Let's close our eyes.
What if whatever is happening right now,
And by whatever I mean everything that is happening right now,
Not only outside but also inside.
What if we did not resist anything that is happening?
Before we move ahead with this what if exploration,
An important side exploration would be to understand what I mean by resist.
The easiest resistance to recognize would be what we articulate in our minds most of the times or sometimes through our words out loud.
And that is,
I don't like this,
This is wrong,
I don't agree with this,
This is dumb,
Or will roll our eyes.
Oh come on,
We'll say this,
I'm sure you get the point.
The next level of resistance,
I don't know if it's the next but one of the other levels of resistance is not quite easy to recognize.
Which is to dismiss whatever has happened,
Ignore,
Dismiss or roll our eyes but in a non-physical way.
At a mental level we dismiss it.
An example of this would be,
Let's say we are on our phones on some social media and we are scrolling through it and while we are scrolling through images or stories something that is not relevant to us and shows up as an ad or a suggested post.
We just scroll past it.
It's not accidental that we scroll past it.
It's very intentional because the next moment when you find something relevant you'll stop scrolling and pay attention.
But it's happening at such a fast pace and a deeper level of dismissal that we don't realize we are resisting it.
We do this with people,
With emails,
With texts where we zone out,
Zone them out or zone out because we don't like what they're gonna say.
We don't agree with what they're gonna say or we don't care what they're gonna say.
And this I'm not saying by any sense of judgment or a way to dig something up.
I'm just sharing something that happens so commonly with me.
Maybe the flavors of this are different for different people.
This is just a means of observation to recognize.
And the third level,
Third or the next level,
Another level of resistance is not even mental.
But it's purely physical but at a very very visceral level.
It's like walking in the dark into the woods without a flashlight your entire body is going to tense up which is a very valid survival strategy.
But we have no control over that.
It just happens.
It happens very viscerally.
Evolutionarily we are all designed to experience that when our bodies are in danger.
But we do that same or the same thing happens when we are in certain situations.
We tense up.
We squeeze our palms.
Or squeeze our butt muscles together.
Or our shoulders,
Tighten our shoulders.
Sometimes it happens in a work environment.
When we receive certain emails or somebody walks into our office many times with some authority.
This is a very visceral resistance.
The flight or fight kind of resistance.
Now that we have explored what resistance means let's go back to our original question.
What if we did not resist anything that is happening right now?
No resistance to any sounds whatever those sounds mean.
No resistance to any sensations or feelings in the body.
No matter how painful they are.
No matter how uncomfortable they are.
No matter what thoughts are coming up.
No resistance.
No resistance to any images that are flashing in our minds.
Let's do a little thought experiment to understand what this kind of resistance means to our happiness.
Now that we have explored resistance let's imagine right now there was a big construction truck right next to wherever we are.
Imagine there is noise being produced.
That noise is not bad enough that you can't hear me but you can hear the sounds that are happening around in your vicinity.
Suddenly a thought pops up in our minds.
Oh no this is disturbing me I can't hear this.
Why would they?
Etc.
Etc.
In the process and it's a pretty natural thing that happens to us quite often.
Doesn't happen in the exact same flavor but somebody talks on the phone too loud.
Somebody's phone rings.
You get the point.
It's not that theoretical of an example.
So if you notice in this experiment there was resistance to the noise.
The fact that I'm calling it noise it itself is a form of resistance.
The moment you say noise and because of the connotation that the word noise has it's by default it means that it's something not good.
So as we hear these sounds the resistance interferes and we experience suffering.
Now this might not be the big suffering that we might call suffering.
Nonetheless we do experience the same symptoms at a much lower amplitude.
Festival.
Right now there is nothing we can do to those sounds that are coming.
To stop them.
Yet we resist.
I'm not saying we need to accept it.
But if there is nothing we can do,
That is an automatic acceptance.
But in that experiment,
What if we accepted those sounds?
The first feeling of irritation that arose within us.
And instead of resisting,
We were just okay.
Completely open.
Totally open.
It would just stay sound.
It would never become noise.
Or disturbance.
Or something that spoils your meditation.
There would not be suffering.
Absence of suffering.
Absence of suffering.
Is called happiness.
And it's not what is happening that makes us suffer.
Or makes us happy.
If we didn't resist,
By definition,
And by default,
We are happy.
Don't get me wrong.
As I mentioned,
Some of the survival resistances are needed for our safety.
And we are not talking about pain,
Physical pain.
We are talking about psychological pain or suffering.
Which we experience on a daily basis.
And because it operates at such a low threshold,
We don't even categorize it as suffering.
So what if we were totally open to whatever is happening?
Or whatever has happened?
Intelligence tells us that we cannot do anything about whatever has happened.
We can only act upon something to remedy it,
Mitigate it,
To heal it,
Now.
And whatever is happening,
If it cannot be interrupted or stopped in a kind manner,
Then resisting it serves no purpose either.
So creating our own suffering is never a wise thing to do.
And when I say suffering,
I want to repeat myself once more.
When I say suffering,
I mean the mechanics of resisting whatever is happening.
That is what I call suffering.
We should do everything in our power to change our environment,
To avoid pain,
Physical pain.
Or not be in a situation where we could be triggered.
But after doing everything,
If there is still a trigger,
There's still that irritation that comes up.
I want you to pause in that moment and ask yourself,
What if I was totally open to this?
And this could be an uncomfortable feeling,
An uncertain situation,
Something you disagree with.
What if I was totally open,
Non-resistant to this?
Thank you.
