In my mentorship program, I require participants to write down their personal version of Heaven on Earth. It isn’t the same for any two people. But there is a harmony among them. There’s never a case where one person’s Heaven on Earth would prevent another from having their Heaven on Earth. That’s how I know they’ve tapped into something true.
After writing their Heaven on Earth, I ask them to write about their reality. The difference is huge. I learn a lot about them. I learn what brings them joy. I also learn what’s currently bringing them pain and suffering. If they’ve been involved in New Age or Eastern religions, they’ll have a hard time writing this document. They’ve become quite good at ignoring their desires or making them bad. If they’ve been in western religion, they have lots of desires, but their reality is not even close. Often they’re embarrassed by the desires; they think they don’t deserve them. Or they think they’ll get them when they die if they go to the Heaven sold by religion.
In some cases, their mind and emotions work for them. When they read their Heaven on Earth, they feel calm and peaceful. Life feels right. When they read their reality statement, they feel emotional and powerless. Their emotions are pointing to the beliefs that are causing this gap. The True Self would have no gap between reality and Heaven unless it’s a fun gap. It also wouldn’t have emotional agitation.
When we understand this, we see how religion and spiritual teachings make people miserable. They’re pushing Heaven away from earth by causing people to believe that their desires are imaginary, wrong, or impossible. Most people are basking on the fringes of hell while telling themselves that they’re almost in heaven. Spiritual and miserable are close cousins in the illusion. Most people don’t see this, but they would if they watched themselves talk.
Defeat or Drop
The illusion looks very powerful and impossible to defeat for most of us. Some people achieve success by finding a crack. Others have strong wills and win a battle or two. But nobody wins the war. The illusion eventually kills us all. It’s impossible to defeat the illusion by fighting it. No one has ever won that war, and no one ever will. However, it’s possible to forget the illusion — to not believe it exists. And when enough of us do that, it won’t exist anymore for anyone. Earth will be Heaven again.
There are some big beliefs that fuel the notion that our dreams are impossible or imaginary, and our reality is painfully true. The main one is that people think thoughts that generate emotion are true, when they are actually false. This keeps us all living like salmon trying to jump upstream. It’s hard work. I wouldn’t want to be a salmon.
With each of these false statements below, notice that they aren’t win-win for everyone. Either some people must lose, or everyone must lose. Also, if you pay attention to your emotions, you’ll see they’re false beliefs. If they do feel good, look for some sneaky-ass pride telling you that you’re good for having this belief. Or see if you’re labeling the emotion excitement.
It’s Too Good to be True
It’s easier to see how disgusting this statement really is when you look at the opposite. “If it’s really bad and I’ll hate it, It’s true.” We often say things like “It’s Too Good to be True” to make ourselves seem humble. If we were all shining brightly, no one would be humble. Only arrogant people will tell us that we need to be humble. Only those who want company in their misery will tell us that “It’s Too Good to be True.” If something feels calm and peaceful, it’s true. We don’t need to prove that to anyone.
Hard Work is a Virtue
Most of us in America have ye olde Puritan Ethic. We’re embarrassed or labeled lazy if something comes to us easily.
In common conversations, normal people whine, complain, blame, or look for justification, praise, or support for their “life is hard work” point of view. No wonder many of us would rather be alone on an island. If hard work was virtuous, it would make us happy and joyful too.
After letting go for a while, I didn’t have anything to complain about. People didn’t notice. They just saw my silence as more air time for them to bitch. After awhile, I decided there was no value in many relationships. I couldn’t see that when I was complaining half of the time. Normal crappy relationships looked like friendship.
I wondered what a real friendship looked like. I realized that I wanted to talk about fulfilling my dreams, creative ideas, and new things I learned. One day, it hit me. Those were things that I talked about when I was young. Maybe we get old and sick only because we keep accepting more and more of the illusion as true until it kills us.
Some Things Never Change
This statement screams level confusion. The True Self doesn’t change. All creative potential doesn’t need to change. The false self should continue to change along with the True Self, but as people get older, they usually resist change. A baby changes from week to week, children change from year to year. Adults change from decade to decade, and most old people don’t change at all. Then what’s the use of living anymore? So we don’t.
Think of some more of these widely accepted false beliefs, and let them go. If you notice yourself saying them, pay attention to why you said them. Close the hole in your false mind by letting go of the reason you said it. Do this enough, and the distance between your reality and your Heaven on Earth will shrink. Until one day, they gap will be gone.
