The movie, The Secret, has really caught on, which means that the modern priesthood we call The Media has dubbed it newsworthy and therefore important. For those of us who have known about the so called Secret, it is exciting to see others benefit from a fascinating spiritual principle.
In my first blog on this topic, I warned of some dangers related to taking the Law of Attraction as a solitary principle. Keep in mind, my purpose is not detraction or subtraction from the Law of Attraction, but to help us avoid psycho-spiritual fractures from misunderstanding The Secret.
The Law of Attraction is a lot like physical exercise. It is very beneficial, but not everyone will get the same results. If you are sixty years old and begin to exercise and eat nutritionally, you will likely add years to your life, but you will not be going to participate in track and field events at the Olympics. Similarly, if you begin using positive affirmations and thinking successful thoughts, your life will likely get much better, but it doesn't mean you will be a best selling author promoting your book on Oprah. Of course you might, and you clearly increase your chances by practicing the Law of Attraction, but don't be shocked if it doesn't happen.
In the other blog I asked you to consider the issue of universal soul-making which sees failure and suffering as not only beneficial, but needful and necessary in a universe such as ours. The Law of Attraction is equilibrated by the Law of Balance - every positive must have a negative, light and darkness co-mingle to create a new thing.
Now I am asking that we realize that the anecdotal stories of unmitigated financial and personal success found in The Secret are not any more realistic than an older person expecting to become a professional athlete. Physical, mental and spiritual exercises do not always result in optimal external results. I have a friend who says, "An expectation is a resentment waiting to happen." In other words, if we begin any kind of program with the attitude that a specific result must and will happen, we are screwed before we begin.
Do your exercises faithfully, go to the mental gym and affirm your success. But if you are a mediocre singer or average writer, don't be disappointed if you don't become a celebrity earning a million dollars through your talent. No doubt you will become a better singer and writer, but that is most likely all that will happen. Please, prove me wrong.
The show American Idol is a great example of this misplaced use of the Law of Attraction. The producers and judges of that show have gone on record saying that they marvel at the self delusion many of these people experience as they affirm and positive think their way into humilation. All of the positive thinking in the world is not going to make Stephen Hawking an Olympic swimmer. Affirmations may help him discover the Unified Principle in physics, because that is his forte. But even then, he has no guaratee that he will discover the answer. Again, he may have a better chance by practicing the Law of Attraction, but it is not a guarantee.
Use the Law of Attraction, but be cognizant of your destiny and gifts, be aware that Universal Soul has included the Law of Failure as part of the soul-making curricula. Continuing with the old age analogy, our bodies naturally and necessarily decline in mental and physical acuity that we may use our weaknesses and mortality to add rooms to the mansion of soul we construct in this lifetime. Being mediocre and facing failure, rejection and delapidation is as important as success, praise and power.
Poem 13 of the Chinese Tao Te Ching says it well:
Success is as dangerous as failure.
Hope is as hollow as fear.
What does it mean that success is a dangerous as failure?
Whether you go up the ladder or down it,
you position is shaky.
When you stand with your two feet on the ground,
you will always keep your balance.
What does it mean that hope is as hollow as fear?
Hope and fear are both phantoms
that arise from thinking of the self.
When we don't see the self as self,
what do we have to fear?
See the world as your self.
Have faith in the way things are.
Love the world as your self;
then you can care for all things.
It is easy in this success obsessed culture which exalts celebrities to the status of gods, to get caught up in formulaic magic tinged with delusions of grandeur. It is little different than the old west snake oil peddlers promising health to those who buy their bogus elixirs.
Use the Law of Attraction, but be careful not to abuse it. The Universe is larger than our attempts to control it.
For a great parody of The Secret, go to http://julianwalkeryoga.zaadz.com/blog/2007/5/secrets_of_the_secret
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