There are times when there is simply no other way to say what needs to be said about the topic at hand,
Where I know that before I even consider reading it out loud or passing it along for someone to read,
That there's going to be a gap between what I have intended to convey and a person's comprehension of it.
It's inevitable.
It's impossible to avoid,
Which means if you understand what our work is,
It is your responsibility to mine from what you are given so that not only do you do the mandatory required work to uncover the deeper meaning of some particular passage,
But that for that work,
You are rewarded by realizing that you always had the capacity to understand what at first glance you may have dismissed because it seemed too complex.
So this applies today and tomorrow,
And honestly,
More often than not.
So let's get into our material.
I'll ask Kate to bring up the talk title,
And then we will have this first key lesson.
The talk title is,
See the Cause of Negative Reactions and Cancel Them on the Spot.
Wouldn't that be something?
See the cause of a fear,
A worry,
An anger,
A resentment,
And be able to cancel that negative reaction on the spot.
How?
This is always the grand question,
Isn't it?
How am I to do what seems to be beyond my ability to think about?
And in truth,
So much of your development requires that you get to the point where you realize that what you need to do is indeed beyond your ability to think about it.
It never occurs to us that thinking about a problem that seems to be the way to get to its solution is actually protecting the nature of that problem maker,
And that all of that thinking is a way in which it hides from you,
From itself,
This eventual,
What,
Paralysis by analysis,
Adding thought to thought to thought,
And each in further conflict with the other until we don't understand that we're in this labyrinth made by a mind that has no interest in us ever reaching the center of it and dissolving the creature that lives in that center.
So let me get into this first key lesson.
I will ask Kate to put it up,
And you can read along with me.
It will remain up,
And then it will be posted again at the end.
Wide awake,
Awareness of the moment is our consciousness of it.
So the more aware we can be of the whole of our consciousness in any moment,
The less there is for us to think about,
Let alone try to do,
Because awareness cannot act against itself.
I'm going to read that first part again.
Awareness of the moment is our consciousness of it.
So the more we can be aware,
So the more aware we can be of the whole of our consciousness in any moment,
The less there is for us to think about,
Let alone try to do,
Because awareness cannot act against itself.
Can light act against itself?
Of course not.
Why?
Because the light of awareness isn't divided into what it is aware of and what it knows about.
The light of awareness isn't divided into what it is aware of and what it knows about it.
It simply sees what it is,
And that whatever is one with that light is good with a capital G.
This is the basis for all of our study,
Honestly,
And all studies are intended to bring us to this point in our life where we start to recognize we need another nature to go before us so that the crooked places don't become crooked because that nature makes a mess out of everything it thinks about,
And it's forever involved in trying to straighten out that mess or in the context of the story I'm about to tell you,
A fire that it's always trying to put out.
So let's get into a couple stories,
Simplify that key lesson,
And then we'll analyze it,
Meaning we will look into it as deeply as we can.
I will ask,
As I need to do from time to time,
That you are tracking with me because I want to make sure that we're on the same page,
And in this instance,
We're about to see.
So here's a man,
And he moves into a neighborhood,
A new home,
And he's curious.
He looks out his window,
He takes walks,
And he notices,
Eventually,
Two or three times a day,
One of his neighbors will go get a wheelbarrow out of the little shed there,
And that wheelbarrow has a heavy blanket on it,
Apparently a bucket of some kind,
A fire extinguisher,
And that this man,
From time to time,
The neighbor he sees,
Kind of runs around the immediate several houses,
Like almost out of control,
And randomly.
And then equally randomly,
From time to time,
Will take the blanket out of the wheelbarrow,
And he'll slap the ground with it,
Then he'll take out that bucket,
Now he knows there's throw some water on that spot,
He'll wet it down,
And from time to time,
He'll even grab his fire extinguisher,
And spray some of that gas on a spot for no reason at all.
