Monday, August 17, 2020

Lesson 3 - Who's Minding Your Mind?

Lesson 3


The Mirror Principle

 

           

          As we continue, we will discover why all problems and pain come from the limited use of mind and the inability to discover a truly meaningful answer.

          All pain comes from the initial erroneous belief in our  sense of separation from Divinity. Our idea of separation from Totality, or God, and its resultant experience of limitation is an erroneous belief but one which seems vividly portrayed in the world around us - we feel misunderstood, victimized and attacked.  This world seems to be  based on isolation from an all powerful,  protective and giving God.  He may have all these aspects, but He seems not to be giving them to us.

          This concept of estrangement from God and Life did not start  outside of ourseslves.  It was not thrust upon us by the world or by God.  On the contrary, the world merely reflects the beliefs we have chosen and now want to experience.

          Let’s look at how this works:

 

1.  Mind  chooses a belief.

          Your beliefs are not thrust upon you!  You choose what you believe is true.  The mirror principle has five distinct steps.  Once you take this first step the others will follow irrevocably.

 

2.  Belief is projected outward.

          Mind can't jealously contain anything!  Its very nature means its thoughts are extended outward as an inter-dimensional, electromagnetic field.  As has been stated before, "Thoughts are things and they have wings."

 

3.  Projection makes perception.

          Once your mind chooses a belief, it projects this onto your life experiences.  People, places, and events pass before you and your projected belief is reflected upon them.    Your projections are now directing your perceptual experiences.

 

4.  Perception is a mirror, not a fact.

          Half a dozen witnesses to any accident will give half a dozen different perspectives when testifying.  You see what you want to see based on your background, your training, and most importantly the beliefs you have chosen.  You never experience the world - only your interpretation of it!

 

5.  What you see seems real.

          You use your senses to verify evidence.  Yet your interpretation of your senses is based on a faulty system of perception.  What you see only seems real, since it mirrors your original choice of belief.  This is a closed system that is self-fulfilling.

 

What Price Limitation?

          Following this basic formula, you chose to think of the possibility of separation from God and the limitation  of life.   You projected out your thought and  saw it mirrored around you in the world.  Now your world seems to be filled with symbols of estrangement from God and limitations on life.  The ultimate limitation is symbolized as death.  You feel alone, vulnerable and victimized by outside forces.  Every experience you have reinforces your basic belief "proving" that it is "true".

          Is the concept of separation from God true? No! Is the concept of limitation of life possible? No! Totality and your shared Divinity cannot be changed or fragmented in any way. What you think and believe, however, can be erroneous.  Each step in the mirror principle will irrevocably follow the one before, no matter what belief you start with.  What you believe and think will be projected onto a neutral world coloring it with your ideas.

         

          Changing your beliefs is never easy because of your investment in them.  You feel personally attacked if someone does not agree with your ideas.  You will even attack yourself if you begin to question your own judgments!  You believe that if you give up your beliefs you will give up the very essence of yourself.  Your past experience has shown this to be accurate, for when you gave up the belief in your Divinity, you did lose touch with the essence of yourself.  Now you must courageously let go of your beliefs once more - this time giving up limitation and separation.  You will lose the essence of what you believe you are - limited, filled with pain, unworthy of any real happiness.  How wonderful!  And then you will be left with all that you forgot - Divinity, Life and Peace.   The completeness of God's Love will be returned to your mind

 

Thoughts to contemplate

and discuss

1.     Observe the many times each day you form opinions, judgments, and have prejudices for or against. For now, just acknowledge with each one that a pre-exiting belief was in place before you formed your viewpoints.

2.     If you are ready to take the next step, you may want to create a list of the fundamental beliefs you have been taught throughout your life about relationships, the world and handling conflicts. Then look back at your insights in question 2 and see if you can find correlations.

3.     Since giving up beliefs is very hard, let’s start a real change by taking time to affirm throughout each day, “I may be very wrong about what I believe is going on.” You may feel real resistance to this, but just repeating this is a huge step.

No comments: