Don’t struggle against reality, work with it instead. When we treat our conditions and surroundings as the enemy, we usually empower the inanimate. People can be the enemy, but conditions lack consciousness and are not sentient.
If this is merely a stepping stone on a greater and longer
path, trust in that. Don’t allow the mind to runaway with considering what
others perceive your conditions and position to be. People can use your
conditions and surroundings against you, but they can only do so if you don’t
trust what you’re doing. Listen carefully to people, but remember that we’re
all mistaken creatures.
Is what someone is saying true? Is it relevant? Is it
rational? Is it based in personal experience or in bias? Are they out for others
or for just themselves? Do their words match their actions?
It is so important to have intention in all that we do. Connect
that intention with all of our actions. Then, we must check in to understand if
that action achieves the desired result using objective observation and
analysis. This approach may seem cold and calculating, but if our objectives are
for the well being of ourselves and others, how could it be negative or
detrimental? We may make mistakes, but we’re allowing for that eventuality
through our objective observations and analyses. In this way we are always
moving forward. Every step, every action, every intention is part of our path.
Every misstep and mistake becomes opportunities for growth.
We can affect our reality, but we shouldn’t force it or try
and manipulate it. Otherwise, when we move our attention elsewhere, reality
will begin to revert to form. That is why we must be careful to understand the
true nature of what it is we are trying to work with. It’s like trying to make
paper out of a mountain or an air conditioner out of a volcano. We can’t turn
weather into people, or people into more than they want to be. It is rarely
successful to try to force ourselves or others to do anything. It stifles
creativity, stunts growth and definitely kills freedom.
We have to work with ourselves and others where and how we
are right here and right now. We are truly capable of so much, but if we don’t
feel as if we are, we’re not going to accomplish much at all. Many of us have
real conditions, some that are obvious and other conditions that are much more
subtle. If we truly want to help someone, we first must truly listen and not just
to the words that are said but more to the actions, demeanor and behaviors that
are almost more important.
Where is this person coming from? Are they sick? Are they
hurt? Are they wounded? Are we reactive to it because it’s true or because we
fear that it is? Are we overly concerned that we don’t want to make things
worse so we don’t do anything at all or because we really lack the skills and the
experience to make things better?
Ultimately, we must make our own decisions. We just strive
to make our decisions work for achieving our objectives and not to obstruct
someone else achieving their own goals. We can use our objectivity and critical
thinking to help ourselves and others achieve great things. We can also use our
ignorance and mistakenness to tear others down and transmit our personal pain
and suffering onto them. We can do better that that, and we should strive to do
so in all that we do. We have to make conscious choices in order to do that.
What is it that we really want to achieve? Is it worthwhile?
Is it selfish or selfless? Is there a reasonable plan with tangible steps or a
pipe dream full of words and lacking action? Are we being helpful or hurtful?
Do we care if we’re wrong or just want to be right?
Some people don’t know what to do with their pain and suffering
and will do anything they can to project and transmit it to others. We don’t
have to absorb that. We can relax into our own reality while understanding that
others have their own version of reality to contend with. They just maybe projecting that reality onto or at us.
When we wrestle with reality, we’re missing these
opportunities. This reality is our only
way to achieve anything. When we treat it like the enemy, we’ve already lost
the war. Our mind is our only vehicle to make choices that affect our life and
the lives of others. What others do is ultimately up to them, but we can choose
to do something different. We can stop wrestling with reality and work with it instead.
We can do this, but we have to keep at it. There’s always a reason not to . . .
so use the one reason to do this . . . to make our lives better.
Check out these other related Ridding of Ignorance articles.
Some of these are my favorites.
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