Now you would realize,
I imagine,
If you were watching your neighbor,
There is something strange going on in the neighborhood,
And so our good neighbor,
The man observing this,
At one point,
Finally,
Trying to know whether he,
Maybe he should be involved in something,
He doesn't know about this neighborhood,
He goes out,
And he asks this person,
As politely as possible,
Say,
Look,
It's none of my business,
But what are you doing with all this fire prevention gear?
Not to mention that you bring it out a couple times a day,
And I'm not sure why,
If you don't mind explaining it to me.
And the man,
The neighbor says,
Well,
You know,
Like,
I guess you don't see it,
But there,
There could be a fire in one of those spots,
So I'm just ensuring that there's not.
And our neighbor says,
You're ensuring there's not,
Not what?
And he looks at him like he's an idiot,
There's not a fire of some kind,
And he says,
I don't understand what you're talking about,
That's okay,
Most people don't know,
But you see,
I'm in the business of fire prevention,
And the good neighbor is still trying to figure out what his crazy neighbor is doing,
And he's being polite,
And he says,
Good,
But I don't see any flames.
And his neighbor looks at him like,
Duh,
And says,
Exactly,
And the good neighbor is kind of exasperated,
He says,
Like,
He's losing exactly what,
And his neighbor says,
I get there to put the fire out before it gets out of control.
I get there to put out the fire before it gets out of control.
Now,
I don't know if you can make any sense of this little story,
Spiritually speaking,
But I'll help you to do so.
First I'll ask,
Do any of you get the gist of that story without me going into detail?
I know many won't.
That man is trying to put out a fire that he believes he controls because it never gets out of control,
So let me help you.
Remember,
We're talking about putting out the threat of a fire before it gets started,
Yes?
How many of you,
Of us,
Say yes to someone instead of saying no,
Even suspecting that we may be enabling them,
Which we largely are,
And why?
For fear of their negative reaction,
Because if we say no,
It will bring up something we don't want to know about in them,
Let alone what it might bring up in us,
That negative reaction.
Instead of saying no as we know we should,
We say yes to protect ourselves from the outcome of a fire that doesn't exist,
Save for our imagination of it.
Do you understand that?
We enable people.
We say yes to protect something in us that doesn't want to go through the pain of dealing with what happens when they suddenly reveal what they're actually like.
Not to mention what we're actually like,
Not this kind,
Compassionate,
Considerate person,
So giving,
But rather that we give in large so that we don't get fed back to us something that we choke on because we don't want to see it.
Is that clear enough?
Now I'll give you another example.
How many of you know,
To whatever extent you may,
That you are unable,
Quite literally,
Unable to let anyone have the last word in what,
For the most part,
Is a stupid argument?
Do you know that part of yourself?
You can't just let it hang there with them treading on your doormat,
No,
No.
You need to understand that you don't understand.
Because I do understand and it's clear you don't,
And so until you agree that my view of this moment is the superior one,
You and I are going to have to go through the iteration of this argument,
And by the way,
Having again and again and again,
Many of the same arguments.
Why?
Because it feels as if defending our position is like a matter of life and death.
Have you,
Do you know that in yourself?
Have you seen that in yourself when it comes to talking with people?
This could be,
This could be with once a week,
And I don't go as a rule,
But there are,
There's this group of friendly neighbors who ostensibly get together to discuss neighborhood things,
But the two times I've gone out of whatever months,
What they ultimately wind up doing is someone will bring up a political topic of some kind,
And they will be on one side or the other of it,
And then invariably there will be an argument about who's right and who's wrong and who sees it the most truly.
And it always reaches a certain pitch,
And then it reaches a certain pitch,
It's just dropped,
And another topic comes up.
Now why is it just dropped?
Because the pain starts to become so obvious,
And a person doesn't want to betray the pain they're in over their certainty that they know what's right and others don't,
That the thing just rises and falls like a flame that has to be put out before it appears,
Which is exactly what everyone is trying to do,
Trying to defend a position that is propagated through the pain they have of fearing that they won't be seen as right or wrong,
As true or not in that moment.
