“The world needs our hearts, and our courage, and the light of our being. Here and now is where the outer world can meet the freedom and compassion of our inner spirit.” ~ Adyashanti
On the level of ultimate reality, we are all the things and people in our world. Everything is an expression of the one Awareness, the only thing that truly exists. In order to know itself completely, this Awareness accepts everything just as it is. On the level of our individual expression, we can work with our true Self by facing our difficulties with openness and by trusting in the basic goodness and sacredness of life.
Often events, feelings, thoughts, memories, or fears arise that spark resistance in us. Anything we continually resist, fight, or struggle against is given strength and power by our resistance. Rather than rejecting these things, the healing power resides in simply seeing them with no story about them whatsoever, as if to say, “Yes, this is what is arising now.” We become willing to see what the resistance is trying to show us. Meeting it in this way, we allow it to come into the light of Awareness, the only place where it can be finally healed.
When these things can be met with simple silence and nonjudging presence, a resting in the knowing that everything is happening for the purpose of awakening us to our true nature, eventually our recurring problems will no longer be issues. We may experience similar situations, but for various and sometimes surprising reasons, we will simply notice that certain issues we used to have are no longer problems for us.
This does not mean we should ignore the problems in our lives. It simply means that even the things we think we could never accept, and should never accept, can only be healed and brought to balance by first accepting them. We accept them not in order to get rid of them, but because we understand that they are Spirit’s way of getting our attention and bringing light to the dark places within us, so that they may be healed.
Things happen on many different levels at the same time. A problem can be approached on the so-called physical level, where cause-and-effect seems to be the way everything works. But as long as we keep fixing our problems only on this level, we will always have more problems to fix. If we can see our difficulties not as a problem to get rid of, but as a simple indication that this is the way Awareness—Consciousness, Spirit, the Divine, the One—is appearing right now, our sustained focus on wholeness will shine the light of healing on whatever is causing our suffering.
The key to healing is the realization that everything is already striving for wholeness in our lives. All we need to do is work with this movement instead of resisting it. When we can accept wholeness as what we already and eternally are, a sense of peace arises—even in the midst of difficulties—that offers creative solutions we could never have imagined.