There is one secret behind all religious, spiritual and self-help teachings found on this planet. They all say essentially the same thing in different ways.
For example, consider a person who feels sorry for himself and feels the whole world is against him. The message he is sending out is that life is a struggle. The cosmic mirror is designed to give people exactly what they want. Yet the cosmic mirror cannot read minds, so it must judge based on people’s attitude and actions—what you are sending out. It is like a mirror that cannot tell you want it to smile at you. It can only respond to what you project into the mirror.
If you believe life is a struggle, you will send out the mental image that life is a struggle. The cosmic mirror will say, “Oh, that person wants to experience a struggle,” and it will reflect back to you circumstances that make your life a struggle.
When people experience such circumstances, they often respond negatively and they send that negativity into the mirror. The mirror reasons, “Oh they want to experience even more of a struggle,” and it fulfills their wishes. Thus, people’s negative beliefs about life become self-fulfilling prophecies and their lives turn into downward spirals.
The Buddha taught this and said that life is suffering until you develop right desires through non-attachment. Jesus taught this, and that is why he said, “But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil.” The reason is that when we resist evil, we send out a negative message – the message that we think we have to fight an adversary – and the cosmic mirror can only reflect back situations in which we are seemingly opposed by an adversary. What was Jesus’ solution—his master key for breaking this negative, self-fulfilling spiral? It was very simple, yet extremely profound: “But whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”
The beauty of this instruction is that if you can respond positively to any situation, the cosmic mirror will reason that you want to have a positive experience. And in due time, it WILL inevitably reflect back positive circumstances. If you refuse to fight the adversary, the mirror will say, “Oh, that person no longer wants to fight the adversary; I will send conditions in which there is no adversary.” Jesus knew that this simply cannot fail—as long as you have faith in the process and are willing to truly and fundamentally change yourself, change your attitude and approach to life.
The message of all true spiritual teachings is that you can indeed change yourself. There are several valid teachings that can give you the understanding and the practical tools you need in order to produce this change. What you need to supply is the will, the will to stop doing the same thing, the will to separate yourself from the common insanity and begin by changing yourself.
If you have that will, put it into action. If you don’t have that will, be honest with yourself. Stop acting like a hypocrite, thinking there is nothing you can do to change your life. At least be willing to admit that if you are not taking back your power to make conscious choices, you are doing so as the result of a conscious choice—not because you have no other options. Stop using the age-old, worn-out excuse, “I had no choice.”
The most fundamental fact of life is that you always have choices, you always have more than one option. You may not be able to change the outer circumstances, but you can ALWAYS change the way you respond to those circumstances. And by doing so, you will instantly change your life experience. The simple fact is that by reading this, you have lost the right to go through life seeing yourself as a victim. You can no longer claim that you "had no choice."
You now know that you have the option of making conscious choices. You have a right to ignore that option, but you can no longer blame other people, life, fate, bad luck or God for your own – now conscious – choice. So since you can no longer live in the illusion that you have no alternative, why not give up the need to feel like a victim? Why not accept the incredible opportunity that life truly is—an opportunity to make your own life better and to make the conditions on this planet better. All it takes is the conscious choice that you are willing to make conscious choices.
It may seem scary to make such choices, but this comes from a lack of understanding. When you have the right understanding – the understanding that empowers you to make truly conscious choices – making choices is no longer scary. It is a privilege and a joy. If you are willing to learn how to make better choices, let us start by looking at where you find the understanding that will empower you to make enlightened choices.
