Illumined's Guide to Inquiry

[Copycat]

Illumined’s Guide to Inquiry

I have been doing inquiry for a couple of years now, learning a lot from different sources but most importantly going through the work myself and seeing the results of doing this work. It can be a tool of great transformation of oneself and external reality. Here I will share some of the most important ideas and principles I have found to be beneficial throughout my journey.

Principle 1 - Life is meaningless

In the sense that it has no inherent meaning. As bleak as this may sound to some, it can equally be quite empowering. Events like blank canvases, await the strokes of our interpretations. It is our definitions and beliefs that wield the paintbrush, coloring and shaping our perception of the vast infinite potential around us. (To give an example, let’s say a person is standing on the edge of a tall cliff. A person expressing the belief that it’s incredibly dangerous and they could die may have a fear response compared to a person who holds the perspective of awe towards the majesty of nature. Same event or circumstance, different definitions resulting in a totally different experience)

Principle 2 - Motivation Mechanism

You will always immediately move in the direction of what you define or perceive to be more pleasurable. You will always move away from what you perceive to be more painful. You are always motivated by the same mechanism to do what it is you do. The key is what you define and believe & perceive to be pleasure and pain. When you attach certain kinds of beliefs to your motivational mechanism then you are automatically/immediately propelled in the direction of reinforcing that belief.

You can intellectually recognize what you prefer but don’t understand why you don’t always choose it or act on it. This comes down to the motivational mechanism and recognizing that if you had a positive belief system attached to that so-called preference you would automatically choose it, and if you are not choosing it, if you are not behaving or acting the way you prefer, what it immediately tells you without exception is there must be a negative belief attached to your actual preference that makes you see it in a light that makes it not something you actually prefer to choose.

It’s important to find out what belief you’ve attached to your so called dream/preference that makes it seem to be anything but your preference and once you find out what belief that is that you attached to that preference you will know immediately why you aren’t.

Many people will remain in a painful state over the state they say they prefer to choose because of the belief systems they have attached to the thing they say is representative of their passion. Which then makes their passion seem more painful of a choice than the pain they are already choosing. Many times it’s as simple as the fear of the unknown. Not wanting to move forward in a direction that’s unfamiliar to you and staying with the pain just because of the idea of the pain being familiar makes it seem as if that familiarity of pain is preferable to the idea of the fear of the unknown and therefore you remain in the pain as painful as it is just because it’s something that you known as opposed to something that you don’t if you have a belief that says the unknown is to be feared.

It takes willingness to explore why you have those beliefs and why you have attached them to that motivational mechanism and why you have attached them to your preference in that manner.

On Beliefs

As a result of living in the present, it will be easier to discern which beliefs are in or out of alignment with your “core” frequency and thus, it will also be easier to let go of limiting beliefs that are negative in nature. Releasing such beliefs becomes easier because they will appear so incompatible with a person’s higher vibrational state that it will simply make no sense to hold onto them anymore.

Should a certain negative belief persist in revealing itself via a person’s emotions, thoughts and behaviors, even after that person declares they’ve released it, then that’s a clear indication that, while they may have let go of a secondary or minor negative belief, they still haven’t found the fundamental one. When a core negative belief is truly released, the proof is that its effects no longer appear in a person’s feelings, thought patterns or behavior. If this is the case for you, you can ask yourself "Why? Why would i hold onto something I know is out of alignment and illogical and makes no sense for who i know i truly am?

To give an analogy in terms of building a house: (From Bashar)

Thought patterns are the building materials. Behavior is the construction method. Experience is living in the “house” that results from all of the above. A definition is like a blueprint for your “house” (your physical reality experience). A belief is the certainty that the blueprint is accurate (true). Emotions are the builders of the house. Thought patterns are the building materials. Behavior is the construction method. Experience is living in the “house” that results from all of the above.”

This is why experience, behavior, thoughts and emotions cannot exist in a “vacuum,” or appear out of the blue for no reason. Belief in a definition must come first, just like the blueprint for building a house, even if that “blueprint” is only in your mind.

However, if the blueprint is “out of alignment” with the original vision, then the emotions (builders), thoughts (building materials) and behavior (building method) will be unable to construct a stable house. If the misalignment is large, the house may collapse in the slightest breeze.

Knowing and understanding this structure and process ensures that your house will be strong and capable of “weathering” anything that may blow its way. This is because when a person notices their own negative behavior, thoughts or emotions, they can trace them backward to discover the belief and definition that’s generating those expressions.

An honest answer to the following question is all that’s required to discover the negative belief: “What would I have to believe is true about myself in the present situation in order to “(feel, think, behave) the way I do?”

If you are willing to find the answer, it will reveal itself in one of a number of ways: either there may be an immediate realization, or synchronicity will reveal the definition, or it may even come to light in a dream. In any case, changing what you define and believe to be true about yourself is one of the most powerful ways of releasing the limitations in your life that hold you back from being your true self.

[Copycat]

Tool 1 - Basic Inquiry
So the inquiry method itself is quite simple. Once the you have done the inquiry and brought the core definition/belief that was unconscious into the light of your conscious awareness, it will become nonsensical and illogical if it is not in alignment with your core frequency. That is all it takes. Once you become aware of it, it is no longer a pattern but a choice. Negative beliefs will do everything they can to make it seem like they are the only possible/logical reality, and will play tricks such as offering up another negative belief to hide the core belief/definition. Keep going until you get to the core. You know you have gotten to the core when you don’t have the same feelings, thoughts and don’t act in alignment with the negative belief.

