Bad News = Good News

Some of those little discoveries I mentioned yesterday deflate or destroy any number of pretty lies. I could tell people these things up front and their reaction would be either denial or despair, with a big helping of anger at challenging their sacred blankies in the first place. Consider:

• There is no such thing as karma.
• You are neither more nor less than human, and always were and shall be.
• No one can actually empower you.
• Astrology is pretty much nonsense.
• Luck is 100% illusion.
• Fate is bunk.
• You do not have a soul mate.

Some of those should have a phrase like "in the usual understanding of the term" attached, because most of the misuses are based on horrifyingly bad understanding.

The rest are simply crap beliefs.

All of them, in their above forms, are incompatible with any free will belief system.

I can say this without hesitation partly because I have discovered it to be true, but also because every statement in the list turns out to be really good news. Every one of the false beliefs limits you in ways both obvious and subtle. Each of them keeps you from looking at the bright, elegant, beautiful way the universe works.

Holding on to a belief that removes even a shade of recognition of your free will, moral agency, or self-determination may give some slight comfort, but it will keep you in the dark, away from your potential, stunted in maturity, and ultimately unhappy. Odds are it is incompatible with other beliefs you may try to hold. Yet people cling to them for their small, shallow comfort, which is why I refer to them as "sacred blankies." Is that harsh? No. It is, I repeat, very good news. The trepidation at leaving the comforting lie is no proof that it is otherwise. Growth is not easy. It is designed to be hard.

But oh, the rewards! When you do not hold yourself subservient to the capricious power of luck (my own hobgoblin), even in some half-disbelieving corner of your mind, a host of illusory walls and paper enemies vanish, and your very approach to living changes in tangible ways. It is difficult to describe exactly what an enormous change that tiny course correction yields. When I figure out how, I'll write on this again.