Many people spend their entire lives
seeking to know the laws or rules of the universe. These rules can be predicated to be
based on the Shamanic view of the universe in which everything is alive, aware and
responsive.
The Universe and everything in it has
three aspects: Spirit, Body, and Mind. Each of these aspects has its own rules. The better
we understand these rules the easier it will be for us to grow, to heal, and to have a
good time.
Spirit has one rule only:
"Experience existence." No conditions, no shoulds, no limits, and no avoiding
it.
The Body only has two rules: "Seek
Pleasure" and "Avoid Pain." Since the way to do this is not always clear
under all circumstances, the Body will sometimes move toward pain in order to experience
some associated sensory or emotional pleasure. This would be like climbing a mountain for
the pleasure of the view, working out for the energy benefit, or undergoing surgery to get
well. Sometimes pleasure does not seem to be an option, in which case the Body will try to
move toward the least available pain. We can see this in people who drink themselves sick
to suppress emotional pain, people who stay in bad relationships for fear of having none
at all, and people who commit violent suicide. Then there are those who move away from
pleasure for fear of an associated pain, such as people who avoid success for fear of
criticism, those who believe that pleasure is a sin punishable by God, and those who
believe that pleasure makes you weak. For the most part, it is easy to note that all
spontaneous, intuitive and subconscious behavior follows the rules of seeking pleasure and
avoiding pain.
What about the Mind? The Mind is a
rule-making enthusiast. It makes rules -- lots and lots of rules -- about everything
imaginable. It makes rules about language, rules about religion, rules about behavior, and
even rules about the Universe. And when it wants something badly enough, it may well go
ahead and change the rules. We have hundreds of languages around the world, hundreds of
cultures based on their own ideas of right and wrong, hundreds of ways to relate to God,
hundreds of scientific theories about hundreds of subjects, hundreds of countries with
their own variations on political systems, hundreds of thousands of laws governing
behavior in different societies. Ask anyone's opinion about anything and what you will
hear are the rules they live by. They may call their rules opinions, beliefs, or facts,
but they are only rules, some inherited, some borrowed, and some made up.
Breaking rules is tricky. Just try to
break the rule of Spirit.
Non-existence does not seem to be an
option. And when you try to break the rules of the Body you usually get severe and
immediate physical or emotional consequences. The Body wants its pleasure and fears all
pain, so woe to the Mind that tries to alter its natural inclinations without good reason.
There are consequences to breaking the
rules of the Mind, but they depend on which rules are involved and who else is involved
with them. You can break a legal law with impunity if no one else is around, unless you
confuse legality with morality. If you break a moral law, one that you've accepted as your
own, when no one else is around, you'll probably punish yourself. You can break the rules
of language, but you risk being misunderstood. You can break the rules of science any time
you want, as long as you are not seeking a grant, but some things may not work the way you
want them to. You can break the social rules of your group if you don't mind being cast
out.
It is recommended to use the rules of
Spirit and the Body, and playing creatively with the rules and rule-making talents of the
Mind. With rules of the Mind it's much easier to make different rules than to try and
break old ones. Rules that are not used any longer just fade away. You can make up any
rules you want about anything you want. You can make different rules about how you think
and how you feel, and what is possible, and what you can do, and about what the past means
and what the future will bring. The rules you use affect your behavior and your
experience. Change your rules and you change your life.
