The law of attraction is an ancient concept. It’s nothing new. You call it the law of attraction, or you call it the karma theory, it’s the same. As you sow so shall you reap. Whatever you have inside, you attract similar things towards you. If you have a lack in the realm of the mind that is what happens.
When you meet somebody and you feel very comfortable with them, then you say, ‘Oh! I’m attracted to them.’ You are part of that. People with a negative mindset, all come together. If someone has a complaint and the other neighbour has complained, there is something to talk about, so they come together. Law of attraction!
Those who are for vaccines, come together. Those who are anti-vaccine, they come together. Taking another example, if you pour water from one bottle into another bottle then we cannot separate the water which was in the first bottle from the second. That is the law of attraction. But if I put some oil in this water-filled bottle, that will float on top. So, there is no attraction between oil and water. They stay separate. That which mingles with each other and becomes one, that is the ultimate law of attraction.
But if you put an effort to invoke an emotion inside of you, forget about it. You want to love somebody, you cannot. You want to be happy, you cannot. The law that the mind works is completely different from the law that governs the body. You work hard, you build more muscle. But with the mind, the more you relax, the faster the results are. When you just learn to let go, relaxation is when happiness comes from within.
In the realm of the mind, like attracts like. If the soul is peaceful, it attracts a peaceful environment & peaceful people around it. Like attracts like on the subtle level whereas in the gross the opposites attract.
Like attracts like on the subtle level whereas in the gross the opposites attract.
Thoughts Guard; Emotions Barge; You Rule!
Thoughts are like the gatekeepers of the house. Emotions are a little more powerful than thought. You may think, ‘Oh! I am happy, or you may put all your thoughts toward something. But when some emotions come, that’s it. They just barge in with such force. All the thought processes that you kept to yourself, just disappear. You know, you find your emotions are much more powerful than thought. The situations overpower you.
So, we need to work on several layers of our life. First, the environment, body, and breath. Breath is the link between mind and body. And then mind the thoughts. And then emotions, which are even subtler and powerful than that. And beyond that is the energy field that the positivity, the radiance, the soul, the spirit that you are that comes into play. All these techniques, meditation and contemplative prayer, as in Christian tradition or Buddhist Zen meditation, all are to transcend the thought and reach that level from where everything else runs. So that is like attending to the house owner. Then the guard will listen to what the owner says.
IMAGE OF LAYERS – PANCHKOSHAS
Breaking the Chain of Entanglement
Sense Object to Habit
The association of a particular sense object over and over again creates a sense of craving for it. If you are used to drinking coffee every morning, then even though you are not born with a coffee fervour you have begun a habit within you that has created a craving. How did it all start? The habit of drinking coffee didn’t happen in one day! Addiction starts with a repeated experience of a particular object. It becomes a habit — and the nature of habit is that it does not give you joy. It gives pain. Therefore, drinking coffee will not carry you to heaven but if you don’t have it, it can give you hell!
Habit to Desire
The repeated experience or association of a particular sense object makes you want it more. You think about it — and it creates a sensation of more wanting. Wherever you put your attention in the nervous system, the craving for that begins. With association comes desire.
Desire to Anger
And with desire comes anger. Whenever a person is angry, behind that anger is a desire. Whether fulfilled or unfulfilled, desire leads to anger. So you get angry with somebody.
Anger to Attachment
The next step is you get attached. Now, whoever you are angry with, sooner or later you will regret it. Regret brings more attachment. By regretting, you do not move away from the person or situation, you move more into it. All this happens in a subtle way.
Attachment to Entanglement
Have you ever observed that whoever you are angry with or hate, you think of that person more than yourself? And as you think of this person, you get agitated or distressed. On the other hand, if you think of someone you love, you have a nice feeling, and your nervous system assumes that form. When your nervous system assumes either of the forms, it becomes like that, and you get drawn to those kinds of people. This is entanglement. Therefore, an obsession brings anger which in turn brings entanglement.
Entanglement & Thoughts, Feelings, Emotions
“Entanglement, whether out of craving or aversion, clouds the intellect. “
Your wisdom and judgement are lost; your ability to understand and access the situation is lost. This is a chain reaction, and it happens in such a subtle manner that you don’t even realize it. And a distorted intellect doesn’t let you be at peace. Such an intellect does not even bring up the emotions — the subtle feelings within you. Any feeling you get will be gross and will make you heavy. With a clouded intellect, the memory of pleasant things is lost.
Life has two sets of memories: memories of pleasant things and memories of unpleasant things. Children often have pleasant memories more than unpleasant ones. That’s why they are so cheerful. But as we grow up and lose our innocence, our unpleasant memories increase.
Solution to Entanglement
Spiritual practices help bring back pleasant memories more and more and reduce unpleasant memories to almost an insignificant amount. The role of meditation and other spiritual practices is to withdraw the mind from the sense of objects and take it back to its source. This is critical for success in life.
Sowing Seeds of Gratitude
Life flows smoother and your outlook is brighter when you feel grateful. Gratitude comes when you feel full. When you don’t feel any sense of lack, then you feel gratitude. You cannot be grateful and feel lack—the two cannot co-exist at the same time. Certainly, you’ve experienced both, but only at different times.
When you feel grateful, you also feel full. When you feel any lack, grumbling begins in some corner. With knowledge, you experience gratitude and become grateful. And when you are grateful, the law of nature ensures that the gratefulness increases and that you are given more.
If you are grateful, more positive things will flow to you.
If you are grumbling, the grumbling and negativity will increase. For those who do not have the knowledge, there is no way out of their grumblings, because grumbling becomes their nature. And once they start grumbling, demand arises, and when the demand arises, everything is taken away from them. Even what little joy, peace, or love they have in this world will be lost.
This is all in accordance with the law of nature. Whatever seed you sow, such fruit you will personally bear. If you sow the seed of lack, only lack will grow. Conversely, if you sow the seed of plenty and the seed of gratitude in your life, these elements will blossom in your world.
Attracting Manifestation
If you pay attention to anger, anger will manifest. If you pay attention to lust, lust will manifest. Focus on love, and love manifests. Focus on imperfection, imperfection manifests. Observe the intention and put your attention on whatever you want to grow in life. Intention, attention and manifestation — that is how the universe manifests.
Wherever you put your attention, that will start manifesting in your life.
Going Beyond the Law of Attraction
What you need to know is: that you are much bigger than that. You are much more than the law of attraction, for you have the power. Don’t give too much power to the law of attraction. You have a say in it as well.
Somehow, when the new-age people talk about the law of attraction, they make you feel as though you are a slave to this law, as though it is fatalistic. It’s not fatalistic. The law of attraction is one of the powers of your existence, your mind. So, you have the power to say no to it also.
Summing Up
Thoughts come and go. Don’t worry, all thoughts, whether good or bad are not going to manifest. Nature is far more intelligent than you. Nature is with you, and it is protecting you. All you need to do is trust nature and relax. Know that the best will happen to you.
Open your eyes and see what surrounds you. When you recognise through this knowledge what you have been given, then you become grateful. And in that gratefulness, everything grows. This is the reason why grandmothers in India have a habit of saying, “Everything is full.” If something is less than full, or empty, they never say, “This is empty, we don’t have this.” Instead, they say, “We have a lot of this.” It is an attitude of “plentitude” in the mind. When you feel that you have plenty in the consciousness, the ‘plenty-ness’ grows.
