Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Explaining "The Secret" Behind the Universe

Some of you have probably read Rhonda Byrne's The Secret. With Oprah's help, it sold over 19 million copies and has arguably become part of contemporary zeitgeist. I haven't read the book myself, but I've watched the movie it was based on, and I've got to say I was pretty inspired by it. I've begun to apply its message in my own life and, because I feel it has helped me, I want to share the message with you today. If you open your mind to it, The Secret will help you to overcome some of the emotional and spiritual challenges you face, and give you tools with which to craft for yourself a better future. So, pay attention and learn.
 
The Secret behind the universe is the law of attraction. We have the power to obtain or be anything we want by attracting these desires to ourselves. Wealth, health, success, relationships - whatever we want, we can get by attraction. The starting point is to think about what you want. Don't think about what you don't want, but only about what you do want. The thoughts in your head - which should be about what you desire - create a frequency, you know like sound waves and stuff. This frequency goes out into the universe around you and begins to create the situations that enable you to obtain your desires as contained in the thoughts. Think of ripples. They start at a central point and then spread out into the surrounding space. Similarly, your thought frequencies spread out into the universe and compel the actualization of your desire-filled thoughts.
 
All this may sound like mumbo-jumbo I agree, but there's a deeper spirituality to it. The thoughts you send out into the universe experience a time lapse. Nature delays the actualization of your thoughts in order to give you time to rethink and be quite certain that what you're thinking is actually what you want. We all agree that we've often changed our thoughts and desires and have sometimes regretted wanting certain things. At such times we've been grateful these things did not come true. With new information, we begin to see that the things we wanted in the past would have screwed us up big time. So, for our own good, it's not as if we just wish something, think about it for a short while and hey presto - there's our wish come true. No. The universe is not like a shopping catalog.
 
Besides, we have very many desire-filled thoughts. Thousands actually. None of us can keep track of them all, and they don't all match up. Teleologically speaking, our destiny or purpose sifts out our piles of thoughts and keeps those that are congruent with itself. As time goes on, the desire-filled thoughts that are incongruent with our life-path gradually fade away, leaving those that are. We can help this process along if we are conscious of what our destiny should be. Then we can consciously drive away the thoughts inconsistent with it. Now, even the thoughts that do stay, the ones that are in keeping with our life's purpose, are still too many for us to keep track of. So, nature gives us a mechanism for knowing if the thoughts we're thinking are good. This mechanism is emotion.
 
By being always conscious of the way we feel, we can estimate the quality of our thoughts. If we feel good: love, joy, peace, excitement - then we know the desire-filled thoughts we have are proper, and we are on course toward achieving them. If conversely we feel bad: anger, resentment, depression, anxiety - then we know the desire-filled thoughts we have are improper; or that we, even though we have proper thoughts, are not on course toward achieving them. When we feel good, because this means we are thinking and acting positively toward the realization of our dreams, we should ramp up the good feelings. But when we feel bad, because this implies that we're falling away from the path toward achieving our dreams, we should alter the bad feelings. Recall that we've already explained in a previous post the three-step method proposed by Descartes for dealing with bad feelings.
 
Now, bad feelings have a way of attracting more bad feelings. Imagine you wake up on the wrong side of the bed on a certain day and, feeling shitty, you keep doing things angrily or testily, you will find yourself feeling worse, and people will respond to you in defensive and possibly unpleasant ways; and your experiences will keep being unfortunate. But if you change your attitude and begin to feel good - maybe by applying Descartes' three step method - you will begin to attract good and positive experiences and people to yourself, because good feelings also have a way of attracting more good feelings. And the more you feel good, because feeling good signifies that you're thinking properly and are on your way to the actualization of your dreams, the more you succeed in getting and being all you wish.
 
