Digging deeper and understanding, ‘Resist Not Evil’ which is the recipe for happiness.
Recalling, the beautiful well known quote, “Resist Not Evil,” which I have heard repeated many times over the years. I never put attention on it and pondered it, or even try to see how it connects or does not connect to my daily life. Amazingly, I was never struck to go deeper into it. My muddled thinking towards life robbed me of any further investigation. It’s rather comical, I never used this quote to understand myself. Instead, I distance myself by resisting it. I was doing the very thing, resisting, the quote was saying. The average person isn’t aware just how much self-harm he is doing to himself.
Newsflash; I can use this revealing quote every moment of a my day to self-inspire myself.
So, staying at peace, by placing my attention on the inside and seeing anything that I am resisting, I expose the real thief. I clearly discovered my middle name should be changed from George to “Resisty.” Wow! Pleasantly surprised to see I was resisting everything and before, it was going on unconsciously, all the time just below the surface. What a discovery.
I am causing myself troubles without knowing it. This is so inspiring. “What else am I missing?”
I further revealed to myself, it’s me. It is the way I think, it is the way I react, it is my wrong fighting spirit, and everything I call good and bad about me. Before, I was free of all self-responsibilities toward my life. So I could crab, I can complain, I can riot, be negative, because I’m a victim of bad breaks, etc. Coming to the conclusion: I am the problem, 100% the problem. And here’s why, “I” chose that thought/comment/feeling to be disturbed over.
Observe this: I believe, I am my mind, and the crazy mind is the problem.
You are not who you think you are! The solution, Resist not evil; I can slow down, relax, resist nothing, and alertly, but casually watch my thoughts, my comments, my reactions, etc. It is high time, I must become self-responsible! “Resist Not Evil” is a tool I can use to escape an unwanted, unhappy life. A tool to expose self-deception. Everyone who wants freedom must experiment personally, and see this happening inside of themselves. Then Relief arrives all by itself.
What a powerful reminder and daily/minutely/secondly tool anyone can happily use to take self-responsibility to the max, which is an amazing thing.
If my reactions are the problem, which they are, then seeing how I react to anything, especially evil can only be a good thing since
the habitual me wants to resist so-called unwanted events and get negative over them instead of use them to be free.
Good post, Tim. We must stay awake to resistance and like you said, “Use it to grow.” Life is not going to change for us, but we can change for Life.
Happiness is the absence of me. “Resistance to the disturbance is the disturbance”.~Vernon Howard
I love that you mention good and bad Steve. ‘Everything I call good and bad about me.’ ‘My wrong fighting spirit.’ Isn’t it about time I got suspicious in my life? The tried and tested habits and reactions clearly produce misery. Just today I caught myself reacting in a way I learned 15 years ago, to a situation that is totally different and in the now.
Some time in every mystery story it becomes clear that the person who was always accusing others is actually the culprit. Maybe if I took the brick that is my idea of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ off my back I would feel lighter. Slowing down right now is the start. I will fall back 1000 times but nothing can stop this knowledge from growing!
Yes Leo, This is so very true! ” I will fall back 1000 times but nothing can stop this knowledge from growing!” Too late for you, darkness.
Today a real good example was exposed to me when a thought (an total imposter) was saying, as if it was me, “what is happening right now with my day should not be happening.” In other words, this thought was saying, “I know better than reality and this should not be going on.” The fact is, it was going on and it was nothing more than a resisting thought acting as if it was me, and it was attempting to trick me into believing it was me and real. Nope! Nothing more than resistance doing it’s work to make me miserable. I got better things to do with my day than to spend it being miserable. So, put your misery on a bus out of town and wave it good-bye!