~Heaven~ by Lapis Blog entry

Blog: Resonance: "a vibrational collection"
by Lapis

~Heaven~

"When we begin to live habitually in positive emotion with compassion, like Christ, we evolve to a different state of being. Then, we finally find heaven."

Date: 5/30/2005 5:04:23 AM ( 19 y ) ... viewed 1441 times

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The Law of Attraction (finding heaven)

The law of attraction is referred to in many ways by many faiths. Some call it karma; others call it the golden rule. The law of attraction ensures that what we put out in the world, we get back - some say threefold, others say tenfold. The law of attraction is like a magnetic pole, sending energy out one end only to receive it again at the opposite end.

The Driving Force

The driving force behind the law of attraction is the energy of our feelings. Many people think that when we act to hurt someone we get hurt back through another action, and often that does happen. But the reason it happens - why we encounter that action - is because the law of attraction has pulled us into a situation that triggers an emotion equal to what we had earlier released or caused in another person.

Simply put, the law of attraction rewards any emotion with the same emotion. The reward of patience is patience. The reward of anger is anger. The reward of love is love.

The law of attraction uses circumstances to ensure that we get back the feelings we put out and cause others to feel. Like the law of gravity, it takes the most direct path. Sometimes that means the circumstances in the cycle are the same, but not always. The same feeling can be triggered by more than one type of circumstance. Each time we encounter a circumstance we don't like, we have an opportunity to attract something different into our lives the next time.

Altering Circumstance

By changing our feelings, we alter the circumstances we attract into our lives. If I feel invaded or angry because of a circumstance I find myself in, I can express and release my anger in rage, or I can take advantage of the opportunity to shift my anger to a more positive emotion before I release it. In this way, I can alter what the law of attraction pulls me into. This is often easier said than done.

Understanding is the key to control. When we learn to understand our feelings and take responsibility for attracting them and the circumstances that trigger them, without blaming others, we can begin the process of shifting them. Then we can attract anything we want into our lives.

In her book When Things Fall Apart, Pema Chödrön offers many ideas for shifting feelings. She talks about first acknowledging and owning our feelings, breathing them in, allowing them to flow, and then releasing them without expectation. It's the without expectation part that is challenging. We all have desires and motives. Our intentions arise from those desires and we act or react accordingly. We rarely do things without expectation.

I still have expectations. Now, however, what I expect is that every time I act or react, I will be pulled into a circumstance that triggers whatever emotion I release and the emotion I initially cause in whomever I am interacting with. Remember, the reward of any emotion is the same emotion. Honesty attracts honesty. Revenge attracts revenge. Hate attracts hate. Worry attracts worry. Gratitude attracts gratitude, and so on. When I want to attract wealth, it is good to feel gratitude so I am pulled into a situation that triggers more gratitude.

The beauty of this natural force is that it can be influenced by our very human ability to make conscious choices about our behavior. In the moment we release an emotion, we make a choice - pull the trigger - initiating a chain of events pulling us toward a situation that ensures we will again experience the same emotion. Ask yourself: Am I asking enough questions? What am I learning? What am I feeling? What am I attracting?

In the swirl icon illustrated here, the spiral attached to the magnetic pole represents the law of attraction. The notion of making conscious choices is represented by the circle in the middle of the swirl. This circle symbolizes the human head - our gift, the power of choice - the power to alter what we attract by choosing to do so.

The Power of Choice

Releasing an emotion is the end of a process. Because of the circular nature of the law of attraction, that end is also the beginning. When we don't like the emotions we're experiencing in a situation, we can choose to release altered emotions and start attracting a new series of altered events, or we can choose to release the same emotion and continue attracting similar situations. Sometimes attracting the same situation can be desirable. For example, when I fly executive class I don't want to shift what I'm feeling. I want to attract the same situation again. What are you choosing to attract?

When we want to see the law of attraction work its miracles, we must be patient. Patience is a magic tool. Sometimes we attract what we want very quickly. Other times we might have to wait years or even lifetimes. To change what we attract, we need to become conscious of, and change, our emotional habits. It helps when we slow down the process.

Slowing Down the Process

Most of what we feel, we feel habitually. Humans, like most animals, are creatures of habit. The law of attraction has something to do with that. To change our habits, we must replace them with other habits.

Before we can change a destructive emotional or thought pattern, we have to slow down and acknowledge each feeling and the questions that go with that feeling. As we do this, we begin the process of shifting and start to see our true selves, our true emotions. Then we can own them - instead of projecting them onto others - and we find the desire to change what is ours to change. Eventually, shifting feelings and asking different questions becomes a habit; our emotional patterns change accordingly and we attract different situations.

When I feel angered by a circumstance, in the moment of trigger, I can make one of several choices about how to react. I can release the anger as rage. I can shift the anger by calming myself enough to examine what's really going on and then releasing the energy in a subtler, gentler way. I can store the anger and not release it at all. Whichever choice I make, the result is always the same: I will be pulled into a circumstance that triggers the same emotion I chose to release.

In the case of my anger, I could attract a powerful rage, a subtle anger, or mere frustration. When I release the subtle anger, it's easier to shift next time because what returns to me is equally subtle. Each time I release my anger more subtly, it becomes softer and easier to shift, until finally the anger is insignificant and doesn't return at all. My habit of rage is gone.

When I store anger, I am pulled into a circumstance that triggers frustration and silence. Instead of storing anger, we could choose to own it, examine it, shift it, and then attract something different. Being aware of and shifting feelings gives us the power to get anything we want from life.

Defining my feelings has been one of the hardest habits I've ever developed in my life. I lived with a psychic empath (a type of clairvoyant, someone who can sense what others are feeling without the need for words) for almost twenty years; she helped me identify and acknowledge my feelings on a daily basis. But that alone was not enough for me.

