Four Universal Laws

Transcript

Jim 0:01

Hello, and welcome to Decide on Joy podcast coming to you from Harmony Spiritual Center in Fort Worth, Texas. I'm Jim Kovalt, and-

Pjae 0:11

I am Reverend Dr. PJ Stanley

Jim 0:14

and we are talking about various aspects of New Thought and how to put those into practice in life. Um, and perhaps we need to start first with just a brief thing about what is New Thought anyway.

Pjae 0:28

Exactly. So New Thought is just a tradition, a spiritual tradition in which we, um, believe that our thoughts, um, create our lives, and if we don't care for the life we're having, we can just have a new thought about it, just change our minds and go in a different direction. It sounds simple. Of course, it's not, because, you know, there's a lot of emotion involved in changing our minds. We, uh, we like to hold onto our loving thoughts, but that is the solution. Change your mind.

Jim 0:58

Okay. And today, um, our, we're talking about the four powerful universal laws- Okay in, uh, new thought, which are cause and effect, law of focus and concentration, the law of attraction, which everybody's on that one now- Yes and the law of expectation. So why do we need to know these?

Pjae 1:20

Yeah. So this, th- there's so many, and as you, you pointed out, we had a discussion the other day, we're talking about these different laws, and they actually end up kind of relating to one another, and, uh, once you kind of know one thing, you know another. So you don't really need to know all of them. But I think these top four, if you understand and, uh, understand what they do and incorporate them in your life on a regular basis, um, you're going to have a better life. So what we know is that there are two types of universal laws. There's physical laws and there are mental laws. Physical laws being like the laws, the, of, um, gravity. It's a physical law. And then the mental laws are, uh, how we understand them are through understanding these universal laws that we're talking about right now. And so, um, the laws we're talking about, of course, are mental laws. Um, and, and these mental laws can only be proven... It's not like, you know, the- the apple fell on Newton's head and so hit the ground. So that's kind of a, you can see that that's happening. When it comes to mental laws, you can only be proven by experience and intuition. You simply have to experience them and you have to, uh, see them work in your own life, which is why we talk about them all the time and invite you to not take our word for it, which you probably won't anyway, which is fine. Don't take my word for it. Try what we're talking about. Just try it and see if it works for you. That's, that's what it's about.

Jim 2:36

Um, and so the, the first one, the law of cause and effect- Yeah what is that exactly?

Pjae 2:42

So cause and effect is, it means that things happen because something prompted them to happen. Something happened because something prompted it to happen. So for every effect, an effect is like a manifestation, a condition, an occurrence, a result. For every effect in your life, there is a specific cause And a cause is a reason. It's a, it's a catalyst. It's an action that was taken

Jim 3:10

But we're, we're not here talking about, um, just the, the sort of thing like, like i- i- if I reach over and pinch you, you're going- And then I

Pjae 3:18

reach over and slap you. That is a cause and effect

Jim 3:20

Yes, but that's not the sort we're talking about here. No. Right. Okay.

Pjae 3:24

No. It's not. Um, what we're talking about are mental laws o- of cause and effect, and w- about, uh, take- getting a hold of what you think about. Um, and, and it's just so powerful because we have thoughts going on in our heads all the time, those random thoughts about, um, what am I cooking for dinner, and what should I buy at the grocery store, and oh, my God, what is she wearing? Those, those don't really matter. What matters are the thoughts that you think about all day long, the things that are, that you... And we'll talk about the law of concentration and focus later. But, um, to get a hold of your thoughts and to begin to say, "You know what? When I think this thing, this thing happens, and I don't care for this thing that's happening," and to have the power to change that thing from happening because you recognize every time that happens, I've had this kind of thought about it. If I change my mind, which is new thought, if I change my mind about it, what is the, what, how would it change the effect? How would it change the result? And it does. It definitely does change the result. So it's important that you understand, um, a cause is, a cause is why something happens. It's the reason, and an effect is exactly what happens. It's the, it's the occurrence or the, the, what, the manifestation, what shows up in your life. Um, does that make sense to you? Mm-hmm. Okay, yeah. Mm-hmm. So it's important that you understand, if you, if you, if you want to live a life on purpose. You can live an accidental life, and it's fine. It's your life. So I'm not here trying to tell you how to live your life. What we're trying to do here is to say there are choices in your life, and if you're not completely satisfied with how your life is turning out or what's coming into your life, these are some ideas that can help you get control of your life. And I'll talk about the law of control. Well, I'll talk about the law of control right now. That's not one of the four, but, but the law of control says that we are, um, happiest in our lives to the degree that we feel in control of our lives. Like things aren't happening to us because of something outside ourselves. And the more we can get a hold... And of course, things happen. I mean, you could reach over and slap me, and that's not something I would have... You wouldn't because we, I wouldn't be around you if... And that's another thing. If that happened, I probably wouldn't be around you. Mm. So, um, so we're not talking about that. But- But the, the things that you think about all the time, you can decide what you wanna think about and what you wanna draw. And so it's really powerful. Um, in biblical terms, and we don't use the Bible very much, but I do wanna say this, um, cause and effect is the same as what you reap. You reap what you sow. Mm-hmm. It's the same thing as- Mm-hmm you reap what you sow. Mm-hmm. So if you wanna raise corn, you don't plant watermelons seeds, right? And so if you want to have a great life, you don't, you don't plant seeds in your life that don't allow you to have one.

