Author: MICHAEL WARMUTH

We have heard many times that there is only one problem and one solution. But the ego rejects this – seeing many problems and looking for many solutions. When we are identified with the ego we feel overwhelmed with problems. We see problems with relationships, our families, our finances, and the world. When we try to solve these problems individually we are trapped in the dream of being ‘somebody’. Pay careful attention to the solution.

When we claim we don’t know what to do to fix our problems we are speaking from the ego that does not want to solve anything. We have problems because we don’t want to give up being ‘somebody’. We don’t want to end the separation. The ego does not want to die. When we claim that we cannot find a solution, we are saying that we don’t know how to be ‘somebody’ and still be happy, but that is what we want. When we have any idea that we are a victim in any way, we are restating our allegiance to being ‘somebody’.

Only an imaginary ‘somebody’ can be a victim to an imaginary perpetrator. None of this can effect the truth, for it just happens in a dream. But since we are unwilling to give up that dream we experience the suffering, pain, loss, and struggle of being a victim. There is only one solution – give up being ‘somebody’.

The ego rushes in at this point and says it doesn’t know how to give up being ‘somebody’. And of course that is true in some ways. But actually the ego knows exactly how it is done. It is done when we decide we no longer want the ego and no longer want to be ‘somebody’. The ego is very aware that we have the choice. But what we won’t admit to ourselves as long as we are aligned with the ego is that we don’t want to give up our being a ‘somebody’. We don’t have the willingness. We don’t have the willingness because we don’t have the faith. All of which could be settled with forgiveness.

In the end, forgiveness always comes down to forgiving ourselves. As long as we believe we have things to forgive of others we are going along with the dream. If we are bearing grudges it is important that we release them, but in the end it is ourselves we must forgive. Not for anything that we have done but what we have believed about ourselves, and having made the choice of denying the truth.

So when we have problems we can’t find solutions for, when we are frustrated, depressed, angry or confused, it is because we are not willing to choose the truth. We are not willing to give up being ‘somebody’. We must acknowledge this. We must ask ourselves, “Am I willing to give up being ‘somebody’ or would I rather suffer? Why am I so happy to suffer?” We are completely ready to choose suffering. What is so attractive about being ‘somebody’?

Every one of us has a story of why we want to be ‘somebody’. But in the end it comes down to controlling, denying the truth, and avoiding the painful losses that led to our choice. This is what we must forgive. We must always be ready to remind ourselves that being a ‘somebody’ has no benefits – it is only struggle and loss. Giving up being ‘somebody’ is going to cost us nothing. But it is the end of suffering.

We have it the wrong way around. We are convinced giving up being somebody is the worst possible choice. We refuse to do it. We refuse to remember that it is the problem. We refuse to consider that we could do it. We don’t want to know. We want some other answer, some other solution. We want to keep on being ‘somebody’ and be happy. Let’s be very clear about this. It will never work because it can’t.

That is the basis of the ego – the idea that I can be happy being separate from the truth. I can make my own truth and live happily in it. That is what the ego is for. That is the view that supports its mission of control and destruction. Because all the ego can do is subtract, deny, cover up, destroy and control. It cannot create. There is no claim or guarantee that giving up being somebody is a simple task, but it is the only task that will bring an end to suffering.

Let us remember this. This is important. We don’t want to give up being somebody. If we did, we would have. We are unwilling. We have no faith and we have not forgiven ourselves. When you are suffering and something has triggered you and you are in distress, it is not easy to take full responsibility for that. But it is the only way to heal it. To claim any victimization simply keeps the wound alive.

To acknowledge that this distress is because of my choice to be somebody changes everything. To acknowledge that I am a victim of nothing and nobody opens possibilities for healing that weren’t open before. In the end what we are saying to ourselves is, “I do not believe I am pure and innocent. I do not believe in the truth. I do not accept my divine heritage and my perfection”. And when we deny that we suffer. At some point then we are free to make another choice – when we accept and acknowledge our denial of the truth we are free to change our mind. We can say, “I know I am not experiencing the truth because I am unwilling, but I accept that the truth is real and it is only my need to control that is causing me to experience this suffering or distress that I am in this moment. But that does not mean the truth is not true. It simply means I am not choosing it.

