I find that ANY future I predict ultimately comes true for me. At some point I will bring it about - not because of anything magical or mystical but because all interpretations of every event are available to me at all times and whatever I choose to attend to, well, that’s what I experience.
There is an equal amount of good and bad happening in the world at all times. Every situation, every action, every event has good and bad in it depending upon what I notice and what I do with what I notice.
In the beginning, it is all available to me. Before I have any experience, I am wide open.
My experience begins when I notice something. I latch onto what I notice and I form a belief. That belief forms a filter: “This is true and this is not. This is the world and this is not. The world works this way and not that way.” The filter then causes my awareness to attend to some of what’s happening and to ignore the rest.
I learn a new word and then it seems like I hear it all the time. I get introduced to a new kind of car and then I seem to see it everywhere on the road. It seems like something has changed about the world but the only thing that has changed is this: It had previously passed through my filter and now my filter catches it. It doesn’t APPEAR all of a sudden. It appears the same amount. I just HEAR IT or SEE IT all of a sudden.
And because I do, my experience of “the world,” which is just the result of what my filter catches, changes.
When I experience suffering, I introduce suffering to my filter and my filter brings more suffering to my attention, suffering that it would have missed before. For example:
If I come to believe that I must protect myself from enemies, that belief guides my filter to collect evidence that I have enemies and ignore everything else. Presented with enemies, I respond by evading people or fighting them, which creates the conditions that bring more and more enemies into my world. Since an unchecked filter just gets better and better at seeing what it has already seen, the problem compounds until my world becomes a very dangerous place for me.
If I come to believe I will lose my job, that belief guides my filter to collect evidence of disappointed bosses and co-worker conspiracies and ignore everything else, causing my working relationships to suffer, further confirming and strengthening the belief that I will lose my job. Since an unchecked filter just gets better and better at seeing what it has already seen, the problem compounds until my work environment becomes untenable...and I lose my job.
If I come to believe people will judge me harshly and reject me, that belief guides my filter to collect evidence of people’s judgment and rejection and ignore everything else. I behave like a person who has been judged and rejected, creating the conditions for more and more judgment and rejection, each new instance further confirming and strengthening the belief. Since an unchecked filter just gets better and better at seeing what it has already seen, the problem compounds until I find I am judged and rejected at every turn.
If I come to believe that I am lucky, that good things spontaneously happen to me, the belief guides my filter to collect evidence of my spontaneous good fortune and ignore everything else. Each new instance fills me with more and more gratitude and trust in the world, which in turn brings me more and more good fortune to notice. Since an unchecked filter just gets better and better at seeing what it has already seen, the benefit compounds until my world becomes filled with undeniable good fortune.
But what if I want to be rid of a filter that’s not serving me? Once I’ve established a strong filter, how do I change it?
With an open mind, and new experiences.
The first step to an open mind is to understand that I even HAVE a filter, that my worldview is NOT a complete picture of the world, that it is limited and its particular limitations are subjective, not objective. If I can acknowledge that,
Step two is to entertain the possibility that there is more to the world than my filter is allowing me to see and that it is possible for me to see the world differently.
Which is not to say I just CHOOSE to see the world differently. That’s just kidding myself and kidding myself never works. My filter is what it is because of what I believe about the world based on my experience.
Which is why once I have an open mind, I need new EXPERIENCES of the world. I start by returning, as best I can, to the original moment where I built these filters, to re-open my mind and look again. To honestly question the conclusions I drew the first time around and let my own wisdom guide me to notice new things.
If I really want to discover a kinder, more peaceful truth, I will find it. I can recalibrate my filter and my whole world will change. But sometimes it feels safer to me to keep my filter than to let it go in search of peace.
It takes courage to acknowledge my limitations and trust in the unknown. Many of us would rather continue to know our current suffering than to let go of knowing and put our trust in the world. Especially if I have a filter that keeps proving the world to be untrustworthy.
For me, life had to become unbearable. It finally became less of a risk for me to put my trust in an apparently untrustworthy world than to continue to know my current suffering.
That was when I was ready to question what I was thinking and believing.
And when I did, my world began to shift.
And I’m finding it kinder and more peaceful every day.