Problems?

 

You gain nothing by being bothered by life's events. It doesn't change the world...you just suffer. There is always going to be something that can bother you, if you let it. When a problem is disturbing you, don't ask, "What should I do about it?" Ask, "What part of me is being disturbed by this?" 

Michael Singer

How do we stop suffering?  

That is the ultimate question. What actually seems so very complicated ( as in the entry previously) is actually so very simple.  It is so simple most of us dismiss it as not being complicated enough.  We figure the answer to those so called problems that we see as so very complicated, clinging to the reality of  them and protecting our wrong view about them  with all our might as we figure out ways to fix them, must be as complex and difficult as the problems we created. 

I remember after reading Untethered Soul years ago I had this "Aha Moment!" of "Man it is so easy and it makes so much sense!" I was floored by the teaching  and for months I was embracing the simplicity of simply  "not letting the heart close!"  My approach to Life was simple. There was less suffering.

And then somewhere, after that, I got pulled in by the distraction of external phenomena again, lost in a very complicated mental movie the ego-mind created. I asked the question..."What should I do to fix this?" I found myself closing my heart. And then there was suffering. 

Upon reading, Living Untethered , I am reminded of the simplicity of the solution to all of humanity's suffering..."Don't close the heart! Allow it all in and allow it all out! " 

So many teachers embrace this simple teaching...so many and I gravitate toward their many expressions of it..."Don't resist anything Life offers!" "It isn't personal!" "This idea of you as a 'little me' is just a delusion!" "Feel the feelings! " "Suppression and repression of emotion leads to tangly knots within us called samskaras...that block the flow of Love energy! " "Watch your mind! observe how much of your life you are spending trapped in the unreal stuff in your head and how much you are missing that is real!" "Be here and now!" "Don't believe all the mind tells you!" "See Self beyond the self, spacious mind beyond the busy mind!" ."Just wake up!!"

Hmm! Though the teachings in the above  Buddhist text seem so complicated...the  truth they are pointing to is so simple.  It is all about the need to wake up...away from the erroneous way we are looking at our problems, our "self"  and our living experiences.  It is all about sitting with what is without clinging to any of it or pushing any of it away.  It is all about not closing the heart!!  

All is well!

There is nothing more important to true growth than realizing you are not the voice of the mind-you are the one that hears it. 

Michael Singer