Bringing the Light of Our Attention to Our Experience
Here are some key points in the shift from trying to get away from what we are experiencing to bringing the light of our attention to it so it can be transformed.
The first is that whenever we are compulsive it is not our compulsions we are longing for. We are longing for the ability to be with ourselves AS WE ARE.
The second point was that every wave of compulsion is a call from a part of us for attention. And those symptoms, whether they are sensations or feelings are rooted al the way back into our childhood when we experienced feelings that we didn’t know what to do with. So we learned how to numb them by turning away from ourselves, holding our breath and eventually numbing ourselves with our compulsions.
The third point is that there truly are simple and safe ways to turn towards ourselves when we want to be compulsive. It is important to understand that as long as we want to be free from what we are trying to numb, it will control us. But truly, all these feelings and sensations want is to be FREED. And we do that through the light of our attention.
May you be curious today about what you are experiencing. Even a moment of this goes a long way to freeing ourselves from the spell of compulsions.
Be light, Mary
I do believe that by sitnpepg back from our stream-of-thought we can experience moments of balance, peace, perfection. And I also believe that real evil exists, so our peace cannot be perfect in this world at this time.The discussion of this could be very abstract. I prefer a more experiential, observational, approach one might call it evidence-based. I have noticed sometimes people can experience peace, harmony, blessing. And I have also noticed terrible times, of injustice, violence, greed and death. Both exist. I can live more and more in the peace and blessing, but cannot fully be aware and compassionate without also noticing evil. And I can be even more compassionate, peaceful, whole, and harmonious by living as a member of a spiritual community where love is a practice.As a practicing contemplative Christian, Jesus’s words, the Kingdom of God is within you are comforting to me. The translation from the Greek really means both within you and also among you or even in your midst . In other words, yes, I have that peaceful place of unity and perfection within me, and I also experience it in the love of a community of people who sure seeking to experience peace, love, and joy together.