I first heard Don Miguel's definition of "faith" on a power journey to teotihuacan. He had gathered his apprentices around him and with great intensity, posed the question "What is your faith?" He went around the group, asking again and again. People had their own ideas about the subject, but finally he answered the question himself.

"Faith is to believe in something 100% without any doubt, and faith is our power of creation. Your faith is invested in every single belief that is stored in your mind. Your faith is invested in what you believe about yourself, and what you believe you are. Every single belief about yourself is only true because your faith is invested in it, and your faith can move mountains."

Up to that point my own vague notion of faith was that it had something to do with a religious belief in God - you either believed (had faith) that there was a God or you didn't.

Don Miguel's definition infused faith into every aspect of life, "... every single belief that is stored in your mind." That meant that even if you did not believe in God, your faith was invested in that disbelief. It meant that whatever I thought about anything, like I am perfect or I am less than perfect, my faith is there, that I believe it 100%.

Given that definition, faith was more enormous than I imagined. I began asking myself, where was my faith invested? What did I believe about myself? About God? About my family, my friends? "... every single belief" he said. Every one. This meant that the whole belief structure of my mind was my faith. When I understood it like that, I put my whole belief structure under scrutiny and realized the depth of housecleaning I needed to do! But how could I change my beliefs?

That same night in Teo, don Miguel's next question was, "If faith is what you believe, then what controls your belief?" His solemn gaze settled on one of his apprentices.

The apprentice attempted repeatedly to answer, and with each attempt don Miguel replied, "Strike one. Strike two. Strike three."

"Well, I guess I'm out," the apprentice said.

"Oh really?" don Miguel replied. "Do you BELIEVE you are out?"

"Oh," the apprentice replied, "I guess we're not playing baseball are we?"

"Attention controls the belief." don Miguel said simply. The importance of this statement was so profound it left the room silent. "Attention controls the belief."

Wherever I put my attention, that is what I believe. If I focus my attention on "I am not loveable," guess what? I will believe 100% that I am not loveable. My faith will be invested in that belief and I will suffer. I will not be able to give love to myself because I believe I am not loveable, so I will look to find love from the outside. However, when I do find people to give me love, I won't believe them either because I know that I am not loveable. What a trap!

So what can I do? How can I shift my own attention from self-sabotaging beliefs to beliefs that support me? A lot of our personal power is tied up in keeping old beliefs in place. We hold these beliefs in place by agreements (usually an outside opinion that has turned into self-judgement), emotional energy (guilt, shame, etc.) and habitual reinforcement. If I have the "I am not loveable" belief, then somewhere down the line I agreed to that, or it wouldn't be there. Throughout my life "I am not loveable" will play out over and over in my mind and that thought will be held there by my own emotional energy. I must break that agreement to release the judgement and free up my energy. Then I can use that energy to shift my own attention, change my belief and recover faith in myself that I am loveable.

Don Miguel gave us great tools to help break old agreements. He began by giving us THE FOUR AGREEMENTS. * If we were to follow just one of those agreements, our entire belief system would begin to shift.

Then he gave us more tools: Never go against yourself, never be with anyone who goes against you, or put yourself in a situation that goes against you.

We go against ourselves so much and sometimes it's so ingrained and insidious, that we don't always see it.

Recently I was with a beautiful woman who was exhausted all the time. She had a very full and successful healing practice. In addition to her practice, her friends would call asking for healing work and advice, and she freely gave it. Somewhere inside her mind she held the belief that she had to honor every request. She gave so much, that eventually she began to feel very tired and cranky. She began victimizing herself by the thought that she had to give to every request. As a result, she never got her own recharge time and was not taking care of herself. Even though she loved to give to her friends, she was going against herself by not taking care of herself first. She began setting boundaries with her friends, the situation shifted and she now has 100% faith that she can take care of herself and not be victimized by her own limiting beliefs.

In the same vein, why would we ever chose to be with anyone who goes against us or put ourselves in a situation where we would go against ourselves? Well, we have to ask where is our faith? What do we believe about ourselves? If we believe and agree that we must somehow deserve abuse, that we are not good enough to have supportive, loving relationships, then we will have abuse in our lives. We will continue to put ourselves in abusive situations. When we break that agreement and choose to put attention on the belief that we don't deserve abuse, that we are good enough and that we deserve love and respect, then we will not allow ourselves to be abused by anyone, including (and most importantly) ourselves!

Using the tools that don Miguel has given us, we can begin to break old agreements. The energy we have used to keep those old agreements in place is now free to give us more personal power to change our beliefs. We shift our attention away from thoughts like "I am not loveable" and counter them with new thoughts like, "Oh that's right, that's just a false belief. I am loveable!" We use our power to shift our own attention to a new belief. As we change our false beliefs, our power grows and we begin to create our life in an entirely different way. By "moving the mountain" of our own belief system, our faith becomes invested in beliefs that support love and happiness in our lives. This is what don Miguel calls "The Dream of Heaven on Earth." So the question is, where is your faith?

Peggy Raess is a Toltec Teacher and Mentor trained by don Miguel Ruiz. She and her husband, Ted, studied and travelled with don Miguel to power places in the U.S., Mexico, Hawaii, Egypt and Peru. They gathered knowledge and first-hand experience of the mysteries of the ancient Toltecs and now share these teachings by leading power journeys, giving workshops, and training apprentices. See their teacher listing in this issue.

* See "Breaking Old Agreements" in THE FOUR AGREEMENTS, pg. 93.

 

This article is copied from The Fifth Agreements, issue Feb, 2003.