The Meaning of Life - Part II By Ross Bishop

The purpose of LIFE is to bring you to realize that you are worthy so you do not have to live in fear, anxiety and longing. As difficult as this can be to accept, your immersion in your personal darkness was intended! You were set up so that one day, you would grow out of the dark state and come to see the truth about yourself. And then you would hold that truth so deeply that it would be unshakeable. And we had to hold that truth at the deepest level possible in preparation for what is to come.

By its very nature, LIFE is a difficult learning process. And it is further complicated because we resist making changes to what we have come to believe about ourselves. But as you come to the Truth, you will move out of conflict and know a feeling of peace and contentment that are beyond words.

Until you come to resolution about who you are, you will be unable to rest. That discomfort is intended. It is rather simple, really - when you know the truth, things are peaceful. There is no friction. When you do not, there is conflict, either internally or with others.

 What is sometimes difficult to understand is that this conflict is intended. Your conflict will hopefully motivate you to look at your beliefs and change them. And resolving that conflict is the secret to life. It sounds simple. It isn’t.

When we introduce our beliefs into situations, they turn into conflicts. Think about your difficulties for a moment. Most of the time you focus on the conflict, but every conflict you have ever had, either internally or with others, besides being stressful, has been elevated from a problem to a conflict by the introduction of what you believe.

If you take your beliefs out of the conflict, it becomes a “situation” that can be discussed and resolved. Or, if ridiculous, even even ignored! If I believe that my hair is blue, even though I am bald, you’ll just give me a blank stare. But if I attack you because I believe that your skin color or national heritage makes you inferior, then you and I are going to have difficulties. The difference resides in the conflict between what I believe and the truth.

The way humans hold on to wounded-ness is intriguing. On the surface, it makes no sense. You would expect to see intense motivation for everyone to rid themselves of their limiting and restrictive negative influences. After all, they are an enormous source of pain. They inhibit us, wreck our lives and keep us from being happy. Although some individuals do work to eliminate these influences, most people are held hostage by the beliefs that are created from their deep-seated feelings of unworthiness and un-lovability.

As a result, most people settle into a routine and get by as best they can, blaming themselves for their inadequacies and failures, filling themselves with self-condemnation and self-criticism. We are being asked to change, to venture into an unfamiliar state, and that goes against, for right or wrong, what we have come to believe about ourselves. 

Consider your childhood. Everyone comes into childhood feeling inadequate and comes out feeling wounded. In other words, every child is conditioned to believe the exact opposite of what they need to learn. EVERYONE! What are the odds of that? Childhood wounding is purposeful because the conflict that it creates will set us up to learn what we came here for. 

The beliefs created in your childhood are false. Those beliefs live in your mind and do not reach the level of real truth, even the good stuff! These mental constructs create roadblocks to our ability to be at peace because they conflict with the greater harmony - the truth - of The Universe.

There have been many billions of people who have lived on Earth. Throughout history, all have been engaged in the same basic struggle! We have evolved, so we have different struggles than our ancestors did, but when you come to see the perfection of the process, you stand back in awe! 

In the whole history of humanity, there has been only one person who has come in without significant self-doubt (and I am not totally sure about him, either). Even the Buddha had to undergo the process of conflict and eventual resolution before he came to stand in the light. But what are the odds of all of humanity struggling with essentially the same issue?

When he was asked the meaning of life, The Buddha replied, “Life is pain.” Contained in those three simple words are layers and layers of deeper meaning. With pain, there is a possibility you will change. Without it, there is little hope that you would.

We all experience pain as a part of life. But have you ever wondered where it comes from? Pain does not exist to punish. It is a signal that something in you is out of alignment—most likely your beliefs about yourself. 

Let’s say you don’t love yourself, and someone says something that is hurtful. Your belief will take their comment “in,” and you will experience pain. Why? Because it resonates with the messages of unworthiness you received in childhood. We have all been hurt. Their comment reinforced what we believe about ourselves, and in that moment, we don’t go much beyond that.

But step back from the situation for a moment. Short of a physical assault (which operates by different principles), all that really happened was that there were vibrations in the air. You have created the hurt! You interpreted their words, gave them meaning and let them rip through your system. But words cannot hurt you unless you choose to let them in! Even if they yell and scream, although unpleasant, everything dissipates the instant they shut up - except what happens to you internally.

Let’s take a look at what really happened. When they spoke, a universal alarm bell went off in you. It was a warning telling you that your beliefs were out of alignment with The Truth. Had you known the truth about yourself, those words would have had no meaning and would have fallen harmlessly to the ground! Your pain was putting you on notice of a vulnerability. It was a reminder.

It was painful because that’s about the only way to get your attention. But sadly, we don’t want to acknowledge that. It is easier to be angry and hurt and collapse in on ourselves rather than deal with what we believe to be true.

But consider the perfection of the system. Nothing has really happened, and yet you have been given an opportunity to examine the beliefs you hold that are out of alignment with the Truth. If you continue to ignore the warning, the intensity increases as The Universe tries harder and harder to get your attention. 

The system is perfect going the other way, too. Let’s say you make a snide remark about someone. You immediately feel discomfort. Your pain is a warning that you have lost your natural compassion. Their hurt reaction also tells you that something isn’t right.

We were not put here simply to be blissful but to learn the truth about ourselves, which is contrary to what we have come to believe. And in time, that will lead to natural happiness.

About Ross Bishop: I became a healer as an outgrowth of my own need for healing. My pain and dissatisfaction with my life brought me to leave the corporate world and begin a journey to find and root out the sources of the considerable pain I carried within myself. I found western psychology to be woefully inadequate to help me and so I set out to find more meaningful answers. 

My teachers all encouraged me after working on my own stuff to go outside myself and help others to heal, not as a humanitarian service but as a way to deepen my own healing process. I found that I had a gift for the work and that my teachers were absolutely right. Serving others is a remarkable learning process. My clients over the last 25 years have taken me to places I could not have gone on my own. I am deeply grateful for the gifts of personal growth that our work together has given me. 

In a former life, Ross was president of an advertising agency and a communications executive for the former Northern States Power Company (NSP) in Minneapolis. After leaving NSP, with a colleague he founded Creative Power Workshops and traveled the country teaching creative thinking to advertising writers and art directors. Seeing the limitations fear placed on people’s creative passion led Ross to undertake a spiritual journey in search of answers. That journey covered many miles and several years and brought him to many teachers. Finding some answers, Ross also found he possessed a natural gift for shamanic healing. He returned to this country and conducted vision quests for spiritual pilgrims throughout the Southwestern United States. Today he concentrates his energies on writing and on an active healing and counseling practice in Santa Fe. 

Ross Bishop’s website: https://www.rossbishop.com/