To me, life is nothing but a series of causes and effects. What I mean by that is certain inputs produce certain outputs. For example, if you eat 10 Mcdonald’s big-macs per day (cause) you are almost certain to end up obese with a host of illnesses (effect). The interesting thing to me is that the amount of joy we experience in this life comes down to what effects we experience on a regular basis. If the effects you are experiencing are low energy, no money, no passion, life = hell. If the effects you are experiencing are physical vitality, abundance financially, and passion emotionally, life = heaven.
So how can we optimize the effects or outputs we experience in life? Simple. Optimize the causes or inputs. This is the law of cause and effect or the science of causality. “Causality is the relationship between an event (the cause) and a second event (the effect), where the second event is understood as a consequence of the first.”
Experiencing the most out of life comes down to US. We, as free-willed human beings, have the ability to make decisions. We have the ability to educate ourselves, to learn, to grow, to expand, to use consciousness to create ourselves and our lives however we want them to be. This is beautiful, but it requires effort and practice. This ability is a muscle; The more you train it, the stronger it gets, the more you neglect it, the more atrophied it becomes.
This is the root of my love for life. Creating heaven for yourself can be done, right here right now. This may be idealistic. However, I firmly believe it to be true. It’s all about altering the causes or inputs. I like to call this “how you conduct yourself.” We are the conductors. If we conduct our actions, perceptions, habits, and modes for evaluating life in a way that is ‘aligned’ with spiritual truth, life can be heaven. But again, the opposite is also true. If we conduct our actions, perceptions, habits, and modes for evaluating life in a way that is not ‘aligned’ with spiritual truth, life can be hell.
“The thoughtless, the ignorant, and the indolent, seeing only the apparent effects of things and not the things themselves, talk of luck, of fortune, and chance. Seeing a man grow rich, they say, “How lucky he is!” Observing another become intellectual, they exclaim, “How highly favoured he is!” And noting the saintly character and wide influence of another, they remark, “How chance aids him at every turn!” They do not see the trials and failures and struggles which these men have voluntarily encountered in order to gain their experience; have no knowledge of the sacrifices they have made, of the undaunted efforts they have put forth, of the faith they have exercised, that they might overcome the apparently insurmountable, and realize the Vision of their heart. They do not know the darkness and the heartaches; they only see the light and joy, and call it “luck”. They do not see the long and arduous journey, but only behold the pleasant goal, and call it “good fortune,” do not understand the process, but only perceive the result, and call it chance.” – James Allen
About Sam Lloyd
Sam, great post. I connect with this post 100% I have been overweight and slowly became unhappy thus I missed opportunities that were right in front of me. Once I decided to take back my life, lose the weight I had gained and put only good things in my body my life changed over night. My attitude completely changed which made my relationships, job and living with myself so much better.
Since then I lived by what I call the “junk-in-junk-out” philosophy. What one allows into their body or their life is what they will eventually become.