Find Freedom From Unhappiness

When we think about any painful event, be it three minutes or thirty years old, we look at nothing more than a shadow of what once was -- something that is no more! The catch here is that these same thoughts -- these shadows of experiences gone by -- seem to have a life of their own, and in a way they do, for each carries with it a full complementary set of emotional baggage -- the still-smoldering stuff of what we went through the first time the event transpired. To see the truth of this inner dynamic is the first step we must take to learn to walk away from the useless suffering that wrecks our lives, a step that brings us to the essential point of this study.

Whatever the cause, on any given day when life's wheel of fortune takes a bad turn or one's memories go back around to relive some double zero day, the pain we feel coursing through us is real in itself, but the actual cause of this suffering is a lie. Can this be? Lets see. One simple question answers this mystery if we will dare answer it as honestly as we know how: if it weren't for something within us wanting to revisit these painful old images -- to recall their familiar old pangs -- then would we go where this torment is? Surely the answer is no! Which brings us the next important question: what is it in our present nature that wants to revisit these shadowy scenes and relive the suffering stored away in them?

We can find the answer to this question when we look at how we habitually react to any form of psychological pain that pops into our awareness. We always try to make the pain go away by looking for the reason it appeared in the first place. But as we are about to discover, our usual behavior here is all a part of our unconscious suffering. Heres why: we are convinced that if we wish to escape our painful state we must somehow find a way to resolve it. This seems to leave us no choice other than to revisit again and again the same unhappy images that gave rise to our pain in the first place! Talk about a vicious circle! This is not unlike getting frightened by a scary scene in a horror movie and then closing our eyes in the hope of escaping the fear we feel for what we have just seen. The more we resist this or any negative image, the more definitively it presses itself into our minds eye.

But we now know that this pain -- along with those unconscious parts of ourselves that have always jumped to answer it -- is little more than an echo of a time long gone. As such, we also know how to answer these recurring aches with the only response powerful enough to dissolve them completely. We meet them with our understanding that they no longer have the power to torment us as they have always done.

We are now ready for the next step in learning how to release all that used to make us scared or sad. Our studies have spiritually prepared us for this next important lesson. When we feel some kind of darkness coming over us, we must muster the courage to consciously doubt the reality of this condition, even though our feelings are powerfully trying to convince us that what we feel is true. And we can do this now. We have seen for ourselves that we no longer have to believe in ghosts, let alone the clanking of their chains! Thanks to higher understanding we know better. To help summarize this advanced lesson in letting go, here is a special short poem entitled: "Ten Words With the Power to Help You Walk Away From Useless Suffering."

The "feel" is real, But the "why" is a lie!

Let this liberating insight into the secret nature of unhappy feelings find a welcome home in you. Dare to apply its wisdom to any moment when some negative state tries to brew up a storm in you, and watch how you can make even the most stubborn sufferings disappear.