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A mind divided against itself does not, cannot know that it is the creator of both sides of any conflict with life, let alone that it holds an equal interest in ensuring that each side of that struggle is constantly strengthened and re-armed with new motivations for why it must overcome whatever or whoever challenges its imagined supremacy.
For Further Study
It is no stretch of the imagination to say that many days most people wrestle with some form of discontentment about their lot in life. Add to this an equal if not greater amount of time spent searching for the solution they think will “cure” this confliction, and it might surprise us how pervasive runs this human pastime of trying to dodge these feelings of being discontent.
Everywhere you go, no matter who you’re with, everybody is figuring out how to be happy. You can buy drugs to be happy. You can dump relationships, get new relationships. It’s endless! Everything about this planet is like this giant amusement park where you go and buy a package that’s supposed to be filled with happiness, and when you get it home and open it, you get a little bit of a “pop,” and then that’s the end. Isn’t it?
We don't suspect that we are packed full of beliefs about ourselves and about life. We don't suspect that the root of whatever it is that causes us to feel sad, unhappy, to have no fun, is a false belief that produces a false sense of self through false responsibilities. All false responsibilities have their root in a false belief.
The false belief that I’m intended to create my own happiness is born of the equally false belief that my pain in life is somehow a product of what I’ve failed to succeed in winning for myself. That’s not the case. The case is that we’re not meant to be self-filling creatures. Happiness is not a product. Happiness is not the result of an effort. Happiness is the essence of a human being who is free of those kinds of thoughts and feelings that produce an endless string of punishments because they’re always pursuing ways to free themselves from the very weight that sends them on the journey. So you can see the false responsibility: I don’t have to make myself happy. What a relief! Because how many of you have done a pretty bad job of making yourself happy?
The true responsibility as opposed to the false one has two parts: The first responsibility is to remember the light. That’s the first responsibility. Remember the truth. Remember this simple idea: I’m not here to walk around feeling as though there’s a weight on me. If you feel weight on you at any time, it’s because you’re carrying around a belief that’s driving you through a desire and onto a purpose that is absolutely powerless to appease itself.
Remember the light. Why? When I say that we’re not created to make ourselves happy, then what will make us happy? Did it ever occur to you that God is good? Did it ever occur to you the universe is in perfect order? Did it ever occur to you that everything is perfecting itself at all times? It is. In the sea of conflict, there is harmony. We as men and women are intended to be filled all the time by the understanding that our right relationship, our true relationship with life, begins with this true responsibility of remembering our Creator (whatever word you want to use), remembering that which gave us life – not the idea of just sitting and thinking about it, but actually being present to it.
As a person starts to recognize, “You know, I’ve been trying to make myself happy all my life – trying to get rid of people, trying to add people, trying to change this, trying to fix that. And I haven’t succeeded at it, but now I’m starting to recognize that some of the best times in my life, the happiest times of my life, have been those moments in which a certain light came to me. A certain understanding came to me, a certain moment out there in nature – whatever it is – and I didn’t have to do anything! It just came to me. It was just there! I looked at my wife and she had a smile on her face. I didn’t have to think to myself, ‘What does it mean?’ I didn’t have to worry about approval. I went out and there was my animal friend out there – whatever it was – it was just happiness.”
As that takes place, we learn what it means to consider others before ourselves. And when we learn what it means to consider others before ourselves, because at last we stop putting ourselves first in life, guess what we’ve done? We’ve fulfilled the two greatest commandments there are: to love the truth and light first and foremost, and then to know what it means to love our neighbor as ourself. This is the whole of the summation of true responsibility, and learning about what is false responsibility is the beginning of it.
Learn to become a student of your own life. Learn what it means to see these things.
Catch the weights of false responsibilities and bring the light of understanding to them. They will fall off, and little by little you will know the freedom that you were created to have.
About Guy Finley: Guy is the author of 45 books and video/audio programs including his international bestseller “The Secret of Letting Go” which has been translated into 30 languages and sold millions of copies worldwide.
He is the founder and director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit Center for Spiritual Discovery located in Southern Oregon, with over 40,000 online newsletter subscribers. https://www.guyfinley.org
Through Life of Learning, Guy has presented over 5,000 unique self-realization seminars to thousands of grateful students throughout North America and Europe over the past 30 years and has been a guest on over 700 television and radio shows, including national appearances on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and NPR. Guy is a faculty member at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York and 1440 Multiversity in Scotts Valley, California. He is a regular expert contributor to Beliefnet, Insight Timer, Simple Habit, and many other popular spiritual sites.
Finley holds regular classes at Life of Learning including two free talks each week that are live-streamed https://www.guyfinley.org/lettinggo These classes are open to all. For more information about Guy Finley and Life of Learning Foundation visit www.guyfinley.org
