To help authors market their books and and to help create greater awareness, we occasionally feature winning stories submitted to our 50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading Awards Contest on this blog. The journey to success is often a long one. We hope the stories of successful authors will provide some encouragement and help others overcome the challenges they face. This story was submitted by Michael Cupo.
Author Michael Cupo
It was never my intention to write a book, but because of something that occurred in my life, I was forced to look within. What I discovered was that over the course of time our mind becomes conditioned and forms certain Mind Patterns that blocks our true nature from arising. When this occurs we’re not allowed to reach the apex of our Spiritual Potential. My book isn’t about whether one is living right or wrong, but more importantly explains what influences our daily decisions. It reveals how these Conditioned Mind Patterns are formed and how they influence what we think, say, do, and feel. It also reveals how they can be changed if a person truly wants to change them.
My book can be beneficial to anyone who reads it. It can be used by psychologists, recovery institutions, psychiatrists, or anyone who has a desire or yearning to change their life. It’s not based on any one philosophical tradition. If investigated, it will reveal truths that weren’t previously known. It’s a tool to assist in revealing those truths, if time is taken to have them revealed. Anyone who reads about my experiences may benefit from them; if they’re open minded and willing. It’s a book of life experiences not intellectual theory.
My book proposes a way to enhance life. It offers a very practical approach that many people will be able to identify with. I am just an ordinary person, living an ordinary life and this book will show people how change can be induced right where they are. You don’t have to go anywhere to learn how to bring about this transformation and truly enjoy life.
You don’t need to be saintly or believe in anything in particular for change to occur. What’s needed is an understanding that you and you alone cause life to be a struggle. It doesn’t have to be a struggle and anyone can learn to be in control of their mind. By becoming aware of how the Conditioned Mind Patterns are at the root of our struggles, they can be changed. By doing this we can stop living life like a puppet on a string. We can unlearn things that we have learned that make us do what we do. We learn everything we know and it can all be unlearned.
Through our mind we’re in control of our destiny. What we think is what we become. It takes a willingness to want to change and any person can experience the freedom that this change offers. This isn’t a freedom many people experience in their life and it’s through ignorance alone that this freedom isn’t experienced. This freedom from the bondage of self is real and it’s not restricted from anyone. What happened to me can happen to anyone.
Many years of pain and suffering were endured through my addictions, and all were based in self-centeredness. Living life with self-centeredness as a base, a distorted view of life was created that became my minds default setting. I have come to realize that the addiction that I had was really to a self. This self is what causes a person to reach for something and this reaching is what needs to be focused on.
As long as this attachment to self is the minds default setting, we’ll never be free from our addictions and life will never be enjoyed. Our self will not allow our innate goodness to become our minds default setting. There will be no cooperation on our part with Universal Energy so Universal Love will be blocked from us. The result of this unfortunately is we’ll never truly be in harmony with life. The substance of any addiction, whatever is reached for, is just the manifestation the self uses to satisfy a desire created by our ego; an ego that will stop at nothing to get what it wants.
Although I stopped drinking in 1987 I stayed addicted to this self. My behavior remained based in self-centeredness and although by society’s standards my outer life changed for the better, my inner life was still making decisions based on my self-centered perspective. The whole theme of this book is to assist others in seeing how our thinking becomes conditioned, and how this conditioning doesn’t allow us to enjoy our human manifestation to the maximum potential of our Creative Energy.
We use many things to try and bring us the pleasures our egos desire and all we do is move from one pleasure to another. We do this all day and everyday of our lives. We live to satisfy our ego. This is derived from our Conditioned Mind. We will need to understand this if we are going to change.
Because of what happened to me I have come to understand that although the need to be abstinent of any substance is important, if a person uses other things to divert attention away from what is really going on inside, the substance is almost immaterial. Just because there’s no substance our behavior doesn’t automatically change. It didn’t happen for me and I have come to understand the reason why. I needed to find out how to allow my innate goodness to arise and become my minds default setting in order for change to occur.
When a person in recovery from addiction relapses, it occurs when they’re physically free from any substance. That’s what happened to me. I knew I needed to find out what caused me to reach for something to change my mood. What I found was although I was not using drugs, I was using other things to fulfill my Conditioned Mind desires, my behavior never changed. I was still in the grip of my conditioning. All I did was substitute one thing for another. And when those other things no longer took away my emotional pain, my Conditioned Mind used a prior solution to try and take it away. This is the cause of any relapse.
My books core content is to show why a diversion is needed in the first place and what can be done to stop our mind from focusing its attention from outside seeking to looking within. It is only through ignorance that we suffer. If we want to change, we need to become aware of what needs changing. It takes learning to quiet a Conditioned Mind so we can become aware of what we need to do to allow this change to occur.
Find out more about Michael’s books by visiting his website, http://www.mondayinyourmind.com.