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As we begin letting go of all these fears, cancelling the belief systems and reaffirming that our true Self is Infinite and not subject to limitations, we move into a higher state of health, wellness, and vital energy. A helpful way to phrase it to ourselves is, “I am an Infinite Being, not subject to ____________.” We put into the blank space whatever disease or substance that the mind has been programmed to see as a possible “danger” for us.
In the state of total surrender, the body is barely perceived at all. It is only peripherally in awareness, and there is no preoccupation with it. It functions effortlessly, smoothly, and with very little attention.
Our perception of the body shifts, and it now seems to be like a puppet or a pet. This shift of perception is from “I am the body” to “I have a body.” It becomes progressively obvious that the body is not experiencing itself at all. On the contrary, it is the mind that is experiencing the body.
Only the mind can experience the arm-ness. This, of course, is the very basis of anesthesia. When the mind is asleep, the body has no sensation. It slowly dawns on us that, in fact, the body doesn’t have any sensation; only the mind is capable of that function.
We recognize that people are not really responding to our body at all but to our inner attitudes, our energy state, and our level of awareness. One day it dawns on us that everyone and everything in the world are responding to our level of consciousness, our intention, and to the inner feeling we have about them.
In the unconscious, guilt requires punishment and sickness, with its attendant pain and suffering,
If our view of ourselves is small, limited, and miserly—due to accumulated guilt—then the unconscious will bring those economic conditions into our life. Our attitudes about money can be discovered when we look at the many things that it means. For example, we see the degree to which it stands for security, power, glamour, sexual attraction, successful competition, self-worth, and our value to others and the world.
On a certain level, we may even appear to be indifferent to money. When we need it to complete a project, it just magically seems to appear from somewhere. We feel nonchalant about it because we are connected to the source of our own power. When we re-own the power that we have given to money and see that it is our own power, we are no longer concerned about money, nor do we need to accumulate a great deal of it. Once we have the formula for gold, we don’t need to carry a bag of it on our shoulder with all of its attendant worries and anxieties.
The purpose of health and wealth is, after all, merely because we presume, and to some extent it is true, that they result in happiness.
Let’s take an objective look at the average view of happiness. To begin with, the happiness is extremely vulnerable. A chance remark, a critical comment, a raised eyebrow, or a car cutting into line ahead of us are all sufficient to blow the average person’s happiness in an instant. The threat of a job loss, a feeling of distrust in a relationship, a foreboding remark by a doctor, or an impertinent cab driver, are sufficient to ruin the day for many of us. Why is our happiness so fragile that commonplace occurrences can “ruin” the whole day?
The ego-mind, which sees everyone as separate, is envious of anyone else who appears happier, more successful, or with a better relationship, a better body, or better connections. Soon, because of a lack of inner clarity about goals, there is confusion leading to self-pity, envy, and further resentment. Self-condemnation gets endlessly projected onto the world, taking the form of condemnation from others, which increases further the guilt and feeling of smallness.
The low self-esteem results in criticism of self and others, constant competition and comparison, analyzing, contempt, intellectualization, doubt, and fantasies of revenge.
It is necessary to remind ourselves that feelings are programs; that is, they are learned responses that often have a purpose. That purpose is directly related to achieving an effect on the other person’s feelings and, by doing so, to influence their feelings toward ourselves and to fulfill our own inner goals.
We have to come up to the level of courage and look at our worst feelings, admit that they are part of the condition of being human, and remember that we are only held accountable for what we do with them.
Our feelings and thoughts always have an effect on other persons and affect our relationships, whether these thoughts or feelings are verbalized, expressed, or not. We
As we begin to investigate this area, we find that often the set of feelings we hold about another person is mirrored back to us by their attitude and that, when we change our inner attitude about them, their attitude changes abruptly.
Poverty on any level, not just financial, comes from inner poverty, just as outer wealth comes from inner wealth.
The feelings of apathy, grief, depression, sorrow, self-pity, the blues, hopelessness, and helplessness come from the inner program of “I can’t.” Their purpose is to elicit sympathy, to win back, to gain support, to make others sorry, and to summon help.
Chronic grief brings premature aging, a tiredness and weariness about the person, and it can only be overcome when we have the courage to allow it to come up under appropriate conditions and have the willingness to surrender to it and let it go.
The way out is to look at the worst possible scenario and look at the feelings they arouse and begin to relinquish them. Like other emotions, fear can be unraveled to its component parts, and the parts are then easily relinquished.
Feelings of pride are often condoned in our society and take the form of perfectionism, neatness, punctuality, dependability, “good personhood,” excessive cleanliness, workaholism, excessive ambition, success, moral superiority, and politeness.
When we stop wanting to be liked, we find that we are. When we stop catering to others and trying to manipulate their approval, we find that they do respect us. Self-denigration in the forms of placating, flattering, deference, self-effacement, and passivity are all attempts to influence others by catering to their ego, so as to get favorable treatment and get our own way. False humility merely says to the other person, “I am a small person; please treat me that way” and, of course, they promptly do.
All of the negative feelings are essentially forms of fear: fear of loss of esteem by ourselves or others, or fear of not surviving and a loss of security.
We can ask ourselves, “How would I react if I were the other person and knew exactly what my personal inner feelings and thoughts really were?”
To be surrendered means that we are willing to relinquish a feeling by allowing ourselves just to experience it and not to change it. Resistance is what keeps it there in the first place.
The people with whom we share a relationship of loving acceptance are okay with our humanness and their own. No matter the surface emotions, we remain aware of the shared alignment to love, acceptance, and harmony with each other and the world.
As we surrender, life becomes more and more effortless. There is a constant increase in happiness and pleasure, which requires less and less from the outer world to be experienced. There is a diminution of needs and expectations of others. We stop looking “out there” for what we now experience as coming from within ourselves. We let go of the illusion that others are the source of our happiness. Instead of looking to get from others, we now look to give.
When we put pressure on other people in order to get what we want, they automatically resist, because we are trying to pressure them. The harder we push, the harder they resist. Even though, out of fear, they may actually concede to our demands, there is not an inner acceptance and, later on, we will lose what we have gained.
