“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
For your souls, it is an important to remember the arrow of causation and not get it backwards. Hence the “wet roads cause rain” headline, borrowed from Nassim Taleb.
In this quote the author points out that your state of mind has an arrow of causation. “I am at peace because I actively work at stuffing down the sadness and despair.” No. You are sad and despair of finding peace because you are fighting against something you see as “sad” and you despair of ever finding calm because you resist confusion.
Focus. Focus on what you want more of. Not on what you want less of.
Acceptance. We stopped fighting everyone and everything. Thy will be done.
Consider perhaps that you are installing fear. Installing despair. Installing confusion.
The answer you seek is already here. You already know the answer. The Kingdom of God is within, to quote an ancient saying.
“Resist not evil.” There’s another ancient quote from the same guy.
That’s all very well, but what do I DO?
I have said that to my teachers repeatedly. Desperate for change, hearing the spiritual principles, but frozen. How do I put those spiritual principles into practice and experience the transformation that my teacher experienced?
Take the quote above. If you feel sad, accept the feeling BUT GO TAKE A LONG WALK. Don’t fight the sad feeling, and don’t wallow in it. Don’t fight the despair—you think your life is falling apart and dreadful things are happening. Don’t scheme and analyze and figure things out to fix whatever has befallen you.
Allow all of these feelings to be, but pay it no attention. Turn your attention elsewhere.
In short, don’t resist—ignore, just for a moment.
Go outside, walk around for a while.
Look at trees. Aren’t they spectacular? Spreading above and below the earth, connecting two worlds. If you could live below-ground and walk around as you can on the surface, the root system would spread in a self-organized glory just as trunk, branches, and leaves spread themselves in the sky above the ground.
Look at the sky. Blue. No—really! Look. BLUE. And big. So big. So impossibly big. How far can you see when you look straight up? Look deeply at the sky, as a child. Look at the clouds and marvel.
Return home and drink cold pure water. Ahhh.
All is well.