Question: I have read in your works, with regards to various thoughts and feelings, that we should do the interior work of learning to look at “what is talking to us, and not where it is pointing.” But when I try to look at some painful thought, it forces me to look at what it wants me to see! Then I lose myself again… only to find myself distracted by this. Please help!

Answer: Ponder this truth until its power becomes your own: Nothing in the universe can force a person to place his or her attention where they don’t want it to be placed. Yes, your attention will be stolen from time to time, and more often than one would wish; but when your attention gets stolen, and you begin to suffer from identifying with some corresponding negative state, simply see the truth of your situation, reclaim your mind, and start over… and over and over. Eventually, as you come to realize the unattended mind breeds the very defeat it decries, a new need will be born in you to remain watchful of yourself wherever you are, and whatever you may be doing.