We are conditioned to believe that we must know what is happening at all times in order to feed our obsession for control. This need stems from our fear that we live in a basically unfriendly world where disaster may strike at any time. So we crave certainty and security. This is the cause of considerable stress and anxiety, as we imagine all the terrible things that might happen.
And it’s all an illusion. We are never in control, nor ever can be. We can’t even control our thoughts! The concept of control is a mirage that can only end in suffering.
Who can predict what will happen in the next few minutes, let alone hours, days or years?
Who knows what’s around the corner? How often do the best laid plans get torn apart? Who predicted the Covid pandemic and the life changing effects it created?
Get real! Certainty does not and cannot exist. And the more attachments we hold on to, be they objects, beliefs or people, the greater the insecurity, fear of loss and anxiety. And the greater the disappointment and suffering.
The only way to address this apparently unsolvable problem is to accept, completely, that life is an exciting mystery, an adventure whose beauty lies in the very fact that we do not know.
When we surrender to this absolute truth and trust that the world is actually friendly, we learn to go with the flow, and swim with, rather than against, the current.
As we learn to live with the wisdom of insecurity, we become more open to change, to alternative options, to new possibilities. We become more creative.
Our fears then dissolve as change brings opportunities. Our anxieties about the future turn into excitement for whatever is next, a next that we can more easily encourage now that we are free of our pre-conceived notions about control, ownership and attachment.
We send out positive vibrations, we attract opportunities we never imagined before, we see the miracles around us. They were always there. But drowning in our fears and hang-ups, we never could see them.
This thinking is of course diametrically opposed to the conditioning of society and our lifetime.
But it is the key to escaping from our self-imposed prison and the enslavement of restrictive, sterile dogma, to a more compassionate, kinder, happier and more harmonious existence in a world filled with joy and love.
To understand this more fully, please read THE WAY: Finding Peace in Turbulent Times and sign up to The Way Course.