November 2017

PASSIVELY WATCH
     Any effort to solve a problem keeps it going. The next time you have a crisis, here’s what to do. Find a nice quiet place all alone. Relax. Passively watch what’s going through your mind. When you are watching passively, seeing these thoughts, have no concern as to what they are. You need not be concerned. You are standing aside watching them. Now you know who the devil is, what temptation is.
     The devil is running thoughts through your mind, telling you to get up, go somewhere, to another room, for example. If we do, he’s got us. The temptation is to slouch, get depressed, get agitated, and forget what you are supposed to do.What we’re supposed to do is to watch. The passive watcher has no problems at all, but we want to fight, dramatize everything.

THE CAUSE OF INNER SUFFERING
     The cause of inner suffering is the sufferer. If you wrote that down and worked on it for a year, it would lead you out. You’d wake up inside the canoe that's heading for the falls.
     The habit of every human being is to try to feel persecuted — a certain pleasure in that. You do it to yourself. If the pleasure of pain becomes the dominating pain, you’re gone.
     You’re a scared human being who’s afraid to drop your fear, for you fear what lies beyond. What lies beyond the ending of the fearful self is permanent salvation for you.