Well, yes and…no.
We do frequently hear that “everything happens for a reason”. This is usually expressed with the implication that no matter how difficult the situation, the outcome is practically preordained to be a positive one. So the focus is on the event as an opportunity, or even evidence, that the “universe” is somehow bringing us a blessing in disguise.
While this perspective, a form of positive thinking, isn’t the worst attitude that we can have when faced with unexpected difficulties, it unfortunately misses the mark in terms of accuracy. In fact, everything does happen for a reason, i.e. that there is an actual cause that has resulted in the event, that is rarely perceived or understood.
The positive thinking paradigm is extended to include the idea that the “universe has provided this opportunity”, or that it “wants us to learn this lesson”, etc. The obvious mistake here is that the universe doesn’t have any personal investment in, or intention towards, any of us. The universe is neutral. It has already established its laws of operation in this Creation, which govern everything in it, with cause and effect being one of the central, immutable laws. Of course not only has everything come into existence through the miracle of the Creation but its laws also govern the duration of existence of its various elements…and so many other things.
While we may not be cognizant of exactly what we, and others know and/or don’t know, may have done that have resulted in a bite-your-tongue “opportunity”, we can be sure that there is indeed a causal trail leading to the event. Contributing factors could include unconscious, conscious, correct and mistaken thoughts, feelings and actions, which have led to the event.
We should understand that our admirable optimism, expressed as “everything happens for a reason” is not to be taken as a guarantee that the positive resolution of the situation is a foregone conclusion. The situation should be seen as an opportunity to reflect on the possible causative actions and to perceive, and learn from, them as best as possible.
The intention to see things as they are, even in a reflective mode, also known as neutral-positive thinking, can be helpful to strengthen our attentiveness and understanding, determine what corrective actions need to be taken and perform them. It can also lead us out of the overly positive, New Age, mystical type of thinking that reinforces the idea that outside forces are responsible for these so-called lessons in life and that they are administered by “God”, “spirit”, “the universe”, etc., for our personal benefit.
Depending on the level of confusion about this in one’s mind, one may feel that they are “blessed”, or especially “worthy”, because what amounts to some imaginary god or tin god has “chosen to bestow” this “cloud with a silver lining” on us in the guise of an otherwise challenging or unpleasant situation.
Of course the aforementioned reflection on the actual causes of the situation is to be done as soon as possible without diverting one’s attention from the task at hand. Sometimes we will find that our intention to do so causes such perceptions and insights to occur spontaneously, sporadically and intermittently with and/or during our corrective work. This can occur more easily if we are approaching our task with a relaxed, as well as attentive, state of mind, thereby assisting rather than impeding our progress.
Depending on the actual complexity of the causal circumstances we may or may not be able to get a complete picture that immediately allows us to understand all that brought the situation about.
So it isn’t in itself either positive or negative that “things happen”. Nor is it some hide-the-candy trick by a universe that in any way “intends” for us to find the candy. The universe didn’t “do” anything to, for, or against us. The immutable laws of cause and effect are unfailingly at work and there has been no magical, mystical, capricious – personal – positive or negative intercession by the Creation.
well explained .. danke
Michael,
Rarely do I challenge your thinking in my admiration for your devotion to the cause you espouse, but I’m certainly challenged by your de-mysification of “cause & effect” and the lack of any intelligent imposition of an “effect” by divine means. Having spent 72 years on this earth (an insignificant amount of time in this fine universe) I have witnessed the intercession of forces in my life and those of my students, that belies and underlying force that is both intelligent and personal in it’s unfolding.
Your hypothesis that the events of “cause and effect” are lacking any “outside forces that are responsible for these so-called lessons in life and that they are administered by “God”, “spirit”, “the universe”, etc., for our personal benefit.” is accurate in my estimation as long as we are holding that this force resides only “outside” and not within the mind and consciousness of man. I’m of the persuasion that God does exist in and through all things and most importantly exists within the temples that represent our own bodies, not one on 4th and Main St. I also believe that this mind of God within each of us is a powerful manifestation of both creative and destructive power and that the process by which this unfolds is as Emerson said hidden from most of us. To quote Emerson: “he (man) thinks his fate alien because the copula (between person and event) is hidden. But the soul contains the event that shall befall it, for the event is only the actualization of its thoughts, what we pray for to ourselves is always granted. The event is the print of your form. It fits you like a skin…a man will see his character emitted in the events that seem to meet, but which exude from and accompany him. Events expand with character.”
