Hello everyone.
I have said many times that powerlessness is the most pervasive problem in the human species.
But what is it that's causing this powerlessness?
Powerlessness is an emotion and we all know that emotions are the byproduct of thought patterns.
So what thought pattern is creating this powerlessness?
The immediate thought that comes to mind is: "we must be all believing that we don't create our own reality and that must be the thought pattern which is creating the most amount of suffering".
But it's really not the case.
Even though it causes a great deal of suffering, it wouldn't cause us suffering to believe that we don't create our own reality.
If we believe that whatever does create our reality loved us, and therefore would not make us suffer.
The thought pattern which is causing the most amount powerlessness on this planet is: suffering or pain is good.
And this my dear friends, is a belief that nearly every human on earth holds.
Allow me to explain.
Way back when, too far to even trace back through history, a being forgot that the mind is what created reality.
The physical dimension became too real, much more real than the mind.
As a result, they could not understand why something was happening to them.
Instead of feeling like a victim to their own mind they felt like a victim or prey to the external reflection of the mind, let's call this a physically manifested predator.
The being felt powerless to their own reality and began to think that whoever was in charge of their realities was causing them to suffer.
They began to think that the only way to ensure their own safety and happiness, was to manipulate the external world so that the being was happy when it looked at the external world.
For example: If I dig myself a hole deep enough I will be safe. If I kill the predator, I will be happy.
This idea bred itʼs way through species after species like an infectious disease, until most species shared the belief that they didn't have control over their realities,
and the only control they did have, was by getting the outside world to change.
This belief became a part of what it meant to be incarnated on planet Earth.
Since the beginning of time, humans have been trying to get other people to behave in a way that makes they themselves feel good.
Since the beginning of time we have told the story that it is not okay to be selfish.
Why? Because we think we don't create our own reality, and it begins to really matter what other people do and don't do.
If they are acting in their own best interest and not in ours, we have no control over feeling good or bad.
And so we formed governments and religions to try to keep each other behaving in a way that would make each other feel better.
Our happiness was dependent on other people.
We glorified the idea of selflessness.
But selflessness while being incarnated in an individual identity is an impossibility.
So we began to lie to ourselves and to each other that is possible and that we are in fact doing it, even though it is in fact impossible.
Take this millions of years into the future to where your physical parents are.
I will tell you that being so dependent on our parents compared to other species, and dependant for so long,
is one of the greatest designs for contrast that is a part of choosing to become a member of our species.
So we are influenced by our parentʼs beliefs more so than any other species.
When you were growing up your parents like everyone else felt powerless to their own realities.
They could not live with themselves being selfish so they could not admit that the reason they were doing things for you and wanted you to behave in certain ways was for them, not for you.
They found a way to preserve their own self-concept.
And the way was through feeding themselves, as well as you, with this belief: "It's for your own good".
This is a sentence to cover all manner of evil.
We are fed this belief from day one, even in the most loving household.
So it's not like you have to grow up with abusive parents to have this idea engrained into your being.
We shoot our children up with painful vaccines and tell them it is for their own good.
We make them sit through hours of lessons in the prison we call school and tell them it's for their own good.
We discilpline them in ways that are painful to their minds and bodies and tell them that it is for their own good.
We tell them that their desires are inappropriate and that they need to choose other desires and we tell them that this is for their own good.
We cannot ever know what is good or what is best for someone else.
To think that we do is to play god.
We can only ever know what is good or what will feel better to us.
And so we are joking ourselves when we think that we are ever doing something for someone elseʼs good, because you can't disconnect from your own emotional guidance system long enough for you to actually know what is good for someone else.
You may have an opinion, but it's not necessarily right or wrong.
But here in lies the problem. The child begins just like we began, to believe that maybe the parents are right, maybe it is for our own good.
"They must know more about the world than I do, after all my parents control my survival."
"If they are that powerful, they must know more than I do."
The second we think potentially something that causes us pain is for our own good, we begin to believe that pleasure is bad for us and that pain is good for us.
And this is the number one problem in the human race. We see pain as good.
Our parents keep saying: "I love you, I'm doing this for your own good".
As they cause us pain so we start to believe that love is pain.
We start to think that we canʼt trust ourselves, that our internal emotional guidance system is leading us astray.
It's telling us we feel joy when you're doing something mom says is bad for us.
And it is telling us we feel pain when our mom is loving us.
We think something is gone wrong if we are experiencing ease or pleasure.
We distrust our desires. We let go of the idea that happiness is important.
