Huna Article

Huna International

A Metaphysical Odyssey
by Stewart Blackburn

I think I first heard the line, "The world is what you think it is" about thirty years ago. I then heard the related words, "You create your own reality," shortly thereafter. They seemed strikingly powerful at the time, but I don't think I had any more sense of their meaning beyond the notion that I'm responsible for my life.

Well, being responsible for my life wasn't all that far from the other wisdom I found in my studies of Oriental religions, Western philosophers, occult texts, and the random insights floating around. So I blissfully lived my life as though I really understood the meaning of those sentences.

Then, about 15 years ago I started exploring them more deeply, first in the context of Huna where "The world is what you think it is" is the first of seven principles. And then I started re-reading some of the Seth works, channeled by Jane Roberts, that I had read many years before. About ten years ago I started teaching Huna and found myself having to have a masterly grasp of the principles in order to answer the inevitable questions.

I had a great deal of trouble wrapping my head around the notion that I was responsible for absolutely everything that I experienced in my life. I gave myself an out and said that I, or anyone else for that matter, didn't have to accept that we created everything. We just had to accept the results of all of our choices and every last reaction to the things that happened to us.

I could live with that. That, though, was a lot more responsibility than I had previously been taking on. It meant that I could no longer blame anyone for anything and that I had choices about how I was going to react to things. For instance, I learned that disappointment was a choice and that I could choose from lots of different reactions to things I didn't like or want. It meant that I could let go of the past because I was responsible for how I was looking at it today. I could choose to look at what had "happened" to me differently and not let it bother me so much. It made me more aware of the choices I was making for my future. I could rightly say that I was creating my own reality by making my choices as consciously as I could.

But that wasn't good enough.

Lingering in the background of my mind, like a playground stalker, was something that I needed to confront. What if the meaning of those two sentences really meant exactly what they said? What if I create all of my reality? But how could that be, when clearly there are so many aspects of life that are out of my control in any way? What's really going on here? I struggled with this and tried to reconcile my expanded sense of personal responsibility with the seemingly incomprehensible idea that somehow I created everything in my experience.

Things began to fall into place for me when I remembered that my experience of life was a unique and individual dramedy, not exactly like anyone else's. I could then see that I create my own personal reality as a subjective version of Life, independent to a large degree of the subjective lives of others.

The only way I could make thorough sense of "The world is what you think it is," then, was to let go of the idea that there was an objective reality out there that we were all swimming in. We all have our own realities. And those realities are a function of what we are thinking, feeling, and believing.

Moving away from a scientific objective reality to a recognition that "objective" reality was only a special case of subjective reality was a big head-spinner! I majored in two sciences and have a master's degree in another one. I am steeped in science, logic, and the assumption that there is something, somewhere out there where everything makes sense; that there is "Truth" to be found if one only looks hard enough.

But I gradually learned to accept the view that I had my own personal reality and that I was responsible for how I kept it organized. Emotionally, it was very challenging. I had to rearrange my entire worldview. Not only is that daunting in itself, but it meant that the foundations of how I saw myself in this world needed to be reordered, as well. I can easily see why people on a spiritual path want to go hide out in caves or the forest, so they can go through these challenging and confusing changes in some relative peace.

Most of us don't have the luxury of having a Himalayan cave at our disposal. We have to go through our changes while living a reasonable life on this busy, crowded planet. So then how could I, or anyone, deal with this idea that we are creating everything in our experience?

The first place to start seemed to be accepting responsibility for everything in my immediate environment. Well, I, at the age of nearly seventy, live in a lovely home in the jungle with many of my favorite plants running relatively wild. I have a peaceful place and have chosen to live solitarily. So I can look around with some satisfaction that I have created a life for myself that pleases me enormously, the fact that that took many years to accomplish, not withstanding.

I think I get it now; one major aspect of conscious creation depends on enjoying what we create. Without taking the time to enjoy life, there is no real energy or motivation to create something else. And the greater the pleasure we take in what's around us, the more powerful we become.

The real force of these concepts, "The world is what you think it is" and "You create your own reality" lies in how we go about crafting our lives from this point on. Becoming aware of all of the unconscious factors in our life-creation is the next biggest hurdle. Sure we can do some nice manifestation rituals, post things on our vision board, and daily say our affirmations, but what are we creating the rest of the time? Creation takes place 24/7. It is a function of those thoughts, feelings, and beliefs I mentioned above that are in play all the time.

Then we start looking at our beliefs, those habitual thoughts and expectations that we take as a natural part of our reality. The easiest way to find those beliefs that aren't creating experiences we like is to look at what we don't like in our lives and ask "What must I believe that makes for such an unpleasant reality?" This is major work and requires us to not only find the thoughts we've been holding, generally with very little consciousness, but also to look deeply at who we are.

Looking at ourselves and accepting what we see has got to be the hardest thing in life. It is only the truly courageous who will attempt this endeavor. Still, it is the inevitable task awaiting anyone attempting to master conscious creation of the reality they truly want.

Just like Odysseus, we must go through all the challenges and get past the monsters of our own psyche before we finally reach the home we've been seeking all along: being comfortable with being the creator beings that we truly are and then creating what we truly desire!

Copyright 2018 Stewart Blackburn

Stewart Blackburn is the author of The Skills of Pleasure: Crafting the Life You Want. His website is: www.stewartblackburn.com; email: lomilomiman@gmail.com.