Compassion
Accept Reality
When Seeking Ends
When the seeking self finds the object of its search it gives up searching and dies. When seeking stops happiness and peace are revealed.
Contrary to common belief, happiness and peace are not experienced because the object of our seeking is found. Happiness and peace emerge because searching has ceased. When we are no longer distracted by our attachment to thoughts of lack, deficiency, desire, and seeking the essence of our being is revealed. When our searching stops we relax, surrender, and recognize that a natural state of peace, joy, and equanimity, which is the essence of our being, has always been present and has simply been overlooked.
The separate self attributes happiness to the object of its desires. Unfortunately, once the object of desire is captured happiness soon diminishes and the desires and seeking tendencies of the separate self simply reemerge again. The seeking self’s habit is to spontaneously and quickly seeks another object to find happiness. For the seeker, this addictive process continues on endlessly.
Consequently, it is impossible for the separate, seeking self to achieve a lasting sense of happiness and peace.
At the core of our being happiness, peace, and joy are always present. It is the attributes of the seeking, separate self that dim, block, distort, and eclipse the ongoing existence of happiness and peace.
Upon close examination we recognize that the separate self is an idea, concept, and belief that comes and goes. It is constantly changing and therefore lacks any sense of consistency and stability. Something that is not constant cannot provide constant peace and happiness.
The greater our belief in the separate self and attachment to seeking the more suffering that occurs because the timeless, limitless happiness and peace associated with our inner being is eclipsed to a greater degree. As attachment to the belief in the separate self recedes and seeking behaviors decrease then higher levels of peace and happiness are automatically revealed.
Walking Through the Valley of Death
As we progress further and deeper along our spiritual path it is possible that we will be challenged with even stronger and more compelling situations of fear, pain, doubt, despair, and confusion. This might be viewed as our final “walk through the valley of death” or as “the dark night of the soul.” The Course In Miracles reminds us that these situations are signs that we are coming closer to our goal of salvation and self-realization. They are, in fact, evidence that the ego is making a desperate, last ditch effort to seduce us into succumbing to its illusional world along with its feeble methods for achieving comfort and pleasure.
During these difficult times our doubts and hopeless feelings are best viewed as magnanimous opportunities for applying the lessons of forgiveness and overcoming the last vestiges of the ego’s attempts to avoid its undoing. This is an ideal time to celebrate knowing that the final steps of atonement are at hand and that the ego is feeling overmatched, panicked, and violently attempting to save its existence.
Each path to salvation is very personal and the lessons of the Holy Spirit are always suited to our unique characteristics and needs in the moment. Furthermore, we can be assured that the Holy Spirit’s responses to our challenges are always of ample strength and intensity to meet the task at hand. During our darkest time we must remain committed to our practice of forgiveness and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us as masterfully in this situation as it has in every previous instance.
Acceptance Dissolves Illusions
Suffering dissolves when met with acceptance because acceptance reveals that which is true and real. When fully accepting the present moment the mind becomes silent resulting in the disappearance of painful, past memories and anxiety-laden, future imaginings. When thoughts of the past and future stop, the sustaining truth of reality is revealed as oneness, peace, love, and joy.
Our negative, subjective judgments, evaluations, and beliefs about truth dissolve in the objective light of knowing truth. Therefore, it can be said that recognizing the truth and reality of “what is” dissolves the illusions which are the source of suffering. Illusions are necessary for suffering to exist. Pain is sometimes a part of life, while suffering is optional.
Suffering requires that one view the relative as absolute. Bringing acceptance to an experience exposes and dissolves this illusion and reveals the absolute – the absolute and deepest truth of life.
Throughout the ages, many psychological and spiritual teachers have suggested that suffering is grounded in ignorance. In modern times, Byron Katie asks us to recognize “what is absolutely true” and “to love what is,” Eckhart Tolle suggests “living fully in the now,” and American psychologist Albert Ellis invites us to recognize and challenge the negative, irrational beliefs fueling our suffering.
There is nothing wrong with thinking as long as we recognize that thoughts are only thoughts. Thoughts are harmless and it is advisable to accept all of our thoughts as long as we don’t become attached to our thoughts and believe them to be true.