. This detail doesn’t really matter. The technique described, here, works no matter what the actual circumstances.
Love and space are opposites. God created it this way so we could decide for ourselves whether or not to give up physical reality and acquire the perfection of love, or to stay in physical reality and suffer the imperfection of occasional physical “love” (selfish need).
To decrease space, we need to increase love and understanding. And we can do this through various forms of communication and reality.
When the other person won’t get within 50 meters, it’s hard to do anything directly. So, we rely on the indirect methods.
We show up at favorite locations with other friends (reality). We act happy, despite the evident sadness of missing our loved one. We talk (communication) to mutual friends about our plight and our unwavering love (affinity) for the other. We understand their hurt, but say it is unfounded, or based on a misunderstanding.
We persist with all of the above and other variations, increasing the “reality” that we care (affinity). And our happiness and lack of criticism tends to add evidence that we are not guilty (more reality).
Naturally, applying all of the above is no guarantee. It’s quite possible that the significant other is hiding their own missed withhold. We need to remain fully willing to give up our connection to the other person, while maintaining the unconditional love of never-ending generosity and commitment toward them.
But this kind of exercise manipulates the natural effects of space perception which controls how we feel for each other.
Benefits From Time Exercises
[image error]Breathtaking beauty always seems to distort our sense of time. We can use this effect to our advantage. Photo: #3609982 dilshad3 (CC0) Pixabay.
If ever we feel pressed for time (scarcity) or bored (too much), we can manipulate time to accomplish just what we need.
We can create more confidence and more interest.
The theoretical benefit to track and field sports from anchors in space may also apply to our growing expertise with time. Of course, this will need to be tested. Can world records be broken by gaining a better viewpoint on time, creation, responsibility and “resting (allowing)?”
I would be interested in hearing from any coaches who want to try out this unique advantage.
Time Gratitude Affirmations
Here are a few Time Gratitude Affirmations which came to mind as I was writing this article. Feel free to create your own. If you discover one you particularly like, consider sharing. Unlike those who live with scarcity, by sharing your good creation, you actually create more abundance for everyone.
I feel so incredibly grateful for every discovery of missed withhold and karma trigger, and for taking full responsibility for each.
I feel comfortably grateful for having all the time I need for everything I want to do.
I feel relaxed and gratefully patient to allow every good thing headed my way to take all the time it needs along its journey.
Prosperity Engine Progress
Each day seems to have its wonderful improvements. Some seem relatively minor. And some seem like huge breakthroughs. Still, there is a lingering discomfort with change. As I become more aware of this feeling’s details, it tends to disappear.
And sometimes a daily routine loses its apparent potency. This is not the time to give up on it. In fact, quite often such loss of apparent traction means that there is something deeper that is starting to surface within the subconscious, toward the conscious mind. Continuing with the routine, while simultaneously being grateful for the change in “apparent potency,” will help nudge the breakthrough to the surface. The best time to take a break from any routine—exercise, mental or spiritual—is when a breakthrough has been achieved.
Any sense that a routine is no longer helping should be followed by a relaxation, instead of greater force. Continue the routine, but increase the power of “letting go.” Don’t insist on any specific result while doing the routine. Don’t let any frustration or disappoint creep in. Find ways to make the routine, and the reason for doing it, unimportant.
I would like to have some kind of measuring stick, like a software progress bar, which shows how close I’m getting to having the Prosperity Engine complete, but it doesn’t work like that, at least not yet that I’ve seen. We each have an unknown number of mental and karmic barriers between us and our goal. And going from a partially completed Prosperity Engine, to one that is running full speed, is more like going from 0 to 1—from nothing to 100%. This is going from being physical to being “pregnant” with the spirit of creation.
There may well be a better graphic representation for Prosperity Engine progress. If you think of one, please leave a note, below.
Coming Up Next
Tomorrow, we look at the physical element or dimension of energy, continuing our exercises to achieve spiritual mastery over physical reality.
