How it is

We have all kinds of ideas about how it is and how it should be.We look at the environment, the ecology, the economy and we grow concerned: this is not how it should be. We look at the people in our lives and grow annoyed: this is not how they should be.We polarize and point fingers, inventing outrageous stories of offenses and hold these invented things against one another: it's their fault that the world is falling apart; it's their fault I can't find a job; it's their fault that people like me are struggling.We hold other people accountable for our own unhappiness: if only she would listen to me; if only he were more open-minded, open-hearted.Here’s how it really is: the world we see is a reflection of the world we carry inside of ourselves. Though it may appear to you that the world is falling apart, there is someone else right next door, who experiences the world as a divine playground.Who is right? Who is wrong? How should things be?Our beliefs about ‘how it is’ are mostly invented illusions picked up from our culture, from our parents, from other people's ideas about how it is.Which is really good news - because if we picked up these illusions (beliefs), we can pick up these other, shinier ones, too. In other words, we can change our beliefs; which will change our ideas about the world and how it is; and that will change the world for us.To do this, we test our ideas and beliefs with the same questions we'd use on anything we’re not sure of: Is this true? What evidence do I use to support that it's true?  Is this the way that I want things to be? Is it resonant for me?And if we find that we are holding a belief or story that's not true or is not the way that we want things to be, we can make a different choice - a choice toward what is true, toward alignment with the world in which we REALLY live: a world shimmering with love.There is a secret spiritual principle hidden here: the world that you see is the world that you believe you will see. In other words, we project the world with our consciousness. This is why two people, witnessing the same event - a job loss, for example- will experience it differently. One sees it as a catastrophe while the other sees it as an opportunity.In other words: we have a choice.Each of us is responsible  - and in charge 0f - what happens in the 'world' of our own lives; and each of our 'worlds' is connected to the wholeness; and, to a source of divine love so pure and so forgiving that there is, at the most essential level, only love. This foundational principle puts us in touch with the core of divinity - and tender humanity - in ourselves and every person we encounter.And it helps us to choose toward - and to believe in - a world of love.By testing our beliefs and making the choice toward love we reveal the world of love that we have hidden from ourselves with our false ideas about how it is and how it should be.When this world is revealed, we naturally and easily shift toward it  - and this shifts our lives and the world - from shadow to light, from 'how it is' to 'how I choose it to be.' In this way, we take author-ship of our own story; creating a world of love.Seth Godin and I seem to be on the same page. This is his version of what I'm talking about.