“THE ARMOR OF ‘RIGHTNESS’”
The mind—the “I,” thoughts, the ego—which constantly seeks “rightness” or an imagined, illusory form of “love,” is fundamentally incapable of graspin thing like: Who is it that actually hides behind this “rightness”? Or what is it that this “rightness” is supposedly trying to protect?
Furthermore, the mind cannot even comprehend that the words and (re)actions it uses to “protect” something the mind cannot grasp are, in the end, actually directed at none other than the “I” of the past—the “I” that one once was as well.
Consequently, the mind—the “I,” thoughts, the ego—scours the words and actions of others for flaws, condemning them. In doing so, it repeatedly but unconsciously confronts its own past self, hurling accusations: “Why can’t you do something as simple as this?” or “If only you had acted properly, the world would be a better place!”
By imposing various demands upon reality as it is, and by maintaining a state of constant resistance, the sense of separation—the construct of “I”—is sustained.
To insist—“They are the ones who are wrong, not ‘me’”—is to project the past onto the present, distorting reality into a mere phantom perception. This is the most childish behavior of the ego; yet, it is also revealing just how profoundly one is identified with the narrative of “I.”
After all, without ever realizing that the “rightness” is actually aimed at the “I” itself, one continues to wound that very “I.”
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Turn attention inward and ask yourself: “Why is it that I find this so objectionable?” “Why is it that, to resolve “my” own sense of discomfort, “I” blame the world and the people around me—becoming obsessed with controlling the external environment into the shape “I” believe it “should” take?”
“What is it that “I” am actually hoping to gain by doing this?”
The point is not to interrogate yourself or to pass judgment on what is “good” or “bad.” Rather, it is far simpler: what is actually happening within you?
You need to see through the various causes and conditions that lie beneath your reactions caused by sense of discomfort—and to understand the ways in which you attempt to resolve it.
Only when awareness can do this will awareness be able to extend—effortlessly—a sense of genuine, inherent compassion toward your past self; a compassion that exists as pure awareness, untainted by value judgments of “good” or “bad.” And only then will awareness naturally be able to extend that same profound compassion toward others—even those who appear before “you” and whom you previously found impossible to accept.
At that point, at least one separation and division is actually resolved.
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The problem does not lie outside of you. It is not you at all.
It lies in that perception that “you” believe to be “yours.”
“What is it that you perceive as a problem?”
“What kind of trouble do you believe will arise if that thing exists?” — carefully unravel these questions, one by one.
In doing so, bring a spontaneous end to “your” ongoing struggle against problems that do not, in reality, exist.
In this way, both true peace and impersonal, unconditional love (non-dual) are not a matter of controlling the outside world; rather, they are meant to shine forth and overflow naturally from within. (OM 🙏)
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