Please,
Are you able to see it with me?
Like defending this position,
Matter of life and death,
Like how come you don't know you're wrong?
When you go over your entanglement with enemies or people that you have resentment for,
Why do you go over and over and over those conversations?
And I know you do,
It's necessary,
You admit it,
I'm still thinking about what someone did or didn't do,
And I'm still trying to figure out how to get it right.
Why?
Why?
Because something in me cannot bear being in a position where whatever it was in me that was threatened by what you did or didn't do,
I have to protect myself from the flame,
From the fire,
Like in our story,
So that before it gets out of control,
I'm going to put it out.
If you're tracking with me,
We'll go on to the next story.
This is one of my doctor stories,
And you'll see how this particular session with the good doctor that Christine has,
Plays directly into what we're talking about,
And for those of you who don't know the setup,
I use this very wise old doctor who epitomizes,
Who is the example of spiritual wisdom,
Of simple common sense,
Of an insight into psychological matters that those who come to him don't,
And this represents,
I want to add,
A part of ourselves that we are working to be in relationship with,
But are not yet.
So,
Christine goes to see him whenever things get tough,
And something got tough for Christine out to lunch with some friends at a family gathering,
And she went to see the good doctor to ask him what in the world is going on,
And she says,
You know what,
It's inconceivable,
I've been a student of my conversations with you,
I've been a spiritual aspirant for like it seems like a thousand years,
And yet,
In spite of it,
I wind up fighting to prove my point of view.
It's beyond,
I even know,
Going into certain situations,
That certain people are going to do certain things,
And it's going to bring this up in me,
Because we're at loggerheads,
But up comes this negative reaction,
That in retrospect I always see,
But unfortunately only in retrospect,
Is way out of proportion to what I'm dealing with in that moment,
Which is simply that I think this is true,
And you don't,
Or you think that's not true,
And I think it is.
She said,
And if that weren't the end,
She said,
Then I'm like,
I'm caught up in this obsessive web of thoughts,
Because the event's gone.
Could be just yesterday,
Or in some cases,
She said,
Honestly,
Now I see,
This takes place,
10 years ago,
I think obsessively about what I need to do to undo the damage that whatever that reaction caused.
I can't take it,
Trying to relieve the pain of this moment,
That I'm not present to in the moment it appears,
And then I can't stop thinking about,
Talking to myself,
About what could have,
Or should have been,
If only,
I mean,
What am I going to do?
What's going on,
Good doctor?
Now,
Let's make sure we're all in the same doctor's office.
How many of you know what Christine is complaining about to her good doctor?
And isn't it extraordinary,
Because at least it should seem so,
That I'm still visiting in retrospect,
These seemingly ruinous moments,
Moments ruined by others,
Moments ruined by an uncaring life that decided to go left when it should have gone right,
Where I am like Christine in a constant state of being set against something that I see is stupid for me to be set against,
If not for the simple reason that I've been set against it for a thousand years and have never changed one thing.
So Christine says,
Can you help me?
The good doctor says,
Yeah,
Quite clearly,
I can.
And she says,
Because it often happens,
Do I need tests?
What kind of tests do we have to do?
And he said,
No,
No test today.
The symptoms are totally clear to me.
And I do have the diagnosis.
Well,
That's great.
What's wrong with me?
And he looks at her like I'm looking at you and said,
Christine,
You have you ads.
I have what?
You have you ads.
You ads.
And then the joke goes,
Is it fatal?
Is what am I going to do?
Will I survive having you ads?
Because just like you and I,
When we see a strange spot or a mark or have a pain,
We don't know what it is.
And the and what happens?
The panic sets in.
What what's that?
She says,
What is you ads?
You might want to write this down.
Maybe Kate can throw it up there for me.
I forgot to ask her to do it.
You ads is an acronym and it stands for unconscious automated defense system.
