Lifestream
Your Flow of Creative Living
© 1996, Carolyn Odom Burleson, Ph.D.
Session IV
Your "BE" Attitudes
“Nothing is either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
-William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Contents: (Click on any bar to return to contents.)
- Introduction
- Self Image, A Help or a Hindrance?
- Your Word is Your Bond
- The Cost of Anger
- Resist Not Evil
- The Value of Love
- The Attitude of Prayer
- Attitudes of Being
- Summary
- Other Workshop Sessions
- Flow with the Lifestream
Now that we have briefly explored the operation of mind, let us take a look at our own individual application of it. Are we making good use of this tremendous power that is ours?
As was stated previously, the level on the stream of consciousness where we function most of the time is the level of Subjective Evaluation. This is where we must begin our work, for it is on this level that we can change our attitudes, dispel our fears, clarify our values, expand our comfort zones and create a new, more productive self-image. So let us begin with an examination of our attitudes and how we see ourselves in relation to various areas of our lives.
According to Webster, an attitude is a state of mind or feeling with regard to a person or thing; a feeling, manner and behavior of a person toward a situation or cause; a position of the body or manner of carrying oneself, indicative of a mood or condition. So before we go further, take a few minutes to complete the statements on the worksheet on the following page.
Reviewing the statements you have made about yourself should give you a general picture of your self-image. Self-image is a combination of all the beliefs, attitudes and opinions we hold about every aspect of ourselves. It includes our own assumptions, evaluations and judgments we have made about what we can or cannot do. It also tells us what we should expect of ourselves and sets the limits of our comfort zones.
COMPLETE THESE STATEMENTS:
SELF-IMAGE, A HELP OR A HINDRANCE?
Let us now draw some lessons from the teachings of the Master Jesus, and make our own evaluations as to whether our belief system serves to help or hinder our growth. In his “Sermon on the Mount,” Jesus started out telling a whole multitude of people, “You are blessed.” He could not have possibly known all of those people to whom he spoke, but he did know that they each had a spark of divinity within them, and so they were blessed. It did not matter what condition their lives were in, what state of mind they were in, or how others treated them; they were blessed. This lesson was passed down to us in the form of the Beatitudes as a constant reminder that We too are blessed!
Now go back to where you have written your “I am” statements. As you read them over ask yourself, “Does this present the image of a blessed person?” If it does not, then your self-image needs some work. I want you now to rewrite each one of those statements, but this time, fill in “I am blessed because...” (Complete the statement) When you are finished you will have written an affirmation of Truth about yourself.
Read these affirmations aloud to yourself. Repeat each over and over until you have accepted it as your truth. When a situation arises that appears to be negative, do not let your thoughts dwell upon the negative condition (thoughts are creative). Tell yourself, “I am blessed because...”
In this same sermon Jesus told the people, ‘Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” From our discussion on the Law of Mind Action (Thoughts held in mind produce after their kind) we can easily see how Jesus demonstrated the fulfillment of the law. He held only the highest thoughts and was able to perform what many call miracles. They were not miracles in the sense that they set aside the law, but rather that they fulfilled the high purpose of the law. Jesus also promised us that the works that he did, we can do also, and even greater works - If we believe.
Look again at your self-image statements. Do these statements present the image of one capable of fulfilling the high purpose of the law? If not, your self-image needs to be lifted up. Right now write an affirmation for yourself - one that expresses your highest purpose imaginable, the fulfillment of GOD'S law. Now read it back to yourself aloud. Practice using it whenever you feel yourself to be unworthy of any good.
The Master Jesus admonishes us not to swear, but simply give our word, and it will serve as our bond; and indeed it does. We bond ourselves to our thoughts by speaking them. How often have you told yourself, “I can remember faces, but names escape me.” or “I can't help it; that’s just the way I am. I can't stop.” or “This is too hard; I just can’t do it.” or “I have no control over anything.”
My question to you is: Does the way you are serve you well, or is it a hindrance to what you want to achieve in life? Do you want to continue being a helpless victim of life? If not, then make another choice. Our power of choice is a gift from God. Use it wisely. Friends, we can just as easily bond ourselves to positive thoughts to negative ones. We simply have to repeat the positive thoughts and statements enough times until they become a habit and replace the negative ones. At that point we know that we have fed them into our subconscious mind which will do the remainder of the work for us. Our thoughts are treasures. We must lay them up in heaven, and cherish them; for where our treasures are, there will our hearts be also. And from there will our minds work for our good rather than our detriment.
