by Ross Bishop
We do not understand why we are here. Ask people, and they really can’t tell you. We go through our days doing the best we can, with little connection to our sense of purpose. Are humans on Earth by cosmic accident, as science maintains? Or, as Hindus will tell you, is there a greater purpose to your being here? We are going to explore that question and the answer is not what you probably think it is.
We do not hold the truth about who we are. We have (all of us) come to Earth because when challenged, we slip into feelings of inadequacy and a lack of self-worth. Other than the occasional flash of ego, we really don’t hold ourselves in very high regard. Ask people what they think of themselves, and you’ll get the verbal equivalent of mush.
Our beliefs, driven by our fear of unworthiness, stiffles our natural passion and causes us to be miserable. The purpose of life is to help you realize that you are worthy so you do not have to live in fear, anxiety, and longing. We will explore what causes this unhappiness and frustration in our lives.
Whatever your beliefs are, they live in your mind and do not reach the level of truth, even the good stuff! These are mental constructs that create roadblocks to our ability to be at peace because they conflict with the greater harmony of The Universe. We generally view these as flaws in ourselves. These unfinished areas of our awareness cause us to be afraid, keep us living in the shadows and prevent us from living with compassion
The way we humans hold on to woundedness is a most intriguing dilemma. At first glance, you would expect to see intense motivation for everyone to rid themselves of their limiting and restrictive negative influences. After all, they are an enormous source of pain. They inhibit us, wreck our lives and keep us from being happy. Although some individuals work to eliminate these influences, most people are held hostage by the beliefs that are created from their deep-seated feelings of unworthiness and unlovability.
We know we are not who we could be. We’ve read books, done therapy, and gone to workshops and although these things have helped, they have provided few ultimate answers. We cannot seem to transcend our fears and limiting beliefs to find peace. We feel as though our lives had a flat tire.
We are seeking to put life into a meaningful context, one that provides some idea of why we are here and what keeps us from being happy. It seems futile to put people here to be unhappy and stifle their passion, yet that is exactly what happens.
LIFE is not always as it appears. And that is certainly true in this case. To understand LIFE, we have to shift our perspective and see things from a much wider frame of reference, i.e., God’s point of view. The human outlook is simply too limited and fear-based. In that same light, becoming enlightened is perplexing largely because we do not understand it. A puzzle or a riddle is baffling until you figure it out. Life is puzzling until you see it from a broader perspective.
Why are we so powerless against these forces that so profoundly affect and, in many cases, control our lives? We are told that being happy is possible, but we find that achieving it can be difficult. We would be happy to become enlightened if it didn’t require us to go through the dark swamp of our shadow selves. And that is where most people get hung up.
As a result, most people settle into a routine and get by as best they can, blaming themselves for their inadequacies and failures, filling themselves with self-condemnation and self-criticism. We are being asked to change, to venture into an unfamiliar state, and that goes against, for right or wrong, what we have come to believe about ourselves.
This can be a little hard to swallow, but people don’t want to believe that happiness is a choice, because that then makes them responsible for the outcome. And if you believe that you are unworthy or unlovable, you certainly would not want to put your worth to the test because, after all, what if it turns out to be true?
Adding to the problem is that living from your false beliefs gives you an out. You don’t have to step up if you are defective. You get to duck from having to expose your vulnerable places. The thing is, those vulnerable places exist only in your mind. They are fictions created by your beliefs!
I want to distinguish who you are—your essence, the truth—from how you sometimes act when you are afraid. Most of the time, you are your natural self because you are thinking about other things. But the moment you start thinking about yourself, you slip into your fear by way of your beliefs.
Adding to the confusion is our free will. Because of free will, The Creator could not simply give us worthiness or self-love. As a result, anything we achieve must be accomplished through our conscious choice. You must make the choice – decide for yourself – that you are worthy and lovable.
And so He created LIFE – an environment that would challenge us to find the truth about ourselves. LIFE is simply not what we have taken it to be. You are enrolled in a unique learning environment with a remarkable curriculum and an unconventional learning process. Nothing about the process is accidental. Nothing is random.
Whether you realize it or not, each step of your life process has been carefully designed to nudge you to find your way home. You are being helped to find the place where your truth and happiness reside. It is a bumpy path because we primarily learn through our mistakes. Do something right and you don’t learn much. But screw up and all hell breaks loose!
MAKING MISTAKES (although regrettable), IS HOW WE GROW AND CHANGE!
When we introduce our beliefs into situations they turn into problems. Otherwise, they are just issues that need to be resolved. Think about your difficulties for a moment. Most of the time you focus on the conflict, but every difficulty or conflict you have ever had, either internally or with others, besides being stressful, has been created through the introduction of your beliefs.
Although we rarely take it, the opportunity is to become aware of the limiting beliefs you bring into these situations. When you reconsider your posture, you then have the freedom to review your beliefs, choose to discard them and move toward greater compassion (especially toward yourself). That is the mechanism through which we develop and learn.
There are two ways to look at life’s events: as punishment for your imperfections or as a way to highlight the areas where you need to grow and develop. Discomfort is a warning notice that something is amiss in your belief system.
Difficulties are two-way streets. You either learn and grow from your experiences or you set yourself up for the next (more painful) lesson. Your discomfort in these situations is self-generated. God doesn’t create that disharmony, you do. If you persist, you will experience pain as The Universe tries to wake you up to what you have been doing! We call that karma.
Everything in your life revolves around that concept and the behaviors you have created to avoid dealing with it. The thing is, there is only one outcome. There is nowhere else for you to go eventually, but home.
When asked about the meaning of life, The Buddha replied, “Life is pain.” Contained in those three simple words are layers and layers of deeper meaning. With pain, there is a possibility you will change. Without it, there is little hope that you would.
copyright 2024@Blue Lotus Press
