Fairly recently, a client of mine asked what my thoughts were about “The Teachings of Abraham” (Law of Attraction, etc.) and their relationship to what seems to be suggested in The Work of Byron Katie. The following is my response…
“Pretty sure the Laws of Abraham are basically the same as what is presented in “The Secret”.
This link could explain the differences best:http://www.byronkatie.com/2007/04/the_difference_between_the_wor.htm
My personal take:
I personally practiced the law of attraction thing for awhile and eventually stopped doing it.
I saw pros and cons to it.
The pros were that I became very aware of my thought processes and noticed how suffering was the result of “negative” thinking. The metaphysical claim in Law of Attraction is that when you think positive, you attract positive circumstances, when you think negatively, you attract negative circumstances.
This could just as easily be interpreted as or explained by what is commonly called a self-fulfilling prophecy. Also, when you are happy and smiling (on a more regular basis) it seems like you must therefore have your stuff together, and thus people are more apt to hire you, or pass along your professional information word-of-mouth. To claim some metaphysical mechanism is at work here could be a bit of a philosophical leap, one that is based on appearances only.
The cons were that my efforts to attract different circumstances were based on a fundamental and stressful presumption that there is something lacking now, and that some future moment will finally make me “really happy”. In my case, it was a subtle form of waiting for things to get better or change before I can open my heart fully (and therefore experience freedom, now). And since death is real and comes without warning, I’ve come to see my priority as being fully present, free, and loving now instead of waiting for things to get better.
(“there is something better than this moment”….”there is something missing”…Can I really know that that’s true? What do I get for holding the belief? Who would I be without it? …”Without the thought that something is less than whole (namely, me), I won’t evolve or be productive in the world” …Can I really know that that’s true? …. “There is a such thing as ‘negative thinking’ ” …Is that true? …”There is a such thing as a ‘negative circumstance‘ ”….Can I really know that that’s true?…and of course, the real kicker: “I know what’s best for me”…CAN REALLY KNOW THAT’S TRUE??).
“Hope” is something we celebrate in this culture. In my case, “hope” became the very thing that would keep me from being fully present with you.
In my experience, the practice of The Work has shown me that with no exception, there is nothing better than this moment… and bright futures are made by people stabilized in this realization.
I also found it to be a subtle form of inner violence to move immediately to a positive thinking polarity without first thoroughly questioning the truth of the original negative thinking.”
