Labeling is Limiting
This is for me to remember today! Thank-you Spirit/Universe for leading me to the perfect read!
Suffering begins when ou mentally name or label a situation in some way as undesirable or bad. You resent a situation and that resentment personalizes it and brings in a reactive "me."
Naming and labeling are habitual, but that habit can be broken. (Practice, practice, practice!) Start practicing "not naming" with small things. If you miss the plane, drop and break a cup, or slip and fall in the mud, have a car wreck (me), can you refrain from naming the experience as bad or painful? Can you accept the "isness" of that moment.
Naming something as bad causes an emotional contraction within you. When you let it be without naming it, enormous power is suddenly available to you. The contraction cuts you off from power, the power of life itself.
They ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Go beyond good and bad by refraining from mentally labeling anything as good or bad. When you go beyond this habitual naming, the power of the Universe moves through you. When you are in a nonreactive relationship to experiences, what you would have called b"bad" before, often turns around quickly, if not immediately, the power of life itself.
Watch what happens when you don't name an experience as "bad" and instead bring an inner acceptance, an inner "yes" to it, and so let it be as it is.
Whatever your life situation is, how would you feel if you completely accepted it as it is - right NOW!
There are many subtle and not so subtle forms of suffering that are so "normal" they are usually not recognized as sufffering and many even feel satisfying to the ego --- irritation, impatience, anger, having an issue with something or someone, resentment, complaining.
You can learn to recognize all those forms of suffering as they happen and know: at this moment, I am creating suffering for myself.
If you are in the habit of creating suffering for yourself, you are probably creating suffering for others too...These unconscious mind patterns tend to come to an end simply by making them conscious, by becoming aware of them as they happen.
You cannot be conscious and create suffering for yourself.
This is the miracle begin every condition, person, or situation that appears "bad" or "evil" lies concealed a deeper good. The deeper good conceals itself to you --- both within and without --- through inner acceptance of what is.
"Resist not evil" is one of the highest truths of humanity.
A dialogue:
Accept what is.
I truly cannot. I am agitated and angry about this.
Then accept what is.
Accept that is am agitated and angry? Accept that I cannot accept.
Yes. Bring acceptance into your nonacceptance.
Bring surrender into your nonsurrender. Then see what happens.
Suffering begins when ou mentally name or label a situation in some way as undesirable or bad. You resent a situation and that resentment personalizes it and brings in a reactive "me."
Naming and labeling are habitual, but that habit can be broken. (Practice, practice, practice!) Start practicing "not naming" with small things. If you miss the plane, drop and break a cup, or slip and fall in the mud, have a car wreck (me), can you refrain from naming the experience as bad or painful? Can you accept the "isness" of that moment.
Naming something as bad causes an emotional contraction within you. When you let it be without naming it, enormous power is suddenly available to you. The contraction cuts you off from power, the power of life itself.
They ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Go beyond good and bad by refraining from mentally labeling anything as good or bad. When you go beyond this habitual naming, the power of the Universe moves through you. When you are in a nonreactive relationship to experiences, what you would have called b"bad" before, often turns around quickly, if not immediately, the power of life itself.
Watch what happens when you don't name an experience as "bad" and instead bring an inner acceptance, an inner "yes" to it, and so let it be as it is.
Whatever your life situation is, how would you feel if you completely accepted it as it is - right NOW!
There are many subtle and not so subtle forms of suffering that are so "normal" they are usually not recognized as sufffering and many even feel satisfying to the ego --- irritation, impatience, anger, having an issue with something or someone, resentment, complaining.
You can learn to recognize all those forms of suffering as they happen and know: at this moment, I am creating suffering for myself.
If you are in the habit of creating suffering for yourself, you are probably creating suffering for others too...These unconscious mind patterns tend to come to an end simply by making them conscious, by becoming aware of them as they happen.
You cannot be conscious and create suffering for yourself.
This is the miracle begin every condition, person, or situation that appears "bad" or "evil" lies concealed a deeper good. The deeper good conceals itself to you --- both within and without --- through inner acceptance of what is.
"Resist not evil" is one of the highest truths of humanity.
A dialogue:
Accept what is.
I truly cannot. I am agitated and angry about this.
Then accept what is.
Accept that is am agitated and angry? Accept that I cannot accept.
Yes. Bring acceptance into your nonacceptance.
Bring surrender into your nonsurrender. Then see what happens.
Replies
*This is the miracle \"behind\" every condition, etc.
Hi Vicki,
Thank you so much for this wisdom. I bring so much suffering to myself, just as you said, irritation, resentment, etc. More food for thought for me, today.
Hugs,
Shar
I am learning more and more that I do create my own suffering. It\'s hard to realize and see that in myself. But it\'s a relief too. (((HUG)))
I read this and didn\'t know what to say. So I let it sit with me. But the more it sat, the more I wonder if we just wind up in a place of indifference and ennui if we do not attach anything to any experience. Do we wind up denying our own experience in an attempt to develop a \"higher consciousness?\" Some people attach meaning to things where I see no meaning. For them, it means it was \"meant to be\" whereas for me, it was coincidence or circumstance. Or projecting one\'s own belief system onto something as benign as rays of sunbeams pouring from the clouds.
So, without our interpretative lens, what distinguishes you from me?
I have never denied my upbringing amelah...and I have felt the sting of every beating, every molesting incident, every loss that goes along with being unloved. I still allow myself to feel whatever comes my way. I watch it, I observe it, I cry and feel whatever comes up. I stopped judging it and just allow it....Somehow when I do this, the pain begins to dissipate...Feeling my feelings have been unbearable at times; but there just feelings and they come and they go. I do not judge them; as I said, I allow them.
By doing this, I have let go of the \"victim.\" I\'m not condoning people who hurt me, I\'m not condoning their behabior; I am allowing me to feel without judgment and without labeling the situation. It happened. For me, I have found release thru this process...It may not work for you. I think everyone has to find their own way.
I think on the inside, were all the same. On the inside you and I are no different. Our stories may be different but I feel we are all looking for inner peace...For me, allowing situations without judgment, allowing my feelings, has led to much healing.... This is honoring my inner child! She had never been respected, honored or allowed to feel..