“Nots” got you tied up in Knots?
Peace is what you are. The more you discover that, and uncover that and live as that, the more things just smooth out. Does life stop? No. Life continues, except the suffering disappears. There’s only one difference between the before and after picture. It doesn’t have anything to do with the intensity of what happens in life. Life continues as it always has.
But in the ‘before’ picture you are being dragged behind a bus. And in the ‘after’ picture, you’re sitting in the driver’s seat. Make no mistake – you’re still not driving the bus; it’s driving itself. But it’s a significant change that you’re not being dragged behind anymore.
Life actually becomes a lot more interesting, a lot more fun, a lot more dynamic and exciting and enjoyable. In my experience, the less there is an imaginary enjoyer, the more enjoyment there is. Enjoyment is what we want, because that’s what feels good. The enjoyer is only a filter.
I remember the very first time I started getting a glimpse of what this was all about. It was when Forrest Gump first came out. I was sitting in the movie theater, watching the film open – I don’t know if you remember the film – but in the very beginning, there’s this feather falling.
I experienced it totally differently than I ever had. I was actually the feather falling at the same time as being the imaginary person sitting in the audience – the filters were gone.
Most importantly, the enjoyment of that film was like no other film I’d ever experienced my entire life. Every film is like that for me now, but at the time, it was like, “Wow, that’s neat!”
So, you don’t have to give anything up. All these filters that you think you need in order not to suffer is what’s causing the suffering. Let me repeat that: All these filters that you live life through in order not to suffer – like “I don’t want to experience this, I don’t want to feel that, I don’t want to see that, I don’t want to do that,” – All the ‘nots’ that get us tied up in knots, keep us suffering.
All the things we do to protect ourselves from suffering, is what’s causing the suffering. Our filters hold in the suffering and keep out the exquisite joy and pleasure that comes from just being with whatever’s happening in the moment.
Love,
Hale
This blog is an excerpt from the upcoming Inner Circle 4 Audio Program.