Inquiry: “I am not useful to others.” Is it true?


1.

“ I am not useful to others.”

Is it true?

  • No

How do I react - what happens - when I believe the thought?

  • I separate from others. I judge myself harshly through the imagined eyes of these false others. I shrink my world and limit my possibilities. I make people out to be villains or weaklings. I become self-important. 

Who would I be if I could not believe the thought?

  • I would be a person showered in gifts, grateful for my existence, for everything that is. I would see my usefulness in everything I am. I would understand that it’s impossible not to be useful. I would be a guy who loves people without worrying about their opinion of me. I would be free to live in joy. I would be a guy who sees people’s strengths and doesn’t tell himself lies about people lacking. 

Do I see a reason to drop the thought, “I am not useful to others?”

  • Yes.

Turned around:

I AM useful to others. 

  • I mean…countless others! The thought that I wouldn’t be is suddenly comical.

I am not useful to ME

  • In that moment, I am separating from my true nature. I am accusing myself. This is not useful to me. It doesn’t get me anywhere I want to be. 

I am not USELESS to others

  • I am others. 

  • We are all connected.


2.

I want to be useful to others. Is it true?

  • No.

Turned around:

I do not want to be useful TO OTHERS. 

  • There are no others. It’s all projected. 

I do not WANT to be useful to others

  • I already am useful to others: the kids, my wife, my friends and co-writers, my sister...etc. so I do not WANT to be useful... I already AM useful. 

I want to be useful to ME

  • I deserve my own care. 

  • I want to support myself in clearing my mind of stressful thoughts. 


3.

I need to know I matter to other people. Is it true?

  • No.

Is it possible to know another’s mind?

  • No.

Turned around:

I do not need to KNOW I matter to other people. 

  • I don’t know, and here I am, I’m okay. 

  • I never will know. I never CAN know.

I need to know I matter to ME.

  • I see a reason to drop self-accusation from my life. 

  • I see a reason to believe I matter, independent of other people’s opinions (which are nothing more than my opinion anyway).

I need to know I DON’T matter to other people. 

  • They have their own lives. Their own things to worry about. 

  • I can’t matter to them. If I exist at all to them, I am just their projection. 

  • If they think I matter to them, it’s just pure imagination. 


4.

I should be contributing solutions to the problems of the world. 

Turned around:

I should be contributing PROBLEMS to the SOLUTIONS of the world. 

  • I am free. I am anything I believe. I can endure being thought a problem by someone else. 

  • If anyone experiences my loving freedom as a problem, that may be the very prompt they need to begin finding peace.

  • Sounds freeing to allow myself to be lovingly whole. 

I should be contributing solutions to the problems of MY MIND. 

  • Yes. That’s where all my problems are.

I should not be contributing solutions to the problems of THE WORLD. 

  • If all my problems are imagined, then there are no problems in THE WORLD.

  • “Fixing” what is not broken, breaks it.


5.

I am aimless, unhelpful, stagnant, idle, disconnected, 

Yes…when I believe the thoughts, “I am not useful,” “I need to know I matter to other people,” “I should be contributing solutions to the problems of the world.”


6.

I never want to feel like I’m useless again. Is it true?

Turned around:

I am willing to feel like I’m useless.

I look forward to feeling like I’m useless. If I feel that way, it’s just a signal that I’ve got more work to do to clear up my mind. And the more work I do, the more peaceful and aligned with the benevolent truth I become. So I really look forward to it!