It seems to me that we all fall prey to the myth that if we only really, truly understood the three Principles, we would never have to go through emotional ups and downs again. That myth truly holds people back because they become so disappointed in themselves when they feel blue, or get angry, or experience disappointment. "Oh, no!" people think. "I'm failing. I don't 'get it'!"
The thing is, the Principles explain life, they don't change life. The difference between the experience of ups and downs for someone who sees the Principles at work is that they are able to say, "So what?" when the blues, or anger, or disappointment crop up in their thinking. They know they're just experiencing a bumpy patch in the road, and if they just keep going and don't focus on the "problems," their thinking will change, as it always does. Thought is a constantly dynamic process; no thoughts can hang around for long unless we willfully hold them in place. And worrying about why we're having them, or what's wrong with us, or how to fix it, is one sure way to hold them in place.
So an understanding of the Principles does not change the content of our thinking; all kinds of thoughts, the ridiculous to the sublime, the disgusting to the divine, will always come and go. An understanding of the Principles changes the way we relate to the content of our thinking. We see that the actual gift of thought is not what thoughts we make up -- although sometimes they're pretty wonderful and they feel like gifts. The actual gift of thought is that we are constantly making up thoughts, and the landscape of our imaginations is ever-changing. Our minds were meant to navigate through life, with all its ups and downs.
I had an old friend call me recently, truly upset that even though she "knew" the Principles, she was having a hard time. "I've lost it," she said. "No," I said. "You haven't lost it. You can't lose what is eternal and spiritual. You've just temporarily lost touch with it. And you're holding yourself back by trying to think yourself out of your bind. Let your mind heal itself. Just leave your thinking alone and give yourself a break."
She called me back a few days later. "I'm fine," she said. "I just needed to stop worrying about why I was feeling low and stop trying to analyze myself. I left it alone. And then it passed."
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Hi Judy,
ReplyDeleteI'm new to the 3 Principles and appreciate your "live" blog as a way to gain understanding.
I notice that you suggested that your friend, just leave her thinking alone and give herself a break.
I'm puzzled that you suggested a "give yourself a break" approach rather than encouraging her to remember we create our experience of life, and have the freedom and power to change it.
I'm seeing two approaches here: give yourself a brake and we have the power to change our experience. Can you help me understand when to just let it go and when to apply our power to change?
Appreciating you sharing your understanding,
Dex
Hello, Dex. What I meant by "give yourself a break," was give yourself a break from constantly thinking about your negative thinking and worrying about what's wrong with you. The idea is to allow the mind to quiet, not to deliberately introduce a lot of extraneous thinking, and just allow the natural flow of thought to resume. It's sort of like raising the water on a logjam. It allows the thinking to flow again, and a natural flow of thoughts is the feeling of freedom and health. Thoughts just come and go.
ReplyDeleteWe have the power to change our experience because we don't have to think about our thinking. That's a choice. We don't really have any choice about what thoughts pop into our minds, or thoughts that first come to mind in the face of certain circumstances. But we do have a choice about whether we entertain those thoughts or allow them to pass and other thoughts to come to mind.
So our power to change IS our power to give ourselves a break from a lot of circular, upsetting thinking by simply turning away from it and allowing our minds to quiet down.