Since suffering is the belief that I need things to be different than they are, I am bound to suffer as long as I think I need my suffering feeling to go away.
The key to releasing myself from suffering is to first question the suffering thought and then to recognize that I’m having a feeling. And a feeling is just the natural result of believing a thought (the way a ring is just the natural result of striking a bell).
There is nothing wrong with the ringing of a bell except in my opinion about it. And ringing is temporary. It’s just the resonating after-effects of an event that is over. And as long as I don’t got to war with the ringing and strike the bell over and over again in a confused effort to stop it, the ring will fade away all on its own.
I keep my suffering alive when I believe I need it to go away.
Because thinking I need something to go away is what suffering IS, even when suffering itself is the thing I want to go away.
Acting on the belief that I need my suffering feeling to go away is like banging on a bell to keep it from ringing. Everything I do when I’m in this confused nightmare just rings it more.
The whole problem is the belief that I need things to be different than they are. So all that’s needed in the moment I have a difficult feeling is presence, openness, allowing. This is what it’s time for now. I’m having a feeling. And feelings come to be felt (not acted on or avoided or explained away or spun up). Just …felt.
Not the mental story, the physical feeling.
Question the story!
But accept the feeling.
When I can just allow my suffering feeling to be there, when I let it ring as it will and just wait, the ring always fades to peace.
Always.