Jim 5:58

Mm-hmm.

Pjae 5:58

And we'll talk about what those, what that looks like- Mm-hmm a little bit later.

Jim 6:00

Yeah.

Pjae 6:01

Yeah.

Jim 6:01

Uh, uh, per- not always as easy as that sounds. No, my God. And- 'Cause sometimes you have to kind of wrestle with that

Pjae 6:07

issue. You really do. You really do. And this is about... And, and we can talk about these a little bit later when we, we c- I think we'll probably have an episode on values and beliefs. Um, so it has to do with wrestling with what you value and what you really believe and why. Yeah. So we'll talk about that later. But yes, it's not as easy as y- as we're talking, but it is simple, as we're saying.

Jim 6:25

Yes.

Pjae 6:25

Mm-hmm.

Jim 6:26

Um, and, and maybe that leads to the next one, this law of focus and concentration. Yeah. And so.

Pjae 6:31

Yeah. So the law of focus and concentration, uh, it says that what you focus on Grows. It's what you focus on grows. And it meaning, it means that we, we, we become better at something, um, or become more of whatever it is we focus on. Um, and this works in both the positive and the negative. So, you know, back to having a great life or, or back to having a, a, not a, a, a negative things that are happening in your life. Um, w- what would be an example, um, of that would be, um, everyday law, examples of the law of cause and effects are... I'm sorry, law of focus and concentration. And we say this all the time. We know what, uh, uh, the law of concentration is. I gotta buckle down and focus. We say this all the time. We know the power of focusing on something so we won't be distracted, and stay on course, and get done what we wanna get done. Um, but a negative view would be if you have consistently saying negative things about your life, like, "Uh, uh, I'm just not smart enough. I can't go to college. I can't finish it. I don't, I'm not, I don't have enough fortitude to stay with it. I'm not smart enough to get what they're talking about." These are the negative things that you say in your life and, um, if you can change, if you can catch that and say, "Why do I believe that?" And change your thinking about it, and stick with the new thought, it will change what you receive.

Jim 7:50

Right.

Pjae 7:50

Yeah.

Jim 7:51

Yeah. I, it, it's, it's that shift that- It's- can sometimes be,

Pjae 7:55

yeah it's very difficult. And y- my history with that, and specific- particularly, specifically I had that issue with not thinking I was smart enough, people in your life, and I think this law of attraction, who you, and we'll talk about that in a minute, but who you hang around with helps you to s- be, stay in whatever you're in, or get into another situation- Mm that you wanna be in. So, uh, hanging around with people who that, they're, they're, they get their identity by not being smart, by saying, "Who cares about, you know, nerds," and talking s- crap about nerds. Well, nerds are the ones who go to s- cl- class and listen and understand. And if you start hanging with them, if you change your mind about wanting to go to school and learning some stuff, start hanging around with people who know how to study, you'll understand how to do it as well, so.

Jim 8:41

Right. Or, or, or if you've been, um, uh, spent most of your life w- w- with people who, who think that it's wrong to have lots of money, for instance, or- Ex- for...

Pjae 8:54

That is a huge one.

