Gently Down the Stream

I'm an unabashed follower of Abraham, purportedly a group of beings channeled by a completely unassuming woman named Esther.

The core of the message is pretty simple: at every possible opportunity, choose "downstream" thoughts, that is, thoughts that make you feel good. Abraham's teaching is that that "feeling good" state is what makes you a "vibrational match" to your desires; you can't get what it is that you're desiring until you and it are "vibrationally matched".

Whether this statement is an accurate description of the way the world works, whether she's really channeling a group of beings collectively called "Abraham" or whether she's making it all up is immaterial to me: it works.

Life is just plain easier when you choose a downstream thought. Eckhardt Tolle says about the world, "it is as it is". My thoughts don't change the external world or its conditions (maybe); my thoughts change how I feel about those conditions, re-configure my frame of reference so that I can view the exact same incidents and external conditions and not get upset by them. Being upset is a choice that I am no longer compelled to make.

Now that's valuable juju.

Choosing "downstream" is simple, too: which thought makes you feel the best?

Generally, having expectations about a desired outcome is completely "upstream", difficult, against the flow. If "expectations are premeditated disappointments", any expectation you have immediately sets up the conditions necessary for failure.

Anticipation on the other hand, that is, looking forward to being happy in the next moment regardless of what the conditions are in that moment, is a Good Thing.

Edison had the anticipation that he would find a substance that worked as a light source when current was run through it. Had he had the expectation that Iron was going to be it, or Aluminum, or Human Hair, he would have failed miserably. Instead, he merely made note of those things which did not work and kept looking, anticipating (and, I believe, deeply knowing full well) that he would find something that did. He said, "I have not failed; I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

It's all about how you think of your world, really, how you feel about it, and not the world itself.

We believe that we can't choose how we think and feel about our world, about our conditions. I'm living proof that that is simply untrue and merely habit, that over time we can change our habitual patterns of thinking so that in every single situation there's something good that we can find in it, if nothing else than we'll be able to look back on it later and see the chain of events that led to something good coming out of it.

I have lived life lately in a state of almost constant bliss, not because things have gone completely my way, but because I've just let go of allowing external circumstances to bother me: I simply choose to not be bothered by people or by events.

The world "is as it is", and it's far more wondrous, nourishing and entertaining to simply observe it as it actually is and to see what's actually there rather than trying to see what I want to be there that isn't.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily.

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