This week the Mindshifters group watched the first part of the lecture by Dr. Michael Ryce titled, The Laws of Living. In this lecture Dr. Ryce makes the distinction between the many rules that man creates, which are arbitrary and constantly changing, and The Law which governs our existence as human beings in the physical and spiritual realms. The Law is something which cannot be broken, it is simply the description of the way things work. For a simple example one can observe the Law of gravity. If I lift a pen from the desk and then let it go, it will always fall toward the desk or the floor, or whatever is directly below it. It will not float off to the left or up to the corner of the room on some days, or at different times of the day, it will always fall straight down, unless something or someone acts on it to change its course.

The Laws of Living as described by Dr. Ryce in this lecture are not arbitrary rules set out by some group, government agency, or religion in order to establish a pattern of behavior between people, it is simply a statement of the observation of the way the world works. These Laws have been known by the great spiritual teachers for all of recorded history. They have not changed and there is no reason to believe they will change with the passing of time. If we learn to live our lives in harmony with these laws, we will be assured of happiness and contentment. If we live our lives without regard to these Laws, we will be assured of frustration, anger, bitterness, disappointment and resentment.

If this is seen clearly then the choice seems obvious, to learn of the Law and live our lives in harmony with the Law. However, we have been conditioned to think that there are no absolute laws, and that the rules which men have constructed to help them gain power and authority over others, are the same as The Law. We have been taught that thinking and talking about absolute Law is a bad thing, since it often conflicts with the desires of those who would have us focus completely on the physical world. It has long been said that The Law, and the knowledge of how to live in harmony with it, will set one free. Setting the people free is not in the best interest of those who wish to accumulate wealth and power, using the labor and servitude of others. This being the case, it is seen by some as risky to even talk about The Law, and about setting people free to live the life they were born to live on all levels. People were not born to live lives of servitude and to be controlled by others for the accumulation of wealth and power. People are born to learn, and grow, and expand the possibility of what they can be, by learning to take responsibility for all that they think, feel, say and do.

Another key portion of the lecture focuses on the idea that words do not have meaning. Words are simply vibrations and those vibrations trigger memories, beliefs and sensations within the person who is touched by those vibrations. The word itself has no meaning other than that which is held by the person who receives the vibration created by the word when it is spoken. The simple truth of this can be seen by observing a room full of people who speak only English, when someone who speaks Greek comes into the room to make an announcement in Greek. While the person speaking Greek has an important message to impart, and while the room full of people who speak only English are able to hear the sounds being made, they are completely “deaf” to the message. Only those who have been trained to interpret the sounds made by the person speaking Greek will be able to receive and understand the message. This is because the sounds being received by their ears, will trigger the memory of meaning stored in their brains and then those people will be able to attach meaning to the sounds they hear.

This is what was meant in the scriptures when they talked about how people did not have the eyes to see, or the ears to hear the message being given. It is fairly certain that everyone in the audience, at that time, had physical eyes and ears. However, they did not have the past experience or the frame of reference which would allow them to understand the message which was being taught. Therefore the messages were given in multiple ways, as in a parable, which means a story with parallel meanings. Then with repetition and intervening life experience, people were able to build their own internal understanding of things which could only be hinted at in the words which were being used. True spiritual teachings and stories and parables are not designed to get someone to believe in anything. They are designed to point an individual toward an experience which will open that person to new levels of understanding which can only be achieved through direct contact with a new level of being.

We come from Love, we are made of Love, we are Love. Everything else is false.