Start Seeing the Secret Good in Unwanted Moments

There is a nature inside of us -- a product of this world physically and psychologically -- that does not want to change. In fact, it is hell-bent on having everything remain the same so that it can complain about the same things again and again.

This unconscious nature is a product of our world physically and psychologically. It's almost like a wrapping -- much like a seed is encased in what it needs in order to outgrow itself. But with a little bit of self-understanding -- fueled by self-knowledge -- we can begin to recognize the hidden characteristics and devices of this lower nature responsible for seeing to it that when a true moment of change comes, we don't change with the moment.

Please, don't dismiss the idea. For us, the moment isn't the point of change. For us, the moment is something that we think about later when we suffer the repercussions and the echo of an event that was painful. Then, as we go over the event in our mind, and we live the pain, we plan: "I'm never going to do that again. I'm going to make some distinct changes in my life." And if you say to yourself, "I'm going to make distinct changes in my life" after the event that prompted that in you, then you've missed the real moment where change is possible.

So, we have to see something that we don't want to see, which is essentially this: "I've been trying to change. By God, I've read every book. I've travelled around the world. I've done x, y, and z. I've done it all, and yet when those moments come, I'm still caught up doing something about it that I don't know I'm doing until it's too late... and that is, I'm complaining about the moment I don't want." It's incessant. There is a part of us that we identify with that, as it complains, seems to be proving that it really doesn't want to be going through that again, and more importantly, that because of the pain this time, next time it won't happen that way... and it always does.

What is the real nature of unwanted moments with conditions, people, or places we complain about? Is the condition the actual source of the complaint? Or is the condition something that merely awakens a certain part of this husk, this unconsciousness, that in its awakening, does not want to be disturbed? The contradiction is so deep. On one hand, part of our complaint is that we have to go out and create a new life for ourselves. But then, when something authentically new does come along, all we can do is complain about that!

Unconscious weakness complains and blames while spiritual strength sees and acts. In the beginning, the first act of spiritual strength will be you separating yourself from the husk of that self that wants to further entomb you in its life. That's the first struggle -- seeing how rampant this nature is that complains. And in seeing it for the first time, use the very experience of that moment to begin to see the real reason why all of the things are unfolding as they are. You can start to see the secret good in all of these moments instead of letting something in you see something that's always bad because it's not what it wants.