Jim 8:57

Yeah that, that you should be, you know-

Pjae 8:59

Yeah, the meek shall inherit the earth

Jim 9:01

i- i- i- Mm-hmm yeah, that. Mm-hmm. Um, so how does knowing that help?

Pjae 9:07

So to me, this is the, um, the law of focus and concentration. To me, there's s- there's so much that you can do In a, in a life- in a lifetime and in a day. There's all kinds of information coming at you, people with all sorts of opinions, influencers are telling you about what you should buy and what you should wear and what you should look like, and there's just so much going on that I think that, um, it gets harder and harder to decide for yourself what's actually important and what you wanna spend your time and your monies and your energies on. So I think understanding that what the law of focus and concentration does, you can begin to say, "Well, do I want to be like this person? I- if I'm constantly following this person, am I actually... Is this a- something that I'm passionate about? I wanna be an influence about what kind of shoes people wear?" Or is it that I... You know, uh, whatever, you know, whatever it is that they're influencing you about. Or do I really wanna spend my time, for, for instance, I wanna write a book about how to help someone that I love get through a difficult time because I've gone through one, and so I wanna spend my time writing that book. That's what I wanna give back to the, to the universe or to the world or to the people that I love, whatever that may be. Or maybe I just wanna spend time around my family and let them know that I love them by spending time with them rather than listening to other people and other things that are going on. So I think understanding what the law of focus and concentration does, you'll f- shift your focus to things that matter to you and stop wasting time on things that matter to other people but not necessarily to

Jim 10:37

you. Right. And there, and there, and there's a, a thing that's, uh, I think involved with, with that too, that, that, that we're constantly bombarded with terrible news and-

Pjae 10:47

Oh, my stars

Jim 10:48

you know, all that thing. And, and n- none of that doesn't exist- It does but you, you have to find a way to... And it's not like you have to be ignorant of it, you know, and to not have any idea what's going on- Right but th- then you have to find a way to focus On your own path,

Pjae 11:08

you know? Absolutely. I completely agree. I, I don't actually, I don't have the news, I don't watch the news, and I don't read the paper, and yet I know everything that's going on because people will tell you. You know, you hang out with friends and whatever it is... I mean, there's some l- locally lately, and I don't know if I wanna date this podcast, but it'll be dated anyway, um, there was some woman who claimed that she got kidnapped, and it turns out that she didn't. I didn't know anything about that. I had never heard of it. And, and there was something else that came out and said, "Well, I bet you know who she is now." I don't know who she is. Uh, someone was talking about it, and I said, "Who are you talking about? What's going on?" Because I don't wanna spend my time... How does that help my life? How does knowing about what she did help my life? It doesn't. It doesn't. I'm not gonna do that. That's not who I am, so it doesn't matter what... Live your life, girlfriend. That's what you wanna do. Live your life. It's okay. It doesn't affect me at all. So yeah, you're right. You're exactly right about that.

Jim 12:00

And so the next one here on this list of, of, of, um, universal laws is the law of attraction- Yeah which certainly has a lot of coverage in the world in general at the moment.

Pjae 12:14

It does. It does. And I think, you know, people think it's hoo-ha and, and they mis- misunderstand it. And it's just like anything else. You can, you can misunderstand or, you know, make jokes or whatever it is, whatever you wanna do, but it's a real thing, the law of attraction, and it states that we draw into our lives- The people, the places, the circumstances that are aligned with our dominant thinking. And all that I'm talking about here, all of the laws are about what we think about all day long. They're not about random thoughts. They're about our dominant thinking that takes up all the space in our head. And so, so what it looks like, um, is if W- A- And, and the thing is this, we all know this law of attraction. We've, we've said this and heard this our whole lives, birds of a feather stick together. That is what law of attraction is. It's people who are alike, um, who have like minds or like thoughts. We are here in, uh, Harmony Spiritual Center, um, because this is a tribe of people, um, who, who see God in a different way. And, and we don't necessarily even need to call it God. We can call it the, that which is greater than yourself, divine law, George or Rose, whatever you wanna call it. But we are actually attracted to one another because we think the same way about certain things. And if that's working for you, then that's great. But if you're attracting something that's not working for you, then it doesn't work, and you s- well, it's still, it's working 'cause it's always worked, but it's not working for your life. And you have to change that because you can ask yourself, "Well, why do I keep getting terrible people in my life?" Or, "Why do I get people in my life that are abusive to me?" Or, "Why do I have people in my life that don't encourage me?" Or whatever the things are that are attracting your, that's in your life that aren't helping your life. And again, that's back to the law of control. These are the things we have control over. What am I thinking about that makes it okay for these people to be in my life that aren't actually helping my life? That's why it's powerful to know it.

