Liberation?

“Ron, I hate rollercoasters. Won’t get on one for anything.” ~ Susan G

“We get to choose. Whether to get on or off the rollercoaster is our choice.

And we get to choose how we experience our choice.

Whether we are terrorized or exhilarated has nothing to do with the rollercoaster, and everything to do with our relationship to the experience.

And if we decide to avoid the rollercoaster, so too do we get to experience our relationship to that decision.”

~ Ron Chapman

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For more of the story on the roller coaster analogy, click here.

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Here’s the truth about our experiences: Whatever we believe, and however we perceive, it is through our translation of reality that we have the experience we have. That does not suggest that the world and life are not happening, rather that what is happening is our experience of the world and life, and that experience is entirely based on how we perceive and what we believe.

There’s a great deal of research about how this can be. It’s called “the ladder of inference,” (i.e., how we humans infer things based on how we see and understand them). There’s a whole workshop I did on this idea because it so profound an idea. Click here to watch the video.

Why does this matter?

If in fact our experience is subjective based on what lies in our own cognitive and experiential functioning, then nothing outside of us is in fact the cause of our problems or distress, or even our successes, virtues or joys. As my long-time mentor put it:

“Ron, if every problem is in fact sourced from inside you, then ever solution is within you.”

~ Sam Dement

Note: No wonder we are told the kingdom of heaven is within us!

Not only is this a powerful idea, it holds the key to our liberation.

Freedom then becomes an internal matter, not an external one.

We get to choose!

However, that does not mean that a fair amount of effort won’t be required. Trying to figure out how to unlearn and unbelieve is no small matter. Yet it begins by questioning what we do conceive for ourselves. Then to begin a process of inquiry.

A word of warning. We are very, very attached to who we think we are, and what we have come to believe. Opening that up to exploration can be quite uncomfortable. Yet, all the most wondrous psychic changes involve discomfort.