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Joy 101
          Personal  
                     Success 
                                Coaching

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Excerpts from

How to Eat an Elephant

      A Guide Book for Playing  the Game Called Life      ®

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Section Ten

Distinctions --   Clarifying

Subtle but Distinct Differences

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Page Content

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  Distinctions Defined

The human brain is a function of millions of years of evolution.   Its original function was to make us aware of major differences that could be life threatening and then to prepare the body to fight or to run away.   In those days, subtle, slight differences could be ignore because they were not life threatening.   Today our survival is usually not at stake but our well being certainly is, and our well being depends upon our seeing these subtle difference that our ancestors could simply ignore.   

To overlook these distinctions is very common and extremely easy to do because we, as a culture, have done things in a certain ways for centuries.   The unfortunate fact that missing these distinctions results in major problems in our lives has not gotten in the way of ignoring them.  

We'll look at some of the commonly accepted behavior patterns in ways you’ve probably never thought of.   These subtle distinctions may, on the surface, seem to be rather trivial but, depending on how you respond to them, your response can make a vast difference in your life.   The following list contains some of the more common and more significant distinctions that we sometimes overlook:

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  Distinctions --  Subtle but Distinct Differences

pink shinny bullet  Being              Doing

Most of us attempt to create from doing -- by taking physical a action, but creation is first and foremost a function of being -- a function of our beliefs, emotions, thoughts, and attitudes -- a function of who we are.   Most of us trade in our beingness for doing and get lost in the doing or become overwhelmed by tasks, jobs and activities.

Notice that prior to every action, there is a thought and a decision.  The thought always precedes the action.   We'll discuss this issue in considerable detail in  Section  02   -- The Immutable Universal Laws.

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pink shinny bullet  Doing               Trying

Trying and doing are mutually exclusive.   You either try to do something or you do it, but you can’t both try and do at the same time.   Saying “I’ll try,” is both preprogramming yourself for failure and pre-justifying your failure.   

Here's a simple way to experience this distinction.  Notice something that is near you such as a pencil.   Try to pick up the pencil.  If you picked up the pencil, you didn't try, you picked it up.  Put it back down and try again.  Notice that trying does not get the pencil in your hand.  Only doing gets the pencil picked up, so as an alternative to trying, choose to either do or not do.  

The next time you notice yourself saying, "I'll try," stop and ask yourself, "How committed am I to actually doing this?"   You'll probably notice a rather lackluster commitment or no commitment at all.   You may also notice that saying "I'll try."  was just a weak-willed way of saying no.  

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pink shinny bullet  Prayer of Gratitude                Prayer of Request

Most people pray as beggars from a space of lack, asking a seemingly whimsical God for favors.   But for instance, Jesus never asked in prayer.   He merely said thank you, while knowing his intention was already real.

As you probably already know, the universe gives us more of what we think about and a prayer of request is thinking about what we don't have while a prayer of gratitude is thinking about what we already have or about what we declare our selves to be, do, or  have.  We'll discuss this issue in considerable detail in  Section  02   -- The Immutable Universal Laws.

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pink shinny bullet  Symptom               Problem-Cause

A symptom is an easily perceivable  manifestation,  condition, event, circumstance, etc. that accompanies and is caused by something else.   The underlying conditions, beliefs, actions, etc. that caused the manifestation may or may not be  perceived, acknowledged, or understood.  

A cause is the underlying conditions, beliefs, actions, etc. that results in a symptom coming  into existence.    A problem is manifestation,  condition, event, circumstance, etc. that is not of one's conscious choosing;  something that generates negative emotions; something that inspires a desire for change.

In our present society, symptoms and problems are commonly confused with each other.   We spend vast amounts of resources treating symptom, but unfortunately, the causes,  the sources of those problems are commonly ignored.  Why?   One reason is because symptoms are straight forward and easy to see while the underlying causes are commonly complex, multi-faceted, often difficult to see, and even more difficult to solve.   

