Week 16 – Kindness and consciousness

This weeks exercise from Haanel is as follows – “For your exercise this week, try to bring yourself to a realization of the important fact that harmony and happiness are states of consciousness and do not depend upon the possession of things. That things are effects and come as a consequence of correct mental states. So that if we desire material possession of any kind our chief concern should be to acquire the mental attitude which will bring about the result desired. This mental attitude is brought about by a realization of our spiritual nature and our unity with the Universal Mind which is the substance of all things. ….”

The 1^st sentence really “hit” me this week. The dictionary defines consciousness as “A person’s awareness or perception of something”. Haanel only refers to the word consciousness once, and thereafter the refers to “mental attitude”, to me these two words describe it better than my dictionary definition.

So happiness and harmony are mental attitudes, that do not depend on the possessions of things.

In 16.5 he states – “Wealth should then never be desired as an end, but simply as a means of accomplishing an end. Success is contingent upon a higher ideal than the mere accumulation of riches, and he who aspires to such success must formulate an ideal for which he is willing to strive”.

So the possession of wealth (things), should not be our final goal (ideal), but merely the means with to accomplish our ideal. If the possession of wealth doesn’t result in happiness, the only purpose of wealth is to use it for purposes of our ideal.

This is the purpose of our DMP, and we need to ensure that it contains an ideal, which is not merely the accumulation of wealth.

This week we are all as a Group Master Mind to focus on kindness. In other words to create a mental attitude of kindness. I’m pretty sure this is no coincidence that we are required to acquire this mental attitude the same week Haanel talks about mental attitudes.

This week has resulted in a remarkable change of my attitude. I have instantly become a better person. It’s been really cool. What’s been interesting is that work challenges have been a breeze, and that we received a favourable response from SARS (IRS for those in the states), within a week. This in unheard of. It normally takes a minimum of 6 – 8 weeks for these types of matters to be resolved. Coincidence? I leave each one to draw their own conclusion.

I am in the process of rebuilding and modifying my mental attitude. I am also looking deeply at my higher ideal.

Kindness be the path.