The Master Jesus taught that anger puts us in danger of the judgment. We must be aware that Jesus ministered in the spirit of the law to the minds of men. Anger is a negative thought, and negative thoughts are of a low state of consciousness. When we are angry, a surge of energy wells up in us and charges these negative thought patterns with extra force which feed very quickly and deeply into our subconscious mind. These negative thought patterns can take form in any array of behavior resulting from fear, resentment, and mistrust of people, not to mention physical ailments such as ulcers, hypertension, heart disease, even cancer.
We cannot expend energy without paying the cost. If our energy is expended in a negative manner, the cost will have a negative effect upon us internally, because all of that venom has to pass through us first before it can be sent out to someone else. And so, we reap the harvest of our own wrath. When we give someone a “piece of our mind,” what we have actually given up is our “Peace of Mind.” This, dear friends, is the danger of the judgment. We must first examine our own willingness to forgive someone, for we cannot come to the alter of our higher consciousness harboring anger and resentment. These lower nature thoughts will short circuit our connection with the higher consciousness that lies within us. We cannot serve two masters. Our thoughts cannot dwell on two levels at once. In order to attune to the higher realm we must first make peace with our brother/sister. We must first transmute those thoughts of anger into thoughts of love. moreover if we keep our thoughts directed toward the higher consciousness we will not allow thoughts of a lower nature to take control of us. The higher always prevails over the lower.
Once we acknowledge the anger, then we must be willing to release it so that our Higher Consciousness can purify our thoughts. Daily affirmations are excellent tools for redirecting our thoughts away from anger toward the Higher Self. This is a sure way of following the advice of the Master Jesus to “Agree with thine adversary, quickly.” I view the “adversary” from a little different perspective from most people. I see the adversary as representing our own conscience who opposes us when we are tempted to think negatively or to commit a wrong act. Jesus taught that we should align ourselves with that in us that urges us to be just and forgiving in our thoughts and actions. When we resist our conscience, we invariably wish we had not; for then we are not only confronted with the adverse effect of our actions, but also with internal feelings of regret, guilt, sorrow, and the like.
I believe the Master Jesus was saying “Listen to that Still Small Voice, and do so as soon as you hear it whisper to you.” When we act in harmony with our inner urgings we find that our lives run rather smoothly, because we have put ourselves into the flow of the Lifestream of God. However, when we are out of harmony with our inner-selves we attract inharmonious circumstances into our experience. We throw ourselves into a prison of despair and remain there until the uttermost Farthing is paid, i.e. until we learn to assume an attitude of right thinking. This can be a bitter but necessary lesson, but when we agree and get on the right side of our conscience we also agree with the words of Kahlil Gibran, "Mine enemy said to me, 'Love thine enemy,' and I obeyed him and loved myself."
Resistance is an opposing force, and non-resistance is a non-opposing force, but a force none-the-less. It is a force that goes not against the stream of life but in harmony with it. It is the adversary with whom the Master Jesus instructs us to agree, i.e. our Inner Spirit that guides us. Non-resistance is another manner in which Jesus fulfilled the law. Instead of opposing his higher consciousness when his enemies sought to crucify him, he agreed with his adversary; he turned the cheek of his inner spirit and asked forgiveness for his enemies.
Non-resistance is the force that allows us to grow through an experience instead of fighting against it or running away from it. It allows us to face problems as challenges and opportunities for growth. Non-resistance is an attitude that allows us to see God in operation in every situation. No matter how dismal it may appear, there is always a seed of truth. What we must do, then is discover that seed of truth and what lies within the experience that serves to nourish it and nurture it to full growth.
How often do we cry out for help trying to pull ourselves out of our despair? However, by turning the other cheek and practicing non-resistance, we learn not to cry out for help, but to cry in to the God within us; there lies our connection with the infinite source of wisdom and the solution to all of our problems as well.
The Master Jesus taught us to love the Perfect Love, the Divine Love that streams forth and is felt by all with whom we come in contact - even our enemies - just as God sends the sun and rain to reach all, good or apparent evil, just or unjust. Evil and injustice have no power to sustain themselves under the influence of Love. Our enemies are no longer our enemies when we love them, for it is our own frame of mind that causes us to view someone as an enemy. So let us assume an attitude of Love.
Love is the Christ Consciousness in which we are instructed to “Be ye perfect even as our Father in Heaven is perfect.” Jesus is speaking in the now. The Father does not become perfect; He is perfect. If this perfection abides in Heaven which, as Jesus taught is within us, then we are instructed to accept that perfection in us and establish ourselves in the perfect consciousness of Christ. With this attitude we cannot help but to perceive the divinity within everyone we meet.
