The Salt Lake Science of Getting Real Club

A New Earth 10 Minute Meditation video on YouTube

I came across a very interesting article the other day. This article, written by Chandra Alexander, discusses things like taking full responsibility, changing thoughts and the concept that what we are seeking is also seeking us.

Check it out: What You Are Seeking is Also Seeking You

In chapter 14 of Wallace D. Wattles’ book, “The Science of Getting Rich”, he discusses what he calls, “The impression of increase”.

Prior to our Weekly Action Meeting on July 29, 2009, I asked the members of our group, via email, to come up with how they view the impression of increase. As a result, we had a very interesting discussion.

Susanna Barlow wasn’t able to attend our meeting, but she sent me the following in a reply to my email:

I thought I would give you my impression on the impression of increase. (You are rubbing off on me). Okay, here goes. I checked out the word’s etymology. Here is what I discovered. The word increase comes from the root word increscere which means literally, “to grow” or “in growth.” The word originates from the Roman Goddess Ceres who was the goddess of agriculture and growing things. The word crescent has the same root and was originally applied to the waxing moon but subsequently mistaken to mean the shape rather than the stage. The original meaning was preserved in the word crescendo. I really like the image of the waxing and waning moon as it applies to the topic of increase. The law of polarity requires there to be a balancing in the opposite direction, increase and decrease. By the way, decrease does not mean, dying or decay. It actually means “away from growth.” Curious distinction. Without any judgment, what might be decreasing as one increases? Or perhaps we are like the moon, in a constant state of wholeness with only the perception of waxing and waning but through the experience of increase and decrease we come to know the totality of ourselves. (The law of rhythm) The way I use the impression of increase in my own life, is to see that all is good. That there is growth in decay and decay in growth and the larger perspective is that our awareness of ourselves as already whole and complete, grows while the sense of feeling fragmented and unfinished, diminishes. (Fetching the broom) If everything is whole, then no matter how it appears, everything is perfect. Well, that is enough philosophizing for one day.

One of my favorite chapters of Wallace D. Wattles’ book, “The Science of Getting Rich”, is chapter 7, entitled “Gratitude”. I had asked the members of our group how they defined gratitude and received the following from Jeanette Barlow:

Hi Steven, I will not be at the next SGR meeting, but I wanted to give you my perspective on what is Gratitude…To me Laying in my bed at night and feeling the warmth of my little home, seeing my little children as they experience freedom and life’s beauty, hearing the gift of music in my ears and in my heart, watching people smile at each other or offer a helping hand, walking ten miles because my car took a break from serving me, feeling the way my tears soak my pillow as I learn to let go of what was and learn to embrace what is, cleaning up Hersheys chocolate syrup pictures off Olivia and my home and realizing that I have both in my life for now, listening to my daughter express her anger and fears through a flood of tears, holding her while she cries. I am who I am because gratitude is the staples in my pantry, Thank you for asking us to share, Gratitude is the very Breath I Breathe, I know what its like to Breathe the past stale air and fight for every Breath, Grateful to know and experience the oppisite. Enjoy your Day! Love Jeanette

A BELIEF IS JUST …
… a thought you keep thinking.

And as you keep thinking it, images arise in your mind and your subconscious holds onto them and accepts them as true.

Bingo: A belief is born — and you generally don’t really know why you believe it at all.

Or sometimes even THAT you believe it.

But those beliefs — conscious or subconscious — are constantly creating and ruling both our actions and our RESULTS.

READ THE STORY BEFORE YOU WATCH THE VIDEO.

Here’s their story …

In a Chinese modern dance competition on TV, one very unique couple won one of the top prizes. The lady, in her 30’s, was a dancer who had trained since she was a little girl. Later in life, she lost her entire left arm in an accident and fell into a state of depression for a few years. Someone then asked her to coach a Children’s dancing group. From that point on, she realized that she could not forget dancing. She still loved to dance and wanted to dance again. So, she started to do some of her old routines, but having lost her arm, she had also lost her balance. It took a while before she could even make simple turns and spins without falling.

Then she heard of a man in his 20s who had lost a leg in an accident. He had also fallen into the usual denial, depression, and anger type of emotional roller coaster. But she determined to find him and persuade him to dance with her. He had never danced, and to “dance with one leg….are you joking with me? No way!” But, she didn’t give up, and he reluctantly agreed thinking, “I have nothing else to do anyway.”

