Happiness & Prosperity (Part 4)

Next in the video series will be up in a few days. Start with THIS Video

This post is the Fourth in a series. I recommend you begin with #1
"Happiness & Prosperity – It’s No Secret - Introduction"

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Step One - Observe your inner voice.

Alan Alda has a great book title that would have been a good title for this first step. It's called "Things I overheard while talking to myself" But let's get started, this is a shortcut to "paradise". Past masters had a rather slow and lengthy path showing the way to paradise. Let’s unravel what has kept most of us from taking a shortcut with their lessons. It’s not difficult and one of the ideas in the Tao is; nothing is difficult unless you say it is. Like the mysteries of the Tao, you will need to see a third choice between difficult and easy, the choice that actually IS the Tao. 

Now you probably just had a thought about what you read. Something like: "OOOH, that sounds good", or "I don't get it", or how about "This sounds like a bunch of crap", or maybe even "What's a Tao?" or something else. Whatever it was, think about it now.  Those last few sentences about the Third choice are there just to provoke thoughts, and it's not important what the thoughts are. This is your first step being able to hear your internal "voice", and one you should repeat often. Go ahead; think what popped in your head when you read about the "third choice". Got it?

OK, if you weren't able to notice your thoughts, you just need a little practice. This is one of those practical steps I spoke of. Try re-reading the paragraph until you can hear the comments from your inner voice. It doesn't matter what you hear, only that you notice what thoughts come to you. It’s like wax on – wax off. You want to practice listening to your thoughts until you can just turn it on like a loudspeaker. Once you can hear your own comments whenever you want, you’ve completed step one!   It’s OK to go on to the next step. You can practice one and two together. With practical lessons such as listening to your thoughts (the voice) you will be on the way to discovering the new viewpoint. As you become skillful, you might also notice that you’ve created a second voice! The one that’s listening to your voice, and reporting what it heard.

Step Two - Observe if things are good or bad

Learn to hear whether your voice thinks something or someone is good or bad. The path of these first steps will take you to the place between good and bad, where nothing is good or bad, where ideas, opportunity and innovation are as endless as the universe.

Adam and Eve were in paradise, and then they ate the fruit of what tree? The Knowledge of Good And Evil tree?  Think what it might have been like before they had this knowledge. The Bible reports that having this knowledge they saw they were naked, and became ashamed. God had created them naked and unashamed. They didn't think naked was good or bad. They didn't pay any attention to it. They simply lived in paradise. Once they had knowledge of good and evil, everything took on a shade of good or bad, and naked became something bad (ashamed).

For all the guys thinking  "wait, wait, naked... that's cool! That's good!" Three demerits! On the serious side, a minority of people (men and women nudists for example) think naked is good. But this step is not about choosing one or the other.  This lesson is about asking your voice if something or someone is good or bad. When you begin, some things will obviously be good or bad. Sometimes you may have doubts. There are thousands of variations and shades of good and bad. Try grading on a scale of one to ten, with the words “Good” and “Bad” as the number ones. If you manifest a million dollars for example, it will be a number one good. If you manifest a hundred dollars it might be a number seven good. If you manifest fifty cents, some people will call it a number 10 good, while others may call it a number nine or ten bad. There is no “right” answer. This step is only about noticing the good or bad you see in people or things.

Practice as often as you can. Any free moment will work. Look at a stranger on the street and ask yourself what you think of them. You’ll find answers just pop into your head. What about their hair, shoes, weight, height, income, intelligence or any of the hundreds of ways we can judge people. While we often find our evaluation is correct, this exercise is not about being accurate. I don’t care if you’re right. This is about noticing that we have a “good or bad” evaluation about everything. If you have a doubt about this statement and believe some things can just be neutral, just pass on that item and keep practicing.

This isn’t about accuracy, it’s a fabrication to assist you in seeing that we always judge with some level of good or bad. Judging itself is not a bad thing to do. I am not suggesting we do away with good and bad. Judging in this way is one of our most valuable tools. We use it constantly to guide us in everything we do. For example, I chose a few examples of Dao translations to emphasize my ideas. I had to decide which ones might be better (good) and which translations might not help or might confuse (bad). One of the side benefits you will gain from the following chapters will be a far greater skill in judging good or bad. For the moment we are working only on the ability to notice your evaluations. 

Thanks, and be sure to look for Part 5 
PS. would really appreciate any comments, "Good" or "Bad" :-)