When Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D. and I were talking yesterday to get ready for the free teleclass were leading on Monday, we were talking about how challenges help us grow, so perhaps the soul calls in certain challenges in order to help us learn the lessons were here to learn. Once we learn them, we no longer need the challenges. Yet, once we discover that we are not victims, but rather that we have been the conductors of our own suffering, we tend to beat ourselves up! Rachels response to this was brilliant. She said, Without the path you’ve traveled, you would not be at the place where you can open the door of freedom. You can’t resent the path that has taken you to the place of liberation. You can’t regret the amount of living that has enabled you to have the courage and wisdom to free yourself, because without that path, you wouldn’t have that courage and wisdom. There are two different kinds of thinking- the ego thinking “I’m stupid, I make mistakes, I cant believe I brought this upon myself.” But we can tap into a much broader way of thinking, one that accepts and even appreciates the challenges, even the ones weve brought upon ourselves. We’re all learning and we can’t resent the teacher. Otherwise, there’s no learning and there’s no freedom. Perhaps that level of nonjudgmental acceptance of the nature of things is the very essence of spirituality. Moving into that radical openness, where you simply say “Ah, this is how I learned the gift of this. This is how I was enabled to do this, how I grew through the path to have the strength to do this now.” When youre tempted to regret the past, remember- don’t kill the teacher. Growth is everywhere. The world is in a process of movement towards wholeness. It’s the only thing that is to be trusted, this evolution of consciousness. Hopefully we wont destroy the planet in the process, but even if we do, perhaps there’s something larger that will unfold in the aftermath. We can never truly know what phoenix will arise from the ashes of what looks like disaster, in our lives and on our planet. But we can remain open, be curious, be willing to admit that were all in spiritual kindergarten, and be courageous enough to follow the souls guidance. Are you able to view and experience challenges through this lens?
Posted on: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 19:36:42 +0000
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