Quote:
Originally Posted by Eisho  Okay. This is something that is becoming increasingly confusing for me given that you are coming from a Buddhist perspective. Who is this person that is able to perceive reality? Who is this person that can think of reality? Who is this person that is self-aware? Who is this person interested in exploration? Who is this person able to make adjustments? Who is this person who is able to create his reality? |
These are quite interesting questions which I have explored in a number of different ways, experientially as well as by reading.
From a practical point of view, one book I found quite helpful was "The Voice of Knowledge" by Don Miguel Ruiz. By the way, this is not an overt "LOA" book - you won't find the phrase "Law of Attraction" even once in it.
The way Don presents it, there is a storyteller in your head (the voice of your own thoughts, of course). This storyteller was not always there (for example, it was not there when you were a very young child), but it gradually plants itself there, as you grow up and learn words & language.
By a certain age, the storyteller will be well-established in your head. And every day, it is nattering, nattering, chatting, talking, commenting endlessly on things happening in your llife. The storyteller is such an intimate part of you, that you will regularly mistake it for yourself. And you will regularly mistake its story, as reality.
Now, Don goes on to suggest that you should recognise the storyteller as merely a storyteller. And that what it says is merely a story. Therefore it is up to you to decide whether you wish to believe the story or not. And if you constantly remember that the storyteller is merely a storyteller, then you retain the power to tell the storyteller to keep quiet, when you want it to keep quiet.
However, Don also has the following suggestion. Since you are effectively trapped in your own story (unless perhaps you attain enlightenment, I imagine), you might as well as take control of the story and make it pleasing to yourself. Since what you perceive as reality is really just the story narrated by your storyteller, what you're effectively going to do is make your reality pleasing to yourself.
And of course, that's the Law of Attraction.
Now there's a crucial point here, that many will miss. So I will elaborate on it somewhat.
Earlier, I gave the example of how Impaul99 had toyed with thoughts of rude people, and shortly after, manifested lots of rude people in his reality. Daffy Duck responded along these lines:
"Well, yes, but that's just perception."
INDEED it is perception. What I suspect Daffy doesn't quite appreciate is that it's ALL perception anyway. Impaul99, BEFORE doing his experiment, was perceiving his reality. Impaul99, AFTER doing his experiment, was perceiving his reality. You could say that his reality changed, or you could say that his perception changed, but in the end the effect is the same.
Let me say that in a few different ways:
1.
You never, ever perceive reality other than as you perceive it.
2. Your reality will never be anything other than whatever you perceive it to be.
3. Your reality IS your perception.
Therefore to dismiss the LOA as some kind of perception trick or some kind of self-delusion is to miss the point altogether.
Your reality is always your perception.
Altering your perception therefore genuinely alters your reality, BECAUSE your reality is
always your perception of it (WHETHER you have ever even heard of the LOA or not).