We think it is possible to prioritize anything other than happiness, like things were told that we have to do, even if it doesn't make us happy to do them.
You see, philanthropy in the sense of selflessness is impossible because the design of the physical third dimensional reality is that you come down and you are locked in and committed to this one perspective that you hold in your physical human body, that you call by your name.
You experience your entire reality through only that perspective.
You may be able to show your love and kindness for someone else and think that comes from a motive that is selfless.
But if you trace it all the way back to the root, you find that the reason that you want to show them kindness or love, the reason that you want them to feel happy, is because it makes you happy to see them happy.
It is not possible for any action in this world to be selfless.
If a mother shoots a child up with vaccines, she does not do it for the child, she does it because it would make her feel bad to see her child dying of a disease and so she thinks shooting the child up with vaccinations will prevent her from experiencing that pain.
In truth, she cannot know how the child will or would not feel in that scenario if they were to catch the virus.
She can only know how it would make her feel, that is what she is trying to avoid.
We just need to realize that everyone on earth is doing this.
It is impossible for anyone to act in your best interest.
They can only act in their own best interest.
Other people cannot have your best interest at heart, so when we think we are suffering because they are loving us, it is a lie that we are choosing to believe.
When we think suffering makes us good, it is a lie we are choosing to believe.
The minute we lie to ourselves in this way we can't let go of pain.
We think it serves us. We have to defend it.
We become dedicated to perpetuating it within ourselves.
We are convinced that if we let go of pain and go in the direction of pleasure, we will be a menace to society, we will be bad, we will be forsaken, and we will be unlovable.
We never do anything for other people, we only ever do something because it would make us feel better to do that thing, or so we think it will make us feel better to do that thing.
And this is perfect, it is perfect exactly as it is.
Because it is you committing to your individual perspective and staying in tandem with your individual joy that causes the expansion not only of you but of the universe at large.
So the universe that which you call God, would not wish to change this at any cost.
This is then compounded by our punishment and reward system of thinking.
Look back to your own childhood. Is it not true that when you were a child you are often rewarded for going against your own internal guidance system?
When your parents wanted you to do something that they thought would make them feel better, but that you thought would cause you pain...
if you went through that pain, they would give you a lollipop or a sticker.
Just think about the doctor's office. What lesson did you learn? That reward comes to those who suffer.
That reward comes to those who experience pain.
That reward comes to those who ignore their own internal guidance system, who don't listen to what they are telling themselves,
who don't listen to the calling of desire within them, who don't listen to what would cause them joy, and instead choose to go against it.
We begin to believe we only deserve the reward if we suffer first.
We can only justify being nice to ourselves if we punished ourselves first.
You've heard the expression: "Save for a rainy day".
Well the problem in our society is that we need the rainy day in the first place to justify letting ourselves have whatever we've been saving.
We think saving is healthy, when a lot of the time we use it as a form of self-punishment.
Self-punishment in the form of denying ourselves.
And now we wonder why everyone goes against their own intuition and distrust their own emotions so much.
And the trauma doesn't stop there, because we have created religions to mirror this societal human belief.
Think of the story of Jesus.
Most of the world religions teach you that life is supposed to be about struggle and being tested, as if there is some sort of glory in self-sacrifice.
And if you pass those tests and struggle and bear that pain enough, you will be rewarded after death with heaven or with enlightenment.
Our society glorifies those that have been the most out of alignment.
We glorify struggle to triumph, tragedy to triumph, even.
Don't believe me? Just watch the Olympics next time it rolls around.
We believe you can only deserve triumph if you have had tragedy.
We suffer through grueling college courses for the degree.
We suffer through careers we can't stand for the reward of money and promotion.
All the rewards, gold medals and memorials are awarded to those that have struggled the most.
Look at all of these common English sayings:
"No pain no gain." "Good comes to those who wait." "God hates a quitter." "Save for a rainy day." "Enlightenment comes from suffering."
You can only taste of the fruit of your labors." "A man will eat by the sweat of his brow." "Sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do, it's just part of living." "Pain makes you stronger."
"God never said it would be easy, but he did say it would be worth it." "Life is not supposed to be easy." "Nothing that's worth having, comes easy."
Now I for one say it's time to stop the cycle.
So how do we do this? I want you to close your eyes for a minute.
And I want you to visualize observing yourself for a week in your life. I want you to look for what it is in your life that's causing you pain.
Play through those scenarios. And I want you to ask yourself: "How am I committed to my pain? How am I perpetuating it in this moment that I'm watching?
