We wake up from our sleep, and greet the day. We dress, have our breakfast, and head out for work. We experience the beehive of activity around us, and perceive it as somehow external to our own selves. At one point, we see people we know and the activities they are engaged in, and yet still we sense that their domain is somehow apart and outside of our direct influence. As we gaze out on the proceedings, we perceive that life seems to simply unfold on its own -- independent of our ability to influence and control it.
Finally, that morning, we come upon things that we do seem to hold sway over. E.g., an email arrives, and we know it has come in response to an earlier inquiry we made of that person. I.e., we initiated an act, which was in turn perceived by another, who then reacted in kind, and precipitated the message that arrived in our inbox. This is our normally accepted view of how life works -- i.e. the obvious, practical, material, mechanistic view of how circumstance unfold.
Then there are other outcomes in life that seem to have a very different and unusual dynamic. We recall sometime last week that we received a phone call informing us that we have been invited to bid on a very important new contract, when it was plain as day that we never initiated that inquiry. This fortuitous event clearly descended upon us on its own, from seemingly out of nowhere. But did it? If we think back on what took place, we will see that there was a direct relationship between our psychological condition at the time, and the sudden arrival of this most fortunate circumstance. But what was that condition, and how did it precipitate this out-of-the-blue result?
You then recall that at one point before this great opportunity arrived, you had changed your attitude about getting involved in this sort of work. For the longest time, you were opposed to offering these sorts of services, even though it utilized skills you already had. But then when you thought over the matter, you saw the light, and thus had a change of heart. In fact, now as you contemplate how that incident unfolded, you realize that your shift in consciousness occurred the day before this great opportunity unexpectedly arrived on your doorstep. Hmmm, you wonder aloud, perhaps there really is a connection!
Then you recall a friend’s remark that there is a direct correspondence between your inner, psychological state, and the conditions of life around you. Moreover, he said that if you shift that position to the positive, life will instantly respond in kind. You recollect that he referred to this as “the principle of inner-outer correspondence.” As you further reflect on the incident, it becomes abundantly clear that when you shifted your attitude from reluctance to acceptance of this type of work, life immediately responded and offered you the project of your dreams.
After coming to terms with these startling insights, you return to the ordinary chores of the day. However, just before you begin that effort, you stop and ask yourself, “does it really have to be ordinary?" Can’t I experience these serendipitous-like events throughout the day?” Suddenly, it dawns on you that instead of merely perceiving the obvious cause and effect events, today you will focus your attention on the more subtle movements of life: in particular, the sudden onset of positive conditions. In addition, you will watch to see how changes you made in consciousness precipitated them.
You then recall several methods for bringing about these sorts of miraculous-like results from a book you read on the subject of “life response.” You remember that the simplest approach for eliciting these startling outcomes is to look around, and see how you can improve the physical condition of your environment. When you then go ahead and make a determined effort to straighten out your desk, as well as sort out all of the files and folders in your drawers, not two minutes later, you receive word from a client that a long-delayed, critical payment has arrived! Once again, you are startled by the instantaneous power you have to change the outer conditions of life from within. You shift some aspect of your being, and, voila!, life on the outside -- which has no obvious connection to what has just transpired on your end -- instantly responds in kind!
You then recall another principle mentioned in the book -- this one involving the enormous power we unleash when we focus our intention in life. As a result, you decide to concentrate on completing a software manual that you have long neglected. And what do you know, within five minutes of completing a large portion of that work, an order comes in for that very same application! It strikes you as a particularly stunning development when you consider the fact that you offer a number of different products. It is even more startling when you add the fact there had not been a single sale for this particular software application in the past six months!
As a result of these startling outcomes, you begin to perceive a subtle shift in the rhythm and orientation of your life. You sense a new understanding taking hold -- a new dynamic in how you approach life, and what you expect out of it. It is now patently clear that what is unfolding around you is indeed a reflection of your inner condition. That life not only responds at the obvious material/mechanical level, but at the subtle, non-material level as well.
Now you step back for a moment and look at the bigger picture, and begin to reflect on the entire arc of your life. Here too you begin to see things in a new light. In particular, you wonder if the successes and failures you have had along the way were directly attributable to your inner condition at the time. As you strain to recall your past history, trying to match important outcomes to your thoughts and feelings at the time, you begin to have one revelation after another. Through the haze of time, you make the connection in two critical instances: one in which you committed to hard work, which instantly attracted a dramatic business opportunity that completely turned your life around; and in another where you committed to paying off an old debt to a friend, that instantly attracted an offer that changed your living situation forever.
You also think back to the negative circumstances that descended on you along the way; and here to you clearly see the correspondences – i.e. how your wanting attitudes and beliefs precipitated several unfortunate outcomes. In one case, your see that the hostility you felt towards another individual immediately attracted an abusive boss. In another, you recall how a lack of psychological strength kept you tethered to a single agent, whose clutches you were unable to break out of. You then perceive the possibility that had you only reversed your consciousness in those situations, life would have quickly dissolved the negative, and replaced it with a positive!
Now you begin to see the warp and weft of your life: the thread of circumstances that reflected your inner condition at the time. Then a new thought enters your mind, as it suddenly dawns on you, “but what about the present: how does inner-outer correspondence apply to what is happening to me today?” And so you then begin to think about recent events in light of this new understanding. Immediately, you perceive why an important pending project has failed to materialize. It becomes painfully clear how certain limiting beliefs on your part were preventing the project from coming to fruition. It also dawns on you why negative developments unexpectedly emerged during a conversation you had with a colleague last week. You see the corresponding wanting attitude there as well.
Now at every turn, you are able to correlate positive and negative outer circumstances to corresponding qualities inside yourself -- to your attitudes and beliefs, to the level of your intention, and to the capacity to exercise psychological strength, amongst others. As a result, you now make a pact with yourself to be vigilant, and examine what is in your heart and mind whenever positive and negative conditions come your way.
Then another insight takes hold -- one that takes you into an entirely new domain of understanding. You realize that if you were more conscious and aware of what was going on in the first place as these situations unfolded, you would have been able to make the right decisions that would have avoided onsets of the negative, while still attracting the positive. But how can one be conscious and aware in a given moment if we are caught up in the flow of life; when our consciousness is dominated by the intensities of circumstance unfolding around us? It then occurs to you that if you had more of an inward orientation, you would not only be more mindful of situation as they unfolded, but you would be “detached” and more equal in the faces of life’s challenges.
You then have one final insight, which comes to you in a flash. You perceive that not only do outer circumstances instantly change when you shift your consciousness within, but that the outer and the inner are really one and the same thing! I.e what you perceive as your own self and what is outside yourself, are not two separate divisions of reality, but rather share a continuous stream of existence. In other words, the inner you and the outer world are One. That would in turn suggest that the entire universe is at one’s disposal from within. Or, to put it another way, that the entire cosmos resides within one’s own self!
As the day passes into evening, you continue revel in these profound, cosmic-like thoughts. Later on as you sit there propped up in bed, you wonder what it all means, and how you can use this knowledge in a practical way. A moment later, as these thoughts begin to fade, a gentle smile forms on your lips, and a light washes over your face. Soon thereafter, your eyelids grow heavy, and you drift off into a dreamless sleep.
The next morning when you awake, you recall the new vision you had the day before. It dawns on you that you now have an infinite power at your disposal -- one that can be used to quickly elicit powerful positive circumstance from life. After arising from your bed, you walk over to the window and gaze out on the lovely hills in the distance. Now as you are warmed by the morning sun, you realize that you have taken a decisive turn in your life: that you have come upon the shores of a New Way of Living.
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