So what will you hold to be the very basic truth of yourself in this moment? That you are a perfect expression of a perfect source or that there is something about you that must be contained, hidden, and denied while you create this pretend life in this pretend world? There is no shame in choosing either one as long as we know that we are choosing. Victimization is the ego’s prized tool – it’s most powerful way to control. It will look for victimization in every moment; it will remind you that you are a victim in every situation and in the end that you are a victim of your own choice.

You are still a victim until you are willing to disempower the ego. Until we are willing to end the acceptance of victimization we will be clinging to being somebody. Let us awaken to the truth. We are holding our eyes closed and our hands over our ears saying no to it as strongly as we can – for what benefit? We can choose right now to start living as if the truth is true instead of victimization. Commit yourself to developing a faith in the truth – faith in what you are.

There is a good chance you feel that you are a victim of something right now. Whether it is events in the world, your health, your financial state, whatever there might be consider that you are holding the idea that you are a victim, that there is something acting against you, something limiting you, something affecting you. Are you willing to consider you are not a victim at all and the particular kind of suffering or limitation you are experiencing is your own choice. Not that you chose it consciously, but it is the projection of your internal struggle outside of you. Although it may feel very much inside you, anytime we claim to be a victim, we are separating ourselves from the source of the conflict and placing it somehow outside of ourselves.

It is the fact that we have chosen to align with the ego being ‘somebody’ that has created the suffering. Of course the ego will not agree with this statement but nothing is more certain than the destructive qualities of the ego. We created the ego for the specific purpose of limiting our exposure to the truth. We asked the ego to prove that we could be separate, that we could make the separation work. But since separation is not possible or even real, the only strategy that can work for the ego is to imprison the soul. The only way to imprison the soul is through death, destruction. Not that it will work but it is the only strategy the ego has.

What you see around you, what you feel, think and believe are attempts to destroy the soul. That sounds harsh and drastic, but in the end it is the intended result. We must ask ourselves if this is what we really want? Do we want to destroy that which is beautiful, that which is light, that which is love? Is that really what we want? Of course it isn’t. We have been led to believe we have no other choice, led to believe there is something within us that is so bad that it must be destroyed. The good news is that none of it is real. The walls of the prison in whatever form they take whether it is sickness or poverty, whatever we have built is not real.

But we must stop scaring ourselves, judging ourselves, finding fault. We must question our motives for identifying as victims. We must constantly ask ourselves, “Is this what I really want – to destroy that which is beautiful, light and love?” We are too easily discouraged by our own resistance. We are susceptible to the ego’s claims. We give in to the ego’s agenda so easily, but we must not judge or find fault with ourselves. We have put a powerful intelligence to work for the wrong purpose. It is time to withdraw that purpose. It is time to stop going along with the ego, consenting to being a victim, to believing in the prison that we have imagined.

Nothing can imprison the truth because there is only the truth. There is no force or power against it. There is only the vain imaginings of the ego. There is only one mind, one power, one consciousness. No matter how much you believe you are alone, you are separate, it is not true and never will be. The ego argues that it is, of course. It proves to you every day with your physical world that it is real – you are real. But only until you stop accepting it, and then you will see that it never was and never will be.

Everything is happening in the mind. Nothing is happening outside of the mind. There is nothing outside of the mind. And so our task is to surrender to the truth, stop trying to make things work, stop trying to fix things, stop trying to make a better you. Those efforts are destructive – not creative. What is creative comes from truth; everything else is destructive. Our need to succeed is destructive. Our need to feel good about ourselves is destructive. Our need to be somebody is destructive.

