Are there bad people out there plotting against my best interests? Maybe.
When I believe it, I live in a state of mind of “bad people plotting against me” and I find that they are. My state of mind puts a filter on the world and that’s the world I experience.
Before I ever have the thought, “bad people are plotting against me,” it’s impossible to live in a world of “bad people plotting against me.” They may “actually” be plotting, but in the world I experience, that’s just not a possibility. So I move through the world like it’s impossible that anyone would be plotting against me - open and free. Some might say I’m ignorant, naive or reckless. They tell themselves I’m missing out on important information. I notice, however, that I am completely at peace with people. I live in a peaceful world.
The truth in this world, as far as I can tell, is that there are no bad people plotting against me.
Then I have the thought, “bad people are plotting against me.” Maybe something happened, I attach pain to what happened and the pain sparks the thought “bad people are plotting against me.” It’s a new idea. One that had never occurred to me. It’s very interesting, so I attend to it. Immediately the thought goes to work proving itself. In a flash, it presents me a mountain of evidence to back itself up. “I see now!” I say to myself, becoming convinced that I now know something I didn’t before. This “knowledge” brings a new thought: “I’ve been stupid.” followed by a new thought, “I must never be stupid again!” Because I want to protect myself and those I love from this previously unseen threat and return to peace, I adjust my view of the world to include this crucial new information. I find that my life changes considerably. I now live in a dangerous world where I need protection. I am convinced that knowing this truth makes me safer. I keep my eyes out for the truth of people plotting against me so I can avoid them or thwart their efforts. I notice, though, they’re everywhere and that they just keep plotting. With this new state of mind, I have moved into a new world where there are bad people plotting against me. When I’m in this state, I notice that I am completely out of peace with people.
The truth in this world is that there are bad people plotting against me.
I can sustain this for a long time, outsmarting those plotting bad people, but soon I find I run out of steam. After a while, I can’t keep up with it. I find that the danger never subsides. In fact, it only deepens. The more bad people I find and avoid, the more bad people I notice, until they’re everywhere. Because I know it’s “true” that more and more bad people are plotting against me, I have the thought, “I cannot escape.” The thought goes to work proving itself until it proves that life itself is unworkable. When I believe this, I have moved into a new world where (nearly) all people are bad and plotting against me.” I notice that I am in distress.
The truth in this world is that there are bad people plotting against me. Everywhere.
I have the thought, “I can’t live like this anymore.” This thought is wisdom breaking through. Careful though!: thinking “this” is all there is, I may contemplate death in order to save myself - the ultimate paradox. I notice the absurdity of “dying to save my life” and I have the thought, “Maybe I’m missing something.” This is the first time I’m able to entertain the thought that I am not seeing things clearly. Before, when I moved into that last world, I thought I had woken up to reality and was finally seeing things clearly. Before, “knowing” there were “bad people plotting against me” was the way to peace. Now there’s no way that can be true. I’ve hit a wall and I see no way forward. So I have the thought, “maybe that thought is false.”
I notice that I had once been at peace with people and that, in the world of my “ignorance,” people were peaceful with me. I had never come across “bad people plotting against me.” They just weren’t part of my life. Until something happened and my state of mind changed. Were they there when I was ignorant? Right now seems like they were, but back then, I couldn’t even have the thought. When I lived that life, they didn’t cross paths with me and - more importantly - I didn’t cross paths with THEM. There was just that one time (or those few times) that exposed me to the IDEA that there are bad people plotting against me. Is it true that bad people suddenly made themselves known to me? Is it possible that danger never crossed into my peaceful plane, but that I, through a misunderstanding, surrendered my peaceful world and traded it for a world of danger and once there, experienced all the dangers of it?
Can I return?
My experience does not cross between these imagined worlds. The elements of one world don’t show up in another.
The truth in this world is, “If there are bad people plotting against me, they are in their world, but not in mine.”
In mine, there are no good or bad people, only whole people doing their best with what they’re thinking and believing. In mine, they can’t hurt me because that’s my job. So if they are plotting against me, that’s their problem, not mine. That’s them suffering, not me. I choose not to live in that world by tending to my state of mind.
I have a choice of what world I live in. It all comes down to what I’m thinking and believing.