Is the world really that terrible? What if you consider the possibility that it’s infinitely kind, and its job is to wake us up to our confusion by reflecting confusion right back at us.
Whatever you resist you become. If you resist anger, you are always angry. If you resist sadness, you are always sad. If you resist suffering, you are always suffering. If you resist confusion, you are always confused. We think that we resist certain states because they are there, but actually, they are there because we resist them.
–Adyashanti
Ideas of limit reflect limit right back to us.
The other week I had a tough call with some peers where I felt majorly “got at”. Like every word that was said was telling me I wasn’t good enough, that I needed to do more, be more, develop more. It felt like s%^t. I cried.
Suffering was most certainly happening. We’ve been trained to respond to suffering by pointing to the world and saying “wrong” — point to them and say they’re “bad people”, point to the call and say “bad call”, point to the self and say “bad self”.
Then having apportioned blame we say “fix it” — give them feedback about their behaviour, never go to those calls again, certainly develop yourself — maybe some “resilience” training to toughen you up, or put in place the improvements they suggested.
But what if, those words from their mouths only appeared as a result of an “I’m not good enough” thought believed true in that moment?
What if rather than telling us anything is wrong with them, the calls, or me, the discomfort of the whole thing is a wake-up call to shake us out of the confusion of a temporary thought taken as a definite truth?
Then suddenly the design of our human experience looks infinitely kind and loving. Then suddenly nobody needs fixing. Now we remember who we are behind the thought and see it is untouched and unaffected by the whole experience.
And now we take action with sanity, from clarity.
So when the world looks terrible and like it’s doing bad stuff to you, consider what’s being believed in that moment and get curious about whether it’s true — like is it categorically, undeniably, always 100% true. The mind might try to say “no…but”. Be clear, this is a yes or no answer. Is it true?
With love, Helen