What are you doing because you think there will be a reward for that struggle, eventually?
What pain are you subjecting yourself to because you think it makes you good or lovable or because it gets you approval from others?
How are you holding on to that pain and defending it, because you think it makes you good?
What desire are you going against because you fear that allowing it will make you a bad person?
What are you telling your children or your friends? Are you teaching them that they need to ignore their own joys or desires for their own good, when it's really because you think you will be happier if they do or don't do something?
Iʼll ask you some questions quickly that will help you to know what kinds of things you are looking for when you visualize a week in your life.
That might help you to identify some key ways that you are holding onto and married to your own pain.
Are you part of a religion you don't enjoy just because you want to get to heaven?
Are you self- sacrificing for your children, spouse, friends or coworkers?
Are you giving up something you want to do under the guise that you are giving it up for someone else?
Do you self-abuse by saving for a rainy day?
Do you punish yourself so you can justify allowing yourself to do or have something you want?
Do you work at a job you hate for the reward of money?
Do you try to live a self less life so you can deserve love or deserve to have what you want or to be blessed by the universe or get luck?
Are you sticking with a relationship that is painful because you believe that it makes you a good person to do it, or because you are confusing your choice to stay with them, even though they treat you badly, with loving them?
Do you make yourself unhappy by worrying about things that havenʼt even happened because you think that worrying about it will somehow enable you to avoid it, or because you think the universe won't blindside you is something you already saw coming?
Do you not do things you know make you feel better because there are more important things to do, such as make breakfast for everyone even though you are happier when you start your morning with yoga?
Do you deny yourself of your needs because you think your needs are an imposition to others?
Do you deny yourself of doing something you always wanted to try because it isnʼt practical or conceivable that you could turn that thing into a profession?
Do you continue to spend time with people who make you feel bad about yourself?
Do you resist other people comforting you, showing you affection or complimenting you?
Do you use guilt to keep yourself good?
Do you lie to yourself that you enjoy something you really don't enjoy because you think you should enjoy it?
Do you keep commitments no matter how much pain keeping them causes you?
Do you say yes to things when you want to say no?
Do you have an addiction to painful self-improvement exercises because you think the only way to deserve love or get love is to improve?
Do you keep and defend beliefs that cause you pain?
Do you have to be doing something productive, because doing something just because it's fun is not a good enough reason to do it?
Do you live your life according to what you have to do instead of what you want to do?
There are a great many more ways that we can be married to pain and propagate it in our own lives because we think it makes us good, because we think it gets us love.
Itʼs still us propagating our own pain. It's us staying married to our own pain so we can't let go of it.
I just want you to observe your life and start to identify these areas in which you are attached to pain.
When you find these areas, these things that you do things to perpetuate your own pain, I want you to stop there and ask yourself: "What could I do differently?"
"What can I do right here in this circumstance that I am causing myself pain, that would cause me to go, instead, in the direction of my own joy."
I want you to pick 3 of these scenarios that you know that you can commit to doing the different action, going in the direction of joy instead in the direction of pain.
Cut yourself loose from it.
As you go through your day-to-day life, when pain arises in the moment, I want you to notice that feeling of pain or negative emotion and stop yourself from that moment and ask yourself:
"How am I causing myself this pain?"
"What is my part in it?" Because you don't control what other people do or don't do, you can only control yourself in your own thoughts and actions.
So what thoughts or actions are you doing or taking that is causing you to stay married to the pain?
How are you perpetuating it? When you find out, do something different.
Do whatever it takes to go in the direction of what feels better.
We really are a precious species.
We want so badly to be good.
And we think that our pain is whatʼs making us good.
So we will defend it. We will maintain it at any cost because we want so badly to be good.
Because we want so badly to be loved for being good.
That's hardly a harmful species, donʼt you think?
We will only solve this problem amongst our human species if we are brave enough to solve this problem within ourselves as individuals.
I have said it many times before: our collective human culture is nothing but the sum of its tiniest parts.
So until the tiniest part, which is the individual, decides that it is time to disconnect from suffering long enough to stop defending it, stop perpetuating it, and instead go in the direction of our joy,
we will continue to see war and injustice and cruelty inside the species.
And we must give each other permission to do the same.
Pain and suffering are not love.
Pain and suffering does not make you good.
In fact, it is pain and suffering that often causes us to become the very opposite of good and the very opposite of loving and loved individuals.
In fact, at the heart a every single serial killer, child abuser, gang member, rapist, criminal, warmonger is pain and suffering.
Have a good week. :)