Reflections on Gratitude and Evolution

Dear Ones,

The law of attraction, remember that?  Yep, the good ol' LoA.  Excoriated by many as a magical device for wishful thinking puposes, it was also ponderized more tenderly by a few the likes of me.  I have been thinking about it again lately as I slowly work LoA-oriented prayer more deeply into my daily practice.

One of my basic operating conclusions is that "things" are far simpler than they appear.  I mean, when you think about it, the fact that anything appears at all is quite mystifying.  Avoiding that, we just take it for granted that we are alive and witnessing "things."  Still, just below our preoccupations, there is this incredible mystery of just what in the hell is really going on here.  Right?

I like to look for the tissue between things that are not typically seen as connected.  I have written before of my sense that the word "Om" (pronounced Ah - Oh - Ooo - Mmmm. . . ) is the evolutionary fractal itself, perpetually resonating across the quantum boundary to bloom the rose, the raven, and the deep blue sea.

Here, I propose that the LoA, at its simplest, is also this fractal Om.

Here's how the law is supposed to work:  You want something?  Visualize it while emotionalizing and more or less it will manifest in your life.  It is claimed that clear vision, and applied emotion are the sole determiners of outcome.

It seems to work both ways.  That is, if you gripe, you get more to gripe about, and if you put the good stuff into it, you get more good stuff.

LoA  folklore holds that, properly, gratitude is what drives the practice.  If so, how does gratitude become so active, so powerful as to incline the Kosmos to providence? 

For years, I had no clue what gratitude meant.  None.  I was happy to just be relieved on occasion from the fringes of imminent doom.  For years I mistook this pale substitute of vindication for the real thing - gratitude - the driving force of evolution, or so it seems to me.

What??  Gratitude the driving force of evolution!!??  Oh, that's a good one.  Impossible.  It can't be that simple.

Oh?  Why not?  Perhaps it only seems soooo complicated, this evolution thing I mean, because of all the "thinking" that we "do" about it.  If the process, the root equation of it, was complicated and difficult, it would likely break down and fail.  It has to be simple, infallible perhaps, or it would never have lasted this long.

I see a connection between the LoA and the sound of Om.

Again, let us look at the sound and emotion of Om.  Really, try these sounds on and see what arises with each of them.

Ahhhh . . . beautiful!  Really, if we just can be present for it.  Even blood in the streets when seen as evidence of pure human passion however conflicted, is beautiful.

Oh . . .  I realize this beauty resonates within me as me.

Oooo . . .  That feels gooooo. . . d!!

Mmmmmmm . . . I am sooooo GRATEFUL!!!!!

The more gratitude assumes a full-on ecstatic state, the more vision manifests, or so it seems according to the law.  So what is gratitude anyway, this giving thanks, this acknowledgement of deep affection?  It must come from a thorough sense of self as utterly acceptable, as free of secret suffering vexations as can be. 

Now this, will take some work.  But ah, the beauty of it is that it is only work.  It can be done and the beauty of it is that first steps produce tangible results.  The first result being that the fear we have of "going-in" is swiftly dispelled upon entering.

Going in, we do the work, and faith arises.  Gratitude is faith in action, pure and simple.  Gratitude returns energy to the Source to sustain the loop of intention/evolution.  For it to work though, we must work it, the inward look and all.  And we must contemplate the word and practice it at every opportunity and the time will come when we can play in prayer our visions to unfold.

Om Namah Shivaya,

Michael