Thank you, reader Matthew for the following letter in regards to the questions stirred by the popularity of “The Secret”‘s Law of Attraction philosophy.

Matthew writes:

The idea of blame is completely without merit in the larger New Age set of beliefs that include the “Law of Attraction.” If someone’s attracted cancer into his or her life then it’s our goal, our essential role, our baseline responsibility to express our love to that person, to know their suffering and to do what we can to reduce or eliminate it.

Do we “blame” a toddler who’s learning to walk for falling? No, we help her up, kiss her skinned knee, and encourage her to try again.

Blame only occurs where there’s judgment. There is no “blame” in the full New Age canon, there is only yet another wonderful opportunity to show love, love without condition. As in Buddhism, seeing the world through eyes of pure compassion is the ultimate goal, and people who have attracted tough times are the greatest targets of that compassion.

If you haven’t seen the whole “Secret” DVD, here’s a video meditation that will introduce you to the nature of the positive mind philosophy. I have to admit–this little YouTube clip makes me cry every time.