Let us stop it now. Let us release the idea that we can figure this out, we can fix it, and somehow know what is needed. Let us release the identity and the ego and just be with the truth. The truth that everything is already everything it should be. Nothing is missing, nothing is broken, and nothing is anything less than perfect. If we would truly accept this we would see that we are one.

Our experience of awakening is that it takes time. We believe in this life and this world so its most likely that we are not going to awaken fully today. It’s not to say it is impossible and that it doesn’t happen, and we may even experience moments of deep knowing, but the ego will assert itself. We will succumb to fear and we must make the journey again. But we do not need to suffer, we do not need to struggle, to feel hopeless. We can always choose how we are using our mind.

Our main intention for our spiritual practice is to make room for the truth in our mind. We are not here to make ourselves better, to fix anything. We want to end the distractions of trying to make ourselves better. Even healing is a distraction in the end, for only the ego can believe in sickness. The body is a distraction. The world is a distraction. You may say that we need to take care of these things, that there are practical realities that must be dealt with, but the truth is that we have the power to deal with practical realities in an instant. We choose these distractions, we create them, and we want them. And every time we choose them, we create more suffering and struggle. Every time we agree that there is something wrong, something that needs to be fixed or isn’t as it should be, we create more suffering. Because we are so used to it we don’t see it.

But it was said earlier that we do not need to suffer even though we are not fully awake. There are two key qualities we can turn our mind to that will change our experience right now. They are faith and forgiveness. These two qualities can change our mind and change our heart in any moment if we will give them our attention to make them real in our experience. Faith is telling ourselves the truth, that there is the truth that exists and is real. And that which is not the truth is not real and has no power. Faith is believing in the truth, believing that there is one source, one power, and that we are one with it – that we exist completely within it and are not alone and separate.

Ask yourself what is your level of faith. How much do you believe that the truth of you is perfection, that you are the perfect expression of a perfect source? How much do you believe that? We know that for the most part we have very little faith because we continue acting in a way that shows we don’t. We continue to make deals with the world to try to assure our safety and security because we have no faith. We must question our degree of faith at every opportunity because it only takes a tiny amount to change our mind. Are you going to trust in the truth or not?

There is nothing the ego will do to help you with this process. This is a decision that you must make outside of the ego. It is easy to forget that the ego is a choice, a creation, and that mind which makes that choice is available to make other choices, for instance, to have faith, to trust. It may not seem possible to find any faith in any given moment, and that is why the other important quality is forgiveness.

Forgiveness is the opening of the heart, the realizing that no one, including ourselves, is ever bad. In the end it is ourselves that needs forgiving. But until we are ready to forgive ourselves there are others we can forgive. We can practice forgiveness. Forgiveness does not mean that you have somehow deigned to accept somebody’s shortcomings or bad behavior. It means you are willing to accept that there never was any wrong, there never was any bad. Forgiveness means that you are willing to see the truth, to accept the truth.

Forgiveness of ourselves is a huge step to ending suffering. Forgiveness of others is the same. Both faith and forgiveness require understanding of the truth but they are not intellectual processes. They are an opening of the heart – a willingness to use and trust the right mind, the mind of the heart. The truth is plain when the heart is open. We have much fear around opening that which has been held so tightly closed for so long. Forgiveness can help. We can forgive ourselves for everything. We can forgive ourselves for not having faith. We can forgive ourselves for having a closed heart. We can forgive ourselves for having been deceived by our own mind for so long. Faith and forgiveness are our companions on the road to peace. There is nothing else we need.

If we will devote our mind to these two qualities our journey will change completely. It will take practice to develop faith and to give in to forgiveness. We must practice it constantly. With faith we ask ourselves, “Am I willing to believe in the truth even when I can’t feel it?” Forgiveness says, “Am I willing to accept the truth of myself and others? Am I willing to know the truth about myself and others?” The mind that can develop faith and that can surrender to forgiveness will be free and will know the truth.