Q. Can affirmations change my life?
A. When we wake from the world of form, for some time the process can be very messy. The ego structure is now stronger than ever because it is unraveling the word of form - the good, the bad, and the ugly. Everything during a period of post-awakening (which can last for years) is extremely vivid and extremely intense for this reason. Highs and lows are extreme.
Affirmations are statements based on what it is that the mind wants. If one does not know what they want, they may simply look at what they don’t want and create the opposite affirmative thought.
When a thought is thought enough times, it becomes a belief. A belief becomes a focus and also a blind spot, because it is a stronger form of thought, so it commands more attention. That which we focus on the most becomes the primary experience of what is believed to be the reality.
“And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And the servant was healed in that hour.”
Affirmations and beliefs belong to the world of “I”, or the ”me” energy. This energy believes it has an identity, it believes that it takes independent action and is on a mission which it must complete during its life, which is believed to be in the realm of time lasting a duration counted in decades.
Yes, affirmations can change what it is that is appearing in the realm of temporal experience.
If you are watching a horror movie, you can re-write this into a romance movie. If you are watching a movie of defeat, you can change this into a movie of victory. You can do this effortlessly and instantly if you focus on the desired result and believe that it shall come to be.
When the “me” energy is lost in a problem it will immediately go into the realm of thought to try and fix the problem. Thought can never fix the problem of the “me” energy because the “me” energy is the problem. The "me" energy oscillates between what it wants and what it doesn’t want. Its job is to organize a plan to get what it thinks it wants, and to avoid what it thinks it doesn’t want. It is continually working, exhausting itself and considering itself a “good me” if it succeeds and a “bad me” if it doesn’t. It can think itself into a good me and it can think it’s movie into a good movie! In fact, that’s a healthy and positive expression of the me. It can give the “me” happiness and pleasure to be healthy, loved, free, and rich.
However, what one thinks one wants is not ever what one truly wants. The "me" energy only ever wants the Truth of it's very being, which is love. This is why it can never find a real solution to getting itself back home to peace and love. It could only do this through complete and total surrender to life itself.
Who is this "me" thing and where does it come from?
Well, let’s simply look at the movie analogy. When we go to a theatre to watch a film, the film is being played by a projector onto the screen.
Without the light and the projector (God or Love) the dream (plot) cannot appear on the screen (consciousness). The dream is the mind and the world - which are one thing. That which appears in the mind cannot appear in the world of form.
In Christianity, this is also the Holy Trinity. The Father (Love), son (plot-mind), and the Holy Ghost (consciousness).
“Brahman is real. The universe is unreal. Brahman is the universe." ~ Ramana Maharshi
Affirmations appear in the world of that which is unreal.
Do you see the problem here?
Yes... you can’t win! Just look - can you name any form that arises, that also doesn’t dissipate in the world of form or mind? Thoughts come and go, feelings come and go, beliefs come and go, bodies come and go, money comes and goes…
The world of form, is, therefore, that which is unreal.
Raman Maharshi says that if something is real, it must be real forever, and not just for some time.
In sum, “Dream water, quenches dream thirst.” ~ Ramana Maharshi
Remember that which is eternal which is this empty looking, this aliveness this sense of presence that is sitting at the computer reading these words right now. Surrender to that. I encourage you to watch a beautiful movie of your life but if you look for freedom or fulfillment in this movie, you will lose that which you think you’ve gained when the movie ends. The truth is eternal. It has no beginning or end.
Kasia Jarosinska is a certified Kundalini yoga instructor and writer living in San Diego, CA. She has been published in local lifestyle magazines, Eco-living publications and international fashion magazines. She writes a blog on non-duality www.spiritualshifts.com