The First Step in Turning Painful Problems into Pleasant Surprises

When we look at life and we see a problem, are we looking at life that has a problem that's fixed, or are we looking at something in our own consciousness that has fixed something and called it a problem?

We're looking in our own mind and it is showing us something that is fixed, yet we know it's not because life itself is fluid; it is potential. But our mind doesn't relate to what is fluid and potential when we see a problem. When we're filled with a negative state, we don't see a beautiful flowing river of openness and endless possibilities. We see a dark tide stuck in a pool that's turned dank. So, which is the reality?

We have to understand that our present nature is not interested in fluidity. It isn't interested in being free. Freedom -- the incessant, unending pleasant surprise of that which flows freely -- can only be our pleasure when we are a part of that fluidity, when we participate in the creative act of freedom.

So, what can we do to start turning painful problems into pleasant surprises?

First, and this is always the first step, we must recognize our condition. Recognizing our actual condition is not the same as being absorbed by what we think is happening to us. When we're feeling troubled or negative -- feeling stopped or blocked, feeling tense dealing with thoughts about enemies -- in those moments, we must recognize that the condition we're in is self-created.

This is big, because when we understand that when we get blocked or bitter or filled with resentment or regret, we never take responsibility for it. It is so tempting to go along with those thoughts and feelings that are telling us everyone else is to blame except us. But entertaining such thoughts and feelings is reseeding the self that has fixed the moment, and therefore prohibits any possibility in that moment except to fix the problem further.

If we're looking at something that we hate and don't want, what we hate and don't want is only fixed because the fixed nature inside of ourselves is seeing it as such; it does not exist apart from that self. In that moment when we recognize our condition, this is the first step of using our attention. We use our attention to keep ourselves from reseeding the moment with this self.

How many of us would go out and spread weed seeds in our lawn? No, we wouldn't do that because it's counterproductive to our wish to have a beautiful lawn. When we have a moment filled with a pain or a worry or a fear, the first thing to recognize is that we're clearly participating in a view that has made us a victim from which there doesn't seem an escape.

When we see ourselves as being blamed, encumbered, pushed on by problems produced by something outside of ourselves, what do we always do? Do we not try to control the event, or try to figure out what to do in order to change things? That's reseeding the field, and every time that we try to change a problem by fighting with it, we are propagating both the self and that problem to ensure its perpetuation. This is classic recurrence which is what this nature perpetuates. So, recognize the condition. That's the first step... and don't re-seed it.