4/10/06
Many people believe the messages given to them, "You can't do that, that's unreasonable." What's worse, "You can't get there from here." There is always a path from here to there. There will often be challenges, but human innovation and creativity will always yield a pathway between two points -- here and there -- the reality of where you are now, and the vision of where you want to be, of what you want to bring into being.
There may be a prevailing viewpoint that the real challenge is to "de-program" the "bad" messages, to somehow reach inside and replace the broken records with new ones. Many a psychologist is being paid as I write this to "help" clients achieve this "goal." What I am coming to learn is that the broken records will always remain and play themselves. But by exercising new muscles, new skills, new ways of formulating my wishes and experiences, I simply see those messages and stories, and can have acceptance for them. Only by raising my level of consciousness will the new ways of being and expressing emerge and become the predominant force in my life.
In "The Energy of Money," Maria Nemeth says, "One of the purposes of being human is to wake up and become conscious." Indeed this is so, and it is refreshing to hear someone expound on the energy of money from this level of understanding. She also asks, "What if waking up really means seeing how to conduct yourself powerfully in your everyday, regular life in the real world?" It is one matter to have a "spiritual" experience, in a dimension that somehow escapes physical reality, and quite another to have a spiritual experience in the midst of everyday life. But for me, this "understanding" has somehow broken down here because this is where I slip into identification, the illusion of problem, the myth of money. Nemeth invites her readers to see that "the congealed energy of money" gives us the opportunity to see that waking up indeed means living our lives in the world, fully.
While I'm just starting to read Nemeth's book, already I see the clear links with Robert Fritz's "The Path of Least Resistance." Shifting one's orientation toward the creative is a fundamental departure from our ingrained upbringings in the reactive-responsive orientation. Creating what we want is no joke. Some creations flow "easily." Others require years of effort and negotiation, but yet the determination of will is unstoppable, and we will yield the final creation. Nemeth appears to be adding to this shift in orientation, in that the energy of money becomes unleashed to bring the necessary steps in creation into being. Becoming the "master of one's own reality" doesn't necessarily mean mastering money, conquering the physical realm, being an expert at relationships, or any of that. It may include these elements, but in itself simply refers back to what Nemeth has articulated succinctly -- that one purpose of being human is to wake up and become conscious. This dimension of understanding leads; physical creations, money, relationships, and indeed everything in our external relationship to the world, flows from this vital understanding.
I am interested in understanding better what Fritz means by "structural tension" -- rather, my interest is in what it means to master structural tension, and how to use it to create what I want to create. Perhaps a more general question, but still a good one to ponder, is what does it mean to follow the "path of least resistance"? For one who relates very much to the reactive-responsive orientation, the creative orientation seems like a brave, new world -- yet I engage this process in my life, often without knowing it, or being conscious that I am drawing upon a different set of tools, values, and actions than I ordinarily do from within the other orientation. With practice and experience, I can become more aware of that shift, of when I am being reactive or responsive, and choose to place myself under a different set of what I'll call "laws and influences." Those "influences" aren't tied to outer circumstances, so I don't mean to say I am somehow still subject to the events of life. Rather, I raise my level of consciousness, and from that new level, I can see clearly what is needed.
Backing up a step, something that Fritz does not appear to address in much depth is inspiration -- what is the source of one's visions? What is the genesis of the creative orientation? What is the involvement of the emotions or feelings in this process? What does one do if one feels "stuck" or "uninspired"? That's a very different situation than knowing what one wants, clearly and definitively, and is engaging in the creative process to manifest a vision. Lately I've had to put myself in rather unusual places outside my "normal," daily operating mode to shift that stagnant energy and invite in creativity and insight. To "clear the cobwebs," as it were, by changing the landscape. Go for a hike, sit under a tree, dance in my living room, make my evening into a ritual, have a telephone conversation with a good friend with whom I haven't spoken in some time. Still this seems like a different process than what Fritz describes in the assimilation stage, where one literally puts a project down, goes for a walk, lets something percolate, and have patience that results aren't being seen directly on the surface. This seems to be a process prior to the germination phase. Maybe that's a better way to ask it -- what is the process that spawns germination, what is the source of that energy? Fritz explores this a bit in his chapter on "Vision," which is the natural predecessor, somehow, to germination. But if concept and vision are the precursors to the manifestation, from what or where do concept and vision arise? At some times, it is as though "out of the blue." At other times, something in the physical realm becomes a source of inspiration for a new idea, new business, new product, and so on. Is there some part of this process in which one can put energy into being receptive to creative energy, receptive to one's higher self or true nature, to keep the slate "clean," so to speak, so that new ideas and visions can become apparent and seen clearly?
Resources:
Fritz, Robert. The Path of Least Resistance: Learning to Become the Creative Force in Your Own Life. Ballantine Books, 1989.
Nemeth, Maria, Ph.D. The Energy of Money: A Spiritual Guide to Financial and Personal Fulfillment. Ballantine Books, 1999.