Real Thought

I’ve been attempting to work with the “thoughts create your reality” philosophy for awhile now. It’s a bit embarrassing how long I’ve been trying to incorporate it into my way-of-thinking. This blog is basically a testament to it, but it hasn’t stuck yet. While I understand that my negativity is souring my experience of existence, those dumb thoughts just keep coming. And every-time I have an A-HA! moment of clarity, it quickly fizzles away.

I recently read The Law of Attraction (2006) book, and it’s essentially telling me the same stuff I discovered over and over during the past few years. But where I think it adds to the perspective, is this: I should be MUCH more proactive in imagining the life I want to experience. I’ve been taking a more reactive approach in which I diffuse negative thoughts instead of focusing on the stuff I want. In a sense, I’m still focused on negativity.

I should stop that and deliberately devise pleasant scenarios in my imagination instead. I should take time in the day to imagine an overall picture of the life I want to live AND I should consider what I want from each part of the day as I’m entering it. In the book, these activities are called the “Creative Workshop” and “Segment Intending”. I’m not supposed to simply react to whatever life throws at me, I’m supposed to intentionally create the experience I want.

I’ve been taking a VERY passive approach and it shows. It turns out that I AM supposed to be applying quite a bit of effort i.e. “hard work”. But instead of external action, I should be crafting internally, imagining scenes that evoke the best-feeling emotions I can muster — I should be doing this throughout the day. And if I’m not doing that, then THERE’S the source of my problems. Essentially, I’ve been expecting life to paint a pretty picture for me, but it doesn’t work that way apparently. I must paint the picture and life renders it.

Life renders whatever picture you’re crafting in your mind, but if you don’t intentionally set it, you’ll end up experiencing the sum of a mishmash of haphazard thoughts. Therefore, life will seem chaotic at times and stagnant at others. It’s a little bit of everything all mixed together, resulting in an unsatisfying flavor. That’s a bingo for me and why I’m trying to improve my experience.

Satisfying recipes have a few carefully selected ingredients specifically blended together in pleasing proportions, you don’t just throw whatever together. Same with music, it’s a few notes selected for their harmonic blend, you don’t just play every note in an indiscriminate arrangement. In life, it seems that thoughts are the basic building-blocks we have to work with and it’s in our best interest to deliberately arrange them in a manner we find most pleasing.

Hard Work

I’ve never had ANY inclination towards a professional career. Ever since I was a kid, people would ask what I wanted to be when I grew up and I never had an answer, all I could say was “I don’t know”. It always made me uncomfortable that I didn’t have an answer. And a few decades later, guess what? I STILL don’t know what I should be doing with my time and efforts. I often wonder if I’ll stumble into some sort of career at some point.

I’ve primarily engaged in hobby-level activities. For example: tinkering with computers, writing essays (blogging), making digital art, watching YouTube, playing the tin-whistle & recorder, whittling wood, shooting Nerf & air-soft guns, flying toy drones, playing video-games. I did attempt to become a professional computer-guy & programmer for a few years and I was finally excited to answer the question “so, what do you do for a living?”. But that career was short-lived.

I often hear people praising the virtues of “hard work” and “working hard” and I kinda shrink up, feeling a bit embarrassed. They say things like “earning your keep” and “paving your own way” and a bunch of other stuff in honor of the Protestant Work Ethic. In one sense, I don’t have a desire to “work hard”, but in another sense I feel guilty about not grinding away at some laborious task. I do like hangin-out and passing time in frivolous ways — it just seems like I shouldn’t.

But why not!? Now that I’m starting to understand that life isn’t serious-business, that I’m not engaged in a constant struggle for survival amidst a harsh and brutal landscape, I’m starting to lose this self-imposed constraint. Of course I should be having fun, that’s the POINT!! If life’s a simulation, which I believe it is, the purpose of any game is to enjoy oneself — so if you’re not having fun, you’re doing it wrong.

I’ve been plagued by these contradictory beliefs my whole life: on one hand, I lack the aspiration to participate in a professional career — on the other hand, I seem to believe that professionalism is a necessary component of self-worth and success i.e. if you’re not a “chef” or “engineer” or whatever, what are you? You can’t simply be “Rich”!? Well one of these contradictory beliefs has to give, and guess which one it’s gonna be?