Jim 14:07

And, a- a- and it's not only people, right? I mean, it's, it's also other circumstances in your life that you-

Pjae 14:14

Oh, yeah. No, it's not, you're, you're drawing Um, well, could Would you You, you said something about money just- Mm-hmm just a minute ago. And so if your, if your thought is that, um, w- the meek shall inherit the earth, and it's not okay to have a lot of money, that the rich are horrible people, then how much money's gonna come into your life? So you're, you are repelling any, any opportunity, any money that comes into your life, believe me, you're repelling it. And as quickly as you possibly can, you will lose it. You will send it away. You'll let it go. You'll buy something foolish. Y- you won't, you won't, you won't build that because that's not, that's 'cause that's what your thoughts are, that money is bad. But if you think that actually, and this is what I think, I think that money is God in action. How do you, h- if I wanted to support something, a church or a hospital or whatever, it would take money to do that. And that money is helping other people live a better life. So if you look at money as God in action, love in action, how would that change what you think about money? So again, change your mind about what you think about that. If you're getting negative results or not the results that you want, you can change your mind about what you're thinking

Jim 15:22

And the last one, the law of expectation.

Pjae 15:26

Yeah.

Jim 15:26

How is that different from the others?

Pjae 15:28

So the law of expectation is that, um, you- whatever you expect to get is... With confidence. It's not a, "Ah, you know..." You, you actually expect to get and you're confident that that's how it's gonna turn out, that's what you're gonna get in your life. Mm. And it's kind of like the law of focus, but it's different in that it's a, it's an inward thing, that you expect terrible things are gonna happen to you. "This is the way my life has always been. Nothing ever works out for me. The shoe, the other shoe always drops." So even if you were to get something wonderful in your life, a good relationship, or you, you... The, the raise that you were expecting, what's happening in your, in your heart, or the, that you know for a fact is going to happen is, um, something bad's gonna happen. Something's gonna come along to take it away. You expect that to happen, and it will. But if you expect that, "Hey, I, I talked with God and I said, 'I need to have more money because my car is starting to get, starting to run down. I need to get, have money to... I don't wanna fix it up anymore. It won't, it won't do it. It's too old. So I need money for another car,' and I expect that to happen. I see a car in... A new car," it doesn't have to be new for me, but, "New to me car in my garage that's gonna work well, and I confidently expect to get that because that is how it works. I confidently expect it, and it's gonna show up. And I don't care how." Because the how, this is part of the thing that I think, um, people concern themselves with. When you say, "Okay, I want something wonderful, and, um, I'm expecting it to happen," and then you get caught up in, "Well, how is that going to happen?" Because your limited mortal vision can't see it. But it's not for you to wonder about the how. That is for the universe to bring to you. What is yours to do is to decide what you want, and then be confident that the universe will bring it to you, because that's how it works. That's how it works

Jim 17:22

And, and that kind of ties into the title of this podcast- Decide on Joy.

Pjae 17:26

Decide on Joy.

Jim 17:27

And we'll be discussing that at more length- We will on another episode- because we, we realized, hey, we should talk about what this title is about. Anyway, um- Exactly.

Pjae 17:36

Exactly

Jim 17:36

but yeah, there again, um, and with the law of expectation, it's another thing where you may be dragging a bunch of baggage with you from, from what you were told as a child- Oh, my stars from what you hear, all that stuff, you know. Oh, my stars And, and, um-

