from The Way to Love by Anthony De Mello . . .

Look at the stress, at the anxiety and depression, at the conflict in the hearts of people, inner conflict, outer conflict.

Suppose somebody gave you a way of getting rid of all of that? Suppose somebody gave you a way to stop that tremendous drainage of energy, of health, of emotion that comes from these conflicts and confusion. Who wouldn’t want that?

There is a divinity, a loving force, surrounding you at all times that is within your grasp, that would make your life meaningful and beautiful and rich, if you could only discover it, but tragically, most people never find their way to it, even though its right there in their midst.

How? By coming home to yourself, which is seeing the light you are to yourself and to others, recognizing that you are far better than you know. Experience that and you’ll never be the same again, You will fear no one and you will fear nothing.  Nothing will ever be able to derail you again and no one will ever be able to cause you to suffer again. Isn’t that extraordinary? You’ll live like a king, like a queen.  You don’t give a damn about success or failure. One understands one’s personal worth when one no longer identifies or defines one’s self in terms of transient things.  By definition, that’s freedom.  Who wouldn’t want to be free?

And how do we free ourselves?

Through awareness. 

And what’s does that mean?

It means to watch everything in you and around you as far as possible and watch it as if it were happening to someone else.

And what does that mean?

It means that you do not personalize what is happening to you. It means that you look at things as if you have no connection with them whatsoever. It means you are aware of your emotional state, that you identify it, that you study your experience and attempt to understand it. You look to see where the stress is coming from? Where the anxiety or depression is coming from. Where the unworthiness and sorrow is coming from.  You are looking to see what brought it on? 

It is that simple and that difficult.

There is no other way to liberation than awareness. You only change what you see and then understand. What you do not understand and are not aware of, you repress. What you are unaware of controls you, controls your life.  What you are aware of you control and direct toward the experience you wish to have, which, after all is said and done is happiness.  When you understand that, you change.

It is awakening to the truth that you possess everything you need right now to be blissful.  It is understanding that whenever you are unhappy and feeling helpless, it is because you are focused on what you don’t have, instead of what you do have.

There is not a single person who gave time to being aware who didn’t see a difference in a matter of weeks. The quality of their life changes, so they don’t have to take it on faith anymore. They see it; they’re different.

They react differently. In fact, they react less and act more. You see things you’ve never seen before.  You’re much more energetic, much more alive.

So, again, who doesn’t want that?

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