Prayer is a state of mind in which we raise ourselves up in consciousness to the Secret Place of The Most High within us. It is projecting our thoughts toward the higher realm in an attitude of hope, expectancy and receptivity. It is with this attitude that we ask and receive our blessing; that we seek and find our “Hope of Glory” (The Christ indwelling); that we knock and the door to higher knowledge is opened unto us. The Master Jesus tells us that if we direct our prayers to God from our secret place within, the Father who hears us in secret will openly answer. He also tells us to pray in His name believing, and whatever we ask is ours.
The attitude of prayer is an humble, reverent submission of our will to the will of The Father. It is in this consciousness that we are forgiven our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; for before we could come to the alter of prayer (enter the “Holy of Holies” ) we had to have forgiven and made peace with our trespassers. It is in submitting our will to The Father that we are able to forgive, and it is in forgiving that we are forgiven.
The Stream of Life ever flows through our being, and we appropriate its energy and power with the state of our minds, i.e. our thoughts and attitudes. The attitudes we hold of ourselves are of uttermost importance because they constitute the law of our being. I will reiterate the “BE” attitudes discussed in this chapter so that you may re-evaluate each one of your “I am” statements in relation to each attitude. Ask yourself for each one, “Does my self-image reflect this attitude of being?” If it does not you have accepted a lie about yourself and should quickly position your mind on the side of Truth.
The following pages are worksheets on the seven “BE” attitudes. You should take one for each day of the week and evaluate your own self image in relation to each. Starting today with a Blessed Attitude, work through one each day until you have completed all seven; then begin again with number one. repeat this until you have completed the round three times. Then proceed to the next chapter.
I have purposely left the statements open-ended for you to be guided by your inner-voice to the correct conclusions. I can give you any number of reasons why you should have all of The attitudes described in This chapter, but as you focus your attention upon the various aspects of your life and search out your own reasons, you will find that many positive things are happening around you which you may not have considered before. The purpose of the exercises is to help you to view your life experiences from a more positive and higher frame of mind.
1. Blessed Attitude - In this state of mind we begin to see ourselves, our lives, our relationships, our world as blessed. I can think of nothing that works better to improve our conception of ourselves and our world than counting our blessings.
2. Fulfilling Attitude - Since we live, move and have our being in God, we must be fulfilling the high purpose of God’s law. Knowledge of this Truth helps to raise our self-image to that of one who is worthy of all good. If any of your “I am” statements do not express an attitude of fulfillment, write for each one, “I am fulfilling my high purpose, because..” (complete the statement.)
3. Purposeful Attitude - Since we are fulfilling a high purpose, we must keep a purposeful attitude. We must purposefully direct our thoughts toward those things that will serve to edify our souls and raise up humanity. We must think only upon the things that are Good , Noble, Just, Kind, Loving and True about ourselves, our relationships and our world of experience. Do your “I am” statements reflect a purposeful attitude? For each one that does not, write, “I am purposeful., because...” (Complete the statement.)
4. Peaceful Attitude - We can and should purposefully direct our thoughts toward peace and harmony rather than anger and strife. By doing this we learn to be agreeable, even when those around us are not. When we direct our thoughts toward our high purpose and agree with our adversary, we thus establish peace in our minds and harmony in our lives. For each of your “I am” statements that does not reflect a peaceful attitude, write, “I am peaceful, because...” (Complete the statement.)
5. Non-resistant Attitude - From this state of mind we win all battles by flowing with the Stream of Life rather than against it. For each one of your “I am” statements, write, “I am non-resistant, because...” (Complete the statement.)
6. Loving Attitude - This love must be impersonal so that you can love everyone regardless of whether or not you like what they are expressing, or whether or not they return your love. It is the perfect love of the Father which sends the rain to all and allows us to behold the Christ in all. For each one of your “I am” statements, write, “I am loving, because...” (Complete the statement.)
7. Prayerful Attitude - This humble, reverent submission of our will to the will of the Father will allow us to forgive those who have trespassed against us, and be forgiven. For each one of your “I am” statements, write, “I am prayerful and forgiving, because...” (Complete the statement.)
1. Self-image is a combination of all the opinions, beliefs and Attitudes we hold about ourselves.
2. We are blessed.
3. We are fulfilling the high purpose of God's Law.
4. Our word is our bond as well as our liberator.
5. Daily affirmations serve to redirect our thoughts away from anger toward the Higher Self with whom we should always agree.
6. Non-resistance allows us to flow and grow with the Stream of Life.
7. Through the eyes of LOVE we behold the CHRIST in everyone.
8. The attitude of prayer is the humble, reverent submission of our will To The will of The Father who forgives all.
9. We should adjust our self-image so that it agrees with the image of our Higher Self.
Workshop Session 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - Lifestream Meditation
© 1996 - Carolyn Odom Burleson, Ph.D.
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