Christine has you ads,
Unconscious automated defense system.
What is unconscious automated defense system?
Simply put,
It is an instant resistance to whoever or whatever some unconscious reaction points to and then blames for the pain of our experience,
Because that consciousness sees that moment.
As a challenge to what?
As a challenge to what it is already identified with going into that moment.
So what's the challenge that I experienced when you don't agree with me?
Because I am fully identified with and quite certain that the way I see things is the only way it should be seen.
And if you don't agree with how I see things,
If you don't agree with my take on it,
Then I feel personally challenged.
I literally produces an existential crisis that I don't even recognize as such,
Except that I'm caught up in some obsessive movement of thought and feeling that's trying to put out the fire that wouldn't exist if my mind hadn't put the kindling there,
The content of my experience down on the ground to be lit up.
Unconscious automatic defense system.
That's the feeling that we don't know is produced every single time there is some negative anticipation of an event or an event runs counter to our expectation of it.
Is there not just like that,
A summary resistance?
Yes or no.
And does not that reaction of that summary resistance always point to the person,
Place,
Or the specific problem responsible for generating whatever it is that's grading on us in that moment.
That resistance is the effect of an automated defense system that we don't know lives in us so that without understanding it,
We literally serve it by always trying to put out the fire it says is about to take place.
Let me give you a simple example.
Walking over to that neighbor's house,
I could see there were thoughts and feelings that were preparing me.
And what were they preparing me to do or to be?
They were identifying from the content of my past,
What would be the most likely person to walk in there and receive approval just for showing up,
Let alone having something intelligent to say.
So,
Worried about how others see us and then changing our behavior,
Our posture,
Our position to suit them is in fact,
You ads.
Is it not unconscious automated defense system?
I'm not even in the situation yet and I'm already trying to figure out how to protect some image I have of myself when I get there.
Please,
Do you see this with me?
It's so critical to see this.
You're dead in the water if you don't see it.
You'll forgive me for saying so.
Because you're listening to a dead nature tell you what you need to do to seem like you're alive and protect a life that doesn't exist apart from the one it's imagined.
And this happens 10,
000 times literally in any given period of time where it seems,
Does it not?
Like,
I'll ask you,
Doesn't it seem like walking over to your good neighbor's neighborhood watch meeting,
Doesn't that seem like that's a different condition than standing in line at the market?
Doesn't it?
And yet,
If you're thinking about who and how to present yourself,
Obviously something's trying to protect yourself from what?
From someone mistaking you for being less than you've imagined you are.
And if the cashier asks you for,
You know,
Says your credit card didn't pass muster or they want to see some ID and there's that immediate action of,
Are you talking to me?
You know,
We don't say it out loud usually to people.
Well,
What's behind that reaction?
Something in me feels threatened.
And I don't even know that I'm going to be threatened.
I don't even know that I feel like I've got to protect myself because the nature that always lives in that defensive mode is hidden in the dark of me until the condition produces what?
The resistance that reveals the automated unconscious defensive system.
Do you see it?
It always involves some imagined consequence to be named by the reaction that has that resistance.
And that always involves,
It demands.
This is what you have to see.
Why do you think thoughts torment you about something that may or may not happen 10 seconds,
10 days,
10 years from now?
Oh,
My health.
What do you think the thoughts are that torment you about that?
For the most part,
We don't see they're actually torment because we're identified with the temptation,
With the promise they tell us that if we just do as we are told to do and take the proper protective pro-actions to make sure that you understand who I am before I even start speaking,
So I'll put you on the defensive.
So that something is always telling us,
Look,
There's stuff that needs to be protected here that you're not necessarily aware of,
But let me make sure you understand it's in jeopardy.
And that includes our opinions,
Our beliefs,
These flattering images that we have of ourselves.
I mean,
It goes on literally what I'm describing.
You adds unconscious automated defensive system.
Have you ever noticed?
See,
This is up to you.
I can't do it for you.
