Wants, Needs, Intentions & Rules

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“I want my business to be successful. I need my business to be successful. My business is going to be successful yet nothing I try ever works.” As you can see there is a fly in the ointment, an inconsistency in this group of statements. The rule at the end does not fit the want, the need, and the intention. As you can sense, rules are vital with regard to how we manifest our lives yet they are very poorly understood, often ignored, or overlooked. This is a discussion about rules because they run the show in life and if you don’t understand the way they work, you are at the mercy of everything.

What is a rule? Here is the definition of rule given by Wikipedia. “One of a set of explicit or understood regulations or principles governing conduct within a particular activity or sphere.” So a rule is something that governs behavior in a specific area of life. Rules need to be agreed upon in order to have a game or an activity so that there is some sense of order, not chaos. In other words rules give some structure to our lives.

If we look closely we see that there are rules for everything: driving a car down the road, parking, cooking a meal, dressing for work, even highly complex social rules for communication, dating, canceling an appointment and so on. For example it is against the social rules to invite two different people on a date to the same event and only a fool would do that because of the risk of having two very outraged people.

Here are a list of synonyms for the word rule that help to clarify what we are talking about: Regulation, directive, act, order, law, edict, statute, canon, command, dictate, mandate, stipulation, fiat, decree, injunction, requirement, guideline, stipulation, commandment, and direction. A part of you is giving the commands and a part of you is following them. All of these words somehow describe the process inside of you that magnetizes your experiences to you for lessons. Bear in mind that often the lesson is getting rid of the rule.

Many life rules or decrees are written down and spelled out in detail like traffic rules while social rules are often unwritten but the vast majority of people in a culture simply know them by heart. Young people learn the rules as they grow and sometimes awkwardly break them at first because they either are rebelling or don’t quite understand what is expected. Foreigners do this as well. These rules could be called customs because people customarily follow them. They are understood and are followed by most people in the know. For example most men would never leave the house without pants or shorts on because in most parts of the world it is the rule. If you break the rule there are consequences. People might consider you crazy and haul you off or arrest you for being a pervert.

Who knows where rules come from? Some rules are pragmatic like traffic rules but most rules are developed over a long period of time and often their origins are lost. For example in a truck stop or diner the waitress (female) writes down your order but in a sophisticated restaurant a waiter (male) memorizes your order and never writes it down. Who said that is the rule and where did it come from? Who knows but it is the rule.

Rules are pervasive and govern every part of our lives even your private behavior yet they may be quite arbitrary. John has a rule that the dog can never beg at the dinner table but Mary has a rule that says dogs may get treats there. Fred’s rule says that his coffee is always black and without sugar while Susan’s coffee has to have sugar and cream at all times. You could say these are just preferences but preferences become rules. Just ask the person who serves them their coffee and see how they react when the so-called preferences are not followed.

Rules tend to be habitual behaviors that are expected even when they are not particularly pleasant. They may be adopted from parents and guardians or developed along the way based on many influences and variables. Unfortunately rules are often injunctions, developed from imprinted statements that warn you of bad consequences. “Never go out with wet hair, you’ll get sick, and never go to that bad part of town, you’ll get mugged.” Often these type of rules go unexamined, they are just followed in a rote way. The rule becomes so strong that if the person does go out with wet hair they immediately get sick or if they go to that “bad” part of town they immediately get mugged even though that does not happen to everyone else.

Each person has hundreds if not thousands of such unexamined rules in their subconscious. These rules come to dictate all of life and tend to put people in straitjackets so that they do not vary in their behavior at all. The younger the soul the more rules they tend to have borrowed from other people. The older the soul the more the rules tend to be based on past life or early life experiences that they have not yet overcome. Therefore many rules for them are based on traumas and unfortunate events along with rules that have proven to be very worthwhile like “I always get what I pray for.”

Most people complain about the results of the rules they have without a clue that the events are coming about based on their very own rules. They think they are cursed with bad luck or misfortune while their friends are lucky and get away with things that they themselves cannot. Some of the earliest Greek philosophers including Socrates used to say that mankind is not only completely blind but completely deaf as well. What they were referring to is their observation that all people have so many unexamined rules that they readily ignore all evidence to the contrary and behave irrationally and illogically, often to the world’s detriment. Nothing has changed. This is still true. Every mystical tradition exhorts people to examine themselves, to know themselves because if they do look within, they are going to run into these thousands of crazy rules that make life either miserable or impossible and they will have a chance to erase, clear, or restate them. This however is so odious to most people that they would rather run screaming in the other direction than change the rules even though this would make life easier.

The difficulty is that humans begin to identify with their unconscious rules and think that the rules are them. “I am the one who always has to win. My mother taught me that. That is who I am” or “I always catch every cold that comes around. That is just the way it is.” When a human being is presented with the option of letting go of a rule the first thing that enters their mind is that a part of them is dying and they usually don’t want to do that. Many people think, “I would rather have a bad rule and be alive than get rid of the rule and be nobody (no body=dead).

