If you're feeling shitty,
You're telling a shitty story about yourself.
That shitty feeling is almost like a form of violence.
It feels kind of violent,
But that feeling is simply reflecting what is being thought.
And if you look at the story you're telling about your circumstance,
In some way,
It's saying that this means I'm not enough.
This means I'm not lovable.
Do you see that that's a violent way of seeing yourself?
Just like if I was here doing this session and I'm arguing with everything that's happening,
Proclaiming it shouldn't be,
Proclaiming that it's in my way of becoming whole and complete,
That is another way of saying,
Because this is happening,
It means I'm not enough.
And so,
Yeah,
That would feel shitty.
Isn't that wild?
What is happening on the surface?
In one way,
It's profound to say that what's happening on the surface doesn't require any emotionality to it,
Meaning it's neutral.
And so often,
Even what we think is happening on the surface is just a story about what's happening on the surface.
So the invitation is to see what's happening beyond any story.
Like,
For example,
In a relationship breakup,
Someone could say,
That person left me,
And we could say,
That's an objective way of describing what happened.
Well,
I don't know.
Because to say that they left you is to make it about you,
Rather than somebody was here and then they went here,
Something shifted,
Something moved.
But to make it personal,
That's a story.
That's to turn it into something.
That's to make it about you.
Or to say that,
Okay,
I lost my job.
Okay,
Well,
Lost is a particular story.
I mean,
There's so much that we can dive into that.
But to see these things beyond any interpretation,
Which is a creation of a reality,
Like don't turn it into anything.
What is it really?
And there's such a stillness that is invited here,
Which relaxes all the projections and comes back to reality.
And this is what helped me see things more clearly,
Is to get out of my own way,
Because so often these projections are what we want to turn it into.
And this can be so subconscious where you're turning it into something,
But you don't realize that you're the one that's turning it into something.
You really think that what you see is actually happening.
It's like being rejected.
And this is one of those wild and obvious examples where in reality,
It's impossible to be rejected.
That's always just a story.
Even if somebody says,
I reject you,
You're the one that has to give that authority,
You're the one that has to give it a meaning,
You're the one that has to take it personally.
And so this whole spiritual endeavor,
My goodness,
Is really an invitation to see things more clearly,
Which is quite fascinating,
Because I guess in the beginning,
When one enters spirituality,
Like everything else,
We turn it into something that it's not.
Maybe we get a little lost in the woo-woo of it all.
But for me,
It's so profoundly practical and simple to be still and know,
Which is to be still and discern the difference between what I imagine to be happening and what's really happening,
Because it's always my imagination about what's happening that is causing the internal dis-ease,
Which is really fascinating because whatever spiritual tradition,
Whatever pathway,
Whatever religious context,
At its core,
It's saying this in some way,
It's inviting us to be still and see what's true,
And it's so interesting how these things can become so not practical,
Like they get lost in some sort of mystical idea,
Which again,
It's all play and it's fine.
But it's an interesting phenomenon to have it circle around and come back to this radical practicality.
And part of that radical practicality is realizing that I am creating every ounce of suffering that I'm experiencing,
And not as a story of blame to blame myself,
But as an invitation to stop.
And I guess the more you see the mechanism of this,
The more you see how it works,
It's less offensive and more helpful.
Because the more you see deeply that there's nothing in the world,
There's no other person that has the power over me to affect my internal state of being,
Then the invitation that reminds me that I'm creating all of my suffering is very helpful.
And to see that the creation of my own suffering only happens when I'm not seeing things clearly is an invitation for me to be still and see things more clearly.