For example,  crime (a symptom) is easy to see.  But what are the underlying causes?   Poverty is a major cause of crime.  Ignorance, lack of opportunities, and lack of alternatives are three more causes.   Keeping certain products and services  illegal is still another major cause of crime.**1   Over population is by far the greatest cause of poverty and thus, is indirectly the world's number one cause of crime.

We are masters at treating symptoms and amateurs at eliminating causes.   For example, We spend enormous amounts of time and energy fighting crime (the symptom)  and ignoring its causes (poverty, ignorance, overpopulation, etc).   Unfortunately, most politicians see a symptom such as crime, label it as the problem and then propose a massive, multi-million-dollar war against the symptom, while completely ignoring the underlying causes.

This type of behavior is simply futile gesturing.   It also wastes vast amounts of time, money, and energy,  and it produces the exact opposite**2 of its stated intention.    Treating a symptom is a short-term, temporary solution to a long term problem.   It is very rare that treating a symptoms does anything at all to eliminate its underlying cause.  

For many people, this same type of confusion and misdirection occurs in their personal lives.   For example, if there is a problem in your personal life and you are looking out into the external world for its cause, you are looking in the wrong place for your answer.  See the next section below:  Responsibility / Blame.

**1  Keeping certain drugs illegal vastly increases their price.   This forces many addicts to become criminal to support their habit and and literally invites many impoverished people to become criminals by participating in the highly profitable business of peddling drugs.

**2  Focusing on and fighting what you don't want defies the laws of creation.   Focusing on what you don't want empowers it and invites the universe to bring you more of the 

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pink shinny bullet  Responsibility             Blame

Blame looks backwards into the past.   In a space of powerlessness, it sits in despair and helplessness and focus on what is wrong, on what it does not want.  It perceives power to be "out there" somewhere.   It functions out of victim consciousness.   Blame also looks outward into its environment.   It sees the mirror out there, but does not recognize that it is looking into a mirror.   It gets angry at the mirror.   This changes nothing.

As anybody in touch with reality will tell you, finding a scapegoat, piling blame onto him/her, and then getting rid of the scapegoat does not solve the problem.   Because the source, the creator of the event, remains unchanged, the experience soon repeats itself.   It has a new face and wears different clothing, but the basic event is essentially the same as that which occurred in the past.

Responsibility looks at the present.   It also looks forward into the future.   It stands in a power position.   Responsibility acknowledges that others do, indeed, co-create with us, but it also understands that there are no victims, only unconscious creators.   

Responsibility also looks both outward and inward.   It sees the outside world and recognizes that it is actually looking at a reflection of itself.   It sees a manifestation of internal beliefs, attitudes thoughts, words, and actions.   Responsibility observes the outside event with a minimum of emotion.  

It then turns its focus toward the cause of these external experiences and  contemplates how to use the "here and now"  re-create it's future self in a form that experiences even more freedom, joy, and personal fulfillment.   This changes everything.  

"Because I have the power to create what I’m presently experiencing, I also have the power to create something different.   Let’s see…   What would I like to be, do, have, or experience?" 

Someone Else Must Change:  If your response to the suggestion of letting it go of your past is:

"But I'm really angry.  I'm not ready to let go.  I want him/her to change.   And if he/she won't change, I want revenge."  

then there are ten factors you would do well to become aware of.   First, even if he/she did all those bad things -- won't do what you want done -- and refuses to change or cooperate, your life can still be filled with love and joy.   Second, you can't change anybody but yourself.   Third, the past is what it is.  You can't change it.   Fourth,  revenge is about as profitable as shooting yourself in the foot.   It simply keeps the negative cycle going.   

Fifth, there are no victims, there are no enemies, only unconscious creators.   Nobody did anything to you.   They did it with you.    Sixth, your emotional response is self-created.   Your anger is in you and not out there in the world.   Seventh, staying angry is completely your choice.   Eighth,  dwelling on what brings you pain tells the universe to bring you more of the same.  As long as you continue to bitch, moan and complain you are telling "The Universe" to bring you more to bitch moan and complain about.

