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Acting Like Godot · 03-14-2008, 02:05 AM

Tom, you'll have to excuse me for not addressing your post in any real depth. This is my 1,459th post on Steve Pavlina's forums, and most of my posts have been on IM/LOA stuff. It gets repetitive and tedious for me to keep responding to the same kind of questions.

What I'll simply say to the "not-quite" believers is that you do not ever need to know all the answers, and you probably never will. You simply have to begin from exactly where you are.

And again and again, you will have to begin from exactly where you are.

For example, you may not accept that starving children in Africa attract their own circumstances. But perhaps you could agree with some less-grand, more-mundane proposition.

Such as "it is beneficial to learn to think more precisely". Or "it is useful to be clear about one's personal goals." Or "it is useless to worry about matters that one cannot actually do anything about". Or "I have a psychological addiction to _____ and it would be good to eliminate it." Or "If I treat people with more love, there will be more love in my life."

So begin there.

If you accept that it is beneficial to think more precisely, then work on developing your ability to think more precisely.

If you accept that it is useful to be clear about your personal goals, then work on clarifying your personal goals.

If you accept that it is useless to worry about matters that you cannot do anything about, then work on learning to stop worrying about things you cannot do anything about.

If you accept that it is good to be free of your addiction, then work on freeing yourself of your addiction.

If you accept that treating people with more love will lead to more love in your life, then work on treating people with more love.

Etc etc. In each case, it is about developing your control over your thinking, your own consciousness. Master one lesson, and the next lesson, a more advanced one, will present itself.

And then another ... and another .... and another.

Begin where you are. The difference between Buddha and the most dastardly human being on planet earth is that Buddha has mastered more lessons about the mind.

And over time, every diligent student of his own mind will see .... with ever-increasing clarity .... what his own thoughts have got to do with his own reality.

03-14-2008, 02:05 AM	#20 (permalink)
Acting Like Godot Banned Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 9,613	Tom, you'll have to excuse me for not addressing your post in any real depth. This is my 1,459th post on Steve Pavlina's forums, and most of my posts have been on IM/LOA stuff. It gets repetitive and tedious for me to keep responding to the same kind of questions. What I'll simply say to the "not-quite" believers is that you do not ever need to know all the answers, and you probably never will. You simply have to begin from exactly where you are. And again and again, you will have to begin from exactly where you are. For example, you may not accept that starving children in Africa attract their own circumstances. But perhaps you could agree with some less-grand, more-mundane proposition. Such as "it is beneficial to learn to think more precisely". Or "it is useful to be clear about one's personal goals." Or "it is useless to worry about matters that one cannot actually do anything about". Or "I have a psychological addiction to _____ and it would be good to eliminate it." Or "If I treat people with more love, there will be more love in my life." So begin there. If you accept that it is beneficial to think more precisely, then work on developing your ability to think more precisely. If you accept that it is useful to be clear about your personal goals, then work on clarifying your personal goals. If you accept that it is useless to worry about matters that you cannot do anything about, then work on learning to stop worrying about things you cannot do anything about. If you accept that it is good to be free of your addiction, then work on freeing yourself of your addiction. If you accept that treating people with more love will lead to more love in your life, then work on treating people with more love. Etc etc. In each case, it is about developing your control over your thinking, your own consciousness. Master one lesson, and the next lesson, a more advanced one, will present itself. And then another ... and another .... and another. Begin where you are. The difference between Buddha and the most dastardly human being on planet earth is that Buddha has mastered more lessons about the mind. And over time, every diligent student of his own mind will see .... with ever-increasing clarity .... what his own thoughts have got to do with his own reality. Last edited by Acting Like Godot; 03-14-2008 at 03:23 AM.