In summation, I’m convinced that we are the masters of our destiny and that more than this we are our own best prophets: for we constantly lay claim to our future state by the seeds we plant in the present., What you sow you reap, which you and I agree upon, both collectively and personally, but I take it a step beyond and believe that miracles of intervention do occur in our behalf and I’ve been privileged to see their unfoldment continually in my life and my students.
If determinism (the doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will. Some philosophers have taken determinism to imply that individual human beings have no free will and cannot be held morally responsible for their actions.) and if fatalism were the underlying truth in nature then prayer and miracles would be a deceptive hoax of some proportion. If all this mystical, new age, faith filled stuff were only misguided and ignorant behaviors then we are seeing the unfoldment of a universe without wisdom, intelligence and compassion that is simply deterministic and lacking in any magic and mystery beyond our senses. Then we must discount any miracle of healing, intercession in personal events and lives and the magical transformations that occur so often in the lives of the faithful and steadfast believers in such intervention.
Sow a thought,
Reap an act;
Sow and act,
Reap a habits;
Sow a habits,
Reap a character;
Sow a character,
Reap a destiny.
With respectful admiration to a wonderful friend.
Ron Watson
well written thank you
Energy just is. It doesn’t differentiate between good/bad. We are the “directors” of the energy according to our thoughts, feelings,and expectations. Miracles are nature unimpeded (we get out of our own way)and the energy flows in a more conducive way.
I think Carl Sagan said it best: “We are a way for the universe to know itself.”
The mere fact that we exist, by virtue of us consisting of the same particles that inanimate matter all over the universe consists of, means that the universe is capable of assembling its own matter into something conscious capable of self-analysis, introspection, and analysis of the universe surrounding it. To separate ourselves from the universe and take on a perspective of “us and the universe” is to deny our roots: we all came from stars.
So, with some simple logic:
A = the universe
B = humans
C = consciousness
If B is made of A
and
B is C
It follows that C (consciousness) is a *component* of the universe.
I won’t derive a proof, but we can correlate this to anything that occurs as common sense:
If cats are made of cells
and
cats are animals
it follows that cells are a *component* of animals.
We can’t know about animals other than cats, but we know that *some* animals contain cells.
Likewise, by virtue of the fact that we exist and are capable of communicating with each other and having internal dialogues, we represent a consciousness of the universe.
Perhaps I went a little bit far with this, but my take-home message is that you cannot deny that the universe has a consciousness without separating yourself from the universe; this thinking is flawed in its most basic premise.
Hi Andre,
I am in the process of composing a lengthier reply to Ron but I will say this. I am in no way separating us from the universe, of which we are of course a part. The spiritual teaching goes into the evolution of consciousness, how we play a part n the evolution of the universe…and so much more.
So for now, a lyric that I wrote in 1998:
Stardust
We are made of stardust
we are made of light
formed out of the infinite
born of cosmic night
the atoms we are made of
and all that came from naught
birthed into existence
by Creation’s thought
Now on a world suspended
somewhere in stellar space
whirling through creation
in an endless race
are we filled with wonder
are we filled with awe
do we dare consider
what we’re living for
Why worship mere possessions
when nothing can be owned
why set upon each other
when we all share one home
what lies are we believing
why hate because of race
together on this speck of dust
somewhere in deep dark space
I feel the positive thinking should come before the initiated
” cause ” , then the likely result could be the wanted positive
” effect ” . The dream comes first then the action is provided and the the result will arrive .
I just cannot see how a universe could evolve if it had to supply a crutch for it’s sensors every time they got into a little bit of a bind ; the universe has to be neutral and that means total non interference with it’s sensors ( us ) . We the sensors need to experience ” ALL ” that can be experienced , this means both the positive and the negative and that does not mean you kiss someone and then slap their face . Of course all things cannot be experienced in one lifetime hence the need for reincarnation .
The best way is to be the navigator and use the helm to pass between the rocks of life and the course needs to be a little port and a little starboard to see ( experience ) the rocks but that does not mean to run into them . In other words we need to be both a little positive and a little negative in life and use those polarizations as the need arises . But we don’t need to go overboard . All our experiences if true becomes knowledge and then wisdom which is downloaded into the storage banks and this is how the universe evolves and why we need to exist . That’s my take on it . So I’m thinking new age nonsense , religion , government and corporate incompetence and suppression should be deconstructed .