She started to teach him dancing 101. The two broke up a few times because he had no concept of using muscle, how to control his body, and knew none of the basic things about dancing. When she became frustrated and lost patience with him, he would walk out. Eventually, they came back together and started training seriously. They hired a choreographer to design routines for them. She would fly high (held by him) with both arms (a sleeve for an arm) flying in the air. He could bend horizontally supported by one leg with her leaning on him, etc. In the competition, as you will see, they dance beautifully and they legitimately won the competition.”

In chapter 11 of The Science of Getting Rich, Wallace D. Wattles states this:

“THOUGHT is the creative power, or the impelling force which causes the creative power to act; thinking in a Certain Way will bring riches to you, but you must not rely upon thought alone, paying no attention to personal action. That is the rock upon which many otherwise scientific metaphysical thinkers meet shipwreck–the failure to connect thought with personal action.”

Then, in chapter 12, he says the following:

Do, every day, ALL that can be done that day.

There is, however, a limitation or qualification of the above that you must take into account.

You are not to overwork, nor to rush blindly into your business in the effort to do the greatest possible number of things in the shortest possible time.

You are not to try to do tomorrow’s work today, nor to do a week’s work in a day.

It is really not the number of things you do, but the EFFECTIVENESS of each separate action that counts.

Every act is, in itself, either a success or a failure.

Every act is, in itself, either effective or ineffective.

Every ineffective act is a failure, and if you spend your life in doing ineffective acts, your whole life will be a failure.

The more things you do, the worse for you, if all your acts are ineffective ones.

On the other hand, every effective act is a success in itself, and if every act of your life is an effective one, your whole life MUST be a success.

But does this mean that if I do something and that something fails, I am a failure? Absolutely not! Wallace uses the phrase, “effective act” as an indication of success. Not whether or not the thing done succeeded or failed. I liken this to the famous story of Thomas Edison and his efforts to make an electric light bulb. For every item that he tried and that failed, he would tell himself that he had succeeded in eliminating another possibility which brought him closer to that one item that would succeed. Many times, those things we have done that ended up failing, have been experiences of learning.

Benjamin Franklin put it this way: “I didn’t fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong”

Wallace D. Wattles says many times throughout his book that you don’t get rich by doing certain things, but that you get rich by doing things in a certain way.

In Praise of Socrates, mediocrity, and stability with a subtle understanding of where Plato was coming from. © by Toby Jensen

The Middle Choice

Is maintenance growth?

As usual the conversation moves faster than I am able to vocalize my powerful thoughts. I struggle because I need to think as the conversation moves from subject to subject. I am a reflective thinker – a kinesthetic individual. At times when I am on my game and saying powerful things that move the group I am only able to do so because I have already thought through that line of reasoning OR I can adapt the current line of reasoning to what I’ve already thought about. It is very difficult for me to think on my feet. And almost impossible to think well on the spot. I usually falter.

We like to say that there is only growth or death because it get’s us off the fence. It scares us into taking action. It is time we faced that fear and destroyed it. It is time we took full responsibility and led a more peaceful fulfilling life of work, of working together.

The paradox of our need for stability and variety.

I once met an elderly couple who took me aside to share with me an easier way to live my life. It is difficult to remember where I met them. Possibly I was doing my laundry on a Saturday morning at the laundry mat. All I really remember was the light that seemed to somehow radiate from her body while at the same time there was a strange empty look in her eyes. We arranged to meet later to talk as they wanted to get to know me more after some brief chit chat.

Later when I met again with the couple they offered me a ride. As they were elderly, I agreed to go. I was a bit nervous going with strangers in their van but everything turned out all right. I immediately remembered the flat look in her eyes, her deadly serious tone of voice, and the light that radiated from her body and soul. All I can remember is how flat her look was, the depth in her black eyes, and the light from her body and soul that radiated goodness, light, and satisfaction. I knew I was in trouble. I feared for what was about to happen. I had no idea what it was. I had only just met her and definitely hadn’t had time to insult her as I seemed to do with most people during that time of my life. All I knew was that I was going to need to defend something with my life. And I had no idea what that was. I was confused and, well, my confusion was almost immediately answered.

Soon after I was seated in their van the wife turned to me and asked my why I worked so hard to get into heaven. Of course it was a loaded leading question and I picked up on that right away. But I didn’t know where she was going. I managed to mumble out some rote answers concerning growth but mostly I was confused and taken back as to what she wanted. And then she said it. She stated that she was saved. She had accepted Christ and was saved and that was all she needed to do. She declared with a certainty and conviction that she didn’t need to do anything more than accept Christ as her Savior and she would go to heaven. And that was all she needed to do in this life.

