A friend was surprised to know that I don’t believe in past lives and reincarnation, since I’m so “spiritual.” I explained my position to the best of my ability. It is difficult for me to believe the unseen and unproven. Such beliefs feel like convenient fairy tales, made to explain the unexplainable and to encourage people to behave better. Like Santa. Then the words volunteered themselves: My religion is reality.
The religion of reality worships the management of resistance. Resistance is a pervasive and insidious obstacle to liberation. Resistance makes life harder. Every problem is aggravated by resistance. When we encounter a challenging person or situation, resistance increases our discomfort. As one wise Zen master said, “Suffering is pain with resistance.”
There will always be pain and heart-break, but why opt for the added burden of impeding the experience?
Resistance is often an unconscious attempt to control the uncontrollable. It is a fear-based reaction, not an action, so we aren’t in control. It contracts and stresses us. It triggers a low-grade “fight or flight” response. It confuses us into thinking we must do something or change something or avoid something, when perhaps nothing at all is needed. Resistance makes every challenge more difficult. As a result, sometimes we don't behave in the best ways--hence the need for beliefs.
In resistance, we aren’t free to make the best choices. We aren’t clear-headed and centered. It makes it harder to be kind, courageous, and open.
The practitioners of this religion (to continue playing with the theme) must observe and manage our resistance, in all its obvious and insidious forms. Rushing, complaining (even and especially silently), fixating, and judging are some examples of resistance, but the list is extensive and not always definable. Sometimes it feels like an internal “clamping down,” a tightness in the chest, throat, stomach.
As we practice and get better at recognizing and releasing resistance, life becomes easier and fuller. It becomes an experience that doesn’t need to rely on beliefs for comfort. As Friedrich Nietzsche said, “Belief means not wanting to know what is true.”
In non-resistance, each moment (which is when life happens) is more interesting, amusing, curious, entertaining, beautiful, and sacred. Life is complete, exactly as it is.
This is the path of least resistance. Literally.
(Just for fun, here is the metaphor I like to consider: There is an ocean of consciousness, and each of us is scooped into a human vessel. While we may not resemble the ocean in many ways, we are still the ocean in human form. At death, our vessel is emptied back into the ocean, to return perfectly back to our original source. Through a practice of yoga and non-resistance, we chip away at the vessel that blocks us from knowing our true essence. Okay, I just thought of that last bit about chipping away, not sure where I’ll land on it. But the point is, each of us contains all human and life consciousness, all the pain and wonder of humanity before us, after us, and current us.)
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