Heavenletters

“Yours is the Glory forever.” “The whole of the world rests in your palm, and yet you hold your hand out begging for a tuppence of peace in your life.” I have not been experiencing my life as glory-filled. Nor have I felt that the world has been resting in my palm. I guess this is what Jochen and Emilia are saying here, also. I agree with the frustrations expressed, this letter is full of glowing promise of how weak the “enemy” is and even seems to imply that the struggle is already over. The battle doesn't seem so easy.

I think it would be a shame to let this frustration keep us from considering carefully what is contained here. There are wonderful insights. It is made clear that all our pain and suffering result from our fears. This is “the enemy within” that lurks in our hearts and minds and is the source of all our troubles. It is explained that we hold fast to our fears since we mistakenly believe they are necessary for our survival. Our fears are described as weak and “shadowy” as if it would be no big deal at all to let all these fears go. Obviously, as Jochen and Emilia attest, we cannot so easily will our fears to slide through God’s metaphoric keyhole.

I agree that fear has no more power than the power we give it through our beliefs, but I think it is also true that it is not such a simple task to stop believing in the fears we have lived all our lives. I don’t really think that God, as He expresses Himself through this letter, really believes it is so easy either. In this light, and to get the most out of this letter, I think it is worth our while to think carefully about two questions. First: Where do our fears come from? And second: What can we do to rid ourselves of these accumulated and habitual fears? The rest of this mini-essay will address what I came up with exploring and trying to coherently integrate what I have learned so far.

Where do our fears come from?

We are born into a cultural milieu already jam packed with traditional beliefs and teachings which, by and large, everyone accepts. At birth, we are very much like blank slates that soak up these beliefs like a dry sponge dipped into a bucket of water. You might ask, here, what about the blueprint God has embedded deep in our soul that has all His knowledge included? It seems that this knowledge is blocked from our conscious mind when we enter this physical reality and uncovering it again is one of our tasks. So, we begin our lives almost totally at the mercy of our culture’s beliefs.

The problem is that much of these beliefs, what we could term “world thought”, are mistaken. It is these beliefs that create the pain and suffering of our lives (and the world’s, too, of course). This is even further problematic for us since the experiences that are created for us by our beliefs become feedback that completely supports these beliefs. This is not such a simple situation. Changing these beliefs goes against much of our life’s experiences and what we may even feel to us to be our accumulated and hard-won wisdom. Our whole lives have been built on the beliefs we acquired in our younger days. Changing these beliefs, at least at this point in world time, goes against what virtually everyone else believes and against the assumptions out of which our institutions, teachings and literature have been built.

It is no surprise that we must face our fears our pains and our illnesses, they naturally follow from the world thought that sponsored them. This Heavenletter, though, is very optimistic about the possibility of changing our beliefs. To make the best use its promises, though, I think it will be quite useful to consider ways to go about this. Its true that you can’t just will your beliefs away, but there are strategies to encourage them to evolve towards more productive ones.

What can we do to rid ourselves of habitual fear?

Probably the key insight to help us here, which derives from many of the letters and teachings, is that we can readily feel the difference between those experiences and thoughts that are predominantly love based and those which are fear based. We have emotional guidance that is always there, we just have to pay attention to it and deal with it properly. You might object, here, and contend that you already pay close attention to this information, but I would contend that “world thought” and the dominance of our mind over our heart has most of us in the habit of ignoring our feelings much of the time.

Consider one of the main ways we make use of our innate freedom in lives: our constant choices of where to focus our attention. Say, for instance, we decide to watch TV. Of the many channels available, two of our choices might be to watch the news or, alternatively, to watch a very funny and uplifting movie. I believe God has been suggesting thatwe should avoid the negativity of the news and focus on what we enjoy. In a similar way, we can take leave of negative people and seek out those who are positive and highly value our company. Each one of these choices changes us a little bit towards the fearful or towards the loving. I believe that to make use of this insight fully would be to turn our whole life into a meditative experience of following our heart towards joy.

Let us next consider another innate freedom: what we choose to think about. I don’t believe most of us pay much attention to what we are thinking about and make no real attempt to consider its importance. Just like our external experiences, our thoughts give us immediate feedback by the way they make us feel. It is natural for us to often assume that the way we are feeling is in direct response to what is happening to us. This is not the way it is, though. How we are feeling is in direct response to what we are thinking. We can, if we so choose, pay attention and move our thoughts to that which gives us pleasure. For example, say that you just got word that your investment in a certain stock has taken a heavy loss. It is easy to let news like this ruin your whole day (or worse). You could easily find yourself thinking over this situation, in all its nuances, and feeling lousy with each new worried thought about your future. Or you could remind yourself that what counts in your life is not measured in dollars and cents and then direct your thoughts to more pleasant topics. This is pretty simplistic, but I’m sure you know what I mean. The more you direct your thinking towards what you enjoy and away from fearful topics, the more you will break the habitual hold of fear on your mind and soul. This is really not so hard. It just takes a little practice and the intent to follow through. The hardest part is to be patient with the results.

What about addictions and obsessions?

In some areas of life, you may feel you cannot control your anxious thinking or your compulsive behaviors. A number of the Heaven Sutras deal with practical answers to this question. Invariably, God’s answer is to turn this kind of heavy burden over to Him. He promises he will take the burden of your fear away, just ask. If you haven’t been reading these and you want a wealth of guidance in these areas, I strongly encourage you look them up.

I certainly hope the time you have invested in reading all this has been rewarded. May God Bless you with peace, harmony, love and fulfillment…….Chuck