Now just consider how many poorly thought out rules are lurking in your subconscious. How do you know they are there? All you have to do is look at what is consistent in your life to know what your rules are. What happens in your life without fail? What happens over and over again? “I always get left in relationships. I always end up with a schmuck, a dumb shit, a violent person, a liar, and so on. I just can’t seem to make money. I don’t do well in school. I am the one who always gets caught. I never get the boy-girl. Baby souls almost always have rules about getting caught for wrongdoing. Mature souls often have rules based on martyrdom where no matter what they do they always end up with the dregs or the bad deal.”

On the other hand some rules can be more positive in their results. “I always find what I an looking for. I am always able to pass tests with high scores even if I don’t study. I never get sick. Cops never find me. I always get the deal. I always make money. I always get my way. I always get the girl-boy.” People with dominance as their goal, power as their mode, or young souls are particularly good at working with rules that enhance their success. The truth is however, that most people have a great mix of rules that sometimes help them and others that often get in their way.

How do you go about changing a rule? Changing a rule is really not that difficult if you are not afraid of what will happen to you. First of all it helps to be very neutral in order to change a rule. The more plugged in you are, resistant, angry, stubborn, fearful etc. the harder it will be to change the rule. You need to be interested in the process of change but not desperate. Keep in mind that the biggest challenge of erasing an old rule is uncovering it and looking at it. The Buddha called this meditating on it, Jesus called it witnessing, and the Armenian mystic Gurdjieff called it photographing yourself but it all amounts to the same thing. Keep in mind that the mere act of observation as per modern physics, tends to transform that which is being observed. Therefore you do not need to do anything at all about the rule you are observing. You definitely do not want to resist it, be upset about it, try to get rid of it, or anything similar. When you have looked at it for a while and marveled over it then you are ready to take the next step.

You should have an idea of an alternate rule you would like to have instead. If you have the rule, “I can never find what I am looking for, the alternative rule would be “I always find what I am looking for.” As you observe the old rule you understand the truth of it. The most important thing is that you see without any distortion that this old rule works extremely effectively in producing exactly what you no longer want. You ask yourself this question. “Do I still want this?” The great teacher Krishnamurti used to say you need to look at the truth unflinchingly, without denial, avoidance, or distortion. The truth then will set you free and it does.

When the old rule begins to fade as a result of the bright light of truth, looking at it with unflinching and curious attention, what will take its place is the alternate rule that you energize with your intention. This new rule may need to be repeated many times over, to ground it into the subconscious mind. This is best when it is phrased using an “I am” statement. The repetition of a new rule need not take a long time to become effective. A new rule can be activated successfully within a matter of thirty days with the proper attention and intention.

To summarize a rule is a program, a direction or set of directions that orchestrates phenomena in life. It is important to realize that such programs are not good or bad, right or wrong, they all work the same way. The question is, do you like the results? If you do not like the results then erase the program. Because we have bodies that are elementals, we need programs to have experiences. Without them we would just sit and nothing would happen and the physical plane is all about things happening. So we need rules. What rules? The best rules produce results that are along the lines of what essence wants, love, wisdom, service, generosity, and awakening of consciousness. If you want these things then you will have to create rules that produce them. These are the mechanics of the physical plane.

Here are some examples. Keep in mind these are not really affirmations. Think of them as rules. They are not to just repeat over and over like a recitation. They are actually to contemplate and see the ultimate truth of, so much so that you cannot live without them.

I welcome and am overjoyed by the intense light of the Christ Force I am attracting to me.

I align the highest potential of my essence with everything I do.

I am always in the right place at the right time.

Spirit supplies me with everything I need at all times.

I attract all the resources I need to accomplish my life task work beyond my wildest expectations.

I am attracting all the love I was designed by Spirit to have.

I immensely enjoy extending great quantities of love to all those around me.

I claim great wealth, health, and wisdom.

I own and claim everything I out picture, everything I see, hear, and sense.

I own all the self worth I was created by Spirit to have.

I am the open door that no man can shut.

I am the great I am.

I am awakening to my true worth and potential.

Hopefully you get the idea.


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José Stevens


José Luis Stevens, PhD is the president and co-founder (with wife Lena) of Power Path Seminars, an international school and consulting firm dedicated to the study and application of shamanism and indigenous wisdom to business and everyday life. José completed a ten-year apprenticeship with a Huichol (Wixarika) Maracame (Huichol shaman) in the Sierras of Central Mexico. In addition, he is studying with Shipibo shamans in the Peruvian Amazon and with Paqos (shamans) in the Andes in Peru. In 1983 he completed his doctoral dissertation at the California Institute of Integral Studies focusing on the interface between shamanism and western psychological counseling. Since then, he has studied cross-cultural shamanism around the world to distill the core elements of shamanic healing and practice. He is the author of twenty books and numerous articles including Encounters With Power, Awaken The Inner Shaman, The Power Path, Secrets of Shamanism, Transforming Your Dragons and How To Pray The Shaman’s Way.

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You may make copies of this writing and distribute it in any media you wish, so long as you do not charge for it or alter it in any way. You must credit the author and include this entire copyright notice. While the text may be shared, no audio files, including lectures, music and/or sound meditations, may be posted on any site for any reason without written permission from the Power Path.

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