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It’s becoming a pretty regular occurrence for Rebecca and I to be called out to help people when they’re having trouble with their horse.  Usually, the problem can be resolved quite simply, and when you can ‘fix’ horse-problems like that, people sometimes call you a ‘horse-whisperer’.

The funny thing is that what we’re really doing is something much closer to ‘people whispering’.  You see, it’s a general rule that if someone thinks their horse has a ‘behavior problem’, the real problem almost always lies with the human being, and not the horse.  It might be the manner in which a horse is being housed, or inconsistencies in the human’s training methods.  Most often, it’s that the person is clearly radiating excess energy, fear, or frustration – something a horse easily senses and responds to.

Our job then becomes one of changing the human’s behavior, which in turn affects the horse’s behavior.  The tricky  part, of course, is that humans have egos, and don’t think they’re doing anything wrong.  So you have to change their behavior by making them believe that the change is their own idea.

This all comes down to the idea of control.  The human believes that the horse is out of control, and that they should be able to control their horse.  The real problem is that the human thinks he or she is in control of their own actions, but really they are in ignorance of what they’re doing and the effects their actions are causing.

This points to one of the universal truths of spirituality, which is thus –
You Control 100% of What You Call  ‘Your Life’.

The other universal truth is this –
You Control Absolutely Nothing.

What??

Paradox

Most universal truths can only be expressed in terms of paradox.  When the truth is non-dual, it can’t be described by our clumsy, dualistic language.  So our only choice is to use the extreme polar opposites our language allows, hoping that when people examine those opposites, they’ll discover the non-dual truth for themselves.  It’s important to understand, however, that while both of these ideas are 100% true, they are both also 100% false.  If we try to latch on to either idea as a philosophy of life, we’ll fall into a quicksand of problems.  Indeed, if we try to latch onto any philosophy of life, we’ll create a host of problems for ourselves.  The magic happens when we can see the world just as it is, instead of trying to live according to ideas and philosophies.

You’re In Control

This idea is the underlying assumption of those who believe in Intention-Manifestation and the principles of The Secret.  The world around you – all of your circumstances, diseases, wealth, accidents, relationships, and the manner in which the entire universe unfolds – depends completely upon you.  In effect, you are the artist painting the picture that is Your Life.  This idea harkens all the way back to the ancient Hindu idea of ‘God Playing’ as you.  While you BELIEVE that you are at the mercy of the world around you, in reality you are constantly creating it.  This is how you hide from your true God-like nature, by immersing yourself in the ignorant belief that you are an individual entity, alone in a universe of other individual entities.

So what happens when we start to realize that we’re really in total control?  If we live by this idea, miraculous things can happen.  For instance, because I no longer believe that accidents ‘happen’ to me, I take full responsibility for all my actions and start to pay much more attention when I drive.  Because I believe that I am creating the people around me, I stop blaming others, and start to wonder how I can change in order to create less conflict in my life or the world.  I no longer can complain about anything, because nothing happens without me as the creator.

There is a dark side to this philosophy, however.  It’s easy to take the weight of the world on your shoulders, and fall into depression because YOU are the cause of your failing relationship, your failing health, global climate change, and every war, rape, and crime that is committed anywhere on earth.

This, as you can imagine, isn’t a very fun place to be.

You Have No Control

The flip side of this is the philosophy that we have no control.  Here, we try to eradicate the ego, and come to the belief that the world unfolds perfectly all by itself.  We may appear to have the power to change things, but in reality this is only appearance.  We have no proof whatsoever that we’re not just automatons, imbued with the illusion of ego and free will.
The magic of this idea is that we can come to a total acceptance of life.  We can come to see beauty in both life and death, in pain and sorrow, laughter and despair.  Nothing can ruffle us, and we achieve that complete peace and calm that is often sought after by spiritual seekers.

The dark side here is that it’s easy to fall into the idea of total victim-hood and complacency.  If we have no control and nothing is better or worse, then why take action to ‘improve’ life?  We watch from the outside, taking no responsibility for our actions.  Everything unfolds the way it does, and that is that.

What We All Believe

As you can see, both polar extremes can create positive changes, but both hold great pitfalls.  So what should we believe?
First, let’s look at what we do believe.  Our current belief is a combination of these two polar opposites.  It goes like this – we live in a world where we have partial control over a largely unstable and unpredictable environment.  Mostly, we have very little control over the universe.  But as events come ‘closer’, we have more control.  For instance, we can do very little about the war in Iraq, but we have much more control over our personal health.

We harbor the idea that we should have more control over our lives.  We feel like we should be able to maintain a healthy weight, be emotionally stable, and keep ourselves financially secure.  But while we feel we should be in control of these things, we keep messing up and failing to control them.  Which plunges us into a feeling of helplessness or being overwhelmed.  In short, we feel like we should be in control (which indicates a leaning toward the first of the polar opposites above), but we have a sinking feeling that we’re really not (which indicates a leaning toward the second of the polar opposites above).

The result is a general sense of confusion, because we’re trying to hold to two opposing beliefs at the same time.

So What Do We Do?

The key is awareness.  Can you see how we’re living by totally unexamined belief systems?  This is at work throughout our lives – we live according to rules that make perfect sense because we learned them when we were little and we’ve lived with them all our lives (in other words, they are basically habits).  But few of us have ever taken the time to examine many of these beliefs.

If we examine all of them – each and every one – we’ll begin to discover that the philosophical house we’re living in is pretty run-down and shoddily built.  It was never carefully crafted in the first place.

Most of us, if we take the time to do this, will then try to replace our philosophies with new ones.  This tends to be a frustrating endeavor, however, because if we’re trying the replacement method, it means that we haven’t examined our original beliefs adequately enough.  You see, when we look carefully enough at any belief, we have the potential to see beyond the belief to the very nature of the belief process itself.  We then come to question this process – which precipitates the ‘Awakening’ when all of our beliefs tumble away (because we have removed their foundation).

This is a call to examine where belief guides our lives.  A call to question why belief is necessary.  And a call to question whether any belief can really be said to be more ‘true’ than another.

You’ll find your own answers to these questions, and the exploration can be very liberating.  This is our time to explore.

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