Idea, thought = Consiousness springs into cells, cells make up a body as selves make up a world. Worlds make up a universe and it is all connected each part inately aware of the other. So is it true to say “Universe/Creation, that part of you that I am?” and all that because “Creation” had/is an idea.
Oops , I forgot all the UFO nonsense too , that does not mean everything UFO is nonsense but I can see that some of it is rubbish .
When I use the term universe , please take it as creation too . Synonymous .
universe , creation , creational does not need the use of capital letters as it’s neutral .
What is this ? cells make up a world ; cells are biological , it would safer to say all stuff is atomic and sub quantum particles and of course all is of the universe / creational .Everything evolves from energy , fine matter , course matter and back out to where it began ( The cycle of life ) and on and on until the universe sleeps .
“everything may be cause and effect”…but… here’s some of my personal experience with all this:
I already have seen a couple of different types of UFOs “up close” … Also, I actually had an “abduction type experience” …might have been your Pleiadians (they were beautiful human types)…I could tell they were shocked that I was “awake, and aware of them, etc.” I don’t think they expected that… I got sent back “rather abruptly with no communication…got a brief look at some of the interior of their ship, though.” (I think this was either 4th/5th dimensional body…etheric or astral, I was in, etc….for those of you who know about such things…which body I was in was not “very important to me” at the time, in view of the “surprise of the whole experience,” etc.) I was in the “what the hell is this” thinking mode. I usually just go along with experiences like this…when I “roam” in the other “states of conciousness,” etc.
I am “a potent psychic”…travel “out of body” in other dimensions…Astral Plane (and much more…many times and levels)…
I don’t doubt that “some of the Meier stuff” is authentic… I pretty much know that there exists “all kinds of stuff” out there/in there…but “I’m not necessarily buying that “they are good!”
I’ve had experiences “with very powerful negative entity types” who can MAKE YOU EXPERIENCE ANYTHING THEY WANT…so I keep an “open mind” as to “who’s who and what their agenda might be.” (the Satan stuff…I think that’s “true,” and some if not much of the UFO stuff “is them!”) (after-all they are supposed to be “not too far below God in knowledge and power”)
I believe in “good and evil” and “angels”…Jesus got me out of a “terrible state of a “horrible and terrifying “out of body-travel experience jam,”” I once found myself in …just called HIM and “from horror into heaven-like” in the “blink of an eye,” so-to-speak…also, have met “my angel and other angels” on several occasions…(with the “good,” it has been my experience, that there is a “good certainty feel to the contact,”…this is “rather straight-forward and conclusive”…so, I don’t doubt it’s “my angel” who I’m in contact with, etc…. With the “negative entities” I’ve encountered (even more contacts)…THEYoften have the “opposite effect,” – SO, I DON’T DOUBT THEY ARE NEGATIVE…(it’s pretty easy for me to tell good from bad out there/in there, especially…it’s a good bad feeling/vibration kind of thing!)
so, I HEAVILY TAKE ISSUE WITH YOU ABOUT “non spiritual” states being the “only level of existence” …you may have “advanced technology UFO’s”… but EXXON can impress the “ignorant remote (up a remote backwater in the Amazon type) tribes,” because they “want to build a refinery in that part of the jungle”…BUT IT DON’T MAKE THEM GOOD!
(meaning…just because someone is more technologically advanced than you doesn’t “make them good!” THERE ARE LOTS OF “PEOPLE WHO ARE MORE ADVANCED SPIRITUALLY”…in that jungle… “than many in Exxon/and the United States” (who are greatly more advanced them those “technologically primitive jungle natives!”)
you have “to be careful” in all this New Age stuff…I explore “almost all of it” from “every slant”…I get “useful stuff” from “all systems” even “though I may “not subscribe” to their MAIN THEMES, etc.
see my “New Age” Page on my website: dimestop.com
for more info…will be posting much on “psychic stuff…later on”
flashrob
PS. I did like the Maier “stuff on lower-density” material reality… it cleared up some issues for me about the “Astral realm”…you don’t call it that…you characterize this level of experience as… “something to the effect” of being a “sub-perceivable level” of the physical realm”… and that it is not perceivable by “our normal physical sensory equipment”…
AT THE LEVELS you are speaking of…it’s mostly “just semantics” to me, FOR ALL PRACTICAL PURPOSES…so, some of your take was “very useful” to me…but THAT STILL DOESN’T MEAN I SUBSCRIBE TO YOUR “NOTHING SPIRITUAL EXISTS” OVERALL THEME…
THAT TO ME IS A LOT OF “HOKUM” and “you are suspect to me” of being aligned with “dark forces…” WHETHER YOU HAVE “LIGHT-SHIPS” OR NOT…
are you having a problem with my post???
