Author: Jean

Week 16 – Master Key-Og Power

At first, the Master Keys seemed boring and tedious to read. Now, I’m seeing their power. The effect has been cumulative. And I’m thrilled for a completely non-MKMMA reason as well. One thing I’ve wanted to do but never felt like I did “right” was meditate. I already knew there was not a prescribed method for it, but it still didn’t seem to be beneficial in any practical way. As a result of this course, even though I’m disappointed in how effectively I conduct my Sits to date, I’ve still gained at least one instance of BAM! insight, and I’m confident I’ll improve my ease with the process enough to achieve much more insight in the days, months, and years to come. That instance of BAM! insight? I can understand why people say they’ve heard the voice of God, because that’s exactly what it was like.

The Master Keys have shown the way, and each week, we’re led a little closer to being more effective at visualizing our new reality. 16-28 is particularly powerful for me this week: “If you desire to visualize a different environment, the process is simply to hold the ideal in mind, until your vision has been made real; give no thought to persons, places or things; these have no place in the absolute; the environment you desire will contain everything necessary; the right persons, and the right things will come at the right time and in the right place.”

This month’s scroll has so much power, but I’m going to focus on a little piece that I don’t think gets much attention. “And nature knows not defeat. Eventually, she emerges victorious and so will I, and with each victory the next struggle becomes less difficult.” Nature always wins. I may take centuries, but Nature wins. We persist, and we win. We are nature’s greatest miracle.

Gimme the Keys!

 

Week 15 – It’s the Law

Let’s take another look at some of the Seven Laws of the Mind. I feel as if I’ve been making good progress with the Law of Growth — what I think about grows, what I forget….what was that? Great help for the 7 Day Mental Diet. I keep reading over The Law of Dual Thought and thinking, this is so cool. I can apply any feeling I want to any thought. It’s my choice. I want to get better at this. The best example I have of doing this is being irritated at my husband for calling me while I was visiting my parents in October and doing nothing but complain. I finally realized, “He misses me.” He was also sick and miserable. But “he misses me” was a lot more positive than “why does he keep calling, there’s nothing I can do about the problem he’s complaining about.” This is a law I don’t feel I’m applying as often as I can to make it helpful and useful. For instance, if I’m rolling my eyes or feeling a surge of irritation, that’s probably a good indicator that I’m in a “Law of Dual Thought” or, maybe even a “Law of Substitution” moment. Identifying these moments and deciding upon a more positive substitution or replacement thought more quickly is going to improve my overall effectiveness.

These mental gymnastics are strongly in the realm of exercising the “Law of Practice.” The more practice I get with applying these laws (because we all know “knowledge will not apply itself”), the closer I can get to being able to apply the Law of Relaxation more and more often, thus releasing my access to infinite intelligence. I love being in the flow of that. Keep up the good work, Subby.

 

Week 15 – Insight

Let’s talk about insight. I looked at the Master Keys before this course began. It’s a free download from Amazon, you know. I hadn’t picked up on Og Mandino as a course material, but I saw something about the Master Keys, and I’d heard something about Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. Heck, I can read. I could do this stuff myself. I didn’t have to pay big bucks from someone to teach me. Yeah, I know they said the course was free with a “Pay-It-Forward” scholarship, but I knew at some point, I’d be asked to pay it forward or leave. And how much would they want me to pay forward? I didn’t like the secretiveness of that. But I’d known the person I was following who was recommending the course for many years (electronically — we’ve not met in person yet), so I trusted her when she said it wasn’t outrageous. And, please, if you know me at all, you can trust me that if you choose to apply for a scholarship in the next class, you can afford to Pay-It -Forward when they finally get around to asking you to.  And if you’re not willing to do so by the time they ask, you’re not getting value from the course for you anyway, so don’t worry about it.  I poked at the materials, but they didn’t look inspiring. I knew I wouldn’t do it on my own, and the other people going through the the course with me might be useful, so I decided to dive in.