Ninth, in the long-run, none of this really matters.   Ten years from now you'll have completely forgotten about this incident, so why not just forget it now and spare yourself from a lot of pain and misery.   And tenth,   after you've spent whatever time you feel is required for to feel and be with your feelings, you can simply drop the anger and move on.  Here are some alternative things you might choose to focus on:

How is what I am presently experiencing a blessing in disguise?  What have I learned from this experience?   How will I be different in the future?   

Now that I clearly know what I don't want, what is it that I do want?  How will I think, believe, and act from now on so that I am continually in the process of creating what I do want?

I'll make a list of all the things I can be grateful for, and then I'll focus on being grateful for all the wonderful things that I am, I have, I  do, and that I am experiencing. 

How would a divine master such as Jesus or Buddha respond if he were in my situation?

What’s the wisest, most-intelligent, healthiest, most-profitable, most-freedom-creating, and most-joy-producing decision I can make right now?

To whom can I reach out right now and say,  "I love you!   Thank you for being in my life."?

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pink shinny bullet  Stated Intention               True Intention

Stated intentions are what you say you want (choose) to be, do, or have.    True intention is what actually manifests in your life.  There is an internal root cause for every one of your external experiences.   When you examine the causes, it becomes obvious why most conscious statements of intention don't manifest.   Here's a brief summary:

There are no victims, only unconscious creators.   You create one-hundred percent of your personal experiences.   You create your personal experiences by your thoughts, your attitudes, your beliefs, the words you speak and/or listen to,  the sounds you hear and/or imagine, the pictures you see and/or imagine, the actions you take, the results you expect.   Your attitudes, beliefs and expectations are thoroughly programmed into your subconscious mind which is  infinitely more powerful than the conscious mind.

Your feelings (your emotions)  are also a major factor.   Thoughts accompanied with strong emotion have much more power and manifest much faster than thoughts that have little emotion attached to them.   Whether the emotions are positive or negative is irrelevant.  Whether your thought are intentional or simply come as a response to your environment is irrelevant.  For example, the things you watch and hear on television have a significant effect upon your experiences.   

Your experiences are a blend of all the factors mentioned above.   If all of these aspects are not aligned with your stated intention, the power of you stated intention is about as effective as whistling into the wind and expecting to direct a hurricane. 

 Probably the most important factor in successful manifesting is the alignment between you conscious mind and your subconscious mind.  (See the section below)

Reality Beliefs About Reality   ...

pink shinny bullet  Reality              Beliefs about Reality

Beliefs about reality are personal beliefs accepted as factual truths even though there is no proof of their truthfulness.   Many unsubstantiated beliefs have been accepted as true because the listeners have not bothered to check their sources or look for evidence to support them.  The general attitude is: "Our leaders are the professionals, the experts, the authority figures, so they must be right."   Here are three examples:  

   Christian one-life-ism -- we were created at conception 
      or birth, live only once on Earth, then go to 
      heaven or hell forever.

   Reincarnation --  we always were,  we always will, 
      we live numerous lives on Earth.   

   Atheism -- we are earth-matter that has magically
      acquired consciousness, we live only once, and 
      we cease to exist when the body dies.   

Because these three assumptions are mutually exclusive, at least two of them must be false.   At least two of them must be only beliefs about reality.

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Reality consists of those truths are backed up by physical and/or experiential evidence.  They are true at all times and in all places.   Two examples of evidential truth are:  1)  "Human beings have an instinctive sexual nature;" and 2)  "Every effect has a cause.  Every cause has an effect."

If you are willing to take one additional step toward reality, here's the real truth about reality:  "We don't know the truth and we have no way to find out the truth."  Questions about the nature of life, the nature of "God," the nature of the universe, the nature of what a human being actually is push us deep into the age-old, unanswerable, religious questions, questions such as:

   Are we a soul with a body, a body with a soul,  
       or only a physical body?