flashrob
Well, now that you ask…yes and no. The no part is that it’s not a problem for me. The yes part is that it seems to me to be indicative of some form of delusion and mental illness, if you’re really serious about your claims. If you could establish the reality of any and all of the stuff (such as you put in quotation marks) – or perhaps if you told us you were joking – it would be another matter worthy of discussion.
Perhaps meditating on one of my little songs from 1987 would help clear your psychic sinuses:
New Age Blues
You got affirmations you practice patience
you visualize and you chant
but down beneath like a little thief
the belief still says I can’t
so you blame reality ’cause duality’s
always got somethin’ up it’s sleeve
well the joke’s on you your aura too
better take your karma and leave
New age blues someone dropped your crystal
new age blues better get a metaphysical
new age blues new age blues
I don’t wanna hear ‘bout your energy
While you seek enlightenment your uptightenment’s
drivin’ your friends away
in your search for meanin’ your cosmic schemin’
you’ve forgotten how to play
there’s so much anxiety to your piety
you’re givin’ love a bad name
may I suggest lower consciousness
and give us all a break
New age blues your ‘theric bod won’t travel
new age blues it’s ‘cause you’re stuck up in your astral
new age blues new age blues
I don’t wanna hear ‘bout your energy
You got some real bad news heard that your guru’s
tryin’ to get in everyone’s pants
now what do you do you’re still stuck with you
well that’s the name of this dance
but if you let love speak you won’t need technique
‘cause love always knows the way
stop tryin’ to be happy you won’t feel so crappy
everything will be okay
New age blues hey babe you celibate still
new age blues no wonder you’re so m’sble
new age blues anybody wanna network
new age blues sure beats tryin’ to get work
new age blues new age blues I don’t wanna hear ‘bout your new age blues
This ““NOTHING SPIRITUAL EXISTS” ” is nowhere stated or implied in my post.
Hi, Michael (heard you on “c to c.” recently)
thought you were “nixing my post” (because of the length of time it took in getting posted, etc.) or thought “it could have been someone from “my connections” preventing” it…I get stopped sometimes, when I try to do stuff…)
anyway, years, ago, I looked at some of Billy Meier’s stuff on the web. The UFO photos, closeups were the “best I have ever seen.” …this was with the exception of 3 actual close up experiences I’ve had… same boomerang type flew right over my house (about 2 years apart)…was a bit startled…but with all the stuff I have experienced…I wasn’t too surprised…(kind of got the impression that they “somehow telepathically let me know they were maybe surveying” and swung by to show me, etc.” like I had a “terrific urge to go out and have a cigarette” right in the middle of doing the dishes…which I usually wouldn’t do until I finished the dishes first…(not aware of any msg or anything…just, I wouldn’t have seen the craft if I hadn’t been outside “at the moment it was passing” (haven’t a clue as to who/what it might have been…was “pretty neat” though…can go into detail narrative “some other time.”)
