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Eleven
Laws That Lift You to the Next Life Level... There can
be no starting place in your life any truer than what
your own awareness of the present moment permits. Your
life direction, your actual destiny, is determined by the
level of your awareness that attends the full range of
each step you take. Think of each of the following eleven
laws as individual magic strands of a flying carpet. Make
it your aim to weave them together in your mind. Then
watch how these lessons combine to effortlessly lift you
to a higher and happier life level.
The First Law - Nothing can stop you from
starting over. The greatest power you possess for
succeeding in life is your understanding that life gives
you a fresh start any moment you choose to start fresh.
Nothing that stood in your way even a heartbeat before
stands there now in the same way. It's all new, even if
you can't as yet see it that way. You've only to test the
truth of this fact about the newness of life to discover
the incredible freedom that waits for you just behind it.
And then nothing can stop you. You'll know the real
secret and the perfect power of starting over.
The Second Law - Don't be afraid to see when
something doesn't work. Learn to be sensitive and to
listen to the inner signals that try and tell you when
something isn't working. You know what they are
frustration and resentment to name just a few. The
presence of these emotional troubles aren't trying to
tell you that you can't succeed, only that the road
you've insisted upon taking so far doesn't lead where you
want. Learning to admit when something isn't working is
the same as teaching yourself what will.
The Third Law - If it doesn't flow, there's more
to know. Learn to recognize all forms of strain --
whether at work, in your creative efforts, or in your
relationships -- as being unnecessary. The friction you
feel mounting when busy at some labor is never caused by
the task at hand, but by what you don't yet know about it.
This means the only real reason for your strain is that
you've got hold of a wrong idea you don't yet see as
wrong. This new insight allows you to release yourself by
showing you what you need to know. Flowing follows your
new knowing.
The Fourth Law - Don't take the easy way. There's
no getting away from what you don't know, which is why
any time you feel compelled to go around a problem by
taking the easy way, that problem always comes round
again. And isn't that what makes life seem so hard? Learn
to see the "easy way" as a lying thought that
keeps you tied up and doing hard time. Getting something
over is not the same as having it completed. And as this
insight grows, so will your understanding that the whole
idea of the "hard way" has always been just a
lying thought as well. Now you know: the complete way is
the easy way. So volunteer to make the "hard way"
your way and learn the real easy way.
The Fifth Law - On the other side of the
resistance is the flow. There are often times when it
feels as though you can't go any farther in your work or
studies. But you can learn to go beyond any blockage.
Make the following clear to yourself. Those moments, when
it feels as though you're least able to get beyond
yourself, are not telling you that you've gone as far as
you can go, but only reveal that you've reached as far as
you know
for now. This higher self-knowledge about
your true inner position allows you to see the resistance
you're feeling for what it really is: a threshold, and
not a closed door. Walk through it. Nothing can stop you.
On the other side of the resistance is the flow. Learning
to go beyond you is the same as entering into the new.
The Sixth Law - Watch for the opportunity to learn
something new. Everything is changing all the time. That
means life is an endless occasion for learning something
new. But this means more than meets the eye. Just as
you're a part of everything, everything is a part of you.
The whole of life is connected. And your ability to learn
is part of the wonder of this complete, but ever-changing
whole. Learning serves as a window, not only into the
complex world you see around you, but through it you may
also look into the you that's busy looking into the world.
And when you've learned there's no end to what you can
see about the amazing worlds spinning both around and
within you, you'll also know there's no end to you. So
stay awake. Learn something new every day. You'll love
how that makes you feel about yourself.
The Seventh Law - Learn to see conclusions as
limitations. If you approach the possibilities of
learning about your life as being limitless, which they
are, then it follows that any conclusion you reach about
yourself has to be an unseen limitation. Why? Because
there's always more to see. For instance, let yourself
see that all conclusions are illusions when it comes to
the security they promise. There may be security in a
prison, but there are also no choices behind its
confining walls. Learn to see all conclusions about
yourself as invisible cells
for that's what they
are. The seeming security these conclusions offer are a
poor substitute for the real security of knowing that who
you really are is always free to be something higher.
The Eighth Law - Have no fear about being afraid.
Fear can't learn, which is why you must learn about fear
if you ever wish to be a fearless learner. So, the first
thing you must learn is how to get past your fear of
being afraid. Here's how: The next time a fear of some
kind tries to fill one of your moments, try to see the
difference between the fact of your situation and your
feelings about it. This is the right use of your mind.
For instance, it's a fact that interest rates change.
It's not a fact you have to get scared when they do. That
fear is not a fact of life, but only becomes one for you
as long as you insist that life perform according to what
you think are your best interests. As you learn to see
that these fearful feelings don't belong to you, but only
to your wrong thinking, you cease to be afraid, even of
your own fears.
The Ninth Law - Never accept defeat. As long as
it's possible to learn, you need never feel tied down by
any past defeat in your life. Here's the real fact:
Nothing can prevent the inwardly self-educating man or
woman from succeeding in life. And here's why: Wisdom
always triumphs over adversity. But to win real wisdom
calls you to join in a special kind of struggle. And if
this battle had a banner under which to rally, here's
what would be written upon that higher call to arms:
"But I can find out!" Yes, you can learn the
facts. You may not understand how you could have been
blind to that evil person's real intentions, but take
these four words that are freedoms battle cry: I
can find out. Use them to defeat what's defeating you.
The Tenth Law - Learn to let go of painful
pretense. Most people approach their troubles with one of
these two non-solutions: they either pretend their
problem isn't a problem, or they pretend they've solved
their troubles with temporary cover-ups. Either way,
their pain remains. It doesn't have to be this way for
you. You can learn to let go of painful pretense. Here's
how: When facing an old problem, what you don't want is
another "new way" to deal with it. What you
really want is to learn something new about the true
nature of what has a hold on you. To go far, start near.
When faced with any pain, let go of what you think you
know. Act towards your trouble as if you don't know
anything about it. This new solution is the only true
one, because the truth is you don't know what the real
problem is
otherwise you wouldn't still have it.
Letting go of what you think you know puts you in the
right place for learning what you need to know.
The Eleventh Law - Persistence always prevails. If
you'll persist with your sincere wish for higher
learning, you can't help but succeed. Persistence always
prevails because part of its power is to hold you in
place until either the world lines up with your wish, or
you see that your wish is out of line. But, for whichever
way it turns in that moment, you've won something that
only persistence can pay. See the following: If you get
what you think you need to have to be happy, and you're
still not satisfied, then you've learned what you don't
want. Now you can go on to higher things. And should you
learn you've been wearing yourself out with useless
wishes, then this discovery allows you to turn your
energies in a new direction: self liberation.
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