|
Excerpt from THE MAGIC FORMULA
by Michael J. Roads “Are they wrong?” Gus asked. “Maybe, if life seems empty and hostile all the time, that becomes normality. Maybe it's better to adapt to that, and survive, than continually frustrate yourself by wanting something better.” He struggled. “It's just a thought. But there's a hell of a lot of people around like that.” “But you never accepted it as normal,” Deliverance said, “and it's because of that, that you will be able to move on to a more positive, uplifting life. If you do not dream of better things, a more positive way, how can you expect to reach it? Even then, dreams are not enough. To reach the dreams, we are required to live them. Tell me, how do you see it, Steve?” “I see two sides of it,” Steve said shakily. “Shit! I've lived in it long enough. My mates were never as miserable and morose as me. They dealt with life as it came to them and blamed other people — the government, the police, anybody — for their misfortunes. I could never quite see it that way. And, by God, I tried. I succeeded in getting angry at the government, but I could never get rid of the feeling that it was me who screwed up my life, not the government or other people. Mind you, the bloody fat-cat government has a lot to answer for. Anyway, what it all boils down to is simple, and I intend to move on.” “What will you do?” Mac asked. “I'm bloody well going to move. I'm going to leave all my mates behind and I'm going to move to another part of the city. I don't know how I'm going to do that on my pathetic income, and it'll probably be a move from one shit-house to another, but I can't just give up. I couldn't live with that at all, and I know perfectly well that I couldn't change their way of seeing life. Hell, I even tried once, and they laughed at me. And why not? What did I have to offer that could really show them that I might be right? That perhaps there is more to life than living up shit-house creek!” “Even though you could not offer them, or you, the way to bring about change, you spoke from your intuitive knowing of Truth,” Deliverance said. “It was a classic case of Truth out of timing. However, the fact that you could never relinquish that Truth has created the timing. That is why you are here, now. This is your opportunity to learn how to create and implement the changes that you want to bring into your life, an opportunity that you have created.” “It's going to be tough,” Steve said reflectively. Deliverance smiled at him. “If tough is your belief and focus, you will, of course, be right.” “Suppose I said that I can do it easily. Would that come true?” Steve asked. “If you focus on, and believe, that it can be and will be easy to bring positive, uplifting change into your life, then that is the reality that you will create.” “Gee! That would be a change in itself,” Steve said. “I can give you a good starting point,” Deliverance offered. “Never again use the word ‘shit-house.’ Not about you, your life, a situation, or other people. Every time you use that word you empower it, and because it comes from you, it is you who receives the benefit of its creation. For you it is a repetitive word, creating a repetitive reality.” Steve grinned. “Yeah, it's a shit-house word! But, I do hear what you're saying and I'll try not to use it anymore.” “Let me give you another angle on repetition that you may understand more easily,” Deliverance said, “and the angle is sameness.” “Sameness!” Gus echoed. Deliverance nodded. “You got it. Sameness is a killer, and the one enemy that it most tries to destroy is change. When sameness and change occupy a person simultaneously, invariably there is inner conflict. Listen carefully and let this sink in. You cannot change and remain the same. Think about that.” “You cannot change and remain the same,” Mike repeated slowly. “Hey, I like that. It's so obvious, but so overlooked. We all want certain changes in our life and we even invite them; but, when they arrive, we nearly always resist them. It doesn’t make sense, but that's what we do. Is that why? Is it because we want to change and remain the same? Deliverance nodded. “It is a subconscious program. Part of the confusion of life for most people.” “But why?” asked Gus. “I mean, I can see it clearly in my own life, but I'm buggared if I know why I resist.” “It is simple enough,” Deliverance began. “People are very good at enduring and living with their discord, their inner confusion, their indecision, their apathy, their wanting and never having, their second-rate lives, their poverty, their inability to cope, their drugs, both prescribed and illegal. These are just mere glimpses of what so many people endure. And, I must add, these are not just problems for low-income people. Those with financial wealth often have to endure the erosion of their personal integrity, the pettiness of business, the ruthlessness, the back-stabbing, the sordid affairs, the loss of personal esteem and self-worth as they become part of a corrupt team just for financial gain or for the fear of financial loss. However, it is also a fact that most of the people involved would deny that what I have just listed is a part of their lives. They see only what their program allows them to see.” “That's scary,” Gus said. “True, but this is the way of it, and so it continues, with people in all walks of life addicted to the degrees of suffering that they create and endure. Odd as it may seem, that multilayered suffering becomes so commonplace, so absolutely normal, that it is habitually repeated from one life frame to another.” He looked at the others. “Are you with me?” They all nodded vigourously. “When inner suffering and discord become so normal, acceptable, and expected, to the extent that a Prime Minister can make a statement to the effect that ‘life was not meant to be easy,’ then you find that the addictive nature of humanity has accepted lives and life-styles far below their potential. That is, below both their material and spiritual potential. Within this framework, apathy is given birth, grows rapidly, and dominates most of society. We accept our stagnant sameness as normal; it is our lot. “Imagine now, a dynamic catalyst is thrown in, and the name of this catalyst is change. Can you see it being welcomed with open arms and embraced? The reality is that the conditioned program of the masses sternly resists. In other words, the prison that holds people is called sameness, while the key to open the prison is change. Sameness fights to keep the door closed, change struggles to open it. Sameness has a conditioned subconscious program to help it resist. Change has the power of newness, the source of its dynamic energy. By stripping all this to its most basic levels, the struggle is between sameness and change, the old and the new. Together they will always be, for the nature of humanity is such that we contain both. “The art of living is to maintain both in a dynamic and balanced explosion of life energy, which simultaneously allows established and proven foundations of the past to remain, while building on them with the bricks of creativity born in this moment. This is the way of nature, of natural life. This is the way that the successes of the past can be married to the new creativity of the moment. In this way, the old and the new, from their coexistence, create a dynamic that is nameless and ageless. It is a spiritual movement in humanity; a movement into which we are continually born anew, in each moment. I call this the movement in the moment. It is the place of life, the only place of true reality.” |
|||||||||||||||||||
All content and articles copyright ©2002 by Lightworks Inc except where noted. All rights reserved.