That’s a very long way of saying, I’m finding the Master Keys portion of the course not only intriguing but valuable. Last week, we focused on Harmony. This week, we focus on Insight. We study more about the laws under which we live. In the intro, we learn we “gain strength in proportion to the effort expended, and that our happiness is best attained through a conscious cooperation with natural laws.”

It’s fully within our power to place ourselves in harmony with the laws and experience a life of relative peace and happiness. But if we lack something, we cannot obtain what we need if we cling tenaciously to what we have (15-5). We also must remember that all conditions and experiences come to us for our benefit. (Amazingly, this is fully in line with this month’s Scroll IV, p. 71-72, “…I know a great secret of life for I perceive, at last, that all my problems, discouragements, and heartaches are, in truth, great opportunities in disguise.”

It’s both troubling and freeing to realize that everything we experience happens for a reason. For the Biblical scholars, think Ecclesiastes. It’s challenging to realize these things are for our BENEFIT, especially when we are in the midst of whatever it may be.

We reap what we sow, painful as that may be to digest. But we can change what we sow. 15-10 says, “In order to possess vitality thought must be impregnated with love. Love is a product of emotions. It is therefore essential that the emotions be controlled and guided by the intellect and reason.”

A few paragraphs later, we are reminded if we want desirable conditions, we can only afford to entertain desirable thoughts.

This is why I took this course, and I have to attest these statements are true. I was thinking undesirable thoughts about my husband, and it wasn’t helping our marriage. My husband loves me. He’d been making every effort to address my concerns, yet I was still unhappy with him. The more unhappy I became with him, the worse I thought of him. He was the same guy he always was — the guy I was very happy to marry. I was thinking differently about him. Through applying the insights gained from this course, I’m happy to say I’m thinking mostly happy thoughts about him now, and I’m chasing the less than happy thoughts away quickly.

We must use the insight we’ve gained to ensure the thoughts we entertain contain no mental, moral, or physical germ which we do not wish to have objectified into our lives.

Week 14- Harmony

Harmony is a blend of essential oils. I was preparing to diffuse Harmony this afternoon, so I was transferring the oil from it’s storage bottle to the bottle with a wick that goes into my USB diffuser for use on my desktop.

I spilled some into a circle about the size of a quarter onto my desk blotter. I blotted it with my hands and a tissue. I’m thankful the scent is a gentle one and not overpowering. I think I have been feeling more harmonious since the spill.

A nice essential oil blend is helpful, but there’s more to harmony that simply breathing in a complex blend of oils. In fact, Haanel’s lesson this week is particularly emphatic about this. I’m heartened and chastened as I read 14-26.

But the thought must be clear cut, steady, fixed, definite, unchangeable; you cannot take one step forward and two steps backward, neither can you spend twenty or thirty years of your life building up negative conditions as the result of negative thinking, and then expect to see them all melt away as the result of fifteen or twenty minutes of right thinking.

Drat. Would that it be true. But alas. This is so encouraging, right? I’ve had 55 years to build up negative thinking patterns. I’ve had bursts of attempts at positiveness, but I’ve had far more negative than positives in the long run. Of course it’s going to take a little time to turn this ship around.

The intro to this week reminds us that a weed remains visible even after it’s roots have been severed. So, too, are our negative tendencies. We’re going to need have a few more sessions to eradicate this garden of weeds we’ve sown during our lifetime. But I can see them fading away. I can SEE the way to make them go away.

14-30 says, “Your world without will be a reflection of your world within.” My world within is getting much better.  14-29 says, “If you wish harmonious conditions in your life, you must develop an harmonious mental attitude.”

Spilling a little Harmony goes a long way to helping that. Besides, I’m nature’s greatest miracle. How cool is that? And you are, too! Even better.

harmony

Week 14 – October Sky

“October Sky” was the movie I chose to watch for our movie assignment this week. We were to look for the four tiny habits of persistence.  Those four habits are 1) Definite Major Purpose (DMP), 2) Positive Mental Attitude (PMA), 3) Plan of Action (POA), and 4) Mastermind Alliance (MMA).

