Mind Matters Most - Chapter Eight

MMM Eight

Our feelings of belonging are so important

On the 11^th April 2009 a middle-aged and rather frumpy-looking woman stood before an audience of thousands of very skeptical people to sing a song.  This woman didn’t look at all professional.  She didn’t fit the mold or look the part.  We could see by the looks of those in the audience that they expected her to be an embarrassment both to herself and to those obliged to watch and listen.  There were awkward glances.  Then suddenly, after some short introductory music, there came to the audience’s ears one of the most incredibly beautiful and powerful voices they had ever heard.  

This was a televised version of ‘Britain’s Got Talent,’ broadcast before an audience which would be seen over the entire British Isle and beyond.   As those first few lines rang out, people began to stand.   First one and two got up.  Then within less than ten seconds, the whole audience was on its feet whistling and cheering and yelling their approval.  This woman, who the judges obviously thought ‘wouldn’t make the cut’ was getting a standing ovation even before the song was completed.    The song was “I dream a dream,’ from the musical, Les Miserable’s.  The singer was Susan Boyle.

We now know that Susan became an instant success.  That song was recorded on CDs  and sold more than ten million copies worldwide within a few months.  So what has this got to do with our message: Mind Matters Most?

It comes from the mindset of a champion. Susan Boyle for years had persevered with her singing.  She knew she had talent.  She knew she had the gift of song.  The constant support in small ways from those few who did know her well had kept her from giving up.   Unfortunately she didn’t know the right people who worked in the right places to gain success in her early years.  But Susan plugged on.  She kept going.  And this is the mindset which matters.  As the great Sir, Winston Churchill said, “Never ever, ever, ever, ever give up.” 

Susan Boyle never gave up.  She had faith in herself; faith in her abilities.  This faith comes from a conviction which has sunk deep into the unconscious mind to the point it is known to be true to its possessor.  This is where mind matters most.  By placing our heartfelt desires deep into the fertile soil of our subconscious and never doubting that the seed planted will grow - and that we will succeed.  

You and me in celebration

You might call it faith.  You can even label it an obsession.   It matters not what it is called.  It matters only that we have it.  Moreover, that we haven’t undermined it by negative thinking.   We haven’t pulled the growing plant this way and that, distorting what will emerge with doubts and compromise.   Mind matters most because what is placed there by our positive selection of what we want, will, at some stage or another, come into our lives.  It will manifest.  This is a law of mind.

If you’ve seen a visual recording of Susan Boyle appearing on the television show which made her famous you cannot help being carried away by something indescribably beautiful.  It is a deeply emotional experience.   I’ve seen this television clip several times now, and every time I see it I feel an incredible sense of what I call ‘belongingness.’   You probably feel it, too.  We feel her triumph.  We absorb her feelings of accomplishment into ourselves at that moment.  She is one of us.   We are at one with her.  It is Susan and us ‘in unity,’ as part of the human race.   This is a greatness we can aspire to.   Subconsciously perhaps, we realize this.  This is possible for all of us.  Her success is our success.  I use the words, “You and me in celebration,” - for it is a celebration.  It is a coming together of human hearts and minds of the many in one stupendous moment.   It is something which does not happen often in our lives, but when it does we remember it.

When Cathy Freeman came forward to win her footrace at the 2,000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, millions of people shared in that feeling of ‘You and me in Celebration.’  Cathy, of Australian Aboriginal descent, had earlier lighted the Olympic Flame above the great stadium before over 100,000 people.   There had been apprehension as to whether the lighting of the Olympic Flame would go off without a hitch.  People all over Australia, if not the world, were anxious that it did.   Cathy was the star.   Could she go on to win the race she’d been predicted to win?  She did.   She triumphed �" and so did the huge crowd that urged her on to victory.  This feeling of being a connected and integral part of Humankind is what I’m talking about here.   If we have it, our lives are that much the more fulfilled.   If we don’t, we are very much alone.

Why is this so?

The ‘At One’ Moment

You see, we have an ego mind with which we identify so much of the time.  This is the part of us we generally think of as ‘me.’   It is individuality, a seeming-separateness we all have.   “There are you and here am I.   Over there are all of those people and here is me.”   But when we experience a moment which comes from a deeper level of ourselves, a level where we are all linked together and are, in actuality all part of the Collective Unconscious which is our greater Humanity, we experience an ‘at one’ moment.   We identify with the other and our own self all at the same time.   The more such moments we experience, the richer and more fulfilling our lives become.

Let me quote just one more example.

Those of you who were born before, say, 1963 or 1964 will likely remember this event as it happened.   You saw it live.  Those born of us after these dates would have seen it on television or film many times since that day.   This event happened on the 20^th July 1969 when a blurry, televised figure, dressed in what looked like a deep-sea divers suit, climbed down a very flimsy-looking steel ladder to place a chunky, insulated boot upon the dust of the Moon.

 “Just one small step for a man �" one giant leap for Mankind.”

 Those were the words that united us as we watch that fuzzy televised picture of the first Moon landing.   Humankind had made it into space landed on another world!   It was you and I in celebration!