   What is this non-physical stuff we call 
       "the mind" or "spirit?"

   What happens to "us" after the physical body dies?

   Is heaven a place or a state of being?

   What is the purpose of human life?   

   Are there other intelligent life forms
       in the physical universe?   

   What is in that non-physical part of reality
       that we know is there, but can't access physically?   

Because we have such a limited understanding of  "All There Is to Know,"  the most reasonable way to approach the mysteries of life is to examine the experiential evidence and create a hypothesis about what is the most probably reality, and then live life based on that theory until a new or an improved version of the theory comes along.

Please see the section below titled:   
How We feel About Something / The Reality of That Same Thing

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pink shinny bullet  Our Country                The People Who Control
                                                  the Government

Our Country consists of the principles and the ideals upon which the country was founded plus the people, the land, the human and natural resources, plus the dreams, the hopes, the aspirations, and the creative capacity of its citizens.

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The People Who Control the Government are the politicians plus the super-wealthy families,  the corporations,  the drug peddlers and the other special interest groups have bought, paid for, and own the politicians.   As Will Rogers once said,  "We have the best politicians that money can buy."  Here are a few more truths about governments.  

   Self survival and self interest are the first interests
      of those running a government.**3 

   You and I and everyone else are expendable servants 
     of those who control the government of the wealthy, 
     by the wealthy and for the wealthy.

   Those in control have their own golden rule:  
      "He who controls the gold rules."

   We survive in spite of our governments 
      not because of them.

   What politicians must do to get elected 
      makes them unfit to to hold public office.

   Even though campaign reform is the most critical
      requirement for creating a government 
      that serves its citizens, most people 
      have been successfully brainwashed into being
       unconcerned about this issue.

   What the bureaucrats give, they must first take away.

   With notable exceptions like Sadam Hussein, 
      those who actually control most governments 
      are never seen or heard of by the public.

   The oil interests,  the money interests and/or 
      the illegal-drug interests are actually in control 
      of most governments.

You might note the difference between population control in the present United Sates government and populations control in the former Russian Communist government.   The main distinction is that  the Russian Communist government maintained control by violence and backed up their violence by illusion.   The present United Sates government maintains control by illusion backs up the illusion by violence.

**3 This is true of everyone, not just politicians

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pink shinny bullet    Religion

     Spirituality

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Religion teaches you what to think.

Spirituality teaches you how to think.

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Religion asks you to trust someone else.

Spirituality invites you to trust yourself.

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Religion teaches you to follow what others have done.

Spirituality invites you to follow your own heart.

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Religion teaches NOT to question authority.

Spirituality invites you to question everything.

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Religion conforms to the letter of established law.

Spirituality is guided by the spirit of the human heart.

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Religions teach that you can connect to God only by joining "the church" and by following the church rules — rules defined and laid down by the church elders. 

Spirituality acknowledges that every being has his or her own direct connection to whatever it is that we call "God" by way of the God-Self within. 

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Religion teaches that personal behavior is dictated by church rules. 

Spirituality teaches that personal behavior is a function of knowing in your own heart what’s right and wrong and then following that inner guidance.

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Religion (Christianity) teaches that heaven is a place somewhere above the clouds.

 Spirituality teaches that heaven is a state of being. 

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Religion (Christianity) teaches that you are a human body.

Spirituality teaches that you are a divine being experiencing an earth-life in a human body. 

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Religion follows the words of long-dead ancestors. 

Spirituality is reborn moment-by-moment right here right now out of your own knowing that you are a divine being having a human experience.

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Religion teaches that "our way" is the only true religion — that "our religion" is the one and only pathway to God —that all other religions are myths.

Spirituality teaches that God is too big to fit inside of just one religion — that every religion is its own pathway to God. 

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Religion is fixed and immutable.

Spirituality is flexible and dynamic. 

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Christianity and Judaism teach that humans are separate from God.

Spirituality teaches that humans are an integral part of God.