As I began to recover, my immediate thought was to expound upon my shock. I wanted to jump right in and express passionately and powerfully my ‘correct’ truths about the advantages and need for growth. I asked some basic growth related questions (that are not relevant to the discourse here now) because I knew in that moment who I had met. I had met a stable, good, and healthy couple. She had given up growth and not fallen. And I was frightened. Here she was the physical embodiment of having spent her lifetime without growing and still radiated goodness and a resemblance of joy. Man IS that he might have joy – I think now. NOT man grows that he might have joy. All we have to do is try our best and we will have satisfaction. Achievement is NOT related to satisfaction.

Instead of continuing down a path of interrogation, I looked into her eyes. I was astounded and amazed. I still saw from her radiance that she was a good and delightful individual. In her eyes I still saw a blankness – a strange emptiness. I began to look for evil and found none. Anyone who knows me knows that when I want to be thorough I am second to none in my search. I find what I am looking for and I found no evil. I was scared and shaken. I trembled and my voice broke as I spoke. I did not know what to do as I scrambled for the elusive cohesive thoughts of still wanting to convince this dear couple of the ‘error’ of their ways. But I knew there was no evil within this woman or her sound husband. She nodded her head at my perplexity – my complexity – and spoke.

The woman spoke of her desire to lighten my load. She spoke of her life in raising her children and the satisfaction of seeing them go out into the world. She spoke of knowing she had done her work. She spoke of having accepted Christ and needing no more. She spoke knowing that she didn’t have to work anymore. She spoke of rest and of relief. And I knew who I was sitting in the presence of. I knew who she was. I knew what she had done with her life and it scared me. Then I proceeded to resolve my fear. It was not my right to fear for her. I did not even have the right to feel fear in her presence. I knew it was wrong and disrespectful. I knew I needed to stop and stop quickly or it may be used against me. This was a good woman and she deserved to be treated as such. I calmed myself and then watched something incredible happen.

I saw this woman react to my stop. She knew that she was going to shake me. She had thought that she was going to shake me from my growth. She wanted to lessen my load and increase my light as she obviously had more light than me at the time. What she no longer had was the potential for a greater light. She had given that up and forgotten about it. It was this potential for always greater light that ’saved’ me. How ironic is that? The very thing that she was purporting to have no more need of is exactly what was given to me in that moment to move me forward. In acknowledging and respecting what she was I was only then given the right to move on.

And so I saw this delightful woman react to my stop. I saw into her. I saw the emotional reaction. I saw her turn to be shaken. I saw just the beginning of doubt creep into her soul and thought. I saw her begin to shake. And then came one of the most astounding things I ever witnessed. I saw her stop. I saw her stop as I just stopped. I saw her use my stop that I had just done in the prior moment. And seeing her use it I saw her grow – for only an instant. She had been watching me deeply in my reaction to be ready to push home her point and could now use what I had done to stop herself. I continued to watch her. I thought I had freed her. I thought that this was it. I thought that she had changed. For I saw her grow. And for a moment I rejoiced.

Then this woman ceased her growth. The same growth I had just witnessed spring forth into life within her. I watched her cease and desist. I watched her lifetime of staying where she was at come into full force and crush what she had just done. And she settled down. She came back into her own and was satisfied. I watched even the memory of what she had just done disappear. I watched the discomfort float away. I watched the pain seep back down. I watched the difficulty of moral decisions drift into oblivion. And I still saw her satisfied. I saw her goodness and I could not deny it. I was amazed at what I had just witnessed. I knew who I had met.

And I became uncomfortable. And I owned it. I reveled in it. I rejoiced. It was all I could do and it was enough. I hope that I did it without offending this wonderful couple too much while I waited for the ride to end. I was extended the pleasant offer of rest and satisfaction as a true reality and I rejected it. And I felt a little confused in my joy – only a little. I had now achieved satisfaction in my growth and fullness of joy. For this is what it truly means to have a fullness of joy.

To this day I still use that confusion to drive me on. I keep it close and I stay aware. When I forget – no worries – it can come raging back in full force and drive me to my knees faster than lightning striking the greatest oak tree into smithereens. And I remember. I remember the pain – the slow limited excruciating pain while I am on my knees. Then I remember the endless joy. The unlimited joy. The unlimited growth. The potential. And I live. I live in fullness, in delight, in wonder. And I can stand up. I can take a stand.

I hope I continue to remember and live from there.

