Dealing Only With What Is Real

Linus: I guess it’s wrong always to be worrying about tomorrow. Maybe we should only think about today.

Charlie Brown: No, that’s giving up. I’m still hoping that yesterday will get better.

~ Charles Schulz

 When humans become emotionally upset it is because the mind perceives danger ~ imagined or real. Real danger in the physical sense can be standing in the way on oncoming traffic where we can, in an instant, create a fight or flight reaction to ensure our ongoing survival (in this case flight!).

What is it then that triggers off a fight or flight reaction say of anger when we are not in physical danger? In this so-called modern age, where for most of us our ‘battles’ are hard fought in the workplace or personal relationships, our biggest threat is our reaction to psychological attack ~ not attack from the other party, but attack made within our own mind!

The mind creates a perception of external events, in a nano second, whether good, bad or indifferent ~ right or wrong. And in that instant, thoughts are created that align to the perception and those thoughts result in emotional reactions based on old beliefs and desires (desire to be safe, ‘right’, accepted). This is alarming if the initial perception is wrong.

Why alarming? Because every reaction to a wrong-minded perception can create in our awareness un-loving attack attitudes and behaviour within ourselves ~ then projected onto others and then received back in kind.

 What is even more alarming is that we don’t even need to have external events trigger these emotionally hijacking experiences. We can create the experience wholly within our own mind based on previous events that have long gone or what ‘might’ happen in future. All of this mental gymnastics results in tiredness, exhaustion, fear, anger and illness ~ let alone poor outcomes in relationships and our work.

 So what to do about the minds rambling ways that cause less-than-desirable outcomes in our experience in the human form? Firstly, do not take this too seriously ~ none of us are getting out of this alive anyway

Secondly, it is really helpful to get to a point of accepting that the mind is designed to be our servant . . . . to serve us, not be our master. Our true nature is pure consciousness, beyond the mind and totally loving ~ any mental suffering, unloving thoughts, feelings and behaviour is the result of the minds attempt to resist (its fear) of taking up its true role to support our innate intelligence (pure consciousness or ‘knowing’ or intuition).

 To get to a point of accepting that in order to feel loving, calm, ordered, safe, highly creative and productive we must drive our choices using intuition before the mind kicks in to ‘make the arrangements’ (as it is designed to). Nisargadatta Maharaj is quoted as saying “ . . . life is to be lived; there is no time for analysis. The response must be instantaneous ~ hence the importance of being spontaneous, the timeless. It is in the unknown we live and move. The known is the past”. For most of us the past has not necessarily served us well.

 To choose to master the mind and create better experiences and outcomes requires us to retrain the mind, to get it to feel the contrast of manic activity based on past adverse outcomes versus effortless ‘knowing’ and its subsequent emotional non-reaction from accepting ‘what is’. Part of this retraining process requires conscious intention to observe what arises in the mind that causes upset. Here are some areas to begin to look at:

• People pleasing – living a lie to avoid possible ‘rejection’
• Hidden thoughts and emotions – storing up negative energy and thoughts by not dealing with wrong-mindedness
• Projecting our anger, frustration, guilt, fears, judgement and blame at others
• Having expectations that are unexpressed
• Conversations – communicating while in a negative state, with subsequent tone, volume, body language and choice of words = projection
• Having ‘glass half empty’ beliefs, rather than gratitude for the ‘glass half full’
• Being the victim  - the minds self-attacking way to keep you stuck in the minds machinations and away from your innate intelligence or intuition
• A belief that you do not have any other choice than to persist in any current ‘stuck-ness’

 Once we have awareness of these wrong-minded perceptions, thoughts, emotions, beliefs and behaviours we can begin to ‘toughen up’ on our wandering mind. In the mind retraining process delivered through A Course In Miracles, it is said that we are “far to tolerant” of the minds negative, fearful and therefore ego (false or wrong-mind) driven ramblings. This does not mean fight the minds activity ~ in fact we must do quite the opposite and simply rest in our observation (witnessing) of its ‘carrying on’.

By only observing, without trying to ‘get rid’ of the perceptions, thoughts, emotions and beliefs, nor reacting outwardly (projecting) our emotion onto others, eventually the wrong-mindedness dissolves in an instant. We literally feel an energetic release of the built up anger, fear, desire to attack, run or hide . . . and the mind returns to its natural state of peace.

 When this release occurs it feels like a miracle has occurred ~ a state of calm and the capacity to begin again, with a whole new outlook towards whatever we thought was disturbing us.

 Unless in physical danger in this very moment, we are meant to experience each moment in peace, with ease and move from our ‘knowing’ of what to be, do or have happily and productively. ~ dealing only with what is real.

 Mike Washington 19 August 2009