There's more. The resources contained in the universe are in unlimited supply. It's good to know this because some people argue: Well, all this sounds fine and dandy, but if we all keep getting what we want in this way from the universe, won't it just run out of stuff to give us? No. Apart from the fact that the universe is limitless, commonsense tells us that we don't all want the same things. For example - funny as this might sound - I actually don't want a car; or to be wealthy, or to marry a super model like Tyra Banks. These things are not in keeping with my life-path, which is to become a priest. Plus they will not help me to learn the one lesson God has for my soul, which is humility, as consists in simplicity, sensitivity, selflessness and sanctity. But someone else may desire them because they are in keeping with their own life-path and purpose. This reminds me of the story of a woman who went to visit an African Traditional Religious priest in his humble shrine, wanting a potion for wealth. After the priest had concocted one and given it to the woman, she asked him, "Wait a minute; if this thing actually works, why haven't you used one yourself?" The priest said to her: "Because I'm not meant to be rich, silly woman!"
 
So, if we have wishes that are in keeping with our purpose and we continually think about these wishes, and feel good because of them, we progressively journey along to their actualization. So, I for example want to be a religious priest. It is the one thing I want the most in life, especially because it will help me to learn the lesson of humility marked out for me. Applying the law of attraction, the secret, I begin to think of being a priest everyday. It becomes the first thing I think about as I wake up in the morning and the last thing I think about when I retire to bed at night. I also allow myself to feel good about being a priest, ramping up all the good feelings it inspires in me and dispelling every bad feeling that creeps into my heart. If I can do all this, I will ontologically speaking be well on my way toward actually becoming a religious priest.
 
Is it that simple? Well, no actually. There's more. You see, it's not sufficient to simply want something, think about it, feel good about it and zuptalo! - you get it. No senor. You have to act. You simply gotta get off your lazy arse and work toward it. The thought frequencies you send out into the world and the good feelings inside you will help you and give you the strength to work toward the realization of your dreams. This is why when you're doing what you love, what is in keeping with your purpose, work feels lighter and pleasanter. Indeed, we are encouraged to do only what we like, what we feel passionate about. Why do you think Oprah is so successful? Because she is doing what she loves - talking. Do you imagine writing this blog is hard for me? Not at all. I actually look forward to doing it everyday, because I love to write - and by the way I love to talk too. When I think of the prospect of giving homilies as a priest, I actually envy the congregation that will be blessed to listen to me talk. And this is not boastfulness.
 
Let's do an internal summary of what we've learned so far, because there's more still. So far, we've said that the secret behind the universe is the law of attraction, by which we can get and be whatever we want. It works by our thinking constantly of what we want - and in this manner sending out frequencies into the universe that set in motion the conditions for the actualization of our thoughts - and engendering good feelings based on our thoughts within us. These positive feelings - unlike negative ones - indicate that our thoughts are proper and that we are underway toward bringing them about. Because the universe is limitless and people want different things, the possibility of success in the attainment of our dreams is high, especially if they are in keeping with our purpose and we work passionately and assiduously for them, helped by our proper thoughts and positive feelings. Now that we've summed up what we've learned so far, we can proceed.
 
What happens when we think about what we don't want? When we think about what we don't want, we similarly attract these unfortunate things, events and people to ourselves. You see, the universe doesn't hear that you don't want this or that. It just hears this or that, and brings it to you. It's like a dumb waiter. You think of something; it brings it to you. Simple. So for example you say, "Oh, I don't want debt!" And you find yourself deeper and deeper in debt - now that I think about it, I think the reason I've never been in debt, not even a cent's worth, is that I actually never think of it - debt is not even in my consciousness - now how about that! Amazing, isn't it? If something isn't even in your consciousness it cannot begin to manifest itself in your life. So we must fill our thoughts and our consciousness with positive material. Think about all the good things you want and they will come your way. Don't think of bills coming in the mail; think rather of checks. I for example never get bills in the mail. I only get checks - ask anyone that knows me personally.
 
