>The “three Huge things” meltdown (see last blog) and subsequent Hanuman save leads me to want to dip my toe into rumination regarding that murky, ubiquitous swampland that is universal law.
Before I do, I would just like to regurgitate the simple facts.
1. Meltdown happened.
2. Surrendered/let go/gave up into Grace/Hanuman/to something (anything) larger than this 5’2 ¾” body of Polish downtown NYC energy known as Mags.
3. (new information here) Within 24 hours of this procession of events, bigger/greater/more beautiful things happened in each of the “three Huge thing” arenas.
The space was filled when I was empty. Only when I was empty. I bring this up, because the turnaround was so dramatically swift and so distinctly paralleled, it could absolutely not be ignored. It’s not necessary to get into intimate specifics, but there’s a way that I thought that things would work out, and when I gave up control that I knew best, the things that appeared in that vacuum were much more of a picture of the woman I want to be than the woman I was trying to hold on to. And believe you me, the new picture was pretty darn smokin’, if I do say so myself.
There’s been a fervor in the recent past surrounding books/films defining “The Secret” and the law of attraction. Others delve a little deeper and speak more specifically to ‘the law of correspondence.’ That idea being, it’s not that you attract what you want, you attract what you ARE. These are not new ideas, it’s just that their popularity has pinnacled as of late. “Law of Attraction” has been the prom queen incumbent for several years running, in so called ‘spiritual’ circles.
The circumstances of one’s life are due to our conditioning, our thoughts, actions, whether conscious or unconscious. Some even say we are living out karmas or samskaras (impressions, seeds of past action) from lives before this one. If that is the case, not having had any life experience (that I am yet aware of) outside of this one, I cannot personally vouch to the verity of those philosophies. However, since having been made aware of the law of correspondence, I have to say it seems pretty damn spot on in the little life I’m walking through right about now.
So what’s the skinny with affirmations and law of attraction and all of that? Can I just say over and over again: “I want 10 million dollars, no, make that: 20 million dollars, 20 million dollars, 20 million dollars, 20 million dollars” or “Bradley Cooper, Bradley Cooper, Bradley Cooper, Bradley Cooper” and it/he will show up? The formula as a whole is a Catch 22; we have to align with it, all the while intensely desiring it, and then also be able to casually release our attachment from the outcome. SO totally easier said than done.
A bestie and I always mirror back approval of awesomeness/fabulousness in daily dealings because “why would God have given us such piquant taste if we were not supposed to relish and prosper with the yummier things of this earth?” The Universe wouldn’t provide a palate being able to designate between wild and farmed salmon or 300 and 600 thread count sheets and yet not also bestow the ability to partake in Life’s more discerning treats. “Hey look, see this luciousness?! Awesome, right?!… oh yeah, sorry babe, that’s just not for you.” The world wouldn’t do that. That would just be mean. And the world isn’t mean.
I’m speaking of a personal designation concerning quality. And I don’t even mean quality as in “bad” vs. “good.” I mean finding the quality of life that speaks to you and rockin it out. That has nothing to do with material excess. We are each drawn to things intrinsically that make our heart sing. A locally sourced or free-trade, handmade, raw, gluten free, exotically spiced 74% cacao chocolate processed by renewable energy is divinity in my mouth, where for others, Hershey’s will do. One of my best friends doesn’t give a hoot for chocolate but eating sheets of nori makes her head spin. For some it’s the solitude of a morning of fly-fishing. Others the freedom of zooming down Bleecker bike lanes with an iPod blasting Metallica and even others for whom a week long Caribbean Carnival cruise is the double-stuff dreams are made of. I truly believe that which we want in our deepest heart of hearts is present for us. Otherwise we would not have been given whatever level of capacity or sophistication or simplicity we vibe with in order to desire it.
Ernest Holmes in the 1926 new thought treatise “Science of Mind” writes: “There is nothing wrong in the desire for self expression. God is more completely expressed through that man who lives largely than through the one who lives meagerly.” SOM also tells us that subjective Mind (the universe) knows only completion, knows no time or process but only the answer. Another way of stating this is, all we want, we have already; we just need to get out of our own way.
My friends know me to be an avid researcher. Some might say anal, know-it-all, bossy boots; I prefer to look at it as being thorough. When I had an opportunity to grill some monks I was studying with in Fiji, I came prepared with oodles of notes and endless rounds of questions. My monk laughed gaily at the serious ardor of my type-A approach, but he gently answered my inquisition on all fronts. It ranged from how significantly was Starbucks really affecting my levels of consciousness to wanting details on my next boyfriend.
And I asked a big one—the concept I could not wrap my head around—the fish I could not fry— the question that caused (still causes) countless hours of debate amidst my tribe: “Is it all pre-determined or do we have free will?” He thought carefully, trying to find words to explain something inexplicable that would at least somewhat mollify my petulant, unenlightened desire for an immediate answer.
“We are here to learn certain lessons. That is set for us. We can choose how quickly or slowly we want to learn them, but they will always be the same lessons.”
So, we have the choice to speed our evolutionary processes or keep repeating the same patterns until we get the picture.
If that’s the right idea, and my and others’ theory is correct that we each have our desires (whether they be for chocolate or Carnival cruises) set out in a direction (even if by no other compass than mere preference,) one could interpret the law of attraction by saying when we wish for something, it’s not that we are making it happen, it’s that we are allowing that which already exists to come through and manifest into the physical realm. We are not changing the world, we are changing ourselves.
“The ultimate effect is already potential in its cause… to him who can perfectly practice inaction, all things are possible.”
And it seems from my experience, how quickly we can let go of something also seems to parallel how quickly the next thing enters our lives. What was so wild about the whole Hanuman thing was that I took the express train to let go, and then the stuffs arrived immediately—within 24 hours. Not for one thing. For THREE Huge things.
So we release our attachment to it, and it arrives. Meditation, unshakable faith, affirmations (or even any kind of letting go that has nothing to do with defining itself solely as a “spiritual” experience,) attunes us to that level of having it, because in knowing we have it, we have no need for attachment.
Isn’t it true that when your romantic life gets going again suddenly everyone pops out of the woodwork at once? Ya know that phrase, when it rains, it pours?
Theoretically that should work just as easily for bringing a used Honda into your life or a West Village townhouse. But the trick seems to be to attract it, we have to BE it. That’s where the correspondence comes in, in case you thought just sitting around dreaming about Hondas was going to rain them from the heavens. That explains the work. And we also have to be flexible, because many times it doesn’t look the way we thought it would.
The three Huge things were (well, um, HUGE) aspects of life that are important to me. Lettting go of the drama or emotions regarding the “failures” in those areas, I cleared the space for the laws to bring me something that I still wanted—but in the new and improved way. The upgraded version that the ‘smaller’ me would never have gotten had I been calling each and every friend to bitch about the disasters that’d befallen me.
I ended up getting what I deserved (the law of correspondence,) and what I wanted (the law of attraction,) and in much more promising packaging (what up, Grace?)– but it only came when I let go of my intended results.