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Religion (Christianity) has turned Jesus into a golden idol, placed him on a pedestal and now worships him from afar. 

Spirituality acknowledges Jesus as a master teacher who walked the Earth as divinity in physical form and who has shown us how to do likewise. 

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Christianity teaches that humans are born in sin and are inherently evil.   Judaism teaches the humans are lowly, insignificant, and filled with sin.

Spirituality teaches that humans are born in innocence and are inherently good.

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Religion teaches that we can only accomplish things by appealing to a capricious, whimsical, external God who, for reason unknown to us, may or may not grant our requests.

Spirituality teaches that Jesus spoke the truth when he said, “Anything I can do, you can do and more.” 
and
 "Does the law not say that you are gods?"**4

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Religion teaches people to approach God as beggars asking for favors. 

Spirituality teaches people to pray as Jesus did and merely say thank you, while knowing full well that the subject of one’s prayer has already been fulfilled.   One merely has to have faith and await its manifestation.

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Religion teaches that God is responsible for your life.

Spirituality teaches that within the context of human life on planet Earth, we each create our own personal reality by out thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, words and actions.

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Religion teaches that the path to God is arduous and painful and that only the chosen ones will ever get to heaven.

Spirituality teaches that there is no path to God.   We are already Gods.   We simply have to remember who and what we are.

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Religion says, "Here are the rules" and commands you to follow them.  Each religion has its own set of rules.

Spirituality teaches that there is a specific set of universal laws which when properly applied can produce joy, freedom, personal fulfillment, and heavenly states of bliss, and when misapplied produce grief and misery.

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Religion calls their followers sheep.

Spirituality doesn't have any structured organization to follow.

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Religion is a social structure which attempts to interpret what to religious teachings actually mean.

Spirituality is  a way of being that invites you to think for yourself regarding what something means or does not mean.

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Religion (Christianity)  says,  "Here's what reality is.   Believe it, and follow these rules or you'll be denied access to heaven."

Spirituality says, "We have no idea what reality actually is.   Here's what the evidence points to as the most likely reality."

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Spirituality is in perfect harmony with the words of Saint Paul written in the Christian Bible, Galatians 2:21 —“… if righteousness comes by rule of law, then Christ died in vain.”

From the perspective of the establishment’s religious leaders, spirituality creates two major problems.   First, if you think for yourself, you’re likely to come to conclusions that differ from the established status quo, and, second, if you can find God on your own, what need have you for the church elders?

**4 Paraphrased from the text of John 10:30-35 in the Christian Bible. 

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Constitution -- Bill of Rights / Bill of Restrictions   ...

In the Constitution of The United States:

pink shinny bullet  Bill of Rights              Bill of Restrictions

When you think of The Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments) to the United States Constitution, do you think of rights or restrictions?   

As grand, as noble, and as visionary as they were, the creators of the American Constitution did not have access to knowledge that we, today, take for granted, thus their wording was sometimes less than ideal.  The Bill of Rights is a case in point.   

The Bill of Rights is not a bill of rights, at all.  It does not grant any rights to the citizens of the United States.   Every person in the entire world already has these rights, at least in theory.   These are God-granted rights; not government-granted rights.   

The Bill of Rights is actually a bill of restrictions against the American government's incursion into the God-granted rights of its citizen.   Citizens of other countries are not so fortunate as to have such restrictions on  their governments.  

In an oversight on the part of it's authors, The Bill of Rights  has been seriously mislabeled.   To be accurate, it should be labeled, "The Bill of Restrictions on Government Activity."   So the next time you hear some manipulator of the public's mind talking about the rights the American Constitution grants its citizens, please speak up and tell them the truth.

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The Declaration of Independence

Here's another place where the choice of wording of our founding fathers was less than ideal:   They wrote  a declaration of independence -- a declaration of not dependence -- a declaration stating that they were not dependent.   

This is a rather weak way of stating their case.   That's like going into Baskin and Robins** and telling the clerk the thirty flavors of ice cream you don't want.   It also defies The Universal Law of Intentional Creation which says that for a declaration to be effective, it must be stated in positive terms.

