Transcript Download: Changing Limited Thinking
Setting a goal, chanting about it and then following through with the action steps needed to accomplish it, seems very straight forward. Yet is everything Why? Because taking these steps will invariably going to ask us to address one or more of our habitual ways of thinking and ask us to address beliefs which limit us and are keeping us from being successful. This is why taking these steps is the path to our human revolution.
Here are some examples of limiting beliefs. We all have them.
I don’t understand technology.
I can never learn marketing.
Girls can’t learn math as well as boys.
Don’t dream. You aren’t being realistic.
It’s impossible to lose that last 15 pounds.
You might be interested in what President Ikeda says about them.
“In accordance with the principle of 3,000 realms in a single moment of life, pessimistic thoughts or feelings take form, just as they are, in reality, producing negative results. People who have negative thoughts create effects for themselves that perfectly match their thinking.” P.10, Faith Into Action
This does not mean an occasional thought, now and then but rather habitually thinking this way a good part of the time. I think of it as though we are creating a blueprint which will show up in the concrete world at some point in the future. This can work for us or against us depending on whether we are focusing on what we want, or elaborating our fears.
Let’s say you have been chanting about a goal and some ideas have come to you about next steps. As you get ready to take a step toward your goal and you start thinking. “I can’t do this. What if the people I am going to meet don’t like me?” Be realistic.”
You have just met resistance and its always going to show up when we take on something new. Why this happens has to do with the nature of the subconscious mind.
How the Mind Works, Buddhism and Current Thinking
Conscious Mind
The conscious mind makes decisions, such as setting goals. Buddhism describes how the conscious mind embodies to the first six levels of consciousness, sigh, hearing, touch, smell, taste and then makes judgements depending on the information it collects.
Current thinking adds that the conscious mind also has the ability make decisions and is the gateway to the subconscious through habits of thinking and repeated actions.
Subconscious Mind
Charles F. Haanel in The Master Key System has an extensive discussion of current thinking about how the different levels of mind work. The subconscious does not make judgements but just accepts what the conscious mind tells it.
The subconscious mind has some important responsibilities. It maintains the regular and vital processes which preserve life and restore health. It is responsible for keeping our hearts beating, keeping our lungs and digestion functioning etc. Because of this responsibility, the subconscious mind doesn’t change quickly. Resistance is one of the ways the subconscious mind protects us.
The subconscious is the seat of habits and emotions.. It resists rapid change and we have to repeatedly instruct it over time to make changes.
Buddhism says that at the 7th level of consciousness, in the subconscious mind is the level of self identity, the closer western equivalent of the ego.
The 8th level of consciousness, according to Buddhism, is on the mental side, where the subconscious mind is the storehouse of memory, and past life karma. .Beliefs we have been taught by parents and teachers reside in the subconscious mind as well as decisions and conclusions we have come to from our current and past life experiences.
Current thinking would agree with this and then discuss how some of those habits of thinking unconsciously influence what we think. Some of them help us move forward while others limit us.
For example, lets say you wanted to lose weight, but down deep you believe as your parents told you that you have the genetic makeup of your father, who was always heavy. Or, you have read somewhere that only one percent of aspiring weight losers keep off the weight. These beliefs are in direct conflict with the goal to lose weight.
The Buddha Nature & the 9th Level of Consciousness
Buddhism says that when we chant, we connect with the Buddha nature, which embodies our access to universal consciousness. I envision the Buddha nature on the juncture between the subconscious mind and the universal pure consciousness of the 9th level of consciousness. The Buddha nature has a foot in both the material quantum world and the spiritual world of pure energy or consciousness.
Process of Manifestation
At this juncture current thinking describes how thought takes the energy of pure consciousness to begin to mold the subatomic particles of the quantum field into the molecules that form the various aspects of the phenomena of the material world.
You can read some fascinating discussions of current thinking about this topic in What the Bleep Do We Know!? by Alexander Bruce and You Are the Universe by Deepak Chopra.
They say that thought takes that invisible creative energy, and brings it through the individualized channel of the subconscious mind before it manifests in the outer world. As it rises through the subconscious mind beliefs arising from experiences and what we’ve been taught by authority are incorporated. These beliefs might be in opposition to our stated conscious goal and appear as effects in the material world.
The World Tribune, Nov 21, 2003, implies this.
“Rather than there being one static “environment” that we are all born into, every environment is uniquely customized, tailored to suit each of us according to the state of our inner lives……. So in a sense, we’re all going around with our personal universe, one that extends from the inner depths of our hearts outward to all of the phenomena of our surroundings”
Thoughts embody the creative energy that gives rise to the effects that perfectly match our thinking, oneness of life and its environment. Current thinking teaches us to identify thoughts which limit us and change them to thoughts that will move us forward. I think learning to shift our thoughts is a big part of mastering our minds in order to create the life we want.
Limited Thinking is a Habit Which can be Changed
Don’t be discouraged when you recognize some of those limited thoughts. It is a habit, a way of looking of things which can be changed more readily than you might think.
Shifting Limited thoughts
Let’s say you have set a goal and when it comes time to move forward you start thinking, ”I don’t think I can do this.” In that moment:
1. Remind yourself of what you want to achieve.
2. Remind yourself that you want to create what you want – not what you don’t want.
3. Look at where that thought is going to take you. Ask yourself, is this thought moving me towards my goal, or will it limit me?
For example if you want to have a lot of money yet every time you think about your finances you are saying to yourself, “There is never enough money.” That thought will create the effect of never having quite enough. money. You’d need to change that thought to something else like,” I always have moremoney than I need.” This is going to uncomfortable at first. You won’t believe it. But at some point, if you are persistent, the subconscious mind which learns from repetition will take on that belief. Then your outside circumstances will begin to reflect the new belief. We attract what we truly believe.
4. Each day set your intention to achieve this goal. You are setting the cause for a future effect.
5. Shift your thinking and imagine your goal already accomplished just exactly as you want it to happen. You will have to battle the habit of thinking in the old way, probably many times a day.
When you shift your thinking often enough, the new belief becomes familiar and then you will come to really believe your goal can happen. When you can truly see it, your goal will come to fruition.
Summary:
Today we looked at how thoughts, which channel the universal creative energy of the Mystic Law Mystic law come through the subconscious mind to manifest in the outside world as our circumstances. We looked at how the subconscious holds the beliefs we’ve been taught , and the conclusions we have come to from past experiences and even from past lives.. These might be in opposition to our stated goal and influence what we are able to achieve with our goals.
Becoming aware of what we are thinking in the moment is the first step. When we become aware then we can ask ourselves, is this thought going to move me towards my goal or limit me? If you discover it is going to limit you, replace it with a thought that will move your forward. For ex. Your goal is to have a fit body. Your thought is, I don’t want to go to the gym. I’ll be hard work. Replace it with this one – my body loves to move and work out.
Then shift your thinking and see your goal as already accomplished. Continue to shift from the old thought to the new one when the old thought arises. When the new belief becomes familiar , then you can see your goal actually happen. At that point you will manifest what you want.
Some Other Resources You Might Like
You are the Universe – Deepak Chopra and Menas Kafatos
What the Bleep Do We Know!? William Arntz, Betsy Chasse and Mark Vicente
Marissa Peer: Rapid Transformational Hypnotherapy for Abundance at www.mindvalley.com
Comments:
As always I love to hear what you all are thinking about. And, I’ll see you in two weeks