Relatedly, I’m approaching a test, a deadline. So the question becomes: will I be able to maintain my frivolousness and prove myself worthy of a carefree lifestyle? As the deadline nears, all my external effort is invested in frivolity, tasks that lack utilitarian value. Whereas internally, I’m focusing my thoughts on the enjoyment of existence. There’s no going back now, nor would I want to. Onward! To the lighthearted life!

Palatable Positivity

I’ve been on a negativity-free diet since the beginning of this year. Like a lot of diets, it’s only going “okay”. For instance, you can’t simply cut-out junk-food, you have to replace it with healthier food or else you’ll starve — you have to eat something. But if you don’t like salads or vegetables all that much, what’s your alternative? In a similar sense, you can’t just cut-out negativity, you have to replace it with healthier options like positivity. But if you’re not practiced in positivity and spent decades steeped in pessimism, now what?

Which is why I’m so interested in the book I just read, The Law of Attraction (2006) by Esther and Jerry Hicks. The entire point is to remain 100% focused on stuff that pleases you, to seek the most pleasant thought you can find in every moment. And if you maintain this discipline, you’re handsomely rewarded with the subject of your thoughts — like magic. And if you don’t maintain a mind full of positivity? If you allow your mind to wallow in the muck and mire of negativity? Swift and severe punishment!! Because that too will come true!

By utilizing a belief in the Law of Attraction, I can scare myself into being positive. I’m well-practiced in worry whereas positivity doesn’t come as naturally to me. I find problems everywhere and pick apart anything that crosses my path. But now I dare not do it! Oh no! If I stop to ponder an ache or pain, it’ll surely manifest into something nefarious! If I think about lack & limitation, I’ll be poor for sure. So now I’m supposed to imagine a perfectly functioning body and riches galore.

Imagining good things is taking some effort, but it seems doable. And yeah, I’ve been noticing things I’ve thought about appearing in everyday life. Maybe there’s something to this magic-stuff after-all. I stumbled onto this book at a convenient time don’t you think? You could almost say I attracted it….

P.S. I’ve known about the Law of Attraction for years. I’d flirt with the idea now and again but never fully adopted it or studied it to any great extent. But because of my negativity-free diet, I’m investing more into this concept since I need a push to get over the momentum of negativity I’ve developed over the years. And if all the good-stuff I’m imagining comes true, well that’s a great bonus don’t you think?

Imagination Station

Imagine a world in which everything is awesome — then pretty soon, everything becomes as awesome as you imagined. That’s the basis of the book The Law of Attraction (2006) by Esther and Jerry Hicks. I spent some time watching related videos and then read the book. I’ve been delving into the premise of thought being the ultimate controller of our experience on Earth.

Plenty of sources claim this to be the case, I just never believed them. So either these people are crackpots and liars or I’m an idiot for not grasping the fundamental nature of reality. Being that I’m as old as I am and I’ve been able to accomplish so little, I’m starting to believe that I must be a moron. I clearly don’t understand how the world works nor how to get things done. Therefore, I’m trying a new-to-me approach i.e. The Law of Attraction.

In a nutshell, this is my new belief-system: what’s happening right now, is a culmination of the thoughts I’ve been focusing-on and my prevalent attitude. If bad things are happening, it means I’ve been entertaining bad thoughts and maintaining a bad attitude. If it makes me feel bad, I shouldn’t focus on the scene I’m experiencing, because doing so will only create more of the same. I should find something enjoyable and focus on THAT. With a positive focus, I’ll generate new scenes filled with delight, replacing the dour ones.

Because of my belief in Simulation Theory, this perspective makes perfect sense to me. Since there’s no keyboard or game-controller, the controls for this game are our thoughts. We think, then those scenes we imagine render before us. A pretty simple and straightforward concept actually. Things get complicated when we think two opposing thoughts obviously — which unfortunately happens a lot.

Looking back through this blog, I can see that I’ve had these types of ideas before — but I haven’t been able to completely adopt them and fully let go of my previous belief-system. So this particular book and system-of-thought are just more tools and reminders to help me along my way of ultimately ridding myself of a tendency towards negativity.

Effortless Attainment

In Dream-Jitsu, we strive to develop and maintain the precept that life is but a dream. Therefore, NOTHING is attained or achieved through physical means — you can’t manually move yourself closer to a desired end. You must tune your thoughts and attitude until they align with whatever you want. If you’re straining and struggling, you can be sure you’re doing it wrong AND you’re moving further from the goal.