Someone starts talking to you.
And if you were attentive,
You would see you're starting to get anxious.
You would actually feel your body tensing up.
Why would my body tense up in a conversation with my husband or my wife?
Why does my body tense up when I turn on the news?
Because something already feels threatened by what it imagines the meaning is,
And it can't think of anything other than that meaning and it resists its own meaning.
And so it gets anxious and tense.
So before we know it,
I'm full of resistance and I'm ready to defend whatever my this nature says I have to defend.
So I talk to myself.
And the funny thing is,
We never question,
For the most part,
This constant conflict,
Really daily battles that go on from the smallest to the largest things.
What?
When life runs counter to our expectations.
But slowing it down,
In those moments,
There's no question,
If we can even look back to a small extent,
That the reason we feel like we need to get the last word,
Make sure people see us the way we want to be seen,
Explain to people why they don't see us as we are.
Have you ever tried that?
Let me explain.
Let me tell you why you need to see my point of view.
Now,
That's not necessarily a bad thing in a simple conversation.
But if I'm always doing that,
Either outwardly or inwardly,
And then blaming you for not getting why I am the way I am,
We should start to see that there's something in us that has this reaction over and over again,
And that it keeps telling us what we have to do to resolve it.
And we don't have to go too far to know what to do to resolve this resistance,
Because the resistance itself is pointing to what's in our way,
Who's in our way,
And why that's the way it is.
I stop again to ask,
Because I'm making a transition here.
Everybody's still tracking.
Now,
Nice deep breath.
Isn't it weird?
I hope you'll see it as such.
Especially today.
Before I buy that box of cereal,
I want to know what's in it.
What are the ingredients?
I want to know where the ingredients came from.
I'm about to buy some sheets.
I want to know how many threads it has,
Who wove it,
And whether or not it originated in this country or not.
I want to know the nature of the coffee.
Is it organic?
Is it free commerce?
Before I consume it.
Now,
There may be other things that you're involved in,
But I'm trying to get you to see that we always want to know the source of what we're about to put in our body.
But we have no idea of the source of what's coming out of our body.
Christ spoke to this.
What's the source of this resistance?
What's the source of this negative reaction,
Of this suffering?
Because we don't see the suffering inherent in being in conflict with others,
Because we're identified with our right to blame them for that pain so that our righteousness and our identification with it obliterates the realization that,
Sweet God,
I'm sitting here having the last word,
And I'm suffering for wanting to have it.
What is the cause of this resistance,
Of this pain?
And I have to recognize,
Please,
If you will,
I know already that's the problem.
I know the nature of it.
And how do I know the nature of it?
Because something's always telling me what it is.
No,
Samia,
Do not get ahead of me.
Words like my ego,
Words like this unconscious nature,
This false self,
All of that has to go away.
There might be ways in which we talk to ourselves and others about these things.
But whenever I have a word for the problem,
The word is not the problem.
If I have a description of the suffering,
The description is not the nature of the suffering itself.
And we must get to the point where we understand that the cause of this conflict,
Of whatever may be this sudden need to defend ourselves,
And not just from others,
But even from our own thoughts,
Who is the father of this fear?
What is this relationship I have with resistance that goes with me everywhere?
Why am I wondering how people see me?
Why do I care how people think about me?
When I've been trying to settle and solve and resolve that kind of resistance for a thousand years,
Selling my soul to win approval.
Fully unconscious as I try to assume some posture or some authority in what I have to do or say,
So that others might be socially impressed with my prowess.
I mean,
To see this is the question,
Not to name it.
Because the name we have for this pain protects the source of the pain.
The name we have for any source of the pain protects the pain at its source.
What is this nature that knows nothing about itself?
And that obviously,
If you see it with me,
Obviously wants to keep it that way.
Can you see that?
All these years,
All these tears,
All these fears,
And I know that I still know nothing at all about what that reaction is and where it comes from,
Let alone how I respect what it points to as responsible.