first other close up “gigantic (block-sized) dull black egg shaped”…decades ago that happened …way before I became psychic or interested in any of this stuff…(colored lights rotating…thought it was a “blimp” going to crash….) …had binoculars…in open convertible with buddy…going out to car hop to check out babes, etc. (not interested in ufo or psychic stuff back then… didn’t know or care anything about the subject…hardly ever even heard anything about stuff like that then …about 40 years ago…)
(one other was the abduction experience I described…and that one I was never sure about…saw those same people in an “ancient Atlantis type “out of body experience” (they came for me when I was in trouble (no ship that time…just floated down to me thru ceiling)…don’t know what that was “all about” either…)
on the “spiritual” …it wasn’t from you’re article …but from this: which appears to be a “major post” of Meier philosophy…clearing stating “no supernatural” which I take to mean “psychic and or spiritual also”…and since I frequently – or used to – travel “out of my body” and “personally knew others” who taught me some advanced stuff…and were “way beyond me in capability” …in fact one showed up, upon merely saying she was in response to my telepathic request for help (with a real human being, for a change). (I never expected that would happen, was just kind of muttering “under my breath” (had requested it because the supernatural contacts were “too awing and intimidating.”) She told me, they were keeping “an eye on me” …but never explained why me, and who “they were”…other than to say…had something to do a lot with “one of my past lives.” …and told me “don’t go looking into that… even if you figure out how… would cause me “big problems” she said…
anyway, here’s the link to the “Meier blog philosophy” about “no supernatural” (maybe we’re just talking semantics here) …but “out of body” and some of the other stuff (like angels)… …I basically “define that as supernatural and or spiritual!” so I was kind of surprised that the “Meier philosophy seemed to be calling “all this” just “kind of super-material”…
I know it’s “fine matter” in the 4th dim (NDE, etheric, earthlike)…5th dim (astral plane…and dream state for typical non-psychic human)…but, my take is, that there is like a “spiritual barrier” quite a bit above that…
…anyway some of the “beings I encounter” well, they are “very powerful” and “do stuff” with me/to me…that goes “off the scale”…(example: waking visions…they seem to know what they are doing…and give me this “subtle look” like: “do I get who/what I am dealing with” …I think I amuse them somewhat…
http://www.theyfly.com/lost/Archives/meiersb38finematter.htm
look at this link from my webpage…give you some idea of what I been into for many years…
http://www.dimestop.com/NewAge.html
I’m writing quickly, and not in a “polished style” so that varies with me…just saw your response here, and wanted to get something out to you…
so, thanks Michael…
regards,
flashrob
Michael…one last point…I never “had a guru…” was never interested in the “new age.”…Never belonged to any movement or group…
My experiences, when they started, WERE MASSIVE …all of a sudden…multidimensional, repetitive, varying, started getting “contacts” that I took to be both dark, light…SEVERAL TIMES A WEEK…
before this happened… I COULD CARE LESS ABOUT THE “NEW AGE”…it didn’t “even exist” back in the “late sixties/early seventies” when all this started for me, and continued for years…
until I PRAYED for “it to stop”…I was a guy “chasing girls” in bars…riding a motorcycle and sports-cars were “my thing”…NOT UFOS AND NEW AGE…didn’t interest me in the slightest…
so, I wasn’t someone “in wishful thinking” …and some of the “possession stuff” was “really intimidating and frightening”…I REALLY DIDN’T WANT ANY PART OF THIS…when I found out “some of the things/entities/beings” that seemed to be “NOTICING ME” in my fledgling amateur “initial” explorations into “out of body travel”…(this was just “cool stuff” like riding a motorcycle…of having “hot sex” on the astral plane…some nice babes there…if that’s what they are…)
so, I WAS NOT SOME “NEW AGE WANNABE”….which you seem to think or “assume” is “par for the course.”
all thru this for forty years I worked in “management, customer service, engineering, hi-tech computing…
take a look at “my general website” and what I’m into…besides my “single new age page.”
does that look like someone having delusions…
…”what’s your level of experience…by-the-way?” is it more than…seeing a few ufo’s …is it more than: “you have just bought into an “intellectual” only concept…
I did “direct experience” …not just bought into someone else’s convincing theory or movement…I just use reason “to explain it here”…
regards,
flashrob
Strange, phenomenalistic stuff going on does nothing “spiritual” make. Throwing terms like “multidimensonal”, “out of body travel”, “4th dim”, “astral plane”, etc. establishes nothing, since these are completely SUBJECTIVE, vague descriptions…accompanied by NOTHING of substance, usefulness, or value to anyone and certainly not to humanity as a whole.
Because you are completely unfamiliar with the unique, highly specific, intelligent, thought provoking information and teaching in the Meier case you can’t see the qualitative difference between psychobabble and supreme substance.
If you’d like the last word you can have it but sorry, I won’t be posting any more rambling irrelevancies, since you’ve had the chance to post more than your fair share. However, if at any time you can provide actual, verifiable, substantiated evidence for your particular dream feel free to submit it.
Michael,
It looks like the subject of discussion has sparked quite some interest and controversy. It’s good to see intelligent dialog on a blog.
Andre,
Thanks, although you may have…spoken too soon! However, i hope that the balance will remain in favor of intelligent dialog, so feel free to continue to contribute your thought provoking comments and challenges.
thank you