If there was such a thing as the Science of Freedom, this is what it would be for me: learning how NOT to enslave myself with discouraging thoughts and insecure feelings. Hmm, read that again, it can be tricky.

Are you ready? Let’s go:
I believe in Mental Karma. Say what?

Let’s begin with Karma. Karma is nothing more than a matter of Cause and Effect: the sum of a person’s past actions determines his future destiny. So many make so much more of it. Keep it simple, and you remain powerful.

Now let’s get back to Mental Karma. For me, Mental Karma is this: the sum of a persons thoughts and visions decides his attitude and feelings. Therefore, whatever you do in your mental realm tends to repeat itself in your emotional realm.

Certainly, the idea of a thought begetting a feeling and a feeling begetting an attitude is not new; this process proves itself in a million ways every day. Just notice the expression on a person’s face – it reveals his attitude, which reveals his feelings, which reveals the kinds of thoughts he is entertaining. And of course, I need not tell you that all of this determines the kind of action he takes and the kind of future he experiences (that’s a matter for another blog).

Okay, let’s advance this conversation. Have you ever noticed how rarely we speak of personal cruelty? We hear about having a poor self-image or low self-esteem, but the idea of being cruel to oneself is rarely mentioned.

I believe that Negative Mental Karma is a self-harming force that exists, and further, I believe that when we allow it to exist in our psychic field of energy, we are being cruel. Student: Cruel to whom? Teacher: Cruel to oneself!

The word ‘cruel’ means a disregard for the pain or suffering that we impose on others. Being cruel to oneself is a disregard for the pain or suffering that we impose on ourselves.

Creating a condition of Negative Mental Karma is cruel behavior. The law of Cause and Effect doesn’t have a conscience, but we must (that is if we intend to live our lives as we secretly dream it can be).

How do I create Negative Mental Karma? There are so many ways; let me list a few ways that I can manage to do it:

1. Listen to people who feel defeated, and insist that I too should feel the way they feel. (Why am I listening?)
2. Reject that deep inner voice that says, “Your potential is unlimited, rob, don’t let worldly conditions convince you that it’s not.” (What possible gain can I get from rejecting this voice?)
3.  Interpret a dull headache to mean that I am going to have a dull day. (WOE, is it that simple to ruin my day?)
4. Say what others want to hear, or do what others want to do, just to please them, even if my gut is saying, “NO.” (Is it worth it, to sell my soul to get their approval?)
5. Listening to the resentful voice that takes over my inward self-talk rather than the inspiring voice that offers solutions to my problems (Oh yes, I can still do this).

Above are a few ways that I create Negative Mental Karma that inevitably results in a negative attitude, that inevitably has negative consequences in my life if I don’t catch it soon enough.

The great news is that human beings are far more intelligent than Negative Mental Karma; we need just take command of our mind, and we control our Mental Karma. You know this is right.

Awareness is the first step to correcting wrong mental conditions. Are you willing to reveal ways that you are cruel to yourself. Student: Why reveal them? Teacher: So you can make corrections.

Are you willing to admit that you can be cruel, or would you rather protect your ego by pretending that you are always very kind and compassionate with yourself. The needed light always comes at the exact moment that we stop pretending we are already living in it.

This is the Science of Freedom in which you are now engaging; you are learning how NOT to enslave yourself with discouraging thoughts and insecure feelings that cause Negative Mental Karma. In other words, you are learning to stop being cruel to yourself.

I will end this blog with a short story: An elephant was captured, and around his ankle was placed a large chain, which was tethered to a tree. The elephant accepted his slavery by eating the food he was given and never challenging the chain. One day a mouse went by, glanced up at him, and walked away. Immediately, the elephant gave a mighty tug, refusing to be enslaved while a tiny mouse was free. He snapped the chain and escaped back to his natural ways.

It is necessary to see through ourselves, that is if we are to break the enslaving chain of Negative Mental Karma. You have the might of that elephant; it has nothing to do with education, IQ, race, creed or political affiliation. It is time to recognize when you are being cruel to yourself. Open one small window in your mind, and you let in the warmth of psychic sunshine.

blessings

“Best Comment of the Week”. This weeks best comment comes from Michael Farley of Michael Farley in Writing. The runner up is Elena Patrice of WebsitesGiveBack. Thank you both for your honest, heartfelt sharing. See their comments here.