And then serve what the reaction tells me needs to be served,
As if that's going to bring an end to the suffering.
When the suffering goes on and on and on.
That's all I want to get to as we reach the last 10 minutes or so of this material.
Can you see that something wants us to remain unaware of it,
And it hides itself by defending itself from what it blames for the conflict that it's in when a condition challenges its image of itself.
Can you see that?
Because if you can,
We get to the next important part.
And this is where words can never and will never do,
And yet they may help us align our mind,
Our heart,
With an understanding that is already within us,
But buried beneath the miles and miles of that misery we've never resolved.
And that,
I don't know if you've noticed this,
The more you try to protect an image of yourself,
The more sensitive you are to anything that challenges that image.
So in essence,
The more identified I become with something that I don't even know I'm identified with until something threatens it,
That identification is a form of crystallization of that nature.
It makes its properties and the pain connected to them increasingly real,
And I live beneath the weight of a nature that I'm not even aware of is forever resisting anything that seems to come along to wreck what it expects life to be like.
So if we see that much is true,
Then can we see the following?
Conversely,
The more we know about its nature that is inseparable,
If you're following me,
From this automated defense system that it's so adept at hiding behind,
The more we know about this automated defense system,
The more we know about the nature responsible for it,
The less likely we are to confuse its reactions as being the same as our own.
I suspect there's a nature that can't wait to set itself against something,
And I never know I'm going to be set against you simply because you looked at me the way you did.
Why would I take umbrage?
Why would I take it as an insult that you would dare look at me with doubt or a question of credibility?
Why would I look at you like something's wrong with you when I make a clever comment or a witticism and you don't respond to it?
Why would that bother me?
And the answer is because the nature that uttered it,
The nature that presents itself,
Has a very succinct,
Distinct position within itself by which anything that doesn't acknowledge it as being as it imagines itself is a threat to it.
And therefore,
It must protect itself from its perceived enemies.
Do you see it?
So the more I know about this nature,
The less likely I am to identify with its reactions.
Doesn't mean that I'm not going to identify with them.
It's built in right now.
It's almost,
It is automatic.
That's why I call it an automatic,
Automated defense system.
But if I can start to see,
You know,
I know better.
Sweet God,
I know better.
This person came to me.
I could feel the pain they were in.
Have you ever wanted to avoid someone that's in pain?
Please,
I am pleading.
Have you ever seen you want to avoid certain people because they're in pain?
Why in the name of God do I want to avoid someone in pain?
Because I have to protect myself from what that person brings up in me of the same nature.
And I don't want it.
I don't want to touch it.
I don't want to know about it.
And so the more I resist or stay away from that which produces this reaction in me,
The more identified I am with the nature creating it.
So that resistance is the proof of this identification.
And the identification sits at the root of this automated defense system.
And if I understand that,
Then the moments that have been useless to me so far become incredibly useful.
Suddenly,
I'm sitting there at the doctor's office and they drop a bomb.
I'm sitting there at the restaurant and the waiter says something kind of passive aggressive.
We went to Costco yesterday,
Patricia and I.
I couldn't believe what came out of this man's mouth.
Now,
Fortunately,
By the grace of God,
I see it.
I see it.
I see what he says.
He can't help saying what he does.
And instead of retorting in some kind to make him see where he stepped on the wrong toe.
I use that moment of that innate resistance of a consciousness that believes no one should contradict it,
Let alone its view of things.
Suddenly,
That useless reaction becomes a useful one.
Why?
Because it can be used properly as a leverage in which to see,
Wow,
Something in me is incredibly defensive.
And I've always thought that being defensive somehow or other was protecting me.
But being defensive isn't protecting me.
It is a punishment disguised as protection.
And the more I feel the pain of that punishment,
The more I try to protect myself and defend myself from the so-called person producing the pain.
Do you see the loop?
