Pretty much everyone has addictions. Because everyone has senses. And senses like to be gratified. But senses are just senses. Suffering begins with a conflict between “I want” and “I shouldn’t.”
I was reminded of a turnaround that Byron Katie found for herself that she sometimes shares. She says something like, “What I love about pain is that it’s always on the way out.” I didn’t used to get that turnaround. After all it was her turnaround, not mine. Other people’s turnarounds are not always helpful. But I’ve kept it in the background over the years and I’ve occasionally reconsidered it.
“I” is an elusive concept. I usually assume that I know who I am. I am a person. I am a man. I have a particular kind of body, and a particular kind of mind. And when I see myself that way, I see myself as a unique individual in the world. I “know” who I am. But when I look closer, when I question who I am, it starts to fall apart.
I love reading ancient spiritual texts. Just like I love reading modern spiritual texts. Because the message is pretty much always the same: come back to yourself. I just love hearing all the thousands of ways it can be said. And all the thousands of ways it can be done. The other night I read this one.
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When you look for turnaround examples, you’re looking for evidence to support the turnaround. Without evidence, the turnaround is just words. It has no weight. Examples are what ground a turnaround to earth.
If I feel stress, I’m wanting something to be different than the way it is. All I have to do is identify that want and question it in order to I come back to peace.
There’s no end of things to learn, things to experience, places to visit, people to know. Just being curious and open to life exposes me to an infinite number of different directions I can take. And many times I want to take them all. That’s when it becomes stressful. I want to take each direction to its endpoint, and there are just too many directions. So I freeze, unable to start in even one direction. Or I feel frustrated as I try to do the impossible and split my time into smaller and smaller pieces in order to do it all. How can I use The Work to regain balance?
We are not meant to live stressed lives. Learn how to address the root cause of your stress and find your freedom again. Otherwise, stress will keep accumulating. Learn how to break the cycle of stress here.