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It seems to me that it’s obvious what made George Bernard Shaw famous. This Irish playwright was talented – right? One way to think in a new and healthy way is – dare to be wrong with the answer that you think is right.

Well, guess what? I was amazed to find out what he did to get attention so that the world would read his literary work. When Shaw was a new writer on the scene, he wrote an essay, Quintessence of Ibsenism. Shaw was an ardent socialist, and this essay was supporting Henrik Ibsen’s theory on social hypocrisy.

Shaw assumed everyone would be champing at the bit to read his marvelous masterpiece. He put the word out there that it was available, and waited … no one came a-knocking.

Did Shaw quit, toss the essay in the bottom drawer of his bedroom bureau, and get a job working with his father as a grain merchant? No way!

Do you know what George Bernard Shaw did? He spent all day, every day, stirring up business. He made it his first order of business to travel to bookstores, to general stores, to schools, to reading clubs, and to libraries in London (he’d moved there from Dublin).

When Shaw would arrive at a reading club, bookstore, library etc. he’d pretend he wasn’t himself (as if anyone noticed), and he’d ask everyone the same question, “Do you have a copy of George Bernard Shaw’s essay?” No matter where he went, he got the same answer: “George Bernard Shaw – I’ve never heard of him.” Shaw would respond, “That’s odd that you never heard of this great writer, and you own a bookstore … or you consider yourself a literary scholar?” How’s that for attitude?

Shaw would even return to the same stores, schools, libraries a month later (dressed differently and with glasses on the second time); he’d inquire again. Shaw even took to stopping folks on the street to ask them if they’d heard of this new dynamic author, George Bernard Shaw? Talk about taking total control over your life!

Eventually, single-handedly, he stirred interest in this fellow, George Bernard Shaw. Eventually he became one of the finest writers of his era. He created the demand. Shaw believed there was no circumstance over which he could not take command. Shaw knew he had no immunity over failure, but he did have the power to turn the adversity into an enriching opportunity.

Clearly, reality knocks you down, when you’re trying to soar higher. Reality wants to know if you’re willing to get up and fight for your right to be successful at whatever is important to you. George Bernard Shaw saw what reality was up to, and did something about it when he got knocked down. Do you do something about it, or do you wail out “Poor me!” People who get up and do something new, are people of destiny.

Reality never delivers a knockout blow, unless you allow it to. Failures really are only temporary defeats. Permanent failure is a result of psychic hypnosis – where we react by quitting before we even begin, or we quit after the first try for sure. You declare yourself ‘out’ … not reality.

What’s psychic hypnosis? It is the spell that you are cast under, after hearing 60,000 NO’s from age two to six. And they still keep coming … from birth to death, NO’s come at you. They pose a constant challenge by trying to count you out of the game, and get you to agree, when you are knocked down by reality. You’ve not forgotten those 60,000 NO’s have you?

A new kind of mind comes into existence when you really see the difference between pretending you’re trying to get ahead, and getting ahead! I pretended for years that I wanted to get ahead. When I was younger, I was a great talker, but a lousy ‘actualizer’. I was so good at pretending that I was up to something (when I wasn’t), that I even fooled me!

Student: rob, what did you learn from George Bernard Shaw’s biography?
rob: Shaw taught me that there are two things I must not allow to interfere with my aspirations and aims – OTHER PEOPLE AND HARMFUL THOUGHTS. I also learned that HARMFUL THOUGHTS are the more dangerous of the two.

Seeing through yourself means to know things about yourself that others may not notice. It’s said that no one noticed George Bernard Shaw’s tenacity … but he surely noticed it, didn’t he? I notice about myself that I’m willing to do what I don’t want to do when it is necessary that I do it to succeed. I don’t think most folks notice that about me; because I turn everything into a passionate labor of love, they think I like doing all of it. Nope, I don’t like doing all of it.

1. What have you noticed about yourself that others haven’t noticed?
2. What can you offer other readers with your personal comment about this blog?
3. Can you share a lesson you learned from a temporary defeat?