Pjae 17:51

Absolutely. I think about my... And this is one of the things that I continually do. This is not about me, but I'm d- I only speak about what I know, what I have experience with. Um, and so o- one of the things that I know I consistently do is to review, and I even talk about it here, um, annually, minimally annually, just review what you believe and what you value because those things change over time. Can you imagine believing the same thing at 30 that you believed at, when you were 16? But if you don't reevaluate, if you don't look to see what you believe, you'll still be believing at 30 what you believed at a 16-year-old. You know? So, so it's, it's something that we, I, I, we encourage that you take a look at what is it, not only what is it that you believe, so one of the things that I believed was that, you know, a woman gets married, th- and I'm revealing my age, but a woman gets married and she supports her husband. That is what a wife's job is. Now, who told me that? No one. No one, no one spoke those words to me, but it's what I saw. It's what I saw in all the women that I knew, the married women that I knew, my mom, my grandmother. It's what I saw. But as I got older and I got into relationships, I had to start questioning it. Well, so does that mean I have to give up what's important to me to support him, or why can't we support each other? W- where does that idea come from? Well, it comes from me. It comes from tru- it comes from love. Because if I can love someone and support them, then why can't they love me and support me back? Why can't we do both? And so you begin just to ask questions. I don't have all the answers, but there's a bunch of questions that you could be asking, and asking for the truth that your heart knows.

Jim 19:41

Right. And, you know, sometimes things like that, that can just come from... Well, this is an acting term, but, but from the subtext, uh, just in the culture- Yes in general.

Pjae 19:50

Exactly.

Jim 19:51

It doesn't have to be an explicit thing that says, "This is in the-" This is

Pjae 19:55

the way it is. Exactly.

Jim 19:56

Yeah, but it's, you pick it up from-

Pjae 19:58

Oh my God. I was just watching, because I'm gonna go do a, um, I'm gonna do a workshop, um, at a, at a convention I'm going to n- n- in September. And I just saw a, an, a thing on YouTube, it was so amazing. This... It was an e- experiment, and there's a group of actors in an hospital. They were in a hospital waiting room. It was all made up. Hospital waiting room. And one woman, who was not the actor, and so this f- bell would ring, buzz, and everybody would stand up, and then sit back down Thing would ring, and she'd look around. She's like, "What's going on?" Buzz, ring, everybody stand up. She's looking around and sit back down. Third time it did it, she stood up with them. Okay? So they did the whole thing. Now, some of the actors are starting to leave, and actual patients are coming in. They're looking around. It's... Everybody's still doing it, and the new people are looking around wondering what's going on, but they're, they finally end up just standing up and sitting down. No one has said a word. At the end of this, there are no actors left, new people are coming in, and everyone is still standing up and sitting down with the buzzer. Mm-hmm. And nobody knows why.

Jim 21:01

Mm-hmm.

Pjae 21:01

Nobody knows why. This is how we do stuff. This is how things happen. We just look around and say, "Oh, well, they're, everybody's doing..." Conformity is what they call it. Right. Conformity. It's, well, that's how you do it. Why? Why is it, why we do that? So these are questions we get to ask ourselves- Right in a free world.

Jim 21:19

And, and, and find m- tools, mental tools, I suppose, to, to- That is exactly correct to snip those cords, you know, to- Oh my gosh to say, "No, I'm not attached to that idea anymore."

Pjae 21:30

And I get to ask the question why. And I, the, uh, that, that is something that, um, asking the question why, uh, why is that true or why is it, that is not something that a lot of people are comfortable with. Not only, um, just asking the question, but even in a room full of people and someone saying something and you say, "Why is that true?" It feels like a challenge. It feels like you're saying, "Do you know what you're talking about?" For me, that's not what it is. What I'm asking is, how do you know that's true? Like, what are you, what did you find that? I'm, I'm curious. I'm not, I'm not challenging you. I'm curious. But it can feel like a challenge, and so people get mad when you ask. "What do you mean? What are you asking me? Do you think I don't know?" No, calm down. It's not about you. I really just don't understand. Why, why is it- Right working this way? That's all.

Jim 22:13

Yeah.

Pjae 22:14

So yeah. We have to get comfortable in our own s- in our own skin to be able to answer questions like that.

Jim 22:19

Yeah. So that's maybe a good place to end for today. Okay. And we can all go forth and be curious- And be curious and ask. Ask why. And be, and don't

Pjae 22:27

be offended.

Jim 22:28

Yes. Ask why.

Pjae 22:30

Why?

Jim 22:30

And we'll see you for the next episode.

Pjae 22:33

We will indeed. Thanks for coming.