#575 Struggle & Stress - vs - a Better Way of Being

     You might find it useful to question the very idea of struggling, striving etc to get somewhere / something, or become someone / something - as opposed to effortlessly shifting awareness towards who you actually are. We can only experience the latter - which we might call "discerning awareness" - in inner silence & inner stillness, via meditation, nature, mature love etc.
     As soon as we introduce words, concepts, images, we’re back into egocentric conflicts - “me against the world.” Our identity has nothing really to do with self-images or even ideals – those are mental concepts, dummed-down operationalizations that the mind can easily manage. Reality is well beyond the mind’s abilities, and thus the mind / ego doesn't wan’t to deal with it.
     What would happen if you changed nothing at all in your life EXCEPT stopped struggling? Example: If, immediately after you took a sharp knife away from your very young child, she yelled that you're the worst Mommy in the world, you would probably completely ignore the potential assault on your ego, and instead, seamlessly, would see how to turn this near disaster (cutting herself) into a teachable moment to nurture your child. THIS is being a hypoegoic verb appropriate to life. Was there struggle & suffering?
     We ALL have the capacity to behave THIS MINDFULLY in ALL situations, and thus CAN minimize / eliminate suffering for ourselves AND others. It is literally a matter of patient, intelligent practice.

October near Lewis Lake, Nova Scotia, Canada