Our "normal" way of dealing with pain is to ignore it until we can't any longer -- at which point this mounting pressure drives us to ask ourselves those familiar "What can be done about this?" questions -- our perception being that coming upon the correct answer to the cause of our concern will eliminate the ache being felt. And any time we don't know the immediate answer to some pressing question, our present nature naturally concludes that the pain it "sees" in our heart and mind is there because of the absence of some sorely needed, but still missing, answer we must find.
But the truth is, regardless of our short-term victories over these anxious states, they always return... unquestionable evidence that in turn reveals two other important facts worth our consideration:
- It proves that our present solutions to our stresses are not real.
- It shows that we have somehow misread the problem.
And so we have.
What we have missed seeing is that there are some questions which actually create the pain they seek to soothe... and that questions such as these have no real solution outside of being able to see them as false.
We can drive ourselves crazy looking for answers to questions when no such answers exist -- at least as conceived of by that level of questioning mind. A frightened mind may ask what it can do about a scary situation, hoping to find an answer that will make it unafraid. This level of mind can't see that whatever it has imagined will empower it to become fearless -- perhaps a new mate, more money, or enhanced social status -- only secretly increases its level of dependency, and therefore, its fear. So, whatever "solution" it finds serves only to increase its own already agitated state.
As the pain in some fear takes center stage, so does your certainty that you must have an answer for it... which in turn only serves to drive the question wheel-of-worry around and around. And guess who's stuck behind the wheel? The good news is it doesn't have to be this way, if you can stay awake to yourself.
We must be willing to let what is true be our guide. Instead of mechanically trying to answer these conflict-creating questions at their level, which is to seek out one futile and false solution after another, we must dare to see into -- and finally through -- that nature asking these kinds of questions. Our new and conscious answer must be to drop both our worried concerns and that sense of self that these conflict-creating questions temporarily create.
Here's a first step: If your self-observation shows you that you don't feel disturbed until after some question appears in your mind, then it's that question which should be held suspect for its part in creating the conflict you feel. The key to freedom here is in being able to realize that this ache has no answer since the pain now pulsating within you never had a life of its own until that question, whatever it may be, breathed it into existence.
For extra benefit, try to identify some of the more familiar questions that have you running nowhere fast! Just get started. Everything that you do to help yourself stay awake will also help to erase the ache of these conflict-filled questions that have no answers.