What if we were to think of this document as "A Declaration of Sovereignty," or perhaps "A Declaration of Freedom?"   Do you think that it might be a bit more powerful?

**  Baskin and Robins is famous for offering its 
      customers thirty-one flavors of Ice cream.

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Back to The Bill of Rights

After seeing how our so-called democratic governments violate their citizens, it becomes obvious that certain important restrictions are missing from The Bill of Rights.   Here are a few pieces that might well be added or adjusted:  

1)  The first amendment might state "freedom from religion" as well as "free of religion" because, as you will see if you think about this for a moment, you can't have one without the other.

2)  The Fifth Amendment, which prohibits compelling a person to testify against himself,  might well also include a prohibition against the government compelling a person to testify against someone else.

3)   Another valuable addition would be a restriction against a governments use of  extortion, bribery, or threats to get people to testify against someone else.

4)   Because judges are appointed by the executive and approved by the legislative branches of government,  the judicial branch has lost it's freedom to judge without fear of repercussions.   Judges are appointed based on who they supported in their prior decisions, thus, judges decisions are based more on who will be pleased or displeased by the decision and less on the merits of the case.   Selection by   lottery or by public election (with election moneys being 100% paid by government)  is something to consider as a possible solution.

5)   Buying the votes of elected officials by providing campaign financing or offering them other benefits is another crucial area that needs to be altered in our present government structure.  

6)   Presently the statement "innocent until proven guilty" is being seriously distorted in many cases where someone has been convicted and later evidence turns up to give serious doubt to their guilt.   Many government officials are refusing to release these people from prison on the grounds that they must prove their innocence before that can be released.  This is a serious violation of the intent set forth by our founding fathers in the statement, "innocent until proven guilty."

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One could easily argue that some of these restrictions would seriously hamper the government in its work of prosecuting criminals.   In the present system, this may well be the case, but one might also consider these two factors:   

First, in in a just society, the government would not turn its citizens into economic slaves thus making crime a survival mechanism, and 

Second, the government would not intentionally create and promote the contexts within which the vast majority of present criminal activities occur.  

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Editors Note:

These thoughts are offered, not in any expectation that the people who presently hold our country hostage will allow such restrictions to be placed on their activities, but rather as a note to other countries that, at some future date, will have the opportunity to write their own "Declarations of Sovereignty."

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Change by Subtraction  /  Change by Addition    ...

pink shinny bullet  Change by Subtraction              Change by Addition

Who we are, as human beings, includes our animal nature.    Who we are is also a function of everything we have ever experienced.   Our past and our animal nature  (nurture & nature)  are the foundations upon which we create our future.  

Attempting to change by denying who we are  (such as denying our sexual nature)  or by declaring what we have done in the past to be wrong (making yourself or someone else wrong) is a rather dysfunctional approach to life.   As an alternative, we could make  mid-course corrections  (make changes) without all the present judgments and without all the present negative emotions.   We could simply accept ourselves, each other, and life just as it is and then focused on what we choose to experience.

What if we looked at the things that bring us joy and asked,  "How can we create more of this for ourselves and how can we share this joy with others?"   What if, when we find our actions producing a negative result, we simply said, "Now that we know one more thing that doesn't work,  where do we go from here?"

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How I feel About Something /  The Reality of That Same Thing  ...

pink shinny bullet  How We Feel About Something      The Reality of It

The Feeling:   How we feel is an emotional reaction to one of our beliefs about reality.   Our beliefs very often do not represent reality.   Jane Roberts in her book, The Nature of Personal Reality, (Pages 239-241) offers an excellent example of this.   Here's one interpretation of those three pages plus some added material:  

The Sample Belief About Reality:   I am an inferior person unable to cope with others and incapable of holding my own in my work environment.

