We create our own reality! This is an idea that both intrigues us and challenges us. Many of us look around our private worlds, or look at the world at large, and think, ‘Who on earth would create this reality? Only a madman, or a masochist’. But we create it. We do so individually, and we do so collectively.
When we create our own reality, we do not create things. We do not bring trees, skies, animals, planets or other people into being: there is only one Creator, and we are not It.
Creativity is a quality or attribute of soul, and it is intended to be used only for the greater good.
What we do create, whether consciously or unconsciously, is our experience.
How do we do this?
We create our experience through the power of our own minds. Our deep and often totally unconscious intentions, beliefs and expectations (personal myths) direct us to make certain choices and act in certain ways. These choices initiate the manifestation of certain probabilities into our experience. Quantum physics partly describes this as the collapsing of wave function of a quantum superposition (I'm not even going to attempt an explanation).
The mechanism of this process is karma. In the simplest terms, we experience karma every day by creating the inner (emotional and mental) conditions for certain kinds of experience (whether for good or bad), which then are manifested.
Karma is not a kind of judgment, as some believe. Karma is the realisation of the natural and totally neutral law of reciprocity expressed biblically as 'As ye sow, so shall ye reap', and 'judge not that ye be not judged'. It is also expressed in the Buddhist teaching that what we experience today is the manifestation of our previous thoughts and actions.
Either way, the fundamental law of karma or reciprocity (some call it the law of attraction, which doesn't quite mean the same thing) gives us the precious opportunity to experience the results of our thoughts and actions, so that we can begin to understand the enormous power of our minds.
It would be easy to believe that things happen to me, that others or fate are responsible for my unwanted, or sometimes wanted life experiences. I could give up and feel helpless. But I have experienced in the most practical and tangible terms that my experiences, mental and physical, are the result of past thoughts, actions, or choices, and my prevailing attitude and beliefs.
I know beyond any doubt that even a small shift in attitude or change in what I do can alter my experience; that through conscious and focused intention, and the exercise of my Free Will, I can create my experience.
(Like children lost in their pretend world, we have forgotten that the world of our experience is our own creation)
Still don't believe in your own creative power? Try it out for yourself.
First you have to put aside your scepticism for a little while...You can always go back to it later. This is just an experiment.
Then for 7 days, change the way you think about a particular thing or person that you now feel negative about. Start small. Don’t choose something that you are passionately negative about. Instead, think of a person or situation that you dislike or that you find challenging.
For 7 days, choose to think good things about that person, or that thing. Choose to think differently in regard to that thing or person, to focus on the positives, even if you cannot yet see them. For seven days, act and think as if you like that situation or person.
For seven days, tell yourself you are grateful to have that situation or person in your life because it gives you the opportunity to grow and learn.
If you simply can’t do the exercise, well, you have learned that you resist changes to your thinking. Maybe that will be enough to make you wonder why you hold on so tightly to certain attitudes; what are you afraid you might lose if you change. Anything that increases your awareness of your own thinking is beneficial.
But you might just find that you CAN change your thinking, and thereby, change your experience.
You might get a first taste of living by conscious choice instead of reacting the same old way, and make that big step to becoming a fully conscious and responsible being.
That's worth a little sustained, effort, don't you agree?
(Image: Grandson at Bribie Beach)