Hey Mind...You're Fired!

 One of the essential requirements for true spiritual growth and deep personal transformation is coming to peace with pain.

Michael Singer, pg 99

We have given our minds a totally overwhelming job to perform and we don't even realize it.  We go from blaming the outside world for making it tough for us, to blaming the mind.  Yet can we really blame this amazing tool we have been given for doing what we asked it to do?  It is here to serve us and serving us it what it is doing.

Huh?

The Impossible Job Assignment: "Stop me From Experiencing Pain!" 

Somewhere along the line we decided that pain was a bad thing and something to be avoided.  So we gave our minds this big mission to assist us in the avoidance of it.  We told it to go out into the world and make it as safe and comfortable as possible, to clear the path so nothing scratches us or disturbs our comfort. We asked it to manipulate the world and other people so that it or they do not hurt us. 

So the mind now genertaed by the fuel of fear...works nonstop trying to figure things out...trying to figure out how to make us someone that everyone loves, trying to figure out how to make that person there more loving and accepting of us and this person over here kinder and easier on us, tring to figure out how to protect us from all the stuff that is happening around us like the weather, trying to figure out how to stop things from coming in and disturbing us and what to do about them when they inevitably do??

 Our mind, then, has to work nonstop to figure out how to get the world to behavee enough so we feel safe in it! And when we do have pain inside it works even harder to protect us from having to deal with that. 

So it works and works and works to serve us on this job it has been  given by  us.  It fails sometimes...it lets things in that disturbs us.  It doesn't stop the world from acting up or Life from changing. Hmm! And we blame it?

Our minds are not to blame .  We are.

You are the one who is trying to use the analytical mind to protect you from the natural unfolding of life. pg 95

The mind is just doing the job we told it to do. It is doing what we asked it to do...help us run from feeling pain.

How is that working for you?

I know it isn't working for me.  Life just keeps doing what it does...dumping painful experiences in front of me. As hard as my mind works it just cannot stop me from feeling pain all the time.  And it shouldn't.  In order to grow and expand, to make room in our hearts for what is really important...we have to stop running from pain! We don't keep expecting Life to stop doing what it is doing...nor do we keep expecting the mind to succeed in its impossible mission. 

We can instead turn to our lovely, useful minds that are here to serve us and say, "Hey Mind...You're fired!" 

Of course...in this enforced lay off...we are not expecting the mind to shut down, and leave the boardroom forever.  We just fire it from the ridiculous job we have given it, one it was not trained for! 

And not becasue it failed us...it did teh best it could. We just  realize that is a job that could  never be filled by anyone or anything because it is a job that does not serve in the long run.

You do not need to avoid pain...you need to make peace with pain...to notice it, accept it, make peace with it and release it. Only then will you succeed at what is really important...living your life wholly and with deeper purpose.

All is well in my world.

Michael Singer (2007) the untethered soul. New Harbinger/Noetic Books