We did not say, “Ah, NASA has put a man on the moon,” at that moment.  Neither did we say, “The Americans have landed on the moon.”   We thought.  “We have landed on the moon.”   Neil Armstrong was one of us.  Neil is a human being and part of Humankind.    Of course the NASA staff would have been proud.  As were all the people who made it happen.  But it would not have mattered at that moment which of us it was that landed there.  It could have been a man or woman from any place on earth and we would have still have felt that exhilaration, that sense of shared wonderment and triumph.   This is why I reiterate that if we’re broad enough in our identification with the world-at-large we experience so much more meaning in our lives.  Mind really does matter most.

How to develop that feeling of belongingness

So how can we develop in ourselves this feeling of ‘belongingness?’   After all, we all want it to greater or lesser degree.  In some of us it is so strong that we suffer if we don’t have it.  ‘Love and Belongingness’ stands on psychologist, Abraham Maslow’s, Pyramid of Human Needs right above Physical Needs and Safety.   It’s almost basic.   It comes in after food, water, clothing and shelter, and security from hunger and violence.  But in answer to my question: How can we develop this feeling of belongingness I say:

Feelings of belongingness come through involvement.   This involvement implies a certain amount of commitment.  But that commitment must come not from any feeling of obligation or duty.   It needs to arise as a desire to be a part of something we believe we will enjoy.   For example, if we join a service club because we have a belief that we must contribute to the welfare of others, yet we don’t like the people or environment we’re involved in, we won’t attain it.  On the other hand, if we really like the other members of the group, even though they’re not contributing to a great extent to the welfare of people outside of that group, we will enjoy belongingness.  “I’m part of it and I love it,” will be our response.   Away from those people and outside of that environment, on the other hand, we will not have the ‘belonging’ feeling.  It will be once again, “Me, and the world out there.”

The setting up of exclusive organizations where only certain privileged people are allowed to join is an attempt at belongingness.   A prestigious golf club’s membership might fall into this category.   Only certain people are allowed to join.

“We’re members.  We belong.  Others we don’t want to associate with are not, that’s why we exclude them.  But these people are my people.  Those others are the outsiders who are of no account as far as we’re concerned.”  

A feeling of being one of an ‘elite’ is an objective of such a group.   The club might have been deliberately set up so that only people of certain intellectual, social, racial, religious, or financial background are allowed to be a member.   Others are deliberately shut out.   So this belongingness has more limitations than, say, an organization which almost anyone can join.  Not everyone, but almost everyone.

With a less constrictive constitution, a seniors club such as National Seniors of Australia, Golden A, or Probus International,  might set up a local club.  Anyone can join it provided they’re over fifty-five years of age.  Fees are low.   There is no requisite for high academic qualifications, being wealthy, et cetera.  Once again there is belongingness. 

“We’re members of the Top of the Tree Probus Club.   Our membership is full.  Visitors are welcome to come along.   If they want to join they need to get on our waiting list.”   

The belongingness in such a club has less restrictions than the private golf club membership but in still has exclusivity.  Some people are in, others out.   You’ve got to be a ‘senior.’  You’ve got to be approved of to join.

Those few who do not role play

Now we come to those very few people in the world who do not see themselves in any role other than that of a human being.   They identify and accept everyone into their club because theirs is both a one-person and an all-person thing.  You could not call what they feel they’re a part of as  belonging to a club or any sort of organization.  It is a brotherhood and sister hood of all Humankind.   These are those rare individuals who, like the ancient philosopher, Socrates, who reputedly said, “I am not an Athenian.  I am not a Greek.  I am a citizen of the world, ”   someone who identifies and accepts everyone as an equal.

What do I mean as an equal?

Such a person knows that he or she has greater and lesser gifts, skills, material possessions, intelligence than everyone else.  They know that there are people who are superior or lesser in human accomplishment or talent.  They realize that they are of a certain race, religion, and standing in the eyes of others.  These are recognized attributes but are not regarded as levels or parameters separating them from others.  They know that at essence, all people are of equal value in the eyes of their Maker.  We all have the ‘spark of god’ within us.   Indeed, we are that spark.

 I use the term, Maker, though such enlightened persons might not be in anyway religious.  These individuals have their own philosophy of life.  They’ve garnered it through their experience not by accepting blindly the teachings of others.

 In these advanced persons this feeling of ‘belongingness’ is there all the time.  It is not dependent upon something significance occurring, such as a Moon Landing or the saving of thirty-three miners trapped underground for sixty-nine days in Chile, to bring it about.   They feel this belongingness all the time.   They are humanity.   Yet they’re coming through the one body and mind which is personally theirs.  They no longer, as do most of us, wander among the ‘wilderness of want’ in search of meaning or purpose.   Seeking has given way to being.  They have surrendered their ego desires and are now coming from the directives of their Higher Self, the Self which is linked lovingly to all humankind.   They are coming from the intuitive part of them that is closest to God.

Because of this, such people have tremendous influence upon the world.  They are inevitably leaders, even if they often don’t head up an organization.   People flock to them for all manner of reasons but, primarily, in an effort to get from these people what is being radiated: love, joy, wisdom and compassion, not realizing, of course, that we all have these qualities within us.

What has happened here is that these people have moved beyond mind identification.  Their ego have all but melted away and they are coming from the essence of what we all are.  For whether we understand it or not we are all, to use a biblical phrase, “Children of God.”