I’ve spoken recently several times about one of the challenges of the spiritual journey – that the rules keep changing. What we have held true no longer serves. But the habits of mind keep regurgitating the old story, the old way.
One of the most difficult to disengage is the judge. That aspect of mind that categorizes everything. It’s a useful skill, but so often it is used in a black and white way to decide what is right and wrong, good or bad.
Does it really matter what your neighbour thinks? Or what that person is wearing? Or if the waiter is being together? As we let go of the more petty judgments, we find the most challenging ones – the judgments of ourselves.
Life often seems to be bringing us lessons or difficulties. But so often, people will view them as judgments or some sort of failure. I’m insufficient in some way, so I get what I deserve. Thats a lousy story to hold so dear.
When I suggest there are consequences, this doesn’t mean good and bad, it just means result. This action will bring this result, more or less. If you’re seeing otherwise, you know there is a story of blame going on. And blame always begins with self.
Even when we’ve stopped believing this story, it can go on for a long time, it is so ingrained. It probably shows up in my writing here and there.
If you feel you’re being tested in some way, frame it a little differently. Rather than seeing it as a test to see how badly you do, how about a demonstration to show how far you’ve come. Because we are in the middle of it, we sometimes miss just what progress we’ve made.
I’ve spoken quite a bit about the value of gratitude here. Gratitude helps us stay out of that box. It’s very simple really. If everything is one, there are no mistakes. The ‘reasons’ may not be apparent but will tend to be more so in retrospect. If we can learn to trust a little more, we’ll find this to be increasingly true.
That’s the trick though – if we don’t trust, the world will respond in kind. There’s that consequence again. It’s not about right or wrong, just a much more enjoyable space to be in.
If everything is all one – even if you’ve not realized that yet, you can have a conceptual sense of it – then everything is a blessing. Everything. It’s there to either support what we love, or move us to a higher place. Demonstrate where some attention is required. Not show us how we’re bad but rather where we’re holding back.
You came into being to experience who you are, in every aspect. In every circumstance. Free will allows you to change the nuance of that experience. To make it higher or lower, right or wrong, good or bad. But what of just experiencing it as it is. What a revelation! When we see with simplicity, what is true is clear.
Love your pain. Love all of it. This is your blessing. To express the love that brought you here.
Davidya