We live in a world which is encouraging each of us constantly to change, to get better, to find the future. Just because our culture tells us that this is the way to live doesn’t mean you have to follow that creed. We can question these culturally engrained thoughts in each moment.
Stop for one moment and notice the space in which life happens. It all happens here, the thoughts, emotions, sensations, colors, shapes, and sounds. The thoughts seem to tell us that we are selves living in time with a past and future, selves that are not quite happy or good enough yet. We inherited this false belief and have taken it to be reality. But those thoughts are happening within that same space. Notice them flying by like birds. Each time you notice these kinds of thoughts dissolving into the space, you are moving beyond the very limited thinking given to us by our cultures.
Fall in love with noticing the simple things,
like the movement of the wind, the phone ringing in the background, the colors of the table and wall in front of you. When you take a moment to rest without thought, where are your problems, your challenges? Where is your need to change? Are they on any of the colors, shapes or sounds? Are they on any sensation when you just feel it as it is, thoughtlessly? A troubling thought when believed can seem like the end of the world. But as that thought falls away, the trouble falls away, leaving only that sensation or that emotion, which can then be felt and allowed totally.
If you make this your main priority, to be with life this way, this intimately and presently, you can discover that nothing in the space of the moment carries any of your troubles. The wall doesn’t carry them, the sounds you hear don’t carry them, the sensations don’t carry them. What carries your troubles are the thoughts. And they aren’t troubles at all.
They are thoughts, each one seeming to paint a picture of deficiency or lack, and each one dissolving by simply looking at it directly.
Every attempt we make to try and change ourselves, to become better, to be good enough comes from buying into one of these thoughts that are flying by like birds. The more radical and transformative work comes from investigating these lies instead of living at the mercy of them.
Why even wait for the New Year for some resolution? The resolution of your troubles comes right now in this kind of investigation. Waiting for anything is just buying again into the idea that you are a self that is not good enough yet.
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