4. Understanding Negative Ideas As The Cause Of Suffering | Discovering Your Spiritual Lessons

What is the cause of suffering? In this talk, you will discover something new about yourself. We will explore what negative ideas are and how these ideas are the seed cause to all our suffering states of mind - our fears, our anger, our negativities.

This will be a helpful talk as it is by understanding the cause of our unhappiness that one can transform their mind.

Transcript

Hi,

I am Johnny John.

Spiritual lessons are the lessons that we have brought into this lifetime so that we can create greater spiritual growth,

Greater happiness,

And they will always take us to face our suffering states of the mind.

So today I want to talk about one of the ways in which we can use to discover our spiritual lessons,

And that is through the discovery of our negative ideas.

We all have negative ideas within waiting to be discovered.

So today we're going to talk about what negative ideas are and how they can be used to discover our spiritual lessons.

This method is a bit more technical and is more suited for those who like to come to conclusions through analysis.

So don't worry if this can be a bit too difficult for you to grasp.

Later on you will be introduced other ways to discover your spiritual lessons.

So let's begin.

So when we are in the state of suffering,

Whether it is a fear,

Anger,

And patience,

And so forth,

We are in the state of rejection.

For instance,

A fear is a state of rejection towards an experience,

Anger is a state of rejection towards oneself or others,

And so forth.

Now if we want to go deeper into the course of our sufferings,

We will have to ask the question,

What is the cause for the state of self-rejection?

And looking outwards for the cause,

We may blame that it's that person,

The situation,

Or the experience,

But I want to explore the deeper cause that is within,

And that will eventually take us to our beliefs,

The patterns of thoughts,

Basically the ideas we have about the world.

Realize that within the mind,

Or begins with an idea,

We can carry ideas which promote happiness or suffering.

Whatever ideas we have will determine our experience,

Our reactions to the world outside.

So it is from the ideas that we carry that will determine the quality of our perception of the world outside,

Of the people around us,

Of every moment in life.

Ideas which promote self-rejection can be called negative ideas,

Because these ideas are the seed cause for the suffering states of the mind.

And how much we suffer will depend on how much we are attached to these ideas.

Some examples of negative ideas we can carry,

Which promote self-rejection,

Can include,

I don't like that guy because he's ugly,

She should not be arrogant,

Her selfishness is a flaw.

I mean there are so many negative ideas we can become attached to,

And these ideas will always promote the state of self-rejection,

And the sense of rejection towards ourselves,

Others in the world.

The self and self-rejection means everything,

Because to the deeper mind there's only oneself.

As negative ideas can be expressed in many possible ways,

Let's simplify it.

We can simply understand negative ideas as self-declarations which begin with,

It is not okay.

For instance,

It is not okay to be ugly,

It is not okay to be arrogant,

It is not okay to be selfish.

We can simplify negative ideas in this form.

I think doing this will make it easier to understand.

But in essence,

Negative ideas are energetic configurations,

And what we're doing is trying to transcribe that state into words.

Unfortunately,

No words can do justice to describe that state,

So we can only do our best.

So basically any ideas which begin with it is not okay,

Will be negative ideas.

Let us look at how negative ideas work in the mind to create suffering.

Let us use an example and see how it works.

Let's use the example,

It is not okay to be arrogant.

Negative ideas will always create negativity in all levels of the self,

The mental self,

Emotional self,

Physical self,

And so forth.

For instance,

Because it is not okay to be arrogant,

This will promote negative judgments towards others and oneself when one is arrogant.

Because it is not okay to be arrogant,

This will also create a fear within for appearing arrogant.

Because it is not okay to be arrogant,

It will also create negative physical sensations on the body when the idea is triggered by an outside experience.

So see how that one idea can cause so much suffering within all levels of the self.

And how intense the experience will be will depend on how much we are attached to that negative idea.

Now to discover our negative ideas,

We can get a piece of paper and list down all the experiences that we don't like in life.

For instance,

Suffering situations,

People who made us suffer,

Or things that we fear,

Things that make us angry,

Impatient,

Jealous.

Basically any experiences that will bring out any negativity.

And then we can try to transcribe these experiences into negative ideas.

For instance,

If the suffering experience is about giving a public speech,

Maybe one of the negative ideas is about it is not okay to be embarrassed.

And because there can be more than one negative ideas in an experience,

Maybe you'll discover other ideas,

Such as it is not okay to be boring.

It is not okay to waste other people's time.

And like this,

We can list down all our negative ideas.

And there will be many.

Finding the negative ideas is quite a useful exercise,

Because finding the negative ideas in our suffering experiences can really make us aware of the reasons and the causes to why we're reacting so negatively in such an experience.

And after we have listed them down,

Then we can use these negative ideas to discover our spiritual lessons.

What we can do is by writing down the negative ideas,

Which begin with it is not okay,

On the left column of a piece of paper,

Then putting an arrow going towards the right,

And then writing the inverted version of the negative idea.

And that will begin with it is okay.

For instance,

From it is not okay to be ugly,

Goes to it is okay to be ugly.

From it is not okay to be arrogant,

Becomes it is okay to be arrogant.

From it is not okay to be selfish,

Becomes it is okay to be selfish.

This is how you can discover your spiritual lessons.

These represent the journey that you have to undertake to complete the lessons.

And the journey from the negative ideas to the potentiated ideas,

Which are the ideas which begin with it is okay,

Will be full of confusion and challenges.

We will no doubt encounter confusing problems,

Much like the questions of how can we accept what we cannot currently accept?

How can we forgive someone when we don't want to forgive them?

How can we be courageous in the things that we fear?

Now there are many ways for one to undertake and complete these spiritual lessons,

But it will always revolve around the theme of self-acceptance.

To accept oneself,

To accept others,

To accept the world as it is.

Developing self-knowing will be especially helpful for one to cultivate self-acceptance.

So the practice of meditation will help you greatly,

Especially those types which allow one to develop stillness and observation of the reality within.

Because it is only through stillness that we can see the chaos clearer,

To understand its cause,

To understand the cause of our suffering experiences.

Without meditation,

It is easy to dwell in the reactions that we can experience in these kind of negative situations.

But for now,

You can start listing down your negative ideas and its potentiated ideas,

So that you can get a view of your spiritual journey,

Of these spiritual lessons which await you.

Realize that it's through facing our spiritual lessons that we can become greater than before.

But to face our spiritual lessons,

We have to discover them first.

So focus on the practice of meditation,

And list down your negative ideas to help you on your journey of self-discovery,

Self-transformation,

To become happier than the day before.

I wish you all the best.

Reviews

This is interesting revelations— but hard for me to grasp how it’s ok to be arrogant or selfish… isn’t it part of keeping humanity as loving as possible to teach our children to be kind and share?
Thank you for sharing ✨🙏🏼✨

Excellent!
This practice is essential for gaining insigt of the many negative thought we hold without being aware.

I really enjoy the wisdom imparted in your relaxing talks! Thanks!

simple and clear talk.