45: Why do challenges continue when I finally feel like I'm on the right path?
I had to smile when I read this question because I’m pretty sure everyone, especially spiritual people, have pondered it at least once in their lives! Right off the bat I commend you on having the right approach; you used the word “challenges” which doesn’t have a negative implication. Usually I would say that, that is the first step, understanding that a difficulty is just a challenge. In fact, I have a feeling you thought of the answer yourself (if you didn’t already have one in mind) a few moments after hitting ‘send.’
I would counter with the question, “If you’re on the right path, why would you stop facing challenges?” The thing is this; a challenge is only a challenge if it forces us to grow in order to meet it. If it doesn’t force growth, then it is an ‘exercise.’ The nature of the universe is change, and trying to seek stasis is not in accordance with nature. We must of course try to hold on to what we believe is important, but we also must know when to release them. Life just keeps on coming, at its own rate, we need to be flexible to run or walk with it. At moments when you feel like (because there is usually a difference in time between thinking and doing or feeling – even though you know ‘better’ it can take time to ‘feel’ better) your on the right path but are being over challenged, be appreciative of your position – someone that has the capacity to set a path and make actual steps toward it. Appreciate that in yourself, and the things you have which you value, first being your efforts toward good character, next the results of those efforts, then other things that you have and value.
There is another side to this. If we exercise ourselves we can reduce the gap between our current state and our potential state, proactively. By seeing a ‘difficulty’ as a ‘challenge’ we can diffuse some of the feelings that usually accompany a ‘difficulty.’ I never promote apathy, or life without feelings so I’m not saying that we should feel nothing when we deal with a challenge. In fact we usually NEED to feel something. What I’m saying is that, like a lucid dream, we need to be solid behind our feelings, we need to be able to back away from our feelings and observe ourselves, so that we can understand the root behind our feelings. We need to know/believe/have faith that ultimately things are ‘fair’ and that they will work out the way they’re supposed to. In between our incarnations we exist in a state of pure love, forever. We choose to incarnate to fine-tune our receptivity and expression of love. Based on my personal experience, during my moment of enlightenment, I understood the perfection of karma. The saying that God/the universe gives us only what we can handle is almost true, it’s more like we only get what we need to influence us to choose for ourselves, where we need to be. The more we can make these changes from the inside, the less challenges we’ll need from the outside, to inspire our growth.
I would counter with the question, “If you’re on the right path, why would you stop facing challenges?” The thing is this; a challenge is only a challenge if it forces us to grow in order to meet it. If it doesn’t force growth, then it is an ‘exercise.’ The nature of the universe is change, and trying to seek stasis is not in accordance with nature. We must of course try to hold on to what we believe is important, but we also must know when to release them. Life just keeps on coming, at its own rate, we need to be flexible to run or walk with it. At moments when you feel like (because there is usually a difference in time between thinking and doing or feeling – even though you know ‘better’ it can take time to ‘feel’ better) your on the right path but are being over challenged, be appreciative of your position – someone that has the capacity to set a path and make actual steps toward it. Appreciate that in yourself, and the things you have which you value, first being your efforts toward good character, next the results of those efforts, then other things that you have and value.
There is another side to this. If we exercise ourselves we can reduce the gap between our current state and our potential state, proactively. By seeing a ‘difficulty’ as a ‘challenge’ we can diffuse some of the feelings that usually accompany a ‘difficulty.’ I never promote apathy, or life without feelings so I’m not saying that we should feel nothing when we deal with a challenge. In fact we usually NEED to feel something. What I’m saying is that, like a lucid dream, we need to be solid behind our feelings, we need to be able to back away from our feelings and observe ourselves, so that we can understand the root behind our feelings. We need to know/believe/have faith that ultimately things are ‘fair’ and that they will work out the way they’re supposed to. In between our incarnations we exist in a state of pure love, forever. We choose to incarnate to fine-tune our receptivity and expression of love. Based on my personal experience, during my moment of enlightenment, I understood the perfection of karma. The saying that God/the universe gives us only what we can handle is almost true, it’s more like we only get what we need to influence us to choose for ourselves, where we need to be. The more we can make these changes from the inside, the less challenges we’ll need from the outside, to inspire our growth.
wow well said!
ReplyDeleteSome very good inspiring words here in this post! Like it a lot!
ReplyDelete