Thorough enjoyment, living full, achieving dreams and shouting from the rooftops are what await those who grow. To those who do what it takes to get the greatness that awaits within this life of opportunities. So grow. Grow well, grow in wealth, health, and all forms of success. It is the better path. It is the fulfillment of who we truly are and what we have in potential. But don’t put down stability. For it is only from stability that we can grow. If there is a top and a bottom there is middle. Respect it. Respect the incredible amount of work it takes to just maintain. Now we can distinguish that incredible amount of work required to only keep our place in line from the extra work of growth. Growth that – AT FIRST – is uncomfortable. We can achieve the self-sustaining work of growth to achieve lasting growth. To be able to create even life itself that will one day stand on its own within its own and for its own life and support.

Without the middle there is no leisure, there is no rest, there is no sleep. Literally, when I sleep at night I rest. I recuperate. I perform maintenance. When I listen I also rest. Without the middle there is also no listening, no meditation, no receiving of instruction, no planning, and no thought. Of course I also develop during these times of rest but first I must repair. I even stop growing somewhat during these times of repair before the extension and growth develop. Do I fall? Yes – a little. It is the step back. The step back that I must take in order to evaluate my direction and BE ABLE TO go forward again. SOMETIMES in order to go forward we have to take a step back. Use this fall. And use it well. It is how we are designed and what we are designed for. There is no longer any need to fear settling. There is no longer any need to trick ourselves into growth. That is all that Plato wanted to do for us. Fence sitting has its place. We understand it now. We can use it now.

Is there a way to eliminate the middle and only grow or fall? Yes. We achieve this in perfection. And we all know the realities of actually achieving perfection within this lifetime. The difficulties and realistic possibilities that to live in achieving perfection is a bit unrealistic in this life time. And not that we don’t keep heading towards it!

Well, there is a way to achieve perfection within this lifetime.  A realistic way. An achievable way. It is quick and clean. We can achieve it almost immediately. But that discussion is for another time. A time in which you will not have to take my word for it but only recognize the proof in the truth of my words. All I will say now is the direction has been hinted at in this paragraph.

Of course you have the right to choose your own beliefs. And I will not refute nor discourage that. I will argue what I believe and sometimes even with passion but I do not want to be accused of taking your choice away. Literally we know from string theory that we can choose our own beliefs to come into reality. But that discussion is also for another time. Choose, and choose well for only our time is limited.

In Praise of Socrates, mediocrity, and stability with a subtle understanding of where Plato was coming from.

© June 6, 2009

By Toby Jensen

http://tobyjensen.spaces.live.com/

tobyjensen@live.com

Dr Leo Kim, Author of “Healing The Rift: Bridging The Gap Between Science And Spirituality” was in Salt Lake City on Saturday, May 23, 2009 to speak at the University of Utah Orson Spencer Hall.

I had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Kim share his insights, ideas and views on science and spirituality. I thoroughly enjoyed what he had to say. One of the ideas, or concepts if you prefer, that he shared was his view on finding “commonality” among religion, science and spirituality. To emphasize that point, he made reference to the story of the Blind Men and the Elephant. I found the following version of the story:

Once upon a time, there lived six blind men in a village. One day the villagers told them, “Hey, there is an elephant in the village today.”

They had no idea what an elephant is. They decided, “Even though we would not be able to see it, let us go and feel it anyway.” All of them went where the elephant was. Everyone of them touched the elephant.

“Hey, the elephant is a pillar,” said the first man who touched his leg.

“Oh, no! it is like a rope,” said the second man who touched the tail.

“Oh, no! it is like a thick branch of a tree,” said the third man who touched the trunk of the elephant.

“It is like a big hand fan” said the fourth man who touched the ear of the elephant.

“It is like a huge wall,” said the fifth man who touched the belly of the elephant.

“It is like a solid pipe,” Said the sixth man who touched the tusk of the elephant.

They began to argue about the elephant and everyone of them insisted that he was right. It looked like they were getting agitated. A wise man was passing by and he saw this. He stopped and asked them, “What is the matter?” They said, “We cannot agree to what the elephant is like.” Each one of them told what he thought the elephant was like. The wise man calmly explained to them, “All of you are right. The reason every one of you is telling it differently because each one of you touched the different part of the elephant. So, actually the elephant has all those features what you all said.”

“Oh!” everyone said. There was no more fight. They felt happy that they were all right.

Dr. Kim’s view on finding commonality among different disciplines and teachings has allowed him to find the truths that permeate our lives. I appreciate that approach very much.