The main reason we suffer or feel bad about ourselves or our current circumstances isn\u2019t because conditions in our lives have the power to punish us\u2014because they don\u2019t. We suffer only from spiritual amnesia. We\u2019ve forgotten that God, the Divine by whatever name you choose, is Good: not sometimes, not for just the \u201cdeserving,\u201d but for all\u2009\u2026\u2009and in all ways.<\/p>\n
Whenever we find ourselves identified with some dark stream of thoughts and feelings, as opposed to being quietly aware of their downward-trending presence, we fall\u2014in that same moment\u2014into a world filled with unwanted negative states. The reason so much of what\u2019s going on within and around us seems \u201cbad\u201d is because that\u2019s all we can see. Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so it is true when it comes to all our inner states, including fear, depression, and bitterness. In such moments, having become bound up in thoughts and feelings we don\u2019t want, and then seeing a world that confirms our sense of captivity, we literally forget that none of what we\u2019re going through is necessary.<\/p>\n
The only reason that we\u2019re standing in that storm of negative states is because we\u2019ve fallen asleep! We\u2019ve forgotten who we really are, including our divine right to call upon a power that instantly transports us out of harm\u2019s way. Anytime we can remember to do so, we are free to wake up and return to our true home\u2014within us\u2014beyond the reach of fear, doubt, or any other dark state.<\/p>\n
If our wish is to walk freely through this world without fear of sudden storms\u2014to know that we have an interior home whose light cannot be breached by any darkness\u2014then our task is clear.<\/p>\n
First, we must see how this spiritual amnesia blinds us and then binds us in a prison of false perceptions induced by having fallen spiritually asleep.<\/p>\n
Nothing in the universe can take from you your right to be spiritually free; it is a divine gift, which means that anytime you find yourself struggling to escape the grip of a negative state, it\u2019s only because you\u2019re in a dream from which you have yet to awaken. There\u2019s only one real prescription that has the power to end your pain: you must shake yourself awake from the forgetfulness that has caused you to forget your immortal Self.<\/p>\n