By: Guy Finley
"In the long run, our attitude
towards life's lessons - and the direction our life takes in life - are one and
the same; show me someone who resists the Light of Life's correction in the
course of his or her soul, and I will show you someone whose destiny is the
darkness of total self-enclosure."
Even though the Truth is never further
away from us than our wish for its awakening and self-healing insight, there
are distinct moments in life when it comes closer to us than others.
Unfortunately, almost all of these important, potentially life-changing moments
are entirely missed because what is wrong with us, our false nature, always
sees Truth as an attacking enemy. Let me show you what I mean so that the next
time Truth makes an unexpected appearance in your life you will recognize it
for what it is -- a friendly and beneficial force that is on your side.
Permitting the Truth to do what it is intended to do will permit you to be what
you want to be -- which is happy.
Never are the healing powers of the
Truth so close by as when a crisis is at hand. A crisis always precedes any
real inner-advancement because real spiritual growth is a process of removing
self-blocking thoughts and feelings. The reason a crisis must precede each new
level of authentic self-unity is that the crisis, whatever it may be, points
out where we have been holding onto a particular belief, a shaky pretense, or
some flattering but deceptive self-image that is in conflict with reality.
Where there is conflict there is always pain; and by the time this unconscious
kind of psychological or emotional pain reaches the level of our consciousness,
we generally experience it as some kind of a crisis. This explains why a crisis
is a close encounter of the truthful kind. The previously invisible internal
conflict, which is always at the root of any personal crisis, is now
temporarily visible. We can say this in another way. A crisis arises when some
inner-lie we have unconsciously been telling ourselves is about to surface and
be seen as a lie. Let's take an example or two.
Maybe a man pictures himself as always
being in control of his own life, but now he's suddenly aware that he can't
stop drinking -- or talking -- or endlessly worrying. He has reached a turning
point.
A woman has always thought of herself as being
loving and kind, but all at once she begins to notice how critical and cruel
her thoughts are towards others. She sees she only does things for others to
have them think of her as being kind, and this fills her day with resentments.
She has reached a turning point.
In both instances, where the terrible
cost of living from lying but flattering self-images has suddenly become
conscious, the only alternative that the false self has, as the author of these
self-deceptive lies, is to start blaming everyone and everything for the
unhappy circumstances. This system of self-subterfuge is almost fail-safe for
the false self. By seeing to it that everything outside of it is constantly
laid to blame, it keeps you fighting with life instead of learning from it. It
is really very cunning. The more you take the side of defending what is wrong
in you, the more the Truth that exposed the unconscious wrongness appears to be
against you.
The Truth never causes pain. The only
pain in a crisis is the false self's resistance to the Truth. A crisis only
becomes a breaking point when we fail to use it as a turning point. In order to
transform a crisis into a personal turning point in your life, you must wish to
be shown the lesson in the crisis rather than allow yourself to be convinced by
it that the world is against you. This Higher Wish, followed by your
willingness to endure a new kind of pain, gives birth to a Higher Consciousness
in you that belongs to your True Nature. This Elevated Consciousness never has
to solve a crisis because it never has one in the first place.
"In the long run, our attitude
towards life's lessons - and the direction our life takes in life - are one and
the same; show me someone who resists the Light of Life's correction in the
course of his or her soul, and I will show you someone whose destiny is the
darkness of total self-enclosure."