Even the simplest goal, like grabbing a glass of water, requires tuning to its frequency — otherwise you could knock it over and spill its contents everywhere. If you’re not tuned to walking, you could trip and fall. If something isn’t easy and effortless, you’re not aligned with it. Difficulty doesn’t mean you should strain harder, it means you should calm down and get yourself into a receptive mental state — you need to remove your resistance.

In a dream, nothing requires great effort. You wish it, it manifests. So don’t entertain thoughts that have struggle as their theme. Whenever you think “it’s not supposed to be easy”, dismiss that idea. You certainly CAN impose obstacles, but why bother, they’re not necessary. Complete what you want, appreciate it, then move on to the next course. Don’t drag something out just because you’re afraid of what’s to come — in a dream, every meal ends with a delicious dessert.

When you’re receptive to receiving your wish, it comes. Whereas if your mind is full of “logical” limitations and feelings of lack, that resistance will obviously keep your wish away. When flooded with negative thoughts, practice not thinking those thoughts: meditate. When the mind is calmed, do something you enjoy to repopulate your mental biome with delight. You must develop the feelings of accomplishment and attainment FIRST, THEN the actual manifestation happens.

Manifestation Station

Manifestation is the process of bringing specific circumstances into being. It’s like setting a goal and seeing it fulfilled without obvious external effort on your part. For example: you want something, you internally prepare yourself to accept it, the stars align, and voila there it is. In a sense, it’s magic. Whereas in a more conventional approach, you would’ve performed some sort of external effort to physically move yourself closer to the goal.

Because I believe in Simulation Theory and a dreamlike experience of existence, the concept of manifestation is a no-brainer. Of course you can summon whatever you want out of thin-air, it’s all pixels anyway. You simply reference a pre-existing object and update its xyz coordinates OR create a new object and place it into memory — no big deal. When I believed in a concrete chance-based reality, the idea of manifestation didn’t make any sense to me.

And now that I’m more tuned to the process, I’m seeing it everywhere. For example, I thought I lost a bunch of stuff from the last time we moved, I couldn’t find it anywhere — I recently found that stuff in a box two-feet from where I’m sitting. Or another example, I went out but forgot to put “AAA batteries” on the shopping list — a truck literally turned in front of me with the words “AAA Batteries” on its side (referring to the car service and car batteries). Another example: my wife lost her wallet and searched everywhere to no avail — I suggested a location and there it was. Coincidence!??

If life is a dream, then it only makes sense that everything I experience is based on my attitude and focus. When I was a wholly negative person, of course I manifested the worst stuff possible. And now that I’m actively attempting to cut negativity out of my life, of course I’m seeing helpful things happen. In that sense, manifestation isn’t simply a wish-granted, it’s what’s happening in every moment. It’s the narrative unfolding in front of me according to the theme I maintain in my mind. Therefore, I best maintain the merriest thoughts I can muster.

Dream-Jitsu

Dream-Jitsu (or dream-technique) is the art and method of living life as if it were a dream. As martial-arts comprises various techniques of overcoming opposition through physical manipulations, Dream-Jitsu seeks to overcome opposition through the development of a dreamlike perspective. Instead of manipulating opponents through joint-locks and strikes, Dream-Jitsu manipulates the practitioner’s own mind through concepts that paint reality as infinitely malleable.

Where a non-practitioner sees a brick-wall, a student of Dream-Jitsu sees a mirage manifested by his own mind. The brick-wall is surmounted not by physical effort, but by overcoming a belief in solidity. But does it work? By utilizing Dream-Jitsu, the relevance of the brick-wall in the student’s life rapidly approaches zero. As he no longer focuses on the brick-wall, it’s as good as gone — whether it’s truly gone doesn’t even matter.

But make no mistake, to the practitioner, the brick-wall IS gone. The student alters his perspective until life is but a dream. Furthermore, the practitioner trains his focus so that he can specifically manipulate this dream. Without focus, he knows his dream will run rampant and take him on a wild ride. But with focus, he can rein-in this dream and direct it in a manner that results in an enjoyable experience. For that is the ultimate goal of Dream-Jitsu: to facilitate a delightful life.

Like the martial-arts, Dream-Jitsu uses repetitive practices to reinforce its teachings. But unlike the martial-arts, the only opponent a student ever faces is himself. A student must thoroughly smash his belief in a concrete reality, and replace it with fleeting illusion. From an illusory perspective, the practitioner is able to proceed through life without fear or frustration, without lack or limitation, and with an ever-present confidence and comfort in the power of his practice.