So to find sanity, you let the world act towards you however it wants, and you remain relaxed and problem-free. This takes practice, for you have always reacted to outside stimulus, whether to yell back, go into fear, or any other unhealthy reaction. You can relax and see that this so-called action towards you has nothing to do with you. There is no law that says you must react. If someone jumps off a bridge, you don’t have to join them. If someone is angry, you don’t have to become angry. It is the same inwardly for all unhealthy reactions; you don’t go along with it. You have your “NO” at the ready.
Armed with your “NO” and being present with yourself, living in the now, seeing your thoughts, your feelings, etc., etc, nothing can disturb your peace of mind. Demanding nothing from anyone and wanting nothing, because they have nothing to give you. You give up your demands because you see they never make you happy, whether achieved or not. You slowly begin to go sane.
The world believes that if you are a loud person, you know something. No, you are just loud. My wife remarked that only when you speak calmly and slowly can and will people listen. I agree. We can go sane just by not reacting like we usually do. So take a deep breath, right now, and start to go sane.
I found this in Vernon’s booklet, “Live Above this Crazy World,” which connects with how our wrong thinking causes so many problems.
“You are sinking with thinking. This means you employ ordinary thought to banish problems caused by the thought in the first place. That is like asking a bat to lead you out of his cave into the sunshine. You will know what is beyond ordinary thought when you go beyond ordinary thought.” -Vernon Howard.
Don’t believe any thought that says this is too hard; it is only hard on ordinary thought, which is not you.
We are all seeking peace, many in ways that are not lastingly successful. Luckily, we actually are the peace that we are seeking. What we are not is that which is seemingly preventing our true nature and our inherent peace from being recognized. What seems to be in the way of our own spiritual recognition is a kind of independent mechanism that creates a false sense of selfhood that has a separate influence opposed to our innate peace. This fake self narrates our life, if unseen, and suggests that we need to defend our apparent selfhood from any outside intrusion that would disturb its image of itself and thus it seemingly obscures our true experience of ourselves as peace, fulfilment, contentment, sanity. All that is needed to neutralize the detrimental influence of this false sense of self is to see that it is not really us. and that it does not need to be heeded or obeyed, but rather seen for what it is- a foreign mechanism, separate from what we are, and not having our best interests, such as peace and sanity, at heart. Seeing the fake self for what it is will create the space for our own genuine true spiritual nature to take its place and guide our behavior, not with a thought created counterfeit self, but automatically with the intuition and spiritual insight and wisdom which authentically represents what we actually are.
Ditto.