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Why do we have resistance:
1. We are afraid of change. Practice speeds change.
2. Keeping things to the status quo is familiar and
prevents fear of the unknown.Why resistance is undesirable:
The desire to form an anchor of stability by thwarting
the natural change in the flow of life creates an
unending stream of busy stressful activity from which
there is no escape. The only thing that is anchored
is unhappiness.Solution:
Surrendering to the flow, trusting the lifeforce,
accepting and embracing change is the only way
to achieve real peace.S
In ordinary life, what does resistance to doing some
daily practice sound like? See if you recognize
any in the following list, or if you have more to add
to the list:Resistance In Practice sounds like:
1. I don’t have time right now.
2. I need to get some work done right now.
3. I need to get some work done first–before practicing.
4. I’m tired and should take a nap; I’ll practice later.
5. I’m hungry right now, and I’ll eat instead. I’ll practice later.
6. I just ate some food; I need to let the food settle.
Then I’ll practice.7. I’m expecting a phone call; If I practice now, the
phone call will disrupt my practice. I’ll practice after the
phone call.8. I have some chores/errands I need to do. Let me do them,
then I’ll practice.9. I need to check my email and respond to some emails first.
10. I can’t practice right now; I have too many things on my mind.
I’m finding that in almost all situations, when one of these
comes up, then that is exactly the RIGHT time to practice.
A lot of the above tend to be “practice delays” . . . tricks by
the mind to say that you can “still practice”, but just do so
later at some unspecified time in the future. Then, after
putting it off into the future, it is easy to become occupied
with something else, and then later on use another in the list
to push practice into the future again–continually delaying
it to some unattainable future.The solution is to practice immediately when these voices come up.
I’m compiling a list of these, so if you have any to add, please respond
with some of your own.S
It’s not the resistance itself that is the problem.
The resistance is only a symptom of the actual problem.Much of resistance is fear of change . . .
Under unconditional acceptance of the heart, fear can not exist.
Under unconditional acceptance of the heart, you can trust
in the lifeforce and let go of fear.(Fire->Earth->Metal->Water)
It’s also about recognizing the resistance and practicing
anyway to promote change *in spite* of any possible fear.
Then fear dissolves as it can not be afraid of *what is*;
fear only is afraid of *what might be*.S
I have also noticed the feeling of resistance, and the fear of death held by chi patterns humanity has created. I also adapted the tactic if you will of paying attention and providing my inner smile to help there returning when they pop up during my day. When more of our collective metal element is refined to gold thus being able to change shape and still hold its quality or identity, and we have regained more earth element or presence or intention back from old chi patterns then there will be less of that feeling of fear of death/change floating around.
I also us it as a guide for what to work on. Like in martial arts class I work on what I am not good at or have resistance to. So not just resolving resistance internally.
I agree with both of your comments above.
With regard to your P.S., that’s sort of I guess
the reason for my glut of posts on the topic.I’ve found it useful as of late to recognize
common resistance themes and respond to them
directly–by doing practice.I’ve not run into a situation where after I ignored excuses
to not practice and then practiced anyway did
I regret it later on. It always ends up being
the right choice. It’s sort of counterintuitive,
because it’s like seeing a road sign saying “wrong way”,
and then you know that you are on the right path . . .
But it’s only counterintuitive because going with the
flow is the same as going *against* the resistance to
the flow. It’s like the panicked man paddling upstream
against the current trying to escape the impending waterfall
and trying to maintain current position. You ignore the
screams of fear because you realize you are going over the
falls whether you planned on it or not, so you may as well accept
it–in other words, you may as well paddle *with* the current
and get on with it already . . . despite the objections of the
resisting voice.Basically, you cause the change that the fear is afraid of,
then fear dissolves because it only thinks of the
future and not the present.S
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