There you are… finally aware of why you are suffering.
A dot is joined.
You have come to the realisation that an impression or imprint was left on you at an early age.
It might be an early childhood trauma, or perhaps a more subtle experience like the example embodied by a parent.
Oftentimes, we see people after they have been a prisoner to this conditioning for 10, 20, 30 or 40 years.
Students reach out to us to understand why they keep attracting the same circumstances in their lives.
Our belief is that all patterns can be broken, and no single soul is required to be an eternal prisoner of their past.
But what is required to move beyond that dreaded feeling of history repeating itself?
Change.
And change requires courage.
For many people we speak to, though there is deep suffering, there can be habituation or even comfort found in a dark place.
This unconscious clinging to our difficulties is quite normal. As they say, misery loves company.
And when our thoughts become dark, I invite you to simply watch.
Darkness has a habit of breeding more of itself, and before we know if, we can find ourself in a right old funk.
So what to do? How to move beyond this?
The ‘witness’ is synonymous with the Soul. It is of the nature of light. And simply learning to watch introduces the element of light into the situation.
And light displaces darkness, this is it’s nature.
Meditation is the art of learning to watch.
And it takes courage to sit.
This is why you feel good when you make the time in your busy schedule, to simply be.
There will always be a million excuses to not sit; ranging from how busy you are, through to the “I’ll do it laters.”
But in our experience, the only way to persist with a meditation practice is via the concentrated power of your will.
This takes heart. But when you show up, you prove to yourself that you have more courage than the mind.
On the path of meditation, this is winning.
Simply showing up.
We always teach our students to let go of ‘trying’ and ‘doing’ when it comes to meditation; as effort internal to the practice just unsettles the mind.
But… in order to show up, either on a retreat or for your daily practice, there needs to be effort. One needs to cultivate inner courage to make a decision.
Unfortunately, the mind will always push back against what it doesn’t like. And to be honest, the mind kinda hates being still.
Our advice is that if you find yourself having to talk yourself into, or out of, any decision, that the mind is heavily engaged.
When you know in the depths of your being a clear ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ only then is the decision coming from the place of the Soul
