July 27th ~ We never say, “Let me see what that thing is that suffers.” You cannot see by enforcement, by discipline. You must look with interest, with spontaneous comprehension. Then you will see that the thing we call suffering, pain, the thing that we avoid, and the discipline, have all gone. As long as I have no relationship to the thing as outside me, the problem is not; the moment I establish a relationship with it outside me, the problem is. As long as I treat suffering as something outside–I suffer because I lost my brother, because I have no money, because of this or that–I establish a relationship to it and that relationship is fictitious. But if I am that thing, if I see the fact, then the whole thing is transformed, it all has a different meaning. Then there is full attention, integrated attention and that which is completely regarded is understood and dissolved, and so there is no fear and therefore the word sorrow is non-existent.
December 12th, 2019 ~ Let’s start with the concept that it isn’t separate from you. If it is you, there is no problem, isn’t that right? This is challenging to articulate. You feel it but explaining it is another story. Body parts, emotions, thoughts are all a part of us. If there is a problem with my arm, it is still a part of me and therefore something to be dealt with. There are parts of myself that I am not necessarily fond of, but they are accepted. It is kind of like this. You know they can be changed, but there are still a part of you. Perhaps, there are parts of our psyche that we don’t accept and feel like we have to dis-own them. This is often unconscious. I think this is where we think things are separate from us. What we are learning is that things are not separate from us. It is not outside. Anything.
So is it because this fictitious relationship we establish as being outside of ourselves is fictitious, that is where the suffering is: establishing the relationship when there is no relationship to be had. It is creating a relationship and that is the problem. How can you establish a relationship with yourself, Steve Hagen writes? That sums it up. I get it when it is worded like that.