This is a video by Alan Watts that I recommend you watch and below is an extract from the book ‘Live This Life’.
Chapter 2 – You Are God-Like (Taken From The Book ‘Live This Life’).
It is a well-established fact in all the major religions of the world that God gave everyone free will. The only reason the Creator did so was to give you complete control over your thinking. Why? – To allow us to be Creators too, to be the designers of our destiny and the architects of how we choose to live our life and that proof exists in the Bible.
In the Gospels of the New Testament Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven exists in each and everyone of us, and that God made us all in his image. If this were true, why then would God, who created you in his image, produce a flawed copy? The fact is he didn’t. You are perfect in every way and all the power, resources and energy of the universe is universally available to you as it is to God himself – and you have to work very hard to screw that up!
In the Gospel of Thomas, one of the Gnostic Gospels that was found in a cave in Nag Hammadi, the Disciple Thomas states that Jesus said: “If those who lead you say to you, ‘See, the kingdom [of heaven] is in the sky,’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom [of heaven] is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty, and it is you who are that poverty.”
What this means is that heaven, and all of its wonder, isn’t to be found anywhere outside of you. It exists inside of you, but to access it you need to know yourself and realise that you are God-like. You are the creator of your world.
Also in that extract from the Gospel of Thomas the word “poverty” is used, but it is used in context to describe a person’s thinking, not their financial or social status.
What it translates to is: think in terms of poverty and you will live in poverty because you will never recognise the universal power and resources available to you that you already possess.
However, think in terms of abundance and you live in abundance. The Gospels also say that Jesus said: “Ask and it shall be given to you. Knock and doors shall be opened to you”.
A positive mental attitude therefore, is the habit of keeping the mind busily engaged in connection with the circumstance of things one desires in life, and away from things one does not desire.
However, the vast majority of people will go all the way through their life with a mental attitude attuned to what they do not want.
Their mental attitudes are dominated by fears and anxieties and worries over circumstances, which somehow have a way of making appearances later. In short, they create that which they fear the most. They ask for the wrong things and knock on the wrong doors.
To emphasise this point more clearly consider this. Sometimes when you go shopping you will make a shopping list, and on that list you will write all of the things that you must remember to buy, because you either need them or want them.
Have you ever considered writing a shopping list of all of the things that you definitely do not want and that you must remember not to buy because you definitely do not need them?
Well the answer to that should be a resounding no, because there would simply be no point, and if you did you would probably end up coming back from the shops without some of the items you wanted or needed because you were too busy thinking about what you didn’t want.
Yet when it comes to our lives, how many people can give you ‘lists’ of things that they definitely do not want, but when asked what they do want they draw a blank?
Then, when what they do not want materialises they say: “Why does it always happen to me?”
Well the reason is if you keep on focussing on what you don’t want in life you’ll eventually get what you don’t want because you’ll help create the situations and circumstances that will give rise to the possibility of it materialising.
The Chinese even have a proverb for that which says: “Be careful what you wish for”.
The worst part of this tragedy is that these people who do this actually blame other people for the misfortunes that they have brought upon themselves by their own negative mental attitude. Yet blame is only an excuse for lack of personal responsibility.
However, someone who is trained in how to use their mind will find the seed of an equivalent benefit in every set of circumstances presented to them.
In short, they find meaning and purpose in everything, good or bad, and have developed a natural ability to turn any adversity into their advantage.
More importantly, they take responsibility for their lives and refuse to live in someone else’s limited mind-set and dogma.