So the basic inquiry questions are the following:

• What would I have to believe or define is true about me in this circumstance in order to feel, think, behave the way i do?

• Why? Why would i hold onto something i know is out of alignment and illogical and makes no sense for who i know i truly am?

• Where did that belief come from?

• Who did that belief come from?

• In what way did this belief serve me?

• What else do I have to believe to even consider this belief to be true/real?

Once you have found the core negative belief, you are free to choose a different definition/experience/reality.

Principle 3 - The Establishment of a Decision (AKA how you’re manifesting your life from moment to moment - From ELAN “Your Power on a Plate”)

1. You make the decision.
2. You trust that decision.
3. You act as though you trust that decision. Then, voila: linear reality results.

Another way of stating it -

1. THE DECISION
2. THE CONSISTENT TRUST IN THE DECISION
3. ACTION (action is the “stuff” that physical reality is “made of,” so-to-speak)

ex." I AM ___" (fill in the blank) and allowing your body posture and your attitude to exemplify that preferred decision, "I am … this new person,” that is what “trusting the decision” is all about.

1. Be willing to be specific about that decision.
2. Allow your reality to reflect feedback to you so you can re-align, calibrate and maintain your decision.
3. Allow your reality to show you where you may wish to make alterations or revisions to the decision.

4.Use your imagination to create & see your preferred self going through life. See how that person feels, thinks, acts, and reacts and embody/replicate it fully. If you are faced with something that you may have labeled contrary to what you established to be the reality you prefer, simply see if from the perspective of your preferred self. How would they see, feel and react in that circumstance? 5.Allow yourself to feel the initial reaction fully, what you resist persists. Feel it and pause to give yourself a moment to process that emotion and then realign yourself (aka. restating your decision of who you prefer to be) and act accordingly. Realize that it is part of the process and not an interruption in it. At this time, the consensus reality is that people manifest their reality through action - so realigning yourself to your preferred self before taking action is key.

(Examples of the inquiry process taken from Seth’s Work)

ex1.You are overweight. You have tried diets to no avail. You tell yourself that you want to lose weight. You follow what I have said so far. You change the belief. You say, “Because I believe I am overweight, I am, so I will think of myself at my ideal weight.” But you find that you still overeat. In your mind’s eye you still see yourself as overweight, imagine the goodies and snacks, and in your terms “give in” to your imagination — and you think that will power is useless and conscious thought powerless.

But pretend that you go beyond this point. In sheer desperation you say. “All right, I will examine my beliefs further!” Now this is a hypothetical case so you may find one of innumerable beliefs. You may, for instance, find that you believe you are not worthy, and hence should not look attractive. Or that health means physical weight and it is dangerous to be slim. Or you may find that you feel — and believe that you are — so vulnerable that you need the weight so people will think twice before they shove you around. In all of these cases the ideas will be conscious. You have entertained them often and your imagination and emotions are in league with them, and not in conflict.

ex2. You may be trying to remember your dreams. You may give yourself appropriate suggestions each night, only to awaken again with no memory of them. You may say, “Consciously I want to remember my dreams, but my suggestions do not work. Therefore what I want on a conscious level has little significance.” Yet if you examine your beliefs more carefully you will find one of many possible beliefs, such as, “I’m afraid to remember my dreams,” or, “My dreams are always unpleasant,” or, “I’m afraid to know what I dream about,” or, “I want to remember my dreams but — they may tell me more than I want to know!”

ex3. A core belief is invisible only when you think of it as a fact of life, and not as a belief about life; only when you identify with it so completely that you automatically focus your perceptions along that specific line. For example, here is a seemingly very innocent core belief: “I am a responsible parent.” Now on the surface there is nothing wrong with that belief. If you hold to it and do not examine it, however, you may find that the word & and how you define it “responsible” may be quite loaded, and collects other ideas that are equally unexamined by you. What is your idea/definition of being responsible? According to your answer you can discover whether the core belief works to your advantage or not. If responsible means, “I must be a parent twenty-four hours a day to the exclusion of everything else,” then you may be in difficulty, for that core belief might prevent you from using other abilities that exist quite apart from your parenthood. You may begin to perceive all physical data through the eyes of that core belief alone. You will not look out upon physical reality with the wonder of a child any more, or with the unstructured curiosity of an individual, but always through parental eyes. (edited)

Thus you will close yourself off from much of physical experience. Now telepathically you will also attract unconscious data that fits into this rigid pattern, according to the strength and stubbornness of this idea and whether or not you are willing to deal with it. You may narrow your life still further, all information of any kind finally becoming relatively invisible to you unless it touches upon your parental reality. ~ I suggest that you look to those areas of your life in which you are pleased and have done well. See how emotionally and imaginatively you personally reinforced those beliefs and brought them to physical fruition — realize how naturally and automatically the results appeared. Catch hold of those feelings of accomplishment and understand that you can use the same methods in other areas.

[mrpixeltech]

@Copycat

Negative beliefs will do everything they can to make it seem like they are the only possible/logical reality, and will play tricks such as offering up another negative belief to hide the core belief/definition. Keep going until you get to the core. You know you have gotten to the core when you don’t have the same feelings, thoughts and don’t act in alignment with the negative belief.

I’ve been calling this my “ugliest truth” method. Just keep digging until it feels really, REALLY uncomfortable, then go another step, repeat until the immediate reaction is almost a full body scoff, and voila. Just above that scoff is the ugliest truth.