What you see is what you get. What you seek is also what you get.
(My translation of Matthew 7:7-8)
We mend and renew the world by strengthening inside ourselves what we seek outside ourselves, and not by demanding it of others or trying to force it on others.
This truth may sound like the Law of Attraction that is so widely discussed today, and often called the “Secret,” but there is one major difference. Drawing good things, such as love, a successful relationship, some kind of reward—toward yourself—is fine and good, as far as it goes. But it is still all about you! The true contemplative mind does not deny the utter “facticity” of the outer world, but allows outer reality to be its guide and teacher. The Secret seems to be saying that your mind fully creates reality, which is only partly true. I am saying that you do create your response to reality, and that response, for all practical purposes, is your reality. But do not imagine you can think away typhoons and very real tragedies. Instead, you must deal with them in the Spirit, which is a very different way of dealing with them.
Some Eastern religions have called the correspondence between who you are and what you can make happen or what will happen karma. And Jesus said it this way:
Do not judge, and you will not be judged,
Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned,
Grant pardon, and you will be pardoned,
Give, and there will be gifts for you….
The amount you measure out is the amount you will be given back.
–Luke 6:36-38
If you want others to be more loving, choose to love first. If you want a reconciled outer world, reconcile your own inner world. If you are working for peace out there, create it inside as well. If you wish to find some outer stillness, find it within yourself. If you want to find God, then honor God within you, and you will always see God far beyond you, also. For it is only God in you who knows where and how to look for God. By ourselves, we are fairly blind.
Adapted from
The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See, pp. 160-162
Gateway to Silence:
The silence in me will love the divine silence. �Eckhart Tolle
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