I have been thinking a lot about limitations recently and how they relate to our preferred experiences; about how we tie our own hands with our self-talk (the dialogue that runs, mostly uninterrupted, in the back of our minds throughout each and every day). I recently read a book by Richard Bach entitled "Hypnotizing Maria." In Mr. Bach's book, among many gems, I found this:
"Every split instant we perceive a wall we reaffirm solid-can't-go-through-that. How many nano-instants during one day do our senses include walls? Doors? Floors? Ceilings? Windows? For how many milliseconds do we accept limits-limits-limits without even knowing we're doing it? ...
"In the midst of all of that, we mortals have to learn to be afraid ...
"Got to play, got to dive down deep, deep, deep, deeper in that ocean of suggestions that we're mortal, limited, vulnerable, blind to all but the chaff-storm of what our senses tell us; turn lies to unshakable belief, no questions asked and while we're doing this avoid dying so long as possible, and while we're dodging death figure out why we came here in the first place and what possible reason we might ever have had to call this game entertainment.
"Oh, and all the real answers are hidden. The game is to find 'em on our own in the midst of clouds of fake answers that other players say are fine for them but which somehow don't seem to work for us at all."
From an Advaitan (Advaita Vedanta) standpoint, I then came across this quote from Shri Sadguru Siddharameshwar Maharaj during the same time frame:
"All you need is to understand that you are the source of reality, that you give reality instead of getting it, that you need no support and no confirmation. Things are as they are because you accept them as they are. Stop accepting them and they will dissolve."
And from the book Shri Sai Satcharita:
"All the things that we see in the universe are nothing but a play of Maya [illusion] - the creative power of the Lord. These things do not really exist. What really exists is the Absolute. Just as we mistake a rope or a garland for a serpent, on account of darkness, we always see the phenomena, i.e., things, as they outwardly appear, and not the Phenomenon, which underlies all the visible things."
If we see a wall or a cliff that we must scale in order to move on to the next step and say, "I can't" will we be forever stalled until such time as we may hopefully find a way around it? Would it not be much better to take the more direct route of shaking off that limitation and deciding "I can!" "What if ..." as a question Mr. Bach posed in his book asks, "the world around us is the perfect mirror of what we believe?" What if ... all of our limitations are self-imposed or imposed upon us by others beginning in our infancy when in the most vulnerable and trusting of states, we accept them as truths? What if ... as Richard Back went on to say:
"That's why infants are helpless as long as they are, even learning quicker than lightning every second. They need to accept a foundation, a critical mass of suggestions, acclimate from spirit to our customs of space and time.
"Infancy is basic training for mortality. Such a savage bursting dam-break of suggestions on the poor little guys, no wonder it takes years for them to swim to the first still water, talk ideas on their own. Amazing their first word isn't 'Help!' Probably is, that cry."
So what if ... from now on each time we have the urge to say "I can't" or someone else tries to impress their limitations (or the limitations of others) upon us, we turn a deaf ear?
I'm not going to lie to you, this work takes self-discipline and constant practice. As a someone recently said to me, "We got where we are one thought at a time. And it takes one thought at a time to change it." Well said! One-thought-at-a-time ... And if we fail? To use the words of my beloved friend and spiritual teacher, Clara Ibáñez (ClaraLlum.org): "How many times do we have to fall to the floor only to get up again and keep walking? Any number of times ... plus one."
So now to continue on this path of self-discipline, constantly practicing - one thought at a time ... plus one.