The Expression of the Belief:   Unconsciously, the person uses  gestures, expressions, body language, voice tones, words, and actions, to project his/her belief into the environment.   Consciously, the person focuses his/her attention upon that belief and looks for its expression in his/her environment, and at the same time, ignores evidence to the contrary.

The Return from the Environment:   The environment appears to reflect back that belief.   Unconsciously, the person sifts, weighs, and values the incoming data.   He/she focuses on those pieces that match the belief,  ignores the countermanding data,  distorts the other data to make it match the belief, and may even perceive positive data as negative.

The Reality:   In  reality, we are each unique human beings.   We are also divine beings who are deserving, worthy, and capable of being or creating anything we choose.   Within the context of human life on planet Earth, we each create our own personal reality by our thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, words and actions.   There are no victims; only unconscious creators.

The Dual Belief in this Example:   I am good, worthy, capable, and deserving.   I am inferior, bad, incapable, and unworthy.   Whichever of  these two belief is dominant in any given situation, determines the positive or negative nature of the experience.

The Realization:   There is a distinction between how we feel about something and the reality of that same thing.

The Solution:  Accept your negative feelings as feelings, flow with them, be with them, experience them.   Avoid attempting to avoid them, or ignore them, or deny them.   Simply be with them as feeling;  however, do so with the understanding that they are feelings about a belief about reality.   As feelings, they are real and valid.  They are  emotional expressions about a belief about reality.   

BUT:  They are not reality.   Reality is that I am good, worthy, capable, and deserving.   In this moment, I'm simply feeling something different from good, worthy, capable, and deserving.   That's OK.   These feeling are just feelings.   They will soon pass.  

I may feel inferior at this moment, but at the same time I understand that these feelings are not a statement of fact.   They are a statement of emotion.  Distinguishing between emotions and reality offers a dual validity -- a validity to the emotions and a validity to the fact of being  good, worthy, capable, and deserving person.   One can then simply allow the feeling to be without concern and without the additional thought about how bad I am for having these thoughts and feelings.

Why Am I Feeling...   The next step in getting beyond these feeling is to ask why am I feeling __(whatever the feeling is)__?   What do I believe that's triggering these feelings?   Just because I believe __(whatever the belief  is)__,   does that make it real?   Could what I'm feeling simply be an outcropping of something that isn't true?   For the moment, I'll just be with these thoughts and feeling.   They're neither good or bad.   They're just thoughts and feelings.   They, too, will pass.

Changing Focus:   OK, I've spent enough time with these thoughts and feelings.   I now choose to focus my attention on relaxing, on breathing deeply and then on asking, “What can I do right now that will inspire me to feel good?”

What’s the wisest, most-intelligent, healthiest, most-profitable, most-freedom-creating, and most-joy-producing topic I can focus my attention on right now?  

What’s the wisest, most-intelligent, healthiest, most-profitable, most-freedom-creating, and most-joy-producing decision I can make right now?  

What’s the wisest, most-intelligent, healthiest, most-profitable, most-freedom-creating, and most-joy-producing action I can take right now?  

I could focus on gratitude for all the wonderful things I am and that I have.   I could  focus on gratitude for all the wonderful things I can do and that I actually do.    I could focus on the joyous things I am presently experiencing.   

I could also look for the silver lining on each of my clouds -- the gift that is in every "problem" --  the opportunity that is in every experience.   I'm at choice here!   There are no victims; only unconscious creators.

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This same awareness technique can be applied to the distinctions between reality and beliefs about reality in any area of life.   Please see the section above titled:    Reality / Beliefs about Reality

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See the section below  ...

pink shinny bullet  Conscious Mind              Subconscious Mind

Obviously this distinction is not yet available.  Please return at a later date.  

 

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   "How to Eat an Elephant®  

A Guide Book for Playing the Game Called Life"

By R.  Robin  Cote’   The Life Center   

Copyright  1995    Revisions  ©   2001-2004

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Book Content  --  Section 10  --  Distinctions --  Clarifying Subtle but Distinct Differences

 http://www.joy101.org/10-distinctions.html

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