Many people I know on a spiritual path have discovered a recurring theme in their life. They may even discover it goes back thousands of years. They find ongoing reason to feel angry or abandoned or guilty or unheard or similar.
The odd thing is, this comes from a story that’s driven by unresolved trauma going back to an ancient fall in consciousness. We’re finally in a time where that story can be seen and released.
Meantime, we continue to inflict ourselves with this theme. We may find ourselves amplifying circumstances that arise normally but relate to the story. See! People deserve my wrath! Or we set ourselves up to experience them. For example, we push people away or act out to experience abandonment. Or we speak obscurely or rudely to ensure we’re not being heard. We all have our favorite patterns.
This makes no sense when it’s seen directly. But because this story is wrapped up in our identity, we feel more secure in inflicting familiar pain on ourselves than we do in seeing through the story. We might call it a distraction from our inner disconnection and pain.
It comes down to the lost me. We’ve lost our sense of connection with the Divine, so we grasp at our ego sense and identify with our separateness. The ego sustains a false front and stories to give an illusion of personal security. And yet the ego knows it’s false, so it heavily defends the charade. It creates pointless drama to protect the false self-story.
Modern 24-hour TV News embodies this. It’s devolved into opinion and commentary, often fearful projections of what might happen. Actual “news” is mostly a litany of what’s wrong and who’s to blame. Why do people watch this noise? Because it’s self-confirming. It reflects how many people think.
But when we discover who we are beneath that, we can let it go, along with all the constructs that supported the story and the false security of a lost me. This is the most challenging part of waking up. We have to surrender enough to see through this noise and recognize who we are within.
If we have the self-honesty to observe our reactivity, we can follow it back to repeated themes and heal. This makes an immense difference in quality of life.
Davidya
Quote:”This makes no sense when it’s seen directly. But because this story is wrapped up in our identity, we feel more secure in inflicting familiar pain on ourselves than we do in seeing through the story. We might call it a distraction from our inner disconnection and pain.”.
That is gold!!! (the whole article is …!!)
I have actually came across a kind of energetic veil that msm produces within the collective consciousness, making it harder to turn towards the light (if one is “caught” within it by watching/reading that stuff).
🙂
Thanks, Michael
😉
Beautiful, thanks !
You’re welcome, Morten.
“If we have the self-honesty to observe our reactivity, we can follow it back to repeated themes and heal. This makes an immense difference in quality of life.”
Hi David,
Thanks for addressing this topic. It is very much in line with what I’ve been noticing recently – tracing back certain recurring feelings to an underlying fear of abandonment. Although there may be some relatively minor childhood experiences that contribute to this, my overall feeling was that this fear came from somewhere well beyond this lifetime.
I wondered if you have any more specific suggestions for healing these types of fears. Is it just a matter of paying attention and noticing when associated feelings arise, or is there some other practice that can help to dissolve the fear at its root?
Many thanks!
Hi Christine
Yes, it’s like a preexisting theme that is carried forward and justified by events in this lifetime.
It’s not necessary to remember the prior life(s). We can resolve the incomplete experiences, the undigested emotions now. We do this by simply allowing them to arise in awareness when they come up. Often, a wave of emotion will wash over us and be done.
However, the major ones often have layers. Rather than simply resolving the core, we have to resolve the layers defending the core until we come to it.
Generally, this simply takes place over time as life circumstances and such bring reactivity to the surface. Then we can look to it and hopefully resolve it.
That, combined with the deep peace of an effortless meditation were my main approaches. I’ve seen some in the Papaji lineage who go through an inquiry process, asking whats behind the emotion, and whats behind that. This takes you to either peace or happiness. Then you know its resolved.
The other thing I found very useful was culturing natural gratitude. This raised the general emotional tone. And that allowed spontaneous moments of deep forgiveness when I cleared some whoppers.
I explore the topics in more detail on various articles. Theres a Healing section on Key Posts with links to many.
The key is simplicity. The most powerful techniques are very simple as they go beyond the mind.
Thanks so much for this very helpful reply. I’ll check out the healing section for more details. It certainly does feel like there are layers to peel off.
Much appreciated!
One of these days, I should compile it into an ebook or some such. But the core is a simple, experiential process that isn’t served that well with text.
But then, I’ve written a book on enlightenment. (laughs)
Quote:”This makes no sense when it’s seen directly. But because this story is wrapped up in our identity, we feel more secure in inflicting familiar pain on ourselves than we do in seeing through the story. We might call it a distraction from our inner disconnection and pain.”
Indeed, while most of us are ready to give up on suffering, we might not be ready to give up on the “entertainment value” of drama – all taking us away from what we are, as you and Michael point out here. The play would not work this way without our cooperation. And this means that we can also change it.
Thanks again!
Hi Blanche
Yes, the familiar brings comfort even if its painful. And when our identity is wrapped up in the drama, not to mention its distraction value, we feel safer there.
And yet the improvement in quality of life by putting it down is immense.