In this answer to a viewer's question, "letting go" author Guy Finley talks about the difference between observing a particular psychological condition -- such as feeling a lack of energy -- and resisting the condition.
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Enlightening articles by Guy Finley on a wide range of topics address practical life issues and deepen your spiritual understanding.
Short but powerful quotes by Guy Finley will inspire you throughout your day.
Heartfelt inner-life questions from people around the world, and Guy’s enlightening answers, will shed light on your own issues.
Read Guy’s newest insights as he jots them down, spontaneous and uncensored.
Watch or listen to the specific talk we will all be discussing during this week’s Online Study Group meeting.
If you have a few minutes, and want a burst of enlightenment, watch or listen to these brief talks by Guy, filled with concentrated wisdom.
Hearing Guy interact with an interviewer is a delight. Listen as he makes deep spiritual principles easy to understand.
Be encouraged by hearing fellow members share their experiences and discoveries as they bring higher ideas into their daily lives.
The Life of Learning singers and instrumentalists perform beautiful music that will inspire and uplift you.
Join us for exclusive live broadcasts of select Guy Finley talks.
Start your day off right with a nugget of wisdom that can transform your experience with everything you do and everyone you meet.
Inner-life exercises and special writings deepen your understanding.
Longtime local members speak for 10 to 15 minutes on a special topic. Hear the explorations and discoveries of others on the inner journey.
Dive deep into a subject on your own! Work at your own pace with a series of talks by Guy on topics critical to your inner development.
Catch Guy Finley’s weekly message that focuses on spiritual and personal breakthroughs. This is updated weekly and is available in video, audio and text.
Join a lively online discussion with other members each week of “This Week’s Topic” – a new Guy Finley talk selected for in-depth study.
You are not alone on the inner journey. Listen to lively, weekly online discussions between members.
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In this answer to a viewer's question, "letting go" author Guy Finley talks about the difference between observing a particular psychological condition -- such as feeling a lack of energy -- and resisting the condition.
Full Transcript:
Jon: Namita asks, "What is the relationship between attention and energy? There are days when I feel a lack of energy for reasons beyond my understanding. Also, why do you call meditation 'medication'? Doesn't meditation help bring about stillness?"
Guy: So do drugs. First question first: "What's the relationship between attention and energy? There are days I feel a lack of energy for reasons beyond my understanding." What's wrong with having a lack of energy? I guarantee you have never asked yourself that question. What's wrong with, "I just don't have energy today"? "But you gotta go, you gotta meditate, you need energy to do this, get up and go, do something, do something! You can't afford to be passive!" You can't find a creature on this planet that doesn't rotate through active and passive, including the seasons in which that activity and passivity is recognized and realized. Every passive moment is already connected to a new form of activity that's intended to flow into that, but it never does because we make false activity in our fear of being passive and lost, and unable to produce. On the other hand - and not contrary to what I just said - why don't you find out what is the nature of this weakness? Here I am, and I don't want to do anything today. I don't want to move. I don't want to think. I want nothing to do with anything. Just leave me alone. No energy. You all have known that, too, haven't you? Well, what's that all about? I don't know because it becomes my "cause." Meaning that I begin to resist that, and then I'm captured by this feeling that I shouldn't be like that, or I have to somehow power my way through. Both of those solutions are as empty as the results. On the other side of the resistance is the flow. Write it down. On the other side of the resistance is the flow. What does that mean? If I will sit and live with this resistance, and not resist it, then I will understand something of the conditions that produced it, and I won't be a captive of the condition, I'll be the observer of it. I'll be anchored properly in this understanding, this new I that's capable of seeing this recalcitrant I, this I that just wants to go to sleep, this I that just doesn't want to be bothered. These are not you, but they become you when you identify with them.
And the second part: Why do I call meditation "medication"? Because most of what people do in meditation is to escape the awareness of themselves. Not to go into it, but to escape it. Anything we do to escape the awareness of ourselves, or even to produce - and this is definitive... see, what happens is a person starts meditating - believe me, I know what I'm talking about, you have no idea, I spent seven years alone in a cave, doing nothing but breathing in meditation for like twelve hours a day, I promise you I know what I'm talking about - the meditation becomes the medication. I become identified and fall in love with the endorphins that that produces inside of me, and then believe that my mellow state proves that I have become a true, conscious human being - and I'm conscious and mellow as long as I don't leave my meditation room. The minute someone walks in and disturbs my meditation, I realize it was medication because it didn't change me. Real meditation is inseparable from your awareness of the moment. That's what real meditation is, which means I can meditate 24/7 if I have the attention to do it. But I don't have the attention to do it, because my attention is always on some distraction of the moment and the cause that it presents to me.
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For the majority of us, what we call being renewed has nothing to do with what is real renewal. Mostly what we feel as renewal is when some idea or a hope that we have gets fulfilled, filling us in turn with a sense of excitement; and then, in that feeling of being full of ourselves, comes a certain kind of pleasure that we take as being the same as self-renewal in this life.
Everything is either growing or dying. Either the waters of the soul are refreshed through revelation, or the soul and its possibilities shrivel. This can be seen in everything, even in the physical world, if we are willing to look. When it comes to the spirit, growth and discovery are the same thing. And the only thing that we ever discover about ourselves is ourselves. You cannot discover s...
On the Other Side of the Resistance is the Flow
Posted by Guy Finley in 459 Galice Road, Merlin, OR 97532 on , and updated on .
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