Initially an indifferent student, Homer Hickam was inspired by seeing Sputnik in the sky over Coalwood, West Virginia. From then on, his DMP was to build rockets. Even though the path to success was riddled with reasons to stop and conform, Homer stayed the course and remained largely positive the whole way.

Their plan of action developed slowly with detours along the way. As Homer realized the resources he needed, he formed necessary alliances with Quentin (the smart kid who’d been ostracized at school), men with expertise from the mines, and via a teacher who believed in them.

Granted, it was a movie, so it showed a clear progression to achieving a goal with representative challenges faced by the four boys who gave a town hope. Too often, the only way to succeed is portrayed as sports, and for many communities, the elusive “football scholarship” is the only option for their children to achieve a different outcome from what may otherwise be a bleak future.

Academic scholarships or other professional options are not seen as viable. I was not aware of those options, and even the options that I was aware of seemed too far-fetched to be feasible. I did my first year of college on loans. Then I dropped out. When I returned, I was enlisted in the Air Force, and used tuition assistance to complete my degree while working full time. Twelve years and seven schools later, I earned my undergraduate degree. I persist until I succeed.

At the end of the movie, they gave a brief summary of what the key players did with their lives. They make Homer out to be the rocket scientist, but if you check out his website, he’s so much more (but isn’t that the case with many of us?).

The movie portrayed an interesting conflict between father and son, which seems like something most people would recognize. The exchange toward the end regarding Homer’s hero was telling. I always hope parents realize they are their children’s heroes.

 

Week 13- Reciprocity

“I promise to give without expectation of reciprocity from the channels I enrich because I know I am in the dynamic flow of giving and receiving.”

This is another one I thought would be easy. After all, I have a few chosen charities I contribute to,  and I expect nothing in return. But wait! There’s more!

Reciprocity isn’t only about monetary donations. What I’ve come to realize for about the last month or so is each time I am irritated or angry because something I’ve freely given isn’t appreciated, that’s an expectation for reciprocity–in the example used, appreciation is being sought in return for whatever action I’ve taken.

Sometimes, what I thought might help isn’t helpful, so why would the person appreciate it? Sometimes, it just needed to be done, and the doing was “reward” enough.

No matter what the right answer is, and I’ve discussed it imperfectly here, I have learned “expectation of reciprocity” has a much broader application than when I first began making the promise several weeks ago.

As I am able to better keep this promise, I will be much happier. I am whole, perfect, strong, powerful, loving, harmonious, and happy. I always keep my promises.

JeanS

Week 13 – By the Compass

When I retired in 2008, I removed my watch. For me, I thought ‘Living by the compass’ is easy. Been doing it for years, right? Not so fast, Sport!

My husband began dealing with a serious health issue at the end of August. There’s a procedure that can correct it, but certain conditions must be met first. We tried in mid-October. Condition not met. We just tried again. Condition still not met. Proceeding with the procedure could kill him. We don’t want that.

Frustrated, I found myself thinking, “Isn’t it about time we could do this?” Nope. This is a process that has to go by the compass, not the clock.

Week 12 – We’re Omnipotent

This is getting exciting. I’m enjoying Week 12 of the Master Keys.  Where to begin?

(1-2) The first few paragraphs really lay it out there. Creative thought is the key. Anybody can do this. Well, anybody who has to capability of thought. Thinking is free. Nobody can take it away from you (well, perhaps with drugs and other ways of limiting one’s ability to engage his or her mind). That’s important, because this gives credence to the line we were taught as children that we can be anything we want to be.

(3) “We know that thought is building for us the thing we think of and actually bringing it nearer.” Too often negative thoughts intrude upon the positive thoughts we have and negate our effort.  Our thoughts must be laser focused.

