Opinion is a bludgeon, used to be right, and to beat up anyone who doesn’t or won’t submit to our individually-created version of reality.

There is a very great confusion between these two.  Because of common usage of these two terms as synonymous, we think that our viewpoint IS our opinion, and that our opinion IS our viewpoint.

We cannot help seeing things from our own vantage point.  The ‘point of view’ is the point in space from which we view.  There is a law of physics that explains that we cannot any two of us in the same dimension (rate of vibration) occupy the same piece of space at the same time.  The point in space from which we look out at our world IS our viewpoint.  Viewpoint is a neutral state. It only states that, for ourselves, something IS.  It is NOT YET an opinion.

Next, we say something to ourselves about that which was just viewed, thereby creating meaning. Then, meaning created and put in place, we might take the next step and make our personal meaning into an opinion, a set of statements and an attitude reflecting the newly-determined ‘rightness’ or ‘wrongness’ regarding that person/place/thing/event/thought/feeling/etc. just viewed and, subsequently, judged.  Opinion is always a judgment; judgment is always about being right/wrong.  Judgment creates a rigid form around the viewpoint, boxes it up, disallows free movement, insists that it forever after stay the way it is at that moment.  Make-wrong or make-right, they are both imprisoned.

This is one of the ultimate forms of the expression of fear, of scarcity, of trying to get the world to stand still so we have a sense of control.

The part of us that does this automatic judging is a function of the reactive mind (see Glossary of Terms) and runs in the unconscious like a background program in a computer.  So, know that you will judge everything all the time and please forgive yourself for doing it.  It’s built into your survival functions and you can’t help it.  You can, however, have a sense of humor about it and not take any of it seriously.  Whenever you become aware of this unconscious judging, just say, “Oops!” and seek higher ground.  It’s an energetic, ever-present opportunity to practice mindfulness; that is, being awake in present time.

One of the lessons in The Course in Miracles, paraphrased, is that nothing shows up with meaning tags attached.  We make it all up.  The human being is a meaning-making machine.  This meaning creation is one of our innate powers as co-creators of reality.

The creation of meaning forms a structure in our minds.  Formless, free-flowing energy is shaped and its application determined by the structures through which it flows.  One of our jobs as co-creators is to create structures for energy that allow its highest working, thereby enhancing life and stimulating the use of the more refined aspects of mind.  If our minds remain small and our sightedness short, we cannot create heaven.

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Yesterday there were such strange feelings and flows of energy in my physical body that I wondered, was I having a stroke?  So I did the three tests:  Smile; Speak a coherent sentence; Raise both my arms.  As there was no problem with those, it then occurred to me I might be having a heart opening, and I was.  A bit of writing came out of that – see Quality of Life on my Web log, MakersMind.com.  The bit is as sweet and succinct on the topic as any I’ve seen, of my own writing or elsewhere.  Such a good feeling!

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Some people imagine that knowing something useful makes them special (’special’ means of a different kind, as if there could be such a thing) and somehow elevated, and therefore able, even obligated (noblesse oblige, doncha know) to dispense the ’secret’ information in dribs and drabs to those who show up asking to be counted among the worthy to receive.  Oh, just imagine the Power and the Glory of the elevated False Ego!

The whole thing makes me tired.  Ideas and so-called secrets belong to humanity at large.  (There are no secrets if you can ask the right question.)  You can copyright words on a page or in cyberspace (good luck there), but ideas cannot be copyrighted or patented.  Ideas, and the essence of any body of information, are one of that set of God-given rights we’ve heard about.

The only ’secret’ is how to gain access once you know what you want to know.  Then, just ask the Universe.  Ask and expect to receive.  (This is the key to all knowledge.)  When the Universe offers up the knowledge, your job is to take notice and give back gratitude.  Gratitude opens the door to more.