By Marc Lerner
The main issues of today are dealt with by focusing on what people
believe. For instance, some people believe that the police shooting of
Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, was justified by the police. And others
believe it wasn't. Another issue is going to war in the Middle East against
ISIS. Some people feel it is not our business and that we should not be involved;
others feel that they are a threat against America and that we are justified to
be active against them. A third issue is what the republicans feel and what
the democrats feel.
To me, the main problem is not in the right and wrong in what
you believe in. The main issue is the consciousness it is perceived with.
When you focus on thinking, which is very important, you deal with things
with a certain consciousness. When you focus beyond thinking, you can go
back and deal with the issues from a higher consciousness. Most people
constantly focus on thinking and they navigate through life on what they
believe.
In Latin, the word "believe" comes from the word "to allow." When
you allow what you believe, you don't always have the consciousness that
goes beyond your personal perspective. For instance, if you grew up in a
republican household, your beliefs would be influenced by that. If you had a
selfless perspective, you would be able to see more than your past
conditioning and see issues from a broader perspective.
I think the main problem in our society today is the consciousness
we live our life in. We train our children to focus on thinking to be
evaluated in a positive way. During those formative years, if we even
presented the idea of focusing beyond thinking, they would naturally be open
to that possibility. When this idea is presented to most people, they relate
to it in a religious way. It takes faith to go beyond the security of
thinking. For those who focus on thinking, they hide behind their belief
system. The way they get to God is by focusing on the "right" way of
thinking.
In almost every spiritual path, silence is honored as a way to
connect with God. Silence is definitely beyond thinking, for your thoughts
can disturb real silence. I feel the way to connect to God is not through a
belief system, but the ability to surrender in silence. In silence "you" do
not exist. There is no duality and a conscious approach to issues is a
natural response. It is hard for people to go beyond the idea "I am," for
they focus on thinking and identify with it. "I am a Republican." "I am a
Democrat." "I believe in God." "I do not believe in God." In a high state of
consciousness, "I am" is all that you need.
We do not enter this discussion because we do not want to influence
people's belief systems. If we dealt with this issue focused on
consciousness, we would become more conscious in dealing with what we
believe. For instance, religion is not taught in school, because each family
has different belief systems. There is a law that separates church and
state, but that does not really affect people becoming more conscious.
Every belief system would benefit when people were more conscious.
For instance, there are many wars based on different belief systems. I feel
that is unconscious. A conscious man can accept another's belief system
without being threatened. The reason this has not been understood in the
past is that we live in the consciousness that is limited by the way we
think. Most people have experienced this beyond-thought consciousness when
they fall in love or face a challenge that really threatens them.
This beyond-thought consciousness is common in sports, for when people enter 'the
zone,' they are beyond thought and perform excellently. I believe there
could be 'a zone' in everything we do, but that requires people to go beyond
the thoughts they identify with. It might seem impossible for different
belief systems to live peacefully, but if we enter the zone and become
conscious of more than our thoughts, our life would happen excellently.
The work I do in dealing with health issues involves people tapping
the Wisdom of their Body. This I feel is 'the zone' of healing. I have had a
disease for the last 33 years. Though I have not healed myself, I feel 'the
zone' of dealing with my disease happens when I focus on consciousness,
instead of the way I think. If I only focused on thoughts, it would be hard
to make my life seem positive. If I surrender in consciousness, I can deal
with what is happening to me in a loving, peaceful state.
