This exercise,
Called the Enlightenment,
Will help you see that true change comes about paradoxically,
Not through effort and violence,
But through understanding and acceptance.
When you try to change what you dislike in yourself by fighting it,
You merely push it underground.
If you accept it,
It will surface and evaporate.
What you resist will stubbornly persist.
Consider the example of Jesus.
He combines a keen desire for change with a loving acceptance of reality as it is.
See how he sets himself the task of moving mountains,
How he battles with exasperating foes.
In his anger and his frustration,
He is loving and accepting.
Would you like to be like him?
Then start with the feelings that you dislike within yourself.
Talk to each of them—your anxieties,
Your fears,
Your depressions,
Your resentments.
Talk in a loving,
Accepting kind of way,
And listen to what each of those feelings has to say.
Keep talking and listening till you discover that while this feeling can do you harm,
It also does you good.
It is there for a benign purpose which you must now attempt to see.
Keep up this dialogue with those negative feelings till you feel a real acceptance of them.
Acceptance,
Incidentally,
Does not mean approval or resignation.
If you are able to truly accept them,
You will discover that you are no longer depressed about your depressions,
Or angry with your anger,
Or discouraged because of your discouragement,
Or frightened of your fears,
Or rejecting of your feelings of rejection.
You can live with them in peace,
For you have seen that God can use them for your good.
Now do the same with some of the many other things about your life that you wish to change—the disabilities and handicaps of your body,
Your personality defects and shortcomings,
The external circumstances of your life,
The happenings of the past,
The persons with whom you live,
The whole world as it is.
Now,
Let's begin with the three things that we have to deal with.
Life,
Old age,
Sickness,
Death.
Speak to them with love and with the consciousness that they somehow fit into God's plan.
In doing this,
You will undergo a transformation.
Everything about you will be the same—the world,
Your family,
Your feelings,
Your body,
Even your neuroses.
But you will no longer be the same.
You will be more loving now,
More accepting of what is undesirable,
More peaceful too,
For having come to see that violence cannot lead to lasting change.
That is something achieved only by love and by understanding.