Thank you & blessings, rob

“Best Comment of the Week”. This weeks best comment comes from Stephanie. The runner up is Alan 007. Thank you both for your honest, heartfelt sharing. See their comments here.

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In order to understand what it is to love your life, you first must understand what it is to like your life.

Liking and Loving are very different.

• Liking has no conviction to it. No real mission. No commitment. That’s why folks don’t talk about their lives very much if they just like their lives. There’s no passion!

• Loving has conviction. You create mission statements. You’re passionate about your life. You love to talk to yourself about what you plan to do next with your life.

What do I notice about folks who say, “I like my car”? They get in it and drive to work; they appreciate that it starts when they turn the ignition key, but they’re not committed to keeping it in excellent condition.

If someone says, “I love my car,” I am pretty sure that he takes care of it; washes it often, has the oil changed, and does the necessary maintenance checks.

Are you committed?
Are you committed to keeping your life in excellent condition? Can you see the difference between your behavior when you love your life and just like your life?

A simple wish to start fresh, with love in mind, has power to cancel behavior that only demonstrates liking your life.

What do I do?
What do I do that shows how much I love my life? Maybe I should ask the reverse question: What do I NOT do that shows how much I love my life?

Some of the things I do to demonstrate my love for my life:

1. Daily, I appreciate the wonderful surprises that life offers.
2. I commit to experiencing the abundance that every day offers me.
3. I rigorously maintain a pragmatic, action-oriented awareness of my responses to life.
4. I maintain a deep conviction to let go of any limiting opinions or behavior patterns that sabotage my joyful dreams of a successful future.
5. I consciously choose attitudes that positively support an inspiring journey through life.
6. I acknowledge daily that I create my reality … and I am worthy of living prosperously in every domain of life (harmonious relationships, business success, peace of mind, spiritual growth)

Some of the things I do NOT do that demonstrate my love for my life:

1. I do NOT blame others for my life.
2. I do NOT believe that my life experiences are limited by circumstances.
3. I do NOT live with a consciousness of scarcity.
4. I do NOT allow dysfunctional patterns to dominate my behavior.
5. I do NOT seek the approval of others when setting aspirations and aims that are important to me.
6. I do NOT live in reaction to past memories of failures.

Stop Evading
It is time to stop evading what you must face.

• What are you NOT doing that it would be wise to do – something that demonstrates your deep love for your life?
• What are you doing that it would be wise to stop doing – something that hampers your deep feeling of love for your life?

Perfect Opportunity
This blog offers a perfect opportunity to lift your spirit one degree above worldly conditions, and share what comes up for you. There is a lot to consider here. Perhaps you’ll share how you demonstrate your love for your life. You do love your life don’t you? It’s time to show it, and share it.

Thank you and blessings, rob

“Best Comment of the Week”. This weeks best comment comes from Tinu. The runner up is John Sherry from The 100% You. See their comments here.

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1. In a nutshell, you are all of it. I am all of it. There is nothing out there that I am not connected to, and this is also true about you. This is what we discover when we dare to relax and allow ultimate reality (the highest truth), to explain itself. Rely on guidance from the truth to carry you home.




2.  All minds mingle; that’s what our minds are doing right now as you are reading my blog, or is this your blog? What’s the difference? Ponder this cosmic fact.
   
   

   To say, “my mind is mine” is not correct. To say, “your mind is yours” is not correct. Our minds are individuated part of Universal Mind, not separate from it.

3. Your consciousness is part of collective consciousness. My consciousness is part of collective consciousness. Never argue with the truth, but simply walk to it with perfect freedom.





4. Our bodies feel very separate, and yet they are part of the physical whole, that we call ‘the universe’. Ponder this higher truth; ponder it until all tension falls away. With the absence of all tension, we experience ‘infinite unity’ – the meeting point of all. Dissolving of all comparisons is the healthiest thing anyone can do; without comparisons, notice how much better you do.




5. Your life is your flowering. My life is my flowering. We live in a beautiful garden called planet earth. When flowering freely, we no longer feel like a weed; our inner nature becomes peaceful; this is the basic nature of the universe.




6. The nature of peacefulness is the whole answer; the answer that I am seeking; the answer that you are seeking. A sincere wish for inner peace activates higher intelligence that guides us to the perfect life.

