The Remedy For Hard Times

In this newsletter I will talk about the best way I have found to get unstuck, and move forward beyond a difficult life situation.

The big perspective I have is that life just is. There is only the present moment which consists of our inner world (consciousness, mind and emotion), and the outer world (things happening in our body, and around us which come in through our 5 senses). Of course there are more than the 5 senses which we are taught in school.

The mistake begins with labelling the present moment— of thinking it shouldn’t be this way or perceiving it as negative. As if life has “gone wrong” or off course.

Everything since the Big Bang has brought you to this moment. On a cosmic level, humans are stardust forged through the elements found in suns. Then millions of years of evolution here on Earth. Thousands of lifetimes of our ancestors, where things go right or wrong as seen through the perspective of the mind, have brought you here.

The Problem Is the Mind

Our minds consist almost entirely of past conditioning. We come into this world as blank slates (“tabula rasa” in Latin). Then through our experiences, family, schooling, socialization, and society a voice in our heads starts telling us about the world.

Cogito, Ergo Sum (I think, therefore I am).

These words were famously spoken by the philosopher Descartes. He was referring to the chatter in our minds (thinking). But what happens when the chatter stops, in moments of awe or danger, when we are in total focus. We still are—without thought. Deeper than thinking is consciousness. It precedes thought.

To get beyond this past conditioning we must allow a deeper consciousness to arise. This comes through when we are still. Not sleepy or drowsy, but alert in the moment. Thought is transcended.

Creating Beyond Problems

Einstein is attributed to saying that the definition of insanity is repeating the same actions and expecting different results. Because mental energy originates from the experiences of the past, it is like a prison until we break free. The mind cannot solve a problem it created. And yes, most if not all your suffering is created by the mind.

Like I wrote above, the mind filters and labels things. This is bad. This is good. What if everything that happens in your existence is happening for you. For your evolution. Spiritual evolution. A situation is as it is. Until the mind enters.

You did not behave differently in the past because you where not evolved enough to have a choice. You acted on past conditioning. Author, Eckhart Tolle calls this deeper dimension presence. Pure awareness in the moment.

You Are Doomed To Re-Create The Past, Until The “Deep I” Awakens.

The present moment is always alive and fresh. The mind is thinking based on its history. Only pure consciousness can create something new because it is free from conditioning. It originates from the source of existence.

Other senses like intuition and feeling of energy begin to guide you. First it will appear isolated like feeling in the gut. Soon it will become a whole body experience as you awaken this deep dimension within. By whole body, I don’t mean the material body you can feel and see. But the essence that animates it. Your soul.

Intuition may feel fragmented because you are not whole yet. When you let presence grow within you, the mind takes a back seat to perform its essential functions (planning, organizing). It does not add suffering to your thinking because an inner knowing has taken over. This moment may be imperfect as perceived internally, but it is exactly what I need to grow.

First Accept, Then Create Change

The above is the secret. When you find life intolerable use it as a reminder to live from your soul. Total acceptance causes the mind to resign. Then your true power takes over. Creative solutions arise from the “Deep I”, your pure consciousness.

This creativity comes from a knowing your finite brain cannot conceive of. The conscious mind can process 120 bits of information per second. Creative solutions come from a much vaster source.

Does the brain create thought, or is it, like in my view, a receiving station for thought. A radio. Can you point to your thoughts under a microscope? Where do they live?

What I know is that you must use what author, Napoleon Hill, calls “Infinite Intelligence” to bring new solutions to old problems. There are no obstacles to progress from this place. Accept the situation. Then the obstacles will dissolve.

“Nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists” - A Course In Miracles