The Abraham quote below makes me think about how I have used obstacles (and people I viewed as obstacles!) as a reason to bring out the "fight" in me, to force me to stand up for myself and what I value, to take action to make the changes in my reality and outer world that I had been fantasizing about in my inner world.
However, to make the inner changes permanent on the outside, I have to let go of both of my instincts to A) dominate (fight against) or B) refuse to be dominated (resistance). These two options are rooted in duality, a very "either/or" limited paradigm. I must ask myself what options exist that are between my instinct to dominate or refuse to be dominated? What brings me inner Peace?
I might have to put down my self-protective survival weapons of arguing and the need to be right (and for "you the obstacle" to be wrong!).
What if I turn my attention wholly to focusing on what I want, what serves my (even our) higher purpose? How I can be neutral or a contribution in this moment? How can I love and appreciate my perceived obstacle in this moment?
What if I simply question my knee jerk reaction and hold still. Breathe. Open to the moment, and wait expectantly for something good to well up from within? A better option arises and the need to react in the moment passes. My need to deflect responsibility and to blame someone or something fizzles away.
In this process I realize that many things, be they obstacles, arguments, and various survival needs are fleeting. My obstacles are projections. My instinct to fight are simply repetitions of the age old human trap of domination or victimization, attack and revenge. Truth is, I am still alive and standing. My existence is not threatened. I have this big, lovable Light within me bursting out ready to share.
What I resist persists, so I let go, expand to include, and keep looking for another and another and another of the infinite options to my old reaction racket.
Whew! I feel better! Don't you?
(Thank you Mary Jane O'Brien for the photo!)
"No one experiences freedom until they stop pushing against others. The only thing that binds you is the pushing against that which is unwanted. And so, if a religion could just be excited about what it is, or a person within a religion could just speak with appreciation about what it is, without justifying what it is by pushing against everything else, then each religion, in all of its difference, could be just exactly what you’re reaching for."
Excerpted from Boca Raton, FL on 12/8/01
Our Love
Esther (Abraham and Jerry)