[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by John Freestone

..... the spiritual tradition we are talking about is so old that it has been called the Perennial Philosophy, and the warning features very highly amongst its greatest minds not to be self-centred and wish for things. The Buddha warned against desire and considered it the source of all suffering. It would seem that IM is a developed or 'supernatural' [edited] power, according to those teachers, but one that is not there for us to suck goodies out of thin air with, congratulate ourselves on having achieved, or brag about.

That is a most excellent point, Mr Freestone, and one that I have often thought about. However I am not to sure where I should start sharing those thoughts, since the topic is huge.

If you go through the Buddhist teachings, you'll see that desire is not the source of all suffering. Attachment is the source of all suffering (this is the Second Noble Truth).

And if you go back to LOA/IM, you'll see that there is constant emphasis on the need for detachment. Ever wonder why?

It's important to appreciate that unlike certain other religions, Buddhism isn't based on the idea of a Great Big God in the Sky Who Will Punish You if you do or don't do certain things. Buddha was essentially very practical and utilitarian. All his teachings have one unifying theme - how to avoid suffering and find happiness.

Now if you use Abraham Hicks as a comparison, you'll see that the message is strikingly similar, except (as you might expect) the message is framed in more positive terms. In Book 1, Abraham is asked what are the ultimate best things one could ask for; what is the best measure of "success" -

and the answer is your own happiness. If you are constantly very happy, very joyful, very blissful, very peaceful etc, then there is nothing else to ask for. (Gasp, doesn't that remind you of the bliss of Buddha's enightenment? A state where desire has become irrelevant).

In fact, Abraham always emphasises that the more positive your emotions, the more powerfully you create. Love, happiness, wisdom etc represent the most positive emotions. And the act of reaching for more positive emotions is a fundamental aspect of the Abraham teachings.

Side note: the LOA itself does not tell you what to create. If you intrinsically feel that it is not to be used for "sucking goodies out of thin air", it is entirely open to you to use it to "suck baddies out of thin air" or suck any other sort of thing, which appeals to your values / morals etc.

And also, I think that IMer's ongoing intentions will change and evolve and develop, as more and more of the earlier intentions manifest. Using money as an example, if I continue growing rich as rapidly as I have been growing since I started using the LOA, I think that it will be a matter of time before I grow bored with the idea of growing even richer.

And then .... I will inevitably turn to create different things. (As it is, I am already creating all sorts of different things in my life).

I keep trying to choose gratitude and selflessness (I accept that I'm no saint, however!). I don't mean to suggest that other decisions are wrong.

Good choice .... I chose wisdom. I manifested for it, and I previously wrote about that on this forum, quite some time ago, and I do believe I recorded it on my blog somewhere too.

I do honestly feel wiser now than I did then. Insights now regularly occur to me, which somehow I don't think would have occurred to me previously. But since there is no such thing as a scientifically calibrated wisdom-meter, I shall not debate this point with Mrs Cogan.