I also took communications and leadership workshops to learn self-awareness skills, and I visited psychologists. All these efforts have paid off in many ways over many years. I am a better communicator because of them, but most importantly, I have learned to identify and shift my feelings so that I can attract what I want into my life.

Developing the Power

Regardless of what we do to attract a situation, we can only change our circumstance now, in the very moment we decide to release each emotion. It helps to figure out what we did to attract the situation - through that process we gain insight into ourselves and can determine what may need changing. Sometimes, it's difficult to identify exactly what we felt or did to attract something. What then? Regardless of whether or not we know what we did to cause it, the situation remains.

Accept that whatever we did is done. We can't undo it. We've already attracted the situation we're in right now. We can't change that, but we can change what the next situation will be. Simply being aware of that is like opening a door.

Whatever we did to cause our present situation, we likely did out of habit. We can begin the process of changing our habitual reactions in this moment, and thereby affect our future. We can tap into the power to affect what we attract by taking four steps:

1. Acknowledge emotions as soon as we feel them, breathe them in and accept them as ours. Take, for example, a situation where I am afraid of running out of money. Maybe it's to do with business. Maybe it's to do with running my household. I could ignore my feeling - my fear - and take the attitude that "somehow I'll make it work." I could worry or I could blame someone else for putting me in this circumstance. But then what would I attract? More worry and blame. When I acknowledge my fear, accept the way I feel and that I am responsible for attracting this circumstance, I have the power to make a change.
2. Analyze emotions carefully. Let your feelings flow for a moment, really become aware of them, and own them. Ask questions. What is causing me to feel afraid? Is there a real cause for concern? If I do up a quick budget that outlines what I've spent to date and what expenses are still to come, I'll have enough information to know whether or not my fear is necessary. If it is, I can choose a plan of action. If it isn't, I don't have to worry, but that still doesn't mean my fear wasn't valid. All feelings are valid. Feelings are triggered for many reasons - all feelings are real and must be acknowledged and felt before we can move on.
3. Think about options before reacting. With a clearer understanding of what my fear is about, I can look at various options and possible outcomes. I could ask more questions. What other feelings could I explore in this situation? Are my feelings positive or negative? (For a checklist of positive and negative feelings, see the appendix at the back of this book). I can ask others for their opinions about what actions they would take, so that I see even more options. Remember, huge amounts of awareness, courage, persistence, perseverance, and determination are required when we are attempting to shift feelings.
4. Make a choice. With more information to base my decision upon, I can be more confident of making the right choice. I can then move forward with confidence instead of doubt, thereby attracting more confidence.

As Napoleon Hill was finishing writing his book Grow Rich With Peace of Mind, he was visited by a master from the Himalayas. The master came from the great school of the masters residing secretly in the Himalayas for more than ten thousand years. (J.E. Richardson spoke of these masters in his book The Great Message: "The school patiently strives to lift humankind from spiritual infancy and darkness to maturity of soul and final illumination." The masters communicate by telepathy and can disembody themselves to travel instantly to any place they choose.)

The master shared with Hill a list of what he called the twenty-six enemies. He stated that every person, in the course of his or her life, must traverse the jungle of life where the twenty-six enemies reside. That jungle is right here on planet earth.

Positive emotions can help each and every one of us successfully pass through our own jungle and defeat our enemies, the negative emotions. The best way to defeat negative emotions is to first befriend them by becoming aware of them and owning them. The next step is to challenge them by analyzing them with our thoughts, through questions. Once we get to know why they exist - why we feel those particular emotions - we can see the pattern we have attracted into our lives. Shifting them becomes easier after this process and we can then release them in a more positive way.

We make decisions every day. Each and every time we make a decision, we choose to attract something. What kind of circumstances are your decisions attracting to your life right now?

The Eternal Now

The only chance we have to influence our future, to alter our destiny, is in what Hindus refer to as the eternal now. If we have the ability to choose what emotions we release into the world, and therefore the ability to influence the law of attraction, it becomes clear that the most significant part of that process occurs in the moment when we make a choice. And the greatest degree of responsibility for our future lies also in that moment.

With a clear understanding of the law of attraction comes an obvious line of responsibility for the choices we make. Many faiths describe a cataclysmic day of judgment or reckoning, which is a broad symbol of responsibility. I believe that the day of judgment occurs moment by moment, each time we accept responsibility for our lives by acknowledging the energy we release through our feelings.

We are all judges. Almost every moment of every day we make judgments, some negative, and some positive. Based on those judgments, we make decisions on how to act and react. Feelings are released in us and triggered in others as a result of those judgments and decisions.

To sort out what is positive and what is negative, we could analyze the feelings each judgment triggers in ourselves and in the person we're interacting with, and decide whether the feelings triggered would attract a positive or negative circumstance. When the feelings triggered are negative but the judgment seems fair, try going the extra mile with compassion before you release your emotions. Things become more positive that way.

It might take a while for this to happen but be assured, when you and I release the energy of our feelings and trigger feelings in others, we get that energy back in greater measure. The law of attraction is as real as the law of gravity. It pulls a person into a circumstance like the law of gravity pulls a ball to the ground and the ground to the ball.

Does this end when we die? As long as we repent before dying, will we then be allowed to exist in the eternal bliss of heaven? Is asking for forgiveness enough to wipe the slate clean? No, but it's a start, enough to attract a change in what comes next. Our unknown karma may hold more work to be done, unfinished business that must be dealt with before we can be truly blessed with all the fruits of heaven. I don't think the law of attraction can work without reincarnation. When we begin to live habitually in positive emotion with compassion, like Christ, we evolve to a different state of being. Then, we finally find heaven.

http://www.sixthsense.org/swirl/05_html