Furthermore, it means that we should never style ourselves as anti-something. It only intensifies such a thing in our consciousness, in our world. So, don't be anti-abortion; be pro-life. This means you don't go about "fighting" abortion by rallying, making noise and stuff, but actively mentor pregnant women; help with family planning workshops, and so forth. Don't be anti-poverty, by bemoaning losses in the stock market or starving kids in Africa. Rather, be pro-wealth by teaching financial skills, organizing accounting workshops and doing much to help the less fortunate wherever you find them. Mother Teresa knew this. The late Pope John Paul II knew this as well, and said: "Whatever you fight against, you become." Another scholar put it differently: "Whatever you resist persists." I remember that when I used to be unforgiving of the Angela in my life (the person I blamed for everything bad that had happened to me) I had unkind thoughts toward him, and felt bad most of the time. And all I was thinking and feeling simply perpetuated the realities I had blamed him for creating - you know, because that was the content of my consciousness at the time. But since I completely forgave him and now think and feel positively toward him, the realities I no longer blame him for creating actually no longer exist for me.
 
Excited yet? There's more. You might ask: Is the universe some kind of genie, who simply says, "Your wish is my command"? The answer is yes, the universe is actually some kind of genie that says that. If you wish for something, think about it all the time; feel good always, and work toward it, the universe at the appointed time will give it to you. You don't need to know how. It's like driving in the dark night and not being able to see past a short distance with the help of your headlamps. If you keep going, regardless of the fact that you cannot see all the way ahead, you will get to your stop. Martin Luther King Jr said concerning this: "You don't need to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." This implies believing. And so, the law of attraction - all what we've said so far - can be rearranged this way: ask (or want, desire, wish), believe, and then receive. Jesus himself said: "Therefore I say to you that whatever you ask for when you pray, believe that you get it, and you will definitely receive it" (Mark 11:24). This is verbatim what Jesus said! It's almost as if Rhonda Byrne, author of The Secret, plagiarized Jesus - she didn't by the way. It's just that truth is universally recognized by those who have the proper illative sense for it.
 
How come all of this is that simple? Because we are God. That's what The Secret and a few other authorities say. Aha, that reminds me - I said in an earlier post that I will explain the theology of how it is that we mortal humans are God in some sense. So here goes. At the simplest level - you know, when you want to explain this kind of stuff to a child - you may say that we are God because we were made in the image and likeness of the divine (Gen 1:27). Also, in John 10:34b, Jesus says: "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are gods"'? At a more complex level, however, we are divine-like because we share in God's rationality. Scholars say that we are examples of the way by which the universe becomes conscious of itself. The presence of reason, of the rationative faculty within us, makes us - unlike animals and other living things on earth - most like God. More so, our ability to consciously craft artifacts, plan businesses and live in communities, and raise babies after bringing them into the world are divine attributes; plus the fact that we share a universal teleology with the enduring potentiality of God's spirit in us, evidenced by our talents and ambitions, and the boundless possibility of actualization we are capable of.
 
Therefore, we can attract to ourselves everything good, everything that will actualize us: money, relationships, security - anything. We just have to wish it, think it, feel it, work toward it and believe that we have it. All this will bring it about. Thoughts do become reality when they follow this process. Philosophers call it epistemological realism - the event of a thing that started out as a thought in our head actually becoming three-dimensional. Impressive. Architectural plans on paper becoming actual buildings; book proposals becoming best-selling literature; menu plans becoming gourmet dishes - the list is endless. One more thing though before we wrap up, and that is visualization. When we wish, and think, and feel, and act, and believe, we must express all of this via visualization. It is the artwork of belief. We must paint a picture in our mind of what we hope to receive. The picture concretizes the reality before we actually touch it. Without visualization, it is hard to mentally hold on to the substance of our belief - this is probably why we use statues and artworks in Catholic liturgy, but that is another matter - and so to keep faith in them alive.
 
Anyway. Today, we have learnt about The Secret, Rhonda Byrne's contribution to our intellectual culture. This secret, which controls the universe, is the law of attraction. It states that whatever we want, through thinking, feeling and acting positively toward it, we can achieve. Put differently, it states that if we ask and believe, we can receive anything from the universe. This is especially so if what we desire is in keeping with our life purpose and contributes to our learning the life lesson we were created to learn. All of this is possible because we are divine-like, and because the universe is limitlessly serving diverse desires. We also need to visualize our dreams so as to mentally hold on to their substance. The Secret, in short, coveted over the years, teaches us to be positive, and to feel good and hopeful about the goodness the world is eternally capable of.

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