Week 5 – The Black Dots

“One day a professor entered the classroom and asked his students to prepare for a surprise test. They all waited anxiously at their desks for the exam to begin. The professor handed out the exam with the text facing down, as usual. Once he handed them all out, he asked the students to turn over the papers.

To everyone’s surprise, there were no questions, just a black dot in the center of the sheet of paper.

The professor, seeing the expression on everyone’s faces, told them the following: “ I want you to write about what you see there”

The students, confused, got started on the inexplicable task. At the end of the class the professor took all the exams and started reading each one of them out loud in front of all the students. All of them, with no exception, defined the black dot, trying to explain its position in the center of the sheet.

After all had been read, the classroom silent, the professor started to explain: “I am not going to grade you on this, I just wanted to give you something to think about. No one wrote about the white part of the paper.

Everyone focused on the black dot, and the same happens in our lives. We have a white piece of paper to observe and enjoy, but we always focus on the dark spots. Our life is a gift given to us (by God) with love and care and we always have reasons to celebrate: nature renewing itself every day, our friends around us, the job that provides our livelihood, the miracles we see every day…

However, we insist on focusing on the dark spot: The health issues that bother us, the lack of money, the complicated relations with family members, the disappointment with a friend.

The dark spots are very small when compared to everything we have in our lives, but they are the ones that pollute our minds.

Take your eyes away from the black dots in your life. Enjoy each one of your blessings; each moment that life gives you.

Be happy and live a life filled with love!” Unknown author

Now what do this have to do with my Master Key Experience you may ask?

In Scroll 1 of the Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino we read “In truth, the only difference between those who have failed and those who have succeeded lies in the differences of their habits. Good habits are the key to all success. Bad habits are the unlocked door to failure.

As a child I was slave to my impulses; now I am slave to my habits, as are all grown men. I have surrendered my free will to the years of accumulated habits and the past deeds of my life have already marked out a path, which threatens to imprison my future. My actions are ruled by appetite, passion, prejudice, greed, love, fear, environment, habit, and the worst of these tyrants is habit.”

What do I mean by habit? Well in Lesson 4 of the Master Key System by Charles Haanel for last week we read at the start of the lesson the following sentence:“Enclosed herewith I hand you Part Four. This part will show you why what you think, or do, or feel, is an indication of what you are.”

Now we getting closer so you are talking about my habitual thoughts, that which we focus on, the Black Dots!

Awesome observation! In paragraph 5 of Lesson 4 of the Master Key System by Charles Haanel he writes “……..Most people allow their thoughts to dwell on selfish purposes, the inevitable result of an infantile mind.”

What are the consequences of this infantile mind?

In paragraph 21 he writes “…….The Universal is constantly seeking to express itself, to be of service, and it seeks the channel whereby it can find the greatest activity, where it can do the most good, where it can be of greatest service to mankind.

22. The Universal cannot express through you as long as you are busy with your plans, your own purposes;”

That’s sounds great but how is this accomplish? How do I become a channel?

“28. The reply is, by exercise; mental strength is secured in exactly the same way that physical strength is secured, by exercise. We think something, perhaps with difficulty the first time; we think the same thing again, and it becomes easier this time; we think it again and again; it then becomes a mental habit. We continue to think the same thing; finally it becomes automatic; we can no longer help thinking this thing; we are now positive of what we think; there is no longer any doubt about it. We are sure; we know.”

We “mentally let go of all adverse conditions, such as hatred, anger, worry, jealousy, envy, sorrow, trouble or disappointment of any kind.” paragraph 30.

We “Take your eyes away from the black dots in your life” and we follow the

Law of Forgiveness

“To access the Divine and connect the subconscious to the Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent Creator we must forgive everyone and anyone to clear the channel. There can be no connection to the Divine mind where anger or resentment against a brother or sister, justified or not, exists.”

Remember this: The more we give the more we get “Give love get love, give hate get ……. What you give grows!