I am going to go with this blog for this week; it’s spontaneous. I allowed higher intelligence to guide me (the intelligence that we both share). The cause of every problem is the lack of insights into the above truths. I hope it jogs you to think deeper. Life is solved by reflecting on truths, like the above, without self-reference, which is the ultimate view.

Please share what rings right about this blog for you.

Thank you and blessings, rob

“Best Comment of the Week”. This weeks best comment comes from JD Meier of Sources of Insight. The runner up is Angela Artemis from Powered by Intuition. See their comments here.

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1. Do you know what helped me to get my head out of the mud and take a cosmic view of my life?
2. Do you know what inspired me to go from school teacher to real estate developer to restaurant owner to book author (with several small successful businesses filling in the gaps between the big aspirations)?
3. Do you know what helped me forcefully decline to go along with wrong ways of seeing things so the right ways could reveal themselves?

OK, let’s go!!!

While teaching school in a big city with a lot of problems years ago, I took a weekend seminar on how to improve my life. Don’t get me wrong, teaching is a noble profession (Jesus did it), but I wasn’t feeling satisfied; I’d become a malcontent.

I traveled 500 miles to New York City to participate in a seminar that was titled, ‘the needed light will shine’. I wasn’t satisfied with what I was doing, and I felt as though I needed the light, and I hoped it would shine for me.

The first evening of the seminar, I was told, “You don’t understand yourself or life.” Wow, now that really set me off; “How dare you!” By the end of the night I heard myself saying, “You’re probably right,” but my mind was still steaming with the idea, “What right have you to insinuate that I lack understanding?”

The next morning I learned that my mind is like a crowded hall of shouting voices, all vying for my attention. I heard myself say, “That’s absurd!” I then heard myself say, “Well that’s not entirely untrue.” And then, I heard myself say, “So, what’s it to you?” Could it be? Is my mind a crowded hall of thought-voices offering a dozen differing opinions?

The afternoon of the second day, the seminar leader went on to say, “You must stop wasting your life.” I thought, “I would like to stop wasting my life, that’s why I’m here.” Then I heard myself say, “How rude of you to say such things about me.”

The seminar leader must have read my mind because he called directly on me, and said, “It is apparent that you have not lived your life intelligently or constructively.” Wow, this guy was really starting to get to me.

In the next instant, the seminar leader said, “You can begin right now to find peace of mind.” I blurted out, “That’s what I want, plus success, too.” The seminar leader then looked me directly in the eyes and asked, “Can you see what a threat I am to your peace of mind? He went on to say, “You pretend you want the truth, but you resist with all of your might when you hear it. You’re like a starving man that throws away a perfectly good dinner because he doesn’t like how it was served to him.”

There it is! This ‘starving man’ statement is what put me on the road to change.

Now, I ask you? How delicate is your ego?

Are you like the starving man who throws away a perfectly good meal because your ego doesn’t like how the truth is being served up to you?

Do you really want the life you dream of experiencing … or … if the truth offends your delicate ego, do you walk away, making that other person wrong? I suspect if you answer this question truthfully, you’d have to admit that your ego gets in the way of your learning when its identity is threatened.

Are you ready for the lesson?

Here’s the lesson: Abandon your ego with its insistence that it’s right, not for the reward of learning more … and then the reward of learning exactly what you need to know will be just right.

Here’s the bonus lesson: Rightness always rushes in when wrongness is abandoned.

1. Please share a time when you were more concerned with being right than with winning at life.

 

2. Please share a time when you learned something important when you stopped protecting your vanity.

 

3. Please share a time when you experienced your mind like a crowded hall of thought-voices offering a dozen different opinions.

 

4. If you can’t think of anything to share – that’s your delicate ego having it’s
   way with you. Consider sharing that.

The bridge that takes you to a new world is called ‘teachability’.

Blessings, rob

“Best Comment of the Week”. This weeks best comment comes from Stacey Hebert from My Lifestyle Max. The runner up is David from Almost Bohemian. See their comments here.

I am honored that the always elegant Sibyl Chavis included me among one of the “Best Minds of the Blogosphere.” Be sure to check out her revamped site here.

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