Often than not, when I come into closer contacts with friends whom I have touched in their lives, I seem to hear that their trying to use what they have heard and learnt to resolve their life issues brings them into deeper frustration and helplessness. Some even confessed that they are better off without what they have learnt!
Little do they notice that the problem lies not in what they have learnt which results in them being worst off than before; but rather the eagerness in applying the information to resolve the issue quickly, instead of using the information as a way to look at things is what brings them into the pitfall of seeming pain again. It is not unusual not to realize that the information offered to them are just merely information, and there is no special formula or magic in those information except as a supporting view to allow them to explore whether what has been heard is actually potentially truer to that moment instead of using it as a tool to fix what is there. In other words, it is a little homework that each has to do in exploring what they have heard. Those information are not meant to be a fix-all as that is not exactly what information are for – data for consideration or contemplation.
Information is important as they are the basis for right perception. But how one uses information for their own means, is another thing altogether. In other words, their perception of information can be thwarted for their own payoff or advantage, not realizing that it is not their job to do anything about the information, except as a means for furthering their expansion for observation, for discernment.
Where teaching or sharing is concerned, the one who gives is merely speaking from his or her own realization, and sometimes, possibly, mere hearsay. For a listener to apply it blindly can be disastrous. That is where the fault lies in people coming to a religion – it is not religion per se that segregates humanity but rather the way the religion is being interpreted that subjects everyone to segregation. It is healthy to question what one has heard from a religion or in fact, anything and put it to test for self verification rather than subscribing to it blindly. What a teacher shares are effects of their own realization and to the one who listens, that effect cannot be used to apply as their own preferred effect. Instead, what they could do is to seek how these effects came to be. That is working on the causes which then results in their own realization as the effect.
When one comes to a block in their journey, one need not be advised to slow down, to return to basic or to make the practice simple again – none of that sort at all as to do that is to miss the mark of what is not seen at that point. One just needs to remind and to realize for himself or herself that their eagerness to control a specific confronting situation to fit into their needs is what caused them the stresses and frustration. And what is simply required at that moment is to step back to non-interference and to check his or her own attitude whether there is loop of wanting to fix or control occurring at the background of the mind. That is all that is needed and the journey will be a breeze again. Let what one learnt be an education rather than for an end.
Thank you – this post certainly helps clear much of the ‘problems’ i faced. I now see that what i thought to be ‘interest’ is actually ‘impatience’- there goes the fixing mind again.