It can be hard to accept but on this planet we have a lot of darkness. We also have a lot of light as well and this can feel confusing for many of us. We are light seekers and deep down everyone wants to experience love and light as this is our essence as the spiritual beings we are. However this human experience was not designed to only be love and light, it will always contain darkness as well.
Lately I have been thinking about the known phrase 'We are spiritual beings having a human experience' and it raised a few questions for me. First of all is it true? A question I am always asking and that often doesn't have a yes or no answer. In this case maybe both is true. We are definitely spiritual beings experiencing this human existence but looking at this present moment I am also a human being experiencing my spiritual existence. I think when it comes to these topics there are an infinite amount of truths and answers and this is what makes our existence, spiritual or human, so complex.
Coming back to an infinite amount of truths. In this world, on planet earth, we have so many choices, realities and lives we can choose. It is hard to believe that we live in a world full of abundance and yet so many people are suffering. We justified to kill each other out of fear we won't have enough and that 'others' have more and many people think that is okay to do, see politicians that contribute to wars and the people electing for them over and over again. There is so much fear and darkness on this planet and this is what makes being human so difficult. Everyone can feel this heaviness at least at times. Maybe you are a sensitive person and pick up energies easily or maybe you watch too much news/TV which is designed to make you feel depressed and scared. Either way we all feel it, the 'weltschmerz' - the pain of this world.
Now, there are some very wise people and philosophies out there that know how to not suffer from the darkness we have to experience. Buddhism tells us that we will always feel pain as humans but we don't have to suffer from it and that is really the 'secret'. We have to fully accept that we will go through all the unpleasant emotions, that we will struggle sometimes and that there is a lot of injustice in the world. However, it is up to us how we deal with all of it. We have to choose the light over and over again, starting in our own heads, in our own lives. We create the world around us first of all in our minds. This might be hard to hear but everything that is happening in our world happens because we thought it into being. Whatever we feed our minds with, whatever thoughts we keep reproducing in our heads, that is what will manifest in the physical.
It is not about ignore all the problems in our world and just having happy thoughts. It is about facing our own darkness in order for the light to come in. Never is it about supressing or ignoring what is uncomfortable, it is always about accepting and changing it when possible. We can only change what we dare to look at.
Luckily we also live in a world that is full of light, beauty and abundance. Seeing this and calling it in will always help us to deal with the difficult things in life. Where our focus goes, energy flows and where our energy flows will become our reality. Our mind often tricks us and for different reasons has the tendency to be pessimistic. We always expect the worst and it is hard to get out of a negative thought pattern. By practicing to be more present this cycle can be interrupted. We have so many tools that can help us to see and feel the positives things in life and make us realize that it doesn't have to be as hard as we make it for ourselves. These tools for me are found in living a spiritual life. In seeing the bigger picture a lot of heaviness can be lifted off and at the same in recognizing the beauty and magic in the little things we can feel the abundance that is around us.
Being human can be a struggle but the amount and intensity of our suffering is up to us. It will take practice but we can rewire our minds through meditation and other practices and this is the solution. If you want a muscle to become stronger you have to train it. No one says it will be easy but if you want to stop suffering it is the only way.
Stopping to resist what feels unpleasant is the first step. Non-resistance and non-attachment are the Buddhist path to liberation, liberation from our suffering. And not resisting also means to accept that we live in a world of very intense dualities. There is a lot of darkness here but there is so much love in all of us as well. Maybe balance on this planet means just experiencing the ups and downs of this existence without getting attached to either one of it. We can live a peaceful life if we accept the light and the dark within us first, then we can choose whichever we want to give more attention and which of those two is guiding our actions in life.
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