Eleven Laws of Spiritual Freedom
by Guy Finley
The only thing that holds us down is what we don't yet know about ourselves. This
insight explains why our ability to learn the truth about ourselves, to
increase our level of self-understanding, is the same as being
empowered to raise our own life level. If we want to grow inwardly, we
must find new ways to learn the truth about ourselves. These higher
discoveries call for higher learning. If it helps, look upon this
important part of your inner education as a way to better understand
what's been keeping you from learning.
Think
of each of the following eleven laws of spiritual prosperity 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 the next 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 with 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 jail 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 of 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 know the real reasons why you feel so lonely or
worried at times, but you can find out. And you may not understand how
you could have been so blind to that evil person's real intentions, but
you can find out. Take these four words that are freedom's battle cry.
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. But 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 have 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.