So the more we know about this nature,
This automated defense system,
The unconsciousness in which it lives and suddenly appears each time something threatens what it's identified,
The more we know about it,
The less likely we are to confuse ourselves as being that reaction.
This is how the wheat is separated from the chaff.
Because like St.
Paul said,
He said,
I don't do the good I would or do the evil I would not.
You and I can say,
You know what,
I don't want to do this reaction.
I know it's not right,
But I still do it.
But the more I'm aware of the fact that I still do it,
The more adamant,
Clear it becomes to me,
The necessity of using that moment instead of being used by an unconscious nature that continually creates the same circumstances.
So what are we to do?
Because it comes down to that,
But in a very special way.
Bring up the second key lesson,
If you will,
Please,
Kate.
The action is inherent in this key lesson,
But I will define it more broadly as soon as it goes up.
I'll proceed.
Resistance to any unwanted moment is an unsuspected form of trying to defend ourselves from what that moment has come to reveal to us about ourselves.
I'll repeat.
Resistance to any unwanted moment is an unsuspected form of trying to defend ourselves from what that moment has come to reveal to us about ourselves.
If we understand that,
Which I trust that we can,
It means that when suddenly this AD,
When the automated defense system appears,
We have to realize that our task in that moment is not to run,
It's not to look for rescue,
It's not to take any thought at all but to see one simple truth and leave it at that.
What's that simple truth?
No words that I have have the capacity to change the condition.
No facility present to me prior.
Even the way in which,
Because so many of us have so much so-called spiritual knowledge,
I can describe the condition till the cows come home,
But the description doesn't change my relationship to the nature that produces the fact that it is describing it.
Have you ever thought why the mind is so fast to describe to itself why it knows what's happened?
Because it identifies with the description and then believes that it actually knows what happened when if it knew what actually happened it wouldn't have been drawn into that identification.
So see that words have no capacity,
No facility even to describe it regardless and then let the light of that awareness do for you what you have been unable to do for yourself and leave it at that.
Let the light of that awareness do for you what you have been unable to do for yourself and leave it at that.
Leave that reaction so that instead of identifying with it and being carried along by its prescription,
The new prescription is I'm going to look what's behind it.
I'm going to understand its cause which I can't do if I'm carried along by its conclusion.
So I must step out of its conclusion.
Not because I know what I'm looking for,
But I don't.
But it is conclusive that as long as I remain identified with that reaction,
I will be a captive of it.
Do you understand?
In essence there is no other way to be made aware of awakened to not just what we have unconsciously identified with,
But the unconscious nature responsible for that suffering.
And then I go back to the first key lesson that I'll ask Kate to post and I trust it'll make more sense to you now.
Awareness of the moment is our consciousness of it.
So the more aware we can be of the whole of our consciousness in any moment,
The less there is for us to think about,
Let alone try to do,
Because awareness cannot act against itself.
Can you see that when you are trying to protect something that is actually the source of your punishment,
That you are acting against your own best interests in the interest of something that says,
I know what's best for you.
So if we get it,
The more aware we are of our consciousness,
The less there is to think about,
Let alone try to do.
Why?
Because the light of awareness isn't divided into what it is aware of.
The light of awareness isn't divided into what it is aware of,
Let alone what it knows about it.
It simply sees what is and that whatever is one with that light is good.
That's what beauty is.
That's what real love is.
That is the source of real compassion.
To be a participant in the revelation of a whole moment and to recognize that the awareness is in fact what unites and blends all elements into a singularity and participating in that singularity is to step into what that consciousness knows is right and true and good for you and everyone else around you in that moment.
Use resistance.
Stop letting it use you.
Catch the automated defense system.
And instead of going along with trying to protect or put out a fire that doesn't even exist yet,
Step into that moment as boldly as you can with the wish to see everything that is being revealed in that moment no matter how difficult it may be to stand there and see that nature as it is.
If you stay with it,
You will understand that nature was never you and you never had one responsibility to doing what it demands of you every time it fears something.