(4) To keep from going backward, one must go forward. But how? With three essential steps. 1) know about your power, 2) have the courage to dare, and 3) have the faith to do.

(5-7) With these three things, you can construct the ideal business, home, friends and family, or environment. Materials and cost are of no matter. Your mind can imagine all these things in great detail. But you must maintain your focus. Scattering your forces will result in nothing — like a sculptor changing the sculpture ever fifteen minutes. Without the focus, the product is muddied.

Before you think these thoughts will magically produce results, it isn’t quite that easy — but close.  Paragraph 22 says, “Things are created in the mental or spiritual world before they appear in the outward act or event. By the simple process of governing our thought forces today, we help create the events which will come into our lives in the future, perhaps even tomorrow. Educated desire is the most potent means of bringing into action the law of attraction.” In short, once we’ve conceived and believed, we see the ways we can make our thoughts a reality.

Next it gets interesting, and I found the explanation for why I am initially resistant to new ideas, and why most other people are, too.  Paragraph 23 explains: “The mind cannot comprehend an entirely new idea until a corresponding vibratory brain cell has been prepared to receive it. This explains why it is so difficult for us to receive or appreciate an entirely new idea; we have no brain cell capable of receiving it; we are therefore incredulous; we do not believe it.” Once we’re heard an idea and have time to think upon it, we can believe it and see it as a possibility.

(24)  The Omnipotence of the law of attraction, and the scientific method by which it can be put into operation opens possibilities to those who are enabled to take advantage of the resources it offers. Taking advantage of the unlimited powers which may be yours by cooperating with Natural Law is done by concentration or attention.

(25) The intention governs the attention. Power comes through repose. By concentration, deep thoughts, wise speech, and all forces of high potentiality are accomplished.

(26) It is in the Silence that you get into touch with the Omnipotent power of the subconscious mind from which all power is evolved.

Practice will help perfect these processes, but we each truly control our destiny by our thought and how we use our minds to achieve our most significant desires. If we are not seeing the path, then we have not perfected the process, but we can all improve. Can you imagine how exciting this could be in your life? Can you see it? If not, give your mind a little time to begin to imagine what could be and let it run with the positive things that could be in your life.

 

Week 11-I Am Whole…

I began experiencing sciatic pain yesterday (this was worse than my total knee replacement back in April and maybe worse than the pain in my yet-to-be-replaced knee on a  bad day). Last night, I was miserable. Then I remembered we have this affirmation. I began repeating “I am whole, perfect, strong, powerful, loving, harmonious, and happy” over and over. Gradually, my mind was able to focus on that instead of the pain, and I was able to sleep. What a great Law of Substitution example!

Week 11-Am I A…Fraud?

This is an interesting week. I’ve been sailing along on the Master Key Experience (and there truly is NOTHING like it!). I thought I’d been doing pretty well. I’ve been doing my reads. I’ve knocked out my services — I made sure they were easy to do, but everything needed to be done. That’s what the Subby needs, so I did it.

But there were some…

I am whole, perfect, strong, powerful, loving, harmonious, and happy.

As recommended, if I thought someone I knew needed the affirmation, I’ve been saying it for them. I say it for my cats. One of my cats, the reclusive one, has been more responsive lately. How cool is that? But a little insight? Sometimes, when I’ve been saying it for someone else, I’ve come to realize, I need to say it for me (because, in some situations, I’m the one who needs it more).

So why the title? Old Blueprint wants to address things that bother me. Things I’m not doing that I think I should be. But the Law of Growth says, “The things I think about grow, and the things I forget atrophy without exception.”

So if I want the old blueprint to go away, I need to not talk about it, right?

I am whole perfect, strong, powerful, loving, harmonious, and happy.

But…

I am whole, perfect, strong, powerful, loving, harmonious, and happy.

I am whole, perfect, strong, powerful, loving, harmonious, and happy.