Tweet: The power of personal commentary to obscure what actually is astounds me! Commentary can shroud what is real, true, beautiful. It leads me to do battle with what is. Am I truly seeing life as it is, or only what I am making it mean? Empowering question for this day.
Response: How do you stop the commentary?
I am glad you asked.
The above is one of my Tweets from this past week, and a question that was posed by a reader. The exchange not only inspired me to answer the question from my perspective, but also gave me an idea for an extension to this blog.
I AM GLAD YOU ASKED.
What feels truer for me with every passing day is that the distinction between what is occurring and what I making it mean is everything in terms of my own inner peace. There is for all of us a commentary that is always running through the field of the mind. There is a constant inner dialogue that is labeling, interpreting, evaluating, and storytelling. If you read that closely it is an acronym for LIES. It is the dynamic of how the mind content operates. It is not in and of itself a problem or an enemy.
It simply is.
Our suffering does not come from the LIES. It comes from believing and identifying with the LIES. It comes from taking actions and relating based on those LIES.
The LIES are the effects of how we were programmed and conditioned. They are the foundation of our core beliefs. They are an operating system. They form and lens and a paradigm.
And they are not true.
As we evolve and grow spiritually the relationship to those LIES begins to change. More space becomes available in the mind. We become more masterful at watching rather than believing. It isn’t that the LIES go away, though there are many who say it is so. We are programmed for survival and while beliefs do indeed change trying to make the commentary go away is resistance and resistance always strengthens and solidifies what is resisted.
As we become more and more proficient at watching and wakefully relating TO the commentary it has less and less hold over us. The thought stream flows in and on while we simply notice. We see it, we feel the effects, we watch, notice, and let pass.
We do not try and stop the commentary. That increases its velocity. We recognize we do not have to react to it. We do not have to believe it, or act based on it. It is just thought stream. It has no inherent meaning. It says nothing about us, or about anyone.
This is not welcomed news to the ego. And it is the liberation of the Self.
Goodness, beauty, and truth are everywhere present. They are just beneath the constant commentary that shrouds the perfection that is beyond interpretation.
Don’t believe what you are making this mean, and just watch what happens.
