| In Part 1, which can be found at the Urban Monk | | | | shows up feels no different from sitting at a |
| website, we examined our inner resistance to events | | | | café alone because you want to be alone. |
| and sensations that actually don't mean anything. One | | | | This principle has been taught in major philosophies |
| sensation is no better or worse then the other, but | | | | worldwide, and many great thinkers have suggested |
| our mind creates a story around it, and makes us | | | | the same - most of them just don't explain it. I don't |
| judge or resist them as good or bad. | | | | know why, perhaps it works better if you figure it |
| Good or bad - an artificial distinction | | | | out for yourself. |
| During the evening class, I realised the heat was | | | | "The willow which bends to the tempest, often |
| making me sweaty and sticky, and that made me | | | | escapes better than the oak which resists it; and so |
| irritated too. Why does being sweaty irritating? It | | | | in great calamities, it sometimes happens that light |
| was just a sensation, no different to the sensation | | | | and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and |
| of rolling around in the softest silk sheets. Only our | | | | presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier |
| mind makes the artificial distinction. | | | | character." - Albert Schweitzer |
| If I was sweaty after running around the beach with | | | | Important warning! |
| a supermodel in a bikini, would I be irritated by it? | | | | This is vital. This philosophy is not encouraging you to |
| Probably not. Why? It's the same sweat, the same | | | | let yourself be abused, or anything of the sort. I'm |
| stickiness. | | | | talking about inner resistance, which is different from |
| The mind makes a story around the sensation. "I | | | | outer resistance. |
| shouldn't be feeling this." "I'm trying to be elegant, | | | | For example, if someone is slapping you around, I'm |
| and sweat makes me stink." You can go deeper into | | | | not recommending you stand there and let them do |
| this if you want. Why do you want to be elegant? | | | | it! Do something! Calling the police is not inner |
| Who are you trying to impress? Why are you trying | | | | resistance, it's not wrong. Get out of the bad |
| to impress them? What do you want to gain? | | | | situation! |
| (I believe this goes into a lack of unconditional love | | | | But once it is over, it is over. He or she is no longer |
| for yourself, but that's for a different article.) | | | | physically abusing you; learn from your mistakes and |
| Turn the mind off. When it's off, it can no longer | | | | never let it happen again. However, if you get angry, |
| make a story around the heat, and then what you | | | | and upset, and think about it over and again, then |
| are feeling just becomes a sensation. Without any | | | | that is inner resistance, and that is the cause of |
| resistance to it, it means nothing any more. In my | | | | unhappiness. |
| meditation class, after a while, the heat actually | | | | If you are in a poor financial situation and you don't |
| became quite pleasant. | | | | like it, I'm not saying that you just be poor forever. |
| Applications to life | | | | If you like it, then more power to you. But if you |
| Can you see how this might apply to many events | | | | don't want to be poor, work on getting out of |
| that are happening in your life? Are you living in a | | | | poverty. That is not inner resistance; that is growing. |
| house that you are unhappy with? Are you being | | | | Inner resistance is being angry about it, thinking about |
| stood up by your date? By letting go of inner | | | | it, getting upset over it. |
| resistance, you go with the flow, you roll with the | | | | If the heat is making you dizzy, go get a glass of |
| punch, and you take away most of the pain. | | | | water. Open the window. |
| Sleeping in a small house doesn't feel that much | | | | But when hot be thoroughly hot, when cold be |
| different from sleeping in a huge mansion. Sitting | | | | thoroughly cold. |
| alone at a café waiting for a date that never | | | | |