Molly writes:
"In physics and metaphysics, no fulcrum = no leverage. If you can’t repay a loan, you won’t profit from borrowing money. Push on a stick without a fulcrum, and, at best, you sink the stick in the mud.
"If you rely on the Law of Attraction to produce results without grounding your vision in current reality, no amount of positive thinking or visualization will be sufficient to get what you want."
So how do we ground ourselves in current reality? By noticing how we avoid responsibility for our own success or failure and by questioning the thoughts that contribute to avoidance. No amount of positive thinking has ever made my bookkeeping mess disappear, but inquiring into my stressful thoughts about it allows me to organize the pile of papers...if not exactly joyously (I'm convinced my left brain is the size of a pea), then at least with no resentment. (For me, the joy comes later; I feel so accomplished when my desk is in order!). When we clean up our minds, we are freer to clean up our lives, our businesses, our bodies. We leverage our strengths and we have more of a chance of getting what we want. That old saying, "God helps those that help themselves" turned out to be true; self-effort brings about awareness of the grace that is always freely given.
As Byron Katie says, "Just when you think your life can't get any better, it does. It has to; it's a law." For me that is the true Law of Attraction; "loving what is." I notice that when I live in happiness and gratitude, I am more proactive in doing the needful and my happiness and gratitude increase. When I am aware that I have everything I need and more in the moment, oftentimes more comes, unbidden.
This is not an attitude that can be or needs to be cultivated with vigilance; it's so much easier than that. Awareness borne out of the love of truth deepens as we practice self-inquiry. There is no need, as certain teachers of abundance suggest, to "fake it till you make it" or "act as if" because we already are what we seek, we already have what we believe we lack. After that, everything is a gift, even that which we think we don't want.
I love the legend Molly recounts in her article about the Tibetan saint Milarepa and his acceptance of the demons of greed, anger and fear. It is as Rumi said in his poem, "The Guesthouse" (as translated by Coleman Barks in The Essential Rumi):
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
There is another story I like to tell, about a monk who longed for a vision of the Divine Mother. He used spiritual LOA techniques—many years of severe yogic austerities. Instead of getting the vision he desired, he got enlightened instead and realized that everything he had ever wanted—plus things he didn't even know to ask for, riches greater than his mind could fathom—lived within him and always had.
Soon afterwards, the Goddess, who was very pleased with the monk, appeared to him in a dazzling vision. The monk was awestruck and grateful, his heart filled with divine love. Then he became momentarily puzzled.
"Oh Mother," the monk asked, "Why have you appeared to me now when I no longer need you?"
She answered, "My beloved son, I have appeared to you now because you no longer need me."
©2007 by Carol L. Skolnick. All rights reserved.
